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Seasons of the Sharingan	By : danceswithninjas Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 4124 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters in it, and I won't make any money off this story.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
Kakashi lay on the forest floor next to a large spreading oak. There was enough underbrush around to conceal him, especially with the impromptu camouflage made from mud, sticks, and leaves, but he couldn't shake the feeling that Sasuke must be toying with him.
I know he's here, he thought, but what is he doing? Is he just watching and waiting for me to finally die?
He lay close to a sluggish stream, not good water to drink, but all that was available to him. The stream was small and made very little sound, but the soft gurgling of water was the only thing to break the silence since the Konoha team had left.
Sakura chan wouldn't have sent that team after Sasuke which means either she doesn't know he's here and they just happened to be here, or she has teams spread out searching for him. No one just "happens" to be here.
His canteen was empty, and after draining the last clinging drops he decided it was time to begin drinking the creek water.
I'll have parasites, he thought, but I'll just have to deal with that if I get home. As he sat up his stomach cramped, and he leaned against the tree waiting for the nausea to pass. He'd long since stopped trying to eat anything, and only blood mixed with bile came up. He spat on the ground. He didn't even bother with the mask anymore.
Too much blood, he thought. I won't bleed out at this rate, but I'll starve before I find him.
The creek was only about 5 feet away, and harmless enough, but as he was filling his canteen the slimy, wet undergrowth by the creek slipped, and his hand went out from under him. He was surprised to discover that he barely had enough strength to lift himself out of the water. There was no finding the canteen he'd dropped, which was somewhere in the brackish water.
He looked at his concealed hiding spot. It was so close, but he couldn't make himself move. A dreamy euphoria took him, and he looked up at the canopy of leaves far above him. The forest was so dense and dark that they were almost black, but he could barely make out stray areas of light.
Kakashi wasn't the type to be homesick, but he imagined Konoha on a bright sunny day - the children training, the Inuzuka compound with its constant canine chaos, and Gai. His own dear Gai.
No one comes to this unnatural place that plans to leave, he thought. He'll think I killed myself. I hope he'll be happy again someday. All I did was get close to him just in time to die. It was selfish.
How many days had it been? How long since he'd eaten? He wasn't sure. He cupped some water on his hand and drank, but he spat the fouled water back into the stream and gagged. It was disgusting. He didn't know what was wrong with it, but it was rotten and undrinkable.
Even if he found Sasuke he couldn't fight him, and he closed his eyes to rest, hoping to find a friend when he woke in the land of the dead.
He heard footsteps in the leaves, dulled by the thick wet undergrowth. Now Sasuke decides to show up, he thought.
"He's over here!" he heard. "Hurry!"
"Shikamaru?" he asked. "I told you to leave."
He heard running, and then Sakura knelt by him, pushing chakra into him.
"You can't be here," Kakashi said. "He wants to hurt you."
"Be still, idiot," Sakura said. "You really hurt yourself this time."
Her eyes were wet, and she blinked away tears.
"Don't," Kakashi said. "Save your tears for those who deserve them."
He saw Ibiki standing over him with Shikamaru. "You three need to leave before Sasuke knows you're here. He wants me the most, but I think he'll hurt anyone he can at this point."
He heard crashing and breaking branches, and then Gai was beside him, his eyes frantic.
"Oh, if I had only known! I never would have left you."
"Gai, it's ok."
He knelt and pulled Kakashi into his arms. "And just when we'd truly discovered how deep our friendship truly is!"
"Gai, get back!" Sakura snapped. He moved just far enough to get out of arms range.
"Would you keep it down?" Ibiki asked. "Who knows what kinds of yurei live here?"
"This might sting a little," Sakura said, and she began to heal his ulcer. It burned, like chakra healing always does, and he gagged and vomited blood - a lot of blood. Sakura continued to heal him, and when he finished and lay in the leaves she worked while he got his breath.
"Do you have any water?" he asked, and he drank most of what was in Sakura's canteen as he leaned against the bank.
"You're severely anemic," Sakura said. She pulled a ration bar from her pack. "How long has it been since you've eaten?"
"I don't know. I haven't kept anything down since before I left Konoha."
"That was 4 days ago," Sakura said. "Eat this, but slowly."
He ate a bite and his stomach cramped. He bent over, holding his stomach, and Sakura put her hand just over his stomach. He felt something soothing in his gut, and it felt like something uncoiled inside.
"I'm massaging your stomach with chakra to help the cramps," she said.
"Look over there," Shikamaru said, pointing upstream. A woman knelt in the water, looking down, her long black hair hanging down almost to the water. She wore s loose white dress, and she sobbed as she held a bundle to her chest.
"Some poor woman that came to take her own life," Ibiki said.
"No," Shikamaru said. "Look under her."
She wasn't quite in the water, but she floated above it. She looked up at them, and her face was bloated, grayish-blue, and waterlogged. Water came from her mouth, and she held the bundle toward them as if asking for help. A long slit in her throat disgorged an unending amount of blood that left her and fell into the water.
"Do you see something under the water?" Ibiki asked, "Because that looks like a body just behind it in the shallow part."
"I drank some of that water," Kakashi said. "She might be angry with me."
"Or we're just too loud and attracting spirits," Ibiki said.
"I've seen a few," Kakashi said. "Nothing has been aggressive yet."
The spirit started slowly moving toward them, holding the bundle outstretched.
"Let's get out of here," Sakura said.
They pulled Kakashi on his feet, and when they helped him onto Gai's back Kakashi whispered, "I guess I get to be on top this time, eh?"
Gai's gasp and flustered speech were enough to make everyone turn from staring at the apparition to look at him.
"My friend has a very unusual sense of humor," Gai said. "Sorry."
The apparition was closer now, no more than 10 feet away, and her mouth moved. More water poured out of it, along with the gurgling sound of a drowning victim.
"I guess the throat wound didn't kill her and she drowned," Ibiki said.
They all hurried away from her. As they were leaving a man stepped out of the bushes in the trail ahead.
"He looks human," Sakura said. "Just keep going." She called to him as they passed, "go home. What you're going to do won't bring you peace."
The man simply watched as they passed, but when Shikamaru passed he saw a huge hole in the back of his head.
"I don't know how he did that," he said. "I don't think I want to know."
No one stopped or slowed until they had left the forest far behind. They stopped at a small village. It was large enough to have an inn, and they decided to stop for the night. Kakashi was able to stand and walk with assistance from Gai, but he sat on one of the couches while they made arrangements for a room. He noticed the innkeeper's scowl directed at him, and he assumed that his filthy condition probably aroused suspicion, and he was getting the furniture dirty as well. He didn't care.
Sakura told the innkeeper to send up plenty of water and simple food. When they were ready to go upstairs they had to wake Kakashi, who had to lean on Gai to walk up the stairs.
"Hey!" the innkeeper said. "Is he injured?"
"Anemic," Sakura said.
"Don't leave him here if he dies," the innkeeper said.
Ibiki actually growled at him, and the innkeeper raised his hands in submission. "Very sorry," he said.
The room was small and had only two twin beds. Kakashi headed toward the bathroom, shakily holding onto furniture and chairs to steady himself.
"Eat something first," Sakura said, handing him a ration bar. "Besides starving yourself you have a serious iron deficiency."
He took the ration bar, mumbled something she couldn't make out, and then continued to the bathroom. They heard the tap running for the bath.
"As exhausted as he is he could fall asleep in there” Sakura said. "One of you should go in with him. He might have trouble getting out. I'll get some iron pills and some fresh clothes for him."
Gai knocked on the door. "I'm coming in," he said. Kakashi was already in the tub, his filthy clothes strewn everywhere. He lay in the bath with one arm outside the tub, holding the ration bar. His head was almost submerged, and he chewed slowly with his eyes closed, unaware of Gai's presence with his ears under water.
Gai sat on the toilet and watched him until he saw his body relax and the ration bar slip from his hand. His head slipped down into the water, and he woke and sat up, coughing out water.
"How long have you been here, Gai?"
"I followed you in here. Sakura was concerned that you might need some help."
"I've been able to bathe myself for a long time now," Kakashi said. "I think I can manage."
"Why did you do it?" Gai said. "I don't care about Sasuke going in there, but why did you want to die?"
"I didn't," Kakashi said. "I wanted to kill Sasuke. I know Ibiki said he was going to take care of it, but Sasuke taunted me. He told me to follow him to the Sea of Trees."
"I hope he died by his own hand," Gai said. "I hope it was painful."
"Me too," Kakashi said. He sighed. "I never knew a bath could feel so good. What are the plans?"
"Hokage sama said we'll head back tomorrow. I don't know after that. When I thought I'd lost you all I could think was that we wasted so much time that we could have been together."
"You said we were friends," Kakashi said. "I had the idea that we were more than that. I don't let my friends shoot chakra up my ass and turn me upside down and fuck me senseless."
Gai chuckled. "That will always be one of my favorite memories. I've always been secretive about my sexual partners. I'm not ready to come out of the closet."
"Is that your way of saying no?" Kakashi said, "because I'd like to know. I never let anyone do the things you did to me."
"Friends do tend to spend a lot of time together," Gai said. "Sometimes they even move in together. As roommates," he added quickly.
"I see," Kakashi said.
"And if those roommates tended to be closer than most roommates - physically, I mean - that's no one's business but their own, right?"
"It shouldn't be," Kakashi said.
"You look disappointed," Gai said.
"I guess I thought there was more to this than there is."
"I've never been in a relationship before," Gai said. "I don't want to mess this up."
"We don't have to put a label on it," Kakashi said. "It's enough that we finally figured out we should be together."
"You finally figured it out. I've known since the first time we sparred."
Kakashi began to try to get the leaves and twigs out of his hair.
"Um, may I?" Gai asked. "It's something I've kind of fantasized about."
"You fantasize about pulling twigs out of my hair?" Kakashi asked.
"Well, not exactly. It's just that there's something erotic about bathing. I've thought that I'd like to... uh..."
"Hentai," Kakashi said fondly. "Go ahead if it makes you happy."
Gai began to get the debris out of Kakashi's hair, keeping eye contact, and then he began to wash him with the loofa sponge while he kissed him.
"I want to pull you out of there and wear you out," Gai said. "You need to recover so I can be vigorous again."
"I've never had such a good reason to listen to my doctors," Kakashi said. "I'm too tired to do anything right now though, especially with them in the next room."
When he finished bathing Kakashi Gai brought in the clothes Sakura had gotten for him - jeans and a black t-shirt, both of which were a size too small.
Kakashi tugged at the shirt. It showed every muscle plainly. "I look like a civilian," he grumbled.
"You look good," Gai said. "I like it. You look like a farmer."
"Very funny," Kakashi said.
Gai kissed him and put his hand on his face, stroking it gently. "Don't ever scare me like that again."
Sakura excused herself. "You'll be fine in a few days with some rest, and I need to get back. According to Ibiki the world will fall apart if I’m not in Konoha."
"That isn't what I said," Ibiki said.
"Report to me as soon as you get back," Sakura told Kakashi. "I want to know exactly what happened out there. Ibiki, I’m leaving you in charge. Kakashi, behave yourself."
Kakashi and Ibiki took the beds, but Gai sat by Kakashi's side on an unconformable chair most of the night. Late into the night he passed a stand of Kakashi’s hair through his fingers.
"Love is a dangerous thing," he whispered to his sleeping friend.
Ibiki hadn't been sleeping. He rarely slept when he wasn't in Konoha. He heard Gai. So that's how it is, he thought. I would have thought he would have told Kakashi by now. He generally talks so much.
Shikamaru snored peacefully next to Ibiki.
In the morning Kakashi was able to travel under his own power, but he slowed them down, and Ibiki took the chance to get Kakashi alone by sending Shikamaru and Gai back to Konoha.
"Before you argue with me Gai, I need to talk to Kakashi alone."
Gai obviously didn't want to go.
"You can be with him soon," Ibiki said. "I need to find out if he's still suicidal."
"He said he went there to kill Sasuke," Gai said.
"Do you believe him?" Ibiki asked.
As soon as they had stopped to talk Kakashi had lay on the grass and fallen asleep.
"He's not good at knowing his own mind," Gai said. "He never has been. I can't imagine someone so strong killing himself."
"You don't want to believe it can happen, but his father did. I can't talk to you about what we've talked about, but I have serious concerns about his mental health."
"He told me what Sasuke did to him," Gai said. "It'd still so hard to believe."
After Gai and Shikamaru left Ibiki took the time to meditate. He rarely found any free time, and he wanted to be focused when he dealt with Kakashi.
Kakashi woke an hour later.
"We need to talk," Ibiki said. "Gai told me that you weren't in the Sea of Trees to kill yourself, but no one goes there for any other reason."
"I followed Sasuke in. He taunted me and I followed to kill him. That's all there id to it."
"There is no possible way Sasuke spoke to you," Ibiki said. "The Hokage and I made sure he'll never cause anyone any trouble again."
"He's dead then? You killed him?"
"You'll never have to worry about Sasuke again," Ibiki repeated. "And the timing is off. We left Gai's house and went straight to your's to confront Sasuke. If you heard his voice and followed him all the way here you might be dealing with a psychotic break."
"It was as real as your voice right now," Kakashi said.
"Did you ever actually see him?" Ibiki asked.
"No. I caught glimpses of him ahead of me occasionally, but I could never keep up with him. Once we got to the Sea of Trees I heard movement, but every time I found the source it was a spirit. I had to spend a lot of time avoiding them. None of them were aggressive, but I saw a thing that looked like a goblin with two mouths, and some little glowing things that kind of made a wooden sound and lived in the trees. The goblin was easy to avoid. The little glowing spirits followed me for a bit and left."
"Do you realize you're talking about living in the Sea of Trees for days with spirits around you, and you're talking as if it's normal?"
"It didn't feel that way. I saw some things in there that will haunt me for the rest of my life."
"How did you avoid them?" Ibiki asked. "There's no way to vomit quietly."
"I got away from the goblin before he saw me. It was when I was sick that the others came. They just looked like people, but they all had wounds. I must have been sick several times, and each time one or two of them would come and watch me. When I quit vomiting they would leave."
"We didn't see anything watching you," Ibiki said.
"That's probably because you were there. I had the idea that they were waiting for me to die."
Ibiki shudder. "Is it possible that you did go there to die? When I was in your mind I saw a lot of old wounds, and one very bad one. In fact, your subconscious suffered trauma while I was in there."
"I'm not going to kill myself," Kakashi said.
"I'm glad to hear it, for your sake and for the people who care about you. Gai was inconsolable all the way here, and the Hokage actually abandoned her post to save you. I'm not telling you to make you feel guilty. You have friends who will help you no matter how hard it is for them. Remember that when times are bad."
- 8
- 9
- 10
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Seasons of the Sharingan