Kisame reacted before the house collapsed and the earth shook. He reacted the moment that shield around Naruto cracked. His head snapped around and he said, "Gotta go, kid," before setting off at a run.
Gaara followed him more slowly. That wasn't by choice. Physically, he had never been fast or strong. He had never needed to be. Until Shikamaru, no one had been able to touch him without his sand acting as an automatic defense. With Itachi and his brother he now knew of three people who could do so. Perhaps he should consider exercising. A quick smile flitted behind his mask as he broke into a loping jog. Unlike Kisame, he didn't need to reach the house quickly in order to know what was happening there. He watched through his eye as the creature Naruto had become evaporated in a haze of heat. He intended to find out more about that creature, that fox the size of a house. Few people had seen him change and survived to tell about it. He knew from those accounts that his own size rivaled that fox. If the fox's strength equaled its size he might not have to worry about changing. There was someone here too large for even him to eat.
His eye scanned the rubble, watching for Itachi. He had made up his mind about him. Given a chance, he would kill him. He might even be doing the world a favor. Monsters were meant to be killed. As a monster himself, he knew that better than anyone. Movement caught his eye. There he was, slowly pushing himself free from a pile of lumber that should have been too heavy for him to lift. Another flicker of movement had his eye turning back to the unconscious boys. Someone who looked like Kisame was crouching over them. It couldn't be the real Kisame. He wasn't fast enough to have gotten there already. Even if he had, Gaara suspected he would have gone to Itachi first, not to the boys. The impostor reached out to lay a hand on each boy and the three of them vanished in a swirl of black.
Gaara forced his tired legs to move faster. Shikamaru was gone. He should be on the other side of the world now, sneaking into places he had no business being. Unless his energy was used up, he was nearly as untouchable as Gaara himself. Yet that was definitely his talent. That the impostor had used Shikamaru's talent was more disturbing than the fact that he had taken the boys. They had appeared half dead, anyway. There wasn't much more a person could do to them. At least this way they were out of reach of Itachi and his mental torture. His eye went back to the man in question, showing that he had finished freeing himself. His face was ashen from the bloodloss as he sat with a hand over the bloody wound on his middle, his head turned to stare over at the place where the boys had lain. Gaara wondered if he had seen the impostor who had taken them. He wanted to know who that man was.
Despite having set off first, Kisame didn't arrive that much ahead of Gaara. Running wasn't his thing. Sure, he had the stamina for it. He was just too heavy to flit around like Itachi did. Since he preferred to stand his ground and throw his weight around, he didn't mind being the counter to his light-weight partner. It was a nuisance, though, in situations like this. By the time he got within sight of the house there was no house. From the blank look on Itachi's face, there was no fox or Sasuke, either. Kisame was already grimacing when he started the clumsy climb over the rubble to the perched Uchiha.
"I missed everything?" asked Kisame.
"Did you enjoy yourself with Gaara?" Itachi asked politely.
Kisame's grimace pulled tighter. "I like that kid."
"Then I will do my best to avoid having to kill him."
"Thanks," Kisame huffed. He plopped down beside him and looked over at the flattened area holding Itachi's attention. "Did you get the fox?"
"My little brother got the fox."
Kisame gaped at him. "Really? How the hell did he manage that?"
Itachi dropped his eyes, his lips pulling into a distasteful frown. "He appears to have seduced him." He turned a glare on Kisame when the man burst into laughter. "There is nothing amusing about this."
"You're just jealous," Kisame scoffed. Then he cringed. "Of your brother, I mean! Not the other way around." He didn't relax until Itachi stopped looking at him like he wanted to rip his tongue out through his nostrils. He had seen him do that and it wasn't pleasant. "He had to grow up sometime," he offered. "At least he picked a good one."
"He picked a child," Itachi said blackly. "A mere boy. I will never forgive him for that."
"You never forgive him for anything," Kisame shrugged. A few more disappointments on Sasuke's part wouldn't change much. His eyes dropped to Itachi's bloody hand and then shifted to take in his torn back. He raised an eyebrow at the extent of the damage. "You dying?"
"Orochimaru showed up."
Kisame couldn't imagine how that might have resulted in Itachi being injured. Orochimaru was a meddling nuisance at best. A nuisance with a hard on for Uchihas. And Sasuke had been in the thick of it again. On second thought, Orochimaru's presence did explain a lot. "What about all that energy you got from the dolphin?" Itachi's eyes narrowed, and Kisame grinned suddenly. "You gave it to your brother," he accused. "You fucking softie."
"I have invested too much of my time to let him die simply because one of Orochimaru's underlings bears a grudge against me."
Kisame wiped the grin off his face before Itachi was moved to remove it permanently. "That brother of yours is going to be the death of you one of these days."
"He owes me that much."
"And I owe you for not sticking around to help out," said Kisame. "I got a shit-ton of energy from Gaara. I swear, that kid's a bottomless pit. We should keep him."
"I gave him to my little brother," Itachi reminded him firmly.
"That was before you knew he had the fox in his pocket. Doesn't seem fair for him to get them both."
"Jealousy doesn't become you," said Itachi. "It is a petty useless emotion."
Not that Itachi would know anything about that emotion. Kisame pressed his lips together to keep from grinning. Sasuke had seduced the ninetails? Itachi had expected to lure the demon out, to destroy his host - who deserved that and more for daring to taint his little brother - and keep the demon all for himself. Instead, the demon had chosen Sasuke. No one ever chose Sasuke. They grudgingly accepted him as the closest they could get to Itachi, and even then he was a poor substitute. Had the kid gone and grown a personality in the last two years? Hard to imagine that. Even harder to imagine was Sasuke having enough sex appeal to lure in a demon. Yet the demon had chosen the little brother over Itachi himself? Itachi would never live that down. If Orochimaru really had shown up, then word would spread like wildfire that Itachi had tried and failed to tame the ninetails. Once they found out why he had failed, well, Kisame foresaw a lot of slaughter in their immediate future.
"What about the dolphin?" asked Kisame. That had been their first reason for coming. The photos hadn't shown up till later, catching them en route and complicating what should have been a quick check-up visit. Tracking that photographer down was yet another thing on their to-do list.
"He is quite functional for someone with such an inherent flaw," Itachi allowed. "He may choose to ignore the possibilities I have created for him. I suppose I'll have to keep in touch to ensure that he does his part. The babysitter may prove useful in that."
Really? Kisame hadn't gotten a very good look at Kakashi. It still boggled his mind that Itachi had allowed a non-Uchiha to run around with a working sharingan. But he guessed no one else would have been capable of babysitting Itachi's difficult little brother. Kisame suspected even Kabuto couldn't stand him, and Kabuto made it a point to get along with everyone. Openly, at least. He had to wonder what kind of man Kakashi was to have survived Sasuke for so long. "How about the babysitter?" Kisame asked curiously. "Did you fuck him up?"
"I would like to rip that eye out and feed it to him."
Feeding him his own body parts? Kisame couldn't help scowling. He hadn't expected Itachi to like the man that much. It was a hard kick in the teeth. He detested being kicked in the teeth. Itachi knew that, of course. "Are you mad at me for playing with Gaara instead of helping, or what?"
"Not at all," Itachi murmured, his black eyes going back to that flattened area. "I couldn't care less what you choose to do with your time."
Not mad, just annoyed, Kisame decided. He could work with that. Itachi was drained and half dead, after all, while he was brimming with energy and left over adrenaline. He grinned at Itachi's profile and set his sword down on the rubble behind them. "Patch you up?" he offered. "I'm good for it."
That wasn't all Kisame was good for. Itachi's attention drifted over the rubble to where Gaara's eye was floating and watching. The boy had tolerable manners for a mutant, much less a demon. He had been spying all along, discretely and from a polite distance. Now Gaara was making no attempt to hide his surveillance and was, in fact, rudely eyeballing them. Kisame was to blame for that. He had a way of reducing those he fought with to their basest form. The less these two interacted, the better.
Gaara never came any closer than the stone wall surrounding the remains of the house. His eye was destroyed from six yards away by a seemingly casual flick of Itachi's fingers, but not before he had seen enough to stop him in his tracks. It wasn't just his little brother that Itachi liked to kiss. The image stayed with him as he turned on his heel and started the long walk back to Iruka's house. As a monster, Itachi would be a guilt-free kill. As Kisame's partner, obviously in more ways than one, Gaara would have to let him be. It was a shame Kisame was a shark. It might have been interesting to see how two such disproportionate men went about having sex.
.-.
Kyuubi woke to find himself buck naked, being given a sponge bath by none other than Lee. Had he been able to move he would have swatted him hard enough to knock that thick-browed head right off his green-clad shoulders. How dare he take advantage of Naruto's body like that? The damned pervert. It was the vibrations caused by the growling in his throat – and the fact that his hand didn't rise to swat him like he wanted it to – that made him aware of the stinging pain all over him. Even his eyelids hurt. He tried to scowl, but the tug that expression made on his face hurt too much. He let out an angry questioning sound.
"Don't worry, Naruto-kun," Lee said, as he reached down to pat the damp cloth against the stinging line between his eyebrows. "You are already showing great improvement."
"That's not Naruto," said Kiba.
Kyuubi hadn't even noticed him sitting on the edge of the bathtub. He hadn't noticed he was lying on the bathroom floor, either. No wonder his sore ass felt so cold. They could have at least put a towel under him before molesting his body.
"Check the eyes," Kiba told Lee. He wrung out the rag he had just rinsed and exchanged it for Lee's pink one.
"My apologies, Kyuubi-san," Lee said formally.
Kyuubi's lips tried to curl when the boy swiped that wet cloth along his thigh, way too close to parts of his anatomy that shouldn't have been stinging like they were. Baring his teeth hurt too much. He growled as well as he could without moving his mouth. "The hell are you doing?"
Kiba leaned over to catch his eyes, face pulled into a grimace of sympathy. "You had no skin. Seriously. Your back's okay now, mostly, but only 'cause we dunked you in the tub while it was growing back. Cracks and crumbles right off when it dries out. Must be painful as hell."
It was. He still would rather have dealt with the pain than have these two getting an eyeful of him. Especially Lee. It was a wonder the perve wasn't bright red, what with his crush and all. Or maybe it was just a flitting attraction rather than a full out crush. Either way, this was ten shades of wrong, as Iruka liked to say. Kyuubi scowled, not caring how it cracked the newly grown skin on his face. "Why are you two doing this? Iruka could grow skin back in a few minutes." The two boys stared at each other for so long that Kyuubi finally remembered who Iruka had been with the last time he had seen him. "Where is Iruka?!"
He reared up and was almost in a sitting position when Lee pushed him back down. Easily. His eyes widened. He had no strength. Worse than that, he had next to no energy. Then he remembered why. He stopped fighting the hands holding his mutilated shoulders down. "Sasuke…"
"He and Iruka are both in their rooms," said Kiba. "The girls are sitting with Iruka in case he needs something when he wakes up."
"Please don't exacerbate your injuries," said Lee. "You are in far worse condition than either of them."
That was impossible. "Sasuke has a fucking hole through his chest!" The two boys stared at each other again, and Kyuubi sent a frantic look into the back of his mind. Naruto was asleep, curled up on the cold floor of the cage. Those bloody chains were still twined tightly through the bars. There was no sign of the clone he had made of himself.
"He doesn't have a hole in him now," Kiba said slowly. He frowned down at him, wondering if his brain were as melted as his body had been. "Kakashi mentioned broken ribs, but there isn't anything we can do about that till Bunchu gets here. Kakashi made everyone promise to leave Sasuke alone. That's all we got out of him before he keeled over."
"He passed out in the hallway," Lee explained helpfully.
"Made a hell of a thump," Kiba agreed. He passed Lee a freshly damp rag, and then asked Kyuubi, "Do you know how he got you two back here? No one saw a glimpse of him till he came downstairs."
"I don't remember seeing him at all," Kyuubi muttered. The last thing he remembered was curling into a warm ball around Sasuke's cold body. Had Kakashi found them like that and brought them back here? Had he saved Sasuke, then? Not likely. Kakashi wasn't a healer. If there was no longer a hole in Sasuke's chest, they must have healed it themselves. That would explain why Naruto was sleeping now. He always slept when Naruto was the one who had used up his energy. Maybe he had managed to heal Sasuke with his own energy after all. Even as he considered it, he knew that explanation didn't work. If his energy had been able to heal the way Naruto's could, he would have healed himself by now.
"What happened to you guys?" asked Kiba. "Where did you go earlier?"
Kyuubi decided his face was healed enough to bare his teeth. "I'm not saying anything else until I get some fucking clothes," he growled. He couldn't believe he was having a conversation with these two completely naked. Even Sasuke hadn't seen them completely naked. Naruto was never going to be able to look these two in the eye again. Assuming Kyuubi could get him out of the damned cage so he had a chance to do so.
"Clothing would surely damage your freshly grown skin," Lee protested.
"A likely excuse," Kyuubi snapped. "You can explain that to Naruto when he finds out you stripped him down and molested his naked body. Fucking perve." Lee blushed bright red and sputtered out an incoherent denial.
Kiba snorted. "Big difference between being naked and skinless. Even the girls were too freaked out by the blood to notice you didn't have any clothes. If it weren't for the hair, we wouldn't have even recognized you."
Kyuubi supposed his clothing might have burned up along with his skin. If not, it certainly would have been shredded when he changed sizes. That still didn't excuse Lee rubbing his hands – separated by a wet cloth or not – all over Naruto's body. Naked and skinless was still naked. He growled at Lee, whose red face betrayed his guilt in Kyuubi's eyes. "Clothes. Now."
The boy sputtered just a little bit more and then jumped to do his bidding. Kyuubi decided he might salvage some pride out of this debacle yet.
.-.
Ino sighed for the fourth time in as many minutes. She squirmed in the hard chair Sakura had dragged up and placed at Iruka's bedside opposite her own. Finally she burst. "This is pointless!"
"You don't have to stay," Sakura reminded her calmly. She didn't take her eyes off Iruka. If she hadn't seen Tenka shake him so roughly she had wanted to intervene she would have believed he was merely sleeping. There didn't appear to be anything physically wrong with him. He just wasn't waking up.
Ino glared at her. "Just because you fancy yourself a nurse doesn't mean you are one. You can't even touch him until Bunchu gets here because with your talents you'd probably kill him. My talents, on the other hand, might be just what he needs."
Sakura sighed. Ino never knew when to give up. "We don't even know what's wrong with him. After what happened with me, you should know better than to go hopping into people's heads when you have no idea what might be waiting for you in there."
"Why not?" Ino scoffed. "He certainly didn't know what was waiting in your head when he hopped into it. His mind can't possibly be any worse than yours."
"Maybe not. But if you get stuck in there he won't be able to lead you out this time. He'll be stuck in there right along with you." Sakura raised an eyebrow when Ino grimaced. "Are you willing to risk having people like Kakashi flirt with you for the rest of your life? Your life as a middle-aged man…?"
Ino would have cringed if she wasn't determined not to let Sakura know how horrible that prospect was for her. She lifted her chin instead. "I still fail to see the point of waiting for Bunchu. He couldn't help us. What makes you think he can help Iruka? Whatever is wrong with him is obviously mental, not physical."
"We don't know that. Bunchu will be able to tell us for certain." She was counting on that. She was also impatient for him to control her talent well enough for her to help with Naruto. Kiba and Lee had rushed him into the bathroom, but not before she had seen far more than she had wanted to. The sticky red faceless body could have belonged to anyone if not for that bloody blonde hair. Just the thought of it made her sick to her stomach. She had been convinced he was already dead. If Ino hadn't jumped to hold her back she would have tried to save him…and likely killed him herself. Knowing she could only make things worse didn't stop her from wanting to bolt downstairs and try anyway. She wanted to at least be doing something to help. That was why she was determined to stay right here, holding vigil over Iruka until Bunchu arrived. Maybe it was pointless, but it was better than making things worse.
"I'm going to do it," Ino announced. She leaned forward over the bed. A long minute later she shot a glare at Sakura, who hadn't even looked up. "Well?" she demanded. "Aren't you going to stop me?"
Sakura shifted irritably in her chair. It was hard enough quelling her own impatience without having to deal with Ino's as well. She lifted her head to scowl back at her. "I don't have to stop you because you're not going to do anything. Neither of us is going to do anything that might make things worse. If you can't wait quietly up here, then go keep Hinata company. She's probably hiding in our room to avoid Neji."
"If I go down there, I'll drag her out of that room and make her deal with that insufferable cousin of hers." Ino scowled when Sakura made no move to prevent her from carrying out that threat, either. Enough was enough. "I'm doing it," she warned her. "Unlike you, I'm not particularly worried about making things worse." Kakashi and Iruka were out of it. Sasuke was battered and out of it. Naruto was a mutilated humanoid out of it lump. How much worse could things get short of one of them dying? And, anyway, it was Sakura's fault for being too caught up in her own head to stop her.
Sakura gave a little jump and rose halfway out of her chair when Ino slumped over the side of the bed. Her first reaction was guilt, because she had practically dared Ino to prove her wrong, hadn't she? Iruka's eyes opened, bloodshot and glazed, but focusing on her easily enough. She glared down at them. "You are an idiot!"
"You're just jealous," Ino scoffed, because it was true. She grimaced at the deep voice she had spoken with, never having been in such an old body before. But a little stretching proved her earlier suspicions. "Aside from a splitting headache, there's nothing physically wrong with him. Nothing that hurts, anyway. Maybe he had to heal someone and wore himself out. That would explain why he's sleeping too deeply to…" Ino trailed off and snapped a wary look over her – or rather Iruka's – shoulder.
"What's wrong?" asked Sakura. Iruka's face paled, something she wouldn't have thought possible with his complexion. "Ino?"
Ino stared blankly at the wall at the head of Iruka's bed. Something was in here with her. There was no visible physical presence like she had encountered in Sakura's mind. She knew if she closed her eyes she wouldn't see anything but darkness. She could hear it, though. There was a faint rustling behind her, like cloth or…whispers? If she closed her eyes and looked back she wouldn't see it. But she would feel it. She would be swept back into the void, just like when she had tried to leave Sakura's mind, she would be lost in it, except this time that void wasn't empty. Something was in there. She could feel it, could hear it drawing closer. Or was she being drawn to it? A whimper caught in her throat and she shoved herself away, out and back until she was in her own body and scrambling away from the bed.
Sakura winced when Iruka's vacated body pitched back onto the bed. Her first concern was for Ino, though. Her face was ashen, and she didn't even seem to realize she had fallen and was crawling backwards across the floor. Sakura rushed over to crouch beside her. "Ino! What is it?"
"Don't touch me," Ino cringed, shoving herself up and away from Sakura. "Just…don't. Don't touch him, either. I was wrong. He's…" Her skin prickled as if bugs were crawling all over her. She scrubbed her hands over her arms, nearly gagging at the sudden nausea clenching in her gut. "There is something very wrong with him. I think I'm going to be sick."
"What did you see?" Sakura demanded.
"Nothing! I didn't want to see it." She didn't want to feel it, either, but it was still on her, all over her. Her stomach lurched into her throat. She really was going to be sick. Sakura was a concerned obstacle between her and the door. Gagging, she shoved her aside and bolted out and down the stairs.
Stunned and gaping, Sakura stared at the empty doorway. Ino had looked on the verge of puking. Ino never puked. Ino considered puking one of the most disgusting things a person could do. Yet Sakura clearly heard her barrel down the stairs and slam the bathroom door open. Then she heard her shriek, slam the door closed again, and run down the hall for the downstairs bathroom. Guilt and sympathy ate at her as she finally snapped into motion and hurried after her. As sick as Ino had looked, the last thing she had needed was another peek at Naruto's mutilated state. If Sakura had been thinking clearly she would have remembered and warned her that the bathroom was currently occupied. She just hoped Ino made it to the other bathroom in time. Calming Ino enough to find out what had happened would be difficult. If she had to help Ino wash vomit out of her clothes calming her might prove impossible.
.-.
Had Naruto been awake, he might have celebrated. Kyuubi suspected he was now cured of his fixation on the blonde bitch. Anyone who screamed and gagged at the sight of his naked body wasn't worth his time. It didn't matter that he had still been covered in thick sticky blood, with weeping patches of thin skin along his front. He had been naked. The important parts of his naked body were fully healed. A real woman would have ogled him at least a little. She certainly wouldn't have gagged. At least Ino's intrusion got rid of Lee and Kiba. Kyuubi had worried that the bushy-browed pervert was going to insist on 'helping' him with his shower. Instead, he had hurried off to make sure Ino was all right, and Kiba had hurried off to hide in his room where any more screaming would be muffled.
Kyuubi locked the door behind them and showered quickly. His scalp was so tender it was a wonder Naruto's hair hadn't fallen out. Despite his best efforts, there was still a hint of red marring the blonde when he finished. He was almost glad Naruto wasn't awake for this. Even he was unnerved to see so much of their blood swirling down the drain.
He was unsteady on his feet when he left the bathroom. It wasn't just the newly grown skin that hurt. The ache was bone deep. Transforming like that had done some serious damage to Naruto's body and he didn't have access to Naruto's energy in order to heal it. All of the discomfort was worth it when he stepped into Sasuke's room and saw him.
Sasuke was far too pale, with blood dried along his mouth and cheek. His chest rose and fell beneath the blanket that had been drawn over him. He was alive. Even from a distance he reeked of Itachi, his own blood, and the dry rotted corpse. But he was still alive. Kyuubi took a slow step into the room and shut the door behind him. Naruto would have rushed to his bedside, would have cuddled and fussed and maybe cried a little. But Naruto was curled in a small limp ball, locked in a cage in his own mind. Kyuubi could see Sasuke breathing. Naruto didn't appear to be doing even that much. He felt as if he had traded one for the other and knew he had never made such a choice. He wouldn't have. He leaned against the door and closed his eyes so he could get a closer look at Naruto.
There was no sign of injury. The hands that had been burned bloody when he stuck them through the bars of the cage were smooth and whole. His complexion was good and the ball he was curled in was loose enough to be a comfortable way to sleep. He just wasn't breathing. Kyuubi stared down at him. Time wasn't standing still. He and Naruto were the ones being still. He stared down through the bars at him without thinking, blinking, moving...or breathing. With a jerk, Kyuubi reared back suddenly, gnashing his teeth and letting out a roar of noise that should have woken Naruto but didn't. Of course Naruto wasn't breathing. He was looking at Naruto's mind, a projection of himself, not his real body. Naruto didn't need to breathe in here any more than he did. Kyuubi slumped down on shaky legs and heaved out a heavy – imaginary and entirely unnecessary, damn it all – breath of air. He wasn't thinking clearly. That Naruto looked healthy and whole proved he was just that. Naruto was wiped out, sleeping too deeply to hear him even if he hadn't been contained within the cage. Kyuubi had slept like that, too. He had seen Naruto's memories of himself, knew very well that he didn't bother to breathe when he slept that deeply. He had forgotten and frightened himself half to death. He would make sure to share that humiliating memory with Naruto later. It was the least he could do.
As soon as his limbs stopped feeling like melted rubber, Kyuubi attacked the chains. He broke teeth and claws on them with focused intent. The pain he felt was real, but the body he used was not. All of this was inside Naruto's mind and he wasn't about to forget that again. He made a cat-sized clone and felt its head melt away as it tried to slip through the bars. That pain was so unnervingly real he ran a tail over his own snout to make sure it was still there. He sent the tip of that tail through the bars and then pulled it back to examine the painfully bloody stump. The chains were doing that, making a barrier of energy around the cage. He had designed that cage himself. Anything trying to get through the bars should have simply vanished out of existence because this was Naruto's mind and from within that cage nothing could exist unless he allowed it to. Kyuubi sat back, fixing his tail with a thought as he considered those chains. If they were made of energy then they could be destroyed with energy. He had none at the moment. Accepting that fact was harder than it should have been. He left a Naruto-sized clone to watch over him and turned back to take control of the body housing them both. With Naruto trapped in his mind, he was now the host. He should have relished the freedom, the sheer irony of that. He didn't.
"Who brought you two back here?"
Kyuubi stiffened painfully, his nostrils flaring with a sharp inhalation that didn't bring a hint of the boy's scent. How long had Gaara been there? Kyuubi hadn't looked any further than Sasuke's bed before rushing into his mind to check on Naruto. Gaara could have been sitting in the open window all along. This was why Naruto was the host, Kyuubi thought furiously, because he couldn't stand being limited to what he saw out of his eyes alone.
"Get out," Kyuubi growled. He stalked across the room. He was far too aware that even the pads of his feet stung with each step. He had seen firsthand the damage Gaara could cause. A fight with him now, when he couldn't even heal the damage he already had, would be suicide. He wanted to attack him anyway for daring to enter Sasuke's room. Had Naruto been awake he would have attacked him, because Naruto would have felt the same way he did. But Naruto wasn't awake. If he got this body killed Naruto would never wake up. He stopped at the foot of Sasuke's bed, placing himself between him and the mutant sitting so casually in his window.
"You aren't healing like you did with me," Gaara noted. "Is that because you transformed? Or is it something Itachi did while he was looking at you?"
"You were there...?" Kyuubi clenched his teeth on the questions burning his tongue. He had no memories of what had happened after curling around Sasuke. Was Itachi dead? He hadn't been able to do anything to the man when he and Naruto had both been free and determined. He wasn't stupid enough to think he stood a chance against him if he showed up now.
"I was watching," said Gaara. "I saw someone take the two of you using Shikamaru's talent. Who was that?"
"I don't remember," Kyuubi snapped. That much was true. If Kakashi really had copied Shikamaru's talent and used it to bring them home, risking an encounter with Itachi and wiping himself out in the process, then Kuubi wouldn't repay him by setting Gaara on him. "What happened after we were taken? Did you see Itachi?"
Gaara stared at the swaying blonde. The voice was different from Naruto's and the eyes were as red as the enormous fox he had transformed into. Was he conversing directly with Naruto's monster? Perhaps they had more in common than he realized and this was what Naruto became when he slept. At least Naruto's monster could speak. He couldn't even do that much when he changed.
"I'm not going to attack either of you," Gaara said quietly. "It would be a waste to fight you as you are now. I prefer a good fight. Both of you are capable of giving me one."
Naruto would have believed him instantly. For once, Kyuubi's instincts were the same. He sat on the edge of the bed, close enough to feel the warmth in Sasuke's blanketed feet. Not cold any more. At least they had managed that much. "What did you see?"
"Everything. I brought you to that house after Sai sealed you." Gaara had expected anger. Naruto, or rather that monster fox side of him, merely frowned. "I couldn't remove the seal he placed on you. Kisame asked me to bring you there, but I would have kept you to fight with myself had I been able to remove that seal." His eyes narrowed. "Itachi removed it with one kick. He's strong for a man who mentally tortures his opponents. I don't approve of that."
Kyuubi snorted. This from a monster who ate people. "So we have you to thank for us waking up there." And Sai, for making a seal Gaara couldn't remove. Had they been caught in a fight with Gaara they might not have gotten to Sasuke in time. His stomach clenched in disgust. In time? In time to do what? They had woken in time to be saved by Sasuke, in time to watch him be tortured and nearly murdered, in time for Naruto to be trapped in his own mind. Yes, they had gotten there in time. In time to witness their own uselessness. Kyuubi's throat tightened into a painful growl, "Is Itachi alive?"
"He was when I left. Did you think you had killed him with one blow?" Gaara felt his interest in the fox wane sharply. "If you wanted him dead, you should have eaten him when you had the chance. A real monster never spits out his prey."
"Unless his prey is wrapped around his mate," Kyuubi sneered. "Not even a demon would eat his own mate." Gaara's eyes widened and flicked past him to Sasuke. Kyuubi rose and blocked his view. "Touch him and die."
Naruto's monster was in no condition to kill anyone. Gaara ignored the threat and looked him over with new eyes. "Can a monster have a mate?"
For an instant, Gaara sounded as curiously clueless as Lee. That was enough for Kyuubi to sit back down. Maybe Naruto was right and this boy was only half monster. "I'm not a monster, just a fox." Maybe a fox demon, but only if Naruto agreed to him taking that designation after the way Itachi had all but ruined it. "Foxes have mates. Sasuke is mine." And Naruto's, though he still occasionally thought of him as a boyfriend rather than a mate. Kyuubi would have to teach him the difference between the two. Boyfriends were temporary. Mates were for life.
"That's what stopped you from eating him?" asked Gaara.
"Of course," Kyuubi snapped. Then he recalled who he was speaking to and changed his answer. "No. I would never eat someone unless they deserved to be eaten. I don't lose control the way you do. But even if I did become a rabid monster, I wouldn't hurt those who belong to me. Naruto, Iruka, and Sasuke. They're mine. I protect what's mine."
"You have sex with all three of them?"
Kyuubi's face pulled painfully. This kid was even worse than Lee. That shouldn't have been possible. "No," he growled in disgust. "Sasuke is my mate, Naruto is my host, and Iruka is my..." He stared at Gaara's blank face and wished Naruto were awake to throw him some ideas. He didn't know what Iruka was. The word lodestone came to mind, but he wasn't sure where he had heard it or what it meant. He scowled at the boy. "Iruka is mine. He's like a father to Naruto and that makes him mine."
"I have no interest in fighting with Iruka," Gaara informed him. "I would rather fight with you than Naruto. But I will be fighting with Sasuke. He stopped me mid-transformation. No one has ever done that before. I will be fighting with him as soon as he recovers." From the fox's growl, he suspected he would have to fight him in order to get to Sasuke. So long as it was a good fight, he would look forward to that. "In deference to Kisame, I decided not to kill Itachi earlier. If he attempts to ruin either of you worse than he already has, I may change my mind. I'll keep an eye out for him while you recover. Try to be quick about it. There isn't much to do here."
The boy slipped out the window and rose out of sight on what appeared to be a cloud of sand. Kyuubi gaped for a long minute before jumping up to close and lock the window behind him. Then he stood there and wallowed in the despicable truth. Someone sent by Itachi was volunteering to protect them from Itachi. Worse still, they might very well have to rely on that protection for the time being. It was shameful, humbling, even. And infuriating. How could he be so useless he had to rely on a deranged boy to protect him and his own? If only he had kept his head. Planned better. Itachi should never have caught their eyes. He didn't need Naruto's eyes to be open in order to see everything around him. Had he experimented even a little he would have discovered sooner that he could make a mental clone of himself. They could have fought the bastard with their eyes closed. They would never have been separated and Naruto could have added his own clones to the fight. They could have made a difference.
Could, would, should have. Naruto would say they had blown it. Naruto, who had at least tried to plan and use his head, would blame himself. Kyuubi was the one to blame. He had given in to his animal instincts. Barking and lunging like a dumb dog rather than behaving like the cunning fox he was supposed to be. This was his fault. He had grown so used to viewing Naruto as his weakness that he never imagined it might be the other way around. Yet when they were drowning in the bubble it was Naruto who had saved them. The child he resided within was the one who had behaved like an adult while he had regressed to a squalling infant. Humbling, indeed. He would make it up to him. He would start by getting him out of that cage. Sasuke had trapped him in there by placing the shield around them. Sasuke would make that up to Naruto by undoing what his brother had done. Then Kyuubi would do whatever was needed to make his own uselessness up to them both.
He checked him over first. No bandages. Kakashi apparently hadn't done any more than tuck him into the bed before he collapsed. The wound on his chest hadn't healed completely. It was a sunken patch of sticky red right in the center of his sternum. That close to the heart he wouldn't be alive if he hadn't healed internally. His ribs were another matter entirely. If they were broken Kyuubi couldn't risk shaking him. He crouched on the bed and pushed the hair off his face. Sasuke didn't have any injuries there. Naturally. Itachi had given him those eyes and wouldn't have risked damaging them. Kyuubi used the edge of the blanket to wipe the blood off his cheek and then slapped it gently. It felt ridiculous to be softly slapping him awake, something out of those black and white films even Naruto refused to sit through. It wasn't very effective, either.
"Wake up, Sasuke," Kyuubi growled. "The fight is over, but everything is fucked. Kakashi is down. Iruka is-" His breath caught in his throat. He hadn't even checked on Iruka. The girls were with him, though. They would have come looking for him if Iruka's condition had changed. Whatever his condition was... "Itachi did something to Iruka. He's down, too. And Naruto is down, trapped in his own head. I let your brother do that, and you made it worse. Wake up and help me fix it!" He could feel his temper flaring, as if he hadn't learned anything. He had to keep his head, damn it. Naruto wasn't here to keep it for him. But it wasn't just anger he was fighting with, it was something urgent and scurrying with sharp little teeth. He slapped him harder, so hard that his claws caught hold and sliced red lines through his cheek.
Kyuubi froze in horror. Itachi hadn't marked his face. He was worse than Itachi? Naruto was going to see those cuts. How would he explain this to Naruto? Sasuke had nearly been killed and was still seriously injured. Who clawed up his mate when he should have been holding him, simply grateful he was still alive? He looked at the recriminating blood on his claws, at the painful marks he had left, and at Sasuke's wide red and black eyes. Pinwheeling eyes. Kyuubi blinked. At least it had worked, he thought wryly as he was thrown back into his own mind.
.-.
Itachi was a slave-driver. Kisame threw him a resentful scowl as he heaved another chunk of house out of the way. The cocktease was watching him, freshly healed and imperiously perched on his throne of rubble. In retrospect, Kisame should have known he wouldn't be getting any. They were out in the open for one thing. And he had been off goofing around with Gaara instead of watching Itachi's back. It still didn't seem right to get only one kiss in exchange for a mountain of purloined energy. Then again, Itachi's idea of a fair exchange had always been a little warped. Kisame dug deeper until he had to use his blade to bite through some particularly stubborn boards. Even in shambles, this fucking house was evil. He swore he had already chipped some of the teeth of his sword. Those weren't exactly fun to replace.
"A bit to your left," Itachi corrected him. "You're drifting again."
"It's not easy digging straight down through this shit," Kisame muttered. He threw another glare over his shoulder as he shuffled to the left. "Why am I going after a sword? I thought you didn't want him using weapons anyway."
"I don't want him relying on weapons," Itachi corrected him again. There was a difference. He watched as Kisame lifted another pile of lumber and plaster and tangled wires out of the hole. Despite his grumbling, Kisame could always be relied on to put his back into heavy lifting. Itachi supposed he had earned an explanation. "I left the sword near Kimimaru."
"Orochimaru's bone guy," Kisame huffed. "What's he like these days?"
"Taller," Itachi said succinctly. "Far less eager to please." His eyes dipped pointedly, and Kisame quickly returned to his excavation. "He tried to kill us both. Orochimaru was very displeased."
"I'll bet." Kisame worked a little faster. He should have known there was a good reason Itachi had passed the dolphin's energy along to Sasuke. The only question was why Itachi wasn't in a worse mood. "Did you kill him? The bone guy, I mean."
"Twice. He stayed down the second time. He made no attempt to transform."
Which told Kisame he probably wouldn't find him at the bottom of this rubble. Was he doing all of this work just to confirm Itachi's suspicions? "You really think he'll stick around to take another shot at your brother? With both you and Orochimaru out for his blood?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Itachi murmured. "If I believed him alive under there and having such intentions, I would have burned the entire pile to the ground. I merely wish to ensure that my little brother's sword is returned to him."
A bold faced lie. Or was it? Itachi made it really hard to tell sometimes. Kisame stopped working altogether and turned a serious scowl up at him. "Is there even a sword down there or are you just punishing me for goofing off with Gaara?"
Itachi frowned his disapproval. "Focus on the task at hand, Kisame. And do try to dig faster. There are other tasks I wish to see to today."
Kisame bent back down to work with a grimace. This was definitely punishment.
.-.
TBC
