Man, the pressure one puts on themselves as a writer after writing something retardedly awesome. How the heck do you follow it? What can you possibly put down after such a great scene that will do that great scene justice?

I guess I just don't like settling dust.

Promises Not Made are Promises Never Kept

Chapter Twenty-Five – Aftershocks

I don't understand it. Kakashi thought, musing from where he sat atop the Hokage faces. After many attempts throughout the week, he found that Zabuza and Sasuke had basically locked themselves up in the room both Inaré and Haku shared, refusing to come out though he had disguised himself a few(dozen) times and asked them nicely to come out, using over a dozen creative and logical reasons. He had even coerced (asked) Naruto into going to the door and knocking, but Sasuke had politely turned him down, saying that they would do Ramen later. I need answers. This can't keep going on like this!

He could handle not knowing certain things. Like if there was really a god or why there were those strange end pieces to a sliced loaf of bread one buys at the supermarket that no one seems to like. Or why there was always that one seedy bar open at nine in the morning every Tuesday. He didn't need to know everything. He had known people who had needed to know everything and they had gone systematically psychotic. If Kakashi was one thing, it was observant and able to learn from other people's mistakes.

Well, maybe two things.

But he couldn't handle not knowing how much danger Sasuke was actually in. How much danger they were all in. He had voiced his concerns to the Hokage and the man had readily agreed, but they couldn't take action against the boy. He had poised no clear threat to the village as a whole, and to strike even preemptively would declare war upon the Land of Waves. Sasuke was their prized student, and Kakashi could understand why. Just as he had been Konoha's pride before, he had found a new village to empower.

And nobody else knew it except Kakashi.

The Jounin thought about outing Sasuke. About revealing his secret to the council and demanding they take back what was rightfully Konoha's. Fuck the Land of Waves.

But he knew he couldn't do that. As soon as the idea occurred to him it had been dismissed. He loved Sasuke, and to break his word would send the skittish little creature back into the forest where Kakashi would never be able to locate him again. At least for now, he could keep tabs on the boy and make sure he wasn't in any danger.

Outside danger, at least. As for what was bubbling inside the Terranova's belly, Kakashi couldn't even begin to fathom.

For now, they could only send extremely covert spies in the direction of the Village Hidden in the Mist and hope to dig up some answers, but they would not return for at least a week, two if they actually happened to find something.

What had they caught a glimpse of that day during the preliminaries? Kakashi was still having a hard time putting his finger on it. A Tailed Beast? Maybe, but they had very specific ways of affecting their vessel when their Chakra seeped through the cracks and intermingled with their host's (as Naruto had shown), and Sasuke had displayed none of those quirks. When a host uses a Tailed Beast's Chakra, the host takes on some physical attributes of the Beast that is being caged. With Naruto, it was the Chakra formation of a single orange tail, the red eyes, and the pointed ears and sharp claws. And the temporary habit of running on all fours coupled with the fiercer temperament and deeper, rougher voice. The creature Sasuke had embodied was not of any sort of animal Kakashi had ever seen, but more like some kind of cruel and twisted mixture – like what would've been created if nature had vindictively sought to punish the world for its insolence. And had gruesomely succeeded.

The monster that had emerged from those pages was a warped image of reality, something out of a nightmare, and Kakashi never really believed that demons existed. Malicious spirits sure, assholes sure, but never demons – creatures that spawned from the devil's own ribs and dragged themselves out of the seams of Hell's Gate to wreak havoc upon the living.

But maybe it was time to rethink that idea.

Everybody that had witnessed the fight had been adversely affected. Sai had awakened with only vague memories of the experience after he had dropped the book, but he still awoke to nightmares. Ino's father had reported her starting to sleepwalk, and Choji had resumed his bed-wetting problem, an issue that had been resolved when he was eight. Shino's bugs were nervous and jumpy. Kiba and Akamaru had newly-acquired insomnia, and Shikamaru had grown much more restless, unable to concentrate at simple strategy games that he would normally excel at. His father, who hadn't been able to beat Shikmaru at a game of Go since the boy was three, was suddenly trouncing the lazy genius left and right. And Kakashi knew that Sakura was having trouble sleeping. He could see it in the way she trained – how much slower she was in her movements and brain activity. He would have to repeat himself a couple of times before she finally understood what he was saying, and she would lightly doze off when he lectured on new techniques.

But Naruto seemed totally at peace. Sure he was disappointed that he wasn't interacting with Sasuke and sad that everyone else seemed to be having so many problems, but he himself was as bright and cheery as ever. He was even arriving early for training instead of his usual half-tardiness of Kakashi's usual tardiness. He seemed completely relaxed, maybe even bouncier than he was before, and Kakashi simply had to pull him aside one afternoon near the end of the first week to ask him about it.

"So, Naruto," he began, leaning against a tree as Naruto sat on the grass in front of him, smiling and at attention. The hot summer sun flashed blindingly off his wildly blonde hair, and his bronze skin soaked up the light greedily. "As you know, everybody who witnessed Sasuke's fight with Sai has been… affected in some way." He chose his term very, very carefully. "You don't seem any different at all though. In fact I think you even seem more… obnoxiously happy. Why?"

Naruto blinked up at him and then shrugged.

"I'm not sure, actually," he replied. "I suppose up until now, I've had a really big knot in my stomach. Like when that thing came out of the pages, I was pretty scared. I really thought I was going to die. But then that thing disappeared, and something else took its place." He smiled proudly. "You didn't see the way that Sasuke fought Orochimaru. It was awesome! He was completely in control, and he fought hand-in-hand with the guy! It was like they were perfectly matched! A legendary ninja and a genin! So cool!" He gazed at Kakashi with his big blue eyes. "He was totally calm. Completely in control of himself. I was so jealous of the way he moved." He shrugged again. "But then he wasn't like that when he fought Sai. He was stupid about the way he attacked. He didn't care if he got hurt. But then the Sasuke I had seen before came back, and I felt myself relax." The smile came back. "The Sasuke that had fought Orochimaru… that's a Sasuke that I can trust! I can just feel it. And knowing that he was still in there, even after that big scary thing came out… that was great. Knowing that he had been there the entire time, just waiting to come back when he was needed… that was even better." He leaned back, resting his weight on the palms of his hands and stretching his legs out as he looked up at his teacher. "So I'm a lot better now, because I know he's there keeping an eye on things. If that monster ever comes back out, he'll be there to stop it. So I'm not worried at all."

Kakashi had been baffled.

Naruto… do you really have that much faith in one human being?

Kakashi frowned from where he sat, staring up at the sky.

I wish I shared your sentiments, Naruto.

That would sure make everything a whole lot easier.


"Zabuza, we need to talk."

Zabuza rolled his eyes, wrapping a towel around his waist.

"The week of ignoring every other attempt you tried wasn't clue enough, Kakashi?" The man asked gruffly, not even turning to look at the other ninja. "I don't want to talk. We are not talking."

"We have to," Kakashi insisted, the hazy mist hanging around them and clinging to the mirror. "This is important, Zabuza. Ignoring the issue isn't just going to make this go away. You're not a rogue ninja anymore. You can't just turn tail and run like a coward-!"

"Sure, pissing me off is definitely the right way to go about things," Zabuza replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he moved past Kakashi into the living room/kitchen area. He and the other three had been given a small apartment to live in while they were in Konoha, and Kakashi had just been stalkerish enough to catch Zabuza on the tail end of a shower. Leaning down, he opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. "I said no, Kakashi. Now get out." Dismissing the Jounin then, he proceeded to drain the bottle and walk away. Kakashi felt his chest swell in fury.

"You're killing him, Zabuza!"

This made Zabuza stop short, and he turned to look back at Kakashi in irritation. Kakashi continued while he still had the other ninja's attention.

"You think that big fiasco at the Chunin exams is just going to blow over? That everybody is just going to 'forget' about that monster that crawled out of my student's book in place of yours and that almost tried to kill Sai? Everybody saw what Sasuke's hiding and everybody is suspicious of both him and your village. Whatever Sasuke is housing it's obvious he doesn't have the control over it that you think he does. He's dangerous, Zabuza. It's dangerous. And if my village believes it's threatened in absolutely any way the Anbu will kill Sasuke. You need to help him! Before this gets him hurt or even dead!"

This actually made Zabuza chuckle.

"You really think he can be dispatched? Just like that?" Zabuza replied quietly, turning his head to look at Kakashi and laughing softly. Then his voice got incredibly serious as he set his eyes in a threatening glare. "For all anyone knows, it was a Jutsu that got a little too out of hand. That's it. And I will drown anyone who says anything to the contrary, understand?!"

"Is that the lie you and Sasuke put together?" Kakashi snapped. "Some bullshit excuse for all the shit that went down? Sure, the kids might buy it, but the ninjas who actually know what the fuck they're talking about are not going to be convinced. Sasuke will be investigated, and whatever secret he's hiding will be uncovered. You have to save him before that happens."

"Why the fuck do you even care so much, Kakashi?!" Zabuza spat, his muscles rolling beneath his dark skin with nothing but a towel covering him. He bared his shark teeth at the other man. "You don't know me, you don't know my team – you don't even know Sasuke! He just shares a fucking name with some brat you used to train. They are my students. If there is an issue, then I will deal with it. It isn't your fucking place!"

Kakashi felt his gut roil in fury.

"I do know him!" He wanted to scream at the top of his lungs. "I do know him because YOU TOOK HIM FROM ME!"

But he didn't. He didn't know what Zabuza would do if he knew the Jounin had found out (probably take Sasuke far, far away to the ends of the earth where he would vanish forever), and so the gray-headed ninja kept silent. Instead, he took a deep, cleansing breath.

"Turning your head and coughing will not fix this," he stated simply. "If the people of this world don't crucify him for what he is, the beast inside him will." He turned away to the door. "I already lost my student. I don't want to see you lose yours."

Zabuza raised an eyebrow at the other man.

"How nice of you," he observed, almost suspiciously. Kakashi shot him a glare.

"I still hate you," he stated simply in explanation, even though he really didn't. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to take it out on some innocent kid. He isn't ready to take on the world, Zabuza." He turned his head to give the man one more fixed stare. "But the path you're allowing him to take will send him sailing headfirst into it."

With that, he left, and Zabuza gazed at where he had been standing for a long while before he finally moved, turning back into the bedroom to put some clothes on.

End Chapter Twenty-Five – Aftershocks

Woo! The calm... after? the storm!

Please let me know if you thoroughly enjoyed. :) Or even slightly enjoyed. I'm good with either.

Much love!

DDB