A/N: ... Ahem.

AAUAAUAUUUUUGGGHHHHH!!!! --- Check my profile for a link to MY dA FANART! I'm now available to accept art trades, oh benevolent readers! -winkwink-

And we all know what happened from there.

Oh, we don't? Well, fine- but to understand, you have to wake up to a world with people you knew missing, just like a few of our friends were about to.

----

Naruto carried her as though his life, not hers, depended on his strength. He concentrated on the chakra, in an attempt not to feel her life pumping out onto his clothes, alien and cold against his skin as it soaked through him, body and soul. Sakura was dying; he knew it, in the deepest part of himself that held Kyuubis and doubts. She seemed to be drifting, and it was beyond all thought. He ran towards the heart of the village, beyond fear and any obstacle.

----

"Where's Sakura?"

"Is your brain on repeat?" Suzuki asked him; she was all he talked about before the feathers fell, and even now, as a thousand people picked themselves up from the sticky, disgusting arena floor, Lee wasn't thinking about all the years of milkshakes and gum and bacteria he'd been lying in (Kazeki would have died). No. It was all about Sakura.

"I do not know, but… I think she is in trouble."

"Then go- hobble away and save the day."

Lee blinked for a while, seated upon a half-shattered bench; Suzuki went over to a nearby tea stall, now abandoned by it's owner, and poured herself a glass. She was a firm believer in IOU's.

"… Suzuki, what happened?"

"Looks like they ran away. Oh my god, they have steamed buns in this container-"

"No, I mean, to the village! It looks like an overturned basket. How can you think of food at a time like this!?"

"If you're gonna get your panties in a wad, go look for her." Suzuki repeated, stuffing her pockets. (This was going to be a very large IOU.)

"… But, I…"

Suzuki paused, glancing down at the tightly-bound plaster that had replaced Lee's left limbs, then sighed. "Fine. I'll go with you."

Before Lee could react, Suzuki bent at his side and gracefully scooped her friend up in the manner that one would carry a sheep. Draped over her shoulders, Konoha's lamed Green Beast and it's river child began making their way down the destroyed promenade- very slowly. Within ten feet, Suzuki had sunk to her knees, grunting under Lee's weight.

"… Suzuki, I din't mean that you had to carry me." Lee declared, craning his neck.

"Good, because you're heavy. And you're squishing the buns."

"But wait, don't drop m- AAH!"

And thus Lee could add a head injury to his list of ailments, as Suzuki shrugged him off of her back.

----

Truthfully, Ryuuichi's cloak did not strike Kazeki. Having struck the concrete floor like a falling deadweight, he had ended up rolling down a few rows of chairs, landing precisely in the lap of a very old, very gnarled old lady. After being severely beaten with an umbrella, Kazeki wandered out with the majority of the crowd, looking sleepy and stunned. Luckily, Chunin had appeared to herd the masses through the restless smoke, towards the bunkers obscured by the Hokage Monument.

Lead on a horrific tour of his ruined village, Kazeki slowly drifted from the pack; how he ended up where he was, he didn't know, but he thought he might have been following an old hunch.

He found their old fort, the caved-in cavern in a scratchy pile of loose rock. How stupid were they- this thing could have fallen in and crushed them at any minute, especially in the midst of their half-finished tunneling projects.

He crawled into the space, now much too lanky to fit comfortably. But even with his knees bent against his chest, it all failed to seem real. His outer skin felt numb, his brain as thick as a milkshake.

Ryuuichi had probably escaped by now.

It was in contemplating this that he heard first the scuffles of their sandals, and then their high, frantic voices.

"But we have to find him-"

"Hirako. Chill pill. Take one."

"But he's gone! They destroyed the whole damn village and now they're gone! How am I-"

"Look, bucko- something tells me that Kabuto is like a foot fungus. You don't ever really get rid of him. He'll be easy enough to find, and then you can ask him."

The young Kaguya proceeded to drop where he stood- which was precisely beside the entrance to Kazeki and Ryuuichi's childhood lair.

He could see enough of them to recall their names; Kayoko and Hirako, brats from the team of the kid he'd faced in the Eliminations. Well, it would seem that Kazeki had just traded one drama for another. He leaned a tad closer to listen- and an instant later scooched backwards to avoid his head being smashed into the roof of the cave by a thick, spiked object.

Staring down his opponent until it disappeared, Kazeki followed it into the light. He found himself standing between two significantly shorter children, who each looked pink with sleep. They'd been in the arena.

"How much did you hear?" the tousle-haired boy asked him; the pair had adopted very threatening expressions, and the overall effect was of Chihuahuas snarling.

"That's not a good way to look unsuspicious." Kazeki noted with a brotherly superiority.

"Don't fucking talk to him like that!"

"Oo, and how does that 'tude aid you in attack? Last I recall, you weren't so fearsome, little girl…"

Hirako and Kayoko met solemn gazes; from behind her back, Kayoko drew the long, black handle of her heady weapon before her body.

"Don't even try it. I could make you both into flan if I felt like it."

"Just tell us what you heard!" Hirako shouted, face furrowed and bones boiling beneath his skin.

"I'll save that for the Hokage." Kazeki replied, and began to stroll away, hands in his pockets. "Unless…"

"Unless what!?"

"Unless you guys help me gather some information. And if you disagree, I can guarantee you the best beating of your lives before you face the Assassination Squad. Got it, kiddies?"

(One of Kazeki's dearest traits: he hates anyone younger than him, with a passion. Especially babies.)

----

"We're supposed to be in the bunkers until it's safe."

"But I made a promise!" Lee exclaimed, just before one of his crutches became stuck in a sidewalk crack.

Suzuki watched him pathetically trying to yank it out for a while, saying: "Promises, schmomises. I'm not cleaning you up when a Sound Ninja gets you."

"Then I will die knowing that I fought for a purpose! Nothing could be more noble! If I fall, I fall with honor, and the memories of my friends shall be dyed red with my determination so they then will-"

"Sakura's probably there already."

Lee paused for a moment; then, cleanly freeing his crutch, he began limping towards the center of town.

"… You and Kazeki would get along great, you know? You're on the same brain length."

----

The leaf shadows danced to the tempo of a gutted city's flames; it rained, through open roofs and destroyed storefronts. Konoha began patching together, like a badly-damaged statue glued back together piece by piece, and everyone seemed to heal with it.

Sakura's wounds were, fortunately, superficial; she had awoken as Naruto carried her into the bunker-space, and given him a thorough thrashing for putting his hands on her. It was true, she had taken quite a blow from the Sand Demon- but it was the blow that would have killed Sasuke, and she was glad to have taken it.

Sasuke didn't get up. He didn't blink, glare, or demean anyone, and Naruto hated that almost as much as he hated when Sasuke was awake.

A month passed, and another; Kazeki saw Hirako and Kayoko around, before he realized that they were hiding out. It turned out that they had been living in the very cavern he and Ryuuichi had dug, stealing food and sleeping in shifts.

"We can't go back before we talk to you-know-who. And he'll be back here," Hirako said with that pathetic, sad little voice of a young avenger. Lee, who had taken to following Kazeki around via Suzuki's suggestion, nearly wept.

"I am so sure that Kazeki would open his own residence to you, since I would do the same! For we are on 'the same brain length', after all!"

Thus, Kazeki got roommates. Given, the pair weren't too much trouble; they cleaned the hair out of the drain, kept the microwave clean, and made themselves scarce whenever the room's owner showed up. Kayoko one day took it upon herself to give the single room a thorough cleaning.

"What do you want now?" Kazeki had asked, observing the shining floor and dustless shelves.

"We just never had a home before." Kayoko said honestly. "We slept in caves and dumpsters in Amegakure." And Kazeki had almost softened. Almost.

"Lovely job, Kayoko-chan."

"Go home and please leave me alone, Lee…"

----

She kept waiting. Waiting every night, by the window.

And when he actually appeared before her, serpentine eyes full of the night and promise, Tenten forgot all about years and rumors, dead Jonin and the new smell about him. She clung to Ryuuichi, on the cusp of weeping, knowing that it had all been worth it.

AN: -sigh- It's good to be alive. And yes, something unprudish MAY JUST HAPPEN with Tenten and Ryuuichi, I can't say. You'll just have to wait until the next update, I guess... -slurps tea deviously-