Chapter 13: Sweat misery

There was a knock on the door and a familiar voice called out from the hallway, "Konohamaru."

There was no response.

Sarutobi opened the door to the boy's room, it was still dark inside and he could tell Konohamaru hadn't turned it on since he'd came in yesterday. "..." The boy was still curled into a ball, sleeping with his head pressed against his knees and his mouth slightly open with audible breaths. He didn't even looked like he'd moved, "Konohamaru." He knelt down next to him, placing his hand on Konohamaru's shoulder and shaking him softly.

"Uh...Hm? " Konohamaru looked back at him "Huh Grandpa?"

Sarutobi looked over his face carefully, even though he had been sleeping he had dark lines under his eyes "You look horrible, when is the last time you've eaten?"

The boy shrugged "I don't know. I'm not hungry though."

What had gotten in to him? He just never acted this way before, he never looked this bad, and this is the longest he'd ever gone without food. "I was thinking and..." Sarutobi rubbed he back of his head nervously, he never actually had to do this before. "Maybe I could lift that punishment."

Konohamaru turned away quietly "That's ok..."

Now he was really worried, "Konohamaru, what's wrong? I know you don't want to say anything for whatever reason but"

"I'm fine."

"No, your not." Sarutobi said firmly "What is it then? You don't want to face it, you don't tell me? Are you scared, embarrassed? What is it!"

"It was nothing." He shook his head a remained silent.

"Maybe you'll tell me when your ready, but I'm not going to let you just sit here and drown in yourself like this." Sarutobi wrapped his arms around Konohamaru and pulled him out of bed with one swift motion, despite Konohamaru's resistance.

"Hey! Stop it!" Konohamaru struggled until he realized that his struggling was in vein because he was already being placed on his feet. 'He's pretty strong for an old guy.'

"Go outside." Sarutobi gave him a firm shove toward the door. "Do something, don't just stay here like this."

"I can't..." Konohamaru rushed through his mind for every excuse that would fit this situation, ironically he had plenty for just the opposite circumstances. "It's security, something could happen to me."

"The Sound isn't going to be anywhere near Konoha for a while." Sarutobi told him, he was sure after an unsuccessful attack of that magnitude, well not completely unsuccessful. "Stop stalling, either go outside and do something or tell me what happened."

Konohamaru sighed, he couldn't believe his grandfather was forcing him to go outside, very ironic. "Ok I guess..."

"I have a meeting to go to, so I'll be gone for a while. But when I get back we are going to talk about this."

'Not likely...'

! - ! - !

Naruto felt as if all of the air in his lungs had been pulled away, leaving him able to only gasp in disbelief. "N-no..." Naruto legs started to move on their own, stepping in a slow, mechanical like motion toward the wreckage before him. He could only look on with his eyes wide and his mouth open as though still in shock, and he was, while his legs pulled him closer and closer until he felt his feet hit wood. Even then they kept moving until the resistance was too great, and Naruto finally fell to his knees.

Waist deep in the wreckage that used to be his apartment, his home.

Naruto reached down into the various woods, rock and metal, as if digging for something, anything. But he came up with nothing but debris. 'I have...nothing left.' that was the only thing he could think, it kept repeating and repeating in his head until it finally sunk, his life had came crashing down around him. Naruto started digging through the rubble with his healthy arm, and then after a few seconds the one in a slink joined into the attempt. "No...Damnit! Damnit!" he pounded his fist and sent a good portion of wood and metal flying in to the air. It didn't matter that some was hitting him, or that his arm was hurting more and more, he just kept pounding and pounding...

"Naruto, stop it."

Naruto's eye narrowed and his head slowly turned enough for him to look over his shoulder, and he saw none other then Sasuke standing there. No cool, indifferent expression as usual, no remarks, just a boy who just didn't look like himself... He looked... "You...why the hell wont you leave me alone!" Naruto shouted, standing up from the pile and turning towards him.

"I"

"Go somewhere else."

"Naruto, just listen to me." Sasuke pleaded, he wasn't expecting it to happen though...

Naruto walked with high steps through the debris, slowly advancing on Sasuke. "You arrogant Bastard, you have to nerve to talked to me after what you did..."

"I know you don't want to hear from me but" Sasuke was cut off by a sharp punch to the face by Naruto, enough to knock him to the ground.

"Damn right!" Naruto lifted his foot to stomp on him, but found his body being pulled back by someone else. He flailed wildly to get out of the grip until finally he looked up at his captor.

"Alright, calm down." Kakashi said, releasing the boy. Kakashi had of course been following Sasuke, someone had too.

Naruto shook his head and snorted, trudging through the remaining wreckage and wandering away.

Sasuke couldn't just let him leave, he had to say something. "N-"

"You really don't know when to quit do you?" Kakashi abruptly cut him off.

Sasuke looked away, shoving his hands into his pockets in frustration and aggravation "You can stop following me, I'm not going to try anything."

"I don't know that."

The boy turned and walked away "I'm not."

"Prove it."

Sasuke glanced back at him, he didn't have much of a choice since Kakashi had a firm grip on his shoulder. He couldn't prove it, he had no way to. "I'm not."

"It's very simply done."

"How?"

"You'll figure it out, your smart."

Sasuke gave him one last overlook.

! - ! - !

"You really don't have to help me." Iruka said, knelling down with a small broom in hand and sweeping up the glass that littered his hardwood floor. "I'm sure you have more important things to do."

"It's ok." Asuma lifted a large box full of things that no longer could be used, mostly anything that could fit since everything was going. "You look like you have a lot of work to do."

"I really appreciate it." Iruka gave a small thanks as he moved over to the next window in the kitchen, knelling down in the last few orange and red rays of sunlight in the sunset, covering his body in a golden outline. Not much was left after the storm, except for water. Everything had to be replaced because of water damage or some closely related cause, everything.

Iruka tossed away the glass shards, moving on the table that had been smashed into the wall hard enough to be imbedded, far across the room from where it used to be. Iruka placed his foot against the wall wrapping both hands around a leg and pulled outward as hard as he could, it was completely buried to far for him to get out easily. On his second attempt he realized the intense pain shooting through his side from his injury. "Ahhaa..."

Iruka let go and stumbled backwards, clinching his left side tightly and cringing inwardly.

Asuma set the box down and walked over to Iruka, wrapping one arm around his back and pressing the other on to his chest to give the man some support "Are you alright?"

Iruka nodded "Yeah..." He tried to stand up strait again but bending wasn't something he'd be able to do for a while that's when he was painful reminded of how much it had taken for him to stand up strait the first time. "Heh..."

Asuma raised an eyebrow, he didn't see what was so funny "What?"

"This is just kind of embarrassing, you having to help me like this and all." Iruka blushed, he couldn't believe how much this wound had gotten in the way in such a short period of time. "I'm going to wait a while before I finish cleaning, at least until I get a little better."

"You should be resting anyway." Asuma said, "Don't worry, I'll cover for you." He was referring to work when he said this.

"Thank you Commander Sarutobi."

Asuma smirked, sifting the cigarette in his mouth that he'd lit earlier . "No need for such formalities." He said reassuring, he couldn't help but wonder about Iruka... "Just call me Asuma."

"Alright Sir...I mean Asuma." quickly corrected himself, "Sorry, habit."

Asuma picked up the box again, setting it in front of the door so he didn't forget to take it out when he left. "Well, I feel bad now. I don't have damage this severe, I don't think we can save anything."

Iruka looked around, he knew Asuma was right, nothing could be saved. "Hn..." He nodded, slowly sitting down in a chair and laying his head in his arms on the countertop.

Asuma placed a hand on his shoulder, "It's really weird to see you look so depressed. Your always so happy."

"Yeah well..."

Azuma pulled up a chair next to him, propping his elbow on to the counter and resting is head in his hand. "So, what happened?"

"You were there."

"No, I want to know why your so down."

Iruka looked over at him, he didn't know why he was so concerned with it "Why?"

Azuma knew that had come out harsher then Iruka meant, he obviously was bothered by some thing. "Because you look so horrible, it's depressing to see you look this sad when your usually the most cheery person I know."

Iruka laughed lightly "Are you serous?"

Azuma nodded "Of course, even on Mondays when everybody else barely wants to be bothered."

"Well..." Since Azuma was so interested, what could be the harm of telling him, he was actually relived, he needed to talk to someone right now and Kakashi

! - ! - !

Konohamaru slowly opened the door, met with the steady sound of constant beeps. "Ebisu?" Konohamaru looked around the empty hospital room, finding no one there except for the man laying in a bed nearby.

He walked slowly across the white tiled floors, glancing out of the open window to his left until his eyes came back on to he bed where Ebisu slept. This was one of the few times he'd seen him with out his glasses and bandana, it was strange how that was the first thing that came to his mind. Covers came up to Ebisu's waist, his upper body (and from what he could see lower body) was completely bare. An IV was connected, as well as packets of blood and some type of clear filtered into to his arms and legs. Electrodes were connected to wires on his Abs and forehead, and a tube was coming from his throat to help him breath, so much happened to him...

He looked in so much pain Konohamaru thought, Ebisu was connected to so many thing that he couldn't distinguish one wire or cord from another. "Ebisu...I'm so sorry." Konohamaru felt more tears coming to his eyes, this was his fault, he couldn't dispute that. Maybe if he'd gone to the roof when Itachi and Kisame told him too this wouldn't have happened. Naruto made it to the roof on his own, he probably would have made it in time too, and Sasuke could have just stayed for all he cared.

"I-I..." Konohamaru buried his face into Ebisu's chest and cried, he felt so weak, unable do anything else. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused you before...you just wanted to protect me...I always got so mad at you...why did you stick around...You didn't even have to have this job, you could have been doing something a lot better...but you just stayed with me...Why..."

True, Ebisu had chosen to protect Konohamaru over less stressful and much easier jobs, some with higher pay. He was never sure why Ebisu didn't just leave, he knew watching him probably wasn't easy with the things he did.

Konohamaru lifted his head, tears streaming down his face...he slowly reached down and took hold of Ebisu's hand, rough and callous from so many years of welding a gun and constant combat. Another thing he had to deal with when protecting Konohamaru, just feeling his hands he could tell that so many things went on with out him knowing, so many things Ebisu had protected him from that he never had knowledge of... "Ijust sorry..."

! - ! - !

Naruto wandered helplessly around the city, trying to find one place that he liked that still remained... 'He has the nerve to say something to me...that bastard!' Naruto clinched his fist, his face contorting in anger. That was all he had, anger and sadness now, it seemed so strange that he'd left Konoha to get away from the things he had to go through daily. How could things turn out worse then before! How could everything become this bad for him. It didn't matter that his apartment was destroyed, it wouldn't have been home with out Sasuke there, and as much as he wanted to deny it he knew it was true.

He stopped completely. "No...There's no way in hell I'm going to cry over that bastard! He's not worth it..." Naruto told himself, fighting back anything that threatened to rise within him. As much as he wanted too he wouldn't let himself, not over him, not him, he didn't want show him that what he did had hurt him so much. He didn't deserve it!

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

6 years ago...

Naruto let out a longing sigh as he imagined himself falling face first into his warm bed, it was only Fall and already it seemed that this year Konoha's winter would be particularly bad. Lucky for him he had his jacket, he seemed very happy with the piece of orange clothing at the moment. "God, has it ever been this cold this early?"

Sasuke scowled, he didn't even want to think about how cold it was especially now. A sneeze escaped from him, though he wished it was from allergies he knew it was the beginnings of a cold. There was enough things around that he could fool himself if he really tried, the red, brown and golden leaves that littered the ground, the pollen. And each breeze knocked more of it out of the threes and threw the air, "Are you sure going through the park is quicker?" Sasuke asked, lifting his arm to his forehead to wipe away a stream of water running down from his hair.

Sasuke had had a rather...unfortunate accident involving a lot water on his way home from school, or rather to Naruto's home. Long story short, Naruto, fan girls, water, and Sasuke caught in the middle. People seemed extra protective of Sasuke since the unusually circumstanced murder of his family was still fresh, a month and a day, and it still hurt...

"I know my way around, trust me." Naruto grinned pridefuly, he knew this city better then most, he'd spent most of his time wandering since he didn't like staying at home much, it was always too empty for his liking.

Sasuke didn't bring it up again, he just focused on walking, not on the cold. He hadn't expected for the temperature to become this low this quickly, it had to be about 40 now when it was 60 this morning. It didn't usually get colder as the day progressed, but today it did...another sneeze, drawing Naruto's attention this time.

Naruto watched for a moment as Sasuke trailed behind him, his arms folded and his eyes downcast towards the covered ground as if leering at it. He looked...miserable, and Naruto felt bad for him, it was almost him in that situation, if it wasn't for Sasuke forcefuly warning him.

A sudden warmth covered his shoulders making Sasuke look back "Huh?" he was surprised to see Naruto's jacket being placed on him. "What?"

"You looked really cold, besides, I don't need it." Another grin came across Naruto's face "I was never really bothered by the cold."

Sasuke looked at him curiously for a moment, then down at the jacket around him. "Warmer?" Naruto asked.

"Uh...Yeah..." Sasuke's mouth was open slightly, he didn't want to know what his eyes looked like, he felt like complete idiot right now.

"Then come on." Naruto found it strange that Sasuke just stood there and looked at him, he kept standing there soaked in this weather he was asking for a cold. So Naruto gabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him forward.

After that it hadn't taken long for Naruto and Sasuke to get home to the warmth of the apartment...

Naruto opened the door hastily and stepped inside, it really was colder then he'd thought it'd be with out his jacket, and Sasuke had noticed him shivering. Naruto didn't complain though, and every time he offered him his coat back, Naruto declined saying "You need it more then I do."

Sasuke gently laid the fabric aside on a chair as he walked in to the kitchen leaving behind a trail of water with each step. Something caught his eye as he walked past, it'd been sitting on the table since yesterday morning...the envelope baring legal documents about his inheritance, they were old now. Iruka had handled it for him yesterday, he knew the smart thing to do was to file them someplace safe, but for once he didn't want to be smart. He picked up the envelope and ripped it in half, tossing the remains into the garbage can.

Naruto watched him throw away the papers, he didn't bother to ask since he knew Sasuke didn't feel like explaining his actions. "So what are you going to do now?"

Sasuke shrugged "I don't know." he was a little confused at everything that had been happening, what to do next was always unsure. Naruto just wished he could help him, or at least understand what he was going through. Naruto had never lost any one important to him, he never had anyone to lose.

Naruto just watched him walk into their room to get a change of clothes, he was most likely to take a shower afterwords. "Hmm..."...A knock at the door forced him out of the thoughts he was drifting into. "Who could possibly be coming here?" Naruto crossed the room towards his door, careful not to slip on the water "Maybe someone finally tracked Sasuke down, if it's one of those girls I swear..." Naruto growled as he turned the knob.

Iruka was standing on the other end, smiling as usual "Hi Naruto."

"Iruka, what are you doing here?"

"Thought you could use these." Iruka handed him a bag of groceries, mostly vegetables. Which was just what he needed since his refrigerator was looking empty...

"Really?" Naruto smiled as he took the bag, thankful that Iruka would go out of way to bring him food and what looked like a hard day of drills and training. Iruka did have a tough job being a pilot at war time. Not waiting until he even got it to the table, Naruto began rummaging through it before looking through it "Aww, where's the ramen? And what's with all the vegetables?"

Iruka ruffled his hair lightly and pulled the bag out of his grasp and set it on to the table. "You need every bit it the way you eat." he said as he began taking out some of the items and putting them away.

Naruto, still very short at the time, pulled out a chair and started to help "Thanks." he said gratefully...then he paused..."Iruka, can I talk to you?"

Iruka didn't even give it a second thought "Sure, what's on your mind?"

Naruto jumped off the chair, sliding it backwards and sitting down. He was too short for his legs to reach the ground so he kicked circles in the gap between his feet in the floor, laying his head in his arms on the top of the back rest.

"Is it about Sasuke staying here?" Iruka asked

"Not really... It's about me, I'm starting to feel different when I'm around him. It's weird..." Naruto told him thoughtfully, staring down toward the ground while Iruka continued packing away "I feel kinda funny, I wanna be around him more, and every time he touches me my heart starts going really fast and I start acting funny. I think I'm getting sick."

Iruka laughed as he placed the last thing in it's place, then pulled a chair out from the other side of the table and sat next to him. "I don't think so, you said you want to be around him more. I think you might like him...Do you want him to leave?"

Naruto's eyes drifted down from the ceiling to the man "No, I really want him to stay, he's my friend."

"Are you sure, it doesn't really seem like it...you two argue a lot."

"Yeah, I really like that..."

Iruka looked over him, studying his face carefully. Though half of the boy's face was buried in his arms, Iruka could see the look in his eyes when he spoke about it. They just looked up toward the ceiling forlornly, staring off in to space, and when they fought they clearly didn't mean it and Naruto enjoyed it. There was only one conclusion. "Your defiantly not sick Naruto, your in love."

"Huh?"

"Your in love with him." Iruka smiled and looked down at him.

"How do you know."

"You'll understand it when your older..." Iruka patted him on the back before he stood up again and returned the chair back to it's place.

"So what should I do?" Naruto asked.

"Go for it, I know it will work out."

"How?"

"Because I had this same talk with Sasuke yesterday."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

He didn't want to think about this, he didn't even want to remember any of this, all of this was of Sasuke. And it just hurt too much. "..." After wandering for who knows how long he found himself back at this spot...where his home once stood. It was a habit that he hated himself for now... The sky was darkening now, preempting nighttime and darkness, and Naruto just stood there alone.

Alone again.

A chill ran through his body, now wishing that he had his jacket where ever it was, Naruto commenced to wandering again. Leaving himself to his thoughts.

'What did Orochimaru do...what made you do something like this...?' Naruto thought to himself. 'No, it wasn't Orochimaru, it was you, always you! You knew what you were doing and you did it anyway! You were always that type of person but to do something like that?' Naruto still couldn't believe that Sasuke would go as far as try to kill him. He remembered that time, at that moment when it had finally all sunk in, those few seconds before and after he was sent falling from a 20 story building. He remembered that part very clearly and it repeated itself over and over..

Sasuke had said it, he had said that he loved him...but that was just to catch him off guard. Sadly enough it worked, with obvious results, and when he was tumbling from that building, wondering if he was going to live or die he had plenty of time to think over it. How could he ever trust anything Sasuke says, when he had said he'd hated him and then...Naruto still couldn't get over that part. And then played with him so brutally just so he could kill him.

How the hell could he even listen to him after that? If he played with his heart once before, why wouldn't he do it again, what did he have to lose by doing it? "Bastard!" Naruto growled, punching a brick wall , one of the few that were still standing. "I'm not going to cry over you! Your not worth it!"

! - ! - !

All seemed silent here, as it always did since that day. He thought he'd never have to face this place again, for a while he'd forgotten completely about it. Sasuke had forgotten everything that happened here for 5 years he thought, standing outside of his family's old home, infact this section of the city had been primarily populated by his family. And after they'd died it never re populated, so it was always silent. He had no choice but to come back here, where else could he go?

All of this because of the stupidest thing he'd ever done, he wasn't even sure what he was thinking when he decided to betray his lover and his friend. Wait...yeah he did, Itachi, and this place. Hate... he'd lost everything he had in one night, it didn't matter that he was still very rich, and owned all of this around him, he had nothing...

There was a distinct chill as he opened the front door, walking into the dark hallway illuminated by the fading sunlight in the windows. Anything not within a few feet was covered in a shadow that thickened more and more with each inch. He walked the dark, familiar path into the living room across the hardwood floor on to the carpeted, taking a long look around at everything that had been just how he left it, the only thing different was the amount of dust...

The small rustling of his feet across the carpet as the only sound that came, it was an eerie silence... Sasuke walked along the back walls, along the windows, then walk over to the white furnishings in the center of the room. He fell face first on to the white couch that sat in front of a large TV mounted on the wall wrapping his arms around his knees and curling in to a ball, he felt like a child right now, but he didn't care... "Naruto...why did I do it...I don't want to hurt you anymore...Konohamaru...what was I thinking!" He had to keep reminding himself he knew what he was thinking of "Damn you Itachi...I'm not going to be your puppet, it's my life and I'm not going to let you control it anymore."

As he sat alone in at dark room, in a place that it hurt to be in, he knew he had to get them back. For his own sanity, now he knew how Naruto had felt when he wanted to leave Konoha... At least he had to let them know sorry he was...

! - ! - !

"Maybe I don't need to watch him anymore..." Kakashi said to himself, his body perched in a tree outside of the Uchiha mansion with one leg drawn on to a branch and the other hanging down lazily "Well, look's like he wasn't a complete waste." Kakashi laid his head back against the tree branch, wandering if Sasuke was feeling bad enough about what he did to be trusted on his own for a while. He seemed to be feeling it now...

His phone beeped twice.

Kakashi pulled the cellular device from his pocket and looked at the screen, he had an E-mail, and not from any address he'd seen.'?' Kakashi opened it and read carefully...

'100th street may hold the possibility of evil for Konoha, thought you might want to know. - anonymous.'

"What the hell?" He didn't understand it, and the address he didn't turned out to be fake when he sent a reply. "What is this...?"

After a moment he figured he'd better check out a few things, find out who would send him something like this?

! - ! - !

"We pushed everything we had in to that attack, but we weren't expecting a counter initiative." Kabuto explained. "So it took longer then scheduled and we were caught by the storm, 75 percent of our forces were wiped out."

Orochimaru snorted "What are the estimated damages to the Leaf?"

"68 percent, it would have been more but they mobilized"

Orochimaru cut him off "Doesn't matter anymore, you got what you needed from Konoha's National Defense and Armed Forces Authority Center, how far long is the progress of SDI?"

Kabuto glanced down at the chart in his hand. " 70 percent, we still need to configure the protype BIOS, CMOS, make a few more additions for the Kernel program for the OS"

"The Kernel should have been done already."

"You have to understand, it's not easy configuring an OS for this type of system that actually works." Kabuto replied.

"Is it ready for a test fire?" Orochimaru asked

"No sir, the hardware isn't completely finished, and we still have to find a source of Chakra for the power supply." Kabuto said.

"What happened to the storm, didn't you draw it from there?"

"It's true the storm has more then enough Chakra then is required, but the plan to initially draw it from that source was never a dependable one. It's just not possible, but we can look for other sources."

"What other source? No human can produce it anymore, that was the only remotely possible thing besides the storm." Orochimaru scowled in annoyment, this was turning to be more troublesome then ever.

"Yes, there has been some other Chakra readings over Konoha that were detected during the storm." Kabuto glanced down to make sure he had his facts strait before continuing. "Two to be exact, human sources. I'll have to readjust the settings and get some extra parts but if we can get those sources then we'll still be able to get SDI operational."

"Anything else?"

"Did you go back for the ROM chip in the towers?" Kabuto asked.

"Yes..." Orochimaru thought about it for a moment, he hadn't seen it since he'd went back for it after telling Sasuke to handle Naruto... "Damnit! I must of dropped it...Can you trace it?"

"Yes, just one more thing that needs to be done." Kabuto sighed "And the nearest and easiest way to get the extra parts is to go to Konoha and get them...there's a few locations that use these things..." Kabuto had spent enough time in Konoha to know of these things.

"Can the ROM chip be replaced in case it isn't found?" Orochimaru knew if he dropped it back at the towers then more then likely it wasn't traceable

"We've spent 2 years developing and producing that especially for SDI, we can but it'd be too late before we can reproduce it even if we don't have to go through the developing phase ."

"Then make sure you find it."

"Yes sir Orochimaru."

Orochimaru let out another annoyed sigh, this was becoming tedious but it would be worth it. 'As soon as SDI is complete...Konoha Crash will be successful this time...'

! - ! - !

Konohamaru sighed as he sat next to Ebisu's dormant body, slowly reaching in to the inner part of his scarf wrapped around his neck and retrieving a clear case that lay there. He remembered Orochimaru dropping this, the chip inside clearly marked 'ROM'... "Maybe I should show this to someone...but I can show this to anyone around here...maybe..." Konohamaru sighed and put it back... "Ebisu... what am I suppose to do now? God I wish you were here."

Some part of him hoped for a reply, for some type of response from Ebisu. But man's chest only rose again only to fall, leaving an unsure void until the next rise and fall. "Ebisu...I miss you already. I don't want you too die..."