Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own it.
Yes! I'm gettin' an ipod video for Christmas! But I'm gettin' it on the 15th instead, isn't that nifty?.! I'm so excited! I'm gonna put Dir en Grey and gay porn on it! ...and etc!
"It's looking good so far! Keep it up!" Genma-sensei hollered from the very top of the risers on the far end of the gym, his hands on the hips of his lover, Raidou-sensei. The other brown-haired man taught French, which Genma-sensei very much enjoyed... while in bed.
"Easy for him to say," Ino mumbled, helping Sasuke with the streamers.
The raven had gotten tired of sitting around watching them decorate, so he decided to help, wishing now that he still had his wings. There wasn't a ladder tall enough to reach the top of the gym, so Genma-sensei had left them to calling some kind of special worker to do that. And where exactly where they supposed to find someone like that at 5:30 in the morning?
"Sasuke-kun, how's your back?" the girl asked, starting with another long set of streamers, "it's not aching, is it?"
"It's fine," he lied. The truth was, it was burning like hell, but he didn't want to worry the teen, "but I think I should go change the bandages."
"Oh, I'll help," Ino offered, smiling.
Naruto listened to them converse as he set up tables. Noticing something in his male friend's eyes, he spoke up, "Just finish up with the streamers on this side, Ino, I'll help him out."
The girl pouted, but shrugged and kept going with her work, "Alright, but come back soon. I don't want to have to do everything by myself."
"Gotcha!" Naruto saluted and he, along with Sasuke, stepped into the boy showers. He turned and his smile was gone as quickly as it came, "you're hurting."
Sasuke sighed and sat down on one of the shower benches, shrugging off his thick coat, "You know me better than anyone else."
Naruto smiled slightly at that, but sat next to Sasuke, pulling bandages out of his cargo pockets. Reaching around, he started undoing the ones already wrapped around the raven's torso, the bandages tainted and crusty with dry blood, "I brought some ointment, do you want any?"
"Yes, my back's burning," Sasuke hissed, finally giving into the pain. It was like his back was splitting in half and the area around his wings was throbbing, "if it gets any worse, I think I'll have to tear them out."
Naruto blinked, "Tear them... out? Your wings?"
"They're rotting, Dobe... if they don't come out on their own soon, then I'll have to cut them out," Sasuke replied, sighing when the cold cream of an ointment was smeared over his lower shoulders and mid back, the blond's hands working their magic.
"But without your wings... how are you going to--"
"I'm not going back," he laughed bitterly, "I can't go back. There would be no way for me to return without my wings..." I don't even know why they're rotting.
Naruto bit his bottom lip, "But then... you'll become a spirit. I don't want to not be able to see you," he began placing the new bandages around Sasuke's chest. He looked down as Sasuke's hand touched his.
"I won't leave you until my three months are up, so don't worry now."
Naruto blushed and felt his heart speed up. He had never felt like this before, but now that he knew Sasuke was his old friend... and that he was his old boyfriend... it made him nervous. Could he kiss him? Hug him? Do the stuff they did when they were younger? Or did Sasuke not want them to be that way anymore?
The raven seemed to have noticed the conflicting emotions and chuckled softly, "Don't think too much, Dobe, you might hurt yourself."
Naruto blinked, then glared, "Shut it, Teme!" he growled, putting the rest of the bandages away, "and to think I was going to ki--" his cheeks turned a dark red and he sputtered.
Sasuke looked at him questioningly, "What?"
"N-nothing..."
Sasuke smirked and leaned in, "Were you about to kiss me?"
Y-You'd think that with the memories, he'd change back to the sweet Sasuke I used to know! "No, I wasn't going to kiss you!" he lied, "don't flatter yourself, you're not that good looking!"
"Is that so?" Sasuke leaned in and stole a chaste kiss, pulling back and smiling slightly, "back when we were little, you used to say I was the cutest boy in the world."
Naruto flushed and touched his lips, "I--"
"Naruto! Sasuke-kun! What's taking so long?.!" Ino yelled from out in the gym.
Both boys stood, Sasuke pulling his coat back on and smirking to Naruto before leaving the shower room first. Naruto pouted and followed, angry about not being able to finish his sentence, but happy about sharing a small kiss with the raven.
xXxXx
Kiba ran across the track and waved to his friends, "Oi! Wait up, guys!" he called, shoving through the group of chatting cheerleaders (which included Ino and Sakura).
"Watch where you're going, Kiba!" Sakura and Ino snapped.
Ino, Naruto, and Sasuke had finished with the decorating and had gone to their classes, but it seemed that the school day was ending early because of approaching snow. Japan usually had that type of weather, but it was predicted to be a bad blizzard.
"Oh, Kiba!" Ino stopped the boy, "tell Naruto not to come get me, I'm going to Sakura's."
"Got it!" Kiba saluted, much like Naruto, and continued on his way towards his retreating friend, "Temari! Naruto!" he blinked when he saw an unfamiliar raven-haired male, "wh-who are you?" he asked as he caught up.
"Uchiha Sasuke," the male answered. On the outside, he kept a stoic expression, but on the inside, he was happy that he was finally able to introduce himself using his last name. It had always just been Sasuke.
"He's my...um..." Naruto thought about that, Boyfriend? Friend? Best friend? Man, Kiba would be pissed if I called him my best friend...
"Boyfriend," Sasuke said, his deep voice like honey.
Kiba's eyes widened and he opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, "B-boy-- really?.! For how long?.!"
"Ten years," Sasuke smirked.
"Th-the hell!" Kiba shouted, shocked.
"No, Kiba, we've only been together for about two days! Calm down!" Naruto glared at the raven, "Sasuke-teme just likes getting people worked up."
"More than you know," his smile was taunting.
The blond felt a small blush spread across his cheeks, Those memories must have awoken a hidden perverted side of him...
"So..." Kiba thought over his words, "so how did you two meet?"
Naruto knew better than to share his secret about Sasuke with Kiba, the teen having the biggest mouth next to Ino's, so he lied easily, "The Beach. I got a leg cramp while swimming and he saved me before I drowned."
Sasuke rose a thin brow.
Kiba flashed him a bright grin, "Well, isn't that just fate?" he snorted, "but thanks for saving him. Man, if he would've died... jeez, I'd probably fail all my classes. You know, since he helps me with them and all."
Naruto held back a growl, Bastard. And I call him my best friend?.!
Temari seemed to find the conversation boring, her foot tapping on the tiled floor impatiently, "Hey, can we go now? I have a job to get to."
"Oh, sorry," Naruto rubbed the back of his head and laughed sheepishly, "well, I'll see you tomorrow, Kiba."
"Yeah, see you," the brunnet grinned at Sasuke one last time before heading off to the bus stop.
"Hm," Temari looked around once they stepped outside, the cold air chilling them, especially Sasuke, the boy not used to feeling such chilly weather, "should we ride the bus or walk?"
"I think I gained a pound yesterday," Naruto poked his own gut, "I need to walk it off."
The dark blond girl rolled her eyes, "Fine, then I guess we're walking. You okay with that, Raven?"
Sasuke glanced at her and shrugged, tucking his hands into his coat pockets, "It doesn't matter to me. As long as we get there."
"Yosh!" Naruto pumped a fist in the air, "we should jog!"
Both Temari and Sasuke groaned.
xXxXx
Kakashi stood outside of Naruto's apartment, his eyes trained on the small Shiba Inu that waddled by, his leash in the hand of a young girl around the age of nine. She smiled, a gap between her teeth, and she bowed to him before entering her home, the dog shaking off.
The scarecrow smiled back before the girl closed the door. His eyes quickly darted to Naruto and Sasuke's approaching figures, "Konnichiwa," he greeted cheerfully.
Naruto blinked, "Who are you?"
"Kakashi," Sasuke nodded his head, "what brings you here?"
"Wait, you know him?" Naruto asked.
"He's a guardian angel, much like myself."
Kakashi chuckled, "Actually, I don't think you're going to be a guardian angel much longer," he said it in a joking voice, but Sasuke knew very well that he was trying not to worry the blond.
"Is that why you're here?"
"Exactly. Now, I'd love to speak to you about this inside... if you don't mind, Uzumaki-kun," Kakashi smiled.
"U-uh, right..." Naruto unlocked the door and let the both of them go in before himself, "do you want anything to drink... um..."
"Hatake Kakashi," the silver-haired man said while taking a seat on the plushc couch, enjoying its warmth, "and no thank you."
Naruto placed himself on the couch as well, along with Sasuke.
"How did you find out my wings were rotting?" Sasuke asked seriously.
"I have my ways," he chuckled, "actually, I spoke with Kyuubi-sama last night. I must say... he's enjoying this too much. I thought he would've wanted to help you with your problem, but he, along with Shukaku-sama, are just sitting back and watching. I knew that fox of a man was no good," he snarled, "the same goes for that damned raccoon."
"I see... so I suspect they don't care whether I go back or fade away here," Sasuke kept his eyes from traveling up to Naruto's, "then what should I do?"
"As you probably already know, there would be no way for you to return with your wings in that condition. So you can either stay here until Kyuubi-sama--"
"Wait!" Naruto cut in, "I don't..." he frowned, "I don't even know what's happening to him! Why are his wings rotting in the first place?"
Kakashi sighed, "I'll tell you some other time, but there's something else I need to explain to you first before then," he looked at Sasuke, "when you were alive... something happened and your years of life were altered. You were meant to live until you reached the age of forty-seven, but then..."
I wasn't supposed to die...? Sasuke gripped his pants tightly.
"But then Uzumaki-kun came into your life."
Blue eyes widened, "Wh-what? Are you saying... I was the one who caused him to die...?.!"
"Precisely," Kakashi leaned back and rubbed his neck, "he was never supposed to meet you, he was never supposed to befriend you, he was never supposed to fall in love with you..."
Sasuke felt something in him flare up.
xXxXx
A blury ball of blond ran into Sasuke, "Sasu-nii! Let's go feed the kittens by Daddy's work! He said we could go, come on!" the small Naruto tugged on Sasuke's a shirt, a blinding smile in place.
xXxXx
He was never supposed to have met Naruto...
My life with him was a... mistake?
"We can predict when someone will die and what they'll accomplish during their lives, and believe me, you weren't meant to befriend Uzumaki-kun. We may be able to see all of those things, but we can't predict weather... and there was a big snow storm on Christmas day in 1996."
Naruto felt his body go numb, We met... when I got lost during that blizzard.
"Uzumaki-kun was meant to go home, while you were supposed to go to your father's work building, but because of the storm, you two met, and that changed your life expectancy. It changed Uzumaki-kun's as well... but it only lengthened his life, while it shortened yours."
"So I..." Naruto looked down at the floor, "so I basically took away his life?"
"Your death was expected to be during the spring of 1998. You were to die at the hands of your mother... smothered in your sleep, to be more precise. But because you met Sasuke, you were away from the house more often, leaving your mother alone so she could calm down from her constant anger, and then you met Ino. She protected you from your mother, so there really was hardly any chance for you to be killed. But Sasuke..." Kakashi glanced at the raven, "you were supposed to live a long life, but because Naruto's life was lengthening, yours was shortening. That's just how it works in Purgatory. A life for a life. The longer his life became, the closer you became to death."
Naruto felt his body shaking, It was my fault that he died...
"Then when the rest of your years were up, Kyuubi-sama had to find a way to kill you without it seeming odd. You couldn't just suddenly die when nothing was wrong with you. An accident was plausible, but then that would only alter someone elses life as well. So... he chose to use your brother."
Sasuke's eyes widened, the black orbs darker than usual, "Kyuubi... used him?"
"Itachi was going to be put in jail anyway for selling and using drugs, and his future was bleak... so Kyuubi-sama felt that if he was sent to jail for life for killing his younger brother, then it wouldn't matter. Something like that wouldn't change how your parents lived, or anyone else for that matter. It would be a crime within a family, not affecting anyone else."
"He..." Sasuke felt his hands shaking.
xXxXx
"Otouto," Itachi ruffled Sasuke's hair, "I promise I'm trying to quit... but it's hard. Someone can't suddenly stop."
Sasuke looked up at him and smile hopefully, "I want you to get better so we can go play without you worrying about the police, Aniki," he received another hair ruffled and he smiled.
xXxXx
Kakashi continued, "He was already known to do drugs, so no one would question the murder. 'He was a drug addict and he killed his brother during a hallucination'. That would be their conclusion and no further investigation would be done. So Kyuubi-sama controlled Itachi's mind and made him push you off the cliff. And everything he said to you before you died... was just a cover up, incase there was someone around watching. Then if the police asked them what happened, they'd surely say Itachi was crazy."
"He... he was being controlled..." Sasuke's eyes flared red.
Naruto looked at Sasuke as the raven stood up quickly, his teeth gritted.
"Sasuke," Kakashi sighed again.
"Where is he? Where's Aniki?.!" he growled.
Kakashi sat forward.
"He's dead."
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