Take Only What You Need from Me

Sasuke sleeps heavily but badly, fully dressed and ensconced in the duvet, which is rolled tightly around him. Naruto's allowed in the bed – possibly indeed welcome in the bed – but dressed as well and with his own separate blanket.

Sex – any touch – is more firmly off the table than it's been since just after the bonding.

They both have nightmares, which bleed into each other, filthy and sickening as sewage spillage. Naruto dreams of Mum dying, which he's done a thousand times before, but he's never before seen family members – Tsunade, Kakashi, Dad – pour her into a meat grinder, turn her into minced meat.

Sasuke dreams of being – Sasuke wouldn't call it this, but they're dreams of being raped. I know what you're good for, Orochimaru tells him, only sometimes he turns into Kakashi, or worse: into Itachi.

Never into Naruto, though, never even into Kyuubi, but Naruto's too tired, too cranky and hurt and hollow, to really take that in right now.

It's still entirely dark outside when they leave the bed behind for energy drinks and sparring. Sasuke looks like an unholy spirit, clammy pallor and panda rings, and catching sight of himself in a dark window, Naruto's not faring any better.

They're absolutely viciously awful to each other, these hateful barbs and nasty hits, and the stale taste of sleeplessness and over-caffeinated, empty carbs.

Sasuke says Naruto can stop whining about his stupid worthless mother, who anyway believed in sacrificing people for the greater good – wasn't she ashamed that she wasn't prepared to give you up to Orochimaru for world peace? Well, she died for her convictions at last, didn't she.

Naruto says at least his mother didn't give anyone up, she never could have, and whatever stupid shit she said, she died for it, that's enough. At least she loved him, unlike your mother – that's a real monster, giving a kid to Orochimaru.

Sasuke smirks that thin awful smirk and says even his mother still knew he was too good for Naruto.

It would maybe be a little less grindingly horrible if any of it had been anything less than the truth.

Sparring is difficult and frustrating, because Sasuke doesn't want to be touched.

"All right, fine," Naruto says, the umpteenth time Sasuke's avoided attacking in order to avoid contact. "Let's work with the sword instead. It's about done, right?"

"Right."

They retrieve the blade from the stuffed chair, and Naruto watches it come alive in Sasuke's hands, glowing brighter and brighter as Sasuke pours blessings over it.

"Here," he says finally, gruffly, pushing it into Naruto's hands. "Let it get used to your energy."

The blade fits his hand: fits him. Its power pulsates, adjusts, as it aligns with Naruto's.

Still Sasuke doesn't seem very pleased. "You need to be more – angelic." He throws open the windows. "Out."

"Um."

Sasuke slants a look at him. "Scared?"

It's a playground dare, so Naruto chooses to take it as a joke, and sticks out his tongue. "In your dreams!"

All the same it's Sasuke who climbs out first, confident that the air will carry him, sixteen stories off the ground. While Naruto's confident that he could stop his fall and heal whatever injuries he sustained, it's very new to believe he can walk across the sky.

Sasuke likes it better up here in the chilly dawn sky, and so does the sword. Naruto starts humming, Think of the happiest things, it's the same as having wings…

It's a very good sign that Sasuke seems amused.

It's an even better sign that he catches Naruto when Naruto slips and starts to fall – Kyuubi doesn't like sharing Naruto's body with Uriel, and lashes out at the angel energy, even though that's incredibly self-destructive when it's Uriel keeping them from plummeting to the earth.

When they eventually climb back in through the kitchen window, Sasuke's cheeks are flushed from the cold so he doesn't look so sickly pale anymore. "How did I do?" Naruto asks cheekily. "Will you make a crusader out of me yet?"

"I'll make a new sword. I've got a clearer idea now what you need."

"Yeah? Awesome."

He puts on music: a clear sign to leave them alone, and a way to avoid being overheard by too-close shifters. He fiddles through songs, looking for something Sasuke will find acceptable, and finally resigns himself to Ode to Joy, which is very much Sasuke's kind of music. If you grow up with psalms and church organs, the classic don't seem so pompous or inaccessible.

Sasuke's boiling tea water while Naruto whisks pancake batter when Kakashi ambles in, presumably looking for coffee.

Sasuke does that thing he does something: cutting himself off, shutting down. He was moving his foot impatiently, not quite in time with the music, he was looking at Naruto with different expressions on his face. Now suddenly he's entirely still and cold and calm and collected, like a little stone.

"Morning," Kakashi says, getting a coffee cup from the cabinet above the sink. He stands too close to Sasuke, closer than Sasuke wants anyone right now, but Sasuke doesn't react.

"Morning," Naruto echoes. "What the – what the hell are you doing?"

Kakashi shrugs, starting the coffee machine. "I assumed either you'd attack me then and there, or you'd wait until I was fully recovered. Either way, I don't think now's the time."

Naruto had planned to say something angry, something admonishing, but what comes out in a small voice is, "Did she suffer a lot?"

"Yes," Kakashi says, courteously not looking at him. "Not for long, though."

"They had her for days."

"They weren't very professional," Kakashi tells him. "Not the thugs who were actually there. They can't have started really torturing her until ten-fifteen hours before I got there, or she'd have already been dead."

"Is that – is it hard to keep someone alive, if you torture them?"

"Yes," Sasuke says.

"Right. Okay."

He wants…he'd like Sasuke to look at him, maybe touch him.

Sasuke suddenly throws the saucepan of boiling water at Kakashi.

Kakashi hisses in surprised pain.

Sasuke stares at him, breathing a bit hard but still utterly expressionless, as if he were perfectly in control of himself.

Kakashi bends to pick up the saucepan, and puts it back on the stove. Sasuke shudders away from him.

Kakashi cups his face, and Sasuke stills. It's a more thorough stillness than before, bone-deep and resigned. His shoulders are relaxed, his lips lax, his eyes dead.

Naruto grabs Kakashi's wrist, just short of breaking it. Kyuubi growls in his throat. "Get off him."

Kakashi lifts an eyebrow but lets his hands fall from Sasuke's face.

"You need to go," Naruto tells him.

Kakashi looks to Sasuke, but Sasuke's ignoring them. He takes the saucepan – it's still hot but he takes it carelessly, his fingers red and blistering as he pours more water into it.

Kakashi neither struggles nor cooperates when Naruto physically removes him from the room.

"How dare you," he says, and the words are unwieldy and cliché but he can't find any other ones. "After whatever the hell you said to him yesterday…!"

"Itachi said some rather unfortunate things," Kakashi says, speaking mildly and lightly with this faint undertone of ironic amusement, as is his habit. "I don't believe I did."

"Itachi – and, and what the hell, you just let him?"

"There's no talking to Itachi when he gets stuck on a tangent."

"So you shut him up."

"Isn't it rather funny – you're upset with me, or Sasuke's upset with me, because I made the decision for him when I brought him to you. Now you're angry with me because I let him make his own decisions how to handle Itachi."

Naruto blinks. Kakashi's missing the point, missing it so fundamentally that Naruto doesn't know where to begin explaining it to him. "You don't fucking stand by and let someone hurt him for the hell of it." He sighs. Then it strikes him: "When you brought him to me. You said you owed Dad. It wasn't because – it wasn't because he'd looked after you when you were a kid. You owed him for Mum."

Kakashi seems surprised, the same way Naruto reckons Sasuke would be surprised: surprised that there was ever a moment when this was not obvious to Naruto. "I've repaid him with interest for anything else. You have to know he wouldn't be Hokage without me?"

"No, I hadn't thought about that." He shakes his head, shakes this off. "You need to go. Seriously. You're setting him off, right now." He doesn't wait for an answer, going back inside the kitchen and closing the door quickly after him, in case Kakashi decides to try and follow.

The new water's boiling. Sasuke has his hands pressed to the saucepan.

Naruto tugs him around, into his arms. Sasuke stiffens for a split second, before clinging so hard. His fingers carve into Naruto's flesh, he presses his face into the juncture of Naruto's neck and shoulder as though he means to burrow it inside Naruto's body.

Naruto mutters nonsense in ear, hugging him back just as hard. Kyuubi's claws, burning and cutting, drag over Sasuke's skin, just short of torturous overstimulation.

While Sasuke's hands have healed, the smell of severe burn injuries lingers. It's a very good thing that at least on a medical level, Kyuubi makes selfharm a nonissue.

Sasuke leans so heavily on him that it might be a presentiment to phantom pain, to his foot being unable to bear his weight: Naruto hoists him up on the kitchen table, standing between his legs and stroking his neck, scratching his spine.

Sasuke finally looks at him, the same way he looked at him yesterday, when he said, Tell me – tell me –

"I've got you," Naruto tells him. "You belong to me. I love you."

Sasuke still looks like a ghost: awful and desperate. He kisses Naruto hard and deep.

Naruto kisses him back, but softly, careful not to escalate. "You're who I'll always choose. Who I absolutely have to keep. I love you. If you could just let me – if you'd just feel it…"

Sasuke's fingers knead his back like cat paws. "Not you – just Kyuubi."

Naruto nods, their faces brushing, Eskimo kisses. This is the most difficult thing he's ever done. Letting Kyuubi take over, so that when Sasuke eases away the blockages, the only love, the only certainty, Sasuke can feel is Kyuubi's, not Naruto's: and yet not letting Kyuubi move his body, not letting Kyuubi touch Sasuke.

Sasuke stiffens, as if struck by lightning. Slowly, slowly, in minimal increments, he steadies and untangles them.

Naruto can't let himself kiss him, so rubs their noses together again before stepping back. "I think the pancake batter's ruined."

"I don't like pancakes."

"I do!"

But Sasuke's losing weight again, so Naruto takes care to make the disgusting old man breakfast foods that Sasuke likes. It's a careful balance, gauging how much Sasuke feels capable of eating and stealing just enough food from his plate that the remaining amount matches. Usually Sasuke has a healthy, even competitive, appetite, but the last few days – after Stonehall – he hasn't been eating well. After a childhood of Itachi and his goddamn religious fasts, Naruto knows Sasuke associates hunger with purity.

Sasuke's pulled himself together though, quickly and ruthlessly, and is steady and sure once more.

"I was thinking," Naruto says. "We should talk to Tsunade. Decide on our route."

Sasuke nods. "I need to settle things."

"So we go home," Naruto says.

"Yes."

Naruto nods, grimacing at a spoonful of nut porridge. "Then Tsunade can stay here and keeps things stable. But we'll lay out the route with her, take care of the stuff that's on our way?"

"Sure."

"So I'll talk to her now. You wanna come?"

Sasuke shakes his head.

"Okay." Naruto presses a kiss to the side of his head. "Are you gonna hurt yourself?"

"No."

"I'm glad."

Sasuke gives him a tired, cynical look. "I'm fine."

"Okay," Naruto says vaguely. "Except you're not?"

"Neither are you."

"What are you talking about? I'm awesome." He scoots over, until he's in Sasuke's lap.

"Being fine and being awesome are two very different things."

"Mmh." He rubs his cheek against Sasuke's unwashed hair.

"You're pretty calm about your mum."

"Mmh. I just – they're still my people, and it'd be such a mess for everyone if I – it wouldn't make anything better if I turned on them."

"I never thought you'd work with people you didn't trust."

Naruto shrugs. "I work with Kyuubi all the time."

Sasuke makes a little sound like a chuckle, and Naruto kisses above his ear.

xxxxx

Sasuke's read the same Paradise Lost paragraph five times when Kakashi sinks into a stuffed chair. Sasuke's sitting on the window ledge, a few metres between them.

"My plane leaves in a few hours," Kakashi says.

"Why would that interest me?"

Kakashi shrugs, lifting a hand to touch the gauze over his left eye. Sasuke's eye. "I hadn't expected this."

"You pulled out the spokes of the seal. I don't like owing people."

"You owe me nothing."

"No, I've paid my depts."

"I owe you, probably more than I can ever repay, eye or no eye."

Sasuke has nothing to say to that.

Kakashi leans back in the chair, looking tired and sick, a stomach-turningly familiar. Sasuke can barely remember a time when he didn't know this man, didn't consider this man family.

"What would you have liked me to do?" Kakashi finally asks. "You feel I messed up, I feel I messed up. But I really – perhaps that's what so frustrating – I don't know what I should've done instead."

Sasuke's not going to say: you should've kept me for yourself. You should never have allowed anyone else to lay a hand on me.

"It's too late for that."

"Maa, I suppose it is."

"Naruto believes in forgiveness," Sasuke reminds him. "I don't."

"I'm not convinced forgiveness is always very relevant."

"You need to catch your plane."

"Ah. Yes, I suppose I do. I'll see you around, Sasuke."

xxxxx

It starts out very simple. It's a Tuesday, they've stopped in New Suna, the fourth largest city in the country.

Sasuke's perched on the windowsill, in bleak but warm light and just above a sheer drop. Looking at him, Naruto thinks of a crow chick balancing on the edge of its nest, rather hoping to fall, confident that then it will finally fly.

"I'm gonna go see Ito."

"Hn," Sasuke says, still looking out. The window's open, Sasuke's fingers resting in the air.

"Hey," Naruto calls softly, reaching out to fit his palm against Sasuke's. Sasuke has beautiful hands, with the long tapered fingers of a pianist or a thief: large knuckles and delicate bones, silky skin broken by coarse calluses.

Sasuke finally looks at him, not expressionless but not with an expression Naruto can really decipher. Naruto keeps playing with his hand, dead serious suddenly, fitting and refitting their fingers, stroking, intertwining.

"I called Orochimaru," Sasuke finally says.

Naruto tries not to stiffen – but Sasuke's thoughtful and rather spent, at least partly because of some heavy exorcising: he's stable again, and fiercely determined. "Oh?"

"He was asking about Kimimarou," Sasuke says. "I explained."

"Why he went nova when you told him…?"

"That I'd take care of Orochimaru."

"Ah," Naruto says, resting their foreheads together. His instinct is to kiss Sasuke, but Sasuke still doesn't want to be touched sexually.

Sasuke huffs at him. "Ito."

"Mmh." He swallows Kyuubi's growl, brushing his cheek briefly against Sasuke's chin before stepping away.

A few days ago, Sasuke would've probably come with him.

A few days ago, Naruto would've been late, because he could've touched Sasuke.

Today he steps into Ito's study perfectly on time. During their last tense conversation, which was mostly putting words as a shield between themselves and the unspeakable things, Tsunade tried to impress on him the importance of this man. A major player in the human government, active mainly in the capital but with his powerbase here in New Suna.

I know, Naruto told her, I know.

He's familiar with Ito, who speaks now warmly and competently. Naruto has to deflect the matter of exorcising – he hasn't done that again where anyone could possibly see, not until things are sorted with the exorcists – and obviously Ito can't be best pleased about Stonehall, but for a politician, he's always been reasonable, even kind.

It's only when they've wrapped things up and shook hands that things go wrong.

Ito starts to say how he's glad Naruto's being so reasonable, overlooking these old indiscretions – obviously Sasuke's in a better place now, and the past should stay in the past, all very sensible and admirable.

It hits Naruto – that's what it feels like, like he's being hit – Sasuke's dismissive night-time voice back in Rock, There were a very few very high-up humans.

Naruto had said how there were all these rumours about Orochimaru pimping Sasuke out.

I bet you've never even slept with a human.

Not by choice.

"Oh no," Naruto says, his voice oddly light and far-away.

Sasuke doesn't even recognise Ito. Naruto had him on video chat before they arrived in New Suna, and Sasuke passed by and didn't react, didn't recall ever seeing Ito before.

Maybe he'd been drugged, when it happened: God knows he must've been impaired in some way, or he'd have maimed any human who dared lay hand on him. Seal or no seal, Ito wouldn't have walked away from that encounter unscathed.

Ito's talking again, in that familiar voice that's always sounded so reasonable, so well-meaning. Naruto's beyond listening.

He takes a step forward, and Ito's never seemed afraid of shifters but he backs up now, presumably towards an alarm button.

That won't save him.

"…but to kill someone in cold blood, Naruto, you have to have a killer space inside you. A panic room in your mind where you go to do it. You have Kyuubi, you've been able to do so much in the heat of the moment, but that's different. The sort of mind you need to kill in cold blood, you don't have that."

Naruto smiles at him, an expression that hurts. "No, but you see, the thing is – Sasuke does."

Naruto steps into it now, that panic room from which to kill in cold blood. It's cosy, homey, a place where Sasuke's been a lot of time, has lived much of his life. Naruto knows he'll kill Ito and when he does it'll feel good. He'll feel safe.

xxxxx

For a long moment, Neji hardly recognises Sasuke. For almost as long as he's known him, Sasuke's magic has burnt in a tight circle just under the seal: now suddenly it envelopes him, a full-body halo that sings and hisses.

Sasuke's perched on a window ledge, ostensibly reading something on a tablet but his body drawn tight with the desire to fall backwards, out into the sky. He's calm, but not in a peaceful sense: this is the shut-down calm that Neji recognises, that Neji himself has retreated into and lives his life inside.

The mongrel beast is nowhere around.

Finally Sasuke looks up at him. He's never been one to play these subtle power games, about who looks first, speaks first. "Neji."

"Hello," Neji can at last permit himself to say. He steps closer, drawn inexorably to the light of Uriel's presence and the familiar smell of Sasuke's underwashed hair. "You're using too much."

Angel light simmers and boils under Sasuke's skin, flowing like magma along his veins. It's not uncommon to draw on this much power in threatening situations, since the divine grace will ward off attack, but to do it longterm breaks down the human elements of an exorcist's body, eats its cells.

Sasuke smirks. "I find myself healing well of late."

Neji takes that in. It's a filthy thought he hasn't wanted to entertain, but he can't say it's unexpected, and Sasuke's always been more pragmatic about these things. "Speaking of, where's your pet fox?"

Sasuke looks momentarily distracted, presumably focusing on the bond. "Playing guard dog, it seems."

"Indeed," Neji starts, but Sasuke stiffens, an expression of fond exasperation crossing his face. "What has he done?"

"He's not very good at killing people in lukewarm blood," Sasuke says, still with that odd combination of annoyance and – and affection. Mikoto was right: Sasuke needs away from the mongrel. "Let out Rafael."

The door opens behind them. Armed humans, who open fire – presumably before recognising Neji, but they must know who Sasuke is.

Rafael rushes to the surface, and Neji thinks, too late, too late, because the bullets are already flying towards them.

Uriel's wings, already half extended, snap open, an implacable shield.

Neji's untouched, and sees with shock that Sasuke's bleeding. This makes no sense, because Uriel would shield Sasuke before he shielded Neji, but there is indisputably blood trickling down Sasuke's face.

Sasuke smirks, reaching up to pull a bullet out of his cheek. The metal smokes in his hand, this tiny thing that should've killed him. "I trust you'll bear witness that these humans attempted to harm a crusader."

There's no argument, can be no argument. They all know the punishment for this.

"I bear this witness before God."

The humans are still firing when the purgatory flames of God's vengeance devours them.

…for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me…

Pari was blacklisted, left to the demons, for the sin of not adequately protecting the exorcist sent their way. New Suna has actively sought to kill two crusaders.

It's distasteful, but it has to be done. Fortunately Sasuke seems very amenable to carrying out New Suna's punishment. To Uriel, after all, has been entrusted the vengeance of the Lord.

It's cleaner than Revelations, a sanitary purging filled with light, but equally final. Soon they will see dense smoke rise from the land where New Suna stood, like smoke from a furnace: the outcry against the city so great, and their sin so grievous that nothing else can be done.

Sasuke moves slowly to begin with, in order to – Neji doesn't want to think this, but it must be to let Naruto and his entourage understand what's happening and flee – but picks up speed gradually. They walk through the streets as angels of death. Sasuke smites New Suna, and utterly destroys all that they have, and spares them not; but slays both man and woman, infant and suckling.

At last they walk out of a ghost town. This morning New Suna was a thriving city, sheltering millions of lives. Hours later there's not a living soul within its walls.

Sasuke has immolated and erased, cleansed it of its human taint.

There are a few thousand refugees outside, and Sasuke seems content to leave them be, but policy dictates no loose ends, so Neji purges them. That includes a few shifters: Sasuke only stops him when they're reaching Naruto's group, a firm hand on Neji's arm permitting no further movement.

In the past, with the seal, this would have been Sasuke asking Neji to spare them. Now, with the seal gone, it's an order.

Well, Neji supposes the result would've been the same either way.

Then there's Naruto, reckless and disgusting, grabbing onto Sasuke as though he has a perfect right to. Neji looks forward to seeing his hands burn off, only they don't.

Naruto ignores him completely, the same way Neji ignores the rest of the shifters.

"Sasuke! What have you done?"

Sasuke smirks. He's come alive again, come out of the stillness of death. "It's a little embarrassing to still be best known for a massacre I committed when I was nine. Time to step up my game."

Naruto shakes him, wild-eyed, and Sasuke lets him, seeming on the verge of laughter.

"Sasuke, Jesus fucking Christ, this is fucked up!"

"They shot me, you know," Sasuke tells him, more collected now, brushing Naruto's hands off but not stepping away from him. "Shot at Neji, too. They knew what would happen."

"Oh. But why – that doesn't make any sense!"

"They didn't know their place," Sasuke shrugs. "Anyway if you hadn't been so messy killing Ito, if you hadn't let him call for help…"

"He had to die," Naruto snaps. "The way he talked about you – like he thought I'd understand what he'd done…!" He looks more uncertain now. "You really didn't remember him?"

"He was just a tool," Sasuke says. "He didn't matter."

"He gave you to humans?" Neji demands, shuddering with disgust at this final defilement.

No wonder Sasuke's so open to the mongrel's advances, if he's already been soiled by humans.

Sasuke shrugs. "Sometimes."

"I'm glad we purged them," Neji says. "Filthy beasts. Sinners the lot of them."

"These cleansing laws are barbaric," Naruto argues. "Punishing the people actually attacking exorcists – fine, that's necessary. But everyone else!"

"The laws keep the world safe," Neji says. Exorcists are a finite resource, the one effective shield against a demon invasion that would otherwise swallow the world, while humans are always replaceable.

"I'm so sick of this greater good bullshit!" Naruto erupts.

"What's done is done," Sasuke interrupts. "Stonehall won't seem so bad now, either."

"That's not…!" Naruto starts, but he's not very relevant anymore.

Above them the sky darkens.

"Shit," Naruto says, turning a fraction later to look at the heavens as they burst open, demons spilling through. He seems to understand the same thing Neji understands: that while Sasuke's monstrously powerful, he's exorcised a lot lately, and he just purged New Suna. Wiping humans, ironically, requires more energy than fighting demons, and while Neji won't allow Sasuke to be harmed, he won't protect a shifter.

Rafael glows under his skin, exerting control: keeping the demons away from himself and Sasuke.

Naruto runs back to his friends, who are really very close, tugging Sasuke with him.

Drained or not, Sasuke wipes the sky clean.

But there are more demons already coming, and then the world grows colder: a devil emerging.

Naruto, absurdly, starts chanting, Confiteor Deo, omnipotenti… Even more absurdly, the light of grace comes to him. Neji surmises that Sasuke must've marked him as a sacred sword, turned him into a conduit for Uriel's power.

Naruto procures a blade from somewhere, a blessed one, and locks his fingers around the handle, erecting a shield over the shifter group. Demons can't get through, the weaker ones are even exorcised by contact, but the demons aren't the problem.

Sasuke remains outside the shield, staring at the devil.

Naruto says something, but Sasuke shake his head, obliterating a new wave of demons. The way his lips move, it's possible he says, Neji will protect me.

When Neji beckons to him, he comes.

He stares at Neji in that way he has, fierce and demanding, accepting no excuses. It's the look Neji thrills to and fears, the look that makes him feel alive despite his best efforts.

"Sasuke, be reasonable."

"Reasonable is for weakling and cowards."

"You can't take on a devil yourself, not after everything else."

"So help me."

"I will," Neji says. "I'll help you."

"Fuck you."

Neji tugs him back around. "I'll take care of it. I promise. I'll just let nature have its course first."

The devil is moving towards the shifters, and something shifts in Sasuke.

Light burns in him, but he doesn't have enough left. He could take more than one devil, Neji's sure of that now, but purging a city demands so much energy… as much as exorcising three or four devils, maybe even five, when it's a city this size, and if rumours are true Sasuke took out at least one devil yesterday.

Still, the devil breaks through Naruto's shield, and Sasuke ascends, ripping free of Neji's clutching hand.

Naruto's safe then, and the rest of the filth, because Sasuke forces the devil away, but he ends up back on the ground very shortly, and it takes much longer than it should for Uriel to burn away the demon taint shadowing his face.

Neji pulls him up. "See sense!"

Sasuke turns to him then, with that look in his eyes that Neji fears but is addicted to, the look that lets him now he's alive because it burns. Sasuke's voice comes forceful but low, intimate. "Neji please." Then Sasuke kisses him, the way Neji's always wanted Sasuke to kiss him: as if he wants it the same way Neji wants it, as if he's desperate. "If you don't," Sasuke whispers, fingers curling around Neji's neck, "I'll kill you."

"Sasuke…"

"Please."

In the end, Neji's never been very good at denying Sasuke anything, not even the life of a mongrel beast.

Below him, Sasuke appears to knock Naruto unconscious and order the rest of the shifters to take him away: they run towards a car.

Sasuke himself remains, wiping any demons that appear.

Neji turns to the devil, feeling himself smile after all.