Bitty Pre-A/N: Sorry for the wait! In apology, this chapter is a bit longer than the others.
Oh, and because several people expressed interest, these are the pairings planned: SasuNaru, KakaIru (most nonsensical pairing EVER, but I adore it), but I also like NaruNeji and NaruGaar, so there will be hints of that. On the YYH side, it seems to be working toward Kurama/Hiei, which is something of a surprise, since my YYH boys almost never settle on a pairing. They tend to just all flirt with one another, so we'll see how things work out on that front.
Part 4: Merry-Go-Round
Any observer who happened to glimpse the present scene might have wondered if they'd gotten lost on their way to the hospital, since the noise level and the tense emotions clashing in the air were not what one usually associated with the reverent quiet of a recovery room.
An observer who was native to Konoha would've been able to identify most of the room's current occupants, and not be entirely surprised when a lazy voice managed to undercut the multitude of partial conversations/arguments going on with one mild question.
"So? Did it work?"
Apparently, Kakashi-sensei had completely missed when the gigantic winged thing that had pretended to be a woman had made her decision so forcefully clear. Actually, a glimpse about the room would've revealed that no one seemed very shaken by the Angel's appearance, nor by her rather dramatic departure.
A fellow shinobi may have concluded that this meant she hadn't been visible to the mere mortals and those who weren't dead.
An observer more familiar with the Reikai Tantei would've known that they'd seen stranger things than a power play between two gods.
The two boys—the tall orange-haired one and shorter dark-haired leader-type—stood to one side of the room near the door along with the blue-haired girl, her little red-headed student, and the god.
The shinobi were arranged around Naruto's bed, and there was a clear line between the two parties.
"It worked," confirmed the teenager with golden eyes in a voice that was not at all godlike. It was a mellow sort of alto that always sounded on the verge of breaking in a puberty-induced squeak. And whatever power he projected, whatever vastness burned in his eyes was rather offset by the silly blue-and-red outfit, the "Jr." inscribed on his forehead and, most importantly, by the cute blue pacifier caught deftly between his lips.
Still, Iruka-sensei remained polite, if a bit frantic. He didn't leap forward and shake answers out of the young god. Instead, he voiced his questions from Naruto's bedside. "But…how do we know? When will he come back?"
There was strain around Iruka's eyes and mouth, darkening his gaze with worry as it flicked almost compulsively toward Naruto, tracing the still figure over and over as if sheer repetition would force some kind of change.
"He…doesn't look any different," Sakura added softly.
"Listen," the god said a bit impatiently, "bringing people back from the dead isn't easy. It'll take a few days while his body prepares to receive a soul again. Until that time, there isn't much you can do but watch and wait until a golden glow surrounds him. It will only last for one hour, during which time he must be kissed awake."
A shock went through the room. An observer might have been rather amused by the stunned blinks and momentary awkward silence. Even Kakashi raised an eyebrow. The Reikai Tantei looked rather bored, although the big orange-haired guy made a face and glared at the dark-haired one, who gave him a cheeky grin in return.
At some point, possibly when very drunk, possibly in the midst of a game of Truth or Dare that none of the people who had participated would ever admit to or speak of ever again, Kuwabara had revealed the result of Yuusuke's desperate hunt for someone who would kiss him awake those six years ago. Yuusuke hadn't stopped teasing him about it since.
Of course, more scandalous secrets than that had come into the open during that particular game, so Yuusuke couldn't taunt Kuwabara as rigorously as he would've liked, for fear of getting his own dirty laundry aired.
"K-kiss?" Sakura squeaked finally. "Like a peck on the cheek?"
"No, a real kiss," the god insisted, though he didn't elaborate on what exactly a "real" kiss was.
"But…why a kiss?" Sakura pressed. This was said with a suspicious glare in the god's direction, as if she were sensing a closet pervert and had no intension of pandering to his twisted sense of fun without some thoroughly good reason. When your teacher is Kakashi, a person becomes pretty good at picking up on these things.
And now the dark-haired Tantei looked interested. Apparently, this little detail had never been explained to him, either.
The god's face took on a serious expression, golden eyes dark and molten. "You ask why it has to be a kiss?" he demanded, and then he beamed, ruining the imposing image. "I have no idea!"
At this point, an observer might have beaten their head against a wall in sheer frustration. It looked as if many in the room were going to do the same, but were spared when the blue-haired girl stepped forward to try and save face for her boss.
"Er…it's all very very technical!" she bubbled with a brittle cheerfulness, stepping forward to act as a buffer, hands up and waving in a "please don't kill me because I work for an idiot" kind of gesture. "I'm sure Koenma-sama just didn't want to get into it. It has to do with the body's ability to accept life energy, and how, when a body dies it doesn't—"
"It is very technical," Koenma cut in sternly. "And I don't want to get into it. Suffice to say, this is what needs to be done. Whether or not you do it is your own prerogative."
"Naa, Sakura," Kakashi said with one of his mischievous smiles. "It wouldn't be so bad, would it?"
"I refuse!" Sakura snapped immediately, sticking her chin up and turning her head away in a huff. She'd not been given a good reason, and she didn't like that everyone was expecting her to do something without even asking… Mou, it was enough to make her Inner Self want to rear up and break something. Possibly someone's nose. "I'd rather anyone else… I'd rather you do it, Kakashi-sensei!"
Kakashi-sensei's visible eye slitted open and slid over to Naruto with a lazy, considering look that was incredibly feline. "Well…"
And then his gaze bumped up against Iruka's, which grabbed it in a strangle hold, skinned it, and drop-kicked it back without flinching.
Iruka-sensei had quite a few fluster-buttons, and embarrassment-buttons, and sudden-bouts-of-shyness-buttons, all of which Kakashi enjoyed pushing on a regular basis. But he had only one oh-my-fucking-god-I-will-gut-you-and-dance-on-your-remains-button, which was triggered by issues involving Naruto's safety. Kakashi only pushed it when he had a point to make.
"Er," Kakashi swallowed the rest of his sentence and switched gears hastily. "Well, I'm sure we could find someone, when the time comes…"
"And until that time comes, there's nothing more you can do here, correct?" A rather frazzled-looking nurse, standing in the doorway holding a chart, voiced that cool, imperious question. "If that is the case," she continued without waiting for an answer, "I respectfully request that you leave immediately. This is a recovery room. The patients here need peaceful rest and quiet."
There was a bit of shuffling and abashed gazes dropping to the floor, except for Iruka whose eyes were still on Naruto, willing him to show some sign of life.
In the face of such a fierce female threat, it would've been no real surprise to an observer who knew him that the god caved first, though he swept out of the room haughtily to cover the fact that he was beating a hasty retreat. His Tantei followed after, the two boys shooting last glances at their own friend on the bed. The blue-haired girl pushed her younger ward out before her.
Sasuke followed shortly after, expression on neutral, hands in his pockets, and, of course, Sakura hurried to join him. Kakashi, after some gentle teasing and not-so-gentle prodding, managed to herd Iruka away, which left the room to the peace and quiet the nurse had so hoped to achieve.
She nodded in satisfaction, and tended to her duties, checking on her patients and grumbling about their visitors before leaving as well.
Then the room was empty. And boring. The silence seemed more oppressive than restful. It was times like these that an observer might talk just to hear the sound of his own voice.
"Hey…are you sure this is going to work?" Naruto demanded of the red-haired boy who was floating at his side where they hovered near the ceiling of the room.
"To my knowledge, it's never failed," Kurama said honestly.
Naruto slanted him a narrow look. "How many times have you seen it happen?"
"Seen? Never," he admitted, looking a bit sheepish. When Naruto slumped he hastened to add, "But, one of my teammates went through the ordeal, and he's very much alive."
"Oh?" Naruto perked a little, but his enthusiasm dampened as he considered the implications. "So…just once before, huh?"
"Well, yes…" the redhead looked a bit disheartened himself, staring down at where his body lay. "And we both have…complications that might interfere with the process."
"Huh?" Naruto had never been the brightest crayon in the box. And besides, he didn't want to hear about anything that might make this even messier. "I don't care," he decided. "I'm going to make it back. I can't die here. I've got too much I want to do still."
Kurama smiled. "With that sort of determination, you should be fine."
"Hell yeah!" Naruto punched the air, words echoing dully through the non-space they occupied.
All he received in response was a polite smile from Kurama, and the steady beep of the heart monitors below. He wilted a bit, dropping his arm.
"So…we wait, huh?"
"Yes."
Naruto drooped further, drifting lower to the ground. "This is going to be booooring."
"You could try meditating."
"Meditating?" The blond shot Kurama an incredulous look.
The redhead looked a little defensive. "It isn't as if we can play card games or something."
Naruto scowled. Prankster at heart, it didn't sit well with him that he was invisible, incorporate and couldn't do anything with it. "We're ghosts, dammit! Shouldn't we at least be able to go scare people or something?"
Kurama laced his fingers around his knees and floated closer to Naruto. "The only people who could hear or see you would be psychics, priests and others trained to interact with the supernatural, or people with the power to see beyond the norm."
"'Beyond the norm,' huh?" Naruto wondered if that applied to Sasuke. If Naruto's present state of not-alive could somehow be used in the perpetual campaign of pissing Sasuke off, then it might just make up for the fact that he was dead.
As if summoned by the thought, a Sasuke-shaped shadow detached itself from the general darkness outside, leapt for Naruto's window…
And nearly collided with another small, dark, spiky-haired shadow who was trying to use the same means to enter the room. At the last moment, the other twisted with a burst of speed and made it inside as Sasuke paused on the windowsill. Then the two visitors locked gazes.
"Hiei?" Kurama said at the same time and in pretty much the same surprised tone as Naruto said, "Sasuke?"
Oblivious to the two ghosts, Sasuke and Hiei glared at each other, clear challenge electrifying the air between them.
Naruto vaguely remembered he stranger, Hiei, from earlier. Small and slender, without his coat and scarf this time. He wore a loose black tank top and loose black pants and boots. The muscles in his arms were well defined—fighter, or, at least, athletic. Bandages wrapped up one arm, and a single one was tied as a bandana strip over his forehead. Pale, pissy-looking, eyes wide and deep red.
The blond blinked a few times as he looked back and forth between them. Sasuke: slender, still on the short side, spiky black hair, pale, pissy, bandages wrapped up one arm, wearing baggy black clothing. His eyes weren't red at the moment, but even without that, Naruto concluded as Sasuke straightened, feet braced on the sill, the similarities were "…eh?" worthy.
Their stances and expressions were almost a mimicry of each other. Arrogance with an almost unhealthy dose of suspicion and paranoia as they faced off.
Sasuke was the first to speak. "What are you doing here?"
Red eyes narrowed, swept over Sasuke's form with contemptuous dismissal, and then turned away as Hiei moved toward the beds. Clearly, the Gennin was far enough below what was worthy of Hiei's attention that he didn't rate an answer.
Seeing the Uchiha snubbed so casually tickled Naruto, who, despite being dead, didn't pass up the opportunity to mock his rival. "HA! Shows you, bastard!" he crowed, pointing emphatically.
And then Sasuke moved, leaping from the window in a blur to place himself between Hiei and Naruto's bed. He hadn't armed himself, yet, but his stance was defensive and clearly said "don't push me."
It made Naruto blink. "Huh? What's he doing…?"
Hiei, however, only quirked an eyebrow as he stopped next to Kurama's bed, which had been his destination all along.
After a moment, the Uchiha relaxed out of his stance, scowling to cover faint embarrassment, and then turned away with an impressively cool, dismissive gesture of his own, looking down at Naruto's still form. Then, a bit self-consciously under Hiei's steady regard, Sasuke took out a small silver bell with a loop of leather cord tied at the top from his pouch and placed it on the table next to Naruto's bed.
"It's for good luck," the Gennin snapped out, because the weight of Hiei's silence demanded some sort of explanation.
"Hey!" Naruto perked. "My bell! Thanks, Sasuke."
"What is it?" Kurama asked, drifting closer to take a better look.
"It's the bell Kakashi-sensei gave my team as sort of a graduation gift." The redhead's expression was curious, and since Naruto didn't have anything else to do, he elaborated. "For our test to become Gennin—that's a ninja rank. It's the first one you can get right out of the Academy—Kakashi-sensei told us that we had to each steal a bell from him in order to pass. There were only two bells and three of us. His point was that sometimes you have to work together, and sacrifice for the greater good of your team. But, uh…" Naruto rubbed the back of his head ruefully, "we didn't really get it and kinda made asses or ourselves.
"But! We pulled through in the end. And as a reminder of his lesson, Kakashi-sensei gave each of us a bell after he declared he'd accept us as his Gennin students."
It was the first gift anyone had really given me, Naruto added to himself. Then thought of Iruka-sensei and amended, That wasn't food. Not that it made Iruka-sensei any less cool in Naruto's mind.
"So…you carry it for good luck?" Kurama concluded, looking at the bell thoughtfully.
"Yeah."
"Not exactly very stealthy."
Naruto bristled, but the teasing light in Kurama's eyes was gentle, so his anger fizzled into vague annoyance. "What do you know?"
Kurama smiled, as if he knew more than Naruto could possibly imagine. The blond was saved from having to respond by Sasuke's gasp.
Alarmed, Naruto spun to face him, because Sasuke didn't usually show surprise unless something was really off-kilter. Sasuke wasn't hurt, and wasn't bleeding or being attacked by something awesomely powerful, but he was staring in shock at Naruto's body…because it was glowing.
"What the—shit!" The blond gave Kurama an accusing glare. "Your boss said it wouldn't be for a couple of days."
Kurama had that harried look of someone used to having things go horribly wrong. "Well… I can't really make excuses for him, but…"
Naruto didn't have time to listen. He was too busy panicking. "Sasuke! You bastard, what are you doing just standing there? Go get help! Go get Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto remembered the look on Kakashi's face when Sakura had mentioned kissing the boy back to life and twitched. "Er. Or…um. Someone. Anyone!! Sasuke!"
But the Uchiha, last descendant of his clan, genius member of Team Seven, number one rookie in his class was just…just… standing there. With a strange sort of hesitant, anticipatory, slightly guilty look, one that Naruto recognized as someone planning to do something they weren't sure was the right thing to do, even though it would be really fun.
Sasuke was choosing now to discover his inner prankster?
"ARGH! SASUKE, YOU'RE THE BIGGEST BASTARD THAT EVER BASTARD-ED A BASTARDLY—ARGH!"
"Naruto!" The blond heard Kurama calling after him as he turned away and shot through the walls, heading outside. Being incorporate sure helped with speed.
Once outside, he paused for just a moment, panting, trying to organize his thoughts. Okay, obviously, Sasuke was about as useful as a paperweight, at the moment. Actually, no. Paperweights were probably more useful, because they held down paper and Sasuke wasn't doing anything.
Right then. Sasuke was less useful than a paperweight. Sasuke was probably the most useless thing Naruto had seen in his young life (barring those couple…dozen…times Sasuke had saved his life).
Okay! So, that left Naruto with a question. Who to go to? First instinct: Iruka-sensei. Smart, dependable, safe Iruka-sensei. And…where would he be?
Naruto glanced up to judge time. Well into twilight, enough that it was almost completely dark. Iruka would probably be at home, or at the Academy catching up on paperwork.
He checked the Academy first, and found nothing. Then Iruka's home, but the apartment was dark, and when Naruto flew through the walls to check and see if maybe Iruka had gone to sleep early, he found that the bed was neatly made, and everything looked as if no one had been there in a few days. Huh. Strange.
The ghost hovered for a moment, indecisive. Come to think of it, last Naruto had seen of Iruka, his teacher had been in Kakashi's company. Maybe they'd gone out to eat somewhere?
Iruka had looked pretty upset when he'd left, Naruto remembered with a guilty wince. And his brown-haired sensei had his comfort food, just like Naruto. So, Ichiraku Ramen, it was!
Fortunately, because Naruto was out of ideas, Iruka was at Ichiraku Ramen, sitting at the bar next to Kakashi. The silver-haired Jounin had two empty bowls beside him, though the table in front of him was currently empty so it didn't look as if he was having thirds. Iruka, on the other hand, looked to be on his first bowl, and it was still mostly untouched, except that the Chuunin seemed intent on making fantastical shapes out of his noodles.
As Naruto flew up to them, Kakashi reached over and stole Iruka's bowl away with a quick, deft movement.
"Hey!" The Chuunin straightened and shot Kakashi an indignant glare.
"I'm sorry," Kakashi said pleasantly, visible eye crinkling. "Were you going to eat this? I didn't want it to go to waste."
"Of course I was going to eat it," Iruka snapped in an automatic contradictoriness that always seemed to occur around Kakashi.
"My mistake," Kakashi murmured, sliding the bowl back over.
Caught in his bluff, Iruka gritted his teeth and then sighed, settling in to eat a few bites, just so he couldn't be called a liar. Kakashi beamed. Naruto nearly slammed into Iruka's back. Flying wasn't really like running and he wasn't too good at controlling it, yet.
Iruka jerked and started coughing.
"Iruka-sensei?"
Kakashi's voice was drowned out by Naruto as be backpedaled and then immediately got to the point. "IRUKA-SENSEI, YOU HAVE TO GO KISS ME AWAKE! Or…er…" Naruto blushed, hard. "I mean, find someone to kiss me awake! Right now!"
Kakashi was patting Iruka on the back. Iruka got his breathing under control, and took a sip of water.
"Naruto," Kakashi said.
The blond flinched in surprise and then gave the Jounin a hopeful look. Well, Kakashi-sensei was a little weird. Maybe he could see Naruto?
"You can't stop worrying about him," Kakashi continued, speaking to Iruka in a steady tone.
Iruka straightened his spine and tried to recover what dignity he could, not deigning to answer.
"You really ought to have more faith in him," Kakashi continued in a mildly reproving tone. "He'll make it back."
"NO I WON'T! NOT IF YOU PEOPLE DON'T STOP MOPING AROUND AND DO SOMETHING!"
Neither one indicated that they'd heard anything, despite the fact that Naruto had used his loudest "scaring the enemy with the sheer power of my lungs" voice. Okay, clearly this wasn't working. Why? What had that Kurama guy said about who could see and hear him? Psychics, priests and people who could see more than the norm?
Maybe if Kakashi were using his Sharingan…but that wasn't something he did just for the hell of it, and Naruto couldn't think of a way to force him to do it that wouldn't take a lot of time and effort. How long did he have? Not very long, Naruto was sure, even though he couldn't remember the exact time limit.
Dammit!
Naruto turned away just as he heard Iruka say in a quiet, tired voice. "I know."
Crap! Crap crap crap. He couldn't let Iruka-sensei down now. Naruto flew off down the street, directionless, trying to think. Thinking wasn't really his forte, especially when he wasn't in the middle of a battle. If only he had Sakura to talk to. She'd call him an idiot, but she'd think up a solution anyway. Maybe he could find her. Maybe she was already working on a plan.
Maybe she was buying flowers at the local flower shop.
Naruto skidded to a halt as he saw the pink-haired girl come out of the store and throw a wave over her shoulder, "See you, Ino!"
Ino! A little light clicked on in Naruto's head. Ino had those freaky mind-control powers. Did that count as being psychic? One way to find out.
Naruto blasted through the door with enough force to make the nearby flowers shiver and glanced around the shop. The blonde girl was slouched behind the counter with a bored expression, though she did straighten and glare suspiciously at the door when he came in. For a moment, he brightened with hope. But the next moment she sighed and grumbled about drafts and folded back down on the counter, pillowing her head in her arms.
"Ino!" Naruto flew up to her. "INO!! DO-YOU-HEAR-ME? I-NEED-YOU-YOUR-HELP!!"
She jerked upright and shot a glare in his direction. "Shut up, Naruto! Jeez! Can't you ever…" the blonde trailed off, blinking a few times. "Huh?" And then she looked around the store, eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Naruto…?"
"I'M RIGHT HERE!" He waved his arms at her frantically and jumped up and down.
"Weird. I must be hungry. I'm getting low blood sugar induced hallucinations."
"I'M NOT A HALLUCINATION!" He would have grabbed her and shook her if he could've. "Some ultimate mind control technique user you are."
With a happy "Dinner time!" Ino left the counter and moved into the back room, digging through cupboards. Naruto trailed after her, thinking furiously. Ino could well be his only chance. She'd heard him before…maybe if he just kept yelling…
"INO, LISTEN TO ME! YOU HAVE TO GO KISS ME AWAKE! DO YOU HEAR ME? YOU HAVE TO GO KISS ME AWAKE!"
Ino paused in the process of taking a box of pasta out of the cupboard. Her eyes became blank and glazed. Her hand slowly lowered back to her side. "I…have to go…"
With stiff, automatic movements, the blonde turned around and started heading for the door. But before she could get there, she tripped on a corner of a rug and stumbled, hitting her head on the doorframe.
"Ouch!" She jerked, pulling back, blinking as her eyes cleared. "Why…what am I…? Why did I want to go k…ki…." She started to look decidedly green. "EW! There is no way I just wanted… with Naruto…! ARGH!"
In a flurry of blonde pigtail, she spun and ran madly into the backroom and up the stairs, where her family lived.
"Hey! INO! Get back here!" He didn't bother pursuing her, though. With Ino, it would a double battle—first to get her to hear him, and then to get her to actually do the deed. He didn't think he had that kind of time. Or patience.
Crap.
Okay, where did that leave him? Naruto ran through the short list of girls he knew, trying to find a solution.
Hinata! Yeah, Hinata was a sweet person, probably the nicest person he knew. She wouldn't begrudge him a little kiss, would she? And she had those Hyuuga eyes! They could see anything! He bet she would be able to see him.
Where would she be…?
Probably at home, he concluded, with a little nod. He wasn't really comfortable poking around her family's grounds. The Hyuugas were kinda…scary. But he really didn't have a choice in the matter, so he went.
He paused outside the gates, wary. The guards didn't seem to see him, but they still projected intimidation really well, so he edged to one side and pressed against the wall further in the shadows, expected to slip through. Instead, a shock of pain flashed through his palms and arms and he found himself sitting on his ass, stunned, and a few feet away.
"What…the hell…?"
Repeated attempts in several places along the wall brought the same result, and the first pain that Naruto had felt since he'd died. By this time it was some minutes later, and everything, right down to the roots of his hair, hurt.
"Dammit," Naruto grumbled, struggling to stand back up. Had the Hyuugas warded their house against ghosts? Jeez, how paranoid could you get?
Naruto hurt and felt tired. It was late. He was out of ideas. He looked off down the dark street, depression pressing in, despite his best efforts to shove it aside.
"Dropout-boy." The deep voice edged with amused sarcasm spoke directly into his ear, and was accompanied by a sudden presence behind him.
"AHH!" Naruto jerked, staggered and fell over. He leapt immediately back to his feet as Neji chuckled at him softly. "Neji! You asshole! Where the hell did you come from?"
"Inside," he jerked his chin toward the house.
"How did you find me?"
The Hyuuga folded his arms, stance arrogantly casual. "I felt you attacking the wall. No more stealthy as a ghost than you are as a ninja." He smirked. "Dropout-boy."
"Hey!" Anger and relief duked it out in Naruto's mind for a moment. He'd found one Hyuuga, just not the right one. But Neji could see him. "I thought you stopped calling me that."
"That's before you got yourself killed on…wasn't it a C-rank mission?"
"B-rank! And how the hell do you know about it?"
Neji shrugged. "The Hokage is trying to keep it from the general public, but Hyuuga is privy to just about everything that happens in the village because we're the oldest clan. And nothing's very secret in the Hyuuga household for long." He grinned. "Especially if you are the strongest carrier of the bloodline limit. That said," Neji continued. "What are you doing here?"
"Do you know where Hinata is?"
The Hyuuga frowned. "I don't keep tabs on my cousin. What does she have to do with anything?"
"I need someone to kiss me so I can come back to life!"
Cool white eyes regarded him with a steadiness that always managed to look decidedly eerie on Neji. It was probably the lack of pupils. "Kiss you back to life?"
"Yeah! What, your freaky eyes didn't tell you that, pretty boy?"
Neji twitched. "Pretty boy?"
Ha! Knew that would piss him off. Naruto grinned, then noticed, for the first time, that Neji wasn't looking him in the eye. Instead, he seemed to be concentrating his gaze lower than that. And, after an uncomfortable moment, he realized that Neji's gaze was fixed on Naruto's lips.
"Hey…what are you doing?"
"What?"
"What are you doing? Where are you looking?" Naruto did affronted dignity very well.
Almost as well as Neji did icy disdain. "Idiot. I'm reading your lips. I can't actually hear you, only see you. What did you think?"
Naruto thought it was really unfair that ghosts could blush. He looked down, but rallied again quickly. "Hey…um."
"What?" Neji growled.
"It wouldn't be so bad if… if you kissed me awake."
The look of complete shock that froze Neji's aristocratic features was totally worth whatever beating Naruto would receive upon reviving. He burst out laughing. "Ha! Joking!"
"Na…ru…to…" If the Hyuuga had had the ability to glow with sheer fury, he would've been doing it.
Naruto's laughter cut off sharply as tearing pain clawed through him, dropping him to his knees.
"Naruto?"
It was surprising how quickly Neji could flip off his anger, like a switch, Naruto noted in a part of his mind not screaming in agony.
There was a wrench.
And then…
Naruto gasped, drawing someone else's breath in as he did. There was warmth, sweet and soft over his mouth. His body felt heavy, the echoes of pain fading. The light was too bright, his vision blurry. Someone was bending over him. Someone kissed him again.
Naruto felt a shiver of pleasure and surprise shoot through him. Who was—with tongue and—?
He closed his eyes and kissed back. Just a little, tentatively. Breathing in someone's scent—pine trees in winter…
And then he blinked his eyes open and they focused this time, on pale skin dusted with a blush and night-dark eyes close enough that Naruto could count the long lashes. Their expression was soft and a little wary, which was so strange, so different from the hard, cool norm because this was…
"Sa…Sasuke?"
A/N: Whee! I liked this chapter. I've been watching Naruto over from the beginning, and I have a much better handle on the world and the characterizations, now, and I like the pace of this chapter much better than previous ones. I also realize the the pretense for this crossover is a bit on the shaky side. But! Really, this crossover started as a way for the YYH crew to play around in Naruto-land. That it developed a plot at all is due mostly to the stubbornness of my muse.
As a side note, I apologize for all the capslock and the rather arbitrary capitalizing of Naruto terms. At the very least, I will try to keep it consistent. And, really, there isn't a better way to illustrate how loud Naruto can be.
More rambling! It has come to my attention that a surprising number of my readers know little to nothing about Yuu Yuu Hakusho. So! To clarify some things. The Twelve are actually original characters that I created because I felt the need to. The Angel, however, is not mine. She's introduced in manga #4 as a single-panel character whereupon we learn her name and get a one-line description. I elaborated on that a little. It won't matter because I don't intend to bring them back.
Those of you familiar with YYH will notice I fudged a lot on the whole coming-back-to-life thing. My reasoning is this: I'm pretty sure that bringing people back to life is not a common occurrence that has a clear set of rules. I think Koenma makes a lot of it up as he goes, and for each person, the circumstances change the outcome. For instance, Yuusuke had his trial before coming back. Obviously, that's not the case with Naruto.
Replies to comments: (Which I will try to keep short, because I babbled for so long...)
Night-Owl123: Is Yuusuke stronger than the Kyuubi? Hmm... if I were going to bet, I'd probably put my money on Yuusuke. If the Kyuubi were still in Naruto's body, Naruto spends a lot of his time trying to suppress the demon, while Yuusuke more-or-less seemed to embrace his. However, if Yuusuke and Kyuubi were on equal footing... I think it would be a toss up.
There was a long anonymous message about the validity of putting Naruto on trail. Simple answer: Koenma and the Angel did it for political reasons, and not necessarily for common sense ones. They were covering their asses.
Vialana: I have two theories about where the Yondaime's soul is, neither of which would make it very accessible to the YYH crew unless they did some fancy finagling. He'll probably come up at some point, though.
Okay! I think that's all for right now. Thank you everyone (again) for commenting. I really appreciate it. I have PAGES of comments, now. O.o I don't think that's ever happened to me before.
Until next time!