And finally things are settling down. Hope you enjoy this next chapter.
When Sasuke arrived back at the Hokage with the unconsciousness Naruto in his arms, he didn't bother taking the stairs, instead floating directly up through the ceiling, down the hallway, and through the door to his room without flinching as he passed through the solid obstacles. In some ways, being a ghost really was very cool, but then again, very not cool at the same, something Sasuke was reminded of when someone walking down the hallway passed through him without ever knowing he had been there.
Inside his room, Sasuke sat down in the air above his bed and gently laid Naruto down. His body hovered several inches over the surface of the comforter, curling up onto itself like a small cat in need of a warm ray of sun. Unthinkingly, Sasuke stretched his hand out to brush a piece of hair away from his brow, and Naruto stirred at the motion. Sasuke froze; he had assumed that Naruto would be out for some time yet, but apparently whatever unconscious stupor he had been in was turning into more of a conscious one.
"Sasuke? Is that you?"
Trailing his hand gently through Naruto's golden hair, Sasuke smiled softly and whispered, "Yeah, it's me."
Immediately, Naruto stiffened, pulling away and hiding his head under the crook of his arms, surprising Sasuke.
"Naruto?" He reached for Naruto's head again, only to have him shy away one more time. "What's wrong?"
Naruto's voice was muffled by his arms, and to Sasuke's surprise, it sounded like he was crying."I screwed everything up, me and my stupid curse! It was my fault those awful ghosts came here, and when everyone else was fighting, when everyone else was protecting me..." His voice broke off in a sharp gasp sob, then came back, stronger than before. "I couldn't do anything! I was useless, I was terrified, I was a coward! Everyone was striving as hard as they could, and all I could do was stand there and watch them do it!"
"Naruto!" Sasuke grabbed the phantom by his shoulders and shook him, forcing his face up so he could see his eyes. "This wasn't your fault! You don't have to feel responsible!"
"Don't I? They were here because of me! They wanted me! How can you say that's not my fault?" There were tears in Naruto's eyes.
Sasuke drew Naruto in close to him despite his struggles. "Because, as you said, they wanted you - you had nothing to do with it. They would have at least passed through here on their search anyway, I'm sure of it. So don't beat yourself up about it too much, 'kay?"
Naruto let out a dainty sniffle. "But if it hadn't been for this stupid Kyuubi thing-"
"You wouldn't even be around any more," Sasuke interrupted. "Don't think about things so much. If you try hard enough, you could convince yourself the sun setting every day was your own fault. Just let the things that happened stay in the past where they belong, and you'll feel much better."
"You say that like you speak from experience," Naruto sniffed.
Sasuke cast his eyes heavenward for a few seconds, looking up at the ceiling that blocked the sky from his searching gaze. "I do."
Silence descended upon them for a moment as Sasuke glanced at the clock, a sense of unease growing in the pit of his stomach. They'd already been waiting for Neji a full ten minutes; how much longer was he going to take? Sure, he had to haul Sasuke's lifeless body along with him - and Kabuto's, if he didn't wake up, and Kakashi had been injured and lost a lot of blood, Sasuke's mind reminded him - but the beach wasn't that far away from the Hokage. Where was he?
As if he was reading Sasuke's mind, Naruto asked softly, "When are the others going to be here?"
"I don't know," Sasuke said, the words expelled on a sigh. "Soon, maybe, but… I don't know."
Naruto gave a slight nod as if considering this information, drawing himself up with a look of determination on his face. "Then… Sasuke, will you have sex with me?"
For a few seconds, Sasuke was so shocked that he couldn't speak, then his brain broke itself from the whiteout it was experiencing and went into overdrive. "Wha-what?! No! Why would you just ask that all of a sudden?"
Was that disappointment on Naruto's face? "Then you don't want to?"
"That's not what I-! Nevermind. Listen, Naruto, there's a time and place for everything, and now is not the time for this! You're weak, running low on energy; you should try to relax-!"
Naruto cut him off quite efficiently with his mouth, kissing him roughly. Sasuke felt himself being pushed backwards until his head was resting on the pillows, and he pushed back, separating their mouths for a brief moment, barely long enough to gasp in a breath and out a few words before Naruto garnered his silence once again.
"Naruto, stop. I don't want you to do anything you'll regret-!"
Naruto pressed forward for a few seconds before pulling back again. "I won't. I asked you, remember?"
"But you're weak, you shouldn't be corporeal-"
"I won't have to be," Naruto interrupted, placing a finger over Sasuke's mouth. "You, for all intents and purposes, are a ghost now too, right?"
"Naruto!" Sasuke finally got enough leverage to place a hand on Naruto's chest, pushing him away and sitting back up straight. "I know what you're trying to do: you feel like you were useless in the fight and you're trying to validate your existence with something else; in this case, me. I appreciate the sentiment, Naruto, but it's not healthy. My answer is no."
Naruto's face crumpled at Sasuke's words, and a guilty pang with through the Uchiha. He hated to see that heartbroken expression on Naruto's face, and if he really admitted it to himself, his heart had leapt a little at Naruto's invitation, despite his immediate outward rejection, but he pushed those feelings aside and hardened his heart. Right now, Naruto needed him, and he needed him in a different capacity than the one he was asking of him.
As Naruto turned his face to the side to hide his fresh round of tears, Sasuke reached over and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. This time, Naruto didn't even stiffen at the initial contact, just collapsed slightly, his shoulders sagging pathetically. Gently, Sasuke reached out and pulled Naruto close to his chest, tucking his chin on top of the blond ghost's head.
"I know everything seems terrible now, but I promise it'll all look better in the morning, when you're not as tired and stressed as you are now. Everything brightens up in the morning sun, you'll see. Alright?" To augment his words, Sasuke pressed his mouth against Naruto's forehead, his lips curling up into a smile.
Sasuke felt Naruto's cheek, which was pressed against the bare skin of his neck, twitch as he smiled weakly in response. "Alright."
"Good." Sasuke pulled back and patted Naruto on the head, who gave him a sheepish smile.
"Sorry about that," he murmured, embarrassment flushing his cheeks. "I don't know what came over me."
"It's fine," Sasuke assured him, his hand moving down from Naruto's head to rub soothing circles on his back. "It's not your fault. I understand. Just get some rest, Naruto, and you'll feel better in the morning. Trust me on this one."
Looking down in embarrassment and refusing to meet Sasuke's gaze, Naruto asked in a whisper, "Will… what I asked make things awkward between us?"
"That's up to you," Sasuke said with a soft smile. "You can decide what happens tomorrow morning."
Naruto looked up again, his eyes large and trusting of Sasuke. "Really?"
"Of course." Sasuke felt a twinge of guilt in his stomach, but he didn't let it show through his gentle smile. Naruto might be able to act the same, but there was no guarantee Sasuke himself would be able to.
His words had the desired effect, however, and Naruto relaxed, curling up into a ball and passing out almost immediately. Shaking his head, Sasuke pulled the sheet over his still form, only to have it fall through his incorporeal body back to the bed. With a sigh, he sat back, looking at the ceiling and wishing he could see the sky, and waited for Neji to bring him his body.
When Neji finally got to the Hokage and succeeded in dragging Sasuke's deadweight body up the stairs, Sasuke was still sitting on the bed next to Naruto, brushing the hair on his brow back, only to have it be taken over by gravity and flop down into his eyes again in an endless cycle. A knock at the door heralded Neji's arrival, and for a few seconds, Sasuke stared at the door as if he could open it with his mind before getting up with a sigh and opening it. Though his eyes were still activated and he would have had the power not long before, he could only borrow the powers of ghosts within a certain radius of himself and the only ghost inside that radius was currently dead to the world.
When Sasuke opened the door, it was to find Sakura assisting Neji in holding his body upright. They quickly hauled the lifeless body into the room and Neji slammed the door shut behind him, obviously not wanting anyone to see them dragging the equivalent of a corpse into a bedroom. Sakura tried to set him down gently on the floor, but Neji, clearly still a little pissed at Sasuke, let go abruptly, letting him drop to the floor with a resounding thud. Sasuke winced; that would hurt when he had nerve endings again.
Sasuke noticed that Sakura was scanning the room, a small frown on her face. "Maybe he's not here?" She suggested dubiously, her eyes flicking right over Sasuke without reacting.
Right; Sakura couldn't see him because Naruto wasn't casting the influence he had been earlier that made the ghosts visible. Shaking off the eerie feeling that gave him, Sasuke leaned down and let his body reabsorb his spirit.
When he stood up, Sakura nearly jumped a foot into the air, swearing an impressive string of expletives. Grabbing the bedpost for support, she gasped and laid a hand over her heart, probably to check whether or not it had beat itself out of her chest.
"Jesus Christ, Sasuke, don't do that to me! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
"Sorry," Sasuke apologized sheepishly, then stretched his back, feeling it crack. Damn that Hyuuga. "How's everyone else?"
"Other than some slight shock, everyone's fine," Sakura answered, then jerked a thumb at the door. "Tenten's father is a local doctor, and he's looking over everyone's wounds since his daughter is among the injured. Kakashi wouldn't want word of this to get out any more than you, so you can trust his silence. Come down and get that thing on your forehead disinfected, at least?"
"I… I really shouldn't…" Sasuke stammered, taking a step back from the door, only to gulp when Sakura sent him a glare that would probably have sent even Pein running if it had been turned on him.
"Allow me to rephrase," she articulated very carefully, stabbing her finger in his direction. "That wasn't a question; it was an order. You are going to come downstairs, get that wound cleaned up and dressed, and explain exactly what just happened in very explicit detail to everyone there. Is that clear?"
"Yes, ma'am," Sasuke answered meekly, and Neji let out a snort, refusing to hide his amusement even when Sasuke sent him the fiercest glare he could.
With an inner sigh, Sasuke headed towards the door after Sakura and Neji, mentally preparing himself for the grilling that was to come. At the door, he glanced one last time back at the still unconscious Naruto before exiting the room and following the others down to the kitchen.
As soon as Shikamaru had started herding those stupid, inane, vapid, useless ghosts back to their haunting grounds, he had immediately regretted his decision to get them involved. Sure, they had helped - kind of - but now he was stuck playing babysitter to a bunch of confused specters, some of them so lost without the comfort and conformity of their usual surroundings that they couldn't even remember their own names. It sickened him. And that terrified him.
Grinding his teeth together, Shikamaru apprehended a confused little boy, grabbing him by the arm and shaking him. "Where the hell do ya wanna end up?"
The boy took one look at Shikamaru's angry face and burst into tears, and that just made him feel worse. Luckily, Shino had seen the incident and quickly hurried over, separating Shikamaru from the boy.
"Hey, it's alright," he said softly, kneeling down to wipe tears from the boy's eyes. "You look lost. Can I help you get somewhere?"
"I- I just wanna go to the park!" The little boy wailed, fresh tears cascading down his face. "Mommy said I could go to the park today! Where's Mommy?"
Shikamaru cringed. If there was one thing he dealt with worse than crying children, it was crying children who wanted their parents.
Shino, however, took it in stride, taking hold of the boy's hand. "Well, I think I can get you to the park, and maybe when we get there, we'll find your Mommy. How does that sound?"
The little boy looked up at him with shining eyes. "You… you would do that? You would take me to the park?"
"Of course! I'll take you right now." Shino smiled down at the little boy and stood up, then fixed Shikamaru with a stern look. "Kiba and I have this, Shikamaru. Go get some rest."
"I'm fine-" Shikamaru started to say, but Shino interrupted him.
"No, you're not. I know how tired you are. Now go relax before you pass out, okay?"
Well, he was right; Shikamaru was exhausted. "Fine," he sighed, surprised at how relieved he was now that the decision had been made for him.
"Good. Now go!" Shino commanded, then smiled down at the little boy and picked him up. "Alright, let's go to the park!"
"Yay!" He squealed, clapping his hands together as Shino walked off, leaving Shikamaru alone.
Alone.
Sometimes, he hated that word.
Shikamaru tilted his head back to look up at the sky. It was late in the evening, maybe seven or seven thirty, but it didn't get dark until a little later than that in the summer here so there was still plenty of light from the setting sun for him to analyze the clouds. It would probably rain that night.
WIth a sigh, Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets and turned in the direction of the Hokage. There was someone he was hoping to ambush tonight, and a game of chess lying unfinished on the floor of his room.
Shikamaru felt a small smile steal across his face. He was looking forward to tonight.
"...And that's everything that happened."
The kitchen fell so violently silent after Sasuke finished his speech that he wondered if the absence of sound itself might choke him. Even Choji and Iruka showed up too, wanting to know what happened, and the added people had made it even harder to talk. It had taken him almost three hours to tell the story, starting from the beginning so Tenten's father would understand what was going on and why his daughter had been involved and going over every part so even those who he'd told things to before could get the full story. Tenten and Neji, after Sakura had plunked a mug of honied tea in front of him that had miraculously revived his voice from a hoarse croak to a slightly less hoarse timbre, had corroborated his story, adding in bits he hadn't been present for and generally backing him up. The only thing they'd been unable to explain was Shikamaru's sudden shadow manipulation ability, since neither he nor Tenten knew anything about it and though Sasuke suspected Neji did know, the Hyuuga had refused to say anything on the subject. And even though they all - minus Tenten's father, who knew about Tenten's ability already and thus wasn't phased by Sasuke's admission of his own gift or anything else they'd told him - had witnessed at least part of the fiasco he was explaining, Sasuke wasn't sure if everyone in the room really believed him.
Kakashi broke the silence with a yawn and a stretch, and then a wince as he pulled at the newly done stitches in his arm. "Well, that was some tale, Sasuke. I think we all need some time to digest it, don't you? It's well after nine now; come on, everyone home. I need you to be able to work tomorrow."
"Good idea," Tenten's father interjected. "I know not all of you are injured, but you need to give your minds time to heal as well as your bodies. Doctor's orders."
Still mostly silent, the crowd filed out of the kitchen, leaving Sasuke alone with Neji, Sakura, and Kakashi.
"That includes you, Sakura," Kakashi warned, but Sakura just waved a hand at him.
"I'll leave in a minute; I'm just getting another cup of tea for Neji."
"Thank you," Neji whispered fervently, touching his throat gently. "The first one did wonders."
"See? There you are!" Sakura announced with the air of someone making a point. "I'll just be a minute."
"Alright. Just be quick," Kakashi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Sakura immediately darted into a side pantry and returned almost within seconds with another cup of tea, then darted to the door. "Bye, everyone!" She called with just her head stuck around the doorframe and her hand raised in a wave, then she disappeared and all they heard was the sound of her footsteps as she left the building.
"I better go too-" Neji started to say, but was interrupted by a pleasant ting! from his phone. With a frown, he mooked at the new message displayed there, and his face suddenly blanched.
"What is it?" Sasuke asked, craning his neck to try and see the screen, but Neji typed a quick reply and locked the phone before he could read anything.
"It's nothing," he said, though his expression said it wasn't. "Goodnight, Sasuke, Kakashi."
Sasuke wondered if there was significance in the fact that he didn't say see you in the morning.
Slipping his phone into his pocket, Neji turned and left the kitchen. Shaking his head at the Hyuuga's strange behavior, Sasuke turned to follow him, only to be stopped by Kakashi's hand on his shoulder.
"Kakashi? What is it?"
The old man cleared his throat in something that might have been embarrassment. "I just wanted to thank you for everything you did to help us. I had no idea about all the things you were doing behind the scenes, and I hope you can forgive this old man for his untruthfulness in bringing you here."
Touched, Sasuke laid his hand on Kakashi's arm. "Of course I forgive you; you were only doing what you thought you had to do in order to protect yourself. Don't worry about it. Things like this are, after all, the job of an Uchiha."
"Yes, I suppose," Kakashi allowed with a smile. "But we of this town are in your debt, Sasuke. If there's anything I can ever help you with, anything at all, don't hesitate to ask. Those of us at the Hokage will always be your friends. Remember that."
"I will." Sasuke gifted Kakashi with a rare smile. "And now I should probably get some sleep, and so should you. See you in the morning?"
Kakashi's smile broke into a kind laugh. "Of course. See you in the morning, Sasuke."
His limbs suddenly tired with a fatigue he hadn't noticed before, Sasuke left the kitchen and scaled the stairs to his room, noticing as he did that the door to Hinata's room was open a crack. Deciding it wasn't his place to meddle, he left her be and went into his own room.
Naruto was still asleep on the bed where Sasuke had left him, curled up into a little ball. When Sasuke sat down on the edge of the bed next to him, he uncurled slightly, as if Sasuke's very nearness had relaxed his body. Swallowing uncomfortably, Sasuke brushed the hair away from Naruto's forehead, almost surprised when his fingers succeeded in moving the spectral fringe. Naruto must have recovered a significant amount already.
Sighing, Sasuke laid down on the bed next to Naruto and pulled the covers over himself. He didn't know what he should do with the ghost. It would kill him when he left Konoha.