As Above So Below

As Above So Below
Chapter 10

Stefan gripped the iron railing of the balcony, unseeing eyes staring at the night darkened city below him. Instead of blazing up at him with the millions of lights of his own city, it twinkled gently, like a blanket of soft stars.

And though he tried to deny the evidence of his own eyes, he couldn’t. This wasn’t his city, nor any city under the sun of his world. And the moon that shown down from on high, round and so very familiar, wasn’t his moon. It didn’t shine down on any city that he’d ever known in his life before. It shone down on an utterly alien landscape, and people he’d never met before in his life, though they bore teasingly familiar faces. This wasn’t his world.

It was Naruto’s.

He’d been almost wildly resistant at first. Everything flew in the face of the cold logic by which he’d always lived his life. But slowly, relentlessly, it crept into his heart. These people, this Tsunade and Jiraiya; they weren’t Suzanne and Jason. Though they bore the same faces and bodies, there were little hints; the way they moved were just a fraction differently than the couple he knew as Nathan’s adoptive parents. It was in the gleam of identical eyes, similar mannerisms. These weren’t the people he’d known for years and years.

And he’d met many other people, in this fantastically surreal day since he found himself lost to his own world as utterly as Naruto had this one. Neji Hyuuga; his large milky white eyes almost identical to the blind, unseeing ones of a junior partner in the Marada law firm; Nicholas Handerson. The man had been vociferous in his iron clad, air tight defense during the trial four years ago. This Neji had the same unyielding determination, but those blind looking eyes could see beyond that of normal men. He’d taken one look at Stefan’s body, fleshy veins rising around those milky orbs, and the young man had told him almost in a bored voice how he saw the once broken bone in his lower leg; gotten from a fight over Nathan when they were both still boys, and the fact that Stefan was no longer able to sire children; his vasectomy.

And Shikamaru; he might be the identical counterpart of the matured drug abuser back home, but if marijuana had ever touched this boy’s lungs, well, Stefan was the duck his hair so resembled.

And the things they could do. Neji’s eyes for one, those terrible all seeing eyes. Shikamaru’s ability to lock him into place with just a shadow. There was a girl here, with pink hair, that looked just like a strawberry blonde head nurse in Suzanne’s clinic; but this girl’s hands would glow green, and bones would knit, and wounds would seal with miraculous speed.

Stefan’s being was rocked to his very foundations.

Now he stared almost blindly down on the world below him, and didn’t see it. He was consumed with guilt. He’d been shown, rather forcefully one might add, all the signs that Naruto had never suffered from delusions, had never been mentally unbalanced. He’d never believed her, never really listened. He’d denied her. He’d betrayed her trust in him, when she’d shyly and so hopefully finally revealed all her secrets to him. He’d repudiated that trust, spit in the face of her gentle confession, and subjected her to the cold world of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts.

He shuddered. It was a wonder that Naruto didn’t hate him with every fiber of her being. But Naruto had forgiven him, from her bottomless heart. He’s reaped the benefits of the blonde’s boundless giving nature. A nature that was fiercely reflected in the people around him. As much as Naruto, and her counterpart, Nathan, had affected him, so too she… or rather he, Stefan corrected himself harshly, affected the people the blonde had grown up with. From the lofty seat of national leadersthip, Tsunade, to the youngsters that had crowded around him earlier, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon, clamoring for whatever tidbits he could give them about their missing comrade.

Young and old, rich and poor, powerful and weak, Naruto had affected and been loved by them all. As he was now, as a woman, in Stefan’s world. And each and every one of them voiced the desire, the intention, of getting said blonde back.

The understanding that Naruto had been locked in his sexy no jutsu form for eighteen years had totally stunned the Konohans. Stefan had heard them voice their shock and disbelief that Naruto had been a female for so long. A woman, a mother… and a wife. Over this endless day, Stefan had seen the surprise in the faces of so many, surprise, that in not a few men, turned to interested speculation.

Naruto, like Nathan, was arousing and appealing to both sexes; even those that were unremittingly heterosexual. In the years they’d been together Stefan had been forced to warn off, sometimes quite heatedly, men that had never lain with another man, and wouldn’t have even dreamed of it, had they not met Nathan. Just as Naruto, likewise through the years, had more than her fair share of women that were interested and curious about a same sex relationship with the cheerful, sensual blonde. Stefan had definitely had his hands full with his sexy spouses. The combination of inherent innocence, combined with firm bodies that literally oozed hedonism, was irresistible to many.

Stefan would never forget his little run in, six hours ago, with a rather ominous red headed boy. He’d been introduced to what was known as the Kazekage; a visiting sovereign from a neighboring land, who’d stared at him with resentful green eyes when the boy, the youngest national leader Stefan had ever seen, had heard that Stefan was married to, and had fathered a child with Naruto. The menacing and jealous aura that had radiated off the young leader had been rather chilling. Stefan couldn’t help but wonder how much trouble this Gaara no Sabaku had been for Sasuke when Naruto had still been in Konoha. Here before him was another potential rival for the charms and heart and body of his blonde wife. He wondered how much trouble the boy would continue to be, should Naruto return to her home, and to her Sasuke.

Apparently, Naruto meant enough to this crimson haired, power oozing young man that Gaara had dropped everything when he heard the news, and teleported himself straight to Konoha. Straight to the Hokage’s office, where Stefan had been, to the chagrin and anger of the Konohan ANBU.

But even as Stefan recognized and understood so much more about his blonde wife, his determination was all the greater, though he kept it silently to himself. He could understand that these people loved Naruto, and wanted him back. But Naruto had been a woman longer than she’d been a boy, and she was his wife of almost five years, and had been his lover for over ten. Naruto was his. His and Nathan’s. Theirs and the children’s. He would not, could not, deprive them of their wife and mother.

He could only hope, that when he returned home, she could be induced to stay with them. He could only hope the bonds of love and wifehood and mothership, so close and dear to Naruto for so long, were stronger than her yearning for her home, her people, her… lover.

He gripped the railing harder. Sasuke, his Konohan counterpart, was in his world, right now. With Nathan, his wounded husband.

His fixation upon Naruto abruptly vaporized. As much as he hated the idea of Sasuke Uchiha with his husband, possibly wooing their wife away from them, he was stricken to the core with fear and worry. Was Nathan all right? Had that damn madman, Francis, killed him? He fervently hoped not, and waited with all the more impatience for the shinobi that would soon come for him.

He had to find out, had to know. Where and how was Nathan? He knew it was entirely possible that when he stepped through the green door once more, he would find a world that had no Nathan in it. And his world would then end. But he couldn’t envision a world without the beautiful blonde man in it. Simply couldn’t. And so he held tight to a fierce belief that he would go home, find his husband wounded and not dead, and he would hold Nathan tightly to his heart, and never let him go. And it made him even more determined, to hold onto Naruto that much tighter as well.

The blondes, and his children, were his world. He couldn’t survive without them. Each and every one of them. They were his, and he would use all his persuasive charm to ensure that what was his, would stay his.

The back of his neck prickled, as it had so often in this world, as he felt force move towards him, and he stiffened. He recognized that force, having been very close to it through most of this bizarre day.

Shikamaru.

“You’re awake,” the lazy drawl met his ears from the door of his rooms.

Stefan merely inclined his head, without turning around and looking at the boy.

“Why am I not surprised?” Shikamaru said flatly. “Damn, you may not be him, but you might as well be. So arrogant.”

Stefan merely smirked, sure the young chuunin could sense it even if he couldn’t see it. And he would be right.

“You know, you may know something about fighting… such a bastardized mix of Uzumaki and Uchiha moves I’ve never seen before…” Shikamaru observed dryly. They’d sparred earlier, to test exactly how much skill Stefan Madara possessed in fighting. And he’d honestly been impressed. Naruto had taught the man well. But he was a very far cry from Sasuke Uchiha’s level of power, even without the sharingan and chakra. It was to be expected. Sasuke had lived and breathed the shinobi way from the cradle. Stefan, though his counterpart, had lived in world ruled by words and law, rather than the strength of a man’s hand and skill in battle.

“But you are still but a babe in the woods compared to the rest of us.” Shikamaru continued, knowing it would irritate the mature version of Sasuke, but still knowing it had to be said. “You should have rested. We have a very long day ahead of us.”

Stefan finally turned around, and rested the small of his back against the cool iron of the railing. “Tell me, Shikamaru,” he said tersely, holding onto his very Uchiha like temper, “what would you have done, if you were me?”

Shikamaru finally inclined his head. Though he would have avowed to a Konohan that he would have spent his time in sleep and perhaps cloud watching, he knew, deep in his heart, that had he stood in Stefan’s shoes, not knowing how his soulmate had fared after being shot, not knowing how much danger his wife and children were in, torn in heart that his blonde female lover could very well leave him and his family… he would not have slept a wink either, and the clouds would not have been able to compete with his worry and concern.

Hell, he’d had his chance to rest himself, but thoughts of seeing Naruto’s bright smile, female or not, had consumed his very soul. God, he would never have expected to miss that beautiful blonde pest so terribly much. Hopefully, said beauty would once again brighten his life with his husky voice, his boneheaded charm, and his blinding smiles.

Shikamaru, in his inimitable and self professed lazy way, was as much a victim of the force known as Naruto as any; he’d had a wet dream or two or three about his blonde comrade, and knew, if Sasuke Uchiha hadn’t been around to glare away anyone that got too close to Naruto, he might have tried his hand himself.

“Are you ready?” Shikamaru asked instead, eyes lazily flicking from the sandal clad feet of Stefan, to the man’s shinobi garbed form. They’d decided that when Stefan returned to his world, he would do so with others, in stealth.

“I’ve been ready since I got here,” Stefan said with heat. It infuriated him that they’d forced him to stay, forced him to know, when he wanted so much to go back, and rescue his fallen husband and family. Just over twelve hours had passed since the dark haired man had arrived. Which meant that six days had passed in his world. Six days never to be had again. Every hour that passed here meant that many more days there. And Nathan, god willing, was waiting for him, worrying about him, struggling to live with his injury. He had to go home.

“Then let’s go. The others are waiting.”

And Stefan moved forward eagerly.