A/N: Warning: gore. Specifically, descriptions of partially-eaten bodies.
…
...
Sasuke never got his answer to the question of what happened to Naruto on the bridge, but Kakashi wasn't too upset for him, since he'd never gotten a real answer, either.
The spot beneath his hitai-ate itched, and Kakashi once again (ignoring Sakura's reprimand and Naruto's exasperated sigh) gently scratched underneath the bandage over his eye. It was nice of Sakura not to mention anything about what his whole face looked like, since she'd almost definitely removed his scarf to better clean around the area. Very nice. He'd remember that when the time came to submit reports on their progress.
Team Seven were all digging into a meal of rice and canned goods (Hinata supplementing hers with coffee), while Naruto patrolled the perimeter outside as well as he could, what with half of it being water, and likely munched on something dead while doing so to avoid unsettling everyone more by eating at the house. Tsunami was safe, but she hadn't elected to return home, and no-one could really blame her. None of them really knew what was going on, anyway.
Kakashi frowned more as he considered the text in front of him. He'd felt the absence of his eye as soon as he'd woken up, and not in the traditional 'part of my face is missing and ow' sort of way. More like, he woke up with a lot more chakra than he was used to. Even when shut and tucked away, his Sharingan continuously sucked up power to keep going - nevermind when he was actually using it.
That eye had been more to him than a weapon or a relic of a near-dead clan. The Sharingan reminded him each time he fought just what he was fighting for. It was a source of strength.
It hadn't been enough.
Part of Kakashi felt that if he hadn't been able to defend Obito's eye, then perhaps he didn't deserve it in the first place. After all, part of his job had been just to guard it from enemies against Konoha. But regardless of whether Kakashi should have it or not, the masked ninja who'd taken it definitely didn't deserve it, so it needed to be retrieved.
The ninja had been about half his height, black hair, with a slim build, and had reeked of blood and corrupt chakra, like the clothes Naruto and Hinata had tossed into the wash just after he'd woken up. Face was hidden by an orange mask with a swirl design and no eye openings to speak of, but that didn't mean that there weren't small holes built into it so that the wearer could see their surroundings without giving anything away. He hadn't gotten close enough to look. Beyond that, clothes were all black and close-fitting, with no skin exposed to the elements, and nothing else distinctive on their person.
That was fine. He'd assassinated people with even less to their description before, and that smell was already plenty to go off of. Blood was plentiful, but corrupt chakra was hard to come by. He might just give his team a vacation when they got home and then come back to do a proper investigation, or contact Jiraiya and his spy network and let him know what to look out for, though toads didn't exactly have the best sense of smell. But it was something.
[-M-]
Hinata had been right, and there was no more kissing after that small lip-locking session on the bed. It didn't feel right to start some up, either, what with how everyone was so fucking tense and how Sakura kept acting like Naruto would eat her. Maybe she didn't think she was, but it was pretty damn obvious.
Both Sakura and Sasuke were wary around him, which...was annoying. During downtime, she kept close to Naruto. Kakashi did exercises for his wrist and ankle, Sakura worked medical jutsu on them with sensei's guidance and Sasuke...did whatever it is his highness did in his free time.
For the second time today, she and Naruto sat together to try and get a calm moment in this craziness. She would've liked to be in his lap, but he'd sort of been keeping her at a strictly 'appropriate' distance for a while now, and she guessed that would only change once they were home. Or, at least, it had better.
While the interrogator stared off into the distance and brooded, Hinata contemplated the small gray line on her finger from where she'd split the skin on Naruto's teeth yesterday (well, it had probably been yesterday). If she cut herself again, would it happen again? Gently, she took one of her sharper kunai and drew a shallow, red line along her forearm, away from any important veins. In her peripheral vision, Naruto's gaze turned to her arm once the blood appeared.
When the cut quickly closed over, she saw his mouth slacken.
Both of them stared at each other for a while, until she turned her arm over, exposing the fish-belly white of that skin and touched the tip of the kunai to the network of blue veins at her wrist.
"Don't." Naruto's warm hand covered the joint, pushing the blade away.
She ignored him, twisting her arm out of his grip, then deliberately splitting the skin where it was most vital not to, breathing quickening when, just as before (though with a little more blood escaping this time), the cut sealed itself, the only evidence that anything had split her skin being a neat slash underneath some red.
Naruto was silent for the few moments after this, his eyes on the scar for a good minute before they turned to her - or, rather, to her neck. Her fingers again came up to touch the thick line that curved around the front of her throat like a necklace. There were more on her body; a few scattered around her ribs and back, but this was the broadest, darkest, ugliest one on her person. What would it have taken to make a scar that big, if her body repaired itself like this?
No wonder she'd died.
They didn't talk, just sat there next to each other, not touching, until eventually Naruto sighed. "I think we should go. Sun's not gonna come back for a while - if it does, and we should just get it over with while we can."
"You wanna go to the bridge right now?"
"You ate, right? And Sakura did, too...so the three of us can go, because Sasuke's still recovering from his head injury and Kakashi can't walk too much right now."
"I wanted…" She wasn't sure. She just wanted to spend some time with him. Granted, this wasn't exactly romantic, but better awkward bonding time than awkward time alone.
"I'm sorry."
Hinata wasn't one hundred percent sure, but she averaged that, during any given apology to her, Naruto was actually apologizing for about five things at once. Before he could get up, she grabbed onto him, cupping his face with her hands and turning him to face her, then pressing her lips against his. He stayed still, letting her, but being about as responsive as her pillow. She pulled back.
Her blood had smeared on his cheek where she'd touched him with her dirty hand. She leaned in again and licked over the splotch, running her tongue over his skin several times to remove it completely, noting how his heartbeat sped up beneath the hand she'd put on his chest to steady herself. When she leaned away, he was eyeing her solemnly, and his cat-slit pupils had widened almost to normal shape.
"We had a deal, remember? I'm just as scary as you are," she whispered, awkwardly balancing her weight between her knees and her palm on his front.
He shook his head, "I don't think that's quite right, Hinata-chan."
She frowned, "I am not afraid of you!"
"Well, maybe you should be," he replied, baring pointed teeth in a scowl. "Hinata, look at me!"
She snickered, "I do. Often. Not just your face, either."
His eyebrows pulled together, making that small crease over his nose appear. "Hinata, look what I've done to you."
She snorted, "Yeah, I can piece myself back together. T's a crying shame. Especially with me being a ninja and all. Can't imagine when that could come in handy." Before he could get a word in, she slammed her lips into his - a little too hard. His head hit the wall behind him and their teeth knocked together, making both pull away and grimace.
For a few seconds, they both glared at each other, Naruto vexedly rubbing the back of his head and Hinata tongueing her teeth for any difference - at least, from her new set. Then, Hinata sighed. She brushed aside the past few days' reluctance to touch and crawled over, placing herself in his lap and curling up against his torso, nuzzling into him thankfully when his arms automatically encircled her in turn.
"Naruto?" she said into his shirt, "Do you...like me less because of this?"
He stiffened, "No. No way! Hinata...you're important to me. Really important." He tightened his hold on her for emphasis.
"Okay. Good." She kissed his cheek, then turned his face towards her with a finger so she could kiss him again, on the lips. "Then stop acting like there's a stick up your ass and kiss me like you mean it."
After a moment's pause, he did.
[-M-]
Still no sun, but Naruto didn't need it to see what remained of Zabuza, his subordinant, Tazuna and Inari once they'd arrived on the bridge.
Everyone but Zabuza had received little-to-no damage to the face - the swordsman's head had been smashed and resembled a deflated ball, except for his lower jaw, which jutted up like a lump in a sheet. Each body had had its jugular split open and any cloth near their necks was discolored and stiff as a result.
Tazuna hadn't been as dissected as the rest - barely any of the old man's flesh was missing, only damaged, by deep gashes on his front. Meanwhile, the ninja and Inari's chest cavities had been opened, the ribs split down the middle with no regard for the breastbone and spread like a butterfly's wings, each side dangling awkwardly where the muscle still held the pieces of separated bone together (although some of Inari's and Zabuza's friend's had been broken off and scattered around). Inside they were near-empty - entire organs were missing: the heart, lungs and liver were gone from each, and Inari was missing a great portion of his digestive tract. That had been Naruto's main source of sustenance, apparently, though he'd also taken some flesh off the arms, and one of the other kid's ears was gone.
For a while, the three of them just stood there in silence. To his annoyance, at the sight of so much human flesh (since when did he prefer human?), Naruto's mouth began to water. He was thankful he'd eaten not too long ago, because a stomach-growl right now would've been inappropriate, to say the least.
"We - " Sakura coughed and looked away from the carnage. For a moment, Naruto thought she'd throw up again. "What should we do, Uzumaki-sempai?"
With a sigh, he tossed her and Hinata a sealing scroll each. "Move each one onto the array, then apply chakra to make them disappear."
Sakura was extremely squeamish, carefully dragging bodies by their clothes and dropping them a few times to better not touch all of the bugs that had accumulated on the flesh. Naruto similarly avoided them, but didn't mind grabbing onto Zabuza's wrists or ankles to move him onto the scroll, and Hinata did her best to follow his example, though when he concentrated past the smell of death, she was emitting the same repulsed and alarmed smell as Sakura.
They didn't bother to collect all the ribs that were scattered around, instead solemnly walking back to Tazuna's house with just what their four scrolls had, trying not to feel too weighed down by the little rolls of paper.
[-M-]
"Wh-what do you mean?" Tsunami didn't look like she hadn't expected it, but Sasuke guessed that didn't really make a difference.
"We've collected their remains and can bury them for you, if you would tell us where," Kakashi said, taking as much body weight off his crutch as he could to give her a sincere, apologetic look. "Because the mission was failed, we do not expect full payment."
Tsunami tossed her head back and forth, giving out long, wet sobs and finally collapsed onto her knees, covering her red face with her hands and breathing heavily. Team Seven and Chuunin Uzumaki all did their best not to shift uncomfortably while she cried in front of them, gripping tightly to the hand the friend she'd been staying with had given her.
"In this case, I don't think payment will be necessary at all." Naruto Uzumaki said, voice heavy with...something.
"No," Tazuna's daughter said, eyes narrowing in anger.
"What do you mean, 'no?'" her friend exclaimed, "Like hell you're paying, your father's dead!"
Tsunami turned her tear-filled eyes to the blond, mouth contorted into a grimace, "I'll pay."
"Uzumaki-san is right," Kakashi said, "In a case like this, there will be no need for payment. You've suffered enough."
"I'll pay...for a different mission." Tsunami stood slowly, still leaning shakily on her friend. "This is Gato's fault. Because of him, our village is dying. My father and son are dead, because of him."
Sasuke could literally see dread growing on both Kakashi and Uzumaki's faces as they watched her speak.
"I don't care about the price. I'll spend the rest of my life paying it off if I have to. I want revenge for my father and son." Her gaze latched onto the chuunin's face, probably because he was the highest-ranking ninja here without serious injury. "Please, for me...for my father… Please, kill Gato."
Uzumaki's eyes bored into the wall behind her, not melancholy, or angry, or whatever other emotion Sasuke felt the blond should've been feeling right now, but instead completely...other. His whole form looked antsy, now; weight going from one foot to foot.
All at once, he stilled. Turned back to Tsunami.
Slowly, carefully, he nodded.
…
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A/N: to my young reader-friends and my college-age reader-friends, when you're in college and wondering what you can procrastinate on it is NOT HISTORICAL CRITICISM ESSAYS DO NOT PROCRASTINATE THAT SHIT YOU HAVE TO RESEARCH AND CITE AND READ COLERIDGE OVER AND OVER AGAIN DO NOT PROCRASTINATE.