xl: You know that moment when your professor basically assigns you like a 100 pages to read overnight and the print in the textbook is fucking tiny? I had several of those days. That is why this chapter is like three weeks late.

I also ended up adding flashbacks even though I said I wouldn't. I kind of found my way after forgetting the ones that were supposed to be in this chapter.

Thank you: AkashimaUchiha, Kit (I'm happy you enjoy the story and hope you will continue to do so!), mikethepokemaster, Aries01xD, and SilverRider09 for leaving reviews!

There will be a preview for the next chapter up eventually.

I hope you enjoy this chapter!


All I Wanted – The End of the World II

"And I swear you said we could raise the dead with a song

So I held your hand and we sat and sang for so long

But the night stayed silent, and I knew you were wrong."

- - Kyla La Grange, "Raise the Dead"


( Part II )


Naruto accompanied Nagato into the mansion, an abandoned building made of faded red stone and white windows surrounded by tall, bristly trees that shaded the stone walkway leading up to the small porch.

He stepped into the foyer after his master and looked around. The furniture was covered in white sheets or plastic, though it had not protected them. The couches had the stuffing sticking out of them, the tables were tipped over or broken, and he noticed the shattered glass because Nagato told him to watch out for it. Something about musky scent filled him with familiarity, perhaps not the smell itself rather the place, but Naruto would have remembered if he had ever entered the mansion.

"People have taken this home to ruins," said Nagato, stepping into the first room to his left. "I'm surprised it's still standing."

Naruto followed him, noting the poor state of the sitting room. "You know, it's weird that you wanted to go out. Even Konan and Yahiko were surprised you were leaving your studio."

Nagato smiled, continuing forward through an archway into a long room full of windows that allowed the sun to filter onto the filthy rug. "There used to be vases in this room, worthy millions each, all aligned against the walls. And there were paintings, here and there." He gestured in two separate spaces where the imprint of two large portraits once sat against the dark walls. "They were expensive as well."

"So what happened to the family?" asked Naruto. He was onto Nagato. This place was probably going to serve as a new training ground. He saw the backyard through the windows and it was expansive. There would be plenty of room. Not to mention the next mansion was miles away, which meant they would be able to use showier sorcery without another person seeing it. "Did they buy a mansion twice this size and bought new vases worth billions?"

"The opposite happened. The family was pursued by political scandal and impoverished. The last head of the family was unable to maintain the house left behind by his father and lost it all." Nagato paused at the doorway into another room, one without furnishings. "He had two daughters then."

Within the room, the image of two black-haired girls fumbling through the room invaded his thoughts. The eldest tugged along the youngest, a girl of two with large hazel eyes, pausing at the entrance of the other room as voices filtered in speaking in hushed tones of financial troubles. Though the oldest girl did not understand the gravity of the situation, she seemed to have some awareness of it because she quickly turned to hoist the smaller girl into her arms and scampered away before an older woman appeared, certain she sensed the presence of another.

Naruto recognized her eyes, the eldest girl's, deeply green and large. He found the source of the house's familiarity. He saw it in her mind when she spoke of her sisters, pictures of a memory from a lost past.

"The Kikushita family," he uttered.

"Did Kikushita bring you here before?" asked Nagato.

"No, I saw it in her head," he answered. Before she came into her tenryū inheritance, she was easy to read. Peering into her mind was as easy as switching on a light. "When she talks, she remembers something. She always has something in her head."

"How long has it been since you've last seen Kikushita Hatsue? Spoken to her?"

"Five years," he lied. He saw her often when he went to see Sasuke at the facility, though only when he managed to go with one of her three sisters. "Did something happen?"

"Yahiko brought an interesting piece of information from the Lotus Facility this morning," Nagato began, his back to him as his fingers traced the outline of old frames.

"What?"

Yahiko worked in the main facility as a scientist despite being part Sage. He infiltrated the organization devoted to capturing Otherworldly beings to protect their secrets. The mystery that shrouded the last tenryū pair was something Konan demanded from the leaders of the Old World. They had agreed reluctantly, only because Sasuke and Hatsue were the key to their own unknown origins.

"They say they found a cure to suppress their superhuman abilities," Nagato said. "They can make them human."

Naruto frowned. "How?"

"The project was fronted by a man called Orochimaru and it was done in complete secrecy," he explained. "But it produced results. They plan to release Kikushita in five days."

He was too shocked to speak, but he was equally elated at the thought of reuniting with her. Five years, he lived continuing his training under a new teacher and knowing that his incompetence helped in Sasuke and Hatsue's capture. He had all the power in the world, but not a way to use it. He had learned over time that it had been best that he had no idea how to use all of his powers as it would have gotten him caught or worse hijacked by his own demon energy.

"I brought you here to make a request of you," Nagato told him. "I need you to stay away from Kikushita."

"Why?" he snapped.

"Because our leaders are not willing to accept a union between the last kyūbi and a tenryū," Nagato answered.

"That is not their decision to make! I chose her and she chose me!"

"You cannot argue against them. They will not be deterred."

"I won't be either! They can forget it!" Naruto stalked away from his master, but stopped abruptly, whirling around. "How does bringing me here have anything to do with this?"

"Because not everyone perceives the tenryū as a danger," Nagato said. "They are quick to lose control of their power, but it is not impossible for them to grasp at it. A tenryū needs their gyoku. Kikushita has hers, but Uchiha lacks his."

Naruto must have missed the point because he suddenly wasn't following the conversation. "What?"

"The Kikushita family collected old, priceless artifacts," Nagato continued. "Uchiha's gyoku was said to have been left behind in Otherworld, so it was not passed down generations of his family as Kikushita's gyoku, but given the relationship of the tenryū pair before them, I believe Uchiha's gyoku accompanied Kikushita's through the years."

"You think it's here?" He doubted it, taking the state of the house into consideration. If it had been there, it would have probably been stolen.

Nagato nodded. "If you can return Uchiha's gyoku to him, you may go argue with our leaders."


Hatsue sat atop the bulging roots of an ancient tree with a wide trunk and large branches that tangled above her shielding her from the cloudy sky. She spent the better portion of her time on that chunk of floating rock ambling through it in her search for Sasuke and Ino, which was proving to be an impossible feat. Naruto's power radiated from the hard earth beneath her feet and the quiet breezes that made the trees shuddered. It dulled her heightened senses, though there were other contributing factors to her weakness. She tired quickly because her body was on the mend, healing itself at a lethargic pace due to the toxins lingering in her bloodstream.

Breathing laboriously, she could feel her lungs constrict painfully with every deep inhalation. She fisted the damp fabric of her shirt and eyed her peculiar surroundings warily, worried at the prospect of other creatures lying in wait among the overgrowth. The Otherworld community, which included many species of demon, migrated into the Humanworld because they were unable to adapt to the changes in their dying world, so the possibility existed that there were other types capable of evolving into stronger versions of their kind to survive any shift in conditions.

She had traveled in the company of paranoia and frailty, ambling through strange, frightening territory. She had stumbled and had fallen, skimmed her knees over the pebbled ground and cut her arms along sharp branches that struck out at her like knives. She had followed a trail made of powdery stone flanked by long-limbed crystalized trees that looked to have been cut from diamond. This had been the first section on the island—though at the time she had not been aware it was one—that had been different. Everything she had encountered had been towering, green, and overgrown. There had been strange wildflowers that had been standing on thick stems with petals as large as her head that had an intoxicating scent and branches weighed down by giant flat leaves. Following the powdery trail, she had discovered the edge of the island surrounded by a stretch of violet sea that shimmered under the light filtering through the overstuffed clouds in the sky.

She had stared out into the glittering waters and had spotted another stretch of land covered in domes of white sand around a tower that struck through the clouds—pale, sturdy, and beautifully structured. Shorter turrets topped with crystal spires created a circle around the tower, each one contained passages that connected it to the tower. The sight of it underneath a blanket of light had awakened curiosity inside her, one that had beckoned her to walk within its enamel walls and climb up beyond the clouds. Was the heavenly seat of the tenryū race above the clouds? Or would it sit further upward?

It had taken everything to tear herself away from the edge of the island to continue searching for Sasuke and Ino. She had wanted to reach an open area where she might have been allowed to pinpoint them through their emotions.

However, that had been some time ago.

Hatsue leaned into the wide trunk, chest rising and falling with each painful breath she took. She found it difficult to concentrate long enough to find either Sasuke or Ino. Otherworld pulsed with Naruto's overbearing presence, so only his emotions reached her. They filled her with his deceptive fear and worry, with a craving that wrapped around her like a heated blanket in the coldest winter, and the knowledge of his own omnipotence that thrilled him. Despite her ability to feel his emotions filter through her, she was unable to locate him.

She wanted to continue escaping him, but the notion alone made her insides shrivel up in disapproval. Running from the man opposite of her—destined for her—upset her. Spending eternity at his side was the first thing she planned to establish after leaving the Lotus Facility whether it was in peace or on the run. She never imagined refusing him. It hurt her to do so and to see his eyes sadden at her blatant rejection.

She closed her eyes when a snapping branch jolted her. She whirled around, snagging her foot on a bulging root, and fell on her backside.

Naruto emerged from between an arch of twisting limbs behind the gigantic tree. He approached slowly, stepping over the large roots, to stand before her. He extended a hand to her, his long fingers curled inward slightly.

"Stop running, Hatsue," he pleaded, blue eyes expressive. "Please stop running from me."

Hatsue reached for his hand, hesitating before she pressed the pads of her fingers atop his palm. His own curled underneath her own, his thumb brushing across her knuckles. He did not tug at her to pull her back onto her feet. He sank to his knees in front of her bringing her hand to his lips and kissed her palm in a way that made little sparks of lightning run up her arm. He wrapped his arms around her and drew her against him, rubbing his face against her cheek before burying it in her neck. He inhaled the scent of her skin deeply, his body warming and growing rigid.

She kept her hands pressed against his chest, keeping a small gap between them. Her heart drummed as emotion swelled inside her. Enveloped in his arms where she felt safe she had an overwhelming urge to cry because she wanted to run again.

Naruto squeezed her. "Don't run from me, Hatsue," he whispered against her skin. "I know you're scared, but I won't hurt you. I would never hurt you."

She sobbed, embracing him, and whispered his name brokenly. She wanted to run away so badly, more than she wanted to stay in his arms, but she couldn't move. She couldn't leave him. He would chase her down no matter how far she ran. Otherworld was his domain and he would unearth it if it meant finding his way to her.

But if she ran, she could not help him. If she disappeared, he would not return to the man he was before. Although, he sounded, looked, and acted the same, he no longer felt wholesome and warm. He carried with him a quiet strength she admired, one that disappeared with the opening of Otherworld. The new power he exuded wanted to eat the world.

Naruto pulled away, touching her face though direct contact pained them, and wiped the tears from her cheeks. He smiled, meeting her eyes, and pressed his forehead to hers. "I won't let you be taken from me."

Her heart skipped a beat.

"I wasn't strong enough to protect you then," he continued, "but I am now. We can be together. Here."

"I don't like it here," she whispered, heart thumping wildly. Her breathing quickened. She was panicking, weakening, and crying. She craved familiarity, needed to be around everything she was accustomed to not a completely different world. "I want to go home. Please take me home."

"You need to rest," he decided, pulling her onto her feet as he rose to his. "The Sage Island isn't safe. Come, we're going back."

Back where? Hatsue gripped his arms, refusing to budge. "Stop," she said. "I don't want to go. I don't want to—"

Vertigo hit her and it made her knees buckle. Naruto kept her standing, but her body had gone limp and he slid his arm under her knees, hoisting her up into his arms. Her head fell back as consciousness started to leave her and she stared up into the tree limbs that hid the sky. There were strange creatures crawling along the branches, obsidian in color with armor-like flesh pulled tight over their long bodies. They bore sharp teeth, bony, scaly limbs, and milky white eyes.

Naruto cast one look in their direction and they scattered, disappearing into the deep shadows of the green forest.

She closed her eyes, losing consciousness.


Sasuke sensed a cluster of distorted energy rushing headlong to the snowcapped mountains and watched it appear before his eyes in a white blur that shot towards Kabuto, sending him skyward into a cloud of fire that swallowed him whole. The shadow of a person lingered, a tall figure that turned in their direction to signal them to the ledge of the mountainside, before disappearing in a shimmer.

He went to Ino's side, his eyes lifted to the darkening sky as a rain of embers mingled with the snow swirling in the wind.

Ino clasped the side of her neck, having been nicked by the claw-tipped end of his tail, and applied sufficient pressure to the bleeding scratch as she pushed herself onto shaky legs. She pulled her hand away and startled at the sight of the blood oozing between her fingers.

"I don't sense him anymore," said Ino, pressing her hand to her neck again. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure," he said, reaching for her elbow to guide her in the direction the white shadow revealed. He dropped his hold on her as soon as she started to follow. The minor contact made his skin prickle with discomfort as heat flooded into the tips of his fingers, threatening to spread across his hand.

Sasuke halted by the edge of the mountain and met the eyes of a familiar face. An older man with a shock of white hair falling down his back waved the two down onto a thin road that wrapped around the crag. He was Jiraiya, Naruto's missing Sage mentor.

Ten years ago, he had gone to the Otherworld Seam with a team of Sages to fortify the seal that prevented the malignant energy from their ancestral world from seeping into Humanworld, but failed. He and the group that accompanied his were swallowed by Otherworld. Their failure to reinforce it properly the seal had led to the awakening of his and Hatsue's demon energy. This had resulted in the death of many humans and the awakening of just as many mutants—half-demon, half-human offspring.

Jiraiya extended an arm to help Ino slide down onto the small road. Sasuke joined them shortly, remaining in tune with his Sight though it depleted a lot of his energy.

"I can sense your sister half in this world," Jiraiya commented as he guided them along the icy trail. "Did you lose track of one another when you entered Otherworld?"

"She was taken," Sasuke said curtly. She and Kabuto had been the first to pass through the Seam.

"Naruto is here as well," the old Sage deduced.

"Yes," Sasuke echoed.

"How did you find him?"

"Different."

They followed the trail in silence until Jiraiya led them to a cavern concealed and protected by sorcery. The interior was larger than one anticipated and filled with the glow of the fires burning on torches hung from the walls. Immediately, Ino sprang forward into the arms of an older man with long, pale blond hair, who was quick to notice the scratch on her neck and call for a Sage capable of healing it. Sasuke had seen Yamanaka Inochi before and recognized him as Ino's father, another Sage lost to the same cause as Jiraiya. In fact, he saw the cave was filled with other Sages, a pair of kitsune from the Hyuga clan, and an inugami woman with short, wild hair.

Noting the lack of healers among their group, Sasuke volunteered himself in silence to heal the scratch on her neck when he took her hand from it and pressed his palm infused with energy against it, searing the wound shut seamlessly and painlessly.

Ino touched it with her hand curiously and thanked him.

Jiraiya gathered everyone closer to the fire in the center of the cave and asked for Sasuke and Ino to recount the events that led to their current situation. They started from the moment Naruto had gotten himself killed, experimented on, and forcibly awakened through a mutant creating ritual developed by Kabuto to the chaos concerning their intertwined mate confusion to the destruction of the large facility and their escape. They had divulged the few details Naruto had given them concerning his conversation with Kabuto and his hastiness to break the seal after watching the conference Tsunade had given.

Once informed, the older being discussed the matter of Naruto's rampant demon energy and the danger he posed because of it.

"If Kikushita is out there on her own, we need to find her before he does," Jiraiya said seriously. "He will pose a larger threat with his mate at his side."

"But they have a broken bond, staying with her won't give him the benefits of a complete one," Ino said.

"Even if his instinct is identifying another as his mate, it is merely an unnatural consequence," Inochi explained. "Naruto is completely aware that Kikushita is his true mate, and whether that means forcibly undoing the wrong, he will do it. He won't stop until he starts to benefit from his bond because he will gain more power through it."

"And if he grows too powerful, this world and the other have no chance of survival," added a stout Hyuga. "He will devour everything."

"But he's Naruto," Ino defended. "Why are you automatically assuming he is going to destroy everything? He wouldn't devour anything and he wouldn't put Kikushita in danger."

Jiraiya exhaled deeply and took a seat atop a stone, gesturing for Ino to take one upon another. He looked onto Inochi and the Hyuga that had spoken. "Track Kikushita, she must be separated from Naruto."

The two men convened with the inugami and the others in their company before all departed in a wind that kicked up dust particles and swayed the fire.

Sasuke moved to the entrance, drawn to the sorcery that kept it hidden and the realization that it shielded the entire cavern from Naruto's overbearing energy. Behind him, Ino continued to defend Naruto, asking the old Sage if there was another way to overcome the consequence of having used his demon energy.

"The kyūbi came to be from power, earthly strength, but the rule of nature dictates that every power must have its drawback. For the tenryū, it is their inability to maintain control without a gyoku to use as a medium. For the sage, we are physically weak. For the kyūbi, it's their demon's hunger for power." Jiraiya paused. "I warned Naruto against accessing his demon energy, but I knew this day would come."

It should have been clear for her to see that like the disadvantages of the tenryū and the sage, nothing could be done to fix them, but Ino's belief in finding a remedy remained.

"I have seen him devour Otherworld," Sasuke offered, his voice as distant as his mind.

"You saw it because it can be changed," said Ino. "You would not have otherwise. We have an advantage."

Sasuke bristled. "Whatever you think you know about what I see is ill informed. Not everything can be changed."

"He sees what will happen," Jiraiya said. "His visions mostly serve as a warning to dangers that need to be avoided. It isn't always a warning of what might come to be."

Ino's shoulders slumped forward in her resignation.

As a silence begun to settle, the inugami appeared by the fire and drew their attention to herself, revealing to them the worst of news when she said, "Uzumaki has already taken Kikushita."

"Where?" asked Jiraiya, standing.

"To the Tenryū Tower."

Jiraiya was grim. His eyes went to Sasuke, then to the ground as his mind begun to work out a plan.

Even if Naruto had Hatsue, Sasuke did not doubt she would choose to run. She had a finely tuned instinct, better than his. He had only noticed a difference in Naruto's energy because he had seen it in her expression—that of something unknown. She would have fled had she the opportunity, but she had been weakened.

Hatsue feared Naruto and it had been with good reason.

"I am going to find her," Sasuke decided. "I can separate her from him."

"No," Jiraiya said. "There is another way you can help us without putting yourself at risk. You are a tenryū as well."

It was because he was Hatsue's pair that his life would not be in danger. He could not be killed at the risk of Hatsue dying, too.

"I will take care of separating Naruto from Kikushita," Jiraiya said, looking to the inugami. He turned back to Sasuke and Ino. "The mizuchi forced Naruto's hand for a reason, whatever it is we need to assume that we might not be powerful enough to stop it without the two of you together."

"You mean to pit us against Naruto?" Sasuke deduced, incredulous.

"I created the seal that limited his use of demon energy," Jiraiya said, "if there is even a hint of it present in his body, there is a possibility I might be able to reconstruct and fortify it. To do so, however, I am going to need you and Hatsue to distract him. You two are perhaps the only ones strong enough to stand against him."


( Part III )


Naruto knew Nagato was playing him. Sasuke didn't have a gyoku, not in this world (as he would have sensed it), perhaps not even in Otherworld. The truth of the matter was that the leaders made it clear that they think a kyūbi finding his mate among the tenryū unacceptable because that meant the possibility of more tenryū within their offspring. They were under the impression that the world was not built to support their kind and that that was the reason they had gone extinct shortly after arriving, though none perceived they would have survived long enough to start their respective bloodlines.

It was kind of Nagato to try to give him something to strive for, despite it being impossible.

However, even though he gave his master his word on the matter, Naruto went to see Hatsue the day she returned to her family. He did not approach her grandmother's house—though he was certain the older woman had seen him through the kitchen window—and stood across the street when her mother's car pulled up. Hatsue exited after her youngest sister, a quiet teenager with brown eyes, and stared wondrously at her grandmother's home before her mother came up beside her, taking her by the arm with a smile.

Hatsue was ushered onto the porch where her father waited to pull her into an embrace. And all of her family welcomed her back. It seemed normal enough until her grandmother asked her about living abroad.

Naruto peered into her mind and found it scrambled, full of doctored memories of a trip overseas. He wondered if changing her memories was enough to stop her from being a tenryū. Disillusioned, he decided to leave, not wanting to have to see the leaders over disobeying their orders. Not this soon.

Whether they liked it or not, he would find his way to Hatsue again. Even if her brain was scrambled.

"You never learn."

Naruto jerked around at the sound of the familiar voice and found himself staring at a silver-haired man standing in the middle of the sidewalk writing into a black book. He wore a scarf hiked up to his nose, covering the bottom half of his face.

"I wanted to see that she was all right," Naruto stated.

"You are violating the terms we set for you," the man reminded.

Naruto grimaced, folding his arms over his chest. "Are you following me now?"

"We are respecting your privacy, but if this continues, we will have someone tailing you," he warned. "No means no, Uzumaki, so make it stick."

The silver-haired man shut his book and pocketed it. "She does seem harmless," he said, stepping forward. "It is a shame, but the organization will find you a mate if you want to settle down that badly."

"There are rules even you cannot break, Kakashi," Naruto challenged. "Hatsue is my mate. The only one that can be my mate."

"Yes, but even I have not tried."

Kakashi disappeared with the next gust of wind, leaving him irritated. That definitely sounded like a threat.


Hatsue woke in a bed of furs, feathery soft against her skin, and sat up suddenly alert of her strange surroundings. The walls were white stone, the ceilings high and abysmally shadowed with four pillars encasing her within a veil of stars, glinting things sewn to the see-through fabric that fell in crisscrossing layers trimmed with gold dust around the bed. Beyond the veil, there were shadows and an absence of sound that unnerved her, but the room, despite its gloominess, came alive with his presence.

Naruto was lying on his side a few inches away, curled into himself as he slept soundly. She hovered above him, holding a hand near his face and felt the heat radiating from his skin seep into her palm. If she touched him, their broken bond would send a painful current between them to symbolize their refusal for one another. But she felt tempted to feel his skin warm underneath hers and willing to fight through the pain to see it happen.

She turned fully at the slightest hint of sound and noticed Kabuto's presence in the room. She left Naruto's side and passed through the veil, stepping towards the silver-haired doctor. She saw him raise a hand to the invisible force shielding the area around the bed, but jerked away when the barrier burned him. He smiled at her.

"Even in sleep, he is guarded," said Kabuto, looking past her to the covered bed.

Hatsue shuddered at the feel of his ambition. This was one of the few times she was able to absorb his emotions into her. "What did you do to him?"

"I did nothing," he answered. "This, he did to himself. Kyūbi are made aware of their special circumstances from the minute they are able to understand the gravity, he bent his will to the demon energy inside him of his own volition. He required little provocation."

Kabuto grinned as he stared at the wounds of his hand heal.

"That is why you took me from Tsunade?" Hatsue reached out to grab him, surprised that the barrier did not obstruct her from doing so, and held him by the collar of his button down shirt. Fueled with fury, she demanded, "Why?"

Kabuto reached for her wrist.

"Don't touch her."

Naruto's voice filled the room, loud and serious.

Kabuto stopped.

"Hatsue."

The firmness in his tone when speaking to her made the small hairs on the back of her neck rise, but she did not allow it or the feel of his invading presence push her into obeying.

"Whatever you are trying to accomplish, stop," she whispered, dropping her hold on him. She decided she would not let him have Naruto. She couldn't.

"Hatsue!" Naruto called loudly, sitting up.

"Shut up," she hissed, irritated by the stab of his own annoyance. She moved away from Kabuto, returning to the center of the room as Naruto emerged from underneath the veil.

"Where are they?" Naruto asked, sparing Hatsue a disapproving look.

"An old Sage appeared," Kabuto offered in explanation. "There are others trapped inside Otherworld."

"Find them."

Kabuto vanished.

Naruto turned.

"What do you want with them?" she asked, suspicious.

"I want to help them go back."

"Sasuke and Ino can find a way out without your help."

Naruto smiled, going to her. "Hatsue, I can hear your thoughts. I know what you think. I'm not trying to hurt them."

Hatsue backed off instinctively. "Leave them or I will run."

"I won't chase them," he assured, taking both her hands in his. A little pain shot up the length of her arms at their touch. "I promise."

He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. She flinched.

Naruto stared down at her good humoredly before pulling her chin up to press his mouth onto hers, though their lips did not meet because she turned her face away.

"You are still afraid," he whispered. "I can feel it."

Hatsue could not stop herself from feeling afraid, it was instinctual, but she hated the idea of running. She did not want to run anymore. She wanted to be with him.

She lifted her eyes to meet his face, but they wandered to his mouth and exposed her desire more blatantly than her thoughts. He tried again to kiss her, but she moved away, unwilling to give into her own desire.

"I need you to be my mate again," he said lowly, his confession quickened her heartbeat. "I need you to be mine again."

She unconsciously moved until her back hit a pillar and he trapped her. She did not want to risk losing control of herself in the throes of passion, but his want of her slithered through her pores in small, arousing doses that made her question her refusal. She did it because instinct exerted its control over her, but her demon gifts were working against her. The ability to feel emotions was a curse for her at that time because she could not tell where her own desires began or where his ended. Everything mingled inside of her like a slow burning fire. In one word: temptation.

And Hatsue was sorely tempted.

Naruto wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him. Staring startled into his blue eyes, she understood clearly.

She could not resist him. She simply would not.

Hatsue wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him to her. First, they shared a chaste kiss, a small, delicate action—a teasing of the nerve endings on the lips and a promise for love in its lingering. He stared at her the same as he had in the Sage Forest with eyes full of emotion and she was moved by the feelings that reached her, warm and embracing. He moved only to reach for her hand to guide her onto the bed of furs behind her and she stumbled onto it, anxious that things would escalate further.

She sat up and he plopped down beside her, reaching to brush his thumb across her lower lip. "I just want to kiss you," he assured, his word rang with truth that eased her nervousness. "Nothing more. Promise."

She nodded. He kissed her slowly as he slid his hand to cradle her neck. He parted her lips and delved his tongue inside her mouth, stroking hers. His fingers twined into her dark hair, twisting it carefully between each until several locks were wound tight in his grasp as his tongue distracted her from the dull ache his hold created. He slanted his lips against hers, deepening their kiss, and made her skin flush.

Naruto released his hold on her hair and gently brushed his fingers along her neck. Her body shuddered involuntarily, his ghostly touch left a train of scorching heat that made her crazed. She imagined herself pushing him to the bed and straddling him, grinding her hips against his. She wanted to tear the clothes off him and touch his body directly, but she resisted the urge. She kept her hands on the bed, fisted into the furs that covered it.

Hatsue felt him smile against her lips before he pulled back, resting his forehead against her. They both inhaled simultaneously as she stared into his eyes and he looked into hers. It was too easy to forget her inner nagging. She wondered who wouldn't when they were kissed like that? Like you were the only person in the world for them? Who? She wanted a name because hers had been crossed off the moment his tongue was in her mouth.

"You really like to be kissed, don't you?" he teased.

"How are you in my head?" she complained, embarrassed. "You could never read my thoughts so clearly before, why can you now?"

"You haven't healed completely so your resistant isn't too high," he admitted. "I'm taking advantage while I can." He took her hand into his. "You should be completely healed in another day."

"Can you tell?" she asked, unable to do so herself. She knew the chemicals Kabuto injected into her bloodstream were still present and were a little obstructive, but it didn't make her feel uncomfortable.

Naruto nodded. "I can see it."

"You are reading my face, too, aren't you?" she deadpanned.

With a wide smile, he inclined his head.

She covered her face with a whine.

"Oh, I want to show you something," he said, tugging at her by the hand as he left the bed.

Hatsue stumbled out, ambling behind him as she tried to match his longer strides, and found her mind absent of fearful thoughts and worries. She allowed him to pull her out of the large room and guide her onto a cylindrical chamber that shot up, covered in a long staircase that wrapped around its white walls. It was colder there and their voices bounced off the walls.

Naruto looked over his shoulder to her with a grin. "Ready?"

"All these stairs?" she asked breathlessly, eyes following the winding staircase high above her head where they disappeared into a shroud. "All of them?"

"To the top," he told her, and pulled her along as he began his ascent.

Hatsue climbed after him curiously, skipping two steps at a time to keep up with him.

Together they walked up several stairs; although, there came many instances that she was certain they were endless, they eventually ended. She suffered aches in her legs the further she had climbed along with a new invasive feeling of nostalgia that made her exhaustion bearable. He took her to a pair of doors and freed her hand to push them apart.

A gust of wind came at her swiftly, making her bring her arms up to shield her face from the powerful gale. She heard it howling down the length of the staircases they had finished climbing.

"Look."

Hatsue moved forward, letting her arms fall back to her sides. Her mouth opened, but no words came out. She was dazzled by the sight of the clouds sitting close enough to touch sprouting tower-like structures of white enamel that drove straight into the heavens.

"The Tenryū City is higher up," Naruto explained, walking on ahead before he paused to offer a hand. "Let's go?"

She set her hand atop his, her heart pounding with excitement, but when he pulled to guide her, she did not move. She forced him to turn around.

"Hatsue?"

She hesitated. Conflicted, she questioned her actions only to be reminded that she needed to stay.

"Are you still afraid?" Naruto asked, tilting his head as he stared down at her face.

"Yes," she admitted. "I'm terrified. And I won't stop being afraid. Not even when you cannot read my mind, not when you are certain I'm not anymore. I'm going to be scared. Of you, of this world, of whatever you want to do with it and with me." She breathed deeply. "Nothing you do will take the fear away from me, but neither fear nor instinct will keep me from you. I love you and I will follow you wherever you choose to go."

Naruto's lips twisted into a smirk as he took her by the chin, keeping her green eyes focused on his. Her heart seized. "You should have probably listened to that instinct of yours."

Hatsue stiffened when he leaned forward to wrap his arms around her and rest his chin on her shoulder. She swallowed thickly, her throat dry.

"I'm happy you are choosing to stay," he said, his mouth against her skin. The change in tenor sent chills down her spine. "Even if you ran, I would find you. Even if you refused me, I would make you mine. I think you already know that." He squeezed her tightly and her bones creaked in complaint. She shuddered, exhaling audibly. "I can hear them. I won't let them take you from me."

Like being trapped in a web, struggling futilely and praying the spider never came; Hatsue closed her eyes as she quietly slid her arms around his body. With that breath she let free, she resigned herself to him completely.

Even if he ate her whole, she would not run.

Sliding his fingers through her hair, he kissed her shoulder. "I love you, Hatsue. More than you know."

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( ...to be continued... )