Chapter 28: See ya latter part 2
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This chapter is kinda long, I know, but it's important, and I promise if you don't like this one you'll like the next chapter a lot better.
SDI
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"So." Shikamaru sat down on the couch and folded his arms, a quiet thoughtfulness creeping into his voice. "I'm kinda curious, what's in this dream I keep hearing about?"
Ebisu sat down beside the boy, another small shutter crept along his back as he looked around the Uchiha living room. He still felt uneasy in this place, but even more so he felt so disenchimed being the only one that felt this way when everyone else was so casual about this house, this part of town. 'Man, I feel like an idiot...' He took in a deep breath to settle the quell in his chest and thought about the question. Konohamaru had told him everything about Shikamaru, about his 2000 year displacement, about his exceptional mental capacity, not to mention physical... advancement.
Ebisu lent froward, resting his elbows on his knees, he glanced over at Shikamaru, who sat with a camera faithfully in his hands. "You really like that camera huh?"
Shikamaru looked down at the device cradled in his hands, "Yeah."
Ebisu looked at him thoughtfully, then down at the camera. 'Hmm...' "Well, this dream I had when I was in the coma... I don't know, I feel kinda stupid going over this, just a dream right?" Ebisu smirked in amusement at himself, he couldn't believe he was putting so much on a dream. But still, he couldn't ignore this, pride aside he couldn't do that. "Didn't Konohamaru tell you about it?"
"Yeah, but if you feel it's important, the least I can do is acknowledge it." Shikamaru told him. "Anything distinct about it?"
"Well, Orochimaru, that stood out." Ebisu snorted. "And someone, a guy, he was familiar...blue hair...and he had some kinda markings."
"Markings?" Shikamaru inquired, Tilting the camera towards the older man. "What did they look like?"
Ebisu looked up thoughtfully, remembering the image that had burned into his head. Dark markings on pale skin... "They were black, looked like chains almost, a tattoo I think, went all over the guys chest, side of his face too."
"Hmm..." Sounded like the curse seal to Shikamaru, the one he saw on Jiroubou, and everyone else saw on other sound generals. "And you saw Orochimaru was in your dream too." This started to make a creepy kinda sense. "That was one hell of a dream you had."
"Huh?" Ebisu looked fully at Shikamaru, but still his eyes went right to the camera. "What do you mean?"
"You just described Orochimaru's curse seal to a tee. Though..." Shikamaru said. "There was no way you could have know about it since, it wasn't tested until you fell into that coma... I think there is something to this dream of yours."
Ebisu didn't need proof, he already believe it. "So, you think so too?"
Shikamaru didn't rule out anything that happened, not after a said demon attack that happened questioningly long after all of the demons had been eradicated. Not to mention time travel, and altering reality, anything was plausible to him. "Try and remember who that person was, maybe something can come of it." Shikamaru shrugged.
"I guess..." Ebisu sat up strait, noticing the red light under the lense was on meaning the camera was recording. He didn't question it. "This house is creeping me out, I'm going to get some air." The man pressed his fingers to the glasses and pushed them up by the rim.
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Ebisu took in a deep breath of the fresh air outside the Uchiha household as he stepped out on to the porch. He could finally relax a little, being outside now. Ebisu slipped his hands in to his pockets and tilted his head back a little, feeling a cool brush of air washing over him. He'd missed so much... '3 months and I'm and a whole different world, I feel so...out of place here.'
Ebisu looked down questioningly when he saw Zabuza, walking up the stairs toward the front door, though Zabuza didn't take him for a front door type of person. "Zabuza." Ebisu took his hand from his pockets, speaking a lot easier then the last time he saw the man. "Well, looks like I had you all wrong."
Zabuza didn't respond, not that Ebisu expected him too.
Ebisu smirked in amusement as he looked over Zabuza's advancing form, "Since your a good guy now I guess that makes the mask kinda pointless."
Zabuza said nothing as he ascended the last stair and stepped onto the porch, then with out warning he grabbed Ebisu by the neck and shoved him roughly against the wall before the man had and any idea what was happening to him.
"Uhaa!" Ebisu grabbed Zabuza's wrist and struggled to pry the man off of him, but before he could he felt a sharp knee to his stomach causing him to limp slightly and gasp before his airway was pressed shut completely.
"Tell me..." Zabuza slowly reached up and pushed Ebisu's glasses up onto the top of his head, staring into the man's fearful eyes, trembling from the sudden pain. "Where is he? Where is Kabuto?" He growled in dangerously low tones.
Ebisu's first instinct was to use evasive measures, to pry him away and fight back, he knew he could do it, being a member, 'Former member...' of the Secret Service. He'd resign latter. But he repressed it, feeling Zabuza slowly loosening his hold enough to speak at lest. 'W-Why would I know?' "H...How the hell should I know?"
Zabuza watched him carefully, watching every tense, every twitch of Ebisu's muscles in anticipation. Besides being naturally alert from being pressed against the wall by the throat, Ebisu didn't seem to be making a move to fight back. Most people when accused of something such as this and being attacked at the same time would fight back and deny it, only people who truly didn't know anything, or were very good actors, would just stand there like that and do nothing. Ebisu didn't strike him as the acting type.
"I was in a coma." He grunted, pausing to draw in as much air as he could from his compressed throat. "How could I?"
Zabuza stared at him, a silent contemplation unseeable in his eyes. He wondered if -'!' Before Zabuza could reach a conclusion, two strong arms wrapped around his neck and pried him roughly away, nearly throwing him backwards as the pulled him against a strong chest.
"Zabuza what the hell are you doing!" The voice belong to none other then Kakashi.
Zabuza sent a sharp elbow into Kakashi's stomach, feeling the man cringe around his back and shoulders slightly. "I was testing something you idot." He grunted, throwing his head backward into Kakashi, hard, knocking him away of him completely, forcing the man to stagger back a few steps .
"Why!" Kakashi sent a hard punch into the back of Zabuza's head in retaliation, making the man nearly fall to his knees. "He's not a spy." He said firmly,giving Zabuza a hard kick in the back, forcing the man to stumble froward off balance and run into the wall.
The dark haired man threw his hands froward and stopped himself from crashing. "I figured that out on my own." Zabuza turned around and leaned his back against the wall, rubbing the struck spot on the back of his head with annoyment. "Bastard."
"You had it coming." Kakashi clinched his pained nose, hidden beneath his own mask, "What's this all about?"
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Mizuki grunted in annoyment, watching the display unfold at the Uchiha house hold from a concealed location not to far away. He didn't have too much faith that this part of his plan would actually do well to get Ebisu out of the way, leaving him free to take Konohamaru, but from what he'd heard of Zabuza there at lest would be some torture involved before he realized Ebisu didn't know anything. 'He gave up so easily.' Mizuki thought to himself, with clear distaste. At the moment he would have loved to see some pain come Ebisu's way.
Well, too bad, he'd just have to move on. He had preparations to finish, this would be done one way or another. Soon if everything went as planed.
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Konohamaru sat questioningly beside Ebisu, looking up at the man with slight worry. He didn't know what was going on completely, but the way Ebisu and Kakashi hand come into the house was enough to wake him. That had to mean it was serious. 'Hmm...' Naruto and Sasuke were off with Gai per a promise Naruto had made to Lee, the one from the past that is, they were so confusing. He'd practically begged Gai to teach him, it wasn't like the man could resist his favorite student, or rather favorite being from 2000 in the past. And they would help, at the very least on a damage control basis. So, that left Konohamaru, and Shikamaru who was sitting on the ground next to him, who had a strong adversity to cars simply because of his experiences with Gai.
Iruka was here as always, as well as Asuma, they were growing close to finishing the repairs.
Having slept here last night, Konohamaru didn't have time to go back and change his clothes. He was currently in the process of getting his stuff from his old room at him with as little noticeablity from everyone as possible. So far he hadn't gathered anything, leaving him still in the suit he'd warn to his grandfather's funeral the previous day. He'd change his clothes, as soon as he figured out what was going on here. "What, what's wrong?"
Kakashi folded his arms and paced around thoughtfully, his eyes fixed on Zabuza "So, who was this guy?"
"Kinda pale, blue hair, dressed Hollywood." Zabuza said, he sat in the chair beside the couch, and was staring to feel as if he was being interrogated. "Called himself Mizuki."
'?' Ebisu's eyes grew slowly wider with a questioning anticipation, did he really just say that name? "Mizuki?"
"Mizuki?" Asuma looked over to Iruka questioningly, he heard that name before..."Didn't you tell me something about a guy with that name?"
Iruka nodded, watching Zabuza with a curious interest. "I'll explain later."
"So, are you usually in the habit of following leads from complete strangers?" Kakashi snorted sarcastically.
"He was more credible then you might think." Zabuza shot back. "He made a good argument, I figured I could at lest give it a chance."
Ebisu adjusted his glasses, snorting with his own bit of amused sarcasm. "Of course he made a good argument, he's a lawyer."
Zabuza, for the second time that day, took an interest in Ebisu. "You know him?"
Ebisu nodded with a sigh, a visible slump came into his form as his mind began drifting backwards, it seemed to return to the past a lot lately."I knew him as well as I knew myself back then." He said, his voice growing with a hint of forlorn sadness creeping into his tone. "He used to be my boyfriend."
"What?" Iruka leaned over the back of the couch and looked at Ebisu in disbelief. "Him? But he...He was Kinda...well he-"
"Was an asshole?" Ebisu said with a small laugh of amusement that turned into a distant grin. "Yeah, it looked that way from the outside. But there was so much more to him then most people knew, he was a great guy, decent lawyer. A little jaded at times, but over all...for 10, crazy years."Ebisu gave a half look over his shoulder. "Asuma, you can ask Kurenai, she worked with him. It was insanely crazy sometimes, but it was great..."
He sounded like he really loved him."Wait a minute." Konohamaru looked up at Ebisu to a child like interest in the subject. "I never saw you with him? You never said anything about him."
"I didn't, we broke up right after you were born." Ebisu told him.
Konohamaru scratched his head slightly, the reference brought of memories he'd only seen in pictures. "Why?"
"You actually." Ebisu didn't seem to feel the need to hold back. "I use to work as a sorta para-legal in training at his law firm, thing was I was still in military.. Heh, Then you were born, and since I was a friend of your father and I had been at his base at the time, I took him to the hospital when your mother went into labor. It still amazes me that it caught him off guard...I ended up being there when you were born..." A smile came to his face when he thought about it, a faint, distant smile only brought out in memory. "Your grandfather and your father trusted me enough to asked me to be your bodyguard, which meant it would be easier to tell you when I was off then the hours I worked, and it was really big pay cut from my regular job. And it also meant I'd practically be leaving Mizuki."
Konohamaru started to comprehend everything Ebisu being his bodyguard entailed, he completely disrupted his personal life, everything for him. 'Ebisu...' "So...you chose me over him?"
"If I didn't I wouldn't be here." Ebisu pushed himself up to his feet and stood up strait, stretching slightly. He was starting to feel awkward, talking about this in front of all these people. "Think that has anything to do with why Zabuza strangled me?"
Shikamaru looked down at the camera in his hands almost as if he was disinterested, "I was thinking more along the lines of the dream you had. You described Mizuki, and tell me, would he do something as drastic as go to Orochimaru."
"He was pretty mad." Ebisu sighed. "And he was never too keen on following the rules, ironic really. I'm not sure I would put anything past him." The way Mizuki had been when he told him that he had inadvertently picked a kid that wasn't his over him, he didn't put it past Mizuki.
Konohamaru shifted around with the collar of his shirt. "So, we shouldn't go find out for ourselves?"
The gathered group looked around at each other, at first glance it seemed that this didn't warrant much of an investigation, but all of this together. "He's right, let's go ask him." Iruka pushed himself off the back of the couch and dusted himself off intently.
"Yeah, probably." Asuma sighed, it didn't look like he'd be finishing this job today as he'd hoped.
"Zabuza, do you have any idea where he might be?" Kakashi asked.
Zabuza stood up, the annoyance he was feeling began to fade, it looked like this wasn't a waste of time after all."A very good one." He said, his voice twinging with anticipation.
Konohamaru, almost loyally, pushed himself off the couch and stood up, preparing to follow when he felt Ebisu's hand on his shoulder. "You can stay here." The man said, much to his disappointment.
Konohamaru looked up at the man with a serious expression, standing firmly as he could full of either persistence or just plain stubbornness. "No way, I'm going with you." He said surely.
Ebisu rubbed the back of his neck with an aspirated sigh, he didn't say anything for a moment, almost as if he was in thought, before he finally dropped down on to one knee and brought himself face to face with the boy. "I don't know what this is gonna be like-"
"You said he was a lawyer, what could he do to me." Konohamaru protested. "With everyone there?"
Just the mention of Mizuki kept bringing his mind back to the dream he had, whether he wanted to think about it or not. He couldn't ignore it, whenever he tried to push it aside and discard it, a sinking feeling grew, quelling nauseatingly in his stomach, telling him not too. With everything, including Shikamaru, telling him this could actually be something, he decided there was no harm in going with it. He'd let what happened next prove him right or wrong. "There's a good chance this could be dangerous." He said, though still sounding unsure of himself. "I don't want you getting hurt."
"And it could be nothing...I'm coming." Konohamaru nodded, besides, he couldn't stay here, not by himself, not after what happened last time. As valid an argument as that was, that wasn't his reason for going. "I...I'm not gonna leave you to do this alone, If he's with Orochimaru I want to see him too."
Ebisu scratched his head, he barely knew what he was suppose to do now...Well, 5 other people were going, Konohamaru was safer with them then he was here by himself. And besides, what danger could Mizuki pose?...If he didn't know any better, Konohamaru was looking up at him apologeticly... "Alright, just stay close." As soon as Ebisu allowed it he felt better, being able to protect Konohamaru again and keep him close. It usually wouldn't have been so strong a feeling had not all those things happened while he was gone.
Konohamaru felt a small smile twinge at the side of his mouth, he'd get to see him, the guy Ebisu gave up for him. He felt guilty, but most of that guilt was overridden by the prospect that this man could be working with someone like Orochimaru.
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"This is the place." Zabuza roughly pried open the door to an old hanger, ravaged by the deadly storm a while back, as well as the sound attack somewhat recently. The steel walls were holding on, despite a few holes in the ceiling and the lack of power making the structure much to dark for their liking. "Guy said he'd be somewhere around here." Which was why Zabuza barely trusted him that much.
"Why would he be here?" Iruka slowly crept into the structure, feeling a sense of familiarity since it was just like the one his own plane resided in. Asuma followed, striding carefully through the darkness.
"I'm starting to believe this isn't completely on the up and up." Ebisu snorted sarcastically as he lifted his hands out of his pockets and began staring around at the broken windows mounted impossibly high along the walls between the ceiling. Konohamaru followed obediently, and Shikamaru came in last, on guard.
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes, peering around the darkness scrutinizingly. In the blink of an eye, completely inane it was apart of him, as sure as he felt his own arm he felt the lack of light as if it was tangible. It was heavy, an appendage he couldn't quiet move completely, but he could surely feel through it and see through it. "It's a-" Before he could finish speaking what he saw, the heavy door slid shut on mechanical tracks behind him, clouding the room and almost pitch black darkness. Shikamaru rubbed his forehead almost in annoyment. "-A trap."
'!' Asuma quickly took a quick step back, just in time to feel the rush of wind of a blow being lunched at him from some silent attacker. Then with skillful movements he stepped froward and thrust his arm outward, grasping the attacker by the neck and dragging him into the light. He got a good look at him now, a man in a blue uniform, a soldier's uniform, Sound in particular. "What a surprise, their sound." Asuma gave him a rough kick to the stomach and knocked him back, reaching for his holster, only to remember he didn't bring his gun, none of them did.
"For goodness sake." Iruka took a few steps backwards, sense his senses were nearly as keen as the men around him. "Shikamaru, how many of them do you see?"
"A lot, they're moving around too much to tell." Shikamaru couldn't get a clear number, his new ability for seeing in the dark wasn't hone enough for this type of precision.
"Damnit." Ebisu immediately took a step in front of Konohamaru defensively, his now bare eyes shifting around defensively. "I can't stand here, what the hell am I suppose to do with Konohamaru." He couldn't leave the boy alone to go fight, Konohamaru would be an easy target...maybe bringing him along wasn't a good idea.
"Ebisu, on the far side of the room there should be a door that goes to the basement." Asuma instructed, he threw a hard elbow back into a man approaching from behind, pivoting on one foot and throwing a hard punch blindly and feeling it connect to the man's jaw. "Go through the boiler room and out the back door."
Without hesitation, Ebisu grabbed Konohamaru by the hand and bolted into the shadows, nearly dragging the non-protesting along with him. Shikamaru instinctively covered them, having no problem exporting them across the room with his viability, no matter how limited it was. With a ninja's skill and quickness he drew what remaining shirukens he had at his enemies, until they reached the door Asuma had spoke of, Shikamaru stood behind Konohamaru defensively fighting off anyone who came their way.
"Damnit, it's rusted shut." Ebisu kicked at the rusty, metal door with a loud clatter, but that clatter was starting to be over ridden by the sounds of men no longer making any effort to conceal themselves. "I need something to pry it open..."
"Try this." Shikamaru reached into the holder on his waist and drew his last Kunai, and though reluctant to part with it, he still tossed the blade blindly behind him to the man.
Ebisu snatched it out of the air by the handle, unable to spend enough time studying it as he would have liked, and preyed it into the cracks around the door frame. 'Come on...' He quickly scrapped away the rust from the cracks and kick the door, thankfully hearing it swing open. "Konohamaru."
"Yeah."Following orders, Konohamaru ran through first and Ebisu shut it behind them.
"Well, now that he's out of the way." Asuma slipped a hand into his pocket and quickly withdrew a cigarette. Holding it in his mouth, he with retrieved his lighter from his opposite pocket and lit the tobacco, releasing his first inhale with deep breath in a cloud of smoke. Hearing the sounds of men scattered around him, he pounded his fist into his hand and hoped who he took aim at wasn't a friend.
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Ebisu treaded carefully down the stairs, Konohamaru obediently trailing behind him like a lost puppy. "What is that?" Konohamaru started to relax a little when he descended the narrow stairway enough to see a faint light drifting from under a slightly opened metal shutter.
Apparently this place had power...so why wasn't it on upstairs?
"I don't know." Ebisu pushed the glasses down from where they rested atop his head and readjusted them customarily over his eyes. Seeing as it was the only way to go, he knelt down on the landing and pried open the shutter a little over halfway up it's track. "I think this is it..." Ebisu allowed Konohamaru to go first and slipped in himself.
It was the boiler room just as Asuma said, but it was an open one, in the center of the room was a water heater among other machines, from that bunch sprouted an abundance of pipes that spread up into the ceiling, some to the gray concrete walls. Aside from that the room was a large circle in path and shape, across the room was another doorway, covered by a metal shutter also barely open. "That's it, come-"
"Ebisu, I never knew you to be the impatient type."
Ebisu nearly flinched when he heard the voice, that familiar voice, and that almost completely different form slipping from behind the mass of machines in the center of the room. "Mizuki?" Ebisu pressed his fingers against the rim of his glasses and pushed them on to his head as the stared at the man with naked eyes in disbelief. "Mizuki."
Mizuki rested his hand on his hips, open black button up-shirt, black jeans, boots, uninhibited blue hair, and those eyes Ebisu was so fond of. He was a few inches taller, his clearly more toned, defined torso shown off. His arms were larger, muscles now protruding where their were none, where ever he'd been during their separation, it involved training. "Long time no see Ebisu, you and the brat together, what a surprise."
Ebisu tensed, this was not the Mizuki he knew, he could see that even beyond the physical strength the man clearly ... "Mizuki? What are you doing?"
"Waiting for you." With a small flick of his wrist a hunting blade slipped from someplace up his sleeve, he took a delight he couldn't explain in seeing the look on Ebisu's face, seeing his surprise and fear . "And him."
Konohamaru's eyes narrowed uneasily.
Ebisu looked down at the Kunai in his hand , his eyes darting over the thin blade. "What the hell... you didn't you? You went to Orochimaru, is this what this is? Your working for him now?"
Mizuki took another steep closer, playing with the knife in his left hand. "This isn't about him, it's all about me and you, and that bastard."
Konohamaru's uneasiness was quickly relinquishing to anger, "Lacky." He spat bitterly.
"Smart mouth brat you have there." Mizuki laughed with clear amusement. "Don't worry, I'll get to you once I'm done with him."
"Mizuki, you've done some...questionable things but selling out to Orochimaru?" Ebisu spoke with slight confusion, but his hands were sure, clinching the blade in ready. "No matter how mad you were about-"
"You never were very quick on the draw were you Ebisu." Mizuki smirked "About you? I'll show you what it's about." Mizuki cuffed his hands together and his eyes narrowed slightly, his body grew tight enough to cause him to tremble slightly.
"Mizuki..." Both Ebisu and Konohamaru watched, almost stunned while a fiery red light spread across Mizuki's chest, climbing his neck and torso, sliding over his shoulders, slipping over the side of his face. Then the burning lights cooled into black, chain like markings, the curse seal. Just like the one in Ebisu's dream. 'What... the hell...' Ebisu lifted his Kunai and pushed Konohamaru to the right roughly. "Konohamaru, get out of here, now."
Konohamaru nodded and sprinted away from the entrance, bolting towards the other door, "No, stick around." Mizuki smirk grew into a wide grin as he lifted his hand and the metal shutters came crashing shut.
"Aw, Damnit." Seeing his escape route closed, Konohamaru began inching back towards Ebisu.
...Ennnnnn...
There was a small buzzing sound as something, something on top of the mass of machines in the center of the room activated, followed by a beeping red light that pulsated every second. "What are you doing?" Ebisu grunted dangerously, "What did you do?"
Mizuki grinned, taking another step closer. "You never were smart, were you? No wonder you couldn't pass the bar exam." He pointed up to a large box on top of the machines in the center of the boiler room, "This is a bomb." Then he pointed upstairs. "And that, that is those friends of the brats locked upstairs."
It didn't take long for Konohamaru to figure it out, "You bastard! Your gonna kill everybody, for Orochimaru!" Orochimaru of course wanted them all dead, they kept getting in his way. 'He...he's using Ebisu's boyfriend to do it...that...that bastard...'
Mizuki continued to play with the knife in his hands idly, almost in boredom. "Not you." He said, gaining a scowl from Konohamaru.
Ebisu lifted the Kunai offensively, and with a deep breath he pushed aside the memories and lunged at the man coming towards Konohamaru, jabbing the knife at his stomach. "Shut it down."
Mizuki easily lifted his right hand holding the hunting knife and blocked the awkward blow, not losing his smirk or stance one bit. "Make me."
Ebisu drew the knife back and in a quick motion, slashed it towards Mizuki's chest, but Mizuki lifted his own blade and blocked Ebisu, in a simple motion as if wiping sweat from his brow. "I'm not asking you!" He grunted, pushing back against Mizuki's knife.
Konohamaru jumped when he realized he was the one being addressed. "Oh, yeah!" Konohamaru immediately ran from behind Ebisu and ran towards the water heater, climbing up the tank, grabbing anything he could to get higher. Ebisu was asking him to do something like this, it made Konohamaru's heart jump and his skin tingle with energy. Ebisu was always so protective, and now he was asking him to do something so dangerous, he trusted him enough to let him do this, possibly the worst thing he could screw up in his life. 'I wont let you down Ebisu.'
Mizuki reached down with his free hand and ceased Ebisu's thrusting hand by the wrist, throwing his elbow into Ebisu's face painfully and causing the man to stumble backwards. "Your gonna feel it." He grunted, with movement's quick enough only to be a blur of black and blue, he crossed the gap between the two of them, before the other man could realize the steps Mizuki had taken they were dangerously close. "I'm gonna show you every inch of my strength!" He sent a hard punch into Ebisu's stomach, sending the man flying backwards a few feet in the air before crashing to his stomach.
'Wha...what the hell...' Ebisu gasped, panting heavily at the sharp pain. 'What did...what did he do to himself?" Ebisu stumbled to his feet quickly, clinching the knife tightly in his grasp. "So what is this?" He grunted weakly, taking a stab at Mizuki's chest with the knife, watching the man slip to the side evasively. "The new steroids?" Ebisu took a strife to his side when Mizuki came at him with his own blade, turning to face the man that put him on the run with a furry of quick attacks, backing him farther and father.
Mizuki's smile grew wider, it was amusing, fun even, watching Ebisu try in futility to evade and defend, he was just getting started. "That's the problem with you Ebisu." Mizuki sent a swift punch at Ebisu, striking him hard across his jaw, then threw another dazing blow to his chest, knocking Ebisu back into the metal shutters he'd entered the room through. "Your too simple, only you would say something like that. This...this is so much more then you can imagine."
Ebisu crouched slightly and slipped to the left as the hunting knife in Mizuki's hands embedded itself halfway into the steel shudders, only inches way from impaling him. "I don't give a damn what it is, a cheaters still a cheater, no matter the method." Ebisu, still crouched slightly, thrusting the knife at Mizuki's side, but Mizuki caught his wrist again. '!' Ebisu, almost frantically, sent a hard punch into Mizuki's other side with his fist, then shoved the hardest kick he could into the taller man's stomach and forced him off.
Konohamaru franticly looked over the bomb, unaware of what anything was besides the timer, counting down from 7 minutes. there was a chain link platform above all the machines, protecting it maybe, but it served ground of him and the bulky bomb 'Zabuza, where are you when I need you!' With wide, fearful eyes and movements he began frantically pressing buttons and flipping switches, Buzz! "Wha!" He flinched when he heard a denying buzz, What the hell was he suppose to be doing? "Come on, turn off damnit..." He just hoped that he didn't set it off.
Ebisu, with a slight opportunity, lifted his hands readily and took a stab at Mizuki's head. "I'm the stupid one?" He took another stab at Mizuki, and missed. "Even a lawyer could lie his way out of this, this isn't real power, this is Orochimaru using you to get what he wants!"
Mizuki slipped under Ebisu's arm as he attacked and grabbed Ebisu by the neck, lifting him painfully of his feet. A satisfaction washed over him as he heard the strangled cries of Ebisu attempting to pry his hand away. "How do you know I'm not using him to get what I want?" He smiled again .
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"Damnit!" Iruka practically knocked the door open as he rushed into his apartment, a place he rarely came back to since the storm."Why didn't I see it, it was so obvious."
"Calm down." Asuma coaxed the man, entering the apartment behind Iruka and looking around curiously. Escape had not been impossible, it had been hard, and dark, but they had fought off the seemingly endless torrent of men before Shikamaru noticed a weak spot in one of the reachable holes and pried it open. The only problem was that Ebisu and Konohamaru were nowhere to be found, which meant they could only be trapped in the basement. Not that any one of them could get down there with more then one metal shutter barring access, those obviously hadn't been there before.
It was clear that Mizuki had infact set them up, not that it came as a surprise, meaning they had to find Ebisu and Konohamaru, quickly. A bomb would have been a simple solution, though Zabuza didn't cary nearly enough to explosives on him for the job, and as if things needed to get harder, more solders came bursting into the hanger. Since it would take a considerably greater amount of time for Zabuza to obtain more explosives, Iruka decided he had a much faster solution, since his apartment was near the hanger anyway.
"So, what are you looking for?" Asuma watched from the kitchen as Iruka ran into his bedroom and began loudly displacing things in search. He waited patiently, it wasn't like he had much of a choice.
It wasn't more then a few seconds before he returned. "This." Iruka came rushing back in to the room with Kabuto's rail gun hypervelocity cradled tightly in his arms.
Causing the cigarette to fall promptly from Asuma's mouth when his eyes met the emensly large silver weapon. "Uh...What is that?"
"What I'm gonna use to break that door open, come on."
! - ! - !
Ebisu let out a pained grunt as he felt his throat being crushed and his body being hanged as Mizuki held him off the ground by his neck. Ebisu's hands clinched desperately on to his arm and pulled as hard as he could, the pitiful sounds seeping from his pained face echoing off the concrete walls and floors, back into his ears. 'He's so strong...and fast...' "Mi..uki!"
"Ebisu!" Konohamaru contemplated jumping down to help, but each beep he heard radiating from the time bomb in front of him snapped his attention back to the device. 6 minutes left.
"Don't worry, I'll get to you soon enough." Mizuki called out with amusement at the boy's reaction. He was enjoying this more the he'd ever admit, seeing Ebisu, the one who was always strong then them, the fighting-type of the two of them, losing in such a horrible way.
"The hell you will! I'll not gonna be killed by somebody like you!"
"Tch, Orochimaru wants you alive." Mizuki told him, he could see the boy visibly grow unnerved by his words. '!' He snapped out of his satisfaction when he felt the blade of a knife rack roughly across the side of his face, followed by a hard kick to the same spot from Ebisu. "Ugf!" Mizuki fell back a step, inadvertently releasing Ebisu.
"The hell you will." Ebisu quickly thrust the Kunai at Mizuki's marked torso, but with the same reflexes the curse seal inflicted man stabbed the knife downward and blocked, throwing a countering punch into Ebisu's chest. Ebisu took the blow with visible pain, but managed to stand his ground this time and throw a quick jab into Mizuki's face, going on the offensive with the Kunai again. "Your just a fake, you and your all your fake strength and your fake power, that's what lawyers do right? Lie?"
"Shows what you know." With a blur of quick movements Mizuki slipped past Ebisu's side and threw a hard punch into the back of Ebisu's head, sending the man sliding to the ground. "Power's the only real thing, with power you don't have to be weak enough to depend on anyone else." Mizuki scowled, with a short leap he landing above the fallen Ebisu and thrust the hunting knife down at his head without hesitation. Ebisu shifted his head to the side and flinched as Mizuki's strength drove the knife halfway into the concrete with a painful grating sound. "Like people who forsake everything and everyone else for a stupid brat." He growled in anger, drawing his fist back and sending a hard punch across Ebisu's face, knocking off his glasses with a spew of blood thrown from the man's mouth and an abrasion newly created on his cheek.
Ebisu hissed in pain as he pushed against Mizuki's shoulder and slashed the knife across his chest, drawing a good deal of blood of his own. "That's your problem, to busy arguing to understand anything!" Ebisu lifted his knee and shoved his foot into Mizuki's stomach, kicking the man off, and watching him flip backwards and land skillfully on his feet. "I clearly made the right choice." Ebisu flipped onto his feet and came at a still recovering Mizuki with the knife, thrusting it at his exposed neck.
The man managed to escape him once again, Mizuki flipped backward again, sending a hard kick into Ebisu's chin as his body ascended impossibly higher in to the air, managing to leap with inhuman bounds at to the small platform Konohamaru was working desperately at. "Wrong." With an amused smirk he sent a hard kick backwards into Konohamaru's chest, knocking the boy painfully off of the 15 foot maintenance structure. "Pick that move up in Sound, like it?"
"!" Stunned by the painful hit, Konohamaru still managed to latch onto a pipe and pull himself to the top of hit with a balance taught to him by Itachi, though he wavered slightly, he still didn't fall.
Ebisu stumbled back a step, wiping away the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. Seeing that Konohamaru was fine. "Big deal."Ebisu charged forward, taking a high jump towards the other man and rising nearly 7 feet, then skillfully he kicked off one of the machines. His body bent backwards and with a agile flip he sent a hard kick into a surprised Mizuki's face, then landed on the edge of the platform, face to face with the man. "See, I can do it without cheating." He grunted, throwing another jab at Mizuki with the knife.
Mizuki grabbed Ebisu's arm and pulled him into his thrusting shoulder, knocking the air roughly from the man's lungs with an audible gasp, and then throwing him down on to the chain link platform. "Your the weak one!" Mizuki shouted, kicking Ebisu in the chest and forcing a pained sound from his lungs. "Your the one about to die!"
Ebisu rolled on to his stomach and stabbed the knife into Mizuki's leg, causing the man to falter slightly. With his chance, Ebisu crawled to his feet and sent a punch into Mizuki's stomach with all his strength. "Bastard." Ebisu went for the knife in Mizuki's hand, but he wasn't fast enough make another move before the much quicker Mizuki thrust the bladed weapon deep into Ebisu's stomach. "!" Ebisu's voice went silent, and he stumbled backwards, blood flowing down his lower have in heavy streams. "Uhhff..."
"Is this it?" Mizuki laughed, "Is this the best you've got? And I'm the one without real power." With callous words he lifted his foot and sent a hard kick into Ebisu's stomach, thrusting the knife in deeper with a spurt of blood while his strength swept the man off his feet and sent him sailing backwards, off the maintenance platform. Then he knelt down and withdrew the Kunai from his leg and tossed it at Ebisu.
Ebisu's seemingly hopeless body landed painfully across two of the large pipes heading in to the walls, not to far away from a worried Konohamaru. "Ebisu!" Konohamaru almost immediately started making his way over to him, striding across the large gaps on the pipes high above.the circular room.
"Could have been worse." Ebisu lifted his hand and snatched it out of the air, his bare eyes narrowed, trembling in pain as he grabbed the handle of the hunting knife and slowly pulled it out, twisting and turning it softly to avoid hooking something with the jagged edges. With a grunt of pain he drew his arm back and tossed the knife into the approaching Mizuki's leg with enough force to knock him off balance and send him stumbling to the ground. With out hesitation Ebisu pushed himself up right and leapt off the pipes. "Could have stabbed me in the heart you dumb ass!" Ebisu landed in front of the fallen Mizuki and sent a sharp kick into his face, knocking the man on to his back.
Ebisu thrust the Kunai down at Mizuki, who promptly kicked him away before he could, making Ebisu stumble backwards. 'Damnit...' Mizuki struggled to stand on both injured legs, blood dripping down the black marked torso from the slash. "You won't win."
! - ! - !
Iruka knelt down, slipping the back of the rail gun under his arm while he stared with slight confusion at the display streaming across the small LCD screen above the barrel. It was complicated, somewhat confusing, this clearly was a weapon Kabuto designed. But flying and fighting in a jet was too, he'd get this down, eventually.
"So this was...Kabuto's?" Kakashi stood safely behind the man, watching curiously though the bare light. "Sure it's a big gun, but is it enough for this?"
Iruka knew just what this thing was capable of, at full power...maybe. "Just watch."
! - ! - !
Ebisu watched as Konohamaru came behind him and made his way back on to the maintenance platform, working diligently on the bomb with randomness, hoping for some luck. Immediately his heart began pounding, adrenalin, and despite the blood rushing even faster from his wounds, he barely felt a thing he, had to protect Konohamaru. And he wouldn't let anyone, even Mizuki, take him.
"I don't care about your so called power." Ebisu threw a hard punch at Mizuki, who leaned back slightly and evaded, throwing one of his own that struck Ebisu in the chest. Ebisu stood firm, but he slid backwards a few inches under the other man's power. "I-I don't care how strong you think you are!" His words stumbled from the last blow while Ebisu swayed to the side as Mizuki, much slower, threw a punch at him. Ebisu hooked the man's arm between his shoulder and his neck entrapingly, grabbing Mizuki by the waist and picking him up, with his own strength he lifted the taller man and slammed him roughly on his back. Pouncing on him with the Kunai.
Mizuki sent a right hook to Ebisu's face and knocked off, again stumbling slowly to his feet on injured legs. "I am strong."
"I'll be damned if I'm gonna let you hurt him, not you, not Orochimaru." Ebisu, faster now, slipped to the left, feeling a rush of wind and the feeling of a form cutting through air as Mizuki's fist slipped narrowly past his side. Ebisu sent another hard punch into Mizuki's face, followed by a swift kick into one of Mizuki's legs, making him fall off balance.
"Come on... com on..." Konohamaru had no idea what he was doing, but he was getting somewhere, he'd stopped getting that buzzing sound. '!' "Hey!" He watched as the blinking red light switched to green and timer stopped at 1 minute and 20 seconds. Maybe his luck was changing.
"I'm stronger then you Ebisu! I don't need you!" Mizuki thew another punch at Ebisu, but with out the speed to back it up, Ebisu easily crouched down and slipped under it.
"You still can't fight!" Ebisu clinched the Kunai in his hand and with one, rough movement he thrust the blade into Ebisu's chest as hard as he could. '!' As soon as he felt the resistance of flesh he pulled back and stabbed again, and again, as hard as he could. "It's not real! Your not real anymore! I don't care if you went to the gym, I don't care if you went to Orochimaru, your not real." Ebisu sent one last thrust into him, causing Mizuki to stumble backward, and fall, plummeting off the ledge. "Your...not him anymore..."
Konohamaru smiled wilding in disbelief at his feat, he wrapped his arms around Ebisu's legs and hugged him tightly, protectively, needly, thankfully. "I did it, the bomb is off."
Ebisu rubbed his head slightly, staring outward almost as if in a daze, in his own disbelief. "I knew you could."
Usually something like that was rhetorical, but Konohamaru couldn't help feel unsure, unsure of the man was telling the truth, or had just let him do it out of necessity. "No way." Konohamaru shook his head, there was no way anyone could have thought that
"Yeah, really." Ebisu nodded, speaking honestly. "Something told me you could." Konohamaru smiled and hugged him tighter, happy that he was alright.
"B-bastard..." Mizuki slowly sat up, drawing the Kunai from his stomach and tossing it aside. His arm hugged the wound tightly, trying to stop as much of the bleeding as he could. "This isn't over." He grunted, the black marks of the curse seal glowing again with that fiery aura, spreading deeper and farther across his skin. "I won't lose, not to you, not to that little bastard!" He pushed himself up on to his feet , slumping heavily. "NOt to-" '!'
Out of nowhere it seemed, a beam of electricity burst from someplace unknown and stuck Mizuki in the back, throwing his body across the room and sliding to a bloody mess on the floor. The blood bubbling and burning away from the intense heat. "I don't think he's getting back up." Konohamaru immediately looked away, burying his face into Ebisu's leg in the most un child like manner he could manage.
Ebisu glance toward the source of the blast and saw the metal shutter fall from it's track, Iruka standing on the other side with a large weapon in his hands.
! - ! - !
! - ! - !
"Is it after noon yet?" Asuma scratched his head absentmindly, reaching into his pocket for another cigarette, he needed one right now. "Man, what a day." With a deep sigh he pushed open the door to the Uchiha household and trudged in.
"After noon?" Iruka looked up at him intriguingly, following behind the man as he walked over to the couch and let himself fall into it. "Why, you want a drink or something?"
"That's exactly what I want." Asuma tilted his head back, letting the cigarette drift absently to the side of his mouth.
"Your making a lot of sense right now." Kakashi agreed,leaning against the side of the couch beside Iruka's shoulder.
Shikamaru mounted himself lazily on the ground in front of the couch, cradling his arm softly. "Your going drinking now?"
"Damn strait." Asuma blew out a small cloud of smoke, and soon after the tip of the cigarette glowed a bright red.
"How about it Zabuza?" Iruka tilted his head back and glanced at Zabuza standing silently as ever in the corner.
"Tch, This guy," Zabuza nudged his head toward Ebisu, who was just coming through the door. "Just killed my most forth coming lead, I think I need one."
"How about you Ebisu? Can I buy the big hero a drink?" Asuma asked.
Ebisu pressed his finger against the rim of his sunglasses and pushed them up slightly. "A drink sound good."
One by one, everyone over the age of 21 began piling out of the room, Shikamaru, boredly, headed out on his own. "Go ahead, I'll catch up with you." Ebisu said, waving them along.
! - ! - !
Ebisu slowly pushed open the door to the guest room he'd slept in last night, the familiar uneasy feeling of the house creeping upon him once again. 'Hmm...' He found Konohamaru laid back across the bed, his eyes closed lazily, apparently trying to return to sleep.
Konohamaru open his eyes at the sound of footsteps and looked over the man curiously. 'Ebisu? I thought you were going out."
"Don't worry about that." Ebisu folded his arms and looked over the boy with an amused smile. "Not bad if I do say so myself, how do you feel?"
"Alright I guess." Konohamaru shrugged. "But I really don't feel like I deserve that."
Not the answer he was expecting. "Geez kid, you are a piece of work aren't you." Ebisu snorted.
"No really, I turned off that bomb by luck." Konohamaru said, his eyes averting themselves to the floor."I didn't help anyone or anything, I just hit buttons."
"Did it ever occur to you that you were one of the people that needed to be helped?" Ebisu said, he slowly sat down beside the boy, resting his hand in the messy brown hair as Konohamaru sat up strait and looked at him fully.
"No..." Konohamaru looked up at the ceiling, a thoughtfulness on his face Ebisu rarely saw him display. "It never did... "
"And it only took a little push from me." Ebisu laid back on the bed beside Konohamaru, watching the boy's form intently from behind. From here he looked taller, 3 months and he was so much bigger, and not in stature.
"Hey Ebisu." Konohamaru laid back beside the older man, resting his arms behind his head. "Can I ask you something?" He didn't wait for the answer, he already knew it, he just took a deep breath and gathered his nerve. "Why...did you leave him? Why did you take this job?"
Ebisu vaguely remembered having this conversation in some form. Maybe Konohamaru wanted a complete answer this time. "I couldn't say no, the first time I picked you up...I guess Mizuki couldn't understand that." If he had held Konohamaru in his arms, if he'd felt that feeling of love with no reason or explanation, maybe Mizuki would have understood it... Maybe Mizuki did...maybe that's why he took his choice so hard. 'Mizuki...' It was a hard, it was long, it was a tiring job. All those nights Konohamaru couldn't sleep, when he had a nightmare, when he missed his parents, all those little moments he wished they could have been there. Ebisu was there, and he couldn't help being more and more content with his decision, it made all the other things Konohamaru put him through worth while.
"You know..." Konohamaru smiled to himself. "Orochimaru spent a lot of time making me afraid, I know this whole thing with Orochimaru isn't close to being over yet...but I...I feel like I can do this, I don't think I'm afraid of him anymore. I'm ready for anything he can throw at me. I mean, look at Mizuki."
Ebisu smiled lightly. "I always knew it...I just needed you to know it to..."
Konohamaru looked over at him fully, his eyes holding a hopefulness."So all that stuff about a deal with the devil and-"
"All completely true." Ebisu said surely, he clearly meant what he said. He was in a very corruptible environment, and being of such a young age he could easily turn out to be the wrong type of person. "But I think you'll come through this alright in the end." He said, a forlorn expression coming on to his face as he slowly pushed himself off the bed and stood up. "It's just too bad I'm not gonna be here to see it."
"Huh? Your not gonna say anything about Zabuza, or me hanging out with Itachi and Kisame?" Konohamaru sat up, looking at the man questioningly. "What are you talking about? It's not like some things gonna happen to you... Your not leaving are you?"
Ebisu stared at the wall, his hands slipping into his pockets. "Yeah, I am. Sorry kid, but this just isn't me anymore."
Konohamaru stared at him, almost as if in shock at what was being said. "Ebisu?" No way, Ebisu had left his boyfriend of 10 year and just killed him for him, he wouldn't leave. He nearly died and went through a coma for him, he couldn't leave...right? Right?... he...he was wasn't he... Konohamaru eyes dropped to the ground, "...Ebisu..."
"This job, I'm just not..." Ebisu's voice faltered slightly as a sadness swelled up in him, it was a pain in his chest that made it harder to breathe and his throat dry. As soon as Konohamaru heard it, his worse fear was realized, "I'm not that person anymore."
"Your really leaving..." Konohamaru slid off the bed and stood behind the man, his eyes still downcast. "But...why...you just got back, why do you have to leave now?" Konohamaru nearly pouted, his eyes swelling up with sudden tears that he pushed back, but he couldn't contain a small sniffle that emitted from him. At times like these he showed just how young he was.
"I'm sorry." Ebisu turned around, his eyes hidden under the black lenses. He rested a hand softly on the boy's head, smiling comfortingly as best he could. But it was weak, his remorse shown through. "We're just on different paths now, and this isn't mine, it's yours."
He was leaving, he was really leaving, just like that he was gonna leave."You...have to go now?" Konohamaru asked pleadingly.
"Yeah, goodbyes aren't my thing." Ebisu slowly let his hand fall from Konohamaru's shoulder, savoring the touch with visible hesitance before he turned away and began walked towards the door. Already he could hear Konohamaru's sniffles grow worse and silent cries drifting out of the boy's mouth. This was just so hard... Ebisu felt tears coming to his own eyes, hidden beyond the glasses. Damnit, Konohamaru couldn't cry, not now, didn't he know this was hard for him too? He had to know he didn't want to do this, it just had to be this way, he had to know he was horrible with goodbyes right? Damnit, Konohamaru had to stop crying, because if he kept crying then he'd start. "Aw hell." Ebisu quickly wiped away the small drops of water forming in his eyes and turned around towards Konohamaru, more depression swelling up so strongly he felt like he'd burst.. "One for the road?"
Ebisu knelt down and immediately Konohamaru ran to him, throwing his arms around the man and hugging him with all the strength his smaller body could gather. He didn't hold back, letting everything pint up inside of him flow out in loud sobs and heavy tears. "Ebisu..." He burred his face into the man's chest and let his body fall limply into Ebisu's returned embrace. For the first time in what seemed like an eternity to him, he cried.
Ebisu's arms tightened around the small body and he let his chin rest a top the messy brown hair. "Konohamaru..." The man spoke softly, his voice barely above a whisper. "You don't need me to protect you anymore, you've done so much with out me, I know it's hard right now but you can do this, I know you can."
"I'm sorry Ebisu..." Konohamaru slipped his arm from around Ebisu's neck and wiped away the tears frantically with his wrist, forcing a strait look on to his face. "I'm sorry for all the stuff I put you through."
"There's nothing for you to be sorry about." Ebisu rested his hands on Konohamaru's shoulder and pushed the boy back, staring at him directly in the eyes. He picked up the glasses resting on his head by the rim and softly lifted them up, giving them one last look. Then he he pulled the goggles off of Konohamaru's head and set the black sunglasses over his eyes. 'He's growing up so fast.' He smiled to himself as he looked over the boy's face, they fit him better then he expected. "I'm always gonna be there when you need me."
Konohamaru adjusted the glasses on his face thankfully, finally able to see the world through Ebisu's eyes. It was pretty dark, Ebisu must have had really good eyesight. "Really?"
Ebisu stood up, the smile on his face never fading. "Yeah."
Konohamaru heard the distance sounds of a ringing..the phone, for the second time in two days the phone was actually ringing. Here. Maybe it was Sasuke or something, the Uchiha knew that there was always one person in his house at any given time. "You know, we can just-"
Ebisu wiped away the last traces of tears from his eyes, "Come on, let's go see who it is, aren't you curious? It could be important " He knelt down one more time and picked up Konohamaru, setting the boy on his shoulders and holding him with one hand.
Konohamaru, though a little surprised by the action, didn't object. He felt a familiar safety in being carried like this. "Yeah, Ok."
The two slipped out of the room and into the long, empty hall that spanned the second floor, Ebisu's footsteps echoed across the empty walls as he stepped over the hardwood floors and treaded down the newly repaired stairs to the familiar living room. A cold chill swept threw the room, making it subtilty colder here then the rest of the house. Konohamaru didn't have time to investigate the cause, he slipped off of Ebisu's shoulder and headed toward the kitchen.
"Hey Konohamaru." Ebisu called out, rubbing his head slightly, "I'm proud of you."
Konohamaru felt an inward tinge of a mental smile. "Your talking like your gonna leave before I get back."
Ebisu let his hand come to rest on his waist. "I'd never do that." He said, watching the boy take the answer and slip into the kitchen to find the phone, he followed him into the room, leaning absentmindly against the door while he watched the boy. 'I'd never leave you like that...Konohamaru...I'm always gonna be there when you need me.' "Oh yeah, and your welcome for the help."
Konohamaru had at first forgotten where the phone was, he'd never used it here, he didn't think anyone had ever really used it, not noticed it. He reached up to the wall and pulled the receiver from the base, lifting it slowly to his ears. "Hello?"
He listened intently as a representative called for Sasuke to give a message to him, they seemed to have figured out that the Uchiha lived here, and even stranger yet that he knew Konohamaru. "What? But that's impossible, he's right here." Konohamaru's face contorted in confusion, lowering the phone for a moment. "Hey Ebisu, you won't believe this." He said with an amusement, though he didn't find anything funny. Konohamaru glanced over his shoulder at the man, "Ebisu, it's the hospital, they think your...They think... your..." Konohamaru's voice trailed off slightly when he saw no one was there.
'E...Ebisu...' Konohamaru looked around slowly, almost as if in a shocked disbelief, he wasn't here... Konohamaru quickly pushed open the kitchen door and looked around the living room...he wasn't there...he couldn't have gotten out of here with out him noticing, he could couldn't have just left like that, he promised he wouldn't... 'No...'
...Konohamaru lifted the phone to his ear again, his eyes staring down at the ground with a feeling of death he'd never felt before. The cold chill was gone, and the room warmed slightly... "Yeah... I'm still here..., When...when did he die?" Konohamaru went to wipe the tears that blurred his vision, but his hand brush against the glasses that rested there, a veil over his eyes ...He took them off slowly, staring at them with the familiar feeling of sadness rising in him. He realized something that he didn't think was at all possible. "He...never did wake up did he?" Of course not, how could he have? He'd been brain dead ever since he'd been brought back from Sound.
Konohamaru clinched the glasses delicately in his hands as he hung up the phone, and just stood there. He didn't understand this, something told him the man was really dead, but he didn't question it, he didn't question any of it. He knew it.
He just stared down at the glasses in his hands, more tears forming in his eyes. "Thanks Ebisu...for everything..."
! - ! - !
