Sasuke may have been behaving like a person undergoing a severe psychotic breakdown, but it didn't mean he was blind. Ever since Tsunade took on the Elder position, Naruto had been an awkward, stuttering mess and was keeping his distance like Sasuke was contagious, and it couldn't have been more obvious that he was trying to hide something. Considering how little Sasuke paid attention to the actions of those around him, the fact that he noticed was testament to how transparent it was.

He didn't care what was going on, but it was annoying that Naruto had the audacity to keep something from him. That wasn't the dynamic he wanted. It wasn't a stretch to say that Naruto would kiss the ground under Sasuke's shoes if he was asked, so him having a secret was definitely off-putting. Was there some way to condition him out of it? And, more importantly, was there a way to do so that also emphasised how little it actually mattered to Sasuke? Because it didn't matter at all.

The problem was that his mind kept zoning in on this to distract itself from the oppressive paranoia that kicked in every few hours. When that happened he ceased functioning, all of his instincts going into crisis mode, and he had to focus on something inane and irrelevant until it went away. And there was nothing more inane and irrelevant than Naruto.

As he thought that, a stab of discomfort hit Sasuke in the chest. Guilt? He doubted it. But he decided that it might good idea to stop casually insulting Naruto to himself when there was nothing to be mad at him for. It just wasn't as satisfying as it used to be.

Eventually, after several days of this annoying pattern of behaviour, Sasuke knew he couldn't just let it slide anymore, and if he was ever going to find a solution to his real problem he needed to figure out Naruto's sneakiness so that he could stop turning to it in times of difficulty. He began preparing. After another whole day of pacing and staring – the entirety of which Naruto watched like a bodyguard – he waited for the moment that some lame excuse presented itself. And, at what must have been around nine o'clock, sure enough:

"Hey, so, I don't know if I'm going to be able to sleep tonight," Naruto said, overly casual. "I might go see how Ino's doing, ask if she can give me a lesson in… in… flower arranging. I heard she used to be really good at it and I've always wanted to learn. You'll be right here, though, won't you?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. That was so pathetic it deserved an award. Still, flower arranging with Ino was definitely dull enough that he would never, ever have insisted on tagging along, so it might have been a good way for Naruto to get away without being followed. If it were even slightly believable.

He was going to be followed, of course. Sasuke had debated whether seducing it out of him would be easier, but decided against it in the end. If he was going to use sex as a tool then it would only be when he really, truly needed it.

As Naruto headed off, Sasuke hastily threw on a dark overcoat he'd stolen from the hospital, one of a few items kept there in case someone got theirs too covered in blood or holes to be much good. He'd long since lost his normal clothes and had been wearing Naruto's for much longer than he intended. There was no way Naruto wouldn't spot his own garish wardrobe even at night, so they had to be covered up. Then he got moving.

The first difficult part was figuring out how big a gap to leave as a buffer between them. The only people Sasuke had stalked before were all humans who couldn't see him, so proximity hadn't been much of an issue, whereas while skulking after Naruto he had to constantly adjust himself, staying out of sight but keeping within his own hearing range, then remembering that Naruto's own hearing fluctuated between abysmal and remarkable and falling back accordingly.

The second challenge came when, after slowly navigating the familiar passages, there was no longer any way to deny that Naruto was going above ground. It didn't sound like much, and Sasuke had mostly suspected it anyway, but icy coldness gripped at his insides as he continued. He hadn't gone up since finding Itachi's letter and since the Elders had been murdered. He hadn't rationally considered ever going up again. The very idea of the surface world felt like a trap.

Yet somehow, as if in a trance, he kept moving. The sound of Naruto's footsteps kept him hypnotised, the methodical beat calming him down. Naruto would never purposely lead him into a trap, and if he did by accident, well, he would practically give his own life to stop it from working. He was impulsive like that.

The third challenge was the worst of them all: getting past security. Kankuro always turned a blind eye when Sasuke wanted to go up, and Temari threatened and sometimes followed him but knew begrudgingly that she had no real power over him. Just to make things all the more frustrating, neither of them was on duty tonight.

Neji's glare could have hit Sasuke from a mile away. He threw one right back. Naruto was nowhere to be seen, which must have meant he'd been allowed to pass through without question, and therefore had Tsunade's permission to go up. It was for a mission, then. A mission that he wasn't allowed to tell anyone about? Or was that his own decision, to spare Sasuke's frail, delicate, vulnerable feelings? The idea was disgusting, but probably true. It seemed like a Naruto thing.

There was no doubt that Sasuke would get above ground as well, but he could be sure that Neji planned on making it difficult. Those eerily pale eyes scrutinised him on his approach.

"Can I help you?"

"You can move," Sasuke replied bluntly, getting ready to step around, but Neji blocked him.

"Sorry, nobody's passed on anything about you being allowed out."

"Then there's been a mistake. Move."

He didn't budge. "Why are you trying to follow Naruto?"

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"Not everything is about him." Sasuke was getting impatient. He could barely hear Naruto's echo bouncing off the tunnel walls; a little while longer and he'd be gone. He must have been running. "You know, I thought you wanted to leave this place forever. What's stopping you from walking out right now?"

Neji's eyes narrowed. "If I say, 'none of your business', you're going to call me a hypocrite. Fine. I've thought about it. I've considered it a lot, actually, since the business of your so-called brother came about. But I've decided I might be able to do some good here, and I'll start by not letting you leave."

For fuck's sake.

"Look," said Sasuke. "I was never asking. I really couldn't care less what you say." He closed his eyes, took a long, deep breath, and became fully invisible.

Against Neji's hypersensitive vision, he wasn't certain that this would have any effect, but he figured there was a good chance that someone who could see vampires naturally wouldn't have bothered exercising his new eye muscles. It looked like he was right: Neji jumped as though electrified, lunging in Sasuke's direction and swearing. He fumbled at the air mere inches from Sasuke's face before turning and running into the tunnel that led upwards. He had no reason to suspect that Sasuke could do little more than stay still like this and assumed exactly what Sasuke hoped he would. Now it was only a matter of quietly following behind until Neji gave up, then he could lie invisibly against the wall as he was passed by, giving him free passage.

Only Neji was fanatic about not giving up. Sasuke kept his distance but once or twice saw him darting around corners with his arms and legs stretched out wide so he didn't miss any spaces big enough to fit a person. He even trailed his fingers along the roof of the cave as if expecting Sasuke to have spider-like powers. He was irritatingly thorough, and fast enough that there was a real concern that he might catch up to Naruto himself.

In fact, he got all the way to the top. Sasuke began to see the white dot of sunlight just as his fuse ran out and he had become tempted to knock Neji out from behind. Word of it would probably get back to Tsunade but it was hard to care at this point. However, he reconsidered. In his frenzied state, Neji looked like he was about to make the same mistake Naruto had made months ago and fail to prepare himself for the blinding brightness. All Sasuke had to do was wait a few more seconds and Neji wouldn't be able to see a thing. Getting past him would be no contest.

Three… two… one… there. Neji was out, and he hadn't slowed down his approach at all. Sasuke stopped trying to be stealthy and casually jogged the rest of the way. He squinted his eyes; the light was beginning to look strange.

Come to think of it, wasn't it the middle of the night? Why would there be sun?

He got one step outside when Neji tackled him from the side in a move that sent them both sprawling to the ground. Sasuke felt the stolen coat he was wearing rip against rock as his eyes shot up and he saw that, yes, the sky was pitch-black. Neji didn't need to adjust to anything.

Then what was the bright light? As Sasuke was rolled painfully onto his side, he saw that too: it was coming from a towering spotlight, some distance away but blazing like a ball of fire, overlooking a sports oval. He remembered the oval but not the light; it must have only just been built. Shit.

Most importantly, he saw Naruto. Far and getting further by the second, but he was there.

Neji pinned Sasuke's wrists while he was distracted, sitting on his chest. Sasuke could have broken out of it easily in the right frame of mind, but right now he was furious at the humiliating position. No one dared physically restrain him.

"If you don't get off…" he began, voice quivering poisonously.

"I've spent my whole life being threatened. I'm not afraid of you." And Neji looked like he meant it. As an added insult, his long hair hung down so that the ends fell on Sasuke's face, almost in his mouth. "And I'm not letting go of you until you're back where you belong."

"Like hell." Sasuke snapped his hips up and to the left to dislodge Neji, but it didn't work. His body felt slightly lethargic, probably because he'd spent the past several weeks barely moving let alone training. He swore at himself internally for letting it get to that stage.

Neji gripped him harder. "Once again, why are you following Naruto? What are you going to do to him?"

"Do? I'm not going to do anything! It's what he's doing that matters."

"And why is it any of your business what he does?"

Sasuke threw him as condescending a glare as he could manage from his position. "You really can't answer that yourself?"

"I can come up with fifty answers. I want yours."

There was nobody on this planet that he hated more than Neji. Rage built up inside him so strongly that the other must have been able to feel it radiating from his body. He could have killed him in that moment, if his hands were free. Since they weren't he had no choice but to spit out a response.

The obvious one, the one he thought didn't need to be said, was that he and Naruto were a couple so they shared everything. It was a good thing that it usually went unspoken because he wasn't sure he could ever say it aloud. It felt wrong. They were definitely something, but a couple... He hadn't yet come up with a definition with which he was comfortable. Plus, 'shared everything' was a complete lie.

He had the sneaking suspicion that Neji didn't believe in his and Naruto's relationship; that he thought it was fake and that one of them – no prize for guessing which – was using the other. Well, he wasn't entirely wrong. Sasuke did still have every intention of playing Naruto's feelings in his favour when the time came, but that didn't mean what they had was fake, not that Neji would understand the distinction.

It wasn't like Sasuke could give the real reason. Well, Neji, I'm following Naruto because I'm scared shitless and clinging onto him makes it go away. Right.

Neji's knees were digging into his ribs, making it hard to think. He went with a plausible half-truth. "Because he usually can't keep his mouth shut and the fact that he hasn't told me what he's doing means it must be particularly stupid or dangerous."

And as soon as the last word was out of his mouth, he knew. Of course. A stupid, dangerous mission? Of course Naruto would do it. Of course he wouldn't tell Sasuke. Tsunade had given him permission to search for Itachi.

It was unbelievable, and even more unbelievable was the fact that Sasuke had taken this long to figure it out. The letter Itachi had sent to Naruto's apartment was the only lead on his actions and whereabouts, so it was perfectly logical for Tsunade to assume that Naruto would be most capable of investigating something so close to his home. That being said, was she an absolute goddamn idiot? All signs told her that the three previous Council members were killed by Itachi, yet she sent Naruto after him? Either Naruto had a death wish that she was oddly willing to indulge, or she was far too optimistic about the Elders' fates.

Suddenly a whole new kind of anger filled Sasuke's body. It was equally as strong as the anger he felt towards Neji, but it had no focus, no target at which to aim. It poured out of him like fire, filling his mind with a single, all-consuming thought: Naruto was being put in life-threatening danger and no one was doing a single thing about it. That shouldn't have been happening. Sasuke was not letting it happen.

"Get off me," he snarled at Neji, who opened his mouth to retort, but didn't get the chance. With new power, Sasuke flipped both of their bodies over and leapt to his feet before Neji could grab him again. He could have turned this into a very one-sided fight, but with Naruto occupying all his thoughts, it wouldn't have given him any satisfaction. He took off, sprinting in the direction he had last seen Naruto going even though there was no sight of him there anymore.

Itachi was not going to kill Naruto.

Sasuke repeated it in his head. Doing so seemed to make it truer. He could dimly hear Neji running behind him but it didn't matter. Shit, where had Naruto gone? This wasn't the way they'd come to get to his apartment a month ago, so he wasn't headed there. Could he have possibly already found where Itachi was hiding and started towards it?

The train station was nearby. It was as good a guess as any.

"Stop! Stay where you are!" Neji yelled from somewhere. His voice was sharp and authoritative, but the chase had exhausted him and heavy breathing gave him away. It didn't make any difference whatsoever if he was here so Sasuke ignored him.

Not many people were around at this time of night – and not many trains, either – so even though it was a stretch that Naruto would be there, he miraculously was, and it was easy to spot him once they were in past the barriers. He didn't see them, though; he was right up the far end of the platform facing away from the entrance. Neji took a breath that made it sound like he was going to call out, but Sasuke noticed and wrapped an arm around his throat to silence him. It wasn't quite a chokehold, but Neji got the message.

"I hate you," he spat once the arm was removed, keeping his voice down.

"Fine. Likewise."

They kept their distance and observed Naruto until a train pulled up twenty minutes later. Sasuke wasn't sure that the two of them could tail him successfully beyond this point without any crowd to allow them to blend in, a problem amplified by the fact that it was an outbound train. In addition to that, something besides logic kept Sasuke's feet rooted in place, stopping him from immediately jumping through the doors of the next carriage over. What if he got on the train and it took him straight to Itachi? It was unlikely, he knew – it wasn't like that psychopath was going to meet Naruto at the station – but the thought still lingered. He felt stupid for it but it wouldn't go away.

But then, Itachi was not going to kill Naruto. As soon as that popped into his head again he took a reflexive step forward. Then the fear kicked in and he froze. It was a strange spasm of movement and he couldn't make a conscious decision. He simultaneously wanted to go and didn't.

Shit. This was unpleasant. By choosing whether or not to get on the train, he was being forced to choose between saving his own skin and saving Naruto's, and that was so melodramatic that it left a bad taste in his mouth. Just to make it worse, there was no possibility of walking away from the decision since walking away was one of the options. He wasn't sure why that felt like a mistake when it was clearly the sensible choice, because no matter how much he legitimately cared about Naruto's wellbeing, only an idiot would risk themselves over someone else.

Then why did he just take another step?

He screwed his eyes shut. It was a train, a stupid fucking train, and he was treating it like it meant walking in front of a firing squad. Itachi wasn't going to be there. Sasuke was sure, positive, of that. Yet betting his life on it…

Or Naruto's…

"What's the matter with you?" a sharp voice snapped in his ear. He'd forgotten about Neji, who must have been watching him go through this stiff internal conflict.

"Nothing."

"I thought you were following him to make sure he wasn't doing something stupid and dangerous."

Sasuke hadn't opened his eyes. "Maybe."

"Maybe? Bullshit. You didn't come this far because maybe you'd follow him. If you're pulling something to try to get rid of me again, tough luck."

"Fine."

"The train won't stay here forever. You can't seriously have changed your mind, can you? Or –" Neji stopped, and Sasuke could feel his eyes burning into him. "Are you afraid?"

Was it so obvious, or did those infuriating eyes come with in-built telepathy? "I'm not dignifying that with –"

"So that's a yes, then?" Neji sounded incredulous. "What are you afraid of?"

Sasuke's head snapped up and he stared. That was a joke; it had to be. The fact that there wasn't a shred of humour on Neji's face was immaterial.

A bell sounded, and a pre-programmed voice announced over speakers that the train was due to depart in one minute, causing both of them to automatically look away from each other and towards the distraction. Sasuke used the chance to regroup; he was allowing himself to be too transparent, too easy to read, and it was going disastrously. Also, one minute? He had one minute to decide whether he was the sort of person who ran from danger or laughed at it if the price was right? It almost wasn't fair.

Neji regained focus first. "Are you telling me your brother is real?"

What kind of question was that? Sasuke searched for a hidden meaning but couldn't find one. "Yes."

"But then why did you…"

He didn't finish that, and Sasuke wasn't sure he wanted him to. Neji's face had darkened in a foreboding way and he appeared to be thinking furiously, like this was brand new information he was digesting and rationalising.

The 'one minute' message played for a second time, and hearing it made Sasuke's feet go of their own accord, two more steps before he caught himself. Neji watched him like he was crazy. He probably was.

"What are you looking at?" Sasuke glowered, expecting a jeer, a mocking comment, something to ground him in reality. Instead, he got almost the opposite. In complete earnestness, Neji made an offer:

"How about I go?"

Sasuke's expression didn't change. It didn't matter one way or another what Neji decided to do. Why did he even – oh. "You mean you go, and I don't."

"It makes sense."

"In what possible way does it make sense?"

"Well." Neji probably wanted to speak slowly, relishing the opportunity to get on his high horse, but with only about thirty seconds before the train left he knew he couldn't. "You're obviously in no condition to do anything in your mental state, and I didn't want you going, anyway, but you've piqued my curiosity. This seems mutually beneficial."

Translated, he didn't want Sasuke anywhere near Naruto for some reason and was willing to feign interest in order to get his way. Sasuke could read between the lines. The problem was that he had no way of making sure Neji actually relayed facts back to him later, after discovering Naruto's destination. If anything, Neji would hold the information over his head, taunting him with it whenever they got at each other's throats. Essentially, this was a terrible idea and only an idiot would agree to it.

"No."

Neji gave him a hard look. "I suppose I shouldn't have expected any better. Luckily, I plan on going regardless and it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot you can do to stop me."

He was practically smirking as he turned and ran for the soon-to-close train doors two carriages down from Naruto's, while Sasuke seethed, motionless, on the spot. There was nothing he wanted more than to go after him but he couldn't bring his feet to budge, and barely ten seconds later all decisions were taken out of his hands as the train shut its doors and rolled into movement. Naruto and Neji got further and further away until they became unreachable… and it was only once they were out of sight that Sasuke found he could walk normally again. He was fuming, of course, but that knotted ball of fear was loosening its hold. A small part of him was relieved.

But he couldn't let Neji get away with that. It was a huge insult, and no matter what state he was in, Sasuke Uchiha did not tolerate insults. However, there wasn't much he could do right now besides have hateful thoughts, so he shelved any revenge plan and instead focused on what he was going to do. He definitely wasn't going back underground – that was exactly what Neji wanted – nor was he going to hang around the station for God knew how long waiting for them to return. That would look pathetic.

He frowned at his feet, frustrated at how they had betrayed him, when an idea sprang to life. It was his clothes that gave him the idea - he should go to Naruto's apartment. Naruto had had this mission for at least a week; he must have gone back home at some point for whatever sentimental reasons he could come up with. Not only that, what if he was stockpiling evidence about Itachi in there, keeping it hidden where no one but he would think to look? He was trying to keep it secret from Sasuke, at least, and there weren't many places he could go that Sasuke couldn't. If there were any clues, the apartment was surely where they'd be.

And, unluckily for Naruto, Sasuke had no qualms about breaking in to look.

As he left the station and began making his way up the road, he took off his torn overcoat and shoved it into a nearby rubbish bin. It would only hinder his ability to climb, and Tsunade's hospital wouldn't miss it. It briefly crossed his mind that maybe breaching Naruto's trust wasn't the best way to keep him under control – if he ever found out, it might be unpleasant to deal with – but in the end, it was far more enjoyable to think about what he was going to do to Neji when they all got back.

Okay, so Sakura hadn't been entirely honest with the landlord about why she needed the key to Naruto's apartment. All she had told him, through teeth that were practically chattering with fear at the sight of the man's stare, was that she had left a few books and articles of clothing there before Naruto's mysterious disappearance and wanted them back. She may have stretched the truth and played the grief-stricken girlfriend to explain why she hadn't been able to bring herself to get them sooner.

Perhaps because she was an appalling actor, the landlord didn't look like he believed her story for a second, but with a conspiratorial smile he handed her a key anyway and only asked for her licence as temporary collateral. It just showed how crap Naruto's neighbourhood was.

It was spooky that the apartment was perfectly preserved as it was years ago. Sakura's mouth had hit the floor when she found out. It made little sense, but she wasn't exactly going to challenge the decision as it made her mission that much easier. Starting in the bedroom, she was going to ransack the whole place top to bottom until she found something that connected Naruto to the shady Uchiha family.

What that could be, she had no idea, because thus far she had been unable to think of any link between them whatsoever. The Uchihas didn't live anywhere near this city when they were alive, nor did they have any descendants who might have relocated. They didn't have any descendants at all: no kids, grandkids, not even a long-lost fifth step-cousin once removed.

Well, there was one thing she'd found, but it was such a razor-thin thread that it hardly seemed worth considering. Just some funny ancestry and a young, rich guy being abducted only a few hours away. Not that she didn't follow up on the discovery, of course – she drove herself the many-hour trip into the country to introduce herself to the victim's family, but it turned out that they were either way too rich or way too terrified to emerge from their heavily-guarded property and she was quickly escorted away by a brusque man with a gun on his belt. She wasn't too keen to try again after that. It wasn't like there was much of a chance that the abduction there was related to Naruto's, and she had to remind herself of that often in order to not feel guilty about abandoning the theory.

But then, the sketch of the suspect released by police in that case did look a little like Sasuke…

Sakura felt a bit of dampness in the corners of her eyes. God, what a stupid coward she was, running away from a lead the instant it became scary. She resolved to go straight back to that manor first thing tomorrow and demand to see a member of the Hyuuga family. She'd hate herself if she didn't.

But even more than that, she'd hate herself if she didn't close Naruto's stupid bedroom window! As soon as she entered the room she saw that it was still open, the ratty blind flapping in the wind, exactly like it had been when she walked past a month ago. It made her furious, the neglect it represented. Had it been open all this time? She marched over and slammed it shut hard enough that the pane threatened to crack.

Sniffing, she went to rummage through drawers. There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. She probably should have felt weirder about messing around with her best friend's underwear, but she dealt with worse on a daily basis at the hospital. At least this underwear was clean. The chest of drawers itself, though, was not: unsurprisingly, it was coated with a thick layer of dust only permeated by a few finger marks, presumably left by police or the landlord at some point. With a yelp, she withdrew her hands as a spider popped out from under Naruto's socks and scuttled towards her. She all but threw herself backwards onto the bed and didn't pay enough attention to her limbs, her right arm smacking against the sharp corner of a bedpost.

"Ow, ow, ow," she moaned, hugging the arm against her body to smother the pain. Even that backfired: a spot near her elbow began welling up with blood, which got all over the rest of her. Disgusting!

Feeling marginally worse about herself than she did already, she rushed to the bathroom. It was dark and dingy and neither the lights nor water were working, but there were plenty of tissues and – thank God – Band-aids. Cleaning herself without water wasn't the nicest; she ended up with that awful, sticky feeling and metallic smell that blood always left. After doing the best she could she returned to the bedroom – only to freeze.

The window was open again.

Sakura found she couldn't move for a second. She had shut that window only a minute ago. Windows couldn't open on their own. They could close, maybe, if they were poor quality, but ones like this couldn't open unless gravity turned itself off. Shit, shit, shit. There was someone else in the apartment with her.

It was hard to think straight with images of serial killers flashing through her brain, but she tried. She told herself not to be a coward, even as she almost burst into terrified tears on the spot, and forced herself to look around. Did she have time to run to the kitchen and grab a knife? Was there anything within arm's reach that she could use instead, since she wasn't sure her legs would work? Naruto wasn't the type to keep weapons under his bed, so probably not, but it was worth checking anyway. She silently tiptoed towards the bedside table and slid it open.

Some letters… earphones… a pack of condoms, lovely… oh! There was a Swiss army knife underneath everything else! It wasn't much, but it was enough to make her feel a bit more secure. With new resolve she headed for the main room, listening hard for any abnormal noise.

Nothing unusual caught her attention right away, which was terrifying in itself, because surely burglars and serial killers were supposed to make sounds. She couldn't hear a thing. If it weren't for the window she'd have sworn she was alone, and the weirdness of that was almost enough to scare her into thinking she was dealing with ghosts. Icing on the scary cake.

One tiny, silent step through the doorway... and she promptly dropped her knife in shock. Right in front of her was – it was –

"Naruto!" she squealed shrilly, unable to keep her voice down. But it wasn't Naruto – or was it? Sakura must have been going mad because what her eyes were telling her couldn't possibly have been true: that Naruto's clothes were in front of her – an old pale shirt, one of his favourites, and a pair of black shorts – with no actual body holding them up.

Floating clothes.

"Oh my God, it is ghosts," she uttered. Her voice sounded far away and she briefly wondered if she was going to faint, but then the clothes moved. They jumped backwards from her like they were running away, and without thinking she lunged for them. Her fingertips grazed the shirt's collar and it felt completely real, which confirmed beyond all doubt for her that it was really Naruto. Somehow.

She gritted her teeth, heart racing violently. After all the years of hard work she had done, all those stupid hours in front of a computer and thinking herself a failure, there was no way in hell she was going to let Ghost Naruto run away from her. She leapt towards him and collided, which was a surprise, but she accepted it. If he was solid, so much the better. Pulling him to the ground, she wrapped her arms and legs around what felt like his body.

Naruto struggled underneath her, not giving in without a fight. Sakura didn't know why, and it was awful, but she could be upset about that later. All that mattered now was that she keep him here, despite his thrashing attempts to escape. He managed to worm out one of his arms, and before she knew it, blinding pain filled her ribs.

He'd hit her! He, Naruto, her best friend and the least violent person in the world, had hit her! And holy shit, it was the worst pain she'd ever experienced. It felt like she'd been shot.

"What – what is wrong with you?" she ground out, holding on even tighter. "I swear, Naruto, after what you've put me through –"

"I swear, if you don't let go of me and mind your own fucking business, I'll put you through much worse!" the ghost snarled back furiously.

Sakura gasped, and very nearly did let go. That wasn't Naruto. Not even a little bit. But she was positive she knew who it was.

"S-Sasuke?"

"Let go of me," he growled.

His voice was frightening when he was angry, so much so that Sakura had no doubt he would follow through on his threat, but she was done being scared. She held on and tried to divert his attention.

"Sasuke Uchiha, right? From sixteen hundred and something, mysteriously murdered?"

"Oh, well done."

"I thought – I thought you were a descendant, but you're actually him, aren't you? You can go invisible… sort of… and you kidnapped that Neji Hyuuga guy too, didn't you?"

It worked. Sasuke stopped moving, although his entire body felt tense, like a cat about to spring. Sakura took the opportunity to look at what she was holding, and concluded that her legs were trapping his and her arms were encircling his waist. She had the upper hand for now, but he was obviously much stronger than her and also had the ability to surprise her without her seeing it coming. It was so strange, being able to feel someone, know they were there, but have your eyes tell you that you were completely wrong.

After a moment, Sasuke demanded, "Did Naruto tell you that?"

"No! Of course not! I haven't talked to him since before –" Sakura stopped mid-thought. "Are you saying… he could talk to me? And he's been choosing not to?"

Anger and indignation flooded her. That jerk! That horrible, inconsiderate, good-for-nothing loser! What, was he off having too much invisible fun to come by every once in a while to remind her that he was okay? Was he even okay? She didn't know how to process the possibility of him having died and come back as a ghost, so she stuck with being angry and considering him alive. If he was physically able to move and speak, as Sasuke seemed to be, he was alive enough. And that made him a jerk.

"Take me to him," she said to Sasuke clearly. "I want to punch him in the face."

"No."

"You can take him and Neji Hyuuga but not me? Is this a boys' ghost club?"

"How do you know about all this?"

She felt good now. She was doing this right, rattling Sasuke, wheedling information out of him. He slowly made a move to get up and this time she felt confident letting him. "I found it on my own. You told me your name, and I went from there. Now I want you to tell me everything."

There was a bang, and the wall next to them shook. Sasuke must have hit it.

"I don't have time for this," he snapped. "I didn't come here to talk to anyone, least of all you!"

"Then why did you come here? What are you after? Maybe I can help."

"Don't try to bargain with me. You're wasting your time."

"Well, how about blackmail, then?" Sakura persisted, burning with determination. "Can you really afford to leave me here with all that I know?"

"So you're saying I should kill you."

"I – I – only if you really don't care what Naruto thinks."

A moment of silence followed, in which she really wished that she could see Sasuke's face. She considered herself good at reading people's expressions and body language, and if ever there was a situation in which that would be useful, it was now. Instead she had neither. All she had to analyse was a subtle crease of a sleeve and shift of a leg of shorts, and in a life or death situation that was very little comfort. He might not have cared about what Naruto thought – how would she know? The only basis for her hunch was the clothes he wore, and that wasn't definite proof. For all she knew, the two of them hated each other's guts now and Sasuke had just stolen Naruto's clothes out of spite.

Yet Sasuke didn't appear to be making a move to either leave or attack her, which could only be a good thing. He was breathing rather heavily.

"It's pointless," he said, grinding out the words. "There's nothing you could do, anyway. You're only – oh." Suddenly he stopped, going completely still.

"What?"

"That shithead. He didn't find Itachi at all. He went to ask the Hyuuga girl for help."

Sakura wasn't sure what to so. 'Hyuuga' meant something to her, of course, and she was pretty certain that 'Itachi' was the name of one of Sasuke's family members, but she couldn't put them together well enough to form a meaning. "Um… okay."

"No, it is not okay. That stupid idiot is going to get himself caught and killed – and fuck, Neji followed him! They're going to get everybody exposed!"

Sasuke moved quickly, his invisible arm shoving Sakura out of the way so effortlessly that he must have been showing extreme mercy in his struggle earlier. He was heading back to the bedroom, and Sakura knew instantly that he must have been using the window as his entry and exit. She stumbled after him, panic rising as her link to Naruto started slipping away. She would dive out the window herself if it stopped him.

He was halfway out already by the time she reached him. There was no time for a patient, coherent discussion; she began blurting out anything even vaguely relevant that came into her mind in the hope that one of them would give him pause.

"Hey, wait, the Hyuuga family lives hours away! You'll never get there in time to stop whatever it is you're trying to stop – unless you can teleport. Can ghosts teleport? If you can't, there's just no way, no transport runs out there this late. And it's not like you can get a taxi the way you are, right? I could always drive you, but you'd have to tell me everything. If you did I'm sure I could help. You said someone was trying to find Itachi, and I'll bet I could do it. I found you, didn't I? Well, kind of. If he's around here I could get access to some medical records and search – although that wouldn't exactly be ethical – and if he's a ghost as well it might not help. And was the 'stupid idiot' Naruto? Because I've had to clean up after his mistakes a lot before and I'm sure I could do it again!"

She ended up shouting almost hysterically, aware that she had most likely woken some neighbours but not caring. All that mattered was that Sasuke couldn't disappear… and he didn't! In fact, he was climbing back inside, coming towards her! He approached her quickly – actually, he was a little bit too close now, if truth be told – and managed to appear tall and imposing without appearing at all. Sakura found herself praying that nothing she'd just said had exacerbated his temper.

He seemed to survey her, probably with a glare. "How is it that you can see me?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well… I can't, exactly," Sakura responded, unsure what he wanted to hear. Did he not know? "Not your face or anything. Just, you know, your clothes. Naruto's clothes."

There was a pause. Then, "Shit."

"I'm sorry. Am I not supposed to see them either?"

"No. Yes. It makes sense. I have to – never mind."

"So… can I help you?" she ventured again, and her heart skipped a beat when he didn't immediately refuse.

"You'll probably just die."

"I don't care." And she meant it. Mostly. Was dying so bad if you could apparently come back?

Sasuke made a motion that might have been a shrug before turning around. He returned to the window, but only to shut it this time. "Suit yourself. If Naruto canrun off to play with humans, so can I. You can drive me to the Hyuuga compound and wait outside while I go in. You don't get any closer than I tell you and if you see anyone, you don't talk to them. Of course, it's quite likely that they will have already left or been killed by the time we arrive, so it may all be for nothing. And as an added precaution, you'll have to fix your arm better than that. It's still bleeding."

"And how is that your business?" Sakura grumbled, checking the Band-aids on her elbow. His comment about her being played with rubbed her the wrong way.

"Because I'm a vampire, not a ghost."

She blinked. Her annoyance disappeared, and all she felt now was a spinning sense of surrealism.

"Of course you are," she said faintly.