A/N: So here's the sequel to Until You. Hope it lives up to expectations! It'll probably run around the same length as Until You, but you never know. Might be longer or shorter, I'll see how it goes.

Always You

Chapter 1

Naruto, glowing with chakra, raced through the tall grass running on all fours. The gazelle he had his eyes on leapt gracefully and swiftly away from him, zigzagging to try and throw him off. Naruto altered course with practiced ease each time, drawing closer to his and Sasuke's dinner.

The animal was getting winded. Naruto pounced before it could lose itself in the forest up ahead, snagging his claws in the animal's throat. He held it down with one knee as the gazelle kicked weakly, bleeding its life into the grass.

Sasuke looked up from inspecting his weapons as Blondie walked back into camp with the deer carcass.

"Well, that's just great. Who's supposed to cook that?" Sasuke gestured at the dripping animal with his kunai.

"You said find food."

"Which when you translate it means find someone to rob of their food. Jesus."

Naruto looked at the deer dangling from his hand. They had no idea what part of what country they were in. They'd been on the run (Sasuke called it seeing the sights) for a year now. There was no town or village nearby and there hadn't been one for weeks. They'd run out of food three days ago. They were currently starving. Naruto would have thought anything would do at this point.

Sasuke stood and came over to examine the deer more closely, trying to see if a meal really could be salvaged from it. He prodded it with a finger. "Well," he said doubtfully. "I guess we can build a fire and try to do something with it. You know how to skin and clean it? Because I sure don't."

Sasuke lit the fire and watched Blondie maul the deer in an attempt to skin the thing. This mangled mess was then tossed onto the flames where it began smoking and burning at once. Sasuke poked it importantly with a stick a few times, calling himself checking it for doneness.

Naruto hooked the charred mass out of the fire two hours later with his foot. They examined it hopefully.

Sasuke looked up at Naruto as he spoke in a genuinely perplexed voice. "How is it that two people who are rich, dangerous and creative can be currently starving to death in the middle of nowhere?"

"I told you we should have bought a map."

Sasuke ignored this. "I'm sick of eating weeds and other rabbit shit. We need food and we need it now." He slumped on the ground and hung his head.

Naruto came over and sat next to Sasuke, putting and arm around him and drawing him close. Sasuke let himself be comforted. After awhile, they reclined in the grass and fell asleep, their stomachs grumbling pitifully.

Things got worse. Sasuke collapsed a day later, unable to go on. Naruto carried him on his back, moving through the countryside, looking for someone, anyone, who might provide food.

Nearly four days after the deer, Naruto wove unsteadily into the front yard of a lone cottage. He collapsed in the dirt. It was somewhere between midnight and dawn

Several individuals came out the following morning and found the two young men. They were dragged into the house with much enthusiasm and excitement. The big blond one was manhandled onto the large bed in the single room of the cottage. The thinner one was lifted between the several cottage occupants and laid to rest beside the big blond one. It was determined that they were uninjured. They simply required food and water. One occupant bathed the men with a sponge while another took their clothes and washed them. Yet another prepared a watery broth to feed them. The rest of the occupants sat around the unconscious men, sharing what little bed space there was left.

Naruto woke when something warm seeped down his throat. He sat up suddenly, fluidly and not at all as if he were on death's door. The girl feeding him the broth jumped back with a squeal of fright. Naruto took in his surroundings.

Five young women stood or sat around the bed. Sasuke lay beside him with another girl holding a bowl of the broth. She'd been feeding him when Naruto sat up and scared her, too. An old crone of a woman stood at the far side of the room, holding what looked like Sasuke's bag. The bag he kept all of their considerable money in. The old crone was currently sifting through the cash and gold, fingering it lovingly, palming the jewels.

The blue eyes took in the one room, the open doorway that let in bright sunlight, the glimpse of the front yard he'd collapsed in. They finally returned to the young women sitting around him on the bed.

The one who'd been feeding Naruto tucked a lock of her brown hair behind one ear. She smiled winsomely. Her eyes were a light green. She hesitantly reached the bowl towards Naruto. After a moment, he took it; he needed nourishment if he were to face whatever was coming.

For Naruto felt distinctly uneasy with the way these women looked at him and Sasuke.

He drained the broth in a few gulps. The bowl was taken from him and set aside. Naruto didn't speak, but he saw the women's eyes, all different shades of green, run over his body more than once. His own eyes dropped to discover his nudity.

The old crone came forward at last. Naruto stared at her without expression.

"Well, ain't you a fine specimen of a man." Her faded green eyes were nearly lost in the folds of her tanned and weathered face. She smacked her wet lips appreciatively. "I daresay I haven't had cock since my own man died many years ago. How about helping an old woman remember what it's like to have prime meat like yourself?"

Naruto had no idea what the woman meant, could barely understand her. Her accent was nearly indecipherable. What he did understand was that the woman planned on keeping their money. He'd seen her stuff the sack in a cupboard and lock it. The key she dropped into the pocket of her worn housedress.

He had to assume that he was in some kind of trouble here. He didn't understand the gleam of anticipation he saw in the women's eyes, but his instincts, belonging mostly to Kyuubi, picked up on the fact that he was amongst predators. He was as weak as a kitten, but his body tensed accordingly.

Naruto wished Sasuke were awake. Sasuke was his walking translator for humans and their actions. Whenever they were around people, Sasuke kept up a running commentary about what they were doing and why. Most especially, though, Sasuke was the unquestioned leader. He always knew what to do in every situation. Naruto felt…not vulnerable, exactly, but nervous. Susceptible to these people.

He glanced to his left at where Sasuke lay sprawled. They'd been eating much better than either of them ever had in the village. Sasuke also trained with Naruto every day, honing his combat skills. These things had combined to put some meat on Sasuke's bones, fleshing him out until he was scarcely recognizable from the waif who'd left the village a year ago. He was still significantly thinner than Naruto, but he didn't look as frail as he used to. Some of Sasuke's meat had fallen away during this week of starvation, though. His eyes were sunken.

The crone saw where Naruto's concern lay. "Yer friend there is in bad shape. Not as strong and healthy as you. If you want to keep receiving food for the both of you I think you should offer me and my girls payment." She gave a rust cackle.

So saying, she shrugged out of her housedress and let it drop on the floor. She shuffled forwards, chortling over the stupefied look on Naruto's face.

Naruto had never seen an old naked body. The crone's skin was wrinkled, sagging off of her bones in loose, lifeless folds. Her breasts hung to her waist. They looked like two empty bags. Her pubic region held a few wiry gray hairs, her labia hanging between her bony legs. It wasn't until she'd shooed her daughters away and climbed into Naruto's lap that an inkling of what was to come pierced his mind.

The crone swung legs thinner than Naruto's arms around his waist. He was suddenly hit with the stench of her privates: an eye-watering mixture of urine and unwashed flesh. He had to hold his breath and grit his teeth to keep from losing the broth he'd been fed.

Her toothless, saliva-coated mouth closed on his and Naruto really did vomit then. Her breath was fetid. He managed to swallow the contents of his stomach back down, aware that he could ill afford to waste what little sustenance he'd been given. He twisted his head away from her and pushed her off of him. Even weak as he was, she went flying off the bed.

"Help me, girls!" The old woman cried.

Her daughters, healthy and well-fed, pounced on the big blond and held his limbs down as the crone came back and positioned her gums around Naruto's limp organ. Naruto bucked strongly in revulsion, nearly succeeding in throwing the girls aside, but they bore down. The crone hummed in delight at having Naruto's manhood in her mouth. To the blond's bewilderment, his organ rose despite his clear disgust. He couldn't understand it. When it was hard as can be and too much for the crone to contain in her weak jaws, she straddled him quickly and lowered her old body over the dripping erection.

Naruto fell back against the thin coverlet at feeling himself engulfed in her slack warmth. It was nothing whatsoever like having normal sex with Hinata had been. Her opening had been tight. He hadn't enjoyed it, but it hadn't brought on the crawling sensation in his skin that he felt now.

The crone seemed unable to ride Naruto. The girls all exerted their strength to shove him over so that he was on top of the crone, still lodged in her loose body.

"If ye want us to feed yer friend there, you'll fuck me good and proper like," the old woman hissed wetly into Naruto's ear.

Naruto's eyes went to Sasuke, whose pinched features sent worry rippling through him. He leaned on his palms, clenching his jaw and angling his head to cut back on how much of her filthy smell he inhaled.

A weakened Naruto was still quite strong, though, and he fucked her hard. Her swooning screeches abraded his nerves until he thought he would claw her throat out just to be done with it. He didn't stop until the hag fainted beneath him, at which point he shoved her to the floor and collapsed on the hard bed. The girls crowded around their fallen mother.

Sasuke had woken with the rocking motion of the bed, his body responding to the small amount of broth he'd been given. He'd seen Blondie fucking some old bitch and then fallen unconscious again.

He woke up again some time later to find himself being fed. Blondie was sitting beside him on the bed, holding a mug of something steaming while a girl, actually several girls, were crowded around him. Sasuke's dark eyes took in the fact that one girl had her mouth on Blondie's cock, while another was stretching Blondie's balls in her palm. Another girl was kneeling behind Blondie and rubbing her breasts on his back.

"Ohh, this one is awake! I like his wee little package."

Sasuke jumped violently at feeling a soft hand close around his dick. His head swung around in time to see a petite girl reaching out a pointed pink tongue to taste his slit. She was the one who'd just spoken. Sasuke's hand swept in a wide arc, slapping the bitch soundly.

The action drained him. Sasuke fell back against the bed weakly.

Naruto had turned in profound gratitude when one of the girls declared Sasuke awake. Seeing his confused anger at finding themselves in this situation was a balm to Naruto's frazzled spirits. Sasuke was awake and outraged; everything would be better now. He would get them out of his mess.

"They've taken us in," Naruto explained without needing Sasuke to ask. "They said they'd refuse to feed us unless we had sex with them. And," Naruto added, wondering how much wider Sasuke's eyes could go, "they've taken our money and locked it away. All of it."

Sasuke thought maybe he would have some kind of aneurysm and drop dead. Right there on the bed. They'd taken his money? His money? Sasuke's hard-earned, painstakingly saved, never-to-be-fucked-with money?

Naruto saw Sasuke's face turn brick red as the girls watched with interest. The crone was still passed out in a corner where her daughters had laid her. Seeing Sasuke's reaction, Naruto felt like making one of those loud triumphant sounds the Uchiha often voiced. The blond contained himself.

Sasuke couldn't remember the last time he'd been so enraged. He was too weak to do anything just then, though. He couldn't even speak as black crowded his vision, edging him toward another faint. He held on to his consciousness severely. Instead of trying to talk, he took a moment to apply his sharp brain to the situation.

Blondie must have gotten them to this place somehow. When Sasuke had passed out some days ago they'd been nowhere near shelter of any kind. He'd given in to exhaustion knowing that Blondie would take care of them. Blondie always managed to come through no matter what. Sure enough, Blondie had gotten them to food and shelter. He was proud of the guy.

Now then. Sasuke counted five women between the ages of thirteen and twenty-five. An old woman was lying in a corner. Sasuke had a dim memory of seeing Blondie fucking that hag, lending truth to the blond's words of a moment ago. Sasuke eyed the way the girls moved and concluded that they weren't kunoichi. Good. Even if they were, though, they'd be no match for Blondie.

Sasuke took in the cottage. It would be spacious if there weren't so many people currently inside of it. An old-fashioned stove stood in one corner. A rough-hewn table and a few chairs stood along one wall. There was a window opposite the door. Strings of garlic, onions, peppers and potatoes hung from the ceiling. A basket of carrots, squash and peas sat near the stove. Sasuke guessed there must be some kind of garden nearby.

It would do quite nicely.

Sasuke didn't fight again as the girls cautiously approached him. He let himself be fed, fondled, kissed…they kissed his cock and his body since he bit the girl who tried to kiss his lips. Naruto, seeing Sasuke's acquiescence to this treatment, took his cue from him.

The crone woke up later that evening, and limped to where Sasuke and Naruto sat at the table greedily eating beef stew and fresh baked bread, surrounded by her girls. Her eyes took in the amount they consumed and she was happy that she'd taken their money. She would need it to replenish her horde of food.

She'd been whoring her girls out to thieves and stray criminals for years now. These vagrants took what her girls offered and left them with their lives and possessions. This big blond and his smaller friend couldn't be all that different. The crone was sure that continued pussy would keep the boys with them. They could protect her and her girls from anyone else who happened by. The toothless old woman grinned at this thought.

Unseen by her, Sasuke caught the grin, but kept on eating. He had to clench his jaw to keep from breaking the hand that slid along his leg. It was the youngest girl again, the one who looked to be twelve or thirteen. She sat near him at the table, refilling his bowl whenever he was close to emptying it.

Sasuke and Naruto felt much stronger once they had a decent meal in their bellies. The girls, seeing this, barely allowed them to digest the food before they were led back to the bed. The youngest girl dragged Sasuke down with her. He was almost painfully repulsed by the feel of his naked body on hers, but he had no choice if he wanted to continue being fed until Blondie regained his full strength.

He was quick. He stabbed at the general area of her pussy until he eventually landed in her opening. He shoved and shoved until he was all the way in. The girl, he didn't bother learning her name, panted and squealed in a high voice as he pounded into her. Sasuke had never been so disgusted; he'd never been with a girl before. He tried to keep his body raised off hers but his arms lost their strength. He dropped atop her squirming body, making her wrap her arms and legs around him. This pissed Sasuke off more, which caused him to fuck her harder which, in turn, gave her more pleasure. She was squeezing the life out of him with her strong young limbs.

Beside him, Naruto was hammering with equal fury into the eldest girl. Another girl positioned her pussy in front of Naruto's face and commanded him to suck. Naruto was only grateful she didn't smell like her mother. He bit the pink flesh before his face, sucking viciously. He only went along because Sasuke didn't tell him not to.

The screams in the cottage went on long into the night.

It hindered the healing process, slowed their recovery, but Naruto and Sasuke paid the price for their food dutifully for three days. They collapsed in a sweaty heap one morning amidst the tangled limbs of the girls, all of them piled on the bed, the crone asleep on the floor in front of the door. They'd been fucking for most of the night.

Sasuke could not take another hour of the heinous bitches. Not even another second. He'd been forced to give head to the whores, kiss them, touch them in unmentionable places. He searched out Blondie's eyes through a tangle of arms and legs.

"Blondie, you good?" Sasuke whispered. They were the first words he'd spoken since he and Naruto had fallen prey to these women; he'd been too furious to speak before. Naruto answered with a grunt and an alert look. Sasuke interpreted this as a yes. "Kill them. Do it now, even if you don't have all your strength back. I can't take another day of this shit."

That these people would die had been Sasuke's plan from the moment he woke up to learn they'd taken his money. The payment they exacted for the food they served only solidified his decision.

Naruto sprang into action now, glad to be able to repay these people for their poisonous kindness. Any qualms he had about killing defenseless people had long since rotted away in Sasuke's company; Sasuke had shown him time and again how no one was ever innocent and how often times others had to die so that he and Sasuke might live.

Other times, like now, their lives hadn't been threatened, but the insult done to them was too great to be left unanswered. Naruto, under Sasuke's tutelage, learned quickly that people who crossed them were not to be allowed mercy. What was done here in this cottage went far beyond crossing or insults. Naruto killed the sleeping girls brutally, quickly and with great pleasure. The crone woke up and lunged at them, but Sasuke caught her head between his hands and snapped her thin neck. He dropped her atop her girls.

Naruto's eyes faded from red to blue as he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. Sasuke knew the bloodlust took awhile for him to get rid of once he indulged it.

"Let's look around," Sasuke said after a minute.

There was indeed a garden located some distance behind the house. There were pigs and cows corralled in a clearing several hundred yards into the woods behind the garden. Other than that there wasn't a thing to be seen besides the sea of tall grass that stretched to the horizon in front of the cottage.

Naruto came out of the structure holding a map and Sasuke's sack of money. Sasuke took the sack and checked the contents.

"This map says we're three days from the nearest village. It's marked here, see?" Naruto held the map out to Sasuke. The blond had discovered that they were in Earth Country.

Sasuke looked back at the cottage, now an abattoir, before looking up at Blondie's red-splattered face. "I think we should stay here," Sasuke said quietly. The sun was properly up now, the blazing rays doing interesting things to Naruto's eyes and hair.

"For how long?"

"For good. Live here. I'm thinking we can still go wherever we want, but we'll have a place to come back to so we're not caught out like we were this last time. With the map we can plan our travels, know where the fuck we're going for once."

Naruto looked at the dark red highlights that shone in Sasuke's shoulder length ponytail. Sasuke's eyes squinted in the harsh light as he looked up at him. "How long have you been thinking about this?" Naruto said.

"Since I woke up and you told me they took our money."

Naruto eyed the map in his hands. "Okay. I think it's a good idea."

"Cool. And Blondie?" Naruto looked back up. "You did great getting us here. You saved our lives."

Naruto only looked at Sasuke, feeling the familiar love sweep through him. He gave a single nod. Sasuke clapped him on his shoulder before heading back into the house.

They burned the bodies outside the cottage. Naruto piled them in a heap and Sasuke let fly a fireball.

Their first night in the cottage after they'd killed the previous occupants saw the blond and the brunette coming together in front of the blood-soaked bed, meeting in a fierce kiss. They themselves were still bloody from their earlier butchery. Naruto found the coppery scent exciting. It added to his lust, already riding high from days without having gay sex with Sasuke. His Kyuubi attributes were evident as Naruto crushed Sasuke to him, the smaller boy supporting his weight by wrapping his arms around Naruto's neck.

What followed was a rough, animalistic mating on the blood-soaked mattress that had Sasuke yelling and Naruto growling.

Sasuke could never be without Blondie's touch for long. It had been well over a week since they'd done anything intimate, thanks to starving and those girls. He latched onto Naruto's mouth now with a ferocity that Naruto quite loved; Sasuke was never aggressive like that. He always initiated their intimacy, always needed gay sex, but he never bit and scratched the way Naruto did.

Naruto felt Sasuke's sharp little teeth nip him. He dug his claws into Sasuke's ass, holding their erect organs pressed together as he fell deliberately backward onto the bed. The mattress squelched bloodily as they rolled, Naruto pinning Sasuke's arms to his sides as he kissed him hungrily.

The big blond was loath to take the time to prep Sasuke's body. He wanted to be inside him right away. He worked his thick fingers first in Sasuke's mouth then in his entrance quickly before penetrating him in one thrust that had Sasuke's sphincter protesting painfully. Sasuke wrapped his legs around the muscular thighs as Blondie used him savagely. Just then he didn't care how much Blondie hurt him, he needed to forget what those women had made him do.

The house took a few days to scrub clean of blood. Naruto did this. Sasuke pored over the map, memorizing details.

They spent a couple of weeks there. They knew nothing about gardening or preserving food, but they harvested and ate the vegetables. The animals were killed, cooked (with some success) and eaten. The bed had been burned. One day a month later, Sasuke looked up from the map he studied daily and spoke.

"Okay. Let's move southeast toward that village, see what we see."

Naruto only nodded, drying himself from his bath at the stream in the woods.

"Do you know any seals or jutsus for safe-guarding this place, Blondie?"

Naruto appeared thoughtful. "What do you wish to accomplish?"

"I want you to make it so nobody can enter here while we're gone. If they do make it inside I want them dead. Painfully."

"I have several that will serve our purposes."

Naruto dressed then went to his bag and withdrew a blank scroll. He began entering words on it, his face intent on his task. Sasuke packed food for them, checked his weapons. When Naruto said he was ready they shouldered their bags and left the cottage. Sasuke stood aside as Naruto laid the scroll out on the ground in front of the house. He sat cross-legged behind the scroll and made several hand seals.

Sasuke watched as Blondie slammed his hand down on the empty circle that was surrounded by kanji on the scroll. "Seal!" The kanji flew off the scroll, twined about the house, glowed and were gone. He looked at Blondie in admiration.

"Well, fuck, Blondie! Where'd you learn that shit? I didn't know you could do that."

"You didn't believe me when I said I could do it?"

"I didn't think it would be like that. I thought you would just mutter a few words."

"Jiraiya-sensei was an expert on seals. He taught me much."

"What else can you do?"

"Regarding seals? Too much to name."

"Damn. Every time I think I know all there is to know about you, you pull some shit like that and make me realize I'll never know all there is to know about you. Ready?"

"Yes."

They traveled leisurely, Sasuke doing most of the talking as usual. Naruto always listened intently. The things Sasuke said were never drivel or idle. Personally, Naruto didn't understand how one person could have so much to say, every day, all the time, but he liked it. He was receiving an education whenever Sasuke opened his mouth.

When they reached the village it was to find that it was very sparsely populated and contained one little tea and dango shop. Sasuke groaned.

"Jesus, look at that. Here I am starving and all they have is a fucking dango shop? I hate dango."

Naruto ducked in, noting that there were only three other patrons sitting at the small tables. He heard Sasuke grumbling behind him. Naruto sat down with his back to the patrons, facing the door. Sasuke sat across from him. A pleasant woman came and took their order. When the woman walked away, Sasuke snickered. "Dyke," he said.

"What is a dyke?" Naruto wanted to know.

"A bitch who has sex with other bitches. Like gay sex, only in reverse."

"Oh. How do you know what kind of sex she has?"

"I just know. Look, Blondie, I've been thinking," Sasuke said as he dug in his pack to pay for their order.

Naruto waited to hear what Sasuke had been thinking but just then a hand reached past Naruto and snatched the bag from Sasuke's hands. Naruto grabbed the arm attached to that hand automatically, before it could retreat. Sasuke leapt onto the table and threw himself onto the man who held his bag. "You fucking thief!" Sasuke screamed.

Naruto saw that he was holding onto a man with some kind of filthy rag covering his mouth and extremely bloodshot green eyes. Sasuke's fist was coming in for a landing on the thief's head when suddenly the thief was gone. Naruto looked across the shop to where the thief now stood, holding Sasuke's bag and staring at them.

The thief had been one of the three other patrons Naruto had seen upon entering the shop. Only two were left now: this thief and another man wearing an identical cloak. Naruto assumed they were partners or friends. The partner carried a huge scythe on his back. His purple eyes held a sardonic glint as he gazed at them across the tables.

"What have you got there, Kakuzu?" the scythe-bearing man asked the thief.

"Money. Lots of it." Kakuzu let the coins and jewels flow through his hand. Sasuke lunged forward, but Naruto blocked him with an outstretched arm.

"Give us back our money," Naruto said.

Kakuzu raised those horrible eyes to them. "It is mine now. I will let you leave with your lives."

"Blondie," Sasuke said desperately. Naruto lowered his arm. They both leapt at the cloaked men.

Kakuzu and his partner jumped in opposite directions. Naruto and Sasuke anticipated this. Sasuke went after the scythe guy, Naruto after Kakuzu.

It was immediately noticeable that these were opponents far stronger than any the former Leaf ninjas had gone up against previously.

Sasuke dodged the scythe with incredible speed and agility. Had his money not been stolen right out of his hands, he would have found it amusing to be fighting someone whose dirty language rivaled his own. He wasn't able to land a blow on the fucker but he managed to avoid being cut, something he realized the Jashin-swearing freak wanted.

Naruto handled Kakuzu well. It took him a moment to analyze his many different chakra natures and corresponding attacks, but once that was done, the blond realized he simply needed a move too powerful for the man to overcome. A glance in Sasuke's direction showed that he was still holding his own against Kakuzu's partner.

"You shouldn't be looking away from me," Kakuzu said. He landed in a crouch a few feet away from Naruto and formed several hand seals. Naruto took the opportunity to do the same.

Jiraiya-sensei had taught him much, yes, but there was one move that was Naruto's own. He brought forth Rasengan in his palm then used his other hand to insert wind chakra into it. It required some concentration, but Naruto had it done and ready to use by the time Kakuzu launched a fire attack at him. Naruto held the Rasenshuriken away from his body as he used a hand to cast a wave of water that doused the wall of flame. He launched himself at Kakuzu, leading with the Rasenshuriken.

Sasuke and Hidan, as the scythe bearer had introduced himself, were fighting on the roof of the tea and dango shop. At the huge blast of wind and noise they both looked down to see Kakuzu being obliterated some distance away.

"Shit," Sasuke and Hidan chorused in awe.

Sasuke felt something slice his arm just then. He looked around to find that Hidan had cut him at last and was joyously licking Sasuke's blood from the tip of one prong on his scythe.

"And now," Hidan breathed exultantly. "You die."

Sasuke glanced at the shallow cut on his arm. It didn't look fatal. Certainly didn't feel fatal. Was that scythe poisonous or something? Since Blondie was done with his fight, Sasuke considered joining him on the ground to get help defeating Hidan. The guy was too strong for Sasuke to beat by himself.

Naruto surveyed the large crater before him. Kakuzu lay in a bloody heap at its center. He jumped down into the crater to make sure the man was really dead.

Sasuke eyed the odd symbol on the roof etched in Hidan's blood. The whole black and white deal the guy sported was creepy. He couldn't understand why the guy didn't try to kill him. All Hidan did was stand in that circle and shout to the skies that Jashin should accept this sacrifice and blah de blah blah.

"Dude. Not to interrupt your little Kabuki performance here, but….if we're done, can I go now?" Sasuke didn't want the jerk attacking his back. He edged sideways, away from Hidan's madness. What kind of person stopped in the middle of a fight to pray??

Hidan lowered his eyes so that he was gazing at Sasuke. He withdrew a long black spike from his cloak and held it up.

Sasuke obediently looked at the spike then back at Hidan's face.

Hidan turned the spike so it pointed at his chest, directly at his heart.

Sasuke wondered if he was supposed to try and prevent the man from killing himself. It was certainly no skin off his back if the jackass committed suicide. He'd be doing Sasuke a favor.

Hidan grinned. The spike plummeted downward.

Naruto landed behind Hidan and grabbed his wrist, halting the spike a scant millimeter from his chest.

"Sasuke," Naruto bit out. "Move."

Sasuke obeyed without question. Naruto had Hidan wrapped in a bear hug, preventing the screaming and cursing man from moving while Naruto backed them both out of that symbol. He'd glanced up from the crater, seen what was going on and understanding had come to him in a flash.

Once safely out of the bloody symbol, Naruto closed his claws around Hidan's throat and pried his head from his body.

Sasuke and Naruto both jumped at hearing Hidan's detached head yell at them for damaging his beautiful person.

"Okay, that's just wrong," Sasuke said in a small voice. He shuddered.

Naruto agreed. He placed the head on the ground, lifted his leg and crushed the head beneath his heel. He repeated this process until there was nothing but splattered gray matter and bone fragments. Even these fragments Naruto ground to powder. Blood and gore was splashed up his leg to the knee.

Sasuke eyed this mess for a few minutes before he calmly walked away and threw up.

"Impressive," a voice spoke to them. It was accompanied by slow clapping. Naruto spun around and saw several individuals standing near the entrance to the small village. They all wore the same cloaks as Hidan and Kakuzu. "Leader will be quite put out at the loss of two team members, but hey," the blond man continued. "Maybe you two would be interested in taking their places."

They were a curious bunch of individuals, Naruto decided. There was the one wearing a blond ponytail and some kind of machine over one eye who was currently speaking. There was a short squat one who had the lower half of his face covered. There was an incredibly tall one with an equally huge sword on his back and there was one who was of medium height and build. All of these people remained silent, letting the blond speak for them. Naruto sensed a lot of chakra, even at this distance.

Sasuke wiped his mouth with the back of one hand. "Fuck off, asshole."

"Or," the blond retorted, "We could just avenge our fallen comrades." He threw some kind of small white thing towards Sasuke and Naruto who jumped back automatically. Just in time, too, since the thing exploded right where they'd been standing.

Naruto ran, heading for the open spaces outside of the small village. Chakra lent power to his leaps and Sasuke had a hard time keeping up. Their attackers weren't far behind.

The large sword-wielding one landed in front of Naruto, halting his headlong dash. Sasuke pulled up short behind him, turning so that he and Naruto were back to back. Ponytail and the squat one joined Swordman in circling Sasuke and Naruto. The quiet one hung back, watching disinterestedly.

Swordman attacked first. Naruto blocked the strange weapon with an arm, feeling the impact clear to his feet. His Kyuubi traits emerged as he fought the wild strength of the ugly man. Sasuke had his hands full with a bunch of creepy puppets and those exploding clay creatures.

"Sharingan!" Sasuke prepared to fry both his attackers with a fireball. The squat one maneuvered his puppets so that they held Sasuke in a death grip, preventing him from executing the katon. Ponytail held a small clay bird in his hand. He cocked his arm back to hurl it at Sasuke's face.

"Stop!"

Naruto, Sasuke and their three attackers looked around at hearing the deep voice. The quiet one had spoken up at last.

His face was hidden beneath his straw hat and behind the high collar of his red and black cloak. Swordman backed away from Naruto as the quiet man approached. Sasuke struggled in the unbreakable grip of the puppets as the guy came hesitantly closer and closer to him. He could see a faint gleam of eyes staring at him between the brim of the hat and the top of the collar, but that was all he could see of the person.

"Le him go," the quiet one said. Sasuke was released hurriedly.

He'd watched the big blond one kill Kakuzu and Hidan with ease. He hadn't really paid attention to this smaller one until he'd heard him tell Deidara to fuck off. Something about the voice had been vaguely familiar. At seeing him fight, the quiet one had felt shivers chase up and down his spine. It couldn't be. It couldn't…but the way the guy moved was also familiar. At the sight of the Sharingan, he could deny it no more.

The quiet one stopped when he was in front of Sasuke. Sasuke held himself tensely, feeling Blondie land at his side, ready to back him up. He looked at the eyes that were clearly visible at this proximity. They appeared to be black.

No one moved. The quiet one spoke. "Little Brother?"

Sasuke felt a mountain of ice crash down on his head at hearing those two words. His entire body went numb, his eyes searching the ones in front of him urgently, frantically…hopefully.

The quiet one spoke again. "It is you, isn't it? Are you called Sasuke?"

As if in a dream, Sasuke nodded his head slowly. His heart thudded painfully against his ribs. His breathing was suddenly a task that required all of his concentration.

The quiet one removed his hat revealing dark hair parted in the center and gathered in a ponytail. "It's me. Itachi."

A breeze blew past the group of frozen men as the two brothers stared at each other.