Chapter 23: Aftermath
Konohamaru's mind completely shut off, his world, his mind, his vision faded away into a white blur, all of his self control relinquished it self to his rage. "YOU BASTARD!" Konohamaru lunged at Orochimaru, attacking any way he could.
"Brat." Orochimaru snorted, as if Konohamaru was just an unnecessary annoyance that he didn't want to deal with. He moved with years of skill, easily evading every punch, kick or attempt to lay a hand on him Konohamaru tried to land.
That only fueled Konohamaru's rage, the boy growled furiously and continued to dive at him with everything he had. '...' Orochimaru lifted his foot and sent a sharp kick into Konohamaru's chest, knocking the boy into a wall. He wasn't concerned about Konohamaru, he was more worried about what his grandfather had done. 'My arms...what the hell did he do to me!'
Konohamaru slid almost lifelessly to the floor, having the air forced out of his lungs and a pulsing pain left behind in his chest. He didn't care, he gasped for air and stumbled on to his feet, running toward the man with full speed despite his lack of air. "...damn you..." He gasped weakly, as he jumped for Orochimaru and attempted to grab his shirt. Orochimaru easily steeped to the side and kicked him in the back, stomping him down to the ground and pinning him there with pressure. A loud, pained out cry was torn from Konohamaru's throat.
Konohamaru stumbled forward and on to his feet in a weak stance, turning towards Orochimaru with an anger that could only be produced by the young, relatively simple mind of a child. He paused only to spit out the blood pooling in his lacerated mouth and then attacked Orochimaru, undetoured by the futility of his attempts. But much to his surprise he didn't get anymore then a few inches from where he'd been standing before strong arms wrapped around him and pulled him back.
"Damn kid, calm down." The deep, familiar voice of Kisame came from behind and he was pulled against his chest in restraint.
Konohamaru didn't care who was holding him, he just wanted to get at Orochimaru. "Let me go! Let me go!" He struggled wildly, never removing his eyes from Orochimaru for a second.
'Where the hell did all this energy come from.' Kisame, who had been kneeling down, was forced to stand up and pull Konohamaru off of the ground to remove some of the boy's leverage and ease his resistant of him. "Don't be a goddamn idiot! Calm down."
"That Bastard! Let me go! GET OFF OF ME!" Konohamaru only fought harder to get away, bucking his head against Kisame's chest, pushing off of the man's stomach with his feet, squirming feverously with the rest of his body.
"Kisame?" Orochimaru drew back with visible surprise at the sight of the Akatsuki member. Even worse, he knew that where there was Kisame... "!" Orochimaru quickly stepped forward and pivoted around fast enough to cause more blood to come from the wound in his back, just in time to come face to face with none other then Itachi Uchiha. "Itachi...Why are you here?" He spat venomously. Why now? Why did he have to show up now? "This isn't your problem."
"Unfortunately for you." Itachi took a step forward toward Orochimaru offensively. "It is."
"You keep interrupting me." Orochimaru took a step back, inching closer towards the wall with a visible slowing in his step because of the knife in his back. "I'm sure Akatsuki wouldn't go through all of the trouble of inhibiting me. This doesn't concern you."
"Your wrong about that, you see, it concerns this kid, so it concerns us." Kisame growled, tightening his hold on Konohamaru. He often said that he had no attachment to Konohamaru, and he couldn't care either way about him, but if he wasn't holding Konohamaru back right now then he'd attempting to strangle Orochimaru. He had no personal problem with the man, Orochimaru's action never really concerned him at all, but he had a lot of rage against Orochimaru solely because of what he did to Konohamaru. Kisame was more attached to him then he thought.
Orochimaru continued to inch backwards until his wounded back was against the wall. It came suddenly, a look of realization crossed his face. He seemed a lot less fearful then, a smirk even crept across his pain strickened features.
"You killed him..." Konohamaru half mumbled, struggling just as hard as ever, he didn't even seem to realize that Kisame and Itachi was there, they were simply an obstruction. He didn't hear Kisame's words, all he felt was some restraint keeping him from his goal, Orochimaru...he...he had to get to him.
"?" Itachi tilted his head toward the broken windows of the office curiously, he heard it before anyone else, but it wasn't long before Kisame noticed it too. The faint sound of something that grew louder as it came closer...Maybe that was why Orochimaru looked so confident, what was that?
"YOU KILLED HIM YOU BASTARD!" Konohamaru finally managed to slip free of Kisame's hold, sliding underneath his arms and pushing himself free, and as soon as his feet hit the ground he bolted towards Orochimaru.
"Damnit Konohamaru no!" Kisame went after him without hesitation, but his speed wasn't enough to get close. Konohamaru was faster then him in short distances.
A burst of snow, glass and debris blew into the room in a torrent of wind as an silver fighter plane dropped down from above so suddenly that it was frightening. Something Itachi and Kisame realized was coming before hand but Konohamaru was too angry to notice it or the danger it caused. "Shit! Goddamnit Konohamaru stop!" Kisame shouted, looking on with discouragement as the barrels of both Glatting guns underneath both of the aircraft's wings began to rotate.
Itachi's form was little more then a blur as he grabbed Konohamaru and ran towards the door. '!' Kisame, seeing that Itachi had Konohamaru, quickly turned back and followed. The two burst out of the door and ran down the hall just in time to get out of the way as a torrent of bullets began to burst through the walls of the next room, pounding to the wall adjacent to it.
Konohamaru instantly began to settle down when he saw this, he slump lifelessly in Itachi's arms, and just watched. It was almost as if he'd fallen asleep, such a sudden unexpected lost of the passionate anger that controlled him was almost perplexing. He only stared without words or motion, like seeing this had finally caused something in him to snap or die. Neither Itachi nor Kisame could understand the reason for it.
It was a few more seconds before the barrage of bullets stopped, and as soon as Konohamaru was sure that the last round had been fired he pried himself from Itachi's hold and charged into the room. By then there was little left of it, the door was blown apart, the walls were barely standing. Every bit of furniture had been torn apart, nothing was left, expect for the Sarutobi who lay there completely undisturbed. Of course Orochimaru was gone, and so was Kabuto had been there just in time to cover his escape.
'..' Konohamaru walked towards the fallen man with slow, reluctant steps. He stared ahead unevenly as if in a daze, his eyes half lidded and almost unfocused and his mouth hanging open slightly with no sound coming out. Maybe he was in shock, but no reaction was invoked in, he just walked, he didn't even seem to realize anything until he was in front of the body of his Grandfather laying before him and standing in the blood pooled around his grandfather's body, the blood seeping out of him like death. Blood was death, taking the life with it when escaped the body. When ever he saw blood people died, it was almost like it killed, he flinched when he saw it.
Everything he knew he was suppose to be feeling inside his seemingly dead mind came rushing on to him at once, to feel the sorrow, the anger, the fear of blood rising up inside of him was an inexplicable experience. It swelled up from some place in chest like an oppressive force, making it hard to breathe, his heart pound anxiously and his throat become dry. His stomach quivered and his legs began to tremble with weakening muscles until he fell to his knees and didn't have the strength to move. "No..." He screamed, he at lest tried to scream but the words came out low and weak, like his voice had left him. His throat felt as if it was welling up. "No, No..." Tears streamed from his blurry eyes and a sob forced it's way out of his horse throat as he watched himself, half covered in his Grandfather's blood and too overcome to move or look away. When he realized his current state he was instantly hit with a burst of nausea and anxiety causing him to gasp for air. But no matter how much he gasped the air never reached his lungs.
"No...Grampa...No! No! NO!"
Itachi and Kisame gave each other silent glances. "We have to go." Itachi said firmly. Orochimaru's men couldn't hold security forever, even with his spies.
Kisame sighed, he couldn't just leave him here, not like this, at lest not with out saying anything. With that fact keenly aware in his mind, he walked to Konohamaru with the same reluctant steps the boy had been taking to that spot before. He felt like he had to say something, but couldn't, he didn't know what to say. And some form of embarrassment or pride, probably both, wouldn't allow him to even attempt to try to articulate what he really wanted to tell him. Kisame knelt down and placed his hand on Konohamaru back and looked him directly in the eye with a firm look, he didn't need to say anything, the words would have just gotten in the way. Konohamaru looked back, the tears and cries quieted, he couldn't cry in front of Kisame and Itachi, something wouldn't let him.
He understood though, he barely knew what he was understanding but he knew what got it.
Kisame drew his hand away and walked away with out looking back, disappearing beyond the doorway with Itachi. The tears and sobs seemed to come freely now...
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Kakashi extended the barrel of the sniper riffle forward, his eyes firmly against the scope. He laid completely flat and silent in the narrow ventilation shaft, aiming between the bars of the vent's cage into the ship's cabin where three men reside at panel filled with switches, meters, screens and gauges all vital to controlling the cargo ship. The man in the center was presumably the Captain, and the two men beside him must have been crew members.
Kakashi fired the first shot, firing a round through the Captain's head and splattering blood on the windshield overlooking the deck. Then he quickly aimed and fired another well placed bullet into the man to the left as he was looking at what had happened but was killed him before he even had time to react. The third yelped in surprised and looked around frantically in an attempt to figure out what was happening, but he couldn't do it fast enough before Kakashi killed him with another accurate shot.
With them out of the way he pushed the vent's cage out of his way and slipped out of the shaft, landing gracefully on his feet. "Any time now Zabuza..." Kakashi mumbled behind his mask as he examined the room, there wasn't anything notable... except for one thing that caught his eye. It was resting beside the door, something not completely out of place on this ship, but questionable. Kakashi knelt beside it, it was a small steel box marked with a tracking number, something that should have been in the cargo bay but either was reluctant to be given up or here by mistake. 'Hmm...This is-'
A thunderous sound erupted from below, an explosion that shook the whole ship violently enough to make Kakashi fall on to his back. He cringed at the horrible sound of buckling steel and lost what little balance he was regaining when the ship tilted sharply to the left and stayed that way. 'Alright Zabuza...' Kakashi grabbed on to the wall and pulled himself up, quickly rushing up a new found slope to the other side of the room to a large panel mounted on the wall. It held the blue print of the ship's lower levels with lights mounted in specific places and switches under them. They were indication of the ship's flood gates, and all of them were closing.
That would be a problem. So Kakashi reopened each one of them... "Zabuza..." Kakashi cringed when he heard the horrible sound of steel snapping under some intense pressure. For some reason he began to get this overwhelming sense of worry... "Damn it, Zabuza."
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Consciousness was thrust on him forcefully. He felt warm... and comfortable, above all dry, neither of these were things he should have been in. But what made him aware enough to realize this was one bad shift that put too much friction on his burned back, and when he felt the sudden flare of burning pain Asuma sat up sharply with a sharp hiss. "Ahhaaa..." 'Huh...' The last thing he remembered was being on fire and jumping out of a second story window of a crumbling building, this was the farthest thing from that.
He found himself in his bed, stripped of all of his wet clothing and laying in nothing more then a pair of boxers. His torso was wrapped in bandages coated with a slick substance , most likely balm. 'What...?' Asuma looked to his left and beside the bed was a faithful Iruka sleeping in a chair, wearing a pair of pants with his torso exposed and a host of bruises and cuts patched up, in particular the gash on his left side was seeping blood. "Huh...?"
The small, questioning sound awaken a tense Iruka with a start, the man looked around quickly before his eyes settled on Asuma. "Asuma. Oh your awake?"
Asuma scratched his head lightly and dropped his hands in to his lap. "How did I get here?"
"I brought you here." Iruka said simply. "I would have gone to the hospital but you should see all of the injured people, and with the power out and all..." Iruka's voice trailed off with his point made.
"You brought me here? How' d you find me?"
Iruka shrugged. "I was worried and I came looking for you."
'In that condition?' Asuma couldn't believe Iruka had gotten him all the way here, he'd obviously encountered some resistance at the phone company...An expression of sudden remembrance came on to Asuma's face, speaking of resistance... "What about everyone else, are they alright?"
The sudden change in Asuma's tone made Iruka start to worry as soon as he heard it. "No, I haven't heard from them yet...Besides Lee and Shikamaru, they're in the other room."
Asuma pushed himself off of the bed and stood to his feet abruptly, looking around as if he was lost for a few seconds before deciding on a course of action. "We have to go, now." He announced, crossing the relatively small room to the closet with hasty steps.
"Why?" Iruka leaned forward, only to be bombarded with a coat tossed at his head.
Asuma began quickly digging around in his closet for anything suited for wear in winter, he didn't have time to be picky. "They were doing something, all of this was a set up."
"Uh Asuma, I don't think you should try and go anywhere in your condition. " Iruka said warningly. He could see the pain in Asuma's body, in every movement of the muscles pressing against his skin, every tense, every twinge of pain and soreness. He was definitely not in good shape right now, the last thing he needed to do was over exert himself.
"Everyone else could be dead." Asuma said simply, but holding a hasty firmness.
Iruka looked up at Asuma with a sigh, maybe Asuma knew enough to actually do something about it, Iruka couldn't find a trace of anyone else and could only wait. "Then... we better hurry."
Asuma pulled on the first thing he could he could find and put a coat on over it, then left the room with the same curtness he'd searched with, leaving Iruka to trail behind. He found Lee and Shikamaru waiting in the kitchen, Shikamaru sat back loosely in the chair, holding his usual composure with his eyes close and arms folded patiently. Lee opposingly had his head down on the table, his right arm resting across it lazy and his eyes fixed on the three holes in his palm. Both of them became alert as soon as the two men walked through the door.
"Lee, Shikamaru?" Asuma stopped in front of them, his face showing every bit of his dismay. "Naruto, Sasuke, and Konohamaru were with you weren't they? Were are they?"
That part neither of them were too clear on, they had been so busy with Jiroubou... "Uh well..." Lee looked up thoughtfully. "Konohamaru...there were some police office-"
"Shit!" Asuma grimaced at those words. "They were fake, they were from the sound. Damnit..."
"Yeah." Shikamaru nodded. "Naruto and Sasuke said something about that before they left, I'm sure they went after Konohamaru." Lee and Shikamaru attempted to follow, but Naruto and Sasuke had a much better sense of the city so they could navigate it even in the middle of the blizzard going on out side. Lee and Shikamaru how ever couldn't, and had no idea where to start looking, they'd lost too much time to try and track them.
"What would they do with Konohamaru?" Iruka couldn't seem to piece all of this together. "What possible use could he have?"
"Unless..." Asuma reasoned. "They're using him to get to his grandfather... Damnit we have to find them, now."
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It was cold, miserably cold, or maybe they were just miserable, it was hard to tell the difference. Zabuza and Kakashi trudged across frozen pavement of a long bridge arching across Konoha's harbor, taking high steps over the thick layer of snow that coated the surface. The harsh, cold, howling winds blew more snow directly at them, making it hard to see more then a few feet ahead.
Kakashi held the steel box he'd taken from the ship under his arm, letting his eyes settle on the ground out of reach of the air current. If anyone was miserable it was him, he was soaking wet from head to toe, and already most of his clothing was frozen stiff and white with a layer of sticking snow. Well on his way to a case of hypothermia.
Zabuza was cold of course, there was no way he couldn't be, but with the water resistant and some what insulated clothing he appropriately wore he at lest was dry. Escaping the sinking ship didn't necessarily ensue getting wet, Kakashi had done his job and finding and reserving a life boat as well as clearing any resistance. By all means he should have waited, but he couldn't seem to and went back to find Zabuza. As it turned out Zabuza didn't need his help at all and was doing a great job of escaping the hull of a ship he'd just detonated a considerably powerful bomb on.
And there in came the wetness, there was a considerable amount of water down there, an escape from such a place required one to be a good swimmer in order to get away from the currents all rushing in from the left side of the ship.
Zabuza looked at Kakashi, and as soon as Kakashi's eyes shifted away from the ground he turned his gaze over the side of the bridge at the water surrounding them... something was really off about this bridge, it was pretty far away from the coast to be one bridge... "What is with this bridge? Something here doesn't seem right." The man finally mumbled in a low voice.
"This is a highway." Kakashi responded, his voice was shaky, a rising shiver threatened to come forth."Theres only one lane here."
"What?" Zabuza looked up at him again, then mentally kicked himself. He wasn't the type of person to make idle conversation and he didn't like the people who were. Though why a whole lane of a highway was missing was odd and couldn't really be considered idle, it wasn't what he wanted to talk about.
"This is really strange, where are all the people? What happened to the cars?" Kakashi wondered, still keeping his eyes on the ground and out of the winds. His voice trembled fully now, his whole body shook from the cold. "Odd..."
Zabuza silently agreed, maybe if he thought about it something would come to mind, but he wasn't focused on it. His mind thought of other things, thing he couldn't seem to understand right now. 'Yeah, odd.'
Kakashi tilted his head upward toward the obstructed gray sky, then he shuttered as a sneeze shook through him. 'Great...' Kakashi looked ahead miserably, clinching the cold steel of the box under his arm even tighter... "Huh?"
"What? What is it?"
"I see something..." Kakashi paused and peered forward, staring through the wall of snow... 'Is that...' Then with out warning he charged forward as fast as he could, running past Zabuza and disappearing in the wall of snow.
"Kakashi?" He was surprised to see Kakashi just run away like that, Zabuza went after him, and had to come to a sudden stop only a few seconds later, nearly running into Kakashi who only went a few feet ahead. '?' They both stood in front of a car, a deep green one, stalled in a odd position in the middle of the road. A red tool box sat by the rear wheel visible to them, and someone's lower body protruded from beneath the vehicle. More notably there was a M50 rocket luncher laying nearby.
Who else would it be? "Gai." Kakashi set the steel box down on the car's trunk, keeping his eyes fixed on the man half hidden below. He didn't get an answer. "Gai." Kakashi called out to him again, waiting a few seconds for a response. For the second time he got none. He was starting to get worried
Kakashi knelt down to the ground and waited a few seconds longer for some recondition, this was the first time Gai didn't immediately respond when he called out to him, something really must have been wrong. Finally Kakashi took hold of Gai's legs and pulled the man out from underneath the car on the icy pavement, even then he got no response. Gai just laid there, staring upward with half-lidded unfocused eyes, as if he was looking right through Kakashi, in his hands he held a ratchet outward and using it on something unseen, he seemed to think he was still under the car, or couldn't tell the difference.
Kakashi and Zabuza looked at each other with an air of uneasiness, Zabuza was more uneasy, Kakashi was simply worried. "Is he asleep?" Zabuza asked, he couldn't really tell.
Kakashi waved his hands in front of Gai's eyes and the man didn't even blink, 'Hmm...Maybe he is.' Kakashi started to notice the wounds the other man had when he saw the streaks of red in the snow, his back was bleeding profusely, not to mention the few seeping cuts and bruises on his torso. 'What happened...' Kakashi shook him lightly, careful of the spots that had to be painful to the other man. "Gai...Gai!...Gai!"
Finally Gai responded, he blinked and the focus slowly returned to his eyes. "...Kakashi?" Gai yawned and then flinched, making Kakashi notice that his hand was on Gai's stomach and quickly pulled it away. "K-Kakashi, what...are you doing here?" There was this weak, dazed attribute to his voice that matched the expression he had before, maybe it was from the cold, maybe it was from the blood loss, maybe it was a lot of things.
Kakashi wouldn't put it past Gai to attempt to fix his car in this condition.
"Are you alright?" Kakashi pulled the ratchet out of his hand and tossed it aside.
"Sakon, he...The road..." Gai reached up and grabbed Kakashi's shoulder and sat up, moving in a string of sloppy, unorganized movements, he looked as if he was drunk. "C-check the road for explosives."
Kakashi looked back at Zabuza who nodded. "I got it."
"He blew up..the road." Gai grunted, he reached back with his other hand and pulled himself up to his knees, not getting much father before he stumbled. "One of the lanes... it's completely..."
Kakashi wrapped his arms around Gai's waist and caught him before he fell. "Take it easy, what are you trying to do?" He asked, pulling the man on to his feet.
Gai barely seemed to hear him. He stumbled forward, pulling towards something, while Kakashi simply helped him walk and followed whichever way he wanted to go, though where wasn't clear yet. "I was worried...If they set me up...t-then they must have did the same to everyone else." Gai moved sloppily to the other side of the car and made it to the rear seat behind the driver's before nearly collapsing again. "Your...so cold..."
The top of Gai's car was missing completely, since it was a convertible and the considering what probably transpired here, the roof was gone and wouldn't be found. "I told you to take it easy." Kakashi opened the door and laid Gai in the back seat, truthfully it was more like a fall.
"My car." Gai's dazed voice grew angrier when he spoke about his car, his hand fell on to his stomach and he decided to rest their for a moment, just until he could catch his breath. His words came out slurred, his words seemed drunk but his thoughts were sober enough. "Look what he did to my car..."
"Don't worry about that now." Kakashi glanced over to a broken guard rail bent inward and the smoldering hole in the side of a building the highway curved around. He didn't know what happened but he was sure it had to do why Gai's car was out of commission at the moment, and the rocket luncher. Gai was attempting to fix his car in this condition... that was Gai's persistence, not smart, not stupid, just persistent.
Zabuza emerged from beyond the snow, Gai's rocket launcher resting on his shoulder, "This road's fine." He set the weapon aside and opened the driver side door, thankfully he found the key still in the ignition, and then attempted to start it up...He thankfully he heard the booming sound of an engine starting, along with a few other sounds that really shouldn't have been there, they really weren't good. "He fixed it...I don't know how for it will get us but..."
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"Wow...it's only been an hour since I left here, I'd never imagined so much would happen since then." Iruka looked around the heavily damaged Uchiha house hold for any trace of Naruto, Sasuke and Konohamaru. All he found were remains of what looked like a pretty bad fight.
Asuma emerged from the dining room with a radio in hand. "Radio's working again."
"Did you tell them about KPD headquarters?" Iruka sat down on the sofa with a tired sigh, what a day this turned out to be, and it was only 11 o'clock.
"How it's now burning wreckage? Yeah, they know." Asuma began shifting around in his pockets, wincing every time his body faltered to the side and a shot of pain streaked along his torso.
'?' Iruka looked down down at the jacket he was wearing, "What about Kakashi? And Gai?"
"I haven't heard anything about them." Asuma reached out and caught a pack of cigarettes Iruka tossed back to him, he had forgotten Iruka was wearing his jacket. "Thanks." At the moment he was glad he had a bad habit to kick back on, this was stressful. "It's chaos out there, the only thing we'll going to be able to do is wait."
Iruka rubbed the back of his head, a nervous habit he always did when he was worried. "I was afraid of that..." He let his head fall back and he closed his eyes, he really wanted to go to sleep, but his mind wouldn't quiet it's anxious thoughts enough for him to be at peace.
Lee climbed through the hole in the kitchen and trudged past Iruka with his head hung low and his shoulder's slumped. Shikamaru followed behind with a slightly less depressed demeanor, standing patiently overhead while Lee sat down on the ground.
"What's with you?" Asuma leaned against the back of the sofa, watching Lee from the corner of his eye as he lit a cigarette in his mouth.
"I'm worried about Gai." Lee said, the slump in his voice adjacent to the one in his form. "I don't think he made it to the base he was talking about, he would have come back by now."
"Really, were do you think he is then?" Asuma asked, a bit of interest creeping into his voice.
"I don't know...but I can't just sit here." Lee nodded to himself as if to reassure his thinking and then stood up decidedly. "I'm gonna go check his house."
"You really think he'd be there?" Shikamaru asked doubtfully.
"I don't know but I have to try something." Lee nearly shouted. "Naruto, Sasuke and Konohamaru are gone, everybody's missing, I can't just sit here."
Shikamaru sighed, lowering himself down on to the ground beside him."I know your worried but Gai is more then capable of taking care of himself."
"I know but-"
"Lee, your gonna have to be patient." Shikamaru told him, but he knew Lee wouldn't be satisfied with that answer. The other boy was impulsive, and when he couldn't follow a particularly strong impulse whether it's a well thought out one or not, he became pint up with impatient energy until he couldn't stand it any longer. "Look...if we don't hear from him in an hour then we can go looking."
"...Yeah..." Lee shrugged and rested his head in his hands and sunk down even farther. "Alright."
Shikamaru could easily still see his dismay, Lee's expressions never betrayed every feeling he had at the moment "Lee...I'm sure every one is alright. Don't worry about them."
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Naruto held both of his arms tightly to his chest, a light shiver finally starting to creep into his body. He zipped up his jacket, which really didn't do him any good considering the battle created holes in the fabric, and walked head first into the frozen, snow saturated winds. He trailed behind Sasuke, wondering through the city with only previous knowledge of the streets and general senses of direction to lead, the snow made it hard to see anything. "Man, there is no one out here." He commented.
The streets were silent, except for the seldom sound of a single car pushing through the high, unplowed snow. Sasuke took notice of that but thought nothing of it, he wasn't focused on it, his mind was only set on Konohamaru. And if Konohamaru escaped again, and that was a very unsure, hopeful if, and he didn't go back to his house, and he knew he couldn't go back to the police. Then the only place he could think that Konohamaru would have gone was back to his home. "..."
Naruto looked down at the ground again when he didn't get a response, lifting his arm to his head to block the snowy wind blowing into his face. 'Sasuke...' He sighed to himself, attempting to keep pace with Sasuke.
Sasuke was walking unusually fast, forcing himself to keep his head up and look strait up into the white haze. He had to find Konohamaru, he couldn't let him get taken away again, he couldn't let him down again. After everything he did, Konohamaru barely trusted him, and just when they were finally starting to...
"Sasuke." Naruto reached out and grabbed Sasuke by the arm, forcing him to stop just as they came to a 4-way intersection. "He's going to be alright."
"..." Sasuke didn't respond, he just looked ahead.
Naruto wasn't sure if he believe it or not, but Sasuke's non responsiveness couldn't be a good sign. "Come on, Who could keep Konohamaru in one spot? If he could get away from Ebisu then he could get away from some guys like them."
"...Hn." Sasuke seemed to take the answer, it wasn't clear if he took any solace in it but he at lest said something.
"Listen." Naruto pulled himself to Sasuke's side, still holding a tight grip on his arm. "I'm worried about him to, but we're gonna find him."
"Yeah, so can we go find him now?" Sasuke said, clearly indicating the hold Naruto had on his arm.
Naruto laughed and rubbed the back of his head nervously, releasing Sasuke. "Yeah."
They were about to set off again when something expected caught their attention. Sasuke paused and looked around, and apparently Naruto noticed it to. 'Huh?'
The blaring sounds of sirens could be barely heard in the distance, growing louder as they grew closer. It was indistinguishable, it was coming from every side, from all over. "Is that what I think it is?" Naruto looked around from where he was standing, able to see the flashing lights of blue and red against the white haze of heavy snow. Then all of a sudden police squad cars came sliding from three ways in the intersection, all accelerating forward in a loud haste.
"Holy crap!" Naruto waisted no time charging forward in the direction the squad cards had gone, Sasuke following in step with the same franticness. They ran as fast as they could, slowed down by shin deep snow but still making considerable time. That was, until they were stopped by barricades set around around a one street radius of their destination, the White house. "Oh man..."
Sasuke looked around at small but growing crowd, even with out communication people seemed to find their way here, the police certainly did. "What is going on around here..." Sasuke looked as far as he could in the low visibility, but he couldn't see anything too far, "Do you think...Konohamaru might be in there?"
"I-I don't know if I want him to be or not..."
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Zabuza roughly dropped Kakashi on the man's bed, panting heavily to reclaim his breath as he fell down beside him. He had to admit, it may have been all the water frozen to him but Kakashi was heavy, especially when carrying him long distances. "Damnit, you too heavy." He muttered, clinching his rapidly rising and falling chest with every bit of the strain of an hour on a doomed tanker and an hour attempting to get Kakashi home.
There had been some set backs, snow was one of them, it made visibility low, and considering the fact Gai's car no longer had a roof, it did nothing for warmth. If anything it only made things colder since the car had been moving, it seemed like forever until they reached someplace remotely near here. Zabuza was so tired, he would have simply left Gai in the car but he knew Kakashi wouldn't like that, so he dropped Gai off at his house and left the car with him. It really wouldn't help much anyway, Kakashi didn't live too far and it was a lot warmer walking.
It didn't seem like that far of a trip before, but it hadn't been snowing then.
"I'll bet." Kakashi was fully shivering now, his voice trembled with his body and his words were a struggle to force out of frozen lips.
They both laid across the bed with out a word, staring upward at the ceiling with out the will to move as they panted to catch their breath and steady racing heart beats. Zabuza let his eyes drift inanely over to Kakashi who didn't seem able to move, and despite his attempt not to, his mind began to wonder about some things. "...Are you alright?" He asked reluctantly, looking away.
"..."
Zabuza quickly looked back at Kakashi when he didn't get a response, he saw the man's visible eye drifting closed and what awareness he had fading. "Kakashi!" Zabuza grunted with a worried annoyance as he rolled over and climbed over Kakashi, grabbing him roughly by the collar and shaking him, hard. "Get up..."
Kakashi's eye opened half lidded. "Huh?"
"Wake up." Zabuza pressed his hand against Kakashi's forehead, and then his cheek, he couldn't find a single part of his body that was warm.
"Uh..." Kakashi blinked, taking in a deep, frozen breath.
"At this rate you'll be hypothermic before you warm up." Zabuza said, if Kakashi wasn't already. He watched a small white cloud push it's way from beyond Kakashi's mask, he didn't notice it before but he wasn't just cold, it was cold in here too. "Damnit, why is it so cold in here!"
"I guess...the h-heat's out." Kakashi said.
Things could never just be easy around here.
Zabuza wrapped his arms around Kakashi's back, "Fine." Then he pulled Kakashi up into a sitting position, then climbed off the bed and pulled Kakashi on to his feet. "Just don't fall asleep."
Kakashi attempted to support himself and stand on his own, but he couldn't feel his legs , they were numb, like dead weight and the only thing he felt was cold. He immediately stumbled and faltered, falling back towards the bed. But with his usual swiftness, Zabuza reached out and caught him, pulling him forward into a tight embrace. "Doesn't look... I'll be m-moving any time s-soon." Kakashi joked, but with his failing voice it sounded weak and drowsy.
"..." Zabuza stalled for a few moments, waiting silently as Kakashi's chin fell on to his shoulder and the man slumped into his hold. "I'm going to have to take these wet clothes off."
"Good l-luck. They're frozen t-too me."
Zabuza rolled his eyes and ran one hand down Kakashi's back, slipping his fingers under the rim of his shirt and started to pull it upward. Kakashi was at lest partiality serious, his shirt was stiff from frozen water and it crackled as Zabuza forced it to bend. "Your going to have too lift you arms."
Kakashi barely heard him, he was too busy drifting off, but he forced himself to lift his arms, heavy and numb from the cold, while Zabuza pried the cold fabric off of him and tossed it aside. He never thought a simple action would be so hard. "Kakashi..." Zabuza reached in between them and began unbuttoning the other man's pants, one arm still firmly around his back. "Kakashi, wake up damnit."
Kakashi flinched from sudden obscenity uttered harshly in his ear. "Uha... Z-Zabuza. Practicing I see." Kakashi dropped his arms and wrapped them around Zabuza's neck, his head resting against his. "I'm... I."
"Just stay awake... "Zabuza said, fumbling with Kakashi's pants which truly were frozen .
"I..." Kakashi's eyes began closing again despite his best efforts. "I can't."
"Yes you can." Zabuza shook him forcefully, forcing Kakashi to awaken again. 'Why is it so damn cold in here.' Zabuza refrained from shouting a string of obscenities, he was cold but he'd at lest been dry, and what little clothing he'd been waring had been insulated. "Just focus on me."
"Tch...not much to f-focus on there." Kakashi yawned, letting his head fall on Zabuza's shoulder. "You n-never...say a-any...thing-"
Zabuza shook Kakashi again and shouted. "Get up damnit!"
"Your not e-exactly..." He was forced to stop when a shiver made his voice too shaky too speak."... The best person to h-hold a conversation... with." Kakashi said drowsily.
"..." Zabuza finally manged to unbutton Kakashi's pants and began pushing them down with sharp tugs. Conversation, sure he could do that, if that would keep Kakashi awake."Why did you come back for me?"
"B-because I was w-worried about you." That was one distinct difference between the two of them, Kakashi didn't hesitate to answer a question that Zabuza was so reluctant to ask.
"Why? I can take care of myself." Zabuza snorted, forcing Kakashi's pants down around his ankles.
"I-I'm aware."
By then Kakashi was fully devoid of the wet, frozen, clothing, and just as cold as when he had them on. Zabuza wrapped one arm around Kakashi's waist and pulled him up as he began to slump, he could feel just how cold he was now. "So why did you do it?"
"I told you...I-I was worried about you." Kakashi voice began to slur a bit atop the trembling. "If you..died down there...what would I do for fun?" Kakashi smirked, but it quickly faded as he began to drift off again. The only way Zabuza could tell was from the lack of speech, since Kakashi couldn't really move anyway.
Zabuza reached up and began removing Kakashi's mask, it was hard for him, his fingers lost all touch and could no longer bend to clutch or grasp anything. 'Come on goddammit.' Zabuza pulled his hand close to his mouth and blew a warm breath on the frozen appendages, blowing until his breath grew short again and he began slightly dizzy. "You thought I would die?" He grunted half sarcastically, quickly unstrapping and tossing aside Kakashi's mask before the numbness set in again.
"It w-was a distinct possibility." Kakashi joked, he gave up on keeping his eyes open, they were too heavy and his will was too short.
Zabuza looked at Kakashi, then at the bed, again such a short distance seemed so long. 'Damn heat.' He grunted in annoyment and forced himself to pick up Kakashi, pulling the bare form even closer as he took slow, stumbling steps to the bed and crashed down weakly on to it. Kakashi fell on his back, and Zabuza landed on top of him. Kakashi was glad for the change, so he didn't have to balance on dead weight legs he couldn't feel. "You should have worried about yourself instead of me."
"I...worryed about someone else instead of just myself, so, does it make me weak?" Kakashi forced out, his voice and consciousness fading by the word. He knew Zabuza's demeanor was a bit unilaterally selfish so doing something like that would probably make some one seem a lot weaker.
Zabuza didn't move, laying on top of Kakashi with his arms still wrapped around the other man's back. He was tired already. Being this close with out Kakashi's mask to muffle the sound he could hear Kakashi's harsh, trembling breaths against his ear. He looked away. "It makes you more likely to get killed."
"I'll take that risk." Kakashi let himself relax under Zabuza, he was warmer, and the warmth small bit of warmth was growing at a gruelingly slow but sure pace. Finally even the conversation couldn't keep him awake.
So that just meant Zabuza had to try harder. 'Get up damnit!' He forced his numb, half frozen hand to clinch into the closet's thing to a full fist as he could manage and punched Kakashi roughly in the face. In his current position that was about the only thing he could reach, and it worked, Kakashi abruptly opened his eyes.
"Did you h-have to hit me so hard?" Kakashi mumbled. He tilted his head back and laid it against Zabuza's shoulder again, enjoying the warm breath from the other man against his neck. "How do you k-know I'm hypothermic, I could just b-be sleepy."
"It's not even noon yet." Zabuza reached fumbling outward beside him until he felt the edge of the cover and pulled it over both of them. Then he wrapped his arms tighter around Kakashi to stop the trembling. "Just keep talking, you seem good at that."
"Funny."
"What was in that box you brought back?"
