A/N: To thank you for your patience while enduring my long absence, here's another chapter. With any luck, I won't be away nearly as long, especially since I have another story, Snow in the Spring, that I just started.
Disclaimer: *grumbles* Nothing, okay? I own nothing! Except these crazy ideas that pop into my head.
Kiba sank to his knees on the sidewalk in disbelief. The early afternoon sky was lit up like a night time festival. Wondrous displays of birds, bears and snakes writhed in the air before dissipating into smoke. People were stopping and pointing at the colorful explosion in awe, but none of them seemed to notice that the center of the park was on fire.
"Naruto," Kiba whispered weakly. "Red. Shit." His right hip buzzed; he ignored it, attributing it to the fireworks shooting off into the atmosphere and shaking the ground, until he noticed that the vibrations did not stop. Fumbling, he slipped his fingers underneath his shirt to touch his belt, withdrew the slender phone from its carrying case, and dazedly answered the call.
"Kiba? Kiba. What happened?" Sai inquired. "What was that noise?"
"Naruto..." Kiba choked. "That was Naruto."
"WHAT?" he heard Shikamaru snap. A rustling sound came over the line, and then Shikamaru's voice boomed through the speaker. "Kiba! What the hell is going on?"
"The park," Kiba answered. "The park is on fire."
Naruto coughed and wheezed. The smoke that surrounded him burned his lungs; the heat felt as if it was boiling his blood. His vision was blurry and his eyes stung. Vaguely, he knew that something bad had happened, but he could not think what. Why was he laying on ..grass? And were those trees?
"The park," he rasped. He swallowed, painfully, and attempted to wet his lips. "I'm in the park. Gaara. Gaara was in the park. Shit! Gaara! GAARA!" A coughing fit wracked his body and he thumped himself on the chest to make it stop. Shaking, he turned himself over and raised himself up on his knees. Through his rapidly drying eyes, he searched left and right, looking for a sign of his boyfriend.
"Gaara!" he called as loud as he could. "GAARA!"
"My art is explosive, yeah!" a familiar voice rang out. Naruto swung his head in that direction and scowled.
"Where is my Gaara?" he demanded of the blond bomber.
Deidara's eyebrow rose. "Your Gaara? Is there something we should know, un? Last time we checked, Shukaku owned him. You, my friend, were just borrowing him, yeah."
"Where is he?" Naruto demanded hoarsely. "What have you done to him?"
Deidara chuckled. "I like you, so I'll tell you. We're taking him home to Suna. Shukaku has a special reward for him for being such a good boy." The blond's words dripped with sarcasm and Naruto felt a bad feeling settle in the pit of his stomach. "Be careful, un. Next time, we'll come for you."
"I won't let you take him!" Naruto growled weakly. A flash of red sent him scrambling through the smoke, calling the name of his missing lover. "Gaara! Gaara! Unf!" A kick to his side sent him sprawling to the ground. Undeterred, he rose up on all fours and crawled to Gaara's body.
The red head was flat on his back, eyes staring at nothing. His chest rose and fell so slowly that Naruto assumed he was imaging it. "Gaara, stay with me. Gaara!" he cried, lowering his aching form to the other man's.
A snort sliced through the gloomy, smoky air. "This is sickening," Sasori spat. "Get rid of him."
"I won't let you have him!" came the muffled response.
Sasori tilted his head in Kisame's direction. The big man used his foot to pry Naruto away from Gaara. Once they were separated, Kisame hefted Gaara into the air and tossed the unconscious man over his shoulder. He shifted once to adjust to the extra weight, then started a slow jog toward the back entrance of the park.
Naruto groaned; he could hear sirens in the distance, and knew that the emergency workers and police were likely on their way to the scene. "Give Gaara back," he whispered weakly. Something smashed into his face, snapping his head back with the force of the blow. He cried out as the sky dimmed and the last thing he heard was Itachi's voice, telling him to "sleep tight, little demon."
Bright lights and anxious whispers penetrated Naruto's clouded senses. He furrowed his brow in confusion. Was he dead? He did not remember the park's grass feeling this soft. His frown deepened. Park?
"He's waking up!"
"I am so pleased, my friends!" someone sobbed.
"You're too loud, you idiots!" an irritated female snapped.
"You all are annoying," came a lazy drawl that was pinched with concern.
"If Naruto is indeed awakening, why do you all sound so concerned? Should his awakening not be an occasion of happiness?"
"Sleep tight, little demon."
"Next time, we'll come for you."
"GAARA!" Naruto roared as he threw his body into a sitting position. Pain punched him in the gut, and he fell back onto the bed, panting and sweating.
"Calm down, you fool!" Ino shouted as she rushed to restrain him.
"Gaara," he choked. "They took him. They took Gaara!"
His friends exchanged a series of looks and pained glances, conducting a silent conversation without including the injured man. Naruto flicked his gaze from person to person, frowning when he got to a familiar female.
"Ino?" he asked, confused. "What are you doing here?"
"Taking care of you and Lee, apparently! God, do you even know how worried I was?" She tossed her hair, dislodging her bangs, which immediately slid back into position, hiding half of her face. "You really gave us quite a scare," she said, her voice softening. She raised a trembling hand to his forehead, checking for fever. "How do you feel?"
"How do I feel?" Naruto's voice rumbled from his chest. "They. Took. Gaara. How the fuck do you think I feel?" He squeezed his eyes closed and shuddered. "They took him. I couldn't protect him. I failed again. I'm such a loser." With each utterance, Kiba's hackles rose more and more until he could not stand to silently hear his friend tear himself apart any longer.
"Shut up, you stupid fuck!" Kiba yelled. Naruto's eyes popped open and spread themselves wide. He opened his mouth to protest, but Kiba held up a hand to cut him off. "Save it," the feral man bit out. "I know what you're thinking about. I know who you're thinking about. Save it! This is not the time for it."
"But they took him-"
"So get him back!" Kiba snarled with an air of finality. "Sai has an idea of where they are, and when you're better, we're going after them. They will not get away with this."
Tears filled dull blue eyes, threatening to spill down tanned cheeks. "Kiba," he sniffed.
"Fuck, I need a beer." The brunet slammed out of the room, leaving one weeping blond, one nurse, and three wide-eyed men behind.
"Tsk." Shikamaru stretched his limbs and cracked his neck. "What a pain coming here turned out to be."
"Shika!" Ino complained. "Don't be so mean!"
Ignoring her, the pony-tailed man moved to his friend's bedside and studied him. Warily, Naruto let him think.
Shikamaru Nara was a genius, all appearances to the contrary; his mind was one of the most sought after in the intelligence community. He and Naruto had met in middle school when he had been assigned to tutor the newcomer to Konoha and help bring his poor grades and test scores up to the class average. Even at that young age, the Nara has been working - unofficially - for the city's bumbling government. He advised the adults on numerous things, made many highly illegal back room deals, and saved Konoha, almost single-handed, from collapse when the mayor died in office. Despite his fame, he never put on airs, never worked harder than he had to, and always had a moment to spend with a friend.
Like now.
Shikamaru sighed. He wished for a nicotine fix, but knew that Ino would kill him for smoking in a sick person's room. "Naruto," he stated, getting right to the point. "You've been out for about a day and a half. We'll all leave the room so you can get..situated..," he said, hand flapping vaguely at something hanging from the bed side. With a scowl, Naruto followed the gesture. His eyes widened comically, and he thrust his hand under the sheets to check for himself.
"INNOOOOOO!"
"Well, it's not like you could actually get up and go to the bathroom, you know," she defended her actions. "I am a registered nurse. I know what I'm doing. And it's not like I've never seen you naked before.""Really?" Sai queried, whipping out his ever-present notebook. "Do tell," he insisted."As I was saying," Shikamaru continued, as he pulled on his hair, hoping the stupidity would stop, "you've been out for about a day and a half. When we come back in here, we'll need to know everything you remember. Names, faces, any special weapons, any slips of the tongue. Every piece of information we have means that we can deduce Gaara's location more exactly. Once we have that, we can go retrieve him..or his body." He looked away, bracing for the outburst he was sure would come.
Silence.
Sniffling.
Then a wail.
"You think he's DEAD, don't you? Don't you?"
"Naruto-"
"I couldn't save him!"
"Naruto-"
"I failed hi-"
Angrily, Shikamaru placed a hand around the sobbing blonde's neck and squeezed. "Shut. Up. I don't think he's dead. I hope against hope that he's not dead or in any way injured. What would I tell Temerity, his sister? How would I explain, to my wife, that I let her brother get taken and killed just as I happened to arrive in town to coordinate a sting against the very people who did it?"
The silence in the small room was suffocating.
Calming, the Nara removed his hand, flexed his fingers, and said, to the inquiring gazes, "You heard me right. Sukiyaki is going down..And I'm in charge of pulling the trigger."
Once freshly showered and clothed, Naruto sat weakly at Kiba's kitchen table, spine twitching with the strain of holding him upright. The homeowner in question was seated next to him opening his fourth beer, if the empty bottles were any indication. He sent disturbed glances at Sai, who was next to him. The artist ignored everyone except for Lee, whom he was currently sketching. Lee was on the floor, doing one-armed push-ups and counting loudly. Ino had left after begging the men to call her the moment something happened, happy that they had relied on her instead of Sakura for a change. And Shikamaru, the man who called the meeting of the minds, leaned out of an open window, lit white stick burning between his lips.
"Start talking," he ordered Naruto. "I want to hear it all, beginning with how Gaara came into your life."
It was hot.
It was dark.
His arms were locked painfully above him, and knees and legs were numb from trying to hold him in position.
His chest was tight, his throat was sore, and his mouth was dry.
The scraping sound of metal on stone made him jerk forward, rattling the chains that bound him. Gaara blinked and twisted his face away when a thin, bright light was shone on him.
"Well, hey there, Gaara," a nightmarish voice sneered. "Fancy seeing you here."
Gaara felt a shudder rip through his body. Bile burned in his stomach and bubbled up into his mouth. He retched, feeling the blood pound in his head. His bowels clenched and threatened to loosen. He knew, on some level, that this feeling was "fear."
"Naruto," he managed to rasp, closing his eyes against the ache that one name caused. He dragged a dry chuckle from his seared throat and spat, "Shukaku."
"Welcome home, Sandman."
