Work Text:
Naruto brushes the sand from his pants. The heat burns the back of his neck, the sun stings against his eyes. Mornings in the Uzu Desert are brutal during the summer. He’s found himself used to it, however, so doesn’t do more than grunt and roll up his sleeves.
It’s been a year and a half since his father disappeared.
It’s been two since Naruto ran away from Flight School...and since Kakashi disappeared into the infinity of space. Whatever happened to him out there, it was being covered up — and that hadn’t sat well with Naruto. Eventually, he stepped on too many toes in his efforts to find answers and got booted.
Good riddance.
Naruto slung a leg over his Sand Scooter and kicked it into gear. The kitchen was empty and he hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. Before this, his life had been nothing but the desire to push into space. He wants to explore the unknown. Wants. Present tense. It’s not very possible at the moment but that doesn’t mean he’s given up on his dream. He’s pretty sure he’s never given up in his life.
The Uzu desert is a long, flat plane of sand. The distance is a blend of squiggly heat lines and everything is gold. The sun, the earth, his hair. His goggles glint orange to match the bandana tied over his mouth. He loves the hum of machinery underneath him, the whip of air against his clothes. Driving, flying, moving; it all feels amazing to him.
Being away from Flight School makes him angry for more than one reason. Angry for Kakashi. Angry for their lack of care. Angry because he so desperately wants to go back and graduate and be out there, in the unknown. Maybe if he’d been able to reign in his temper, he’d be out there now. Maybe he could have searched for Kakashi.
Unfortunately, he’s never been very covert. Keeping things close to his chest is too difficult. He likes being open. He likes having everything on the table. Secrets only hurt. Plus, he likes to talk too much. Nothing stays in his head.
Naruto huffs against the bandana, sweat slick against his hairline. The roar of the motor drowns out most noise, but nothing blocks his orange-tinted vision from the sudden sight of what looks like an aircraft tumbling from the sky. He gapes at the sight, cutting the gas and pulling his Sand Scooter over. Now that the engine is silent, the howl of the falling hunk of metal is atrociously loud. It’s lit in flames and falling, falling, falling —
Over the crest of the horizon, it hits the ground perhaps a few miles away. Naruto breathes in the taste of sand as his ears ring with the sound of sudden silence.
Then he kicks the gas again and his engine roars to life. He speeds over flat sand, following the trail of smoke. He traverses a couple miles in a flash, and the actual craft finally comes into view. It’s sitting in a crater, waves of sand spread and piled atop itself in rings. Smoke billows from it, the metal warped and busted. Somehow, it’s miraculously well put together for something that just fell out of the sky.
Naruto hops off his Sand Scooter just as he hears the cry of sirens in the distance.