Sasuke suddenly found the familiar weight on his back. This time he managed not to fall over backwards. He found himself beside his own body, which was now on the floor in a panicking Naruto's arms. He heard Naruto calling his name over and over, tears welling up in the blue eyes he loved so much. "What did you do?" Sasuke asked Lorde, trying to keep the anger out of his voice. The man sensed his anger, but didn't seem bothered or alarmed by it.
"You are currently in a coma. That means once the problem is solved you will be able to return to your body with no problems." He explained. Sasuke simply watched as Naruto picked him up and dashed out the room. "Do you have any idea how much this is going to hurt Naruto?" he asked angrily. Lorde nodded, "I am aware the distress this will cause to your partner." He agreed. "But once you have helped, this once, it means you will then be able to fully continue with your life." Sasuke simply glared. Lorde had no idea how upset Naruto would be.
The blonde would end up blaming himself, like he always did. Sasuke's mind wandered to when Naruto had been self-harming, but he dismissed it quickly; he would be in a coma, not dead. That way the blonde would still have hope. Sasuke sighed. The quicker he got there and worked out what the problem was, the better. "Alright. What do you need me for?" Sasuke asked quickly.
Lorde nodded, looking very grateful Sasuke was going to co-operate. "I will take you back to the court of angels. I trust you will have no problem remembering how to use your wings?" Sasuke shook his head. He had been a very quick learner last time, so he shouldn't have any problems this time. Lorde nodded again. "Very well," He said, spreading his much larger wings. Sasuke followed.
Lorde had been able to fly much, much faster. Sasuke hurried down the blinding white corridor to find Lorde already sitting at his desk, looking as calm and composed as usual. Sasuke folded his wings back awkwardly and strolled down the corridor waiting at the desk. Lorde didn't look up at Sasuke, or even say anything. "So, what is it?" Sasuke snapped. He heard gasps and whispers about how demanding he was and how 'disrespectful' he was being to 'Lorde-sama.'
Sasuke just rolled his eyes, ignored them, and turned back to the desk. Lorde set the pen on his desk level. Once it had been arranged in a neat line, he looked up at Sasuke, who was now getting very frustrated. "Its Rowan. The problem lies with Rowan." Lorde revealed.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Lorde-sama's beloved Rowan had become a problem this large he called for Sasuke? The raven was intrigued. There was never a rule made by Lorde that Rowan didn't like. The brown haired angel almost craved them. He followed Lorde's orders without question and always had the utmost respect for the elder, so why on earth would he have caused a problem? "What's wrong?" Sasuke asked. A few more mutters sounded throughout the room. Sasuke wished they would shut up, and added a quick, 'Lorde-sama' on the end of his sentence. "Rowan has betrayed us. He has stolen ancient texts from the white library and used their knowledge for his own purposes." Part of Sasuke really didn't care; he believed after everything the other angel had done, how diligently he had served Lorde, he deserved something for himself. "For his own purposes, you mean what?" Sasuke asked.
"I believe he is trying to bring back his dead lover." Lorde replied. Sasuke thought for a moment. "Daniel…" he muttered.
"Not only that, but he has stolen ancient texts that explain how to bring one back to life." Sasuke frowned.
"I thought there wasn't a way, except for you to do it," he said. Rowan himself had said this and seemed completely satisfied that there was no other way when Sasuke had asked. "Rowan is very, very clever. Some of our books are written in languages even I have failed to translate. Rowan, I believe, could manage it. However… anything they would translate would be very dangerous." Sasuke sighed.
"So what do you want me to do? Tell him hard luck, Daniel's dead?"
"Anything. The untranslated books are dark, dark magic indeed. Anything he uses from there… I shudder to think what may happen. You have to stop him. I believe you two shared a connection, so you should help him." Sasuke nodded.
"Where can I find him?" he asked.
"The library." Sasuke frowned at this.
"If he's still here, why can't you stop him?" he asked.
"The things he has been reading… he has powers beyond us, Sasuke. I have denied everyone access to the library. I don't want anyone getting hurt. You are the only one he may listen to." Sasuke was given directions to where Rowan would be. He noticed angels were becoming fewer and fewer as he approached the library.
"Rowan?" Sasuke walked into the library. It was huge. The ceiling was painted beautifully. It featured several angels and they were all circling a larger angel in the middle. There seemed to be no end to the rows of bookshelves. Sasuke found a dark red glow coming from behind a bookcase, so he approached that one. "Rowan?" he called again. The figure looked up.
"Uchiha!" he snarled. Sasuke's eyes were fixed on Rowan's wings. Protruding out were several blood red feathers. The rest of the white ones seemed to have lost their ethereal shine and looked more grey than white. The red glow broke and Rowan slammed the book he was holding shut. Seconds later, it burst into flames. Rowan sneered at him. "Back so soon?" he hissed, his voice filled with venom.
"Wont your pretty little blonde miss you?" Sasuke was completely taken aback; this was a completely different person. Rowan had changed so much since Sasuke had last seen him. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Sasuke asked. Rowan stormed past him. "Nothing I can't fix. He sent you, didn't he? That fucking, interfering, bastard. Well your too late!" Sasuke was shocked.
He felt like grabbing Rowan and shaking him, hard. "W-where are you going?" Sasuke asked, running after Rowan. They went out of the library and Rowan's red glow appeared again. He grabbed another angel who happened to be passing by. She struggled and protested.
Rowan muttered something in a strange language and the angel fell to the floor, her wings bent at a strange angel. Sasuke look down in horror. "What the hell did you do?" he screeched. Rowan pulled out one of his red feathers and smeared with the dying angels blood, murmuring once again in the strange language.
"I'm through with this place." The feather burned up and Rowan disappeared in a red flame. "See you back home, uchiha!" Sasuke frowned. What did he mean by that? He called for help, picking up the woman in his arms. Sasuke knew his job was to help Rowan, so he quickly explained what Rowan had done, and handed the woman to another angel. He hurried back to Lorde.
"Rowan attacked another angel, he stabbed her and then disappeared. He said he would see me back home. What does that mean?" Sasuke asked. "He went away in a red flame, so is he dead?" Lorde frowned.
"No. It appears things have become worse. Blood of the innocent; a typical recipe from one of those books. He may have found a way to come back to life." He explained. Sasuke realized this is what Rowan meant by 'back home'. "Shall I go after him now then?" he asked. Lorde paused, thinking.
"Firstly, I want you to check that Rowan is indeed, alive again. Go and look for him." Sasuke looked at him incredulously. "He could be anywhere!" he exclaimed. Lorde reached in his desk and pulled out a red amulet. It was the exact colour Rowan had been radiating earlier. "This will glow bright when he is near. The deeper the red gets, the closer you are to him." He pushed it across the desk for Sasuke to pick up.
Hesitantly, Lorde reached in the drawer again and pulled out a dagger. The handle looked like it was made from ivory. There were two white wings carved on the end. The dagger looked very sharp and the metal was shiny. It looked like it had never been used. " You must use this before Rowan's wings turn from white to completely red." He explained. Sasuke paled.
"Use? You want me to kill him?"
"Technically, that would be impossible. Rowan is already dead." Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "No, he's not. He's alive again, I know it. That means I would be killing him."
"You will do what you have to. Stop his wings from becoming completely overtaken by red." Lorde said firmly. Sasuke took the dagger.
"It won't come to that." he told Lorde. He put the amulet around his neck and looked distastefully at the dagger. Something about the conversation sounded strange to Sasuke. "Wings? If Rowan has brought himself back to life, he wont have wings will he?" Sasuke asked. Lorde shook his head.
"Without me, it's going to be impossible for him to lose his wings. I gave him his wings so without me he cannot remove them." He explained.
"But, someone is going to notice the wings!" Sasuke said. "He's going to expose everything." Lorde nodded.
"It seems Rowan does not care for the safety rules I have put in place anymore. You must convince him to come back to me, or use the dagger if it is too late. In other words, he is an angel that will be seen by humans." Sasuke gripped the dagger tighter.
"Alright. If I can't fine him, shall I come back here?" Sasuke asked. Lorde nodded, and watched as Sasuke raced out the room in a flurry of feathers.
Naruto hadn't left Sasuke's side since he had been admitted to the hospital. The hokage had been completely baffled by Sasuke's condition. Sasuke seemed completely fine, expect for the fact he just wouldn't wake up. She had told Naruto he wasn't in any life-threatening danger; she just needed to know what caused him to slip into the coma, so she could work out what would bring him back out.
Tsunade saw this as an insult; of all her medical knowledge, she could not explain to the distraught blonde what exactly what wrong with his lover. She rubbed her temples and forced herself not to reach for the bottle of sake. She needed to find the answer, because Naruto wouldn't sleep or leave Sasuke's side until she had found a way to help the raven. She redoubled her efforts and picked up another book.
Naruto couldn't understand what had happened either. One minute, Sasuke had been fine. The next… he couldn't take his eyes off Sasuke. 'I love you, dobe.' That was the last thing Sasuke had said. "It feels like you've never left the hospital, teme. You always have to worry me, don't you?" the blonde complained. "Hurry and wake up Sasuke, there's something I have to tell you," Naruto whispered, running his hand through Sasuke's soft dark hair.
Sasuke had taken a guess and started near Konoha. Much to his surprise, the amulet glowed a weak red. As he approached the village it got a more intense colour which could only mean one thing; Rowan was somewhere in Konoha. He sighed with relief. This wouldn't take long; with the power of flight and the amulet he would be able to locate Rowan and bring him back.
Sasuke felt the amulet pull him forward, like it was being attracted by something. Sasuke followed its lead right in front of the hospital. He frowned; what would Rowan be doing in the hospital? The pull became stronger as he walked by each door and suddenly flew from his hands and smashed against one of the closed doors. Sasuke winced; he had no idea how important that amulet was to Lorde. He pushed that thought out of his head and stared the door. The amulet, to act like that, must have led him right to Rowan.
He tried to push the door open, but ended falling right through it forgetting how different things were when he was a guardian. He stopped himself from falling over and looked in the room. He was very surprised with what he saw. His body was in the hospital bed. Naruto was sat on one side of the bed holding his hand, completely oblivious to Rowan who was glaring at Sasuke's sleeping body. Sasuke wondered why Naruto hadn't seen Rowan, but he soon noticed Naruto had fallen asleep, his head resting gently on Sasuke's chest.
He stared at the blonde sadly, who had tear-tracks on his face. Sasuke's attention quickly went back to Rowan. "You need to come back." Sasuke was first to break the silence. Rowan turned to look at Sasuke, a look of pure hatred on his face. "Like that's gonna happen," he hissed.
Sasuke at least needed to get Rowan away from Naruto. He had seen for himself the strange powers Rowan had obtained and now Rowan was almost halfway alive, he didn't know if Rowans powers could hurt the blonde. Rowan stared at the blonde, yet another grayish feather turning into crimson red. "Can you believe that this boy is the Kyuubi?" Rowan asked in awe, his expression remaining dark.
The raven wondered how Rowan would know that. It was supposed to be a secret that Naruto held the Kyuubi, and Rowan didn't even know the blonde. Sasuke eyed Rowan warily; even his voice seemed to be changing. It somehow seemed darker, more foreboding. Rowan didn't even seem bothered by the dangerous-looking knife Sasuke was holding in clear view. Sasuke looked at he knife, then back a Rowan. Rowan still seemed to have less red feathers than he did white ones, so there would be plenty of time.
Sasuke was thankful he wouldn't have to use the knife. He opened his mouth, but shut it again quickly. He had no idea what to say to Rowan. He didn't want to make things worse, or make him angry. Rowan reached across the bed and touched Naruto on the shoulder. Rowan began drawing the deep red chakra of the Kyuubi from Naruto. It traveled up his arm and gave him a deeper red glow. "Hey, stop that!" Sasuke had no idea what effect that would have on his blonde. Rowan pulled his hand away, still emitting the unhealthy red glow. Naruto simply muttered Sasuke's name and shifted slightly. Sasuke sighed.
He should have known; the Kyuubi was known for its vast amount of chakra. Rowan wouldn't have even touched the blonde's chakra to draw such a small amount in such a short time. Sasuke was pulled out of his thoughts as Rowan jumped through the wall. Sasuke took one last longing glance at the sleeping blonde. "I'll be back," he promised, before spreading his wings and jumping after Rowan.
A/n: I know my chapters always seem to be very short, so hopefully this one is a little better. Once again, thanks for all of you who reviewed and left such wonderful comments!
Whippasnappa x
