***

35 inch monitor, 20 meg of RAM, 1.2 gigabytes of hard disk space...I feel a song coming on: People...Who don't need people...Are the ha-a-a-ppiest people.
--Dilbert, Dilbert, Scott Adams

There is a dreadful Hell,
And everlasting pains;
There sinners must with devils dwell
In darkness, fire, and chains.
--Isaac Watts (1674-1748) Divine and Moral Songs for Children (1720)

"COME BACK! You're not a freak! You're just STUPID!"
--Dib, Invader Zim

Walking to escape, escape from your affection
You're walking in a great circle, circle of addiction...
See yourself in the looking glass, with a tombstone on your back
--Sting, Dead Man's Rope

Evil is a point of view. We are immortal.
--Lestat, Interview with the Vampire, Ann Rice

***

Sometimes you wonder where it all started to go wrong.

You swore to protect them and you did. You loved--well, that's a strong word. Maybe not loved exactly, but cared about certainly. They were important to you, and you want to protect them--want to look after to them. Want to prove to them that you can be more than they said you could--childishly, you want to prove them wrong.

You're still a child. A child with power, but a child still.

You protected Sasuke, and he ran off, away from you because you weren't worth staying around for--not really. You protected Sakura, and she was nicer, kinder, and a friend to you, but you still weren't enough. Not enough to replace him, and he didn't even care. You protected Iruka and ate ramen and udon and whatever mystery-meat was pulled out of the fridge in warmth and comfort, but only when you two could manage it. When responsibility permitted. He had his life, and you had yours, and they weren't the same thing.

It's more than you ever hoped for and it's not enough. You don't know what you're looking for in a friend, companion, but it's something strong...something so strong and fanatical it's barely human. What Iruka-sensei gives you is more than you ever hoped for, but it's nowhere near enough. You don't want that separation in lives--you need them to be the same. You couldn't put it into words then--you can't put it into words now.

The point of the matter is: You can protect them. You can care about them. You cannot own them. They don't belong to you.

That tears your chest open, pokes around in your heart looking for answers. You're not sure why.

//What more can there be? What more can there possibly be for me?//

You feel more alone than ever. In a crowded room that knows your name and laughs at your stupid and smart jokes and doesn't hate you, you still feel alone. It's more than you ever hoped for, and it's not enough.

You don't actually have a family. You have a shadow of a family, and that isn't nearly enough to stall that Thing attaining consciousness inside your head.

You don't own them. They aren't yours. Any time they feel like it, they can leave you. For all your smiles, all your sweat and bloodshed and stupid jokes, they can leave you at any time and there is nothing you can do to stop them. You can't make them care about you. You can't. You can make the skies cry and the earth scream and call Fire. Fire. The Darkness Soul Mirror. But you can't...

It's all Sasuke's fault.

It's always Sasuke's fault.

He's convenient like that.

He left you, and he never looked back. It wasn't...it wasn't personal, but...he just showed you what you didn't want to see. That you weren't in control--that you didn't own anybody at all. That you didn't have something solid--that you're really just a leaf on a stream without a tree--you can bump into other leafs, but you'll never have something bigger than yourself to belong to. You can take care of things bigger than you, protect them, but they aren't yours. And...they're too afraid, reasonably, to take you into the womb.

You can't really control It when you're angry. You can hurt yourself pretty bad in a fight because you stop thinking with the human part, and it gets worse the older and stronger you get, and if you were ever in that womb of the society, of the bigger family...

You'd rip it wide open the moment you fell in love. The moment you lost someone who meant something to you. The moment you lost...anything. Everything.

...And you'd drag them right along with you.

So it's hard to blame them, for keeping that protective cover between them and you. You're not like them--you'll never be, and while sheep can accept a wolf, that doesn't mean they're safe from it.

Your control's good, but not even you trust it all the way. It's too big a risk. So to save them, to keep them safe, you keep that hole inside your head empty of the intense, fanatical relationship you want. Need. The one children have with their mothers--the one that draws people together and tears them apart but never lets them free. The painful relationships that never, ever, ever-never end--even in the grave.

That hole was all She needed to break in--all She needed to break in and break you through, stress you out and tell you things that weren't true and things that were. Things that hurt you: telling you that that hole will never be filled. That you'll continue floating down the stream, and the mundane mind-tearing loneliness will never leave your life. You called that loneliness Hell once, you swore you'd kill before you went back in. She said you never left it--the worst part is, you know She's probably right.

Who could take you, if you ever lost it? What equal do you have, that can balance you out?

...Gaara? Maybe. His power is nearly equal to yours--it's hard to say who's stronger. His power is equal, but not his mind. He's less human than you are--he isn't able to live on half-in half-out life--he needs it all. He doesn't have a sense of humor, isn't real sympathetic, annoyingly arrogant, and spoiled and turned-in beyond belief. He's rough-cut around the edges, and while he can offer you that Intensity you're looking for, you two would probably tear the world apart in the process.

You were only friends before, and you killed so many people together it wasn't even funny. Not even black humor. It was over-kill. You're the only that carries the guilt though--it doesn't even make him blink.

Besides, Gaara isn't the one you want anyway.

When you first walked...or ran away from the window that you could see normal real families through, you never meant for it to come to this. Not to the ashes, not the cannibalism, not the mass-murder. Not to this. One thing had led to another, and really you were just...

You don't really want to know what you were thinking.

You know what it was. Power corrupts--total power corrupted totally, and it was hard to fight against it when you couldn't even remember your own name. So you took a little sip. Just to try it out--see what everyone was so damn afraid of. Then you took another, because it didn't make sense. Then the third...well, for the third you don't have an excuse, and you really don't give a shit either. Hell, it had been fun. And...in a lot of ways, it still was.

You know how it was--you know that the more you take away from a human, the more animal they become. Nearly everything was taken from you, but you didn't stop at just being an animal--they thought too small. You thought big. You thought big and you went big and you're damn proud that you did but...

But now there's the silence. No trumpets, no glory, no nothing.

Just the silence and shadows and drink in your hand and pain in your heart and more than anything you wish Gaara were there so you could...not fuck him. Not fight him. Just...just talk to him again. Like you used to. When you were almost-friends.

You won't look for him. He doesn't want to be found--your pride won't allow it. Nasty, but true. After all this shit you've shoved down the world's throat, you still won't let go of your pride.

Vanity is the greatest sin.

You don't cry into your glass. You keep it inside you, because damn it you need to have something to hold on to, something to keep you stable, from being so empty and echoing and alone that you'll grab even that.

Besides...you don't like to think that he hurt you all that bad. That punk. He doesn't really matter, and he's gone now.

Gaara was never yours, and you never wanted him that way. Maybe you could've worked...but probably not. How much blood would it have taken you two before you finally settled down? How far would you have let yourself go--the human part, the feeling part...the best part--and let the instinct take over before you two finally reached a compromise?

What stings, is that Gaara never wanted you either. You've thought about it, and decided, "I was the first person to kiss him. I was the first person to...to touch him that way. If he's never known anyone else, how can he possibly know he's in love with me?"

What do fish know of clouds? Of rain? How would a fish know if he liked roses better than daffodils when he's only ever tasted water?

Strangely, it feels like you've been the one dumped--not the other way around.

No...Gaara probably didn't love you. Maybe he did. Maybe he didn't. You know you didn't. But that's all washed out now...

Vanity is the greatest sin. Right now, it's just another mark on your tab, and you hit the bartender up for another. It would be terribly...nice...if your brain boiled out of your ears, right now, but in the mean time you'll wait and wallow in self-pity and hatred until something big happens. Until something snaps you out of it.

You're hoping it'll kill you in the process.

***

And then there's this snap.

Five points goes to the first one who can guess his name.

***

Grass country can turn the finest minds to oatmeal mush in a few minutes if said minds aren't used to the constant rolling never-changing never-same psychotic landscape. Some people found the great circle of space in all directions to be soothing and peaceful; others found it invasive, frightening.

It made Sasuke irritable--more than usual.

The silence was constant and mind-numbing, the vast expanses of languid grass and clear sky mind-devouring, and solitude uncomfortable. He kept his eyes on the ground most of the time, since staring at the endless horizon had given him a headache the first three days.

It was easier for him to think somehow here, but it was strange to not here Ino shriek after Shikamaru or Lee's voice in the wooden hallways. Finding work was a bit hard--the Grass shinobi had increased their rates, and travelers were regarded with more suspicion than anything else. Nobody recognized him, and that was nice.

Sanity was returning to Sasuke, slowly.

Sasuke was returning to Sasuke.

He didn't feel the ghost-scratches or bites too much anymore, only sometimes at 2 or 3 in the morning, and then he only had to wake up and take a shower or roll over and scrunch up until he fell back asleep. He was still angry, resentful, but the scalding anxiety had quieted down.

The fox was dead. Naruto Uzumaki was dead. His blood had been on his hands because Sasuke had promised he'd make it so if necessary. It had been necessary. His brother was next. Life was coming back together--not well, not perfect or pretty, but stable.

He...honestly, he knew Naruto Uzumaki was dead. When he thought of it like that at 2 in the morning after feeling the phantom kisses, his eyes would burn and throat shrink and strangle, but then he'd close his eyes and admit he was guilty, but that was it. There was no judgment but what he gave himself: He had done what needed to be done.

The old Naruto would have thanked him for that. The old idiot. As they grew older, jealously and envy had turned the friendship into something sick, but now...

Now that things were Done, and over, Sasuke found himself able to think of that smile that could light up the day even in the fall torrents of rain, the laughter that sometimes hurt his ears and mischief that had dragged him gratefully into the childhood pranks he denied himself. Naruto had made him act like the kid he was, forced him to feel like they were friends and that he wasn't too alone, and Sasuke had never really thanked him for it.

It was late now, and somehow the blinding hot rage and deep cold grief managed to balance each other out into something resembling thoughtful remorse. Cold, painful remorse, but something he could sleep with.

He spent most of his time now looking for jobs and scraping up money for meals--it was a nice mundane distraction. The air didn't smell like ash here and no one knew his name or where he was coming from. No one cared that the last sane Uchiha was sleeping in the attic or in the grain storage or in the barn. Sasuke had to care for himself.

Sasuke exhaled. It was a little easier to look at the horizon now.

***

//Sex on the beach.//

The liquid slid slowly inside the shot glass as it was twirled in fingers.

//What a joke.//

The glass fractured a little in Naruto's fingers, a thin hair of white showing along the break. Even though no one was watching him, boring as he must have seemed amongst the loud colorful throng, he still averted his eyes and put the glass down carefully, pretending it hadn't happened.

He hated himself right then--he was pathetic, and he didn't know whom to blame for his downfall. Somebody. Maybe himself, maybe not. Alcohol didn't help anymore, and there was no one except another demon or unnatural who could keep up with him--in everything. In sex and eating and fighting and drinking and brooding and just...everything. Naruto was alone, absolutely. He...wasn't sure if he missed Gaara or not. He didn't try to find him. If Gaara wanted him, he'd find him himself--always had before.

Naruto was frustrated and depressed, and the alcohol burned the edges of his tongue where he'd bit pieces off it randomly, from the stress. Tired of roaming the counter, sick of seeing his own disgusting reflection in the greasy sheen, his eyes turned again to prowl the thumping dancing drunk crowds of clubbers he walked a among in kid's clothes.

Bodies swayed and mingled like a disjointed oil-slicked ocean, the thumping of the bass speakers not heard so much as felt from the feet up. It was suffocating in there. Naruto couldn't smell a thing.

He could have any of them: Man, woman, straight or gay or lesbian or bi. He could have any of them, from the nervous froshies with forged ID to virgins and sluts and pimps and players and he could have any of them anyway he wanted.

All he had to do was snap his fingers and he/she/it was his. Simple as that.

But the night was more than halfway over, and he had three offers, all on their own. No buyers. Weren't worth it. He just wasn't in the mood--couldn't feel the maniac numbing spastic pleasure that had floated him so often before.

His eyes slid over the crowd again, skipping the red heads (reminded him too much of Gaara) and lingering on the brunettes, decked and greased out, a few natural beauties here and there, skimpy clothing all of them, some with the hard challenging spirit he always found himself chasing after so--

Yamato Hidaka, 21, from eastern Yoshihira University was also prowling the dance club, also in search of fun and drink and maybe more if it looked good in leather. Or whatever that stuff girls wore was. Aged 21, 5 months, with naturally black hair streaked with silver highlights, pale skin of the colder northern countries and long fingers, occasional boxer and future computer programmer major. And straight. Very straight. So straight his few friends jokingly used him to measure the height of doors (5 ½, exactly), and sheltered enough to think a gay life meant dressing up in bright clothes, a lilting high voice with flashing hands and kissing other guys and slapping them on their butts laughingly.

Beyond that, Yamato Hidaka, 21, had no idea what being gay was really all about.

--So when moody blue eyes fell on spiked, jet black hair, Yamato Hidaka found his head turning for Naruto Uzumaki studying him like a new car.

//Blue eyes//, Naruto was dimly disappointed to note. Light glassy blue eyes that were confused but very open. But for the blue eyes, the kid was nearly perfect, nearly an exact copy of the nightmare that had haunted the daylight and the shadows.

It was naturally, all Sasuke's fault. But the real point of the matter was...the real point was...

He had done It. He'd been bad, done awful things, and paid the price. Problem: Naruto's human conscious was not letting him off the hook all that easily. Possible Solution: Naruto hadn't really considered himself human in a long while, and finding out that he was still a little human was just a shock. It wasn't so much that he was feeling regretful...okay maybe he was feeling a little bad, but mostly he was surprised that he was still human.

That he still cared for things.

That he was still a little human, despite all the power he had.

That he could still be reckless, still be stupid, and still get beat-up by Sasuke and screwed-around by Gaara and wrestle with himself. He had been stupid, and he wasn't immortal. He wasn't a demon, but demons weren't immortal or perfect or all-powerful either--Naruto had forgotten he was a little human.

...now, there was only one question. One really, big, huge question that plagued his mind and hurt his heart and now without a Gaara to keep him busy, Naruto had realized what the question was.

What the hell happened next?

...well, he was still a little human. He was the strongest thing he knew. He was completely alone, and no one knew who he was. He had nearly nothing to lose now. Sasuke thought he was dead. Gaara was...probably heart-broken, and was acting like a girl in any case and didn't want to see him. Sakura was dead. Iruka hated him and probably thought he was dead too. His demon servants thought he was dead too.

...Someone that looked a shit-lot like Sasuke was in the room. It wasn't actually Sasuke--just had his hair, some of his facial structure. Naruto was incredibly bored, in need of a pick-me-up, and depressed.

The answer made a lot of sense through that much alcohol.

Naruto decided to shut up and stop caring before he actually started. //Hello maniac pleasure...a buyer has just walked through my door.// Naruto threw a grin, and then slid off the stool and jerked his head.

::Follow::

Yamato's feet and elbows began wading through the throng to where that blonde high school boy was sitting, shirtless except for a red jacket, staring into his eyes way too intimately. This was the third time and Yamato Hidaka was never letting his hair down completely again! He was a guy, dammit!

But it was interesting to note that he didn't stop following Naruto, not even when he got up and started to the bathrooms. Naruto sent a short mental prod to the clique getting high in the bathroom before entering.

::Out!::

"Shit it's the cops!"

"Come on, pack it up stupid, you wanna get caught?"

"Fuck it, I just got here!"

"What the--Hell there's no cops out here."

"Idiots get off my back!"

"Come on baby, let's go back--"

::Out::

::Now::

Naruto opened the door easily, lifting a cigarette from his sleeve and lighting it with his chakra, breathing in deep the smell of illegal heroine and cocaine, of stale sweat and cheap sex and the rank of piss. The bathroom was empty except for one young drug addict of 19 years in the back stall who was stoned out of his mind and would be dead in the morning if he wasn't dead already.

//God it smells awful in here.// Naruto sucked the air into his lungs greedily, ashing his cigar on the way and lighting another one.

Yamato Hidaka opened to door to see Naruto studying him from beneath dark moody lashes and on his fourth cigarette. Yamato didn't speak, and noticed how very empty the men's room was. His eyes flicked back to Naruto, smoking breezy-cool.

"So I don't smell your skin," Naruto said briskly, waving his cigarette lazily in greeting. "Nothing personal--it's nice to meet you by the way."

"What's going on? Who are you?" Yamato shot back, demanding. For some reason, scenes from the movies Swordfish and Ghost In a Shell kept running through his head. Way too many late night movie-thons, this was not the time to be thinking about that.

"Don't suppose the word 'kyubbi' means anything to you, does it?" Naruto asked back thoughtfully, finishing his cigar in one long quick drag.

The floor slipped out from Yamato's feet before a word came out of his mouth, his butt on suspiciously wet linoleum, body crushed in arms and a demanding wet whirlwind of lust hurricaning inside his mouth, kissing him with such obscene and carnal skill that his body was reacting even as his terror blossomed.

Naruto's mouth encompassed his, dominated his, acting nothing like the gentle timid kisses he shared with women. Fire flew through his teeth, scraped over his back lightening fast and grasped his butt cheeks in long heavy strokes, squeezing and Yamato Hidaka, 21, was trying to scream harder than he was trying to breathe. He was hitting and pushing too, but his arms felt like lead--

//Stop it!//

--and Blondie didn't seem disturbed by it at all.

//Stop it please God stop it Stop it God, oh God--//

Naruto smirked broadly, the fluorescent light glinting off his teeth, the boy's body pressed flat on the floor, escalating his panic. God he loved this...this power over someone else, the absolute power...he loved this... This had been what had started it all, the thrill of being the one in control, of being able to say what was going to happen to him and when people were going to leave...fuck, this had been what had started it all...

Yamato couldn't talk. He couldn't scream. //Oh God please--//

"Not God, Yamato," Naruto murmured comfortingly, grinning. "Barely human and certainly not an angel. Just relax, would you? Fuck--you'd think you were a virgin with that whimpering."

Tanned fingers unzipped the front of his shirt while Naruto licked some floor scum off his fingers.

"Don't taste right, don't smell right, and you're not buff enough to feel right and the eyes are completely off, but I guess you'll have to do."

Naruto laughed darkly.

"Just relax, and you won't feel a thing. Much anyway," he grinned ingratiatingly, back in the spotlight of terror and loving it.

Naruto stopped suddenly. His eyes swung across the room like a fan, head tilting like a wild animal. "Aw geez, I love this song," he piped. "Don't you just love this song?"

Yamato swallowed. He was sweating hard. This couldn't be happening. This sort of thing happened to other people, not to him. He was a guy! He was ordinary! Normal! He didn't do Bad things! He was computer programmer, for Pete's sake, not somebody else, somebody else that these things happened to...

"Perfect...I'm never alone, I'm alone all the time," Naruto sang softly and trailing off, smile wide and eyes closed. Vaguely, Yamato could hear the accompanying harmonics booming from the outside stereos. If he could just talk...or move even...

"I love this song...Treated you bad, Lose my face," his lips trailed along Yamato's face lightly while he continued to sing very softly under his breath, nearly muffling the words. "Couldn't love you more, You've got a beautiful taste..."

Sharp teeth dug into Yamato's naked shoulder. He gasped out loud; it was the only real sound he would make for the rest of the night.

***

When morning came, Yamato Hidaka would be breathing, bruised, and bleeding. He would live to finish school and become that computer programmer he wanted to be and afford the luxurious life-style he dreamed of. When his sixteen-year-old daughter brought home a boyfriend with blonde hair and tattoos to dinner for the first time, he had nearly had a heart attack. He disowned his second son after he had admitted that, "Otou-san, I'm gay and this is my boyfriend Taichi."

Beyond that, Yamato went on to live a fairly normal life. His daughter eventually married a dark-skinned man from a well-to-do family off the continent that always thought his father-in-law was a bit high-strung. His son lived away and kept in touch with his mother by phone until he had died at the age of 45 due to AIDS. Yamato Hidaka had gone to his son's funeral, but had forbidden his son's living-partner of 6 years from coming. His first son had his second child; Yamato's second grandchild. Yamato Hidaka himself died at the age of 57 in an accident involving electrocution with a light-socket and damaged plug instantly, without much pain and possibly without ever knowing what was happening.

Naruto would've been amused, if he had known.

As it was, he still floated in and out of bars and dance clubs, following his nose and mind without direction, steadily moving back east. He had to go through the lower parts of Fire country along the way, and was slightly surprised to find that there were some trees that had survived the Fire that had wracked most of the province. Naruto had left them standing where they were, hurrying through the area quickly until he left the scraggly trees and wide-open meadows, amusing himself with taverns and girls and boys along the way, avoiding the redheads and brunettes. Just blondes--it was like having sex with himself all the time.

Eventually, Naruto never found himself in Grass country--it had just sort've happened, and he left it at that.

***

One of the first signs of a civilized society were illegal organizations. The not-humans became civilized quickly--truly, the idea of rival clans and feudal lords had never been far from them. It was only a matter of remembering and re-instating themselves in human civilization.

The demon lords were back, and made sure everyone knew it. Strangely enough, the Grass Hokage knew this also, and had chosen to try to negotiate first before attacking--the demons had overrun three clans in a matter of months. It was a cause for thought. The Demon King had gone underground, was rumored to be dead, but it wasn't a lot to gamble on, and this Hokage was not a gambler by any means.

Some of the merchant clans in Grass weren't prepared to accept this method completely. Sasuke found himself with a single job that would keep him fed and sheltered for little more than a month if he could complete it. He had nearly been feeling normal lately.

He took the job. As he would be working by himself, it might not've been the smartest thing to do. During the night of the job, he was starting to regret it.

***

Sasuke didn't panic, because he wasn't a thing he did. Inside his head he stayed frosty though it was quickly turn luke-warm, while outside his body was sweating like a pig. The knives tightened in his hands as he calculated how many shuriken he still had and how to get to the katana on his back the quickest and how much time it would take him.

He never took his eyes off the crowd that managed to hang in the shadows and pull the darkness around them even when they walked to the fringe of light while they grinned at him slightly. This was going to be the last time he went out on a mission this big alone. One way or another.

They were indoors too; that was another point against him. He hated being indoors unless Kakashi or Lee or even Neji was there with him. Else wise he stayed outside--even here, with the agonizing never-ending horizon. There were quiet metallic clicks as they shifted, opening a neat circle around him, dim erratic lighting and the constant thudding static booming from the stereos paling to the background. They didn't speak, didn't jeer at him other than the toothy smiles and glinting eyes that caressed his body and weren't afraid to look directly into the Sharingan.

They had red eyes too, after all.

It was an assassination mission, pure in simple. Simply because the assassinee was not-human and more difficult to kill was not a reason for refusal, not when the client was paying top dollar for the Slayer's services; that had been the clincher in the deal. The client figured out his identity on his own, and Sasuke had to admit some mild surprise and a whole lot of irritation.

Sasuke personally hated the title, the word Slayer for him instead of his own damn name; he'd heard it first from that damned creature, then he had to hear it all the time in Kakashi's group. It had come close to replacing his real name in the work field perhaps because it was easier to talk about a "Slayer" in a pub than a "Sasuke". It carried more dramatic weight, unfortunately, along with an accurate description of it's carrier. But, here, no one knew who he really was, and no one really cared what his real name was. He killed demons, so he was a Slayer.

Sasuke he didn't doubt the fox had named him that intentionally, to plague him long after he was dead and done with.

However, that was a minor point of interest at this time.

He could feel their chakra brushing against him, around him, and while he could jump they could fly. Sasuke could take on any creature, be it elf or vampire or werewolf, but taking on a whole dance floor was another question. Taking on three levels of floors of them was quite a pickle. He could smell the werewolf stink all around, and could feel the chill of vampires above him, hanging in the rafters or floating in the air. There were things here he didn't recognize at all.

The room was swiftly becoming claustrophobic, and his skin itched and tugged from the constant, silent amused staring. Sasuke didn't flinch when his sweat slipped into the few open cuts on his arm and torso, and checked his level of chakra. Enough to take them on? Enough to take all of them? ...No. Enough maybe to escape, but not enough to fight them all.

It was a measure of Sasuke's growth that he admitted that there were things he couldn't do.

He could feel his own sweat collect on his skin, saw queerly red or faintly jade yellow lights blink appreciatively at him, at this handsome little human without an owner and without power who had crashed through the ceiling with goblin guards swarming at his heels, blood flowing freely from his hands; blood that wasn't his own. The excitement level in the room heightened. For now he was frozen, staying still as good little deer do before the wolf strikes because the slightest movement would spur the attack on, and armed with that quaint little knife lined with silver...

...lined with silver. Silver and iron and some type of herbal essence. Ash wood? The collective room grinned brightly in recognition, and there were a few, hushed whispers in a language Sasuke wouldn't've been able to recognize even if he could hear it properly.

The Sharingan burned, illuminating the Slayer's face with hints or crimson and saffron. The windows and doors were then discreetly locked, and then blocked by bodies. There was a stronger, deeper rasp of metal sliding out of hiding places in clothes--it wasn't a large rasp. Most of the creatures had their weapons built-in to their mouths and hands and feet. It was enough to make the hairs on his neck rise and his senses heighten almost painfully.

But except for the sweat caused from his initial exercise, Sasuke didn't show any outward panic. Inwardly, he was doing very macabre mathematics that equaled = Things are not looking good.

Something began to step forward--

::DON'T::

A shudder ran through the crowd followed by low warning growls and an overall prickling. There was a couple thumps and a few bodies stumbled or hit the ground out of shock, and no one paid attention. Sasuke felt his neck twitch distinctly and his heart skip. He even blinked.

A voice broke through the air crisply, "Hiya angel. You're late."

Naruto stepped into view, still dressed in threadbare black jeans, tight white shirt and customary red leather semi-trench coat. That admiring smirk was still faintly on his lips, but it was his blue eyes--stunned, and a little bewildered--that kept Sasuke from thinking he was hallucinating. He stopped breathing. It couldn't be.

//It...can't...//

//...//

//Fucking shit.//

//No.//

::Miss me?::

So. He was alive. His hand tightened on the kodachi.

//Fuck.//

::I knew you did.::

//Fuck you!//

::Not now--people are watching stupid.::

The room vibrated, and a growl thundered low on the floorboards in rhythm to a language that Naruto vaguely understood--not well, but had the basic grasp of. Distant pale blue eyes narrowed and Naruto spoke quietly, but with a certain manner that stated that anyone who dared called him a liar would find themselves not saying another word all his life. It wasn't bravado exactly; he was simply stating how the future was going to go and how miserable everyone would be if it didn't.

"No one touches him. He is mine."

Sasuke bristled, and cool electric blue met his and held his gaze and gripped his mind. Pulled his nerves and muscles into line and held them there. Chained his bones together, and tried to freeze his neural synapses. Sasuke came close to falling for it again. Close, but not close enough.

::They'll kill you. You're already injured badly.::

//You're supposed to be dead!!//

::Shut up Sasuke--you're being annoying.::

Naruto walked slowly to him while in his head Sasuke struggled against the invisible bonds that were keeping his muscles from moving, keeping him a sitting duck in a piranha pool while a barracuda made his way smoothly towards him. A barracuda that lied and smirked and dared wear those colors and walk still living when he should have died a long time ago. A barracuda that had made Sasuke's own body move against his will once before and was doing it again and there was nothing he could do about it this time either.

//You should be dead.//

//I want</b> you dead.//

Naruto smiled thinly, his steps never faltering, the stunned look never leaving his eyes. Sasuke also noted that he looked rather...faint.

::Tough shit--that's not your decision. This is the second time you crash into my life. If you hate me so much, why can't you stay the fuck away from me? Why won't you leave me alone?::

//Why won't you die?//

Naruto didn't answer. Dark energy--not his, not Sasuke's--still clouded the air. There were a few telepaths in the crowd; there usually was among the vampires and sprites. He doubted they could make out the distinct words, but it wasn't hard to see the animosity sizzling between himself and Sasuke, his eyes still burning sunset crimson and casting his face to a dark flush. There was a mental clang and immense silence as Sasuke's mind tried to close up against him. Red eyes that didn't belong to him glanced at him inquiringly, condescendingly. Naruto risked a brief second...no, they didn't know him. Didn't know who he was, just that he wasn't human and he wasn't everything he seemed.

"I think your pet disagrees with you."

Naruto smiled loftily, his eyes amused, but didn't give the speaker the satisfaction of turning his head. He didn't dare take his eyes of Sasuke. "He usually does; he's funny like that."

"You know what he is."

"Of course," Naruto smirked devilishly--gratified for Sasuke's benefit alone, whom flushed and really pulled at the bonds holding him. Under his skin, his muscles twisted in sickening ways as they struggled to do what their bones would not allow. His sweat made the knife handle slick, wet in his hand, but he couldn't move it.

He'd fucking kill the bastard...and burn the carcass this time. No running, no looking back he'd just finish it.

The devilish smile grew thinner, wider. "I made him this way. He's mine."

That sparked interest--both in the crowd and in Sasuke.

"He has no friends here. His head's worth a lot."

"Touch him and I'll kill you."

"You don't have the power for it."

Naruto stopped in front of the fuming darker figure of his old friend, ignoring the invisible speaker in the crowd, and smelled the faint tint of burning hair and blood on his clothes, eyes literally glowing fire. By degrees, he moved his hand to touch his face...

//Touch me and I'll kill you.//

Burn the carcass, scatter the ashes, and pulverize whatever leftover bones there were into nothing--until no one remembered what the fox was. Until no one remembered the smile that had betrayed them all--had betrayed him without explanation, without reason or cause.

The room shifted, annoyed but momentarily amused by the interplay and audacity--someone was going to die tonight.

Naruto touched his cheek lightly, looking up into his face. About a hundred eyes watched as human muscles strained and twitched under his skin, lips rising a few centimeters to show white teeth that one half-expected to be fanged. The Sharingan's light even touched Naruto's face, his eyes were glowing so bright.

::Everyone tries to kill me. Don't you get it?::

Naruto flinched. Then he grinned ingratiatingly again.

::Sasuke, nothing can kill me. I can't die.::

::But you can. And if you don't leave very quickly, you will.::

Sweaty white fingers dropped the knife, the slight motion of gravity pulling it down through his fingers enough to break the fox's control on his muscles temporarily, shoved Naruto's arm away swiftly while dark shadows on the periphery leapt at his throat and time...

...slowed down.

To Sasuke's right and one tier above the ground floor was an exit that let out to the northeast section and various hiding places in the scraggly trees and pitted ground and directly in front of him but on the third tier was another exit that led to the roof that sloped to the left side and there was one tree that was tall and thin looking but was strong enough to take his weight and...

There was more shoveled into Sasuke's brain. His eyes widened.

Naruto shoved him down and to the side so when the floor came at a slow speed--to him it seemed--there was an flare of blinding light behind him fire was born in the flesh and exploded and time...

Returned. Sasuke's knife hit the ground with a clang, and he slid the katana into his hand.

***

You could certainly call him arrogant, and not even the very stupid would call you wrong. You could call him skilled, and you would absolutely correct. You could call him genius, and you'd still be right though some people might get ticked off.

You'd be hard pressed to call Sasuke Uchiha sensible.

But sometimes he was. It had taken a lot of effort, but Kakashi had drilled that into him at one point. Sometimes you lost the fight today to fight tomorrow--you couldn't fight dead.

Sasuke ran.

Half-dead trees shuttled past him as he leaped and scrabbled and flew through them, half-hidden the shadows and a mere ghost in the scant moonlight. He was worn, but not yet exhausted, and his fingers still itched and his eyes would occasionally shift back to the deep red for a cautious second before darkening to back to black.

He wasn't sure what was going on, but that had never stopped him before. There was something he needed to take care of.

***

Whoompf.

His voice had changed completely, deepening and roughening from what it normally was to something older, as jaws clabbered at the back of his and a body tried to strangle him from behind. There was the asphyxiating stink of burning fir around him, and the glare of heat searing his eyes, it was so hot in the center of it, but the thing on his back wasn't catching fire.

The club had been left in flames, more for the distraction and diversion than as an actual attack--fire wouldn't kill all of them, anymore than he could--not all at once, not without a plan. The fox was strong, but not that strong.

They hate each other, but they'll all kill you.

Naruto snarled--it was in no way laughable, but the type of snarl that sent sane creatures running. It wasn't a warning of anger--it was a threat, and a promise, a visceral rip through the brain.

Some things couldn't be killed--they weren't too much a danger to him normally, but now he...

Pain shuddered and steadily dug between his ribs, his body feeling wet and sticky and uncertain, and Naruto rolled, trying to dislodge the thing clinging to his back and biting into his spine, twisting and trying to bite his own tail off and having the same success normal dogs did.

The permeating stink of olive-green and living unbalanced chemicals rotted through his fur, killing his sense of smell even in the smoke, still tearing his sense of smell to ribbons as his ears and the scruff of his neck were gnawed with dull teeth that drew blood slowly.

The body of the fox jerked, twisted hard in a small circle and slammed against trees, losing bits of its intelligence in the frustration and pain and stink. But...but it wasn't working! Nothing was working!

This was getting annoying, the thing was bleeding, he could smell it's blood, could feel the life force leave it slowly and it's body stop twitching, but the damn teeth and smell wouldn't get off and Naruto began to worry what kind of attack this was. It...it was dead. It was dead right? This thing on his back, so why wasn't it letting go? What was it? What wasn't it letting go?

It stunk and smelled and made his eyes scream all the way back to the retinas and he had collected a large amount of grime at the corner of his eyes from the tears and constant blinking, trying to cleanse his lenses of that thing that was stuck stinking on his back and he couldn't get it off.

Naruto threw his back at the ground hard, twisting so he scraped against the rocks beneath him, trying to scrape the thing off him, trying to get it off him he needed it off now it smelled and hurt and was bleeding him slowly, slowly and why wouldn't it come off??

Pain rang clear like a bell in his left foreleg as he rammed into something, desperate to get that thing off, but he ignored it, limping on it, but the thing on his neck demanding more. They...those bastards had attacked him, and then left him with this thing stuck to his neck, this thing that wouldn't come off or even fight right and if he turned human for the hands the Thing would crush through his spine without the fur to protect it, without the thicker bones before he could get around to grabbing it.

//I need it off me.//

The panic of the fox, of the animal, was momentarily by the flash of memory of a tall dark figure holding it's ground in mid-danger.

//Sasuke.//

He was out here. He was out here. There was thing on his back. He was out here and he...there could be more than this one. There could be worse than this thing on his back and he was out here somewhere and...

He had to find him. Naruto, he had to...he had to find him again remember Sasuke he was out here he was in danger--

//He tried to kill me.//

//Only because I killed him.//

//He'll try it again.//

Sasuke was out here. The tree crackled as he hit it, holding but not well, and that thing was...that thing was dead. That was certain--but it hadn't let go of him. It hadn't let go and Sasuke, he was out here, Sasuke was here the scent of him the smell of him he had meant to stay away but he had seen him and smelled him and remembered the feel of smooth skin under him.

//Sasuke.//

Lightening flashed from behind and Naruto hit the ground collar bones first, felt them strain and come close to breaking under his weight and motion, his back writhe and scream in burning static pain. His paws kicked at the air, nails scrabbling at the ground for solid purchase, tail bushing up and teeth bared.

Bright light tinted blue flared, contrasting with the sporadic bright orange and yellow flames steadily burning their way through the wood, and there was the sound of a thousand birds flapping their wings. A flapping clapping crackling sound.

Red eyes tinted with purple narrowed, tail curling to the side as it got to its feet and slowly circled, careful, growling low in its throat.

Long, dark, and sharply angular, Sasuke trailed, the energy in his hand sizzling continually, growing and ebbing with power, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

The fox's nostrils flared almost instantly, his eyes wide and even though they were red they were touched with purple in too many places, the body smaller than what Sasuke had fought before.

The Change had just happened and while it was hard for bones to reconstruct themselves it took longer for them to grow bigger. The fur was still pale blonde, touched with red in a couple places, and there was a wary, human-like intelligence that hadn't been there the last time Sasuke had seen it. There was recognition, but without the actual malice.

The fox snarled covertly, under it's breath, fangs skinny and sharp and drool coming from the open mouth. The breathing was heavy, and unsteady. Sasuke frowned. It...it hadn't been like this before. It...seemed weaker now. Or too cautious, too...

Red wine plum eyes were focused on him too clearly. It hissed, a strange sound but it wouldn't come too close to the lightening tamed on his hand.

||You Kill Me For||

||Gold Slayer||

It continued to back away, sliding uneasily from side to side, not running but not letting Sasuke within striking range. The darker man smiled at his fear.

"I'd kill you for free. There's nothing I can't kill now. You were alive all this time...it was you talking to me, it was you haunting me," not his own conscience, not Kakashi--nothing more than bratty Naruto's pride. He hadn't done anything wrong--he knew he hadn't done anything wrong, it wasn't his heart hurting him, it was Naruto! It was Naruto hurting him, living all this time.

Red eyes haunting him, staring straight at his with the open clarity that animals had, half-desire half-warning, and Sasuke felt that he was the one being measured, the one at fault. But...but he knew that wasn't true. He knew that wasn't...something exploded to his left, as the flame hit an oil pocket in the tree's trunk. When he looked back, the fox was gone. He wasn't surprised, but he was angry.

Sasuke's voice echoed in the forest as he shouted. "What do you want from me? Not to kill me! Not to rape me either--not anymore! What do you want from me? Why won't you leave me alone?"

::What makes you think I can? What makes you think I want to? ::

Naruto softened his footsteps, pausing a minute to seek out Sasuke's mind, his energy signature, before darting away ears flat against his head and tail low. He couldn't figure out where he was--the flames danced, screwing with his eyes, his smell, providing a huge energy blanket for Sasuke to hide in. He could smell him stronger than he could sense him, and that was really, really bad. That was...not normal, making it very, very bad.

The ash in the air wasn't helping, and this...this thing on his back was a burnt repulsive electrocuted mass that overwhelmed his sense of smell--all thanks to Sasuke. But it was very dead now--there was no more pain, no more itching from the flea.

:: I can't die, I can't control being what I am...I can't control what I do.::

"That's bullshit! That's bullshit and you know it--you can control it fine you lying son of a bitch. For all your power...you idiot. The powers of a demon all your life and you never learned to control it? That's pathetic--that's really pathetic. If I had half your power I'd--"

::You'd die Sasuke!:: Naruto snarled impulsively, angry--he felt Sasuke recoil from the mental force. That idiot--no one could get under his skin like Sasuke, no one.

::You'd go insane! You're already insane with just the stupid Sharingan you'd go mad with the fox...::

Naruto trailed off, and continued padding through the bush head held close to the ground. Fuck...snarling had been a really stupid idea, and he slipped out of place quickly. Where was he? His eyes scanned through the trees, looking for a color or shape that looked even slightly out of place, a flash of blue or red, anything.

He...he couldn't think like this. He couldn't deal with Sasuke--not like this. Not like this.

He crept away from the fire, and felt his body start to...shift back. His knees screamed and snapped as they changed direction, as the cartilage and bones had to change shape and size. It was probably the most painful on his skull and hands--the feet weren't so bad, and his tail just seemed to melt back into his vertebrae, but it was always painful having his snout shrink back into place, along with his fingers breaking out of paws.

In the perfect moment of pain, Sasuke rapped against his mind, adding to the hurt. He still couldn't figure out where Sasuke was--where he was coming from, what he was thinking. His control had...gotten good. But at least now Naruto could think clearly.

//I'm not going to argue with you. I know what I'd do; that's all that matters. You still haven't explained why you've been following me around.//

//You run into me once and suddenly it's my fault? Oh, that's nice of you Sasuke, that's real nice...// Naruto twitched, hand cradling the back of his neck, blinking away splatters of light on his eyes while his nose died. His hair hung down his back, but his ears were back to normal, and ringing with the wind and roar of flame, the repetition of his own heartbeat thundering in his chest.

Sasuke was here. Sasuke was close.

Above? Or on the ground? Where was he, where the hell was he hiding? He couldn't be keeping still in the same place; he had to be moving he had...oh hell. He was hunting him. Sasuke was hunting him. Oh fuck...

He was injured and Sasuke was hunting him. He was already hurt, he was bleeding and Sasuke was hunting him. Naruto stood shakily, the red jacket in his hand while he stood naked. He was going to--

The blade didn't seem to slide into place so much as simply materialize in front of his throat as if it had been there for ages, and it was only now that Naruto was noticing its presence. He might've stepped back just to get away from the iron touching his skin, but there was a fine tip of an iron blade pressing against bottom of his skull gently but firmly, waiting to slide between the neat gap between his spine and skull. If he stepped to the side, the front blade would slice through his skin from simple friction; it was that finely sharpened.

Naruto stared straight ahead tiredly, fingers tightening on his red second-skin in his hand.

"Don't you get it? I can't die; cut me as much as you want. I'm not human Sasuke--I'm immortal." Still, he kept his voice to a whisper, kept the vibrations in his throat to a minimum, tried to stay away from the blade as much as he could manage. It was raspy, and rough--rather like Gaara's.

Dark humor bled into Sasuke's voice still low and but whispery, making Naruto's scalp crawl. "Well, that's good to know; lots of time for fun, isn't there? Trying to killing a creature that can't be killed...I could be at it all winter before I got tired."

"I'm sure," Naruto glanced to the side without turning his head. He couldn't figure out which hand was holding the front blade. "But I don't feel like hanging around you all winter."

"Who says you have a choice?"

"Who says I don't?"

"Me."

Naruto grinned weakly, a bit smug, and made a contented sound. "Sasuke, I could make your heart stop without lifting a finger. You don't really think you can kill me now, do you?"

"Can? If you can be killed, I'll find a way to do it. You know I will," came the warm whisper hitting Naruto's ear seductively.

Naruto...didn't doubt him. If he could be killed...Sasuke was single-minded enough to do it. Whatever he would've said in reply died in his throat, because at that exact minute his body froze in time for roughly 10 seconds; it was rather painful and rather impossible, because the body never stops working even for a second--even for a few hours after death, the body was still working.

Sasuke was licking his ear.

It was incredibly warm--not burning--but warm in the late winter foggy night, and wet. It was very wet. It was the second time Sasuke had ever touched him in a sexual way while he was awake, the first being the time Sasuke had kissed his jaw before cutting his throat. It smelled clean, and kind of tickled, and Naruto's blood froze.

His hands spasmed and shoulders jumped, a small gasp shooting out of his mouth. Naruto licked his lips hurriedly without realizing it, and wanted to panic very much, wanted to be afraid, wanted to be angry, wanted to feel anything but the way he felt then.

When Sasuke's lips went away he realized how very dark it was. He couldn't see a thing

"Does it hurt?" the blade pressed slightly against the line circling his throat. Naruto didn't hesitate in his answer; Sasuke's tongue touching his skin could do that to him.

"Every second."

"Do you dream of me?"

"Yes."

"Nightmares?"

"Sometimes. A lot now."

"Afraid of me?"

"Yes. No. I don't know. Maybe."

"That's a really crappy answer. Are you afraid of me or aren't you?"

He couldn't open his eyes. He wanted to open his eyes because the darkness with Sasuke's voice in his ear threatening him and Sasuke's body living behind him was too much for him to deal with all at once. His eyelids were too heavy but he really needed to open his eyes.

"I..." Was he afraid of Sasuke? Naruto afraid of Sasuke? "No. No I'm not."

"I could kill you. I should. I want to."

"I know. But...hey. That's just one of those things."

"What do you mean?"

"You do what you want Sasuke. Can't stop you; never could. I mean...I really hate you, you're such a whiner about everything I did to you..." Naruto scrunched his face together, feeling the metal slowly chafe the front of his neck. "You don't know what you've done to me."

"Who are you to judge me? You don't know anything about me...what happened to me, what I've gone through...just what I've done."

Naruto managed to get his eyes half open before they shut on their own again. Sasuke didn't interrupt him, waited for him to finish.

"I'd kill you to if I could. I can't. I really tried...couldn't, and you suck. But I saved your life just now and I'd..." Now Naruto kept his eyes shut tight. His breathing wavered, and he grinned weakly while he lied through his teeth. "I'd roll over if you wanted me to. I've played dead just to make you shut up, and I'd get down on me knees if I thought..." He trailed off, and he could hear his own heart racing in the silence.

"Thought what?"

Naruto didn't open his eyes, but if he had then he would've been staring out at nothing. There was only the darkness and Sasuke's disembodied voice behind him, haunting him with the old memories and old alliances.

"I dunno. It's not important. Are you gonna try and fight me or what?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. That had been...quite the confession. He was far from happy, and the blade pressed deeper--he had done this once, this time there would be no mistakes. The body between his arms trembled, the shoulders twitching a little and it didn't seem to him that Naruto was in any pain yet.

Naruto turned his head, long hair cutting off most of his face, eyes dark blue mixed with purple and still wild. Sasuke stared back silently while blood ran over his blade and down Naruto's throat, the edge cutting deeper than just the skin and neither paying it any attention.

If Naruto was looking for a smidgen of compassion or feeling in Sasuke's eyes, he didn't find it. If Sasuke was looking for a bit of humanity or regret in Naruto's eyes, he didn't find it. But even though they didn't find what they might've been looking for in the other's eyes, they didn't look away.

Naruto leaned in--for what seemed only the second time since that time on the couch--and kissed him on the lips, tenderly. Sasuke would never understand why he allowed it, but felt no need to return it, nor did he. He readied the knife instead, and would have cut Naruto open from neck to torso if he hadn't been thrown at the ground, hearing the faint haunting

Woomph

In his ears, while his eyes were blinded by the light.

His first thought was that it had been a trick--a simple, easy trick that he had fallen for again, without even looking back.

Then he heard the screams in the trees, the louder roar of the fox, and felt the chakra signatures bend and twist and explode with the Sharingan, even through closed eyes. More signatures than just the fox, than just Naruto, and in the split second it took for Sasuke to raise his sword and open his eyes again he had already jerked the blade up and warm liquid sprayed over his face, briefly.

Then he tossed the body aside and was air-borne, the split-second he had taken glance at the battlefield enough to tell him where everyone was, and where everyone would be in the next fifteen seconds.

Lightening came to his hand when he called it; he lived in his shadow's place while his shadow was murdered over and over again in his place, and Sasuke Uchiha traveled lightly on the edge and killed with abandon.

Battles are not well measured in time, but in the conquests made and losses achieved--the battle served its purpose.

Sasuke was still breathing, still vertical, and still with a blade in his hand. He was hurt and bleeding, something organic buried into his right shoulder from someone else's mouth, and his chakra level almost non-existent. It was enough to keep him alive, not enough for him to use, but he still had his sword. Now. If he could only raise it...

The fox had weathered it better.

Sasuke had a brief impression of dark red eyes, light blonde fur smeared in front of darker, violent flames, which were...oddly dying. Fading. But the fox lived--walked. The fire should have been raging, once more. The nightmare should have played once more. Sasuke stared, and tried to raise his blade, and felt it slip from his fingers.

He had the sneaking suspicion that he had done all the work, that he had been the one allowed to exhaust himself. He wondered briefly why he hadn't seen it coming, and then wondered if he had allowed it.

The fox was no bigger than a vespa motorbike, or very shaggy pony, that seemed to slowly be getting bigger. It could have been Sasuke's imagination. But it seemed so. It also seemed more intelligent--the eyes did, anyway.

Sasuke wasn't aware of much else except how the fur felt under his cheek--it had looked unbelievably soft, even stained with blood. But the bones hit his body in uncomfortable places as they moved under it, and the pelt was too slippery and at the same time a little coarse and stank like a feral animal. It wasn't a bad smell, but it was an acquired one, and, vaguely, Sasuke was reminded of smelling it somewhere else, on someone else.

His next conscious sensation was the feeling of water flowing--the steady mind-numbing repetition. He woke up a little as the cold hit his wounds, soaking through his clothes. Then something hard that didn't feel like animal fur though he could still smell the feral stink so close by, and a sudden increase in temperature, in the humidity in the air. Needless to say, the smell grew stronger with the heat, but Sasuke was altogether too tired to complain.

There was a familiar, painful burning in his muscles, roaring in his veins, and itching excruciating sensation as his flesh healed itself rapidly. He felt anger.

When Sasuke woke up the next day in the early afternoon, he was laying on grass that had been steam cooked, withered to the ground flat and weak. The creek was still flowing, going south, out towards the ocean and civilization. His clothes were in tatters and his wounds now throbbed though they were healed, but his energy was marginally better.

By his side and curled on his chest, was Naruto. His hair reached his knees, and his cheek scars were back to normal, and the red jacket was spread over him and Sasuke. His eyes were closed and lips relaxed, and Sasuke was satisfied to note that he had the iron lined blade in the immediate vicinity. The handle was cool in his hand while he stared at blonde hair, and fitted perfectly to his palm. Naruto's breathing was uneasy, and he looked...drained.

Gaara had seen this--it wasn't anything new, but it was new to Sasuke. Every time Naruto had transferred some of his power to Sasuke, it had drained him. Not much, but enough to keep his quiet and still for a few extra hours, depending on how well fed he was. The shifting between fox and human was another cause for drainage, and Naruto had dealt with the club while Sasuke had run.

Now he was...tired. And Sasuke was living, and here, and Naruto tried to be as responsible as he could.

::Sasuke? ...back in that--hotel or whorehouse...cat house, whatever...:: Naruto paused.

::You had really great boobs. Everything else was just too scrawny, especially your ass, but you had really great...::

Sasuke was incandescent. Let's see if he could grow back his damn head! The blade flashed upward and in the lightening-fast interval it took Sasuke to shove Naruto aside thrust it down the feeling of certainty--

::I knew I'd die with you::

--and surrender flash through his mind as the blade came down with enough force to bury it one half of the way through the earth. Naruto's body twitched, eyes opening briefly before closing shut and warm liquid ebbed gently against Sasuke's fist.

I knew I'd die with you.

"I'm not dead yet idiot! You're the only one dying, not me! Moron!"

He was being immature and didn't care because that creature had the nerve to show up acting like nothing had changed just because he happened to save his fucking life! It wasn't even the same guy, he had every right! To kill him. He'd tortured him, came close to killing him, letting him rot away and then raped him and--

It's only rape if you don't want it.

Sasuke glared at the body in front of him motionless, the blade still vibrating against his palm from the impact.

//He raped me.//

//He murdered hundreds, thousands. What's left isn't worth fighting for.//

//I'm hunting my brother. The only one to ever make me cry. The only ones to ever make him cry.//

//It isn't the same. He never lost anything--He left. He wanted to go.//

//He never had anything to lose.//

//It's not the same thing.//

//We are not the same.//

Who are you to judge me? You don't know anything about me!

The sword hilt stopped vibrating from the force of impact, a few precious inches away from Naruto's head buried in the ground. It went through his arm--through the ulna and radius, without breaking or even scratching either. With the demon blood, it wouldn't be enough to kill him. The wound would keep Naruto weaker though. Keep him sleeping for a little.

Sasuke had glared at him, half-curled up a little distance away, before staring into the creek, looking for answers in the freezing water. There were bits of ice frozen along the edges--winter was here.

***

The sound Naruto woke up to would be water running gently.

The sight Naruto woke up to would be a bathtub his naked body was lying in.

The smell Naruto woke up to would be refined musk and fir--Sasuke's smell.

The sensation Naruto woke up to would be Sasuke's fingers under his chin, forcing him to meet his gaze.

Naruto had seen many weird things in his life--he had never seen anything as dark as Sasuke's eyes, and he drowned in them.

***

A/N: yes, Gaara did not appear here anywhere--wanted to focus on creating a sane Sasuke. But! I'm finally back to work, and I can promise the next chapter will have a lemon--the next chapter will pretty much be a lemon, all around. I haven't written it yet, and I almost posted it in here, but it didn't make much sense to keep you guys waiting for it while this part was ready and set. I...tried to fix Naruto's character, or explain it at least, so hopefully that's consistent now. Only 28 pages--I'm getting better.

I appreciate all the normal ff.net readers who've followed me thus far into uncharted territory such as this is--I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Reviews are always appreciated, of course, either here or at ff.net--either is fine.

--Later all!

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