Ewww, writing about Orochimaru in this chapter. Blegh.

Orochimaru was furious. "He escaped?" He paced back and forth in his underground laboratory. "What are the police? A bunch of incompetent fools!?! How did they let such an important specimen out of their grasp? And I was so close to getting my hands on him! His Sharingan is even more powerful than his brothers'!"

Orochimaru picked up a canister filled with yellow liquid. Inside of it, suspended in its murky depths, were a pair of red, crimson eyes. "I want his eyes, Kabuto!"

The gray haired man swallowed nervously. His superior became quite unreasonable when he was worked up. He'd need to pacify him if he wanted to keep his head on his shoulders. "Listen, Orochimaru-sama. It may be better this way."

Orochimaru turned to him, his eyes flashing. "Better?"

Kabuto hurried on. "You see, Tsunade would have most likely executed him once she was finished with him. If he suddenly disappeared while at the police building, she might suspect you. You know, since...incidents...have occurred in the past. We can't let our cover be blown. Now, however, the Uchiha is out there, injured and vulnerable. We can capture him on our own. We'll just give Tsunade his body once we've extracted what we need from him, and claim we had no other choice but to kill him since he threatened our lives."

"And what about his missing eyes?" Orochimaru questioned.

"Those can be easily replaced," Kabuto said. "I doubt she'll question them. She doesn't know about Sharingan."

A slow smirk spread up Orochimaru's snake like face. "This is why I keep you around, Kabuto. You most certainly...earn your worth."

***********************************

Sasuke awoke to a dagger pressed against his throat. Opening his eyes, he stared up into the face of an unfamiliar man. Two others flanked him, one a younger man and the other a middle aged woman.

"Get up, Uchiha, and put your hands behind your back. You're coming with us," the man snarled.

Sasuke blinked up at his captors and yawned. "Good morning."

The man frowned. "Don't try any funny stuff, kid. Get up!"

Sasuke slowly got up, putting his hands behind his back. Then he whipped them back out, stabbing the man in the leg with his concealed knife. The man screamed and released his own blade, clutching his wounded leg.

The other two people rushed him, but Sasuke easily ducked behind them, and delivered a hard jab to the back of their necks. They fell to the floor, unconscious. Grabbing the stabbed man by the hair, he lifted his face to his own. "Listen up and listen good," he whispered. "When you want to capture me, you bring an army."

A few seconds later, the man fell to the floor, knocked out as well.

Picking up the sleeping trio by the backs of their shirts, he dragged them up the stairs of the basement, pocketing their weapons along the way.

Hauling them outside, he tossed them one by one into a dumpster. "They'll pick you up with the trash," he called back, before proceeding to climb to the roof of an abandoned building. Sitting on the edge, he gazed over at the rest of the city. It was daytime again, which meant he'd practically slept a whole day and night. But he was well rested now, and felt better than he had in days.

His situation was bad though. If people were already after him, things would definitely get worse as time went on. These three were only the beginning. He'd handled them easily, but if ten people came after him, the chances of him getting recaptured increased significantly.

Sasuke's home was no longer safe. His run down basement had been discovered by three of the more idiotic individuals who lived here. When the clever ones came, he'd have his hands full.

Sighing, Sasuke looked up. There were small holes in the ceiling of rock that enclosed the city, allowing him to see patches of blue above. "Itachi," he murmured. "How on earth did I get caught up in all this?"

"Because you're a notorious criminal who's know all over the country," a voice spoke behind him.

Sasuke spun around. A young man his age lay on his back on the crumbling brown roof behind him, reading a book. He had wispy brown hair that floated down to his ears. Dark blue eyes peered out from beneath straight dark eyebrows. He wore a black unzipped jacket over an olive green shirt. Loose beige pants gave way to sandals that were bound at the knee, like Sasuke's. An easygoing grin spread across his face, though he wasn't making eye contact with Sasuke. "The name's Kei. Pleased to meet you."

Sasuke snapped one of his many blades open, preparing to attack. The boy's eyes widened, and he snapped his book shut. "Woah! Don't try to kill me! I didn't even do anything to you!"

"Right," Sasuke rolled his eyes. "And I should just pretend that you don't know I'm a wanted criminal with a 200,000 yen reward for my capture."

"Really?" Kei said. "That's a piece of interesting news!"

A knife landed an inch from his head and stuck into the building, its blade quivering ominously. Kei sat up. "I was kidding! I don't plan on turning you in! I just thought you could use an ally."

"An ally?" Sasuke said warily. "Yeah right. You'll just follow me around, waiting for the right moment to turn me in. I should kill you right now, to be honest."

"You won't, though," Kei grinned. "I know you won't."

Sasuke stood up, putting a hand on his stolen katana blade. "Would you like to make a bet on that?"

"Doesn't matter," Kei said. "You didn't kill those three guys down there, even though you easily could have. And they attacked you, whereas I didn't. I doubt you'd kill me. You don't seem like that kinda guy. Plus, you're injured. I can tell from the way you hold your right arm. So I'm not too worried right now."

Sasuke glared at the last part, but sighed, conceding. "Fine, you win. But you'll have to gain my trust. Prove your worth. I won't be dragging along someone who will be a burden."

Kei smirked. "You don't have to worry about that." Whipping out a knife, he threw it at a low flying bird passing by. The knife hit its target dead center, pinning the bird to the building behind it.

Sasuke walked over to inspect it. He examined the bird's limp body, and nodded approvingly. "Not half bad." He looked back at Kei. "Welcome to my world."

I wanted Sasuke to have a comrade. He seemed lonely by himself:) I thought of making it a girl, but then people would expect romance, which I'm not aiming for in this fic.