Neji stared into his soft eyes, Shikamaru smiled gently, sadly.
"Turn around, face the ocean." He murmured. Neji stared into his eyes carefully and in that moment he decided. There was no other man he would love, no other man he would obey and no other man he could trust. He could ignore the sorrow in his eyes, ignore the doubt in his mind if he closed his eyes and just listened to his deep steady voice.
"I love you Shikamaru."
Neji whispered as he turned, leaning his back against Shikamaru's chest as he opened his eyes staring out to watch the sun get swallowed by the edge of the ocean. He could feel Shikamaru's breath against his neck, the soft sea breeze flicking strands of his hair across his eyes and they stood in silence. Shikamaru's arms wrapped tightly around him until the last of the light slipped away. He pulled one arm away, drawing something from his pocket before putting it back in place.
Neji thought he could feel something damp trickling to his neck and turned just enough to see Shikamaru's eyes shimmering with tears that had just begun to spill. Before he could mutter a question he felt a blade thrust through his ribs in his side and instantly gasped for a breath that he couldn't quite draw. His legs gave out beneath him but with Shikamaru's strong arms still holding him in place against his chest he didn't slip. The scene before him slowly faded to black and the last thing he heard was a pathetic whimper from Shikamaru.
"I love you. I'm sorry."
At the same moment Sasuke was muttering the same words in Naruto's ear. Naruto had already collapsed to his knees in the sand, held against Sasuke who had followed his to the ground, Naruto's blood staining his shirt. They stayed like that, facing each other as Naruto coughed up enough blood to be able to speak a little clearer than a gurgle.
"You'll- pay for this- Sasuke." He managed to choke out before collapsing against him. Sasuke lent his forehead against his, staring into the blank pale blue eyes.
"I already do…" He whispered. Eventually pulling back enough to lay Naruto down and he walked away. Refusing to let himself glance back to his lover's body, it had to be done.
There could only be one winner, that winner had to be him, and for all Orochimaru had made them do he'd die screaming be his own hand.
***1 Month Earlier***
Orochimaru strolled into the room with a flourish, flicking his long hair over his shoulder then backtracked as soon as he saw no one was yet awake. One of his guards was about to question it but he raised one finger to his lips to keep the silence. Naruto was only barley conscious at this point, but awake enough to know that this idiot was just planning his entrance. He was hanging from the roof in the center of a well-guarded room, his feet dangling about a meter above the blood stained cement beneath him.
Eventually the comrades tied around Naruto began to stir, he managed to move his head enough to glimpse the bodies around him and was relieved to see everyone was there. There was the black hair falling over the paper pale face of Sasuke beside him and bright pink to the other side. Along the line he could see Kiba, shifting and whimpering as he slowly woke. Then Shino, his glasses smashed on the floor beneath him but his collar still hiding too much of his face for Naruto to see his condition and a silent, wide eyed Hinata hanging beside him, she looked untouched at least.
Orochimaru entered again with the same majestic stride as before, this time getting the reaction he obviously wanted with tremors of fear running through everyone around Naruto even Naruto not completely still. He stopped in the center of the room, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his ankle length lab coat, his murky green eyes carefully surveying each and every one of them, a gleam of excitement barely contained within them.
His job was to push them, to force them to react where they had been taught not to. With one look he could tell each of their greatest weaknesses, one glance and he knew exactly what to do to make them crack. The six of them hung limp from the ceiling bravely meeting his gaze though with blood flowing to their heads they all verged once again on unconscious.
He was the one they had been after from the start, but it was never meant to be this hard, they were the best the official forces had left to offer but they weren't the first to have been put on this case, at least now they would know what had happened to the earlier groups who had been put on the same mission. Not that that served as much comfort given their current circumstances.
The man who stood in front was Orochimaru, with the war going on most of the people their age were used as foot soldiers, nothing more, but he had somehow risen to the leader of a major organization which threatened the current government. Naruto tried to make sense of the situation around him but had little luck. He was usually one to trust orders blindly and it suddenly became painfully clear to him how little he really knew. He always got all the information he needed to win, but now he'd lost he had no clue what to expect.
A smile crept across Orochimaru's face as his eyes finally fell on Naruto, his tongue darting out as if tasting the air before he spoke.
"You're all going to play a little game with me." His voice more of a hiss than words.
Naruto stared back into his eyes, though he could feel his whole body shivering with those few words his eyes didn't falter but what he saw in his eyes scared me even more. His voice was more childish than Naruto had expected from him, it certainly had a playful tone but he knew this was a game he didn't want to play.
Orochimaru turned away from Naruto, taking a few carefully measured steps towards a table leaning against the wall. He ripped a sheet off it with a flourish revealing what looked like a medical trolley, with seven needles lined up neatly in a row. Six of them were filled with a toxic green serum which was bad enough, but the scariest part was that one was already empty.
"Before we begin the game I'm going to give you a present." He looked across at their blank faces and frowned.
"No thankyous? I guess I should explain the rules first then." He nodded to a guard who adjusted his glasses, the light shimmering off them and stalked out of the room. Orochimaru looked back to the group hanging before him and continued.
"I've been watching your group in this little war of ours and I must admit I've been vaguely impressed. So now I've decided it is time to see exactly what you can all actually do. To start with I'm going to inject each of you with this little, well let's call it a potion, of mine. It will hurt a lot as it goes into your system and as it adapts over the days, weeks, months, however long you last, it will hurt more. If you survive the initial effects of it you will begin my game."
Naruto couldn't let him continue his maniac rant any longer, twisted in his chins as he was he only managed to get out a few words.
"We'll never play your stupid game!" He spat.
Orochimaru calmly turned to him, his eyes surveying every inch of him a cold smile spreading even further across his face and he laughed.
"Oh trust me you will play. I'm the only person who holds your freedom. If you win I will then give you the option of a complete cure or to take away your pain, if you agree to work for me of course. And by the end of it I'm not sure which one you will chose, if you think yourself strong now wait until the effects begin to show. If, however, you wish to be all high and mighty and not play my game you will simply be driven mad with pain and kill the people you love.
Every last one.
Don't believe me? Take a look."
At that moment the guard returned, a howling creature struggling against his grip. The creature glanced up for a moment, looking across directly at Naruto. It took him a moment to recognise the eyes of the beast staring up at him. One flashed red, a scar cutting through his face across it, his wild white hair falling messily around it. There wasn't much of him left that looked human, but just enough for recognition in Naruto's eyes.
"Kakashi…?" He whispered. The beast responded with a pathetic desperate whimper before hiding his head beneath his arms, lying as flat against the floor as he could manage, but the whimpering didn't stop.
Orochimaru walked over to where Naruto hung and looked him in the eyes.
"In the end, death will be a mercy that you will beg for." He didn't take his eyes off Naruto's but gestured back to the creature.
"Kill all of them and I will kill you."
With that the creature lunged from the guards grip headed directly for Sakura's throat. There was a gunshot before he reached his target and he fell to the ground limp. The guard put away his gun and Orochimaru walked over to Kakashi's quivering body.
He kicked his side then turned away.
"Pity, he seemed like a strong specimen, I hope the rest of you don't disappoint me like he did. Anyway back to the game, step one, I call it memory. If you can remember that all of this happened you are to be at Kartery, dock four, in three days time at, let's make it one o'clock. If you fail to do this then you are out. By the way you're not the only ones playing my game; I've been taking groups such as yourselves for a few months now. But the game is about to begin."
With that he left the room, his laughter echoing in all of their ears.
One by one they were dragged out of the room past Kakashi's blood, each taking a new needle with them. From where the rest were left hanging they could hear the screams and do nothing but watch as it got closer and closer to their turn.