The storm had passed by the morning, leaving the town blanketed with snow. Sunlight came next, shining down on the little train station that stood on the outskirts of town.

The train was shuddering away, compressing the air in front of it and blasting the snow out through the sunlight, spiraling into Sasuke's face. He grimaced, squinting, watching the train rattle out away from the platform. He could see Iruka, retreating, his face looking out from one of the windows, looking back at them.

"Thank god," Naruto said, waving and craning his head out to watch the train. "I swear, Iruka has never taken a vacation in his life. He'd better enjoy this."

"Some people live and breathe work," Sasuke said, brushing the snow off his coat.

Naruto looked back at him with an amused smile, and Sasuke tried to ignore it.

Only a mother and her small daughter had stepped off the train when it arrived, and they were wandering off up the cold stone steps towards the exit. Naruto watched them leave. He glanced back at Sasuke.

"For a second," Sasuke said, "I thought Iruka wasn't going to go."

Naruto threw back his head dramatically and slumped. "Tell me about it," he sighed. He straightened up, grinning. "I swear, you and I were gonna haveta shove him in, Kakashi pullin' on his arms."

Kakashi had stood by the train, eyes smiling, snow whirling about his tweed coat, watching Iruka rattle nervously at Naruto: "Now, we're only going to be gone for two week. Emergency numbers are on the fridge. Emergency cash is in an envelope just inside the freezer-"

"I'll be fine, Iruka," Naruto had said, laughing. "I mean, I made it this far; I think I can survive a couple more weeks by myself, at least."

Of course, that only made Iruka more nervous, but Kakashi had managed to bundle him onto the train anyways.

Now alone on the train platform, with the snow fluttering through the sunlight, Naruto entwined his fingers with Sasuke's and pressed him back against the cold wall. Their noses touching, Naruto said, "Two weeks with the house to ourselves."

"You just know something will happen," Sasuke said.

"Don't I know it." Naruto pinchedim in the side. "I'm a recipe for trouble."

Sasuke stared into his eyes, and then smirked, despite himself. Around them, the snow whirled, and swung upwards into the sky, over the town.

It swept upwards over the yards and houses, and came down, lingerinh intently over the hair of Temari, who stood outside the town hospital, fidgeting over her cigarette.

She watched the ash dwindle down, and then she flicked the butt onto the road. Squashing it carefully, she turned and made her way into the hospital, through emerg, into one of the care wards, where Kankuro and Kabuto were seated.

The care wards were colour coded; the walls and shelves were lime, and even the blankets were a light green. The sunlight was shining here too, streaming through the window. It touched, lightly, the sleeping form of Gaara, slumped in the hospital bed, bandaged and beat-up.

"Any change?" Temari asked, walking in.

Without looking up, Kankuro shook his head.

Temari nodded. There was a kind of symmetry here: Gaara had originally vanished under the eye of Naruto and Sasuke, and they were the ones who had brought him out of the catacombs beneath the snowy fields just out of town. Gaara the bully. Gaara her psychotic brother.

Temari sat down next to Kankuro, and let out all her breath.

Beside her, Kabuto said, "I'm going to leave."

Temari looked up, surprised. Kabuto looked tired, staring at the ground, bags under his eyes, a pale, pinched look to his face. She wondered how tired she looked.

She smiled a thin, wan smile. "I told you you didn't have to stay, man. You were up, like, all night with me, after all."

They'd searched practically the whole town for Kankuro, and eventually found him at the train station, seated, head in his hands, half frozen.

"No," Kabuto replied. "No, I mean, I think I'm going to leave town. Go somewhere else."

"Where?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. I just feel like there's nothing left for me here. I need some time to think."

A knock on the door. Temari looked up and saw, to her surprise, Ino, standing in the doorway, looking concerned.

"Ino," Temari said. "What're you doing here?"

She shrugged, and replied, "Here with a friend. Thought I'd pop by." She gestured to Gaara. "Where'd they find him?"

"God, I don't know," Temari said, looking away. "There were caves or something under those fields out by the bridge. Naruto and Sasuke found him."

"Mam," Ino said, shaking her head. "Weird shit just happen around them, huh?"

"Tell me about it," Kankuro said, staring at the floor.

Ino and Temari chatted a little, and Gaara stayed unconscious for all of it. Finally, Ino left them, and went down to the emergency wards, where Sasori sat on the edge of his bed. He flinched when he saw her.

"Hey, lady," Shikamaru said, from where he was standing, leaning against the wall. "What's the news?"

"My insurance?" she said. "Likely to come through!" She jumped happily into the air. "Police report said the car spun out on the snow. Whole thing's a write-off, of course. How's Deidara?"

"Doctor just talked to us," Shikamaru said. "You'll have to guess what he said, though. You won't believe it."

"Alive and well?" Ino said. "Without a scratch on him?"

He laughed. "You're actually pretty close, believe it or not. He's been moved to the burn ward. They're just minor, though. Looks like his clay bird blew up far enough away from him, and the blast hit him before the heat did."

Sasori shook his head in wonder. "Threw 'em clear," he said, staring into space.

Shikamaru nodded. "Kid's got a pretty bad concussion though." He stood up straighter. "Oh yeah! You almost missed it."

Ino leaned against the doorframe, smirking. "Yeah? What did I almost miss?"

"Shikamaru..." Sasori said unhappily.

Shikamaru gestured to him. "Sasori was about to apologize to me. To us, in fact."

"Really," Ino said. "Just an apology?"

"It's not much, but what else does he have?"

"Okay, okay," Sasori said. "I'm sorry we attacked you. We got the order from Miss Tsunade, and then Jugo went nuts, and I guess we were caught up in the moment-Ow!"

Shikamaru had smacked him upside the head.

"What was that for?" Sasori asked, cringing.

"Sorry, I was just caught up in the moment."

"Geez," Sasori muttered, rubbing his head.

Shikamaru stood up and grabbed his jacket. To Ino, he said, "Ready to go?"

She sighed. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"What?" Sasori asked. "Where are you going? What about us?"

"What about you?" Shikamaru asked. "I don't work for Atkatsuki any more, remember?"

"So what do we do?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "You guys are in charge now. You'll have to figure it out."

"What?" Sasori said, but Shikamaru and Ino were already walking away, into the emergency ward, and out into the sunlight.

"It's stopped snowing," Ino said, looking about.

"You know," Shikamaru said, staring off at the sky. "I don't know what I'm going to do now. At all."

"Yeah, you were always dumb that way."

"Dumb what way?"

Ino smirked at him, and then leaned forward and said, "There are more ways to help save the world than carrying around a sword, jerk."

"Name one."

"How about I name dozens? Charity organizations, good journalism, feminism, environmental initiatives, politics, shelters, watchdog orgs, activism-give me a bit and I'll name a few more."

Shikamaru grimaced. "None of those fix the world's problems."

"Yes, Shikamaru, there is no quick fix." She looked away, smiling. "But it's up to us to do what we can.-There's the bus!"

The town's lone public transit, a small white shuttlebus, had pulled up to the curb. Shikamaru watched Ino bounce away towards it. He was about to follow, but looked up and saw something.

He was looking across the way and thought he saw two figures walking down the sidewalk, a blonde boy in an orange down jacket and another boy in an elegantly slender black coat. The blonde boy was running ahead, animatedly talking about something, turning back to shout at the other boy. The boy in black continued walking slowly, a steady precise gait.

Shikamaru had to smile. The two of them seemed bigger than the rest of them, somehow, giants. Two demons, having found each other, holding each other in check.

He turned, and followed Ino, running after her.


Sai was talking: "And then I said, 'Honey, you are a mess. Getchorself togethah.'"

Hinaka was listening, eyes wide. "So what'd she say back?"

Sai waved the air dismissively. "She was already too far away; she didn't hear me. But technically, I had the last word, so-point goes to me."

Sakura heard her house's back door bang open, and she turned, peering through her basement's dim light. Sasuke appeared first, stepping down the stairs, a thin black silhouette. Naruto had a bit more colour, bouncing down in his orange jacket.

"There we go!" she said. "The last thing our band needs: our fans."

"Whoo!" Naruto cried, throwing up his hands.

Sakura plugged her guitar into the amp and looked out at her band-Hinaka standing there, holding a bass guitar nervously, having no idea what she was doing, and Sai, at his Casio.

"What, no drums?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura pointed to a black box lying on the ground. "The part of the drummer will be played by my mom's drum machine. We're be going for a kind of electro, Le Tigre, new wave kind of sound."

"I'm into it," Naruto said. "Hit me with your good vibes."

"Do you guys have any songs yet?" Sasuke said, sitting down in the bean bag chair in the corner.

"Well, sort of," Sakura said, glancing back at Sai. "We've got kind of a-"

"It's a chord progression, really," Sai said.

"And I'm not very good at all," Hinaka added.

"Doesn't matter!" Sakura shouted, laughing. "It's like Kathi Wilcox once said: it doesn't matter if you suck; you should still start a band, because then people can hear you get better."

"That was Kathi Wilcox?" Sai asked. "I thought that it was Molly Neuman."

"Or maybe it was neither!" Sakura said. "Doesn't matter! What matters is that we look into our hearts, find the music there, and change the face of the world with it."

"With our proto-punk nonsense?"

"Exactly!"

Sasuke looked over at Naruto, who was sitting down next to him. He thought about the past night, at his place, after Iruka had taken Gaara to the hospital. There, inside Sasuke's bedroom, Naruto had broken down into tears.

"I'm sorry-" he had said. "I've been stupid. I've been taking stuff out on you, or something-I don't know-"

"My god, no," Sasuke said. "I've been so stupid, too. I just-things have been traumatic for us, that's the best way to describe it-"

Naruto had kissed him then.

Sex with Naruto always felt like Sasuke was discovering something. Naruto had turned, pressing his cheek against the pillow, his mouth open in a little cat-like smile, his eyes closed, as Sasuke pushed into him. Sasuke had gasped, watching the shape of Naruto's nose, sweat beading on his forehead, watching the shape of Naruto's lips. Sasuke leaned forward, pressing his own face into the pillow, his breath hot against Naruto's neck. Naruto had reached up then and grabbed hold of Sasuke's head-

Things were going to be okay, Sasuke thought. Trouble followed them; that was sort of the way of things-Orochimaru would be back, maybe, and stronger. Other shadows could be following. Perhaps another vampire would be drawn to the town, or Itachi could crawl back from the ashes.

And there would be the real problems: the end of highschool, college, life. But they were strong, strong enough to weather those-

"Okay, get that drum machine going," Sakura said.

"I'm excited," Naruto said. "Give us a beat we can dance to."

Sasuke laughed.

"If I just play the same bass line over and over again," Hinaka said quietly; "please don't judge me?"

"No judgment here," Sakura said, tuning her guitar. "This is a stress-free set. Except for Sai. We're gonna judge the crap out of Sai."

"Good," Sai said, setting up the drum machine to give out a staccato knicker-knack of a beat. "'Cause I'm flawless."

"Okay," Sakura said, into her little microphone. "We're gonna give you a bit of a jam sesh today."

"Whoo!" Naruto shouted.

"Ready," Hinaka said.

"Ready," Sai said.

"Cool beans," Sakura said. "Okay, this is our first song. It's called, 'Your Shadow Eyes'."

They began to play.


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