Winter Tears: Bonus Chapter

The pretty concubine lowered her eyes shyly, her soft black hair glowing gently in the light of the moon coming through the window of the bedroom window. It made her skin radiate and glow, like a pearl. The man reached for her with greedy hands, lust painted in his eyes. A slight shadow dropped from the ceiling unheard and unseen, and rose up behind the man. Silver glinted in the moonlight and then a spray of hot blood fanned up into the air, splattering the concubine and spilling out onto the floor and striking the ceiling. The dark figure rose, wiped its katana blade clean, and turned to the young woman.

"Are you hurt?" they asked her.

"No, I'm fine," the girl rose and smiled kindly at the shadow. "You did splendidly."

The henge jitsu disabled and Haku returned to normal, shrugging off the thin silk robes and using them to clean up his face and arms. His sister handed him a clean bundle of uniform, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Haku, why in god's name would you volunteer for something like this?" she rolled her eyes. "I am the girl, you know."

"Would you have been comfortable giggling and flirting with the target?" Haku said seriously, but one corner of his mouth quirked up in a small grin. Hana grumbled something in the negative and Haku took the uniform from her, beginning to change. "Check him for the scroll. I'll secure an exit."

"Right," Hana nodded and knelt beside the bloody mess to paw around for the mission's objective: a scroll containing a design for a new cannon-type weapon.

"Thank you for coming to visit, Kazekage," Konohamaru extended his hand in greeting. The red-haired man shook the offered hand and glanced around the hallway.

"Where are the others?" Gaara asked the younger man.

"Ah, the Hokage is on the seventh floor with Haruno Sakura-san. I've been instructed to take you there, if you'd please follow me."

Konohamaru bowed respectfully and led the way, Gaara following with Temari and Kankuro in tow.

"Where's Sasuke-san?" Mako Naori blinked as she swiveled her head this way and that, trying to spot the aforementioned man in the meeting room. Kigeki Jun, her partner, shook her head from her seat, one hand placed on her large and swollen belly.

"He's not coming today. Haiyu's in charge of today's meeting," she explained.

"Oh," Naori sat beside her and smiled softly. "His friends are coming from the Sand Country, right?"

Hana rushed forward as soon as she saw the gates, her feet fumbling in the thick white snow clumps that covered the road. Her brother kept his slow, steady pace behind her, using his chakra to walk atop the powdery whiteness, his head bowed in thought.

"Haku, hurry up! Mom's at the gate!" Hana yelled back at him. He looked up from his contemplation to see their mother waving to them from the gates and he too rushed forward with elation.

"Mother!" he cried joyfully. "We're home!"

"Are you nervous?" Sakura smiled kindly at her friend.

"Of course I'm not nervous," Sasuke snorted, almost sounding offended by the question. "Why would I be?"

"It's been a year since Gaara's come to visit Naruto," she grinned playfully. "You think he'll try to hog all the attention today, since you're here all year round?"

"Pfft, he can try," Sasuke sounded even more put out. Sakura giggled and then the door opened and Konohamaru stepped in, moving to the side to let Gaara and the others pass into the room.

"Announcing, the Kazekage Gaara from the Valley of the Sand and his two subordinates, Temari and Kankuro."

Sasuke rose from his chair to welcome them. Sakura moved to one side and bowed respectfully as Gaara approached.

"Welcome back, Kazekage," Sasuke extended his hand in greeting. Gaara took it firmly and shook it, looking into Sasuke's eyes with his own piercing green gaze. Words failed him for a second, and then he took in a breath and said:

"Thank you, Hokage."

"Naruto's condition has continued to remain stable," Sakura briefed them as they ascended the building, all crammed into the elevator. "He is responsive to outside stimulus, and his eyes continue to move in a REM-cycle manner, indicating that he is still conscious and dreaming. Of what, we are still uncertain, but we are assuming it has to do with the Kyuubi Kitsune."

The elevator dinged and the doors parted and the group stepped out into the topmost floor of the hospital. Beside them, the second set of doors opened up and three others stepped out too: Uchiha Hinata, Haku, and Hana. The children noticed first.

"DADDY!" Hana sprang forward and wrapped her arms around her father's waist, hugging him tightly. Haku, always the more refined, bowed a respectful greeting to Sakura and Gaara, then went over to his father as well.

"You two made it home safely, I'm glad," Saskue smiled down at his children, one hand on each of their heads. He ruffled their hair a bit, and then stepped back, clearing his throat. "Now…"

The twins knew exactly how to proceed. They lost their playful and happy demeanors and straightened, saluting the former Anbu Captain.

"Sir!" they both chimed.

"Here is the mission objective, sir," Haku handed over the scroll. Sasuke took it from him.

"Did you have any problems?" he asked them.

"No, sir!" Hana saluted again. "Everything went flawlessly."

"Very good," Sasuke nodded. "Go report to the captain now."

The twins hesitated.

"Sir, permission to speak freely?" Haku spoke up.

"Go ahead, son," Sasuek nodded.

"…may we please go visit Uncle Naruto with you before we report?" the boy begged, his Anbu demeanor gone.

"Oh, please, Daddy! Can we?" Hana jumped up, her eyes wide and pleading. "We have to tell him all about how we stopped the making of all these bad weapons!"

Sasuke smiled. "He'd like to hear that. Yes, you can stay-" The twins cheered. "-but only for a few minutes! You still have to report to Haiyu."

"We will! We promise!" Hana was already shooting up the hall with Haku hot on her heels. The adults looked on after them for a moment. Hinata broke their silence first.

"Welcome back, Kazekage," she bowed to Gaara.

"Hello, Hinata-san," he smiled lightly at her. "I see they're still a handful."

"Everything's going very well for them," Hinata smiled back. The group began up the hall after the twins as they spoke.

"Hana is applying to be the leader of her squadron soon," Sasuke informed them. "Haku has been debating dropping out of the Anbu to study the position of Hokage more seriously now that they've just turned sixteen."

"If you'd like, so there is not an outcry of favoritism, I can tutor him," Gaara offered.

Sasuke grinned. "Thank you very much for the offer, but the Raikage has already volunteered to do so."

"She never told me," Gaara looked very surprised.

"She wants to create a closer bond with the Fire country, and so she suggested this when the discussion of recruiting a Shichidaime came about at the last Kage meeting."

They were at the room door. They could hear Hana and Haku babbling away at Naruto's sleeping form inside. Sakura held the door latch for a moment, looked back at her friends, and smiled. It looked a little painful, and each of them felt an echo of that pain in their hearts, but then she opened the door and the feeling was gone and everyone stepped into the clean white room and went over to the bed where there were chairs set up for them and sat and looked upon the sleeping Rokudaime Hokage.

The door slid open. Sasuke looked up from his papers.

"You're still here?" Nara Shikamaru rubbed the back of his neck and came forward, holding a manilla folder in one hand.

"I fell behind with the Kazekage's arrival today," he shrugged. "I'm almost done. Why are you still here?"

"Working to make Konoha a war-free zone," he plopped the folder onto Sasuke's stack of work. "What else am I good for?"

"Thanks for all your help, Shikamaru," Sasuke said, sitting back in his chair. "I couldn't have done this without you."

"Bull," the lanky man snorted. "You're perfectly capable of doing this job without any help from me."

"That's not true," Sasuke said in all seriousness, his hands folded and his chin propped atop them. "Since you stayed extra-late to help, I want you to have tomorrow off. Gaara and I will be discussing things up here in my office, so Temari and Kankuro will have nothing to do." He inclined his eyebrow meaningfully at his last statement.

The other man turned red and rubbed the back of his neck again, nervously this time. "Um… thanks."

He left the office. Sasuke took the reports he left and didn't even bother looking through them. He put them on top of the stack that he'd moved aside to address tomorrow morning and stood, giving a little yawn. It really was late. He should go home.

Sasuke looked out the window and saw the tall scale of the hospital building, dark and silent. His mouth moved automatically without him knowing it: "Naruto…"

The darkness swallowed the two of them whole, making Sasuke feel naked almost. The silence was thick and cool. He didn't dare breathe loud, fearing that it would literally shatter the quiet as loud as glass breaks. As it was, he could hear his heartbeat thudding slowly in the dark, and he could hear faintly, Naruto's own heartbeat going slowly, softly, reassuring. His hand reached out in the dark. It found the cool dry skin of Naruto's wrist. He trailed it down to Naruto's fingers and entwined them loosely, his thumb caressing the back of his hand, brushing gently.

"Naruto, I miss you…" he breathed, not even wanting to whisper, knowing that still, his lover could hear him. "I miss you so much that it hurts. All the time, like a hand has reached into my chest and is squeezing my heart and won't let go. I miss you more than the night misses the day, more than deserts miss rain, and I want you to come back. Please come back…"

He lowered his head for a brief moment to weep in the dark that hid him from everything except the other man before him. But he had no shame crying in front of this man. This was his love, his life, his absolute everything. This was the man who gave him a second chance on life, taught him to be human again, taught him things like laughter and love. He taught him all about sleepless nights and love-making, about sweat and tears, about just being yourself and having the courage to know that the people who loved you would except you, no matter what. So much. So very much. What had he given the other man in return?

"It's my fault," he sobbed through the dark. "I didn't love you enough, I didn't hold you enough, I didn't touch you, kiss you, pay attention to you, I didn't give you anything. All I did was selfishly take all you'd given me, and not once did I think to repay you in any way. I…" he hiccupped. "It's my…"

And wordlessly, silently, a gentleness spread throughout the room. It spiraled from the bed at the center and draped itself over Sasuke, soothing and calming him. His heart gave another painful sqeeuze-even now, in this state, Naruto was somehow trying to comfort him. How could he be so selfish? Naruto needed him to be strong. Sasuke wiped his eyes with his free hand, ran it back through his hair, and swallowed. He would be strong.

"I'll wait for you, no matter what," he whispered, brought Naruto's hand up to his face, and kissed it softly.

Sasuke…

Why are you crying…?

Don't be sad…

Tell me, Sasuke…

Tell me why you're crying.

Why are you crying?

Why?

Sasuke.

Sasuke…

"…Sasuke?"