Disclaimer; No, I do not own Naruto, it's properties or it's characters. None of it.

Chapter 4;

At some point I had begun gathering ghosts.

Maybe it had only been a natural progression, of keeping company with so many people that were already so close to death. Comrades in arms that died and were replaced quicker than I could learn their names, a teacher drinking himself to death and an old friend that was forced to sell herself bit by bit as her curse drained her life.

So I collected ghosts, because I never expected any of them to last. I expected to end up on my own eventually and then I knew I'd be grateful for any company I could get.

Even if it was only my memories of the lonely dead.

Sasuke Uchiha-

There was a crackle of lightning through my mind and a boom of thunder behind my eyes but I didn't quite wake. Everything may have hurt too much or my mind might have been trying to recover itself more first.

"Are you going to sleep here?" I couldn't find the voice that stirred me as I jolted awake, my shoulder ached fiercely and other small pains ached out from my back and ribs. My surroundings looked as bad as I felt though and I briefly replayed the fight in my mind, it was a wonder that I hadn't bled out in my sleep but as I reached up to feel where the glass had cut me all I found was smooth skin. Except for my shoulder being run through I'd been completely healed from the small blackout.

"You can stay here." I twisted as I heard the voice again, a woman's voice, but I barely caught the glimmer of a pale figure before the sharp movement sent blood racing to my head and my vision blurred for a moment. When the purple spots had cleared there was no one there at all.

I'd lost too much blood, I had to have if I was hallucinating like this. I snatched up my weapons with my right hand my entire left side screaming in protest when I tried to use it and pushed my way out into the rain. It felt comforting in a way that I could never understood and never tried to, I only knew that the rain sinking into my hair and cooling my temples was something I needed at that moment.

"We'd better get you to a medic." someone commented to my side in a high too cheerful man's voice and I only got a flash of bright blue eyes before I was left staring blankly at the empty space beside me as the wind howled and whipped the rain around the empty street. I shook off the second vision growling in the back of my throat, that had felt real, far too real.

Hinata, I had to get back to her soon. That mad man was after her and besides that I needed help with my shoulder, if I was hallucinating I didn't know just how much longer I could trust myself to stay awake.

"I've got your back, you know that." it was the same man again but he was gone again as I searched for him only a flash of blonde hair and a hopeful grin appearing for a moment in my madness. I shook it off wishing the rain would thicken and wash away some of the growing haziness in my mind.

"You don't have to go alone." it was a new voice as I reached the docks and I didn't even humour the thought that it might be an actual person this time and not just a phantom, even when I got a better look at the speaker. The grey haired man had a heavy gaze directed on me and a hand high on his shoulder gripping a massive blade. I wasn't sure if he was ready to defend me or attack me, I didn't think he'd decided just yet. A swirl of wind strung my eyes and the tall man vanished as suddenly as he'd appeared.

I didn't answer him, but something in me wanted to. I wanted to insist that I did have to go alone.

"Are you in that much of a hurry to die?" I simply walked straight past the brunette in her leather armour as she clicked her tongue at me, she didn't vanish like the others or at least I resisted the urge to look back and see if she had once I passed. The waves in the bay were heavy in the rain, splashing high up as they crashed against the wood of the docks spraying salt into the air.

"I love you." she said it like an apology and that may have been what made me stop and stare at the pale pink haired woman who had spoke. She was bare footed her plain dress fluttering in the wind as she stood on the sea itself. She didn't smile at me, she wouldn't even meet my eye as the waves swallowed her up drawing her deeper under their crushing weight as she reached a hand out.

I passed her by and didn't look back.

"Just breath, open your eyes and you'll know what to do." the silver haired man somehow years younger spoke up as I reached the dock that led home taking the path and clutching my head shaking off the swimming visions in my mind.

"Find me, when you understand what we are now." the command came from the smooth voice of the man I'd fought in the bar, Itachi but I didn't even spare the obvious too young fake a glance as I found the boat I called home and the woman I was looking for. Her dark hair was much shorter than it had been this morning and I wondered what had prompted her to cut it so much, or what had her waiting on the deck instead of inside.

I stepped onto the boat with a heavy thud that alerted the white eyed girl.

"Sorry for hanging about, I just really needed to talk to someone about...Sasuke?" unfamiliar and yet endlessly familiar features stared at me as if their owner couldn't quite believe I was standing in front of her. I shared the sentiment though, she was just like the rest of them I'd been seeing, just a mirage.

"You're not real, I...what the hell do you want?" I snarled out stumbling as the boat rocked and I was thrown against the cabin wall, the white eyed woman that looked so much like Hinata rushing to help me. I moved to pin her against the cabin wall instead certain that my hands would just pass through her.

They didn't, but I felt as if I'd been struck by lightning.

"S-sasuke." her voice was so soft and filled with concern, concern for me I slowly realized as I stared down at her running her hands over me in a childish disbelieving manner. Shoulders, arms, face everything was completely real as I stared down at her that same headache from the bar fight returning with an inhuman fierceness and shaking me.

"Gin?" It was just like Itachi. She meant something, the same as he had and I knew that now as her hands slowly steadied me and her lips pulled into a tight grimace at finding my wound. The name was wrong though, it was right but at the same time it wasn't the one I was reaching for.

"Hanabi." I finally found the word I'd been looking for and felt the energy drain from my body, I expected to hit the deck but instead found myself caught in the slim woman's strong embrace.

Tenten-

"That's the lot of it, shit I don't need. I didn't organize them, I'm sure a talented fellow like yourself can manage anyway." I remarked dropping the last box of merchandise for the silver haired warrior to make use of. It was decent Chao's equipment, not my best since I was taking as much of that as that I could carry with me but it was functional.

"You really think you'll make it very far out there?" asked the silver haired former captain, sipping idly from his glass of plain water before he refilled it from the ice cold pitcher. He really seemed to think he could just replace the booze he was used to with water and he'd be fine, he was in denial I knew but I didn't have the time or the heart to make an ruckus about it.

"I don't know, I can't tell what will happen out there. But I can see what's happening inside these walls." I answered briskly ignoring the look the man sent me. It was so much like the Uchiha's that it stung, the kind we used to cast together on people years ago. A kind of look that said the man considered me as less.

"You're afraid of war, more than Daemons?" he asked chewing the words, a nervous tick I knew resulting from the water not quite quenching what he was really thirsting for.

"Hardly. It's not about which thing is worse Hatake, it's about what has more promise." I bit back disturbingly noting that this would quite likely be my last conversation with the man, and I was not going to leave it on good terms. As if I ever left anything on good terms.

"Promise? Where's your profit margin out there Tenten?" he asked after a moment with an intentional dig at my mercenary ways. Not that I cared, profit was only a bad word to sentimental soldiers, to me it was synopsis with food, shelter and safety. Generally good things.

"Could be anywhere, there's a whole world out there to find it in. But this hole, this grave of a city. It was hell even before Orochimaru took over, maybe you were just too drunk to notice it." I finished, more bitterly than I had meant to sound. The last few months had been hard, business had disappeared, and the few friends I had were gone or dead. Maybe I did blame the Captain of the Guard a little for that.

"I see. Take care, Tenten." he responded simply without looking at me, not that I cared really as I snorted and adjusted my cloak. Two hours until I had to meet Karin, enough time to take my last look at the city's sights before departure and linger on the few spots worth lingering.

"Enjoy your crusade Hatake, try not to die painfully." the words were hissed out as I pushed open the window and dropped onto the uneven grey stones of the lower city. The air crackled with energy and even with the cloak I found myself shivering like I never had before.

It was a bad night, I could feel it in my bones.

Hanabi Hyuuga-

I expected him to wake up with a start, like coming out of a nightmare. I wasn't sure why I did, maybe because of the state he'd found me in. The wound wasn't even what worried me, it had been the name he'd hissed out with such desperation...the wrong name, my false name.

"How long..?" his voice was gruffer than I remembered it, or at least it was rougher than I remembered it being most of the time. There was a shadow of the man as he'd been the day I met him when he saved me from Richard and Mako, an invisible sense of isolation and casual hostility.

Slowly I realized that Sasuke looked like a stranger right now, that he felt like one almost.

"A couple of hours, I've stitched it but..." I thought of telling him to be careful as he pushed himself up to sit in the bed, but it felt wrong. He wasn't one of my recruits, and I'd seen him fight with worse too many times to think he'd listen.

I wanted to shout at him...though I still didn't know just what I wanted to shout.

"I mean, since the ship and Leviathan, it's the last thing I..." he drifted off momentarily his eyes dropping as his brow creased in pain, not the physical kind either. The ship had been the last thing he remembered? That explained the mistaken name, at least a little.

"More than a year now, since that night." I answered carefully watching the anger flash in his eyes momentarily...and what looked somehow like betrayal. His lips had curled back revealing his teeth in a snarl that was almost animistic and again it seemed more like the Sasuke I heard about from other Raiders and not the one I'd known so well.

"I see. Where are my swords?" he didn't make eye contact with me as he lifted himself out of the bed with a borderline disturbing ease and I saw as the cover shifted that his wound had recovered a few days' worth of healing in his few hours rest. He'd always healed faster, but never that fast.

It was a natural question, probably the first thing I'd ask for after a battle too but with the lack of eye contact and the distinct air of distrust it felt jarring to me.

"Just on the table, they were the only things I…" I drifted off before I could say they were all I recognised besides his face as the Uchiha's eyes suddenly snapped to his own wrist and I reminded myself that he was missing memories, only now did he realise he didn't have the Chaos beads I'd given him or the bangle Sakura had given him…the last time he would have seen her. Something had taken the last thing Sakura and I had given him while he was gone.

His eyes didn't linger long as the former Raider strode to the table not quite hiding his agony, I met him half way as he reached for the first sword.

"Sasuke wh-" I stopped speaking as I covered his hand with my own. I only felt my magicks sapping for a second before he yanked his own hand away as if he'd been burned stepping back shakily as his scarlet eyes finally met my own fully. Sasuke, who I'd seen face down Daemons, Wyverns and on occasion Gods looked absolutely terrified.

And he was terrified of me.

"What happened Sasuke?" I should have remained calm and even but I couldn't help the sudden quiet fury that laced my own voice, I could see it at a glance now that he was hurt and it had nothing to do with the wound he'd all but shrugged off when he'd climbed out of bed. Something had happened to him in that year, something I didn't like.

"It's not…I need…" he'd stepped past me as he started and stopped explanations reaching for his weapons once again and breaking eye contact. When he had them in his hands again though he paused completely staring emptily at the reflection in the blade for a moment.

I knew immediately that he was considering lying to me but I just couldn't understand why.

"My brother's here. I've been here for a while now, without my memories, he brought them back." He answered after his silent moment had passed immediately attaching the blades to his belt, it sounded cold and clinical and when he turned to face me his eyes were blank of their earlier emotion.

"You've been here? In the city?" I asked as he crossed his arms. I didn't want to believe that, I couldn't when there should have been no possible way I wouldn't have run into him if he had been.

Unless someone had been hiding him, specifically from me.

"I turned up and found work, on the merchant ships." He answered curtly as if that made any sense. He'd have been picked up by the city watch before he'd have gained the bearings to think of work and even then someone else must have gotten him the work permit, he wouldn't have known where to get it and even if he had that would have meant coming to our barracks; somewhere I couldn't have missed him.

"And your brother just found you? Attacked you?" I was trying to keep the doubt out of my voice and I was almost succeeding. How many times had I replayed Sasuke coming back in my mind now and it never went like this, he wasn't meant to be cold and detached speaking to me like he'd rather be anywhere else in the world.

"We don't have time for this, he's after Hinata he said…" He'd snapped his mouth shut a second after he'd said my sister's name, as if he'd let something he wasn't meant to slip out. And he had because I suddenly remembered where I'd found him.

"He threatened Hinata and you went to warn her, to protect her. Sasuke…how did you know where my sister lived?" I asked the question slowly moving to touch him again and drawing that same flinch from the man, a flinch I was suddenly developing a theory on. He knew Hinata before he'd regained his memories.

He didn't answer, his eyes darting away again.

"Sasuke, how long has Hinata known you were back?" my voice came out small, because I'd already started putting all the information I had together and I recognised that flinch. I'd seen it, once or twice now from woman who had been…

"She found me, when I washed up." He answered, his eyes still downcast and I found I didn't need to ask when she'd found him. I could still remember when she'd taken a complete and sudden turn, had started acting like my sister again and stopped wallowing in self-pity, I'd thought she'd started moving past her obsession with the Uchiha but…

I was a fool.

"She told me, she told me she was my wife." He answered finally speaking without having to be pushed and I knew why he'd paused before and flinched, why it seemed like he was weighing up what to tell me.

He'd helped me rescue her, went in the opposite direction of his brother Itachi, left his mentor as a disgrace and didn't pursue his friends. I'd lost my arm, abandoned the friends I'd made too. We'd both given up our home, as awful and as pathetic as Naru had been we'd been happy there and we'd given it up, all for Hinata and what had she done?

I'd wanted to hate her after I discovered her feelings for Sasuke but I hadn't, now though…

"We have to find her then." I found myself speaking as something inside me shattered, it was the voice I used when I took command and I understood now that it was the same for me as when Sasuke defaulted to that ruthless Raider mode. Suddenly I understood more about the Uchiha than I ever wanted to.

"Hanabi…I…" he began after a moment and it killed me to realise he expected me to reject him now. His wife…without question Sasuke and Hinata had slept with each other, probably quite often over the last few months. A few months when he hadn't known who he was and was at the mercy of anyone who'd try to use him.

"D-don't apologise Sasuke, I don't…you shouldn't have to. She…" I'd recovered my voice after my first slip schooling it carefully but my control wasn't perfect as the Uchiha stepped closer and used his thumb to wipe away a tear from my cheek I hadn't realised escaped silently.

"All this, it's my fault I brought her into…" I didn't get to finish my attempt at taking on the guilt, of declaring my wish that I'd left Hinata locked in that castle even if I would have hated myself for it.

He'd wrapped his arms around me and everything had gone dull, the lingering ache from overusing my abilities earlier and the strange sensation of my false arm all of it had faded leaving me feeling just like a normal woman who'd been hurt and betrayed not like the Captain gearing up and preparing to pursue a criminal.

It hadn't been the Raider that always had my back or always seemed to have the answers that I had missed. It had been this feeling, of something worth holding onto in the grief and sorrow that I'd missed, it was Sasuke as a person I missed.

"I missed you Sasuke, so much that I can't even…I don't care what she did, it doesn't change this. I won't let it." I was babbling and I was terrified, as much as I had been when he'd discovered I was Hanabi and not Gin and only his quiet heart beat and the strength of his arms kept me from truly losing it.

Hinata, I wasn't sure what I was going to do when I saw her but I wouldn't feel guilt for it.

A/N

Okay sorry for the super long delay on updates, to make things short I started back at college and with that and working well there are only so many hours in the day. I will still be updating, I've got like two partially written shorts for Sprinkles a couple of one shots and I've even written the first chapter of Seraphim's third part but with it being so hard to settle down for long writing sessions everything is progressing at a weird slow random pace and the tone can jump around calling for rewrites.

Hope there's still interest in my work and I'm really sorry I don't update faster, I would if I could.

R&R