He was walking. His arms swung casually at his sides, and the material of his jacket and pants rasped softly as they rubbed together, keeping the beat of his pace. Distantly, he heard a second pair of footsteps scuffing the ground (although, there wasn't really any ground; everything around him was empty and white), coming closer. He paused, waiting with his hands in his pockets. The other man stepped into view out of the white shroud no more than a few seconds later.
"You…" he blinked in surprise.
"I told you I wasn't leaving without you," the blond said simply, daring the other man to challenge him with his eyes. "That was a stupid thing to do."
"How else was I supposed to help you?" the raven-haired man frowned, crossing his arms loosely over his chest. "That damn fox wasn't about to just give you your memory back."
The other man huffed: "It was still damn unfair of you."
"Oh, come on, Naruto," Sasuke rolled his eyes. "What did you want to do? Personally, I don't think I could have dealt with you forgetting how you really felt about me."
"And you call me the idiot?" Naruto scoffed, pulling his hands from his pockets and striding forward, reaching for the dark-haired ninja. "Look, I don't need memories of what I feel; I feel because I have memories. Do you understand?" His arms came down and they clasped hands tightly. "The memory of what I said didn't matter--I still felt that way. I remembered all the things we've been through together, which is what caused my feelings in the first place."
"So, basically, this was all for nothing?" Sasuke let out a dejected laugh. "Great."
"No, not for nothing," the blond shook his head, squeezing his friend's hands tighter. "Because of what you did, I finally know how you feel. You said you loved me too, right Sasuke?"
The taller man blushed. It was actually kind of endearing. "Yeah," he mumbled, looking down at their joined hands. "I do."
The white light slowly diminished. Sakura lowered her arm from across her eyes and stared toward the waterfall, her eyes still slightly blurry from her tears. Please god, she thought, please let them both be okay. If either of them died, I don't know what I'd--
"Holy shit," She was startled out of her thoughts by Gamabunta's heavy voice. "He did it…"
Her chest tightened with excitement, her heart leaping into her mouth. She crawled up onto Gama's head from his back and stared down at where the two had collided: Naruto was slightly elevated, his eyes closed and his forehead pressed to Sasuke's, who was levitating far above the water, captive in a massive spread of blue fire that still held the shape of the Kyuubi Kitsune, but not the appearance. Their hands were joined.
"Can we go over there?" she laid a shaking hand on the large, flat head beneath her. It nodded wordlessly and hopped gently across the riverbank toward the two figures.
"How do we get things back to normal?" Sasuke's brow wrinkled in slight concern.
"We have to get the Kyuubi back into my cage," Naruto tapped the side of his head with one finger. "But…how?"
"Dobe," the dark-haired man said automatically as he slipped into deep thought.
"I'm not!" the blond shot back, but then settled back and contemplated this as well. He jumped when cold fingers were slipping across his belly softly. "Hey! Hey, don't you think you're moving too fast?"
Sasuke gave him an impatient look: "I'm checking your seal, you moron."
"Oh," Naruto gave into a half-embarrassed, half-pleased blush. So what if Sasuke was just looking for the damn seal? It still felt nice.
"Ah--" Sasuke poked at him and Naruto squirmed slightly.
"Don't do that!" he demanded.
"Come back here," Sasuke grunted and wrapped an arm round Naruto's back, drawing him closer, pressing him tightly to the other man's side. His blush came back full-on as Sasuke's hand ran over the symbol on his lower belly, making the dark red markings appear on the lightly-tanned flesh. He placed his thumb on the lowermost kanji of the seal (which was, of course, below the waistband of his pants), his pinky on the rightmost symbol, his pointer on the leftmost, and his ring and middle fingers placed on two other symbols, separated by the topmost one. His palm lay flat against Naruto's skin and he closed his eyes, concentrating.
"What are you--" he tried.
"I'm opening a pathway between the Kyuubi and the seal," Sasuke explained. "You need to create one from the seal to its cage. Can you do that?"
"Sure," Naruto closed his eyes. "It's just like focusing chakra, right?"
"Just be prepared for it," his companion grunted, and they both fell into silence. The flesh of his stomach began to crawl strangely as Sasuke's pathway licked out from his palm and into the seal, searching for a link. Naruto concentrated his own yellow-tinged chakra on Sasuke's blue one, linking the beginning of his and the end of Sasuke's pathways together, then leading it back upward, through his body, to his head, envisioning the fire-lit chamber, the water-covered floor, and the iron-wrought gate hanging ajar. As soon as the pathway ended, Sasuke grunted with physical effort as he tried to force the Kyuubi out of his body. There was fierce resistance from the demon, and seamlessly, both men instantly modified their chakra pathways into a long whirlpool that tugged at the Kyuubi relentlessly. It howled, the sound echoing hauntingly in both their ears, cursing them, damning them, threatening them. Naruto clasped one hand over Sasuke's rigid one and concentrated harder.
Gamabunta rocked to a stop and Sakura almost tumbled off his head. The two of them watched as the blue fire flickered and slowly began to bleed red again. It shifted, becoming a huge sphere of hungry red flames that encircled both men in its whirling depths and nearly blocked them from sight all together. The distant echo of a roar rang in their ears, in their heads and then the fire shifted again, all red, holding Naruto at its forefront as it regained the fox-like shape from before. Another far-off howl pierced the evening sky and then in a sweeping rush, all the flames were gone. Naruto's body glowed red for a few more seconds, then that disappeared too. They stayed suspended together for a moment, then both of them began to fall through the air. Sakura gasped and Gamabunta lunged forward, and both Naruto and Sasuke landed on his broad back with gentle thumps. They were asleep, and their hands had stayed clasped even as they fell.
"Nice catch," she said weakly.
"Thanks," he hopped toward the bank where the river and the forest met one another. "But, if it's all the same to you, I'm just a tad bit exhausted, so, I'm going to leave you guys here."
"Thank you for saving us," Sakura leaned over and planted a soft kiss on the pebbled skin, "and thank you for all your help."
"Aw, shucks, you're making me blush," the toad croaked, swelling up with pride. He lowered his head to the ground and the pink-haired woman jumped off, turned, and lifted her hands, her green chakra forming visibly around her fingertips. The same aura formed around Sasuke and Naruto's bodies and they were drifted gently onto the ground as she lowered her hands down. Then she knelt between them and placed one hand on both their heads, the green chakra turning to healing chakra and swirling about their bodies rapidly. "I'll be going now. I see their in good hands anyway," Gama added as an afterthought.
Sakura smiled: "Thank you again."
The toad king nodded and disappeared in a huge poof of smoke. At the same time, several pairs of feet stumbled through the forest and five figures burst out from between the trees, but Sakura could no longer see. Her vision blurred, tilted crazily, and she collapsed to the dirt between her two best friends, her hands still lying lovingly against their arms. Their clasped hands remained connected beneath her body, as their palms turned up, Sasuke's hand cupping Naruto's, and Naruto's hand gripping at the small of Sakura's back. White vests, masks, and voices, and finally, nothing at all.
"I'm just glad they're all safe," Tsunande sighed wearily, closing the door behind her. She turned her head to look at one of the ninjas sitting anxiously in the waiting room. "Thanks to you, again."
"Nn," Shikamaru waved off the praise. "I wasn't fast enough--we really didn't help any."
"Don't blame yourself," Chouji said automatically, giving his friend's shoulder a gentle squeeze. "It's a new ability; it'll take time to develop properly, right?"
"Still…" he grimaced. "I wish we could have helped."
"You?" Shino raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were too lazy to do anything."
"Hell, we all wished we could have been there to help," Kiba admitted gruffly, gnawing on his bottom lip, one fang protruding out over it. "But they did pretty well by themselves."
"It's to be expected," Neji said, uncrossing his arms and standing straight. "The three of them were together."
"You did say something like that, didn't you, Neji?" Hinata beamed up at him affectionately.
"I still can't believe all this happened just over Naruto's memories," Lee shook his head. "Who knew the Kyuubi had that much control over him?"
The others shook their collective heads. Finally, though, Ino spoke up with a thoughtful glance toward the intensive care ward: "Maybe…Sasuke knew all along. Maybe that's why it happened the way it did; maybe he knew exactly what Naruto was going through, and tried to stop it all together."
"He always bites off more than he can chew, the bastard," Kiba made a face, but he nodded his head in acknowledgement. The others settled into an accepting, patient silence. They would get their answers as soon as their three friends awoke, but that reason did sound pretty plausible already.
His eyelids were heavy. They opened to reveal a familiar white ceiling, and he groaned, clapping a hand over his eyes.
"Feeling better?" a voice from beside him asked, and he turned his head to see his best friend sitting up in the hospital bed next to him, and after that, Sakura slept peacefully, all the worry from the past couple of weeks finally gone from her pretty face.
"Yeah," he got up, winced at his croaking voice, and grinned softly. "Hey."
"Hmm?"
"I love you."
"Heh," the other man smiled back, reaching across the gap between the beds. He reached back--their hands clasped together. "I love you too."
"So, now what?"
"What do you mean, 'now what'?"
"I'm ready to take this a step farther, aren't you?"
A slight blush rose on the other man's cheeks. "Mm…" he nodded.
"Good," the grin came back in full. "After everything that's happened, I deserve to get what I want, finally."
The blush stayed. "What exactly is it you want?"
A devilish grin was his only reply. From beside them, Sakura rolled over to glare at the two men, her lips struggling not to curve up into a smile.
"Hey, lovebirds," she called, her voice half-filled with sleep, "I don't need to hear the details, alright?"
"Hey, Sakura?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
She smiled. "You're welcome. And thank you both."
"What for?" one blinked in confusion.
"For letting me go along this time," she sat up.
"Together," Sasuke nodded. "We're a team."
"We're connected," Naruto smiled and held out his other hand. Sakura took it and squeezed gently.
"We're connected," she agreed. And they smiled at one another.
Notes: Thank you, all of you, for coming along all these chapters with me as I explored charactes and ideas and answered some requests (sorry I didn't get to everyone's request! I'll try so much harder next time!). I'm so thankful for all your inspiring and helpful comments, your encouragement to keep this going, even through good and bad times. This story was an outlet, and cheered me up endlessly each time I looked back on it. If I ever do draw it, I'll post the link somewhere everyone can find it! For now though, that's the end of Welcome Home. If you feel jipped or disappointed about the ending, I'm truly sorry. I tried my hardest for a happy ending, and I was happy with it anyway. Thank you again, and take care. -Kitty