Warning: This story is a product of shower musings. I wrote most of it in the wee hours of the morning, and it has not been beta'd. If you find any significant mistakes, please let me know. Contains: AU; M/M relationship; some OOC; incessant swearing; alcohol; gambling; violence; sexual themes; mentions of rape; pedophilia; and death.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Characters © Kishimoto

Enjoy. :)

Chapter One - Saviour

The rain was heavy. It had been for days now. The cobblestone roads of port town Trueno were being overflowed with water. Everywhere people were running from building to building, trying to keep as dry as possible on their way to their various destinations.

It was dark; an endless night. During the day the clouds had blocked out any sunlight the town would have gotten, and at night the sheets of rain had obstructed any light the streetlamps gave off. The summer air was plagued by a permanent chilly mist.

Carriages were rarely seen on the streets as of late. All the horses were locked inside their stables so that they would stay warm, dry and healthy, and the carriage wheels hadn't the strength to push through the ever-deepening rain puddles.

Sasuke was fed up. Not only was it pouring, but he was out of tea. Whoever said that money couldn't buy happiness was off their rocker. Too bad he was down to his last few coins.

For the last six years Sasuke had been forced to live off of the little bit of money his parents had kept in their bedroom safe. The rest of it had been stolen shortly after word spread of the wealthy family's deaths. The money and all their possessions, their house and everything Sasuke had ever known had disappeared in the duration of just one night. A dark, stormy night. Just like this one.

Sasuke hated rain. With a fiery passion, he did. Until the rain put it out. Then he was just depressed. And homeless.

Or so he would have been, if it weren't for his best and only friend, Sakura. She had let him live in the cellar of her parents' pub ever since the death of his family. Over all this time, they still hadn't found out about him. How, he wasn't quite sure, but he was thankful; he wasn't sure how they would react, and he didn't want to find out, either. They had never approved of his friendship with their daughter.

They thought he had murdered his family, after all. Apparently all ten year olds that were spared of a brutal slaughter became the culprit. Right, like he could even remember that night. All he could recall was the piercing screaming and the rivers of fresh blood, running into the kitchen and hiding under the stone basin. Trying to breathe. Waiting, and praying.

Brushing aside the morbid thoughts about his dead family and his pathetic life, he counted out the coins in his hand. He sighed at the knowledge of going hungry this week before leaving the safety of the warm, dry basement in hopes of finding some cheap tea. Maybe a store was holding some on the brink of expiry, and due to customer rarity lately they would have it on sale. Tea expired, right?

Coming up through the cellar door and into the cool rain, Sasuke immediately felt a chill. He was wearing nothing but an old dress shirt of Sakura's fathers, shoes he found in the trash and the trousers Sakura had stolen from her cousin. Beggars were not tolerated in the wealthy town he had grown up in, leaving him with limited access to clothing and since he couldn't afford a cloak to keep him warm, he was soon shivering.

He wandered through the downpour for a while, searching for a store. Not a single being crossed his path. He was soaked through to the bone within minutes, and the shivering had turned into a trembling of his entire body. Fuck the rain. And the cold. And life. Fuck.

He had no idea where he was going. There was a store around here somewhere; he was sure of it. Where was it?

Pressing his fingers against his temples, he tried to calm himself and think. He just needed to find shelter. But where was that?

Somehow Sasuke had wandered down to the harbour, where there were no surrounding buildings to block out the now raging wind and rain. He was disoriented and began regretting going out for lousy tea. He kicked himself for not thinking to bring the lamp with him, but then he remembered that he had no matches to light it with anyway. He was getting dizzy. The shivering had stopped, but he could barely feel his body anymore. His vision was impaired, and the only sounds now were the sloshing of water and the blood pounding in his head.

His legs gave out and his head found the hard, sodden gravel.

He passed out.

---

"…better not. Boy's worth quite a bit to us."

"I'll bet. Look at that face. Fetch a pretty penny, that will."

"Exactly. Cap'n only took him in…"

Warmth…

---

Sasuke awoke to rocking and the sounds of sloshing water. Shit, is it still raining out? He turned over a bit, his eyes still closed. I hope not, or I'll get lost again and- Wait. Where am I?

He pealed one of his eyes open and glanced around. He was in what looked like a small cabin. The walls were wooden, as was the floor, which was covered by a large, burgundy rug. The windows were large and rectangular, with thin wooden boards separating them into several smaller squares. Long, burgundy curtains were pushed to the sides, giving Sasuke a view of endless blue and the rays of the early morning sun. Wooden bookshelves lined the walls, giving the room a cosy feel despite the circumstances.

A mahogany desk sat in the corner of the room, opposite the bed he was in, and on it was a whole disarray of objects. A large map was in the centre; a compass and kerosene lamp perched on top. An ink bottle sat on several leafs of paper beside it, and surrounding these were numerous books. A broken quill lay on the floor beside the large, matching mahogany chair.

Beside the desk was a door, leading to what Sasuke was sure was certain doom.

Going to sit up he noticed something solid and heavy draped over his legs. Puzzled, he turned to his right.

"Shit! What the hell?!" He jumped back, scooting to the wall farthest from the thing in the bed; the thing being a boy with a blond mop of hair who was obviously a very messy sleeper. Also not one for clothing, apparently. He was wearing nothing but a pair of short, brown trousers, showing off well-toned, sun-kissed body.

"Whad'ya wan… huh? 'M sleepin'," he mumbled quietly into his pillow.

"Fuck! Who are you?!" Sasuke gasped.

The blond in the bed beside him slowly lifted his head up to look at him, eyes drooping and drool running out the corner of his mouth. For several seconds they just stared at eachother; the stranger's bright blue, dazed and pondering eyes boring into Sasuke's own slightly frightened and very confused black ones.

"Oh, you're awake! It's about time. We were getting kinda worried." The dazed eyes were gone, replaced by enthusiasm.

"We?" was all Sasuke could choke out.

"Oh, yeah, right. You've been dead, or whatever. Let's start with: I'm Naruto, pleased to meet ya." He held out one tanned hand, quickly wiping up the drool with the other. When Sasuke failed to take it, the hand dropped to the bed and a frown formed on the boy's scarred face. "I can imagine you're pretty confused right now but-"

"You think?"

"But I can get someone to explain everything to you in a jiffy. So just hold on. Stay here."

"Do you really think I'm going anywhere?" he said, mustering as much sarcasm possible.

The boy scowled, and muttered a quick, "bastard," before he got up and exited the room, leaving Sasuke to himself.

Sasuke stared at the door, taking everything in. What did he mean, 'dead'? Where am I and who is that idiot? Why is this room rocking? What the hell am I wearing? For he was wearing nothing but a long white gown that looked oddly like women's clothing. The fact that he was changed while unconscious was pushed to the nether regions of his mind.

Stumbling to his feet, Sasuke made his way over to a tall mirror on the wall. His black hair was matted and sticking to his face with sweat. His onyx eyes were dull and bordered by thick purple marks. He was thinner; boney. And his skin was even more pale than usual, adding the finishing touches to his 'dead' look.

He continued to examine himself for several more moments before the door opened again, revealing a short, mean-looking redhead and two blonds.

The redhead, who's hair was dark as blood, had a tattoo on his eyebrow-less forehead. His eyes were a bright turquoise and were framed by a thick black substance. He was wearing a red suit, embroidered with golden-coloured thread and heavy black boots. Sasuke could tell that he was important.

The one blond was the boy from before, Naruto. He smiled at Sasuke when he entered. The other was a woman, who was garbed in anything but a frilly dress; her clothing matched that of the red-head, but was blue with silver embroidering. Her hair was done up in clover-like manner, with two poufs of hair on the top of her head, and two at the bottom, and was much less shiny than Naruto's. She, like the red-head, looked a bit cruel, wearing a mixed expression of boredom and malice.

The redhead looked him up and down for a good minute or two before taking a seat on the mahogany chair behind the desk. "Sit," he ordered, pointing to one of several other (quite smaller) chairs in the room. Sasuke swallowed and obeyed.

The room was quiet once again. The woman pulled up a chair beside the red-head and Naruto pulled up a chair on the other side. Sasuke faced the three, wondering how much longer he had to live.

"Uchiha, is it? Sasuke?" the redhead said, startling Sasuke with both the knowledge of his name as well as the politeness in his voice.

He gulped before answering, "Yeah."

"Good." The redhead revealed a smile. "Welcome aboard, Mr. Uchiha."

"Aboard? Aboard what?" Sasuke asked incredulously.

"Why, The Shuriken, of course. The ship." The man was still smiling, almost laughing.

"Ship? As in boat?" He gulped again. Sasuke didn't fare well with boats. He disliked the ocean, and avoided it at all cost, since he lacked even basic swimming skills.

"Yes; and welcome. I hope you've been quite at home here. It's… one of our finer rooms."

"I've, uh, only been awake for a few minutes," he informed, taking another glance around.

"As I have heard. And you're quite lucky to be awake at all. But before we go into all that, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Gaara, Captain of The Shuriken. This," he indicated the blonde woman, "is my older sister, Lieutenant Temari." She lifted her hand and muttered a quick, "Yo," in greeting.

Gaara then indicated the other blond. "This is Naruto, which I'm sure he already let you know." The blond grinned and nodded.

Sasuke sighed. Idiot.

The blond frowned suddenly. "Yeah, we already met, but the bastard wouldn't-"

He was cut off by a sharp knock at the door.

"Enter," was heard from the captain, and a man with long, dark hair entered. The front stands were in long, beaded braids and he was wearing a black bandana over his forehead. His clothing was mostly white, and his eyes were of a similar tone; a piercing white that looked almost blind. The way the man was looking around, however, told Sasuke that he could see just as well as the next guy, if not better.

"Sorry to interrupt, sir, but Shikamaru informed me that the Uchiha was awake. I came to check his health," he said formally.

"What's wrong with my health?" Sasuke asked warily. They kept saying weird things like that.

"Mr. Uchiha." The newcomer looked in his direction, and Sasuke shrunk under the scrutinizing eyes. The man then nodded his head in greeting. "I'm Neji. If I could just..."

Once the short procedure was finished, and his temperature taken, Sasuke lowered the nightgown he'd been wearing, notably embarrassed. Naruto, Gaara and Temari re-entered a moment later, having left the room to give him privacy.

"Someone want to explain to me what's going on now?" He couldn't help but feel intimidated by these people, and it was heard in his voice.

The long-haired doctor spoke. "To be blunt, you nearly passed. When Kiba and Akamaru found you, your heart had slowed down to the point of stopping; you had hypothermia. We brought you on board and treated you to the best of our ability, taking turns to share our body heat with you to keep you alive. I will not ask why you were out in the storm so carelessly, but I will ask you not to be so foolish again, unless you wish to die." Neji paused, and noticed the quick glance Sasuke threw Naruto. He raised a brow and continued. "I know that Naruto can be a bit… overwhelming at times, but I hope you'll show some gratitude toward him; he's stayed with you since we brought you on board."

The idiot smiled and nodded.

Sasuke swallowed. "How- how long has it been? Since you found me?"

"About three days," Temari answered in a curt voice. "You should be grateful."

He nodded slowly but said nothing.

"There's no need to thank us," the Captain said, glancing at his sister. "But do thank the crew later. They are the reason you're still alive."

Sasuke didn't know what to say. He was torn between extremely thankful and extremely freaked. He had been lying there for three days, passed out and completely vulnerable to these people? This was not something he could easily deal with…

The rocking of the ship got momentarily stronger as they hit a large wave. His stomach jumped and he felt suddenly nauseas.

Then he hurled all over the burgundy rug.

TBC