Is that an update I see? Very sorry this took so long, guys v.v. School has literally ruined my writing time, but I've come up with the plan to update one story a week. So this week you get a chapter of Eclipse (: Sorry for such a long wait! And yes, I know that some of you guys are probably wondering: "Fallen! Why did you make Minato die so crappily?" Well, I have a reason for everything. No worries. I think you'll like how this turns out (;

Oh, also. Anyone here has a gaia? ;) You should add me then. Possible Insanity.

Warning: Angst, drama, minor action, and yeah, my insanity. Could be a few spelling errors v.v.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto sadly. I could dream though. But then I wouldn't have my lovely fanfiction.

Enjoy! :D

Chapter Seventeen: Decay

"One day... everything just started to fall apart."-Sasuke Uchiha, age 18.

Crouched behind a huge piece of debris, Sasuke clutched his bleeding left arm with a scowl marring on his face. Of course a perfectly normal day had to spiral into this. Whatever the hell this was.

Destruction. Chaos. An apocalyptic explosion—yeah, those were a few good words to sum it up. Though they did nothing but further deepen Sasuke's scowl. His eyes landed on a few body parts. A ripped off arm possibly belonging to a relatively young man. Legs that belonged to a woman. And Jesus... was that a baby's... Sasuke resisted the heavy urge to heave his lunch right there and then.

'Stay calm,' he ordered himself. It's so hard to stay calm in a dire situation with disturbing and morose body parts surrounding you, Sasuke still liked to maintain at least some stability before absolutely snapping.

First things first. How the hell did we get here? Shall we backtrack a little? Say, five hours ago?

Five hours ago, our raven prince was forced into a chair as his father prattled and prodded all about the wonderful world of marriage. Riveting, is it not?

"I'm telling you, Sasuke! Once you're married the whole world will look like roses and rainbows!" Fugaku purposefully forgot to mention that every rose has a bundle of thorns and rainbows only appear after a terrible downpour... Sasuke could see right through his father's tomfoolery, however, and simply nodded along if only to humor his father. It was rather simple to do. "Not only that! But marriage between two rather, powerful, entities can not only double, but possibly triple, a countries power in means of military, sorcery, and human connections!" he was right in Sasuke's face now, a rather manic smile spray painted on his face. "Isn't marriage wonderful?"

"No," Sasuke replied calmly, eyes not even looking at his father but rather at his Holo-pad replying to Naruto's message. Something to do with ramen and it had a smiley face... It was a really cute one too, you know the one. The one with the colon and then the number three after it... yeah, that one. "Sounds restricting."

His father guffawed, taken aback that his youngest son would so... so... bluntly tell him no! Right to his face, no less! At least Itachi had the common sense to stare his father right in the eyes, deny him, and then walk away when Fugaku had brought up the subject of marriage to him. 'Condoms, I'll never forget to put one on again.' he couldn't handle another painfully honest, stubborn child for the life of him.

"Marriage is a beautiful thing!" Fugaku argued.

Ping; a message from Naruto. Swift fingers flying over the touch pad. A snicker passing through Sasuke's lips as a smile slipped through.

"Uh huh," Sasuke nodded. Eyes reading over yet another text message; damn these kids were speedy. "Says the guy who's always screaming at midnight whenever Mom doesn't do something you approve."

Ouch, Sasuke. Low blow, but one point earned for you. Fugaku bristled, cheeks turning a bright red as the embarrassment of his lack of... shame, so to speak, was not lost on his child. "Now you know as much as I do that your mother takes unreasonably long, hot showers!"

"Only when you piss her off..." the words were mumbled, but Fugaku caught onto them loud and clear. Hook, line, and sinker, Sasuke smirked.

A few more arguments were thrown and bounced around the room. Fugaku was always the animated one while Sasuke was allowing the words to go through one ear and out the other. Sure, what his father was saying was rather important, on some level. Marriage was, more or less, used to solidify power and amplify it whenever the King felt like his own country was slipping. And maybe, years ago, Sasuke would have taken his father's words to earnest, but right now he couldn't care about slipping a ring on some woman's finger even if he tried. The only person he needed, was Naruto. The only person he cared for, was Naruto. As long as Naruto was happy, Sasuke was happy. That's what Love did, he supposed.

Love. That word. The word he thought he wouldn't say only because he didn't care for it. Sasuke scoffed inwardly as a wry smile pulled his lips, he certainly did care for it. Quite a bit. Only because there was someone else out there that was worthy of his love, that he was worthy to love. His heart soared a little just thinking about Naruto. When Naruto was right beside him, in the flesh—which he would be in two more days—Sasuke knew his heart would threaten to jump out of his chest to attach itself to Naruto. Kinda disgusting if you really thought about it...

Fugaku threw his hands up in the air out of extreme agitation and proceeded to stomp out of the room. "Fine! Ignore your old man, Sasuke! Just for that, you can forget about having dinner tonight!" threat soundly made, Fugaku exited the room with a loud slam following behind him.

Sasuke, four minutes later, looked up at his now fatherless room with a rather grim expression on his face. "Fuck, I'm missing Royal Geese night..." Ping! Ah, the morbid thought of not getting dinner was momentarily wiped away...

+Eclipse+

Sadly, Naruto couldn't talk to Sasuke for very long since he was going to Deidara's shop today—much to Sasuke's chagrin. He left Sasuke with a rather heartwarming message though.

Yur such a bitch, but yur my bitch. So I guess I have to love you. Bye, Teme!

Sasuke couldn't stop smiling for the next two hours and thirty five minutes that passed as he did random things around the castle. Sparred with Kakashi (the two had rarely had a moment to duke it out against one another for a while). Took a long nature walk with his mother, though Sasuke couldn't seem to concentrate on what his mother was talking about for too long. And then he retired to the living room to pass his time channel surfing on the giant Holo-screen his father installed for 'political' purposes.

Screw it. Sasuke was going to waste his damn time watching pointless, violent, anime. Just as he should.

Things were normal. You'd think that would be enough to tip someone off when the spike of magical energy surrounding the Luna Empire spiked considerably so. But since the cause of such an occurrence had controlled it to such a level that no one would notice, it had gone undetected. They weren't even tipped off when the shadowy foot of a demon crossed the boundary of the empire...

Blood lust pumping wildly through its veins.

+Eclipse+

The raven prince was lying on his bed, the few rays of a glorious sunset, reds, oranges, and golden yellows painting the sky, were slowly being overcome by the purples and blacks of night. Not that Sasuke minded. He rather liked the night. Comforting, dark... soothing. As part of the Luna Empire, he felt more energized and safe whenever the moon came out. It was just one of those things, he supposed.

And right now, he could use the moon now or never. Thirty minutes ago. He was supposed to get a text from Naruto thirty minutes ago—now thirty one minutes. And not one single message. Now, Sasuke was never the one to freak out because of a delayed text message, but that didn't go to say he wasn't worried. He waited five minutes before sending off a text of his own. He wanted the other twenty-six minutes waiting on a reply that never came.

Now he was worried. Naruto always replied to his messages within five minutes. Was he starting to get a little clingy and compulsive? Perhaps, maybe a little bit. But, as we all know, Love makes us humans do some very wild things...

Sasuke never had the chance to further his actions because his father had burst into the room. His face was etched with worry and... fear. Sasuke bolted straight up. The side comment on how unwelcome his father was if he started talking about marriage once again had died on his lips. Fear. It was something his father rarely ever let show on his face. Fear was a sign of weakness. Fear left your opponents with too many chances, too many openings, at your foundation. Fear could very well leave you for dead.

The fact that his father was showing such an emotion he had time and time again stated was a useless emotion to the Uchiha clan could only mean one thing...

"Horrible..." his father sputtered, face as white as a ghost. "Itachi... missing..."

All Hell broke loose after that.

+Eclipse+

Now we come back to the very beginning of this segment with Sasuke crouched behind a large boulder, hiding out from a humongous demon that was on the prowl with a bleeding arm. Oh yeah. Things were just going peachy for the raven prince right now.

"Damn it." he cursed, eyes scanning the surrounding area for any signs of the demon who nearly ripped off his arm not too long ago. Son of a bitch still hurt. "How the hell did a demon get in here? Our anti-demon shields should have diverted him from anywhere near our city." Demons, beings that were foully corrupted by Evil. They were dipped into the heavy paint of absolute destruction, coming out entirely black. There was no salvation for a demon. Once you turned, you stayed. The door to redemption was shut, bolted, and burned.

Destruction always followed Demons, and it seemed that the Luna Empire was no exception to the fact. As mentioned earlier, body parts littered the ground. Blood stained the streets. Ruin was... everywhere.

"Fuck," Sasuke hissed as he heard the sounds of humans nearby. His Sharingan was fully activated, so he was able to tell apart friend and foe. These voices? Most definitely foe. But they were too far away to notice him, and he was heavily concealing his aura with the thanks of his Sharingan. The use of such an ability was heavily taxing though...

Plan... plan, that's what Sasuke needed. A well-thought out, or in this situation at least doable, plan to get him out of this mess and find someone who could tell him just what the fuck happened in the span of one hour. Breathe... just breathe... His legs were wobbly and protesting as Sasuke pushed himself to to stand, though he bent over slightly so he was still hidden from view. Demons were lurking everywhere, and his blood would be the surest thing that drew them to him for a feast.

Fortunately, though Sasuke felt his stomach twist and knot a little, he was able to pull of a stray piece of fabric—probably someone's shirtsleeve—off a decapitated arm and used it as a make-shift bandage, wrapping it tightly around his wound. Not the most sanitary way to go about things but... it worked.

'Now I need human contact.' he looked at the bloodied arm on the ground and grimaced. 'Preferably alive...'

Here was his plan: Step one, find help. After he found help, he would shake the info he needed right out of them so he could further develop his plan. Steps three and four were along the lines of gathering a small group of warriors to storm back into the castle his father had kicked him out prior to the invasion. It wasn't the best plan in the world, but it was something. It gave Sasuke at least a few things to work with, which was better than nothing.

All he needed to do was to avoid demon...

"Human!" obviously Life wasn't about to let Sasuke off the hook anytime soon. The demon was the color of blood—dark with brown blotches all over its body. It was huge. About the size of house in the middle class area of the empire. Weedy hair fell like grass clumps on its head and its eyes were simply empty holes. Sasuke could see the demon's muscles bulge, pulsate, probably itching for a kill... Or, in this case, one more kill. Luckily—if you wanted to see it that way—the demon had yet to spot Sasuke seeing as he had ducked into cramped alley before the demon arrived.

That didn't mean the demon couldn't sense him though.

'I'm wearing out...' Sasuke cursed inwardly. No wonder the demon could sense him, his aura was probably beginning to blaze after being repressed so long under the Sharingan. The wound on his and the overall stress of the situation was rapidly depleting his energy... Great. Just freaking great; that's exactly what he needed.

"Gotta get out of here..." stumbling through the narrow crevice, Sasuke held his breath every time his knees bucked against or scraped past brick. He didn't dare to make a sound. The presence of the demon was growing stronger and stronger, but Sasuke just kept on moving... if he made it through the crevice, he'd reach the Second Inner Circle, a group of buildings and homes where the empire's generals stayed. The area was the closet Circle surrounding to the castle. So if Sasuke could, hopefully, find someone like Kakashi they could possibly storm the castle and regain control once more. It was a long shot, to say the least, but it was something to keep Sasuke motivated forward...

"Almost there..."

A crack of light was seeping through...

"Almost..."

The light was suddenly yanked away from him as Sasuke was pulled out of the crevice by a huge, muscular hand that could probably snap of his non-wounded arm like a twig. Sasuke screamed, the sound ripping itself out of his throat as he was forcibly removed and flung onto the ground. His back connected hard with the concrete, blood coughed up from his mouth as his eyes shot open. Pain. Everywhere. Pain danced up his spine, surrounding his body in a suffocating blanket.

"Human dies!" the demon cracked its obese knuckles. The sound was absolutely sickening.

Sasuke's head was throbbing painfully. Every inch of his body ached. His wound was probably deeper and bleeding through his makeshift bandage. He winced attempting to get up. 'Cracked ribs,' he guessed as he tried to twist his stomach to the left ever so slightly, biting back a hiss of pain. Yes, definitely cracked.

"Demons... I guess the rumors about you things being idiots were true." grunting, Sasuke slowly eased him self up into what, he hoped was, a defensive position in case the demon decided to attack. Of course, he couldn't resist making a few taunts at the bulking mass of Evil before him. That was just how he rolled. Sasuke smirked, hoping it didn't radiate how drained he felt right now. "All you're good at is muscle power. And even that isn't noteworthy."

The demon visibly bristled, and Sasuke vaguely wondered if he had actually poked a nerve with that last comment. Before Sasuke could even blink the demon had attacked, slamming it's bulking fists right into the ground. The Earth cracked and split in half. Tremors rocked across the area. Luck was barely clinging onto Sasuke's side as he barely missed the attack by jumping out of the way. His landing was rather sloppy, toes skidding across the cracked ground, his body wavering every so slightly as he tried to steady himself.

"Human no cocky now!" the demon roared, it's humongous belly jiggling with every fit of laughter.

Sasuke was in no condition to fight. But in this situation, it was either his life or face death by the hands of some hideous beast.

'A weapon would be wonderful right now.' His eyes, sadly, landed on nothing that could even be used to poke the monster. And the demon didn't seem like it was going to stop its attacks anytime soon. Punch after punch was aimed for the wounded prince, and more and more Sasuke found himself evading the beast's attacks. At one point, he had tried to retaliate himself. The demon had tried to make a go for his ankles in hopes to bring him down. Sasuke had successfully jumped out of the attack and landed on the demon's arm where he ran up to his shoulder, executing a side kick that would have probably snapped a normal human's neck.

The demon barely even flinched.

"Pesky human!" the demon trashed as it tried to swat Sasuke off its shoulder, but the raven prince was too quick and—not without a little effort—jumped off the beast's shoulder and landed a hard kick on his back before he jumped out of the way to strengthen the distance between them.

The demon didn't even topple over. It swayed. However, it only looked more annoyed rather than injured.

'Great,' Sasuke inwardly hissed. 'Now he'll really want to kill me.' his afflictions were constantly reminding him how quickly he needed to end this battle lest he'd end up just like all the other victims scattered around. Calming his accelerated heart rate, Sasuke called on his Sharingan. Power immediately flooded his veins, replacing the pain of his wounds if only for a moment. For a brief second Sasuke felt powerful. Like he could kick that demon's ass all the way back to the Trenches! But he knew this euphoria would only last for a little bit of time before his Sharingan started to tax his body too...

"All or nothing." Sasuke whispered to himself as the monster charged towards him. He didn't have a weapon, but Sasuke wasn't too concerned. After all, he considered his own body a weapon. It was all a matter of when his body would give out that raised issues.

A perfect front flip over the demon's head landed Sasuke right behind the demon once more. Sadly, the ground where he was once standing had to face a terrible blow from the demon's fists. Veins ruptured on the earth. The wails of the ground being ripped apart by the fierce brutality echoed through Sasuke's ears. He winced. That could have been him.

"Human no smash?" the demon, which Sasuke vaguely thought resembled an Ogre looked around. Confused as to where his prey had gone to.

"Nope." Sasuke quipped, hoping he sounded rather cocky. "Not sorry to say that your aim is horrible, though."

"H-Horri... My aim good!" Ah, so the Ogre can't say three-syllable words either. Funny.

"Right." Sasuke scoffed, channeling all of his energy towards his legs so if, and when, the monster attacked he'd be ready to jump into the air again. "That's why you weren't able to hit me the last time. Or the time before that. Face it, you're just a reject your clan probably couldn't wait to throw out."

Oh, that last comment did the trick if Sasuke wanted to piss the Ogre off. You could literally see the maddening vein pulse and and bulge on the creature's forehead. Once more Sasuke was starting to question if the throbbing pain attacking various parts of his body was supplying his sudden insanity.

'Shit... the world's looking fuzzy.'

The monster roared hellishly, charging at Sasuke like a psychotic bull. Fists and roars, snarls and hammering forearms came at Sasuke faster than he could dodge them. A few of them were lucky and hit him in the stomach—blood choking out his mouth from the impact—while others barely scraped his sides or head. It took more energy to dodge and keep up with the Ogre than Sasuke could handle. His breath was rather labored, and the world was meshing into colors, swirling together to almost make black, but he had to stay awake. Passing out now meant death. And, well, Naruto wouldn't be pretty happy if he died so suddenly.

'Naruto...' just the name made all the blurring lines and dizzying colors recede. Naruto was his strength. The source of his energy. And with every memory of moments shared with his wonderful blonde, Sasuke found the power and momentum to full his kicks, to evade the Ogres punches, and to land a solid blow to the side of the Ogre's head.

The demon roared in anguish and Sasuke couldn't help but smirk tiredly. That kick wouldn't be enough. He wasn't stupid. But it would be enough too—

"What?" grabbed by the ankle, Sasuke felt like the world was literally ripped from underneath his feet as the demon caught him off guard. Okay, so the beast was a tad smarter than he looked. Only a tad, though.

"Human dies now!" Sasuke didn't know what was worse: being caught in a steel-cage grip by the beast, or having to listen to its horrible grammar all the time.

"Trust me! Your grammar is already killing me!" twisting in his grip, Sasuke tried to kick the monster's hand from off his ankle with his free foot until the Ogre squeezed particularly hard.

"Ugh!" Sasuke bit back the curses and screams that wanted to rip themselves out of his mouth. Damn it this beast had incredible strength.

"No me smash Human!"

The beast flung Sasuke around like a rag doll, laughing hysterically whenever he heard scream after strangled scream escape his prey's mouth. Sinful music to the demented ears.

'Hurts... Naruto... Pain... Gonna die...' his thoughts were unraveling strings that failed to tie in to one another. A lot of things were flashing through Sasuke's mind as pain after pain rocketed up and down his spine. For one, he was trying to come to terms that if no one found him soon, he was going to die. And two... he really wished he could see Naruto right now. That this day never turned out so bad. He'd do anything to talk to Naruto right now. To see his blonde's smile. To get lost in his blonde's eyes. He also wished he could see his brother one more time and demand to know why he ran off or "disappeared" as his father claimed.

What Sasuke hated the most, was never being able to see something coming. He hated surprises, because most of the time they were horrible surprises. Not being able to even notice that something like this was going to happen made Sasuke's stomach turn and his thoughts go all haywire. Sick certainty that his last few minutes on earth were probably going to be spent as the Ogre's punching bag was not pleasant,to say the least.

Lines of reality were blurring...

The sound of the Ogre's laughter was ringing his Sasuke's ears...

Pain was everywhere, surrounding him as if he had fully submerged under the ocean...

Colors blended and mixed, slowly creeping into black...

"Lightning blade!"

Electricity crackled in the air, and for just a moment Sasuke felt the pain sluggishly dull. Or, rather, instead of repeated slams against the ground, Sasuke felt himself suspended in the air. 'What just happened...?' Forcing his eyes opened, the world was still blurry, but he could make out the Ogre that was still keeping his ankle captive... with a hole through it's stomach.

'Weird... That wasn't there before... Who...?'

"I was rather surprised to see you be treated as some throwing doll, Sasuke. An Ogre of this size and stupidity should have been a piece of cake for you." a tone that was completely casual but all the more hiding a heavy undertone of mocking floated through Sasuke's ears. Scowling slightly, Sasuke didn't know whether to be elated for the help or pissed that the one person who saved him had to have a sick tendency for picking fun at him...

"Kakashi..." the voice was hissed, but in the end Sasuke decided to be grateful that his old mentor had saved him from death.

"In the flesh." Kakashi replied with an easy going smile. His visible eye casually studied the Ogre he had just punched through the gut with his lightning blade. 'Hm, pretty big whole this time.' he flexed his fingers, still feeling the electricity of his aura tingling around them. 'I get better and better...' Kakashi looked back at his dangling pupil who was clearly looking at him in a mix of agitation and wondering as to when he'd help him get down. "Yes?" innocence was clearly baked in his words.

"Well?" Sasuke threw a pointed glare Kakashi's way. "I don't find the feel of blood rushing to my head rather comfortable."

"Funny. I was just wondering how long you would hold on to consciousness before passing out." the man shrugged, "I put a bet on around five more minutes until the pain of your, might I say, extensive wounds and the blood rushing to your head at an accelerated rate knocks you out." Kakashi smirked languidly as Sasuke scowled at him. Oh how he loved to push the kid's buttons until they popped. "Am I right?"

"Just let me down already!" Sasuke spat out, attempting to wriggle out of the grip himself. A wave of dizziness crashed over him, instantly halting his actions. The boy groaned.

Kakashi sighed as if helping out was extremely tedious and walked over to the dangling movement. With movements so swift not even Sasuke could catch up to him, Kakashi had the boy out of the monster's grip and cradled in his arms in a matter of seconds.

"The wounds are worse than I thought..." he mumbled, raking his eyes over to the boy's crumpled form. He hadn't expected to run into Sasuke like this, out in the open when demons were lurking about. Kakashi thought the boy was going to do the rational thing and seek shelter before seeking out help. 'Apparently I was wrong to assume that.' the man sighed as the teen finally decided that right now was okay to pass out on him and shifted Sasuke in his arms. "That demon took more out of him than he realized. Though I am impressed he had held out for so long."

You see, Kakashi had only stumbled in on the last few minutes of the fight before he intervened. He too, was trying to piece together the haggard facts over what happened, how it happened, and just who the hell was responsible for the rapid decay of the Luna Empire. 'Itachi's gone missing as well. Suspicions tell me that Itachi could be a link to this but... I know that boy. He puts his loyalty to his family first. He wouldn't do something like this.'

Something was scratching at his brain repeatedly for him to rethink that thought...

"The sun's about to set..." Kakashi turned his gaze unto the Ogre he had just killed. His nose crinkled from the foul odor of Death and Evil intermixing into the air. The stench had been following him a lot today. Five Ogres in total he had killed with either his Lighting Blade or another aura-utilized technique. He felt incredibly taxed, but he knew more would keep coming. Not just Ogres, though, other foul and hideous creatures would come slinking into the kingdom with the invasion force. So far, the remaining Sorcerers had put a spell of protection around the castle and First Inner Circle, though when they tried to tinker with the spell surrounding the Empire they found there was just too many holes to stitch up the barrier with.. So everyone was moved to the First Inner Circle, an area where in case disaster strikes, would be of use for the citizens, and the castle.

Demons normally attacked at nightfall, or when the sky started to bleed red and purples as the poets would describe, so if Kakashi didn't back track to base soon he would be in more trouble than he bargained for. Once more shifting the unconscious raven prince in his arms, Kakashi broke off into the direction leading to the base where the generals, army men, medical teams, and Sorcerers who hadn't been gravely injured were residing.

Kakashi couldn't help but let out a sigh, "Funny how a normal day can end up so shitty."

+Eclipse+

"Is he waking up?"

"No, dipshit. His eye are still closed."

"That doesn't mean shit!"

"It means a lot of shit! Now shut the fuck up before you wake up the damn patient."

"Don't you fucking tell me what to do, you freakin' hick! I'll rip out your vocal chords."

"Guys," Kakashi held back every urge to not slap Temari and Kankuro over the head; they were seriously starting to great on the man's nerves. 'Just breathe, Kakashi. They're children compared to you. And senseless killing is beneath you.' though Temari and Kankuro were dangerously pushing the envelope with how obnoxious they were being. "any louder and you'll wake up the dead. Why not leave Sasuke alone for a while and I'll tell inform you when he wakes up, all right?"

The siblings glanced at each other, then back at Kakashi before they both flashed impish grins that left Kakashi's blood cold. "Nah, sounds boring." the replied simultaneously.

"Besides," Temari propped her humongous fan—her weapon of choice—against her side and leaned against the wall casually, a bored expression marring her face and her arms crossed over her chest. "there's nothing better to do here anyways. The generals all have sticks so far up their ass I swear that's why they waddle and won't let us in on their 'top secret meeting'." she scowled slightly, "Extremely pisses me off, you know."

"Sis' got a point." Kankuro idly played with his puppet—his preferred weapon—instantly amused with how it bent and flowed along to his will. "No one wants us involved in anything. 'Don't touch this!', 'Don't do that!', 'You're opinion doesn't matter because you're only children'," each sentence was followed by his puppet's mouth mimicking the words, much the amusement of Temari and the irritation of Kakashi. "It's annoying. Since you guys forced us to be bored in the first place, you might as well give us some leeway and watch over the kid."

Kakashi rubbed his ever-throbbing temples in a soothing motion, counting backwards from ten to one in hopes that he wouldn't snap at the young, but highly skilled in their own rights, adults that had holed themselves in his appointed room. Not only was he aggravated that they had yet to take the hint that they were not needed, they were always being obnoxious and Sasuke didn't really need that right now.

"Temari, Kankuro, I'm only going to say this once so listen closely. Get. Out. All right?"

"And, like we said before, we're not leaving so you might as well suck it up, Kakashi." Kankuro shot right back. Kakashi glared at the boy who grinned back rather innocently.

'Brats...'

A low groan brought the three out of their engaging conversation. All eyes were turned on the raven prince that was squirming in the cot, incoherent words being mumbled. On the edge, Kakashi, Temari, and Kankuro waited on what seemed to be pins and needles as Sasuke slowly came back into the realm of the living.

"W-Where... am I?" Sasuke felt like someone had poured acid down his throat. Flames seemed to be erupting everywhere all over his body while the ringing aftermath of pain spouted here and there. He had no idea where he was, but figured he was somewhere safe seeing as his back was plastered to the ground right now. Good sign. Using more energy than he thought he would need, Sasuke craned his neck to stare at his mentor sitting on a chair beside his bed, looking oddly relieved. "K-Kakashi...?"

Then another name attacked him hard.

"Naruto!" he screamed, bolting straight up at of bed despite the protestations of Kakashi or his body. "Naruto... where...? I'm..." he tried to steady his erratic breathing, "I'm not dead... am I?"

"Does it look like you're dead?" Kankuro replied sarcastically. He laughed at the weak glare he got from the Uchiha. "Ah, I've always wanted to see the rumored Uchiha death glare! Glad to know it's all hype—Ow! Temari, you bitch! Why'd you fucking hit me?" the brunette rubbed his abused head and shot a glare to his smug looking sister.

"Idiots should remain quiet at all times." she huffed. Turning her attention back on the confused and wounded raven, she smiled softly—something Kakashi was rather surprised to see—and made her way over to check on his bandages. "Sorry about that. My brother's brain rarely functions properly."

"Oi!"

"Ignore him," Temari stated calmly, her smiling growing a little brighter as her ears picked up on the quiet scoff Sasuke made. "How are you feeling?"

"Like hell," Sasuke replied bluntly.

"Makes sense. You came in with a hell of a lot of bruises. I'm surprised I even found a pulse when Kakashi brought you in. Hinata, that's the girl who tended your wounds, she wasn't too sure you'd make it." Temari ruffled the boy's hair, knowing all too well by the hand swatting at her that she had probably broached a boundary; oh well. "Glad to see you proved her wrong."

Sasuke nodded slowly, his hand coming up to absentmindedly fix the hair that was moved out of place. On closer inspection of his own body, he noticed that his left arm was nicely bandaged, his chest was wrapped tightly in white, and there was a small cast enclosing his ankle.

"She might as well have put me in a full body cast," he muttered, though Temari caught the comment and chuckled.

"If you're well enough to make comments such at that, then I suppose you'll be up to try and stomach some food?" Kakashi suggested. "After that we can try and cover up the gaps and holes together about what happened."

The raven prince nodded, his stomach voicing its obvious agreement to Kakashi's idea. Kankuro snickered. Temari chuckled. Kakashi smirked. And, well, Sasuke stuck to his ever-popular scowl.

+Eclipse+

"So it's true... Itachi really has gone missing." there was a certain tone of... desperate finality that lingered on Temari's words as the four threw in their own accounts and details of today. Kakashi had filled in the parts about the start of the invasion. The barrier had broken down and Ogre demons from the Trenches had started to reek havoc on the Outer Circles of the Empire. In the span of three hours around two thousand innocent people had been killed, maimed, and disfigured. Kankuro and Temari had filled in their own experiences. They were doing some recon in the outer woods when Temari sensed a sudden change in the air presence. The air was polluted with evil and foreboding that immediately led Temari and Kankuro back into the empire... only to walk in on utter decay. Sasuke had filled in most of what he knew, which wasn't much. His father had ran in. Exclaimed that Itachi was missing. And then afterwords kicked him out of the castle and telling him to run... run far away...

"Seems like it," Kakashi's tone was completely dead, he provided no sign of what emotions were tumbling underneath his mask.

Sasuke's stomach clenched horribly as the realization settled in. Itachi's behavior had been rather... weird a few weeks before all Hell broke loose. Was this some sort of warning he had overlooked? Was Itachi's strange behavior because he was planning to suddenly leave on the day of the attack? 'No. My brother wouldn't do that. He has too much honor. Too much pride. He'd never turn his back on us... on me...'

His stomach clenched tighter.

"What about the Soleil Kingdom?" Sasuke asked, his mind turning it's direction onto his sun; Naruto. If the Luna Empire was experiencing such a crisis, he didn't want to think about what was going on in the neighboring country. "Any word on what they're dealing with?"

Kankuro shook his head slowly. "We haven't been able to make any contact with Soleil so far. Bastards... this is probably they're doing! I never liked that country."

Sasuke gripped onto the bedsheets tightly. "Don't say that. Soleil is a great country in its own right and would they would never do something like that."

"Oh really?" Kankuro challenged. "How would you know? Sure you're buddy buddy with that blonde prince but haven't you heard the rumors? Word says that the council of Soleil and possibly the king were stirring up trouble and adding fuel to the fire of the already erratic rebels." the brunette's hardened ever so slightly at his next words, "We were enemies with them once. What makes you say they wouldn't turn on us again?"

Kankuro's words left a heavy silence in its wake. Everyone was tense. All of them having their own thoughts and opinions to say on the matter. Sasuke was the one to break the silence.

"I know they won't turn on us. I know because... there's a bond between us. And it's a very strong bond. All these years won't be wasted for nothing... I know it." Kakashi passed a questioning glance towards Sasuke's way, watching how Sasuke's voice never faltered. It was steady and true. As if he weren't just referring to the treaty between Soleil and the Luna Empire, but also...

Kakashi smirked inwardly. 'You're too easy to figure out.'

Temari sat against the wall rather shocked, though didn't share what was on her mind. She'd let Kankuro do all the speaking for now.

Said person simply stared at Sasuke wide-eyed, wondering when that kid's hard glance was ever going to falter. Seeing absolutely determination and surety that in Sasuke's eyes that he was one-hundred percent right, Kankuro shook his head sadly and scoffed.

"Idiot."

Just then, the door to Kakashi's room flew open and in ran a guard. His expression was one that left Sasuke, Temari, Kankuro, and Kakashi standing on end wondering what news he had to share...

"Terrible... Something terrible... in Soleil!" he croaked, finding it harder and harder to form the words.

"Spit it out, man!" Kankuro snapped. "What the hell happened in Soleil?"

The guard took deep, calming breaths, though his heart beat was accelerating rapidly each second. "K-King Minato has been reported dead after we were finally able to make connection with Soleil. A-And... Prince Naruto... has turned."

Sasuke felt his heart literally stop beating. Frozen by fear. Frozen by shock. Frozen by the words that pierced his skin like knives. 'Naruto? Turned? What?' Those words made no sense. No. Sasuke just didn't want those words to make sense.

Kakashi was the one to speak up on Sasuke's behalf, placing a comfortable hand on the boy's shoulder. "What exactly do you mean that Naruto has... turned?"

"The Kyuubi..." the guard answered with a grim face. "It's been unleashed."

Oh my! And I just keep on throwing out shit... So? Has Itachi truly gone to the dark side? Is Naruto reeking havoc as we speak? Only next chapter will we know!

Leave a review on your way out, please. (: I would love to read your thoughts and opinions my story so far.

Till next time!