The song I'm dedicating to this chapter is 'Resolution' by Nick Lachey. I'm going to go back and dedicate songs. The words might not be right somehow, but I'll let you know if it's only the tune I mean. In this one, its both! But maybe more the tune than the lyrics. But both.
If I don't do a song, I'll do a quote.
Juura POV
I jumped down the last steps…well. I half-jumped once I realized I was going to be in pain if I didn't take action before my face hit the ground. Anyways, I landed askew and bumped into Naruto, who fell on Shika, who gave up and toppled into the car door, too exhausted to hold us all upright.
We groaned and Sakura laughed at us, no pity for those who stay up late and read or play Need for Speed, Gunslinger, Splinter Cell: Special Assignment X and Ninja Madness in HD. She was careful to grab the couch in Noir's bedroom for herself, housing Hinata and Temari with her. The rest of us stayed up to celebrate Shika getting out and us going home, though Naruto was pranced around all night because nobody had to say the obvious.
We had decided to leave Sasuke here until he was well enough for Naruto to visit him. Not that I'm the one who decided to keep the truth from him, but I had to say he was taking the whole 'critical care' better than we expected him to take the other option.
He never said anything other than, "I hope I can see him soon!" when asked about how he was feeling, or if he missed the raven. Sakura had told us she thought he already knew, and nobody really wanted to think what that would mean if it was true.
But as she shoved us off the car door, the pinkette growled, "Come on guys, wake up. I'll pour my coffee on you if that'll make it better."
We shot over to our own car, grumbling about the unfairness of it all, and glaring mutinously at her from above heavy sleep bags.
Shika fell into the back of his ride and immediately checked out, Kiba curled up beside him and cutely wrapping one arm around his waist. Naruto shuffled over to the other side and let his head fall on the window, eyes closing.
And I, the brave, slow-blinking driver, buckled herself into the driver's seat, preparing to do the impossible. Drive with one eye shut, trying to sleep and watch the road at the same time.
"Come on," Temari called, and I back out to follow Sakura's motorcycle, which Noir had presented her since it was old and she couldn't sell it for much, out of the parking lot and onto the freeway.
Yes, we were to challenge fate that day, and maybe meet out doom, but I had-
"Quit daydreaming and open your eyes, Boss!" Stone yelled as I managed to almost completely wipe-out a pedestrian on the sidewalk, pulling into half a lane of traffic and swerving into the trees.
Righting my steering wheel, Kam hopped in the back and into the passenger side, giving directions as Stone transferred them via text from behind us.
I lazily turned my blinker on and drifted into the turn lane, and accidently turned the right way with the wrong light on, and the blaze of horns next to me and in front jolted me out just in time to switch lights so I was pointed the right way.
We blazed down the freeway and into the airport parking lot, barely making it into a space without crashing the car. All in all, we were a bit more awake by the time we lugged our remaining duffels back out and loaded them onto a cart, pushing as Shizune claimed the rail and pulled it along behind us, each little bump making our stuff rattle.
We'd ditched most of the pistols at Noir's, so there were a few empty bags being carried with our swords and other unloaded and martially dismantled weapons. Jiraiya had somehow managed to get papers that said we were going to a weapon auction in Hokkaido, and our stuff was wrapped up and oiled so they'd buy it.
It had actually been a bigger hassle to go buy the gun and sword oils than it was to get through American security. No wonder they were so freaking paranoid. Noir had packed her stuff up and was having it all shipped in boxes to my flat, seeing as she'd finally agreed to come with Stone to Tokyo and move in with him.
She had her two bags hefted onto the set of luggage and was walking hand in hand with the lightly blushing brunette, who kept pulling his cap lower to hide his face. She just smiled easily and looked totally relaxed.
Groaning, Shizune pushed the cart an offered it to Tsunade, who grunted and took it, leaning heavily on it as she stumbled along, the flush on her neck and her earplugs pressing deep into the ears signs that she'd drank too much at our little party the night before.
Shizune had single-handedly defeated Shikamaru and Kiba in a tag-team ninja fight, seeing as her partner was hovering on illusions, one bottle in each hand and smiling eagerly at the bright colors on the screen.
In the end, we'd all bowed down before her and Neji, who beat the maximum score on Splinter Cell, and Gaara, who had played Need for Speed until Kiba finally fell asleep, protesting that he should get another chance at the marsh track.
Nobody but Noir, Stone, and Anko could get anywhere on Gunslinger. Apparently, you weren't supposed to shoot the Indians, and that was confusing and irritating as they tried to kill you with bows and arrows from behind. You couldn't help but shoot them.
Those three, however, almost died twice each because they refused to fire on the damn Indians, and tried to treaty with them.
Turns out that's what you're supposed to do…. But that's unimportant now, as we searched for our gate along the long selection of food places and souvenir shops.
Sprinting down the balcony of a flight of steep gray stairs, Kao shovels a mountain of big brown bags of breakfast into our hands and ducked as Kam tried to snatch the white box of Chinese food from him, chopsticks held high overhead like a sword.
Calmly sidestepping, Kao just pointed at me and said, "Kung pow, right? One box of rice without carrots and a bag of spring rolls, not egg rolls because you're allergic to too much ginger and we can never be sure, six bags of extra sweet rolls, four miso pork ramens bowled and wrapped for later." He shifted to everyone who asked for Chinese in turn, making sure he got it right.
Shika. "Orange chicken with two boxes of white rice and roasted broccoli. Spoon and fork instead of chopsticks."
Kiba. "Chow mien and egg rolls, dipping sauce on the side with two sweet rolls."
Sakura. "No onions or pickles on your rye pulled pork with rice and make-sure-it's-not-sweet omelet. Container of separate spring rolls with dipping sauce."
Kakashi and Iruka. "Two large miso ramen combos to go with sliced fish and egg, four mini toasts each, two sweet rolls with honey in a bag and small onigiri in seaweed for lunch, curry powder very lightly sprinkled."
"I think I got extra egg rolls in the bottom for whoever and I am officially out of money, owed $234.46 by everyone here, the prices for each in the biggest bag." He retired and sat by our terminal while we pushed for a turn to collect food. Finally, the second group returned bearing more supplies. There was a big galley for almost all kinds of food.
Anko, Tsunade, Kankuro and Gaara all got Thai food and breadsticks from Neji's pizza run. Jiraiya, Konohamaru, Temari and Kam all stole some hot wings from Naruto and Shizune, leaving Stone, Noir and Hinata to eat thier cheeseburgers, curly fries and Slurpee's in peace. What are you lookin at, you old bat?
I stare at the aging woman until she stops making her face at us, and we crowd closer like a cowardly bunch of kitty cats with lots of food. More than usual, even though...we were short by someone.
The silences weren't easy, but nobody actually wanted to say anything because they thought Naruto didn't know. About Sasuke, that is.
But when I sat back behind a wall of people who talked to Naruto and tried not to let that quiet take over, I could see him fighting against small, miniscule things. A frown and a bit lip, and a wince whenever the gap fell for too long. And always, like usual now, a constant smile was plastered to his face...like he couldn't take it off. Like it was stuck, jammed there as a sub for something he didn't want to let us see.
I would've done anything for Naruto-clearly- and maybe I should've told them then what I thought (suspected) but I understood struggling with yourself. It wasn't my job to blow his cover if he did know. He did, I know now.
This isn't the dramatic foreboding of something awful, but it is my thinking that I maybe should've just been there for him here, instead of nobody knowing someone needed to be there for him.
Sighing, I scooped more chicken into my mouth, rubbing the special sauce off with my tongue and chewing thickly. He was staring out the wide windows at the colorful Tokyo airplane, smiling sadly and listening to Kiba talk about something that sounded a helluva lot like 'unicorns' to me…but not to judge.
He nodded and must've felt someone looking at him because suddenly he flicked his gaze into mine, eyes full of grief and hopelessness for a split millisecond before grinning and it almost-right then and there-made me seriously want to bust him and tell everyone. But again, I didn't. If the day came when he couldn't smile anymore, I'd help.
If I'd cross an ocean for him, I could cross a country. But he just smiled, and I had no choice but to smile back and look away.
And that was the last time I got to see his real self. After he saw that I was watching, he could never let down his guard again. And I never saw him let the smile, that heartbreakingly fake smile; go in front of me again. And no one else ever mentioned anything. Naruto had officially sealed himself behind a smile.
But as they call our names for boarding, we stand and shove the food into bags, checking the duffels and loading them into carts again. We're finally going home.
Sasuke POV
We were walking down the hallway, him making comments about the last teacher he'd come from. I sighed from my view and watched as the other Sasuke (I'd found that had to be my name) laughed and added his own opinion. But from where I…floated? he wasn't talking to me. I kept catching myself acting like it was me in this body, but every time I opened my mouth to answer or ask a question, it all came back to me.
It was so easy to lose myself in these memories, but I hadn't seen any sign that right now was real and before had been a dream. Other than the fact that I wasn't driving this thing.
"So I could feel everyone just sitting there, waiting for the punch-line, but he interrupted and wouldn't let me try to say the last part. And now I can't go back until next week since I was already supposed to be on probation for two weeks ago. He's just an uptight asshole."
I nodded and Sasuke let his lip curl up a little, noticing not for the first time that Naruto didn't get under his skin nearly as much as other people when they were just talking like this. It was almost…nice. The warmth of seeing this spread all the way from Sasuke into my essence, and I found myself wanting to smile too.
But I couldn't. I couldn't even think very long without getting caught up in the 'original's' thoughts and feelings. Like getting sucked into a vacuum. I was jammed into a corner of his mind and he didn't even notice I was there. The worst part was that once I saw something, I remembered it clearly in my own mind, but I couldn't see what came next.
Everything before the moment I woke up was still there, and I knew that I would still like this guy once I woke up, but I couldn't see where I was going. It was like walking in fog so thick you were blind when the broadcasters had promised sunshine.
All I could do was walk and slowly remember.
Kyuubi POV
The place has darkened and I am still alone.
Water laps at my skin through the thick orange pelt, and I rumble, feeling out with a tentacle of power to touch the walls of hardened grief. That giant ball of black has flattened out, still slightly blocking me from the middle corridor that leads to Naruto, and covering the walls, painting the once soft pale green light from the water a murky grey-black shade.
Growling, I curl tighter and sift through my memories into my own Kage's dreams. Now that he's worn out, I can barely see him when I open my eyes. It was a new experience, to have no shadow as we rebuilt our minds. The water moved endlessly and we held up the huge shafts of cemented thoughts together.
Maybe I am going soft…probably. It's been different. To have a kit for myself, even if he isn't mine. Foreign, as I've never had a mate and am the only one of my kind. I realize now that I'm lonely a little without him crowding into my thoughts.
How disgusting, I want to think, but it's not. It's just new. A little painful as we are right now, but I can feel the thread of our bond slipping under the wall, slightly bruised but clinging to me. I feel tiny flickers of surprise and renewed grief every now and then, but I'm unable to say anything to him.
I'm still all alone. Sighing, I close my eyes again and see his dark sapphire ones, young and baby-like. Protective instinct makes me want to guard him, and I can't. Pain wrenches me but I just lie in the dark, truly helpless for the first time in my long, long life.
Juura POV
Airplanes suck. That is my overall impression thus far. We got on almost seven hours ago and haven't-apparently-been allowed to move since.
Personally, I've formulated my own opinion of why all the white chicks can pee and I, Sakura, Hinata, and nobody else can even budge without the head attendant being called to ask if we need anything. He was the only one who spoke any Japanese, and I one of the ones who could traverse passably in English.
They must've thought we were up to something. Well…we kind of were.
Ha. Finally someone gets suspicious and we're in the middle of flight. YEAH- this is why America is so paranoid. Dur.
No, just going to the bathroom.
Sorry, but the captain hasn't turned off the fasten seatbelts sign. Please be patient.
The human bladder can only expand so far, miss. It's been (enter hours) already. Can't I just run and squat quickly?
I'm sorry, ma'am. I don't make the rules. Please take a seat.
I'll have the toilet seat. Thanks.
…your seat.
DAMN IT!
Okay, so the last three lines never happened, but I was wriggling so hard I must've caused some kind of turbulence! Sakura looked at me all sympathetic, pointing to the water bottles in my trashcan. Damn. I knew I shouldn't have had those. But finally that light blinked off and I almost tripped over my feet getting to the bathroom. Slamming the door, I flipped my pants down and thanked god for his mercy.
As I made my way back to my seat, Anko was talking loudly again and Tsunade had taken the bait…again. They were now arguing loudly over everyone else. Naruto and Kiba got up to go to the small food cart and buy some nachos, and Jiraiya reclined in his seat, Iruka and Kakashi receding into a back curtained room. I didn't even want to think about that…*shudders*
The nervous flight attendants said something in a huddle, pressed a button, and the light came back on just as I handed the bathroom (metaphor) pass to Sakura. She glared at the two of them so hard they might've burst into a thousand pieces if they had seen her.
But instead, they started yelling and to the poor women who were watching with horrified fascination; it was probably a jumble of words that had the vowels and syllables all wrong. The fact of irritation was portrayed though, and they retreated to the economy class section, swiping the dark blue curtains shut behind them.
"Shut up!" Jiraiya finally yelled, and both of them quit yelling long enough to yell at him, at such a time I shut my eyes, plugged in my music, and went to sleep. God some people can't handle air travel.
Settling into the backseat of the van, I finally feel asleep.
Almost the entire plane-ride, my attention had been on the blonde woman across the aisle from me, earphones tightly nudged into her ears, eyes closed. Gentle and asleep. Right?
But my paranoid fear had made me flick my always smiling eyes back and forth between her, Shikamaru and Sakura while Kiba chattered on harmlessly with Kao and Kamurou.
When we started to descend, the fasten seatbelt sign went back on from its twelve minute break-I guess the attendants got over their fear of foreigners-and I sat my chair back up. The six seats of our middle row were dark red and I fingered a loose thread, listening to the conversation again.
"Yeah I guess we could come visit-if Boss says it's okay. I think we'll be off that week. Is it a weekend? Because the Boss refuses to work on weekends, so we get them off," Kao grinned and shoved a saved sugar roll into his mouth, specks of powered and crystal sugar falling onto the floor and his pants. Kam snorted and muttered, "She's the one who takes off. We have to do inventory. Stupid-"
"That's because you do it so well~" Juura peeked out of one eye and glared at the redhead, who conveniently found the floor fascinating.
Getting up and sitting her seat straighter, she glanced at me through her thick blonde bangs, and frowned, eyes narrowing through the masking layers of grogginess that I knew shed shaken off when she first woke up-ten minutes ago. Her breathing had evened out and I saw her lashes flicker.
That was when I'd started glancing at her again, and shifted so she could only half see my face, smiling over at her from the side. She didn't smile back, her eyes getting sad and conflicted. Danger danger! I grinned wider and faced her again, trying to look as sincere as I could.
"So you'll definitely be there?" Kiba said eagerly, begging them to visit. Looking away and out the window, I didn't let the smile drop, but fade a tiny bit, into a closed-mouth mask, covering the fact that my face hurt and my stomach was flip-flopping. I needed to drink something. Something ice-cold. Or maybe sleep. But I was too tired to sleep, thinking about the way His shirt had felt when I laid on it from the last flight I'd made to Tokyo.
I couldn't remember the smell, and my chest tightened, panic taking over for a second before I thought and smelled it again. Oranges and night air. Soft and warm, kindling peace in me. Relaxing again, I let my fingers brush against the fabric in my mind, dreaming of the heat from his body, firm under mine, holding me.
"-uto! Naruto? You asleep?" Kam shook me and I jolted awake, grief washing over me again as the dream was ripped away from my hands.
I just let it go, and smiled at him, listening as he asked me a bunch of questions about how my school had been going before we left. Answering as well as I could, my mind wandered. Worries were fresh and new. I couldn't go back into that room. Not ever again. But I couldn't let them close it. It too...was proof.
From the door handle to the four post king size bed with it's Egyptian cotton sheets, black as night, every wall echoed too far in the past for him to remember.
"So I guess we'll be landing soon, huh?" Kiba smiled at me and pointed to my sea belt happily, waking Shika up so he could buckle his. Neji clicked his in and Gaara sighed, picking up the mess that Tsunade and Anko had made with the canned wines, crumpled bottles and empty glasses all over the floor of their separate drinking room.
The plane started to descend just as everyone was seated again, ready to be home in Japan. It'd taken almost eighteen hours altogether but god it was good to see that huge strip of blinking, multicolored lights below us, beckoning us into their warm embrace. Already to roar of traffic had reached us and we sat back, bathing in the scream of chatter and good old japan.
But as happy as I was, waves of sadness and fear were slamming into me, calling me on the grin I had plastered on my face. Like I wasn't dying inside, being home without him.
Now that I was asleep in the car, the madness of rushing through airports and dealing with griping flight attendants seemed like a bad dream. Tinted windows let almost no light in, and we were curled up together like a mass of sad-happy. On our way back to Juura's flat, I finally realized why I'd been nervous.
This wasn't home.
Gripping the edge of the seat, flashes of panic hit me, but I didn't do anything, not knowing what could be done. It just wasn't fixable.
Because home wasn't home unless it was in his arms.
The end approaches. Well' the end of the chapter. Relax! This one's got a while longer to go^-^ so sit back and enjoy. peoples! Love you guys. REVIEW!