In the days that followed, Naruto became kind of a local hero around the school. The stories varied from student to student; in some Naruto flew into a rage and killed Gaara with his bare hands, in others with Gaara's own knife. Naruto sometimes fell back into feelings of guilt, even as his arm hurt, reminding him of what Gaara tried to do. Still, he hadn't like lying to the police (the official story that Kakashi had come up with was that Gaara had run off into the trees when Sasuke and Sai had arrived), and he hated seeing Temari wander around in a sort of daze. And of course, Kankuro, who had actually been the one to run off when Sasuke arrived, believed that the trio had done his brother in.

Naruto let the bandage stay on his arm longer than was necessary. He didn't know how to explain to the others why the slash in his arm had healed so quickly, nor how it had healed with the kind of thin, polite scar one only got from weeks of dressing and cleaning a wound.

He stood in the cafeteria now, sun streaming in through the windows, drenching his artwork. The canvas reached from one side of the room to the next. He reached down with the paintbrush, dabbed grey, dabbed blue, came back and began to work on the side of the dolphin that glanced the watery scene.

"Very nice!" the voice called.

Naruto turned on his stool and saw Sasuke, Sai and Sakura standing in the doorframe. Naruto spread his arms, grinned and said, "What do you think?"

Sakura tossed her pink hair, came forward, stared at the canvas. "I didn't know you could paint, Naruto."

Sai sat down at a table, leaned back, surveying the cafeteria. There had been a talent show there the day before and it still hadn't been cleaned up. Sasuke hadn't joined, which was odd, because he joined everything. Naruto knew it was because the talent show had no competition; it was only a show for fun, which gave nothing for Sasuke to excel at. Now Sasuke was staring at the mural Naruto was painting, reminding him of the most important part of the Beneath The Sea dance coming up: the dance contest. Naruto bet that Sasuke didn't even know what first prize was; Sasuke just wanted it.

"Evening, gents," Suigetsu said, appearing at the door of the cafeteria. At his appearance, Naruto stiffened, wishing that there were more kids who took a last period spare, so the room wouldn't be so empty. Suigetsu was not the greatest person to be-- "Hey, Narutard," Suigetsu said, coming up to the mural. "Nice painting."

"Don't you think you should be somewhere where you're wanted?" Sakura said.

"That's what I don't get about you two, Sakura. You and Sasuke. Don't get why you hang out with these two. Miss Crossdresser here and Narutard."

"What do you have against Naruto?" Sakura said. Sai glanced over and Sakura looked back at him. "And Sai, of course."

"Whatever," Suigetsu said, sitting back at the table. "Sasuke, you wanna get high?"

"Right now?" Sasuke said. "In school? Last period? Is that a serious question?"

"Figured you'd turn fag if you hung out with them long enough."

"Oh go fuck yourself, Suigetsu," Sakura said.

The cafeteria doors opened again, and Karin walked in, followed by Kabuto and Haku. Haku smiled at them and waved, calling Suigetsu's name.

"Nice painting," Karin said, swaying her hips.

Naruto almost wanted people to stop saying that. He glanced back at the painting, appreciated how amateur it was, the blockyness, the lack of detail. Perfect for a school dance saturated in little light, but not exactly fabulous contemporary art. He was already beginning to get jittery, his right foot tapping up and down on the stool, so he went back to painting.

"You going to the dance, Sasuke?" Kabuto said, eyes flashing.

Sasuke looked uncomfortable for a moment. "I think I am."

"Got anyone to go with?"

"Why, Kabuto, you asking me out?"

"You wish. Nah, but I can keep an eye out for any good looking available women for you."

"How thoughtful of you."

ooo

"Highschool, man, you know? Highschool. Whoever thought we'd be back in one of these places ever again?" Jugo looked up at the highschool, his mouth opening wide into a grin.

"I don't know about that," Shikamaru said, looking up back at the church across the street. "I suspect someday we'll have kids, and eventually have to enroll them somewhere."

"Unless we homeschool them."

"Yes, I suppose. Maybe we should stop standing around gawking and get to doing what we're supposed to be doing, hm?"

"Nice day outside, though. Windy, a little bit chilly, leaves blowing around everywhere. Nice autumn day."

"Mhm hm. Now hold on, before we go inside, I'm going to have to make sure I can trust you on this."

"Trust me?"

"Yeah."

"Moi? Why couldn't you trust me?"

"Oh good god, is that a real question? That's not an actual question is it? Knowing your violent tendencies?"

Jugo grinned. "I like to think I can keep them under control."

"Well, that's good. Please keep them under control while we're here. That would be lovely. That would be downright excellent."

"Blond kid, right?"

"What?"

"He's blond, right? The Naruto kid?"

"Very blond, I'm told. Didn't you pay attention?"

"Just doublechecking. I always get jittery right before a job."

"Well, don't. Take deep breaths."

"You always sound so calm."

"That's because I take deep breaths."

"Strangling some kid would calm me down."

"Yeah, but it'd stress me out, so let's not, shall we? No strangling kids. Please."

"I'm told the old Akatsuki members used to strangle lots of kids."

"I highly doubt that."

They pushed the doors in and the blank, bland warmth of the school hallways and the smell of the drywall and the tile absorbed them. Thank god they arrived during classes -- there was the occasional student furtively running to his locker and back, but otherwise the place was fairly empty.

Jugo sped up to stay walking beside Shikamaru. "Did you know that Akatsuki means 'dawn'? Or 'daybreak'?"

"I did."

"Makes you wonder why the organization called themselves that."

"Why, considering how deteriorated they are?"

"Maybe they're referring to how hot the sun is, and to the amount of pain the sun can bring people."

"We're not supposed to bring pain to people."

"I like bringing pain to people."

"I'm aware of that. I'm asking you not to though. Especially not in a highschool, please."

"I'm surprised you joined with Akatsuki. You were part of that military group, right? Team, what? Team-"

"Team 10."

"You lied about your age to get in, didn't you?"

"Obviously."

"So why Akatsuki?"

"Did you read the newspaper today?"

"Are you changing the subject?"

"I'm not."

"No I didn't."

"There was a civil skirmish in Lesovo today."

"That in India?"

"Maybe we shouldn't have this conversation."

"Africa, right?"

"Africa, yes. Something like three thousand children were injured or killed in the bombings."

"Sounds like a blast."

"To your twisted kind, maybe. The point is that as Team 10 I couldn't do anything about that. We were too tied up by the rules of this corrupt government."

"And as Akatsuki?"

"Well, when we control the world, we'll be able to stop things like that, won't we?"

"Hence our kidnapping some blond kid?"

"You weren't paying attention, were you?"

"I was, I was, he's possessed by powerful demon-spirit, I understand. You were right though, Akatsuki has fallen from grace. What are we, like two of the four members left?"

"Something like that. Quiet, isn't that him up there?"

"I don't get you having that sort of ambition."

"What?"

"I thought you just wanted to make a normal salary, some nice little job somewhere, raise some kids, et cetera."

"I do. I still do. But you can't go doing things like that knowing what bad things are happening out in the world. Now can you be quiet? You're going to attract attention to us."

"I think your hair is going to attract all the attention it likes."

"Hey, this hairstyle is very popular in many different countries. Now quiet."

Up ahead, Sasuke and Naruto were walking up the hall together, talking. "I could teach you," Sasuke said.

"Teach me?"

"I've been taking martial arts since I was five. I figure I could impart a little knowledge your way, help you defend yourself against those things, which, by the way, you'll have to explain to me."

Naruto looked away and shrugged. "Yeah, I know. It's just -- well, people tend to not believe me."

"Seeing that guy crawl out of the ice made me a little more open-minded than usual."

"Yeah, I suppose, but--"

"Sasuke-" a voice said.

Sasuke turned, and saw Kabuto come out of the library, with Ino in tow.

"Sasuke," Kabuto said. "You, oh hi, Naruto, you two are still coming to my party-thing after the dance, yes?"

"Oh!" Naruto said, grinning. "Yeah! Oh, yeah, for sure, definitely!"

"Oh good," Kabuto said, smiling. "Oh, Sasuke, you've met Ino, right? She's a friend of Sakura, I think."

"We're in a few classes together, yeah," Ino said.

"Ino and I were going to go for something to eat after school," Kabuto said. "Did you guys want to come. Naruto, I've got some music I need to show you, really vamp up your tastes."

Naruto, blinked, surprised at the attention. "Oh. Maybe. I've got nothing planned. Sasuke?"

Sasuke glanced at Naruto. "You want to go?"

"Naruto," Kabuto take, putting his arm around him and walking ahead, forcing Sasuke to walk along with Ino. "Are you a fan of the Apples in Stereo?"

"The who?"

"It's a band."

Behind them, Kabuto heard Ino say, "Kabuto says that you're into martial arts. What do you study?"

Ah, the introductions have been made, he thought; and what a stroke of luck it was for Naruto to show up. Four is company. I can use him to deflect Sasuke back at Ino.

Ino halted in her tracks, staring at the young man standing near the lockers. Kabuto froze, wondering what the hell happened, and turned to look back.

Ino's mouth opened, closed, opened again. "Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru looked at her, did a double take, looked at Jugo, and then looked back at her. His mouth fell open. "Ino?"

Oh good god, Kabuto thought.

"What are you-?" Ino said. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question, couldn't I?"

"I go to school here."

"Since when?"

"Since I moved here?"

"Oh my god," Jugo said, an expression of absolute delight on his face. "Oh my god. Shikamaru, is this your old highschool sweetheart? Oh. My. God. That's adorable. And holy cow, she's beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. Wow, I gotta respect that, Shikamaru, buddy."

"No, hold on," Ino said. "This is absurd. What are you doing here? Why are you here? I haven't seen you-- in years, Shikamaru. In years."

"I know," Shikamaru said.

"So--" Ino's mouth was gaping, her head was shaking. It was if too many questions were trying to come up out of her at once. Finally, she managed to get out: "Where did you go?"

"I joined the military."

"You were sixteen."

"I looked older."

"You joined the military -- on the night of our semi-formal?"

"Yeah."

"Since when did you want to join the military? You were always talking about wanting to get this average job, get this normal, laid back life-"

"Yeah."

"So you joined the military?"

"I wanted to make a difference."

"So you left me. Without saying anything. We all thought you-- died or something. You let me think you were dead, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru looked like he didn't know what to say. He glanced back at Jugo, who looked gleeful. "Uh."

And to Kabuto's horror, Ino advanced on Shikamaru, arguing, vanishing down into the hallway with him, with a laughing Jugo following, away from the all-important Sasuke.

ooo

Farther in the town, halfway on the way into the streets of houses, there was a large bridge that ran over the river. The current was brisk today, carrying twigs and branches over towards the falls in the distance. Trees swayed on either side and the air was so laden with tumbling leaves that it seemed to Naruto that Sasuke was framed with sparkling gold flakes.

"It's hard to explain, I think," Naruto said, looking away, looking down at the water below the railing. He sipped his coffee, smiled, looked at it. "This is good."

"I still say you don't need coffee."

"But it's so delicious, you have to admit that." He leaned against the railing and sighed. "Well, to put it succinctly, there is a group of shadowy non-people, kind of like vengeful spirits, who follow me around and try and kill me."

Sasuke said nothing for a moment. Naruto looked at him, but Sasuke's eyes were too dark, pools of black ocean, and he couldn't tell if Sasuke believed him or not.

Finally, Sasuke said, "Why do they want to kill you?"

"Well, let me try and explain that. Hm." He swished the coffee around in the cup. "Hm. Right, well, to put that succinctly, there's this powerful spirit of a nine-tailed fox residing in me, or so these shadows believe, and they think that if they kill me, the spirit will come out, and they'll be able to harness its, erm, awesome power."

"That's a lot of pressure."

"I don't know."

"Do you believe that?"

"I don't know if I do or not. I do believe there's a whole bunch of shadow-guys crawling out of mirrors to come knife me."

"Well, that's why I want to teach you how to defend yourself."

Naruto smiled. "Well, that would be nice of you. When'd you want to schedule the first lesson."

Sasuke shrugged. "When are we free..?"

"You're going to the dance, right?"

"I think."

"You think? But there's a competition for the Mighty Sasuke to bitch!"

Sasuke looked uncomfortable. He turned, leaned even farther upon the rail, watched a branch flow along the water and vanish when the rapids claimed it. "I don't know how to dance."

Naruto almost dropped his coffee. "You don't know how to dance?"

"No."

"I don't believe you."

"Why?"

"Because you know everything."

"I don't know that."

"Huh."

Silence. The wind howled around them and a car drove past along the bridge, throwing up leaves into the air. Golden light speckled and flickered.

"I could teach you."

Sasuke glanced at him. "You could what?"

"I could teach you how to dance."

"You know how to dance?"

"Do I know how to dance? Sure. Hip-hop, tango, salsa, ballroom--"

"Where'd you learn how to dance?"

"One of my foster parents a while back. I mean I don't know everything. Just a smattering here, a smattering there--"

"You'd teach me how to dance."

"Why not? You're teaching me how to fight. When do you want to learn?"

"Can't tomorrow. Karate lesson."

"After your lesson?"

"Kung fu lesson."

"You have two martial art lessons after one another?"

"Yeah."

"Well, how about during last period tomorrow?"

Sasuke paused, quiet. "All right."

His cell phone rang, and he started with surprise. He pulled it out, looked at it. "... Kabuto?" He answered it: "Hello?... uh... okay... huh." He looked at Naruto and said, "Kabuto wants us to go hang out with him and Ino."

"Oh! Okay!"

Sasuke blinked. "You wanted to go?"

"Sure! Why not?"

Sasuke seemed to weigh the answers to the question, but then said on the phone, "All right, we'll be there in a bit." He hung up, threw the phone back into his pocket. "Since when does Kabuto talk to Ino so much?"

"Maybe he's attracted to her?"

"She's not really his type."

"Ah well, hanging out with them would be fun, wouldn't it?"

"Mhm."

"Oh look at you, brooding about. Come on."