The Lineage

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.


The Lineage
By 11


Chapter 26
Finality: Reflection

Darkeyes. Gorgeous. Fuckable. Fucker. Fucking asshole. Something about him makes me shudder in anger and rage. But at the same time I find it hard to care too much since he’s right here – and I know that what I know now isn’t all there is.

“You must be wondering if I came back to fight for you.” I start for him, and his eyes narrow, dark and flinty edges.

“I can honestly say I don’t care about that right now.” He tells me, voice level. Well if that’s not what you’re thinking Darkeyes, I don’t know what you are.

“Ah.” I muse, “I thought you only liked Naruto because of Kyuubi.”

“No.” he spits the word out like a poison dart, his eyes hard. “Is Naruto still in there?” so he is aware?

“Yes,” I grin, “And no. I’m right here, but I’m not the same me. We are the same person – there is no Kyuubi, no Naruto: only me.”

He frowns. That’s right. Worry, and wonder – what do you think is going on in my head? Because I surely don’t know what’s in yours.

“Call me what you like,” Nice that it won’t matter which name you’ll moan in ecstasy, “both names are valid, I am them and they are me.”

I scowl at that though – it makes sense but it feels weird to say it. Not that there’s another way to described exactly who/what I am – maybe something along the lines of a ‘cured’ split personality. Still…

“Get out.”

“Why I thought you needed me for your war?” I laugh, “Not that I would fight for you after you were so cruel.”

“Please,” he hisses angrily, “Leave.”

Yes, he really doesn’t need me for this war – because he already has it, doesn’t he? If that’s so – why bother with Naruto in the first place?

“Shouldn’t you be the same though?” I wonder fixing my eyes back on him, stalking forward.

Sasuke backs away, but this is a small space, and he scowls as I catch him in my grip. His snarling face glaring back at me.

Since this is something that has irked me since I know the story. “Kuu gave her blood to Naruto.”

“What are you-!”

“Tobi gave his blood to Sasuke,” I cut him off, pressing my forehead to his, eyes boring into him. “So shouldn’t we be the same?”

His hands curl around my wrists, nails digging in harshly – he’ll detach me – he’s strong enough – but I won’t let him. Darkeyes, eyes like black wholes that draw everything in and let nothing escape – not even light.

I drown myself into them – pushing deeper into his consciousness. I can hear him start to scream – then the sound fades to a dull ringing and the dark space greets me.

`

The space is blank lightless, and wire rushes out. My skin tears and breaks, splintering flakes that peel away. He’s trying to push me back out – but I press deeper in and the wires crumple to threads, I delve in.

A shadow flickers across the scape – I seize the ghost by the wrist – fragile bony hollow. A scared child – no, he’s not that young, just – Sasuke. My fingers expected cool but he’s already warm beneath the surface.

Thin frame, a body I remember but do not know – and it entrances me. Soft raven hair, milky pale skin, and eyes so dark it’s like there’s nothing there, but despite the dark they teem and boil at the surface – alive.

“Leave now.” He begs me, his voice too level for the shivering of his arms. “You have to get out. Get out of my head.”

“Not this time, love,” I tell him softly, but there’s something off about this Sasuke; he’s nearly human. It gives me pause but only for a moment – since it seems I was wrong.

Almost disappointing – so he did need Naruto.

I bend toward him, my lips sealing over his forehead – burning my mark through him. He cries out – and something else is burning me back. Well, well, what is this?

Burning arms surround me from behind, pale and hard and strong, raven hair spilling on my shoulder as his teeth scrape against my neck, burning tongue pressed to my skin. But I already know – I was right.

“I told you to get out.” The other Sasuke glowers, abyss-like eyes turning to the creature-and-myself wound around this me.

“Kyuubi.” I murmur quietly, turning to my shoulder, staring back into ruby eyes – the eyes I’ve seen Sasuke use, eyes Naruto used to use.

Dark feather-black hair and the same pale skin, those same pinked lips, and mocking smile. The same wiry frame, and then those crimson churning eyes – a lustful expression so un-Sasuke-like.

“Hello gorgeous.” That velvet voice purrs leaning up and capturing my lips in a bloody kiss.

So I was right. Kyuubi’s blood, a parasite within the blood – another Naruto, and another Sasuke. He really didn’t need Naruto – there was more to it. I was right!

“So you had this inside of you too?” I wonder to myself when the other Sasuke breaks from my mouth – eyes irritated that I’d rather talk than fuck. I know that feeling well.

“This is what you were, what I still am,” Sasuke glares back at me – even in this shape given his inherent weaker self he’s immeasurably strong, even without this thing inside.

“A split between the will of Kyuubi within the human’s blood and the human they once were and would have been.”

“Not entirely,” Sasuke corrects me, “There was no blood sacrifice to start with, I was turned before this part of Kyuubi woke up. Only after Tobi died did this thing come alive – invading every thought.”

“Not that you ever listened,” the other scoffs – sneering lazily over my shoulder, “Never even let me out – such a strong will, but so very weak.”

“I never wanted ‘you’,” he snarls at it, but his eyes drift to it’s hands on me, “Trying to twist my thoughts and actions.”

“As if you didn’t enjoy yourself – you never let me anyway,” this other self sneers at Sasuke, satisfied with himself, dropping claws across my chest – dragging out a hiss. “Feels good, right?”

“Fuck you.” I tell the thing, attempting to shove it off – but its claws drive deeper, and I have to laugh to remember how I’d react myself.

“That’s the idea.” Of course.

“You’re so damn kinky.” I grin back at it.

Damn if Sasuke could look that sexy, “Don’t I know it.” It smirks, twisting a finger around my chest, drawing the skin up hard and down, elicit a growl.

Damn it I want to fuck this thing here! But there’s something else I’m here for.

“Get a room – and get out of my head.” Sasuke growls turning away from us, toward the blackness. But I reach after him, detaching myself from his parasite.

I pull him back toward me, and dark eyes glare back in fury, darting between me and the parasite. “Jealous?” I have to wonder – an exciting concept. But this is the more rational side and he scoffs at me, snatching his wrists back.

For having such a seemingly weak bones he really is strong, and his eyes still drive ice into my insides. “Do whatever you want – it doesn’t affect me.”

Bastard.

“Don’t say that, kit,” the other Sasuke laughs – cocking his hips at an angle, eyeing the two of us – and I know exactly what he’s thinking, and I agree, we should fuck. But there’s more to it than that, and I want more.

He goes on, “After all, aren’t you seriously crazy about him?”

“I liked Naruto…” he admits, a low voice, “We got on, and I could stand him.” He corrects instantly, “This isn’t Naruto.” Abyss-like eyes glare at me, as if I’d killed the guy! Seriously!!

I reach to stop him again and wires strike back against my skin – but my grip will not loosen around him. No matter how many knives those angry eyes attempt to drive into me.

“You’re such a childish brat.” His parasite chides.

“If the two of you merged, you’d be just like me,” I wonder, and Sasuke’s mental barrage does not let up.

“I would never ‘merge’.” He hisses angrily, “Unlike Naruto, I don’t ever want to lose my sense of self.”

So he thinks Naruto is gone completely? That his sense of self is gone? I’m still Naruto – I’m just something else too. I’m still Kyuubi but also more.

“You’re saying I’m not the same one who used to mist my body just so I could grope you – because I wasn’t braver than that?”

His attacks freeze, and his arm stiffens in my grip. Dark eyes staring back at me, frozen – so shocked? Shocked I remember?

His parasite giggles, creepily, but I ignore him.

“You’re saying that this isn’t the touch that burned you to life? That drank up your blood, that pierced your tongue?”

“Shut up!”

“I’d listen to him, brat.”

“Are you saying that there’s nothing left of the person who loved you in here? Do you think ‘yourself’ so incapable of feeling?”

“Shut up.”

His parasite snorts, watching the two of us amused, stepping closer toward my back – Sasuke’s not fighting anymore, breath shuddering in and out, refusing to look me in the eyes.

“You can believe what you want Sasuke, I’ll love you either way.”

My lips seal to his forehead and he doesn’t move away, dark eyes lift to me, calm, and something else. Something else he’s holding back – something he’s always held back. Fear? And what else?

“Do you love Naruto?” I ask him. Do you love me, Sasuke?

“Yes!” the other Sasuke nearly screams, hands pressing to my back and wrapping around me once more – lips pressed hard to my throat, but my eyes remain fixed on this Sasuke. “We always wanted each other – it’s this much because we’re the same.”

“Maybe so,” I admit, attempting to ignore the electric thrill of the other Sasuke’s claws and lips across my back and neck – but I’m more concerned with this one I’m still holding on to. Does this one want me?

This Sasuke; this one still holding everything inside. This one feigning calm and composure. This one who hardly ever let that perfect mask slip. I need to hear him answer truthfully – if he doesn’t…

I’ll kill him.

I’ll fuck him anyway.

I’ll forgive him.

I’ll still love him.

Damn it why do I love him so fucking much!

“Leave us.” A snarling – and those claws grip tighter on me, angry. “It will only be a moment.”

Then the parasite is left behind and Sasuke and I stand alone deeper in – how far does this mind go? An abyss, like those eyes?

Sasuke’s breathing changes and he turns away from me again calming himself – but he doesn’t have to be calm, he just has to be honest. Because he wasn’t sure before – is he sure now? What if he’s not sure?

His mouth opens and I wait, but he shuts it again. Damnit. I can’t take it. I need to know now. I have to or I’m going to crack.

“Truth is, you despise me.”

“No.”

“Truthfully you always hated me.”

“No.” he growls.

“Truthfully you never cared for Naruto at all.”

“No.” he snarls angrily, dark eyes meeting mine in fury – but I go on.

“You only needed him for the war, it’s okay to admit it.”

“It’s not-!!” He starts angrily, but I cut him off.

“I won’t be upset. I just want to confirm it.”

“I said that’s not it!!” he yells lurching forward, claws winding hard in my hair and yanking my body down.

His knee strikes hard into my chest, and I allow myself to crumple in the sting, to kneel before him for now – because he’s unsettled, because whatever he says next is truth.

Looking up I recognize my mark already burned into him – a deep scar into his body, his unbeating heart – just a little provoked by me.

Tentative.

“I already told him, it wasn’t like that…”

Hesitation.

“Initially, that’s what I tried to keep in mind, I said that and I admit to it…”

Afraid.

Closed off and shaking, the barest tremor… “Just say it.” I order, “Tell me.” Please… if it’s not I’ll never touch him again – but I couldn’t stand it.

“I think…”

“You know or you don’t.”

“… I loved Naruto.” His voice is so much smaller and then his eyes are hardened again looking back at me. “But you’re not him.”

“I am…” I can’t help grinning, because this takes everything else away – just this, “And you know I am.”

He has to – because he never ‘needed’ Naruto – there had to be more to it.

I retreat from him and he watches me, he’s surprised but he’s trying to mask that too. “One answer – do you love me? Yes or no?”

I expect him to jerk surprised, I expect him to hesitate again. I expect him to stall, I expect him to dance his way around the words. I don’t expect this defiance. I don’t expect honesty.

“Yes.” He’s not lying but his eyes are angry – as if blaming me, as if I should have figured this out myself. As if I should have just known; that as a tool, I was still more to him – that despite being something he needed, he loved me too.

Fuck. Naruto was an idiot – how was he supposed to figure that out?

Then I have full permission to devour him, and his body is against mine. My other self, his parasite curled around us in rapturous flame, clawing up my back – while my mouth gently drinks this Sasuke in – my beloved mine.

“It still burns.”

“Scared? Don’t be,” I’m fading back to my body – back from the dark space, “I love you, so I’ll be gentle.”

Parasitic fangs sinking into me, and my hands clutch Sasuke closer, his arms wound around me in return.

Then it’s just one body I clutch to me – chilling and heated – claws and lips and teeth and tongue.

`

Break from air that I didn’t need before – his lips sealed back against mine – just him and me and the stony surround. Drowned in the feverish chill and heat.

His tongue a living angry thing inside me, my own a grappling a worm – mouth crushed to mouth. His claws scar up my back and my hands leave bruises grinding my hips to his.

Metal winter blending hot and sweet with bitter spice and lascivious inner flesh and skin. We break again and my eyes – these blue red things – stare back at a single dark orb layers of black and obsidian, onyx, and hematite; because the other eye glares back, fierce red.

I crush my hips to his and he moans – both eyes dark and bright. My claws scrape his skin and my teeth tease along the throat – so many tiny veins, all through his arms and legs.

Even those fingertips pressed past skin to bone have such tiny threads of pulsing blood all through them. His hand knots in my hair, a thumb across my cheek – my lip – his hips drive back against mine and he hisses shifting pressure and I push back into him.

That thumb across my mouth slips in – my teeth come down on the pad. He cries out and my hands and hips drive him back to me, our hips stroke too tight – too hard.

Red salty metal and bitter saccharine stain my tongue and my tongue pressed hard to the slit in his thumb. He growls, shifting our lower bodies again – withdraws his thumb, a bloody trail across my cheek.

His tongue follows after, crimson lapped from my skin and tongue violently pressed back inside. I meet him and grind back, my own tiny muscle seeking him out – a cloud of red taste puffing out of him again – my whites sink back on him, and then on me.

A sharp pain in my lip as his teeth pierce the skin, just enough, a clouding taste that bubbles up and into him – and my mouth fights him for it.

This is first he’s tasted my blood and I feel his body shudder, hips stilling slightly against mine – but I feel his member stiffen more, slowly rocking into me – squirming beneath clothes.

The burning is almost numbing but also fever pitch and brain branding. Because as surely as I’m burning myself into him, he’s burning himself into me as well – every inch of skin on flame.

Nerves caught and pinched so tight sensation is all there is to consciousness. His heart is beating in a frantic rhythm, his and mine playing some kind of sickening thudding duet – destroying my ears and making my insides worm.

He’s first to withdraw this time – red and abyss-like eyes looking back at me foggy but lucid, fully licentious. Darkness betrays trepidation, but both red and darkened eyes exude familiar hunger.

It only takes a moment, but it’s too long that his form is not welded to mine – this shirt, theses pants, and everything else, his too. Then all this pale pinked skin is mine – and he howls.

This chest is mine to take my tongue and flay along the skin – a mewl, a moan. His hands tangle into short gold threads, and press lower – dark eyes turned toward the wall, and red impatient and harsh.

I seize those hands and pin them at his sides – so my mouth, and free hand can enjoy the contour of this form. He cries out and thrashes under me, just touching him – the soft of the skin, pressing down and stroking over.

Left side and right side, along his ribs – his chest, his sternum, the beating vessel and expanding wings of breath in the cage of bone. He squirms and mewls and jerks and moans – my tongue, my fingers, pressing and stroking every point they reach where his breath catches and his muscles stiffen and writhe.

My mouth clamps over his chest, and the pinkened spot reddens at my tongue’s abuse, rolled between teeth, and squeezed and jerked and stroked back over with velvet hot – and he arches and curls. Jerking moaning, frustrated breaths and sounds.

So sensitive, and rub across the belly and sides, and his legs buck, and hiss and a choked groan – hips to hips, and my hardness sits rocking numbly against him. A frustrated sob and moan – thrusting faster, and held still – held down, without relief.

He thrashes again and I rub him slowly – a choking sobbing cry and both red and dark orbs glare back at me, frustrated and aroused.

Fuck! Are you going to do it or not?!

A hissing moan into my mind – careening around my skull. My hips move away – he moans loudly in anger at the loss. Just be patient, Darkeyes. And he screams.

My tongue sears around his shaft. He bucks viciously against the grip my legs have taken in absence of both hands. Fingers feather across the skin of his inner thighs and his hips twist and jerk.

His skin is vaguely salty through the burn of blood – so many thick veins running through here, and I trace them all. He cries out again and jerks roughly, trying to break free – my tongue still lapping along his length.

I don’t allow enough for release, but enough to taste, to watch it jerk and twitch so close and yet held at bay. His breath is too fast, his heart pounding faster – frustration, bordering on fury. Is it so infuriating to be taken so slowly?

I’ll have to try it some time.

He screams again and my mouth has closed around him – the pulse against my tongue speeding, beating harshly against my tongue and I follow it up and down the length, slowly first, then faster, listening to the blood flow.

Flowing from the heart to the brain and spine and down the sides, to the hips, past bone and cartilage and organs not in use, pooling but speeding through the loins at a rate otherwise excessive.

Then back up and through the legs and arms and chest and lungs and back to the heart. So fast – but the burning still persists just here in this one conniving physical place.

His hips still jerk and his voice still hitches – tiny hissing, groaning, panting, heart that’s beating, moaning, aching, gasping. Then white hot liquid explodes into my mouth – a popped water balloon – a shot from a water gun; but too long.

It gushes and pours and I pull back – it’s spilling out. It’s white but clear and sticky and bitter and so damn hot and warm on my tongue.

First thoughts: Sick, spit and retch. But then I catch his face – eyes both black and red – looking back at me, there’s a softness there that’s not cushy or sweet or cute.

Flinty glittering eyes and all that blood still pumping too fast. Every part still teetering at the pinnacle of all things.

It cuts inside me in an instant and buried itself like a twisted hook embed in my flesh and I can’t yank out. It’s nearly cruel. Except it ignites me, so I can’t stop staring, and I can’t even care what that bitter shit is in my mouth.

My mouth fits around him again and his hips jerk – a growl roars from the back of his throat, red and dark eyes glaring at me. Pearly teeth bared as if he could attack me from this position.

The skin is still red that my tongue is laving over, and his hips jerk, but it’s not to get closer, not at first. But he’s hardening up again I see the shudder crawl down his spine.

What the hell are you doing?!

Yes, I know you’re still sensitive. I think back at him, smiling slightly as my tongue rapes up his length again and coils back down to his base. He groans and his shaft spasms, pulse beating a steady thudding getting faster whether Sasuke wills it to or not.

Damn you Naruto.

My free hand drifts up his thighs and nearer to this center – my fingers closing lightly around the sacs at the base. He jumps and howls, head tossed back then snapped forward to glare at me, his arms tugging harshly at where my hand has yet to release them.

This makes for an odd angle – but I don’t really care to let him get his claws in me just yet.

The fluid from before and my mouth still coats around him, and my fingers move it over the soft and stiffening skin here – and he growls and jerks, twisting his hips, closer and then away and back toward me again.

Mewling and biting down his tongue and lips – unable to stifle every moan or gasp; fingers working over him harshly, too slow to bring him to, but enough to coax this body back to a too quick steady beating flow.

My fingers are drenched in the stuff and I can’t think too hard how much must be in my mouth still. It’s flowing all over and it’s still so warm, his whole body’s still heated and shivery and his heartbeat is increasing once more.

It’s slick all over my fingers and I allow them to release his sacs, my tongue still rubbing along the quickening vein – blood pulsing faster, and his movements jerking rougher and his breathing becomes erratic again.

He howls and his hips arc up and the muscles clamp down hard around my finger – slicked with hot white and pressed quick and sharp inside his opening. He hisses and the muscles loosen contracting again and loosening and contracting again.

I move my finger, curling it inside him and he cries out, bucking up, and hissing, eyes glaring down at me – between fury and surprise and irritation.

“What the hell, Naruto!”

My tongue strokes him up long and hard and I feel the muscles inside contract around me, the sinew of his neck tightening as I draw off him – my eyes fixed back on his.

“I want you,” I state simply, attempting to be tactful and not saying ‘I want to fuck you really bad, if you don’t mind’. “I’ll be gentle. It’s fine right?”

He doesn’t answer, his head laid back against the stone. I start to withdraw my finger, “It’s fine, right?”

His muscles contract around me, gripping down hard. “Yes, it’s fine--!” He starts to growl but it degenerates into a groan as I push back into him, this time with a second slicked finger.

He clenches around me and loosens clenching again, and breathing, his shaft is still stiff and my tongue dabbles over it happily for the time it takes my fingers to shift inside him, moving, thrusting deeper, twisting, curling.

He mewls and moans and his hips shift and he worms, and it gets worse as a third finger enters. “Damnit Naruto!”

That painful?

“Let go,” his hands jerk hard at my grip, “I wanna touch you too damnit!”

Impatient. But I grin and nuzzle at his hip, still holding him down for now – a growl bubbling at the back of his throat, so angry and frustrated.

“Too damn slow!”

“Didn’t I just promise I’d be gentle?”

“Gentle?” he scoffs thrusting back on my curling fingers, muscle bruised red and sensitized, “You call this gentle?! Fuck you!”

That is the idea, Darkeyes.

Then I have to let him go, when my hands brace over his hips – my still slick hand brushing over myself to start before I press in toward him. He’s free and his body leaps toward me, claws latching in my shoulder and arm gripping tight enough to break skin.

His eyes are red and I don’t bother to fight him too hard when his hips press down on me hard – my length driven inside him in a single harsh stroke.

He cries out, and his nails bite hard into my arm, angry red scratches and bruises, torn up skin and speckles of blood rise to the surface and puddles out to scab over later.

He doesn’t waste time and I meet him every time he moves to rise and drive back down.

Howl and rise and jerk and moan, and all the while his belly rubs along mine, his hardness pressed tight between. Inside him he’s clenching me and drawing up and down and twisting and turning.

He’s squeezing me with heat and muscle and a burning pulse that’s beating itself against my most sensitive part. My hand grips hard around his moving twisting writhing hips thrashing over me, quick and hard, faster and faster.

I feel his pulse jumping, jumping. That pulse against my stomach and clenching around me is pumping faster, and harder – it’s maddening and I’m assaulted in every sense by this thing.

Him. Darkeyes. Sasuke. His sounds – panting, a cry, a gasp, a moan. His scent – thick and icy chill but so stifling and fogged – it’s drowning me effectively my mind is blanking out.

The fire in my veins is running in time with his, and he clenches that much harder around me. His body driving on me, and I feel him tighten, twitching, and those eyes are squeezed tightly shut – my name ringing in my ears.

Then I’m gone and all that heat and swelling venomous desire and lust comes pouring out of me – I feel his walls around me, and they’re drenched in me.

His body clamps down so hard – his name roared from me, and it’s beating inside him and he shudders.

Muscles tightening, blood too fast, too erratic, his voice is lost – an unintelligible moan: it’s almost my name.

Claws clenched up tight in my hair loosen and brush through them, holding onto my head, and his forehead rises to mine. My eyes are open and obsidian abyss eyes greet me, staring back, visceral, sated, intense – iridescent in the light somehow.

My arms wind around him too – I’m still buried inside him, but I’m softening up. I need out soon – but shit I just want to hold him like this a little longer.

Then he speaks, a whisper that burns my insides from the center out. It shoots fire through me. I swear I could stiffen again inside him and fuck him back into the stone one more time.

“I love you.”

So soft – barely even spoken, so light, so soft; like he didn’t even say it. But he did. Fuck!

I stiffen inside him and I feel his body jerk, his inner walls already so abused, and dark eyes open to look into me confused – and my mouth reaches up to devour him, driving his body back hard to the wall.

He jerks and moans into me, and I can’t stop the hard thrusts pounding into him. I’m burning up – my mind’s on fire – Sasuke loves me. I want to scream and tear him into me and laugh and devour him.

My hand wraps around his softened member and he yelps as my fingers and palm press roughly to him forcing the appendage to stiff life.

He draw away and I attack him neck – gurgling sounds, moan and mewling and a sound of choking discomfort and arousal.

Then his appendage jerks out across me – spilling white hot between us for the second time – and I pump into him a few more times. Feeling his heat. This body – and this blood and mind so close to mine.

So distant – so closed off – but he said it. He said it! He loves me! I love Sasuke! I drive in and I hear his blood pounding his heart beating hard and fast, his muscles clenching hard around me – and I’m spilling out again inside him.

A few more jerks – and I just stand buried inside him again – holding his body close, and his claws tighten on my arms, angry, but not really. Dark eyes glare at me in irritation – as if to say I’m an idiot of some kind.

Not at all – I’m just so fucking happy, Sasuke. Celebrate with me Darkeyes? I can’t recall if I was ever so excessively elated!

“Done yet?” he asks, his voice rough and raw from before. It pains me and he winces too as I pull myself out of him – still holding him between me and the stone, just holding him before his legs turn limp.

His breathing is still hard, and his heart is still beating way too fast – it calms severely slowly, and I just hold onto him, sinking us to the ground so I can rest as well.

I love you.

He doesn’t answer. But it’s fine, he already said it – he loves me. He’s the closest thing to perfect, and so far from me. We won’t ever be the same – but we’re alike and we’re different and I wouldn’t want him as anything but.

His heartbeat stabilizes, a slow steady rhythm, his muscles lax, features softened, dark hair feathered across my shoulder – the faint chill of his breath on my skin.

It’s strange to have gone inside his mind and seen a reflection of myself – but I found something so wonderful, too deep in. Something deeper in him, Naruto was never just a tool to Sasuke. That alone is reason for me to grin until my face splits in two.

Sasuke mine – and I let him drift off from consciousness, nuzzling his still warm form.

It’s a moment almost like peace, so I watch him while I can because in the morning I’ll be gone.

`

Then in a moment I am gone.

I’m quick – I don’t need long. Through the halls, every cranny, every tent – marking every last one of them, Regenerates: Itachi, Orochimaru, Karin-ew – Suigetsu aka pointy-teeth, Juugo, others – I learn their names and I’ll remember.

I whipped through soon enough – they’re already preparing for battle. The last adjustment to weapons and cloaks to shield the sun – it’ll be cloudy today though; it might be fine anyway.

I know the Order is doing the same with their dredges – those like Haku, Zabuza, Kakashi, Lee, so many names and yet so few. The Regenerates have more numbers – but they’re also not as well trained.

Gaara’s to the east – I can smell the paint of the wolves, I can see them in my mind, likely reds and oranges and golds: their war paint patterns of blood and flame and the immortal.

I can still smell the humans – I didn’t expect the Hunters to leave. But I think I might have expected that one to head out. Shikamaru’s scent is still with them.

There’s still an hour before the attack – I have a short eternity to spend. That guy – I should be done with the human now, but still.

“You’re not coming with us?”

The smoke from Shikamaru’s cigarette is lost in the wind and rises and puffs where the air current wanes. Ino stands nearby – her hair’s tied back a long cord of platinum and all black kevlon and weapons tucked away in neat little pockets.

Her eyes are sad, blue and reticent. Shikamaru seems perfectly calm though – just having his smoke, he’s not even in full gear.

She sighs, “I’m sorry about Naruto. We couldn’t have known what he was… well. It should have been obvious, since it just means that Kuu succeeded that night she died.”

“I’m okay with it.” Shikamaru shrugs her concerns off – and she bites down on her lip as if trying to supplement the pain she thinks he should have.

“I was always just,” he lets out a long puff, “afraid that I’d left him for dead and he’d resent me forever, when it wasn’t even his fault.”

She doesn’t respond, doesn’t move. She wants him to come with her – she wants them to fight in this together. I hope he doesn’t – these Hunters, if they’re smart maybe half or a little over will survive.

How can they know there will be wolves and both vampires trying to kill each other. I wonder if they’d been preparing for this – at least as much as they should have. They expect vampires – what of the rest?

“You ever thought of going back?”

“What?” she sounds confused. I am too.

“Living a normal life, like you did before.” He clarifies. I can honestly say I haven’t – I discarded that possibility when I discarded the last link of being almost entirely half whole-human.

She pauses considering, “I have thought about it before.”

“Want to come with me?” he asks, discarding his cigarette – stamping it out, looks back at her. “Forget this war. We could live our lives together, long and happy.”

Lines of pain crisscross through her face and she looks away. “I can’t.” she shakes her head, “this is still my sense of purpose.”

“Your brother died years ago, Ino.” He reminds her, but his voice is gentle.

“Yes,” she agrees, blue eyes flashing, “and maybe you can give it up now, but I can’t.” she turns to go and he looks back – and that’s all. But she stops, “After this though, maybe I’ll look you up sometime.”

He smiles to himself and she continues back up the ledge toward the rest of the camp – it’s not too far away from the main Hunters encampment, but just far enough to sit and think – sorting thoughts.

“Okay, we’re alone.” Shikamaru sighs, “You going to come out now, Naruto?” He looks straight up into my eyes and I resist the urge to laugh insanely!

I drop to the ground, my feet landing under me, catching me, and I can’t help my grin. “How did you know, Shika?”

“I just had a hunch,” he shrugs, takes out another cigarette lights it, takes a drag, blows it back out. Those too-old eyes looking over my new eyes, these marks over my body. “Now you’re really changed huh, Naruto?”

“How so?” I’m interested. How do you see me?

“Your eyes are still blue – but there’s an awful lot of red in there,” he shrugs and takes another long drag, “What’s with the marks – your birthmarks look like they’re bleeding down your neck you know.”

Those three marks on either cheek? Yeah they wind down to my back and arms and legs too. There’s that spiral on my belly too – but its gotten darker. “I have no idea – honestly.”

Shikamaru’s eyes roll upward and he takes another drag, and another. Spirals of thick noxious smoke spiraling into the air. “You really aren’t Naruto anymore.”

“Not that Naruto.” I agree. He doesn’t look phased though. Just takes another drag and spews it back out. “Will you be leaving for the fray then?”

“Why?”

“So then I don’t have to worry about you.”

He snorts, arching an eyebrow at me, “I can handle myself against a bunch of blood-suckers. No offense.”

“None taken.” It’s not like I’m ‘really’ one of them anyway.

“I’m still thinking about it,” he sighs, another puff of smoke, “if I stay, I can fight by Ino, protect her. She’s too much of a loose cannon sometimes, too emotional. It’s troublesome but…”

“You want to fuck her.”

“That’s a crude was to put it.”

“Oh right, you’re already fucking.” I’m just screwing with him, but he’s not rising to the bait. No fun Shika, no fun at all.

“She also taught me all I know about these things,” he’s talking about vampires, wolves, whatever else he’s fought. “I respect her. When did you get to be such a jerk?”

“Probably recently.”

“Figures.” He scoffs, takes another drag, shaking his head. “You’ve bee corrupted.”

“Most certainly,” I agree, grinning,

“In any case I can take care of myself.”

I nod. “And I am satisfied with that.” Now is goodbye I guess. “Stand up.”

“Why?” he gives me an odd cock-eyed look.

“Fine, stay sitting.” It makes no difference – I step forward and lean down over him, my forehead pressed to his. A single intimate and distant gesture. His eyes slide shut – he knows what it means. Last time there was no official goodbye between him and Naruto.

“Goodbye Naruto.”

Goodbye Shikamaru. I’m shutting those doors now.

Then I’m gone –

– there’s a mountain high point, trees all over, but it’s flatter up here. I can see the High Lair from here – just a big black mountainous shape. I can’t see it but I know where the Regenerate caves are.

The Hunters camp too… I can just see it peaking out – not quite camouflaged but so close no one else could tell. Dark clouds collect overhead. The eve of the war and storm clouds gather.

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