Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Happiness, by Accident ❯ Happiness, In Peril ( Chapter 5 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

AN: So it seems I am not dead… I’m sorry, I meant for this to be out by the end of last year, thanks to some kind words from a friendly reviewer who reinvigorated me, but it didn’t work out. For that apologize, to them and to everyone who waited. Life continues to give me unpredictable opportunities to write but I promise this will be completed.

Any errors you may find hence forth are my own as I was not able to have this update beta read. This update is actually about half of an incomplete chapter that was kicking my behind with its length so the second half will be chapter 6.  Oh and there were a couple scenes that had to be written but that Sasuke couldn't tell himself so I apologize if the switches to third person are jarring. Please let me know what you think.

Heads Up: All Warnings and Triggers remain.

Happiness, by Accident
By: Lotus-chan
Ch05: Happiness, In Peril  

The rain poured down the side of the building, falling in heavy sheets. The building’s glass exterior reflected the lightning as it arched through the clouds threateningly; as if the heavens felt cheated of their chance at him and waited for the opportunity to strike again. Fugaku’s scream echoed through the scorched penthouse apartment as he clutched the overturned sofa that held him pinned to the ground. The pain in his side was excruciating and he cried out a second time, cursing the gods and his traitorous son for taking his demon slave away from him.

He struggled to move the sofa enough to slip out from under it but every miniscule movement caused a mountain of pain and sapped more of his strength. After several minutes he heard the sound of the front door opening, “Help! I’m over here!” he called desperately. The sound of approaching footsteps was calm and leisurely as whatever person or persons made their way over to him. It wasn’t long before Fugaku was looking up at a familiar face framed by platinum hair. That face that stared down at him through a pair of round glasses was silent and un-amused. Fugaku’s eyes widened and his blood ran cold.

“Didn’t I warn you not to come up here?” said a chilling voice behind him. Fugaku craned his neck and eventually caught the other man in his peripheral vision. The man who spoke was tall, unnaturally pale and had long dark hair which only further accentuated the bloodless quality of his skin. “Didn’t I tell you that you weren’t adequately prepared?” Something about the look in his snake-like eyes was mocking as he blinked down at him. The small half-smile on his face widened when those strange eyes caught sight of the small pool of blood forming around the Uchiha elder.

“I couldn’t wait! I’m running out of time!” Fugaku cried out in pain and frustration.

Orochimaru licked his lips, staring at the blood as if it were a temptation. “Yes, you are.”

Kabuto grinned.

Fugaku took a few seconds to breathe as wave after wave of pain assaulted him. “You’ve helped me before. You must be here because you’re willing to help me again.”

Just then Fugaku watched as a small snake materialized out of nothing at Orochimaru’s feet. It coiled up his body until it was resting on his shoulder. “Let me eat him.” Manda demanded, speaking into his master’s mind. “Allow me back to even a quarter of my normal size and I can swallow him whole.”

Orochimaru ignored him. “You undoubtedly need my help… now more than ever.” A sideways glance at Kabuto and the platinum haired demon understood. Kabuto walked up to the sofa that had the Uchiha pinned and kicked it. It didn’t look like it had taken much effort but the sofa went flying clear across the room, hitting the far wall with enough force to leave a significant dent in the drywall. Fugaku gasped, the pain only barely lessened. He quickly looked down at himself, able to see the wound for the first time. It was saturated in blood but the piece of broken wood sticking up through his right side was clearly visible. He was lying in the remains of his son’s wooden coffee table, still exactly where he’d been thrown after that second lightning strike hit the building.

Orochimaru kneeled down to inspect the wound. It was a significant size and although it was bleeding slowly, it had been bleeding for some time now. “This will kill you.” There was no hesitation or compassion in his voice, just certainty.

Fugaku believed him, “I can’t die yet, I’m so close! I know that with a little more time, I could beat the curse!”

“Could you now?” Orochimaru looked at him with an amused expression.

“With your help,” Fugaku amended reluctantly. “You’re the only Shinto priest left who will help me. Everyone else has turned me away.” He gasped and reached down towards the wound only to hesitate before touching it, afraid to make it worse. “I’ve seen what you can do.” He continued desperately, “I know this wound is nothing to you.”

The Uchiha elder’s hand brought Orochimaru’s attention back to the wound and he noticed something. Sticking a finger in the space between the buttons of the man’s bloody shirt, Orochimaru drew the shirt aside just enough to expose Fugaku’s curse mark above his belly button. The ring of demon power that surrounded the mark and denoted protection was gone. The dark priest frowned and stood up, his snake-like eyes narrowing in disappointment. “You have nothing left to offer me. Even your demon servant is dead.” The only possession the man had that Orochimaru had even remotely coveted.

“No no, anything I have is yours!” Fugaku grit his teeth and hissed against the pain. He was shivering, the warmth leaving his body with his blood through the open wound. “All of my wealth and possessions if that is what you want.” Orochimaru curled his lip and glanced at Kabuto with a bored expression. The white haired demon was no more impressed than he.

Manda took that opportunity to coil around Orochimaru’s neck and extend his small body in front of the priest to look him in the face. “Let me eat him! His begging is like nails on a chalkboard!” The snake communicated to him, bobbing its head in emphasis. When he didn’t get a reply, Manda tightened his grip. “Damn you, I tire of you ignoring me!”

His master finally looked at him, “And I tire of your whining.”

The snake hissed angrily. “You wouldn’t hear it so much if you would allow me to regain my proper size and power and let me loose on these humans who bore us so.” Manda turned and hissed threateningly at Fugaku who recoiled sharply in fear and then gasped as the movement jarred his injury. “Pathetic. The mortals of this age are worthless and cowardly; useless products of their ‘modern’ pampered lifestyle supported by these blights on my land they call cities.” He turned back to Orochimaru with narrowed eyes, “…These large monuments made of glass and steal that you’ve all built to pay tribute to your own bloated egos.” His voice was dripping with disgust.

Orochimaru blinked at him disinterestedly. “I suppose you’re talking about mankind in general when you say that because I didn’t have to build any cities to demonstrate my greatness. All I had to do was capture you.” Manda hissed at him threateningly and slithered off his back so fast he nearly fell. Kabuto bent down and offered Manda his arm as the snake sought him out in an indignant huff.

The fallen priest turned his pale face back to the Uchiha bleeding to death on the floor at his feet. He was still pleading under his breath in fear and desperation. There had been a time long ago when such a sight would’ve pleased him but it had gotten too easy. It took less and less to reduce people to such a state. The Uchiha’s, he remembered, had once been a strong and proud clan who defied and resisted him at every turn. But now… “Manda is right, you are pathetic.” He turned to leave.

“Wait! What if I were to offer you what you had been denied?! What if… what if I paid the price my ancestor refused? Would you help me then?!”

Orochimaru stopped. “What is it you think you know?” He hadn’t turned back around but Fugaku thought he detected a smile in the man’s voice…

“I know who you are.” He said, the fear obvious in his own voice. “You offer to help when no one else will and you seem to have a better understanding of my curse than even I do. You travel with demons who never leave your side and in all the time I have known you, you’ve not aged a day.” Orochimaru turned around slowly, a dangerous serpentine smile etched on his face. Fugaku swallowed hard and tried to control himself. The shivering that wracked his body was no longer solely due to blood loss. “You’re the priest who cursed my clan thousands of years ago. The one who took the secret of immortality with him and left us with death and an incomplete spell that we were forced to use as protection. It was you.”

“If you believe that,” Orochimaru began, kneeling down again to look at his face more closely, “then why do you ask for my help?” He tilted his head to the side curiously in a manner that was vaguely animalistic. “Why not beg me to lift the curse?”

Fugaku took in a shuddering breath. He was starting to go numb. “Because I can beat you… and I think you’re curious to see if I can.”

Kabuto walked over to them and kneeled down next to Orochimaru. He splayed his hand above the wound without touching it and said, “Ten minutes.”

Fear all but paralyzed the injured man. “I’ll give you my sons!” He blurted. Orochimaru got up suddenly and walked around the debris toward the windows. “I’ve lost two but once the curse is lifted I will be able to have more! My third and fourth born are yours!”

Orochimaru peered out through the floor-to-ceiling windows that the lightning had blown to bits. “Your youngest son is alive.”

Fugaku blinked incredulously, “That’s impossible, he fell out that window. Even with a demon guardian there’s no way he could’ve survived.”

The priest chuckled darkly, “If he and his demon were bound together the way yours had been to you then you would be right. The demon kyuubi, who normally would’ve been bound to his master’s life force would’ve died with him as soon as Sasuke-kun hit the pavement. However, your son tied his life force to the kyuubi’s instead… and the kyuubi survived.” He glanced over to Fugaku, whose eyes were as wide as saucers. “Sasuke-kun did for himself what I did centuries ago: he’s made himself immortal.”

He began walking back, enjoying the look of shock on the other man’s face. “Such a simple answer overlooked out of fear. Oh, but that’s not to say it’s completely impossible for him to die. This is an imperfect form of immortality; flawed.” He bent down again and came within inches of Fugaku’s face. “However that is soon to change and I would love to have Sasuke-kun around to dissect at my convenience. Does that bother you?”

Fugaku was so weak and so numb by now that he could barely feel his injury any more. “No,” Was his simple coldblooded answer. Orochimaru nodded to Kabuto who wasted no time. He took hold of the piece of wood protruding from Fugaku’s body and pulled it out in one singular motion.

Fugaku’s shriek of pain echoed throughout the apartment. Kabuto placed the same hand from before over the wound and began to heal it while Orochimaru spoke over all the painful screaming. “I agree to your terms. The original price for my services your ancestors owed and denied to me in exchange for saving your life tonight. Kabuto will heal you and I’ll loan him to you to give you a chance to uphold your end of the bargain. Then we’ll see whether you’re smart enough to beat me at my own game.” The grin only widened on his face as he listened to the man’s cries of agony. He hummed to himself absently and closed his eyes slowly as if drunk on the sound.

“Manda, come.” He said, lazily extending his arm to Kabuto’s shoulder. The snake seemed to glare at him nastily in response but it could not resist the command for long. After a moment it obeyed and slithered onto Orochimaru’s arm until it was on his shoulder once more. The fallen priest walked away from the screaming Uchiha elder and navigated through the debris until he again stood a few feet short of the large hole on the side of the building where the window had once been.

He bent down and picked up a long glass shard the length of his forearm. There was blood on the end of it. “The boy I had you poison is still alive.”

Manda gave an offended hiss. “The quality of my poison is unparalleled. This should not be.”

“Relax,” Orochimaru said, glancing at the snake. “I only meant to confirm whether he truly had completed my spell and made himself immortal.” He brought the end of the shard up and wiped the blood off with his fingers. “But it seems our interference was unnecessary. Watching how the kyuubi saved his life after the fall has only made me twice as certain of it.”

Manda watched enraptured as his master rubbed his bloody fingers together. If he could’ve salivated, he would have. Orochimaru noticed and offered his fingers to the snake who immediately flicked its tongue out to taste. “Lets make things a little challenging for Fugaku shall we? Find Sasuke-kun.” He said watching as Manda practically wrapped himself around his hand in ecstasy. “Bring him to me. Take whatever measures you deem necessary.”

00000

“… informed security. The rest of the train station from here to the exit has been cleared.”

“Shouldn’t it be you…?”

“I stand the best chance of waking him after they’re separated. You need to take Sasuke and go. Now.”

When I woke up again I was only vaguely aware of what was happening. I was so doped up on pain killers that I felt as though I was floating above the pain; a pain so distant it was almost nonexistent. I knew I was lying down and I thought I sensed someone leaning over me, holding my right wrist. “… a few minutes won’t kill him.” I heard someone say distantly. There was a cutting/tearing sound, a sound of frustration and then my sweaty hand came free from the bandages that tied it to Naruto’s. My reaction was instantaneous.

My eyes flew open and I gasped as my body was suddenly assaulted with some of the worst pain I’d ever felt and I realized with only a slightly clearer head that the pain killers must’ve been an anticipatory precaution. I saw a flash of green before someone wrapped me in a blanket, covering my face and picked me up. “It’s ok,” A familiar voice said. “We just gotta get off this train without anybody seeing you.”

I blinked, “Lee?” There was a pain filled fog of confusion in my head. I felt him walking briskly.

“Shh, don’t say anything.” He whispered. I peeked up through the edge of the blanket and noticed him watching me from underneath the hood of his jacket. “All the other passengers are gone. Tsunade-san told security that you’re another high profile patient of hers and you want to avoid being seen so they’re gonna help us sneak you out through a side door. Stay under the blanket and pretend to sleep until we’re outta here.”

Even through that confused fog, there was one thing that I wouldn’t rest easy without knowing. I opened my mouth to ask but he anticipated my question, “Naruto-kun’s fine, Tsunade-san’s bringing him. We’ll tie your hands back up once we’re in the car. We really shouldn’t have untied you just yet but we didn’t have a choice.” He stopped talking and looked up as someone came up to us and asked him a question. I pretended to sleep until Lee deflected the concerned security guard’s inquiries. He eventually directed us towards the exit and I felt Lee take off again.

I wanted to ask Lee more questions but every time he went down a flight of steps, turned a corner or jostled me in any way I had to grit my teeth against the pain. The exhaustion I still felt, together with the painkillers eventually won out and I slipped back into unconsciousness gratefully and with little resistance.

00000

Lee adjusted his grip slightly and hurried through the corridors. The security guard who’d stopped him earlier was escorting them through the empty train station to avoid any more delays and Lee was grateful for it. Sasuke wasn’t quite yet in good enough shape to be separated from Naruto for too long but there was no way they’d be able to get them both out of the train car still connected to each other and unconscious without arousing suspicion.

Lee adjusted his grip again to avoid Sasuke’s head slipping off his shoulder. He appeared to have fallen unconscious again. ‘Probably for the best,’ Lee thought as they rounded a corner. At the end of hallway was a locked door. The guard swiped his badge on a panel beside the door and opened it for them. Lee thanked him quickly and rushed out into the alley where two nondescript black cars were waiting for them.

The bitingly cold wind blasted him the moment he stepped outside and realizing Sasuke was wearing nothing more than a robe and a blanket, he hurried to the first car where a tall bald man was waiting. “Rock-san I presume?” The driver asked, opening the door.

“Yes, Tsunade-san and the others should be right behind us.” Lee said and bowed quickly before hopping into the backseat. He set Sasuke down on the seat behind the driver and checked his pulse as Tsunade had instructed. It was thready and fast. Lee sat back, concerned. “I don’t like this…” he muttered under his breath.

The sound of a text chimed as the driver got back in the car and he pulled out his phone to check the message just as Gaara opened up the front passenger side door and got in. Lee looked up surprised when he didn’t see Tsunade or Naruto outside. “Gaara? Where…”

“Rock-san…” The driver started.

“Change of plans. We need to go.”

“What??”  

“Now,” Gaara said to the driver. He gave Gaara a curt nod, started the car and immediately took off.

“Wait wait, we can’t leave without them! Tsunade and Naruto were supposed ride with Sasuke so they could look after him!”

“Naruto’s not waking up.” Gaara said looking around the front seat at him. “We expected him to get up and make it to the alley under his own power but Tsunade’s been unable to wake him. Now that we’ve already been separated it’s not safe for the two for you to wait out here for us while we try to figure out why Naruto’s not responding.” Gaara paused, looking out the rear window. The train came into the station early that morning and the sun still hadn’t risen over the mountains. “While you were sleeping last night, Tsunade and I were talking about that bite Sasuke has on his ankle. We both suspect that his father may not be the only thing after him and if that’s true then it’s even more reason to get you both to safety as soon as possible.”

“Us both?” Lee asked incredulously.

Gaara gave a subtle nod. “Even without the bite to worry about, Sasuke’s father has threatened to kill both of you. Since you’re both targets we can’t wait. We need to keep moving.” He said, his eyes falling to Lee’s hand.

Lee noticed where Gaara was looking and his own gaze shifted back to Sasuke. “I understand the danger. I told you that before when we were in Tsunade’s hotel room in Tokyo but… it’s not me I think we should be worried about.” He had his fingers on Sasuke’s wrist, keeping track of his friend’s rapidly weakening heart rate.

“Do you think… is Naruto okay?” Lee asked after a minute. From what he remembered, Naruto’s injuries were bad but not life threatening…   

“I don’t know.” Gaara said in a near whisper, his shoulders slumping a little.

Lee raked a nervous hand through his tidy bowl cut thinking about the condition their friends were in. It would be nice to have a little good news for a change. Distracted, he barely caught himself with a hand on Gaara’s seat as the car took a sharp turn. “Sorry about that boys but Tsunade-sama’s message said getting you kids up to the temple was ‘life or death’.” Their driver said as he sped up a road that would take them farther up the mountain.

Lee swallowed hard before he nodded to the driver unaware that the man wasn’t looking at him. He turned around and his own heart rate sped up when he realized the other car wasn’t even behind them. They had sped through the small Hokkaido suburb so fast he was surprised they hadn’t been stopped by the cops. “Tsunade said she and Naruto would meet up with us at the temple and that Sasuke should be fine until then.” Gaara said, breaking the sudden silence to reassure Lee.

Lee turned back to the raven haired boy beside him and just watched him breathe for several minutes. The pulse under his fingers wasn’t improving, quite the opposite, and something made Lee reach out and shake Sasuke’s shoulder. In spite of the pain he knew Sasuke would be in when he awoke, Lee felt this sudden and intense need to wake him up and know for certain that he was ok. But Sasuke didn’t move. The expression on Lee’s face grew more stricken, “Sasuke?” He shook him again. No response. “Gaara…” Lee said in a tense and quiet voice.

Gaara had been watching the mountain road ahead of them with some suspicion. When he turned to face the backseat again he immediately assessed the situation. “Is he breathing?”

Lee nodded tightly, his tense fingers still on Sasuke’s pulse. “It’s getting shallower.”

The driver looked at them through the rear view mirror, “He alright?”

Lee didn’t get the chance to answer. With a startled exclamation followed by several curses the driver swerved violently and threw the car into a high speed spin. The vehicle slid on the ice, coming to a sudden stop when the driver’s side of the car crashed against the mountain wall with enough force to throw both Lee and Sasuke against the passenger door. With the quick thinking and speed of a true martial artist Lee grabbed Sasuke and got between him and the door before they crashed against it. Lee’s left shoulder exploded in pain but before his head could collide with the glass he felt the familiar grainy sensation of Gaara’s sand as it cushioned his head against the blow.

Moments later Lee opened his eyes to complete and total darkness. He grit his teeth against the pain when he tried to move his shoulder. “Gaara?!”

He heard something shift to his left and the ceiling light came on. Gaara was kneeling between the two front seats; one hand on the driver’s chest, the other was over the light switch above them. Sand hissed as it continued to slide out from underneath Gaara’s clothes. It covered most of the interior of the car, including all the windows. Lee had known Gaara his entire life and was still shocked by the amount of sand in the car with them, especially since he was sure the sand demon had left his guitar case behind. “The driver’s out cold but alive.” Gaara turned to look at them after he’d inspected the other man. “You?” he asked with thinly veiled concern.

“I’m ok. Nothing I can’t deal with.” There was a sudden crash against the roof of the car. The lights flickered and the metal groaned as if a great weight had settled above them. Lee looked at Gaara in shock when without warning a second and third crash against the ceiling caused the metal to give an ear piercing shriek. Lee instinctively turned himself and Sasuke away when the windows on all sides shattered as the metal frame of the car was warped against whatever had settled above them. The sand caught most of the glass and with a low growl Gaara hurled it outward at whatever was attacking them.

The loud angry hiss of an injured animal sounded in response to his attack. Gaara quickly gathered up all his sand before Lee could ask him any more questions and jumped through one of the broken windows to press his counterattack. Immediately the earth beneath them shook causing Lee to slip and fall into the foot space between the front seat and the back seats just as another crash against the top of the car caused the roof to cave in almost completely. “Lee!” Gaara’s voice from outside was frantic.

“I’m fine!” Lee called back but quickly took stock of the situation. They were being attacked by something big and whatever it was wanted them dead. That last blow had flattened the back portion of the roof below the level of the headrests leaving him with barely enough room to move about. Sitting up as much as he could in the tight space, he moved to check on Sasuke.

Sasuke had fallen onto the seats earlier when Lee shielded him from the small amount of glass that had gotten through Gaara’s sand and he was unharmed by the cave in. Lee however was more concerned by the fact that none of the commotion had woken him. Sasuke was struggling to breathe and Lee had to take his pulse from his neck because he couldn’t even find it in his wrist anymore. His heartbeat was dangerously weak and Lee realized in that moment that if they didn’t reunite Sasuke with Naruto soon, he was going to die; again. ‘If he dies now, Naruto won’t be around to bring him back…’ he thought, a cold tendril of fear working its way into his chest.

Lee shook his head and took a deep calming breath, pushing the panicked thought from his mind. ‘I can’t help that right now, I need to focus on what I can do.’ He looked through the space between the two front seats and realized his best chance for getting them all out of there was the now narrow opening where the front windshield had once been. Turning back to his friend, Lee grabbed onto Sasuke with his good arm and tried to gain some leverage by placing the other on the front seat behind him. With his injured shoulder screaming he struggled to drag his friend’s dead weight through the tight space between the seats.

The earth trembled again as though a giant had taken an angry fist and pounded it against the ground. Lee slipped when the tremor hit the car and hissed when he cut his hand on a piece of broken glass. Knocking the glass shard aside, he ignored the wound and the intense pain in his shoulder as he pulled them both onto the front seat. There wasn’t much more space in front but as soon as he had Sasuke settled against the seat he ran a critical eye over their driver. His head had fallen forward against the wheel at some point and that was the only reason he was still alive. The roof was nearly flush with the back of his neck.

Aside from the man’s head wound he didn’t appear to be otherwise injured so Lee reached over and shook him. “Hey, are you alright?” Lee swallowed back the absurdity of that automatic question but perked up when the driver groaned.

He hissed when he tried to lift his head and hit it against the ceiling of the car. “What the..?” He turned his head and noticed them, “Are you two alright? What happened?”

Lee breathed a sigh of relief to see the man conscious. “We’re being attacked by something and it’s smashing up the car. Gaara’s outside fighting it but we need to get out of here. Can you move?”

The man grunted as he slid out from behind the wheel where he’d been nearly pinned, “Yeah.” As soon as he pulled himself over the gearshift and was free of the driver’s seat he gave Sasuke a quick once-over, “You need help with him?”

There was a short hesitation. “Yeah...” Lee said reluctantly with a small worried smile. A part of him was starting to secretly admit that he may have damaged his shoulder worse than he thought. “I can lift him if you can pull.” The driver nodded and shimmied up over the dashboard feet first, kicking aside shards of glass as he went. Lee grabbed Sasuke around the waist with his good arm and hefted him up against the dash where the driver reached under his arms to pull him out. They had him halfway out when all of a sudden something hit the car with enough force to knock it forward several feet. Lee yelped as he was thrown against the scattered glass still covering the dashboard, cutting up his forearms. Both Sasuke and the driver were flung forward, tumbling off the hood of the car and disappeared from sight.

Lee sat back and breathed harshly through his nose as he pulled an especially large piece of glass out of his left forearm. Releasing a tense breath, he tossed it aside and looked out through what was left of the front windshield only to gasp for an entirely different reason. It was a giant snake. But even the word ‘giant’ seemed inadequate to describe the sheer size and ferocity of the creature Gaara was fighting. It hissed and struck at Gaara with amazing speed who dodged and attacked with the long sand-arms of a giant beast not yet fully formed.

‘Sand,’ Lee realized as he quickly pulled himself over the dash and onto the hood of the car to look at the ground around him. While he was still in the car Gaara had broken up the asphalt on this stretch of road and removed enough moisture from the ground to create the sand he would need to fight the monster attacking them. The entire length of the mountain wall they had crashed against was sand.

He looked up and around beyond the sand and noticed the ground was covered with frost. Snow flurries were falling from the sky, the sun was only just beginning to lighten the horizon… and Gaara had still been able to make sand. Lee was startled out of his shock when the snake noticed him and lunged for him. Gaara grabbed it underneath the head forced it to the ground where it crashed onto the road near the ledge, taking out the flimsy metal guard rail that separated the road from a sheer drop into the valley below. “Lee! Take Sasuke and run!” Only seconds after Gaara said this, the snake’s tail whipped and hit the car again as it struggled to scrape Gaara off its back. The force of the blow knocked Lee forward and sent him rolling off the hood of the car.

Lee gasped when he hit the ground on his injured shoulder and grasped at the dirt beneath him with a trembling hand as he struggled to get his weight off the injury. Rolling onto his back he took deep painful breaths for several seconds, not even noticing the tears slipping down the side of his face when another tremor shook the earth. The dry earth beneath him gave and shifted reassuringly for several seconds until he finally opened his eyes, looked up and spotted Sasuke and their driver.

Lee breathed a short internal sigh of relief but frowned curiously when he noticed the man doing something strange. He was pulling out a length of Buddhist prayer beads from inside his shirt and wrapping them around Sasuke’s ankle. The man looked up and noticed him for the first time, “Lee-san your friend is right, take the boy and run. This will make him invisible to the snake. I’ll stay and try to help.” In that moment Lee realized just how well prepared Tsunade had been and that this man was no ordinary chauffer.

Any relief he felt however was short lived because in that moment the giant snake that had attacked them tumbled and writhed against the mountain wall, trying to get away from the sand that was strangling it. Its struggles sent several shock waves through the earth and an ominous rushing sound made Lee look up to see a landslide heading their way.

For the first time in his life Lee felt the intense need to curse. Knowing that there was no time to argue and that he had to move fast, he shoved his pain to the back of his mind and shot to his feet. He quickly took Sasuke from the other man, threw him over his good shoulder and ran as fast as he could back down the mountain. Despite the fact that he was injured, burdened, and in a great deal of pain, Lee’s incredible speed quickly had him far from the fight.

Lee slowed down and eventually stopped when he could no longer hear the sounds of the battle. He turned around slowly, guilt working its way into his heart like a slow acting poison. ‘I left them behind…’ The thought had the presence of a ten ton weight on his chest but he couldn’t even verbalize it properly to self-flagellate the way he wanted to. He was panting slightly, not from the run but from the pain of his aggravated injury which was starting to dislike the weight he’d placed on the opposite shoulder.

Lee’s eyes widened as he realized he hadn’t checked on Sasuke in some time. Quickly, he kneeled down and laid Sasuke onto the frozen asphalt as carefully as he could. He placed his fingers over Sasuke’s carotid and a small thrill of panic shot through him when he felt nothing. “No no no…” Lee moved his fingers to check again and bent down over his nose to see if Sasuke was breathing. Nothing. Lee sat up as though he’d been struck by lightning and held his breath for a tense half second. Looking down at his friend in that moment all he could think was, ‘not again…’

Flashes of the scene he’d encountered when they found Naruto and Sasuke at the foot of the apartment building after their fall nearly made him sick and he flew into action. Placing both hands over Sasuke’s chest he began compressions and had to hold back a scream as his shoulder protested angrily against the strain. Lee counted the chest compressions aloud when all the while in the back of his mind all he could think was, ‘Not again. Please not again…’

He was at it less than a minute when a black car came racing around the bend. Upon spotting them the car hit the breaks, its tires screeching and sliding on the ice as it came to a stop only a few feet in front of them. Lee recognized that car. “TSUNADE!” He shouted in a panic and quickly bent down to breathe for Sasuke. He didn’t even spare the car another look as he started the compressions again and watched Sasuke’s pale, unresponsive face while his mantra of ‘not again’ and the flashbacks to the other night fueled his rising sense of panic.

It was the first time in his life he’d ever truly panicked.

In spite of that panic, Lee was so focused on what he was doing for Sasuke that he barely registered the sound of a car door being thrown open. A few rushed footsteps and Tsunade had Naruto’s unconscious form on the ground beside them. Without missing a beat, Tsunade grabbed both their hands and brought them together. Seeing that, Lee drew his terrified gaze to the priestess who was pulling out a roll of bandages. “Keep doing what you’re doing,” she said to him as she tied Sasuke and Naruto’s hands together.

Lee turned back to his raven haired friend and did as she asked for a few more seconds but when he bent down to breathe for Sasuke again he felt a small puff of air against his cheek and stopped. Quickly, he brought a trembling hand back to Sasuke’s neck and felt it: the weak but steady beat of his pulse. Overwhelmed with relief, Lee fell back onto his behind hard and realized his whole body was shaking; the cold and pain and fear taking its toll.

Tsunade checked Sasuke over herself and smiled at Lee, “Good job, you may very well have saved his life.”

Lee shook his head absently, needing a moment to compose himself. The distant echo of a crash met their ears and Lee realized what he’d forgotten. “Gaara…” he whispered, realizing that his friend, his lover, was probably still up there fighting that strange creature alone. “I left…”

He made to stand up but Tsunade placed a hand on his knee to still him. It took him a moment to realize the intense glare on her face was not meant for him. “See if you can help get Naruto and Sasuke into the car.” She said as her chauffeur came walking up to them. She turned that look that could melt glaciers up the road in the direction he had come, “I’ll take care of the rest.” As she started making her way up the road on foot Lee felt himself torn between two emotions. Fear for her because she was walking straight into a fight between two very powerful demons, and a strange fear of her because the look in her eyes spoke of an angry righteous power that was about to be violently unleashed.

00000

The sun was in my eyes.

That was the first thing I noticed. Even through my closed eyelids I could sense the bright rays of the sun beating down on my face. I groaned and turned my head away before I could remember that was a Bad Idea. The renewed pounding in my head stilled me instantly. It was like the unforgiving pain of a migraine headache and I grit my teeth keeping my eyes closed. I heard movement in the room and as though someone had read my mind the lights immediately dimmed, “Sasuke?” Someone asked quietly.

I opened my eyes slowly and caught Lee in my peripheral vision. He was sitting on the ground next to my futon with a tray of something in his lap. Lee pulled his hand away from the window curtain and smiled wide. “You’re awake! What a relief, we were so worried!” Lee kept his voice down considerately but his excitement was no less evident.

I took a deep breath and noticed that my chest hurt a lot less than I remembered. “Where are we?” I croaked. My mouth was dry and my lips were cracked. I looked around the room with the small amount of light that seeped in around the edge of the curtain. The room itself was spacious but Spartan. The floor was covered in tatami mats and there was a small wardrobe to one side. A wide open doorway separated the bedroom from the rest of the room and in the center of the living space beyond the doorway was a kotatsu surrounded by pillows for seating.

When my gaze came back to Lee he brought a straw to my lips and I drank the proffered water gratefully, “This is an Inari temple in the Hokkaido mountains. We got here at about noon… two days ago.” I choked and coughed. It made the headache worse and I lay back with my eyes closed and breathed in and out carefully for the next few minutes. “Sorry…” Lee said, voice laden with guilt.

Whatever else he was going to say at that moment was immediately forgotten when we both heard a low groan next to me and the hand in mine twitched. I opened my eyes at the same time Naruto did and the immediate look of happiness on his face when he saw me made my heart skip a beat. Naruto’s blue eyes shined through the beginnings of tears and he launched himself at me, “Sasuke!” I was helpless to do anything but lay there and endure his energetic tackle but in spite of the horrible pounding in my head I struggled to raise my free arm and embrace him back. “Sasuke, I’m so sorry! I’m so glad you’re ok! I thought… I’m so glad you’re ok! Don’t ever leave me again!”

I breathed an internal sigh of relief to see him awake and after a minute eventually noticed Lee. He was looking at the door as though he wanted to leave and give us some privacy but at the same time he was reaching out for Naruto, a look of worry on his face. He was right, “Naruto…” I squeezed out. Naruto had finally wriggled his unbound hand around my back to hug me tighter and his weight on top of me was awakening aches and pains I hadn’t yet noticed.

“Naruto-kun! Please, I know you’re happy to see him awake but you’re going to hurt each other!” Naruto pulled back immediately after Lee said that and looked me over but I wasn’t the one who’d gotten hurt.  

“You’re bleeding.” I said slightly alarmed when I saw the fresh blood on his bandages.

He looked down at his abdomen where his robe gaped open and frowned, sitting back on his heels. “Oh, I forgot about that.”

I blinked, stunned. “You forgot?”

He turned his frown at me, “What? It’s not like… like it hurts or anything...” he said stubbornly. His great powers of persuasion had me instantly convinced… right. Naruto ‘hmpfed’ at the look on my face, clearly uncomfortable with my concern and turned to Lee, “So, how long have we been out?”

Lee, who looked much more relieved now that Naruto wasn’t assaulting me said, “Except for the couple of times Sasuke-kun woke up for a few minutes and the time you spent with us in Tsunade-san’s hotel room, about two to three days. Which reminds me,” He put the tray that’d been sitting on his lap aside, while Naruto whispered ‘three days’ to himself in disbelief, and grabbed the glass of water again. “Tsunade-san said to give this to Sasuke-kun when he woke up,” he picked up a small folded packet of medicine, paused suddenly, and looked up.

Giving Naruto’s newly reopened injury a shrewd eye, he asked, “Naruto-kun how are you feeling at the moment? Honestly.”

Naruto sighed and looked at his abdomen again, “Like crap but I can deal. Why?”

“Do you think you can hold Sasuke-kun once I sit him up? Tsunade-san put something together that she wants him to take.” He looked at me, “It’s an antibiotic/painkiller cocktail and she wants you to eat right after so I’ll go get you something once you’ve taken it.” I nodded. I didn’t even pretend like I didn’t need the help. I felt like shit.

“I can get him up…” Naruto said looking at me.

“No.” Lee said in a tone that brooked no argument. He was looking at Naruto and then shifted his gaze to Naruto’s injury. There wasn’t a lot of blood on the bandage and it appeared to have stopped bleeding but it hadn’t been there when he woke up. “I’ll re-bandage you once we’re done with Sasuke-kun, until then please don’t make your injury any worse.”

Lee opened up the package of powdered medicine and poured it into the glass of water as if that was the end of the discussion. I think Naruto was just as surprised as I was. “Ne, Lee, you look kinda stressed out; everything okay?” Naruto paused and looked around the room for a moment as if finally noticing something that wasn’t right, “Where’s Gaara?”

A shadow crossed over Lee’s face for a split second before he grabbed the straw and used it to stir the medicine into the water. He looked up and gave us a poor excuse for a smile, “Gaara’s resting.” Naruto raised an eyebrow. The half-assed smile faltered, “He’s um, a-a little sick.”

Now I raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t think demons could get sick.” I said somewhat sarcastically, knowing full well they couldn’t.

“We don’t.” Naruto said entirely for Lee’s benefit.

Lee swallowed hard and set the glass of water on the tray mutely. He got on his knees beside my head and reached for me but Naruto grabbed his wrist. “Lee?”

“It’s a long story.” Lee said quickly, averting his eyes. “I’ll tell you, you need to know, but first thing’s first.” Naruto sighed and pulled his hand back. That’s when Lee noticed our other hands were still tied together. “Um, you’ll have to untie your hands briefly for this.” He said nervously.

The sentiment was contagious. I had a vague memory of the last time our hands were untied and it hadn’t been pleasant. Naruto bit his lip as if he understood the implications as well and nodded. “Sasuke-kun, this is going to hurt a lot.” Lee said bending down and slipping an arm under my shoulders while Naruto tore at the bandages that tied our hands together. I nodded minutely; I knew and appreciated the honestly. “Once I have you up you need to drink all of the water and keep it down.” Ok, I really didn’t like what that implied. “Tsunade-san says the painkiller is pretty strong so it’ll work fast but…”

“Just hurry up and do it!” I said anxious with anticipation. The bandages around our hands were undone but Naruto was still gripping my hand tightly, waiting for the okay from Lee. I just wanted it to be over with.

Lee took a deep breath, “Ok, keep your head straight.” He nodded to Naruto who finally let me go while Lee simultaneously lifted my upper body into a sitting position.

I wanted to throw up. The pain in my head doubled without Naruto’s chakra softening the blow. The room spun wildly and if there had been anything in my stomach it would’ve been on the futon by now. I dry heaved as it was and Naruto quickly dashed behind me to take my weight onto his chest, then slipped a hand into my yukata and touched it to my bare skin.

I could’ve kissed him. It only took the edge off as the aching in my head and the rest of my body had worsened with the change in position but I was grateful for even that small relief. Lee brought the straw back to my lips and I started to drink fast before Lee urged me to slow down. It was bitter and tasted awful but if it would help make the pain go away then I’d drink a gallon of it.

Once it was all down I understood what Lee had been saying before. I was extremely nauseous and was afraid for a while that the medicine would come back up. I don’t know how long I just sat there and breathed in silence but eventually I came to realize that I’d closed my eyes and that Naruto was murmuring soft reassurances in my ear. I opened my eyes and noticed Lee was gone.

Naruto still had one hand on my bare chest and another hand was resting against my forehead. It was the placement of that second hand that I now silently thanked him for. For a while it felt as though the gentle pressure of his palm against my forehead, keeping my head totally still against his shoulder was the only thing preventing it from falling right off. Then the things he was whispering started to register. Things like ‘I’m sorry’, ‘I’ll make you better’, ‘I won’t give up until you’re safe’ and ‘I’m here for you’.

I bit my bottom lip and my eyes darted around the room. How did he say such embarrassing things so easily? It made me want to push him away, to tell him he was being ridiculous and overly sentimental. While trying to figure out how to react I half smiled at nothing in particular, “So why am I in so much worse shape than you?” I asked quietly. I was genuinely curious and trying to make light of the situation but it was the wrong thing to say.

Naruto stilled and was quiet for a long time, “Because… because you were…” He cut himself off as if he just couldn’t say it.

He didn’t have to because that’s when I noticed my pillow out of the corner of my eye and the dark rust colored stains that covered it. How badly was I hurt that I had bled through the bandages enough to stain my bedding three days after the injury had occurred? The thought chilled me. Flashes of memory brought me back to that night, the fear, the fall, the things said to me on the train, and with a sharp intake of breath I realized why Naruto was so upset. “I died.” I said, the full weight of that statement finally hitting me.

Naruto buried his face behind my ear and gripped me tightly. It was only a moment later when I felt the moisture on my neck that I blinked, alarmed. “Naruto?!”

“You were dead, Sasuke. I… I didn’t know if I was going to be able to… I’m so sorry…” he said brokenly. “I thought I’d lost you. I thought… and when we fell and I saw you laying there…” he paused when his voice failed him and I felt the grip of some unknown emotion tighten inside my chest. “I said I’d never fail you again, but I did… and I almost lost you…” He was soaking the side of my neck and I felt his pain washing over me as if it were my own.

I reached up with my injured left hand and placed it heavily over the one on my chest. “You didn’t fail and you’re going to piss me off if you don’t stop saying that.” I insisted quietly. “You brought me back. I would be dead if it wasn’t for you. That’s not failure. All you do is save me…” ‘In more ways than even you know,’ I finished in my head.

Naruto shook his head, “You can’t make excuses for me, Sasuke. I let you die!” He said, his breath hitching. “I don’t deserve…”

“Stop it!” I said, cutting him off and gripping his hand tighter. I was terrified of the direction his thoughts were taking and I wasn’t going to let his self depreciating tirade go on a moment longer.

Naruto took a deep breath against my neck and I felt him shake his head again, “You’re like this because of me!”

“Exactly!” I said desperately, “I’m breathing because of you! I was already dead long before I met you! It’s because of you that I’m alive and if you don’t shut up about it, as soon as I get better I’m gonna kick your ass!” I didn’t even think about the vulnerability I’d admitted to with those words because my heart was beating frantically. I needed him; absolutely everything would fall apart without him. He had to believe what I was telling him because it was the truth and because despite the selfish need I harbored for him since the moment I’d met him, he needed to know that he meant something to me that went far beyond filling the void of loneliness within.

Naruto was still and quiet for a long time. Then I felt his trembling lips form a small smile against the skin of my neck. “…promise?” he asked quietly. My racing heart stopped trying to hammer its way out of my chest and I sighed in quiet relief.

I turned my head to finally face him. The medication was starting to take effect and fortunately the movement caused me no additional pain. Naruto pulled back so I could look at him. His tears were still falling over his drenched face but there was a small hesitant smile there now. He had cried so much that snot dripped from his nose and he’d probably smeared it all over the side of my neck as he cried against me.

I reached up with my other hand and pulled him into a kiss.

His lips were just as chapped as mine and tasted of salt from his tears but I couldn’t have asked for anything more perfect. The hand that was on my forehead moved to tilt my chin up and Naruto’s tongue darted out to taste my dry lips before it plunged into my equally dry mouth. Nothing about this kiss was glamorous or sexy but it was Naruto kissing me and that meant it didn’t have to be. I once again had that feeling of something clicking into place, of something filling up inside me making me feel complete. That same hand that had moved to hold my chin now fell away and slipped into my robe, his arm wrapping itself around my waist securely. The feeling of being in his arms like this was something that had no comparison and I never wanted it to end.

He pulled back and nuzzled his wet cheek against mine, an affectionate gesture that surprised me. “Love you…” he whispered against me. My eyes fell half lidded to the futon as those two words filled me with warmth. But before I could say anything Lee walked back into the room with a pink haired priestess. I made a small sound of annoyance at the interruption. Naruto chuckled quietly behind me and wiped his face against the sleeve of his yukata. My injured hand was beginning to tremble slightly so I let it fall onto my lap. He moved his own hand along the skin of my chest, bypassing the bandages to settle over my heart, which in turn brought back memories that calmed me down; no doubt the desired effect. Bastard.

The priestess who followed Lee into the room was carrying a tray with two steaming bowls and two tall glasses. Lee hesitated when he saw our faces but the girl didn’t seem to notice and kneeled in front of us. She set the tray down with a smile and bowed slightly, “Hi! It’s an honor to finally meet you.” She said looking at me then at Naruto, then back to me again. “My name is Sakura, I’m one of the miko’s at this temple.” Lee eventually sat down next to her but I barely noticed because my yukata was sliding off my left shoulder and her eyes kept darting back to my bare chest. I frowned; like hell was I going to cover up just to spare her delicate sensibilities. Not when there was a price attached to nearly every movement I made. I noticed Naruto scowling too and felt vindicated.

“Um,” She blushed delicately and indicated the bowls, “I brought you some soup and some water. I expect you’re probably hungry and dehydrated after everything you’ve been through. Tsunade-sama left me in charge of your care and insisted the two of you eat something once you were up. She left specific instructions for Sasuke-kun to start with something easy to digest. I take it you’re Sasuke-kun?” She asked shyly, looking at me.

I grunted an affirmative and looked down. One of the bowls was ramen and it was obvious who it was intended for, the other was a bowl of broth. My stomach rumbled. Sakura took in my bandaged hand and the way I was more or less slumped against Naruto’s chest and apparently came to an annoying conclusion because she completely ignored Naruto, picked up my bowl and asked, “Um, do you think you’ll need help…?” She was dipping the spoon into the bowl already and with a growing sense of unease I realized her ‘delicate sensibilities’ were not the issue here at all.

Naruto managed to snatch the bowl away without spilling it and said, “Nope! I’ve been taking care of him just fine myself until now, thanks.” Lee blinked wide eyes at him and if that was so unsubtle that even Lee noticed then I didn’t feel strange arching an eyebrow at Naruto. Oblivious to our reactions, he set the bowl down on my lap and raised the spoon to my lips.

At first, I just glared at it. If I was so helpless that I couldn’t feed myself then I was ready to go jump off another building. But when I saw Lee suddenly struggling not to laugh I realized this was less about me being helpless and more about Naruto’s need to stake his claim. That jealous streak was new and I pressed my lips together tightly to keep from smirking when I realized Naruto was entirely unaware of it.

Naruto frowned a little when I didn’t take a bite and then blew on the spoon thinking it was too hot. Rather than be embarrassed I snorted slightly, a bit of disguised laughter slipping through and took the spoon into my mouth before I lost my composure completely. Naruto smiled and I took the spoon from him with my good hand, swallowing quickly. “I can do this myself, Naruto.” I managed to say with a straight face and Naruto took the hint. I held the bowl in place with my weaker hand and went for another spoonful while Naruto reached for the bowl of ramen.

By the time I looked back at Sakura again she was giving Lee a questioning glance and he was nodding subtly at her. She looked back at us with a deep blush on her face after the silent exchange and I didn’t have to wonder very hard about what I’d missed. “So, uh… how’re you feeling?” She asked.

“Tired, achy, tired.” Naruto said and I nodded in agreement, my mouth full of soup. That was an understatement.

Sakura nodded back, “I’m not surprised. We were very worried about you when you arrived. You were having a hard time keeping both yourself and Sasuke-kun alive.” She said directly to Naruto.

Naruto had given up on his spoon and brought the bowl directly to his lips. At her statement however he set the bowl down, swallowed, and gave her a look like she was nuts. “What’re you talking about? I have more than enough chakra to take care of us both.” His arm around my waist tightened protectively and the skin beneath his fingers tingled slightly as a small burst of chakra flowed into me in response to his indignation.

Sakura looked away quickly, shifting on her knees awkwardly. “Perhaps I’m not the best person to tell this story.” She said looking at Lee.

Lee on the other hand looked like a deer caught in the headlights. “M-me? I…” He looked at Naruto’s inquiring face, and froze up.

“What does she mean I was having trouble keeping us alive?” He said to Lee with a slight frown.

Lee looked at Sakura, then back to us and eventually sighed in resignation. Taking a deep breath, he leveled an enigmatic look at both of us and began to explain, “Okay, um… I think… well, perhaps we all underestimated how badly you guys were injured.” He paused, gearing himself up. “Sasuke-kun had already woken up once before and we took that as a good sign. Tsunade-san figured that you should be stable enough by then that if we waited until the last possible minute, separating you guys for a short time wouldn’t hurt you…”

“I didn’t die again did I?” I asked suddenly. I was just starting to come to terms with the fact that I’d actually been dead once. He wasn’t about to tell me that it happened…

The look on Lee’s face was both slightly evasive and apologetic. And okay no, I’d been joking. “I-I’m sorry… I feel partly to blame. I should’ve insisted…”

“Lee just tell us what happened.” Naruto said. His bowl of half-eaten ramen now completely forgotten, he grabbed my healed hand and held it tightly. Normally this amount of PDA would’ve bothered the heck out of me; I was not the type to get all cuddly in public. But I’d just woken up three days after having fallen off the top of a building, dying, and thinking that I’d killed Naruto in the process all thanks to my psycho father who’s not only the one who tried to kill me but would be disappointed to know that he’d failed. So yeah, I didn’t give a shit about PDA right now and gripped his hand right back.

Lee nodded, his body language still guilty and recounted what we had missed: the events that unfolded at the train station, our separation and the ensuing chaos.

Lee looked at Naruto and said, “There was something that we didn’t understand at the time. You and Tsunade-san were supposed to be right behind us when we left the station. She was sure that once you were separated and no longer suffering the strain of sustaining two people you would wake up and be able to walk out with her.”

Naruto was shaking his head, “But I didn’t, did I? Because it doesn’t work like that. Touching Sasuke makes the connection stronger but getting separated doesn’t cut the connection it just makes it weaker. You’d have to break the spell to cut our connection.”

Lee nodded contemplatively, “That was Tsunade-san’s theory after we finally got here. You were still sustaining Sasuke-kun but now we’d made it even harder for you because he wasn’t right there next to you. She managed to get you out of the station with some help but by the time she did and realized her mistake the rest of us were long gone. I know that she took off after us as soon as she could but we already had a head start. You’d told her some of the limitations placed on you by the spell and Tsunade-san was worried about what would happen to you, being separated from Sasuke-kun for so long but she couldn’t tell…” Lee trailed off inquiringly and Naruto shrugged and looked at our hands.

“Pain.” He said simply, playing with my fingers. “We tested it last week. Just pain. It’s supposed to be incentive to haul my ass back to my ‘master’ in case I try to run off or something.” Sakura gave an indignant squeak on his behalf. Naruto ignored her. “It gets worse the longer I’m away, not that I felt anything that time.” He said giving Lee a glance that asked him not to make a big deal out of it. “I wasn’t awake for it so…” he shrugged again.

Lee nodded, understanding. He continued to tell us what happened: the car accident and the attack by that massive snake which sent chills through my system. ‘More snakes…’ I thought, looking at where my ankle was buried under the covers. Naruto’s hold on my hand tightened at the same time and I glanced up, catching the tense look on his face before he masked it when he caught me looking. What was that all about..?

“… then Tsunade-san put your hands back together hoping that would be enough.” Lee said finishing up his story, “Thankfully, it was.”

Naruto nodded and asked, “So you’re saying I was having trouble healing us because of the separation?”

Lee sighed and buried his face in his hands, “Tsunade-san said that was part of it but I think she thinks there’s something else going on.” Lee said speaking through his fingers. “We got separated for over half an hour … your weakened connection to Sasuke-kun together with the curse trying to hurt you for being away from him…”

Lee dropped his hands and there was a faraway look in his eyes, as though he were reliving that day in his mind. “You were bleeding again when we got to the temple and Sasuke was barely alive.”

We were all silent for several minutes, absorbing that information. That was when Naruto looked around at all of us and asked the obvious question. “Okay… so if we all made it up here then where’s Gaara?”

Lee looked at Sakura imploringly and she took a deep breath bracingly, “We had to seal him.”

“What?!” Naruto and I both shouted at the same time but Naruto was so angry that he’d completely drowned me out.

Sakura raised both her hands defensively and said quickly, “It was for his own protection! When all of you arrived he was the only one who couldn’t cross the threshold onto temple grounds. He’s a demon and unlike you Naruto he doesn’t belong to the goddess of this temple!” When Naruto started to calm down a little Sakura put her hands down but Naruto was still glaring at her enough to make her swallow nervously and continue fast. “This is a temple to Inari and it took a great effort from Tsunade, probably the most powerful priestess of this or any lifetime, to get Gaara onto the grounds in the first place. It just… it wasn’t long before he started to get sick.”

“Why did he have to? Isn’t there some other place we could’ve gone?” I asked.

Lee shook his head. “This temple has divine protection. After that giant snake attacked us when we got separated, Tsunade-san insisted this was the only place we’d be safe. Naruto-kun’s wound wouldn’t stop bleeding and your body had just suffered the trauma of dying a second time. Tsunade-san knew that just being here would help restore Naruto-kun’s strength and take some of the strain off him so you could both heal. This temple is far enough away and even remote enough that it’s a good place for us to hide from your father too. Gaara said that we shouldn’t be separated anymore and he wanted to be around to protect all of us so he said he’d do whatever it took… even if it meant hiding out in a temple he couldn’t enter.” He finished the sentence with a bit if a resigned air about him and I could see the concern in his face.

On closer inspection, Lee looked awful. There were bandages around one of his hands and around both forearms peeking out from under his kimono sleeves that I hadn’t noticed before. I took in his pallor, the slouching, and the bags under his eyes for the first time and mentally kicked myself for not realizing sooner how much we’ve put him through. “Lee, you saved our lives. Drop the honorifics.” I said quietly and Naruto nodded vigorously in agreement above me. I’d had many acquaintances but never anyone I could call friend and definitely nobody who’d ever gone so far to help me. I was indebted to him. Lee looked like he was going to argue but at the looks we gave him he stopped. After a moment he quirked a small smile and nodded.

Sakura looked like she was feeling a bit awkward being there in that moment but I couldn’t have given a shit. She had some explaining to do. “Well?” I asked, urging her on impatiently.

She cleared her throat nervously, “Right well, um, Gaara was getting sick…” She said, picking up where she left off. “At one point Tsunade suggested that he leave the grounds for a bit to regain some of his strength. He didn’t want to but she forced him to the edge of the grounds anyway and that’s when we discovered he couldn’t leave. Even Tsunade with all her power couldn’t remove him from the temple grounds. He was trapped.

“After the first 24 hours in the temple his health was deteriorating so fast we were worried that being here was killing him. So we sealed him. The seal isn’t hurting him… it’s like stasis. We’ve been working on a spell that’ll help Gaara ever since. It’s actually been ready since last night but we need your help to finish it. We’ve been waiting for you to wake up so I guess it’s fortunate that you’re up so soon.” She said looking at Naruto.

He blinked, “Sure, whatever you guys need.”

Sakura turned to Lee, “Have you finished the beads?” Lee grabbed the small tray he’d put aside when we first woke up and showed us the contents. There were a couple pieces of wood, a carving knife with some other tools, a pile of shavings, and a dish full of small wooden beads.

“I’ve got one left.” He said picking up a small round bead that was missing the hole through the middle.

She smiled, “Great, can you take those to Shizune so she can get things started? The sooner we get this done, the better it will be for your friend.”

Lee hesitated, “I should really check their bandages before they make the walk to the temple,” He glanced at me quickly, “and Naruto-k… Naruto may need my help with Sasuke.”

“Oh, I could do that! I’m medically trained.” She said a little too eagerly and turned back to us.

“No!” Naruto and I said simultaneously. Oh, was that rude? Guess how much we cared.

Sakura pouted for a second before she smiled politely and nodded, “Ok, I’ll take the beads and we’ll get everything ready. Send for me if you need help.” Sakura took the tray from Lee, stood up and bowed politely to the three of us before she walked out.

“Finally,” I mumbled, picking my soup back up again. It was lukewarm by now but I was still hungry.

Naruto smirked and followed suit. “So what’s the plan?” he asked around a mouthful of noodles.

Lee smiled, “Shizune-san is the high priestess of this temple. She and Tsunade-san put their heads together and realized that the root of the problem was that Gaara didn’t belong to the goddess so… what if we could make it so he did?”

I swallowed, “You’re talking about… what? Divine adoption?”

Lee nodded with a smile, “Yep.” I put my bowl down after a few more sips surprised by how little it took to fill me up. “If you’re done Sasuke, I want to take a look at your head wound first.”

“Sure…” I said a bit apprehensively. I was… kind of afraid of what it looked like back there. Lee caught me glancing at the old blood stains on my pillow again and his smile withered.

He was about to go for the bandages when Naruto cleared his throat pointedly. “Um, Lee? I get it that we need to help Gaara like yesterday, but if he’s not in any real danger right now then maybe we should get washed up before we go anywhere.” He said looking at me sideways and I realized he was doing this for my benefit. “I’ll replace our bandages after we get cleaned up, okay?” He was still talking to Lee but the words were for me. I found his hand again and squeezed it.

Lee blinked in surprise but smiled, “Okay, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you guys go anywhere if you’re not in the shape for it.” He reached for my bandages again and this time Naruto let him.

Lee spent the next few minutes looking us over but spent the longest time inspecting my injuries. As it turned out I had a lot of cuts, scrapes, and bruises which were the least of my problems and therefore mostly neglected by Naruto’s chakra to heal on their own. Both of my hands had sustained second degree burns from the Buddhist staff but my right hand was completely healed thanks to having been the entry point for the flow of healing chakra from Naruto’s body. My left hand was weak and still stung under the bandages which we decided not to remove just yet. Among my worst injuries were my two head injuries: one on my temple from when my father slammed my face onto the floor covered in cut glass, the second and more obviously severe of the two was at the back of my head from the fall.

I’d also apparently had several broken bones and other internal injuries from the fall which Naruto’s chakra had already or mostly healed. I had a broken fibula in my left leg that wasn’t healing as fast which Tsunade told Lee the snake bite was interfering with. I looked down at my left leg while Lee inspected the back of my head for fresh bleeding. I could tell it was swollen even under the bandages and the immobilizer that covered me from ankle to knee. There was also something written in kanji on the bandages peaking out from underneath the brace that I couldn’t make heads or tails of. What scared me the most however was, “It doesn’t hurt.” The rest of my body was achy and sore and painful even through the painkiller Lee had given me earlier. The broken leg though, didn’t hurt at all.

Lee pulled back to look at the leg, “It might once you move it around.” He said honestly. “Tsunade-san was worried about the snake bite. She said the warding spell they put on it was so powerful that you might not feel anything below the knee, so we were expecting that.” He looked up at me seriously, “Don’t put any weight on it though.”

I nodded in agreement. “So… what’s it doing to me?” I asked, failing to keep the worry out of my voice.

Lee shook his head regretfully, “We don’t know yet.” He said as he leaned forward and carefully undid the immobilizer to inspect the bandages underneath.

Wow, I’d been right about the swelling. “Isn’t that dangerous?” I asked nervously.

Lee looked up at me, “It would be if it weren’t for Naruto. Normally we’d be worried about compartment syndrome, maybe getting it properly immobilized with a cast but even with the snake poison in your body it’s still healing faster than human normal and you haven’t suffered any complications from any of your injuries.” He sat back giving the injury an optimistic look, “It actually looks a lot better than it did this morning. Tsunade-san and Shizune-san are working on it and told us not to take the bandage off in the meantime.” He paused, “Sasuke, do you think you can hold yourself up while I look at Naruto’s wound?”

I wasn’t sure but nodded anyway. Naruto pushed me forward gently and I sat up on my own while Lee inspected Naruto’s bandages. Okay yeah, that hurt. Naruto, forever reading me in some way, pulled the neckline of my yukata down and pressed his palm between my shoulder blades to help take some of my weight and keep skin to skin contact. The gesture made me want to smile.

Lee meanwhile grunted something and I felt Naruto pull back from him, “C’mon man, there’s no use in changing my bandages when they’re just gonna get wet in the bath.” He said shifting again to avoid Lee’s outstretched hands. “Like I said, I’ll change them myself later!”

Lee sat back and I turned my head slightly, catching his look of hesitation. “Okay… but use the shower instead. There’s a bathroom through that door over there,” He indicated a door to the left I hadn’t noticed before and started gathering the bowls and the soiled bandages he’d removed. “I’ll take the dishes up and bring you some clothes.”

“Hold it!” Naruto grabbed his bowl with the last of his ramen and gulped it down.

I looked over my other shoulder at him incredulously, “Isn’t that cold?”

He blinked at me innocently before setting the bowl back down on the tray, “So? It’s still good.”

I shook my head, choosing not to say anything else. Lee picked up the tray one handed as he stood up and hovered for a moment before reminding us to call for him if we needed anything. “We’ll be fine, Lee.” Naruto said with good natured exasperation. Lee smiled again and nodded before he finally left.  

Not even two seconds after Lee was out the door I cursed and snatched the front of Naruto’s yukata as he surprised me by lifting me off the futon in one swift move. I quickly closed my eyes and pressed my forehead against the crook of his neck to anchor myself against the wave of dizziness that washed over me. As soon as the room stopped spinning I kicked him with my good leg. “Ow! What the heck was that for?”

I risked opening my eyes to stare at him incredulously, “Are you really asking me that?? You could warn a guy before you do that, asshole!”

“Tch, back to your old self I see.” He said looking ahead as he carried me across the room.

I studied Naruto’s face while he slid the door open with his foot, taking us inside the bath and sighed. “I really need you to not be such a mother hen, Naruto. We’re getting enough of that from Lee.”

He pushed one of the wooden stools against the wall and set me down carefully on it so I could lean. “Well, excuse me for worrying about my boyfriend…” he grumbled.

He wasn’t looking at me when he said it so I wasn’t sure what he was feeling just then but any retort I may’ve been preparing died in my throat when I heard him say that word. Boyfriend. My heart skipped a beat and I felt a smile tugging at my lips. That had really happened, hadn’t it? “That feels like a hundred years ago.” I said in a hushed voice.

Naruto was holding my hand as he knelt down in front of me, keeping the contact. He rested his cheek against my knee and looked up at me with the most earnest expression I’d ever seen on a person. “I’d do it, you know; for a hundred years and more.”

I didn’t know how many hundreds he had already lived but the reminder that I would be joining him in his immortality was sobering. I brought the hand that wasn’t taken to caress his other cheek and he closed his eyes against the touch. I didn’t say anything after that; far too aware of the impact the past week would have on the rest of my life.

The only thing I let myself focus on was the emotion welling up inside my chest, making it feel both tight and heavy. I knew it would give me the strength to get through all of this and I knew that was something Naruto had given me too. I ran fingers through the soft blonde locks behind his ear and wanted nothing more than to pledge to love him forever as he had just done, but I held off. I wanted it to come from every fiber of my being when I finally said it and as fast as I knew I was falling, I simply wasn’t there yet.  

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It took an hour for Naruto to get us both washed. I had very little strength in me and was pretty useless. The best I could do was to hold myself upright when I couldn’t lean on the wall and work at keeping the water away from the bandage on my leg. The most difficult part of the process had been getting out of our clothes but once we were both naked it was much easier for Naruto and I to keep the skin to skin contact while he washed us. That however, was the only thing I was grateful for.

The last time I’d been this naked around someone else was when I was coming out of the womb. I didn’t even count that time in Lee’s shower because I’d rushed for a towel to cover up with and Naruto had averted his eyes. This was different. I sat there for the entire hour, completely exposed with my boyfriend standing beside me just as naked as I was, scrubbing my back and washing the dried blood out of my hair.

The only thing that saved me from dying of embarrassment was that I was too mortified by all the nudity to … react to it. Naruto on the other hand seemed completely comfortable with it but not completely unaffected. When he knelt down in front of me to wash an unexpected amount of dried blood sticking to my feet I couldn’t help but see his half erect member peaking up from between his legs. There was a small dusting of pink that blossomed on his cheeks when he caught me looking, “Sorry, can’t help it.”

I remember shaking my head and looking away quickly. He didn’t say anything else. Just stood up, kissed my forehead, and walked behind me to give me a tiny bit of privacy while he washed himself. I took a deep breath through my nose and let it out of my mouth shakily. I… I didn’t want Naruto to think I was rejecting him or anything so I took his hand from my shoulder and I squeezed it gently hoping he would sense the emotions I was feeling and understand.

I felt him pause behind me for a moment, “I know, Sasuke.” He said softly. I heard him shift and suddenly there were lips pressed against my bare shoulder. I shuddered and immediately brought my legs together. God damn it.

Naruto finished up not long after that. After returning the detachable shower head to its bracket he managed to reach and grab two towels off the rack without leaving my side and handed me one. After I was as dry as I could manage I wrapped it around myself like a blanket and snuck a peak at the wound on Naruto’s belly while he was distracted. It had closed up again but I wasn’t naïve enough to think that meant it would stay that way.

When Naruto wrapped his towel around his waist and bent down to pick me up again I put a hand on his arm to stop him. “Are you…?” My eyes flickered to his belly. He followed my line of sight and rolled his eyes.

“Let me be clear about something Sasuke,” he said as he hooked an arm under my knees and lifted me up slowly. “I’m not human.” I wrapped my arms around his neck when he started walking back into the room. “I’m a kyuubi. That means I’m strong and really quick to recover from little wounds like this because believe me, I’ve had worse.”

My face was carefully neutral when he set me down on the futon. I looked down at the bandage on my leg while Naruto picked up one of the fresh yukatas Lee must’ve brought us while we were in the shower. The bandage had gotten a little wet but I didn’t dare try patting it dry or touching it in anyway. The ink had bled a little but the characters that made up the spell were all still intact. It was a reminder of another problem I had that had yet to be addressed. “You may’ve had worse,” I muttered as Naruto swung the yukata around my shoulders, “but you’ve never had it while your power was weighed down by…”

His fingers pressed gently against my lips to stop them from moving and he looked at me seriously for a moment before he replaced his fingers with his mouth. He kissed me thoroughly, holding my head there with a hand behind my neck and when he pulled back, he took in my dazed expression and smirked, “You talk too much.”

I blinked, “Oh, screw you!”

His smirk widened and he picked up his own yukata, “Sure, one of these days!”

My jaw dropped, “If I didn’t need you right now…”

“You’d do what?” Naruto asked with that smirk, “Bleed on me?”

Oh no, he didn’t.

When Lee came in it was to find me straddling Naruto and smothering his face with a pillow. I was as weak as a kitten and we both knew it so the show Naruto was making by trying to tug the pillow away and crying ‘uncle’ through the cotton stuffing only made me laugh in spite of myself. I saw Lee smile out of the corner of my eye, “I guess the shower did you guys good.”

I leaned back with my hand on Naruto’s chest where his yukata was falling open and the other reaching around to close my own. Naruto tossed the pillow away and looked up at Lee, “Yup, we’ll be ready in just a sec.” He turned to me and raised an eyebrow, “You know, if Sasuke wants to get off me any time soon.”

I grinned and leaned down carefully. “I thought you wanted me here,” I whispered into his ear. It went pink immediately and I barked out a short laugh before rolling off him.

Lee continued to smile completely oblivious and went to the wardrobe, “The yukata’s really aren’t enough. You guys need to get into these before we go outside.” He pulled out two pairs of thick socks and a couple black tanzen kimonos. “We’re on sacred ground but this is the guest building. We’ll have to go through the garden to get to the temple.”

I looked at the kimonos and raised an eyebrow, “Is it really that cold out there?”

Lee’s smile widened mysteriously, “Yeah.”

Naruto’s eyes lit up and he reapplied our bandages as quickly as he could before we tied off the yukatas and slipped into the heavier kimonos. Lee kneeled down to put the immobilizer back on my leg while Naruto grabbed our socks and we were ready to go in less than fifteen minutes. Lee, who was already dressed in his own tanzen kimono, turned his back to me and bent down in front of me, “Tsunade-san’s bringing you some crutches this afternoon. Until then please accept my help.”

I stared at his back. He was expecting me to ride piggyback? Into the temple? Its one thing to get carried around like a sack of potatoes when you’re totally out of it and quite another to do that shit in public. “Oh no, you don’t.” Naruto said supporting some of my weight again with an arm behind my shoulders, his fingers resting on the skin of my neck. He moved to sit beside me and Lee looked back around at him in surprise. “You think I didn’t notice that?” Naruto indicated with a thumb over his shoulder at a sling that had been shoved in a dark corner under the window.

Lee’s face went red with embarrassment, “It’s… that’s not… it feels fine now, really!” He said hastily, sitting up straight and determinedly not looking at the item in question. Naruto raised an eyebrow, reached over and grabbed Lee’s left shoulder.

Lee cut himself off mid-yelp but the damage was done. “Feels fine… Riiight.”

“… how’d you know it was that shoulder?” Lee asked grudgingly as he pulled the arm in slightly.

“Lucky guess,” he answered with a smirk. “You also favor it slightly, especially when you think no one’s looking. Whatcha do to it?”

Lee sighed and got up to get the sling. He picked it up and reluctantly slipped it back on, sliding the affected arm through it. “It’s really nothing… just dislocated it.” Lee mumbled under his breath.

Naruto laughed. “Is that all? Sorry but Gaara would filet me if I stood by and let you make your injury worse. I’m actually surprised that busy-body Sakura didn’t get on your case over you not wearing it. She seems like the type.”

Lee was looking anywhere but at us. “She… doesn’t know about it. She’s been very focused on you two and I never wear it when she’s around.”

Naruto shook his head and shuffled in front of me. He moved his grip from my shoulders to my hand and tugged on it lightly. I raised an eyebrow, “So I’m supposed to get on your back now?”

Naruto tugged on me again, “Just do it, moron. Stop wasting time.” I flipped him off but he just smirked at me. I sighed, exasperated and pushed myself forward a bit so I could reach my arms around his shoulders.

“Like I’ve got a choice…” I grumbled under my breath.

“I really wish you’d let me…” Lee started, “your injury…”

“…Is going to heal a lot faster than yours.” Naruto finished. He leaned back, grabbed my thighs and stood up quickly. I gripped him tight as another wave of dizziness hit me. It was milder than it had been though. All this moving around, even if exhausting, was doing me some good after three days in bed.

Naruto adjusted his grip and looked at Lee who was watching us with guilt written all over his features. “Alright, lead the way.” Naruto said and I could hear the smile in his voice.  

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TBC

AN mini: Thank you all for surviving the Mayan Apocalypse and coming back to enjoy the last few chapters of my humble experiment that developed a mind of its own.