Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break

-One Step Closer, Linkin Park

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"You're kidding me! Kimimaro, give that back!"

Kimimaro had to fight not to grin as Sven giggled behind one hand.

"I was hungry."

Naruto jumped when the bone wielder casually dropped the wooden pick into his reaching hands. "Still…"

Naruto pouted childishly as Kimimaro idly licked his lips. "The food was good. Thank you for the treat."

"Treat my ass, I handed it to you because I was paying for it!"

Kimimaro shrugged and pushed his hair behind his shoulder in an unconscious gesture.

"It's not like you've paid for any of the food or the rent!"

Kimimaro shrugged in a blasé way before he wiped his fingers on an offered napkin. "I wasn't told to pay for anything. Only to keep you alive."

Naruto pouted and smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. "Fine. Lets just get dinner. I'm starving."

Sven giggled and touched both Naruto's and Kimimaro's sleeves with his slim fingers. "Its okay, Naruto-kun. What do you want to have for dinner?"

Naruto looked thoughtful.

"Soba noodles."

"Then we have-"

"Kimimaro!"

Naruto and Sven were somewhat startled when something large, something fast and something absolutely radiating chakra came over and wrapped his arms around Kimimaro from behind. This lead Naruto to the belief that if Kimimaro didn't have the ability to manipulate his bones then his ribs would be utterly crushed.

"Not dead- you should be dead. I didn't kill you, I need to kill you-"

Naruto nearly blanched when the man started to ramble utter murderous nonsense into Kimimaro's hair.

"Jugo-kun. What a pleasure to see you again."

Kimimaro laid his hand on one of the brutally strong forearms that was a crossed his chest. "Have you been well?"

Jugo didn't comment, but had stopped mumbling nonsense in order to listen to Kimimaro. "You are dead."

Kimimaro tapped Jugo's arm and was released reluctantly.

"I was dead," Kimimaro turned and flashed a small smile as he settled at Naruto's dumbstruck side. "but Naruto-kun brought me back to life. This time, with both feet out of the grave."

Jugo shifted his stare to Naruto, who twitched visibly.

"Naruto…"

This wasn't said by the one Kimimaro called Jugo.

Naruto lost all coloring in his face when he slowly turned to face the speaker.

"Sasuke." Naruto nearly fainted but managed to group himself back together quickly and efficiently. "It has been a long time."

Naruto nearly choked on his own words. However, Sasuke wasn't his priority anymore. Nor was Naruto going to raise hell.

"That's all you have to say?"

Naruto's cheeks turned crimson but he shrugged as he ducked his head.

Sven idly threaded their hands together for silent support.

Kimimaro had frozen at Naruto's other side.

"Sasuke?"

Naruto's eyes widened in alarm and he quickly waved his free hand in the air in front of Kimimaro's face. The bone wielder never looked away from the black haired Avenger.

Naruto made a face as he grabbed Kimimaro's wrist.

"That snake told you to listen to whatever I tell you," Naruto's words were harsh. Sasuke was completely blind sided by the serious tone and expression on Naruto's face, but didn't show it. "I am telling you to stand down and do nothing."

Kimimaro slowly turned to stare at Naruto.

Naruto's eyes were slowly transforming the more he spoke. The blue stayed sky blue, but the pupils were lengthening vertically once more. Kyuubi was enforcing Naruto's words by adding a small growl to his words.

"You stand down now. Kimimaro."

Kimimaro's bones shifted beneath his skin subtly and Naruto glared at him.

Naruto finally sighed and looked up at the sky.

"I have no use for people who won't work with me. Step down or I take you back to Kabuto. Either way, I can't afford mistakes at this moment."

Kimimaro tightened his lips and his somewhat pretty, somewhat handsome face hardened. "No. I was told to keep you alive. I will not disobey Orochimaru-sama's orders." Naruto sighed to himself in relief.

"Good. Wouldn't want to lose your help."

Kimimaro nodded.

The tense air didn't lighten and the two looked to see both Sasuke and Jugo staring at them.

"Kimimaro… Kimimaro…"

Kimimaro deliberately avoided looking at Sasuke as he shifted and looked at Jugo. The insane one was fervently whispering obscene scenarios to himself about stuff that involved both Kimimaro and death by bare hands.

"We are going to dinner, Jugo. Goodbye."

Kimimaro companionably, and unusually, touched his hands to both Sven and Naruto's back and steered them away. Though it seemed companionable because Sven and Naruto didn't fight the strange behavior.

"You're going to leave with Jugo as… as is?"

Kimimaro gave a small smirk as he deftly dropped his hands and instead brushed his bangs from his face. "It'll make things easier if its done this way. Jugo will follow, he always does."

The bone wielder said this with bittersweet fondness.

"You told me to step back Naruto, never said anything about causing him pain."

Naruto snorted and gave a loud laugh that had Sven giggling and Kimimaro smirking smartly. "That's unfair to Jugo." Kimimaro shook his head. "It does nothing. Jugo does what Jugo does. Kind of like a tornado, it chooses where it goes. No one else can tell it what it will do."

"Kimimaro is very smart."

Kimimaro tilted his head to Sven and gave him a small smile.

"Okay, okay. So your sadistic."

Kimimaro didn't give anything away with his shrug.

By the time the three were settled in a booth of some restaurant, Jugo came jogging in with a wild look to his already wild eyes. Kimimaro gave a knowing smile to his companions, Naruto's jaw dropped and Sven was giggling to himself somewhat crazily.

"Here, Jugo."

Jugo gave a loud sigh of relief and didn't bother to ask to join them before he squeezed into the booth next to a pleasantly smiling Kimimaro.

"What will ya'll have to eat?"

Naruto ordered soba noodles with chicken.

Sven ordered some fried octopus balls.

Kimimaro ordered tempura covered shrimp for himself and grilled fish for Jugo.

"Some tea while you wait, sirs."

Naruto waved the waitress away after she poured the first mugs of tea.

Naruto rested his chin on his fist and idly studied Jugo.

The insane one was running one hand through his hair and the other was sliding up and down Kimimaro's arm.

"Not dead… not dead…" Jugo shook his head quickly after glancing at Kimimaro. "Should change that…"

Kimimaro sipped his tea then carefully laid his hand over Jugo's much larger one. "Relax, Jugo."

Jugo fell silent for a minute, before he started rambling to himself once again but this time in a quieter voice.

"Hey, Kimimaro."

Kimimaro obediently looked up from his food and lifted his eyebrow in question to Naruto's call. Naruto flushed and tried not to choke on his food when Jugo lifted his head and almost literally shot daggers from his eyes.

Naruto cleared his throat and fiddled with his chopsticks as he tried to speak underneath that harsh glare.

"I've been thinking…" Naruto swore he heard a quiet snort from the booth behind him but forged on anyways. "…what if you went with Jugo and his group?"

Kimimaro could barely keep his bone genkai under control as he even listened to the idea, let alone think about it. "That is the stupidest thing you have ever said, Naruto."

Naruto's eyes popped open and he made a 'Ehhhh?!?!' noise that Kimimaro merely ignored.

"I would kill the youngest Uchiha before we would leave town."

Naruto found himself diving over the table in typical Uzimaki fashion as he tried to hurry and wrap his arms around Kimimaro's body. He barely managed to keep Kimimaro from reaching up and pulling out a new knife as Sasuke snorted again at the next table open.

"Maybe we should leave then. You seem agitated."

Kimimaro's lips twitched as he shoved Naruto off of him and started to slide towards the end of the bench. Naruto and Sven scooted out of their shared bench and stood on their feet. Naruto laid down money on the counter.

"Would you still like your food, sir?"

Naruto turned to see their waitress with a large tray in her arms. "To go, please."

The waitress hurried off and Naruto turned back to Kimimaro.

Jugo didn't move when Kimimaro looked at him blandly.

"Move, Jugo."

Jugo started rocking with a crazed look in his eyes.

Kimimaro didn't wait for Jugo to get over it.

"Jugo. Do it or else."

Jugo twitched and after a minute's deliberation, slowly stood to let Kimimaro by.

Naruto's whole body gave a once-over shudder that went from his toes to his head when Jugo turned to stare at him. "Err, nice to meet you Jugo."

As Naruto sped towards the exit, Sven followed at a sedate pace and picked up the take-out cartons from the waitress on his way out. Kimimaro didn't bother to hide his bone-deep hatred as he turned to look at Sasuke.

"You are the weakest of the Uchiha line. May you die quickly to rid the earth of your useless presence," the voice was smooth, almost emotionless except for the slight- almost non-existent smugness that came with the words, "you pawn."

With that, Kimimaro walked out calmly as Sasuke's aura flared at the insult.

"You shouldn't provoke him."

Kimimaro looked at Naruto, who had his arms crossed in annoyance outside the door. "I want spend days, weeks slowly killing him for what he did to my Master. Be happy I am only provoking."

Naruto squashed the urge to show fear.

"As long as you remember your place."

The words were shaky at best and Kimimaro couldn't help to take advantage of the fear.

He disappeared and re-appeared pressed against Naruto's front. Without wait, he moved his head until their noses brushed and his pastel eyes were mere centimeters from Naruto's wide blue eyes.

"Yes, Master."

The two words made Naruto scream and leap away while he pointed with a shaking finger. "Don't do that, you pervert!"

Kimimaro turned and started back to the inn, silent laughter just barely shaking his shoulders.

Sven giggled sweetly behind Naruto, which made the blond leap and trip as he hurried to turn around. "Sven!"

Sven tilted his head and leaned down over the sprawled fox.

"I like Kimimaro. He's funny."

"If you mean sadistically cruel, then yeah he's a riot."

Naruto blushed crimson when Sven giggled again and gave him a large smile.

"Come on, Naru-to. We should eat and rest. We leave tomorrow, right?"

Naruto nodded and ignored how Sven enunciated his name.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming."

Naruto stood up and brushed himself off. He straightened his robe before he went after Sven and ultimately Kimimaro, who was already half way down the street.

The blond haired shinobi walked into the rented room and found Sven sorting through the clothing that laid upon the closest bed. Kimimaro was taking his time unloading his boxed meal and digging into the steaming take out.

"I am exhausted."

Naruto looked at Sven in surprise, who was just finishing the last of the fried octopus. "Really?"

"Yeah!"

Naruto couldn't help but sweat drop when Sven spoke so cheerfully about being so supposedly tired.

Kimimaro merely looked out the window as he smirked to himself. The two demons made things interesting. Or at least, there seemed to be-

Naruto's and Sven's heads popped up in unison and a few nanoseconds later a ground-shaking explosion tore apart some buildings to the east of them. This was followed very closely by ear-shattering screams of woman and children, along with the frightened yelling of men.

"You think it's the same thing that attacked the other village?"

Sven looked curiously at Naruto before he stood and pulled on his over shirt, tying it securely at the side. "I would assume that it is plausible."

"You think it is, then?"

"That's what I said, Naruto."

Naruto flushed at the small smirk that Kimimaro sent him, along with his amused words.

"O-kay, you think they're following us then?"

"That's another possibility."

Naruto tossed around the idea of knocking his head against the wall a few times but was interrupted when Sven opened the window and stood on the thin ledge with no effort whatsoever. "Naruto?"

Naruto waved his hand as he hopped on one foot as he pulled his sandal onto his other one. Repeating the process, he quickly jumped out the window with Kimimaro right on his tail.

"If the dumb Uchiha is there, will I be harmed if I accidentally kill him?"

"You'll be sent back to Kabuto, if that's what your asking."

Kimimaro barely blinked as he landed on a particularly high rooftop that was perfect to see the destruction that had already happened.

"Ewww, they're already rising!"

Naruto looked almost green in disgust as he held onto his nose with pinched fingers. "Smell that, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto winced as he breathed in past the putrid scent of decay. "Herbs?"

Sven nodded. "A lot of them. Perhaps with a powerful jutsu and the right kind of chakra…." Sven continued to sniff like the dog he was. "….definitely the cause of this."

"Perhaps I can just use another Ransengan?"

Kimimaro shook his head and Naruto understood when the bone-wielder pointed to the part of the city still not affected. Turning to Sven, Kimimaro barely blinked.

Naruto's eye twitched.

"Can you stop the spread of it, Sven?"

Sven nodded. He was already squatting down on the roof and digging into his satchel of seeds. "Kill off those things, they're most likely the reason this is spreading. Perhaps I can neutralize any plants that have been used, they must be important to the jutsu."

Naruto delved into himself at that.

A soft huff of amusement echoed in his brain….

"Kyuubi…"

"Here's something that'll do the trick, worthless scum."

Naruto had an out of body experience, again, as Kyuubi forced his body to clap it's hands together. One, two, three, four…

Four and some seals later, Naruto- Kyuubi- literally pulled a sword out of nowhere. Out of thin air!

The blade was black on the broadsword. Silver seals were etched into the blade itself and the handle was a worn red color. Overall, the sword looked ancient yet very sharp.

"….very sharp indeed."

Kyuubi sounded maniacally pleased by the notion of a sharp blade.

On his other side, Kimimaro had drawn his spine out of his body once again. This particularly gross gesture was punctuated by the long curved-blade like protrusions that grew from where the knobs of his spine rested. So instead of a bone-whip, Kimimaro wielded something similar to a whip with half-foot blades every few inches on either side of it.

Naruto's eye twitched but he didn't let it distract him as he hopped off of the roof.

Kimimaro took off around the whole disaster zone and started himself in on the other side of the rapidly growing number of…. Zombies?

Naruto had no idea what these decayed, half blown away bodies were but he did find something out that was very, very important.

The edge of Kyuubi's summoned blade- Hageshii, Kyuubi whispered- was VERY sharp. Naruto felt barely any resistance when the blade met skin, muscle, fat and even bone of one- two of the humanoid things. The only drawback to such a quick slice was that the liquid that seemed to have replaced blood sloshed to the ground and quickly covered Naruto's feet.

The inner Naruto, the loudmouthed complaint-filled blond, screamed internally at the scent and sight.

Shaking off the intense feelings of disgust, Naruto switched hands real quick and shoved the blade all the way up to the hilt into a rapidly approaching body. With a fling of his arm, the body went squelching as it flew off the blade and collided with another incoming being.

The slight glimmer of the seals on the blade was very fascinating. But when Naruto mentally prodded at the demon inside of him, Kyuubi turned and presented his backside.

Getting the wide-view of any creature, be it human, animal or demon was not appealing in any way, shape or form. However, Kyuubi did start coughing in animalistic amusement.

Naruto was quickly going through the whole group systematically. Rapidly closing in from the other side was Kimimaro, who somehow managed to remain pristine despite the rather intense splatter of grotesque liquid that near surrounded him.

Naruto decapitated the last creature as Kimimaro sliced the second to last one cleanly in many little pieces.

"Ueru Shufúku Suru! Plant Restoring Jutsu!"

Naruto thought he lost track of time for a moment, but doubted it when Kimimaro quickly stepped next to him at the same time as the flash that blinded everyone in the area.

Lowering his arm, Naruto's jaw dropped and he gaped at the living carpet that now covered everything around them. This included the body parts that laid around them in varying piles, destroyed buildings and generally anything that had been touched or tainted by said bodies.

This included Kimimaro's whip that he had curled up at his feet. The near albino slowly let go of his favored weapon and watched as more plant tendrils steadily grew and wrapped around the handle of the whip.

The 'living carpet of greenery' was a mixed mass of grass and varying herbs. At least six he picked up on right away, but the scent was overpowering at such a close range for him to differentiate between any other scents. "I believe Sven has solved our little problem."

Kimimaro smirked to Naruto, who nodded in response.

"Its amazing."

"It's a living Garden of Eden," (Pretend this is a story for the Naruto characters, no real insinuations to any actual religions. I mean it as a perfect place, not for Adam and Eve!) Sven hopped down next to Naruto and watched in odd fascination as the sword literally dissolved from tip to hilt in Naruto's hold. Disappearing, presumably, to where it had come from. "Chimei-teki hates my family based jutsus. Too life-filled."

Naruto shrugged and understood where the demon was coming from. Especially if the eight-tailed demon called itself Chimei-teki- Fatal if translated.

"It certainly doesn't run along his style, I'll admit."

Both Naruto and Sven could see that the other had slit pupils.

"I see that we had an audience, Naruto."

Naruto followed Kimimaro's concentrated stare and saw Team Snake standing several rooftops away from the refurbished battle ground. "Well, they could of helped."

Sven giggled as Naruto grumbled.

Kimimaro merely turned his back to Sasuke, a blatant act of disrespect to the highly pride-filled and tenacious Uchiha idiot. As for Naruto, he merely studied the stoic Uchiha as Sven straightened beside him and stared too.

Sven broke the silence.

"Can I kill him?"

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Hello again! Sorry about these quick updates, then slow updates then quick…. Then slow….

I hope you read and REVIEW. REVIEWS keep me happy and updating faster.