The occupants in the High School's art room were alive with flurried movements. They each had a task and they were getting it done as quickly as possible. Although they all knew they were going to lose Sasuke, they had all silently came to an agreement that it was better to lose one rather than both Suigetsu and Sasuke. Plus, it truly wasn't their decision. Shikamaru helped occasionally with figuring out the cure, but mainly, it was all Sasuke, so if he chose to give it to Suigetsu, how could they object?

"Finally, it's done," Sasuke exclaimed happily, jumping off the stool he had been perched on while mixing things together. To everyone's shock – other than Suigetsu – Sasuke began doing a little dance, sing-songing happily, "I did it, I did it!"

"Congrats, love," Suigetsu murmured sweetly – after he had limped his way to his lover – while sliding his arms around Sasuke's waist from behind when the little dance stopped. Sasuke relaxed into the embrace, a content sigh slipping from his lips. When he was in Suigetsu's arms he could forget his responsibilities, he could forget the ravenous creatures, he could forget his parent's death, and he could forget almost every other painful memory.

All except the memory that he had ran off, letting his brother die, which is why Sasuke quickly removed himself from Suigetsu's arms, not wanting to risk thinking too deeply about it.

Slowly, he went towards Juugo, a serious look on his face. "Take care of her," he said, throwing a pointed look at Karin. A pained look crossed Juugo's face, before he simply nodded, pulling the Uchiha into a hug. The hug only lasted a few moments, but to Sasuke and Juugo it said all the things they weren't willing too. Neither of them was too good with emotions so they were happy with the understanding they had for each other, so words weren't necessary. To the shock of Sasuke's group, they all saw that tears glistened on Juugo's cheek, though they were quickly wiped away by Sasuke's pale hand.

Sasuke gave a sad look to Juugo before he walked towards Karin, wincing slightly as he saw tears also on her face.

"Don't cry. It ruins your beautiful face," He said playfully, wiping away the girl's tears.

"Shut up," She shot back, huffing a bit, before going back to her expression of pain and sadness. "I'll miss you," She informed him pitifully. Sasuke said nothing; he simply pulled her into a hug, which she responded to instantly. After a few moments, he pulled away, and she let him, albeit reluctantly.

As soon as he turned to head towards Naruto he had already been tackled with said blonde clutching him tightly while he sobbed. As he saw the tears rolling down from the big blue eyes and over the scarred cheeks the dam that had been holding back the tears broke and out they came. Naruto and Sasuke clutched each other tightly, Naruto's tears falling from his own cheeks to land and mix with Sasuke's.

Slowly, their tears subsided and they rose to seated positions next to each other. Their eyes locked for a moment and then they were hugging each other again.

"Take care of yourself, Naruto. Try not to be reckless," Sasuke said fiercely, regretting that he wouldn't be there to protect them any longer.

He knew that in a way by letting himself be zombiefied it was making it so he couldn't protect them but at the same time if he just took out as many of those disgusting things as he could before he died, and he got enough supplies for the group, they would be fine to stay in the school for a long time which meant they would be safe.

Leaving Suigetsu and Naruto alone was the thing he was most reluctant to do, because he knew how they both were; reckless and loud, which was extremely dangerous to be for obvious reasons.

"Sasuke," Naruto called, drawing the raven haired boy from his thoughts. Sasuke looked back to him, raising an eyebrow questioningly. The blonde grinned, "Unlike you, I can take care of myself. Those zombies won't get me," he said confidently, letting out a small laugh. Sasuke's response was to cross his arms and glare heatedly at his friend, because he didn't see how it was funny.

He could tell Naruto didn't truly find it funny but he still found himself angry that Naruto was again covering his feelings with fake laughter and fake smiles, and joking about the fact that he had gotten himself infected from the scratch.

Naruto, sensing the growing anger, quickly jumped to his feet, scurrying over to hide behind Gaara. Zombies he could handle, an angry Sasuke was a completely different story. Gaara glowered at Sasuke, also sensing the Uchiha's angry emotions, and stood protectively in front of Naruto.

"Dobe," Sasuke growled, still glaring at the meek blonde.

"Suck it, teme!" Naruto exclaimed haughtily.

"No, no, blondie," Suigetsu began, "Sasuke doesn't suck. I've tried to get him to so many times, but it doesn't happen," He finished, throwing a smirk towards Sasuke, whom never did like sharing information about his sex life.

"Suigetsu, stop." Sasuke warned, turning his glare to his lover instead of his best friend. Suigetsu's reply was another smirk.

Naruto on the other hand had visibly paled, his eyes were wide, and his hands shook slightly as he looked back and forth between Sasuke and Suigetsu. He opened his mouth as if he were going to say something, then shut it again. He repeated the action a few times, and then finally choked out, "So disturbing... Bad mental images."

Sasuke blushed brightly; Suigetsu and the others in the room began laughing like hyena's at the horrified Naruto and embarrassed Sasuke.

"Screw you guys," Sasuke hissed at them, not sure who to direct his glare on. He did note however as he moved his glare to various people that a particular member of the pierced man's group wasn't laughing. He was grateful that at least someone was being mature.

"Take care of him," Sasuke shot at Gaara, getting to his feet and moving towards where Ino and Shikamaru stood, still laughing. To his relief both Ino and Shikamaru tried to reign in their laughter, and once they were noticeably calmer he spoke, "Ino, make sure you keep Shikamaru in line." Ino grinned hugely, nodding enthusiastically.

"Shikamaru, you're a pain, but I love you, you lazy genius." Sasuke said quietly, feeling embarrassed at how emotional he had been since he had been infected, though he guessed it was just because now it didn't matter if they saw his feelings because he would be gone soon anyway.

"Love you too, Princess," Shikamaru smirked.

"Fuck you," Sasuke retorted, turning on his heel and heading for the door, only bringing with him an axe they had acquired recently – though no one really used it – and a knife.

"Wait, aren't you going to take a gun?" Ino questioned, sounding a bit confused.

"I'm not going to waste your bullets," Sasuke replied, giving her a look that clearly showed his low thoughts of her intellectual level.

"Check out front at Sunset, there will be more supplies there. By then I'm sure the infection will have spread enough to make me one of them." He paused, looking around the room at his friends, and the people that he still knew nothing about. Hell, he didn't even know their names, not that it mattered anyway. Finally, he finished what he had been saying,

"I only ask one thing of you. Don't let me live like that. I'll stick around so I'm close by when I'm done being zombiefied, so it will be easier for you to kill me. And, I'm sorry that I'll want to eat you guys." With that, Sasuke left, the door closing loudly behind him.

A sob echoed in the room. All eyes turned to Suigetsu while he just stared brokenly at the door his lover had just exited through.

"Drink up, man," Shikamaru encouraged Suigetsu, grabbing the cup Sasuke had mixed and he held it out to Suigetsu. Said boy just nodded and took it, quickly gulping it down as tears continued trailing down his cheeks.

"Hmm, Sasuke left a note," Shikamaru said suspiciously as he noticed the small sticky note that was stuck to Sasuke's binder, partially hidden by a piece of paper. He grabbed it, and began reading, what it said,

Shika, I'll make sure to get more of the stuff you need for the cure in case you ever need more.
Good luck, guys.
I love you all. Thank you for making me strong, thank you for giving me a reason for surviving.
-Sasuke Uchiha