Having watched the clip four times, Sasuke decides the contents of the sack can't be identified. He's been lazy about this, careless, but it's time he went through the post-bond news properly.

He's switching tabs when Naruto appears behind him, basically throwing himself across the room to lock his arms around Sasuke's shoulders. "Hi," he whispers, pressing his face into Sasuke's neck.

"You saw my mother."

"Not on purpose."

Sasuke's shrug juts Naruto's face against his, Naruto's scars scratching his cheek. "She doesn't matter."

"Mmh," Naruto says, on a short shaky exhale that tries to be a laugh. "I was – I tried to think that."

Sasuke turns in his chair, dislodging Naruto and reaching up to drag a fingertip along the whisker scars. Naruto's memory of their inception is disjointed, an impression of bright pain, blood, his own screams, and of needing it done.

You should look like what you are, some BEASTers argue, after mutilating shifter corpses: no more monsters masquerading as human, this is what they're really like.

"Hmm," Naruto says, rubbing his cheek into Sasuke's hand. "Good thing facial scarring's mainstream after Harry Potter."

"They're not unflattering," Sasuke says dryly. "You'd look like a total pussy without them."

Naruto snorts, angling his cheek more firmly into Sasuke's hand. "Just cause you're a kinky beast banger."

"Excuse me…!"

Naruto drags a sudden fang along Sasuke's jaw. "You love this shit. I bet you wouldn't even get off with a non-shifter anymore. I've spoilt you."

"Do you want to find out?"

"No!" Naruto throws his arms messily around him, burying his face in Sasuke's chest and looking up at him with playful remorse. "Never." When Sasuke pushes him off, he simply folds his legs beneath him, sitting on the floor.

"You want me to never be with anyone else," Sasuke says. "For the rest of my life."

Naruto's eyes are huge and enormously blue, staring up at him with that single-minded focus. "Yes. I realise that might not be all – charming, or, or, nice, or… But you're not interested in being with anyone else, anyway."

"That's true."

"What about me, then?" Naruto says, fingers moving like he wants to play with the seam of Sasuke's jeans. "Are you all, you know nothing, pathetic virgin, go sleep around to be experienced and cool like me?"

"You had better fucking not."

The vehemence of it takes him aback, shocks him still while Naruto surges up to press a brilliant smile against the edge of his mouth.

Sasuke pushes him back down and he goes easily, but there's something obscenely content about the tilt to his face. He does that damn humming thing that sounds mostly like purring. "Before," he says, in a much more serious voice, "I was thinking. If, if someone had needed me like this, I would've helped. I would've wanted to, of course I would. I don't like to see people suffer, and I could never – if there was something I could do, I could never just not. But I would've fought the bond. I couldn't have not done that either." He breathes in, shallow. "So I would've had to do it but it wouldn't have been good for – for me or for them either. I would – I would still have needed to have you. To be with you." He wets his lips. "I love you. You know that. But it's – more than that. I love a lot of people, you know? Not all of them the same, not all of them as, as much. None of them with this – this unflinching wholeheartedness, or whatever. And it's not just the bond, you've seen people who're bonded and who are nothing like this, and, and…"

"I don't want to hear it."

"You're lying."

"I don't want you to say things that aren't real."

Naruto smiles like heartbreak. "Aside from the bond. I'm in love with you."

In the long, deep silence after the impact, Sasuke reflects that nobody has ever said those actual words to him before.

And it doesn't matter, because they're just words.

"I'm not expecting you to say anything back," Naruto says, getting up on his knees and slipping his arms slowly around Sasuke's waist. "But I love you. I love you so much. I think even Kyuubi loves you."

"I know he does," Sasuke says dumbly. "He loved me even before you did."

Naruto's fingers tighten against his ribs. Naruto smiles up at him before leaning forward, pressing his face to Sasuke's chest. "I love you," he says again. "I love you more than anything. There's nothing I wouldn't do to be with you."

"You're a fool," Sasuke says. His voice comes dry and cool, but his fingers are locked around Naruto's shoulders and for a long, long time he doesn't know how to let go.

Eventually Naruto settles on the floor, back resting against Sasuke's legs, facing the computer. "I should see this too, huh."

"Probably."

Anti-shifter violence on the increase, unsurprisingly. Speculations about Sasuke, about the bombing of the Hokage building, about the durability of the armistice. Naruto tugs Sasuke's trouser legs up, following his veins with his fingers. Sasuke knows from experience that he can do it without looking, that he knows where to touch the way a migrating bird knows where to fly.

"Are you gonna say anything?" Naruto asks. "To the press."

"You're the media whore."

Naruto sticks out his tongue. "Well, you're the whore whore."

"Fuck off."

"No," Naruto groans, leaning more heavily against Sasuke's legs. "But like. Maybe we should talk to the humans. About you."

"They never cared before."

"BEAST will care now."

"BEAST is an extremist fringe group."

"With close ties to several parties on the anti-shifter end."

Sasuke snorts. "Maybe we should see about getting me a lawyer or something. Someone who'd look independent."

Naruto snorts back. "Dad would have a stroke."

"He'd heal," Sasuke says dryly.

"Yeah." Naruto rests his face against Sasuke's thigh, humming again. The tips of his fingers play absently against the small of Sasuke's back, up under his shirt.

Sasuke leans forward, closing the tabs he's done with. "Anyway I talked to Neji. He could use some support. That might be something you could talk to your father about, if we're playing politics."

Naruto's low laugh moves his throat against Sasuke's thigh. "I tell you I'm in love with you, and you see this as your sign to ask me for favours, huh."

Sasuke feels himself stiffen so suddenly it stings, his body locking up. "If we're a team, there aren't any favours."

Naruto looks up, wrong-footed. "Sasuke…"

Sasuke mouth feels numb. His body's so ready for violence, it's difficult to move it softly. "If you're on our side like you keep saying, why would I need to ask you for fucking favours."

Naruto clings to him. "Sasuke, I didn't, I just…"

Sasuke stands up abruptly, almost braining Naruto with his knee, and shakes his hands off. "This isn't a service I currently feel like providing."

"But I didn't…"

"The favour you can do me right now is to leave me alone."

Part of him feels like he's overreacting. Most of him feels like anything short of mass murder is an underreaction.

A lot of this is Naruto's residual upset, the turmoil that tore down half a building and still simmers, but it feels like his own.

"Yeah, well, I'm not going to!" Naruto erupts.

And Sasuke does know, sort of, that Naruto didn't mean anything by it, that Naruto was just basking in things being easy and all right, jokable. That Naruto meant I love you and would never think of their involvement as favour trading or sex for pay.

"Here," Naruto says, grabbing Sasuke's hand and pressing it to his heart. Sasuke's hand goes through his skin and his flesh, breaks through his ribcage. Naruto gasps, wide-eyed and open-mouthed and never doubting. Sasuke's fingers move inside his chest, curling around Naruto's heart, catching its beat against his palm.

xxxxx

Sasuke's on the treadmill when the call comes. Naruto, who's picked up the phone, is tempted to answer it himself, but that's not the kind of controlling behaviour that Sasuke accepts.

"It's for you."

Sasuke reaches out for his phone, only stepping off the treadmill when his sees Naruto's expression.

"Ah." He wets his lips and takes the call. "Orochimaru."

He gestures for Naruto to leave, so Naruto walks far enough away that he only hears Sasuke's side of the conversation.

"Yes," Sasuke says. "That's true … I gave him to Kushina Namikaze, but I suppose he's yours if you want him…Maybe. It was just something I had to do…I see. Well, I suppose I'll see you then…That's none of my concern. You've trained me better than that…Hn."

He smirks at Naruto when he's ended the call, doesn't even scowl too much when Dad and Kushina and Tsunade intrude. Shikamaru, Naruto knows, Sasuke barely ever notices.

"I spoke to Ibiki," Dad says. It seems he's finally caught on that directness is the best approach with Sasuke. "We're arranging a dinner. He'd like for you to be present."

"Sure, of course," Naruto says.

Sasuke frowns. "I already talked to Sakura. She'll have told him I'm not a sex slave."

"With all respect," Shikamaru says, "while he's very fond of her, I doubt he puts much stock in her judgement."

Sasuke would be hard pressed to disagree with that assessment. He puts the phone away and straightens up, startlingly lord of the manor despite visibly sweating through a ratty set of training clothes.

Shikamaru slumps down on the floor, because he's Shikamaru and even the sight of a gym tires him out. "We've been supposing you're none too keen on a press conference, or interviews, that sort of thing."

"It's a waste of time," Sasuke says.

Shikamaru shrugs. "I disagree. If Orochimaru's faction starts trouble in earnest, it's important that the human government stays neutral or better yet on our side. If nothing else then because that'll encourage the middleground exorcists to remain calm."

"He's not wrong," Naruto says.

Sasuke directs a rather sardonic gaze at Dad, who's clearly letting Shikamaru talk because anything Dad says, Sasuke will be opposed to on principle. Eventually he says, addressing himself to Naruto and Kushina, "For your information, Orochimaru has a lot of footage of me. Snuff films, torture porn, sex tapes."

"That complicates matters," Dad says.

Kushina gives Dad a look of distaste. "That's awful."

"Yeah, not shit," Naruto agrees, diffusing. "Awful and complicated. We'd have to – put out just a little thing, and see how he reacts, what he throws at it, before we could start building any sort of media image."

"You're better for this," Sasuke tells him. "You like people. You're – likable."

"Eh," Naruto rubs at the back of his head, absurdly pleased and embarrassed. "There's some footage of me from up north that's not too human-friendly."

"So be a war hero," Sasuke says.

Dad looks worryingly thoughtful at this pronouncement. What he says, though, is, "Well, about the dinner. Think about it."

Sasuke says, "I'm going to shower."

Naruto tags along, but Sasuke in the event does not enter the changing room. He walks far enough away that Dad and the others can't hear his footsteps anymore, and then quickly steps into the air, returning to stand just outside the half-open door. Naruto, wobbling a little, hurries to copy him.

Sasuke still smells quite strongly of sweat, but then they're in a gym. Clearly nobody notices him, because they keep talking.

"…this one," Shikamaru says. "Anything explicit would be child pornography and couldn't be shown, and anyway – Orochimaru will have a lot of material like that, a lot of material where he looks like he likes it, that's how he's been trained to look, it wouldn't mean anything."

Angling his head and almost falling to the ground until Sasuke grabs his shoulder, keeping him upright, Naruto manages a glimpse of the clip Shikamaru has selected.

It shows them on a plane or a bus or something, Naruto asleep in his seat, Sasuke beside him directing a wry, rather soft smirk at him and then leaning over to rest his head on Naruto's shoulder. He looks safe and comfortable and familiar with Naruto.

"That's good," Tsunade says.

Naruto can only agree that it's a very lovely clip, but he agrees with Kushina too: "Does he know you took that?"

Shikamaru's rather surprised tones, "No, of course not. But one of my selection parameters was it couldn't be something that'd upset him too much. This is fairly low key."

"Then no," Kushina says. "We're not using it."

Dad's voice, exasperated, "Kushina…"

"No. That child has been sold out enough. We're not doing this behind his back. If you want any semblance of trust or loyalty – "

"He can't stand any of us anyway –"

"Oh really?" snaps Kushina, who rarely does sarcasm, but does it well now. "Because I was under the impression that it was Kabuto he turned into minced meat, while you got your son alive and your northern vassals saved from their demons."

"He didn't do that for me."

"No, he did it for Naruto, and so far he's held off hurting you for Naruto, but I don't doubt there's a limit to that. Let's not cross it for trivialities."

"This isn't a triviality. Oh, enough. I know you've always failed to grasp the importance of preventing catastrophes, I know it doesn't come with the same glory as swooping in to sort them out, but it's – "

"Preventing him from turning on you over some stupid media stunt is exactly –"

"Enough," Tsunade interrupts. "We all know Orochimaru's shown him off in rather more revealing positions. I doubt he cares about anyone seeing him using Naruto as a pillow, especially since it's common knowledge that they're childhood friends."

"What matters," Kushina says, "isn't the contents of the clip. It's that it was taken without his knowledge or consent – behind his back. That we're going behind his back to use him to further our own goals."

"If we asked, he'd hardly agree to a photo shoot," Dad snaps. "But this is nothing. Odds are he won't care."

"He's spent his whole life being used by other people, he has every right to care."

"Are you feeling sorry for him now?" Dad sneers.

Kushina unexpectedly calms down. Naruto knows from uncomfortable experience that she's a yeller, but she doesn't yell now. "Sure. I've never been sorry enough that I stepped in, but of course I understand that he was in a horrific situation, of course I feel sorry when I see a child being abused. What kind of monster wouldn't? But I'm talking sense. He's someone now that we'd do better to work with."

Dad sighs. "If that was possible…"

"Why wouldn't it be? We got along perfectly fine when I spoke to him."

Naruto imagines Dad blinking, taken aback. "Then I don't see why he's so uncooperative with me."

Tsunade snorts. "He already has a father figure, albeit a rather terrible one that he hates. He's been lacking a mother."

Kushina's rather faint but also rather vehement voice, "I'm nothing like Mikoto."

"No," Tsunade agrees. "I doubt he could stand you if you were."

"If I may cut in," Shikamaru says in the deafening silence. "What's happened to Kabuto?" Dad quickly explains, and Shikamaru says, "Oh. Then I'm strongly opposed to spreading this clip. Or any clip."

"Don't be absurd," Tsunade says.

"No," Shikamaru says, sounding upset for once, alive. "I don't wish to be tortured to death – to a point I wished for death, and couldn't have it – over a stupid clip. No. I'm not taking these odds. We should tell Naruto. He can decide. He'll survive it, either way."

"Like he'd ever agree to this kind of thing," Kushina says.

"Let's revisit this conversation later," Tsunade cuts in. "I need to check up on Gaara."

Sasuke quickly walks away, Naruto in tow. All the while Sasuke's remained expressionless, giving away nothing, and he still offers no reaction.

Naruto's too antsy, too curious, to be more than half distracted by Sasuke entering the changing room and pulling up the hem off his shirt.

"Hey," he tries.

Sasuke gives him almost the same smirk he did in Shikamaru's clip. "She's wrong. You'd totally give that thing to the media behind my back."

"Well, yeah. Cause I know you don't care really."

Sasuke nods, pulling the shirt over his head.

Naruto is struck by a terrible suspicion. "But you're not pissed. You're – do you have like a girlcrush on my fake mum?"

"I certainly don't have one on you." He drops his trousers, and Naruto licks his lips, trying to stay focussed. "She can have it if she wants. The clip."

"Dad's the one who wants it."

"He's not getting anything from me."

"Ah." His phone beeps. "Um. Gaara's asking for me."

"Go."

"I just…" He surges forward, pressing his face briefly to Sasuke's. "Okay, I'm going."

xxxxx

Minato's in his office when it happens. It's Tsunade who comes in to tell him, like it was Tsunade who came into this very office six years ago and told him Yui was dead.

She doesn't need to speak. Her drawn, haggard face says it all: war has come.

He sits back in his chair, forcing his shoulders to straighten from their slump. "We knew it was only a matter of time," he reminds himself.

Tsunade makes a sound of agreement. "It's about what we predicated."

The situation in Rain Country, never stable, has imploded. Shifter communities wiped, supposedly collateral damage during exorcisms. The government looking the other way as much of the military aids and abets BEAST rising up.

"We're going to have to step in," Tsunade says.

"Naruto will go," Minato decides. "We'll want our own exorcist there. He can bring Gaara, too. They'll balance each other out."

"He's not ready."

"None of us are. He'd better grow into it." He sighs. "You go with them, if you prefer."

"When the situation here has cleared up," Tsunade agrees. "We'll need to go over exactly where we stand."

I did this, he thinks. Hundreds of thousands of people will die. Millions, probably.

If he'd fought this hard, sacrificed this much, for Yui when she was still alive… But he's always too late.

He expected blame from Kushina – certainly he deserves it – but Kushina's never been one to blame people. She remains unshakable and on his side, a better family than he's ever deserved. "I'm glad now that Sasuke gave us Kabuto," she says, hours later. "If worse comes to worst, we can handle an infestation on our own."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

Kushina snorts. "It wouldn't be the first time." Her voice softens, grows more serious. "You miss Kakashi."

Sasuke's actually been incredibly accommodating and efficient about exorcising, but yes, Minato certainly misses their exorcist being his exorcist, rather than Naruto's. While Kakashi had different commitments, had directives from the Crusader Council to abide by, he was far more reliable because genuinely loyal.

He's a grown man now of course, but he was tiny when Minato first knew him. It was a remarkable thing, when that pointy, unloved child became the hand of God upon this earth, crushed a skyful of demons in his fist. When afterwards he stepped down out of Heaven, and smiled that crooked, secret smile up at Minato, as if asking for approval. As if wanting to reach out and not knowing how, viciously not knowing how.

"Mmh," Kushina says. "That's not what I meant. The way he believed in you – he looked at you like you'd hung the moon, like he couldn't conceive of you ever failing. That's something to miss."

"I disappointed him," Minato says, tugging the covers up securely over Konohamaru's sleeping form. Konohamaru wasn't happy about Naruto leaving again, and the news of war breaking out can't have helped.

"Of course you did," Kushina tells him. "There's nobody in the world could live up to those expectations."

"Perhaps not." He strokes Konohamaru's forehead, smoothing out the sullen creases.

Kushina's face is mostly amused, the amusement she dons to shut out anything else, as she says, "I remember your mother expressing her surprise that you never considered – well. Keeping him."

"You can't be serious."

She shrugs, very lightly. "Sure."

"My mother would hardly approve of my cheating on you."

"It wouldn't be the first time." It's said without rancour.

"I did not," he snaps. "If anything, I cheated on Yui with you."

She nods towards the door, signalling it's time for them to leave. "I know you see it that way. You know nobody else does."

In the darkness after he's turned off Konohamaru's nightlight, he sheds the pretence that this is a joking matter. "He was a little kid. A little kid who'd been let down by every single adult in his life."

"They seem to have a knack for that, don't they, the exorcists? Letting their children down."

He sees another example of that next morning, when he finds Neji Hyuuga outside the door. Minato's never yet seen an expression on the boy's face, and this time is no different. Sasuke too keeps his face blank in this way, but where Neji's eyes are as expressionless as the rest of him, Sasuke's always burn.

"Good morning," Minato says. "Can I help you?"

"Good morning," Neji echoes. It's impossible to pinpoint just what it is that makes it sound like he's talking at a dog. "I'm here to see Sasuke."

Minato doesn't expect the Council to have sent him, not when Kushina spoke to Mikoto so recently – and if anyone were to stop by for a personal visit, he'd have reckoned on it being Kakashi. Neji's plainly uncomfortable in this shifter stronghold: not in the sense of someone surrounded by threat, but rather in the sense of a cleanly person surrounded by incredible filth.

"He left yesterday evening."

It's clear that Neji doesn't believe him.

"Why don't you give him a call?" Minato suggests, choosing to be amused. It would be too exhausting to feel any other way about the constant need to placate sullen, racist exorcist children.

Neji stares at him blankly for perhaps twenty seconds, before picking up his phone. Presumably Sasuke answers, because Neji starts talking in Latin. He nods at Minato, semi-politely, and walks away. His rather possessive grip on the phone leads Minato to conclude that it's for the best that Sasuke isn't here.

xxxxx

Shikamaru decides it's time he started updating Naruto's social media accounts again. Naruto actually had quite a following, before the hiatus necessitated by the northern campaign, built mostly on candid charm. This morning, Naruto sleepy and dishevelled in what looks like an old Spiderman pyjamas that clings snugly to his muscles and rides up to show slices of skin, would fit right in. It's approachable, it's attractive, and it's charmingly ridiculous.

Shikamaru would particularly like to capitalise on this morning because Sasuke seems…happy, sort of.

The photos of him that have circulated lately have been either of Sasuke the crusader, still glowing with God's grace and turning his haughty, judgemental face away from any nearby shifter, or of Sasuke the heavily abused child, visibly injured.

No faction is openly accusing each other of that abuse, because they were all involved, they've all had a hand in it.

Still, it'd be good to show off this Sasuke, who responds to Naruto's incessant, smitten bickering quite warmly. Who looks rather surprisingly human, in an overlarge fleece jacket and with his hair an utter mess, yawning and making tea. Naruto slides his arms around his waist, whispering in his ear, and when Sasuke eventually turns to face him, he puts his arms around Naruto's neck, lets Naruto press their cheeks together.

They look like they're in love.

The post-coital bliss is practically rolling off Naruto in waves, and he keeps crowding Sasuke as Sasuke picks up his tea cup and makes for the table. Leans forward to kiss him, making a sour face at the taste of what smells like strong green tea but not stopping.

Sasuke apparently draws the line at letting Naruto pull him down into his lap, but he does rest his feet, one in a big woollen sock and one just metal, on Naruto's thigh, sitting curled around his tea. When Naruto wraps his tail around the flesh foot and up his leg, Sasuke lets him.

"…and then," Naruto says, gesturing with his sandwich and spraying crumbs as he finishes some anecdote, "boom!"

Sasuke snickers, saying something too low for Shikamaru to catch that makes Naruto laugh.

"You are such a ninny," Kiba remarks, and Naruto gives him the finger and a huge grin.

"Anyway," Naruto says, reaching for the bowl of tomatoes and pushing it towards Sasuke, "we should see about getting Pari exorcised."

"No," Sasuke says flatly.

Naruto leans in for a quick kiss that must be thoroughly disgusting, an unnatural mixture of green tea, tomatoes, and Naruto's hot chocolate. "It'd be a great statement. We could show we're in charge and we're sorting things out, get the whole situation settled down."

"They killed an exorcist," Sasuke points out, "that's why they're blacklisted."

One of those good-for-someone-who's-not-a-crusader exorcists, shot to death. Supposedly collateral damage in a terrorist attack, but nobody knows for sure. Shikamaru privately suspects it was Orochimaru who arranged for it, to up the tension in the region.

"So did Rock, though? Kind of."

"Mmh," Sasuke agrees, around a mouthful of tea. "And if I'd known about that officially, Rock would be dust and ashes."

"I," Naruto starts.

"No," Sasuke cuts him off, implacable but still calm and rather cosy. "I'm gonna go nova one day, and the Council might still decide that this whole – you – is cause to make me. Doing it over a stupid town that didn't have the sense to protect the exorcist sent their way – no."

"Over me," Naruto repeats, closing a hand around Sasuke's knee.

"It's unlikely." He snorts, a slightly less bitter sound than usual. "Orochimaru wouldn't let them."

"That can't be," Naruto begins, looking absolutely devastated.

"It's fine," Sasuke says. "Neji wouldn't agree, or Hanabi probably. Obviously Kakashi." He makes a funny sound. "Itachi's never put much stock in the Council. He'd consider it a waste."

Shikamaru calculates. Kakashi, as Head of Hatake, has his own seat. Hiashi Hyuuga listens to Hanabi, if not to Neji. And the Council would never go against Itachi and Orochimaru both.

"I thought Neji hated shifters," Naruto mumbles dejectedly.

Sasuke offers a tiny smirk, misshapen and strokey the way that means it's real, that he's not controlling his face. "He likes me."

Naruto's bowed head comes up. "Did you sleep with him?"

Sasuke doesn't hesitate. "Yes."

It's a clear indication of how Orochimaru handled things that Sasuke, whom Shikamaru has always considered a rather private person, obviously thinks nothing of having this conversation in front of him and Kiba.

Naruto's hand fists with a crunching sound, and Sasuke hisses sharply. "Fuck you!"

"Shit. Sorry. Sorry!" Naruto snatches his hand away, letting Sasuke's crushed kneecap heal.

"It wasn't serious," Sasuke says. "I have no interest in doing it again." It must be true, because Naruto calms down.

Shikamaru doesn't like to think Naruto's taking it better than expected when Naruto's just pulverised his boyfriend's knee in a fit of jealousy, and certainly if Temari ever behaved in this fashion towards Shikamaru he'd be deeply disturbed. But it is what it is, and Sasuke, who unlike Shikamaru does have the means to retaliate, doesn't even move his feet from where they're still resting against Naruto's thigh.

"Still," Naruto says, sprawling back in his chair and taking a belligerent bite of his sandwich. "We have to do something about Pari."

"No, we don't."

"Uh, yes? Obviously? It's a big town, they're having a lot of trouble trying to evacuate, at least half the population's going to die."

"So?" Sasuke takes another sip of tea. "People die all the time. I can't see they're contributing much value to an already overpopulated world."

Naruto blinks at him, reaching for the cheese. "Uh, all life is precious?"

"There are seven billion of us," Sasuke tells him dryly, snatching up some cheese himself, "most of whom cost more than they contribute. On average, it's really not that precious."

"Such a misanthropist," Naruto mutters around a mouthful of cheese sandwich.

"Humanity is a resource drain," Sasuke says. "A million of them aren't worth one exorcist. They need to know their place."

"Thousands of civilians dying over something they couldn't control is just going to create resentment."

Sasuke shrugs. "Everyone knows the rules. An exorcist dies on your watch, you're done for." He reaches forward, towards the chess board Shikamaru's using to play himself, and pushes a white knight forward. It's not the move Shikamaru would've made, which makes it far more interesting.

"I'm gonna go inspect the troops," Naruto says, standing and pressing a possessive kiss to the side of Sasuke's face. "I wanna know exactly what we're working with before I have to start fighting with Gaara about how aggressive we should be."

"Wait up," Kiba says, abandoning his almost finished breakfast.

In their absence Shikamaru contemplates Sasuke and his chess strategies, and wonders if he played with Orochimaru, or Kakashi, or Neji. Whoever it was, he's good enough to make it an interesting match.

"How about it," Shikamaru suggests. "When I win, you sit for a mock interview."