Have you been speed-reading my self-help books again?

--Dilbert, Dilbert, Scott Adams

You fuckin' cows!! Crackers! Crackers! But no squeezy cheese!! You've broken my secret elbow!!

--Happy Noodle Boy, Johnny The Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut, Jhohen Vasquez

Let them hate, so long as they fear
--Accius

I believe in people falling
I believe in people warring
I believe diseases coming
I believe that's why I'm running

--Possibly (?) Queen of the Damned Soundtrack

You bring bad things! Bad things come in neither human nor animal!

--Apes, Princess Mononoke

***

//...//

//...and this is it.//

//Indeed. He's changed him. Done--something to him. He's different. He's not as strong as he used to be, but he's also...//

//...Not quite as human.//

//No. Strange. What did he do to him? This is unheard of. It's almost what our father did to us, only to a--stranger degree. And different.//

//It's nothing like that! My father was a monster. He got what he deserved, but he should have gotten worse. ...the real thing is...Why did he do it? I thought he...//

//...//

//...what the hell did they do to each other? ...He looks nearly as fucked up as I am.//

//Hm. Yes. He kind of does. Strange. Interesting. So this is what happens when the fox goes truly mad.//

//He melded with his daemon completely. I can't even sense her in him anymore; she's gone. She was avenged, apparently that's all she was sticking around for. It was only natural, inevitable. We aren't supposed to be this way. We aren't supposed to be at all.//

//Hn. Really?//

***

Sasuke made a point of his breath not catching.

He had been staring for hours now at the same shadowed spot, letting his thoughts drift and come together and attempting to shield his mind at the same time. And yet something must've shifted in his vision, something added or taken away or defined, because now he saw a pair of feet that led up to legs instead of dark shadowed stone.

And he felt eyes on him.

How long his watcher had been there he couldn't say; he'd been keeping watch for hours without profit, and hadn't heard a single thing except his own breathing and heartbeat. He'd been left alone for what seemed forever now, seemingly forgotten. And now feet.

He waited to be realized, waited for confrontation, for the other guy to make the first move. It was too quiet for the fox...but anyone else wouldn't touch him. And he would have heard them. Should've detected something, felt something early. He couldn't even feel chakra. When nothing came, he continued to wait.

Sasuke's cell was small; he couldn't stand up or lay across it without his feet sticking through the bars. The hallway was very wide however, so even if arms reached out from either side there'd still be room in the middle for about two people to stand out of reach. And plenty of safe distance to prod and needle at the prisoners.

All cells seemed empty save his. There was no sound, no whispers or shuffling of limbs or breathing. There wasn't even water dripping. He couldn't sense anything, except rare flashes here and there of what must've been the fox's chakra. It was a silence, stillness, so deafeningly loud that it blew out the eardrums. It seized the mind and throttled it until you couldn't think anymore. It was the silence madness is born in.

Sasuke wondered if the fox, in all his stupidity and genius, realized this. He had said that life in the village had been hell, had been a dark void. Sasuke wondered if this is what it felt like to him. He was very sure, that if the sensations were the same, he avidly didn't care. Naruto deserved everything and anything bad that had ever happened to him. He was more than a monster, worse than one.

For once, Sasuke yielded, and looked him in the face. He didn't even feel fear.

There was a good reason why he was an only prisoner. It was easier to keep track of dead bodies than living ones, and there are always some people who tend to be very practical. At the fox's caliber, but not the same.

The relationship was bitter and bloody, spiraling from the promise of hatred--which is still a form of attraction--to a bond of loathing, which isn't.

Gaara leaned up and walked over like it was only Tuesday and nothing special, like Sasuke defenseless and trapped was nothing of any real interest, his eyes never leaving Sasuke's. He crouched down so close it was nearly an invitation to attack, but Sasuke knew while Naruto would bluff, Gaara would accept readily.

Deja vu.

It was a matter of pride and control that neither would speak before the other, so it was silent a long while. Gaara had improved from the last Sasuke had seen, his skin whole and pale again, the circles around his eyes reduced to thin, dark lines, and his eyes a sharper green than before. He seemed to radiate strength.

Sasuke's skin was still pale, but gaunt and bruised, wearing less clothing than he would have liked with an old blanket pulled around his shoulders, and his hair was an artful disarray. And this time he was on the "bad" side of the bars.

He didn't flinch when he felt grains of sand push his chin up and aside, pulled his shirt away so Gaara could get a good look at his throat, or when it pulled his hands out in front of him. He had nothing to fight with; no energy, and Gaara didn't know mercy. Besides, if the Sand shinobi wanted to kill him, there wasn't a thing he could about it, and he had nowhere to run.

His only weapon was apathy, seeming too boring and weak to be of any interest. It was demeaning, but it was true. They both had to know it. He wanted to fight. But he needed to live through this, he couldn't die yet. He wasn't done yet. He couldn't die yet.

But if Gaara was angry about last time...

The sand slid away. Gaara, wordlessly, reached in and put forward a leather pouch. Sasuke waited. Gaara didn't move. Taking his eyes off him in a symbol of weakness, he took the pouch, and felt hardness and the metal clink inside. Gaara stood up, and glanced at the lock. There was sharp whirring sound, a crunch, and Sasuke stood up as the door opened. Gaara moved back before Sasuke walked out, and finally spoke.

"Is this a game?"

Gaara looked at him funny.

"No," he answered, and turned and started walking, his footsteps loud in the hallway. After a while, he stopped irritated and didn't bother to turn around. "Do you want to stay here?"

Nothing came out of Sasuke's cell; not even a sound. Gaara kept walking.

"Idiot."

A few seconds later Sasuke followed at a healthy distance. Gaara led him to the mountains to a tunnel that led out to the bottom of a gully. Gray sky was above him, and the wind caressed his hair. The smell of ash greased the air.

Gaara turned around to go back inside.

"Why?"

Gaara didn't bother to turn to look at him, not deeming Sasuke worthy of the attention. "Get lost."

***

It seems reasonable to note at this point that Gaara is always playing with half a deck.

Half of the cards belong to him, and the other half belong to something else. These two decks usually don't work together, because they really don't like each other. The demon badger resents the human for breathing; the human resents the demon for being.

The big problem for Gaara is that it's difficult to tell which thoughts belong to him, and which thoughts belong to the demon. Gaara has never had a seal on his demon. He's only been alone in his head a numbered amount of times, and energy and thoughts flow without solid restraint or limits between them. If they were to work in unison, as Naruto and the Kyuubi were able, Gaara could possibly be stronger than Naruto, because there are spells and attacks that the demon knows that Gaara has never learned, that he cannot imagine.

But they don't work in unison. They don't like each other. They're stuck together.

Unlike the Kyuubi, the Tanuki demon does not need Gaara to survive, he doesn't need Gaara for anything, and if Gaara were to spontaneously die he'd be a very happy and very free demon the way he was before that damned bastard shoved him in this mucus and shit rotten prison of a child. Gaara hates his demon more than he's ever hated anything in his life, even the loneliness. He can't imagine life without him.

Gaara's always been a little crazy.

He just can't tell if it's his insanity or something else.

***

"I'm leaving."

"What? What are you talking about--we won, Gaara. We can't leave..."

Glance.

"Why should we leave? We've got nothing to fear. We won."

"Exactly. Everyone knows it...it's worse now than it was before."

"...I don't follow you. Winning is a good thing."

"No. It's not. I know. The people you didn't kill, stupid," he said with some feeling, "want you dead more than they want to live. The spectators want the same. You're a target now--you won--and every bastard and leech has their eyes on you. You can't screen all that deep."

"You don't know that. You don't understand my power, you know," Naruto had lent backwards, his eyes cool and distant. "Nothing can hurt me, not anymore."

Gaara snorted a sound that translated roughly to "Idiot" in every sense of the word. He explained on his point further in a few short sentences, expanded below to make sense.

"I do. The winning team always squabbles over who gets to keep the trophy and stab each other in the back for it, but the losers band together tight as rock, and go after the winner's head, picking them off one by one. You're a target now. And it's hell fighting cowards; they don't fight fair. Besides, what do you want with their land? Money? Fame? You have it, but is that what you wanted? ...Isn't that why Sasuke's here? To give you what you really want? Except he isn't, is he? He's not cooperating. You satisfied your bloodlust, you did what you set out to do. But you didn't get what you wanted. It's not that simple, and you don't have anything I want anymore" is what Gaara said in so many words.

What he actually said was: "You won. Everybody's out to kill you now. Hope you have fun with your fuck toy, but I'm out. See you in hell."

And he left Naruto gaping at his back.

"You're leaving just like that?!"

Gaara left.

It was going to be one of those days.

It was.

***

Naruto sighed in his throat as he closed his eyes and just let his mind...wander.

It was said wizards could speak to the walls, but then so could the homeless, so that was never a big deal. It's not like the walls ever said anything back. It was said witches could hear the shadows speak, but that didn't mean the shadows had anything sensible to say. It just meant that the witch listened to weird things, maybe because she didn't have anything else better to listen to.

Naruto was at the moment listening to the hallways speaking while having a quiet smoke. He would rather be listening to his CD player and have some guitars blasting his eardrums, but the hallways were saying some interesting things.

//...what he'll do if...//

//...isss gone, he can't do...not coming back...//

//...dangerous. You don't know it'll happen he might...//

//...damned jackal would've...for that...//

//...all of usss! Together! He'ss human, he let'ss the humans...//

//...Damned pets. Not even a real demon just...//

//...insulting our species as...would you simply...//

//...You know what...if we...can!//

//...the shinobi wiped...the same with us...//

//...demon superiority...human child...you would allow this state of affairs to continue?//

//...We don't know anything...we just...//

//...human. Human child ruling...two hundred years I would sacrifice...//

//...casual freak...Isn't...nothing like us...damned human child...//

//...the real fox...//

//...the real fox...//

//...the real demon would...//

//...killed them all...//

//...weak...//

//...weak...//

Naruto exhaled the smoke through his nose.

//...abomination.//

"Hm," was all he said out loud, making a slight face but nothing more than that. "Good old Johnny..." he said to no one in particular save himself.

None--save perhaps Gaara and maybe now Sasuke, and neither were known for gossiping or even speaking--knew the full extent of Naruto's powers. They saw the results. Nothing more. Nothing less. For the last five odd years, he had been an aggressive but ambiguous employer, comradely, but very, very ambitious. And so far that little bit of reassurance that they were getting paid well had been enough to grease their minds, because no one had ever really known what it was he could really do.

He had done that with today in mind.

***

Naruto leaned heavily on his elbow, nearly falling across the table. //Damn that Gaara,// was all he could think. He had found out what his little desert badger had done and he had a good idea why. He hadn't killed anybody, which was a first, but it was still damn annoying. And the pretty young lady across from him naked in bed knew that was all he could think. Admirably, she wasn't afraid.

//But she is Gaara's sister, after all...Wouldn't be afraid of me after living with him...//

And Naruto had to smile.

"Hey. Did I wake you up?"

Temari pulled her nightgown over her head, tugging it on hard while she sat up in bed, pulling the sheets up to her waist.

"Yes, lord, you did."

Naruto waved a hand dismissively. "Don't call me that here, damn it. We've known each other...what? Three years? More?"

Temari began to be slightly alarmed. Gaara had 'visited' her before he had vanished completely. Literally; he had just shown up out of nowhere, unperturbed when she had startled, and stared at her from about a foot away. His eyes had never been like anyone else in their family, even right down to his hair he looked like he didn't quite fit, but there was a touch of green-yellow in them that came from a blood that wasn't human at all.

He had touched her cheek, very, very lightly. Then he had left. She wasn't sure why he left. She wasn't even sure why he had bothered to see her. They hardly saw each other on a daily basis. But now Naruto was here. They didn't see each other on a daily basis either. And rumor was that he and Naruto were pretty close...

Naruto's gaze gave nothing away. Like always, he jumped straight into the conversation.

"And even though we've never really talked I...I have grown pretty reliant on you. And Kankuro of course, but you more anyone...more than any of the normal humans I have here." Naruto smiled grimly at the little phrase. //Normal humans indeed.// "More than most of the beings actually. And, as a result, I've become kind of attached to you."

//...attached?// was all Temari thought with growing dread. With some difficulty, the alarming feeling shifted to creeping panic.

"I'd really hate for something bad to happen to you, at least while I'm here still running around and stuff. So..." Naruto trailed off, leaning back and stretching one arm over his head. Temari gripped the bed sheets like a chastity belt.

"...In about, oh, say three hours? I'm going...No, I want you...and your brother and all the lower-class personnel in the northern wing of the castle, and if at all possible...No. No I just want you in that section." Naruto was still gazing off at nothing, his mouth moving without really paying attention to her.

"And, uh...try to keep it quiet, will you? Kay?"

Finally, pale absent blue slivers looked at her face, stiff with confusion and mild apprehension. "Did you know...that you have one really freaky brother?"

***

Two hours and fifteen minutes later.

There was, instead of the general shuffling and noises that people who didn't like each other very much were all crowded into the same room with a... thing that they didn't trust, a dead silence. A general lurking-ness.

"I'm here to discuss equilibrium," Naruto began rudely. "Because that's something that's been changing. Unbalanced. And now it needs to be... rebalanced."

***

Demons didn't belong in this world anymore. They weren't meant to be powerful, weren't meant to be as strong as they were now. They were screwing it up, right down to how people were thinking lately to how the winds shifted. Darkness walked the land again, and people were subtly afraid without knowing why. They were changing things.

They were never meant to be predators.

Everything has a fail-safe. There had to be balance, had to be balance. Without it everything was screwed. Everything had its opposite. Except them. There wasn't anything to hurt them anymore, not even the iron anymore.

Demon slayers had stopped being.

***

"For as long as we've existed, we have been hunted by the shinobi, trained demon slayers and of course the odd angry mob. And because of them, for a long time, we've hidden in the shadows."

There were a few slight invisible grins. Barely there, hardly noticeable, but the general sentiment still came across. They didn't have to hide in the shadows anymore. "Well, I'm sure I don't need to explain what the destruction of Leaf meant. We have the complete western division of the terrain: from the Sand to the Stone and recently the Leaf, with the Grass and Lightning countries soon to follow. The humans have no longer have any real defense against us, against any of us. They're weak. They're fragile. And they are long past their dues."

There was a smug satisfied silence. If this had been an open rally, somebody would have yelled by now.

Naruto nodded to himself, and, so very quietly that no one heard it or even sensed the energy, the giant metal hinges in the stone doors began to melt gently against the stone, sealing the cracks.

"Now, equilibrium...demands that things balance," Naruto stated pointedly. "Not so long ago we put things into balance, we made ourselves equal. And that was good. But now things are again out of balance, and they're out of balance against humanity's favor."

Naruto's head tilted down, his bangs shielding his face. He was wearing an old cotton black shirt and stonewashed denim pants. He was vulnerable; not wearing his red jacket.

There was a tense silence.

He had placed no restraint on where they could go and how much they could do, and they exploited that ruthlessly. They could become kings of their own small country if they wanted to, with human slaves and nothing could rise up against them. Against the little demons, yes, but not against the old ones like themselves. They had a freedom they hadn't had in ages, and they were taking full advantage of it. They had power now; power that they had dreamed and hungered for and they weren't about to let it get away from them. Nothing was going to take it from them. They'd die first.

It was no small secret that his latest pet had run away. That had provided some amusement. It was a welcome relief and tempting opportunity that the sand demon had also left.

Naruto was alone.

And they--and he--knew it.

So what would he do now?

Sighing wearily, Naruto steepled his fingers and stared at nothing over them, his mind far away. He opened his mouth, closed it slightly, and then opened it again. His voice had lost its happy strident tone and was...daresay morosely thoughtful.

"I'll ah, I'll tell you guys the truth though, about something..." Naruto trailed off. "I knew this would happen eventually, but I kinda hoped that it wouldn't happen this quickly. Or so soon."

Did he know? Inhuman eyes refused to meet across the table, but all minds were thinking roughly the same thing. //He couldn't know...everything just yet...//

"I really appreciated everything that's happened. I've enjoyed it all, I know. But, as you've all noticed, I am somewhat human. Kinda. I didn't think this would be a problem."

//But that damn slayer just had...// Naruto shook himself to dislodge the thought.

"But it is. Nothing good lasts forever, so..." Naruto looked up and smiled sadly before lowering his eyes again. "What is in my control, I am ending. What is not in my control..."

Three seconds. That's all they would need, Naruto knew. Against each other they could fight for centuries. But they would all fight against him together, and that would only take three seconds tops before one of them got the killing strike in. He knew what sort of monsters he was dealing with. He had gathered them himself.

Three seconds. Just three.

Naruto grinned madly.

"...What is not in my control, I end now."

Naruto clapped his hands together smartly.

"So let's start!"

***

Temari was mildly irritated with the way Kankuro was fidgeting. He wouldn't stop taking out his watch, and felt it was his self-appointed duty to give her the time of day every 15 minutes. They had been there for a while, she knew. There was a restless susurrus in the air, but nobody yet out of line.

//...'You have one freaky brother.' Which one did he mean? They're *both* freaky...just in very different ways.//

It did feel strange, nearly ridiculous when one thought about it. From the way Naruto had spoken, it sounded as if some calamity was about to take place. But she--and the others--had been listening carefully; feeling the rock and air for disturbances, and those who could sense energy said they couldn't feel anything major.

::Temari::

She gave a start, and tried to formalize her mind.

//Yes lord?//

There was a beat, and Temari felt that something bad had happened. The voice was whispery--it always was, he said he didn't want to hurt her--but there was a hesitation to it she didn't recognize.

::It's safe.::

//What happened sir?//

Again, there was the pause.

::Business. ...Congratulations.::

//For what, lord?//

Again, that same beat, same hesitation. Kankuro caught the expression on her face, and turned his head to the door questioningly. The others were watching her.

::...You're the new lord...Lady of the Yamiken. Everyone in there...are the sole survivors...::

Temari blinked, confused. "I don't understand, sir."

::...Tell them the fox went crazy. I don't care anymore. At any rate...if they question you, you can handle it, I know...I've left you alone with them often enough. ...If you need me, call me. You know how.::

Temari was quiet. "What of the other lords, sir?"

There was an intentional pause; Temari could feel that the way she could feel the cold stone beneath her fingers.

::They're dead.::

Temari said nothing.

::You know...I don't think your brother's so very freaky after all...::

Again, Temari didn't answer.

::I think he's a fucking genius. Everyone else seems to be, these days.::

::...Later.::

***

Naruto stumbled out of the room.

Neither door had been able to open, so he had simply made a hole through one. With his fist. Through at least 3 inches of stone and an inch thick sheet of metal. Maybe some iron mixed up in it even. And he wasn't even really tired yet.

Blood and gore dripped off him in soft gooky splashes as they fell, his hair streaked to a dark blackish, reddish color hanging down his back, and his face indistinct underneath it all. Regardless of that, he didn't walk with a hitch, though his left arm hurt a little. And his neck hurt a lot, in various places because of either puncture wounds or blunt bludgeoning, but even that was steadily healing. He could feel it healing. He was still hungry. After eating all that he was still hungry. He walked naked shamelessly. His clothes had been burned to bits

His mind--as with the fire of the forest--still hadn't realized what he had done yet.

Again, he had been walking on instinct, following some ancient script he didn't remember the words to but still knew the plot by heart...and it had worked. It added up.

There were various scratches on the inside stone door, of varying depth all crisscrossing the other and stained with different liquids, some acidic and some blood. Light still came from the hole Naruto had exited, and he paused momentarily to look through it.

The fire was still going on it there.

Vampires were terribly strong, terribly resilient. They survived eons. The Lady Eroth, and to a certain degree Vincent, had been excellent examples of that. Naruto wasn't sure how old either was, except that the Lady Eroth had to be over 200 years old. She was very proud of that fact, and it had rankled her that she had suffer a little upstart animal spirit of a scant 19 years that still stank so strongly of humanity to tell her what to do.

Vampires were also terribly flammable.

Naruto blinked once, losing interest, before turning and leaving.

His skin hadn't been burned by the flame; he had felt it, felt the heat and seen them screaming when it touched them, but he hadn't been harmed by it. He had torn into them with his claws, his fangs and kicked their heads clean off their shoulders, had moved quicker than a fly in a summer haze, and he hadn't been afraid at all. Not one bit.

He hadn't needed to use weapons. Not once.

Gaara had gone through something similar, but at a much earlier age.

//What am I?//

//Against monsters like that...I'm still breathing. I don't hurt. Not badly. The ninja hurt me worse.//

And Naruto's eyes clouded over, and he turned his head to the side, at once suddenly self-conscious. But he didn't cross his arms, didn't offer an inch of defense.

//...angel.//

Steadily, Naruto reached his room, and took his red jacket out from under the bed where he had hid it earlier. His fingers and hands still dirty, he checked to make sure everything he wanted was inside, and then slipped it on, the fabric rubbing uncomfortably against the sticky fluids stuck to his skin.

//I didn't need help. I wasn't sure I could do it. I wasn't sure at all. But I did.//

He pulled his hair from under the collar, twisting it into a make-shift ponytail that reached near the back of his knees before he lost interest in that too.

//They're dead. They're all dead.//

Naruto blinked, the words taking on a second meaning.

//They're all dead.//

They're all dead.

Threes. Things came in threes it seemed. Three lives, three worlds, three men, three deaths.

//Not human. Not demon. Not hybrid, whatever Gaara said. So what...//

Naruto stopped.

Then he walked out the door. He took nothing save his red jacket.

***

As for the other, he simply struggled forward. Struggled and struggled and struggled and when daylight rose he lay on his back, arms held out wide and his eyes on the sun, and slept. He slept and slept and slept, real genuine sunlight pouring down on him, warming him, tanning his skin.

He didn't have any scars. Just some slight ones on his hands from fighting too much. He had lost more weight than what was humanely possible, than what was medically safe. He kept walking. He didn't walk south to the ash. He walked east, toward the ocean. He walked during the night, the time when he actually had to be awake, the time when predators prowled and the temperature dropped. The cold didn't bother him.

He woke up in the late afternoon of the third day because something was happening around him. There was a scavenger bird dead in his hand; his fingers had broken its neck without him realizing. It had been trying to eat him. He looked around mildly for wood or something flammable, said the hell with it because there wasn't any, and had simply gutted and eaten as cleanly as he could. It tasted terrible. He used Gaara's tools without thinking; later he lost them without realizing it.

He had found water on the second night; had drunk and drunk and drunk until he couldn't drink anymore and he had to throw up. Now he ate. In the morning of the fourth day and fifth night, he collapsed, and did not get up.

People found him, but hands didn't touch him. He had thrown away the little red bracelet on the first night. They took him with him, and let him sleep, waking him up only to feed him and ask him his name. He told them he wasn't sure anymore. It was something once; now, he wasn't sure anymore. He was just tired. He was just so tired.

Was he really free? Were they really real? Where was the proof it wasn't an illusion, that it wasn't a trick? He wasn't stupid enough to fall for that again; it was bad enough the first time. What the hell was he waiting for? He had won; just do it. Whatever. He was gone, he was out of there, and no force on earth could keep him so he could just go ahead and fucking try!

They didn't try. The sun touched men like that; this one had been touched too many times.

Eighteen days after Sasuke left the fortress-castle he found Neji.

He had inadvertently been in the way of a mutant retreat. All he was really aware of was that the heather and moors he found himself walking in were suddenly a lot more active than they had been a few minutes ago. He didn't even think. He attacked, instantly.

He killed the first one with his hands, the second with a kick to the larynx, and had grabbed a katana that seemed to magically jump into his hands and had set to work on anything that didn't feel or smell human. He took down five more. He was moving faster than he realized, slipping in and out of visibility like a wraith and his movements had a fluidity and economics to them that they never had before.

Then there wasn't anything that wasn't human anymore. So he started the thing closest to him. He would have gotten him too, except that he knew a word, a secret, magic word that made everything in his head click together like polished bits of marble game pieces. It was a word of power, and the power stunned him slightly.

"Sasuke!"

He said that word, and he stopped. He kept the blade tight to his neck, but he stopped. Then he realized something was wrong. This one didn't have eyes. He stared, hard, and nearly asked, "What the hell?"

The blade wasn't in his fingers anymore, and his arms hurt. He swung out, but he didn't hit anything. Something was holding him. Someone was holding him.

"Oh my god..."

Someone was looking at him hard, and not touching him, but he was holding him down. He sort of hurt in his arms, and his eyes itched strangely. He wanted to fight. There was something wrong with his eyes. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something wrong with his eyes.

There was something wrong...

***

Neji clapped a hand to his neck, feeling for blood. There was a trickling of it, but it wasn't bad. It didn't sting too much. Didn't hurt. His eyes were still hovering along Sasuke's body.

With an impassively dry look frozen on his face, his features never changing save to adjust to the Byakugan and its demands, he finally addressed Kakashi. The elder walked with the help of two crutches. The end of one was centered on Sasuke's chest and he was leaning heavily on it.

"...I think we've officially found another one."

Kakashi didn't say anything.

Sasuke didn't look found at all. He looked lost.

***

They took him with him. They tended to his wounds, tolerated his glares of suspicion and sharp, pointless questions that Kakashi was decoding. He had attacked them at night, since he was awake at night and sleeping in the morning, and Kakashi had whacked him nicely across the temples with his crutch, effectively putting him out for the night and breaking his crutch in pieces.

He didn't answer anything clearly, just the occasional insult and the revealing glance. He still wouldn't sleep at night, but seemed to find comfort in watching Kakashi sleep. He found his younger student running his finger along his eye scar one night when the younger supposed the elder was sleeping. Just a light, butterfly touch along his scar, not moving the mask that covered the lower part of his face or even coming close to it. He stayed by his bedside the night, staring at times entranced at him and at the night sky.

After that, he stopped trying to attack them, and nearly stopped talking at all. He started eating what they offered him without question, only a slight hesitation. They still couldn't get him to sleep at night. Neji grudgingly carried him in the daytime on his back since Kakashi was barely fit to walk on his own. It was his proficiency with jutsus and his instinct that was keeping alive.

Sasuke's intuition and technique were astounding. Uchiha had always been impressive on the battlefield, but now his accuracy was...chilling. Kakashi had been unnerved by it on the first night on the moor, watching the body move methodically and kill without pausing or really focusing on what he was doing. He just did it, as easily as he walked or ran he could kill. Chillingly efficient and economical.

So on the upside, even though he was...different and unnerving, Kakashi had himself said that surprise attacks were no longer a problem.

***

Neither the Kakashi or the Neji really convinced him. Oh, it was good; he'd admit that readily, it was really good. But it wasn't very convincing. It was disconcerting, which made him think, but not too hard. He wasn't thinking much of anything. He didn't feel much either.

The sun touched his neck when he slept on Neji's back. The air smelled of ash.

Mostly he watched from the inside, watched how they looked at him, how they treated him. They were wary, but not afraid of him. They were reluctant to let him go. That didn't surprise him. He'd leave if they weren't constantly keeping him there subtly, not physically restraining him, but still keeping him with them with the promise of a mattress he never slept on, running water he never stayed under too long, and food he ate sparingly and infrequently. There was always the opportunity to fight, to kill something not human, to win. He could still fight and win. He was still shinobi. He was still him.

Sometimes there were others, but they didn't come near him. He didn't like them. They felt human, and wouldn't come near him, so he didn't hurt them but he didn't like them. They looked at him funny and if he just slightly glared at them they turned away swiftly, embarrassed or afraid. Sometimes there were bowls, and things cooked in pots and chopsticks. Lots of times he heard conversation that wasn't directed at him and had nothing to do with him, voices that weren't laughing or mocking, but were sad and afraid. He let it go by. He just watched.

Kakashi and Neji both watched him.

He was changed. In many ways, but not changed the way one would expect. The shock was expected, the disorientation. The changed aspect was his new killing drive. That was unnerving. The need--not desire, but actual need--for blood was different. The ease of calling the Sharingan was different; he did it at times without realizing it. Something would click in his ears, and he'd be scanning the terrain with the Sharingan without knowing what he was looking for or what had made him pause. He healed swiftly; that was different. He was stronger, but his speed outstripped his strength, and his speed kept on increasing. Exponentially. He was faster than Kakashi had been when he could walk on both feet no problem. That was very different. He didn't trust anyone or anything, and that didn't seem to bother him at all.

He had lost a lot--nearly as much as they had. But it didn't seem to bother him at all. Icy, aloof, but with a new need that didn't fit together at all. His distance was so solid it seemed strange. There were holes in the puzzle.

Kakashi put the pieces together after he saw him react to Ino.

"Sasuke-kun!"

She had come running at him, thrown her arms around him, and he hadn't hit her or attacked reflexively. His arms were raised and hands bent at aggressive angles, but he hadn't attacked. He was confused. She was hurting him, squeezing him too hard and a heavy weight around his neck. She smelled like old sweat and faintly of soap. Her hair smelled like apple shampoo. Her hair was blond and her eyes were blue. She was weak; he could kill her easy. He startled.

This...had happened to him before. Had happened often. He had hated it. It was so annoying and he really hated it a lot but it hadn't been...not hurt, just annoying. But it was...happening now. Why hadn't it...wait a minute? Before? He was...wait a minute he was...he was...

He pushed her off and away, and looked hard into her face held a few inches from his. She was crying a little, not much, and she blushed. He let go almost immediately, but didn't stop staring at her shamelessly. She didn't stop blushing.

Kakashi watched from the corner of his eye. //Ahhh...I see.//

***

Kakashi stared off at nothing, his hands supporting his chin. He wasn't really thinking; just allowing everything he knew to sort themselves out in his head, since they knew where they went better than he did. His stomach hurt a little, and his chest still hurt despite everything Hinata had done for him. His left leg ached worst in the cold of the night, but it wasn't so bad just then.

He was alone in his room; the little hotel they all stayed at had forced them into pairs, but allowed for him to have his own room. None of the old students really wanted to get close to him, mostly because of the inexplicable shadow that popped up behind him suddenly when it was dark.

"Aren't you angry? Aren't you sad?"

And there was his little shadow.

Sasuke's voice was angry, accusing, as if not being sad or angry or both was a terrible crime, a betrayal of everything there had been and was now. It was wrong, not to feel that. It made him feel angrier...and alone.

Kakashi glanced at him sideways. He let the words and Sasuke's temper simmer down. "Personal isn't the same as important," he said gently. His shadow's eyes flashed bright red; not quite the usual Sharingan. Something had happened to Sasuke. He wouldn't say what. "You do what you can. Here and now, you do what you can."

"Do you sleep like that?" There was cold, dead venom in his student's voice, so Kakashi told the truth.

"Sometimes. Not always."

Sasuke relented. That had been the surrender he had been looking for, the admission of vulnerability, and now he was satisfied enough to relent and let his guard down somewhat. He wore it thick even around Hinata and Shikamaru, who wouldn't hurt him if they could, and couldn't hurt him if they had to.

"I don't sleep."

"I've noticed."

Sasuke came closer by two steps then halted. He wouldn't come within arms reach of anyone, and kept his hands free and eyes sharp.

He was supposed to be rooming with Neji since he could control him physically, but it was always to Kakashi that he hung around when he had to hang around anyone. As long as he didn't start killing indiscriminately or stop coming back, Kakashi let him have his freedom. He had a hard time figuring out how to keep it from him.

"Do you plan to do anything about it? Or just mope in your room?"

Kakashi shot him a cool look, but didn't give him the satisfaction of a greater reaction. He'd been picking fights with everyone lately, even Shikamaru who could barely stand up and showed him the same catlike disdain and indifference he always had. He didn't fight with Sasuke; mostly just told him he was being a tiresome bother. Strangely--or perhaps not--he left Iruka and Hinata alone. He ignored them completely; they didn't even exist to him. But Neji, Shikamaru, even Ino and certainly Kakashi were all fair game.

Ino was the only one who really wanted to shave his head and punch his teeth out after what he said to her, but Shikamaru had stopped her. Neji didn't seem to care, as long as he stayed away from Hinata. Unlike Hinata who was quietly miserable, Neji seemed perfectly happy when things looked truly grim and dark; his behavior didn't change significantly, but it changed enough to for those who knew him to notice. He was tolerant of Uchiha's glares and insults, for one.

"Bet you feel like your guardian angel went out for a smoke, huh?" Kakashi asked with a slight smile warming his voice.

The atmosphere cooled uncomfortably, and Sasuke took a step back. His eyes had changed back to the normal black; he had no control over it anymore, or he didn't care enough to try.

He gave Kakashi a dirty look, a betrayed look, "Sasuke? What's wrong?" and left without reply or sound. His clothes barely rustled on his skin anymore, but Kakashi noted that at least he trusted him enough to give him his back.

They found Lee three days later, sick and immobile, but alive. Hinata and Iruka overlooked his health, discharging him from the hospital with less than legal methods. At first it was only Hinata focusing on him, taking care of him, with Iruka coming in mechanically on the sidelines when he remembered his heart was still beating and there were things for him to do.

Not even Kakashi could pull him out of his shell; it was that deep, that thick. He was a little like Sasuke in that respect: quiet, cold, but without the sharp suspicious edge. He didn't seem to have an edge anymore, nothing that he could cut with and nothing that anyone could get a handle on and pull him or push him anywhere. He just floated like a cloud; unanchored, untouchable and incomplete.

***

And Naruto wandered.

His legend was renowned: both as the Nine Tails Fox and as the Demon King. He found it amusing but not surprising that outside the fortress-castle few would recognize his face. There was no trace of Gaara; when he wanted to hide, he wouldn't be found. Civilization had been demolished to the point where old Gaara-kun could have gone on a three-week killing spree and few would have noticed it was the work of one very special demon child.

He could have found Sasuke again, if he really felt like it. He didn't even bother to try, but walked around in the ashes of his old home for a couple weeks. He had looked out at the phantom forest a couple times before, but he'd never done it alone. There'd always been someone else there for him to show-off to. This was the first time he'd walked among the ghost trees since he had started it all. The air was cold and dirty without the trees.

He searched for the warm alien presence in his mind, tried to forcibly summon her out so she could see what she had harassed him for in the dark, with nightmares of blood smell and taste, speed, trees and lakes of blood, and a man he could recognize now, a man he recognized now as his own father standing tall in front of him.

His jaw was square instead of Naruto's pointed chin (from his mother perhaps?), and his mouth wider, nose straighter and longer, Roman noble. But his face was angular, handsome, honest looking without the whisker-shaped scars on his cheeks. He was much taller than Naruto, body unmistakably masculine (unlike the son) and ninja slender and powerful. His eyes were blue too, but darker than Naruto's. The shape was long and narrow compared to Naruto's wide-open eyes but still friendly and kind, and size of the iris were smaller than Naruto's, the pupil bigger. His hair was longer than Naruto's, the cut different, but the color was nearly the same.

Without Sasuke there to tempt him (sex?) and torture, without Gaara to talk to at night and sleep with (sex?) during the day, Naruto realized more things about his father than what he had ever known. He had been too young to remember him when he was a baby, but the Nine Tails' memory of him was very clear. And now that she was gone, completely erased from his mind, he could search through her memories in skips and flashes.

She remembered the battle crystal clear, bits of it tinted over with overwhelming emotion. She had lived in the forest long before the shinobi had; she had attacked when they started encroaching on her territory, as humans naturally do, inevitably. Naruto learned why she attacked (she loved the trees), learned how the village had looked that far back (not much different), learned how his father had fought and felled her (through trickery), later imprisoning her in him. He learned how his father looked, how he moved and how his voice sounded when he spoke and screamed. Naruto learned a lot.

Naruto had his father's smile.

He hadn't known that.

He still didn't know his name.

***

A/N: 'Personal isn't the same as important,' is something Captain Carrot Ironfounderson says. I did not create that phrase, Mr. Terry Prattchet did.

Yay! 21 pages! I'm cutting down!

Note: I don't even know the Fourth's real name: I just know him as Yondaime, and I think that means 'the fourth' in Japanese, since they call Tsunade the Gondaime, and the Rokudaime is the 6th. That's kind of sad; guy does all this stuff, and no one knows his name, at least in the bootlegged stuff I read. And we are...near the middle! This is the beginning of the middle! We are past the beginning! Yay! ...I really do have an ending for this. There's just so much I haven't written...

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