Chapter 16

If there was anything Naruto was sure of, it was that he didn't dream. He usually didn't, but he could always recall a sort of time passing. Usually, he knew when he slept for a couple hours. He felt rested when he woke up.

Not this time.

When the scarlet-black chakra covered his eyes, it was only there for a moment. Eyes closed.

Then his eyes opened. And they were full of slime. There was a weight on his entire body that kept him from moving. He couldn't breathe. His mouth was set open and he couldn't close it. Panic set in and he did his best to buck the unknown thing off his body, but he was stuck in his place.

And, like it had never been there in the first place, it was gone. He shot up, chest heaving, eyes searching, confused as all hell, and feeling like he'd been run over by a herd of buffalo. He couldn't see because the room was full of smoke, but all was quiet except for the sound of wheels moving through sand lethargically.

As the smoke thinned out, he got a better picture of the world around him. Time had passed.

In front of him were two slabs of white-blue slug. They were Tsunade's summons. They helped with healing. Above him was the familiar ceiling of a moving caravan cart, normally shielding him from the beating sun. Sakura was at the foot of the cart, legs crossed, and a look of consternation on her brow. Her eyes were shut concentrating. At the opposite end was a purple cocoon-looking thing about the size of the slugs.

The way he was laid out next to the other two slugs made it look like he was the third of an array. He was still blinking when the flap of the back of the cart pulled open with a grave-looking Yugito staring at him. Before he could open his mouth, her arm whipped forward and he was hit in the head with clothing. "Dress, then come out," she ordered.

The flap fluttered close.

Naruto gulped and did his best to get his appendages through the clothing in the near pitch black. His mind was swirling with questions, none that he liked to think up the answers to. He got as close as he could with clothing himself and fell out the back of the cart onto cold, silky sand. It was almost as dark outside the cart as it was in. above him was a swirling array of stars so bright they made slight shadows in the dunes and tracks behind them. The moon was almost full and looked too big to be real.

"Do you need help?"

Naruto looked up to the robed figure above him. Yugito had pulled her cowl over her face since she threw the clothing at him. It was a little bit unsettling how the robes settled over her body. It made her look like a specter with the light wind fluttering her robes slightly. He shook his head and stood up. The silky sand was uncomfortably cold, but not unbearable to his feet.

"What happened?" Naruto asked. His voice was that of an old, 70-year old chainsmoker.

Yugito patted him on the back and started walking forward after the cart that was making progress away from them. "Things went to hell… but things could be worse."

Naruto started padding after her. "I don't like the sound of that."

"Well," she started. Her voice was low and silent "Neither do I."

"What happened?" Naruto pressed. "Fu… she-"

"She's fine," Yugito said quickly. "In fact, out of all us, she's probably the most fine, ironically. Jinchuuriki have better healing, but the seven-tails is something else. She can grow back entire limbs, apparently. I don't know how that relates to bugs, but I guess it does."

Naruto let out a sigh of relief. "What about Kurotsuchi?"

When Yugito didn't answer immediately, his heart sunk. "She's… not good."

"What's that mean?" Naruto said, worry grabbing him. "She was- She was… she looked dead."

"She's not-" Yugito almost shouted before catching herself. "She's not dead, but she almost got there. And she almost might take a turn for the worse if we don't get to the village of stones quickly. Apparently the other akatsuki member hurt her pretty bad, but she's stable because of Sakura for now."

"W-What about Temari or Mei? Are they okay?"

"Temari's fine," Yugito said simply. "A few burns that are little worse that sunburns… Mei, however. Well, you kinda did a number on her."

Those words punched him in the gut far better than any closed fist could. He knew he lost it because of hatred. But… oh, no. He hurt someone again.

"She's not going to die," Yugito was quick to add. "You just smacked her around a little bit. The rest is because of chakra exhaustion. Sakura said that she'll be out of the slug in no time. We don't really know about Fu because she has to be radio silent in that cocoon of hers."

Naruto let the information absorb into him for a few seconds, before an idea came to his mind. "Wait… what about you?"

Silence. She shuffled with her robes so they covered her arms slightly better. "I'm fine."

Naruto jumped forward and grabbed the hem of her robes, lifting them up until her thighs showed. They were wrapped in bandages with four neatly placed splotches of blood showing through going up her thigh. They also showed on her calves and he had a feeling they also existed on her arms. As soon as he saw, she shoved him away with little real power behind her. She was weak. Very weak. "That's not… you can't… that's not fine! You have to tell Sakura."

"It's fine enough!" she said back in a scream-whisper. "You almost died. Kurotsuchi is literally dying. Mei would have expired if it weren't for those slugs. I'm not at death's door. I'm fine enough. Get that?"

Naruto staggered back from the venom in her words. Her eyes closed and she shook her head. "I… I'm sorry," she said with a waver in her voice. "I'm sorry, okay?" Her eyes were starting to wet the cowl covering most of her face.

Naruto blinked. "Why are you sorry? I'm the one… I lost my shit. This was my fault."

"Not that!" she sputtered. "I said- I said that you could lean on me. I said that everything would be okay if we just leaned on each other and helped each other out, but it wasn't! I wasn't… I wasn't good enough. You were hurt and I fucking hate that!" she didn't bother to mask the volume of her words any more. "Every single time I say I'll get stronger so no one I care about will get hurt, it's never enough. No matter how much I push! No matter how much I care! And then I met you and I believed that I could be different for once. But… well, look around."

It was like she lost the energy to move any more. Her knees buckled underneath herself and she punched the sand. "Just look around!" she shouted. "I'm one of the most powerful things in the world and it isn't enough! You can't even lean on me when I said you could. I'm nothing but a fucking hypocrite. I can't-"

Her words were cut off when she felt a head of hair push up under her chest and hands grab her thighs. Before she could question anything, she was hoisted up piggy-back style on Naruto's back. "It…" he started. He couldn't find the words. "It must really hurt to walk around like that. How did you do it?"

Rather than frustration, all the sadness and pain flooded forward with no warning. "It was so fucking hard," she spluttered, wetting his neck with her tears. "I was in so much pain. But I didn't want to worry anyone. And I was scared how you would look at me when you realized you couldn't count on me like I said you could. Because… because you give me hope. A kind of hope that- that I haven't felt before."

Naruto nodded along as he plodded after the cart. She'd been hurting for a very long time. Supporting her as she cried on his neck, though seemingly not much, did help in some way. And that was good. "It's just… not fair any more, isn't it?" Naruto asked.

She sniffled.

Naruto sighed. "I don't… Sometimes I don't think I can do it, you know. I know it's easy to go on about never giving up, but… it's harder to tell someone how hard it is to deal with doubt. How hard it is to not hate. And it looks like I failed in that department. When I saw-" his throat stopped and he had to swallow lest he hurl the contents of his stomach. "When I saw Fu and Kurotsuchi… I don't know. Love is so much harder to feel than hate because when you hate someone you don't care what they have to say, what they want to do, what has been done to them. Hate's like putting a blindfold on. Well, no, because that makes it sound like hate's easy to throw off. It's not. It sticks to you and doesn't let go until your sense of vengeance of vindication is fulfilled. To love someone, you have to ignore what's wrong with them or accept them for it. And that… sometimes that feels impossible. To love someone instead of hating them… can anyone do it? I don't know if I'm making sense. But I do know one thing for sure: I love you all. Even you. You and Mei, Temari, Fu, Kurotsuchi. I love all of you. And I'm going to do my best to not change that. And I'm happy that you want to protect me. And I want to protect you."

By the time he stopped talking, Yugito's eyes were dry. She was so tired. Her limbs felt dead. If he dropped her on the sand, she didn't know if she would be able to stand back up. And he felt so warm. His body, but his words more. They swept over her and sapped her desire to even twitch a muscle more. "I love you too," she whispered, right before sweet sleep took her away from him.

00000000

"This place is pretty big," Naruto said through heavy-lidded eyes. He was dead on his feet from both mental and physical exhaustion and couldn't wait to find a bed for him to sleep in.

They made it to the village hidden in stones just fine with Mei popping out from under the slug just before daybreak the night he came out of it. Sakura managed to keep Kurotsuchi stable until they got to the hospital, where she was being worked on. He wanted to stay with her, but Temari put her foot down and sent him to rest at her and her father's house. The kage, including Temari and Mei, were going over information at a 'secure place', and Fu was still in her cocoon, who was being carried by Yugito behind him.

"Yes it is," the cat woman in question said from behind him. She was faring slightly better than he was on the exhaustion accounts, but she was also carrying a cocoon over her shoulders.

The house they had stepped into was a little smaller than a mansion from the offset. Being one of the very few relatives of the current kage must have had its perks. Naruto had no idea how only two people could live in it by themselves, however. His feet clacking against the stone floor was enough to create echoes across the house.

It felt lonely.

Naruto sighed. "Whelp, I'm going to sleep," he said, shucking his shoes off at the front door and immediately setting out to find bedding.

"You're not going to shower?" Yugito asked. "We were on the trail for a while."

"Are you?" he asked, turning around. "I think I'd just fall asleep in the shower, to be honest."

"You're going to make the sheets dirty."

Naruto seemed to be struck with disbelief at her statement. "Seriously? We almost died protecting the princess of hidden rock. I'd say we deserve a dirty sheet or two."

"You're being a poor guest in someone else's house."

Naruto groaned at the ceiling. "Okay, fine. I'll get wet and then dry and then I'm going to sleep."

As he walked off to find a suitable place to get wet and then dry, Yugito tried to raise her voice to stop him, to thank him, but no words came forth. Rather than indecision, it was like her throat wouldn't let her say anything.

And then he was gone and she was alone in the hallway with only a purple cocoon to keep her company. She sighed and carried the purple thing to the nearest loadbearing table and set it down, working out the kinks in her shoulders as she did.

"You've certainly been busy, haven't you?"

At other times, Yugito might have blustered or raged against the voice in her mind chipping off pieces of her sanity, but not today. She just accepted it. No energy, or no will. It didn't really matter. 'Not that busy,' she thought back.

"Busy thinking. Not that busy talking."

'Thank you kindly for the judgment value. I'm very aware of my own inadequacies, so there's no need to constantly remind me of it.' She thought out as she sought out her own showerhead.

"Oh, kitten. I'm not trying to remind you of your faults. I'm just… being playful. What's on your mind anyway? It's been in such a jumble as of late."

'I… I don't know. I'm supposed to be strong enough to protect everyone, but… I'm not. And I don't like that. I don't like having the lives of the people I love being up in the air.'

"Well… that's life. It's variable and uncertain. What's important is to do what you can with them while you can. You've such a short lifespan, after all."

'Maybe to you.'

"To you as well. How many shinobi do you see over the age of, say, 40, walking around? Hell, even Jinchuuriki tend to die young."

'I'm different,' she pressed out. 'I… I love you, you know. And I appreciate all that you've done for me- I really do. We're going to do just fine together.'

Yugito closed the door to the bathroom she found and began undressing, almost hissing at the reflection in the mirror. Almost every inch of her was covered in grime, her hair was lank and oily, and her face looked like a ghoul's. A shower and a good sleep will do her well.

"Oh, hun, don't you think saying your face is like a 'ghoul's' is a big much? You just look a bit tired."

She shook her head and went into the shower. 'I don't know… Do you think I should start wearing more makeup?'

Matatabi thought about that for a while before smiling. "Is there someone you want to impress?"

Yugito paused right before reaching for the handle. Her eyes were going half-lidded and she wasn't thinking right anymore. 'H-Hey, do you think you could take over for a little bit? I feel like I could fall over at any minute.'

Just as her knees were about to buckle, Matatabi's chakra flowed into her body and took control, allowing Yugito's brain a chance to rest. She looked at her fingers almost confusedly and then to the shower handles.

Unfettered access to a human body with no one coming to take control should she do something disagreeable?

Matatabi smiled through Yugito's lips. This was going to be fun.

00000000

Naruto groaned as he flopped into bed and crawled under the sheets. He didn't know whose bedroom he was in, but considering how sparse the room was and the lack of any gendered colors on the sheets and blankets, he had to guess it was a guest room.

The bed was so comfy that he felt like he might sleep forever. Kurotsuchi's family really took care of their own. Being only in his boxers, he could feel every bit of the soft fabric on his skin. It was a far, far cry from the usual of sleeping either in sand or on the wooden floor of a rickety caravan cart. He was so caught up in his own world that he only barely heard knuckles rapping against the door.

Naruto lifted his head up and said "Yugito? Don't worry, I'm decent."

The knob turned and swung forward wildly followed by the naked body of Yugito stumbling through. It was like she put her entire weight into pushing it open. Her eyes were yellow with slits of vertical black running through. Unsteady on her feet, she looked into his eyes and smiled a wide, toothy grin.

Dumbstruck, Naruto immediately turned his head away and sat up, ready to act at a moment's notice. "Yugito! Uhh… what're you doing?" he asked quickly.

Yugito's body was barely keeping itself up as she stumbled towards his bed, falling forward until the bed was there to keep her body supported. "Yugito isn't here right now," she said ominously. "It's me, Matatabi."

Naruto gulped and slowly turned around to face the woman who was being possessed by a demon death cat. She was on all fours on the bed, slowly making her way to him. When he realized her arms were on either side of his body, he scrambled back even more and held his arms in front of him. "What are you doing?" he asked as adrenaline began to pump into his bloodstream.

Her smile turned to a frown and one of her eyebrows quirked up. "What?" she whined out. "Yugito entrusted me with getting her body to bed. Might as well make use of it until then, right?"

Naruto shook his head. "I don't like how you phrased that."

Her eyes flicked downward at his boxers, where she made a show of licking her lips. "My, aren't you glad to see me?"

He frowned and shoved the blanket over his groin without looking down. "I'm not a grower," he said through pursed lips. "And I don't think Yugito would appreciate you doing this."

One of the corners of her lips curled up. "That girl doesn't know what's good for her. And besides, why are we talking about her? I'm out and about and it feels so good," the chakra construct said, writhing her body over the sheets the way a cat would. Using Yugito's body, however… it just looked plain erotic.

Doing his best to hide a blush, he looked away. "You can do that in your own room."

She stopped to look at him, her playfulness back in full view. "Well, this is my room. For the night at least. And maybe for the next afternoon as well. A girl's gotta get her beauty sleep, after all."

Naruto flipped the sheets up and stepped out. "Great, hope you enjoy it-" His mouth stuck when two blue strings of flame wrapped around his midsection and wouldn't let him go. Turning around, he saw that the tails were coming from her tailbone. Generally, she also looked more animalistic. Her teeth had grown sharp and her hair was frizzy. Her muscles were bunched up, ready to act at a moment's notice. Rather than eroticism, she exuded danger; the way a wild animal would.

"Come now," she said, her voice deeper and huskier. "It's not often I get to move around. I wanna get some… exercise in."

He pulled against her tails to no avail. They were stuck to him and wouldn't give him an inch. Naruto shook his head, dumbstruck. "Matatabi… I don't… please, I don't want to… do that with you."

The tails yanked him to her as suddenly as a snapped bungee cord would. The world moved past him until it stopped with him inches away from Matatabi's face, her smile dangerously sharp. He gulped and grabbed her shoulders, trying to push her away; but his arms were weak from exhaustion and she had enough chakra to destroy a nation.

Her hands reached down and cupped his cheeks. The pads of her fingers were soft and gentle. A shuddering sigh crept its way up her chest and she slowly lowered her body onto his. "So this is what I'm missing," she whispered.

Naruto gulped. He was afraid of doing anything, but as seconds turned into minutes, his boldness swelled. "W-What are you doing?" he asked.

Though her face was out of view, he could feel her cheek muscles move. She was smiling. Matatabi sat up a little bit and touched his face some more. "I've never understood humans and their pursuit of carnal pleasures, but it makes sense to me now. When I touch you with Yugito's body, there's a warmth that swells in my stomach and doesn't let go. This… feeling, it's intoxicating. My word, love is such a powerful drug."

The tails that had held him crept back from his stomach and dissipated into nothingness. She fell back down on his body, her cheek resting on his chest and her legs wrapped around his own. Naruto let his head fall back on the pillow. The adrenaline was calming down, leaving him more drained than ever. "Well… if it's just cuddling, that's okay," he sighed out.

She rubbed her cheek up and down his chest, purring a little bit. "I can see why she wants to do this so much," she whispered. "Damned pride getting in the way."

Naruto didn't say anything. He had a feeling she wanted him to chase her on that thread, but he didn't want to. Not when she was discussing Yugito's private thoughts and feelings. When he didn't chase, she sighed into his chest. "Well, you're not nosy, I'll give you that," Matatabi she said lowly. She sighed and relaxed her muscles against his body. "You do know that she's in love you, right?"

Naruto's head turned to the side. "I had a feeling."

She drummed her fingers against his chest. "So why not chase after her? Do you not love her back?"

He shook his head. "She… I think that… there are some things that people have to get through with their own power, you know. If I call her out on her love, then her fears might go away for a little bit, but they'll be back. You were right when she said she had a lot of pride. She wants to protect me and keep from all the bad things in the world, but she doesn't want to experience the good with me. Or she… doesn't think she deserves to, or something. I don't know."

Matatabi hummed into his chest. "Perhaps you're right. I just want her to be happy, but… helping people doesn't necessarily help them, I've come to see in my lifetime."

"What?" Naruto asked.

The demon cat on his chest thought for a little bit. "You see an animal on a trail, perhaps a squirrel. It's starving and lean. It shakes with fright at the sight of you, so you leave for it some portion of your food. It eats the food and grows from it. But then it approaches another traveler for food that it expects him or her to have and that traveler kills and eat the ever so bold squirrel. Sometimes, helping people ends up hurting them." She sighed contently into his chest. "I won't let her know you know about her love. Just… love her back, will you? When she grows her spine, she'll be worried and afraid."

Naruto nodded and wrapped his arms around her back, starting to nod off. "You don't have to worry about that."

00000000

Naruto woke up as a line of light poked through the window and glanced upon his eyes. His body tried to fight waking up, but lost that battle quickly. His eyes opened to realize the sun was coming through a skylight he hadn't realized existed last night. It was late in the day.

His body was well rested and happy with him. And the only things keeping him from getting up was the general feeling of lethargy after a night of good sleep and the body of Yugito resting on his chest. He was confused for a few seconds until he remembered last night's events in full.

Oh wait.

Was Matatabi still in Yugito's body?

If not, then this was somewhat of a compromising position for Yugito to be in.

Before he could wriggle his way out of her grasp, she groaned and tightened her hold on him, stretching her body against his. Her cheek landed on the top of his chest as her eyes fluttered open. She looked up until her eyes were looking into his. Slowly, her eyes went from groggy and sleepy, to disbelief, to surprise.

Shocked into silence, Yugito scrambled away from him until she was at the foot of the bed, swaddling herself in the blanket to save her modesty. As adrenaline began to pump into her system, her breathing increased its pace and her eyes were busy taking in the room. "W-What…" Her jaws clenched shut. Her eyes shot to his, a look of murder in her eyes. "Did anything happen last night?" she asked in the voice of a leader demanding an answer from a subordinate.

Naruto was quick to deny anything had happened. He crossed his arms into an X and said "No no no, Matatabi was just teasing me last night."

Her glare intensified. "And just what does teasing mean?"

Naruto scratched his head. "Well, it felt more like I was going to get raped and then it turned out she was joking. So, I guess it counts as teasing. Pretty scary when it was happening, though."

Yugito sighed and let her head fall. She curled up in a tight ball and groaned. Loudly. "I'm… I'm so sorry."

The Uzumaki got up and crawled his way to her and patted her back. "Ah, don't worry about it. Wasn't your fault."

Her head peaked out of the ball, only one eye visible, looking at him dourly. "Did you… see anything?"

Naruto blinked a few times, trying to understand what she said, and then blushed a little bit. "I- I mean," he straightened out his back and grabbed the back of his head "Yeah," he admitted.

Her head tucked back into the ball and she groaned even louder this time.

He quickly went through all the options available to him and struck them down one by one. Finally, he shrugged, grabbed the blanket ball that was Yugito, and leaned back with the ball in his arms. "Look, don't be embarrassed. We're comrades, right? We have to be comfortable around each other."

Her head looked back up. "That's what you're going to say?" she asked, getting very near hysteria.

He shrugged. "Listen, when I don't know what to say, a lot of bullshit falls out an I just hope the person in front of me interprets it better than expected."

Her lips pressed into a line and she tucked her head back into the ball. "You're… you're such a dork," she said. He could hear the smile on her face in her words.

He leaned back, bringing the ball with him so he could spoon it. "It was a good night's sleep," he said in a conciliatory way. "Much better than I've had in a long time."

"What about your nights with Temari?" she asked quietly.

He shrugged. "Those were pretty good too. Now come on. It's weird trying to cuddle you like this."

Her legs pushed out of the blanket bundle and she settled against the pillow. "You sure Temari would be okay with you cuddling another woman?"

"Probably," he said, shrugged. "I mean, it's not like we're having sex."

Slowly, lethargically, like she was thinking about whether it was a good idea to be doing it as she did it, Yugito crawled her way out of the blanket, naked as the day she was born, and crouched over him, arms on either side of his neck.

Naruto's eyes were wide open and he gulped. "Uhm, Matatabi? Did you take control again?"

Yugito's face was straight, like she was doing a trivial task. "What?" she asked. "Didn't you say we have to be comfortable together? We're comrades."

"I was saying that to make you feel better," he said quickly. "And you're… uhm…" his voice fizzled out as she fell down on his chest and rubbed her cheek against it.

"Well, you certainly are more comfortab-"

She was cut off as the door opened, showing a wheel-bound chair Kurotsuchi being pushed in by Temari. They'd been mid-conversation and had stopped when they saw the state Yugito and Naruto were in, namely, their lack of clothing. Kurotsuchi's mouth clacked shut and her face turned red with rage. "In my own fucking bed?!" she asked, her voice like bubbling lava.

Naruto looked around. "This is your room? I thought it was the guest room."

Yugito grabbed the blanket and swaddled herself back up into a ball as the weak princess of the hidden stone began to chew the both of them out. Temari only looked from behind and did her best to hide her laughing with her hand.

Not a day in the country of rocks and it was already interesting.

00000000

Itachi looked around himself at the participants of the meeting. Tobi, Kisame, and Madara, someone who he still couldn't believe existed. Things weren't shaking out how he planned them to be. The akatsuki were dropping like flies, which was taking away his reason for staying with the akatsuki. He had a feeling things were about to go nuclear.

"Where are Hidan and Kakuzu?" Kisame asked, looking around.

"Dead," Madara said. "Finished by the rampaging nine-tails."

Kisame's brow raised. "Dead? They're the immortal brothers. They don't die."

Madara shrugged. "Tell that to the dust floating around the desert of the land of wind. They did seem to accomplish their goal, however. One of the wives was near dead by the time Hidan was done with her. Nothing short of a miracle could have saved her. Also," he took out a sealing scroll and removed its contents: two tanned, female arms. "The arms of the seven-tailed. It seems her body is almost always saturated with the beast's chakra. There are at least a couple tails of chakra in here. If that one expires, we always have these."

Kisame narrowed his eyes. "Why does it sound like you saw these events firsthand?"

Madara blinked. "Because I did."

"Then why didn't you intervene? If your goal are these tailed beasts, why didn't you just take them while you could and kill everyone else?"

Madara crossed his arms over his chest. "Loathe as I am to admit it, an alliance of the world puts our plan at jeopardy. I wanted to show that they were incompetent, not make them into martyrs. Soon, the villages will turn back on themselves just like they always do. In the chaos, we'll sweep through and put our plan in motion."

Kisame shifted the weight from one foot to another uncomfortably. It was obvious that he wasn't comfortable with how the organization was shaking out. And, honestly, neither was Itachi.

"What's the next step?" Itachi asked.

"We wait for the chaos, then we get the last three Jinchuuriki. The nine-tails, two-tails, and seven-tails."

"Then Nagato and Konan were victorious?" Tobi asked.

"Of course they were," Madara said. "Now get prepared to seal away the eight-tails."