Chapter 15: Redemption

"Konohamaru, we need to talk, now." Sarutobi walked into Konohamaru's room and shut the door behind him, finding the boy curled up in his bed as usual. "Are you ready to tell me what happened yet?" He sat down on the bed next to the boy, who didn't move an inch.

"..."

"I know you Konohamaru, you barely eat, I can't even tell when your sleeping or not since you barely move at all." Sarutobi sighed, reaching over his grandson's shoulder and forcibly rolling him towards him. "There is something really wrong with you, and you won't tell me what happened so I have no choice but too...Konohamaru?" Sarutobi finally looked at Konohamaru.

He looked as if he was gasping for air but nothing could be heard above the sound of normal breathing. Konohamaru was soaked in sweat and he was undeniably turning red, his left arm seemed to be twitching slightly and his eyes were clinched in a look of pain... "Konohamaru!"

! - ! - !

Naruto sighed, pressing his forehead against the white wall and closed his eyes. The sound of someone speaking over an intercom echoed through out the whole floor and he was surrounded by busy people talking, shifting, moving around him. "Did you find anything out?" Naruto asked, he didn't bother to look up when he spoke.

"They're still running test, they don't know what's wrong with him yet." Iruka rubbed his back comfortingly. "Don't worry about it, he'll be fine."

Naruto snorted, opening his eyes and staring down at the tiled floors bellow, this was Konoha Hospital, an oddly generic name for the best clinic in the country. "Orochimaru did something to him..."

"Well...that's a possibility." Iruka leaned against the wall next to the boy "Don't worry too much, Konohamaru is going to be alright."

"So--" Kakashi's voice radiated from behind the two, making Naruto flinch from the unexpected sound, Iruka was long used to surprise since he frequently dealt with Kakashi. Nothing really could surprise him anymore "--Hear anything on Konohamaru?"

"Do you ever make noise when you walk!" Naruto shouted, turning back and pointing an accusing finger at the man, but then flinching from the sudden movement of his other arm that still was held in a sling.

"Not really." Kakashi said casually, looking up from Naruto to Iruka "Anything?"

Iruka shook his head. "Not yet."

! - ! - !

"I thought I told you not to comeback until you know what's wrong with my grandson." Sarutobi said in annoyment, he was sitting in a waiting room outside of one of the observation rooms. Everyone else was on the other side in a hallway. Sarutobi unfolded his arms and looked up at the doctor that had just come through the door.

"Well, we're not sure completely, a some type of chemical got into his body, we're pretty sure from outside injection." The man spoke solemnly as he looked down at a clipboard in his hand. "It's already circulated through out the whole blood stream and it's taken a gradual amount of time to take effect, so it could have entered his body up to a week ago."

'...Orochimaru.' Sarutobi folded his arms and scowled to himself, that was in the time frame of when Konohamaru was rescued, no doubt Orochimaru was the cause of this.

"Whatever it was caused multiple allergic reactions--"

"Konohamaru's not allergic to anything."

"Yes I know, But that was the effect, hence the redness. The other symptoms, spasms, suffocation, aches, anything else that may happen in the next few hours are all side effects."

"How much worse is it going to get?" Sarutobi asked

"We don't know but we're not going to take any chances right now we're just finishing a dialysis treatment a few antioxidants. I'm going to write him a prescription for Triaceptama, it's a combination of antioxidants to get rid of the chemicals, antibiotics to kill the bacteria that are causing the aches and the breathing problems and some painkillers to actually deal with the pain that's already there. " The doctor paused a moment to check off something on the clipboard "Now there are of course a few side effects but most shouldn't be too severe if at all present for someone his age."

! - ! - !

"No way, what the hell are you doing here." Naruto growled, tensing up to the point where his left arm started to hurt at the sight of Sasuke.

Sasuke looked down and away "You know what I'm doing here."

"You've got some nerve Uchiha, this whole thing is your fault!" Naruto was yelling now, his eyes piercing into Sasuke with a gaze worse then the ones that proceeded it before, He was advancing toward him and didn't even realize it "Your the reason he's here in the first place--"

"Stop it!"

Another unfamiliar voice... no, not unfamiliar, just unexpected. Konohamaru pushed his way through the heavy door separating the hall from the observation room and coming in to view. He was wearing a hospital gown allowing only his arms and lower legs to be seen, small nozzles were protruding from his arms where IVs had been attached. His eyes and expression were somewhat dazed in nature, but held defendant anger, he looked so...weak. "Just stop it already!"

It was silent for a moment...

"Konohamaru, are you ok?" Naruto asked worriedly.

"No!" The boy shouted, but he winced from the pain that came from forcing his throat to make such a loud sound "My body hurts so much I can barely move."

Iruka shook his head "Konohamaru, why are you out of bed? You should be resting...What happened to you?"

"I don't know but..." Konohamaru's forehead cringed in thought, he was out of it, he was confused, he couldn't think. Most likely from whatever medication was being administered to him, but he was mad enough to make his way out here. "I--I..."

"Go back." Kakashi knelt down beside him, giving the boy another quick over look, he'd defiantly been connected on to an IV, the nozzles attached to his body were still wet so those IVs were flowing when he left. Kakashi ran his hand through the boy's hair in a way that always made Konohamaru felt like a little kid when it was done to him, which was quite often, that was when he was completely aware of himself. "You need to be back in there, I'm sure the doctors don't know your gone and your Grandfather probably won't be happy that you left."

Konohamaru nodded, though he stood there for a moment and stared at everyone, his eyes came to rest particularly on Sasuke...Sasuke looked at him, a sadness spreading across his features, no he wasn't just guilty about what he did, he was truly sorry... "Konohamaru...I'm--"

Konohamaru shook his head feverously, hard enough to make himself dizzy "No way, don't even tell me that your sorry! This is..." Konohamaru stopped suddenly, trying to speak though his head was jumbled and all attempts seemed to fail, he just wanted to sleep, at least to get away from this pain. "No...It's not all your fault, but you gave me to..." The boy just stopped and sighed, silently turning back around and heading into the room after one last resentful look to Sasuke.

"Crap, I should have asked him what happened to him." Naruto said, kicking the air lightly in his frustration, then he looked up at Sasuke who was looking at him, then looked away again. "I'll be back later Iruka, I'm not staying while he's here." Naruto called back as he walked off angrily, crossing through the stir of people moving through the floor. It was still so busy here, with all of those people injured from the storm and the fact that this place was still running on generators during a complete black out, why wouldn't it be?

"Hey, Wait a minute!" Sasuke ran after him, slipping through the waves of people and reaching Naruto just in time... only to have two elevator doors close in his face and separate them again. "Damnit!" Sasuke pounded his fist against the door, there was no way he was going to give up, he was going to get Naruto to a least hear him out, and he wouldn't stop until he did.

With that thought in mind he headed for the steps.

"So what do you think?" Kakashi sat down on the ground, resting his back against the wall "Think their going to get back together?"

"Well, Naruto's pretty suborn..." Iruka sighed "But in this case he has a reason to be, and Sasuke couldn't give up on anything if his life depended on it...I think that's what got him into this situation in the first place."

"His brother."

"That or Orochimaru, so..." Iruka let himself ease down to the ground next to Kakashi, careful of his injured side. "Either they are, or they're going to kill each other."

"Hmm..." Kakashi nodded in agreement, letting out a deep breath and relaxing, he needed it. But it seemed the moment his mind became at ease, other things he'd forgotten drifted into his mind. "Iruka, can you do me a favor and get me anything you can find on a man named Momochi Zabuza."

! - ! - !

"You know, I wondered about something." Lee's head tilted up towards the ceiling, staring at the long florescent light that nearly illuminated the entire room. "If there's a black out happening, How can everything be working here?"

"Generators." Shikamaru let his head fall back on to the side of the bed as he glanced at the lights and everything else around this place. "It's amazing, everything that's been designed and created in this time, things people never even dreamed of conceiving. A testament of human ingenuity."

"Yeah your right, I admire the people who invent things." Lee smiled "I wanted to event something, but I couldn't think of anything useful, or that wasn't already made."

A light shifting could be heard from above, Lee and Shikamaru glanced back towards the source, Gai seemed to be waking up...The man groaned lightly as he clinched the white sheets of the hospital bed, slowly opening his eyes and using his grip to sit up. "...uha..." Gai lifted his hand to his forehead and rubbed lightly, besides a pounding headache his ears were ringing, and there was a sharp chill in the air...he didn't have on a shirt and with out the covers over him... "Where...--"

"Gai-sensei, your awake!" Lee sprang on to his feet and to the man's side, "Are you ok? How do you feel?"

Gai glanced over at him, squinting a bit to sharpen his blurry vision. "Lee, Shikamaru? Where am I?"

"The hospital." Shikamaru told him.

Gai looked around, studying his surroundings as if to make sure this was really the place they said it was. 'Hospital...How did I...Oh my god!' "Lee, Shikamaru, Forgive me!" Gai dived forward and wrapped his arms around the both of them in a tight hug, nearly suffocating them both. "I'm so sorry!"

Shikamaru placed his hands on Gai's left shoulder and tried to push him off, a failed attempt, the man was strong, and this effort was useless "Sorry for what?"

"I attacked you, I couldn't control myself! Forgive me please!"

Lee smiled and nodded, not seeming to have any problem with Gai's tight hug "It's alright, Gai-sensei, we understand that. It wasn't your fault"

"Alright! I nearly shot you!"

"I'm ok Gai-Sensei."

"I threw you through an incubator! I set you on fire!"

Lee tilted his head upward as he did when he thought about something "I thought the explosion did it. "

"Trust me, that explosion wasn't accidental... But that's beside the point!"

That was a very...uncomforting thought, but still "It wasn't your fault, we forgive you." Lee said.

"Yeah we forgive you. Just let go." Shikamaru let out a deep breath after Gai finally released him, deciding to get a safe distance away in case Gai wanted to do that again.

Gai gave a small grunt of acknowledgment to Shikamaru, Impulses... bad, remember? Something he tried to instill on himself as well as Lee. Gai laid against the pillows propped up at his back, staring blankly at the ceiling "I don't know what happened but... I remember everything, It was as if my mind was there, but when Kabuto told me to attack you and bring Shikamaru back to him...I couldn't stop myself, it echoed in my head and before I knew it, it was like my own thoughts. "

Shikamaru folded his arms and closed his eyes, a motion he often did when thinking "The needle he hit you with, the tip was coated with some type of chemical that he'd said made you easily manipulated. I can't believe it's possible to create something with an effect like that that isn't a Jutsu."

"We found an antidote though." Lee said "So don't worry about it."

It wasn't that simple, Gai was worried about it, very worried... "Why did he want you Shikamaru...he said something about a source...a source of what?"

"Well, there's only one thing that makes me different from anyone else here. He could have meant a source of Chakra." Shikamaru suggested.

"Chakra huh?...Well be careful, the Sound's after you now..." Gai said with a sigh, things were getting complicated, but there was no use thinking about it now, not yet at least. "You mentioned Jutsu, that reminds me of something I wanted to show you. It's an old scroll with instructions for Jutsu, and a letter that was excavated about 40 years back." Gai paused to remember it correctly "The letter was strange because it mentioned the names Lee and Shikamaru directly, and it was from a person named Kiba. It said it addressed for this exact year, I learned about it in history class back in collage, who knew it'd come in handy..."

Shikamaru and Lee looked at each other, "Kiba...He said he'd burry a letter, I didn't think he meant literally." Lee shrugged.

! - ! - !

The rain didn't surprise him, the ruminants of the storm were still scatted behind in a long trail so rain would be a large part of Konoha for a while to come. Sasuke looked around from just beyond the front door, it was so dark...the only light was from the hospital behind him, everything else was pitch black, not even the moon could bee seen past the dark clouds overcastting the sky. 'Damnit!'

How could anyone willingly go out into this? At lest not with out a flashlight or something to see with, it was freezing out here, and the rain wasn't helping. Sasuke thought about all of that, and the fact he had no idea where Naruto was, and that even a small lead for Naruto in Konoha meant Sasuke was already far behind. Since Naruto knew his way around better then he did, even in the dark. 'He has to be some place...'

Where could he start? '...I can start there...he might go back to that place...'

! - ! - !

It was strange how things happened...Over the last few days he always seem to end up here after he wandered, a habit he couldn't get over yet. It was strange how it happened even though he thought he didn't know where he was going, he couldn't see where was going and he still ended up back here. Naruto stopped when he realize where he was, even though he couldn't see it he knew he was right before the ruins of his home. And just like all the times before it, he just stood there and stared, as if looking for something.

"Naruto!"

Naruto looked back at the mention of his name, it was that voice again, Sasuke. Naruto mentally kicked himself for coming back here as he watch the boy's form come into his vision field, which was about 5 feet. "Damnit! Leave me alone!" Naruto yelled. "Isn't that what you told me to do, leave you alone. And I haven't said a word to you yet."

"Will you just wait a second and listen to me!" Sasuke shouted over the sound of rain pounding into the concrete and whatever materials were in the wreckage, "I've been trying to talk to you for a week."

"Don't you get it!" Naruto found himself advancing on Sasuke again, and he let himself continue "I don't want to talk to you! I don't want to see you, you can just go someplace and die for all I care!"

"I understand that, but I'm sorry." Sasuke said pleadingly, trying to make him listen, trying to make him understand.

"Sorry!" Naruto was now face to face with Sasuke now, looking up at him directly in the eyes since he was shorter. "Sorry? Your not sorry, I may not be a genius like you, but I'm not stupid."

"Naruto, please just--" Sasuke placed both of his hands on Naruto's shoulder, but received a strong punch in the mouth that knocked him back into the large pile of rubble and debris. Naruto jumped in after him, landing on top of Sasuke.

"Why don't you go back with your new boyfriend Orochimaru, We shouldn't have brought you back. We should have just toss your ass off the plane and left." Naruto grabbed Sasuke by his collar making Sasuke flinch, he grabbed Naruto's wrist and kicked him off.

"Damnit why don't you get it, I'm sorry!" Sasuke shouted, wiping away the water streaming into his eyes with his forearm. He grabbed on to a protruding piece of wood and used it to help him stand. "Just listen to me."

Naruto flipped on to his feet, finding himself once again face to face with Sasuke "Listen to you?" Naruto gave Sasuke a strong punch to the stomach making the other boy stumble forward. "Why the hell should I listen to you? Huh?" Naruto shouted, Sasuke placed one foot forward and caught himself, then he wrapped an arm around Naruto's waist and dived forward, driving his shoulder in to the boy's leg and sending both of their bodies tumbling to the ground in a loud crash mixed with loud rainfall and the purple flash of a lighting strike.

"Because I'm trying to apologize!" Sasuke held on to Naruto's shoulders again and held him down, getting a hiss of pain from the pressure on the injured part of his body. Naruto squinted, trying to keep the water running from his hair out of his eyes and wincing from a roll of thunder, Sasuke's body blocked most of the rain.

"So what! What the hell is that suppose to mean?" Naruto drove his knee upward into Sasuke's stomach and rolled to the side, only to find that a large piece of a former concrete wall was blocking his way. "You said a lot of things that weren't true! Like when you said that you loved me, lot of truth that turned out to be. Why should I believe you now?" Naruto reached upward to jagged edge of the slick concrete, getting a grip strong enough to pull himself up with and climb on top of it.

"I know I haven't given you a reason to believe me." Sasuke wrapped one arm around a steel pole and pick himself off a pile of broken wood boards, which he'd broken through. He looked around in the darkness with his arm over his eyes to block the rain, lighting flashed again giving him a snapshot of everything in front of him, but, he still couldn't see Naruto, where was he! Sasuke shook more rain from his hair and wiped his face, still he could see nothing. "Naruto!"

From behind, Naruto jumped from the concrete, sailing through the saturated air with barely a target, "I warned you to leave me alone!" Naruto yelled, just as he landed on Sasuke, knocking him painfully to the ground under his weight "I told you I'd kill you."

Sasuke lifted his head, which had just landed face down in the debris. He was feeling dizzy, the large gash on his head from their previous fight had just been reopened, he could feel the blood start flowing again and was sure his bandages were turning red. There were also other cuts that formed on his face from landing on a metal pole, broken glass, concrete and wood. "No you wont." Sasuke managed to free one hand that pinned under him, he didn't need to wipe the blood from his face, the rain was washing it away for him. "Because you know you still lo--"

"I hate you." Naruto growled angrily. Sasuke winced, that did hurt, that hurt a lot... and that's what he did to Naruto, that's the pain he inflicted on him, and then made it even worse when he told him he loved him just to lower his guard..."I HATE YOU DAMNIT!"

Sasuke threw his only free elbow back and into Naruto's face hard enough to send the boy sprawling off of him. "No! Don't tell me that! I'm telling you I'm sorry Naruto, just believe me." Sasuke lifted himself on to his hands and knees and crawled over to the fallen Naruto.

"Why should I!" Naruto snorted, trying to kick Sasuke away. Sasuke caught his leg, sliding it safely under his arm and continued crawling over Naruto wile taking a few kicks in his attempt.

Sasuke reached forward and grabbed another pipe just beyond Naruto's head, and using it to pull himself completely over Naruto with the other boy's leg still under his arm. "Because I love you... I know you still love me too."

! - ! - !
! - ! - !

6 years ago...

Naruto taped his foot against the leg of his chair subconsciously, leaning forward with this elbows propped up on the table, staring down at a bowl of ramen in front of him. He stirred the noodles around, watching them cut through the liquid, making subtle splits in the broth.

Sasuke walked out of the bedroom with a towel wrapped around his waist, this time wet from the shower he'd just taken. '...' Sasuke stood at the doorway, looking at Naruto who'd he'd never seen stall to eat Ramen in his life let alone play with it. 'What's with him?'

He noticed everything was like he'd left it an hour ago, the small pools of water were still lining the floor from when he'd come home. Naruto's coat was still on the chair opposite of the seemingly distracted boy, only there was food stocking the shelves now which was most likely because of a visit from Iruka. "What's with you Dobe?" Sasuke asked, deciding to forget the fact he was half naked with only a towel, not like it really mattered.

"Huh?" Naruto looked up at Sasuke "Oh, nothing."

"Yeah right, you were wining all day that you were hungry cause' you missed lunch. Which was your fault for getting us in detention anyway, and your just not hungry now? Your always hungry." Sasuke said, glancing toward the window where the soft sounds of the beginnings of rain hitting taping the transparent barrier distracted him momentarily.

It was raining that day too

"I wasn't wining." Naruto looked up from his bowl with a slightly annoyed expression on his face, that suddenly changed in to one which carried an idea or realization "Are you calling me greedy?"

"No, but you are." Sasuke snorted.

"No I'm not!" Naruto shouted.

"The hell you aren't dobe." Sasuke pointed a finger at Naruto's stomach, "Your like a pit, a bottomless pit."

Naruto abruptly stood up, nearly knocking over his chair in the process. His fist slammed down on the table and he leaned forward. "Whatever you selfish jerk."

Sasuke pushed himself up and leaned forward, glaring at Naruto. "I'm not selfish, I was just trying to see what was wrong with you!"

"You insulted me!"

"Stop being so sensitive dead-last!"

"Jerk!"

"Dobe."

"Bastard."

Naruto and Sasuke growled at each other, staring at the other with piercing eyes, then folding his arms and turning their backs to each other. "Tch." Sasuke snorted.

"Whatever." Naruto rolled his eyes..."Hey Sasuke."

"What is it?" Sasuke glanced over his shoulder.

"I think I like you."

"Huh?" Sasuke turned around completely and looked over Naruto, who'd already sat back down. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I think I like you." Naruto placed his elbows on the table and rested his head in his hands above the bowl of ramen.

"...R-Really?" Sasuke sat down and looked up at him carefully "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, I started feeling all weird when you came." Naruto's eyes shifted towards the window in thought, watching the water stream down the other side of the glass in a hypnotic blur. Then he shrugged "I didn't know what it was but I think I figured it out."

Sasuke rubbed the back of his head nervously, "You really like me? Me?"

"Uh-huh." Naruto nodded.

Sasuke stood up and leaned over the table, bringing himself face to face with Naruto who was looking up at him questioningly. "Don't play with me dobe."

"I'm not." Naruto said "Why would I lie you bas--" Naruto was cut off by Sasuke's lip pressing to his roughly and his tongue being thrust in forcefully, Naruto nearly fell backwards and would have if Sasuke's arm wouldn't have wrapped around his neck. He looked up with eyes wide at Sasuke...a small moan escaped from his mouth and his eyes drifted closed, Naruto stood up and leaned forward into the kiss...his first kiss.

"Whoa!" Naruto pulled away, feeling short of breath and as if his heart had just run a 10 mile marathon with out him. It made him feel strangely light headed. "That was amazing."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Sasuke sat back down in his chair "I've been waiting to do that for a month, it's about time."

"A month, why didn't you tell me?"

Sasuke just closed his eyes, a sharp chill coming from the closed window. He really didn't know why he didn't say anything, he was afraid maybe, but he would have said something sooner or later anyway. "Huh?"

There was a small click, followed by the lights flickering, and then cutting off all together. "Great! Now the powers off." Naruto could be heard placing his head on the table.

"That means you can't open the refrigerator." Sasuke said, Naruto could practically feel him smirking in the darkness. "Not until it comes back on."

"Shut up, that's not funny."

"Yes it is."

"Well, that means you can't see..." Naruto paused to think for a moment "And if you can't see you can't put on your clothes."

"That's not funny."

"Yes it is."

! - ! - !
! - ! - !

"No I don't!" Naruto punched Sasuke in the side of his face with his good arm.

Sasuke head butted him in the forehead and wrapped his hands around Naruto's head, forcing him to look at him directly. "Can you look me in the eye, and honestly say that you don't love me!" He shouted, staring at Naruto with an unwavering gaze.

"..." Naruto's eyes narrowed and looked away, pushing Sasuke away with his good arm and kneeing him in the chest.

"After all we've been through, do you still love me?"

"...So what! That still doesn't change what you did!"

"I know that, and I'm sorry." Sasuke scrabbled to his feet at the same time as Naruto, bringing them eye to eye again "But I can look you in the eye and say I love you. And...I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking..." Sasuke watched as Naruto turned his back and kicked a metal pipe as he walked away. "No, I do know what I was thinking, and it wasn't worth it! So just tell me what do I have to do to make it up to you?"

Naruto stopped, clinching his fist tightly and letting his head drop. Water ran down his face, down his back, and streamed from his body and long rivers, and he was sure he'd never been so cold and so hurt in his life. "..."

Sasuke ran after him, grabbing his shoulder, but Naruto pulled away. "I don't know what else to say but I'm sorry, I know that doesn't make up for what I did but I want to know how."

"..." Naruto was still silent, unmoving, thankful for the rain on his face at that moment, that way he could hide...

"Naruto. Just say something to me." Both of them stood there silently in the rain, every second Sasuke was waiting...

"...You hate me."

"No I--"

"That's what you told me, and then you told me you loved me, just to throw me off of a fucking building. Did you really want me to die that much? How can you say you love me after something like that."

" I don't--"

Naruto turned around "Don't tell me you don't know, don't tell me you we're lying. You meant everything you said!"

"...Ok, I did." Sasuke said "I meant it when I said I loved you, and when I said I hated you...even though I said it to you, I didn't mean I hate you. I hated a lot of things, I hated my self, I hated what I became...and I guess I just directed it at you."

Naruto paused for a moment, just staring at Sasuke... "You said you hated other things..." Naruto looked around, still unable to see anything else except for a few bare things around him and Sasuke. That's when he realized he was standing here, in wreckage, in the freezing rain in the middle of the night. He was cold, he was wet, he was hurt, and he was mad. "I knew you never liked anything, was it enough to make you do it, was I enough to make you do that?"

"It was me, I saw my brother and I realized how..." Sasuke looked up, shaking the water from his face and then back down at Naruto "It doesn't matter, it's not important..." Sasuke had just realized something... 'Damnit Itachi, I'm not going to be your puppet!'

"This can't happen Sasuke." Naruto could barely be heard above the rain now that he was talking normally, the boy held on to the same concrete wall as before and eased himself down on to the ground. Rubbing his left arm since it had taken so much damage during the fight that the sling itself was barely holding it up. "We need to find a way to fix us, and not just for right now."

Sasuke stood above him, waiting a lot more patiently now that Naruto was actually willing to work this out. Why was it? Was Naruto really that good of a person, did he love him that much? Damnit how could he have hurt someone like him?

"We're always going to have hard times." Naruto lifted his head, and just for a second, a brief moment, Sasuke could see that...Naruto was crying, actually crying. "So right now, tell me 7 reasons why you love me, why we're still here, why this is still worth while even after everything."

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow..."7?"

"Yeah!" Naruto yelled. "And I have to believe every one of them!"

Sasuke rubbed the back of his head as he stared down at Naruto, he couldn't lie to Naruto if his life depended on it... He could do this, there were plenty of things he loved about Naruto. Naruto was so-- 'Stop thinking them and say them!' Sasuke yelled to himself "I...Love the way you get mad at everything I call you...I love the fact that your an obnoxious brat. I love the way you get excited over Ramen and how you always sleep in class."

Naruto lifted his arm and wiped his face "Ok, that last one counts for two. You got two more."

"I love the way you always have that stupid smirk on your face when you win, or after we-"

"Watch it."

Sasuke knelt down in front of him, their eyes meeting agian. "Is that 7?"

Naruto looked up at him and thought for a second "I'll call it even, I don't think I can handle another one."

Sasuke took a deep breath and leaned forward, pressing his lips against Naruto's, slowly and in an uncharacteristically timid way he slid his tongue into Naruto's mouth. Naruto watched Sasuke for a moment...slowly but surely he closed his eyes. "Sasuke."

Sasuke smiled and pulled away "Come on, I'm freezing."

"What? Come on where?"

"You'll see when we get there."

! - ! - !

"Well..." Iruka looked down carefully at the computer sitting in his lap, pressing a few more keys before stopping again. "It wasn't easy--"

"It was kinda quick though." Kakashi crossed the white tile floors and sat down next to the man "An hour, that's not half bad."

"You always attract the strangest people, and your friend Momochi Zabuza is an interesting one. You want the long version or the short one?"

Kakashi shrugged "Short."

"Ok." Iruka nodded and press a few buttons "What I just did wasn't exactly legal so you owe me... I guess I start here...Zabuza killed all of his classmates when he was 12, he tried to assassinate Mizukage and take over the Mist Country, failed horribly, currently wanted by them. With a lot of carried animosity, he's described as sociopathic...I guess you'd have to be to kill that many people when your that young."

"He's not a sociopath, he just has sociopathic tendencies." Kakashi looked off in to the distance, thinking, wondering... "Make it a little longer."

"Well's he's been known to work with a younger man by the name of Haku, noted with some interesting abilities..." Iruka paused, as if he didn't understand what he was reading.

"What do you mean by interesting?"

"Interesting as in the ability to use Chakra like Shikamaru can. Haku may have come from the past too..." Iruka told him.

"Hmm..." 'That must have been who he was talking about when he said Orochimaru took someone from him.'

Iruka read a little farther. "There was an unconfirmed rumor that Zabuza allied with a terrorist organization under the a man named Gataou, for funding I assume, trying to pull off a job like that has to be expensive."

"Hm...Figures." Kakashi sighed and shrugged "Thanks Iruka, I don't need any more." Well, Zabuza always was a little off, and had a tendency to try and blow things up almost impatiently. But was he really like they said he was? He didn't seem that way, if Zabuza was a sociopath then he would have blown up Orochimaru's towers even if Kakashi hadn't asked him to wait. And one of them would surely be dead by now since Zabuza would have tried to kill him the first time they met.

Still, Zabuza does seem like the person to do something like that, and all of it couldn't be lies. Maybe exaggerations but ever exaggeration had some bases in truth.

Kakashi would have to--

beep, beep, beep

A set of beeps came from the phone in his pocket. Kakashi questingly retrieved it and looked over it, another e-mail with an openly obvious fake address.

'Still haven't figured it out yet? There is still the possibility of evil for Konoha from the Sound, at the Konoha Hospital.'

'Wait...is this serous!' Kakashi reread the text, debating with himself 'But the last one was real...Damnit!' "Iruka, I'm not sure but something might be happening here... "

"What do you mean?" Iruka asked, taking the phone from Kakashi... "Is this real?"

"I don't know, but it was last time and I'm not going to take any chances." Kakashi put the phone back into his pocket and used a nearby door knob to get to his feet "Go see if you can get some backup."

Iruka watched in confusion as Kakashi move with haste towards the elevator, usually Iruka would have dismissed something like this as a joke but if Kakashi thought it was serous... "Alright, I'll do what I can."

! - ! - !

Kakashi let out a deep breath as he leaned against the back wall of the elevator that descended from the 7th floor towards the 3rd. "Hmm..."

click, click, click.

Kakashi looked up towards the ceiling and the source of the sound...before he could even begin to think of what it was, the door rolled open to the flurry of people moving around busily...so many people were here, it was one of the few places with power and that hadn't been destroyed by the storm, a natural gathering place. Kakashi slipped and pushed his way through almost blindly to the desk a few feet away, where a woman on the other side was working. "Which room is Maito Gai in?"

The woman looked up from the phone call she was making and what ever she was writing, "Let me see...Room 302."

Kakashi immediately tore himself away from the desk and ran past it, again forcing his way through the crowds of people to a room a few more feet from the desk. Kakashi opened the door and closed it again behind him. "Gai."

Gai, laying in the bed with his arms resting behind his head, looked towards Kakashi. Lee and Shikamaru were near by as they had been for the past day since Gai was admitted. "Kakashi? What's wrong." Gai immediately noticed when Kakashi wasn't serous, not everyone could really tell, and it usually meant something was wrong.

"Remember that e-mail I showed you?"

"Yes."

"I got another one." Kakashi tossed him the phone, which Gai was unexpectant of and barley caught.

Gai looked over it carefully "...What! Here?"

"Yeah, we have a problem. So I need to barrow your car."

Gai looked at him for a moment "My car?...Wait, how could you be thinking about leaving when this place is in danger?"

"Remember last time? I need to go pick up my body armor and weapons."

Gai sighed and reached over to the nightstand next to his bed "Alright, here!" He tossed the keys to Kakashi, "Shikamaru, Lee, go look around for anyone suspicious. I'm going to get dressed."