And here it is, the final official chapter of Spectral Eyes! Tomorrow will start the epilogues! I hope everyone has enjoyed the story thus far!

Addi out!

Unlike the day when Sasuke had arrived in Konoha, it was sunny the day he left, but the shafts of light winked blindingly through the windows of the train carriage and obscured the outside world just as well as the rain had. With a sigh, he leaned his head back against the seat cushion and closed his eyes. He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, probably due to the conspicuous absence in the bed next to him. Trying not to think about that, he leaned his face towards the window and let the sun filter over his face, distracting himself with another memory from earlier this morning.

"What you mean you're leaving?" Sakura almost wailed, flinging herself into Sasuke's embrace, who barely got his arms up in time to catch her haphazardly thrown body. "I thought you were staying for another few weeks, at least!"

"So did I," Sasuke answered, patting her awkwardly on the back as he gave an apologetic glance to Ino and Choji, who were standing roughly a few feet away. "But my parents want me to come back with them now, so I have to go."

"That royally sucks," Ino griped, crossing her arms over her chest with a petulant expression.

"Yeah," Choji agreed, laying a comforting hand on her back. "We'd finally gotten used to seeing your ugly mug around here."

Sakura only sniffled and clung to Sasuke tighter.

"Look, guys," Sasuke said, trying to disentangle himself from Sakura, "It's not like I'm going halfway across the world or dying! I'm just going home for the rest of the summer. Either way, I would have had to leave eventually to go to college."

"Yeah, but this way we didn't get to give you a proper goodbye!" Sakura complained, finally letting go of Sasuke and swiping a hand across her eyes in an attempt to hide the tears forming there.

"And what, pray tell, does that entail? Going by that lovely initiation song you had me sing in front of the whole town, it would have been something truly terrifying."

That drew a weak smile from Sakura. "It's not as bad as all that. We just would have made you come skinny dipping with us all at that lake- if we all didn't get traumatic flashbacks from just being in the place."

"Skinny dipping?" Sasuke shivered slightly. "Now I'm glad I missed it."

"Oh, come on, it's not all that bad," Choji laughed. "We do it every year. And besides, it's not like anyone can see anything in the water."

"Sasuke?" Fugaku called from the room over where he was stacking their luggage. "You ready? The taxi's waiting outside."

A lump formed in Sasuke's throat as the fact he was leaving became suddenly very real, but he swallowed it down. "Coming," he called, though his feet didn't move from their spot on the carpet.

Almost in tandem, Kakashi's voice echoed from the hallway on the other side of the room Sasuke was standing in. "Choji? Why aren't you at your post?"

"Sorry, Kakashi!" Choji yelled, turning to leave. "Be right there!" He turned his head back one last time and gave Sasuke a sad smile and a wave before leaving the room, Ino following closely after. Her head down, Sakura made as if to follow them, but Sasuke reached out and caught her arm.

"Wait, Sakura. Give me your phone?"

Sakura frowned, but did as Sasuke asked. "Why?"

Swiftly, Sasuke programed his own number into Sakura's list of contacts. "Here's my number. You can give it to Choji and Ino too. Don't be a stranger, okay?"

Sakura blinked once in surprise, then a huge smile spread across her face and she engulfed him in a giant hug once again. "Course! I'll bug you all the time!"

"Well, let's not go that far." Sasuke pulled back from Sakura and cleared his throat awkwardly. "Sakura, what grade are you this year?"

Frowning, Sakura answered, "Senior. Why?"

Nervously, Sasuke looked away, his cheeks turning a delicate shade of pink. "They say it's who you know that opens up the door, and what you know that keeps the door open. If you really want to be a doctor, I can try and help you with the first step."

A few seconds of silence ticked by before Sasuke risked looking back to see Sakura's eyes shining as if they had been injected with pure starlight. "Would you really do that?"

Shifting self-consciously, Sasuke scratched the back of his head. "I mean, I can't promise anything, but my father's friends with this guy who runs a scholarship program for pre-med students and I can ask him for the application materials… There's always stuff available if you know where to look for it, and I do because the hospital my father runs partners with a lot of them in my area… I can't make anyone accept you, you have to do that yourself, but I can show you how to apply-"

His words were cut off as Sakura enveloped him in a third bone-crushing hug. "Thank you," she whispered against his chest. "You don't know how much that means to me."

From the other room, Fugaku called again, "Sasuke? You coming?"

"And that's my cue," Sasuke said with a sigh. "Keep in touch, okay?"

The smile Sakura gave him was practically blinding. "You can count on it."

Smiling softly to himself, Sasuke let his head tilt back from the window and opened his eyes. Keeping that promise to Sakura would take a lot of work, but it was work he gladly undertook. Sakura had been a better friend than he could have ever asked for over the summer, and he felt that it was only right to pay her back in some way. He let his head tilt toward the window in time to catch a flash of gold in the otherwise green sunlit expanse.

Gold?

His interest piqued, Sasuke leaned forward to get a better look out the window, and what he saw completely floored him. Like a glittering angel, his soft golden hair drifting about his head like a gentle halo, Naruto was standing in the middle of a field of high grass the train was passing, the seedheads adorning the tall stems brushing the tops of his shoulders. Sasuke's heartbeat began to quicken in his breast, and he immediately pulled back from the window with a hand pressed over his pounding heart, staunchly refusing to look at the green field. He's not there, he's not there, he chanted mentally, squeezing his eyes shut. It's just your mind playing tricks on you because you're upset he didn't say goodbye to you.

I know I threw a lot of shit at you before, but I swear that one ain't me, Sasuke's mind retorted, but he snapped at it, Oh, shut up. You don't know what you're talking about. Then he realized how stupid it was to have a discussion with his own mind, and he drew his lips back in a slight snarl.

Just a trick of the light and your tired brain, Sasuke repeated mentally, nodding to himself. That's it. If you look again, he'll be gone.

Seeking to prove it to himself, Sasuke nodded one last time and opened his eyes, expecting the vision of Naruto surrounding by tall grasses in a field to be replaced with a more mundane one. He was half right; the vision of Naruto in a field was gone, but it was replaced with Naruto's face inches away from Sasuke's on the other side of the glass.

Jumping away from the window as if he'd been shocked, Sasuke let out an entirely unmanly noise and nearly fell out of his seat. On the other side of the train carriage, across the aisle, Mikoto leaned toward him with a concerned expression.

"Sasuke? Are you alright?"

"I- I'm fine," he gasped, looking back and forth between his mother and the ghost outside the train. "I… I just dozed off and hit my head on the window, that's all."

"Hmm." Mikoto gave him a disapproving matronly look. "Well, try to be more careful, alright? We don't want to disturb the other passengers."

"I'll be more careful," he promised, then turned back to the window, grateful that his father had chosen that particular moment to go for a bathroom break so the only witness to his ungraceful moment was his mother, who was blind to the phantom outside the train window.

What are you doing here? He mouthed to Naruto, who flushed at the question.

He muttered something, but through the glass and metal of the train and the rush of the wind outside, the words were lost, and Sasuke shook his head in confusion. Blushing even harder, Naruto mouthed more deliberately, You left before I could say goodbye.

A feeling of warmth flooded Sasuke, and he laid a hand against the glass with a smile. Instantly, Naruto mirrored him, laying his hand opposite his through the glass, and Sasuke thought he could feel the phantom pressure from the spectral hand.

I'm sorry- Sasuke started to mouth, but Naruto cut him off with a shake of his head.

No, I'm sorry.

A feeling of unease started to grow in Sasuke. Naruto, the town border is coming up soon…

Naruto gave one short nod, but otherwise ignored the statement. Quiet. I got something to say. You were right, Sasuke, that's why I got scared and ran away.

Naruto, you don't have to-

But I do. Sasuke, I-

Then, as suddenly as he'd appeared, he was gone. Logically, Sasuke knew what had happened, that the train had passed out of reach of Naruto's haunting grounds and he'd been forced to stay behind while Sasuke had traveled on, but it still felt like the ghost had been snatched away from him. As he craned his neck to look backwards out the window, trying to find a final speck of gold amidst the fields of greens and browns, Sasuke felt rather than heard the seat creak under him, signalling the return of his father.

"Did you see something, Sasuke?"

Leaning back from the window, Sasuke settled back against his seat and closed his eyes. "I thought I did, but it was probably just my imagination."

Fugaku's heavy hand settled in Sasuke's hair. "You look tired. Did you sleep well last night?"

"Not really."

"Well, we have a few hours before we get to the next stop, so you can take a nap, alright?" Fugaku's hand ruffled Sasuke's hair slightly before withdrawing. "I'll wake you up when we get close."

"Thanks," Sasuke muttered, but he knew he wouldn't be able to fall asleep. His mind was too awake.

Sasuke, I-

He hadn't heard the last thing Naruto had said, but somehow, Sasuke got the feeling he knew what it was without having to be told.

Me too, Naruto. Me too.

A small smile gracing his lips, Sasuke leaned his head back and settled in for the long ride.

It was many miles away, in the center of a busy city, where Pein finally stopped to let his companions catch their breath. They'd born the brunt of the fighting while he'd barely lifted a finger, so he had to acknowledge their efforts with a little gratitude, especially since both Tobi and Hidan had lost their main weapons. Yes, they'd been defeated, but not injured - except for Hidan, but he didn't count since he actually enjoyed it, the freak - so Pein saw no reason to do away with them as he'd done away with Zetsu. After all, there weren't so many ghostly serial killers out there that he could replace them willy-nilly.

Turning around to survey his followers, Pein asked, "Alright, lads - and Deidara-"

"Fuck… you…" Deidara panted.

"-how are you all holding up? Need anything?"

Tobi raised a hand into the air and started jumping up and down like an overenthusiastic child in a classroom waiting to be called on by the teacher. Pein inwardly sighed; sometimes he just couldn't stand that little brat, but he was a good fighter and had a mind even more twisted than Pein's own, so he wasn't about to let the kid go off on his own.

"Yes, Tobi?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Tobi pointed an excited finger at a toy store across the street from where they were standing. "Can I go and get something new to play with? Can I? Can I? Please!?"

Passing a hand in front of his face to stop himself from snapping at the child, Pein answered, "Sure, Tobi. Go get a new weapon. I think everyone else could use a breather."

"Yay! Thanks, Pein!"

Tobi took off like a shot for the toy store, leaving Pein to cast his eye over the two remaining members of his party. Deidara looked fine, if a little worn out, but Hidan's condition was beginning to worry him. He knew the ghost was a huge masochist and loved experiencing pain, especially if it was silver induced, but this time he might have overdone it. There was a slap happy expression on his face, like he was slightly intoxicated, as thick blood dripped from the numerous wounds on his chest and arms. Wounds that, by now, should have healed. The hole on his forehead from where the bullet had struck him had already closed up, but the flap of cheek missing from his face had yet to regrow itself, showing off his clenched teeth and jawbone.

"You holding up alright there, Hidan?" There was no concern in Pein's voice, only a dull boredom one might get when checking on the functionality of a household appliance.

Instead of answering, Hidan tried to take a step forward but tripped and landed on his hands and knees. It was late, late enough that all the tourists had gone home but not late enough that the streets were completely deserted, so when Hidan gagged and threw up the silver bullet he'd swallowed earlier, along with a substantial amount of blood, the mess landed directly in the path of a woman walking down the sidewalk, splattering up onto her shoes.

The woman fell backwards onto the ground, her horrified gaze affixed to the fetid puddle soiling her shoes. For a few seconds, she looked around, even glancing upwards, to see where the blood might have come from, only to return her gaze to Hidan's unseen position just at the moment when he retched up a second offering of blood, this time directly on her shoes. Now the woman screamed, scrambling backwards across the asphalt to try and get away. She tried to stand up, but the slick filth on her shoes and the sidewalk made her skid and fall back to the ground again. A cry escaped her as she caught the brunt of her fall on her right wrist, which gave a dreadful snapping sound upon impact.

Pein paid no mind to the woman, instead keeping his gaze trained on Hidan. "Looks like you overdid it there."

Gasping, Hidan pushed himself up onto his knees. "I'm fine," he wheezed, a mad look in his eye. "I feel amazing! I just… need… a moment to… catch my… breath…"

"Hm. Is that so?" Pein regarded Hidan for a moment, his whole body trembling from the effort of throwing up the bullet. "It looks to me like you would need more than a moment."

"More than a moment… might be better…"

Pein watched silently for a moment as Hidan gasped and wheezed, every breath sounding worse than the one before it, in front of the terrified woman now cradling her damaged wrist. He hated to lose two of his companions in a single day, but he had the feeling that this was something even Hidan would have a hard time bouncing back from.

"Hidan," Pein announced suddenly, "I am sorry, but I'm afraid that your usefulness has now been surpassed by your injuries. It pains me to do this because you've been with me for so long, but rules are rules and I can't make any exceptions, even for you. Deidara?"

Deidara immediately snapped to attention. "Yes, sir?"

"Burn him."

A cruel smile spread across Deidara's face. "Right away, sir."

Pein had time to witness the look of barely registering shock on Hidan's face before his entire body burst into a column of flame. It was over in less than a second.

The woman on the sidewalk, clearly having reached her level of tolerance for the supernatural, had fainted dead away on the pavement when the fire roared to life in front of her. Pein wrinkled his nose in distaste; she was the kind of woman he hated most, with her fancy shoes and her nice nails and her high-strung disposition, the kind that led to frequent faints. She was the kind of woman he had enjoyed killing in life.

Pein decidedly turned his back from the woman. She was not the prey he was after now.

There was a crash from the toy store across the street as Tobi smashed his way through the front window, flying across the street to join Pein and Deidara.
"I'm back!" He called excitedly, his arms full of matchbox cars. "And I found some new toys!"

Pein managed to turn around to face him with a tight smile on his face. "Good job, Tobi. New jacks?"

"No, cars!" Tobi held them up for Pein's inspection, then the smile slipped off his face. "Hey, where's Hidan?"

"Gone."

That was all Pein needed to say. A look of understanding dawned on Tobi's face, then quickly changed to jealousy. "You let Deidara do him, didn't you? No fair! I want to kill someone too!"

"Too bad, baby-brain. You snooze, you loose!"

Tobi turned to appeal to Pein. "It's not fair that Deidara got to kill Hidan without me! It's just not fair!"

"Fine!" Pein rubbed his hand over his temple. He was starting to get a headache. "You can kill the woman. How does that sound?"

"Yay! Thank you so much, Pein!" Tobi immediately turned around and tossed the matchbox cars into the air, then spun them around his head in a close orbit while making childish engine noises with his mouth. As they spun about his head faster and faster, he raised his hands up high, then suddenly brought them down. One after the other, the cars shot like speeding bullets towards the woman, sinking into her flesh. The first one targeted her throat, then the others punched into her chest and abdomen, crunching through bone to target and destroy the delicate organs underneath. The woman convulsed as Tobi made the tires of the cars spin, tearing the deep wounds into gaping holes, before falling silent and still.

With a gleeful giggle, Tobi reclaimed his cars, cleaning the drops of blood off of them with a wave of his hands. "Say, Pein, that was really fun!" He exclaimed, looking expectantly up and down the street. "Can I do it again? Can I? Can I? Please?!"

"No, Tobi. Deidara only got one, so you only get one too."

Tobi's lips protruded in a childish pout. "Oh, poop." Then he brightened again. "Hey, Pein, are we going to try and find someone to replace Hidan and Zetsu? Are we going to make some new friends?"

At that moment, Pein noticed something fluttering out of the corner of his eye. It was a newspaper, caught under the edge of a nearby public trashcan. The headline on the front cover read: Corrupt NYC Tax Attorney Accused of 7 Murders Found Dead in His Office.

"Yes, Tobi, we are going to get a new friend. And I know just where to find him. Fall in, lad - and Deidara-"

"Fuck you."

"-we've got some ground to cover. Next stop, New York City."

This time, Pein wouldn't let himself fail so easily. This time, he had a concrete plan.

When that Uchiha had fought, he'd separated his spirit from his body, for as willingly as he seemed to part with it, under the assumption that he could return to it. But, for those few minutes body and spirit had been separated, Pein had been certain that the Uchiha's body had been dead.

This time would be different. This time, he would beat those blasted Uchihas and Hyuugas and learn their secrets. He swore it.