Fiat justitia, ruatcaelum

A/N;Before anyone gets confused!!! *ahem*
My fellow author, Ertz Nalcanis, decided she dearly loved what was happening here and, as I use her as a sounding board for almost everything, I gave without much fight when she asked to post a chapter. Ch17 belongs to E.N.
Ch18 resumes in the proper time and place as the rest of the major events. And It is kinda a nasty spoiler...*pouts*
Please, contiue to enjoy...
C.D.

***

Chapter 17

Looking at you through the glass

Naruto watched Sakura sleep. She gave no signs of waking. Nor had shown such signs for some time now.
“You know when I was trapped in my apartment I realized some things… I carry the gift that I have been blessed with. My soul is adrift with notions of madness. The thing I treasure most in life can not be taken away, there will never be a reason why I will surrender to their advice. To change myself… I’d rather die, lonely we’ll not understand. There will never be a reason why, they can’t predict where the outcome lies, They’ll never take me alive.” He sighed and sat back in his chair heavily. Things were never easy, ever. Running a frustrated hand through his hair he leaned forward again.
“Ne. Sakura-kun, when are you gunna wake up?” he asked in a whisper. There was no answer, there was never an answer…
Shinzune entered the room quietly, “Naruto, the Hokage wants to see you.” She spoke softly, the boy looked fragile. He had been here since she had come only leaving for missions and hardly sleeping.
He stood and turned to face her, a bright smile on his face, “Alright, I’ll be right there!” Shizune turned to leave and the smile fell from his face and shattered like porcelain from a shelf. “ Don’t worry Sakura I will be back as soon as I am done talking to Tsunade-baa-chan.” He touched her forehead lightly and smiled a sad smile before teleporting to Hokage tower.
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Tsunade sat at her desk, the paper work was piled around her. She sighed and rubbed her temples, nothing was ever easy.
There was a poof of smoke and then Naruto stood before her, his arms crossed and his eyes squinted. “Wadda ya want ya old hag?”
The blonde woman’s eye twitched. “Watch yourself Gaki!” She sighed again and began in a softer tone, “Naruto I have a mission for you, don’t even think of trying to decline.” He had just opened his mouth but snapped it shut again. “ You, Shino, Kiba, and Sasuke are to go to Suna and retrieve a scroll from the Kazekage. Do not argue with me, I have already briefed the others, here is your mission scroll.”
Naruto took it from her, “thank you Hokage-sama.” was all he said before turning and marching out of the office. The ANBU outside seemed to look at him funny but he only flashed them a fake smile and continued on .
When he stepped outside it was sprinkling lightly, and the Aburme and Uchiha were standing there waiting.
“We will meet at the gates in one hour.” was all Sasuke said before leaving, Shino shrugged and left also.
……………………………….....................................................................................

“Dobe! Keep up!” Sasuke shouted from where the others waited. He had his arms crossed, of course. “Spending all your time at the hospital instead of training has softened you!”
“Hospital?” Kiba looked down at the orange clad ninja. “Naruto? I’ve never seen you sick! Is it serious?”
Shino adjusted his glasses, “Think, Kiba; Would the Hokage have ordered him to come along if he was seriously ill?”
Kiba turned to Akamaru, “I thought you though he was out of sorts?” The large canine whined, one ear flexing back. Then up, the floppy tip pointing in Naruto’s direction briefly.
“Oh…” Kiba looked down and away. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it, Naruto…”
“Actually, It’s not that.” Naruto forced a grin into place, “I just feel like I’m being followed by something.”
Shino gazed down at him. “Care to vague that up a bit?”
Naruto gave an honest chuckle, one hand going up to scratch the back of his head, “Hehe, It’s like a presence… sort of… But it goes away when I get close to Sakura.”
Shino pushed his glasses back into place, “If you’ve got a spirit following you, that would explain why you’re creeping out my bugs.”
“Alright, enough!” Sasuke cut the air with his hands, “Between your bugs,” he pointed at Shino before moving to Kiba and Akamaru, “Your barbeque last night,”
Kiba frowned, rubbing his belly, “Don’t remind us…”
Sasuke turned on Naruto, “And your missing lover nin act, we’re hours late already! So can we get a move on? I’d like to get to Suna before dark.”
……………………………….......................................................................................................................
Gaara sighed in defeat.
“Every time I get to the last few cards, someone opens that damned door and the breeze knocks the whole damn thing down!” The Kazekage swept the mess of cards from his desk, glaring at the doorway and the aide who stood in it. “This had better be good or the messenger is going to get it.”
The aide faded a few shades. “Lord Gaara… The Hokage’s messengers have arrived for the scroll she requested…” And he ducked out faster than a kunai could chase, leaving a grinning Naruto behind.
“Naruto!” Gaara moved the desk aside with a wave of sand, “It’s been weeks! The anbu around here are getting complacent! Where have you been?”
The leaf nin hesitated, “I been kinda preoccupied…”
Gaara stopped, his reaching arms falling, “You just used a word with more than three syllables. What’s bothering you?”
Naruto smiled, “Nothing worth your time.”
“Gaara has time.” Gaara pointed at the scattered playing cards that had nearly been a house.
“It’s nothing, really.” Naruto waved his hands, “So where’s the scroll? Is it locked up here or down in storage?”
“Scroll?” Gaara brought his desk to him, one hand pressing the intercom button on the desk, “What scroll?”
The aide’s voice came over the speaker, “The scroll in your pocket, Lord Kazekage.”
Gaara reached into his pants pocket, withdrawing a small scroll. He pressed the button again, “The one Temari dropped off this morning?”
“Yes sir.”
“Oh.” Gaara handed the scroll to Naruto. “Here ya go.”
The blond stared at the rolled paper in his hands. “That’s it? You aren’t gonna make me sign for it something?”
Gaara blinked. “Umm, Not unless you really want to. I made that copy for you, so you can keep it.”
“A secret scroll from your private collection, and you just… Made a copy?” Naruto was staring at Gaara.
“Uhhh…. Yes…?” Gaara accepted the cards as a hand of sand lifted them up to him. His desk slid back around in front of him, his chair sliding under and he laid the foundation for a new house of cards.
“But can I ask you a question?”
Naruto slipped the scroll into his vest, snapping the pocket shut, “As weird as this is getting, you can ask anything.”
“What have you lost?” Gaara had set down his deck of cards.
“Lost?” Naruto looked himself over, “I’ve still got everything… And everything was at home last time I looked… Why?”
Gaara made a quick turning motion with his hand. Naruto looked back, a thin doppelganger of sand had appeared behind him, the features vaguely resembling a person with long hair.
“The last time it did that was when Kankuro lost his scarecrow puppet. It did that for weeks every time I got near him. Except it was trying to cling to his back. So I suppose a better question is who have you lost?”
Naruto gave one lat long look at the form of sand before he sat down, the chair sliding across the room to catch him, “Sakura… She’s in a coma…”
“And you found out you loved her?”
“Love.” Naruto corrected. “I love her. And I will love her forever. And I’ll show her how much when she wakes up.”
Gaara sighed, “I don’t know how to really say this softly, so I’m not gonna. I think you’ve been duped, man. There’s no way my great-grandmother’s recipe for rice and teriyaki lizard is gonna help unless the scent of food wakes her up.” He smiled hopefully, “It always wakes me up! There’s definitely a remote possibility!”
Naruto broke into an honest smile, if a weak one, “Gaara you never sleep.”
“It would if I did!”
………………………………..........................................................................................................................
“Great! Just wonderful!” Sasuke swore as he bound along the trees, “First he takes his merry sweet time getting there, then the Dobe sets a freaking land speed record getting back!”
“You think I might have something to do with the scroll?” Kiba asked mid-air.
Shino spared him a sideways look. “Have you been eating dog food again?”

The Balance of Desire and Duty

Sakura’s head broke the surface, gasping and sputtering. The current had carried her further downstream than she had anticipated. Both sides of her roared inside of her head as she redoubled her efforts upstream and toward the far bank.
Another strong undercurrent grabbed at her, drawing her beneath the surface again.
The bottom was shallower here and she hit it sooner than she though she would. The fight with the thick current was short as she righted herself and kicked off the loose gravel of the bottom. Free of the current, she broke the surface again, finding her goal slipping further away.
Sakura forced her way upstream, drawing a thick cord of chakra to fuel her tiring muscles and warm her chilled skin. The last hundred feet went easily, the water calm this close to the bank.
The thick chains on her vest jingled as she climbed out of the water. In congratulations or defeat was hard to tell. They jingled fairly monotonously despite the occasion.
She paused, squeezing her hair down against her skull, catching her breath as the water ran down her back.
The cut was short, out of convenience, her bangs left in two long tendrils that came past her collar, almost to her navel. Of course now the braids were thrown over her shoulders and merged, stopping between her shoulders.
She checked the training rod Zabuza had told her to carry. It was vaguely sword shaped, it was little more than a steel stick with a wide, flat ‘blade’ and a hilt sleeved with knurled brass grip and a large screw on pommel. About fifty pounds and the length of her thigh. It would be an effective weapon for it’s ability to crush anything that resembled defense alone.
Sakura tightened her gloves and started down the trail, hurdling the fallen trees and ducking low branches, the path was cluttered with debris. An excellent path to train on.
*I’ve seen you use a great deal more power through your disguises than you seem to have the potential for, Sakura.* Zabuza’s voice echoed around her head as she cycled the chakra down to her limbs. *You have to realize that the power they have is the power you grant them.*
The last leg of her journey, the sheer cliff face she would scale was ahead through the tree.
*The power of your inner spirit is a force even demons have learned to respect!* The voice echoed, somehow Zabuza’s, and yet the same as her Inner Sakura had always been.
*You will know when she and you are one. As will others. They will see it in your eyes.*
She overcharged her feet, leaping from the ground, her one gloved hand wrapping around a tree branch.
Her right had come back, grabbing the hilt of her training weight.
She rotated, turned over, planted her feet on the branch, lifting upward around the pivot of the branch.
*I will found our power!* She rocketed out and up, drawing the blade and raising it over her head.
The dull steel sunk into the rock easily, the edge of chakra channeled over the surface as sharp as any blade could be honed.
“Oof…” Sakura held to the blade, choking on the dust she had stirred up when she hit the rock wall.
Gripping the stone with her feet and one hand, she pulled the blade free and sheathed it. The wall still went up a good ways. More than a good ways. Almost a hundred yards, straight up. A dangerous climb.
*If you weren’t a ninja!* Sakura laughed and began the climb, heaving herself upward, clawing at the rock face, grasping whatever hand hold presented itself, or just sticking to the rock itself.
Each throw of the arm went with a kick, her torso flexing back and forth like a lizard, three feet passing with each throw. And as she settled into a steady rhythm, Sakura heard herself singing.
It was just a lullaby her mother had sang to her… It calmed her nerves…
“Hush little baby, don’t say a word, momma’s gonna summon you, a pretty little bird…”
The song made it easy to forget the sting in her hands and knees and toes. Forget the ache her muscles insisted was there, the subtle pulse of her tenketsu as chakra cycled through her limbs.
“And if that birdie don’t wanna fly, I’ll get you one of daddy’s kunai, and you know that blade will surely pierce, when you fight strong and fierce. And by that knife, may your enemies die, that’s the life of shinobi, by and by…”
Sakura topped the cliff, gripping the edge with both hands and heaved herself over the edge, landing one her feet. Her limbs tingles as she walked back toward the house, both with fatigue and excitement. She was ready for a second lap or a good sparring match or something. Anything!
*I’m stronger, faster, tougher…* Sakura stopped, sitting down suddenly and falling to her back, gazing at the sky, *…and growing every day. I practice my jutsu, honing the old ones and learning the new…*
She relaxed the hold on her chakra, letting it bleed back into her body. The feeling of fatigue reasserted itself, but the shade of intensity seemed less. The tone of excitement still hummed within her.
*So why do I feel… pent up? Weak? Like there’s something I’m missing?*
“YO! Sakura-kun!” Naruto came bounding up the hillside. He’d been training indoors today. His run was short and fast, the usual wide grin in place and the bento boxes he had begun bringing as soon as he sensed she was getting close to the house. He came skidding to a stop beside her, falling into a sitting position.
Sakura could smell the spent chakra on him. “Using your doppelgangers to do the chores again, Naruto-kun?”
One hand went up behind his head, “Hehe, yeah. How can you always tell?”
Sakura stole one of the boxes and pried the lid off, “I got lucky today. What jutsu have you been practicing?”
Naruto did the same to the other box, “Nothing new. I’ve just been working on teleportation today. And substitution. Jumping around and changing places with doppelgangers.”
“That all?” Sakura looked down at the egg rolls. Leftovers from the night before. And for good reason. Naruto wasn’t the finest chef around.
“Pretty much.” He replied, setting his lunch to one side, letting them warm up in the sun, “And speaking of training, how’s yours going?”
Sakura shrugged, “It’s going. I think I should add another loop in someplace. Some attack dummies and hard wire traps maybe.”
Naruto chuckled, “Sounds like fun. Will it be as cool as your outfit? ‘Cause that look is really awesome!”
Sakura looked down at herself, the ‘outfit’ in question was little more than a tight shirt, a short vest that held precious few items in waterproof pockets, a pair of capri pants, her training blade and a vest of chains that was changed out for something heavier every few weeks. Accessorized with leather shoes, and an old pair of bracers and greaves that came from a dusty old crate, she was running pretty imagination free.
“The shine of the chain and the black really makes you hair stand out,” Naruto waved his hands in an hourglass shape, “And the sword belt accentuates your hips almost perfectly.”
Sakura smiled over the top of a raised fist, “And a black eye would go well with your blonde hair.”
Naruto leaned back, hiding behind his forearms, “I can’t help but admire your beauty! It’s so hard not to look. And I’m only a boy, please don’t hurt me, Sakura-kun…” he grinned widely, “At least, not too badly.”
Sakura laughed, shaking her head, “Remind me to bring a robe or something in the future.”
“Like hell I will!” Naruto laughed, retrieving his lunch. He picked up the chopsticks and squeezed an egg roll out, “These are really good the day after. Honest.”
Sakura left the chopsticks lie and pried the egg roll out by hand.
“That’s what you said when you made them last night.” She smiled and bit a chunk off. They were better the day after. Still not great, or good even, but better.
“I blame Sasuke.”
Sakura shook her head, “He didn’t even show up for dinner, and certainly wasn’t around while you were cooking.”
“See?” Naruto dipped his egg roll in red sauce, “If he’d only shown up for a minute or two, he could have helped!”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “What have you and Sasuke got against one and other? Really? You aren’t happy unless you’re arguing.” She finished the egg roll, “It’s always teme and dobe with you two.”
Naruto paused, egg roll halfway to his mouth, “Huh? You lost me on that last part.”
“You guys just seem to get along best when there’s some tiff between you.”
“No, after that,” Naruto lowered the egg roll, “The ‘teme and dobe’ thing.”
The fox in him looked as confused as if she’d told him the moon was made of cheese.
Sakura blushed, “Oh… never mind it then. Just an old joke…” She shrugged, grabbing another egg roll, “Just an old saying.”
Naruto still watched her. *He’s not gonna let it drop this time, Sakura.*
*I know…* “Hey, why don’t I have any sweet and sour sauce?”
“I thought you didn’t like it?” Naruto held his box toward her, “Want some of mine? I brought too much anyway.”
Sakura held her box out, letting Naruto pour out a dollop. She really wasn’t fond of it. *Looks too much like blood…*
“So I hear everyone’s getting ready for the chunin exams.” Naruto took a bite out of the egg roll, “But you’ve only got five. Who’s getting left out?”
Sakura swallowed, “I’m not going. And probably Ino. She doesn’t seem to show any interest in going. And we can’t seem to separate Haku and Hinata. And Sasuke knows he’s going ‘and that’s final’ as Itachi put it.”
Naruto sighed, “Yeah. As far as that goes… I don’t think I’d want to go. They’d be like, ‘Oh, no! The exile! Somebody dooo something!’ I don’t need that kind of flak.”
“Nice falsetto, Naruto-kun.”
“Thanks, Sakura-kun.”
Sakura watched him, setting her bento box aside. Gazed at him until he noticed.
“hm?” He met her gaze. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You have some sauce on your face.” *Hehehe! He has no idea what we’re about to do, does he?*
*Not a clue!* Her inner agreed, *Not the first, foggy clue!*
“Where?” Naruto rubbed his cheeks and chin, where there was obviously none, he even checked his forehead.
“Let me get it…” Sakura leaned over him, licking his lips, sharpening the tip of her tongue and grazing the smooth fronts of his teeth, chasing him to the ground as he fell back, vainly trying to back up.
Passion coursed her veins like lightning and her heart sped. Her breathing grew faster. *Yes… This is what we’ve been missing…*
“D-did you get it…, Sakura-kun…?”
Her eyes met his. Pools of deep blue. They were uncertain. Excited.
“Let me try again. I think I missed some.” She smiled devilishly and kissed him again, the hand not supporting her reached down to his vest, throwing it open after the one button came undone.
She swore she could feel his heartbeat through the air, sense the most subtle pulse of chakra in his body. Feel his thoughts working in a flurry. She threw one leg over him, straddling his chest, letting the beat of his heart pound at her from his belly. She could feel a second energy. A pulse of chakra that, if Naruto’s were coming in waves, came in a tidal motion. Now on the rise.
*That’s new…* Sakura heard the voice. And didn’t know which of her had spoken. She didn’t care, she decided. She knew what she was lacking and needed. *No we only just want it…And we will have it!*
She felt his hands on her waist. The heat of his hands was pleasant in a fantastic way.
And a fire rose within her. Not the cool burn of chakra, or the aching burn of fatigue. A fire that fueled itself with desire and fed on sensation.
Naruto broke the ages long kiss. “Sakura… We’re out in the open… What if someone comes?”
Sakura leaned up, her head falling back as she moaned, “That could be interesting, indeed…” She sighed and drew a cord of chakra. She lay back down, wrapping her legs around one of his, lacing her fingers through his and pressed her belly to his. She giggled and fed the chakra into his body through their centers, sighing again in rapture as he shuddered. “Teleport us away then, Naruto-kun… But don’t exhaust yourself…”
Naruto moaned weakly as well as her words brushed across his ear.
“Are you sure, Sakura-kun?” His eyes questioned her, “Are you yourself?”
She stopped. Everything. The chakra connection between them broke with a snap. “Of course I’m myself! What the hell kind of question is that?” She let go of his hands, sitting up, “All we wanted was to have some fun, let off some steam. And we thought you could help me with that! That you might like to help!”
“What do you mean…” Naruto sat up as well, leaning away, watching her. Flecks of red in his deep blue eyes.
“I mean, Sasuke’s practically married, Zabuza’s plainly not interested at all, and Itachi goes to pieces every time we get too close to him or any topic even remotely related to the past!”
Naruto shrank, “So I was the last choice?”
The hurt in his voice stung her heart, “No. No, don’t think that. It’s not how it sounded… I have always tried to come to you first Naruto-kun…”
“I’m a little dense sometimes, but you seemed fairly direct a minute ago.” Naruto leaned back on his elbows, “I think I would have noticed that.”
Sakura turned, leaned forward, trying to follow him, “We just… didn’t know what I wanted until just now… And the urge was so strong, how am I to deny what we feel?”
A shadow passed behind Naruto’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Sakura… I didn’t mean it that way it sounded either.” He smirked, turning his hands palms up with his eyes squinted, “I guess you kinda scared me.”
“I’m sorry we scared you, Naruto-kun. Can you forgive us?” Sakura chewed her lip, looking up at him with pleading eyes.
His grin grew wider. “I suppose…”
Sakura felt the flame rise again as she leaned against Naruto’s chest to kiss him. She sighed loudly as his hands stroked her neck and back at the same time.
*Someone’s coming!* The flare of chakra could only be one person.
“Who is it?” Naruto looked into Sakura’s eyes. “Who’s coming?”
“It’s Itachi… I can feel his chakra from here.” Sakura sat back on her knees, “I’m sorry, Naruto-kun…”
Naruto flopped back down, “Hehehahahaha! Oh, how Gaara would laugh if he heard about this!”
“Laugh about what?”
“Waahhhh!” Naruto sprung up on his hands, “Itachi! Where the hell’d you spring up from?”
Itachi raise one brow, “Granted it didn’t take me so long to climb the hill as it takes you, but I came out the door over there.”
“Well…” Naruto fell back to his elbows, “Don’t sneak up on people like that!”
“Like I stand the chance of interrupting something.” He was looking away, over the autumn cast of the forest. “But I didn’t come here to blow your shot, Casanova. I came to steal Sakura. I need your help falsifying important documents.”
Sakura stood, brushing the loose grass from herself, the chains of her vest jingling in the vaguest of emotion. “Alright. Let’s see what we have…”
Naruto watched as they walked back to the house. It was a casual stride for Itachi, though Sakura had to pick up the pace a touch to keep up with his long strides.
He turned his back on them, looking out over the forest. The reds and yellows of autumn were beautiful. The forest practically radiated peace.
His eyes ticked over to Sakura’s bento box, half eaten and forgotten on the grass. Then he remembered his own. He picked it up and ate slowly, though he wasn’t hungry any longer.
He kept his mind clear. Rather, he made a valiant attempt and failed, the emotions of lust and worry and excitement battering his mind like a ship against the rocks.
*What troubles you, Kit?*
Naruto didn’t answer his inner demon. Though he did find himself staring a long time at the one cherry tree the view had to offer, the limbs in fantastic bloom.
*The youngling…?* Kyuubi’s tone seemed curious. Even more so than the time he had asked about indoor plumbing. *The vixen is quite powerful. And very easy on the eyes.* Naruto squirmed, noting once more how difficult it was to ignore someone who was in your head and could feel your thoughts.
*Am I wrong? Her proportions do seem about right, even if she were canine. What does she taste like, Kit?*
Naruto shouldered the memory of sweet blossom tea aside, recalling only her eyes. The way they had looked when she was upon him. At the peak when thing were about to get interesting in ways you couldn’t tell baa-chan about.
*Very well, Kit.* Kyuubi let the topic rest. Naruto could feel him sigh and shrug, *We will speak of the Vixen after your heart has settled. But heed this; These stirrings are the craving of light and water. Disallow them, and the flower will wither and die.*

*This isn’t my world… Maybe Naruto doesn’t feel the same way about me here…*
*And his other option is Gaara. Who would you pick?*
*But the way he reacted…*
*Hello! You just pounced from left field! Of course he panicked!*
Sakura stopped, gazing into the mirror in the hall. *Just who the hell are you, anyway?*
*That’s a dumb question.*
Sakura sighed, *I can’t even get a straight answer from myself…*
“Sakura!”
“Huh? Yeah, what?” She turned. Itachi had stopped a short way down the hall.
“You haven’t heard a thing I’ve said, have you?”
She sighed in guilt, it was pointless not to, “Sorry. What were you saying?”
Itachi chuckled, “I just wanted to know how your training was doing. I went out because I felt your chakra go shooting up like an artesian well, but when I got out there all I found was you sitting next to Naruto. I was a little confused.”
“He was pretty confused there for a second as well…”
Itachi laughed, putting an arm around her, “If you’d pooled that much chakra against me, I’d’ve been on my back in the grass as well. Only the gods know how Hinata would have reacted.”
Sakura sighed… *You’re not going to tell him, are you?*
*And if I did?*
*Or you could just stab him. That might be nicer.*
“You’re tense. What’s going on in there?” Itachi tapped her forehead.
“Sometimes I don’t think I know…” She pulled away, “I can smell myself. I think I’ll take a bath…”
“I don’t mind. I think you smell nice.” Itachi smiled at her, “Besides, what about the paperwork?”
“Hell…Just fill in the blanks and make up what we can’t really tell them. They’ll probably throw us out of the exams as soon as they find out who we are anyway.”
“So is Naruto going?”
“Oh, he’ll go.” Sakura’s hand hardened into a fist, “I can bribe him in enough ways to own his soul. Or maybe I’ll just ask.” She winked.
“Hehehehe, careful, young Hanuro. Your authority is showing.” Itachi chided her in a sing-song tone and walked away laughing, “I’ll get Zabuza to help. He knows how to dodge paperwork.”
He looked over his shoulder at her, his red eye catching her green, “Maybe I’ll come visit you after I’m done with the paperwork. Will you still be in the bath?”
“Don’t get so carried away, pervert.” But she smiled.
Itachi laughed and drifted down the hall, leaving Sakura to deal with the wave of guilt that hit her like a tsunami.
*Smooth, billboard brow. Throw yourself at Naruto, swear he’s the one, and then invite Itachi to take a bath with you. And you called him a pervert.*
*I thought that’s what you wanted?*
*Face it; We don’t know what we want.*

Naruto sighed deeply, lazily adjusting the cant of his straw hat to follow the sun as the raft drifted around the pool. “The fish aren’t biting today.”
Sasuke sighed back and removed the black shade he wore. He and Naruto sat back to back on the wooden raft, “We didn’t bring any bait. Substituted rocks for hooks, and there aren’t any fish here to catch.”
Naruto tended his pole, a switch of wood stuffed in between the planks of the raft. The roughly ties string came undone, sinking quickly to the shallow bottom of the pond. “Lost my line too…”
Sasuke shook his head. “I told you had to tie it better.”
“Meh…” Naruto shrugged.
“Hn…” Sasuke answered.
They drifted another few minutes in silence.
“You fall asleep over there?” Sasuke called over his shoulder.
“Naw… Just thinking…” Naruto knocked over the stick that had once been a makeshift pole, “Wondering what’s up with the girls around here…”
“So that’s why you’ve been out here the last couple-a days? Girl troubles?”
“Plus or minus a few things, yeah.” Naruto shifted, “I just don’t get them at all.”
Sasuke put his shade back on, “So where do we start?”
“Haku doesn’t cook anymore. I really miss her ramen…” Naruto pouted to himself.
“Let Zabuza-sensei worry about Haku.” Sasuke tended his own line, “If she wants to shift her attention from domestics to training, that’s between them.”
“And Hanabi is still all ghostlike.” Naruto looked over his shoulder, “She’s almost as quiet and Itachi, and her voice just chills me. And she still smells a little… I don’t know…”
“Like the jutsu sunk into her skin and won’t come out?” Sasuke offered.
“Yeah… Like a bad perfume or something.”
“I hadn’t noticed.” Sasuke sighed again.
“And Sakura and Hinata. They come back in every day, bruised and bloodstained.” Naruto picked up his stick, setting back in place. Only to have it fall over. “And Ino…”
“What’s up with Ino?” Sasuke stiffened and turned, looking over his shoulder.
“Have you seen her recently?” Naruto met Sasuke’s eye.
“I probably see more of her than you do.” Sasuke’s brow drew downward, “I haven’t noticed anything amiss…”
“Well…” Naruto turned away, “She’s just wicked hot. The long blonde hair, long firm thighs, and her breasts are… whhaaahhhh!”
Naruto found himself airborne and falling on his head, the water making a magnificent splash. He stood up, the water just shy of shoulder deep on him, stuttering and wiping water from his face, his straw hat going limp. “Teme! What the hell?!”
Sasuke reclined on the raft, sprawling out as if he owned it, that he did was beside the point, glaring at Naruto. “Don’t talk about Ino like that.”
“Huh?” Naruto’s head tipped to one side, “Why not? It’s true, every word!”
“Be that as it may,” Sasuke rolled onto his side, “How would you feel if I started drooling over Sakura like that?”
Naruto just looked more confused, “Umm… I thought we’d run over Hinata and then Sakura, but any order works, I suppose.”
“Dobe doesn’t get it…” Sasuke shook is head, rolling to kneel, leaning out toward Naruto, “I don’t think about girls that way.”
“HOLY SMOKES! YOU”RE GAY!?!” Naruto shouted, his voice ringing around the forest.
“No!”
“Good. Me neither.” Naruto smiled, “But Gaara thinks you’re cute. Still not straight?”
“No, I’m still not str…err…” Sasuke bit back his word, “Damn you, Dobe!”
“Teme hates it when you pick on his sexuality!” Naruto laughed, his tongue handing out.
Sasuke stood, one fist clenched, eyes shut, “Try what you like, Dobe, You won’t rile me!” Sasuke eased his eyes open, the spirit of calm.
“Not even this?” Naruto flashed signs, a watered down smoke cloud rising to the surface in bubbles. He blew the Uchiha a kiss as the smoke cleared.
The said Uchiha had lost his calm to slack-jawed, boogey-eyed shock.
“I didn’t get you, did I Teme-kun?”
The sound of Naruto’s decidedly masculine voice broke the spell of shock.
“Clever,” Sasuke straightened up, “But the nipples are the wrong color, and not even the right size.”
“Really?” Naruto lifted one breast, “What are they supposed to look like?”
Sasuke made a groping motion in the air, “Well they’re…” his hands snapped down to his sides, “I’m not telling you! What kind of pervert are you?”
“One of the finest, Tch.” Naruto clicked his tongue and winked.
“The Dobe thinks he’s good and yet he missed her birthmark as well. Sad.” Sasuke was smiling, “So sad…”
“Birthmark? What? Where?”
Sasuke still shook his head, “The tables turn, Uzumaki. But you won’t get it from me.”
“Aww… Come on Teme!” Naruto had fallen back to unveiled whining, “I can’t get it right without some help. Teme! Teeemeee!”
“Why are you calling me Teme?”
Naruto recalled clearly. “You keep calling me Dobe.”
“Well you started it!” Sasuke shot back.
“Oh, yeah… I did…”
“Dobe.” Sasuke said with a snicker.
“Teme!”
“Dobe!”
“Teme!”
“Dobe!”
“Stop staring!”
“Dob…What? I’m not staring!”
“You are too!” Naruto cried out, coving his borrowed breasts with his hands provocatively, “You’re staring right at them! Right at Ino’s tits!”
“DOBE!!” Sasuke rushed Naruto, one foot way back.
*I’m gonna get kicked…*
The sandal to his jaw broke the illusion and lifted him clear out of the water. Naruto hit the surface with a splash, but remained on the surface.
“So the kiddy gloves are off, eh?” Naruto smiled, wiping the trickle of blood from his mouth, “That took some doing I’ll bet, kicking Ino in the face.”
“I kicked you! And I told you,” Sasuke seethed, “Not to talk about Ino like that!”
They met again, trading blows. Naruto took a blast to the jaw, catching Sasuke in the gut, doubling him over. The Uchiha reflexed, one foot rising straight up between Naruto’s legs. He caught the foot an inch from it’s target, “Whoa! Damn, is she your sister or something?”
Sasuke spun around, his other foot sailing over Naruto’s head as the blond ducked.
Naruto leaned way back, the sole of the heel stopping against his chin, just grazing the short hairs of the goatee he was growing.
“She’s my wife!” Sasuke roared. He hit the water and sank, pulling against the surface from below, yanking his foot free of Naruto’s grip.
Sasuke threw punches under the surface, pillars of water shooting out at Naruto with little warning.
He met each one with a strike of his own and charged his fists. Sasuke drew back and Naruto slapped the surface of the water, releasing the blast of chakra against the surface with a mighty blast.
The wave of force knocked the blonde from his feet and he plunged one hand downward, grabbing Sasuke as his hands covered his ears in pain and dragging him out of the water.
“Sorry man. I didn’t know.”
Sasuke blinked. “Huh?”
“I said I was sorry…” Naruto let go of him, sitting on the surface.
Sasuke pulled the rest of his body free, “Say what? I think you busted something, ‘cause all I can here is this loud ring.”
Naruto watched as Sasuke focused a simple healing jutsu in his hand and put it over his ears. After a long moment, he looked back up, “I’m good. Now what were you saying?”
Naruto sighed, “I said I was sorry about what I said about Ino.”
“Oh.” His face was blank. Then cracked into a grin, “I’m still not telling you about her nipples. They are mine. Mine and mine alone. You shall never gaze upon them!”
Naruto looked over his shoulder at the Uchiha, one fist clenched in his direction. A big, brotherly smile pinned on his face.
“Are you challenging me?” Naruto stood, preparing himself.
“Ha ha!” Sasuke laughed, “Oh, yeah. I’m challenging you, Dobe!”
“Bring it on, Teme!” Naruto dropped his upper body and his voice, “Bring it on!”

The icebox door swung shut as Zabuza pulled out the icepacks. He handed the first pair to Hinata. She put one on her shoulder and the other on her cheek. He handed three to Ino. She sat on one, held the second to her thigh with a badly bruising hand and laid her forehead on the third.
Haku accepted one, holding a corner as she let it lay over her shoulder against her back.
“Thank you father.”
Zabuza nodded and handed the last pair to Sakura. She had a blooming pair of black eyes forming and both hands looked terrible.
The girl with cherry blossom hair dropped one pack on the chair, setting it on top of her feet and holding the other against her face with her hands.
“You lot are too hard on yourselves,” Zabuza put his back to them, stirring the stewpot on the stove, “And one and other. Three on one, Sakura? Sparring like that can get people seriously hurt. Why didn’t you tell me? Then We could have taken care of these out there before you came in bleeding all over the floor.”
“Sorry…” Sakura muttered through the icepack, “I thought if we’d told you, you would have told us we couldn’t.”
He turned back to her, “I would have. But since you did anyway, I tempted to wonder which side won.”
The girls looked back and forth among themselves.
“Let’s call it a draw.” Ino offered. “We all got in some good hits, but we also wound up getting carried in by Itachi.”
The Uchiha stood in the corner, chewing on a piece of fruit. His plain white shirt bore a bit of blood.
The other girls muttered in agreement.
“Nii-san…” Sasuke’s voice drifted from the open front door, “Zabuza…? Who’s in the kitchen?”
“We’re all in here.” Zabuza answered, “Come in and clean up for supper.”
“Damn…” Naruto’s voice was low, “They’re all gonna see this…”
The door slammed shut, “They’d all know if Itachi knew.” Sasuke sighed.
Their footfalls were in an odd rhythm and the two boys came around the corner, eyes down.
“We’re gonna need some ice and a mop, Momoshi-sensei…” Naruto chuckled. He looked like he’d been caught in a mudslide. His blonde hair was brown and clumped with mud and here was as much of the dark red stick of dried blood as there was the pale cast of wet earth in his clothes.
“Oh. Suke-kun!” Ino limped over to him and tried to hug him, held back by the mud, bleeding, and his weak stance against Naruto.
Sasuke appeared much the same, a trickle escaping from under his hand clamped on his thigh.
Itachi had approached, slowly chewing, looking his brother over closely.
“Sharp rock…Or maybe that was from when I landed on the raft…” Sasuke chuckled weakly, I kind of lost track there for a minute.
Itachi leaned in closer. Peering into the boy’s eyes. “He’s got a concussion. Dumbass.”
Zabuza sighed, pooling great piles of healing jutsu in his hands, the pale blue light flowing out over his fingers.
One hand lay on Sasuke’s head for a moment as the other slipped under the hand holding the wound.
“Ow!” Zabuza pulled a long splinter out and tossed in on the kitchen island. “Must have been the raft.”
Naruto circled around, taking a seat, “I just heal fast. When we started out, I was a bigger mess than him.” Naruto flashed a thumbs up to Sasuke, “I hit the raft first. And I had some broken ribs, and one eye didn’t work there for a little while. I think it was swollen shut.” He slapped his belly, “Just a boy and his Kyuubi! Hehehehahaha!”
Zabuza straightened up, “You’ll live.”
“Not after I’m through with him!” Ino glared through a black eye, limping up to him and taking hold of his shirt. “What happened to ‘chilling out’ and ‘going fishing’, Sasuke!” She pushed him toward the island until he fell into a seat, “I don’t see any fish!”
Naruto raised his hand, “They weren’t biting today… I’ll stay out of it…” He wilted under Ino’s searing glare.
“Since when does ‘chilling out’ mean ‘beating the shit out of each other’?”
A subtle snicker broke free from Itachi in the corner.
“They don’t look so bad…” Hanabi spoke. Heads turned to the doorway with a snap, Naruto fell from his stool with a shout and hit the floor.
“Ahhh, ohhh….Not cool… Broken ribs…owie, owie, owie…” Naruto clutched his side with one hand.
“Hanabi, you’re up!” Hinata set aside the ice on her cheek, going to her sister’s side. “Are you feeling alright?”
“I’m fine. I’ve been fine for months now. You don’t have to worry about me all the time.” Hanabi’s voice carried like a breeze in the moonlight. “I came out for dinner. Is it almost ready? It smells good.”
Zabuza lifted Naruto carefully, one wide hand over his side, “It should be done shortly.” He gave Naruto a clap on the shoulder, “Good as new. Now everyone go clean up. Most of you stink.” Zabuza shooed them out with a smile.
The kitchen empty save himself and Hanabi, he washed his hands and directed a tiny waterfall dragon from the sink to the dirty foot prints his sons had left.
“I saw his demon…” Hanabi collected the icepacks, laying them carefully in the icebox. “It just lays in his belly, curled up nice and cozy…”
Zabuza let the dragon wander, the urge to consume the stain from the tile the only thing on it’s mind.
“Not like Gaara’s. His is always around him. Sometimes it is him.” The Hyuuga girl met Zabuza’s eyes, “And I can see mine…Always peeking over my shoulder…” Her hand poked something in the air over her shoulder, then recoiled back. “It doesn’t like me… But it won’t go away…”
“It’s just scared.” Zabuza reached down as his water dragon returned, picking it up. “It got lost. And it feels all the things that you feel. The hot, the pressure. He just wants to go home, but he can’t go until you take him there.”
Hanabi sat down heavily, “But I don’t want to die… not again. That place…”
Zabuza quieted her with a hand on her shoulder, “I know that place. The most beautiful nightmare.”
Hanabi was quiet. “He talks to me… Wants me to do… things. Mean things. And he makes me practice jutsu.”
Zabuza sat beside her, “What sort of jutsu?”
Hanabi’s voice grew quieter as she paled, “Jutsu that kill. That take the spirit and chakra and he eats them. Jutsu that make me so invisible, even Itachi-san doesn’t see me. And I can’t touch things. The wind moves me and I can scream and shout and no one hears me.”
Zabuza nodded. “I know about these jutsu. They are dark, and very powerful.”
“What do I do?” Hanabi wiped away a tear, only to have it replaced with another, “He scares me. And these jutsu scare me. I don’t want to be able to kill someone with a single word or sneak up on anyone and steal the hair from their nose without them knowing!”
“You are lucky then.” Zabuza’s hand rose to his shoulder before his rubbed the back of his neck, “The dead already knew of me and they were rather unhappy when I left them. But they have offered to teach you their secrets. Maybe because they know you don’t want them. Maybe because they know you will need them.”
The girl wiped at her tears again, “I’m not supposed to tell anyone… But I saw a man who looked like my grandpa. He told me to open the cage. But I don’t know what he means.”
Zabuza held her gaze. “Perhaps you are supposed to wait for a message. But I suppose if anyone would know… It would be your sister. She would be the one. But if the dead give you a secret, it’s best to keep it. I won’t tell, so don’t worry, but never speak of it again. Not even to me.”
“Alright. Thank you.”
Zabuza smiled, “Good girl.”