Chapter Six

Till Sunset Do Us Part

He woke up feeling…alright. His entire body was numb, and yet… He felt alright…

"…Sir Utakata…"

He took in a shaky breath. Air. Why was he alright? Was this…

"…Sir Utakata."

Heaven? His eyes cracked open, almost despite himself. There… above his head… dusty blond hair that shone like a halo, just catching the light behind her … and those… warm green eyes…An angel? He cracked his lips open now. Dare he speak? Last time he had tried…. As if in answer, his head gave a furious throb. His thoughts became more scrambled than ever. She was so beautiful. She was familiar. He opened his mouth… a breath came out… and then… "I'm ready…" …Take me… I'm ready…Heaven…Angel…

"Sir Utakata." That loud, childish, wonderful voice broke through the fog in his mind as though the fog was a solid wall. And that voice broke right through it. He blinked, and blinked again.

"…Hotaru?"

The tears spilled over her eyes and he came even more awake as they splattered onto his face. "Sir Utakata!" She leaned down and gathered him into her arms. Utakata felt her sliding her hands under his sides and spasmed from the mixed feeling of pain and… wonder. Was this really happening? Was she really here?

"H-Hotaru…" he gasped as she gingerly pulled him into an upright position flush against her. He could almost hear his joints creaking… And she was pressing against him so tightly… His broken ribs… And her heartbeat…His arm…She was rocking him now like a baby, sobbing…like a baby. Utakata drew another quaking breathe and blearily looked around. They were in… a cabin. They were alone… in a room… in a cabin. Despite his delirium he could just make out the voices down the hall.

Enough thought. Just… just go with it…

He tilted his face into the crook of her neck, and breathed in the scent of her hair. …She had bathed recently… her hair was moist… it smelled of his soap solution…

…

"Naruto!" Sakura stopped and looked about her. All she saw were the thick trunks of trees. Brilliant. Kakashi had ordered her to find Naruto, they all needed to get a move on with the ritual or, from what Sakura understood, they would all be duly slaughtered, and the idiot of the hour was missing. Brilliant!

When they had all arrived back at the camping-house Sakura had Naruto lay Utakata down in a vacant room. She had then ordered Hotaru away. Grudgingly, she had to admit that the girl had behaved herself marvelously through the whole ordeal. Sakura had nearly thrown a fit back when Naruto, supported by Kakashi, had told her that, while Hotaru was going to infiltrate Pain's lair with Team Kakashi, she, Sakura, would stay behind to prepare for the ritual.

…It made sense. Hotaru was directly connected to Utakata. She could prove useful in getting him back. Sakura, meanwhile, would prove much more useful in taking the time to prepare the ritual, rather than simply acting as the extra bodyguard. That still did not mean that Sakura hadn't been about to punch a hole in a wall of Capitan Yamato's cabin at the news.

Anyway, with Utakata deposited and Naruto off to take his quick Toad induced Shower, Sakura had ordered Hotaru off as well. It was a rule of thumb not to have close relatives in the room while she was looking to the injured. She had not allowed it with Kankuro during the Gaara Rescue Mission and she was not about to allow it with Hotaru and Utakata. So, she had given Hotaru a task: to go and have Capitan Yamato fashion a wooden barrel for her out of a single piece of wood, and then to take herself to a secluded place, fill the barrel with her water justu, and take a bath.

The girl had let herself go far too much. Crisis was crisis, but cleanliness was cleanliness.

It was only after she, Sakura, had done everything she could for Utakata, fixing his arm in a cast, healing his ribs as best she could with her chakra, with all due ointments applied, that she allowed a now freshened Hotaru back into the room.

…And it almost broke her heart.

Perhaps it was simply because, for the last few days, Sakura had only seen Hotaru as a bedraggled lost child, but it seemed to her that Hotaru had now, for Utakata, put an extra effort into her appearance to look better and prettier than she had even a week ago when she had been living on her own estate.

…A week ago. Was that really all the time that had passed since The Forbidden Jutsu Mission?

"AAH! IT'S COLD, YOU BASTARDS! IT'S COLD!" Sakura's attention was snapped back from its wandering, just as Konoha's Most Noisy Ninja, howling in protestation, tore through the underbrush and into her line of sight as he tried to escape a violent jet of water that one of his toad friends, Gamakichi, had sent after him.

Sakura and Naruto saw each other, and froze. Naruto was stark naked.

…

Kakashi was leaning on the cracked table with such force that, but for the fingerless gloves he wore, the world would have seen his knuckles for the bleached white they were. "Naruto," he said in that calm voice which foretold tempests. Naruto stood before him. Or rather, he teetered before him, a massive bump on his head from when he had smacked himself against the cave wall, and another great black and blue circling under his eye from… actually, Kakashi rather not know.

His clothing was askew on him, as if he had dressed in a very great hurry. His hair was still sopping wet, as if he had not had time to towel it dry. And when Sakura had brought him into the room they'd both been scarlet in the face. The two now stood before him, both staring resolutely ahead, but neither quite looking at Kakashi, and certainly not looking at each other.

Momentarily, Kakashi closed his eye, trying to burn out the image that he accidentally recreated in his head of what must have happened. He told himself that he did not want to know how Naruto got his black and blue. The problem was he knew both Naruto and Sakura a little too well not to be able to hazard a good guess.

What am I going to do with these two? Right. He could worry about that after he figured out what he was going to do with this one. He opened his eye again, and fixed it on Naruto. Slowly Naruto met his gaze, and gulped.

"May I ask precisely what you were thinking?"

Naruto teetered. "Sir?"

"Our mission," Kakashi spoke through gritted teeth, "was to keep the Six Tailed Slug from falling into the hands of the Akatsuki. It was not to risk life and limb for a Rogue Ninja from Mist and strike deals with S-Class criminals." Naruto had, very vaguely, hinted at his plan before they all set out for the Akatuski hideout. He had said something to the effect of 'Jinchuuriki leverage,' and 'element of surprise.' And yes, he had mentioned 'bartering with Pain.' It had all sounded very poorly constructed, and Kakashi hadn't really liked it (as Naruto had predicted), but Kakashi had trusted him. Why? He couldn't remember now for the world. He had expected something mad from Naruto. But he had never expected…

"No, sir," Naruto said.

With a jerk of his head Kakashi cracked his neck. Loudly. "…NO?"

"Kakashi-sensei, Grandma Tsunade didn't actually order us to get the Slug."

"Cut through the rubbish Naru-"

"Your mission is to find Utakata of the Hidden Mist and take him back from his kidnapers. Those were Grandma Tsunade's orders. You weren't there for them. You'd left about a second before. But those were her orders, Kakashi-sensei. Sai can confirm that if you want him to!" Naruto said, staring obstinately at a spot on the wall just behind Kakashi's left shoulder.

Kakashi's jaw, which had been taught to the grinding of teeth a moment before, now dropped so utterly that, but for his mask, it might as well have come clean off.

"She never said anything about retrieving the Slug, sir."

…Really now, what am I going to do with you.

"Naruto, I'd love to spend about three hours now just reading you your rights, tearing out your innards and then forcing you through the most violent and soul shredding training that Morino Ibiki, our head of the Torture and Interrogation Force, could come up with." Naruto turned deathly pale. The bruise under his eye seemed fringe a sickly yellowish. 'Barter with Pain,' Indeed. Kakashi was not naive. He knew the prices that such 'barter' might entail. He had both expected disaster and expected success. But he had thought that, at the very least, Naruto would follow regulations far enough to barter for the Slug. He had never even suspected that Naruto would barter with the Slug. Naruto had, effectively, promised to speed up the Akatsuki's work. He had promised them what they needed. He had promised to help them. And yet he had not done wrong. Kakashi knew that. He had trusted Naruto. He still trusted Naruto.

The game had changed. The playing field was different. The bloody goals were different.

The prospects of what was now on the line made Kakashi livid. Surly there must have been a better way of going about this. Surly they could have come up with something that did not involve the potential slaughter of two Hidden Leaf four-man-cells and torture of a civilian girl, and for what?! Not for the security of the Five Great Nations. Not for the Bijuu. For the life of one Hidden Mist missing nin. And yet, Naruto was not wrong. And yet, if it had been Naruto in the clutches of the Akatsuki, would Kakashi have acted any differently? Would he not gladly trade the Kyuubi for the host? Of course he would have. …It was at a time like this that Kakashi missed working with Shikamaru. He would have come up with something. Damn.

…The fact of the matter was there was no other way. The fact of the matter was that Naruto was a Jinchuuriki who had talked to the Leader of Akatsuki and walked off alive and with a fellow Jinchuuriki, also still alive, snugly slung over his back. The fact of the matter was that Kakashi knew that, at this moment, Naruto was keeping his cool better than he himself was and felt the game better than he himself did. The fact of the matter was… that sort of pissed him off.

He took a deep breath. Calm. "You're orders-" It was amazing how the wobbling wet blob of an idiot could suddenly, at that once phrase, straighten up and become a full fledge ninja. Just moments ago Kakashi had been silently asking himself: Why did I trust him? The answer, as it always did, now came back and hit him in the face. Because he's Naruto.

He deflated a little.

"Sakura." She had retreated to the window sill. Now she too took on her own weight again. They were fine ninjas, whatever he said. It was bizarre… just watching them now, as they grew, and they had grown… The rage was replaced with confidence. Truly, the students had become the backbone for the teacher. "Since we have gained one extra day, you will now make use of it. You are to take Naruto to a secluded spot where you can train him to thin his chakra to the point to veins and blood vessels. Naruto, you have till sunset. Don't go too far. Report back here. We will begin. Dismissed!"

Naruto and Sakura saluted him in due fashion, and darted out of the window.

"…You're going soft, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi finally unclenched his fingers from the table. Flexing them, he ran them through his hair. "Hehe, you think so, Tenzō?" He had felt Yamato's presence. He half turned his head and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the man's face molding out of the side of the wooden wall.

Yamato's head turned a little to the side, and the entire man stepped out of the wall. "So, what's bothering you now?"

"Aside from the fact that this time the day after tomorrow we could all be dead?"

"Aside from that."

Kakashi eased his hand out of his hair and let it fall back to the table with a 'thunk.' "I don't know… Maybe I'm reading too much into it…But there was something… strange about that man. Pain."

Yamato snorted, as if to say 'obviously.' Yamato had once worked under Kakashi in ANBU. Back then his codename had not been 'Yamato.' It had been 'Tenzō.' And now they were fellow team captains. Peers in distress.

Kakashi didn't react, but just stared at the crack that Naruto had made in the table. "…You know, if I didn't know better, I would have said that he let us take Utakata on a whim… on a personal whim… some kind of… vendetta…"

"How do you figure that?" Yamato asked, now leaning against that same table.

"…By the light of that glow-stick…I couldn't get a look into his eyes. They were almost slits. But I could have sworn…" he trailed off. Finally, tearing his eye from the crack, he looked his old student in the face, "I could have sworn there was a resemblance between him and Naruto."

Yamato raised an eyebrow in shock.

"The face… the hair… And something beyond that. In that brief second, by the sight of the Sharingan, I almost thought that they had the same stance, as if they had learned from the same…"

"You're right," Yamato said, clasping his old team captain on the shoulder. "You're reading way too much into it." He smirked. "Naruto's Naruto. Growing more powerful every day, yes. But still a goofball and a klutz and he's not about to become a Pain." He shook Kakashi's shoulder a little. "So relax. And when we get back to Konoha, we can all go to the Ichiraku Ramen Bar."

"Your treat."

"EH!?"

…

Naruto traveled a couple of branches behind Sakura, trying to take a few privet moments to straighten himself out. Okay, my shirt's fine now, the windbreaker isn't catching inside my pant pocket, I've rebuckled by sandals properly – check, check and check and… Crap. My boxers are on backwards…and inside out… Maybe I can just…

"Nartuo!" He nearly tripped on a branch when Sakura barked back at him. "Stop dawdling and get up here! We need to talk."

Truth be told, he was even more scared of Sakura than he had been of Kakashi, and that Ibiki comment had been pretty terrifying. "Y-Yes, Sakura-chan?" He spluttered, stumbling over himself to catch up to her.

She barely acknowledged his presence, but continued to look dead ahead. "Chakra Form Manipulation. You practiced it before with Lord Jiraiya when you were preparing your Rasengan, correct?"

"Yeah," he offered meekly.

Sakura nodded curtly. "Good. This is far enough." With that she took herself from the trees and to the forest floor. "I don't want any distractions and with your luck Kiba will come around the house and you two'll start mucking about as usual. So," she turned to him, "Naruto, I'm going to explain to you some of the finer points of the ritual we're going to be performing tonight," she said as she straightened up from the crouch she had landed in, and dusted off her knees.

Naruto's face fell. He had never been good with long and complicated explanations.

Sakura, when she didn't hear him voice a response, looked at him and, despite her earlier indignation, was completely unable to stop the giggles that now knocked through her at the expression on his face.

"Hey, hey, hey! What's so funny!?"

"N-nothing," she hiccupped, dabbing at her eyes with her knuckle. "Now," she said, doing her best to straighten her face, "Naruto," she said, "about this extraction process-"

"Ah! Yeah, yeah, yeah! When do I begin training?!" he said, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"You don't." He seemed to freeze in mid bounce. "I didn't want to say anything in front of Kakashi-sensei, because I didn't want anything to dissuade him from your plan to get Utakata back. He seems to have taken the whole thing badly enough as it is. But really, you don't Naruto. I reviewed Harusame's notes. There is no way that you can do what is required."

A stray breeze rustled through the trees and tussled their hair. They stood alone. And the world was silent.

"You simply don't have the medical ninjutsu."

She saw as his hands curled into fists. The determination was being fed into an inferno in his eyes. She smirked.

That did it.

"Like I care!" he blurted out, "I'll find a way! I'll do it myself! Just teach me and I can-"

"We'll do it."

Again, silence. "Eh?"

The smirk on her face turned into a smile. She loved riling Naurto up like this, even when they were in the midst of peril as they were now. And she as good at it too. But most of all… most of all, she loved the feeling of being useful to him.

"You'll find the Slug's chakra and wrap your own around it. I'll perform the medical ninjutsu to extract it."

Naruto's jaw fell. "…Sakura." She grinned the wider. However, in the next moment, Naruto was shaking his head vigorously. "It's too dangerous! The Slug might come out again. Harusame was one thing, but you-"

"Do you want another black-and-blue eye to match the one you have?"

"No."

"Good."

A moment passed. Then neither of them could help it. They grinned at each other.

"So…" Sakura said, "let's set to work."

…

Sai skimmed over the trees, wondering if he hadn't missed them already. No, he rationalized, Captain Kakashi said they were not to go far.

He ought to hurry. The sun was sinking fast. And Capitan Kakashi had told him to bring Sakura back to camp so that she could lay the final touches on the ritual site.

Sai was the final member of Team Kakashi and, like Yamato, had not been a member of the original Team 7. He had been Uchiha Sasuke's replacement. And yet… and yet he no longer felt like a replacement. He had truly become one of the team. Even now, half a year later, he marveled at it.

He launched himself off the next branch.

Sai was a year older than Naruto and Sakura, deathly pale, and with thin black hair. Originally, before he had joined Naruto's team – before his life and his ideals had been turned on his head as, he had heard, all lives and ideals had a way of doing when coming into contact with Naruto – he had been a part of Root, a now technically disband subdivision of Konoha's ANBU, led by the late Third Hogake's greatest rival, Danzō Shimura, a great and terrible man.

He launched off another branch. He was nearly there now, he was sure.

He had been enlisted into Root at an early age, and had there been groomed, if one could call it that, for a life of serves to the Hidden Leaf. A life without emotions. Root believed that emotions hindered the execution of the mission. So, no emotions. No regrets. No joys. And no loyalty.

Only the order, the target, and the trash that got in the way. That was how he had seen Nartuo at first. That was how a lot of people saw Naruto at first. Sai felt his lips quirk upward a little at the thought. It was still so strange to him… the quirk of his lips… happening for no apparent reason… only that… he felt nice.

Danzōhad originally ordered Sai onto Team Kakashi because, at the time, the team had had a lead on Uchiha Sasuke's location. Sai's mission had been to find Uchiha Sasuke and, on his own, to kill him, plugging the dike there and then, and not allowing the Rouge Ninja to wander free or serve Orochimaru any longer.

There was the order. There was the target. And there was Naruto. Naruto… who thought of Sasuke as a brother. Naruto, who made Sai remember his own brother in arms, who had died. Naruto, whose loyalty to Sasuke, even after everything the latter had done – or rather, not done – confused Sai to no end.

Naruto… whose dream was so large and wholesome it could not help engulf all those around him… so that it became their dream as well… Sai's dream.

Sai stopped short on a last branch. There were his team mates and… what were they doing?

Down below Naruto was standing with his hands outstretched before him, yet not so outstretched that Sakura, who was standing right behind him – flush behind him – couldn't reach forward and lace her fingers through his. …And they were just standing like that, and the only movement either of them made was Naruto who, every few moments, would flex and unfelx his fingers, around which Sakura's were ever laced.

…Was this what was called 'a privet moment.' Sai cocked his head to the side. After meeting Naruto, Sai had come to the conclusion that being without emotions was a disadvantage rather than an advantage. It had cost him a terrible pain to the jaw when Sakura had first given him a fake smile, and then a punch to the face. So, to rectify the situation, and unbeknown to Danzō, Sai had turned to reading up about emotions in books. He had one such book in his pack at the very moment. And he had read about just such a scene in his book! However, if his assumption was correct, and if Naruto and Sakura were indeed having 'a private moment,' then Sai would have given anything in the world for a camera here and now.

However, not having the camera, he had a dilemma. Did he approach Naruto and Sakura, supposedly catching them 'in the act,' risking the wrath of Sakura, or did he go back, his message undelivered, and risk the wrath of Capitan Kakashi?

…He had just turned his back on them when, with all the lack of subtlety that was inherent in him, Naruto hollered "SAI!" Sai wondered just how many broken bones this was going to cost him. Emotions were such difficult things.

"Naruto, concentrate!" That was Sakura.

Sai turned back to his teammates, armed and ready with his fake smile which, apparently, never fooled anyone. "Naruto! Sakura!" he waived stiffly at them. There were so many gestures that were supposed to go with greeting someone. He hoped he wasn't forgetting anything this time.

"What's up with you!?" Naruto yelled up at him. "Why'd you come spy on us and then just leave?!" While Naruto may have meant it as just an affronted accusation, Sai heard it as a member of Root, and swallowed.

"N-No! It's not like that!" he said, finally jumping off of his tree, landing in front of his friends. Friends. "I simply did not want to interrupt your privet moment, as I had read about it in a book."

"Eh? You read about something like me and Sakura?!" Naruto was all aglow.

"Y-Yes," Sai said, straightening up. He couldn't let them think he was a spy. He wasn't! At least… not right now. He was… he was their friend. And so, he hurried on to explain himself. "I was reading this book about this woodsman who… what was it? He 'stole from the poor and gave to himself.' No… that's not it… Anyway! There was a lady whom he was in love with, and at one point she came into his forest – he lived in the forest – and she lived with his merry men. I don't know why they were so merry, but anyway! There was a scene in the story, where he is teaching his lady archery! And he stood just like that behind her, and wrapped his hand around hers and put his face in her hair and directed her bow, and that was what you reminded me of! Except… you know… with Sakura as the woodsman and you as the lady." Sai swallowed.

Silence reigned supreme. Then a look of sheer rapture overtook Naruto's face and he turned to a very sour looking Sakura. "You put your face in my hair!?~"

…

Utakata suppressed a shudder as he looked around him. Yamato had found a clearing close to their camp. It was not very large, but it would serve their purposes. Yamato then, following Hatusame's sketches and Sakura's directions, had grown in a circle, sixteen rectangular trunks out of the earth, all different sizes and all different widths apart, and there was one horizontal plank across two of the vertical beams. Utakata knew there was method to his old master's diagrams and he would not question it. Not now.

While the original blueprints had said stone should be used, Yamato had grown the ritual site out of ironwood. After all, it was the very wood he used in the First's ritual to suppress the Nine Tailed Fox in Naruto. It would have to do.

And now Utakata stood looking upon a replica of the place where he had killed his master. He teetered.

"Master, are you alright?" He looked down to Hotaru, who was bracing his weight. To feel her there, so close to him, and to know that she was with him again… He could not even fathom what she had been through after he had been taken. He had hoped that she would wake up, perhaps go back to her village… forget about him. He hadn't even considered that she would go to Konoha. And with such speed! The way she had reacted… truly, he had underestimated her as a ninja and as a friend. Just as he had underestimated her when he had confessed to her that he was a Jinchuuriki. A knot formed in his throat, and he nodded. Already the master was indebted to his student for life.

"Yeah, I'm fine. …Let's go a little closer."

As they reached the rim of the ritual site they saw, in the center of the ring of trunks, a stage. Utakata's mouth went very dry. The stage was made of two platforms, one on top of the other. The firsts was in the shape of a four leaf clover, puckering out on all sides. The slate on top of it was a rectangle, and fitted into the clover perfectly. …There were no chains on this stage, as had been on the one Utakata had been bound to. Again, Yamato had had to make do with ironwood restraints.

At the moment the platform looked a little less threatening then Utakata remembered it. That was a comfort, even if he suspected that it was partly due to the fact that he was now seeing it by daylight rather than the red ritual glow, and partly due to the fact that at this moment Sakura was using it as a desk, papers strewn all over it. As they approached she looked up.

"Sir Utakata! What do you think you're doing up?!" she said, leaving her table immediately. "Lady Hotaru, I'm surprised at you! I told you that you could tend to him, but this is just completely unac-"

"Sakura," Utakata drawled, a touch of color returning to his face at the conflict.

"What?!"

"You need a dome over this thing," he said, pointing to the sky and at the same time gripping harder into Hotaru to keep his balance. He heard her give a sharp intake of breath. Had he pressed too hard on her shoulder?

Sakura blinked at him. "Excuse me?"

He focused his attention back on Sakura. "When my master… when he was performing the ritual… extraction…thing… There was a dome overhead."

Sakura looked hard at him for another moment, turned around and walked back to the platform, and began reshuffling through her notes. "But it doesn't say-"

"I demanded that Hotaru bring me here," he said, at the same time urging Hotaru with a nudge to continue her walk forward so that they could near the table, "so that I could help out with any last touches being, as I am…" he faltered. It's because of the pain shooting up my side, he told himself, "the sole survivor of the last attempt at this ritual."

Sakura looked up at him again, but no longer with crossness or suspicion. She only nodded. "Here," she beckoned him. "Come over here. I want you to look at these notes and offer corrections wherever they're needed. The sooner you get this over with, the sooner you can go back to the cabin and lie down. You've got a rough night in front of you."

He nodded. However, despite the resolution in his walk as he fought the pain in his body, Utakata's heart gave an aching throb at the sight of his old master's handwriting, copied perfectly with Kakashi's Sharingan, over every page strewn on that platform, identical to the one on which he had killed Hatusame.

It had been Hatusame who had sealed the Slug within him as a baby. And it had been he who had devised the extraction by which to free him of it. Utakata remembered something that Tonbie had said. "Lord En no Gyoja would never have imbedded the Forbidden Jutsu into Lady Hotaru without a way to remove it. What kind of master would ever think of such a thing?"

Utakata's mouth twitched, and he felt his eyes moisten. Looking upon his master's handwriting called forth to him his master's voice. "Your life is precious! Do not waist your life!" He had said that to him once, chiding him, after Utakata had taken unnecessary risks in a mission.

He recalled now the love and concern in the man's eyes.

Master, you gave up your chance for life… for me. It was now his turn to grip onto Hotaru all the more tightly again. I promise I will not squander the gift you left me.

"You need another horizontal plank over these two beams here," he pointed with his free hand.

…

"Hotaru…" Hotaru was looking out of the window. After he had corrected all that needed correcting at the ritual site, Sakura had sent Utakata back here, with instructions for him to use Naruto's sleeping bag for comfort. She hadn't even bothered answering when Hotaru asked if she ought to ask Naruto's permission first. And now they were back in the cabin which Capitan Yamato had built. And sunset was fast approaching. It terrified him. And yet all he could do was stare at the effect it had, splashed across her hair. She turned to look back into the room.

"Yes, Master?"

A knot formed in his throat. "I think it's time to go." He saw in her eyes that she had not needed the reminder. He saw his own fear reflected back at him. And he knew exactly what she was thinking.

"Hotaru," he smirked, "I couldn't run away, even if I wanted to. Look at me. I can barely stand by myself."

She blanched, and bit her lip. Why did he notice that? That was easy enough to answer. It was because of what he had realized back when he had taken The Forbidden Jutsu from her back. "It's just that…"

"How far would I get?" he asked, now turning his gaze from her to the sunset. "How far did I get after my first crime? After I killed my master? Hotaru… if I ran now, not only these men in red clouds, but also Konoha would be after my skin."

"I don't want to lose you again!" she blurted out. She was gripping onto the windowsill as if it was all she could do to keep from throwing herself on him. No. That was just his imagination… He smiled and looked her in the eyes. They were red rimed. Damn. She had been crying. How much? How long? "I don't want to be lost again either."

The silence between them was heaving with the thousand things they could not say.

There was a knock on the door. Hotaru looked back out of the window, but not fast enough for Utakata not to catch the glimmer welling up in her eyes. "Come in," he said hoarsely.

In walked a ninja he had only seen a week ago, by whose side he had fought, and because of whom he had seen the error of his ways…seen what the worth of a master was… and had finally accepted Hotaru. Before him stood Uzumaki Naruto. Utakata smirked.

"A massive bump on your head and a bruise under each eye. You look like a raccoon."

Naruto smirked thinly at him. "Long time no see to you too, bastard, even if you are in my sleeping bag." The sun dipped below the horizon as he spoke. Naruto had come to fetch them. It was time.