In the waning light, Sasuke's form on the tombstone began to turn into shadow. The wind picked up, and leaves blew across the graveyard, some of them catching onto Mizuki's pants as he advanced towards the terrified Naruto.

"Get away from him," Sasuke said.

The storm broke as Sasuke leapt. Lightning flashed and Naruto's world blazed into radiant yellow for a split-second. The thunder -- good god, was thunder supposed to be that loud? It sounded like someone dropped a mountain onto the graveyard -- roared and night closed back in. Naruto saw, in the darkness, Sasuke strike Mizuki mid-air. Chains, rippling out through the falling rain, catching around Mizuki's hands and legs. Lightning flashed again, and Naruto blinked away the white brilliance. As shadows took hold once more, he saw Sasuke land into the wet grass, twin chains appearing between his gloved hands, their ends catching around Mizuki.

Ninja weapons?

"Ah, youth," Mizuki hissed, and made a strange movement in the darkness. Sasuke cried out, and one chain went snap, both ends flying up. Mizuki's knife was sharp, way too sharp. It came back, around, cut the second chain. A third swipe, this time in Naruto's direction.

"Get-" Naruto said, scrambling to his feet. He shoved Sai in the direction of the pine trees. "Get out of here."

This is bad, he thought; I could outrun Mizuki maybe on a good day. Not with a slashed arm, a concussion and a couple of cracked ribs--

Mizuki swiped the air next to him, terrifyingly close. Naruto skidded back on the wet grass, trying to blink away the rain, trying to keep his eyes on this dark figure in the night who was moving way too fast for his own good, calling his name -- Naruto, Naruto, wherefore art thou my Naruto -- and Naruto falling back, wishing this goddamn psychopath would leave him alone--

Pain, red sharp pain. Oh god, please tell me that wasn't deep. It was in the side, and Naruto stumbled back, clutching at his side, feeling the warmth of his blood burble over his fingers. Mizuki, laughing, coming at him. And then gone, torn away by Sasuke's blurring shape, throwing the psycho into that tall grey angel statue.

"Naruto!" Sasuke hissed, looking back at him. "Run!"

"Oh, wish I could."

Mizuki got Sasuke in the gut with his elbow, throwing the boy into the rocky ground. His cell phone flipped out, bounced across the rocks, skidded towards Naruto.

Cue from God, that was what Naruto's old foster parent would say. Naruto forced himself to get to his feet, tried to make it across the grass without stumbling -- oh god, there we go, he was falling already, good job Naruto, you really saved the day today. All that ADD and hyperactivity and it didn't even give you enough energy to make it three feet to a phone -- and then Mizuki was coming at him, laughing under his breathe, raising the knife and--

-- and swearing, clutching at his temples, stumbling to the side.

"Yeah!" Sai shouted, throwing another rock. "You like that one? Well, how about this, asshole?!"

Mizuki caught the next rock, regarded it for a moment. "How about it, indeed?"

A blur of the arm, and Naruto saw Sai stagger and fall out of the corner of his eye. Oh no, oh no, oh no. But Sai bought his some time, at least -- Naruto reached forward and his fingers fell over the phone, slick with rain. Arm shaking, he tried to punch in the numbers, hoping to God he didn't miss one, his blood dripping out over his fingers onto the phone pad.

"Hello?" Iruka's voice.

"Iruka-!" Naruto shouted. "Oh god, help!"

Not even a pause, nor any other questions. Iruka had training, quick and to the point: "Where are you?"

"The cemetery outside of the church! I don't know what it's called- it's-"

A flash of steel, and Mizuki's knife sent Sasuke's cell phone spinning into oblivion.

"Fox, fox, fox, fox, fox," Mizuki hissed, standing over him.

Sasuke tackled him, and the two of them tumbled into the shadows and the rain. Naruto grabbed at the wet ground, trying to get up. He wiped the rain from his forehead and left streaks of blood. He was going to pass out soon, and he couldn't, because that meant one thing.

He got to one knee when someone came out of the dark and grabbed him roughly by the shoulders.

Sasuke. Thank god.

"Come on," Sasuke said, picking him up, and putting one arm around his waist. "We have to find Sai, then hoof it."

"Mizuki--"

"Yeah, he's the reason we have to hoof it--"

Lightning flashed and Sasuke tripped. Naruto really couldn't blame him -- it was wet, it was fucking dark, and the ground was as straight and flat as the Andes. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little angry when he fell on his wounded arm, and the side where Gaara kicked him.

"Get up, get up," Sasuke said, standing up.

Mizuki out of the dark, charging at them, knife raised, screaming like an idiot. Naruto couldn't run, not now. He was going to plunge that knife into him and raise it and do it again and again--

Sasuke's hand blurred, and Mizuki stopped in his tracks, a swiss army knife sticking out of his shoulder. Mizuki stared at it, as if confused as to what it was.

"Missed," Sasuke said.

"Doesn't matter," Naruto said, getting up.

"Was the rain, I'm sorry," Sasuke said. Why he was explaining himself Naruto had no idea. "It was dark."

"Doesn't matter. Won't hurt him. We gotta go."

Mizuki pulled out the knife, looked up at the two boys and threw it at Sasuke. Sasuke flinched, raising his hand to protect himself. The knife never landed. Mizuki's eyes widened, his face a picture of confusion.

Kakashi stood between the two boys, one hand in his tweed coat pocket, the other holding the swiss army knife. He gazed at Mizuki indifferently, one eyelid drooping. Mizuki stared, not knowing what to do, and as he did, his body turned into a study in yellow and black, as a car burst through the hedges, headlights throwing the graveyard into bright relief, heading towards them.

It parked, and Iruka got out. "Naruto!" he shouted, running to the boy's side. He kneeled down, then looked up. His mouth dropped open. "Kakashi--"

Kakashi walked past him towards Mizuki. He put the swiss army knife into his pocket.

"Just 'cuz there's more of ya," Mizuki said, "doesn't mean I can't cut you all up."

"Uh huh," Kakashi said.

Before Naruto passed out, he wasn't quite sure what happened next. Mizuki came at Kakashi knife blazing, and Kakashi sort of shrugged his shoulder, pulling out a tiny pocket mirror. The mirror was black, showing no reflection, except for Mizuki, and Mizuki's eyes.

Mizuki screamed, and seemed to fall into the pocket mirror, before vanishing altogether. Slowly, Kakashi turned to face the others.

He shrugged, looking amused. "Shadows," he said, shrugging, as if that explained anything.

ooo

Warmth, then. And pain, of course, the pain was there. Memories, a little bit too, although those were fuzzier. When he opened his eyes, the room was dark, and there was a figure sitting next to him. His room. His attic room. He could hear the tree branches rapping against his window. In the light thrown against his dark ceiling, he could see the branches' shadows.

The figure sitting next to him shifted into the light. Sasuke.

"Hey," Naruto said, softly. He realized, do to the thickness of the voice, that he was probably drugged. Why wasn't he in a hospital? Oh yeah. Dark creatures and all. "We got home okay?"

"Yeah," Sasuke said. He shifted in his seat, patted Naruto on the shoulder. "Just wanted to make sure you were okay. Iruka wanted me to make sure you woke up." Silence for a minute, as Sasuke looked past Naruto, out the window. Then: "That was some good thinking, using my phone."

"You came--"

"Hm?"

"You and Sai. You came to get me."

"Oh, and I'm okay, by the way," a voice said.

Naruto realized that Sai was sitting by his door across the room. He was somewhat disappointed that he wasn't alone with Sasuke, but wasn't entirely sure why. "My tongue feels like a hairy caterpillar."

"My head feels like it's a smashed watermelon," Sai said. "God I want a cigarette."

"Iruka wants you to stay awake for a bit longer," Sasuke said to Naruto. "You cracked your head pretty badly."

"Hey," Naruto said, trying to sit up, and failing. He reached for Sasuke, caught him by the arm. "Wait."

"Yeah-?"

"You came to help me. Like. You saved my life."

"We heard you shouting. Voices tend to carry through that forest."

Sai nodded. "It's haunted."

"Well," Naruto said. "Thank you."

"You don't thank people for saving your life," Sasuke said. "It's just what people do. It's what I do."

"Our hero," Sai said.

Sasuke shrugged.

"What time is it?" Naruto said.

"It's late," Sasuke said. "We have to leave soon, but -- you need to stay awake."

"Yeah."

"And I won't ask you why there was someone crawling up out of a mirror to come knife you until you're better."

Naruto tried to laugh, but couldn't. He smiled.

ooo

Iruka and Kakashi saw Sasuke and Sai off, telling them they would handle everything else. 'Handling'. Iruka still didn't know what that meant. You didn't really call the police to tell them they need to prosecute an insane shadow-creature from a spirit-world. More disturbingly was hearing that Gaara had been pulled in.

"I should be able to get him out," Kakashi said, as he sat on the balcony of the old house. He shrugged. "I know some things. That kid -- hey, I bet he'll come out a better person."

Iruka stood by the door of the old house, aware that he had barely said three words to Kakashi the entire night. Earlier in the kitchen he had offered Kakashi a beer. That had been the extent of their conversation. "Kakashi-"

"There's not really too much else to say, is there?"

"But I just--"

"Don't worry about it."

"If I knew you were living here, I wouldn't have come."

"Well, that's why it's forgivable, right?" Kakashi stood up, set the beer bottle down, readjusted his scarf so it covered his mouth. "I think you're a good match for that kid. You were always the patient one, I think, right?"

Kakashi looked at him, but Iruka had to look away.

"I should go," Kakashi said.

"I just feel like a jerk, coming here."

"You didn't know. And anyways--" Kakashi squeezed Iruka's shoulder. "It was good to see you again."

"Yeah."

"Hey, don't worry. Everything'll be fine. You just wait."

ooo

The walk home. This was the worst part of the night, the way it cloaked around Sasuke and tried to accept him into its fold. The walk across the filthy street beneath the brick tunnels. The wall along the pointed gothic black fence around the churchyard. The way the forest rolled in the distance from the wind like a living creature. At least it'd stopped raining.

It was under the tunnel that it came. Sasuke paused and let the train roar overhead, shaking the foundations of the brick, so loud all other meaning seemed to fly away with the sound. As the final car passed, Sasuke turned and glared back into the shadows of the tunnel. "Stop following me."

"Master." The snake appeared, gliding along the sidewalk. "I extend an invitation."

"I already told you I'm not interested."

"But young master, we offer you a feast of elegant proportions and a title of worthy majesty, especially for one so destined for greatness as yourself."

"Maybe I should cut you in two, would that be enough of a clear message?"

"My master Orochimaru demands-"

"Orochimaru is dead. I'd like to leave it that way. Get out of here."

The snake paused, moving back and forth, a little dance of its own, as if considering its options. Then, it was away, slithering towards the brick wall and disappearing through a small crack.

The night has too many creatures in it, Sasuke thought. He turned and continued on his way home.

ooo

Night creatures.

Kabuto lay back on his couch, watching late-night television, hearing his father and mother argue about his older brother's newest magazine article. Kabuto rarely watched television, but he saw it as a form of meditation, a way to clear one's head and fade into a state of non-being. The flickering images, the music, the excellent bit-bat-bit editing, the predictable storylines, oh yes, it was all marvelous. It mingled with the drama in the kitchen like a fine wine with a wonderfully aged cheese.

"Can't you see it? Our boy's a fine writer. If only you could see that."

"How can I see that? He writes with such anger all the time. How can he enjoy his job if he is always writing with all this anger?"

"That's the thing. That's how we know he enjoys it. The anger is his passion for his work. Look at his passion."

"I just figure if he liked his job, he wouldn't be so angry all the time. How can I be wrong there, uh? He should get a new job, a job he likes."

Kabuto's brother liked to write. Kabuto didn't like to write. Kabuto didn't like to do anything. This was worrisome. Soon highschool would be over, and his lack of discrimination would send him into Business, the world of unspecialized office work. He wasn't looking forward to it.

Television off. Meditation over. It was time to return to the living, and to the sharp-edges of reality. He climbed the stairs, and saw it: a small beetle, lost, probably having come in from the outside when his mother held the door open when she talked to the neighbours. He regarded the beetle, appreciated the simplicity of his life.

He was aware he was in the group the other kids referred to as the Popular ones. He wasn't sure how that happened. It was a combination, really, he thought, a mixture of ridicule and friendliness and, to no small degree, physical attraction. They were all very attractive. Suigetsu made kids feel like shit. Temari made them feel better. Other kids wanted to be like them: attractive, near someone like Temari, and so above everything that even Suigetsu didn't make fun of them. Ah, highschool.

Kabuto grabbed the beetle, marveled at the speed with which he did it. Holding the beetle in his hand, he opened the door to his room, closed it, and stuffed the beetle into his mouth.

"Why did you do that?"

The voice came from his window, which was open, and he never left his window open. The figure stood inside his room, by the window, regarding him. In the moonlight, he was beautiful.

"Something you taught me," Kabuto said, in between chewing. "The living is life. Blood is live. isn't that right, Itachi?"

Itachi gazed at Kabuto, pale in the moonlight, preternaturally beautiful, a wind drifting through his dark clothing. His voice was soft: "I want you to do something for me, Kabuto."

Kabuto swallowed the last of the beetle down and went to his bed, staring at the vampire. "Anything."

"Sasuke--"

"Yes?"

"I want him to fall in love with the girl Ino. Can you do that for me?"

"Can I do that for you? Sasuke and Ino? I could match Hitler and Churchill if I wanted to. Sure I can do that for you. But-- why Sasuke and Ino?"

Hesitation. Again, the soft voice, calm and endlessly masculine, in a way that made Kabuto's hair stand on end: "Leverage."

And then Itachi was gone, out the window, and Kabuto felt the absence of him acutely. He went to the window and closed it.

Sasuke and Ino... leverage...

Ah, to be a night creature. He looked forward to the next day at school.