Iruka sat back in his chair.
His room was across the hall from Naruto's and he knew Naruto and Sasuke were both fast asleep, the two of them utterly and justifiably exhausted.
Jesus, he thought; I almost dropped the ball there. They almost died. Naruto, his charge, almost died.
Night was too dark. Even with his bedside lamp on, the shadows seemed aggressive. There were times in a man's life when he needed sunshine, and sunshine badly, and that time was now.
He was aware of the ghost's presence before he could see it. The temperature in the room dropped several degrees. He could barely make out the dark shape standing in his doorframe.
He heard the creak of a door, comically large and drawn-out, then heavy, deliberate doorsteps, then the mock-howl of a wolf from the dark figure standing in his doorframe. The temperature in the room dropped several degrees.
"It's close to midnight," the ghost said.
"Haven't you done enough?" Iruka asked.
"Well," Orochimaru said. "You did blow up my house. Or-- rather, my house blew itself up. It's all rather complicated, but it was definitely because of your ungrateful and selfish ward. There. I said it."
"So now what? You'll leave us alone?"
"Do you ever pine for the old days there, Iruka? Back when you and Kakashi were intrepid paranormal investigators foiling my every evil plan?"
"That had to end."
"Why?"
"Well, that wasn't real life. You can't pay the bills hunting down werewolves and kelpies. And banishing changeling every second weekend isn't a hobby that helps the dating scene."
"What're you going to do about Sasuke?"
"Why, now that we know he's got a demon inside him."
"Exactly. There ain't no second chance against the thing with forty eyes, girl."
"Stop that."
"So-- why a social worker?"
"Why a weird ghost ho invites teenage boys home. Goddammit, Orochimaru, I thought you'd died for good."
"Sorry to disappoint."
"I need to sleep, O. I've had my quota filled tonight for dealing with the specter of my old nemesis."
"Tell Naruto it was a good match."
"Why is everything a game with you?"
"Because everything is a game, Iruka."
The lights flickered and Orochimaru was gone. Iruka sighed and lay back in his bed. He fell asleep. At least, he thought; at least we managed to save everyone.
ooo
The spirit-world was cold and featureless. Sasori sat up, looked across its mist-shrouded hills. "Huh."
He glanced back at Deidara and Kabuto, who both sat up and looked around surprised.
"Where are we?" Deidara asked.
"Fuck if I know," Sasori said.
There was someone coming, approaching them through the mist. It was Kabuto who recognized him first. "Gaara?"
Gaara stared at them for a moment, and then smiled. "Hey, faggots."
YOUR SHADOW EYES: FINAL EPISODE
PART ONE
Haku sat on a stool in his boudoir, running a brush through his hair, staring at his reflection in the mirror. There was a tiny contraption crawling across his desk on spindly little legs, a little metal spider. It scuttled over the fine wood, up the side of the mirror's frame, and positioned itself so its little lens could look at Haku.
"What makes you think you can succeed?" it said, in a little robotic voice.
"Because I have patience," Haku said, setting the brush down beside him. "I've waited years in this body, haven't I? The teenage boy." He smirked. "Zabuza and Mizuki failed because they were impatient. They didn't know how to sit down somewhere and wait."
"The shadow-masters don't share your virtues, Haku. They're growing restless. They're the impatient ones."
"And Zabuza and Mizuki are the banished ones." He stood up, went to the window, and sat down next to it, staring out. "I won't be banished. That's another difference between me and them."
"And you'll deliver Naruto?"
"In my own way."
He glanced back at the metal spider. His smile was beautiful. Everything about Haku was pristine and beautiful. "In my own way."
ooo
The city had been growing for some time now, an indefinable, but inextricable menace to the south, and it had appeared that it had grown enough to warrant a tiny bus station to be built in the middle of the town. The bus only came through three times a day, but it represented something that the townspeople generally resented: soon the city would come and swallow up their leaf-strewn roads, and where creaky old houses once stood proud, the city would erect the series of identical, Lovecraftian clone-homes that suburbs loved so much.
To the teenagers of the town, this meant sudden access to the neon-soaked concrete of the city an hour and a half away. The bus would take them into the Arid Pastures, an industrial zone, where they would wait for a train in a station made of iron spider-work. Below them were factories, and small garage-like low-rent businesses, mechanics, and art studios.
The train would arrive like a bullet and take them into the downtown core.
Sasuke had taken to wearing dark hats, and today as he sat on the train, rocking from side to side, he had chosen a charcoal fedora. He stared out the window, arms folded. He had taken to smoking again, which Naruto hadn't liked.
Sai was wearing fake-marmet fur around a black business dress. He went from one side of the train to the other, peering out. "You're going to love this guys," he was saying. "You're really going to love this. This guy is the best."
"Which guy?" Sakura asked, looking up from the arms of her boyfriend, who was so French, that only Sakura, who spoke a smattering of it, could communicate to him. Naruto didn't even know his name.
"The guy we're going to see?" Naruto said. "Sai's friend? The musician."
"You'll like his stuff, I think," Sai said. "Really, uh-- he's really post-punk, I think. Sort of a cross between post-punk and-- well, he's really influenced by the Manchester scene. Think the Cure crossed with New Order."
"Do I want to?" Sasuke said.
"Where's Ino?" Naruto said. "I haven't seen her for, like, three days now."
"No idea," Sakura said. "I've barely talked to her too."
ooo
The city at night: a bright blaze of colour and noise. As Naruto walked along the sidewalk next to his boyfriend, arm in arm, he could hear bits and pieces of the evening snatch at him: jazz over here, the sound of the river over there, couples dining above them in the second floor of a restaurant, cars driving past.
"I want to live here some day, I think," he said.
"In the city?" Sasuke said.
"In a city, I suppose. In some gorgeous flat somewhere." Where the two of us could live, but of course they couldn't say things like that, not at that point in their relationship.
Behind them, the bizarre arc of Sai and Sakura's conversations played out. Sakura was adrift between the lines of Sai's passionate monologues: he would talk at length about whatever was at hand -- Marilyn Monroe, old movies, German Expressionism -- and Sakura would listen blankly. How much she took in was constantly a mystery with her.
There was a chill in the air. Naruto tugged his spring jacket around him as they turned the corner. Soon they'd have to switch the weighty bulk of coats. He'd always despised wearing coats, hated the weight of them, felt like they slowed him down.
"Midterms're coming up soon," Sakura said.
"Christmas vacation," Sai said rapturously.
Naruto, of course, didn't react to this. He'd never had a family to spend his Christmases with. He remembered Sasuke -- he had always been in the same predicament, hadn't he? Naruto squeezed his lover's hand tighter.
ooo
Inside the club, there were lights flashing, and black-lit neon glowing along the wall. A lot of the dancers were in black. Sai screamed when the band came on the stage. "Rock Lee! You roooock!"
The young man holding the bass guitar turned his perfectly round eyes towards the crowd, searching for his vocal hand, saw Sai, and waved.
There was a lot of synth in the music they were playing. Naruto hung around the back, next to Sasuke, who was searching his coat for a lighter.
"You're not going to light up here, are you?" he asked.
Sasuke looked up, surprised. He realized he already had a cigarette between his fingers.
"It's illegal, you know," Naruto said. "No smoking."
"Maybe I'll duck outside quickly then."
Naruto felt his heart drop a little. "Oh. All right then."
"Are you all right?"
"What?"
Sasuke glared at the musicians for a moment, and then said, louder, "Are you all right?"
"I don't--"
But Naruto said nothing. They'd already talked about this. Sasuke had said it was a way of keeping his mind off of recent events, off of their fight, and of the demon lurking inside him.
"Nothing," Naruto said.
Sasuke stared at him for a moment, then put the cigarette back down.
After the band's set, Sai came up to them and told them that Rock Lee had invited them back to a party.
"Oh, a party," Naruto said, grinning at Sasuke. "With alcohol? I feel so mature and old."
"Rock says there will be some people from our school there," Sai said. He shifted gears, tried to cover up his enthusiasm. "Just thought it could be fun."
Sakura appeared next to them, looking out of breath. "We-- we should start a band--"
Sasuke blinked at her. "Can you play an instrument?"
"No, but-- you know."
ooo
"What's going to happen with us, Naruto?"
Sasuke was sitting on his balcony. It was midnight, and Naruto thought maybe Sasuke had had a nightmare, sitting there in the middle of the night, cross-legged and naked.
"What--?" Naruto said. "Are you all right?"
"Just--" Sasuke looked out into the night. "I think -- I just think I'm scared."
"Why?"
"I almost lost you, I think. I did, didn't I? I lost you and I almost-- I was trying to kill you back there, Naruto."
"It was just the moment, Sasuke. It wasn't you."
"Yeah. Yeah I guess not."
Naruto smiled, and Sasuke looked up at him. The room always seemed to brighten when Naruto smiled. Sasuke looked away, feeling his heart inside him, a little lump of leaden ice.
He stuck the cigarette in between his lips.
"Are you--" he heard Naruto ask. "Are you smoking?"
The flicker of a flame, and the burning of vegetation. Sasuke stood up, took a long drag and walked out towards the balcony. There was a full moon above tonight, and it was huge, bathing his house in blue light.
There was something Itachi had said to him once, a long time ago.
"You don't deserve to be happy."
Sasuke let the cigarette drop a little, let smoke coil out of his mouth. He glanced back at Naruto, who looked beautiful in the bed, staring at him. "Naruto--" he said.
"What?"
But he didn't say anything. Even as he was about to say it, he couldn't. He sounded too-- melodramatic, maybe? He couldn't say it. Still-- he had lost everyone he'd ever loved. And he was starting to wonder if there was a correlation. If he loved Naruto, would he lose Naruto too?
"Nothing," he said. "Let's go back to sleep."
"Are you coming back to bed."
"After I--" He paused, looked back at the balcony. "After I finish this cigarette."