Damaetas

During the middle of August, Konoha celebrated the birthday of the Yondaime. The village had been preparing for weeks, and now there wasn't a house without some sort of decoration, a wreath or a banner or lights; the night before, the jounin set out to do their one job that didn't involve death and politics: this morning the streets were sprinkled with flowers, little white ones that Tsunade-sama said symbolized death and rebirth, but were probably the only ones you could get this time of year during the rainy season.

Kaiki had learned all about the Yondaime in his classes, and properly understood the importance of the birth of Konoha's savior and everything, but it all seemed a bit too morbid for him - they celebrated his birth, but everyone deftly danced around the subject of his death. Twenty-three, his mother said once. He was only twenty-three.

After his parents left, his father smiling more than usual and his mother cheerfully modeling her latest dress, Kaiki puttered around the kitchen. His father had cooked that morning and left some eggs and miso for lunch, but when he tried a bite it made him sick to his stomach. He put the eggs away, back in the refrigerator; the miso he poured in a container and tucked into his backpack.

A cold air was coming in through the window. Kaiki slung his backpack over his shoulders, went around the house to see if he was missing anything, then paused by the window to close it. He lifted his nose, sniffing the air. "Rain," he muttered. "It figures." He shut the window and latched it tightly, in case there was a storm.

He tumbled out of his house, clacking his sandals noisily against their porch, and headed over to the closest window of the next house; he poked his head in, yelled out: "Nagi! It's me! Are you coming? I swear, you better not be sleeping still-" Grinning, he ducked the tossed pillow.

A few minutes later, his teammate stepped out onto his own porch, still hopping into his sandals. "You're a jerk," Nagi said, pulling a face at him. He trotted down the stairs and fell into line with Kaiki, and they headed towards the center of the village. "Hey, did you bring lunch? My parents didn't come home last night and I didn't fix anything."

"Lazy. Your parents were out partying, huh?"

"Nah. My dad was on a mission and my mom was pulling an extra shift at the hospital." Nagi reached behind him, opened the flaps on Kaiki's backpack, and let out a whoop. "Cool, my favorite. I love your mom."

"Yeah, well." Kaiki elbowed him away. "She hates you, you know."

Nagi bared his teeth, then looked pointedly away. Kaiki laughed and ruffled his hair.

When they reached the center of the village, a little ways away from the Hokage's office, it began to rain - to just sprinkle, really, but it was colder than it should have been for August and, from the way the clouds were gathering, it seemed it would be raining harder in the afternoon. Kaiki pressed his shoulder to Nagi's, wrapped a hand around his friend's shirt as they pushed through the crowd. It was like this every year, all the tall people at the front of the crowd, pushing for a place to see the festivities; they'd have to climb onto a roof to see everything.

People they knew called their names, grabbed their shoulders, tousled their hair. Their Inuzuka classmate was with his clan, all bunched together, heads bent against the rain and furs pulled up around their faces; the Aburames were further down, all grouped calmly beneath several huge umbrellas, but Hikaru wasn't with them. Kaiki paused for a moment to check, but Nagi grabbed his shoulder and pointed down the street. "Come on," his friend shouted into his ear; "we can get on top of the Ichiraku. Ayame always lets us."

At the Ichiraku, the master threatened to chase them off; but when he turned back to his ramen, Ayame winked at them and gestured that she would give them a leg up. On top of its little roof, they huddled into the one slightly dry spot. Kaiki scanned the crowd, seeing his family come into view, his cousins and uncles and aunts, his brothers, sisters, and parents. "I don't see Hikaru still," he said, slipping his shoulders out of the straps of his backpack.

"So?" Nagi said. "If she sees us, she sees us. Wonder where she is, though."

"I don't see Naruto-sensei, either." But then, Kaiki remembered, Naruto-sensei worked for Tsunade-sama; he might be with her - and maybe Jiraiya-sama would be there, too.

The rain began to fall heavier, and Kaiki could see the people in the crowd shifting uncomfortably. Nagi was jostling him, squirming, groaning; every year the people acted like they weren't used to the rain. It almost always rained on the Yondaime's birthday.

"Dammit! The rain just went down my ass." Nagi stuck a hand down his pants and made an awful face. "Oh, man."

"Pull your pants back up," said Kaiki. "Jeez."

Just then a murmur went through the crowd, and they both turned - Nagi still with one hand down his pants - to see the Hokage ascending the small platform. Kaiki looked, but he could only see Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama's student, Shizune, next to her; Naruto-sensei was nowhere in sight. A funny feeling went through Kaiki's stomach. He shook it off - at least he didn't have to see that goofy face today, right? Or hear that obnoxious voice telling him he wasn't good enough. Still, it was strange that Naruto-sensei wasn't here.

"I wonder where he is," Nagi muttered.

Kaiki put on a nonchalant face, and said, "Hell, maybe he got tired of this dumb festival. It's the same every year. And shut up - Tsunade-sama's speaking."

"You were the one talking!" Nagi said, but was drowned out by the patter of rain on tin roofs and Tsunade-sama's voice.

Strength, honor, pride, love - the things that the Yondaime, youngest Hokage of their village, had loved. Kaiki almost had this speech memorized. And duty, mustn't forget duty, and the courage to make sacrifices; these were the things that kept Konoha strong. "It was a tragedy," Tsunade-sama said, "when the Yondaime died - as those of you who were alive when this happened know - but his sacrifice, his courage, his strength made it possible for Konoha to survive. One died that all might live, and now all remember, and keep him alive.

"That is the rock upon which this village rests. We are individuals, but sometimes individuals must be sacrificed for the whole. Physical death is not the only way one perishes, nor the worst. One needs only to look at the worst enemy of this village, Orochimaru, who is so obsessed with his own, single life that he is willing to sacrifice the ideals, the people of this village to keep one spark alive.

"The jounin and chuunin of the village know this. The genin - our hope for the future - will learn it."

----

The little river near the grove was flooding. Cold water washed over Naruto's feet and pooled in the dips of the forest, spilled out in great splashes as he stepped in them.

The incense at the Yondaime's shrine had gone out. Naruto lowered his umbrella and shook the water off it, then propped it onto the shrine, struck a match, and re-lit the incense. It wavered, daunted by the storm around it, the rising river; Naruto cupped his hands around it for a moment, and when it burned more brightly stepped back. He touched his fingers to the Yondaime's portrait.

"So," he said, and his voice echoed into the heavy silence of years. No one spoke in this shrine, in Konoha's holy place. Lifting a kunai from his hip pouch, he continued, "Happy birthday, Hokage-sama. I guess I'll be seeing you around."

Naruto gripped the base of his braid and, in one quick movement, flicked the kunai under his hand, severing the braid from his head. He lifted it in his hands, feeling the weight of six years' growth; measured it against his arm. Then he dropped it into a coil next to the incense.

"I guess that's just my way of saying thanks," he said to the Yondaime's serene face, quietly. "Because I never did thank you, you know. Well. I guess you wouldn't know, or care, but hey. This's just the kind of guy I am."

In a few minutes or so, the umbrella would fall. Naruto wrapped the braid around the incense holders so it wouldn't fall off, then turned, tugging the brim of his jacket around his face, and walked out of the grove. The scent of sandalwood stayed heavy in his nose, left his teeth on edge.

----

"Hey," Kaiki said, swallowing his bite of miso and half-standing, leaning on Nagi's shoulder to look. "Hey, it's Naruto-sensei!"

"What? Where?" Nagi craned his head and cursed. "I can't see him, get off me."

"Sorry." Kaiki made his way carefully to the edge of the roof and squinted against the rain. "Hey, he's *leaving.*"

Nagi pressed up against his shoulders and said, breath tickling Kaiki's neck, "Where do you think he's going?"

Their teacher was walking briskly towards the Konoha gate. He was wearing a coat, but Kaiki could see a hint of his bright hair and a flash of his tanned skin; he had on a backpack and was loaded down with extra pouches for kunai and shuriken, but even with all the bulk he was still moving quickly and smoothly, in that graceful sliding way he did sometimes, like a big cat, a wild animal.

"He's leaving," Kaiki said again.

"Duh," Nagi said. "You said that already."

"No, I mean he's leaving for good."

Nagi stilled next to him, leaning heavily onto his shoulders. "Like... to hunt Orochimaru, you think?"

"Yeah," Kaiki muttered. He shrugged off Nagi's hands and crouched down, then slipped off the roof and landed lightly on his feet. "Come on!" he called up to Nagi, wiping water out of his face and off his jacket. "Let's go!"

Nagi slipped off, landing next to him, and let out a little yelp as Kaiki broke into a run. "Jeez, wait! Where the hell are you going?"

The crowd had begun cheering as Tsunade winded down her speech, and they were grouped so closely together that Kaiki had to push through them, brushing against wet arms and ducking under rain-slick legs. When he broke free of the crowd, the rain pelted heavy on his head and rushed into his field of vision, coating Konoha and the roads in a shield of cold gray. Kaiki raised a hand to protect his eyes and slid to a halt at the gates; he turned around and saw the guards huddled in a group, saw them passing around a drink.

Nagi bent over his knees, panting. "These guys... probably didn't even see him leave. Hey, Kaiki!" he said as Kaiki turned back around. "Look, there's nothing we can do, you know? Can't we just go back?"

He couldn't see anything beyond Konoha; it was raining too hard. Naruto-sensei was a jounin, one of the best in the village; he was probably miles away by now. Kaiki crouched low to the ground and set his hands on his knees, turned his face down and away from the rain. What am I doing? he thought. "You're right," he muttered. "There isn't anything we can do."

Nagi stepped up to him, pressed his warm weight against Kaiki's side. "What do you think he'll do?" he said. "You think he's gonna really do it this time?"

"I don't know," Kaiki said. He snorted a bit, then began to chuckle as he wiped the back of his hand across his nose. "How the hell am I supposed to know? He could be going off to join Orochimaru, for all we know! Maybe we'll become chuunin and go on a mission and there he is! Naruto-sensei, part of the Sound-nin!" After all, hadn't it been like that for him?

"I guess." Nagi looked out the gate, brows drawn tightly together, lips pressed so hard against each other Kaiki could see the imprints of his teeth. "That's it, then, right? Maybe we'll never see him again."

"Hey!" One of the guards had turned to them, bottle halfway to his lips. "What are you kids doing? You should know you don't play games around the gates! Go on, get outta here."

"They weren't playing, Shinirou," and Kaiki turned, frowning, as Hikaru walked up holding an umbrella. She pulled down the rim of her jacket and smiled at the guard, continued, "They were waiting for me. I'm sorry."

"Well," said the guard, "get your friends and get out of here then, Hikaru. Your father'll be angry if he finds out you were hanging around here." He took a swig from the bottle and turned back to the other guards; a shout of laughter went up from the group, and the genin at the gate were forgotten.

Hikaru handed Kaiki the umbrella and they grouped around it, huddling together to stay dry; Kaiki reached over and flicked water out of Nagi's hair, then rubbed his own arms to warm himself. Hikaru glanced out to the forest and said, "He left, didn't he."

Kaiki pressed his lips together, letting the silence speak. Then he said, quietly, "You got some dirt in your hair. Here-" he reached out and brushed through Hikaru's bangs. "It's gone. Man, we all need showers."

"Hot showers," said Nagi, pressing against his side even more tightly. Kaiki wrapped an arm around him. "This rain is way too cold for August."

"Naruto-sensei's out in that," Hikaru said. She hesitated, then wrapped her arm around Nagi's other shoulder. "I'm going after him, okay?"

Kaiki snorted. "Why?" he said. "Fuck him! I'm not going after that... that jerk." The rain roared and whipped across the umbrella, making it tremble, and a cold wind drafted into their tiny space, fluttering under his shirt. He cursed, tugged at his hem. "Shit. This sucks."

"I'm not going to stop him or anything. We're not important, we can't do anything. It's just...." She paused. "I didn't get to say anything to him, you know."

Nagi caught his eyes, gave a little shrug. Nagi's eyes always changed color with the weather and they were a dark blue right now, like the clear pond next to Kaiki's house. "We'll really get in trouble this time," said Nagi.

"When has that ever bothered you?" Kaiki knocked against his shoulder.

"He's right," Hikaru said. "We'll probably never become real ninja if we do this."

They were both looking at him, both saying nothing, and Kaiki realized they were waiting for him to make a decision, like he was their leader. And he didn't even have to think back to know that it'd always been this way, but it was something else to really know it. His teammates were counting on him, were looking up to him, and that meant he couldn't go on gut instinct anymore, couldn't feel his way through a situation and hope for the best.

Nagi pressed up against him, looked up at him with his clear dark eyes. This time the smile was even harder to force.

----

Naruto hopped to a higher branch and lifted his binoculars. Pressing his back to the tree trunk, he squinted through the thundering rain - ah, there, a blur of movement, the dark swirls of color that meant Orochimaru was nearby.

He tucked the binoculars back into his jacket and smiled grimly. "Stringing me along, huh, snake freak?" He yanked his hand free of the clinging wetness of his glove, raised his thumb to his teeth and bit down, then pressed it into his unrolled scroll. He moved his thumb along the rest of the scroll, spreading his blood in wide, uneven strokes; folded the scroll shut, careful of the rain, and lifted himself to his feet.

The kyuubi was moving in his stomach, sending fire singing through his veins, awash with the adrenaline of the hunt. Naruto inhaled deeply, smelled at first only rain and the musky, heavy scent of the woods; then his flesh pricked as he caught Orochimaru's scent on the wind: cold blood, scales and what little was left of Sasuke's clear, light smell. He sniffed again, just to be sure, then dropped down to a lower branch and began his flight through the forest.

----

"The forest isn't too bad, you know."

Naruto lifted his foot out of the river he'd just stepped in, shook water from his sandal and glared at Sasuke. "Shut up," he grumbled, hopping a little to catch up with Sasuke. "Hey! The least you can do is *wait* for me - And anyway, you're just saying that to piss me off and you know it."

"It's your fault. You're the one who wanted to come here and train, so stop complaining."

"I wasn't *complaining.*" Naruto scratched a bite on his arm. "I was just saying the forest is out to get me! It is, seriously. The birds keep trying to crap on me and the trees keep tripping me and-"

"Here," said Sasuke, pausing on the exposed root of a tree, tossing him something without turning around. "It's for the bites." He jammed his hands in his pockets. "You'd think you would remember to bring bug spray. Idiot."

It jumped around in Naruto's hands, greasy, slimy, stinky. He held it between two fingers and glared at Sasuke's back - thank him or say nothing? Figures it'd be Sasuke - Sasuke he ended up training with out here, Sasuke who ended up giving him bug spray and not Sakura, who could spread it on him.... Naruto sprayed the air in front of him, jumped through it, and landed with a hop next to Sasuke. "Hey," he said, mustering up his most dignified expression, "uh, th-"

"Ugh." Sasuke waved his hand in front of his face, raised his eyebrows. "You stink."

And he walked away, hands still jammed in his pockets, no bug bites on him, not even a damned scratch; Naruto stared after him with his mouth to still open to say thanks. He closed it, teeth clacking together, and ground his teeth.

"Asshole."

----

"Naruto-kun," said a voice right next to his ear, making him stumble to a pause on the next tree branch over, "tsk, tsk - surely you didn't think you had caught me."

The rain was coming down harder, hitting his skin now with what felt like little slivers of ice, hard and cold and cutting. Naruto crouched to his knees, slipping the scroll behind his back and digging his fingernails into it. "I dunno," he called back, eyes straining to see Orochimaru through the dark and the rain. "I guess I thought I was getting lucky or something."

A low chuckle - there. Orochimaru had stopped, as well, leaning with crossed arms against the tree trunk. "Shouldn't you know better by now? Your luck run out when you were a little baby, and Jiraiya's beloved student sealed a monster into you. Such a bad run of misfortune you've had ever since."

"My bad luck began when I met you." Naruto slid a handful of shuriken into his sleeve.

"Ah? Well, that might be so. So, Naruto-kun," said Orochimaru, raising an eyebrow. "Are you still trying to save your Sasuke-kun? Are you here to free him? Do you think he's looking out through my eyes right now, trying to crawl out?"

The shuriken bit into his fingers. "No." He whispered it at first, and it slipped out into the wind, lost in a breath. Naruto raised his voice, curled the shuriken tighter into his palm - "I've decided the only way to free him is to kill you, Orochimaru."

Orochimaru's eyes widened, snake-slit pupils lighting. "Try, Naruto-kun," he hissed, and his tongue flicked out, moistened his bottom lip. "Oh, do try and kill me for the sake of your Sasuke-kun."

He flickered and disappeared, but Naruto could see the dark blur of his form moving down the trees and into the glades below. He tensed on the balls of his feet, lifted himself and followed, sending the shuriken flying towards Orochimaru's form with a flick of his wrist. Naruto hit the ground running, sent up a spray of water; the kyuubi's chakra was rising, lifting up and burning the falling rain, creating a shield of steam. He raised his fist and aimed for Orochimaru's face.

Orochimaru caught it bare inches away from his eyes, then wrapped a leg arond Naruto's and pulled, dragging them close together so that Orochimaru's cold breath lifted up his bangs. "You really are a wonderful creature," Orochimaru murmured, close to his lips. "My idiotic teammate didn't know exactly what kind of genius he was teaching, the poor fool. The Yondaime created you to be a monster, Naruto-kun - nothing more, nothing less. It makes me smile to see that he has succeeded."

Naruto pulled his lips away from his teeth, matching his sharp canines to Orochimaru's slit pupils. "If you think the Yondaime was anything like you," he responded, breathing in that cold, moist breath, "you're fucking stupider than I thought."

They broke away, met in air, touched hand to hand and skin to skin - nothing very different from how they had danced together for years, him and Sasuke, him and Orochimaru. Naruto was surprised, even when his hands grazed Orochimaru's throat or Orochimaru drew blood from his skin, that he could find no anger in himself. Different, then, from how he'd fought for so many years, to prove himself, to prove someone else wrong. Everything seemed still, somehow: his body, Orochimaru's, the rain, the swaying of the trees.

Naruto dropped back to the ground, crouching on his palms, and ducked his head down for a moment to drag in a deep breath. Blood trickled from his lip; the cut had faded long ago, but his healing mechanisms had never stopped him from bleeding. Across from him, Orochimaru crouched as well. Naruto could sense the wary blackness of his eyes, testing him for movement. He wiped his mouth with his knuckles, dropped his hand to look at the red smear left there - watch it mingle with the rain and run in a pink trail down his arm.

Then the blackness turned to red, and Naruto looked up to see the Sharingan pupils wheeling slowly and steadily. He chuckled a little. "Oh, come on, snake freak," he called. "What're you using that for? You know all my tricks, right?"

"Take note, Naruto-kun. A little caution never hurt anyone."

But Orochimaru, Naruto had figured out years ago, was never cautious when he needed to be. The snake bastard was stepping around him now, with the wheeling motions of a nesting mother animal; Naruto smiled and ducked his head down. Time's up, Orochimaru, he thought; then said it, just to feel his lips form the words and to taste them. He raised his hands, linked them together.

Deep inside him the kyuubi moved, and his chakra flared outwards.

----

"It's Christmas Eve, you know. What the hell are you doing out here?"

Naruto sat down beside Sasuke, leaned over to try and peer into his teammate's face, but Sasuke moved so that his bangs covered his eyes. Making a face, Naruto leaned back on his hands, looking at the burned-out remnants of what might have been a house once, standing like a huge, lonely black ship in front of them.

"That was my house, you know." Sasuke wrapped his hands together, set them under his chin. "I lived there with my parents, when I was little."

"Oh," Naruto said. "Well, shit." No wonder it looked so lonely. "How come... how come, you know, it's the only house around here? I thought you had, like, a whole big clan."

Sasuke's lips curved, ever so slightly. "I did. They were all burned down, too. And swept away."

"But they kept your house? That's... I guess that was kinda nice of them, right?" Naruto leaned over again, and this time he could see Sasuke's eyes. He'd thought he might be crying or something, but he was dry-eyed, tight-faced - typical Sasuke. Did the guy cry over anything?

"No," Sasuke said. "Not really."

"What, you wanted 'em to burn it down?"

"Not really." Sasuke shrugged. "I wanted them to keep it as a... reminder. For that man, so if he ever came back, he could see it and remember what he did."

Naruto forgot sometimes - because no one ever talked about it - that Sasuke's whole clan had been murdered. It wasn't like he had come home one day and his mom or his dad had died of a heart attack or something, or died on a mission like a ninja should; he'd come home one day and they were all just... dead. He looked at the house, wondered what Sasuke thought when he looked at it. The house itself didn't look like Sasuke had lived in it: it didn't look angry, didn't look like it wanted revenge. It just looked like it was tired. Like it wanted to be swept away and given a chance to rest.

Naruto glanced down at the little cup in his hands, shook it so the clear liquid in it stirred, like a little stone had been thrown into it. "Yo," he said, and, when Sasuke moved his head a little, he handed him the cup. "It's sake, dumbass," he added. "Got some from the boss at the Ichiraku."

Sasuke tilted his head, a little frown tugging at his lips; then, like Naruto had, he jiggled the cup a little and looked down at it. "Don't you want it?"

"Nah. It tastes gross. Besides, you kinda look like you need it." Naruto leaned over, letting a teasing grin take over his mouth; crooned, "Whaaaat, you're gonna tell me the great Sasuke doesn't likek alcohol? Or haven't you ever had any?"

Sasuke snorted. "Fuck you, Naruto." He put the cup to his lips and jerked his head back, like the adults at the bars did; when he looked back down, his mouth was twisted in a grimace. He handed the cup back.

"I guess I should say Merry Christmas now, or something," Naruto said, flashing his teeth. "But I'm not gonna, because you're a jerk and all."

Folding his hands under his chin, Sasuke nodded. And - it might have been a trick of the moonlight, or from the sake Naruto had drunk earlier - after a few seconds, his lips curved up ever so slightly.

----

"Holy crap!" Nagi stopped, hands wheeling a little to catch his balance, and Kaiki pushed into him from behind and Hikaru ran into him, too. They teetered on the branch, each grabbing the other for support until Nagi caught the tree trunk and steadied them. "See that?" he said, for once not yelling at his teammates - he pointed in front of them, voice rising to a squeak. "Did you see that? Holy shit, I can't *believe* it!"

"Of course I didn't see it," Kaiki said, slapping the back of his head. "Your fat ass is in my way, I can't see anything!"

"Chakra," said Hikaru. She had set her hands on Kaiki's shoulders and lifted herself up; her jacket rim was unzipped and her glasses were down so Kaiki could see her wide, dark eyes. "Two separate systems. They're both *huge.*"

"Bingo, right?" Kaiki breathed in deeply. "Must be Naruto-sensei and Orochimaru."

"Huge," Hikaru repeated. "You don't get it, Kaiki.... people just aren't *supposed* to be that powerful."

"Well, they are." He gave Nagi a push, but his friend wasn't budging; he was still staring out to where he had pointed, irises dark with fear. "Come on! Are we just going to sit here and wait until they've blown themselves up? We all decided to come out here, so let's go already."

"Hey, man," said Nagi, voice small and thready, "this is crazy. I thought everyone in the village... how weak they always said Naruto-sensei was... This is *crazy*! Kaiki," he turned around, set his hands on Kaiki's shoulders - holding him for comfort or stopping him from moving, Kaiki didn't know. "What are we doing?"

His face seemed frozen; it had never been so hard to smile, not even when he and Nagi were six and got busted for cheating on their finals and they'd thought they were never going to become ninja. And wasn't it crazy, comparing this to that? No one, no one had ever told him being a ninja was like this. "I don't know," Kaiki said, and reached up to set his hands on Nagi's. "But we decided to do it. So let's go, okay? Come on, I'll go on ahead."

The next blast of chakra nearly made him fall, it was so huge and so close - so close Kaiki could feel the heat of it on his face. And then there was stillness of a kind Kaiki knew wasn't natural in a forest; the only sound was the rain falling and rivers rushing. He caught himself breathing fast, took in a slow breath, and wiped the sweat and rain off his face.

"We're close," said Hikaru next to him, almost whispering. "We should try to get into the brush and conceal ourselves."

----

"Fuuinjutsu - Shiki Fuujin!"

----

"Sometimes I wonder," Jiraiya said, lighting his pipe and inhaling. A cloud of smoke rushed into the Yondaime's face, obscuring his smile.

Naruto lifted his chin from his hands and frowned. "Huh?"

"Well." Jiraiya tilted his head to the side and exhaled away from the portrait this time, then grinned and blew a bit into Naruto's face. He laughed when Naruto began coughing and sputtering, covering his mouth. "You know a little bit about the sealing system the Yondaime used for the kyuubi, right?"

Naruto wrinkled his nose, then rubbed it, trying to get the tingly-smoke feeling out of it. "I know it put this weird bastard in my stomach," he said, scratching the bridge of his nose.

"Damn, didn't they teach any of this to you in school?" Jiraiya arched his eyebrows. "I see not. Of course not, can't be teaching you valuable information about the past, now can we? Anyway, my genius student modified one of the Elemental Sealing systems, which are seals like the one Orochimaru used on you to block the kyuubi's chakra. With me so far?"

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto waved his hand. "So, what about it?"

"Like I said, my student modified one of the seals so that he could use it on souls. The kyuubi's soul, for example, or in the Sandaime's case, Orochimaru's."

Naruto looked at the Yondaime's portrait. He always expected it to look a little different, or maybe to change right in front of him; but it was always the same, that weird smile, the too-calm face. He was never sure what he thought about this guy. "Yeah, so, big deal. He made a seal."

"Please!" Jiraiya slapped his face. "You hurt me right here, little boy. Naruto, it's not just another seal. Do you know how much power it takes to go around messing with someone's soul? A damned huge amount, that's how much. Naruto. You have a great deal of power in you-" He leaned over and poked his finger into Naruto's stomach. "Right here. Have you ever thought about this power? It's very nice you get to use it, I'm sure, but have you ever thought about what it costs you to use it?"

Naruto slapped his finger away and rubbed his stomach, frowning. The seal tingled, like it always did whenever someone touched it. "Sure I have!" he snapped. "And, um... well... well, I mean, it sucks that I have to share my body with this stupid fox. Right?" he added, less sure.

"Exactly so," said Jiraiya. "That's a pretty big cost. Can't imagine myself what it'd be like to share house with someone else for the rest of my life and have no say in it."

"Hey," Naruto said, leaning back on his arms, "it was your student who did this to me, you know."

"Yes, he did. And what do you think it cost *him* to be mucking around with the kyuubi's soul so he could put it in your body?"

"Um. He died?"

"Bingo." Jiraiya lifted a finger, face falling into straight, solemn lines. "You're right, he died. That's the price of power, Naruto. Pain, suffering. Death. The Yondaime and the Sandaime used this technique, but they both died to be able to sample its power. In a way, you're lucky. You have much more power than they ever did, or ever would, or could. You're lucky you can stay alive when you use it - but even you have your limits."

Naruto frowned, narrowed his eyes and glanced at the portrait again. He widened his eyes, narrowed them again. The Yondaime looked the same no matter what he did. "So... what were you wondering, pervert hermit?"

"Ah, that. I was wondering something, wasn't I?" Jiraiya rubbed his hand over his mouth. He was looking at the portrait, too, and Naruto wondered if it looked different to him; if the Yondaime were showing his teacher a serious face. "The way the seal works, Naruto, is by making a contract with the God of Death - you do your business, you mess somebody up, he takes your soul in return. And ever since I heard that he used it, and that he died... I've been wondering what it looks like to be facing your death. It's always seemed strange to me - he knew that before I did."

----

He could hear the Shinigami's tongue sliding across its sword, hear it grinding its teeth on the blade. Naruto tried to focus on Orochimaru's face pressed close to his, on the cold breath that had always made his skin tingle, but his hackles were going up at the cold presence behind him, at every slither and every breath he heard it take.

Orochimaru had screamed and shouted and raved at first, spat cold fire into his face, but when Naruto didn't loosen his arms he lowered his voice. "Naruto-kun...." He couldn't stop the tremor in his voice, though, the fine thread of fear woven in Sasuke's tenor. "What are you hoping to do? You'll only kill Sasuke-kun, you know. I know that's not what you want. You're too," he bared his teeth, "kind."

"No, I won't. I'll be taking your soul," Naruto informed him, "not his."

"And what makes you think they're separate anymore?"

Naruto closed his eyes, smiled slowly; tasted rain on his lips, cold and clear. "Then it doesn't matter to me. I'll kill you either way."

----

"What do you think they're doing?" Hikaru hissed into his ear, nearly making him jump out of his skin.

"Looks like they're hugging."

"I seriously doubt they're doing that." Some of the fear had left Kaiki; he didn't know why, but he suddenly felt that Naruto-sensei had the upper hand in the situation, strange as this all was. He reached out and brushed aside a leaf, peering out at their dark-skinned, light-haired instructor wrapped around the light-skinned, dark-haired traitor of their village. They were speaking, but for once, Kaiki didn't want to know what they were saying. Didn't want to know what they were saying.

He shivered, feeling a cold brush at the top of his spine. He let the leaf drop back into place. "Naruto-sensei's winning," he said, and knew it was true. And he also knew that he was missing something again, some crucial part of the picture. "But...."

"Somehow he's not," Hikaru said. She pressed her lips together.

"I hate this shit," said Nagi.

----

Deep inside Sasuke's body, there were two souls. Naruto had always known this, hadn't needed the Byakugan to tell him he was right. It wasn't Sasuke's style to do that, to fade away like mist and relinquish himself to whatever were to happen. He had just sunk down - deep inside himself, to a place where he could watch Orochimaru in control. Watch him kill Konoha ninjas. Watch him play with Naruto. Watch him play with everything, as a snake does with its prey.

"Live terribly," Itachi had told him; "run away." And Sasuke had. Sasuke did what he did best - run.

There were so many shadows when Naruto plunged his hands into Sasuke's body - places that Orochimaru hadn't taken control of and Sasuke had left behind, retreating ever further. Memories passed through his fingers like old, yellowed scrolls, flashing past his eyes and sinking into his brain; feelings wrapped around his fingers, cold and warm and hot. Everything that was Sasuke he saw and touched, but skirted past the deepest parts, where Sasuke had escaped with his soul. And then Naruto lifted himself up a little, back into the places where Orochimaru's black soul had settled itself - reached out with his hands and wrapped himself around that blackness, sending a chilling cold numbness up his fingers, into his arms, into all his body.

Dimly, he knew that Orochimaru's physical body was struggling, but his soul struggled even more, wrapping itself around Naruto, sinking itself into his body, refusing to be moved.

"You are not the Sandaime!" Orochimaru shrilled at him, pulling Naruto back to himself. His Sharingan pupils wheeled rapidly, like three hands trying to pull themselves up out of a sea of blood. "You cannot even come close to what he did, and remember, Naruto, he only took my arms - you are a loser, have been all your life, you will *never* defeat me!" His voice lowered, smoothing out as if he had ironed out all the terror. "You are not, and never will be, comparable to this body. It is perfect. You are just a hodgepodge of hasty sealwork, a nothing, a cage for something beyond your capacity. You, Naruto, are easily defeated by taking away the stronger of the souls that inhabits your body!"

Naruto grinned, pushed forward with his arms and back with his legs, tightening his fingers around the cold edges of Orochimaru's soul. "I wish I could say the same for you," he spat out over the ache in his throat, the tightness of his teeth pressed together. "If I took away the stronger soul in this body, it would just be you left - and you'd be nothing."

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes. "You won't defeat me," he said. "The Sandaime was an old man - you're young, in your prime. And you actually intend to sacrifice your life? Don't make me cry. You can still live, you know. Give up this fool plan and unsign the contract you made with the Shinigami."

"Can't." Naruto squeezed his eyes shut, reached deep inside himself to where the kyuubi slept. *Wake up, you bastard - it's time to pay your due.* And the kyuubi reared upwards, climbed up out of his body with steel claws, sent his chakra exploding outwards - a stream of raw, furious power, like the uncontrollable winds of a fire or the solid wall of the sea.

He almost fell backward as something suddenly gave, and opened his eyes to see the swirling blackness of Orochimaru's soul half out of his body, twisting and struggling just as much as its physical counterpart.

"Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru rasped, "won't thank you."

The Sharingan pupils were fading with Orochimaru's power; his resistance was weakening against the kyuubi's chakra. Naruto's arms were trembling, all his limbs losing their feeling, but he dug his fingers in, gritted his teeth and pulled again. When he opened his eyes again, Orochimaru's were staring at him with black hatred. Naruto smiled. "I know he won't thank me," he said; "I know he'll never forgive me. Sasuke... he doesn't accept gifts too well."

----

Kaiki leapt up, all thoughts of hiding forgotten; his teammates stood, too, crowding around him as they all stared before them. The rainfall had quieted, was almost gentle now, letting them see clearly the black, vaguely human-shaped form that Naruto-sensei - or the sea of chakra around him - had pulled out of Orochimaru's body. It hovered between them for a moment, a writhing black mass that, even standing so far away, made Kaiki want to turn and run away. It was pure hatred, pure evil.

Then the wind blew, pulling a gust of rain with it, and the black mass disappeared into Naruto-sensei's stomach as if it had been pulled by invisible hands. Orochimaru - Uchiha Sasuke - stood where he was for a moment, face gone blank, mouth slack, the redness fading from his eyes; then he wavered and fell backward onto the ground. He didn't move again.

Kaiki took a step forward, but Hikaru grabbed his hand and pulled him back. "Wait," she hissed into his ear. "You can't go near that chakra! It would burn us alive."

As Nagi pressed up against him, Naruto-sensei, took, wavered a little; took one step forward towards Uchiha Sasuke's body, a staggering, hesitant movement not at all like the sure, graceful way he usually moved; and then he, too, fell. The red chakra faded and disappeared.

"Sensei!" Kaiki shook off Hikaru's hand and ran forward, stumbling in the slippery mud. He slid to a halt in front of Naruto-sensei and knelt down, and, reaching out carefully, pulled his shirt away from his steaming chest and belly. An eight-pointed seal was painted in black swirls on his stomach, and, above it, an identical seal gleamed on his chest. This one swirled and moved, wheeled around slowly. Kaiki hesitated, then reached out and hovered his hand over the seal; then touched it carefully, feeling the hard ridges of something like scar tissue, hot to the touch.

"Nagi," said Hikaru as she kneeled down next to him. "Go check on Orochimaru."

Kaiki dropped his hand. "That's not Orochimaru," he said quietly, glancing over to watch Nagi approach him hesitantly, like a rabbit not sure if its predator is yet dead. "It's the Uchiha. Orochimaru's gone."

Hikaru touched the seal, too, more gently than Kaiki had, almost reverently. "Don't you remember, Kaiki?" she whispered. "We're not supposed to say that name around Naruto-sensei."

"Uchiha's alive," Nagi called. "I think he's just... sleeping, or something."

Hikaru still had her hand on the seal, and was staring at it, engrossed; so Kaiki picked himself out of the mud and moved closer to Naruto-sensei's face. He set his hand over Naruto-sensei's mouth, held his breath as he waited for warm breath to touch his palm.

After what seemed like forever, it did.

Kaiki pressed his hand to his own mouth, and breathed out slowly. He sent up thanks to something - what, he didn't know. Whatever it was, he hoped it would accept his words. "Hikaru," he said, gesturing for her to come over. "He's breathing. He's probably really hurt. You and Nagi go get some tree branches and we'll try to make stretchers."

He kept one ear open for his teammates as they traipsed through the woods, noisily stepping on leaves and tree branches - even Hikaru wasn't minding that they stay silent, for once - and the other for the occasional rasp of Naruto-sensei's breath. Kaiki checked his chest and stomach once more, then felt his legs and his back, looking for any injury, but there was none. Biting his lip, he set his fingers to the pulse at Naruto-sensei's neck. It beat steadily once, then paused for a long time before throbbing again. With his attention focused on the pulse, Kaiki almost didn't notice that Naruto-sensei had moved his arm, lifting it up; then it brushed his face and he jumped, startled, and leaped back a little. "N-Naruto-sensei," he gasped. "Are you awake?"

His eyes were closed, but Naruto-sensei smiled ever so slightly, just a little lift of his lips. Kaiki couldn't help but smile himself; he moved back to Naruto-sensei's side and - he didn't know what else to do - took his hand. "Are you hurt?" he asked quietly. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Well." It was spoken on a breath, little more than a sigh, but it seemed the best Naruto-sensei could do. "You could tell me what you're doing here... but I shouldn't ask that, should I?"

"Sensei, it would be a stupid question. But-" Kaiki grinned and wiped his eyes with his free hand. "You're a stupid guy, right?"

"Kaiki." Naruto-sensei opened his eyes a slit, revealing a sliver of red - Kaiki frowned and looked closer, but Naruto-sensei closed them again. "Do me a favor."

"What, sensei?"

"Bring Sasuke over here. There's still something I've got left to do."

"What do you mean?" Kaiki felt his smile waver and clamped down on it, forced it steady again. "You'll have plenty of time to do things when we get you to the village. You just - you need to rest, or something. You just fought a huge battle. And you won, didn't you?"

His teacher's smile quirked. "I guess you could say that."

"So just - wait, okay? Sasuke is resting, too. We'll take care of both of you." Kaiki squeezed his hand, trying not to notice how cold it was. It just needed to warm up a bit, that was all.

This time Naruto-sensei opened his eyes all the way, and Kaiki quailed to see his irises like a sea of blood. Then they softened, Naruto-sensei's eyebrows coming down, and his lips spreading in another smile. "You're a smart kid. There is no time, okay? Just... bring Sasuke over here. Close enough for me to touch."

Nodding slowly, Kaiki let go of his hand and slid his way through the mud, trying to keep his hands away from the mucky mess. When he touched Uchiha Sasuke's body - warily, in case Orochimaru had found a way to cheat death (or whatever Naruto-sensei had done to him) after all - it was cold, but his pulse was steadier than Naruto-sensei's. His skin was pasty, though, whiter than any skin Kaiki had ever seen, and the black circles under his eyes made him look like death. The tattoo on his face had faded to something like gray; soon, Kaiki figured, it would probably disappear all together. He slid a hand under Uchiha's neck and half-lifted him up, and dragged him to Naruto-sensei's side where he lay him back down, back in the mud and the rain.

Naruto-sensei turned his head, looking with his red eyes at the Uchiha's face. There was something there that Kaiki couldn't read, something he hadn't ever seen. "Kaiki," Naruto-sensei said, looking back at him. "Help me, would you?"

Kaiki nodded. Shaking rain out of his eyes, he reached out and wrapped his muddy hands around Naruto-sensei's arm; even with his own fingers so cold, he could still feel the ice-chill of his teacher's skin. He set Naruto-sensei's hand on the Uchiha's stomach, then drew back, covering his mouth with his hand.

"Fuuinjutsu," Naruto whispered, "Shiki Fuujin."

----

The kyuubi was still inside him - waiting for his death, or just patiently awaiting whatever happened - as Naruto spread his fingers over Sasuke's belly. He could barely feel Sasuke's skin, his own was so cold; but he remembered it being hot once, just like his own, remembered fire running through his veins and mirrored in his Sharingan eyes. It was like all the years were disappearing, and this was the Sasuke of so many years ago: the kid who'd teased him, insulted him and looked at him, sometimes, with heavy eyes, with a look Naruto hadn't understood; who'd pushed him to be his best, who had made Naruto push back just as hard.

The first friend, and no matter who came afterward - not Neji, who knew what to say, what to push, when to leave or be quiet; not Gaara, counterpoint to him, identical in so many ways; not even Sakura-chan, whose friendship he'd worked so hard for and for so long - always the one in his mind.

Naruto smiled as he lifted his other hand, moving his fingers into the proper seal. "Man," he whispered. "You're really going to hate me for all this, you know that?"

Jiraiya always said, the sealer is sealed as well as the one he's sealing. He wondered, but never asked - didn't have to, because Naruto knew - if the Yondaime, his best student, his favorite, were inside Naruto somewhere.

Naruto never told him, but sometimes he thought he might be - sometimes he felt the ghost of something that wasn't him, something that wasn't the kyuubi; he thought he felt the shadow of that smile, the cloud of that calmness, the clarity of an intellect that wasn't his own. He thought he felt someone watching over him, and in those brief fleeting moments, it felt like the thing Naruto had always wanted most. A family.

If I do end up in your soul, Sasuke, it's not such a bad place to be. And maybe I can do for you what he did for me. 'Cause you always did need someone looking out for you.

Funny, the way these things turn out.

The kyuubi was moving, sliding up his belly, clawing past his lungs, burning his teeth and tongue; giving him one last bit of power. Naruto gritted his teeth, lifted up his hand and settled it over Sasuke's face. Felt his eyes, his lips, the curve of his jaw and the fading cold of the curse seal. He smiled, breathed out long and slow.

Sasuke's lips were moving under his fingers, but too late, too late - he was falling, being drawn into darkness and then coming into something soft, something warm. Something not unfamiliar, something he'd always known, something he'd sought for many years - and now here he was. He'd found it. It was his.

--

Multifaceted Tune: *beams* Ah! Dicis Latinam? Amo te. :) Thanks for the review, as always - I'm so glad you like the story.

Houseki: Thank you! I'm glad you like it. Yeah, there was really no pattern for the genin. Kaiki and Hikaru are both mixtures of Sasuke and Sakura, but Nagi is pretty close to Naruto. I was kind of scared of using OCs, since they can be so obnoxious, but I figured it'd be funner to throw them in. :) Thanks again.

Lady Gizarme: Poor Sakura. I thought she might turn out a little like this, but the recent manga chapters have revealed her to be hung up on Sasuke still. Oh, well. And thank you very much for keeping with this fic - I appreciate it.

akuma_river: Nah, I think there's a lot of hope for Sasuke, if he'll just get his head out of his ass (this is a big problem for Sasuke). Unfortunately, he's not going to be showing up at the chuunin exams anytime soon. ;) *evil smile*