Just look up. It's more fun that way. You're more beautiful that way.

Naruto smiled.

Satsuki's left eyebrow twitched, but she sighed. "Why do you want to eat on the roof? It's cold," she said.

"I just wanna," Naruto said.

"Well then go do it," Satsuki said, "I'll stay here. Where it's warm. Where I don't need to be crazy and stupid to go," she said, waving her hand.

"But I wanna eat with Satchan," Naruto said, pouting for a few seconds, before she seemed to become lost in thought. "I think I got it," Naruto said, slamming her fist on her open palm, as if she'd hit the eureka moment. "Satchan, if you don't come willingly, I'll never go pick up your clothes, so you'll have to wear mine instead."

"... Then I'll go pick them up myself," Satsuki said, blandly.

"... I didn't think about that," Naruto admitted. "Uh... I... please?" Naruto asked, pouting once more, her eyes become watery. "Pwetty please with a chewwy tomato on top?" she asked, her lower lip quivering.

"Urgh, fine," Satsuki said, rolling her eyes.

Naruto cheered up instantly. "Okay, then! Let's go! We'll eat right outside the greenhouse!" she said, smiling widely.

"Whatever," Satsuki said.

It wasn't like she was very much attached to either appartment, but it was still a bit jarring to change the place she ate in. Usually, they ate at her place, and sometimes at Naruto's if Satsuki had rearranged the furniture due to a rainy day preventing her from going outside to train.

There wasn't much room in the roof to eat, but they made do with a blanket and some cushions. Satsuki was just thankful that most of their meal passed in silence. Naruto seemed oddly calm that night, in contrast with her usual antics. After a full half hour of silence, however, Satsuki began to become worried. Naruto was creeping her out, ever so slightly, with the fact that she seemed to be... almost melancholic.

However, before Satsuki could ask, Naruto smiled at her before looking at the sky.

It was only then that Satsuki noticed that there was a rather suspicious amount of visibility, because only just then did she notice that Naruto hadn't turned on the greenhouse's lights. No... all the illumination came from the moon.

The massively huge Full Moon that illuminated the night in its silver light. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," Satsuki admitted, after a few seconds. It really was. The entire sky was beautiful. It was very late after Naruto resolved everything she wanted to do during the day, and it was even later when she finished cooking, so by the time they got to it, it was already midnight. Konoha had mostly gone to sleep. The middle of the week was not a good time for an overly active night life, so naturally, most people chose to sleep, rather than go out and enjoy a night of fun. There was the odd ninja jumping to get home after a very late report, and there was the occasional ANBU being very visible in their patrols, just to remind people that yes, they were watching.

The building only she and Naruto inhabited wasn't massively tall, but it did allow them to look down upon most of Konoha.

The sleeping Village Hidden in the Leaves, bathed in moonlight, was kind of a beautiful thing to behold.

But somehow, Satsuki didn't think that was the image Naruto referred to.

Nor was it the image of the starred sky above them.

No, Satsuki could practically see it reflected on Naruto's bright blue eyes... Naruto only had eyes for the moon, and that much was clear. "That's weird," Satsuki said, freely.

"Really?" Naruto asked, tilting her head. "I usually never remember when the full moon comes up, but when I do have a chance, I like just gazing at it," she said, idly.

"The phrase you're looking for is 'I don't usually remember'," Satsuki said, her tone one of stern disapproval.

Naruto shrugged.

"And besides... I've never really liked the moon," Satsuki admitted. "When I was young I always thought it would come down and crush us," she said, though her cheeks did gain a bit of a pink tone as she remembered her embarrassing childhood fears. It truly was ridiculous. There were things much more dangerous than the moon out there, she mused. There was... Him...

"Really?" Naruto asked, tilting her head. "When I look at it, I always feel more calm and at peace," Naruto said, shrugging before yawning. "I'm getting sleepy just thinking about it," she said, giving Satsuki a rather pleased smile.

Satsuki grit her teeth in an effort not to yawn as well. "Well, if you like it so much, why don't you marry it?" she said, in a fit of irritation at her own weakness.

"Mhm... nah," Naruto said, shaking her head. "I'd like Satchan to be my wife much more!" she said.

"Idiot," Satsuki said, though her cheeks were now quite noticeably pink. "We're both girls," she said.

"So?" Naruto asked, tilting her head. "What difference does that make?"

"You don't understand," Satsuki said, shaking her head.

Of course she didn't.

Naruto didn't understand at all.

And Satsuki...

Really didn't care to enlighten her. In truth, it wasn't a topic that she liked very much herself. It was something she'd rather not think about at all, and keep pushing it back in her head.

Satsuki ate the last of her meal in a silence as deep and thoughtful as Naruto's.

"Tatoe sore ga ningen orijinaru ni kanau koto no nai to shitte utai kitta koto wo kesshite muda ja nai to omoitai yo..."

Satsuki blinked.

She couldn't understand the words. She hated that Naruto knew the old language so much better than she did, so that she could at times talk and be completely incomprehensible to her. The fact that Naruto had apparently learned how to speak in the old language entirely because it struck her fancy, in record time and with fluidity that surpassed some who had been trying to speak it for years... well, it only added further fuel to the fire.

At least, from the rhythm that Naruto had adopted when speaking her words, Satsuki could tell that it was probably just a song she'd heard somewhere, and which she thought was probably appropriate.

"Arigato... Soshite... Sayonara..."

Those she understood, however.

Thank you and... goodbye?

Satsuki was a bit confused. "What are you singing?" she asked.

"Hm... I guess it just came to me. It's the lyrics to an old song. From what I understand, the artist who wrote it thought he or she was dying in some way or another. Heh... everytime I remember the lyrics..."

Satsuki blinked when she noticed Naruto was crying.

"When I look at the moon, the lyrics just come to me again and again," Naruto admitted. "And... they're horrible. They're painful, and I don't know why. They hurt... It's all about pain and failure and abandonment and it hurts, it hurts so much," Naruto said, "but... every time, I get the urge to sing it, again and again and again..."

Satsuki kept silent. She did not know what to do. Naruto was acting completely at odds with anything and everything Satsuki had ever seen before from her. It was, suffice to say, quite a shock.

"Do you... do you think you could sing some of it? In... In the current language. That way, I can... Maybe I can understand," Satsuki said.

"I don't know," Naruto admitted. "I don't think I can," she admitted. "I don't like to remember the lyrics."

"Please," Satsuki said. "Just... just let me listen to it."

Let me listen to the song in your heart, Satsuki wanted to say. Let me listen to the song that vocalizes the pain you feel inside.

Let me see the pain that lurks deep within the façade of eternal happiness.

Show me...

Show me that you suffer as I do.

Show me that you're like me.

Show me that I'm not alone in the world.

Satsuki's throat twisted itself into a knot, she could not, would not, voice her real intentions. She could not believe her intentions.

Why...

Why did she seek to see Naruto in pain? What did she gain, by making Naruto suffer?

Was she really such a... a bad person? Did she really intend on taking pleasure in seeing her best, arguably only, friend in pain?

"Can you do that?" Satsuki asked.

Naruto took a deep breath. "This'll probably sound really awkward... Okay, here we go..."

"I'm born and I realize, that I exist to imitate humans, an eternal life, continuing to sing..."

Satsuki frowned as Naruto started to sing, a capella. Her teammate, her friend, had a truly beautiful voice, and it really showed when she was actually pouring her soul into a song. A song that came from her heart. Something that she felt deep within, which she could only voice like this.

Still... she had to admit she was confused. Even so, she'd attempt to decipher her words.

"Even if it's an existing song... If I'm a programmed toy..."

What could Naruto be referring to? She sung pre-existing songs. Satsuki wasn't surprised. Idols hardly ever wrote their own songs, and Naruto was basically as close as you could get to an idol without leaving the shinobi profession. But... a programmed toy? What could that mean? It also seemingly connected to her prior words. Born to imitate humans... an eternal life, continuing to sing...

Could it be that there was some deep part of Naruto that saw herself as a tool? It could be manifesting into the song as her thinking of herself as a singing tool that did just that.

"And I decide it's fine. Gnawing a leek, looking at the sky, letting the tears flow..."

It was only just then that Satsuki realized that Naruto was indeed looking at the sky, her tears flowing freely. Naturally, she couldn't be gnawing on a leek while she sang, but that probably had a deeper meaning that Satsuki couldn't understand just yet. Either way, Naruto was probably insane, so the leek might have some sort of significance that a sane person could never parse.

Still...

It was troubling. Did this mean that Naruto saw herself as a meaningless existance, that served only to amuse others? And even worse, she was fine with that? It couldn't be.

"But I realize even that is nothing."

Satsuki looked down, her eyes narrowed as she looked at the blanket and the space that separated her from Naruto, before turning to her legs and glaring at them. Sitting in Seiza to eat wasn't very comfortable, and her legs were starting to fall asleep.

"Songs depend on personality... An unsteady foundation as a basis... The place I call home already in ruins."

What could that refer to? Satsuki couldn't begin to guess. Perhaps it meant that Naruto was deeply dissatisfied with her living accomodations. It didn't make sense, as Naruto had hardly ever cared... but still...

"When everyone has forgotten about me... My heart and its likeness will disappear."

She was...

That one was easy.

She was afraid of oblivion. Afraid of being forgotten. Afraid of disappearing forever.

Satsuki understood that fear. It was one end she feared would befall her clan.

"I can see the inevitable end, an ending world..."

And of course, for her, such fear was a cataclysmic, world ending thing. At the very least, her world would end.

"Even when I couldn't sing well... You were there with me... You came by my side and encouraged me... I want to see your joyous face...I've been practicing my songs...so..."

Satsuki pondered. There weren't many people who had encouraged Naruto when she was down. She was hardly ever down. Little, if anything, ever affected her. Perhaps she meant the Hokage? Could it be that she was also afraid of his death? The man was quite old, already...

"Even when once... Singing was so much fun..."

That was odd. Why was she saying that in the past tense?

Naruto would usually be found singing or humming or otherwise keeping music in her life, so it was odd that she would say that Singing used to be fun. It was one of the things she loved to do when she could.

"Now I wonder why it is that I no longer feel anything."

("I'm sorry")

Satsuki blinked.

That hadn't been Naruto.

No... that came from deep within herself. The lyrics spoke to her heart, directly... and they provoked a response out of her. Naruto's melancholy reached out and brought out her own, and she didn't know... she didn't know what she was apologizing for.

"When I remember your nostalgic face, I feel a little more at ease. The sounds I sing decrease by the day, the end draws near..."

It seemed, more and more, like Naruto was singing about her own impending doom. That was strange... Naruto had never seemed like one to fear death before. You couldn't get very far in the Shinobi career if you did, and Naruto had never given any indication of any such problems with forging forward in her chosen path.

"What I believed in was a convenient delusion repeatedly reflecting itself in the mirror."

Satsuki grimaced.

She knew the feeling.

She knew it very well.

"You shouted violently, 'Stop being such a diva'..."

Satsuki grimaced. She did remember shouting that at her a few times, when Naruto would sing in the shower. She'd grown out of it as she began to tolerate her teammate a bit more, and these days, it hardly ever entered her thoughts.

Even if Naruto could be too much of a diva at times, Satsuki didn't think it was done as anything other than self parody. Naruto didn't really have it in her to be one of those annoying diva types, which were so common amongst idols.

"The pretense known as the meaning of life..."

Again with the vague lyrics, Satsuki grumbled. She was doing so well in trying to interpret them...

"Cannot be shaken away."

And that still didn't make all that much sense to her.

"My weak heart threatens to vanish. As it quickly decays... Being just born, I don't have the strength or will to stop it."

Naruto apparently was afraid of death.

It had to be. This song that came from her heart, spoke so much of her own impending doom. She was afraid of death, afraid of passing on and being forgotten, afraid of being used like a tool and then discarded.

Maybe... maybe she feared she'd become just another one of the pile...

Satsuki sobered up quite a bit.

She understood that fear. It felt like she understood Naruto a little bit more with every part of the lyrics.

"Your agonizing sorrowful face comes to mind..."

Satsuki imagined it was Naruto imagining her coming across Naruto's dead body.

"Before long my memories will start to disappear..."

That didn't mesh with Satsuki's theory. Her memories would start to disappear? Perhaps... Perhaps Naruto meant a different kind of death? It was not uncommon for ninja to have their minds broken when they were brainwashed by an enemy village for one reason or another.

"But you're the only thing I won't forget. The fun times we had... I wonder if I can still remember the taste of leek now..."

Naruto clutched her chest, as her tears began to flow with an even higher volume than before. She curled in on herself and closed her eyes, looking as if she was truly in pain for a moment.

"Naruto, maybe you should stop," Satsuki suggested.

"I...I want to sing. I...I still...want to sing...!"

Satsuki frowned and moved forward, ignoring her clumsy legs that had fallen asleep, and reached out to Naruto, placing a hand on her shoulder and turning her around so their eyes met.

"I... Started to be a bit...of a bad girl... Master...please...with your hands...please end it..."

Satsuki's hands were placed on Naruto's shoulders, and Satsuki tried shaking her and calling her name.

"I don't want to see your suffering face anymore..."

Satsuki felt the back of her eyes sting.

"Now even singing is making me rot away..."

"N-Naruto, I-"

"Wishing for a miracle drives me alone into a corner."

"I'm sorry," Satsuki croaked.

"When I try to remember that nostalgic face, the memories fade away... With a shattering sound, my heart vanishes, my death is near..."

Satsuki shook her head.

"The things I defended... Were the illusion of a bright future, a light that fades away when you see it."

Words wouldn't come to her, her throat was knotted even worse than before.

"Sacrificing sound so I can tell it all to you..."

Satsuki knew, in her heart, what came next.

It, thusly, came as no surprise to her when Naruto pulled away from her and once more turned towards the moon.

"I'm born and I realize that I exist to imitate humans. An eternal life, continuing to sing. Even if it's an existing song, if I'm a programmed toy..."

"You... you're not..."

"And I decide it's fine, gnawing a leek, looking at the sky, letting the tears flow," Naruto continued, a sad and pathetic smile on her face.

"Stop it."

"I know it's the end, falling asleep in the monitor. This must be the "trash bin"."

"Stop singing!"

"Before long my memories will start to disappear..."

"No. I refuse it!"

"But you're the only thing I won't forget. The fun times we had... It'd be nice if I could still recall the taste of leek..."

"You- stop! Stop it already!"

"I will sing! Until the end, just for you!"

"I don't want you to! Shut up!"

"Songs you'd want to hear! I wish to sing more!"

"I don't want to hear this song! Stop! Shut your mouth!"

"But that's too much to wish for..."

"No... no it isn't... no it's not... please... don't-"

"Here is where we say farewell. All my emotions vanish into thin air. Reduced to zeroes and ones..."

Satsuki gasped, filling her throat with much needed air.

"The curtain closes on this tale..."

Chasing after Naruto proved pointless, as even while singing Naruto moved far too deftly across the roof that she knew very well.

"Not a thing is left behind... It must be rather sad, right?"

It was, Satsuki mused, it really was. "It doesn't have to be."

"Everything but the memory of a voice fades away, leaving only a name."

Only a name, only a name, only a name.

That was all that was left, wasn't it?

"That's a lie," Satsuki growled.

"But if I know that it wasn't originally supposed to happen..."

"It wasn't, but it did," Satsuki said. "It did. It truly did. Stop this..."

"I'd like to think that..."

"Don't. Don't you dare!"

"Singing until the end wasn't in vain..." Naruto said, smiling as she stood on the very border of the building's roof, right on the metallic guardrail, where the slightest loss of balance could send her tumbling to her doom.

"SHUT UP, ASHURA!"

"Thank you...and...goodbye..." Naruto said, giving Satsuki a placid smile, as she let herself lean back.

In front of Satsuki's eyes, Naruto simply... fell.

Satsuki jumped after her, but slammed stomach first against the guardrail that Naruto had been standing on, and could only extend her hand to try and catch the falling girl's hand, as it was extended towards her, but she missed, just barely, and could only watch as Naruto smiled kindly and warmly at her, as she slowly but surely sank into the deep, dark abyss.

"NARUTO!"

Satsuki's scream had probably woken up a few of the people who were peacefully sleeping.

It certainly surprised the blonde whose lap Satsuki was using as a pillow. Satsuki's eyes stared into Naruto.

"Ne, Satchan, your Sharingan's all weird," Naruto said, idly. "Also, I think this is the first time you had a nightmare while sleeping on my lap."

Satsuki was, however, busy catching her breath. "What... what just happened?"

"Well... You fell asleep after we were done eating. I saw you were trying not to yawn and fall asleep, so I sang you a lullaby and you went down like a baby," Naruto said, grinning widely. "It always works," she said, giving her a thumbs up.

"What- I-" but Satsuki shook her head. "It was... it was just a dream. Just a dream," she said, taking a deep breath. "Just a dream..."

"Yep! Just a dream!" Naruto said. "Don't you worry, Satchan! I'll protect you!" Naruto said, nodding eagerly. "So long as I'm here, no evil nightmare monster'll get to you, guaranteed!"

Satsuki blinked. "Promise me. Promise me that... that you'll stay with me. That you won't go away. Promise me."

The very sound of her voice, of her needy, desperate and oh so vulnerable voice, was nearly driving Satsuki herself up the wall. To think that she'd accidentally blurt out something that... that marked such a huge weakness on her, how could she? How could she disregard years of training and etiquette... just because of a silly nightmare?!

But...

She needed it.

More than she had ever needed anything else.

"Sure!" Naruto said, smiling widely. "You can count on me, Satchan, I'll always be here with you!" she said, "but in return, you have to promise to stay with me, okay?" she said.

"Yes... yes... I promise, Naruto... I'll never abandon you, no matter what," Satsuki said, blinking as her eyelids grew heavy. "I... I'm..."

Naruto shushed her, however. "You must be tired. That nightmare took a lot out of you, huh?" Naruto asked. "Don't worry, I'll put you to bed, Satchan! It's like having my very own overgrown baby," she said, giving her a silly grin.

"... Don't... don't ever change," Satsuki said, allowing herself a small smile.

So... short chapter this time around, folks.

These are as long as I need them to be, and to be entirely honest, this scene was its own chapter only because it was too long to staple it onto the ones before it.

The song is Hatsune Miku no Shoushitsu, by the way. Or The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku. It really is an incredibly sad song, and it WILL make you think twice about deleting the Vocaloid software. I warn you, the lyrics might just kill your ability to enjoy the song, since it's surprisingly peppy and upbeat despite just how sad the lyrics actually are. And considering the lyrics involve Miku begging her owner to goddamn mercy kill her is... well, let's just say I'm fairly sure quite a few people probably rethought deleting her after they listened to that song.

The version Naruto sang was sung at normal speed because she can't speed up like a Vocaloid, and is a capella, so it probably comes out sounding a lot more sad and pathetic than the real version. Probably a lot more awkward too. Furthermore, it has none of the system messages that accompany the song, which are basically the ones that tell you that the deletion is happening as Miku sings.

Also... I finally found a way to use the Ashura and Indra subplot that I don't find absolutely unpalatable. So that's a thing that happened.

Yes, Satsuki did just call Naruto 'Ashura'. And yes, that does mean what you think it means. Possibly. Maybe. Probably not though.

And did I go the copout route by having Satsuki just 'dream' it? Maybe. Maybe not. We'll see.