Behind the Waterfall

#6 Escape

Walking into Temari's house, Naruto was surprised to see one of the boys from her team there as well as the Kazekage.
"Kankuro, this is Naruto." Temari introduced her brother to the blonde.
"I believe you already know our father." She pointed to the Kazekage, who nodded at Naruto. Sitting down at the table, Naruto was not sure what he was supposed to do.
"Please, feel at home here. I don't bring work with me when I have the time to eat dinner with my children, so don't worry about it. We will talk about it tomorrow." Naruto smiled slightly after hearing that, although his mind was racing, since Rasa had basically just told him that the decision had already been made.
The dinner itself went by pretty fast, Naruto working on autopilot, not really appreciating the taste of the fish soup that Rasa's cook had prepared, while his thoughts were racing.
"Kit, calm down." Kurama tried to calm him down in his thoughts.
"If they would have decided to let me stay, there would be no reason to keep it from me until tomorrow, that means that they have decided to kick me out again. The only thing I don't know is if they have decided to bring me back to Konoha or not." Naruto answered, as he tried to listen to the story Kankuro was telling about their training.
"Do you want to risk it?"
"No. I think it would be best to look for a trader that leaves tomorrow morning and to leave a reinforced clone here to throw them off." Naruto stated, as he finished his plate.
"Naruto, do you want some more?" Temari asked, seeing the empty plate in front of the boy.
"No, thank you Temari, I'm full." The blonde replied, a polite smile on his lips.
"Sounds like a plan." Kurama's voice brought him back into his thoughts.
It took only a few more minutes until he found an excuse to leave the Kazekage's house. Temari accompanied him to the door.
"Well, I guess we will see you tomorrow. I hope that my father decides to let you stay here." She smiled, giving Naruto a quick hug.
"I hope so too. Goodnight." Naruto replied, as he stepped away from the house. Walking through the streets, Naruto went to the square where the traveling traders set up, having been there with Temari earlier that day.
Walking into the still busy square he saw that most of the trader's shops were still standing and selling their wares. Walking up to the black board in the middle of the square he saw a sign that reminded him of his time in Konoha.

"Man, I really could use some more money." Naruto complained, as he saw that his allowance that the Hokage sent him every month barely covered his food cost.
"Why don't you look if the merchants need some help?" Kurama offered in his head.
"Do you really think they would accept help from me, they are too scared that I would steal something and my henge is not good enough yet to fool them over a longer time period." Naruto replied, his head low.
"I didn't talk about the merchants from Konoha. There is a board where the traveling merchants are set up. Most of them use local people to help them pack and unpack their stuff. Maybe you could find some work there." Kurama explained.
"Maybe, it couldn't hurt to try." Naruto accepted, walking out of his apartment.
Looking over the board, Naruto could already feel the looks from the Konoha citizens. There were a few of them looking over the wares the merchants were putting out, although it was still very early. Looking over the papers, Naruto saw a few offers for sales assistants, which he was sure not to take, since it was obvious that he would not be a good help for whatever store he would try to sell items for. There was one other offer on the board, for a helping hand to pack stuff together in the evening. Looking for the twisted snake that he saw on the offer slip, Naruto walked around the square.
When he found the sign, he walked into the small stall the shop owner had set up, looking around in wonder at the many different herbal products and plants that were for sale. Kurama was talking about the different flowers and their uses when Naruto heard someone walking up behind the counter.
"What can I do for you?" He was asked. Naruto smiled slightly, looking at the man that had asked. There stood a tall man with black hair and a polite smile on his face.
"I saw your flyer on the black board for this evening." Naruto stated, earning a nod from the man.
"Yeah, I need help packing all of this together, I don't have anyone to help me and only have this evening to do it. I don't want to close up today, since it would mean that I lose a complete day of sales." He explained.
"That is understandable." Naruto nodded.
"So, I guess that means that you want to help me with that then?" The young boy nodded, causing the man to smile at him.

Looking around the square it was surprising to see how similar Konoha and Suna's merchant squares were. The only difference was that Suna's buildings are made of sandstone instead of Konoha's stone and clay ones. The boy smiled, when he saw the small wooden stall, with the same snakes on it's sign as the one from four years ago. Stepping through the curtains into the structure he was greeted by the smell of herbs.
"What can I do for you?" Came the voice of the merchant, the man not looking up from the mixture he was creating on his counter.
"I saw your flyer on the black board for this evening." Naruto replied, grinning as he waited for the man to recognize him.
"Yeah, I need help packing all of this together. I don't have anyone to help me and only have this evening to do it. Plus, I don't want to close early today since it would mean that I lose the potential sales for the day." The man replied, almost using the same words as he did when they first met.
"That is understandable." Naruto replied, continuing the similar conversation. That was when the man looked up, and stopped in his motion.
"Naruto?" He asked, as he looked over the boy, his eyes wide.
"It's been a while, Akaru." The blonde replied, smiling as the raven wiped his hands clean and came around the counter to greet him.
"What are you doing here?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head, smiling sheepishly.
"Well, I kinda got banished from Konoha." He replied, earning a shocked look from the man.
"What? How did that happen?" He asked, as he walked back behind the counter, beckoning Naruto to follow him.
It took a while to explain everything to the merchant, but afterwards the man had a sympathetic smile on his face.
"I am sorry that you have to go through that. What I don't really understand is why you want to help me?" Akaru asked, making Naruto chuckle a bit.
"Well, I told them where I am from and since the sand is allied to Konoha they can not let me stay and take me on as a shinobi. I wanted to ask a merchant if I could travel with him for a while and when I saw your mark, it made the decision quite easy." Naruto explained, waiting for a reply.
"I am not sure about this. They will hunt us down as soon as they realize that you are gone." Akaru argued, understandably worried what would happen, if they were caught.
"I can assure you that they will not know that I am gone until we are way past their reach." Naruto promised, hoping that he sounded more sure of that than he actually was.
"I could really use the help." Akaru trailed off, as he weighed his options.
"Can you promise me that we will have enough of a head start?" The man asked again.
"Yes, I can." Naruto nodded.
"Alright, I'll take you with me. We'll head out as soon as we packed everything together, the faster we are out of here, the better I feel about all this." Akaru stated, earning a sigh from Naruto.
"Thank you."

They were quickly done with packing together the different herbs and ointments that Akaru was selling. Naruto smiled as he packed the last box on the cart.
"Alright, that is done." He sighed, as he looked around, the night sky only illuminated by a few stars since the moon was hiding behind some clouds.
"Let's get going, I want to be out of the desert when the rain starts." Akaru exclaimed, lifting the handles of his cart and starting to pull towards the village's walls.
"I'll just get my things out of my hotel room." Naruto stated, quickly making his way towards his hotel room. In the room he created a shadow clone, giving it almost half of his chakra to reinforce it.
"You know what to do?" The blonde asked his copy, earning a nod before he put his hands together again, focusing his remaining chakra.

A brown haired boy walked out of the hotel and quickly ran after the leaving merchant.
"So, where are we going?" Akaru jumped slightly at the sudden appearance of the boy. Turning his head he was surprised again, seeing a completely unfamiliar boy walking next to him.
"Naruto?" He asked, not believing that the boy could perform a henge this convincing.
"In the flesh." Came the answer from the brown haired boy, giving the man a wide grin.
"I originally wanted to go to Konoha after my stay here, but I think I will skip that station for now and we will go straight towards Takigakure. Their leader has ordered a bunch of ointments from me." Akaru stated, as the pair walked up to the gate of Sunagakure. Since they were leaving they didn't have to show the guards any credentials, they only asked the older man a few questions about his occupation and where he was headed next, but didn't bother with Naruto at all, apparently just assuming that he was the merchant's son. The black haired man smiled as they walked out of Sunagakure's walls and into the desert. Naruto smiled back, as they started their way through the sand.
"Takigakure here we come."