You Are the Only Chance I'll Take

All night, after Sasuke's closed his door quietly and all the more finally for it in Naruto's face, Kyuubi tortures and tempts him with flashback dreams of fucking Sasuke. The ten or so hours Naruto lost, returned to him in tantalising glimpses of Sasuke and more Sasuke, a glittering shower of glass shards through his mind.

So it doesn't seem real at first, when he wakes up to Sasuke shaking him. Sasuke's fingers are steady and unhesitant around Naruto's shoulder, his face pale but surprisingly not sleepy. "Konohamaru and Kushina are alive, and your grandparents. The Hokage building's been bombed to pieces. Eighty dead and counting."

Naruto sits up so fast, his stomach flips. Sasuke mutely hands him a phone.

It comes to him, an astonishing gift in the midst of this ghastly morning, what they have managed to build between them after all: he let Sasuke down, and Sasuke's upset with him, but Sasuke still came to him, they can still work together.

The headlines about Sasuke cleansing the northern human settlements, about Dad apparently reaching some armistice agreement with them, are almost a mockery next to the ones about the bombing. BEAST's claiming responsibility, but there's no way a purely human operation could do this much damage.

Sasuke sits down next to him, reading over his shoulder. "Orochimaru."

"Yeah," Naruto breathes out. "He needs to die."

Sasuke makes a non-committal sound. "The official exorcist line is condemnation of the attack." There's an interview with Sasuke's mother saying exactly that. BEAST is an extremist fringe group, and the exorcist community utterly condemns any attack on civilian targets…

"This was about me," Sasuke says.

"Yeah," Naruto agrees. "I reckon so." He starts calling Kushina, to get an updated list of injured, dead.

They're wrapping up the conversation, Kushina's stiff upper lip voice increasingly distracted, when Sasuke's phone rings.

Sasuke's taken the call, has listened for maybe forty seconds, when Naruto catches on that it's Orochimaru. He can't get a grip on how Sasuke feels about it: Sasuke's shut himself off from that.

Physically Sasuke remains placid and untouched: there's no telltale stiffening, no change in his posture.

Still he's tightening up, drawn taut on the inside.

Naruto takes hold of the phone, just lightly, in a sort of offer. Sasuke withdraws from him. The call lasts maybe two minutes from start to finish. The whole time, Sasuke doesn't say a word.

When he finally puts the phone down, Naruto can barely contain himself.

Sasuke shrugs. "Nothing useful."

Naruto pushes his arm lightly against Sasuke's, and then less lightly, but Sasuke's all right.

Naruto reminds himself that Sasuke's spent years handing Orochimaru face to face, and kicks the duvet off his legs. "I need to get a handle on this."

Sasuke nods, but then reaches out, catching Naruto's wrist, looking at him only when Naruto's frozen and then sunk back down on the bed.

"Yesterday," Sasuke says, in a tentative but certain voice. "On the roof. You weren't happy."

"Of course not. You were – you felt awful!"

Sasuke's face is searching. "But you wanted me to react."

"Yeah," Naruto has to admit. "I wanted you to be – miffed. Not… not like how you felt. I never want to make you feel like that."

"Even if you take it as proof that you could – if it let you think you can affect me?"

"I'm never going to be happy about making you feel like shit!"

Sasuke makes a low thoughtful sound. "Orochimaru was." Then, even quieter: "Kakashi was."

"I'm not," Naruto tells him, as forcefully as he can. He has nothing to offer but this belief.

Sasuke gives him a speculative look before nodding. Then he shrugs, "Go get a grip on this mess."

When Naruto's left, he picks his phone back up.

Neji picks up on the fourth ring. Neji, really, has never been half as good at ignoring people as he pretends to be. "I'm in the middle of something."

"You're in the middle of talking to me," Sasuke agrees dryly.

He can hear Neji opening and closing a door. "Did you really exorcise for them?"

Sasuke snorts. "Exorcising demons is our sacred duty, in case you forgot."

"Yes," Neji says impatiently, "but it's hardly…"

"But that's not why, is it? It's because he heard about the wings."

Neji swallows. "Yes," he says again. "Someone sent a tape. You had wings all the way through the stratosphere and there wasn't a single demon around." He sighs, yielding: "Of course everyone knows Orochimaru's behind it, but it's not acknowledged. The condemnation is perfectly real, though. Nobody's pushing for war."

Sasuke's never been worth a war – except to Naruto, and in his case that sentiment can't be disentangled from Naruto's own life being worth a war to Naruto.

At long last, into the silence settling between them, Neji says, "Your seal."

"Let's not pretend this is a private conversation."

"It could be." Neji breathes in quickly. "It could be just the two of us."

"Neji," Sasuke sighs. "Do you remember that time someone started opening my door, and you rolled under the bed rather than be caught in it? You're not prioritising me over anyone."

"It's different for you," Neji says after some time. "You've already been discarded. I haven't."

"Yeah," Sasuke says. "I've always been ahead of you."

Neji makes a soft hissing sound. "I wasn't going to lose everything for some fling that didn't even matter to you, when you don't care about it. If you did…"

"Don't be ridiculous."

"You think I'm lying to you." Again Neji's adopted this usual condescending shrink voice. If Sasuke hadn't grown up with Itachi, with Kakashi, with Orochimaru, he might have found it annoying. His life has just been filled with too many people to whom Neji can never compare.

"I think you're lying to yourself, but whatever."

"Sasuke…"

"Thanks."

He cuts the line before he says anything else. That thanks is what Kakashi would call stringing someone along, would claim he learnt from Orochimaru: to keep people available, should he need them for something.

It makes Sasuke want to call back and cut Neji to pieces.

Instead he opens a text message. I'm sorry I hurt you. But it's better this way. I would have hurt you worse if you stayed.

It's a trite and insufficient message, and it's the first time in years he's being honest with Sakura.

xxxxx

Shikamaru is privately quite satisfied that Minato failed to return after the exorcism. Apparently he flew directly from the negotiations to the capital, and now with the terrorist attack he won't be back for the foreseeable future.

Which means Naruto's running this show. Which means Shikamaru's in the damn show.

Minato's called, and apparently doesn't realise that Naruto's put him on speaker. Naruto's not fool enough to do it in a crowd, but the general meetings are taken care of and now there's just Naruto and Shikamaru in the room.

Rather, just Naruto and Shikamaru and Sasuke, going by Naruto's sudden blinding grin. Naruto's eyes always find Sasuke the same way air finds his lungs, automatic and necessary. However, Shikamaru's pleased to note that he doesn't stop talking. "Yes, Dad, I can handle Sasuke. No, seriously, did it look like a hard sell to you, getting him to exorcise? No, exactly. We've got this. I'll take care of Rock." He puts the phone down with a sigh, but sounds mostly happy. "We will, right?"

"Sure," Sasuke says. "I can do it right now."

"I want to do it," Naruto starts.

"That's not happening."

"Yeah, it's – we're in a hurry, now's not a good time. I get that."

"Are we going?"

"Tonight. I'm thinking tonight, then we can all sleep on the way there and we'll arrive around noon."

"Fair enough."

Naruto sinks into the desk chair, letting it spin him around and around. "I'm thinking how to play it. They – I mean, they fucking hate you. Maybe enough they won't even want the exorcism."

Sasuke lifts an eyebrow, closing the door behind him. "That's not their call."

"No it's not. They just – Rock's a pretty damn pro-shifter faction. You know, Gaara style pro-shifter. And with Mist Town, you really won't go over well."

Gaara style pro-shifter, Shikamaru thinks. Well, Sasuke clearly knows what he means, saying, "If they've got any human mates locked up there –"

"Then we're setting them free," Naruto cuts him off. "Obviously."

"Obviously – " Sasuke starts.

Again Naruto cuts him off, spinning faster and faster. "I didn't even let Gaara do that for Kankurou. You don't put people in cages. You can't just – take someone as your slave and live at their expense. It's wrong and I won't have it."

Sasuke's eyebrow climbs back up his forehead.

Naruto makes an impatient, cut-off gesture, chair finally slowing down. "You're here of your own will. You could incinerate me any time, you might not have great options if you leave but you're choosing to be here. It's not the same as chaining some human girl up in a cage and forcing her to –"

He cuts himself off there. Don't speak ill of the dead, particularly the ones you've killed.

Kankurou needed the girl, and Gaara's never had much time for humans. Doesn't feel they should be given a choice, in these matters: if someone dies when you don't, you fucking well put out, or you'll be made to. So Gaara went and got her, and Kankurou… well, Kankurou lived. For a while.

It was Naruto who couldn't stand it.

So it was Naruto who let her out. Broke her chains so easily with his fingers, and then he was just turning around, just going to open the cage door all the way, and turned back to splatter all across his face. The chains had broken into sharp, ragged ends: sharp enough to slit a throat with. And she was dead, and he stared at her dumbly, and he knew Kankurou was dead too.

Gaara will never forgive him this, that he cost Gaara's brother his life.

"I was saying," Sasuke says, "that if they've got any human mates imprisoned, obviously I haven't seen anything." He pauses. "I'm not surprised you'd want them treated well, aside from the raping, but – your people die if they don't. Why should they, just because some human doesn't fancy them?"

"Because," Naruto snaps furiously, "it's wrong."

"It's not actually a fate worse than death."

"You can't expect me to believe for a second that you'd let some random shifter assault you and live."

"Of course not," Sasuke snaps back. "Obviously I would've killed them. But I would've understood."

"It's difficult," Naruto says, almost whispering now. "I – I don't think you should get to turn someone down without even meeting them. You should have to see them, you should have to say it to their fucking face if you're making them die. And it should be legal to offer incentives. It's gross, but…"

Some places do allow financial incentives. Most don't.

Very, very few have it written into law that a prospective human mate must at least meet the matesick shifter face to face, though it's not uncommon for social services to recommend it regardless.

But most shifters never bother with the authorities. A lot of humans do agree, out of sympathy or honest attraction. A lot don't. Some get mated without ever understanding that that what's happened. A lot get raped, one way or another.

Naruto's head hangs, "And if – if they say no and you're gonna do it anyway, you could at least have the fucking decency to make sure they're unconscious. There's no reason they should have to experience it."

Sasuke snorts. "Never thought I'd hear you advocating date rape."

Naruto's head snaps up. "I'm not! But it's… Knowing it's happened and actually feeling it happen, that's not the same. They both suck but not on anything like the same level." He must have genuinely forgotten that Shikamaru's here, because he continues, "Knowing about Orochimaru, even seeing – it was so fucking horrible, but feeling what he did, that's another order of magnitude. Or – or, technically that didn't happen to me, but… seeing someone shoot me, or cut off bits, when I'm so merged with Kyuubi I can't feel it, that's pretty bloody different from experiencing it when I feel how fucking much it hurts."

Sasuke shrugs. "You're not wrong."

"I'm never wrong." His entire body's straining towards Sasuke, less moth to flame than iron drawn to a magnet, but he stays in the chair.

"Hn," Sasuke says. Shikamaru's about to interrupt this touching scene when he adds, "What I came to tell you. We've got a rat."

Naruto snaps to attention.

Sasuke fiddles with his phone, then hands it to Naruto. "Neji sent me the photos he had access to. They must've been taken from inside the grounds."

Shikamaru angles his head to look, and Naruto obediently tilts the phone. One shot of the house, from relatively close up, with the wings like an unfocused halo of light around it. Another shot, of Naruto kneeling over Sasuke with his hands fisted in Sasuke's shirt, right in the mud and rotting leaves. Sasuke's jaw hangs loose, angled strangely: obviously broken.

"Hell," Naruto says. "I gotta root this out."

xxxxx

"I'm sorry," Shizuo says. "He took – he has Makoto. I didn't have – I felt I didn't have a choice."

"I get that," Naruto says. It's not forgivable and it's not mendable, but it is understandable. Shizuo's nobody, which is why Orochimaru could pick up his mate without it apparently being noticed: which means Shizuo doesn't have any meaningful information to betray. "Do you regret it?"

"I regret that I had to do it."

Sasuke lifts a negligent hand. Shizuo's edges blur with terrible light, his outlines fading.

"Stop!" Naruto barks, and Sasuke turns towards him in question, Shizuo's wiping put on pause. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Disposing of him."

"We're not doing that." He rubs at his face, trying to rub away weariness and betrayal and anger. "Look. He fucked up. But if we kill him, his mate'll die too. We won't get any more use out of him, and it'll alert Orochimaru that we know what he's been up to."

"He's not useful either way. But he's your concern."

The light goes out, and Shizuo falls to his knees. "I didn't… I didn't send any of the photos where you're actually hitting him."

Naruto looks at him in what's maybe sadness and maybe disgust, everything muddled and no time to sort it out. "You've got a lot of trust to earn back."

Shizuo nods. Seems honest about this, liar though he is. "I understand. For one of us, I would've never – I would've sacrificed, but for some exorcist wh–"

Just for a second, Naruto thinks: we can't abide this kid of untrustworthiness. He has to be disposed of.

It was just for a second. He wasn't going to do anything with the thought.

Just a second, and Shizou is dust to dust, ashes to ashes.

He stares at Sasuke and wants to pretend that this was about Sasuke being insulted, but Sasuke's heard worse his whole life from people he once loved, and genuinely doesn't care what some lowlife shifter thinks of him. This was Sasuke acting on Naruto's impulse, Naruto's careless thought.

"What the hell, bastard!" Naruto yells at him. "I didn't mean it!"

"You meant it."

"I didn't mean it to be acted on!"

Sasuke shrugs. "More fool you."

"I should've at least tried to get Makoto out. Shizuo needed to be made an example of, but not like this, and Makoto's never done anything wrong."

"Isn't it so vexing," Sasuke drawls, in an almost flawless imitation of Orochimaru's tones, "when someone takes what's yours?"

"That's different."

"How?"

Naruto knows it is, knows it down to the marrow of his bones, but can't articulate it, can't come up with anything better than, "Because you're mine, bastard."

Sasuke raises an unimpressed brow, but surprisingly doesn't argue.

Naruto thinks for a black moment what Konohamaru would say if he saw this, how he would react to Naruto basically shrugging off the murder of a traitor comrade.

"We gotta go handle Rock. I need that to work, okay? None of this bullshit."

Sasuke gives an impatient sigh. "I know how to prop someone."

Naruto remains privately unconvinced, but Sasuke clearly believes it. Which is, honestly, more than he'd counted on getting at this point.

xxxxx

Temari leans back in her seat, stretching out her legs. Shikamaru grumbles in his sleep, drooling on her shoulder.

Naruto's still awake, the yawning, glowing centre of attention at the far end of the bus. With Sasuke chained to his mind, he might be more aware of it now – how people gravitate towards him, how he takes charge of them – but there's no visible sign of it. He laughs briefly at something Kiba says, shoots of instructions to Raidou, then falls back into contemplation, expressions chasing each other like foxes across his face.

Beside him, Sasuke's fallen asleep with forehead pressed to Naruto's arm. He either doesn't notice or isn't bothered by the thick tail wrapped around his neck.

Naruto glances at him every now and then, hopelessly smitten, but his eyes remain rather shadowed.

Temari wouldn't have expected him to find the spy so soon, or to dispose of him so soon.

But then, she never expected Sasuke, either.

And now, Rock.

She'd have liked more of a plan, but Naruto never manages these things except by winging them. Anyway it won't be the first time they do Good Cop/Bad Cop – only now, with Rock and their rather extremist pro-shifter stance, for the first time she imagines she'll be Good Cop. Strategically, for that, they really ought to have brought in Gaara.

But Gaara cannot abide Sasuke, and whether Rock likes it or not they need the demons gone, which means they need Sasuke present and at least minimally cooperative.

Naruto blames it on Mist Town, Gaara's animosity, but Mist Town to Gaara's mind was necessary casualties. If you're too weak to defend yourself, and too dumb to stay out of the way of your betters, then you die. He alone of any shifter she's ever spoken to has never breathed a word of dislike over the massacre.

Gaara's hated Sasuke since preschool, since the first day Sasuke transferred into their class and Naruto laid eyes on him – since Sasuke appeared and casually picked up Gaara's most treasured possession, scooping it up so easily, as if it never occurred to him that it had belonged to someone else, had been Gaara's and necessary.

She said it to him plainly only once, that Sasuke hadn't stolen it from him because it had never been Gaara's in the first place.

Naruto belonged to himself, until he belonged to Sasuke.

But Gaara needs to think otherwise to make it through without snapping, and nobody wants him to snap.

She remembers Sakura, of all the stupid humans, saying once, quoting of course because she's never been confident enough to find her own words – saying how Naruto never had that emotional grounding, had any sense of where to stop with love… you can just fall into it without knowing whether you're loved back or caring that it's dangerous or – or ever stopping… that kind of passion is terrifying.

Well, Naruto's crazy. That's hardly news.

She's still watching him as they disembark. Naruto stretches, childish with sleepiness, still too short to reach the bus ceiling.

Minato likes to do the ostentatious thing and walk into these things unarmed, but Minato honestly hasn't had much luck with Rock. Perhaps, she thinks, because Minato's an adult, and used to dealing with adults: with people who compromise and get tired, people who have left their ideals behind.

Shino Aburame greets them heavily armed and flanked by likewise heavily armed advisors and guards. Naruto offers a shit eating grin and makes no effort to hide his own weaponry. It's not much, but then Naruto doesn't need much. Kyuubi's energy pulses visibly under his skin, and, perhaps more importantly, Sasuke sticks as close to him as his shadow.

Shino snorts. "Him of all people."

"Yeah," Naruto says, unfazed. "Him. Now are we going inside? I'm freezing my arse off."

He's not dressed for the weather, in a dark jumper but no jacket. It's maybe foresight, that jumper, because Naruto usually wears colour, but colour won't hide the blood if the seal starts to rupture.

Even from here, the defence lines are plainly visible. Concrete walls and barbed wire, tanks and troops for protection against the humans. Energy canons and DEW bombs and holy writ against the demons.

So they must have got at least one exorcist up here, at some point, to set that up.

Shino notices her glance – and, more significantly, Sasuke's glance. "Yeah," he says. "There was an exorcist came up here. Didn't want to help us out at first, said she was just sent for the humans. But hey, we've got lots more of them coming at us. So we persuaded her." He shrugs. "She didn't last though."

"So you fed them an exorcist," Naruto says. "That's fucking stupid."

Shino shrugs again, more defensive now. "She took out some of them."

"Yeah, and the one who ate her will be ten times stronger, minimum. Fucking stupid."

Shino looks past Naruto at Sasuke. "You're not upset?"

"Tenten had no business being here."

"It was your Crusader Council sent her."

And Shino is so very lucky that they did, Temari thinks, because the Council considered sending Hanabi Hyuuga, and if these amateurs had dared approached her, this whole settlement would have been dust and ashes. Tenten was weak, was a nobody exorcist, and couldn't have wiped a powerful shifter. Couldn't have held out against more than ten demons, maximum. Hanabi on the other hand is a prodigy crusader, a true child of Heaven, and would have exterminated the Rock population like vermin.

Sasuke shrugs. "She did her duty, until she failed. Then she died. That's how it is."

Shino lifts an eyebrow. "Fair enough. Do let's go inside."

They end up in a rough-hewn room. Unlike most dictators, Shino apparently enjoys the Spartan style.

Naruto reaches eagerly for a hot drink, slouching comfortably in his chair. And Sasuke – she does a double take, sees Naruto stiffen as he clearly notices too. I know how to prop someone, Sasuke reportedly said, and it seems he actually does. His posture, his entire way of being, of looking at Naruto, establishes him as belonging to Naruto: establishes Naruto as being in charge of him.

It makes more of a difference than she'd counted on, even though she saw what happened in the infirmary after Naruto had cut off his hand and Sasuke was drained. Naruto the Hokage's love child, Naruto the successful warrior, is one thing. Naruto the keeper of a crusader, that's on a different level. She knows what it's done for Minato over the years, having Kakashi at his beck and call.

"I'm presuming," Shino says after a moment, "that you're authorised to speak for Minato Namikaze."

"Yeah," Naruto says with a fairly friendly smile baring all his teeth. "Sorry you missed out on the real thing."

"Not at all. Actually, I think I'd rather have you."

"Huh," Naruto says. "Can't say I was expecting to hear that."

"Minato Namikaze," Shino continues, as though Naruto hadn't spoken, "endangered his pack for the sake of a human diversion."

"Shut the fuck up about my mother."

"It doesn't matter," Temari cuts in, before they start tussling on the table. "Right or wrong, it won't happen again. She's already dead, it's pointless talking about it."

"Kushina's been good for him," Shino agrees.

"Kushina," Temari replies, "has signed an agreement with the human government to hand over beastmad shifters. You don't keep yours in line, she's not going to stand in the way of the humans putting them down."

"You agree with that policy?" Shino demands of Naruto. Then, to her, "Does your brother?"

"Gaara's a private citizen. His opinions are his alone and representative of no one else."

"I do," Naruto says. "If you can't control your beast, someone else has to. I'd prefer it be us, but if you let them run amok, then it'll be the humans."

"What did they give you for that?"

"Nothing. Well, nothing I know of. But they didn't have to? We agreed. Fuck, Shino, it was Anko represented the humans in that negotiation."

"Anko is a race traitor."

Naruto snorts. "Say that to her face."

Shino's expression suggests that he is unwilling to do this.

Anko Mitarashi, mated to Hayate. Involved for ten years now, more, with Ibiki Morino, strong man of the human government. If it were anyone but Anko, Temari would think, daddy issues. Morino's over sixty and Anko's just about half his age. Of course, Anko never knew her father, or her mother either.

More importantly, Anko's the ultimate, unacknowledged reason that there was a three-way peace, seven years ago: that the civil war didn't end with the humans banding together with the exorcists to exterminate the shifter population once and for all. Temari has never admired anyone more. The only time she's felt any sort of connection with an exorcist was at a function two years ago, catching Hanabi Hyuuga looking at Anko the same way Temari herself did: tongue-tied, love-struck.

That was certainly a level of taboo she would've never expected from a Hyuuga princess. Recalls Kushina quoting Sasuke's mother: Sasuke allowed himself to be defiled by a beast. If he'd still been part of our family when this occurred – well, he would not have been anymore. This sort of moral failure is simply…it cannot be countenanced.

"Let's cut to the chase," Naruto says. "Hayate tells me you think we should help you out with this demon situation. I agree. So here with are." He nods at Sasuke. "Bringing the cavalry."

Shino lifts his eyebrows. "Can you control him?"

Naruto cups his hand around the back of Sasuke's neck, proprietary and warning. "Let's find out."

"I'm not worried," Shino says, slouching back in his chair. "I have to say, Tenten disabused me of the notion of exorcists as the hand of God upon this earth." He snorts. "She tried to wipe me, you know. Couldn't defeat my beast."

Sasuke doesn't move, but Shino starts to glow. Naruto's hand tightens on Sasuke's neck, thank God, because a humiliated Shino Aburame would be a nightmare to deal with. "Not him, Sasuke."

Sasuke relents. The ten people closest to Shino, flanking him, are encased in heavenly light instead, instantly half erased. "Enough," Naruto says, and after a long, tense moment Sasuke releases them. "As you can see, we've got a little more firepower than Tenten could bring. Which you knew. You must've seen the news from when he cleansed the human settlements."

"Let's say I'm convinced he could be useful. Why would you help the humans?"

"They shouldn't be our enemies. The demons are."

Shino makes an unconvinced sound, but he must be aware that this is the majority view, that there's preciously little support for considering the humans an enemy by principle rather than by necessity, and no possible way for a small shifter settlement to survive, should the humans turn on it in earnest.

"Things can't go on as they are," Shino says.

"No," Naruto agrees. "But hanging out up here fighting with everyone and getting decimated, that's not changing anything. If you want something better, you have to work for it."

"Work with you? You don't share our beliefs."

"So convince me."

They're both leaning forward over the table now, and startle when Shino's phone goes off. "Shit. Incoming."

Naruto stands up with the rest of them, calm in the sudden frantic chaos. "Sasuke?"

Sasuke nods.

"Don't be a fool," Shino says, gesturing his people towards the defence lines. A flick of Naruto's fingers, and most of theirs join them. "This many demons…" And indeed the sky above is blacker than night, a darkness that goes beyond mere absence of light. "There's no exorcist could handle this alone." He turns to Sasuke. "Did you call them? Because maybe Itachi could take them, but his failure little brother? There's no way."

"Shut up, Shino," Naruto says absently, and Shino amazingly does.

Sasuke looks…hungry. He looks like Kyuubi.

"You look after him," he orders Temari. "If any of them hurts a hair on his head while I'm gone, I will turn this place into purgatory." Naruto looks both insulted and flattered, which Sasuke ignores. "Mist Town will seem a minor incident, do I make myself clear?"

"I'll take care of it," she says. This is quicker than pointing out how absurd he's being: Naruto can take care of himself.

But gradually she understands what he meant. Sasuke ascends and leads the demons away, until there's no point in the ground level defences, the guards standing by them on principle alone. His wings erupt in unearthly light, and Naruto, his face an ashen green-grey, would have sunk to the ground if Kiba hadn't slipped a quick arm around him, taking his weight. The black jumper might hide blood, but it can't hide the brightness of the mark, the angel seal shining through skin and fabric.

"Shit. Let's get him somewhere he can lie down."

"I'm fine," Naruto protests. "I want to see."

But there's not much to see: a sky of snarling darkness, evil made manifest but not exactly corporeal, and Sasuke in the middle of it, an exterminating, inhuman light. Uriel's wings burn against her retinas, extending up and out far beyond where a mundane eye can follow.

"This way," Shino says, and Kiba drags Naruto along until they're in an empty room with thick carpeting to lay him out on.

Shino stares out through the window. "So he really is a crusader."

"Heh, yeah," Naruto says, pride in his voice but his face all scrunched up with pain, sweat dripping off him.

"Does this happen to you every time?"

"Nah. But – ah God – you try keeping a released archangel from exorcising you when he's – fuck, fuck – inside your head. I just need to, ah, learn to shield a little better, and we'll be great."

"I didn't promise you anything in exchange for this."

"We were gonna do it regardless," Naruto tells him, and then can't speak for some time.

Sometimes he seems to be having a seizure. Temari holds his head then, so he can't trash it against the floor. Kiba gets his legs, and Shino after a moment grabs his arms.

Sometimes he can talk, and does. "It's like this. Coopering, it's not easy and it fucking hurts. But you can get things done that wouldn't be possible otherwise. So you get used to it, and it's worth it. You arrive somewhere you could never reach on your own." The words seem less like a platitude, now that Naruto's visibly, physically acting them out in front of them.

And then suddenly, the mark of death. Black smoke writhing over Naruto's face, trapped underneath his skin. Kakashi, she knows, carries this mark of actual evil under his skin, a stain like tar twisting across the lower half of his face and down his neck. Gabriel saves his life, purified him of much of the demon taint that at first covered his whole body, but cannot fully cleanse him. A demon injury, which will rot Naruto's soul from the inside, unhealable and always, always lethal.

Unhealable to Kyuubi, she amends, seeing the orange energy rage and then quickly fade around Naruto. Not unhealable to Uriel.

Naruto's pallor worsens, from grey to actual white, a glowing, shining white like starlight moving under his skin. The blackness is gone, erased from him.

Naruto laughs shakily. "I guess he does care."

"He was hurt, wasn't he?"

Naruto nods, lips closed tightly around what she suspects is an imminent bout of projectile vomiting. "He'll be fine."

"He'd better."