Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Happiness, by Accident ❯ Happiness, In Exile ( Chapter 6 )

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

AN: I’m back with a massive update. I can’t believe this was originally going to be one big chapter together with the previous one. I must be crazy… or my prose is getting purple (I’m so sorry, please let me know what I need to work on to improve).

So porn. Right, um, there originally wasn’t supposed to be any but my husband insisted that it couldn’t be NaruSasuNaru without porn so thank him for this. Aaaand if it’s really terrible (I haven’t written any lemons in so long I might as well never have) then … I’ll be hiding behind my couch…

Happiness, By Accident
By: Lotus-chan
Ch06: Happiness, In Exile

Apparently the smile was reassuring enough because after a moment Lee shot us a small apologetic smile of his own and gestured to the door. “Okay, follow me.”

Lee led us out of the room and through a few corridors until we arrived at what looked like a back door. As Lee and Naruto slipped into a pair of sandals that had been left there for them I noticed that it was considerably colder here. I didn’t have long to wonder why. Lee walked ahead to slide open the door and what greeted us was a winter wonderland.

In Tokyo the chill had come early but it was still too early for more than a few flurries. Here in the mountains of Hokkaido however, everything was already sprinkled with a fine layer of white powder. Lee led us onto a covered walkway that connected the guest house to the temple. The walkway was elevated about three feet from the ground and cut through the north end of a vast Japanese garden. Most of the garden lay to our right where we could hear the sound of a deer chaser and flowing water, indicating that there was a stream nearby which had not yet frozen over.

A few yards to the left of the walkway the garden ended in a shear drop at a cliff face and revealed a stunning view of the mountains beyond as if plucked straight from a period film. I could see the side of Naruto’s face and noticed that he was just as impressed by the sight as I was. He looked back at me, smiled and took a deep breath of sweet mountain air before gazing back over the garden again. In a moment of sudden insight I realized that Naruto was probably more than just impressed by the garden’s beauty. “Feels familiar?” I asked curious to see if I was right. The smile he sent back to me was dazzling.

“Gaara really liked it too.” I heard Lee say.

Naruto, who was walking just behind him, leaned forward to look at Lee’s face and gently bumped shoulders with him reassuringly. “He’ll be ok.” He said quietly. I felt Lee take a shuddering breath but he nodded and there was a small but honest smile on his face when he turned to look at Naruto.

We were at the temple in no time and just as we got inside, a few mikos walking in the corridor stopped to bow deeply to us and welcome us with smiling faces before heading off again. “They’re happy to see you guys awake and about.” Lee said. He left his sandals at the door and took off in the opposite direction the mikos had gone, “Especially Naruto.”

“Me?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

Lee nodded, “You’re the kyuubi. The priestesses feel honored to have you here and to be providing you sanctuary.”

Naruto blinked and smirked, “Cool.”

I leaned forward over his shoulder to look at him, “Didn’t you used to live in a temple?”

Naruto shrugged, “Yeah, but that was a really long time ago and I wasn’t the only fox.”

“You are now.” The voice drew our attention to a priestess with short dark hair who was standing in front of an open door. She bowed to Naruto with a fond smile, “We are honored to have you and your friends here with us. My name is Shizune, I am the high priestess of this temple.” Naruto bowed back slightly, the movement made difficult with me on his back.

She noticed.

“Uchiha Sasuke, I presume?” she asked, nodding to me in a slightly less formal bow. I nodded back. “Before you enter, there are a few things I must explain.” She said looking at my ankle and raising her gaze to meet mine. “The ward we placed on your leg is powerful. In fact, once you go inside it will be the most powerful magic in the room. Normally I wouldn’t have the two spells in such close proximity to one another but…” This time she glanced at Naruto, “circumstances being what they are, we’ll just have to be careful.”

I saw Naruto frown curiously, “I can feel the magic of the ward on Sasuke’s leg. I know how powerful it is and it’s not nearly as powerful as the magic you’d need to seal Gaara.”

“We’re talking about two completely different spells here,” she clarified. “… and the spell we selected to seal Gaara with is intentionally weak.” She said, glancing at Lee sympathetically and acknowledging him with a nod. “We’re not trying to restrain him. Once you’re inside you’ll be able to sense that this seal is not powerful enough to hold him by far and that’s the key. Gaara could break out of this seal at any moment; he has more than enough power to do so and that is exactly why we choose to use it.”

At Naruto’s confused look, Lee said, “The seal keeps the power that protects the temple from attacking him and the fact that he’s willingly allowing it to bind him even though he can break out whenever he wants will work in his favor when we appeal to the goddess.” Lee sounded a bit tired and as though he was reciting someone else’s words. His face was solemn, the worry coming through unbidden. “May I?” he asked Shizune and she nodded, stepping aside so that he could walk in.

When Naruto made to follow Shizune held up a hand. “Just a moment, there’s one more thing.” Her eyes darted back to me before settling back on him so fast I almost didn’t catch it. “Like I said before, Sasuke’s seal will be the strongest magic in the room which is why I need you to be careful not to let him too close to the power circle.” She finally looked at me and I could tell that something was making her uncomfortable, “If you get too close, the seal on your leg will start to leach power from the spell on Gaara and it will collapse. We don’t want that to happen while we’re trying to appeal to the goddess. It could be very dangerous for him...” ‘Ah,’ I thought, ‘so that’s why she’s so nervous,’ I nodded to let her know that I understood and Naruto did the same.

Shizune stepped aside and when we entered the room I gasped. The amount of condensed chakra in this room was oppressive.  For a few seconds it was so overwhelming that it was hard to breathe. Then I felt Naruto’s chakra in my mind again coming to my defense, sliding passed my weakened mental barriers and all of a sudden not only could I breathe again but I could see it. Gaara’s chakra was so thick in the air it was like a glittering blue fog. His sand crawled and pulsed along the ground, up the walls, and fell occasionally in small grainy handfuls from the ceiling. It covered every inch of the room where the other priestesses weren’t sitting chanting and gave the circle in the middle of the room a wide berth.

That circle was what drew my attention because there he was. Gaara was sitting in the very center of the circle surrounded by a slow moving whirlwind of his own chakra. On the floor a series of rings had been drawn in white chalk with Gaara sitting, eyes closed, at its center. Immediately surrounding him, the first innermost ring separated him from a small amount of his sand completely unmoving on the ground almost as if reflecting Gaara’s current state of apparent suspended animation. A second outer ring contained the spell itself written in classic Japanese and surrounded by a final thicker ring completely colored in with white. Candles were placed in a five point star pattern on the outside of it.

As Naruto walked the sand moved away from his foot falls, clearing from the floor where he stepped. He finally stopped behind a priestess with long blonde hair who sat directly in front of Gaara, her head bowed and eyes closed in meditation. Lee was seated slightly to her right with his tray of beads and three other priestesses were seated behind Gaara against the far wall including Sakura.

Naruto kneeled down carefully and set me down on the ground first. I laid a hand on the ground to steady myself while he walked around behind me. He sat down and pulled me against his chest all this without his touch ever leaving me in some way. I was grateful. The painkillers could only do so much and I was already tired. Oh, who was I kidding, I’d woken up tired. “Let me know if you need to go back to the room.” Naruto whispered in my ear.

I scoffed, “Says the guy with a hole in his stomach.”

As if to prove to me that it wasn’t as bad as it sounded, he pulled me up against him tighter. “Hey that hole is almost completely healed by now smartass.” I was about to respond when I felt a weird prickling sensation on my lap and noticed the sand crawling over me.

“What the…” It moved over my legs and bent the one with the snake bite back towards me and away from the circle. I looked around to see if the sand was touching anyone else. It was steering clear of the priestesses but was sliding over Naruto’s ankles. When I looked over at Lee again though, I noticed for the first time that Gaara’s sand was all over him. Tiny streams of it slinked around his shoulders and into his kimono, coming out around his arms and settling around a bandaged hand while he used a small tool to make a hole in the last bead. Other thin streams crawled up around his waist and legs; there was a small churning pool of it in his lap. It… strangely reminded me of a small frightened animal seeking comfort.

“Familiarity,” I looked at the blonde priestess and she smiled at me over her shoulder. “Lee has been with Gaara the longest and has a special connection with him. Gaara’s sand is unique. It’s a part of him but also seems to have a mind of its own. Being separated from him has it looking for people Gaara is closest to; people he trusts.”

I was about to ask her how she knew what I’d been thinking when I noticed how glazed her eyes looked. As though she’d been in a trance before and hadn’t completely pulled out of it. My suspicions were confirmed when I noticed the look of surprise on the other mikos sitting along the wall. “My name is Ino,” she said by way of introduction with that dazed, far-away look on her face. “It is an honor to have the last kyuubi and his life-mate participate in this ceremony with us.”

“Last?!” Naruto exclaimed.

“Life mate?!” I said right on his heals.

We looked at each other in shock before a short giggle interrupted us and we looked back to Ino who had lazily turned her gaze to Lee. “Are you finished?”

Lee set down the last bead and nodded nervously.

“Very well,” she said turning back to Gaara in front of her. “Then let us begin.” The moment she finished speaking everything in the room changed. The small amount of sunlight that had been bleeding through the paper paneling on the doors abruptly disappeared as though someone had flipped a switch. The only light left came from the five candles around Gaara which instantly changed from a warm yellow light to a brilliant but eerie blood red.

Still sitting upright, Ino’s head dropped to her chest for a few minutes before she breathed in audibly and it rose back up slowly. Once this happened I started to have a hard time looking at her. I kept resisting the inexplicable urge to look away and though I forced my eyes to stay on her it was difficult to keep her in focus. The line of her body kept blurring and my mind kept rebelling against the double image my eyes were seeing. It was as if there was another person sitting in the same spot and occupying the same space as Ino.

“Gaara,” she said and her voice was like a freight train to the chest. Naruto gasped and I gripped his hand in mine tightly. Ino’s voice was still her own, still audibly the same, but the extra senses Naruto had given me allowed me to feel the power it carried; a power that had not been there before. The priestesses immediately stopped chanting and the whole room was filled with a loaded silence. There was a strange new energy in the room that quelled Gaara’s chakra and took a dominant and commanding presence.

In response to the sound of his name from that voice, Gaara opened his eyes and they were just as glazed as Ino’s had been. Quickly, the sand at my feet gathered and covered my leg completely from knee to foot. It hardened on the outside but I stayed calm when I felt the soothing shift of it against my toes. I understood.

Gaara’s eyes were half lidded, his gaze somewhere around Ino’s knees. The slow moving whirlwind of his chakra within the power circle eased to a stop and then pulled itself inward and inside of him. It was one of the most bizarre things I’d ever seen because I could see his chakra moving beneath his skin after that. Naruto leaned forward slightly and whispered in my ear, “Can you see it? How tightly he’s holding onto it?” I could, I realized. On the outside Gaara was extremely relaxed: dropped shoulders, face slack, his head listing forward and eyes downcast but on the inside? It was a violent churning mass of chakra screaming to get out.

“The goddess is here,” Naruto said with wonder and I considered the look on his face; there was a small smile there and a sense of amazement. He gripped me tighter, “His chakra instinctively knows who and what she is. Since he’s not hers yet it’s fighting Gaara to get out, to protect him, to get him out of here.” Naruto paused and he was more serious when he said, “It’s the part of him that’s afraid of her. Gaara has pulled it all inside himself because he knows that if his chakra gets away from him and touches the first ring of the power circle, it will collapse the spell.” I swallowed hard, instinctively aware that if anything happened everyone in this room was at risk. “They really should’ve chosen a better spell than this.” Naruto added, the first trace of nervousness coming through. “It’s way too weak to hold someone as powerful as he is. It’s like trying to contain a typhoon in a paper bag.”

As if she’d heard Naruto speaking, Ino/Inari turned slightly, sitting at an angle to us now, in order to look at him and smiled sweetly. She reached her hand out to him, “beloved one.” She said in the same powerful voice. Naruto lifted the hand I wasn’t holding and reached out to take hers. As soon as their hands touched I was overwhelmed by countless jumbled up emotions ghosting through from our link but which mostly consisted of: powerloveprotecthappinesschildmothermine.

When she let him go Naruto pulled his hand back and wrapped both arms around me, burying his face in my neck. I didn’t move; only squeezed his hands reassuringly as I watched the love in Ino/Inari’s bright red eyes fade as she looked away from Naruto and back to Gaara. The contrast was huge. What I could see of her face from this angle was all hard lines and shrewd consideration. She hadn’t looked at me at all and for that I was grateful.

“Do you know who I am?” The goddess asked.

Gaara blinked slowly, “yes.” He said in a voice akin to someone only half conscious.

“Then know that I am here to asses if you are worthy of what you ask. If you offer me lies, I will know it. If you twist your words or their meaning, I will know it. If your answers fail to satisfy me, you will die. If you try to run away because you have failed to satisfy me, you will die. If I am satisfied then you will be mine until the day you die. Do you understand?”

Gaara was completely unmoving but his chakra was even wilder within him. Still, he didn’t hesitate, “yes.” The sand outside the power circle continued to move lazily about. The only change was how more of it gathered around Lee, Naruto and myself like it was intimidated or afraid.

“Why have you trespassed into my temple?” she asked abruptly and I heard someone inhale sharply. I glanced at Lee for a moment and saw how tense he was. He was gripping the front of his kimono tightly over his heart and I realized then just how terrified he must be for Gaara.

“I was forced onto the grounds by a priestess.” He answered calmly.

“Why?”

“I was traveling with friends who needed my protection. They came to the temple for sanctuary and everyone could cross the grounds except for me.”

The goddess paused for several minutes, “Who were you protecting?”

“Lee, Naruto, and Sasuke.”

She slapped a hand down onto the thick outer layer of the power circle and it vanished. “You were protecting the last kyuubi?” She said looking at him hard.

“Yes.”

“From whom?” She ducked her head slightly to look in his eyes and he raised them obediently.

“Sasuke’s enemies.” He replied and I shuddered. I did not want the spotlight on myself.

“You were also protecting my kyuubi’s spellbound master?!”

I inched back into Naruto’s chest subconsciously and he gripped me even tighter. I could feel the protectiveness coming through our bond but I also knew, deep in my bones, that if the goddess wanted she could tear us apart and leave me without the protection that was keeping me alive.

“Yes.” Gaara replied without inflection.

Ino/Inari made a sound that was almost a growl. “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you for protecting the mortal who has taken what is mine.”

I swallowed hard and felt my heart racing. This was not going well.

“Beacause he is a friend of Lee’s and because Naruto is in love with him.”

That wasn’t something I was aware Gaara knew. It didn’t seem to matter though because the goddess had a look on her face like she’d swallowed something sour.

“Is Uchiha Sasuke not his master? Is he not bound to that mortal against his will and enslaved by him? Could he not be manipulated and deceived by him? Why save him? If you truly meant to protect the kyuubi, why not leave the boy to his fate and see Naruto freed?”

“Naruto is not a slave. Sasuke has power over him that he doesn’t use. The curse has become a bond that helps them and I don’t think either of them want to break it.”

I stilled. Gaara was speaking with such confidence even through the haze of the spell. He wouldn’t dare lie to the goddess which meant that he believed what he was saying. I realized then that this was how people saw us. This was how our relationship looked to other people. The rush of shame I felt pulled my gaze to the ground for a moment because I had used my power over him before. Naruto kissed me behind my ear and caressed the back of my knuckles with his thumb reassuringly. It didn’t take the feeling away.

The goddess appeared to be considering his answer. “My kyuubi are very important to me and Naruto is the last. It pleases me to know that he has a friend willing to protect him should he need it. Would you continue to do so?”

“Yes.” Gaara’s answer came easily and immediately.

“Even at great personal cost?” She continued.

“Yes.”

She paused and her perfect posture in that moment made her look both regal and intimidating. I would never know for certain from this angle but I swore I saw her smirk before she asked, “If Naruto’s life were at stake and he were about to lose it, would you agree to let me take yours to save his?” She asked.

“No.”

“No!”

The second response came from Lee who was holding the tray on his lap in a white knuckled grip and shaking like a leaf. He jumped when she looked at him and then with an anguished look on his face he leaned forward and pleaded, “please don’t…”

She ignored him and turned back to Gaara, “I expected you to refuse. Nobility is an uncommon trait in humans let alone demons. You seemed to poses that rare quality but I am not surprised to be disappointed. A demon’s sense of self preservation is difficult to overcome and I can see how it tells you that Naruto is not worth your own life.”

“Wrong.”

The candles flared hotly, burning the wax down by half. “Am I?” The goddess asked dangerously.

“Yes. Naruto is worth sacrificing my life for but not Lee’s.” he replied, his eyes still glazed, looking right through her.

“I asked for your life, not his.” She said curiously.

I didn’t see Gaara’s blank face when he answered because I couldn’t look away from Lee. He was still shaking, breathing shallowly, and there were fat tears in his eyes threatening to fall at any moment. “Yes you did.” Gaara said and I realized what he was saying. Gaara wasn’t concerned for his own life at all but he knew that if anything were to happen to him, it would destroy his lover. I didn’t want to think about what would happen to Lee, what was implied in Gaara’s statement if anything. All I knew was the look on Lee’s face, the reckless determination and solemn resignation in every aspect of his expression.

The goddess’s voice was curious, “Who is Lee that you value his life more than your own, more than my kyuubi?”

Gaara’s eyes still weren’t focused but his head turned slightly in the direction he knew Lee to be, “The only thing in my life that matters.”

Lee lifted a hand to cover his face before the tears building in his eyes could fall so he didn’t see it when the goddess placed her hand on top of the written part of the spell and it began to glow the same red as the candles. It was as though the chalk had become pure light energy and when she pulled her hand back it began to spin so fast all I could see was a ring of light. When the goddess spoke again her voice was the softest it had been since she had greeted Naruto. “You’re in love with a mortal?”

“Yes.”

The ring of light merged with the next line of chalk and freed the dormant sand. But the sand didn’t move even when the ring of light touched it as it shrunk inward towards the last line of chalk around Gaara. “You talk about love a lot for a demon who’s known it for so little. Is that why you’re risking so much? Are you sure you’re in love? Lee will die eventually. Even if you find his future incarnations they may not always love you back. Lee may even decide in this lifetime that he made a mistake. That he doesn’t love you at all. That he’s better off with someone else. What will you do then?”

Gaara was still leaning slightly toward Lee when he answered. “I’ll love him anyway.”

The ring of light had been hovering just short of the last line of chalk. When Gaara spoke those words it rushed forward, merged with the last ring and closed in on him. The red ring rose up his legs, torso, and eventually over top of his body so that it came down his arm and over his right wrist, shrinking to fit around it. Gaara took a deep breath, blinked his eyes and appeared to become aware of his surroundings for the first time since the ceremony began.

“You have far exceeded my expectations, Gaara of the Sand. I knew I would be pleased, I didn’t know I would be proud.” There was a smile in her voice and I felt the entire energy of the room change. The red light became less intimidating and much more warm and comforting.

Ino/Inari reached up and pulled the rubber band from her hair letting it fall loose around her shoulders. She plucked a single hair from her head and said, “Hair from the priestess medium who believed in him.” She turned to kneel facing Lee and extended her hand to him saying, “Hair from the mortal who loves him.” Lee blinked in surprise, his eyes were red and moist but his face was dry. It took him a second to get over the shock but his hand quickly darted up to his own head to pluck a hair for her. The goddess then turned to us and extended that same hand to us, “Hair from the demon brother who vouches for him.” Naruto reached up and plucked a hair from his head happily. I was closer to her so he gave me the hair and I quickly dropped it into her hand. The last thing I expected to see her do after everything she’d said about me was to smile at me but she did.

After pulling her hand back, she arranged the different lengths of hair into her palm and made a fist. When she opened her fist a moment later all the hairs had woven themselves into a tiny braid and were now the same length. She took the tray of beads from Lee’s nervous hands and strung each individual bead into the thin braid of hair, whispering something into them every time she picked up another one. Putting the tray aside, she positioned herself facing Gaara again and lifted her hand holding the unfinished bracelet to the ring of light around Gaara’s wrist. Bringing her other hand she closed both around his wrist for a few seconds and when she pulled them away the bracelet encircled it; held together by a seamless, continuous thread of braided hair.

“This bracelet will not come off so long as you are mine. It is an unbreakable sign that you belong to me. My temples will welcome you and my power will protect you; this place is home to you now and you will always be safe here.” She said sitting back.

Gaara looked at the bracelet on his wrist for a moment before raising his gaze to her, “Thank you.” He said sincerely.

I didn’t see her face but one moment she was sitting up and the next the candles went out and she was falling back. Lee reached out and caught her, hissing when he felt the pull of her weight on his shoulder. Gaara quickly moved in to help and so did Sakura, darting from across the room just as sunlight began to seep in through the doors again.

Just then a door slid open, startling Shizune who had been standing there the entire time, and Tsunade poked her head inside. She noticed how Gaara was awake and smiled at the high priestess, “I was going to ask if you’d started without me but I guess I’ve answered my own question.” Ino was being held up by Sakura and the other miko’s were crowding around to check on her. Meanwhile, Lee had thrown himself on Gaara and was hugging him tight enough to bruise.

I sighed and leaned fully back into Naruto, not realizing until then just how tense I’d been. “I hope we never have to do anything like this ever again.” I said under my breath. Naruto’s only response was to hold me tighter.

00000

As soon as the ceremony was done, Naruto and I held back a few minutes so that Lee and Gaara could have their reunion. Lee was only momentarily distracted by his concern for Ino but as soon as the mikos reassured everyone that she would be fine he let Gaara pull him into a deep kiss that nearly shot my eyebrows into my hairline. I’d never seen them be physically affectionate before and most of what little I’d seen had always been initiated by Lee.

Gaara had a quiet intensity that I’d taken for a wall he’d built between himself and the rest of the world; one that demanded distance and privacy… And maybe I wasn’t entirely wrong about that but as much as I knew Gaara cared about Lee, I’d thought that maybe he just wasn’t the type to show it. I sighed internally and realized I needed to mind my own business. Lee and Gaara’s relationship was obviously not devoid of anything and I decided to just be happy that they’d gotten through this.

Naruto apparently shared my sentiment and showed it. As soon as they could tear themselves away from each other they came up to us and Naruto enthusiastically congratulated Gaara with a few strong slaps on the back that had his overprotective semi-sentient sand moving in agitated circles by our feet. Lee’s rosy cheeks and wide smile nearly made you forget about the water still gathering in his eyes. I congratulated him in my own quiet way while the others were distracted and his response was to lean forward and hug me.

When I first met Lee, his need to touch people had made me uncomfortable. Now all I did was sigh, relax and hug him back.

Tsunade broke up the commotion shortly after that declaring that she had some important information to discuss. She’d shown up after the ceremony with a small pet carrier that had a blanket draped over it in one hand and my crutches in the other but by then I was way too exhausted to try them out. Naruto ended up carrying me back to our room where the mikos had brought in a second kotatsu and joined the two together so that we could all gather around comfortably.

As soon as I slipped my legs under the kotatsu, the warmth of it made me the most comfortable I’d been since I’d woken up. I leaned heavily against Naruto who was sitting next to me and thought I’d just relax for a bit while everyone talked about the success of the spell. Just sit here and rest my eyes…

“Sasuke, Naruto!” I blinked my eyes open and felt Naruto startle next to me and jerk his head up. “I’m sorry we’re keeping you up like this,” Tsunade said from the opposite side of the table, “we’ll let you get some rest as soon as we’re done here but I’m afraid there are a few pressing matters to discuss which can’t wait now that you’re both awake.”

I watched Naruto blink sleepily and felt a wave of guilt that I’d failed to realize how exhausted he was too. Naruto stifled a yawn and nodded at Tsunade, “Okay, fire away then.” He said, eyes droopy. I squeezed his hand under the table and watched as he smiled and squeezed back without looking at me.

Lee was sitting next to me, giving Tsunade his undivided attention, with Gaara on his other side inspecting the bracelet. My demon sight had faded a few minutes ago but I called it back out of curiosity. The bracelet gave off a warm red glow that I was used to seeing in Naruto’s chakra but Gaara’s chakra was different too. Although it was still blue, there were red sparks going off randomly like tiny solar flares in his aura. The beauty of it distracted me for a couple minutes until Naruto nudged me. I blinked and noticed that everybody was staring at me. “Um…”

Tsunade sighed, “I asked how everyone’s injuries were coming along. Do you feel better than you did the last time you woke up?”

Oh. “Yes, much better. Except…” I glanced down thinking of the broken leg and the snake bite.

“Right, well I suppose that’s the first order of business. I can tell you now with certainty why it is you both are taking so long to heal.” She said looking at both of us in turn. Naruto’s wandering attention shot back to her expectantly. “The separation at the train station had a small hand to play but the real reason is the demon venom in your system, Sasuke. It’s consuming Naruto’s chakra almost as fast as he can get it into you. It’s essentially causing Naruto to bleed chakra at a constant rate and it’s a drain that’s difficult to keep up with, even for Naruto.”

“In fact,” Shizune added from her seat beside Tsunade, “If it had been any other demon, both of you would be dead by now.”

“So what do we do?” Lee asked, determination in every line of his body; like a soldier waiting for orders. The fondness that overcame me just then tugged a smile onto my lips before I could catch it.

“We’re already doing it.” Tsunade answered. “Being in this temple, surrounded by its protections, is already providing Naruto with the extra strength he needs to keep this thing from catching up with his stamina.” She looked back at Naruto and her gaze softened, “It might’ve been easier for you if you didn’t have to expend so much chakra healing yourself and Sasuke but that is no one’s fault.” The last part she directed at me. I swallowed quietly and held my tongue.

“The other thing we’re doing to help is the ward.” Shizune said when Tsunade tapered off. “The spell written on your bandages will keep the venom from spreading and prevent it from doing any more damage. We believe that with time and once all your other injuries have healed, Naruto’s chakra will be able to focus on your leg to both heal the bone and burn the venom from your body.” She said glancing at Tsunade who nodded.

Naruto had a distracted, thoughtful look on his face when I looked to gauge his reaction, “There’s only ever been one time I’ve had trouble healing demon venoms… but it’s not… it was such a long time ago, it’s not possible…”

Tsunade reached around behind her and pulled the small pet carrier she’d brought with her onto the table. “Now, this is just a hunch but…” She pulled the blanket off to show the pet carrier was covered with paper wards and hand written spells applied with a brush in thick black ink. She turned the door towards us when she opened it so we could see inside. “Does this look familiar?”

“That’s him!” I said at the same time Naruto cursed.

Inside the pet carrier was what looked like a small green garden snake. It was still, as though asleep and it had a sickly purple glow to it that was all too familiar. I heard Naruto mumble ‘I knew it…’ before he directed his gaze to the priestesses.

“It’s Manda.” Naruto said to Tsunade. “I suspected ever since the beginning but I didn’t get a good look at him the day he bit Sasuke and I had my doubts…”

“Why?” Tsunade asked, checking the lock once she closed the door to Manda’s cage.

“Because Manda disappeared a long time ago. He was one of the most powerful demons I’d ever met and one day poof! vanished into thin air. And that was already a couple years before I got sealed into a tablet. I thought maybe he’d pissed off the wrong priest and gotten exorcised or something.”

“Apparently not,” Gaara said from his end of the table.

“It makes sense now though.” Naruto said looking at the cage. “His was the only demon venom I’d ever had trouble healing.” He frowned and looked up at Tsunade again, “How did you catch him?”

“It wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be. When I got to where the fight was happening, Gaara was giving the snake a run for its money.” I saw Lee smile at Gaara with pride. “The man who was driving you to the temple is an old friend of mine and a Buddhist priest. Together we trapped Manda in a spell while Gaara kept him distracted and then sealed him into this … smaller form.”

“Has he been interrogated?” Gaara asked not without a little menace.

Tsunade sighed, “Unfortunately we’ve been unable to get anything out of him. Shortly after we captured him he began to beg for us to set him free; wouldn’t say anything else, wouldn’t even try to cut a deal. After a while his begging turned to screaming and we had to force him into unconsciousness. He seemed to be in excruciating pain but wouldn’t tell us how or why. None of the spells we placed on him should’ve caused him any pain.”

Gaara sneered, “does that mean we can kill him?”

Lee gave him a sharp look that he ignored but Tsunade shook her head. “Even if I were inclined to let you do that there’s still too much we don’t know. Why did he attack Sasuke in the first place? What could he have to gain from it? What is so important about Sasuke that he would come back to finish the job?”

“Where has he been all this time..?” Naruto muttered under his breath.

“Who’s he working for..?” Lee added almost inaudibly.

That got Tsunade’s attention, “You think he might be doing this on someone else’s orders?”

“I don’t know… Manda’s not the type to follow orders…” Naruto said frowning.

Lee looked at me, “but there is someone out there who knows something about demons and wants you dead, Sasuke.”

I blinked, “Not that I wouldn’t put it past him but there weren’t any giant snakes sealed in the tablets beneath my house … and Manda bit me before my father decided I was better off dead.” It wasn’t even difficult talking about my father this way. I guess accepting that my own father wanted me dead just wasn’t that hard. That said a lot about the kind of father he’d been to me.

Tsunade nodded slowly, processing. “Manda’s motivations are no doubt a big piece of the puzzle but until he starts talking all we can do is speculate; which brings me to the next order of business. Sasuke,” I turned to face her, “Naruto told me back in Tokyo that your father doesn’t have much time left.”

“Two months or less.” I agreed.

“Then that is how long we will be here.”

“What??” I looked around shocked that no one else seemed to be shocked.

“We have two major problems but one is going to go away in two months so that is the minimum amount of time that you will have to spend here. It’s probably going to take about that long for your broken leg to heal and in the mean time we will do our best to figure out why Manda seems so interested in ensuring you are dead.” No one reacted to the cold hearted way Tsunade referred to my father’s impending death; just stating the facts. The only issue I caught was,

“Why am I the only one surprised?” I asked, looking at all the faces around me.

Lee and Gaara looked at each other before Lee turned back to me, “We kinda discussed this on the train.” He said sheepishly, “There’s not much we can do while your father’s around trying to kill us.”

“Your father’s influence carries a lot of weight, kid.” Tsunade said, drawing my attention back to her. “I couldn’t even sneak you into my hospital for an x-ray like I’d wanted to because your father owns the hospital I work for. The only reason I have you in an immobilizer and not a cast is because Naruto insisted that your bone was aligned and the cast would get in his way.” She shot a subdued glare at Naruto telling him how unhappy she still was with that.

Naruto ignored it, “I just figured that’s what the plan would be.” He said with a shrug. “Not surprised it worked out this way. I just want us to be someplace safe until the bastard keels over.” He looked at me with worry edging his features, “I’m with Tsunade on this one. If Manda’s not working alone then this is the best place to be in case of a demon attack.”

I turned to Lee, “What about you? Don’t you have school? Your uncle? The Dojo?”

Lee scratched the back of his head and sighed, “I home school actually. I have a web tutor and turn in my assignments online. It was the best way to balance school and the dojo!” He said quickly at the surprise on my face.

“That and avoid the other kids who treated you like you like crap.” Gaara said with quiet anger.

“It wasn’t that bad.” Lee whispered back. Gaara just stared.

Lee cleared his throat and turned back to me with a smile that looked a little forced, “Anyway, I can finish my semester up here, there’s not much of it left. Tsunade already said she’d let me borrow her computer. They’re still renovating the dojo so classes are cancelled until the beginning of the year and my uncle… he’s on a business trip, and he won’t mind.”

“Business trip?” Naruto asked.

“World Taijutsu Championships in Beijing. He’s a judge.” Gaara replied.

“Okay, am I the only one who has a problem with this set up?” I asked looking around the room and stopping on Shizune. “You can’t expect me to believe that you’re okay with a bunch of freeloaders that have people trying to kill them staying in your temple for two months?”

Shizune was silent a moment, looking at her clasped hands. “Ino is a powerful medium. In fact this temple is known for its powerful mediums but the last time any medium of this temple was able to successfully channel the goddess Inari was three hundred years ago… until this afternoon.” She lifted her gaze to both of us. “We had faith it would work because Naruto was here. All the kyuubi are gone but one and having him here is a blessing to this temple, not a curse. The priestesses have started to see foxes near the temple again, flowers have sprouted around the torii gate at the entrance to the temple in spite of the snow and winter chill. The priestesses even say they have felt inexplicable gusts of warm air while working outside.  This is your doing.” She said just to Naruto. “If the goddess has blessed us with her presence it is because we are host to her messenger. So yes, please stay as long as you like.” She said with a smile.

Naruto bit his lip and looked away. There was a small amount of pink on his cheeks and I threw a hand up in surrender. “Okay okay, we’ll stay.”

Naruto snorted, “Um, I don’t think our friends would’ve let us leave anyway.” He whispered into my ear.

I sighed internally and looked around at all of them as they discussed more of the details behind our stay. How the temple wouldn’t be accepting any more people to their guest house until we left. What spells they might use in order to get information out of Manda. Where would Lee and Gaara be able to spar without breaking anything.

I leaned back against Naruto and felt him wrap an arm around me, the other still holding my hand. Somehow we’d managed to surround ourselves with people who cared about us… and who we cared about. The thought frightened me though because these were all good people that I’d put in great danger.

I felt Naruto lean back down towards my ear, “I can hear you thinking.” I frowned and looked back at him but he was smiling at me. “Stop worrying so much. You’re not getting rid of any of us so you better get used to this.”

I looked away, “So you can finally read my mind then?”

He snorted, which was pretty friggen loud right next to my ear. “No, you just make it easy.”

I elbowed him in the gut and he stifled a laugh, “Things are changing for the better, Sasuke. We’re not alone anymore.”

He dropped a kiss onto my ear but I was too distracted by the ‘we’ in that last sentence to react; because it wasn’t just me. I looked up at Naruto, at his smile, then to Lee and Gaara who were discussing something amongst the two of them. It wasn’t just me and that’s why all of this was worth it to them. None of us were alone anymore.

00000

One Week Later

The whole first week in the temple was a blur. I didn’t have another fully lucid episode like I’d had during Gaara’s adoption ceremony for days after. I was unconscious for most of that week; the pain and the dizziness and nausea was too much so if it wasn’t the meds keeping me under it was Naruto’s chakra. The few episodes of clearheaded wakefulness I did have I spent thinking about my brother and how much I wished he were still here and mourning my uncle who’d tried so hard to be what my father hadn’t been. Thinking about my mother hurt too much…

00000

Two Weeks Later

Time passed and the blanket of snow on the ground quickly got thicker. My injuries were starting to heal faster, the superficial cuts and bruises were almost all gone and so were the headaches, nausea and lethargy I’d been having courtesy of my skull fracture. The worst of it was the leg and my burned hand which was still weak; it was frustrating when I couldn’t properly hold onto the crutches to get around.

There wasn’t much to do at the temple so I spent some of my time learning how to handle the flood of demon chakra constantly pouring into my system. It was more intense now than it had ever been and it was starting to have an effect on me. I could do more than see auras, I could feel them now too and my demon sight was on all the time unless I made the effort to shut it off. My temperature had shot up the first week of our stay and Sakura thought I was running a dangerously high fever until Naruto realized that my core temperature had risen to match his. It was clear his chakra was changing me but as much as a part of me thought I should be concerned about it, another larger reckless part of me … thought it was pretty cool.

Tsunade came by to check up on us at least twice a week and to update us on any progress she’d made but so far it wasn’t much. All Manda did when she woke him was scream and the information on my father was virtually nonexistent.

Tsunade told us that the explosion in my apartment after the double lightning strikes had made the news and the police had conducted a week long investigation of the apartment when they realized that I was missing. My father had been forced to make a statement to the press and file a missing persons report but had pretty much dropped off the face of the earth directly after. Unfortunately that meant my face had been plastered on every TV screen for nearly every news segment every day ever since.

What did that translate to? Near total confinement. Lee, Gaara, Naruto and I were allowed almost anywhere we wanted on temple grounds but if any visitors showed up we’d all get rushed back to the guest house until they were gone. I felt like an inmate and as beautiful as this place was, I couldn’t help feeling like I’d escaped one prison just to get thrown into another. The only upside was the fact that my curse didn’t seem to have any power here. I hadn’t had a single accident yet.

It was the only reason Naruto had allowed himself to relax enough to do what he was doing right now. I sat on the covered walkway that cut through the garden watching as Gaara and Naruto sat in the snow, meditating. Gaara had started doing that after the adoption to ‘get closer to the goddess’, or so he said and I remembered with a smile the first time that he’d asked Naruto to join him. I hadn’t thought that Naruto had the patience for meditation but I’d been wrong. Through our bond I was able to feel his concentration, the peace that meditation afforded him, and feel a tenuous warmth from the goddess that I could see surrounding both of them like a ghostly fire.

I never joined them in their meditations. I was too stressed with everything that was happening to us but I was glad when Naruto did it. These were one of the few times I could sit still with a book or lean against the wooden rail watching them and just breathe.

00000

Three Weeks Later

His screams echoed throughout the room. They were screams of excruciating pain; pure agony unlike I had ever witnessed and louder than I thought a creature so small could ever produce. Tsunade tried to verbally adjust the spell, her hands raised in a complicated seal, but her voice was drowned out by Manda’s howls and she gave a frustrated huff before giving up and slapping the paper wards back onto the pet carrier. The room instantly fell quiet. I watched as Manda’s body went limp from its contorted coil, the wards forcing him back into enchanted sleep.

“You gave up too quickly,” Gaara said from where he stood at one end of the table.

Tsunade glared at him, “This is not the first time I’ve done this, Gaara of the Sand,” she said sharply, “and if there’s one thing experience has taught me it’s that if it doesn’t work from the beginning, it won’t. Spells either do their job or they don’t, delayed reactions happen only on purpose, and torturing Manda is not going to get us what we want.”

Gaara had a look on his face like he disagreed but before he could reply Naruto put his elbows on the table and leaned forward to look inside the pet carrier. “Why is he in so much pain though? Is it the temple?”

Tsunade sighed and shook her head, “No, the seals I placed on him mean the temple’s protections aren’t affecting him. He reacts like this when I take him home with me too. I’ve tried everything I can think of: shields, healing spells, hypnotism, purifications, I’ve even dabbled in some western magic but nothing seems to get passed this horrible pain he’s in. Whatever … or whoever has a hold on him, it’s powerful.” She paused and I could see in her face that she was debating whether or not to say what she said next, “It may be more powerful than I am.”

“I’m not sure I like what that implies about our enemy.” Lee said, in a rare moment of nervous uncertainty.

“It doesn’t matter.” Gaara said, “The fact that we haven’t been attacked yet means that our enemy either hasn’t discovered our location or if he has then he is unable to bypass the temple’s divine protection…”

“Yes but we can’t stay here forever,” I said interrupting him. “I’m sick and tired of hearing how perfect and how safe this place is. We’ve been trapped here for weeks with no word on my father, no information on this potential second enemy, all we have are speculations and a snake that needs to be put out of its misery!”

“Sasuke…” Naruto said straightening up and reaching out for me.

“No!” I said, tightening my hold on my crutches and moving back a step. “Staying here is not the solution to our problems!” I was restless, worried, stressed and I knew it was affecting me; I knew it was all boiling over but I couldn’t stop myself. “Our situation is no different than Manda’s except for the fact that we imprisoned ourselves! I can’t stay locked in a cage forever even if it means I’d be safe from whatever or whoever it was that sent Manda after me!”  

“Sasuke, no one is saying…”

“We are trapped in this place and all of you are perfectly happy waiting here until doomsday if we have to before we can leave! Tsunade, you said two months was the minimum. So what’s the max?!”

“Sasuke…”

But I didn’t stop to listen, I turned around and hobbled my stupid broken leg out the door. I heard Naruto apologize and then come after me, “Naruto, please don’t say anything.” But it wasn’t an order. I’d made him a promise the day Gaara had been ‘adopted’ that I wouldn’t give him orders anymore. We were way passed that stage and I didn’t need anything else to feel ashamed about. Naruto sighed but said nothing as we slowly made the walk back to our room.

Strangely enough it was Tsunade who came to the door an hour later. She sat down next to me at the kotatsu and spoke to me calmly about all the things she planned to do to help us, about how she wasn’t giving up and generally made me feel like a douche bag for blowing up the way I had. She wasn’t doing it intentionally though. She put her arm around me and was patient and answered my questions but after some time I began to sense something in me that wasn’t mine. Naruto was smiling softly at her while she talked to us and there was so much love there. I remembered how Naruto considered her his mother and the more I picked up on how much he cared about her, the worse I felt.

Yeah I felt bad for yelling at Naruto’s mother but I also felt bad for being the smallest bit jealous of him. I felt Tsunade make a soothing circular motion with her hand on my back and I looked up at her just in time to see her lean down and whisper something into my ear, “Please leave the worrying to me Sasuke. We’ll figure this one out. Anyone who wants to mess with my boys is going to have to go through me first.”

I blinked in surprise and saw the smirk on her face before she turned away to speak again to Naruto. I began to relax by inches and suddenly I was just tired. I let Tsunade wrap her arm around me and I leaned against her tentatively. When I felt her respond by gripping me tighter I sighed and all the tension left me. “I’m sorry,” I said under my breath. Her smile widened a fraction but she didn’t say a word.

00000

One Month Later

I used the end of my crutch to close the door behind me as I left Shizune’s room. She changed the bandage around my leg once a day and had to carefully rewrite the warding spell onto them every time. It was exhausting work for her because the spell was so powerful and I felt the tug of guilt every time I sat down to let her work. Everyone was doing so much for me and as grateful as I was… I also hated it. I hated not being able to do anything. I was just so tired of being taken care of.

Walking onto the covered walkway between the temple and the guest house I saw Gaara sitting in the snow, meditating in the garden again. His aura was bright and the tiny red flares it usually emitted were larger and wilder. The beauty of it distracted me for a moment and I reached out instinctively with my new senses to see what I could feel... It was warmth, and welcoming, there was a sense of coming home. I pulled back before I invaded Gaara’s privacy any more. Gaara and Naruto never minded when I piggybacked on their meditations but this one felt private.

I blinked away the demon sight and when I looked again I realized that he was alone, neither Lee nor Naruto were with him. Thinking about Naruto made me start walking again and a few seconds later I was closing the guest house door behind me. Now that both of my hands were completely healed I was able to get around with my crutches easier and faster.

Slipping out of the one sandal I moved the crutches forward down the hall and just as I was approaching Lee and Gaara’s room I heard Lee’s voice sound distressed and stopped. “…couldn’t stand by and do nothing! What kind of person would that make me? And he’s my friend, they both are…” he trailed off weakly.

I heard a considering hum and another voice came in through the low volume of laptop speakers. “I see… I understand your motivations Lee but I was surprised when I got home and you still weren’t back. You said you’re in Hokkaido?”

“Yes… are you mad?” Lee asked uncertainly.

“And it’s to help a friend, you said?” The voice asked, ignoring his question.

“Yes, Gai-sensei.” Oh, his uncle. I walked forward into the doorway and saw Lee sitting at an angle from the door. The screen was half turned away from me but I could still see the sudden grin and the thumbs up Lee’s uncle gave him.

“That’s the pupil I raised! Strong, Determined, and Loyal! Anyone should be proud to have you for a friend, Lee! Your steadfast dedication to all the important things in life: Honor, Taijutsu, Friendship, and Love are the things that make you shine above all…” I started to block him out right about then and cleared my throat to get Lee’s attention.

Lee barely pulled his very relieved, starry-eyed expression away from his uncle and sensei long enough to notice I was there but when he did he smiled at me and quickly turned back to the screen. “Uncle! I’m so sorry to interrupt you but I have to take care of something.”

I saw the figure on screen nodding, “Of course Lee, of course.” There was a pause and when Gai’s voice came back all the levity and humor was gone, “Do you still have Gaara with you?” Lee nodded and Gai made another ‘hmm’ noise before he straightened up and said, “I know there must be a good reason you’re not telling me everything and I hope that when your ordeal is over you will. I trust that you’re doing what you think is right. Just don’t forget that I’m here if you need help, no matter what.”

Lee was tearing up, “Thank you, Uncle.”

Gai-sensei saluted, “Call me again soon.” And the connection went dead.

Lee sighed with a smile and wiped away at his wet eyes before he looked up at me again, “Hi Sasuke, how’re you feeling?”

“Fine,” I said glancing back at the laptop. “You’re uncle…”

“Oh, it’s fine!” Lee said standing up, “I knew he would understand. Even when I don’t always know how to tell him things, he always gets it.” He said directing a smile back to the laptop screen.

“Must be nice…” I said softly, the words coming out unbidden.

“Hmm?” Lee blinked at me not having caught that and thank the goddess.

“You asked me to come by after Shizune was done.” I said to quickly change the subject.

“Oh, right!” Lee rushed off to his wardrobe and threw the doors open. “We’ve been using the guest house yukatas so much that I completely forgot about our own clothes, and that they could probably use a wash. So this morning when I was getting the laundry together, this fell out of the pocket of my jeans.”

He said the last while walking back towards me and opened his palm to reveal… Naruto’s necklace. “It was on the bed next to your hand when I went to carry you off the train. I’m sorry I held onto it for so long, I completely forgot I had it.”

I clutched the crutch under my arm and took the necklace. “Thank you. It’s Naruto’s actually but I’ll give it back to him.”

Lee frowned curiously and leaned around to look behind me, “Where is Naruto?”

“Sleeping.” I said, pocketing the necklace. “It’s the only time we can be away from each other without the spell hurting him for it.” Lee made an ‘ah’ sound and nodded. “Was there anything else?”

Lee shook his head but then hesitated, “Um, unless there’s anything you need that I can help you with?” he said with an honest and eager smile.

I bristled but tried not to let it show on my face. “No, I’m fine. We’re still on for more lessons after my leg is healed right?”

His smile widened, “Absolutely!”

I turned quickly and started heading back into the hallway. “Thanks Lee.”

“No problem! Oh and tell Naruto I’m sorry for keeping it so long!” I nodded back to him before I turned the corner out of sight. I’d tell Naruto for him but I knew Naruto wouldn’t mind. Mostly I just needed to get out of there. Just like Tsunade, Shizune, and Sakura I knew that Lee meant well but treating me like an invalid… like I was helpless… it chafed. Besides Naruto the only other person I could stand to be around most days was Gaara. At least he didn’t hover.  

Naruto’s and my room was just down the hall from Lee and Gaara’s and once I was inside I closed the door as quietly as I could. The room was completely dark when I entered, the curtains drawn on every window. With the afternoon sun fading outside, there wasn’t much light peaking in from around the curtains so I walked to the kotatsu where the mikos had left a few candles for us and set the crutches down so I could bend over and light them.

Once that was done, I shed the heavy winter kimono, tightened the sash on the yukata I’d been wearing underneath and hopped over towards the bedroom. The door was open and I could see Naruto starfished under the blankets in the dim light, snoring lightly. I smiled in spite of myself and my bad mood vanished almost instantly. He was the reason so many good (and annoying) things had happened to me; the reason there were so many people in my life now who honestly cared about me.  

I hopped over to my side of the futon and carefully sat down on the end so that I could watch him sleep. At the beginning of our … confinement here Naruto and I had had some spectacular fights about what I should or shouldn’t be allowed to do, or about how much privacy I should have because goddess forbid I should go to the toilet on my own. We’d fought about a lot of other things that mostly had to do with how worried he was about me after almost losing me and how much I wanted to be better already and not need a babysitter or a shadow at my back waiting to see if I tripped over my own feet.

In the end it took a couple weeks before we managed to figure out a system that we were both comfortable with, especially once we realized that I didn’t need his constant protection here. Naruto stuck with me most of the time because that wasn’t something we could change but he started taking naps during the day so that I could have an hour or so to myself and he could recover from the constant drain on his chakra. When we were together he didn’t nag me about the little things as long as I promised to ask for help if I needed it, which had been hard but it wouldn’t be fair to say that the compromise wasn’t hard for him either. And when the heck had I become so reasonable?

I sighed and bent over my broken leg to remove the immobilizer. Tsunade would have a fit if she knew I wasn’t sleeping with it but it was bulky and uncomfortable and I was never good at following other people’s orders anyway. Once it was off I looked back at Naruto and jumped when I saw that he was watching me. He gave me a sleepy smirk, “Did I scare ya?”

“Like hell,” I said, looking away while smoothing my yukata down. I felt him sit up and wrap his arms around me… before yawning right next my ear. “Argh c’mon, do you have to do that right there??”

He chuckled and nuzzled his nose against my neck. “But I can’t help it. I’m sleepy and you’re right there, looking all cuddly and sexy…” I could feel him grinning against my neck.

I felt the heat rising in my skin and looked off at some dimly lit corner of the room, “One of these days you’ll open your mouth and the words that come out will actually make sense.” I muttered quietly but apparently not quietly enough.

Naruto turned me around and pushed my back onto the futon before he lowered his lips to mine in a firm kiss. “I always make sense, Sasuke.” He said pulling back only slightly. When I just looked at him and didn’t bother arguing he smiled and rubbed his cheek against mine. “What did Shizune say about your leg?” he asked softly.

“No change.” I said, my heart rate picking up, “Still broken, still poisoned.”

Naruto made an angry snort and sat up slightly. I could immediately see how frustrated he was with the news so I quickly changed the subject, “Lee had your necklace.” He blinked in surprise and refocused on me. “He forgot about it and found it again today.” I made a face and continued in order to fulfill my promise, “He also told me to pass on his apology…”

Naruto’s face went from excited to dismissive and waved away the apology like I knew he would. “Lee’s way too polite. So did he give it to you?” he asked eagerly.

“Yeah it’s in the pocket of my kimo…”

“I’ll get it!” he yelled and practically flew off the futon into the other room. I blinked and sat up watching him rummage through the pockets of my discarded kimono until he found it. His face broke out into one of the widest grins I’d ever seen him make as he clutched it in his hand and brought it back into our bedroom. He sat beside me on the futon and inspected it carefully; the three stones and the thin leather rope that tied off at the end still the same as he’d left it. “I thought I’d lost it.”  

“And now you have it back.” It was a throw away comment that I didn’t expect him to react to with more than a smile or a nod but the look he gave me was careful and considerate.

He stared at me long enough that I was about to ask him what was wrong when he nodded to himself almost imperceptively and looked back down at the necklace. “There’re two precious things I thought I’d lost that came back to me.” He untied the end of the necklace and before I could react he reached around my neck and tied the ends back. “And now they’re both together.”

I looked down at the necklace, surprised. “This is yours. You don’t have to do this.”

Naruto was adjusting the necklace unnecessarily and smiled at me, “I want to.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Won’t Tsunade be mad?”

He raised one right back, “The old lady will get over it. It’s not like it’s hers anymore.”

I snorted a laugh before I could hold it back but I blinked when Naruto didn’t say anything else and my humor died away the more I paid attention to what Naruto was doing. He was still fingering the necklace but the end of one finger had hooked around the collar of my yukata. It tugged slightly, the collar opening with it until the necklace dropped from the fabric and fell onto my skin.

He started to trace the skin around the necklace with his finger and I shivered. Naruto seemed pleased with my reaction because he pulled his finger away and replaced it with his mouth. His lips traced the light touches his fingers had made, warm puffs of breath against my skin preceding soft kisses. His kisses followed the line of the leather rope up to my neck where they went from feather light to long and lingering. I felt a hand settle on my waist and another rise up to hold the other side of my neck as Naruto traced small fangs against the curse mark. A spot on my skin I’d once hated, he had turned into a place that I craved to be touched.

I let go a small breath of air and clutched his yukata tightly because that was it wasn’t it? He made a lot of the self-hatred I hadn’t even known I’d harbored completely disappear. He made me see myself in new light. He didn’t judge me or tell me I was broken or wrong for being who I was. He just loved me… and I loved him back. “Hmm?” he asked, nibbling at my ear.

I must’ve whispered it so I smiled and said it louder, “I love you.”

He froze.

I was disappointed when he pulled back but the look on his face was worth it, “I… really?” His eyes were rapidly turning back to the red of his emotional state.

My smile was still there, soft, subdued, and only for him. “Yeah.”

“I mean, I thought I’d felt something from you but… and I didn’t want to jump to conclusions…” he was getting worked up and I could see the red on his cheeks even through the soft candlelight. I decided to take matters into my own hands before he could say anything else. I used my grip on his yukata to pull him closer and crashed my lips onto his in a fierce kiss. It took a minute for him to respond but when he did he was all eagerness and enthusiasm.

Raising a hand to the back of my head he kissed me back hard. Parting my lips with his tongue he plunged it into my mouth, tilting his head to the side to seal the kiss. Before I knew it I was on my back again with Naruto on top of me, my good leg between both of his. I raised my arms up around him and began tugging at his yukata, pulling it down around his shoulders so I could feel his skin against my hands.

Naruto growled and pulled away from the kiss to sit up and remove the offending piece of clothing until he was left with just his underwear. He looked down at me for a moment with such heat in his eyes that I could feel his gaze like a living thing on my skin. It sent shocks down my body that I could feel all the way to my toes. I brought a hand to my chest unconsciously, tracing it up from where the necklace still sat all the way up to my neck as though I could catch the spark of his gaze in my hand.

Naruto followed my hand with that hungry gaze and replaced my hand with his. Slowly, he trailed only his fingertips down my chest and I shuddered even as his touch ran over cloth and came to a stop at the sash that kept my yukata closed. He looked at me, asking. We’d gone this far before, losing our clothes until we were almost completely naked in each other’s arms. This was not new and I knew instinctively what he was really asking for. I nodded. I wanted this with him. I wanted everything with him.

Naruto didn’t waste any time. He undid the sash, opening the yukata and barely left me a moment to pull my arms out of the sleeves before he bent down and began trailing wet kisses down my chest. I moaned, the sound escaping against my will and I huffed in frustration. Distracted for a moment, I almost didn’t notice when Naruto rose up and smiled against my ear, “C’mon, Sasuke. Don’t hold back.” His voice was throaty and rough, “I want to hear you.” He didn’t even give me the opportunity to curse him out.

Naruto bent back down and took my right nipple into his mouth. I gasped and looked down to watch as he swirled his tongue around it and bit it gently. My blood was on fire; I felt that fire rush through my veins and pool between my legs, hardening my arousal almost too quickly to be comfortable.

My hands clutched at his shoulders as he moved from one nipple to the other and gave it similar treatment. I heard myself make a needy sound I will never admit to making under pain of death and gripped him tightly wanting more but not knowing how to ask. Naruto dropped a kiss just under the nipple before he looked up at me and asked, “What do you want, Sasuke?” There were a lot of emotions swirling about in Naruto’s eyes but the one’s that came through the most were passion and adoration. “Name it, and I’ll give it to you.”

“I… I don’t …” I moved my hips in frustration. Part of me didn’t know what to ask for, while the other part of me knew damn well what but was too embarrassed to ask for it.

Naruto grinned, the fangs showing a bit more the more he lost control. “Is it this?” Slowly, slow enough that I could stop him if I wanted to, Naruto trailed a hand down my chest, letting his nails graze my skin in ways that sent shivers down my spine.

That hand drew down my waist and over my briefs until it settled warm and heavy over my cock. I gasped and pushed my hips up into his hand, “Yes, yes please.” I was beyond the ability to feel embarrassed, I just wanted so badly.

Naruto kneaded his palm against my erection and I cried out, clutching him tighter and digging my nails into his skin. I felt him shudder above me and whisper my name against the skin of my abdomen before he lifted up slightly and reached with both hands to pull my underwear down my legs one at a time; even now mindful of my injury.

He tossed it aside and when he looked back at me I could just imagine what he saw: naked flushed skin, red kiss swollen lips, pupils blown wide swallowing up dark irises… the arousal between my legs just aching to be touched. Every inch of me was aching for his touch.

My legs spread invitingly, deliberately, and I grinned. “What are you waiting for, a written invitation?” I asked, my boldness coming from the raw desire I saw in Naruto’s face as he watched me.

He huffed a small laugh but moved his mouth futilely, words escaping him, before he decided there were better things he could be doing with that mouth. Naruto settled himself on his belly between my legs and started dropping kisses around my belly button. I was a little ticklish there and started to squirm beneath him but he didn’t linger. Bringing his arms up around my thighs he bent my legs at the knee slightly and caressed the skin with his hands while his mouth came achingly close to the base of my arousal. For a moment all I felt was his breath against my skin. Then he rose up and dipped his head to lick at the tip.

I hissed and felt my cock twitch. Naruto, who I could already tell was far more experienced than I was, bent his head around it and began licking from base to tip. It was exquisite and torturous at the same time. I was about yell at him to stop teasing me when he rose up one last time and took the head into his mouth. I had no conscious awareness of the sounds I was making anymore. All I knew was my death grip on the sheets as his tongue swirled around the head of my cock, as his head bobbed up and down, up and down, over and over. He took one of his hands away from my thighs and I felt it reach down and knead my balls just as Naruto brought his head back down all the way and moaned.

My back arched just as I shouted his name and I nearly came right there. “Stop, stop.” I begged. There were tears in my eyes and my body trembled under his careful attentions. Naruto pulled his hand away but took his time lifting his mouth off my member, sucking as he did so that it came off with an obscene pop that nearly brought the edge of orgasm right back. I was panting and shaking and needed him. His glazed lust filled gaze barely registered the hand I reached out to him but I determinedly reached up behind his neck and dragged him up my body and to my lips for a bruising kiss.

Once his lips were on mine he seemed to wake from his daze and thrust his tongue against mine. He moaned into the kiss and I reached down to feel the wet spot over his erection on his underwear, knowing he’d been just as affected by what he’d done to me as I was. Eager to have the evidence of that in my hand I made a frustrated sound as I tried to tug his underwear down unsuccessfully and finally just reached inside and took him in my hand. Naruto uttered a muffled cry against my lips and I took that for the encouragement it was.

I gripped his cock firmly and began to explore it with my fingers, learning him through touch. My thumb came up around the head and teased at the slit, gathering up the fluid leaking out and trailing it down the underside of the shaft. He shuddered above me and pulled away from me only long enough to slide his underwear down his legs before he was on me again, mouth on mine, tongue warring against my own and memorizing every inch of my mouth.

Oh but this was so much better because now his fully naked body was resting on top of mine, skin to skin and being nearly the same height meant I could feel his erection pressed just against the juncture where thigh met hip. I moved my hips slightly, eager to feel him against me and it was just what we needed. His gasp broke the kiss and he made an involuntary thrust that sent a pleasurable shock through me; one that I felt all the way down to my fingertips. “Oh my god,” he breathed, face lowered against my neck.

I wholeheartedly agreed, “Do that again.” I got out between panting gasps.

He complied and not much was said after that. He began slowly, both of us too close to the edge to take it any faster. I kissed any part of him I could reach, whispering my love into his ear and felt my chest grow tight every time he whispered it back. His thrusts soon picked up pace and I threw my good leg around his hips in encouragement. Every thrust rubbed his hard cock against my own, the fluids leaking out becoming an impromptu lubricant. It was shock and after shock of pleasure with every rocking motion and I gasped and cried and shouted and begged for more.

Naruto’s skin felt like it was on fire. The heat of it wrapped around me, burning me, looking for a way in. Naruto bit my shoulder to stifle an animalistic growl and I felt the heat entering me, riding my pleasure, intensifying it to a white hot burn that I thought would consume me from within. “Naru…” I gasped as his hips sped up, rocking me bodily against the futon when his cock accidently slipped down passed my balls and touched briefly against my entrance. I whimpered with want as he stopped and reached down to adjust himself, making sure that our arousals rubbed together against our bellies once he started his thrusts again.

The strange burn was everywhere inside me shooting through me like waves of liquid lava, the strength of it encouraged by the shocks of pleasure that came with every thrust of Naruto’s hips against mine. I couldn’t make myself care what it was, I was at a precipice and needed that one last push. Naruto seemed to read my mind because he brought a finger to my lips and I instantly took it into my mouth, sucking on it and rolling my tongue around it. Naruto moaned and drew it out. He reached down with that hand, brushed against my balls, down the skin of my perineum and teased my entrance with that finger. “Please…” I gasped and he pushed inside.

I threw my head back and cried out, come splashing from the head of my cock in long spurts up my chest and neck, droplets hitting my chin. The strange heat that had possessed me exploded inside of me right on the heels of my orgasm, prolonging it and intensifying it until all I could do was lay there and tremble in the aftershocks. Watching me orgasm was what did it for Naruto because a couple more thrusts and I saw him open his mouth in a silent scream as he came, spilling his seed between us to mix with my own.

Naruto collapsed on top of me, panting against my neck and smearing come against our skin but I couldn’t have cared less. I reached up shaky arms to wrap around him and hold him against me. “It might be the fantastic orgasm talking,” he got out between gasps of air, “but I don’t think I’ve loved anyone more.”

I laughed and held him tighter. “Same,” I said back and he chuckled.

After a couple minutes Naruto lifted himself up and gave me the gentlest most love-struck smile I’d ever seen him make. It made my heart flutter. “It wasn’t the orgasm talking.” He bent down to kiss my forehead, the tip of my nose, and then placed the sweetest kiss against my lips.

When he lifted his head again to look at me I brought a hand up to caress his cheek and watched as he closed his eyes and leaned into the touch. “Same,” I breathed, suddenly overwhelmed by how unbelievably happy I was. I was in love and I could feel that love expanding inside my chest and filling up all of the empty spaces where the cold and the darkness had haunted me until now.

Naruto shifted so that he could kiss the palm of my hand and I felt my eyes sting. I looked away from him but before I could drop my hand he brought his own up to cup mine against his face. When I pulled my gaze back to him he was looking at me like I was the most precious thing in the world and I felt my throat tighten up. “I love you,” he said a voice he rarely ever used. It was solemn, serious, intense, like he needed me to know that those words held the weight of something sacred. I was powerless to do anything but look at him and say the words back in the same tone. It felt like a promise.

As hard as I fought them I felt the tears slide down my face toward my ears. But I was surprised when I wasn’t embarrassed and I knew then that it was because I trusted Naruto with everything I was. I trusted him enough to be vulnerable in front of him and know that all he would do would be to love me more. As if to prove me right he bent down and kissed the tear tracks near my eyes. I sighed softly wishing we weren’t such a mess so that we could share this moment longer but I glanced down at our chests and cringed.

Naruto followed my gaze and snorted a short laugh, “I guess we could use a shower.”

Something pulled his gaze further down my body and he froze. “What?” I asked, using my elbows to prop myself up. That’s when I saw that the bandages around my broken leg lay in half burned tatters beneath it. The demon sight that I’d been sporting for a few minutes now zeroed in on the ankle and I could no longer see the purple aura of the poison in my blood. The swelling was completely gone, the aura was a mixture of my own and Naruto’s. Even free of the bandages the leg didn’t hurt at all. I pulled the knee to my chest and touched the spot where I’d been bitten, feeling my leg all the way up to my calf. “It’s gone.” I said shocked.

We looked at my leg in stunned silence for a moment until suddenly the words came back to me unbidden just as Naruto said them aloud, “Didn’t your improv go something like: ‘…share with me the strength of your eternity as I offer up the mortality of my flesh.’?”

I looked at him incredulously even though I’d been thinking the same thing, “Are you trying to imply that if I ever get injured again…”

“We should have sex to make it go away.” Naruto finished with a rapidly widening grin. I froze for a couple seconds with my hand half way up my shoulder to the spot where Naruto had bitten me, thinking about that strange heat that had possessed me right before I came. Then I made a face and shoved Naruto off me, “hey!”

I sat up and got to my feet carefully, relying on my good leg the way I’d been doing for a month now. Experimentally, I slowly eased the other foot down on the ground. Naruto was at my elbow right away, watching. I leaned my weight on it … and nothing happened. It was as if I’d never been hurt in the first place. Naruto took a step forward with a shit-eating grin on his face and whispered into my ear, “My dick healed you Sasuke.” I felt no guilt when I kicked him behind the knees and he fell back down onto the futon.

He didn’t even bitch, he just laid there and laughed his ass off. “The wording in the spell healed me, Naruto.” I said, indignantly. He ignored me. I sighed and rolled my eyes heavenward. “Fine,” I smirked as I took the first few careful steps toward the bathroom. “I guess I’m showering alone.”

I heard him scramble off the futon just as I slid the door to the bathroom open. “Whoa, Sasuke. Wait up!”

00000

Five Weeks Later

After that first time it became a regular thing. There wasn’t much to do at the temple besides sit and wait for news so there were many opportunities for us to be alone. A day like today: lazy, quiet and overcast meant we hadn’t been bothered since the morning… and hadn’t left the room all day.

Sitting on the futon I nibbled at a spot on Naruto’s neck and felt the shiver it produced against my naked skin. I leaned forward against him, pressing the stones of the necklace I still wore between us and wrapped my arms around him, basking in his warmth. He reached down with his free hand and grabbed my ass for a moment, caressing the skin, before he tightened his grip and pulled my hips closer.

I adjusted myself on his lap and whispered in his ear, “Stop making me wait.” Naruto grunted and pulled his other hand away from the container of massage oil. He spread me open with his clean hand and I felt his oiled fingers slide down between my cheeks to tease at my entrance. I moaned and pushed back against him but all he did was circle his finger along the sensitive ring. I made an impatient noise and bit his ear; I swear he did that just to frustrate me.

Naruto made a half chuckle deep in his throat and pushed in with the first finger. I gasped and rocked against him, hoping for some friction, but he stilled me with a hand on my hip and planted a kiss against my collarbone. I obliged him and stayed still as he continued to drop kisses along my shoulder and pushed in deep with his finger. Staying still was the hardest because all I wanted was to rock back onto that finger. Naruto moved his finger in and out slowly before pulling out completely and adding a second finger. I breathed out through pursed lips and relaxed my muscles to let him slide his fingers inside without too much resistance.

As soon as I felt his fingers scissoring and stretching me I leaned back by an inch in order to capture Naruto’s mouth with mine. I put everything I felt for him into that kiss and heard him moan in response. It sent a shudder through me to know that he could feel how much I loved him in ways no one else ever could; that what we had was truly unique. The kiss was deep but gentle and I felt a small wetness against his cheek when I brought my hand to touch it. I broke the kiss as he pulled his fingers out and rested his forehead against mine. “I know Sasuke,” he said, taking my hips and raising them up, “me too.”

I watched him dip his fingers back into the massage oil and slick himself up with the lubricant. The sight and the anticipation alone threatened to unravel me so I reached down with one of my hands to line his hard cock against my entrance, still impatient, still needing him, and slowly lowered myself onto it. Gritting my teeth against the stretch I moved my hands to his shoulders for support and inched my way down until I was fully seated on his lap. I closed my eyes and breathed carefully trying to adjust to his size. Naruto on the other hand had dropped his forehead to my shoulder and was whispering small endearments while his fingers clutched tightly at my waist.

I let go of a small breath and wriggled my hips experimentally, intentionally grinding my ass against the soft skin of his balls. Naruto gasped and uttered a whispered curse that made me smile. Carefully, I lifted myself up with my legs until just the head of his dick was still in me and I slowly dropped myself back down until he filled me completely once more. “Sasuke…” My name whispered so breathlessly against my skin and filled with so much want sent a pleasurable shock through me that had me rushing to fulfill the unspoken request.

I lifted myself up again and dropped down onto his cock faster than I had before. Naruto made a small desperate, needy sound. Eager to hear more of that sound I rose up and slid back down onto his shaft again, beginning a rhythm that soon had me bouncing up and down on his lap. I braced myself on his shoulders while he began to help me, lifting me up at the waist with his hands as I rose up but letting me drop back down on my own. For several minutes the slap of skin on skin as I came down on his thighs was the only sound in the room between our quiet gasps. I threw my head back when his hands on me moved my hips and changed the angle of his cock inside me, hitting that one amazing spot that caused me to cry out.

“Yes, more!” I gasped out and a low growl told me my lover was more than happy to meet my request. I slammed back down onto his lap but before I could move again Naruto wrapped his arms around me and held me there. I let out a small sound of protest but before I could say anything I felt him move his hands to wrap around my thighs. He shifted beneath us and all of a sudden got to his feet holding me up with his arms, his cock still inside me. I quickly wrapped my legs around his waist to keep us stable and two seconds later Naruto had me shoved up against the wall. Naruto inched his hands back to my ass and spread my cheeks apart to feel where we were both connected with his fingers.

“You’re so sexy, Sasuke.” He breathed against my neck, licking at a spot near the curse mark.

“Okay that’s nice, you can start moving anytime now.” I said and squeezed at the base of his cock. His chuckle at my response was interrupted with a hiss as my muscles tightened around him and I smirked against his ear.

“F-fine…” he said and I heard the smile in his voice, “you want it, you got it.” He adjusted his hands to get a better grip on me and pressed me against the wall with his body before he began to thrust. It was a slow drag out and back in for a few moments, just to be sure we had the angle right before Naruto began to thrust in earnest. After that all I could do was hang on tight as Naruto rocked deep into me with his hard cock and brushed against that spot inside me that drove me out of my mind. Every thrust pushed me higher and higher with Naruto getting wilder the longer it went on.

My mouth fell open with the intent to speak but I couldn’t force the words out. To ask, to beg, for him to go harder, deeper, faster but he didn’t need to hear it to know. I could feel every inch of him as he filled me with each thrust and was so wrapped up in the sensation that I didn’t realize he’d grabbed my hand until I felt him wrap it around my own hardness. I blinked and looked at him curiously. He raised half lidded eyes to me, the lust and the love in them clear for me to see until a smirk tugged at his lips and he said, “Touch yourself Sasuke.”

The words went straight to my groin and I whimpered, squeezing at the base of my own arousal to keep my orgasm at bay. No easy task when Naruto was busy shoving his cock into me with reckless abandon. He bit my shoulder gently and brought his hand back to encircle mine. “No Sasuke,” he said slowing down before thrusting against me hard enough to make me cry out, “like this.” He tightened his hand on mine and pulled my hand up and down fast, not working me up to a speed like I had expected. It was too much. Except for a few shaky breaths I didn’t make any noise when I finally came. A powerful shudder wracked through my whole body and I spilled come over both of our hands, gasping and holding him tight.

I squeezed down hard on him when my orgasm hit, just as he was thrusting back inside me and Naruto groaned out my name against my shoulder. He went still, his cock deep inside me and I could feel him filling me up with his warm come. We were both panting by the end, my thighs shaking slightly around his waist and Naruto leaving a trail of kisses along my neck in between breaths. After a minute he pulled me away from the wall and walked back to the futon, kneeling and then laying me down first before slowly pulling out and collapsing beside me.

Still trying to catch my breath but missing his warmth I leaned over and pressed my lips against his while tugging his arm over my chest. He quickly understood and smiled into the kiss while throwing a leg over mine and cuddling up against my side. Naruto dropped a few more kisses onto my lips before he pulled back and just looked at me. I blinked, “What?”

His smile widened, “Nothing, just thinking about how lucky I am.” I rolled my eyes and gave him a halfhearted shove. He chuckled and leaned down to plant another kiss on my jaw. “You make me really happy Sasuke.”

I watched him tuck his head under my chin and I bit my bottom lip, thinking about that. I could honestly not remember a time when I had been happier than I was now. I’d made strong connections with good people, I had a boyfriend who loved me and who I loved back, and soon my father would no longer be around to threaten that happiness. As much as a part of me still felt guilt for being relieved at the thought of his approaching death, all I had to do was remember our last meeting in order to sooth that guilt.

I gripped Naruto tighter and he hummed happily, “Are we going to go out and find some chow?”

I sighed and smiled a bit, “I think I’d rather stay here a while.”

I felt the happy flutter along his chakra and he reached over with his hand and grabbed one of mine. “Sounds good to me.” It wasn’t long before we were both asleep.

00000

I woke up some time later to find that Naruto had rolled over and curled himself around his pillow. I was staring at his back with bleary, sleep filled eyes when I yawned and sat up. We’d never pulled the sheets up so they sat in a bundle at our feet but even without them I didn’t feel cold. The demon chakra inside me was keeping me warm. I looked at Naruto again and decided I’d get up and take a walk before I woke him. Standing up, I walked quietly over to our bathroom and shut the door so that the light and the noise wouldn’t bother him.

Once I got the hot water running I stepped in and quickly washed away all the stickiness from my body. Once I was done I stayed under the spray for a few more minutes just enjoying the way the hot water relaxed me until my stomach rumbled. I sighed and decided it was time Naruto and I ate something. Stepping out of the shower I dried myself off and went back into our room to slip into a fresh yukata. Glancing at Naruto one last time I silently promised to come back with something to eat. I grabbed my socks and the heavier tanzen kimono and left the room.

The hallway of the guest house was a little colder so I took a moment to slip my socks on before heading the rest of the way to the back door. My borrowed sandals were waiting for me at the back entrance and I got into them as I slipped the kimono on over my shoulders, tying the sash as I opened the door. It was a lot colder outside than I had expected but I suppose that with it being a week into December it shouldn’t have surprised me so much. Another small smile tugged at my lips as I thought that spending lazy days warm indoors with my lover was distorting my sense of time.

I adjusted the kimono a bit as I walked down the covered walkway toward the temple. It was snowing soft lazy flakes that drifted to the ground slowly without a breath of wind to pick them up. Halfway down the walkway I noticed a flash of red against the white of the snow covered garden and stopped. A red fox peeked out from behind a mound of snow from about five feet away. It stared at me for a moment before it ran out and hopped up onto the railing right next to me. I took a step back in surprise but stopped when I noticed it had a small leather pouch in its mouth. It bobbed its head at me and I don’t know what prompted me to do it but I tentatively reached out for the pouch, hyperaware of how close my hand was to its teeth. As soon as I touched it the fox let it go and jumped off the rail. I almost dropped it but caught it with both hands before it fell and when I looked up, the fox was gone.

“What the…” I looked down at the pouch. It was very small, smaller than the palm of my hand. The pouch was made of soft leather and the string that tied it off… was made of very familiar tri-color braided hair. My heart jumped and I raced off to the temple to find a priestess who could tell me what this meant.

Ten minutes later and I’d found absolutely no one. I was starting to get a little creeped out. Usually there were mikos everywhere. Where had everybody gone?! “Screw it,” I muttered under my breath and started checking places I was usually asked not to go. First stop was the temple front entrance where visitors tended to congregate. It was completely empty save for one person, “Ino!”

Ino was sweeping the lobby and she looked up in surprise when I ran up to her, “Sasuke? What are you doing here? What if someone comes…”

“Ino,” I said, interrupting her. “I was on the walkway when a fox gave me this.” I held up the pouch for her to see.

She blinked at it in surprise and gasped when she caught sight of the string, “It’s a gift from the goddess!” She said in hushed and awed tones. “Have you opened it?”

“No,” I said, looking for a spot where the string was tied off. “I thought one of you should see it first.”

She nodded, “Go ahead and open it, you’ll know when you see it if it’s for your eyes only.”

I tugged at the tie until it loosened and opened the pouch to find… rice? I frowned slightly and dug my finger into it but there was nothing else in the pouch except uncooked short grain rice. “Its rice,” I said, surprised. “Why would the goddess give me rice?” Why would the goddess give me anything? I was pretty sure I wasn’t one of her favorite people.

Ino took a step closer and peered inside the pouch, confusion clouding her features. “That is strange. This is not a traditional omen. Rice is usually an offering given to the goddess not the other way around.” She looked at me again, her eyes now worried, “This doesn’t feel right. Did you see anything else unusual when this happened? Anything you might consider… ominous?”

That sent a chill up my spine, “Ino, why is there no one in the temple right now?”

She frowned, “They’re all here, the mikos are gathered in one of the back rooms helping Shizune prepare a spell. Tsunade said she had one more idea for getting information out of the snake but it would take a lot of power. I suppose the gloves are off now.” She said with a small smirk, “In fact, Tsunade and her… captive should be here soon.” She said looking out through the open double doors that led to the empty parking lot.

“Why aren’t you with them then?” I asked, tying the pouch back up and slipping it into my pocket. I hadn’t seen much of Ino during my stay here but I remembered our first meeting very clearly and I knew from the way the other mikos treated her just how powerful she was.

“Someone has to be here in case we get visitors. Besides, I’m a medium. They don’t need my talents for the kind of spell they’re working on.”

“What…” I stopped when I heard a noise outside. Ino turned her head to the front, also having heard it. There was a crunch of snow on gravel that could only be from footfalls but we hadn’t heard any cars pull up.

“Tsunade?” Ino called, taking a step toward the entrance. No reply. I caught a brief glimpse of a man’s shadow through the doors before Ino quickly shoved herself into me bodily and I tripped and fell straight into an open broom closet that she then slid closed before I could get back up.

I staggered to my feet in the darkness, cursing under my breath and was about to fling open the door, random visitor be damned when I heard their voices and stopped.

“Good afternoon, honorable visitor. May I help you find a good luck charm for friend or family?” Ino said gently, without any trace of nervousness or tension.

But it was the reply that made my blood run cold. “No,” The man’s voice said, “it’s not good luck charms that I came here looking for.”

The sliding door was solid wood, no panels, so I placed my fingertips on the spot where door met wall and slowly inched it open just a crack. Through that crack I saw my father standing in front of Ino, dressed in one of his tailored suits as though he’d just stepped out of the office. He was alone and looking at her with a strange confidence. Like a man who’s won his battle before it even began and was ready to collect his prize. The rage I felt at that got Naruto’s chakra roiling within me but I hastily quieted it down. If Naruto sensed something was wrong he’d wake up and come bursting in, ruining our cover. I don’t know how my father found me but this didn’t need to get ugly if Ino could turn him away.

“In fact,” Fugaku continued, “I’m here for a guest of yours. You see…”

“I’m afraid we don’t have any guests at the moment.” Ino said pleasantly, as though she hadn’t cut my father off.

“Is that so?” My father said, the smile on his face slipping with the lack of patience that defined him so well.

“Yes, it seems that a previous guest who came here for healing didn’t tell us she was suffering from meningitis until she left. The guest house and the miko’s who tended to her have been quarantined by the local health department until further notice.” Ino’s face was sad and entirely sincere and I could barely contain the smile on my face. A story like that would not only turn people away but prevent them from snooping around or trying to get inside.

A muscle above my father’s eye twitched and he took a few steps closer to her. “I must admit, I wasn’t expecting that the people of this temple would be helping him hide. Especially when it means they would be party to kidnapping as he is just sixteen. However, I promise that if you go get Sasuke now I will not press charges.”

I could tell Ino was breathing a little faster, her face was neutral but her nerves were starting to show. There was something wrong here; I was picking up on it and I knew she must’ve as well. We had been very careful not to let anyone see us for my father to be so confident. I took a deep breath and carefully summoned my demon sight while trying to keep the rest of Naruto’s nervous chakra at bay.

The curse in my father looked like a sickly gray fog under his skin. He looked diseased, half dead; it showed in the whites of his eyes and permeated his stunted aura as though it was suffocating it. I noticed all of this before I pinpointed what was really wrong. The curse was spreading like a terminal illness because it wasn’t contained anymore by demonic protection. My father hadn’t bound another demon to himself after I killed Tobi… how the hell was he still alive?!

Ino cleared her throat nervously but her poker face was flawless, “There is no one here by that name. I’m sorry but I cannot help you. I’m afraid I will have to ask you to leave now.”

I watched Fugaku pinch the bridge of his nose and mutter, “I don’t have time for this.” He looked back up after a moment and reached inside his jacket pocket. It took only a few seconds but I watched as in those seconds he pulled out the handle of a knife. The blade shot out from its sheath just as he grabbed Ino by her clothes and pulled her against his chest, shoving the knife under her throat and startling her cry for help quiet.

I didn’t even think. I burst out of the closet and got a few feet on my father before he turned toward me and smiled. “Let her go!” What a dumbass! I could kick myself right about that moment. I was weaponless and alone and right about then I decided there was nothing to it. I let Naruto’s frantic chakra go and waited.

My father grinned triumphantly, “Sasuke, you look good for a dead man.”

“So do you.” I said tensely. “This isn’t a family reunion so why don’t you just let her go. We both know it’s me you’re here for.”

At that moment I was blasted in the face with hot air warmed by pure chakra as Naruto appeared beside me barefoot and dressed only in a thin yukata. It didn’t deter at all from the pissed off look in his face when he saw my father holding a knife to Ino’s throat.

My father’s eyes darted to Naruto calmly and he began to take a few steps back, pulling Ino with him. “No, I think I’ll hold onto her. A man can never have too much leverage.”

Fugaku kept creeping towards the exit with us following at a careful distance when I heard Naruto whisper Gaara’s name. Barely seconds later there was a flurry of sand and Gaara was between my father and the exit. Fugaku turned sideways to keep all three of us within his sight, “You, redhead, you’re going to get out of my way or your lady friend will be the one who suffers.” He said, bringing the knife in closer to her neck. I angrily thought that he couldn’t possibly be more clichéd if he tried.

Gaara made a noise not unlike a growl and slowly stepped away from the doors while Fugaku quickly pulled Ino out of the temple and into the empty parking lot. We followed him out slowly and I could see immediately why we hadn’t heard any cars pull in. There was a car but it was sitting outside the torii gate, outside temple grounds, and there was a man with white hair standing next to it. He was careful not to come too close to the gate and if that didn’t scream demon then his bright and fiery aura would’ve been a dead giveaway.

“Let her go,” Naruto said, a warning in his voice.

Fugaku barked out a laugh, “You don’t seem to understand who has the upper hand here.” He was pulling Ino quickly toward the gate. In that moment she slipped in the snow but he was quick to catch her and keep dragging her backwards. “Finding this place wasn’t easy Sasuke, your friends hid you well.” Ino’s breaths were coming short and quick but she kept herself outwardly calm even though I could see the fear in her eyes. “Not that you were my priority. I nearly had to start over you see, to try breaking the curse from another angle once I found out you’d changed the spell to make yourself immortal.”

He nearly had her to the gate and I think all of us knew that we couldn’t let him go through. Gaara reacted first. He swung a hand out and a wave of sand shot out from within the temple and made for them with incredible speed. It stopped in midair when a scream ripped through the quiet of the windless evening. Fugaku had cut into Ino’s neck and she screamed again when his hand jerked a second time. My hands fisted tight at my sides in anger when I saw blood run down her throat from the wound. “That sand touches me and she dies.” He said gravely.

I heard several footsteps behind me and knew more people from within the temple were catching up to us. Gaara stared back at my father darkly and slowly retracted the sand, pulling it back to him and into his clothes. A nervous but confident smile etched its way onto my father’s face and he pulled Ino through the torii gate where his demon accomplice waited, finally able to protect him. “What are you doing here father.” I spat out the last word derisively. “Why do I even matter to you anymore?”

“I’m here for more than just you, Sasuke.” He sneered. “I had other priorities but since I was being sent here anyway I figured it was as good a time as any to pay him half my dues.”

“Sent? Who… what are you talking about?!”

His grin was savage, “The only thing you’re good for is currency Sasuke. You are half the price I pay to stay alive. In the mean time being completely human has its advantages, like being able to walk into a temple and take what I want.”

“You’re not taking anyone anywhere.” Naruto muttered determinedly. “Not Ino, not Sasuke.”

“It’s not Sasuke he sent me for!” Fugaku screamed in rage. “It’s the serpent he wants! Sasuke…” he seemed to calm a bit and I was beginning to feel as though my father had become completely unhinged, “Sasuke was just conveniently in the same place.”

“The serpent...” Gaara repeated, awareness dawning on his face.

“I-it’s not here.” Ino said with a careful breath.

Fugaku jerked her and readjusted the knife, “You will be silent!”

He looked back at us, “We’ve been watching you. That’s how I knew both you and the snake were here.” Fugaku’s eyes darted down the road and that’s when I heard a car approaching. Please let it be the cops... “There are a lot of temples in the area, even more on this mountain. He knew that snake was here somewhere; that Shinto magic was the only thing that could’ve kept him away. He interrupted my research and my search for you and sent me here to find him.” He grinned, even as the approaching car slowed to a stop a couple yards behind his own car. Fugaku ignored it. “I ended up with more than I expected. So now, you’re going to go back inside and bring me the snake.”

“Think again.” I saw him turn to watch Tsunade get out of her car and felt a smile tugging at my face. Better than the cops.

Tsunade looked about ready to commit bloody murder. She started walking up the road towards him and the demon at his side broke off to meet her. His hands flexed and I saw blades of pure chakra appear gripped between his fingers. He didn’t waste time. As soon as he had them he flung them at Tsunade who dodged all of them, ran up and punched him in the stomach. The sound of his breath leaving him was audible even from where I stood. He bent over double and fell to the ground coughing and gasping for air.

My father was stunned and to be honest, so was I. I hadn’t known what Tsunade was capable of. She began a slow walk towards my father, “You’ll be letting her go now, or I won’t be so gentle with you.”

Fugaku was backing up a few steps, digging the knife into Ino’s throat but before he could say anything another voice startled all of us back to Tsunade’s car. “Oh you can be as gentle as you like Tsunade, I got what I came for.”

It was a man with long black hair who had the palest skin I’d ever seen. He was pulling a pet carrier from the back seat of her car. Tsunade turned with wide eyes and gasped, “No… no, you’re dead.”

He grinned but his hand began to smoke where it touched the handle of the pet carrier and he was forced to set it down on the ground. He pulled the blanket off the cage and if I hadn’t already known Manda was inside I could see him now, asleep through the plastic slats.

“Impossible…” Tsunade was shaking her head in disbelief and then all of a sudden her eyes darted between him and snake then shot back to Naruto and I and I began to see the horrible connection she was making. “Manda is your bound demon. That’s how you… no… No!”

Tsunade didn’t waste any more time thinking about it. She bent down, dug her fingers into the snow and tore a piece of asphalt straight out of the ground. She brought it up and threw it with uncanny speed, flying towards the man like some deadly frisbee. He didn’t move out of the way. Seconds before it would’ve hit him he grabbed the cage again through the blanket and lifted it in front of him. The chunk of asphalt hit the pet carrier with enough force that it went through the plastic, lodged itself inside and sent the man staggering back a few steps.

He chuckled darkly from behind the cage and set it down so that he could yank the chunk of asphalt out, leaving behind a large hole. “Thank you for saving me the trouble of reaching my human hands,” he said indicating Fugaku, “as they are busy at the moment.”

Tsunade stood there shocked and watched him as he turned the cage over and Manda’s small body fell through the hole and onto the road at his feet. He tossed the pet carrier aside and the smile that curled itself onto his features sent a shiver down my spine. “Manda,” he said to the snake stirring at his feet, “get up.”

Manda startled to full wakefulness and released a hiss that sounded equal parts relief and anger. He flexed his body and grew to twice the size of a large python, coiling himself around the pale man as he did. “They kept me from returning. They tortured me.” He hissed menacingly in our direction, “Let me repay them.”

My eyes widened, “I… am I hearing him in my head?!” I whispered to Naruto next to me. He nodded slowly, inching closer to me and not taking his eyes off them.

I watched the man caress Manda’s scaly skin and reply, “All in due time.”

“Orochimaru,” Tsunade’s composure was returning. She looked at him with complete disgust and I could see at least part of the reason why. My demon sight showed me his black aura but unlike Tobi’s it didn’t shimmer with sparks of vitality like all auras do. His aura … it was a slow, churning black mass. If it were possible to coat chakra in a layer of black tar, that would be it. “I see you found the immortality you were searching for.”

“Not quite,” he said, his eyes finding mine. “But I’m nearly there.” Manda uncoiled himself to let Orochimaru walk towards Tsunade and my father. “I see that you’ve been blessed by the goddess since the last time we met. How many incarnations is this? Fourteen? Fifteen? Do you know how many hundreds of years you’ve missed out on?” He stopped in front of her and reached out to touch her face, “It’s not very efficient, is it? Feels more like giving in to mortality rather than conquering it.”

She reached out and snatched his wrist before his hand could touch her face, “Don’t you dare.”  

He looked at where her hand was touching his skin and his ever present smile distorted itself into an over-wide grin that should never been possible on a human face. She followed his gaze and I saw how the black goo of his aura seeped into and under her skin. Tsunade drew her hand back sharply but it was too late. The black tar was spreading, running slowly up her arm and turning her veins black beneath her skin as though it was in her blood. “What did you…” She started to tremble and fell to her knees.

“Tsunade!” Naruto screamed. I reached out to grab him from behind before he could run through the gate for her. “Let me go!” he snarled over his shoulder. I was so surprised that I almost did.

“Naruto calm down for a sec,” I said as quietly as I could. “We have to think…”

“Sasuke’s right.” Gaara said taking a few slow steps towards us. I saw Lee at his side and from the look on his face he’d been watching the show with us. “We need to be careful, as long as they have hostages, we’re playing their game.”

Naruto broke away from me and grabbed Gaara by his kimono, “It’s not a game, damnit! We both know who they want!”

I was watching Orochimaru while Naruto and Gaara argued and saw him kneel down to where Tsunade was gripping her heaving chest. He was talking to her and I took a few steps closer in order to hear, “You spent a lot of time dead in-between your reincarnations. While you were busy rotting in the ground I spent that time trying to figure out how to keep all that power I was gaining. You know, without an angry goddess hunting me down because I was a priest using her divine power for… less than divine things.”

He smiled like he’d made some kind of joke and Tsunade doubled over, coughing the black tar onto the street from her lungs. The black veins were on her throat, creeping up onto her face. “Tsunade…” I didn’t even realize I’d said anything in my state of complete horror.

Orochimaru stuck his finger in the black stuff coloring the white snow in front of her knees and brought it up to her line of sight. “This is what I came up with. If I were poetic I’d say I pulled it out of my black black heart but actually, it was everywhere inside me. I turned it into a weapon, coated all my magic in it, blocked the goddess out. As you can see however,” he said standing up, “it’s not very compatible with other people.”

“Let her go,” I said only a couple feet from the gate.

Orochimaru turned his face to me, the smile genial and so full of crap I could barely stand to look at it. “Are you making an offer?”

Naruto grabbed me by the collar and hauled me back to him, “No fucking way.” He said and gave me an incredulous look; like I was crazy.

I barely noticed it; I was too busy watching the smile slip from Orochimaru’s face when he caught sight of Gaara. His snakelike eyes found Gaara’s bracelet and they widened almost imperceptively. “Oh, but Tsunade isn’t the only one here blessed by the goddess.” He came closer to the gate and stood in Gaara’s line of sight. After a moment he finally lifted his gaze from the bracelet to look Gaara in the face, “So the adoption finally worked on someone.” He tilted his head, as though looking to see if he got any reaction out of Gaara. “I’m sure they told you… how this has never worked. Even I never expected…”

He straightened up and it was about then that I started to feel the strong desire to bash that grin straight into his ugly face. “I think I won’t kill Tsunade,” his eyes darted to me, “if you two are willing to make a trade.”

“Fuck no!” Naruto looked offended by the mere suggestion. He looked ready to run out there and start kicking ass but… Ino would be dead before he crossed the gate and we had no idea what was happening to Tsunade let alone how to stop it.

“Sasuke-kun for Tsunade and you,” Orochimaru said indicating Gaara, “for the priestess.” Naruto took a few determined steps toward Gaara and started to whisper in his ear. I could see how tense Lee was beside him but from the look on his face, he couldn’t hear anything either. “C’mon sand demon, you belong to Inari now. That means that you have an obligation to protect what is hers.”

“Then why don’t you take me instead? I belong to the goddess too.” Naruto said, pulling
back with a sinister smile. The suggestion sent a thrill of fear down my spine even though I could see how confident he was. He thought he could put an end to this situation if he was allowed to walk through the gate.

Orochimaru’s smile fell completely for the first time since he’d shown up, “No,” he said, his eyes darting back to Gaara’s bracelet, “him.”

Both Naruto and Gaara were chakra powerhouses, Gaara only slightly less than Naruto and I could see in their eyes as they discussed their options in low tones how they were considering their next step. That’s when I knew Gaara would say yes and if Orochimaru or any of the others gave even an inch of leeway, Gaara would kill them all.

Gaara pulled away from Naruto and nodded to Orochimaru. “Okay, me for the priestess.”

“What?!” Lee grabbed Gaara’s wrist in a vice-like grip but before Lee could shout any more objections Gaara pulled him close and whispered into his ear. They clearly had a plan but when I looked back through the gate I saw Orochimaru crouching to speak to Manda in low tones as well.

We were playing a game of chess and what set my nerves on edge was not knowing, in spite of the hostages, who really had the advantage.

Gaara straightened and Lee reluctantly pealed his fingers away. He took a small step away from Lee and returned his gaze to Orochimaru, “the girl first.”

“Only once you’re on the other side of the gate.” Replied the fallen priest.  

Gaara glanced back once to Naruto who nodded, they’d anticipated this. I wanted badly to ask Naruto what the plan was but I didn’t want to put it in jeopardy by speaking it aloud again. So tense with anticipation, I watched Gaara cross the torii gate and stop directly in front of Orochimaru, “The girl.”

He smiled and without moving his gaze away from Gaara, he said, “Uchiha-san.”

Fugaku looked at the both of them nervously, shaking his head. “No… the red-head was not part of the plan. I’m trading her for Sasuke, not him!”

Orochimaru finally broke eye contact with Gaara and passed a loaded look onto the demon with white hair, “Kabuto, if you don’t mind...”

Kabuto had gotten back up a few minutes ago, holding his stomach and watching the proceedings mutely. At his master’s request he immediately walked over to where my father was holding Ino hostage and almost faster than I could see, he whipped out a chakra blade and slashed Fugaku’s arm with it. Fugaku cried out and dropped both the knife and Ino. Ino stumbled only once before she dashed away, running quickly passed Gaara and through the gate where Lee met her just as she collapsed to her knees in the snow, shaking but not crying.

“You see,” Orochimaru said as Fugaku stood behind him and cursed both him and Kubuto while he held his arm to his chest, “I’m a man of my word.”

“I wish I could say the same.” As soon as Gaara spoke the sand from within his robes shot out from his pant legs, sleeves, and collar and wrapped itself around both Fugaku and Kabuto. Fugaku cried out in fright as he was covered but Kabuto didn’t make a sound. Gaara raised a hand in the direction they were standing without removing his eyes from the fallen priest and said, “I think it’s time you removed that poison from Tsunade and walked away.”

Orochimaru’s grin stretched thinner, “And why would I do that?” Gaara started closing his hand and although Kabuto barely reacted beyond a wince, my father screamed. I remembered being on the receiving end of that and glared in their general direction with a complete lack of sympathy. “I thought we were going to be gentlemanly about this,” The priest said, his expression unchanged.

“I tend to forget my manners when people important to me are threatened.” Gaara replied, his fingers visibly twitching from the effort to keep them from closing further.

“That’s a shame, but if you must then go ahead and kill them.” That stopped me short and I saw Gaara blink, giving the man a suspicious look. Orochimaru looked right back into his face calmly and then his gaze shifted to Gaara’s two hostages. “Why are they still alive? I told you that you could go ahead and kill them,” his eyes darted back to Gaara, “Unless they’re as worthless to you as bargaining chips as they are to me.”  

Orochimaru took a couple steps back and crouched down beside Manda, a snake-like tongue darting out to lick a smiling lower lip. “You made the mistake of assuming that either of your hostages matter to me. Fugaku is disposable and Kabuto is happy to die for me.” Gaara stood absolutely still, scrutinizing his adversary’s face as though looking for some indication he was lying.

Orochimaru’s eyes narrowed above the smile. “Allow me to explain how badly you stepped in it, sand demon.” In that instance snakes from seemingly everywhere darted out from their hiding places and headed straight for us. Naruto looked prepared to defend us but they completely ignored me and him and swarmed around Lee and Ino. None of them were deterred by the torii gate at all because they weren’t demon snakes like Manda, who was suddenly looking very pleased with himself.

Ino was as still as a statue and Lee brought her in close to him as though to shield her with his body. Gaara looked over his shoulder with wide eyes as the snakes crawled all over them. “They’re pit vipers; mamushi. Highly poisonous. One order from Manda and I guarantee you will not reach a hospital in time.” He said stroking Manda’s head.

I had never seen Gaara so tense. Orochimaru couldn’t possibly have known that Lee was his lover but in the end it didn’t matter. “What do you want?” His voice was resigned, he knew he’d been out maneuvered. Naruto’s chakra was an invisible whirlwind of nervous tension. He took a step forward but stopped himself, gaze darting to Lee and Ino and I could see the conflict in his eyes.  

Meanwhile Orochimaru had reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black leather belt that looked like a dog collar. “This,” he said holding it up, “was originally meant for Sasuke. I didn’t want anyone coming to ‘rescue’ him after Fugaku found him and brought him back to me but I think that it’s better suited to you, given the circumstances.”

Gaara reached out to take it but instead of letting it go, Orochimaru pulled him closer with it. “Like you, I went after the most vulnerable members of your group but unlike you it wasn’t because my power is limited in this cold and wet weather.” He said staring Gaara in the face and eventually letting the collar go, “you’ve lost some of your demonic nature. I wonder if that’s what the goddess liked so much… I’ll enjoy picking you apart to find out.” He stood up confidently, watching as Gaara untied it without removing his glare from Orochimaru’s face.

“If I put this on, you’ll send the snakes away.” Gaara asked, raising the collar up around his neck.

“Gaara don’t!” But Gaara didn’t acknowledge that he’d heard Lee’s scream. Orochimaru nodded slowly to his previous question and Gaara tied it around his own neck. A spell written on the collar immediately became visible over the leather, lit up with Gaara’s own chakra. He gasped and almost instantaneously the sand wrapped around both Fugaku and Kabuto crumbled to the snow.

I watched with increasing alarm as Gaara’s aura shrunk to almost nothing. The red sparks of the goddess’ power were visible now only in the lettering of the spell on the collar, spitting angrily and brighter than his own. He kneeled down slowly and settled himself carefully onto the snow, as though it were a choice of sitting or falling.

Orochimaru nodded to his bound demon, “Let them go, Manda.”

Manda hissed angrily, resisting the command. “No, I require vengeance for what was done to me.” But even as he said it a few snakes were already breaking away from the swarm.

Orochimaru gave Manda a very enigmatic look and he coiled into himself protectively; the rest of the pit vipers darted away quickly as though sensing his distress. “When I make a deal, I keep my end of the bargain.” His gaze rose and he locked eyes with me, “that’s why when others go back on the agreements they’ve made with me, they suffer.” I frowned in confusion but the sound of retching quickly drew my gaze back to Tsunade who was on hands and knees coughing up more black tar and glaring in Orochimaru’s general direction. “Oh good, you’re still alive.” He said heartlessly and turned back to me, “What do you say Sasuke? Her life for yours.”

Naruto’s fingers wrapped themselves around my arm and held on tightly but I barely felt it. Tsunade was looking at me, arms trembling to keep herself up and shaking her head. She seemed beyond the ability to speak but her position on the matter was clear.

Unfortunately I didn’t think I could live with myself if I honored it.

I started to peal Naruto’s fingers off and he got in front of me and grabbed onto my shoulders. “Are you nuts?!” I couldn’t look him in the face. All I could do was watch over his shoulder as Tsunade slumped down into the snow, breath shallow and eyes unfocused. “Sasuke!” He shook me and brought my gaze back to him. “I want to save her too but we have to think of something else. …I can’t lose you too.” He said the last in low desperate tones and I had to close my eyes tightly against the sting because I knew I was about to break the promise I’d made to him.

I reached out, took his face in my hands and kissed him soundly. It only lasted a moment. He pulled away from me and I could see the fear in his eyes. “Release me, Naruto.” It was direct, not a polite request but an order. His eyes widened and his hands trembled as they fought against the order but eventually eased away.

“Don’t do this. Please.” He begged.

I looked over his shoulder at Tsunade and said, “You’re not the only one who cares about her…” In the month and a half that I’d known her Tsunade had been more mother to me than my real mother had been in my whole life. “I can’t be the reason she dies.”

“You won’t be. We won’t be, we can still do something… come up with something…” He was pleading with me. He knew what I was going to do. He knew that I’d already made up my mind.

I stepped around him and started walking toward the gate. When Naruto reached out to grab my arm again I looked back at him and said, “Don’t move.”

Naruto froze mid action and I saw the water welling up in his eyes, “Sasuke don’t do this!”

It was like getting stabbed in the chest. “Don’t move. Stay right here. Don’t try to stop me. Don’t try to fight the commands.” The weight behind the multiple orders hit him like a ton of bricks. He inhaled a sharp trembling breath after every one; each reinforcing the last. The devastation on his face was something I don’t think I would ever be able to forget. I felt my own eyes fill with moisture and closed them to keep the sting at bay.

I turned around and walked quickly through the gate, stopping in front of Orochimaru. “I’m here. Now take the poison out of her.” The words came out tense and angry, my hands were fists at my sides.

“Of course, and just in time.” He looked back to Tsunade who’d lost consciousness by now and the black tar began oozing out of every orifice; her mouth, her nose, her eyes and ears. They even bled out through the pores in her skin, staining the snow black around her.

“Sasuke! Let me go!”

I could barely breathe past the tightness in my chest.

I looked up at the fallen priest and asked the million dollar question, “so what now?”

He considered me with an amused smile. “Well, this is an unfortunate scenario.” He looked behind me for a split second before drawing his gaze back to me, “It seems that pursuit of you by your… friend is inevitable but I’ve already used the only appropriate seal in my possession.” He indicated Gaara with his chin. Gaara was still kneeling on the ground, tugging at the collar with fingers that barely had any strength left in them. The seal written on the collar seemed to be exhausting him.  

“I guess we’ll just have to improvise.” He said placing a very unwelcomed hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, you’ll still be of use to me.” I didn’t get the chance to process that. It felt like one second he was standing above me and the next his face was on my shoulder, sharp fangs sinking into my neck.

I screamed. The burning on my neck where his fangs had dug in was worse than when I’d first bound Naruto to me. That’s when the realization of what was happening plowed through the pain and I began to fight him; struggling frantically to push him away from me because I could feel it now. There was a channel, a link that connected me to Naruto; a link that his chakra used to flow into me, to heal me and protect me. That channel was falling apart. Orochimaru was breaking the spell that tied me to my demon protector; to Naruto.

But it felt less like breaking the spell than tearing it to pieces. It burned so bad it felt like my whole body was on fire and after a moment I realized that the screams I was hearing weren’t just my own.

Eventually my struggles weakened. The channel shattered inside me and it felt like I had shattered with it. I heard the weight of a body crumbling to the ground behind me a second before my eyes rolled into the back of my head and everything went black.

00000

AN02: Don’t kill me! I hate cliffhangers too but there was just no other way this chapter could’ve ended. Please give me your feedback. It’s really appreciated and helps me grow as a writer.