Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Swimming in and out of consciousness is a strange thing. There's pain. He can tell that much. But other than that not many a thought can be made coherent. It’s tempting to yield to the slumber once more, but the pain worsens, so it seems he has little choice in the matter.

The first thing that occurs to Danny is that the Infinimap has messed something up. Using it was always sort of intense, but it never had the audacity to knock him out before. Not to mention the ache that now plagues the entirety of his body. That’s probably a worrying touch- 

The second thing that registers to him is the sounds. There’s a rustling of leaves, quiet chatter of birds some distance away, and most notably- voices, a lot of voices, angry voices. 

Danny can’t quite make out the words. This is not surprising considering the pounding in his head, whatever Danny does pick up sounds… tense. Actually, now that he’s waking it starts to seem kind of important to pay attention.

The third remarkable thing that strikes him is just how pissed off he is about this cacophony- A mounting frustration builds as he attempts to achieve greater clarity of mind. Who even are these kids after all- and is it really necessary for them to have at it right next to his sensitive injured brain?

Danny is not in the mood to deal with whatever nonsense has seemingly been thrust upon him this time. His arm is heavy, but he nonetheless raises his hand to rub at his face. “Ugh, could all of you just- shut up for a moment??” he groans. The words come easily, at least- although his voice sounds strange to his own ears. In that same moment he also registers the strange fabric- sleeve?- around his arm. Danny finally opens his eyes.

The sleeve he finds is most definitely not from his closet. In fact- even the hand doesn’t quite seem like his hand. Not to mention that Danny has never seen dark flecks like that dotting his skin before- … Oh. 

… Uh-oh.

“Sasuke!” Someone calls.

Danny quickly closes his eyes and focuses on expelling himself from this body. He doesn’t know how he has come to possess someone while unconscious, but ceasing to do that seems like a good priority. Unless he finds that he can’t. Which he does, it seems. 

This raises his alarm substantially. 

How could he not-?! 

Perhaps doing this lying down was too much? That might as well be a thing. He sits up. Ow- His head swims for a moment. He only grows more frustrated, which inspires little patience, so Danny refuses to wait out his dizzy spell before trying again.

He opens his eyes to the same blurs. Still nothing.

Why isn’t it working?

“Sasuke- your body…!” someone calls as his world finally swims into focus.

Wait- Danny realizes. Is that him? Is he Sas- What- Sahs-kay? He turns to the voice, only to find a young girl with pink hair and positively hideous bruises looking right at him.

Danny opens his- or- Sahskay’s?- mouth, but his brain is working a million miles a minute at present. He’s at a loss on what to even say. What in the world happened to her? How come he feels so angry? For a moment he seems angry at her- but that can’t be right- and who are all these other kids?

Danny quickly decides that he is probably angry at them instead. They look guilty enough.

A frown falls over his face. Danny doesn’t know where he is, or what is going on, or why he can’t exit this body- but kicking the ass of whoever had hurt the girl seems like a pretty terrific idea at this point, other concerns be damned. He gets up, suddenly feeling remarkably energetic as he plants his feet- powerful even. But what else is new really? He’s looking at a bunch of kids in strangely theatrical outfits- what are they going to do?

Still, the scene before him gives him pause. There’s way more kids than he’d expected, and presently a grand total of three are passed out on the ground. Somehow he’d even missed the one in bright orange lying right beside him.

So… whatever this group was up to has clearly gotten way out of hand. So much so, that Danny is kind of surprised to find that everything has seemingly come to halt right at his waking. What must he be looking like for them all to pale like this all of a sudden?

Their apparent fear doesn’t seem to bother Danny like it usually would though. If anything, he only finds himself frustrated by their gawking.

“What do you all think you’re staring at?”

As if on cue, that sets the scene moving again. The slouch-guy with the camo-print pants and the bandaged face finally steps back- while a guy holding a limp girl in the back seems to have something urgent to say at the girl in camo-print pants. But all of that is forgotten when Spiky McCamoPants starts shouting over them.

“Dosu! No need to be afraid of this half-dead freak!” Danny’s heart skips a beat at his word-choice. 

Danny doesn’t get to contemplate it much though, as Spiky takes some kind of offensive position, raising his palms towards Danny as if to-

“No Zaku- Don’t you rea-!!” Bandages cries.

And then everything suddenly appears to slow down, as something erupts from Spiky’s palms. 

Danny’s instincts promptly have him burst into motion. The kids at his feet, Pink and Orange, seem to sit right in the line of fire with him. Within the blink of an eye - He’s fast - their collars are clutched in his hands. It takes little more than a thought to turn them all intangible as an onslaught of seemingly violent air suddenly passes right through them.

That... that is no ordinary human teenager. Danny’s heart is pounding in his throat. "What the hell??" he says to no one in particular once he surveys the damage.  A shallow trench appears to have been torn from the ground. Spiky himself seems equally flabbergasted, but Danny has a hunch that it's not this absurd blast of his that’s surprising him. "What the-" Spiky echoes, but then cuts himself off as he takes aim once more. 

Danny figures that since he's shown his hand already, he might as well use the cover of the next oncoming blast to get Orange and Pink out of there. Within moments he's moved the pair behind some large tree, leaving a clearly bewildered Pink to drop down next to Orange. Danny briefly wonders if he'd been this fast, but he quickly focuses back on the problem at hand. 

That guy was not only bizarrely armed, (hah!) but alarmingly aggressive as well.

Danny ought to address that, really. Perhaps with a fist or two. Danny knows he shouldn’t really be fighting humans, but considering the circumstances… His apathy on this could probably be written off as a side-effect of dealing with Dash Baxter for too long, or so he decides.

At the very least he’ll be making sure that no one else gets hurt, Danny thinks as he turns towards the clearing again. 

Pink calls him ‘Sahs-kay’ again as he leaves, but otherwise doesn’t pursue him. 

From his periphery, Danny spies two more kids hiding out among the branches up above. But they otherwise go unacknowledged as he focuses on his priority.

It’s only a couple of steps further when Danny returns to the clearing, and takes note of everybody’s renewed positions. The couple of kids in the back continue to skirt along the edge of the undergrowth, clearly eager not to get caught in the trouble. Somewhat worryingly, another kid in green continues to lie motionlessly on the ground, face eating dirt.

Which leaves the team in camo-print pants. Camo-pants Girl seems to have passed out while Danny wasn’t paying attention, and presently resides on Bandages’ shoulder. As for Spiky, an argument seems to have broken out between him and Bandages, with Spiky clearly on the receiving end of some terrible lecture. Danny just about catches something about surviving a ‘curse mark’ when Bandages catches sight of him, and abruptly shuts his mouth. Spiky quickly catches on as to why, an immediate sneer is sent Danny’s way.

“Mark or no mark, at least I’m not chicken-shit enough to give up on the mission!” he yells as he extends his palms yet again. Sheer delight strikes Danny at the provocation, his body feels like it sings. Danny lunges forward before Spiky can even engage his nonsense-blast. Sure enough, he hardly even needs his intangibility to clear the blast. He concentrates a surge of power into his arm, before his fist is planted straight into the guy’s diaphragm. Spiky folds around the impact almost entirely before flying a dozen feet back. A broad smile tugs at Danny’s lips at the sheer exhilaration of it all. His mind is already racing for a cheesy one-liner-

Until Spiky starts choking, coughing and gasping for air. Suddenly, Danny’s exhilaration doesn’t feel so good anymore. This- This is not what he’s supposed to feel like. In fact it almost feels decidedly alien to him- Almost as if…

As if this isn’t him.

The foreign malicious energy swerving through him suddenly stands out like a sore thumb. Danny wastes no time building his ectoplasmic energy, expelling the intruding force with a solid burst from his core. 

He’s hit with a strange wave of dizzyness near instantly. 

And to Danny’s surprise- It manages to hold on. It’s only a small spot in his neck, but whatever it is retaliates with a sudden piercing burn. Danny can’t help but cry out at the sudden agony. 

Spiky scrambles back, still attempting to catch his breath. Bandages moves to his side near-instantly, urging for retreat. Danny doesn't really see or hear them at this point, too occupied with his sudden internal conflict. He clenches his teeth as his senses return, wasting no time in sending another burst through his body. His vision blurs with the flaring burn once again, causing him to stumble. 

This does not go unnoticed by Bandages, who suddenly fixates his attention on him. 

Hot agony keeps on pushing back into him. He can't seem to expel it. Short on ideas on such short notice, he instead attempts to visualize his ecto-energy as a wall that closes in on the stubborn spot- If he could entrap this-!

His vision blurs further as Danny pushes it back, to a point where -for just the briefest of moments- it even fades entirely… when a third will awakens somewhere inside of his body. 

There is a brief moment of panic as Danny finds himself trapped inside of a body with entirely too many wills in it- but then it's over.

The body is… It’s no longer his.

And yet, Danny is still stuck inside of it. He's looking through the same eyes but someone who is distinctly not him raises their shared hand to their face for inspection. The flecks of black appear to be receding, almost as if Danny's grasp of this body had manifested like a case of ghost-measles. The flecks all but disappear from sight in a moment.

"What?" his lips say.

Who, or whatever has taken control doesn’t seem to be much more prepared to fight than Danny was just now. Their movements are still kind of sluggish and disoriented, a fact that now clearly goes closely observed by both figures in front of them.

“It seems I didn’t give you enough credit, Zaku…” Bandages says as he lowers the girl on his shoulder to the ground. Spiky- or apparently ‘Zaku’- grins as he starts making an effort to climb back upright.

Their body tenses, eyes zeroing in on the symbols engraved in their headbands. (Those mean something, Danny supposes?) Danny can feel their eyebrows scrunching up in confusion, and something is starting to dawn on him.

It seems the two tree-kids Danny had spied earlier choose that very moment to finally step into the scene. 

“Do not think you can afford to forget about us,” a dangerously low voice suddenly sounds from his left, coming from a boy with remarkably long hair. 

Simultaneously Danny starts to wonder if… 

Saskay ?

Whoever is controlling the body - most likely Saskay - flinches hard, but none of the surrounding kids seem to take much note of this. In fact it’s almost as if the lot of them are locked into the worst stare-down Danny has ever experienced. The other background kids emerge somewhere from the background as well.

“Nor can you forget about us,” says the bigger boy who… appears to be wearing metal-plated underpants rather than a headband…? The two behind him, each sporting ponytails, seem equally determined to back him up. Danny is fairly certain saw the girl passed out on the boy's shoulder before, but she has since apparently made a miraculous recovery.

Saskay, if it is him, clearly refuses to acknowledge the voice he'd just heard in his head as he surveys his company. His eyes subtly dart between all parties present, but no other move is made to acknowledge them.

“It seems that I too, get to learn something from you today Dosu…” Spiky says. Danny supposes he knows their names now, but he likes ‘Zaku’ much better as a ‘Spiky’. ‘Dosu’, or Bandages grunts, releasing a somewhat beleaguered sigh. He drops to his knees to pick up Camo-pants Girl again. 

“A true shinobi can tell when he’s outnumbered,” he says. Then he fishes something out of his pocket. “You may decide what to make of this among yourselves I suppose…” And then the object is unceremoniously tossed onto the ground in front of them. It appears to be a scroll of some kind? Saskay’s eyes definitely appear to eye the thing almost hungrily. And then before Danny can bother to pay proper attention again, Bandages and Spiky have made their retreat.

The other kid that just emerged from the trees - Tree-girl? - blows out some air. It’s a girl in a pink top, her hair pulled up in symmetrical buns. Her sigh seems dramatic, yet leaves the distinct impression that the whole encounter was by all means too bothersome for her to deal with. Saskay watches as she approaches Green-and-dead-to-the-world. The sight clearly puzzles him yet more. “Come On Now, Lee!” comes the sudden shout as she flips Green over less than gently.

“How troublesome…” he hears another boy say, sounding just as strangely blasé as Tree-girl. Remarkably, Green- or should Danny say… Bowlcut- or Eyebrows…? Actually seems to come back to his senses once she’s taken to hoisting him upright by the collar.

“So…” Long-haired Tree-boy starts from behind him. Saskay whips his attention around to give the guy a strong side-eye. Danny is very much taken off guard by the blank white eyes in Tree-boy’s face. It’s hard to determine if there’s even any pupils hidden within. Before the guy can say anything else however he is interrupted by another call.

“Sasuke-kun!”

Behind them Pink is supporting a groggy-looking Orange, as the two of them come lumbering into the clearing.

“What even happened…???” Orange drawls, probably mirroring Saskay's feeling with his confusion. The actual Saskay attention is zeroing in on Pink’s still terribly bruised face turning ever more colorful. He finally seems to be ready to speak- before suddenly closing his mouth again. “Wait-! What about the Snake-creep?!!” Orange then yells, suddenly perking up as he looks up at Pink. “Not now Naruto!” Pink says as she immediately takes to knocking him on the head. That strikes Danny as poor bed-side manner considering the guy remains in clearly bad shape. “Wait, Sakura-chan! Your Hair!!” Orange yells, taking the beating in stride at this revelation.

“As lovely as it would be to play catch-up with you all…” Tree-boy starts, voice nearly dripping with poorly disguised apathy. “I’m sure all of you can acknowledge that the scroll is ours to take.”

“Seriously?!” Ponytail-girl all but screeches. Danny wonders whether to rename her ‘Blondie’ or ‘Purple’, but neither strike him as particularly creative… “You’re an ass, Hyuuga!” she shouts.

“Neji…” Tree-girl says softly in stark contrast to her not so gentle treatment of Eyebrows. (Who is still getting held up by the collar and lolling his head about.) “We already have an earth-scroll…”

“Which scroll it is, is irrelevant. I do not intend to acknowledge such weaklings as my opponents just because some of them got through on a hand-out,” Jerkface replies.

“You’re the only ones that didn’t even fight!” Purple Blondie shouts- Danny ops to maybe stick with Ponytail after all.

“Give-… give it to Sakura-san!” a voice to their right says hoarsely.

It’s Eyebrows. He’s still looking like he’s figuring out how to support himself on his own arms, but he is otherwise staring Jerkface down determinedly. Tree-girl seems to loosen her iron grip on his collar as well.

“Just because your crush-” Jerkface starts, before-

“She fought admirably!” Eyebrows interrupts. Tree-girl takes to helping him up. 

Saskay’s head turns to Pink. It’s quick enough to show surprise, but Danny otherwise can’t make out much from the face Saskay is making. He is starting to learn that Saskay might prefer not to emote much. 

“Had it not been for Sakura-san, Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun would have surely come to harm! Her-” Eyebrows winces in pain momentarily. “Her youthfulness should be commended!” he nevertheless finishes strongly, finally back upright. Blood is trickling out of his ear and Danny immediately finds that Eyebrows is his favorite among all of these kids.

The stare-down between him and Jerkface lasts for a moment longer. But it’s not long before Jerkface appears to concede with little more than a grunt. 

Saskay watches the guy start to walk away. Tree-girl quickly pulls Eyebrows’ arm over her shoulder, so she can get them to Jerkface’s side. It seems Jerkface has turned around to get one last word in however. “As for you-” he says slowly, this time looking directly towards Saskay.

“I had expected better from ‘Rookie of the year’.” 

And then they’re gone.

For a moment the clearing is completely silent, but naturally Ponytail is the first to break it. “Talk about a stick up the ass!” she exclaims.

“Man, no wonder Bushy-Brow wants to beat him so much…” Orange says.

“Unbelievable…” Ponytail continues.

“Sasuke-kun,” Pink says. “Are you alright? You sounded like you were in pain earlier…”

Saskay turns his head away near immediately. “I’m fine,” he insists. Danny snorts. Saskay tenses. Oops, did he hear that? Which reminds him…

As Ponytail sidles up to Pink, Danny thinks that this bizarre experience of his probably requires some tending to as well. He attempts to phase out of the boy again, but if anything his attempt only serves to agitate that strange spot in Saskay's neck. The boy's consciousness seemingly wavers. There's a sudden vertigo that Saskay immediately turns to blinking away, determined as ever not to show any signs of confusion or hardship to those around him. He wobbles a little bit but otherwise holds up admirably.

So… powers are out of the question then. Not unless Danny means to possess the kid all over again anyway. And possessing this kid all over again seems kind of mean at this point. 

Danny supposes he wouldn’t really know how to interact with any of these eccentric middle-schoolers anyway. Better to leave that up to Saskay. For now, at least… 

To Saskay’s palpable relief, Orange seems to take everyone's attention away from him as the guy once more demands to know what he’s missed. All this other guy - previously Ponytail-guy, now… Mr. Unremarkable? - can do is sigh dramatically, while Underpants goes to pick up the scroll-thing that remains in the dirt.

They all watch him walk over to Pink next. He offers the scroll for her to take. Pink shows a moment of hesitation, but ultimately accepts it from him.

Seeing how Ponytail, Pink and Underpants then continue to make conversation, Mr. Dreary finally comes over towards Orange and himself. He doesn’t seem in the mood to help though when Orange repeats his question. Instead the guy just plops down on a mossy patch and calls to wake him up once they’re ready to catch or gather dinner. Orange then turns an expectant look towards Saskay. Tension suddenly comes to line Saskay’s shoulders. “Forget it, loser,” he snaps.

Oh right, Danny almost forgot that Saskay too only just got tuned in.

“Aw man! What did I miss!” Orange complains, somehow unsurprised to find that nobody will talk to him. Danny finds that kind of curious considering the fact that uhh... Spiky mc-murder-palms just tried to blow a number of them to bits.

Things remains strangely tense, until Saskay finally spots a small encampment by some tree-roots. He beelines for the packs, and Danny figures that he’s probably just antsy to seem busy.

So the scene quickly devolves into what appears to be a kind of regular camping ground. Ponytail has taken to giving Pink a haircut. (It does appear a little sloppy.)(Wait... with a knife?) Underpants has initiated some kind of conversation with the other boys, and sure enough, even Saskay rejoins them once he’s fetched a canteen of water. He makes a distinct effort to seem appropriately stand-offish though, as he clearly means to prevent any funny ideas about talking to him. When Orange starts eyeing the canteen in Saskay’s hands he’s at least charitable enough to hand it over though.

The boy listens to their conversations intently, as he’s surely attempting to derive the recent sequence of events. Danny tunes it out. He considers what to do next. He has no idea where he is after all. Plus, if his memory serves him right, then Danny should have had the Infinimap around shortly before he got here. Alarmingly, he has no clue where it could have gone. He sure hasn’t seen any sign of it since he got here.

If it were here that certainly would make things a lot easier. Then he wouldn’t even need to consider where ‘here’ is. He’d simply be on his merry way home already. Still, Danny doesn’t like to think that the artifact could have just gone and landed somewhere in this strange forest either. Especially among all these strange kids. Could any of them already have made off with it…?

Naturally this scenario would assume Danny can even ‘exit’ Saskay in the first place. Which is something he’s really not so sure of at this point. If at all possible, he really would rather avoid derailing this child’s life just to solve Danny’s problems. But, can he?

Danny considers what he might do if he is to remain trapped like this. It wouldn’t be the first time that Sam and Tucker or even his sister had to bail him out of trouble. At least Danny is pretty sure that if he can get Saskay back to Amity Park, then the four of them could work something out together. … Maybe the Fenton Ghost Catcher…? 

The list of problems to solve suddenly seems a lot longer than he had initially considered.

It’s only when Sasuke starts fingering something sharp in his pouch that Danny is finally torn from his musings. Do all these kids carry knives??? He wonders. It’s shortly followed by the sharp pain of splitting skin. Hey, whoa- what do you think you’re doing! Danny signals to him. His only response is a distinct downwards tug on the corner of Saskay’s mouth. At least the kid also removes his hand from the pouch though. Why do you even have knives on you- aren’t you like, what- twelve…? 

It doesn’t elicit any response, but the stiffness in Saskay’s posture has Danny wondering whether he might have some kind of stick up his ass too.

It seems that the boys have chosen that moment to get a move on though. The prospect of this hunt clearly has Sasuke eager to get moving as well, even if numerous aches have made themselves known across his body at this point. If Danny were in his situation he would’ve bemoaned those aches fifteen minutes ago.

The moment Saskay turns to go is also the moment that the neck-spot suddenly starts acting up again. It’s so sudden that Saskay and Danny both flinch from the pain. Danny immediately clamps down on his ecto-wall again, and sure enough- Saskay succeeds in fighting off his sudden wobbliness. He quickly looks around to check if anyone saw, but sure enough- too many of them did.

“Sasuke-kun…” Pink starts from her patch in the dirt by Ponytail. “Maybe you sh-”

“I’m fine,” Saskay insists. He intends to head for Orange and Underpants’ direction, but Boring approaches before he can get there.

“Hey man,” he starts. “I’ve been thinking that I really don’t want to eat anything from this forest raw anyway, so like- you could probably put your genes to good use and make us a suitable cooking fire right? The wind’s not bad right now. We could probably get away with it…” he says casually, dragging his nails through his neck-hairs in a languid motion.

“Are we having barbeque?” Danny hears Underpants say from a little ways away.

Saskay outright glares, but Snooze hardly seems fazed. He only turns towards the increasingly enthusiastic pair to their left. “Don’t get ahead of yourselves, between all the giant centipedes and super-sized geckos I think we’re lucky to find anything mammalian at all,” he tells them. 

By Saskay’s lack of pursuit, Danny figures that Naptime has gotten through to him though. Not that Saskay has to like it. He quickly turns into the brush- almost stomping as he makes sure to put some distance between himself and the clearing. It’s clear as day that Saskay is a mountain of frustration at this point.

And as much as Danny does want to talk, he kind of feels for Saskay.

So when Saskay finally gets around to picking up bits and pieces of firewood, Danny keeps his mouth shut.

It doesn’t take very long for Pink to come join him after that, evidently having been released from Ponytail’s clutches. The haircut only makes her look slightly less like shit.

Saskay hardly seems to be capable of looking at her.

“I just wanted to say… thank you for saving me, Sasuke-kun…” she says with a pitifully soft tone.

“Hn,” Saskay says by way of some kind of response.

Danny wonders about what Eyebrows said of Pink’s own dedication to saving Saskay- and notes how no move is made to thank her in return.

It’s starting to dawn on Danny that maybe Saskay deserves a suitably derogatory nickname himself at this point. The moment he thinks that is the moment that Saskay makes a terribly offended face at nothing though.

That-… Oh. He heard that didn’t he?

Luckily Pink doesn’t notice much of anything while Saskay determinedly keeps facing away from her.

Another piece of firewood is stacked on his arm.

“Sasuke-kun, I-” Pink starts, then stops. “That mark- it’s hurting you, isn’t it?”

Mark? If that would explain this burn thing- if it explains him-! Danny’s immediate instinct is to try and look at the spot on his- or not his neck- but in the process almost squashes Saskay aside again. He really needs to start watching his big stomping intentions. 

Naturally Pink is more than a little alarmed to find Saskay swaying that far to the side again. She yelps as she scrambles to get a hold of his arm. It’s a close call this time, when Sasuke somehow fights the downwards momentum into an awkward little dance-step. A number of branches slip from his grasp and clatter onto the forest floor. Despite Danny’s fairly quick reaction time the spot does still keep on throbbing though. My bad!! he calls.

Saskay actually curses, trying to take a few steps back. He forces some heavy breaths through his nose at this point. Is he… panicking…?

“Please, Sasuke-kun… Tell me what’s happening to you!” Pink pleads, apparently reluctant to let go of Saskay’s arm. Saskay quickly tugs it out of her grasp however.

“It’s nobody’s business but my own!” he says.

She did apparently get beaten to a pulp to save your ass dude, be nice to her maybe??

Saskay all but flinches at that, but the frown on his face does appear to melt a little. He starts reaching for the scattered firewood.

Pink just kind of looks on quietly.

It’s only when Saskay has collected the last branch that he finally appears to be gearing up to say something.

“… It wasn’t me…”

“…What…?”

“It wasn’t me who saved you!” he says as his hands clench around the branches. “I don’t know what it was- But it- I-… I only felt like I woke up by the time that guy was already on the ground- and even J-Hyuuga had to-!” He clenches his teeth.

“Sasuke-kun- I don’t understand…” It’s only then that Saskay turns to look at Pink. She’s holding her arms to her chest, clearly scared for the implications. Although perhaps not as scared as Saskay had sounded himself just now while talking about how it wasn’t him.

“It keeps talking to me- commenting with all these… inane observations-!” Excuse me?  “Apparently Bushy-brow was its ‘favourite’!” Saskay exclaims incredulously. Oh wait, he heard that too?? Clearly Danny has been elephanting his thoughts and feelings around in more ways than one. “It doesn’t even know what a kunai is!” You can just call me a ‘he’ you know- I’m hardly an ‘it’. Saskay barks a somewhat hysterical laugh.

“Oh, pardon me! It prefers to be called a ‘him’!” he exclaims. Danny is starting to get slightly worried for the kid at this point. He’d seemed so tight-lipped before, but apparently he’s really just gone in for the whole pound-

Dude, try to calm down. You’re not making a great impression here-

“I am perfectly calm!!” Saskay shouts back.

Pink has taken a few steps back herself at this point. Eyes spread wide despite all the bruising she’s sporting.

You’re kind of freaking her out-

Saskay apparently refuses to even dignify that with a response. Instead he stomps over to another fallen branch and stuffs it underneath his arm.

Look if you let me handle this for a bit I could just explain it to her.

“Fuck. No!”

His face is actually starting to feel kind of hot with anger at this point. You’re throwing a tantrum right now, man. Be reasonable-

“Shut up- Shut up!” Saskay shouts- suddenly wrenching his eyes shut in some attempt to shut Danny out as well. Danny can feel the kid’s will pushing back against the spot, but it matters little when it comes to ghosts after all. Danny mentally makes a point of sighing as he reaches back out into Sasuke.

The mark immediately fights back with a vengeance. Danny can’t help but spend his first few seconds back in charge gritting his teeth and squeezing at his neck. The angry energy- the malice is still there. But Danny finds that he can manage it for now, there’s no reason for him to think he’ll succumb to this.

“S-Sasuke-kun…?” Pink quietly sputters from his side.

“Ugh- I really gotta find out what this ‘mark’ is, fast,” Danny mutters. He quickly composes himself though, glad to have somehow kept an iron grip on the stack under his arm. He turns to Pink with what he hopes is a reassuring smile.

“Hi, uh- You saw how Saskay was kind of starting to freak out, so I put him in time-out for a moment.”

Pink looks less than reassured. If anything, going by how rigid she is she almost seems frozen. At least… until she suddenly thaws out, gasps, and backs several steps away. Her hands bat behind her for some kind of support which she finds by some shrub. “What- what are you!” she says somewhat breathless.

“Uh, rude- but not an unreasonable question I guess.” Danny shrugs. “The important part is that I’mmm trapped in your friend…? This is kind of new for me too, to be honest… But, uh, also- you should know that I have no ill will towards any of you!” he says with a slightly forced cheer. “In fact it would be best if all of us could go our separate ways as quickly as possible…” he finishes with a nod and a smile.

Pink apparently got refrozen by her shrub. Eventually she looks him up and down. “You… You were the one in Sasuke-kun’s body…? When you pulled Naruto and I out of the way…?” She squints somewhat. “You made that jutsu pass right through us…?”

Danny nods again. He isn’t sure what she means by ‘jutsu’ but passing through things sure is what he does.

“But you’re- you’re not Sasuke…”

“Yeah. Uh, it’s nice to meet you- you can call me Phantom if you like.”

Pink just keeps staring at him all bug-eyed. It’s starting to make Danny feel kind of uncomfortable.

“Look, uh, I’ll return Saskay’s body back to him shortly, but I just need to ask one question- I mean- you’ve been around Saskay the whole time, right?”

Pink continues to look unsure about just about anything that is happening right now, but she does nod with a stutter eventually.

“Ok, good- have you seen a map around? Or a scroll- about this big…” Danny holds his hands about a foot apart. “Golden bits at the ends, possibly glowing?”

Pinks expression then finally morphs from a blank one to an utterly confused one, brow scrunching up. Her mouth falls open slightly. “… No…? I… I haven’t seen anything like that…”

Danny can’t help but sigh. That complicates things. He scratches at the back of Saskay’s neck.

“Well then… umm… I guess that’s it then… I’ll get going- but… uh-” He takes the stack of firewood into both his hands and slowly steps over to Pink. “He might drop this- so if you could…” He nudges the stack towards her.

Pinks eyes dart between his face and the stack hesitantly, but ultimately she still summons the resolve to take it from him.

“Thanks-” Danny says, nodding once more with a polite smile. “Seeya.”

And then he puts the wall of ecto-energy back into place.

Saskay immediately takes the biggest gulp of air he possibly can. He stumbles over, his knees landing in the dirt. “WHat-!” he wheezes, desperately catching his breath.

“S-Sasuke-kun…?” Pink says, cautiously stepping closer.

“What did it do?!” Saskay asks her in a half-panic. “What did he do just now??”

“I-” Pink starts, clutching onto the firewood-stack like a buoy. “He just said a few things, Sasuke-kun. Nothing else!” It’s true. Couldn’t have been more than one or two minutes.

Saskay somehow recoils away at this. Causing Danny to feel a sudden pang of guilt. He didn’t think Saskay’s reaction would be this bad.

Saskay promptly appears to be done with the emotional overload though, as he suddenly gets up and starts stomping back towards the clearing. “I’m heading back,” he announces somewhat belatedly when Pink scrambles to follow him.

“But, Sasuke-kun-!”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he hisses. “Not now, anyway…”

Pink seems to accept that for now.

Danny does want to talk. But… he kind of overstayed his welcome, didn’t he…?

Danny makes a mental note of apologizing to Sam and Tucker. He wants to go back. But for that he needs these kids to want to help him too, right…? At least, Danny really doesn’t want to consider what would become of him were he to just strong-arm these twelve-year-olds into doing his bidding…

-

It turns out the hunting party got remarkably lucky, and managed to catch themselves an honest to god boar. Danny supposes he’d seen some stuffed specimens around Vlad’s estate, but still finds himself fascinated with it. Saskay surprises him too by his apparent ability to spit fire. (Are all of these kids magic??) So all in all, it doesn’t take the party of six long to get their barbeque all set up.

It’s a fairly amiable atmosphere. Light conversation is made, but neither Saskay nor Pink participate much. Luckily all but Orange seem to accept this. Ponytail, Underpants and Pink all seem to be doing a fairly remarkable job at directing him away from Saskay though.

It’s long past dark by the time they’re done. Somewhat surprisingly, the end of dinner seems to mark the end of their get-together too. All seem to agree that abandoning the campsite is in their best interest, and so some meager goodbyes are exchanged.

Leaving only Orange, Pink and Saskay to depart on their own.

Danny notes that all of these kids have remarkable leaping prowess. (He’s really starting to wonder in what kind of world he could have possibly ended up.)

Danny doesn’t really like the sound of their whole plan though. If they’re so desperate not to catch too much attention in an apparently dangerous forest, why wouldn’t they stay together?

The trip they take isn’t long. Moving through the dark isn’t much fun in a forest as pitch-black as this one after all. Once arrived at their new campsite, they swiftly set-up a number of traps. Then from one moment to the next, Danny hardly has to blink before Orange and Pink are on their cots, leaving Saskay to take the first watch.

It’s quiet.

Orange gets a quiet snore on about twenty minutes in but other than that, there is only the rustling of the leaves in the wind, the peculiar birds in the distance, perhaps something that sounds like bats some ways away?

It’s maybe about an hour in when Saskay opens his mouth.

“Are you still there?” he asks quietly.

Danny almost doesn’t respond, he’s so surprised.

I am.

Saskay swallows thickly, clearly trying to quell his nervousness. “That stunt you pulled earlier…” he says as he directs his eyes straight ahead. It’s not like he can actually look at Danny, but apparently that doesn’t stop Saskay from giving off the impression that he can. “Don’t do it again.”

It’s remarkable how threatening the kid makes it sound.

Naturally they both know Saskay hardly has anything to say in the matter. Danny would laugh but… He supposes he has started to feel a lot more conflicted about snatching the kid’s body away from him.

Okay… he responds somewhat quietly.

And then it’s quiet again.

Danny wonders how he’s ever supposed to get out of here if communication with Saskay will stay like this.

All of a sudden he’s feeling pretty fed up actually. 

Look, I don’t want to be here any more than you do, he tells Saskay. I’ve tried to be sensitive to your situation, but I have people that I need to go back to as well- Saskay’s nostrils instantly flare up at that, and Danny can tell that he’s somehow offended the kid again. I understand that you’re intent on ignoring me as best as you can, but I can’t allow that to be how things go down. You understand?

“What do you want from me?” Saskay asks. He’s moved the arms in his lap a little tighter into himself. He’s afraid. Danny knows. But he also needs Saskay to understand that he matters too.

I think what  I want is what you want: For me to get out of here. We should be able to cooperate on at least that much, right?

It takes a considerable moment for Saskay to sort-of-hug some more comfort into himself before he responds. “… Right…”

Right… Danny echoes. He takes a deep mental breath to calm down a little. I’ll need to know everything you know about this thing in your neck, what it does, and how it got there. Preferably first thing in the morning. We’ll see where we’ll go from there.

Saskay doesn’t answer, but Danny supposes he doesn’t need him to right now.

Goodnight… he says a bit lamely.

Saskay doesn’t say it back.

-

Morning seems to come faster than any one of them would have liked it to.

It turns out that Danny is still capable of getting a snooze on, provided that Saskay is at least as unconscious.

It also turns out that while conked out Danny is not capable of holding up his little barrier. Because Saskay wakes violently at the crack of dawn- an only partially repressed scream on his lips, trashing violently as he discovers the markings and the malice seeping into his being. Naturally Danny is fully awake the moment this occurs, and it takes little effort to push it all back again. I gotchu…! he says in what he hopes is a reassuring tone. Sure enough, Saskay does stop outright panicking the moment he realizes the markings are receding.

“Sasuke-kun?” Pink says in a remarkably clear voice for someone who just woke up. She’s by his side within a moment. “Sasuke-kun, are you alright?” she asks, putting her hand on his bicep.

“It’s nothing,” Saskay predictably says, eager to get away from her touch. Something quirks at his lip and Danny realizes he’s ashamed.

“What’s going on…?” Orange asks groggily, rubbing his eye. It’s kind of adorable. Danny also wonders if it’s weird to think that twelve-year-olds are adorable when you’re only sixteen.

“We should move,” Saskay says with a slightly strangled tone. Pink continues to look worried, but nods resolutely. ‘Someone may have heard that,’ it goes unsaid.

Packing is swift with as little as they unpacked in the first place, and it’s only with minimal complaining from Orange that the trio is on the move. They seem to be going pretty fast from what Danny can tell, but by Saskay’s frown he can tell the kid isn’t satisfied. He’s still hurting after all, if anything it appears that some of his bruises have only just gotten around to full bloom. Pink too is still struggling with a nasty cut on her thigh, and even Orange seems a little low on spirit.

They opt to hide in the canopy this time. They’re all a little winded.

“We should continue to rest,” Pink says when she’s caught her breath. “We’re not in the condition to get a heaven scroll at this point. We still have four days left to complete the second exam, so… let’s just make the most of the peace and quiet while we can…” It’s telling that she gets little complaint from either of her friends.

Orange wastes no time retrieving his sleeping cot again, and goes to make himself comfortable among the branches.

“If you fall out of this tree, Naruto, I swear to god-” Saskay starts.

“Shut up, bastard!” Orange pouts. “I won’t fall, alright…?” he mumbles, seemingly already halfway to dreamland.

Pink quietly watches the interaction, but then returns to her apparent task: Cleaning and tending to some of her wounds. Evidently the cut on her leg had opened up again over their morning exercise.

She could use a couple of stitches on that… Danny remarks.

Saskay jumps slightly. He clearly hadn’t been expecting to hear Danny’s voice again so soon into their little moment of respite.

Unfortunately Saskay also seems intent on ignoring him once more. Danny continues to find it pretty frustrating, but at least he can understand a little that Saskay might not want to let his friends hear him talk to himself. Instead the kid sits and rummages through his pack, pulling out some kind of rations bar.

Danny can’t help but wince as he continues to watch Pink work though. Once she’s finished cleaning the cut, she’s already taken to unpackaging a fresh roll of bandages after all.

Seriously, if she doesn’t get the stitches it’ll be that much longer before it heals. Keeping that wound closed is kind of imperative at this point.

Saskay loudly undoes the wrapper on his rations bar, and crinkles it a bit extra as he attempts to cover his response. “Shut up. You’re not a medical professional,” he whispers.

Evidently, it’s not actually enough to keep Pink from hearing him. Saskay’s cheeks burn a little as he takes a very focused bite out of his bar.

I’m not… Danny admits. But I’ve probably put about a couple of hundred stitches into myself at this point.

Saskay nearly chokes on his bar. 

The coughing lasts long enough even, that Pink awkwardly scoots over, careful not to jostle her leg, so she can pat Saskay on the back. “Is everything alright, Sasuke-kun?” 

Saskay just keeps coughing.

Well…? Danny prompts once the kid’s breathing finally starts leveling out again.

Saskay takes to eyeing Pink as the last couple of coughs recede. Even once abated, Saskay still takes a clear moment to search for any other course of action besides the obvious. It’s only when the ongoing silence threatens to embarrass him that he finally gives in. “He says… it needs to be stitched…” The reluctance all but drips from his words.

Pink doesn’t quite seem to follow along. “Eh…?”

“Your leg. Apparently the healing will take much longer if you don’t get some stitches,” Saskay explains.

Pink’s cheeks color a little. “I-… Are you sure…? Is he sure?” she asks, sounding slightly distressed.

I’m sure.

“He’s sure.”

“I- uh…” Pink starts. Danny doesn’t really know what she wants to say, but evidently neither does Pink as no further words follow when she opts to scoot back a little bit and reach for her pack instead. Saskay seems to have momentarily forgotten about his rations bar as he watches her dig out the needle and thread. There’s a moment of hesitation the moment it’s in her hands.

Not much progress is made from that point on.

“Sasuke-kun…?” Pink eventually asks, still holding the needle and thread in mid-air.

“What is it?” he asks unassumingly.

“Could you… do this for me…?” she finally asks. She doesn’t even seem capable of looking him in the eye.

Saskay’s cheeks warm a little as well. “Umm… I guess I could…” he says casually, but Danny can read the hesitance from his movements clear as day.

It’s not difficult, he reassures. But sewing with confidence helps. It’s better to sew a little sloppy than it is to be hesitant and indecisive.

Saskay is sitting beside Pink’s leg now, staring intently at the gash in front of him. Pink herself seems a little fidgety, but she soon tucks her arms in close to her chest, seemingly afraid to interfere in any way.

“Okay,” Saskay says a little hoarsely, turning his gaze towards the needle. There’s a remarkable calm to him as he finds the end to the coil of thread, and ultimately threads the needle with it. It’s only once he’s done that the nervousness returns. He shifts a little, anxiously seeking a better position, and extends his hand to gently lay it on her outer thigh.

Pink almost jumps a little, but keeps a brave face.

It’s only then that Saskay attempts to lower the needle to her skin.

You might want to keep a clean rag handy, wipe that last streak of blood away. Not to mention that you’re about to jostle the wound a little bit, and you need to be able to see what you’re doing, even if more blood comes out.

The fingers to Sasuke’s right hand gently come to rest on Pink’s leg then, the needle between them still suspended a few hairs away from actually making contact.

And then it stays like that.

It’s almost funny, finding Saskay frozen up in much the same way as his friend had been a moment earlier- despite having ostensibly taken on this task to save her this trouble. But they do actually need him to pull through here.

Sasuke licks his lips once before inhaling carefully, and when Danny almost expects him to unfreeze- 

“What if… what if you do it…” he says in a slightly higher pitch than what Danny is used to hearing at this point.

“S-Sasuke-kun…??” Pink squeaks slightly.

Are you sure?

“Y-yeah- what’s the harm… right…?” His tone only continues to pitch up further. It’s also clearly a question he’s not really expecting an answer to.

Danny opts to just relieve him before anyone can respond to his plea for reassurance, which Saskay surely does not actually want to hear. Alright then, if you say so…

And then he pushes back decisively. Not aggressively so, but still firm enough not to leave any room for second thoughts.

And just as last time when Danny took over, the mark in Saskay’s neck comes to burn again. Danny keeps his eyes closed for a moment as he breathes through it, Saskay’s hands still rest right where he left them.

“S-Sasuke-kun???” Pink stutters.

When Danny opens his eyes the flecks have once more crawled onto his arms. Danny won’t let it bother him though, he turns a polite, if somewhat forced smile to Pink.

“Sorry, uhh… I don’t think I’ve caught your name yet?” he says. He meant to say something reassuring but belatedly realized that he didn’t have anything to call her by besides ‘Pink’.

Pink’s posture becomes the very definition tense. Her muscles suddenly all clench up, including the curling of her toes as she goes rigid. She doesn’t try to move away from him though.

“I-it’s Sakura!” she says a little too loudly. “Haruno Sakura!”

The manner of her response makes Danny a little uncomfortable still. But considering the circumstances Danny supposes he can’t really blame her.

“Alright Sakura, uh- Saskay seemed to prefer that I do the stitches, is that okay with you?”

Pink continues to stare at him with wide eyes. “Well- you were the one that said I needed them right?”

Danny nods. “It would help the healing process along quite a bit. Especially if you’re gonna need to be moving around more shortly after this.”

Sakura nods. Then her expression grows determined. “Then yes, I would like it if you could do these stitches for me, Phantom-san.”

Danny still doesn’t really understand what the extra syllables behind people’s names are about, but he supposes that is about all he needs. And so he turns his attention to Sakura’s medical kit, and fetches himself something appropriately disinfected to help him do this. He gently wipes the remaining blood away.

It’s not like Danny is devoid of nervousness either. He’s done little stitching on other people after all… He’s done some on Sam once. But usually it’s just him that needs stitching up. And even on the few occasions that Danny’s friends get injured, they –unlike him- could just go to the actual emergency room. Although Tucker has been known to pester Sam for sutures instead.

“So, umm… I heard something about an exam that you mentioned?” Danny says in some attempt at distracting his patient. That’s what doctors do right? He uses his free hand to press the wound closed.

“Y-yeah… It’s the second one- to see if we have what it takes to become Chuunin,” she explains. Danny immediately opts to take this first opportunity to jam the needle in her leg. Sakura inhales sharply, but no other sound escapes her. “I see,” Danny says, despite not having one clue about what a ‘chuunin’ even is. “It’s like a survival exercise…?” he asks, hoping to get her to stop pressing her lips together.

“In part… yes…” she answers. Danny goes in for the second stitch. Her breathing continues to stutter a little, but she is evidently determined to finish her explanation. “Each team is handed either an earth… or a heaven scroll. Only teams that acquire b-both will be able to pass the exam.” Danny just about finishes the third. He frowns.

“Is that why you were attacked? Do they encourage you to do that…?” he asks.

“I’m… Not sure… They said they came for Sasuke-kun… That man… He said his name was Orochimaru. He had said that they would come too…”

“This man wasn’t any of your instructors I hope?”

“No! No I- I have no clue who he was… I don’t think he was here for the exam. He just wanted Sasuke-kun for some reason… He’s the one that put… that put that mark in Sasuke-kun’s neck. Didn’t he put you inside of Sasuke-kun as well?”

Danny wipes down the wound again. Five stitches now. One more should do it… Danny doesn’t really know how to answer her question though. “… Well… the timing is uncanny at least.” He says as he pushes the needle in one more time. It’s only then that Danny earns a harsh reminder reminder of the malice, as his frustration suddenly melds with it in a bout of irrational anger.

Danny’s hand twitches in surprise, causing a peep of sorts to escape from Sakura as he jostles the needle. “Sorry-” he says through nearly-clenched teeth as he makes an effort to rein in his emotions.

Sakura keeps quiet once more.

Danny notes that she’s been an exemplary patient as far as he’s concerned. He ties off his handiwork, unthreads the needle, and cuts off the remainder of his thread.

“So it’s not normal then- for kids to attack one another in the forest?” he asks, just to make sure.

Sakura seems a little surprised. “Oh, no! Fighting is very much expected of us. The second stage of the exam is generally considered to be the deadliest part of the exam, since there’s little to no proctors around to halt the violence when it gets bad.”

“… What …???” Danny asks her, suddenly finding himself searching her face for any kind of joke or deception. ‘Deadliest’?? Surely she’s kidding, right?

“But-! It’s by no means necessary to kill! Most genin only want to pass the exam, so… They’re perfectly content to leave others alone if they give up their scroll!” she add hastily, by what Danny interprets as a poor attempt to make it all sound acceptable.

Luckily the malice remains at bay while Danny’s thoughts remain on the side of baffled moreso than angry.

“What’s a genin, even?” he ends up asking, as his brain can’t catch onto anything more coherent right now. The question apparently has Sakura turning a little bug-eyed once again.

“Uh- umm…” is all she produces before looking down, seemingly unsure how to even start explaining.

Danny just sighs and turns to take some more gauze from Sakura’s medical kit. “You don’t need to explain it to me if it’s too much work…” he says as he takes to cutting out a sizable piece, and then proceeds to tape it to her leg. He only uses a little, since he intends to wrap it up anyway. Wounds like this do better with a little pressure.

“It’s fine. Um… Do you know what a shinobi is, Phantom-san…?” Sakura asks after a moment. 

Danny sends her a quick look as he starts positioning her unpackaged roll of bandages from earlier. “Shinobi as in like… ninja?” he asks.

“Yes!” Sakura confirms eagerly. “Shinobi that pass the academy are generally known as ‘genin’. This exam determines which genin may be fit to be promoted to chuunin!”

It’s kind of boggling Danny’s mind. They let these kids kill one another over this? From the way Sakura talks about it, it doesn’t even sound like there’s any consequences involved. Wait… they’re ninja…??? This world is getting weirder and weirder fast.

At least Tucker would probably get a kick out of it once Danny told him.

Danny gingerly finishes wrapping up Sakura’s leg, only to fumble a little bit when he finally pins it all in place. “That should do it,” he concludes, before giving the rest of Sakura a once-over. “Anything else I should take a look at?”

It turns out her arm has a nasty gash as well, although this one isn’t as long as the one on her leg. Likely a stab wound, Danny surmises. It could still use a stitch or two though, and while Sakura clearly doesn’t like getting more stitches, there’s no hesitation when she offers her arm to him.

This time around the small talk is a little more small talk. Danny assumes none of them had gotten stitches before, but Sakura tells him that she did get some in the academy once. It’s just that none of them had had to do it themselves yet. Apparently ‘Naruto’ has gotten stitches on a whole host of occasions. She even manages to make Danny laugh when she tells him that he’d stabbed his own hand once for poisoning reasons. (Danny has heard them call Orange ‘Naruto’ before, but it’s only now that he makes a point of remembering.)(How could he not with an anecdote like that? What a legend.)

When he’s finished Danny makes sure to tell Sakura of what an exemplary patient he found her to be, because clearly this girl wasn’t getting enough credit for her bravery. He pretends not to see the colour arising on Sakura’s cheeks as she quickly turns away in embarrassment. She’s smiling though.

It also turns out that Danny has used most of the supplies Sakura had brought in the first place. He lectures her on the necessity of refreshing her bandages, which earns him a somewhat angry pout. (“Don’t patronize us, Phantom-san. We’ve been taught that much.”) 

Luckily she can still nab some stuff from her friends later.

And with that Danny supposes comes an end to his little stint of ‘freedom’. He releases a somewhat beleaguered sigh. It takes some resolve-building to prepare himself to go back into hiding. The urge to stay arises strongly. A darker part of Danny has him actually considering it, but he firmly disregards it, if only to oppose the malice that urges him on. So instead Danny takes a deep breath and bids Sakura farewell for now.

“Hopefully the next time we speak it won’t be through Saskay,” he says a bit wryly.

Sakura momentarily seems to suppress a laugh at something, but she’s quick to school her expression into something appropriately solemn, but optimistic. “I hope so too, Phantom-san,” she tells him. She sounds remarkably sincere. Danny smiles.

And then he replaces the barrier, thinking it best to just get his departure over with.

Saskay once again wakes with some sputtering and gasping, Sakura’s hand is on his bicep once again in an awkward attempt to stabilize him. The moment he regains his bearings he also sends his eyes looking over Sakura, seemingly examining her to make sure that he didn’t make some terrible kind of mistake. Danny’s fairly neat handiwork seems to put him at ease somewhat.

“Welcome back, Sasuke-kun.” Sakura says happily.

Chapter Text

When Saskay returns to his body Danny finds that the guy seems... less than pleased about the current state of affairs. It really puts kind of a damper on things when for a moment there Sakura had actually appeared to be in great spirits. Figuring out the reason why poses somewhat of a challenge though. While it may be tempting to write Saskay’s moods off as perpetually frustrated, it would probably be in Danny’s best interest to attempt to understand him.

Danny supposes that he could be jealous. Or, more in keeping with his behavior from earlier: Unsatisfied with his own lack of ability?

Danny can relate on some level. Although he did learn to depend on his friends from the get-go, he’d had little opportunity to entertain such frustrations much.

The moment that Sakura’s concern starts to show is the moment that Saskay decides to get out of dodge. And so with a brief word about the traps they have yet to set, he’s off.

It’s only once Saskay has moved himself out of earshot that the kid really takes on a decidedly calmer demeanor. He rests his head against the trunk of a tree for a moment. His leg aches and Danny sure hopes Saskay isn’t sporting any knife-wounds of his own. Still, the moment of rest that Saskay allows for himself is brief. It’s been a minute at most when he grabs into his pack, miraculously navigating its many knives, and pulls out some remarkably sturdy feeling wire. (Danny wonders if it would hold up better on the Fenton Fisher, rather than the synthetically imbued stuff his parents tried to use. Before it all got knotted up and abandoned, that is.)

Still, as fascinating as it is to watch Saskay setting up his tripwires, Danny needs to get down to business.

Soo… Would this be a good time to talk? … About what we agreed on yesterday…?

To Danny’s dismay Saskay’s scowl is immediate. Danny does something equivalent to a sigh.

I guess not then. Unfortunately I really need to get the ball rolling on this thing, Saskay…

Saskay’s scowl only seems to intensify. In fact Danny could have sworn his eye just twitched. There’s hardly any need to be that dramatic.

“Later!” he hisses at Danny.

Dude, I thought we were on the same page on this...! How are we supposed to get anywhere if you won’t talk to me?? Danny asks. His patience is really starting to wear thin at this point.

He tries to talk (read: complain) Saskay into talking to him for a while longer, but the kid seems insistent on not hearing him. He just keeps on wiring the place up wordlessly until-

A brief jingle sounds.

The sudden stillness is almost deafening. Saskay carefully unfreezes, and looks down to where he’d just rigged up a number of bells. It’s then that his eyes suddenly start feeling real funny. It’s clearly more than a weird ailment however, as the world is suddenly drawn in a bizarre clarity. Danny can’t really describe it. It’s as if the world no longer holds any secrets from them anymore. Every rustle of leaves, every move Saskay makes as he pulls one of those knives out of his pack- there’s a level of comprehension to it all that Danny had never even considered as a thing he could lack.

Saskay jumps back in the direction of his teammates, but his arc is thrown off when the jingling returns- except- More. It’s almost as if the sound comes from five directions at once. It inexplicably destroys their sense of balance, forcing Saskay to stick himself to the nearest available surface. He furiously attempts to blink away the vertigo, but his vision continues to swim, and Danny too is more than a little rattled to find that a sound is leaving them this vulnerable. What is happening??? he think-shouts at Saskay, but Saskay is just trying to find his intended direction again. Only the ringing intensifies.

This time there’s laughter too.

Sasuke’s head immediately turns towards its apparent direction, before a realization seems to hit him. “Genjutsu-…!” he says, as if that combination of syllables is supposed to mean anything.

The next thing Danny knows is that Saskay is falling, and his adrenaline briefly spikes when Saskay turns to cut his own leg on the way down- but then everything comes into clarity again. And boy does the clarity have good timing. Saskay only just barely twists out of the way of a barrage of oversized needles, all equipped with softly jingling bells on little threads. Their ringing briefly startles him, but it’s hardly distraction enough for Saskay to miss batting away the follow-up.

Saskay’s eye-situation and remarkable knife-skills quickly prove to be greatly useful.

Looking down, things start to look a little grimmer unfortunately, as no suitable landing space but the unforgiving ground rushes up. Saskay shows little concern however, as he’s already spooling out yet more of that wire from his pack. And with a few precisely aimed knives his swinging arc is secured.

Only for a blast of the very air itself to tear him off his wire, and send him hurtling down once more. Saskaay! Danny calls in alarm. He’s only a second away from possessing the kid and straight-up flying him out of there, but Saskay proves to be continuously resourceful. Their new angle turns out not to be total garbage, as the kid manages to plunge his knife into the bark of a nearby tree. The momentum is too great for the blade to do anything but tear straight through, but it slows Saskay’s descent considerably. So one awkward landing through some branching later, Saskay is finally pulling them off of the forest floor.

I can take over any time, Danny assures him. Just say the word and all three of you will be out of here.

“No!” comes Sasuke’s immediate response. It sounds more emotional than reasonable to Danny, but clearly it doesn’t take Saskay long to find some reasoning regardless. “What would you even know, when you can’t even tell jutsu apart!” His eyes furiously scan the space above for anything that could come down in pursuit of him- And sure enough…

Saskay’s hands weave through a number of signs in the blink of an eye, before blowing a great fireball towards the branching above.

A cry of surprise suggests he’s on target, but the fireball comes undone the moment it appears to really hit home. What’s revealed is a smoking and somewhat haggard-looking Spiky catching his breath on one of the branches. Saskay grimaces, clearly having hoped for a more gruesome outcome. Danny supposes he doesn’t actually mind not having set the guy on fire.

To make matters worse, an immediate sense of fatigue falls over Saskay’s body, seemingly begging him to take a nap already. Danny immediately recognizes it as the sort of thing he used to feel in his early days of ghosting around. If things continue like this-

The exhaustion apparently leaves room for the mark to attempt a renewed surge as well, but Danny is quick to keep its influence held down.

That’s when the other two appear.

Danny consciously needs to resist the urge to bite his tongue, lest he accidentally possess Saskay again. ‘Jutsu’ or no ‘jutsu’, I know enough to know that they won’t affect me! Now how confident are you about taking on all three of these buttholes on your own??

Saskay seems to do Danny the courtesy of biting the inside of his cheek for him. It doesn’t make Danny feel any more at ease with the present situation. The kid is clearly too busy surveying his enemies to pay him any mind.

“Way to rush in, dingus,” Bell-girl says, barely sending a glance back to Spiky, who is still smoking out on his branch. This seems to be Spiky’s cue to jump down. “Shut up,” he tells her, only to grimace from the rapidly welting blisters appearing on his face. It seems his one cheek and hands took the brunt of the fire. Bandages up front doesn’t bother with their interaction at all as he eyes Saskay with… Danny isn’t really sure what that expression is. It’s hard to tell while it’s covered in his titular bandages.

“My, my, it seems that curse mark is a little difficult to master then is it Sasuke…?”

The thinning of Saskay’s lips suggests the comment is received about as well as a sour lemon. But Saskay isn’t about to let them know it gets to him. “As if I would even need to resort to curses to deal with the likes of you,” he says with a remarkably confident grin.

I would really prefer it if you did, actually- Danny says. But his words are drowned out by the sudden charge of Bandages, whose ridiculously long sleeves have finally been tugged up to reveal a strange kind of contraption.

He’s fast but his swing is wide, so ducking it is easy for Saskay. Saskay clearly intends to repay him with a good kick, but there’s a sudden mile of distance between his foot and Bandages. Almost as if Bandages hadn’t even meant to commit to his strike in the first place- A feint-?

That’s when the sound hits.

It’s loud. Loud enough to tear at Saskay’s eardrums. Loud enough perhaps to even rival Danny’s Ghostly Wail. Saskay cries out, but he remains focused enough to dodge a second strike coming down at him.

Another shriek erupts from the contraption. It hurts, but Sasuke seems to manage enough distance this time to avoid getting his ears damaged any further. So it’s short range then, Danny surmises. Sure enough the other two seem unbothered. Bell-girl sends a barrage of needles to block off Saskay’s escape route, but the things pose as no more than a nuisance to him. A few timely deflections and a remarkably acrobatic flip secures Saskay’s way through when Bandages is nearly upon him once more.

Bandages hardly bats an eye at the stray needles himself as he simply shields himself with his arm-contraption.

Saskay’s acrobatics continue to kind of blow Danny’s mind, but the kid is going to have to do better than this narrowly successful dodging if he means to get out of this encounter in one piece. And sure enough, it’s only so long before things go awry. Saskay swings off a conveniently placed branch that would have left Bandages somewhat of an obstacle, until Bandages simply blows his way through it.

Splinters and bark rain down on Saskay, and for a moment Danny is certain he’s about to get hit again-

Until a blur of Orange sends Bandages face-first into the ground.

Bandages appears terrifyingly still for a moment…  Until the mechanical shriek clearly signifies him as very much alive. The sound hardly compares to what they’d heard before, but it appears to be more than enough to turn Naruto into no more than a puff of smoke. Not the actual real Naruto then, alright, Danny can keep up. So Bandages’ attacks were not only limited in range, they are targeted.

Saskay wastes no time in throwing a number of his own projectiles at Bandages while he’s still down, but Bandages easily shifts the shrub on his back into their path, rendering the attack useless. To Danny’s dismay the chase immediately seems to be re-initiated from that point on, except some rapidly approaching shouts signify that the rest of the battle is coming to them as well. To his credit Saskay makes yet more creative use of his wire as he briefly succeeds in ensnaring Bandages’ arm against a tree, before Bandages once again blows his way to freedom again.

Undeterred, Saskay aims yet another wired throwing star. But his opportunity for further action is interrupted when a blast sends none other than Naruto crashing into him, sending the both of them rolling through the forest flooring. A jingling sound accompanies them along the way. “Naruto you moron!!” Saskay exclaims as he throws the other off of him in an attempt to get up. He’s already looking to reorient himself towards their enemy, when Naruto’s sloppy and disoriented attempt at getting up catches his eye. “Shut up- bastard!” Naruto nevertheless answers as he finds purchase against the tree they nearly slammed into. Several of those needles are poking out of his arm, each with their own bell. For someone who’s generally a douche to the kid, Saskay sure seems curiously fixated on those injuries.

It’s only then that Sakura appears seemingly out of nowhere, to bravely stand her ground in front of them.

“Sasuke, disrupt his chakra!” she calls. Saskay freezes.

“How pitiful…” says Bell-girl as she emerges through the foliage from roughly the same spot Naruto had appeared. She reveals yet another number of those damn needles from between her fingers. Spiky is right on her heels. Bandages too, appears to have been content merely watching the pile-up take place. “Do you really think you have what it takes to go up against the three of us?” Bell-girl continues with a cocky tone. Spiky and Bandages both threateningly turn their respective weaponry against the kids too as if to punctuate that statement, each of them clearly eager to finish this.

“Right back atcha!” Naruto yells as he summons another pair of wobbling clones into existence- only to immediately have all three of them eat some needles. Some of them pinning Naruto to his support-tree, which he immediately tries but fails to remove off his person.

Ok, that’s it,  Danny says. A statement which clearly only serves to make Saskay more apprehensive. Decide for yourself all you like, but I won’t stand by as you let the other two get hurt.

Sasuke inhales sharply, but Danny has already jumped into his body.

“Oh? My, it certainly took a while-” Bandages says as the markings spread over Saskay’s skin. Even Sakura dares to send a glance back, eyes widening as she realizes what’s taken place. Even Naruto gives him a strange look.

“Apologies for the hold-up then.” Danny smirks, even as he fights the burn in his neck.

“I wouldn’t even think about moving if I were you,” Spiky says, palms still outstretched.

The threat ought not to have meant much, but unfortunately Danny finds that Sakura is just slightly too far for him to safely grab in time. Fortunately, there are more ways than one to apply intangibility.

Danny smiles. “O-kay,” he says in the most jovial of tones.

And then all three of them drop through the forest floor.

One doesn’t even need to reach their allies if they can just turn the surrounding ground intangible after all. Both Naruto and Sakura release quite the yelp as they lose their footing, but Danny quickly snatches their collars and moves them to resurface about a couple dozen yards away. He would have gone further, but controlling an intangible space is considerably more awkward than simply turning himself intangible. He’d really rather get everyone out of that before any unfortunate accidents can occur. They both seem to need a moment to remember how to breathe.

“So, running seems like a good option and all, but I’m starting to get the feeling that won’t get rid of them…” he says to Sakura. 

“Wait, hold on-! What the hell was that jutsu!” Naruto interrupts.

“You’re… You’re probably right…” Sakura says. Danny gets the feeling she’s deliberately avoiding calling him by any names at present. Danny nods at her.

“Right…” He takes a deep breath. Danny feels eager enough to kick some butt, but perhaps that’s exactly the problem. He would really like to get through this without giving into the strange malice that still flows into him. Naruto looks at him like he’s some sort of alien. “Be right back then,” Danny tells him with a half-smile. And then he turns invisible.

It clearly surprises them, but Danny leaves Sakura to deal with Naruto’s inevitable questioning.

Given that they’d only moved about a couple dozen yards, Danny is not surprised to already find Bell-girl en route. And in a terrible split second decision, Danny decides that he really doesn’t like the idea of the sound-trio getting any closer than they already are.

So the invisible kick to her stomach might be a little harder than he’d intended it to be.

Bell-girl is therefore sent flying back almost a couple dozen yards herself, straight past her teammates, only to roll her way straight through a bunch of foliage. The other two watch her go in a stunned silence. Danny opts to better take one out of the picture before tending to the rest. So he invisibly phases himself on through the same shrubs Bell-girl had tumbled through. She’s already scrambling to get back up. The temptation to kick her while she’s down is there, but Danny firmly decides to not do that. Talking shit to her seems like a good compromise.

“So, if you don’t want to turn into a block of ice, I suggest you run right now,” Danny says as he lets Saskay reappear. He needs to do a little demonstration after all. And so he lets his cryokinetic powers coat the surrounding forest in frost, drawing all the warmth out of the air as he turns their breath to mist. A shiver runs up his spine.

It seems to work, because Bell-girl immediately yelps and scurries back from him, only to cry out when a familiar onslaught rages straight through Danny, and pushes her and the surrounding forest further away instead.

When Danny looks behind him there’s a frazzled Spiky standing in the middle of what once was a beautiful shrub. There’s little evidence left of Danny’s frosty party-trick, but Spiky’s misting breath and goosebumps suggest he still noticed. A frowning Bandages stands right behind him. “Do it again! He shouldn’t be able to keep this up for long!” he instructs, and sure enough Spiky does it again.

And so once again the forest mulch is sent spiraling out in all directions, tearing a slightly deeper path beneath Saskay’s feet.

“Or you’re wrong,” Danny deadpans. “My turn!” he says as he raises his hand, needing but a moment to summon the blue energy, intending to freeze their feet to the ground. Sure enough the moment he sends the blast flying is the moment Spiky freaks and blasts yet again.

Surprisingly it actually seems to work. While Danny can phase Saskay through the attack harmlessly, he unfortunately can’t phase through the ghostly energy that is flung back at him. Most of it gets flung out to coat some miscellaneous surfaces in their surroundings, but Danny still notes that a portion of Saskay’s hair, sleeve and shorts getting frozen. Oops. Spiky is breathing heavily at this point, but his exhaustion only seems to make him more reckless, as he just keeps it up again. Danny starts to find it kind of pitiful.

It really seems like Spiky’s putting a lot of stock into this ‘he can’t keep it up for long’-theory. Otherwise he’s helpless and he knows it.

“Dosu-!” Spiky pants, turning to his teammate for better ideas. But Bandages hardly seems to be listening.

“Is this really what a curse mark is?” he seems to mumble to no one in particular.

“I guess your boss didn’t tell you either, huh?” Danny asks with a bemused smirk. Speaking of which… “Actually, could you all do me a favor? The boss-man and I have some catching up to do, and I would really appreciate it if you could tell him to come find me. You know, as a courtesy for me not making icicles out of the lot of you,” he finishes with another release of cryokinetic energy. This time the frost coverage is enough to coat their shoes as well. Spiky pushes Bandages out of the way as he rapidly stumbles away, desperate not to get stuck where he stands. Even Bandages opts to take a few steps back, but his gaze remains fixed on Danny. Danny can’t help but smile at his reaction.

“Or stick around for a while longer? It would be a shame to part ways so soon.” He flexes his fingers, reveling in his power as he lets it leak out of Saskay’s skin.

“Dosu?” Spiky calls again, but his teammate almost seems transfixed.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m out of here!” someone behind him calls. Danny had almost forgotten about Bell-girl. He turns around just in time to catch sight of her leap up into the trees, power is already surging into his hand- He knows he’s fast enough, if she thinks she can escape him-!

The blast hits her straight in her spine.

His thoughts seize up.

“Kin!” someone shouts. But Danny doesn’t hear it. Nor is he breathing for that matter. He’s drawn his hand into his chest. Instinct has him attempt to expel the malice again, but he can’t fully commit. He needs to be in charge after all, doesn’t he? He gets dizzy nonetheless. 

It’s only then that Danny remembers his need to breathe. He gasps, and steps back, and through blurring vision he can see that the other two have moved to pick the girl up from where she’d fallen. He’s feeling kind of sick actually. Then one of them turns around and Danny abruptly clamps down on his invisibility. This has gone too far. Or… has it? No-! This- This needs to end. Immediately.

Wasting no further breath, Danny rushes Saskay back to his friends. He puts the barrier back into place sooner even than that he’s let go of his invisibility.

-

Tucker is having a slow kind of morning. And by slow he means an awake kind of morning. Which by all means, shouldn’t be a thing for teens during spring break. But his parents’ rigorous morning routine had never allowed for that kind of thing on any weekday. They were lucky his mom’s waffles were worth it. And so Tucker slowly continues to chew his breakfast at the kitchen table, eyes blinking blearily. Ceaseless bustling continues to happen around him. His dad finishes putting his dishes in the sink, collects his lunch, and checks his pockets for the third time that morning in search of his keys. “In the tray, dear,” his mother says while stuffing an ungodly amount of laundry into the washing machine under the counter. It’s about as domestic as things can get.

His father mumbles something under his breath as he finally pockets the keys, before remembering to kiss his wife. “Have a good day dear, you too son!” he adds, ruffling Tucker’s hair on his way to the door. 

“I really wish he would stop doing that…” Tucker complains once the door is shut again.

“He only does it because you keep it covered up all the time, sweetie,” his mother explains without taking her eyes off of the detergent she’s measuring.

That’s when Tucker’s phone rings.

It’s a little unusual so early in the day, but things get a little stranger still when Tucker finds that it’s Jazz’s caller ID. “I’ll be right back,” he tells his mom as he heads into the hallway.

“Don’t forget to hang this to dry later Tucker! I have my class in an hour!” his mother shouts after him. “Will do!” Tucker replies, already hurrying up the stairs.

“Jazz?” He asks the minute he’s entered into his room. “Did something happen?”

“Hello Tucker, I was just wondering if you’ve heard of Danny this morning? Or at all since last night…?”

Tucker takes a seat in his chair and lets it roll him towards his window. “Nnno… I didn’t get anything. But some ghosts are known to make a nuisance of themselves in the small hours. He could just turn up in an hour to kick out the power-chord of your computer when you think you’re almost done compiling.”

“Are you still-? You know what, never mind. The reason why I called is… I don’t think Danny came home last night…”

Tucker frowns. “What makes you say that?”

“Mom refreshed the sheets yesterday. And the bed is still made.”

Tucker takes a deep breath before running a hand down his face. “I’ll call Sam.”

“I called her first actually, she didn’t pick up.”

“She usually doesn’t in the mornings. The trick is to call the landline instead.” Tucker grins, before spotting his hat and putting it on.

“Ah, I suppose Pamela Manson is a gift that has gone underappreciated in our time.”

-

It’s a little less than thirty minutes before the whole team, sans Danny, is assembled in the Fentonworks lab.

“Sure is convenient that Mr. and Mrs. F aren’t here right now,” Tucker remarks as he gears up the Specter Speeder, letting the engines warm up a little before they take off. It seems Danny remembered to do his chores this time because the filters are clean and ready to go.

Jazz is gently clearing the last of the equipment left in their path to the portal. “I convinced them to go on a supply run. I just hope they won’t give the retail workers too much trouble when they find out there’s no such thing as a spring break sale going on at the hardware store.”

Tucker winces. “Mr. and Mrs. F are cool, but their inability to mind collateral damage might just be their one problem.”

“’Tear apart molecule by molecule’!” Sam quotes from the back of the lab.

“Yeah and maybe that too…” Tucker admits, before going to lean out the side of the vehicle. “Hey Sam, how is it taking this long to find the Boomerang??”

“Fuck you!” 

“Wow!” he laughs. “Language!”

Jazz then ambles over to the Speeder herself and Tucker steps back to let her board. “You kind of had that coming,” she helpfully informs him. Tucker gives her a betrayed look.

“You were the one that called Mrs. M a ‘gift’ not an hour ago!”

Jazz narrows her eyes at him. “Hush up about that and I’ll make sure she doesn’t sit next to you.”

“Deal,” Tucker agrees easily.

It appears that’s Sam’s cue to finally show up with the Boomerang. “Do you think it’s really capable of chasing him through the ‘infinite realms’?” she asks. Sam hadn’t bothered to do her make-up, but her morning-face is dark enough to complete her look regardless.

“It chased him to an alternate future once. I’d say our odds are pretty good,” Jazz assures her.

Tucker would like to agree, but their previous experience with the Infinimap had been chaotic to say the least. Sam telling them of the artifact’s appearance yesterday had done very little to reassure Tucker. Still, Jazz wasn’t wrong to be optimistic either. So he opts not to comment when he slides himself back into the driver’s seat.

Sure enough Jazz keeps her promise and takes her seat next to him, and Tucker slowly boosts the acceleration on the Speeder.

They smoothly glide through the portal. Tucker confidently pushes the pedal down a little further.

And so they soon find themselves immersed in the swirling greens of the ‘Ghost-zone’.

“Sam?” he calls back.

“On it,” she replies, before Tucker hears the telltale sound of the Speeder’s door unlocking. “Here goes nothing…” she then says.

When Tucker looks to his side he can see the Boomerang arching away from them, seemingly content to be a regular boomerang for a moment. It’s only when it starts arching back towards them that it finally changes direction. By making an unexpected dive that is.

Tucker curses as he scrambles to push the joystick down. Somehow Sam still manages to reach their seating without getting thrown through the vehicle. “Scoot,” she orders.

“What? I’m kind of in the middle of fixing our trajectory here!” Tuckers responds, finally managing to wrangle the vehicle into an angle that lets them have a visual on the Boomerang.

“With all due respect, Tucker. You’re the genius tech and programmer guy. But I’m the gal who kicks your butt in any and all videogames, including the flight sims.”

Tucker grits his teeth as he adjusts for an overcorrection. “Look, I can drive- we’ve basically got our angle right here!” It’s a little wobbly, but sure enough they’re starting to get a pretty steady pursuit on.

And then the Boomerang completely veers off to the side.

Tucker and Jazz scoot over.

Sam taking the stick unfortunately doesn’t make their ride much more pleasant. She does an adequate job on their chase, but the Boomerang continues to act erratically to a point where Tucker is seriously considering a tune-up. Every few minutes it seems to hold the same direction for a while, only to then decide on another route instead.

“We really need a Danny-GPS…” Jazz says somewhat queasily when the vehicle is forced to navigate a sudden obstacle. Tucker rubs her back.

The Boomerang’s erraticism is clearly starting to favor a singular direction the more they head east however.

“What did Danny even need the Infinimap for in the first place?” Tucker wonders.

“Heck if I know,” Sam says. Renewed focus on her task seems to have mellowed out her mood a little. “It’s not so much Danny that needed the Infinimap though. It was the map that came to get him,” she says grimly.

“Are you serious? Can’t the map just give him a ride home when he’s done then…?”

Sam briefly takes her eyes off the Boomerang to give him a look. “I also remember the map moving us to 17^th century Salem just to get Danny acquainted with Blood Blossoms.”

Tucker supposes Sam has a point there. Remembering that day still makes his stomach feel funny.

And then the Boomerang goes north.

“Ugh, I’ll see if we have anything for motion sickness in the Speeder’s medkit,” Tucker announces.

As it turns out the Speeder contains no such thing. (Unless the one stray mystery tablet counts.) And so it’s an uncomfortable thirty-five minutes of flight before they run into the first of many portals that follow. That’s when uncomfortable quickly turns into unbearable. It’s a good thing that the three of them have since strapped themselves in, because each portal entry comes with its own drastic rerouting of the Boomerang. At one point the thing even bangs back into the Specter Speeder when it decides to immediately go back through the portal it had just emerged from.

“Danny owes me so many Nasty Burgers after this,” Tucker says as he begrudgingly holds himself up by the dashboard. Jazz has since gotten hold of a bag to maybe hurl in but for the time being her stomach seems to be holding up.

“Please don’t talk about food right now,” she says into the bag.

“We’re coming up on like, fifty minutes now, how long is this going to take!” he exclaims.

“Well, better hope that next portal is the last of them then,” Sam says as she steps up the gas. Sure enough Tucker does see the Boomerang arching towards another portal about seventy yards away, and they’re slowly catching up.

But…

“Please don’t tell me you’re seeing what I’m seeing.”

The portal is shrinking.

“We can make it!” Sam shouts as she accelerates once more. The drift she curves them through is impressive, but the Speeder can only boost itself so much- The Boomerang has already slipped through.

“It’s already getting too small for us Sam!” Tucker shouts back as he presses himself back into his seat. Sam releases the brake only to stomp down on the gas again. They’re going so fast it almost seems like the portal is getting bigger. “Sam?!”

That’s when Jazz suddenly lunges for the stick across Tucker’s lap- steering the vehicle just enough into grazing the now door-sized portal, rather than ramming it straight into the windshield.

The Speeder abruptly spins to an almost-stop, leaving the three of them to catch their breath. Their vehicle aimlessly drifts towards nothing.

“Shit!” Sam curses.

“You had to go and jinx it…” Tucker says.

“Not now, Tucker!”

None of them speak of the gruesome accident that very well could have turned into.

“What do we do now?” Sam asks.

No one really seems to have any bright answers.

In the end they opt to head towards the Far Frozen, hoping that Frostbite will have an inkling of sorts about what his map could be up to.

“What about Wulf?” Jazz suggests.

“Wulf wouldn’t even know what dimension to claw into Jazz. And even if he happened to find it, there’s no way to confirm if it’s the right one!” Tucker explains.

“He has a good sense of smell though, right…?”

“Jazz, these portals can open up anywhere in the world, at any point in history. We could be countries if not half the globe away from him.”

“Hmm…”

Sam continues to fly somewhat aggressively, but neither of them call her out on it. It’s smooth sailing in comparison to what they’d just gone through anyway. At least, if they ignore the ectopuses latching on somewhere halfway, but Jazz uses the console to make fairly short work of those.

Sure enough, the greens finally make way for the stark whites of the Far Frozen far below, at which Sam starts their descent.

“I’d never imagined something like this could be here…” Jazz comments once the steep ice-cliffs come into view. Tucker thinks he might be able to navigate their route from here if he’s getting this layout right. They’ve got a few channels to pass still, if they want to find Frostbite’s settlement.

“You should see the stuff they’ve carved into some of these cliffs, it’s pretty incredible,” he comments.

“I wonder what it is about this place that allows it to keep such a massive landscape together,” Sam muses. “None of the other floating fragments in the Zone ever seem to compare.”

“That sounds like a project to think about later,” Tucker tells her. “That second channel to the left- you’re gonna want to follow that. Watch the corners though, one of them has a surprise pillar behind them.”

Sam nods. Jazz shudders from his other side. She soon unbuckles herself and goes to search something in the back. “I hope this ‘Frostbite’ character you speak of has a good cloak left over,” she says eventually.

“Try the box underneath the bench,” Sam suggests.

“He does, actually!” Tucker pipes up. “Better yet, they’re more like parkas!”

“Speaking of which, heads up. We’re almost here,” Sam says.

Jazz returns just in time for them to clear the final corner of the ever snowy valley. It appears a pair of patrolling yetis has seen them. Their vehicle comes up to escort them the rest of the way. It’s not long after that that Sam has the Specter Speeder touching down.

“Associates of the Great One!” Frostbite himself calls exuberantly the moment they step out. His arms are spread wide as he descends the hill to their landing site. “What brings you to us on this wondrous day?” Another yeti appears to chase Frostbite out of the lair, but soon seems to realize that there’s no use in trying to hold the guy back right now.

“Nothing ‘wondrous’ unfortunately, Frostbite,” Tucker says by way of greeting.

In contrast Sam does appear to mind her manners, summoning forth a polite smile. “Hello Frostbite.” She receives a beaming nod in return. Frostbite finally comes to a halt at the bottom of the hill.

“And who might this be?” he calls when his eyes finally fall on Jazz.

“I’m- Danny’s sister. It’s nice to meet you,” Jazz says a little uneasily. 

“A blood relative of his Greatness! Splendid!” the yeti bellows, but it’s not long before he bends down with a deadly serious expression. “But, it appears misfortune has fallen upon you. Could it be that this explains the Great One’s absence from your party?”

Sam is the first to speak up. “Danny’s missing, Frostbite. We were hoping that you could tell us more about where the Infinimap may have taken him.”

“The Infinimap?” he repeats somewhat incredulously. He eyes them all thoughtfully. “Are you suggesting the artifact was in fact not borrowed and returned by his Greatness?”

“Wait- it’s here?” Tucker exclaims.

“I hate to interrupt. But could we please continue this somewhere warmer?” Jazz interrupts. She’s vigorously rubbing at her arms in some half-hearted attempt to stay warm. Sam is starting to look a little blue and shivery too Tucker suddenly realizes. Judging by the vague numbness in his face and fingers he probably doesn’t look any different.

“My sincerest apologies!” Frostbite cries. And with that he leads the way into their tunnels.

It’s not far until they encounter a yeti who’d already gone to fetch the parkas for them. Jazz audibly sighs with relief the moment she pulls it over her head, but she still jogs in place a little to keep her blood pumping.

“So, the map?” Tucker reminds the hulking snow-monster still fussing about.

“Ah, yes. We’d thought it strange ourselves. Ordinarily we have a tight hold over our territory. No ghost, whether they be guest or intruder, ought to be capable of breaking through without our knowing.”

“Could it be that the map just… returned on its own?” Sam suggests.

“Holy shit, did it just ditch him?” Tucker gapes. “I take it all back, it’s Danny who’s owed all of the Nasty Burgers.”

“Impossible,” Frostbite sniffs. “The Infinimap is powerful, but it’s mechanisms require a wielder-”

“Then how come it escaped your watchful gaze on its own just yesterday?” Sam counters. “It didn’t seem to need much of a wielder then.”

It seems Frostbite has no answer to that. His gaze shifts from Sam to nothing in particular, as he appears to sink deep into thought. At least, until he suddenly turns to another yeti and orders them to retrieve something. The yeti nods and quickly makes his way down one of the corridors.

Frostbite himself turns into a different direction, but motions for them to follow him.

“What have you seen Miss Manson?” He asks gravely.

Sam appears a little taken aback. “The only thing I know is that it came rushing up to Danny all of a sudden. The moment it touched him it would try to take off, but naturally not much would come of that until Danny actually took a hold of it. So it just kept trying again and again until they were off.”

“Is he going to be okay?” Tucker questions.

“There is little I can tell you. For the Infinimap to act of its own accord… it’s nigh unheard of.”

“Didn’t you yourself explain to us that the map will sometimes take its wielder to where the map feels is right?” Sam asks.

“It was but a figure of speech miss Manson. Our understanding has always been that its purpose is drawn from the wielder, however strenuous its connection may be…”

“You said ‘nigh’ unheard of…” Tucker reminds him. Frostbite sends him a brief look over his shoulder, but does not pause in his stride.

“It’s mere hearsay of legend. Once upon a time the Far Frozen featured an ancient mural, detailing the artifact’s many tales. But it has been lost to us many centuries ago.”

It’s then that they turn into a rather ornate hallway. Or as ornate as such carvings can be called, when they’re carved of giant bear-claws. Still, Tucker has always held an appreciation for the crude artistry.

“The records that Snowfang has gone to collect may clue us in yet however, on what this mural could have taught.”

The hallway soon opens up into a bright crystalline space, light gently filtering through the small slits carved through the many layers of ice above. The landing they’ve just come upon is only a small balustrade however. Looking down, the room turns out to feature a familiar pedestal.

Frostbite is already descending the crudely carved steps, which Tucker finds remarkably difficult to navigate. Unlike the meticulously maintained hallways, these steps clearly saw some disuse, as the frosty top layer had long since turned into a slippery nightmare.

“If it’s here, then this is all we need to find out where Danny has gone…” Sam says, miraculously having her boot slide only once on her way down. Jazz is a good number of steps behind them, taking her sweet time.

Once at the bottom Tucker finally feels safe enough to look away from his feet. The sight of the Infinimap on the pedestal has suddenly turned a lot more ominous.

“I commend the bravery of his Greatness’ associates,” Frostbite says heartily. It actually succeeds in making Tucker feel slightly better.

There’s only one problem though. There are only so many people who can keep a solid grasp of the map at once. And given that they ought to return with Danny in tow…

“You guys should go.”

When Tucker turns to look, Jazz looks at them in determination. “I’ll stay here and examine the archived documents along with Frostbite’s people. Get my little brother out of trouble for me, will you?”

“Sure thing, Jazzypants,” Sam says. Her tone is teasing, but fond.

It feels more grave than it should be. It’s hardly the first time for Danny to have gone missing. Hardly the first time for any of them to be in mortal danger either. But rarely are they ever unfortunate enough to anticipate it like this.

Still, no way to move but forward, Tucker supposes.

“It’s a promise,” he says.

Chapter Text

When Sasuke comes to, the Sound-nin are gone. His surroundings don’t look immediately recognizable either. For a moment Sasuke’s heart seizes. Where was this? How much time could have passed since-

But then he spots some of the smoldering scorch marks of his fire jutsu. They’re only a little ways away. Sasuke breathes a little easier at the sight. It likely hasn’t been long then…

“I don’t think they’re coming this way…” Sakura says to Naruto, before immediately zeroing in on Sasuke, crowding into his bubble at his side again. It’s really starting to grate at Sasuke just how common an occurrence this has become over the last twenty-four hours. “I’m alright,” he assures her, if only because he’s tired of saying ‘I’m fine.’ He’d stumbled to his knees over the switch, but getting back up goes almost smoothly now.

The chakra exhaustion is still doing a number on him, but at least the curse mark seems content not to give him any trouble for the moment.

“What’s that on your hair?” Naruto asks.

When Sasuke reaches up he sure enough does find that something is there. But to his confusion he finds that it’s frozen. 

An unbidden memory comes to him from a time when he’d dropped through thin ice when he was young. His hair had gotten just like this. But it’s a memory that is closely associated with that man, so Sasuke is quick to discard it.

How did his hair get frozen of all things?

“So did you beat them? Did you win? And how come you got to beat that genjutsu anyway?” Naruto asks, squinting with that last question.

Sakura jabs him in the shoulder. “Idiot- if you’d paid attention in the academy you would know to disrupt your chakra!”

Sasuke… supposes he remembers that lesson. Although no such thing had occurred to him since their encounter with Orochimaru…  Self-harm-and-go had turned into habit alarmingly fast.

“Then how come Sasuke didn’t actually ‘disrupt my chakra’ or whatever when you told him to!”

Sasuke flushes. “Maybe that’s because I don’t bother with that kind of training if I can’t even count on my teammates to look out for themselves,” he blurts.

“What did you just say, bastard?!” Naruto yells.

“Shush up, Naruto!” Sakura hisses immediately as she attempts to cover his mouth, but Naruto moves away from her. “You’ll draw the whole forest here!”

“Hell no! So the bastard gets some new jutsus and all of a sudden he gets to treat us like garbage?!”

“It’s-!” Sakura starts, only to abruptly shut her mouth. She sends Sasuke a worried look. Sasuke has a hunch he knows what she wants to say. He turns away from her.

“We should get our stuff back.”

Naruto looks about ready to fly at him, but Sakura steps between them.

“Sasuke-kun. We should tell him.”

“Tell me what?” Naruto half asks, half demands.

And then what? Sasuke wonders. What use is telling Naruto at this point? 

He’s a little surprised the being isn’t weighing in on this yet. It had no problem volunteering its unwarranted opinions before.

“He needs to know about Phantom-san.”

What? “’Phantom-san’?” Sasuke repeats, turning around to raise a questioning eyebrow at her. Sakura’s face flushes under the sudden scrutiny.

“He- he said we could call him ‘Phantom’!” she hurriedly explains.

“Who?” Naruto says, now more confused than angry.

“That Orochimaru-guy- whatever he did made it so that Phantom-san is trapped inside of Sasuke-kun’s body,” she answers to Sasuke’s dismay.

“Wait, what? That snake guy?” Naruto asks, glancing at Sasuke again.

Sakura nods. “But Phantom-san doesn’t actually seem bad. He just-”

“Other than the part where he occasionally just takes over my body,” Sasuke interjects bitterly.

It’s quiet for a moment. By the look on Naruto’s face his brain appears to be making overtime.

“Are you saying there’s a thing that what- like, possesses you? That’s what happened just now?!” Naruto asks. The confusion quickly makes way for worry though, as both of his teammates are suddenly giving him pitying looks. Sasuke stares them down somewhat angrily. He is not in the mood for any misplaced sympathies. Not now, not ever.

Naruto uselessly opens and closes his mouth, but nevertheless surprises Sasuke as being the first to speak.

“Could it be a demon?” is what he finally seems to settle on.

“Phantom-san isn’t a demon-” Sakura starts.

“It makes sense though, right? That’s why the bastard has all these freaky powers all of a sudden-! That snake guy must have sealed a demon inside of him!” Naruto argues. Sasuke’s hand immediately shoots up to the mark in his neck. The ‘seal’…? They hadn’t even mentioned the mark yet. Could it really be that that Orochimaru-guy had sealed a demon inside of him??

“He’s not a demon!” Sakura insists, balling her fists as she says so. “Phantom-san is nice. What demon would have any cause to be nice to kids like us?”

The silence she’s met with is telling. She sends Sasuke a desperate look.

“He just helped us out, didn’t he?” she continues.

That gets little more of a response.

“You tell me,” Sasuke says.

Sakura clearly doesn’t receive that well. Her lip curls down, and in the next moment she’s turning away.

“… Let’s just go get our stuff…” she says. But it sounds off.

Things remain awkward for the hours that follow.

The frost in Sasuke’s hair, as well as on some of his clothes, soon starts to thaw out.  He tries to ask Naruto about it, but his teammate doesn’t appear to know any more than he does. Apparently the being had been quick to ditch them in its efforts to do… whatever. 

Sasuke is still a little bewildered that it had succeeded at beating the Sound-nin at all. If it didn’t know what a jutsu was, how could it possibly fight any? Although he supposes that if the being is a demon, then it could probably afford to be this out of touch.

Unfortunately, Naruto appears to take his questions as an invitation to ask some questions of his own. Sasuke is apprehensive about answering him, but figures that he has little choice now that Naruto already knows as much as he does.

So Sasuke tells him. That, yes, the possession did already occur a couple of times, and no, he does not remember anything that took place while it did. Naruto had been unaware of most of these events, but to Sasuke’s surprise he still takes this information deadly serious. Naruto seems worried again when Sasuke tells him of the being’s voice in his head, but now that Sasuke is a little less high-strung he finds that he doesn’t feel pitied at all.

Had Sasuke felt any more generous he might have even thought that Naruto wasn’t that bad of a listener.

Or maybe Naruto’s quiet caution about the whole thing just goes a long way to making Sasuke feel better about his own discomfort. Sasuke hasn’t let Sakura’s bizarre attitude get to him, (Why would it? He still doesn’t understand girls,) but something about this conversation with his other teammate is still kind of reassuring. This is real. And this is something that does need to be dealt with. 

For now though, Sasuke is still feeling so very tired.

Considering the memory-issue there’s only so many questions Sasuke can answer, so Naruto soon makes himself scarce as he goes to pester Sakura instead. She doesn’t seem in the mood to talk. Sasuke just opts to make the most of the peace and quiet while it lasts.

Maybe closing his eyes for a moment is for the best while he waits for his chakra to replenish itself.

When Sasuke wakes, nearly the whole day has passed. Naruto and Sakura have since found their own spots, with Sakura on apparent watch duty. The forest is quiet.

His head is quiet too.

Sasuke hasn’t felt but a twinge from the mark, either.

Not that he is about to complain about either of these. If anything it should probably put his mind at ease.

Somehow, it doesn’t.

-

Kabuto has always had a complicated relationship with professional conduct. He is perfectly capable of it, his days in Root have made a certainty of this, demanding nothing less no matter how gruesome the mission parameters. Not that Kabuto is one to dwell on that much anymore. Nowadays he may even be the kind of person that revels in the forced cheer of it all, knowing the power he has come to hold in his alliances and affiliations- whether feigned, genuine, or something in between.

Somehow, it’s not quite as entertaining when said allies think they can get away with throwing their conduct out the window. It seems a couple of someones need an appropriate reminder…

“Can you fix her? I thought spine injuries were a lost cause…” Zaku says, hovering much too close, demonstrating why he’s the worst halfwit among them. The Kin girl had clenched her jaw as Kabuto had examined her spine, but finally seems to summon the spirit to lash back out.

“Shut up Zaku! No one is asking for your opinion!” she snaps, only to cry out when Kabuto immediately jabs her in a sensitive muscle junction.

“Shut yourself up, lest you wish for a ‘lost cause’ after all,” he tells her coldly, before resuming his healing. “So… It’s been over twenty-four hours at this point. You’ve had ample opportunity to confront Sasuke Uchiha, and this is the result you intend to deliver to Lord Orochimaru?” Zaku immediately moves to protest but is promptly silenced by Kabuto’s glower. “Just Dosu,” he instructs.

Dosu’s glare at Kabuto’s arrival had been just as equally belligerent as that of his teammates, but generally speaking, the guy at least has the decency not to say anything unnecessary. Still, Dosu’s stewing has started to become more than a little asinine. The disapproval is all but radiating off of him as he continues to lean back against one of the trees behind Kabuto. Kabuto would have expected this much from Zaku, but it seems he was wrong to hold a higher opinion of the team’s leader-figure.

“With all due respect-” Dosu starts venomously. It’s almost cute. “The briefing failed to inform us of the curse mark on our target’s neck.”

Tch. Kabuto thinks. They ought to have known what their true purpose was the moment the mark became known to them. Only fools would fail to realize whose mettle this test was meant to measure, as it definitely wasn’t theirs. 

Still, if they preferred to keep playing the fools, then Kabuto could admonish them as such. 

“You presume this explains your abject failure to kill him, then?” he bites out.

“What did you expect us to do against juts-!” Dosu tries to counter, but Kabuto isn’t about to entertain his excuses.

“Are you considering that this genin had his academy graduation mere months ago?” he reminds him.

“That was no normal genin, we couldn’t even hit him! Even my Z-” Zaku interjects.

“Zaku…” he calls. “Do you really expect to receive leniency from Lord Orochimaru by explaining this to him- by explaining his curse seal to him?”

That finally seems to shut them up. 

Given that Sasuke would survive the curse mark, they’d never been meant to win of course. But somehow this whole effort still feels like an exercise in disappointment. Kabuto figures he’s done about enough on the spine by now. 

She’d gotten lucky. Blunt force trauma to the back was unfortunately common, but in her case the paralysis should subside eventually. The cracks in her vertebrae would have posed a bigger problem, given that they were left untreated. “That should be about enough,” he signals as he raises himself back to his feet, leaving Kin to test the responsiveness of her legs. To her clear disappointment they still refuse to cooperate much. A choked sound of anguish escapes her.

“The pinched nerves should respond again once the swelling goes down. Be grateful it’s only temporary. Make sure you avoid aggravating the damaged tissue any more if you wish to get back on your legs anytime soon,” Kabuto explains.

She nods meekly.

“So what do we do now?” Zaku asks at a low volume when he seemingly feels the interruption to be welcome.

“Now?” Kabuto repeats somewhat incredulously. “You’ve done plenty. Now you simply continue the exam as instructed, and ensure that our cover stays intact. Unless you mean to tell me that this too is beyond your capability?”

“Please, Kabuto-san…” Kin starts, having taken to hugging her own leg, hands tightly squeezing her calf to cut through the pins and needles she undoubtedly feels. “We’ll do whatever it takes if it’s to earn lord Orochimaru’s forgiveness.” Her pitiful tone is in stark contrast to her former prickliness. Could she finally have been reminded of what’s at stake for her?

“Then see to it that you don’t disappoint him again,” he tells her.

It’s pitiful, really. It’s not like it will make much of a difference for her in the end regardless, Kabuto thinks as he moves to depart.

“Wait, Kabuto-san…” Dosu calls. When Kabuto turns he sees that the guy has finally unglued himself from the tree he was slouching against. “Given that Lord Orochimaru has deemed Sasuke Uchiha fit to receive his mark…”

Ah, so one of them finally got the memo- 

Dosu continues. “He would probably want to know… Sasuke called for lord Orochimaru to come speak to him…”

Oh? Kabuto thinks. How surprising… An unbidden smirk tugs at the corner of his mouth. “My… This is a development indeed.” He adjusts his glasses. “It seems like there is something to report other than your incompetency after all then Dosu. For your sake I should hope this puts lord Orochimaru in a forgiving mood…”

And here Kabuto had thought the whole thing fruitless…

With that Kabuto does depart. He’s left them with enough fruit for thought, just as they have given him plenty to think about.

Given that this means what Kabuto thinks it means, things suddenly appear to be proceeding surprisingly smoothly. He almost feels like his own capabilities are wasted here…

Still… It would probably be worth taking a closer look regardless.

-

Dinner for Team Seven is a quiet affair. And a bland one, considering the fact that they’re eating cold ration bars. They’ve since moved a little further into the forest’s outskirts, but despite the supposed safety in doing so, there’s no campfires this time around. The weather is no longer as favorable, and they simply no longer have the numbers to comfortably take the risk.

The ongoing silence is a sullen one. Not that either Sakura or Sasuke himself are about to do anything about that. All things considered it’s only to be expected that Naruto be the one to break it.

“Is it really okay to stay here like this…?” he starts at some point, only halfway through dejectedly chewing his last bite.

Sasuke waits for him to elaborate, but no such thing seems to come.

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“I mean, if it is a demon… Shouldn’t we tell Kakashi-sensei, ya know?”

Ah. Sasuke spies Sakura’s reaction from the corner of his eye, and her expression turns notably darker. “How can you be so sure Phantom even is a demon?” she asks.

“How can you be so sure he’s not?” Naruto retorts with a squint.

“You could just ask him!” Sakura says. Sasuke isn’t sure whether he likes the sound of that. From the looks of it neither is Naruto, who makes somewhat of a face at the thought. But he does turn a somewhat expectant look at Sasuke.

“Don’t look at me. He hasn’t said a word since the fight.”

“What…?” Sakura says, her eyes growing suddenly wide. “He isn’t gone is he…?” Sasuke finds himself bristling at her sudden concern.

“If he was gone it-”

I’m not gone. 

Shit.

Sasuke tries not to be too disappointed. It had only been a matter of time he supposes… Sasuke considers how the being had sounded strangely fatigued just now. 

The sudden silence seemingly speaks volumes, because Sakura’s expression turns decidedly more hopeful. “… Was that him…?”

Sasuke sends her a dirty look. He can’t believe he’s about to debase himself like this in front of his teammates.

“Why now?” he asks the voice in his head.

What? A guy can’t even get a good sulk on for one afternoon? I’m almost flattered you missed me like this Saskay… it says, further infuriating Sasuke. Again though, something sounds off about the way the being says that. The delivery lacks humor and comes out sounding more flat than anything else.

“Well forgive me for thinking it convenient that you start ‘sulking’ and go silent the moment someone raises the demon-topic,” Sasuke accuses.

Ugh, do you really think that calling me names is putting me in a crisis? It wasn’t about that! ... Plus, how was I supposed to know that you seriously expected me to engage with the  demon question??

“What’s he saying?” Sakura interrupts, sounding much too eager for Sasuke’s liking.

“Something, ‘It wasn’t about that’- Hell if I care…” Sasuke answers, quickly deciding that he owes neither of them anything. “Say he does claim to be a demon, or something else- would that even change anything?” he says as he glares Sakura down, who visibly wilts at his reaction.

Still, it doesn’t quite prevent her more stubborn streaks from emerging. “I still think we should at least hear him out…”

If you’re all just dying to know then I can be bothered to answer, you know.

Sasuke suddenly finds he doesn’t even want to know. Even if he was far too small to remember the Nine-tails himself, he does remember what his history class had to say about the attack. He’s even heard the way some of his elders talk about it- as if it’s still out there, ready to wreak havoc once more.

The Nine-tailed Fox-demon was supposed to have been sealed away, but could Sasuke really not be spared from confirming whether or not the being in his head was anything like it? Could this demon-thing really not last as a pure hypothetical for a couple more hours? 

Sasuke presses his lips together and holds his tongue.

Unfortunately the being doesn’t seem sympathetic to Sasuke’s plight.

Have you- um…it starts hesitantly. Have you ever encountered a ghost before?

Sasuke blinks slowly.

What?

He spies one more look at his teammates. They couldn’t have heard it, but somehow Sasuke instinctually searches their faces for answers. Sakura is still sending him bashful looks through her bangs, and Naruto appears to hold a long-forgotten bite of his dinner in his cheek as he sends curious glances right back. Both of them are doing an atrocious job masking their obvious curiosity about Sasuke’s curse. He looks back at the dirt between them and frowns.  “Are you saying that’s what you are…?”

I mean it’s kind of in the  name-…

“Sasuke…?” This time it’s Naruto that speaks up.

Sasuke presses his lips together as he digests this answer. “He says he’s a ghost,” he tells Naruto.

It’s quiet again then. Everybody looks about equally dumb-founded about this, but Naruto’s face slowly appears to be morphing back into a squint. “… Are ghosts even real…?” he asks.

Oh so Orange believes in  demons but ghosts aren’t real??

“I’ve heard some of the girls tell stories in the academy…” Sakura says. “And he does appear to be capable of possession,” she quickly adds, as if that settles it.

 “Demons can definitely possess you,” Naruto says helpfully.

Sakura gives him a somewhat skeptical look, before suddenly remembering something else. “But can they phase through solid matter?” she says.

“Maybe…?” Naruto says uncertainly.

“What?” Sasuke says. Did she just say it can phase through solid matter…?

“It’s a pretty signature ghost-attribute wouldn’t you say?” she says proudly.

“Maybe ghosts and demons aren’t so different, ya know…” Naruto mutters. At which point Sasuke decides he’s had enough.

“It doesn’t matter!” he says loudly, stilling the conversation. “Naruto is right… ‘Phantom’ needs to go.” He crushes the wrapper in his hand for dramatic effect, but the disappointingly quiet crinkle diminishes the effect somewhat.

That’s the spirit… the being says sarcastically.

“Shut up.”

“…

“So… That’s it…? We’re quitting?” Naruto tentatively asks.

Neither Sakura nor Sasuke seems ready to affirm that statement.

Sasuke takes to tearing his wrapper in half instead. And then into fours.

He doesn’t want to give up on the exam. He needs to be a chuunin. He needs to prove that he’s ready for more. To leave behind these ridiculous D-ranks and escort missions. Can he really afford to spend another- what- year? Wading through the shinobi kiddie pool?

Another year before Kakashi will teach him anything that might work against him?

“Maybe we don’t have to…” Sakura speaks up all of a sudden. Sasuke looks up to meet her gaze. “I mean… We’re all headed for a specific location right? It only seems to be expected that the third exam will be held at the tower… There’s no reason for property that large to sit out here unless they mean for us to use it right?”

Naruto pulls a confused face. “What does that have to do with anything?” 

“So if the third exam is at the tower… Kakashi will be there,” Sasuke says, catching on to what Sakura is saying. 

She nods at him, smiling. “If Kakashi-sensei is at the tower, then completing the exam could very well be the quickest way to reach him.”

Sasuke feels a smirk coming onto his face. Naruto seems to be breaking out into a grin himself. “Hell yeah! Team seven is still in the game, believe it!”

Sasuke almost wants to echo that ‘believe it’, but bites it back with a grin.

“It’s not over yet,” he says instead.

Somewhere in the back of his mind Sasuke thinks he can hear the being quietly exhaling in frustration, but there is otherwise no response.

Sasuke decides not to let it sour the mood.

-

Danny… definitely appears to have a case of the blues.

That’s putting it mildly really. It’s more of a sense of despair. He doesn’t like admitting it to himself, but he doesn’t know what to do anymore.

Not only is he stuck- by now, it ought to be Thursday. Save for a couple of incidents, he’s never been stuck away from home this long before. It’s definitely the first time for Danny to need one hell of an excuse when he gets back at the very least.

If he gets back, he considers bitterly. The thought is quickly discarded however. He’s already done far too much spiraling. Still, it’s difficult not to return to it with just how stuck he is.

He’s been trapped in different dimensions before, but it has never quite been like this. The Ghost Zone was almost a comfort to him these days. But this was very distinctly not the Ghost Zone. Danny hadn’t even known the Zone could lead to places like this- Not even a different time but a different world altogether. 

Perhaps Danny should have taken the ‘Infinite Realms’ moniker a little more seriously, then maybe he wouldn’t have presumed to have seen the worst of what the Infinimap could thrust upon him. The least the thing could have done for him was stick around after it went and dumped him into this situation. 

But no, instead, all that Danny has to rely on is Saskay. 

Danny may or may not be feeling pretty bitter about this as of late.

His feelings turn out to be in stark contrast to the remarkable optimism that ‘Team Seven’ is starting out with this morning. Even the mark has had the decency to behave for the most part, even without Danny’s interference. This ought to be an improvement, but instead listening to the kids’ light conversation just sours Danny’s mood further.

They’re heading for the tower today. It’s the final destination to their exam, so it seems likely that many of the other teams will be circling the place. The plan is to apparently pick one of them off before they head in.

Danny would worry for their injuries, but Saskay and Orange do appear to have improved fairly quickly over the last twenty-four hours. Even the soreness in Saskay’s leg appears to have all but disappeared. Sakura is the only one that’s still in need of nursing her injuries. Many of her bruises are still taking on increasingly creative colours, but she dutifully keeps her wounds clean. It’s healing about as fast as can be expected.

Danny definitely does not envy her situation. Even with his accelerated healing he’s been known to tear many a stitch. Danny really hopes the other two can compensate for her.

Things soon wrap up smoothly. And with optimism the team sets out on their journey.

The kids peacefully leap from branch to branch for a grand total of two whole minutes before something can be heard approaching.

Saskay’s head whips around to the canopy somewhere to their left. “Did you guys hear that?” He says as he activates the thing with his eyes again. It had sounded like something had whacked a branch some ways away. And then there’s more rustling. Whatever it is is rapidly growing closer.

Saskay’s knife appears in his hand so fast that Danny hadn’t even realized he reached for one. They jump a branch further, eager to take some distance from the foliage. And then it reveals itself.

“What is-…?!” Saskay starts, immediately chucking his knife at it. Danny’s heart leaps in his throat. Is that…? The knife simply bounces off the spinning projectile, and Saskay is forced to duck it as it comes sailing straight over his head.

The Boomerang! Danny cries triumphantly as they watch it arch back around again.

The triumph is short-lived however as Saskay is already weaving through his hand-signs.

Wait- No! Just catch it!

Saskay only barely manages to hold in his mouthful of fire magic, causing him to cough up a lungful of smoke instead. He still recovers fast enough to snatch the Boomerang out of the air though.

“What-” He coughs once more before examining his catch. “What in the world…?”

Yep, that was the Boomerang alright. There’s no immediate sign of any attachments. Could his friends be following it? Danny has to hold himself back from willing Saskay to look.

“Sasuke!” Sakura calls, clearly not so sure whether catching the Boomerang was a safe thing to do.

“What is this?” Saskay asks.

Well- It’s a boomerang. But this one specifically is called the ‘Booo-merang’, Danny explains. When Sasuke makes a face he figures he needs to do better than that though. It’s a tracking device, attuned to my ecto-signature.

“Your what?” Sasuke asks as the other two join him on his branch, quickly catching onto what is happening.

“Is this… ‘Phantom’s’?” Naruto asks, the name apparently uncomfortable on his tongue.

It’s a ghost-thing. It means it’s designed to follow me. Well, sort of… Unintentionally designed I suppose…

“Someone’s tracking you?” Saskay asks with some sudden worry. “He says it’s a ‘tracking device’,” he adds quickly at the confused look of his friends.

“Don’t tell me it’s-” Sakura starts.

Don’t worry. Only my friends know how to use it. If it’s here then they’re likely not far behind-!

As to be expected, Saskay turns back towards the canopy with a less than pleased expression.

“It’s not him is it?” Sakura asks.

“It’s not him,” Saskay confirms.

There’s no actual sign of anything in direct pursuit…

“How was this thing even flying??” Naruto says.

Could you just do me a favor and check over the treetops whether or not you see anything? Danny pleads.

“Are you saying your friends will also be flying?” Saskay asks incredulously.

Probably. I don’t see them pulling this off without the Specter Speeder.

“If they fly, they’re probably ghosts right?” Sakura pipes up.

Naruto gives her the side-eye. “Just because the Nine-tails didn’t fly doesn’t mean there’s no flying demons,” he mutters.

Danny snorts. He wonders whether this ‘Nine-tails’ was really a ghost or not.

Sasuke gives the foliage above them another cursory glance.

They’re not ghosts, Danny promises. The Specter Speeder is a vehicle. They’ll just be here to help out. Ordinarily, we tend to fight nothing but ghosts.

 It doesn’t seem to do much to dissuade Saskay’s tense expression. Sure enough the guy still doesn’t move a muscle.

“Sasuke…?” Sakura says, hoping for him to explain.

“He asks to move up and see if his friends are approaching. … Apparently they have some kind of flying vehicle,” he says that last bit with more than a little skepticism.

“Ah, well then why aren’t we getting up there?” Sakura says, taking a step back as she points her thumb at the tree trunk behind her.

“Ahh, wait- Sakura-chan!” Naruto says quickly, stepping over in her direction as if she just suggested to set off fireworks in wildfire season. “What if his friends are- ya know!”

“Are what, Naruto?” Sakura challenges.

Somewhat infuriatingly Saskay makes no move to correct either of them.

“If you’re so worried why not send a clone up there Dead-last..?” Saskay says as he crosses his arms and raises a challenging eyebrow at Naruto.

“What! Look bastard, I’ll go up there myself, just watch!” he yells before abruptly turning around and running straight for the trunk. Saskay rolls his eyes but at least he and Sakura do end up following him at a more casual pace.

Somewhat to Danny’s bewilderment the kids just straight-up walk up the tree. Seriously how was that normal but flying wasn’t? Well, he supposes that flying is still limited in his world too. The Speeder is powered by purified ectoplasm after all. But then these kids probably don’t know about helicopters either.

Up above, Naruto is giving the tree-tops a good looking-at, hand raised to shield his eyes from the sun as he squints into the distance. When Saskay finally gives their surroundings a look himself Danny’s stomach drops.

Wait, look back- he urges. The treetops were higher there-… Maybe behind that hill?

Saskay actually opts to comply this time but… There’s nothing there.

The sky is clear.

And… The Boomerang? It has nothing on it? Danny asks.

On this too Saskay appears generous enough to humor him. The kid turns over the Boomerang in his hands. A thumb picks at some of the metal plating. There’s… nothing there either.

Really?

Nothing?

“Will we have to wait long or what?” Naruto asks eventually, while Saskay continues to pick at the Boomerang.

Danny mentally has himself taking a deep pretend-breath. It couldn’t be that the Boomerang’s appearance could lead to nothing. Right…?

“Phantom…?” Saskay says when Danny doesn’t respond. Danny would almost be happy that Saskay actually bothered to use his name. But it does little to lift the weight that suddenly appears to be resting on his not-so-physical chest.

No… It’s… not that advanced of a tracking method, he forces himself to answer. If they’ve lost sight of the Boomerang, then they won’t be coming.

Danny considers the other methods by which they could possibly come find him, but… 

This is bad. 

The Boomerang lost, the Infinimap lost…

It’s been a while since Danny last thought of Clockwork, but he’s really hoping that the ancient Time-ghost has some pity left in his heart for Danny’s current predicament.

Sakura gives the view a proper examination herself, but ultimately turns to look at Saskay.

“Are they… not coming…?” She asks.

Saskay too shifts his gaze from the trees to his teammate. “It seems not...” he tells her.

And then they just… make their way back down. Ready to start travelling again…

Danny can’t really blame them for getting on with their day, but…

But…

“Hey, hey, Sasuke!” Naruto calls just as Saskay is about to pack the Boomerang away. That mischievous grin is on his face again. “Does this mean we have a thing we can use to find you now?”

“Forget it, idiot,” Saskay says immediately, shoving the device deeper into his pack, inevitably crushing a few of his remaining ration bars.

“Ehh, but Sasuke what if this ‘Phantom’ possesses you again?” Naruto argues. It’s an argument that clearly hits hard because Sasuke’s arm-hair immediately stands on end, and he all but freezes in place.

“I’m more worried about Orochimaru…” Sakura says somewhere to their left. Saskay gives them both an accusing look. He doesn’t otherwise try to argue though. After a moment he exhales tiredly. And then he pulls the Boomerang out of his pack again, before handing it to Naruto. But when Naruto grabs it a little too eagerly Saskay suddenly refuses let go- stepping closer instead to really get a good glare on. 

“Use it frivolously, even once, and I’ll kill you.” And then he lets go.

Naruto just gives him a wide-eyed look before he nods, finally allowing Danny a chance to get a good look at his bright blue eyes. It takes a considerable moment before he stops holding onto the Boomerang like it’s his lifeline.

And then they’re finally off.

Jumping from branch to branch…

Danny is starting to feel more and more agitated with every moment that passes. He’s never been so powerless before. Even at times when he’d been running he’d at least had that much to focus on. Now he has… nothing. He can’t even move, and even if he tries to do that much then-! No. It isn’t an option. He’d already decided that he has to hold out for help. But how was he supposed to do that if his friends can’t even reach him? 

It’s not like Saskay was any more ready to help him, not unless this ‘Kakashi-sensay’ really did happen to have a solution for him.

Danny still couldn’t even figure out why that name sounded so familiar to him.

Sakura pushes herself to catch up to Saskay then. “Is… Phantom-san okay…?” she asks quietly. When Saskay sends her a dirty look Danny doesn’t even have the energy to be upset about it.

Sakura clearly does, but she doesn’t slink away either. “I’m sure he must be disappointed that his friends weren’t there,” she continues.

“Hn,” is all Saskay tells her. Classic.

Thus ends their conversation too. 

The forest continues to whiz by quietly.

Danny finds himself a bit startled by the reminder that not everything out here is as bleak as he was just making it out to be. He’s still pretty damn discouraged but… Sakura still seems to wish better things for him.

Which… Danny really does appreciate quite a lot. He highly doubts that she will wind up getting him out of this either, though.

Still… given that she has already spoken up on his behalf before, maybe this whole meeting with this ‘Kakashi-sensay’ does not need to become a total disaster after all. The man could turn out to be considerate and understanding of Danny’s situation. Maybe. Odds are, at least he’ll end up learning something about this ‘mark’.

It’s not the most encouraging source of hope, but… It’s something.

It keeps him going, though. It’ll have to do for now.
 

Chapter Text

For an exam that has teams of kids go up against one another, it sure seems remarkable to Danny just how many alliances these teams build.

Because about an hour after the Boomerang incident this guy shows up. 

He appears to be wearing the same headband, just as their previous allies had. They seem to know his name too. And ‘Kabuto’ sure appears to have a sob story about having lost his team somewhere. At least he offers to tip them off on something good in exchange for helping him find his team again.

Danny initially expects them to get along the same way they did before with the other team, but it’s clear that Sakura and Saskay both are much more cautious this time around. Naruto and Danny both quickly catch on as to why- the trap at play suddenly seems obvious.

Fears are quickly dispelled when Kabuto is revealed to already possess both scrolls however. Danny is kind of impressed when the kids don’t just outright fight him for them. Somewhat noticeably though, this guy isn’t actually a kid. He seems more like Jazz’s age if Danny had to guess. 

Danny wonders what the norm could be for this exam age-wise. By the amount of kids they’d met so far Kabuto sure seems like the exception, but Danny can only hope that is true. The thought of a bunch of adolescents pummeling a bunch of middle-schoolers for their scrolls really does not sit well with him. (Especially when some of them end up being murdered, what is wrong with this world??)

All in all, it’s not like Danny has much say in what happens regardless. The kids seem cautious enough at least, so all Danny really can do is trust them to know what they’re doing.

Kabuto soon reveals that ‘something good’ actually means ‘an opportunity to pick on someone their size’. And by ‘someone their size’ Kabuto appears to mean “They rely on genjutsu to get the edge over their otherwise mediocre nin- and taijutsu. But that should not be a problem for someone of your heritage, right Sasuke-kun?”

Danny really hopes that scroll-thing truly is the badge of not-a-trap they all seem to believe it is. Danny also hopes that he’ll come to understand what in Clockwork’s name these ‘jutsus’ are all about sometime soon. 

The actual fight is upon them a lot sooner than Danny would have liked it to. And contrary to Kabuto’s cheeky remark earlier, Saskay’s ‘heritage’ has yet to give him an advantage against any ‘genjutsu’. Danny finally gathers that ‘genjutsu’ is the thing that messes with one’s senses. But Sasuke’s prolonged attempts to see through it only cause the mark to get a jab in. Luckily Danny can still contribute something and keep the curse’s influence minimized.

In the end it’s Naruto who somehow manages to save the day, when a clever baton-switch between the team and his clones manages to lure the enemy to their doom without a hitch. (This whole thing is starting to make Danny feel a little inadequate about his own lackluster cloning ability.)

No matter what Sakura told him though, this is far from a friendly match by any of Danny’s standards. He can’t fault them for their response, given the knives that had only barely been avoided, but that doesn’t make the series of kicks and punches connecting with Team Gasmask feel any less brutal.

Their enemy soon finds themselves eating dirt once Naruto gets the final blow in, and that’s the end of that. Besides a couple shallow cuts, it’s honestly a miracle they escaped this unscathed at all.

Sakura allows herself to finally collapse in the dirt, wincing over the ache in her leg. Going by the fleck of red shining through her bandages, she must have torn a stitch after all. Naruto is soon at her side, already rummaging through his disastrously organized pack in order to find his first-aid kit. Saskay goes to rummage through Team Gasmask’s pockets for their scroll.

“Don’t bother,” he can hear Kabuto say to Naruto. “It’ll just bleed on through again. Might as well leave it until we reach the center, we’re nearly upon our destination anyway.”

When Saskay sure enough does find a scroll, Danny guesses by his smirk that they must have found the right one. When he reveals it to his teammates it considerably lifts their spirits as well. Danny’s heart mostly goes out to Sakura as she struggles back onto her feet.

Her pain doesn’t seem to abate much as they cross their final patch of forest either. It’s only when they finally reach the damn tower that Kabuto finally turns around and asks if he set too demanding of a pace. Sakura to her credit assures him she managed just fine, even while she grits her teeth with each step. 

Kabuto’s team then makes a timely appearance to collect their apparently truly lost member, and so the kids say their goodbyes. Suddenly, they are left to their own devices once more. 

They enter the tower.

For as impressively colossal as the building had looked from the outside, the interior is nothing remarkable. There’s a lot of bland paneling for walls between the occasional columns. The kids allow themselves to finally let their guard down now that they’re inside. There’s a riddle on the wall that they bicker over, but the stakes have finally dropped. Danny finds himself unwinding somewhat too. He hadn’t realized just how stressed he’d been for them all day.

When the kids argue about opening their two scrolls, he even cracks a joke about the things transporting them through time and space, as scrolls are clearly wont to do. Saskay still serves as a poor audience though.

When the scrolls ultimately are opened, Danny’s joke bizarrely turns out not to be too far off the mark. The things end up summoning a person to them instead. When the smoke clears they’re revealed to be a man in a green vest of some sort, a ponytail, and with an impressive horizontal scar across his nose. He confirms that they have indeed passed the second exam. He turns out not to be the same ‘sensay’ they were looking for, but Naruto seems no less excited to see the guy.

Some words are exchanged that give Danny the impression that this must be some former teacher of theirs.

And then at long last, once Scar-sensay has finished his waffling about the boring wall-riddle, they’re finally allowed to find some rest in their own personal accommodations.

Since they managed to come in on day three, it seems they’ll have a couple days to recuperate.

With any luck, they’ll be able to spend the time on freeing Danny too.

The building is big. Danny supposes that he could tell as much from the outside, but that doesn’t make the endless corridors any less disorienting. His curiosity about the place is almost enough to make him forget about his problems for a moment. 

The distraction soon falls apart when Scar-sensay leads them by a medical bay. Going by Saskay’s slowing steps he’s noticed the same thing Danny has.

A number of beds away from the entrance sits Bell-Girl. She’s looking back over her shoulder as her back is examined. The injury there is plainly visible. To a degree it looks better than Danny might have expected it to, but that doesn’t change the fact that she still sports an ugly burn mottled with terrible bruising. Over her spine.

Almost mercifully, Bell-Girl herself quickly catches Saskay’s eyes with a fierce glare, and Saskay quickly opts to keep walking. Behind them, Sakura seems to suddenly trip on her own feet, clearly failing to pay attention as she too finds herself at the pointy end of Bell-Girl’s glare.

Shit.

Danny had known how bad a mark an injury like that left. Had he been concentrating at the time he might have been able to pull the brakes on a blast like that, but- Well, if he’d been concentrating he wouldn’t have blasted her at all, would he? He’d just… refused to think about it. What it means, what it says about him… What will happen again should Danny find himself unable to deal with his helplessness again…

It’s not like there is any use to thinking about it, he reminds himself. It won’t help her, it won’t help him- or anything else about this situation. He is better off staying collected, and focusing on more productive trains of thought. Such as the hollow hope that yet another ninja-man can help him. He feels nauseous. 

Danny hardly even registers their arrival a couple of turns further in. A couple of words are exchanged about ‘Kakashi-sensay’s’ whereabouts, and then Scar-sensay bids them farewell.

He’s still not paying much attention when the kids examine their assigned space. It’s a fairly small room, attached to a minimally furnished bathroom. Sakura and Naruto both seem excited to finally have beds again. The springs squeak loudly as Naruto bounces on the mattress. 

Saskay merely watches them, his thoughts seemingly a million miles away.

To Danny’s horror he realizes that Saskay must still be thinking about Bell-Girl.

Naruto discovers a small stash of complimentary snacks on a side-table. He excitedly offers one to Sakura when she comes over to inspect.

Saskay remains quiet.

Ostensibly nothing of note is happening, yet Danny only feels increasingly claustrophobic. Doesn’t he have questions? Not that Saskay would be one to initiate a conversation with him, but the tension is still more than tangible… At least, it is to Danny. Surely he’s not making it up wholesale?

Danny ought to bring it up himself. Whatever excuses he can think of sound flimsy to his own mind but- clearing the air would still be the most responsible thing to do.

Time stretches on as Danny stews in his own thoughts. Naruto and Sakura end up bickering over something, and ultimately break up to unpack their things.

Saskay just sits against the wall on one of the bunks. His pack remains in his lap as he tugs on the clasp absent-mindedly.

Danny still can’t bring himself to breathe a word.

It’s a mercy, when the creak of a door-handle sounds a couple of minutes later.

The kids all turn to find a wild grey head of hair poking through the opening. “Yo!” The head greets, poking a hand through in greeting as well before stepping inside. They’d sounded cheerful, but between the facemask and the headband all that is even visible of their face is the one eye. It appears this man is dressed in a similar uniform to Scar-sensay. It’s not hard to guess who this might be.

“Kakashi-sensei!” sounds the simultaneous cry from Naruto and Sakura, confirming Danny’s assumption as to the man’s identity. Naruto immediately bounds over, but has to then back away again in order to actually allow the man into the room. “We passed!! Can you believe it?” He crows.

“Maa, if I couldn’t, I wouldn’t have nominated you for the exam in the first place… Medic’s on the way here for a check-up, by the way. I put a good word in so enjoy the privilege,” he says as he eyes the rest of them. Sakura awkwardly clutches at her bandages, as if suddenly plagued by embarrassment for having gotten injured. Her injuries don’t seem to earn as much scrutiny as Saskay does however, as the man’s gaze lingers on him the longest- long enough for even Naruto to take note.

“Kakashi-sensei!” he starts, still on an unfortunate volume. “Something weird happened to Sasuke- We fought this creepy snake-guy in the forest and we think he sealed a demon inside of him!”

Danny’s first impression of Kakashi-sensay had been rather easy-going, aloof even perhaps, but this certainly seems to draw the man’s attention. Soundlessly, the man’s one eye goes from an immediate frown, to wide-eyed look of shock as he very deliberately turns to look at his most exuberant student.

“…”

It’s not long before Sakura finds her voice. “We don’t know that, Naruto!” she yells at him as she hobbles over to stand in front of Kakashi-sensay herself. “It’s true that Orochimaru put some kind of seal on Sasuke-kun, Kakashi-sensei. But Phantom-san isn’t a demon! He’s been helping us, and he just wants to be free!”

“Sakura-chan, just because he said he’s a-” Naruto starts.

“You’re the one making unreasonable assumptions Naruto!” Sakura snaps back.

Kakashi just continues to look on in stunned silence.

When he finally speaks again his face changes remarkably little. “This… ‘Phantom-san’… You learned about this how exactly?”

Naruto and Sakura both open their mouths to answer, but Naruto’s “He took over Sasuke’s body and kept saying stuff in his head!!” ends up slightly overpowering Sakura’s “He told us!”

At that, the man finally lifts his head to look at Saskay again. Saskay, still sitting against the wall on his bunk on the other end of the room, tenses up. He’s scowling, but Danny can tell that his face feels a little too sculpted to be natural. “Sasuke…?” Kakashi prompts.

Saskay briefly holds his gaze before averting his eyes to the clasp of his pack again. “They’re not lying, that is what he’s been doing…”

Danny can’t help but feel a little defensive. Really? You can’t phrase it any better than that?

The man continues to study Saskay carefully.

“Is he talking to you right now, too?”

Saskay’s shoulders hitch up slightly. “… Maybe…”

Saskay…? Danny tries, but the kid remains stubbornly tight-lipped.

Kakashi seems to exhale with some restraint. “Sasuke, could you come over here and let me look at the seal?” 

Saskay only grows tenser, but nevertheless does as asked of him. His pack is abandoned on the bed, as he walks over to Kakashi. “It’s over here…” Sasuke mutters as he indicates the spot where his neck meets his shoulder. He reluctantly turns his back to the man. Danny’s anxiety momentarily spikes as he can’t see whatever is happening, but sure enough all they feel is a slight tug on Saskay’s collar to uncover the mark.

“Kakashi-sensei, can you help him?” Naruto asks.

Kakashi stays quiet for a moment. Then Saskay’s collar is released, Saskay turns around to look at the man as he tugs his shirt back into place.

The man finally seems to settle down into a slouch with a sigh. “Yeah,” he says quietly. 

What-? 

“I think I got something that can help.” 

He can help??

“Sasuke?” Kakashi calls as he steps back towards the door. 

“You’re going right now…?” Sakura asks, clearly a little uneasy about being abandoned so suddenly.

“Yes,” Kakashi answers as he halts by the door opening. “You two better stay put for when the medic comes around. And no unnecessary exploration through the building, you hear? We don’t want any of the examinees to get into any more fights prematurely. We built facilities for that kind of thing.”

Naruto and Sakura both nod obediently. Saskay uneasily goes to follow the man out the door. He deliberately avoids his friends’ eyes as he closes the door behind him. This doesn’t seem to stop him from feeling Kakashi-sensay’s eyes in the back of his head though. Saskay looks back at him apprehensively.

Danny doesn’t quite know what the make of this either, things are happening so fast all of a sudden.

Kakashi is standing with his hands in his pockets, his gaze still weirdly heavy for someone with only one eye who otherwise seems so relaxed. Without saying a word the man then sets a sudden brisk pace for Saskay to follow. Saskay scrambles a little to catch up.

Danny anxiously wonders where they might be going. They wouldn’t have some sort of chamber for this would they? Not to mention… It’s not like this man could actually think of him as a demon, right? Could it be that this world does know about ghosts, despite the ignorance of the kids? Could it just be a confused terminology thing?

The man in front of them seems calm now, but he hadn’t exactly received Naruto’s declaration casually. Danny suddenly finds himself haunted by a horde of questions.

Assuming they do know about ghosts, how much would they know? Would they respond like his parents? The G.I.W.? Valerie? Danny quickly pulls himself away from that train of thought. His experiences with other ghost hunters probably shouldn’t be taken as a standard for comparison.

… Are they capable at engaging ghosts? 

Danny knows he’s fairly powerful. But it’s not like he has any way of knowing how helpful that will be- especially when their foreign ninja-magic has already trapped him this badly.

Still, given how varied a threat ghosts could pose, shouldn’t Kakashi be asking some questions of his own?

Perhaps Saskay could be asked to help him get some answers. Not that Danny would know how to even phrase his request so that Saskay might actually humor him.

Instead, it’s Saskay who speaks first. “… Do you really have something that can fix this…?” he asks as they start to go down a wide stairwell. His voice sounds steady, but it nevertheless seems obvious that Saskay is seeking his own reassurance.

“Maa,” Kakashi starts. “If it doesn’t then there will be plenty of approaches to try next.”

At the bottom of the stairwell the man takes a sharp left, his pace remaining steady. Clearly there’s no room for dallying.

Danny doesn’t know if this reassures Saskay much at all, but he remains quiet after that.

Danny doesn’t know whether Kakashi’s apparent resourcefulness reassures him much either. But it’s the not knowing that really starts to eat at him. It’s then that his anxieties finally overstep his doubts.

Could you just ask him- what he knows about ghosts…? ... I- He falters then, as Kakashi leads the way down a much narrower, much darker stairway. Clearly Saskay is ignoring him too in favor of squinting into the dark, willing his eyes adjust.

They appear to have reached a basement of some kind, a large one. It’s far larger than the Fentonworks basement, that’s for sure. Going by all the pillars that surround them, Danny could almost think they’ve found themselves in some kind of overly luxurious crawl-space.

The ominous atmosphere only spooks Danny that much more. And isn’t that ironic? His ghost-hood is a joke.

Please? he reminds Saskay. I would really feel much better about getting walked into this if I had any idea about what’s about to happen, he says carefully, deliberately keeping his tone much calmer than he’s feeling.

Kakashi just heads straight into the darkness ahead of them. Saskay once again needs to pick up his pace a little bit in order to stay close. Going by the clench of his fists, he too is starting to feel uneasy. The man before them slowly becomes no more than a shape in the darkness as they head further in.

It takes Saskay a considerable moment still before he finally finds the courage to speak. “Sensei…?” he calls hesitantly.

“Just a couple steps further Sasuke… About here should do,” Kakashi responds, before his shape suddenly comes to a halt at what may or may not be the middle of the room. He then approaches one of the pillars. Something fizzes, and all of a sudden Kakashi’s outline is starkly visible against whatever he lit in front of him. Kakashi swiftly makes his way to the next pillar, which are all revealed to feature simple candle-holders.

Two more candles are lit, before Kakashi pauses to gesture at a particular spot between them. “Please take a seat, Sasuke. And take off the shirt so I can see the seal.” Then he goes back to lighting the rest of the candles surrounding them. Naturally the man does this by merely pressing the wick between his apparently magic fingertips.

Saskay begins to do as he’s told, but to Danny’s relief he still deigns to ask his most pressing question. “Can I ask what you’re going to do…?” He lifts his shirt over his head. The goosebumps on his skin are immediate. It may not technically be Danny’s body that’s being undressed at the moment, but this doesn’t stop Danny from feeling acutely vulnerable with the way the chill bites into Saskay’s skin.

“I’m going to draw a seal,” Kakashi says simply as he lights the last candle. He turns around to survey the space. For a moment Danny dreads that to be the entirety of Kakashi’s answer, but then… “Given that it works, you’ll no longer have to share your body.”

That really isn’t telling him that much more at all.

A telltale sound of clinking metal then catches their ear, as Kakashi pulls a knife from his hip-pouch. The man rolls up his sleeve, peels off his glove and proceeds to-… make a considerable cut in his own palm??? A shudder runs through Saskay that may not be related to the cold of the basement at all. Rivulets of blood can now be seen running down Kakashi’s fingers. Danny has a really bad feeling about how this will tie into the ‘seal’ that the man is about to draw.

With some horror –at least, on Danny’s part- Danny and Saskay both do indeed proceed to watch as Kakashi starts drawing symbols on the ground in his own blood.

It seems like they’re in this for the long haul too, given how much space Kakashi is starting to map out. It’s only every now and again that the man pauses, only to fish out another knife and position the prop in a key place within his work. The only surprise comes when one of the first tendrils inwards continues to be drawn on Saskay as opposed to merely around him. It feels horribly uncomfortable- the way the man continues to draw a long string of symbols over Saskay’s back, knowing that this is done in blood.

At least, it is to Danny. Somewhat jarringly, Saskay slowly appears to relax, the clench to his muscles abating. It’s only then that Danny is reminded just how differently they stand within this whole situation. Kakashi is confidently working away at a magic circle that is meant to unburden Saskay after all. Regardless of what it does, he should be free of Danny soon. To Danny however, Kakashi’s painfully brief explanation definitely left out some key details.

Saskay- Danny starts anxiously. I really need Kakashi to clarify if this will free me. Before the seal is complete. You understand why, right? he asks.

Almost immediately, the tension returns to Saskay’s shoulders. He swallows.

The renewed tension apparently doesn’t go unnoticed by Kakashi either, who pauses amidst his second line of symbols down Saskay’s arm. “Sasuke?” he prompts casually.

Saskay licks his lips. “He-…” he pauses, then inhales once more to start over. “Will this free Phantom?”

Kakashi remains quiet for a moment. Then, a hand comes down on Sasuke’s still un-blemished shoulder.

“I have every intention of making it so that you and Phantom will be separated,” he says, sounding sincere. “Should Phantom feel threatened then… It should know that I do not know of any seal that might come to harm it.”

Okay? That’s… okay. Something about the phrasing still bugs Danny, but… The man did just promise that Danny wouldn’t be harmed, and that he’s about to go his separate way from Saskay.

That should be good.

Something about all of this still rings with a familiarity that Danny does not like the feeling of. He wracks his brain for whatever it could be, as Kakashi resumes his drawing.

Soon, the seal starts to approach completion. A number of bloody tendrils have since joined the others on Saskay’s torso, all leading up to the mark in Saskay’s neck. On the ground around them the things have since been connected through a number of concentric circles, with a number of tendrils going so far as to even climb up the pillars. The flickering candle-light continues to give the whole scene a distinctly spooky vibe.

Danny still hasn’t figured out why he still feels so doubtful. 

The whole seal-thing still doesn’t seem to indicate a true familiarity with ghosts to him. For all Danny knows, the actual curse seal is the only thing that Kakashi knows to target. 

He wonders if it’s perhaps just the off-putting magic circles that leave a bad taste in his mouth. This isn’t anything like the Blood Blossoms however, Saskay isn’t bound to a stake the way Sam had been. He needs to calm down.

Eventually Kakashi’s drawing grinds to a near-halt as well. He surveys his work, and only walks back in to touch up one more spot. “We should be about ready,” he says. “Deploying the seal will only take a moment, but I still need you to brace for an unpleasant experience Sasuke.”

One more final look is cast at the seal, and then-

A low amused chuckle sounds from the darkness ahead of them. Kakashi’s eye widens in alarm just as Saskay goes rigid. Danny too is startled by the way Saskay’s heart skips into his throat.

“My, so you can even perform sealing jutsu now…” a foreign voice drawls just as Kakashi whirls around to face it. Despite sounding like a smoker with laryngitis, the voice unsettles Danny too.  Kakashi takes several careful steps back in Saskay’s direction.

“You’ve grown… Kakashi,” the voice continues, as the figure steps into the dim candlelight.

“You-!” Kakashi starts.

There’s another ominous chuckle. “Long time no see, Kakashi-kun.”

The moment the man comes into view, Danny instantly comprehends what Naruto had meant by ‘that Snake-creep’. A pair of piercing yellow eyes set in an uncannily pale face can be seen gazing back at them from behind dark tendrils of hair, the man’s posture showing him at complete ease as he surveys the situation. He only stops at a couple feet from the seal.

“What do you want?” Kakashi asks dangerously.

“Mm, such hostility… There’s no need to growl, Kakashi. To me your sealing ritual is but no more than a curiosity.”

“Then what do you want-” Kakashi presses.

The Snake merely smiles wider, allowing his gaze to slide from Kakashi to Saskay. The hairs in Saskay’s neck immediately come to stand on end under its weight.

His eyes probe intensely enough for even Danny to feel seen.

“I’m merely here to take up an invitation,” the Snake says, head tilting curiously. 

For a moment, there is only apprehensive, confused silence- before realization suddenly dawns for Danny.

Oh crap… he mutters.

Standing in front of them, Kakashi produces a “what-…?” Saskay’s fists immediately go white-knuckled around the shirt that still sits in his lap, his nostrils flare. He’s livid. But he’d apparently still rather clench his jaw than say anything.

“Unless, of course, I caught you at a bad time?” the Snake asks Saskay calmly, a glimmer in his eye. There’s the slightest of squints to his expression, as if reassessing whatever he’s looking at. Guilt suddenly weighs on Danny like a stack of bricks.

I- I wasn’t thinking then- I just wanted answers-! he starts. But Saskay gives his words little consideration as he instead calls to Kakashi, “I didn’t- It wasn’t me!”

Kakashi looks at him in surprise, before understanding swiftly dawns in his eye. He turns back to the Snake.

The Snake’s smile suddenly looks decidedly wooden.

Kakashi takes one more step back, hand reaching back towards Saskay as if to guard him. His eyes don’t stray from the intruder however. “I don’t know what you were planning… But don’t think for one moment that Sasuke is yours to toy with.” His fingers brush over Saskay’s shoulder. The Snake’s smile actually seems to waver as his attention returns to Kakashi. “This seal may be no more than a curiosity to you, but you’ll be sorely mistaken if you think this to be the limit of our efforts.

“For now, this ought to be more than enough to keep at least your pet in check.” He finishes quietly. His bloodied hand rises to form a single-handed seal before him. The Snake’s expression breaks out into a bewildered frown. Danny’s thoughts grind to a halt. For a terrible moment, all of his instincts are caught between confusion. 

And then Kakashi’s palm comes down hard in Saskay’s neck.

For a moment it just feels like he’s getting punched. Saskay yelps as his shoulder-muscle is crushed under the impact. It’s painful but- within an instant the pain blooms to a sudden, searing hot, carving thing, as the tendrils covering Saskay’s torso tear into him- No- Both of them-! 

He screams. Searing hot chain-links suddenly feel like they’re getting pulled piece by piece through their skin. For the briefest of moments Danny finds himself thinking Liar!! Before all thought becomes incoherent through the pain. With every new sigil that is pulled in, the burn grows hotter, ensnaring him further!

Because even while overwhelmed, Danny can still tell that something is happening to him. Something is pulling at him, pulling away the sensation in his fingers- his toes- then his legs and his arms-! Danny panics. The world is blurring into nothing. Whatever last ditch attempt he does at reaching back out into Saskay only serves to yank him further away. Whichever scream was his is smothered and then-

Everything cuts out altogether.

Except for the binds that snap into place.

The pain is gone. Instead, all that’s there is an unbearable pressure. It bears down like the weight of the entire world is coming down on Danny’s incorporeal existence. It’s like he’s choking, even while he has no lungs to expand, no air to draw on. 

With all of Danny’s might he tries to fight with the limbs he does not have, tries to scream with the vocal chords he does not possess.

NO!!!  Danny cries to his own thoughts, which he cruelly enough has been permitted to keep.

NO!!! Everything that he is is thrown into his rejection. This cannot be how he is! This cannot be how he is to exist! It can’t-! It Can’t!!

He struggles, and struggles, and it amounts to nothing. 

Despair suffuses him. 

Just as the cold does.

Just as his cold does.

A wave of conflict washes through him as he desperately recalls what this means- what it does. It’s his cold. His power!

His reach to seize it for himself is almost instinctual. It’s his power. And it is so very easy to have it suffuse him over whatever it is that’s trying to destroy him. But it won’t.

Because Danny is powerful. Much more powerful than what most of his foes had ever given him credit for, yet they’d all been ultimately overcome.

This, too, will not last against him.

His power surges, and with everything that Danny has and all that he can muster he smashes it back into the pressure.

It yields only slightly… But underneath all that Danny is throwing at it, Danny can feel it lose form, leaving only the chains of searing sigils holding fast.

Danny screams.

Because as long as he has his power- as long as he wills it- His power will give him a voice.

Something cracks.

-

When Kakashi had gone to check up on his students he’d already known he’d be met with an unfortunate situation. Anko had essentially already reported as much. Their intruder had been after Sasuke, and left him marked without any of their knowing about it- at least, until Anko had essentially been told about it by that very intruder.

Somehow, he hadn’t quite expected this report to lead up to “We think he sealed a demon inside of him!”

Or… 

“He took over Sasuke’s body and kept saying stuff in his head!!”

Or…

“Is he talking to you right now, too?” 

Saskay’s shoulders hitch up slightly. 

“… Maybe…”

Kakashi had tried to take their warnings seriously. He’d given it his utmost effort, given the circumstances. If they were correct then Kakashi had no choice but to act at the earliest opportunity, to take advantage of the ‘demon’s’ dormancy while it still allowed him to.

Kakashi was no fool, though. He’d known them to be on borrowed time. He’d seen how his student had gone tense and fearful under the thing’s influence, long before the seal was ready. Lying through his teeth likely would have been his best option, but ultimately he’d managed to get away with mere lies of omission.

He did have every intention of separating Sasuke from ‘Phantom’.

He just didn’t know how yet.

And he hadn’t known of any seals that would harm it.

Unless imprisonment counted. Neatly packaging the Curse Seal away under a suppression seal had seemed like a perfectly functional solution in the meantime.

Facing Orochimaru was a surprise. Committing to the seal in his presence was a terrible gamble, but given that ‘Phantom’ could turn on them at any moment, it had seemed necessary. Facing a demon in addition to Orochimaru would have been worse.

Or so Kakashi reminds himself as he keeps his palm solidly planted on top of the seal in Sasuke’s neck. His student is clearly in pain, but Kakashi doesn’t dare take his eyes off of the man in front of them. True to the man’s word, he truly does seem content to just stand there and satisfy some kind of curiosity. Kakashi risks the briefest of glances at Sasuke.

The sigils continue to move much slower than Kakashi would have liked, but nevertheless keep up a steady trickle towards the curse. Sasuke is clearly making every effort to bite back any screaming, but can’t help the string of cries that escape him regardless. He’s shaking. Every shift of the seal just seems to make it worse. Kakashi counts them lucky that Sasuke is remaining seated at all. It’s a close thing, though. The seal still needs a moment longer, and Kakashi fears that Sasuke might not last that long.

The suppression could technically still be completed if Sasuke collapses, but it would leave them much more vulnerable. In truth, Kakashi can only afford one outcome here. He digs his fingers into Sasuke’s muscle in an effort to keep him upright. 

He shares a long moment of horribly tense eye-contact with Orochimaru. The confused frown the man had worn earlier has long since turned to a smirk again.

“Tell me, Kakashi-kun,” he starts. “What is it you hope to achieve by putting the child through this exactly?”

Kakashi frowns. It ought to be obvious, isn’t it?

The Snake doesn’t actually seem to care for an answer however. “That child, for one that seeks power so desperately, how long do you think he’ll last before he reaches for it again?”

Somehow, Kakashi’s frown deepens. Doubt causes him to question just how far Sasuke might go for his revenge. But… through ‘Phantom’…?

Before Kakashi can even think to respond, he feels the last of the sigils shift into place. His gaze whips back to Sasuke. Kakashi’s palm still burns from the strain of the sealing-process, but the burden is distinctly lifted. The seal has locked into place.

Sasuke whimpers, but he appears to be catching his breath. Kakashi gingerly lets go. But then to his surprise, Sasuke only whimpers louder, and suddenly clutches at the seal with his own hand.

“Hhnh-!”

Shit. This is wrong. This isn’t how it’s supposed to work-!

“Sasuke-!” Kakashi calls hurriedly as he goes to sit on one knee, grabbing Sasuke by the shoulders. Did he fail? Is it falling apart? Orochimaru is suddenly forgotten. Sasuke’s shoulders are still clammy with sweat. Clearly he isn’t catching his breath either so much as he’s just gasping for air. He whimpers again, Kakashi takes one hand and clutches the back of his student’s head, forcing Sasuke to look at him. “Listen to me Sasuke,” He says urgently. Sasuke’s eyes have a hazy kind of quality to them when they meet Kakashi’s, but he holds Kakashi’s gaze regardless. “The seal draws its power from the strength of your will. So long as you will it to stop Phantom, it will. Do you understand?”

For a moment Sasuke just seems too exhausted as he still fights for air- but then he nods, biting off a whine at the same time. Kakashi is momentarily convinced that Sasuke can fight this off, that the determination in his student will conquer this curse- but then for a split second he sees an ominous green glow spark in Sasuke’s eyes. Sasuke immediately ducks his head and cries out in pain.

Kakashi immediately has his hands drawn back. He’s not even sure why, except that…

A frigid wind suddenly sweeps up around them. Trails of frost shoot out over the concrete from where Sasuke is sitting. Kakashi sucks in a lungful of freezing air and hastily stumbles to his feet.

It’s a good thing he did, too. Because a moment later Sasuke cries out harder and the wind punches him back with a vengeance. Kakashi only regains his footing a number of steps back. Streaks of ice-cold air bite against Kakashi’s skin as it flies at him, forcing him to shield his face as he fights to keep standing. He attempts a glance between his arms regardless.

Sasuke is fully doubled over now and screaming. But what’s more alarming are the gigantic spikes of solid ice that are growing around him, each spike growing longer in bursts with each renewed gust of freezing wind. Kakashi wants to call out to him.

But then Sasuke’s scream goes from bad to…

Kakashi doesn’t have the words for it. The sound is agony. His muscles, his bones, his teeth- it all hurts, but it’s his eardrums most of all that suffer under the sudden howling of other-worldly origin. Even the world itself seems to shift, although that may just be the balancing organs in his ears taking a hit. He stumbles to his knees. At least his arms still have the wherewithal to cover his ears. The horrible choice to run presents itself in Kakashi’s mind. But then, just as suddenly as it began… it’s over.

It takes a considerable moment before Kakashi breathes through the shock of- whatever just happened. He tentatively lowers his arms away from his head, and risks opening his eye against whatever is still there. A steady stream of frigid air is still flowing past him, but it no longer seems as violent. With some difficulty, he struggles back onto his feet. The sound seems muffled through his sore eardrums.

There are numerous large, imposing cracks in the ceiling that release a helping of concrete dust into the wind.

Kakashi is suddenly very grateful that the building held up at all. What in the world just-?

In the middle of the ice-circle, Sasuke leans heavily on his arms, fingers spread out on the icy concrete before him. This time, he really does appear to be catching his breath. He’s trembling.

Dark, inky flecks are dotted all over his skin.

Kakashi is starting to get the feeling that it may not be Sasuke doing the trembling…

It lifts its eyes, and Kakashi instantly knows it isn’t Sasuke. The irises are glowing in a painfully bright iridescent green. Sasuke’s entire form seems to be glowing in a hazy, wispy sort of way. With the candles blown out, Kakashi realizes that Sasuke’s strange dim aura may currently be the only source of light in the room.

“You-!” it says.

Chapter Text

“You-!” Sasuke- no, it says. It exhales a steady stream of air from Sasuke’s lungs, the vapor distinctly visible in the frigid air.

Kakashi gets the distinct impression he has messed up.

“How could you-!!” it continues as it goes to stand up, the phrase sounding muffled through Kakashi’s sore eardrums. The air whips into a frenzy once more. Frost begins to coat just about every available surface around them.

The running-option occurs to Kakashi once more, but he firmly rejects it. He’s not leaving his student here. He is in dire need of back-up though. With a few swiftly woven signs Kakashi plants his hand on the frost-covered ground. Phantom startles, clearly thinking it an attack as he jumps into a more defensive position. Sigils rip through the frost, but only go so far as the summoning finishes with a puff of smoke.

“Pakkun-” Kakashi says in a low voice. “Get help. I need to look after Sasuke.” He pulls his hitai-ate further up his forehead. He’s going to need his left eye for this. A familiar level of comprehension falls over the world as it blinks open.

The pug before him turns to look at the source of the cold blowing against his back. Phantom just looks back, apparently more than a little befuddled at what he’s looking at. Pakkun frowns back, clearly alarmed by the apparent state of the usually sullen child. “Aye, aye, boss,” the dog acknowledges.

Kakashi quickly rises back to his full height as Pakkun prepares to make a run for it. Phantom promptly raises his guard once more. “You’re calling reinforcements?” it asks incredulously. 

Kakashi just attempts to focus. He just needs to cover Pakkun’s escape, from then on it will likely be a stalling game. The dog at his feet takes off into a sprint, Phantom’s glare follows him- but not for long. Within the blink of an eye Kakashi pulls a whole host of shuriken from his pocket and sends them flying at his possessed student. He just needs to keep Phantom’s attention on him.

Kakashi goes to sign for an earth-style jutsu, but falters when Phantom doesn’t even move an inch. For a horrible moment Kakashi is certain that he’s maimed his student, but then the shuriken- They don’t even seem to hit him?

It’s not an illusion. The Sharingan in his left eye would have shown him if it was. Kakashi is forced to deduce that yes, his shuriken did just fly right through him. The surprise is almost enough for Kakashi to miss Phantom’s shifting stance. A rapidly growing glow surrounds Sasuke’s hands. In one swift motion his palms then come down on the concrete, and Kakashi can only just barely leap out of the way as a rapidly growing train of ice hurtles right by him. The length of it continues deep into the room behind him, its glow banishing the darkness as it goes. Dread pools in Kakashi’s stomach as he realizes what Phantom is targeting. He can’t even begin to think of a counter-measure before a sharp whine sounds as the train of ice reaches its end.

“Boss…?” Pakkun calls back hesitantly. Kakashi can only barely make out his partially encased form in the ice.

“Shit-” he swears softly. The hue of the room around him then changes from ice-blue to a toxic flickering green, Kakashi quickly returns his attention to Phantom.

Phantom only seems to be growing more and more furious, as the glow in his hands flares angrily. “You thought you could just put me away? Sweep me under the rug like an eyesore?” Then for a moment its expression shifts to upset, before returning to anger once more. “And Saskay would have been just fine with that, wouldn’t he? But I should have known better than to think otherwise- not even the Snake can be relied on to stick around and answer for his actions,” it says bitterly.

It’s only then that Kakashi realizes that he hasn’t seen hide nor hair of Orochimaru since this whole thing started going south. He almost can’t believe that the man would just disappear like that. But then it’s not like Phantom is about to allow any time for contemplation.

“Yet you still seem to have the audacity to stick around,” it spits. “Did you think you could beat me? Do you have any idea what you’re even facing?” The green haze around Sasuke’s hands then suddenly flares out violently, forcing Kakashi back as a gust of freezing air is sent streaking across his body once more. The glow now seems to be enveloping Sasuke’s form entirely. Kakashi has to squint in order see through its brightness. He’s in trouble, he’s in real trouble, but what can he do? A couple dozen strategies and jutsu’s cross his mind, but few seem helpful against an enemy that can phase right through them.

He takes another step back. Frost crunches underneath his foot. He thinks he has an idea.

The technique he has in mind takes no more than the snake- and rat-signs. He likely won’t have the opportunity to weave much more than that, but that’s alright as long as it does its job. His hands fly through the seals, and sure enough, Phantom fails to react by the time that Kakashi has already willed the genjutsu to take hold.

His foe freezes, and without skipping a beat Kakashi summons the clones he needs for his ambush.

As Kakashi feared, the genjutsu breaks before he and his clones are in place. But luckily for him, Phantom still seems somewhat disoriented from its effects. 

The first Kakashi strikes from behind, and phases right through him- shortly followed by the second, who also goes straight through. It’s only number three that suddenly gets caught by the collar, as a furious Phantom looks back at him. Only number two then plunges his knife into three’s back, causing both lightning-clones to discharge violently. Phantom and Sasuke alike are easily caught in its reach, as the unleashed electrical energy courses through them. Despite the pain that must surely be felt, the total muscle paralysis keeps Sasuke’s jaw clenched. 

The first, real Kakashi then finishes his signing and leaps in to administer his final jutsu- a lightning-style technique that ought to keep the electrically induced paralysis going without the same level of bodily harm.

But his arm plunges straight through.

A foot catches him in the stomach, kicking him back hard until Kakashi comes to collide with one of the pillars. No recovery time is afforded as Sasuke’s small hand closes around his windpipe and lifts him up- slamming him back against the concrete pillar with unnatural strength. A cough wrenches from Kakashi’s throat, but inhaling again is difficult. He hastily works his feet back under him, so that he won’t choke on the grip that’s keeping him up.

Whatever gulp of air that earns him almost feels worse than no air at all, as the air is colder than ever, biting painfully into his airways. He attempts to grab at the arm that’s holding him, but it’s as if he’s clawing at nothing but air. Yet the grip on his throat remains. Frost from the pillar starts creeping onto him.

Sasuke’s glowing form before him waters his eyes, stinging against the cold in turn. “You don’t know anything about ghosts- do you?” Phantom says, its grip tightening. 

Kakashi takes to clawing at his own throat, where sure enough he does feel some of the hand that’s there- but its touch stings terribly against his skin, as if the glowing green haze itself is highly acidic. He attempts to wrench his fingers in-between regardless, but with little success. 

Green eyes continue to bore into him. “You’re a fool. You have no idea the likes of what I’ve fought! Did you really think that locking up my muscles was going to stop me from being a ghost?” 

A horrible echo suddenly lines the sound of Sasuke’s voice. Kakashi struggles to inhale another lung full of freezing air. 

“Did you think that crushing me in that seal would stop me? You’re just like every other asshole that thought they could push me around- like every other asshole that thought I was their plaything-!!” 

Kakashi can’t help but wince at the sheer volume in his ears, just as a heavy ‘Crack!’ sounds from the ceiling above them. 

“You understand nothing! None of you ever do…!" 

Phantom pauses after that, seething still. Kakashi ought to make something of this opportunity, but nothing comes to him. Instead, he watches Phantom’s rage start to be ebb away. But in its wake remains a cold hatred that scares Kakashi much, much more. It speaks again, softer this time.

“But perhaps, Kakashi-sensay, you could be the first to learn…?”

A commotion suddenly sounds from the entry-way.

“In here-!” someone shouts.

Phantom’s head whips towards the sound. In a brief span of time Kakashi can see its expression go from anger to something like doubt. And then everything goes dark all of a sudden. The pressure on Kakashi’s throat disappears.

It takes a couple of blinks before Kakashi’s eyes adjust to the dim light of the approaching flashlight.

Phantom -and Sasuke- are gone.

Kakashi allows himself to slump down. This goes with surprising difficulty, considering the ice that has fused his flak jacket to the pillar.

-

Somewhere a number of rows away from the commotion, a man melds his way out of a pillar. Noiselessly, away from the cautious eyes that have come to survey the situation, the man goes to retrieve his loyal pet. It no longer seems to be living. 

Poor thing, snakes never did do well in colder climates. It would have been nice to see all that the animal did through its eyes, but it’s hardly a set-back. He heard plenty. He leaves the carcass behind.

The exit is a little too heavy on traffic for him at the moment, but having known this village as long as he has comes with certain perks. Close to the back of the room sits a nigh-invisible ceiling-hatch. Opening it is as easy as walking up the pillar. The hidden crawl-space behind it is tight, but such things have never bothered him. Traversing it is almost akin to shedding an old skin.

It takes a couple of twists and turns, but it’s not long before he finds the exit he seeks. One transformation-jutsu into his disguise later, and the man has slipped out into the hallways once more. One more corner and, there-

The hinges creak as the door is pushed open and closed again.

“Orochimaru-sama!” his disappointment of an apprentice calls.

“Kabuto…” he returns tonelessly. He spares him no glance, instead he turns back to the door and activates the host of seals they have prepared there. The sigils come to life with a dull glow. A man needs his privacy.

“How did it go?” Kabuto asks. “Did the Uchiha boy seem ready to accept your tutelage yet?”

“Kabuto…” he says again, allowing a slightly chastising tone this time.

Kabuto gets the message loud and clear. His expression grows decidedly grimmer. “I realize the research I gathered on Sasuke in person was disappointing- however I must reiterate that the projected challenges of that fight were accurate. The boy’s exhaustion should have left him vulnerable to the curse seal, but for whatever reason its effects remained absent.”

Orochimaru acknowledges him with no more than a brief look before turning to the scrolls and papers assorted on the nearby shelves. “And then the Nine-tails boy enabled them to win the fight and claim their second scroll, leaving Sasuke nigh-obsolete. I recall your excuses just fine. I do not care for the fight you’ve reported to me, Kabuto.”

Across the room, still standing by his chair, Kabuto stiffens. 

“What I care for-” he says as he retrieves what he needs, “is how you failed to inform me of what happened when the curse did manifest.” Their ‘genin’ had witnessed it in person after all, given that Kabuto was accurate about that much. He turns around then to face his apprentice properly. A bundle of thin scrolls is twirled between his fingers. He smiles. He can’t help it. His pawns prove to have performed blunder after blunder, but it’s a chore to stay focused on such things when other developments have revealed themselves to be so much more exciting.

The boy’s ‘invitation’ had definitely thrown him for a loop. Given that the boy would make such a move, he’d wondered why the boy was willing to go along with Kakashi’s quaint sealing attempt at all. But it seems clear now that Sasuke wasn’t the one to seek him out at all. What a bizarre turn of events, to find his gift manifesting itself like this.

On one hand, the lure he’d meant to cast for the boy by cursing him is clearly useless. There is little chance that Sasuke would seek him out of his own accord now, given how clearly displeased the boy is.

On the other hand… The boy may not wish to find him, but something else might. A ghost. To a degree he remains dubious of that label, but regardless of the terminology, the potential is almost too good to be true. Whether or not this strange power can be harnessed for himself can only be revealed with time. But if it is, then how fortunate is he that such a creature has already been caught in a seal of his own making. 

He still yearns to obtain the Sharingan in Sasuke’s eyes. But shockingly enough, it may just pale in comparison to what he was just a witness of.

If only he’d known what had happened when the curse was cast… His fangs had appeared to sink into the boy’s neck just fine. The manifested curse seal was proof enough of that. But it had seemed bizarre at the time that he’d been… whacked in the head?

He’d recovered quickly, but by then he couldn’t even be sure whether that flash of light had really been there- or whether it had been manifested by the impact on his skull.

The mystery is as infuriating as it is tantalizing.

Kabuto swallows. For once, there’s a flicker of real fear in his eyes. It seems he doesn’t know anything either- which is bizarre considering the chain of command that Orochimaru entrusted to him. 

“You don’t know, truly…?” he can’t help but ask.

“I had no reason to assume-”

“I’m sure you didn’t. And yet, my dear Kabuto… it seems you have something yet to compensate for…” He turns to a nearby desk, and finds a pencil to set to paper. “I have a couple of texts in mind that I think merit obtaining.” It’s not a long list. He finishes writing the titles by encircling them, and then holds out the paper for Kabuto to take. 

There’s just a moment of hesitation before Kabuto steps closer to receive his mission. His eyebrows rise when he turns his eyes to its contents.

He’ll admit that some are on the more… ‘esoteric’ side than usual. “That last one may give even you some trouble,” he smirks. 

Kabuto does not answer, but his answering look is not without hostility. 

His apprentice may very well betray him someday, but it is not one that shall come to pass just yet. 

“I’ll entrust this to your capable hands. In the meantime-” he waves his little bundle of scrolls, “I think our ‘genin’ are long overdue on the mission report they owe their ‘sensei’.”

-

Sakura is worried. 

The medic-nin before her is making steady progress on her leg. The tissue knitting itself together under his healing-jutsu feels bizarre, but overall it’s a relief. Instead, her worry is about Phantom-san. 

Kakashi-sensei had left with Sasuke-kun so suddenly- they’d hardly even been able to discuss anything. Now that they’re gone Sakura is left ruminating on how all of that went. The only obvious conclusion she’s been able to draw so far is that they didn’t make a great impression on Phantom-san’s behalf. She remembers being scared out of her wits herself when she first learned about Phantom-san. It had taken time for her to get accustomed the strangely benign behavior he exhibited, how could it not be the same for Kakashi-sensei?

But if Kakashi-sensei is capable of undoing Orochimaru’s curse seal, then he ought to find out for himself soon enough. 

Something about that somehow sounds a little too good to be true. This Orochimaru didn’t exactly strike her as the type to let them undo his work just like that. They may not have known what the purpose of the seal was, but that just makes her worry that they have yet to find out. 

Naruto seems worried too. He tried to take a nap not ten minutes ago, but for once he too seems too agitated to sleep. Now he’s just sitting on the bunk adjacent from hers, watching the medic continue his work.

She shifts a little bit, somehow unable to quite get comfortable. The medic –a stern man seemingly about Kakashi-sensei’s age- sends her a warning look. “Sorry…” she mutters, a little embarrassed. He’d already told her to keep still a couple of times, but she can’t help her restlessness.

That’s when the scream hits.

It's muffled through the walls, but somehow still loud enough to hurt her ears. It’s like nothing she heard before- it doesn’t even seem human to her. But what really scares her is the way the building rumbles beneath them.

For a moment, Sakura considers an earthquake to be the only viable explanation. The rattling of the surrounding furniture intensifies as the sound grows louder- Sakura’s heart leaps in her throat. And then it stops. Both the sound and the rumbling cease at once.

They all sit frozen in place. Sakura turns to Naruto, her heart still pounding, but her view of him is partially obscured when the medic jumps upright.

“Stay put please,” the man says. “Should anything have happened I’m sure the examinees will be informed shortly.” And then he promptly walks out the door.

“’Should anything have happened-’?” Naruto parrots incredulously. He gets up. “How could something not have happened! We all heard that right?”

That’s when Sakura feels it. The chill, it must’ve gotten at least several degrees colder since only a moment ago. “Do you feel that?” she asks Naruto, getting up herself and rubbing at her arms, which- She lifts up her forearm. She has goosebumps. “Look!” she calls to Naruto. “It just got colder in here! You feel it too, right?”

Naruto does look, a slightly pensive frown forms on his face as he considers this. His thoughtful expression quickly turns to alarm though. “Phantom! This is one of his freaky demon powers, isn’t it? With the ice-? On Sasuke before-!”

Oh no. “Do you think something went wrong?” She puts her arms around herself once more. What could that scream have been? Did they hurt Phantom? Is Sasuke-kun okay?

“We’ve got to go help them,” Naruto says, as he turns towards the door. “If Phantom took over Sasuke again-” He suddenly stops in his tracks, then he turns around in search of something. “If Phantom took over Sasuke again then we have to go help them.” Sakura realizes what he was looking for as he swipes some of the accumulated litter away, and goes to fasten his backpack’s clasp. Phantom’s tracking-thing is still too big to fit inside his bag entirely, even with the trash removed. It still sticks out of the top a little. He puts the backpack on and turns back around towards her.

“Sakura-chan…?” he prompts. 

Naruto wants to go. But-… No. Their instructions are irrelevant. Had Sakura been in this situation some months ago, she might have done as she was told and stayed put- but after the Wave-mission she is no longer so naïve. If Sasuke-kun, Phantom-san and Kakashi-sensei are in trouble, then they have to go. “You’re right. We need to make sure no one got hurt.”

“We need to make sure that Phantom didn’t hurt them,” Naruto corrects her. 

Sakura thinks she can feel an aneurysm coming on all of a sudden. “He wouldn’t!” she barks defensively. “If anything, he’d just try to protect them, just like he did before with us! He wouldn’t let anything happen to Sasuke-kun!”

And he wouldn’t- he has no reason to! Right…? It’s just that Sasuke-kun really hates getting possessed, which she can kind of understand, but it’s not like Phantom was tormenting him for the fun of it.

“Sakura-chaaan-” Naruto complains.

“We’ll look for them,” she reminds him, they’re on the same side after all. “But we shouldn’t do anything rash. It could still be dangerous. Based on what we’ve seen so far, it really does seem more likely that Phantom-san would jump to our defense anyway,” she concludes primly.

Naruto looks like he wants to complain, but still produces an “okay…” reluctantly.

It’s settled then. They go to head out the door.

However, once out in the hallway they’re faced with their next problem.

Naruto sheepishly turns towards her. “Do you know which way they went?”

Uhh… Sakura’s eyes flick towards the tracking-thing that still sticks out of Naruto’s backpack. Naruto’s eyes widen in understanding. “The Thing!” he proclaims, he goes to sling the backpack off his shoulders immediately.

“Wait- Naruto!” she calls. He’s already got the tracking-thing in hand. “Let’s be smart about this for a minute- are we sure we want to use that right now?”

“It’s the fastest way to find them isn’t it?” he asks, confused.

“What if they’re still in a fight?” she asks. “It could make things more difficult for them- not to mention…” She can already picture how this is going to go if they deploy it here. “It might hit someone on the way. What if we run into some of the other genin?” She remembers the way the thing had whacked its way through the forest before.

Naruto deflates somewhat, clearly unhappy, but seeing the sense in what she’s saying. They might not even really need the thing, though.

“Plus, the sound came from below right?” She recalls the route they’d taken here. “We’re only on the third floor, so there’s only two floors below us, let’s just see if we can find anything underneath our rooms somewhere.”

Naruto seems ready to acquiesce at that point. He somewhat dejectedly slings his backpack back on.

Then the building briefly vibrates underneath their feet again. Not as strongly as before, but it’s definitely a pressing reminder.

“We should hurry,” she says, swallowing her worry. Phantom-san can just phase through stuff after all, he wouldn't let anything happen to her team…

They hurry.

The building is unfortunately not as easy to navigate as Sakura had hoped it would be. The stairs are hidden in places they don’t expect, and they get turned around at least twice when they think they’ve found the right way. At least there are still a couple of silver linings… The only people they encounter are a couple of other Konoha shinobi, and it seems easy enough to slip by them. They seem occupied with heading wherever they need to be.

The other silver lining is the cracks they’ve found in the walls. They’d been too thin to notice at first, but they’ve steadily grown more present as they approach the center of the building. There is no question that whatever scenario they are looking for must be happening at the cracks’ origin.

The only genin they spot on their way seems to be by himself. Sakura thinks he might be one of Kabuto’s teammates- it’s tough to tell at the distance they’re keeping. He seems to be headed in the same direction though, so she and Naruto can still proceed from a distance.

Whatever the genin is heading for seems to be at the end of a long hallway. They can hear a heavy discussion of sorts coming through the large doorway that sits there. The genin walks right on in.

Sakura grabs a fistful of Naruto’s sleeve as they sidle up to the door-opening. They can make out the words now. Someone seems to be getting an earful from a foreign jounin-sensei. It appears said sensei is under the impression that the building was just targeted in an attack, and their demands range from a simple explanation, to the retro-active installation of the most air-tight security. Sakura and Naruto both try to take a discreet peek past the doorframe.

There’s a large hallway, perhaps not as long as the one they’re currently in, but it’s definitely much taller and much wider. It features numerous entrances and exits. On the floor sit some of the thickest cracks Sakura has seen yet, which crawl all the way up the walls and the ceiling, no doubt continuing through the rest of the building.

The genin must have gone through one of the numerous exits, as they are nowhere to be found. A small group of different people is standing some way from the worst of the cracks. The Konoha shinobi facing the torrent of criticism only appears to be a chuunin who seems rather distressed about the situation. There's a second jounin-sensei too, looking on quietly at this exchange with his arms crossed, a fierce scowl scrunching his brow. His desert-style appearance suggests to Sakura that he’s from Wind-country.

She would try to examine the yelling man as well, except the quiet one from Wind-country then suddenly catches their eyes. The renewed intensity of his glare is more than enough to scare them back behind the door.

Sakura is just about to turn towards Naruto and comment on the fearsome jounin-sensei, when she finds something sitting behind them. Her yelp is immediate as she falls against the door, her teammate not doing much better as they both scramble to back away from-

There’s a dog of a mixed breed sitting in the hallway. It’s one of Kakashi-sensei’s dog-summons.

It calmly flicks an ear as it continues to stare at them.

“… Bisuke…?” Naruto calls hesitantly.

“No, I’m pretty sure this is Uhei,” Sakura says.

Uhei doesn’t actually deign them with a response, instead it gestures its head back the way they came, and gets up. It seems to want to lead them somewhere.

“Can you take us to Kakashi-sensei, Uhei?” she asks as she and Naruto both scramble to get up and follow the dog.

Still no response, but Sakura is still fairly confident that following Uhei will lead them to their sensei.

As it turns out, what they were missing all along was a basement. Not that Sakura can feel too bad about this, not while the stairs that go there sit this far out of the way.

There’s another Konoha shinobi standing by the top of the stairwell. She seems busy examining the wall-cracks with some kind of jutsu, while muttering something about ‘structural integrity’. She stops the moment she notices Sakura and Naruto approaching, but at the sight of Uhei she quickly redirects her attention back to her jutsu.

There’s a lot more going on than Sakura thought there would be. Nobody seems to have been in any kind of hurry since the few people back upstairs, but it’s still a lot.

Could it really be that an attack took place?

Perhaps Phantom-san really did enable them to make short work of the threat?

… She really hopes they’re all okay.

She really hopes she didn’t waste their time searching for this place.

Unfortunately she only starts to feel more unsettled as they descend the dark, narrow stairway. At least at the bottom the space is fairly well lit. A number of candles flicker quaintly on their sconces. It’s big down here. Pillars seem to extend far beyond what light is there. And it’s positively freezing. Sakura shivers once, she can already feel the goose-bumps return on her skin. 

Kakashi-sensei is engaged in conversation with another Konoha shinobi while he is seated against one of the pillars. A medic-nin is there too, healing their sensei’s hands.

“Kakashi-sensei!” Sakura calls. She and Naruto waste no time in running up to him.

“You two…?” he replies with a clearly displeased frown.

“Where’s Sasuke?” Naruto bellows.

That’s when Uhei comes trotting up between them. “I found them wandering upstairs,” he says.

“Thank you, Akino,” Kakashi-sensei says. Oh.

Akino then goes to the shape sitting next to Kakashi in a little blanket. It’s only then that Sakura notices Pakkun sitting there, the leader of Kakashi-sensei’s pack. He’s shivering quite badly. Akino licks the pug’s nose and then sits down next to him.

“What happened?” she asks.

Kakashi-sensei has frost in his hair and on his clothes. He looks a little disheveled too, but mostly unharmed- except for the hands. Sakura can see how one of his palms still looks a little shiny under the medic’s healing, there’s a now closed puncture wound in the middle of his palm too.

Kakashi-sensei sends them a somewhat exasperated look, and then pulls his hands away from the medic.

“Are you sure?” the man asks.

“I’ll manage,” Kakashi-sensei answers curtly.

The medic steps back and wipes their hands down. The other Konoha shinobi coughs once. “I’ll go deal with the shit-show upstairs,” he says. “You’ll let me know when your dogs catch a scent won’t you? I could use an excuse not to end up playing diplomat all day.” He then raises a fist to his mouth and coughs again.

“No promises, Hayate,” Kakashi-sensei responds tiredly. “Even I don’t curry enough favor with Hokage-sama to get you out of this one.”

Beside Sakura, Naruto is starting to bounce agitatedly.

Another cough, the man (Hayate-san?) eyes the medic. “Why did nobody tell me that exam proctor is such a political position?”

The medic doesn’t seem to know how to respond to that, but thankfully he then picks up his things and both men start heading back for the stairs.

They watch until the men are out of ear-shot and- “Phantom took Sasuke, didn’t he?” Naruto blurts the moment they may have achieved privacy.

Kakashi-sensei gives them a very tired look, and Sakura suddenly feels very, very, scared.

“… Yes,” he confirms quietly.

Pakkun sends them a somewhat commiserating look as he continues to shake in his blanket.

“I knew it!” Naruto says.

“Wait-” Sakura interjects. “That can’t- Why would he do that?” she asks a little high-pitched. “You were going to help them right, Kakashi-sensei?”

Was she wrong?

“Listen,” Kakashi-sensei says very carefully. “I know you’re both worried for Sasuke. I’m going to be doing everything I can to make sure he’ll return to us unharmed.”

Sakura holds her breath. This can’t be right- Phantom-san wouldn’t- but then where is Sasuke-kun?

“Unfortunately, we’re in a precarious situation right now. The dogs are already out searching for Sasuke, but I’ll need help. Hokage-sama is being informed as we speak- we’ll have as many eyes out as it takes.”

“Kakashi-sensei-” Naruto starts.

“The problem is that our village is hosting a lot of foreign shinobi right now, which means that we have to be discreet about this. If Konoha’s ability to run these exams smoothly is pulled into question, it’ll mean big trouble for us, understand?”

“Kakashi-sensei-”

Their sensei then goes to sit on one knee before them, grabbing a shoulder on each of them. “It might not look like we’re doing everything we can, but we are. So I just nee-”

“Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto yells.

Kakashi-sensei winces, his eye closes as he releases one hand to rub at his temple. “What is it, Naruto?” he asks.

“We know how to find Sasuke!” Naruto says.

Kakashi-sensei’s eye then opens in an incredulous frown.

“We have this thing-” Naruto starts to explain, as he attempts to grab for the part that’s sticking out of his backpack. He misses though, and tries to look over his shoulder to get a better view. “It nearly took out Sasuke when we were in the forest, and the demon apparently told him it was a ‘tracking device’. So we decided to keep it!” Naruto can’t quite seem to reach for the thing while it sits on his back, so instead he slings the backpack off his shoulder.

But when Naruto reaches for the clasp, Kakashi-sensei stops him, resting his own hand on top of Naruto’s. “How does it work?” he asks.

“Uhh-…”

They never actually bothered to find out, did they?

“Never mind,” Kakashi-sensei says. “I’ll come by later and then you can show me what it is, and what it’s supposed to do. I should inform Hokage-sama about this.” He releases a tense sigh as he turns pensive all of a sudden. “We don’t have a trail, but we’ll have something. Now we just need to find-”

Sakura swallows. “What are you going to do when you find them?”

Kakashi looks at her with some surprise, then remorse. “We’ll find a seal-master that’s capable of much more powerful seals than I am. If we’re going to try our hand at another suppression seal, then rest assured that we’ll make the next one count.”

Another- suppression seal…?

“If not, well, the Toad Sage will likely know a better approach. He’s the one who trained the fourth Hokage after all.”

‘Another’ suppression seal-! Things suddenly seem to fall right into place. Sakura steps back a little. “So you did try to trap him?”

“Sakura-chan…” Naruto says surprisingly softly. Kakashi-sensei just looks astonished.

“I knew there had to be a reason why he ran away, Phantom-san wouldn’t just do something like that!”

Kakashi’s face darkens considerably. “Sakura, I don’t think you realize how dangerous Phantom is. How dangerous he is to Sasuke.”

Sakura feels a pang of guilt at that. She’ll never let Phantom just take Sasuke-kun away from her. And she’ll never allow him to take over Sasuke-kun’s life. But Kakashi-sensei doesn’t understand. “Have you even talked to him…?” she asks defiantly.

“More than I’d care to,” Kakashi-sensei retorts without skipping a beat. He stands up. “Take a look around, Sakura. The evidence of his destruction sits all around us, the cracks in the ceiling, the ice he used on Pakkun-” He gestures behind him, where sure enough Sakura can make out a strange formation of ice. It’s chipped to pieces at the end. “He could have caused the whole building to come down on our heads! Do you not realize how narrowly we avoided a complete disaster today?”

He’s angry. Sakura has never had Kakashi-sensei be angry with her before.

“If we are to give Sasuke any chance at returning to us we cannot disregard what danger Phantom poses!”

Sakura clutches her hands to her chest. She looks at the scene around them, at the concrete dust that still settles from some of the cracks, at the ice. She looks at Pakkun wordlessly staring back at her from his little bundle of blankets. She doesn’t want to agree with Kakashi-sensei. But she knows she has to. She inhales deeply. “I understand,” she says.

Kakashi-sensei’s anger immediately seems to melt like snow in the sun. “Good,” he says quietly. Then he sighs.

For a moment they all stand silently in place, recovering from the sudden tension in the room.

“You two should probably get back to your room,” Kakashi-sensei says. “Akino can take you there. Right, Akino?” He turns back towards his dog.

“Yes boss!” the dog confirms.

“Hokage-sama and I will be preparing our approach towards Phantom, I will be back later for the… ‘tracking device’.”

“Ok…” says Naruto. Sakura nods quietly.

Akino gets up and starts leading the way towards the stairs. “Let’s get a move on, pups,” he says.

Obediently, they follow.

They’ve only just begun to climb the stairs again, when Sakura can faintly hear Pakkun in the distance. “It isn’t always easy, raising pups.”

It bothers her a little.

And it starts bothering her more as they traverse the hallways back to their rooms.

For one thing, as genin they are technically fully fledged shinobi, and therefore considered adults. But that’s not the part that bothers her- she can admit that they’re still young.

No, the part that bothers her- is the implication that this was a lesson of some kind. Maybe it was, with the way she had needed the danger pointed out to her, but… 

She thinks the destruction over again.

Phantom-san is dangerous. This seems like an obvious fact now. They could have died.

Somehow that last thought seems a lot less obvious to her. The evidence had been right there, some cracks even sit in the very walls they’re walking past. But the thought of Phantom-san truly hurting them still seems so… alien somehow.

She thinks about the wound on the spine of the Sound-girl. She’d been hurt.

But then she thinks about how upset Phantom had been when she’d told him about the dangers of their exam. It had been so unexpected. To Sakura these risks had been a given. They’re shinobi, it’s what they are. But Phantom-san’s reaction had seemed so earnest. Could it really have been an act?

She thinks about how reluctant Phantom-san had been to imprison himself in that seal again, but then done it anyway.

Surely if Phantom-san’s concern had been faked he wouldn’t have done that.

She thinks about how Phantom-san had pulled them away from the Sound-nin. She suddenly remembers how he’d looked at her then, how he’d waited to return to that fight until he’d confirmed with Sakura that running wouldn’t stop them. As if running from them had been his first choice. He’d been reluctant to fight them.

And then afterwards-! Sasuke-kun had even said he’d been sulking all day! It had to be because of that fight. She thinks about the Sound-girl again.

And the longer Sakura thinks about her, the more certain she becomes. Phantom-san wouldn’t have wanted to hurt her, not really. He must have been cornered, or it must have been the only way to stop them from coming after her team again.

On some level Sakura knows this doesn’t change anything with regards to Phantom-san’s danger. Yet to her… it changes everything.

She comes to a decision.

She waits a couple more twists and turns, until she feels like she recognizes the part of the building they’re in once more.

“Thank you Akino, I think we’ve got it from here. We’re in the Konoha-only section right now anyway.” She purposefully keeps her voice a little quieter, a little more unassuming.

“We are…?” Naruto says, confused.

The dog turns its bespectacled face towards her, seemingly assessing her for something. Then he nods. “Alright, pup. Glad you’re doing a little better. Take care, yeah?”

He sends them one more curt nod goodbye, and then the dog is off. Sakura and Naruto continue on their way.

“How did you know this was the Konoha-only section?” Naruto asks.

“Hm-? Oh, there were signs,” she lies.

They turn a corner.

Sakura promptly shoves Naruto at a wall. “Wha-?” he exclaims.

“Shh! I thought I heard something!” she hisses at him.

“I thought this was the Konoha-only section!” Naruto proclaims loudly, but nevertheless allows his front to be pushed against the wall. Sakura takes a firm hold of The Thing and yanks.

“Sakura-chan-?” Naruto questions as she rips herself and the Thing away from him. She fumbles with it for a moment. Surely it can’t be that difficult to figure this thing out?

Naruto turns towards her, and a sudden betrayed look dawns on his face. His grim expression then looks her dead in the eye. “You don’t know how it works anyway,” he says.

Sakura turns back to the Thing in her hands. She can’t find any buttons. How-? “It can’t be that difficult!” she argues. Naruto then reaches out for it. “Don’t-!” she cries, holding it out of his reach as she pulls back.

“Just give it back!” Naruto yells as he advances. “Kakashi-sensei is going to need it later!!” He then jumps and grabs it, almost yanking it out of her hands before she can adjust her grip and yank back.

“Kakashi-sensei doesn’t know anything!” she argues back, but she’s losing this tug-of-war. “Let go!” she demands as she kicks at him.

“Sakura-chan!” Naruto pulls so hard on it then that she almost loses her grip and-

She knees him in the groin.

“Hhhh-!” Naruto wheezes. Somehow, Sakura didn’t actually expect that to allow her to win the tug-of-war, so when she pulls with all her might she goes flying. The Thing goes flying too.

And the Thing keeps flying.

It bounces against a couple of walls in the world’s messiest U-turn, but then comes sailing straight over their heads.

For a moment they both watch in astonishment as the Thing flies all the way down the hallway, and with one more wall-bounce, turns a corner.

And then they’re running after it.

“We have to catch it!” Naruto shouts. Sakura sends him a sharp look. If he makes a move for it she’ll stop him, she’ll make sure of it.

Sure enough the Thing’s route does take them across a whole bunch of people, but contrary to their earlier worries, the Thing navigates around them just fine. Instead it’s Sakura and Naruto that are forced to make numerous acrobatic evasive maneuvers in order to even keep up with the Thing.

“Hold on, halt this instant-!” someone shouts as they tear on by. Sakura would respond, but she’s already a little out of breath. She’s more grateful to medical ninjutsu than ever now that her leg has been healed.

Unfortunately Sakura also forgot that Naruto has much more stamina than her, and so her teammate suddenly goes leaping by her- nearly grasping the Thing before-!

“NARUTOO!!” sounds the fearsome call from Iruka-sensei- as he appears out of nowhere from a nearby room. He manages to catch a fistful of Naruto’s jacket. Naruto’s impact against his own jacket is so hard apparently, that he chokes on the collar, and is sent into a coughing fit because of it.

“Thanks, Iruka-sensei~!” Sakura calls happily as she skips by them.

“Sakur-cough-‘an-!” Naruto calls behind her, a stunned Iruka-sensei still holding him captive.

The Thing then flies out the door, into the open air, and ascends and ascends until no shinobi could possibly jump up and reach it. Sakura can track it just fine though, and that’s just about everything she asked for.

Venturing out into the Forest of Death again by herself is more than a little daunting, but there’s no turning back now.

She’s going to talk to Phantom-san.

And she’s going to get Sasuke-kun back.

Chapter Text

Naruto struggles. He’s just about to beg Iruka-sensei to let go of him when he thinks of a better option.

“Hold on- Naruto-!” Iruka-sensei tries, but he is interrupted by the multiple ‘poof’s of Naruto’s clones appearing from thin air. One of them goes to tackle Iruka-sensei, but the man seems ready for it and swiftly elbows his clone in the stomach, poofing the thing immediately. Naruto tries to make a break for it, but both of Iruka-sensei’s hands lock around his shoulders before he can get anywhere. “Calm down, Naruto! Tell me what’s going on,” he says intently, yanking him back once more. Naruto’s other clone manages to slip out the door.

“I have to go after Sakura-chan! She used the Thing and now-” Why is he even bothering? If he doesn’t stop her then Kakashi-sensei won’t be able to find Sasuke! Naruto goes to sign for more clones but Iruka-sensei catches his forearms and stops him.

“Then let me go with you-! But what is the ‘thing’ and what is it doing right now? Why is it going into the forest?” Iruka-sensei says. Naruto’s heart soars at his sensei’s support, but- He eyes the door again, at least one of his clones is already out there.

“It’s going after the demon that’s possessing Sasuke!” he explains. Iruka-sensei’s frown promptly turns incredulous. “If we don’t stop it Sakura-chan w-!” A flush of memories enters his mind. Another clone bit the dust, and what it saw out there spells nothing but misfortune. 

His clone’s not-so-quiet pursuit seemingly caught the attention of other genin, who took an immediate interest in Sakura-chan, thinking her to be running off with a scroll. The only thing his clone could do to stop them was summon yet more clones.

Whether any of those clones still have an eye on Sakura-chan is unknown to him, but there sure appears to be one hell of a brawl going on out there. More memories rush back to him as yet more clones are popped. He swallows his cusswords. He won’t be able to hold the genin back like this! He directs his attention back to Iruka-sensei, determined to escape for real this time.

“She’s not that far yet, just let me-!” He fights Iruka-sensei’s hold in order to bring his hands together. Taken aback, Iruka-sensei actually fails to stop him from forming the hand-seal this time, allowing eight more Narutos to be summoned. The original Naruto huffs for air for a moment. He’d almost forgotten how much their fight earlier that day had taken out of him.

“Wait, Naruto-” Iruka-sensei starts, his confusion back in full force.

Naruto’s clones burst out the door, a couple of which get popped right on the doorstep. One of their last memories shakes him for a moment. He hates it when they use lightning-style like that. Evidently those other genin got back-up too.

“You said ‘demon’?”

Luckily, Naruto recovers quickly. “Yes! That’s why we have to hurry! Otherwise the Thing will be gone- and Sakura-chan will be on her own-!” He’s getting upset, he has to stop her! Why is his sensei still not letting go? He struggles further, but Iruka-sensei’s grip on Naruto’s arms suddenly feels like iron.

“No,” Iruka-sensei responds. Naruto’s heart sinks. “You’re staying here. I will pursue Sakura-chan. I will allow one of your clones to accompany me, but if a-… a demon is involved it’s far too dangerous for you to be there in person. Go find the exam proctor and inform him of what’s happening. Your clone can tell me more on the way.”

Naruto is about to protest, but then another of his clones outside pops. Unlike the others, this one actually got a view of Sakura-chan’s escape route. It’s not looking good. There’s no sign of Sakura-chan, and the Thing looks to be no more than a speck in the distance. 

He quickly considers his options once more. Iruka-sensei clearly isn’t about to just let him go, but… maybe he should agree if it means that Iruka-sensei can go now. He really doesn’t like this, but he nods anyway. Iruka-sensei may have told him to find the proctor- (the coughing man…?) but Naruto has other ideas about who he needs to warn. He goes to make one more clone to join his sensei.

The clone immediately calls for them to get going and starts towards the exit. Iruka-sensei gives Naruto one more solemn nod, and then he departs at last.

Naruto watches them go for only a moment, allowing himself to feel some relief. Help is on the way, but his work isn’t over.

He summons five more clones. He gets four, and that’s really pushing it. He’s really tired all of a sudden, but it’ll still be faster to search the building this way. They all run off in different directions.

Naruto quickly weaves his way through the hallways. He may not be the smartest among his team, but at least his spatial awareness has always been passable. He knows a thing or two about traversing this building now. He’s much more out of breath than he’d like to be, but he’s confident that he knows how to find the basement now.

More memories return to him as the battle in the forest finally ceases. It seems Iruka-sensei made short work of the situation and successfully redirected all genin involved. There’s many a complaint, but his clones only caught so much of it before ceasing to be.

Once in the basement, it appears that Kakashi-sensei has already left. With a curse Naruto races back up the stairs again, leaving the eerie scene behind. If not down there, where could his other sensei possibly have gone? He rushes through a number of other hallways. 

He only stops once he catches a seemingly familiar voice coming from behind a closed door. Could that be the proctor…? 

Instead, a woman speaks to him. “You again?” she asks with a frown. It’s the Konoha shinobi who’d been examining the cracks by the basement earlier. Naruto hurriedly explains that he needs to find his sensei again urgently, and thankfully she points him in the right direction.

It turns out the building has a small mailroom upstairs, featuring a number of caged hawks for urgent messaging needs. Kakashi-sensei stands by a desk writing something until he finds Naruto catching his breath in the doorway. There’s an immediate look of alarm on his sensei’s masked face.

“Where’s Sakura?” he asks.

“She took it-!” he huffs out of breath.

Kakashi-sensei clearly needs no further explanation. He promptly tips his inkwell over his writing in an apparently deliberate move to ruin whatever was there, shortly followed by him binning the scroll altogether.

“Which way?” he asks as he directs them both out of the room.

“Outside! Iruka-sensei is already following with one of my clones, but I couldn’t even see her anymore-” He still sounds much too breathy to his own ears. To hell with it, he decides, and dismisses the four clones that were elsewhere in the building. A smidge of chakra returns to him, and with it, some of his stamina.

Kakashi-sensei sets a swift pace towards an exit, but Naruto feels a little more equipped to keep up now.

“I saw what direction she went, but do you think we can still find her…?” he asks.

“No need to worry about that,” his sensei replies in clipped tones.

Naruto opts to keep his mouth shut after that.

It does not take them long to exit the building. Kakashi-sensei finally looks at him again. Naruto just points towards the direction he’d last seen Sakura-chan, and that seems to be everything that needed saying. Kakashi-sensei pauses only briefly to whip a small whistle out of his pocket, and blows on it through his mask. Naruto can’t hear a sound, but he remembers seeing the item during training. Of course! Even if they’ve lost Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei’s dogs can find her!

They take to the trees, staying just shy of surfacing above the canopy as they leap. They don’t stop to wait. Kakashi-sensei apparently trusts his dogs to find them regardless. 

His quiet attitude unsettles Naruto. The man’s outburst earlier already made the danger more than clear to him, but the reminder of it doesn’t become any easier. 

As to be expected, neither Sakura-chan nor the Thing can be seen anymore. But at least it’s not long before Akino and… a second dog (is this Bisuke-?) show up. They’re both instructed to trace Sakura-chan’s scent. Sure enough the dogs quickly confirm them to be on approximately the right path.

They indicate a couple of other scents heading in a similar direction too, one of which they quickly deduce to be Iruka-sensei’s, as it appears to be moving alongside another Naruto. All parties involved clearly have a significant head start over them.

Nevertheless, it’s surprising that it doesn’t take them longer to run into Iruka-sensei. Naruto only narrowly avoids colliding with his clone.

“Umino-san,” calls Kakashi-sensei.

Iruka-sensei frowns somewhat at the formality. “Kakashi-san,” he answers, measuring his leaps to synchronize with theirs. Naruto dismisses his last clone. “I apologize, tracking was never my strong suit.”

“Don’t worry about it. Am I correct to assume that Naruto has informed you of the situation?” Kakashi-sensei asks.

Iruka-sensei nods. “He has.”

“Then please inform Hokage-sama of our predicament. I’ll send Bisuke along with you. Whatever reinforcements Hokage-sama can spare should be able to locate us through him.”

Bisuke(!) barks his acknowledgement.

“Understood,” says Iruka-sensei. Still, Naruto’s former teacher seems reluctant to depart just yet. His eyes bore into Kakashi-sensei’s face, before he sends a not-so-subtle look back at Naruto.

It’s only then that Naruto recalls Iruka-sensei’s insistence that he stay behind. He worriedly looks towards Kakashi-sensei for whatever he might say next. Not that Naruto can make much of the man’s face from where he is. Whatever look the man levels at Iruka-sensei must say enough however, because Iruka backs off with a displeased frown.

“You better know what you’re doing, Kakashi-san,” he says. Then he veers off to their left.

Akino corrects their course somewhat. Kakashi-sensei picks up the pace once more.

Naruto has to work hard to keep up, but he is far from falling behind just yet.

That last interaction eats at him.

“Kakashi-sensei?” he asks eventually.

“What is it, Naruto?”

Naruto pauses. If he misread the situation, then he doesn’t want to give his sensei any ideas about sending him away. Unfortunately, subtlety has never been his strong suit, so Naruto has little choice but to be upfront about his question. “How come you’re letting me tag along?” he asks.

“If I’d asked you to stay behind, would you have?”

Oh. “No,” he says, initially thinking this a question that needs no further thought. But then he remembers how Iruka-sensei seemed to convince him before. He’d given Naruto a task however, and agreed to take a clone along. 

Naruto wonders whether Kakashi-sensei could have done the same thing. He doesn’t see how any more busy-work would have kept him behind however, not while his teammates are in danger. He stands by his answer.

Kakashi-sensei doesn’t even look back. He must have expected as much.

A silence falls over them once more, but Naruto continues on with newfound determination.

It seems it will take them a while longer to close the gap between themselves and Sakura-chan, given that she hasn’t reached her destination yet. 

He huffs in frustration. She better not have reached her destination yet.

-

Danny is angry. He might find it difficult to stop being angry if he were so inclined - but he isn’t, so that’s at least one problem squared away.

That only leaves him with the host of other problems that somehow still continue to plague him. Indulging in his anger has been distinctly less helpful in solving those.

He feels powerful still, just as he had all the other times he’d allowed himself to act under the curse’s influence. He’s perhaps more aware of his power now than he ever has been. For a moment there, back in that basement, it had felt like he could conquer anything. It had felt like his power could overcome anything. 

It had distracted him so easily. For a brief window of time it had truly seemed like his enemies’ lack of understanding was the only thing that went against him. Load of good that had done him… What was beating up Facemask-sensay supposed to even accomplish?

Not that Danny can quite bring himself to regret his actions. He was perhaps harsher than he’d like to be, but he’ll be damned if he sheds a tear for Facemask-sensay’s sake. Whatever shreds of shame he feels about this are unimportant.

What’s important is getting out of here.

He’s flown a considerable distance, but it’s become obvious rather quickly that flying wherever isn’t going to get him anywhere. He needs a portal- or short of that, at least a sign of any ghost anywhere whatsoever. A shiver runs over Saskay’s back. He’s still cold. It likely doesn’t help that he’s still missing a shirt.

Danny is aware that he’s essentially taken to kidnapping a twelve-year-old child, but it’s not like it ought to last long. The kid could very well be delivered back home within the span of a few hours! Plus, separating Saskay from his child-assassin-schooling for a little while hardly seems a bad trade-off.

Unfortunately, this excuse is starting to crumble more and more with every moment that passes. This isn’t going to be resolved within a few hours, is it?

Nothing out here seems to suggest the presence of either ghost or any other supernatural entity. Nothing even vaguely demonic, he considers bitterly. It’s just trees as far as the eye can see and whatever passes for this world’s equivalent of Mount Rushmore partially sticking out above the trees over there.

It’s probably the closest thing to a haunt he might find, he thinks sarcastically. It’s even making him into a vengeful spirit. He shudders again as a particularly icy breath escapes him. 

It’s not a ghost. By now Danny knows what his core feels like when it responds to nearby ecto-activity, and this isn’t it. Apparently he’s just having some difficulty keeping his cryokinesis in check, that’s all. He needs to get a grip. Stop being ridiculous- he tells himself. 

He allows himself to sink down through the canopy. He just needs to ground himself. Think, think! He’s not helpless. He already determined as much earlier- he refuses! He’s not going back to that! There has to be something.

Surely the exam grounds couldn’t be too far from civilization? He just needs to search beneath the trees until he finds a road and then… Saskay’s sandals touch down on the forest floor, lightly coating the mulch in frost. 

No. Useless.

What use would a town even be? What use is any of it?

A sudden burst of cold abruptly coats the entire scene in frost. Whatever grasses managed to survive in the shade wilt beneath the temperature. Saskay’s fingers feel mostly numb, but Danny can still clench his fists. Power surges towards them. 

With a bout of anger Danny wills the cold to spread as far as it can go. Whole swathes of the forest around him turn from green to white as ice crystals grow bigger and taller on every surface.

He’s not helpless. He’s not! 

He trembles. It’s not enough…

With a scream he sends the power in his hands flying at a nearby tree. Bark and ice alike spray onto the forest floor, the tree creaks dangerously under the impact against its massive trunk. It’s not enough!

Over and over, Danny pumps his power into his palms as he sends blast after blast flying at the tree, the ground, that stump -anything and everything that sticks out to him- as if enough sheer destruction can free him from this. As if all that’s required of him to escape is more power, just as it did before!

It does nothing. It surrounds him with nothing but debris, scorch marks and craters. 

Something akin to a sob escapes him. No…!

What is he even rejecting at this point? He gasps, tears sting in his eyes. He’s shivering uncontrollably.

He sinks to his haunches and cries.

The winter landscape around him only grows icier.

For some time it’s just him and his eerily quiet, frozen forest. 

He has no concept of how much time has passed when he finds himself hugging his knees in that same spot, his face buried in his limbs, his tears finally dried up- or frozen…

Then something is whishing through the air. Danny raises his head just in time to get whacked in the skull.

White explodes behind his eyes for a moment, all of his alarms are raised but he needs a second to reorient himself.

Who?

He frantically looks to find the Boomerang lying next to him in the frost. His head throbs, but the worst of the pain ebbs away.

Behind him the soft crunch of feet sounds. Within an instant Danny has flown himself to his feet, energy pooling in his hands once more as he faces the incoming threat.

It’s Sakura. She looks more than a little startled at what she found. Danny’s eyes dart to the forest and the trees behind her. Did they all come?

“Ph-Phantom-san…?” she calls hesitantly. Danny frowns, confused, did she come here on her own?

Going by the lost expression on her face, whatever plan she had in coming here seems to have somehow been mislaid on the way. Danny doesn’t know what to say, he’s still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“What do you want?” he asks dangerously. Feeling wary, he steps back a little.

Sakura’s expression turns… something- worried-? Mournful…? She certainly seems less cautious all of a sudden. “I’m sorry about Kakashi-sensei…” she says.

What?

Wait, he heard something up in the trees.

A sudden volley of shuriken rains down from above. He floats back a little. They can’t hurt him of course, but they’re an unwelcome harbinger of further company. His anger returns easily. A Naruto passes through him from behind with a shout, clearly having tried and failed to punch him in the kidney. Further movement in front of him catches his eye.

“Come on, Sakura-chan!” a different Naruto yells, trying to grab for Sakura’s arm. 

Is it only the kids? A cacophonous sound erupts from above. No, he’s here too.

Facemask-sensay drops down in front of them. Some blinding kind of ‘jutsu’ sits in his hand, sparking violently. Whatever it does, it’s loud- like the chirping of a thousand-strong flock of birds. Surely that can’t actually hurt him either, can it…?

“Let go of me Naruto!” Sakura shouts.

What do they want? What is happening?

“Just let me talk to him!” she continues.

“Sakura!” snaps Facemask-sensay. His headband is pulled up on his forehead once more, revealing the blood-red eye he otherwise keeps hidden. It makes the fury in his eyes all the more off-putting.

Danny promptly turns the ground underneath Facemask’s feet intangible, and only allows it to rematerialize once he’s fallen halfway in. The jutsu in his hand falls apart the moment his hands catch on the ground. He seems stunned.

A hint of satisfaction curls in Danny’s gut. Then Sakura shrieks, and it’s almost enough to make him regret it. The man isn’t hurt, the displaced ground isn’t actually capable of rematerializing until Facemask is removed. Still, the surrounding soil coming up to the man’s navel is more than enough to hold him in place.

A dog (another one?) then lunges at him from the bushes, which Danny also allows to phase through him.

“Akino, no!” Facemask-sensay shouts.

Danny was considering whether to trap this one too, but at his master’s command the dog stays put, growling at him from the sidelines.

How dare they. They chased him all the way out here? Kidnapping or not, he’s not about to let them trap him again. Power rises within him, a volatile wind erupts at his feet. It’s defensive instinct more than anything that has him summon his power again, but a much darker part of his mind urges him to fight again. They betrayed him, didn’t they?

They’re just kids though, and a largely immobilized man.

“Wait!” Facemask barks. It rings with a desperation that takes Danny off-guard. But it’s a trick, isn’t it? The plots and schemes developing behind those eyes are clear as day to him. The power gathered at his fingertips begs to meet this target.

“Phantom-san!” calls Sakura, still fighting her teammate’s grasp as he maintains his white-knuckled grip on her arm. Danny feels something cold close around his heart. He suddenly remembers her apology from not moments ago. Could she be the same? Could he have been just as blind to her deceit?

“What do you want?” he calls back, anguish laces his voice. Could they just be upfront with him for once? Some of the surrounding frost is caught in the whirlwind that surrounds them, covering each of them in a light layer of snow.

“I want to help!” she cries back. “I can’t- I can’t let you take Sasuke-kun! But this wasn’t right, I’m sorry I didn’t try harder to tell Kakashi-sensei about you!”

Danny’s eyes dart to the man stuck in the ground before him. Fearful eyes return his gaze.

“If I’d gotten him to listen then none of this would have happened!” 

Is she kidding? A mirthless smile threatens to pull his face into more of a sneer than anything.

“Just help me show him!” she begs.

His patience snaps. “You think it would be that easy?” he shouts back. The force in his voice rips yet more frost into the air. The kids and Facemask alike cringe against the onslaught of cold as it drives against them. “It would be nice, wouldn’t it? That all it would take is an explanation- that they just need to ‘get to know me’-! I sure believed that once! But what good that did me-!”

Each word fuels the blizzard that whips at their hair and clothes, but Sakura won’t let it dissuade her. Even Danny is given pause by the apparent determination that she suddenly embodies. With a harsh tug she actually succeeds at inching herself and her teammate further into his storm. “It worked on me didn’t it?!” she calls back.

“Did it?!” he interrupts before she can continue. A strange sense of panic grips him. A great part of him is desperate for the reassurance that she might be right, but his anger and his fear overpower it. “It doesn’t work like that- it never works like that! They never care!” A lump grows in his throat. “I fight and I bleed and I beg and it’s never enough- I never even hurt anybody! All they see is enemy, Enemy, Enemy, hunt, shoot, destroy-! Molecule by bloody molecule!” His voice catches on that last part. They’re a mantra he’s heard again and again, yet one he’s never allowed himself to unpack. He denies and he jokes, but as ingrained as those instincts are, he suddenly finds that well all but dried up. 

Sure enough, Sakura’s determination doesn’t quite seem to hold up against his words. Physically she stands her ground, but a doubt has emerged that Danny fully intends to resolve. “You don’t know what it’s like when it’s your parents, your government- hell, even my almost-girlfriend-! I risk my neck for them- yet all they do is shoot me! How many times did knowing me cause them to hesitate, you think? Would you care to guess?”

Sakura just looks at him, her eyes wide- even Orange and Facemask look similarly stunned beside her. “I-” she starts, barely audible. The words don’t seem to come to her however.

A renewed confidence on Danny’s part allows the whirlwind of snow and frost to calm somewhat- but now that he’s going, more words do definitely still come to Danny. “So tell me, Pink- What would you have me say?” He then puts on a more obnoxious, mocking voice. “‘I may be a ghost, but please have mercy?’ ‘I’m not evil, I swear- please disregard the child I am possessing!’” A cold humorless laugh escapes him, as he still shivers uncontrollably. 

It’s not long before he sobers up again. Whatever confidence was there turns out to be fleeting, as it quickly makes way for something raw and vulnerable- which he hates. He catches his breath. “What explanation could I possibly offer?” He asks bitterly.

He takes a step back, but otherwise refuses to yield much ground. He’s tempted to hug his arms to himself but he resists. The frost at his feet has since accumulated into larger spike-like shapes that break noisily beneath his feet. He determinedly keeps a glare fixed on the three shinobi in front of him.

He gets little reaction, their stunned expressions seemingly remain firmly in place. Only the dog still growls intermittently, covered in snow it’s sitting low between the rising ice-crystals like either predator or prey hiding in the grass. 

To Danny, it’s far from too late to start a fight yet.

“Well?” he challenges, when no one else seemingly dares to. 

But it remains quiet. The whirlwind is faltering at this point. What frost still hangs in the air slowly drifts down like ordinary snow. 

Pink is the first to break. “I don’t know,” she says. She just looks… upset.

Danny doesn’t know what to do with that. Perhaps it upsets him too. But he’s already upset, so what else is new?

“If I listen to you,” Facemask-sensay starts then, but before he can continue Danny can already feel the disgust rise up from his stomach. This fucking man-! “Would you consider staying? Could you be convinced to let us help you find a real solution?”

Lies, lies, lies-! Danny’s subconscious warns him. He wants to tear this man apart. His mind returns to the illusion that Facemask had forced upon him amidst their last battle. An image of blood and terrible violence appears before him, and he almost wishes it had been real. For the first time in his life Danny starts to see the appeal of ‘molecule by molecule’. Another icy gust washes over them. “Like you would-!” he counters. He steps back again, if only because he can’t stand to be within this man’s presence any more than he already is. “You won’t help. You don’t even give a crap about these kids! What responsible adult could even sign them up for an exam like this if not for your own personal benefit!” It strikes him then, what Facemask’s wordplay had reminded him of all along. “At least Vlad has the decency to look like a total asshole as he spins his lies and half-truths- but you think you’re cleverer, don’t you? Hiding behind your careless posturing- as if no person could think to look past that!”

“But can you afford not to try?” Facemask argues. “Your only other option includes the one man who put you here. Do you really wish to put yourself at the mercy of someone who would use you for his own designs?”

The Snake? Danny’s most contrarian instincts may prefer just that, no matter how much the guy may look like he could be Vlad’s undead cousin. Not to mention that between the Snake and the seal that Facemask attempted not an hour ago, Danny’s not so sure which one is preferable. Would the Snake’s methods truly be worse than Facemask’s? 

“Please, Phantom-san,” Pink pleads. Orange finally seems to have let go of her. He stares at Danny with seemingly every bit as much devastation as Pink is. “Kakashi-sensei isn’t like that. Give us a chance to show you we can do better.”

And there’s that tug at his heart again- that part of him that wants her to be right so desperately. 

Crap. Perhaps it’s just that he’s stubbornly holding onto his anger with mere exhausted determination- but it seems he really doesn’t need much pushing to stop considering the Snake an option.

She has to be wrong though. Facemask is so clearly not what she says he is! There’s no way that he can agree to this-!

He wishes he could stop shivering.

“If anything,” Facemask begins again. “You’ll be able to rest easy knowing there’s no use in us trying the same thing again.”

Danny bristles. As if-! As if that could really console him! But doesn’t he still have a point in some way? Danny did very much break his way out of their trappings already. But that hardly even matters, doesn’t it? He finally brings his arms up to hug himself after all. 

If his fingers were numb before, it does not compare at all to just how little sensation he has in them now. His eyes catch on the vapor of his slightly unhinged breathing. And- 

Sudden alarm has him looking at Saskay’s toes. Exposed to the frost, they look almost grey. All over his sandals and his clothes still sticks a layer of frost, there’s even spots on his skin where it hardly melts.

No- no, no-

He stumbles back yet more, a large branch cracks beneath his foot.

Facemask-sensay seems to catch on that something is changing, and hurriedly brings his hands together to sign for some kind of jutsu. The ground beneath him promptly pushes him out, putting him into a squatting position. The man doesn’t dare approach any further however.

Danny’s mind is too busy reeling to acknowledge the threat.

He’s killing Saskay, isn’t he? He’s slowly been draining the heat from the child’s body the longer Danny’s turmoil lasted.

He needs to stop, immediately, but how? He can’t go back in the seal! And Saskay- Shit!

“I- I think Saskay needs a hospital…” he says with Saskay’s trembling voice.

His eyes shoot back to Facemask-sensay as the man shifts, fearful of whatever move he makes next- but the man just seems surprised. A good amount of soil falls from his legs.

A plea for help sits at the tip of Danny’s tongue, but he can’t utter it. He’d have to let them take Saskay- He’d have to let them take him-! Again! He can’t- He can’t do that, he- 

But Saskay needs him to. Is he really given no other choice?

“Where is it- Where’s the hospital?” he asks half-heartedly. They won’t tell him, they won’t let him- He’s going to have to put himself in their hands again!

“We can take care of him,” Facemask-sensay promises hastily, with so much hope. Danny feels like he’s unraveling, but he looks the man in the eye. For once Danny believes him. For everything that this man is- surely they will take care of Saskay. His stomach turns, knowing that he has to put his trust in this man again.

He inhales deeply through a violent shiver.

Any thought of objections Danny forcefully pushes from his mind. He has to let go- He has to-!  For Saskay’s sake-

And so somehow, despite all his inner turmoil, Danny forces himself to resign. Through his shivers, he nods. “Please just… don’t put me away again,” he begs, when in the place of anger falls despair.

He doesn’t actually want to hear a response. 

Something desperate wells up in him. Knowing his determination might not last, Danny replaces the barrier before it can escape him.

His panic is immediate.

Saskay collapses, but Facemask-sensay lunges for him before he can hit the ground. Danny puts all his might into somehow containing himself within the seal, with nothing but an ongoing chain of expletives to hold him together. He doesn’t register the ongoing shivers that wrack Saskay’s body, nor does he hear the desperate cry from Sakura calling Saskay’s name.

He’ll be alright- he’ll be alright-! He’ll be alright!

Saskay is coming to, as he slowly blinks through the confusion, frown growing ever deeper as he’s manhandled somewhere by Facemask-sensay. A whole host of dogs Danny hadn’t even known to be there bark and approach from around the perimeter.

“Is he okay?” calls Naruto.

“He’ll be fine,” Facemask-sensay promises, before depositing Saskay onto the back of a seemingly colossal hound. The animal’s body-heat is overwhelming. Saskay struggles a little bit.

“What happened…?” he asks.

“Hold on tight, Sasuke. Do you think you can do that?” Facemask-sensay asks. Saskay frowns, clearly displeased. His numb fingers cause his grip to fumble, and his frown deepens.

“Why can’t I walk on my own?” he protests.

“Because you need to warm up,” comes the matter-of-fact reply.

Danny follows the whole interaction only tangentially. The physical presence of the dog beneath them helps somewhat. The heat, the texture- it’s all Danny has to help him ground himself. The animal takes up all of his focus as it starts to get a move on.

Thankfully, this brief moment of respite allows his worst fears to lose their edge, leaving only the horrible knot in the guts he does not currently have.

Saskay seemingly opts for a similar approach, as he closes his eyes and buries his face in the dog’s neck. Despite this, the frown on his face grows more severe by the moment. 

With some despair, Danny thinks that Saskay must be putting the pieces together himself now.

“What happened?” Saskay asks again, more insistently now.

“We’ll discuss it as soon as you’ve been treated, Sasuke.”

Asshole, Danny thinks, careful to keep the thought from where Saskay can hear. But then the thought of ‘treatment’ sends a horrible spike of guilt through him. Despite having suffered from hypothermia before, Danny fails to recall what all of its symptoms and effects included. He isn’t particularly eager to know either way, though.

What he could do is explain the recent events to Saskay himself.

He can’t even find the words for how much he does not want to do that. Even the thought of confronting Saskay with his presence is nauseating. But given everything… isn’t this the least of what Danny owes him? He gathers his courage for a moment.

Hi… Saskay, he starts hesitantly. The sound of his voice sounds off even to his own mind.

Saskay’s eyes fly open, his lip curls down. He tenses. Danny would curl in on himself more if he could. He just needs to produce the words- to recount what happened.

I… I didn’t take too well to the seal. I- uhm… How does he even begin to put this? In a way, he’d hardly even thought about Saskay or what he might have thought of this whole ordeal.  I imagine you probably hoped for a different outcome.

Against all odds, Saskay somehow finds the fortitude to curls his numb fingers into fists.

You could say I uh-… needed to make some opinions known… Is that really how he’s going to put it?

 … Things got cold. You’re headed for the hospital right now.

Saskay closes his eyes again and rests his forehead against the dog’s fur. He’s unhappy. Of course he’s unhappy. But he carries it remarkably quietly.

Danny hopes it explains enough for now. He doesn’t have it in him to elaborate further.

He’s tired, spent, wrung out. He can’t even summon the energy to make out his emotions right now.

All he knows is that he dreads what’s ahead. That perhaps an hour from now he’ll have a better idea of what to do.

Somehow, regardless of all his fears he wishes he could simply pass out. Then maybe he could simply doze off and wake up in a place where things make sense again. Not that he can afford that kind of luxury, given how vulnerable it would leave him. Rest seems unlikely for the time being regardless, not while Saskay insistently clings onto consciousness. The boy is clearly determined not to miss more than he already has.

Danny can’t not sympathize. The least he could probably do for Saskay is pay attention, to face the consequences of Danny’s actions alongside him.

The day is getting on in hours, but it’s clearly far from over yet.      

Chapter Text

Sakura isn’t sure how to feel about her course of action anymore.

On the one hand, she wasn’t wrong. On the other, they are bringing Sasuke-kun to the hospital right now. Because Phantom-san hurt him. She can’t keep her eyes off her teammate for long.

Sasuke-kun remains draped over the back of one of Kakashi-sensei’s dog-summons, but most of his form is now concealed by a thick wool blanket their sensei had pulled from a storage scroll earlier. Sakura had caught a brief glimpse then of Phantom-san’s tracking-thing, which had seemingly disappeared into the scroll in its stead. The scroll itself had then swiftly disappeared in one of her sensei’s pockets.

The remainder of the pack follows them closely as they maintain a steady pace, their feet kept to the ground to avoid needlessly jostling Sasuke-kun. It’s difficult to gauge her teammate’s well-being, as the boy seems to be keeping his forehead firmly pressed between the dog’s shoulder-blades. It almost seems like he’s actively tuning out the world, but Sakura suspects his ears remain piqued regardless. The unease won’t seem to leave her either after everything that happened.

Kakashi-sensei’s dour mood only adds to the tense atmosphere. There’s a hard edge to his expression that signals how seriously he continues to take this. Everything is seemingly getting resolved, but none of them seem to find much reassurance in this. Guilt eats at her. She still can’t put her finger on what exactly she regrets, but she finds that following Kakashi-sensei’s example and remaining on guard is probably the least she can do.

He’s going to be so mad at her for this later, isn’t he?

They’re getting close to the edge of the forest when other Konoha shinobi, led by another of her sensei’s summons, finally catch up to them. Their faces are obscured by simple animal-themed masks. ANBU operatives, Sakura recognizes.

Kakashi-sensei speaks with them in hushed tones. The situation is stable for now, he claims, but aside from some basic precautions he shares remarkably few details with them. The ANBU seem content not to say much of anything in return, but they do seem to eye Sasuke-kun somewhat cautiously. All of Sakura’s defensive instincts bristle, but she withholds her reaction. Naruto does put himself a little closer to Sasuke-kun however, eyeing the ANBU with a strange look of his own.

The guards don’t stick around for long. Three of the four scatter the moment they enter the village. Sakura doubts they’ve gone far, as they’re surely keeping an eye on her team from afar. Kakashi-sensei opts to dismiss most of his dog-summons too, which collectively disappear in a puff of smoke.

Only one of the ANBU stays with them – going by their figure, most likely a woman. She has long hair too, elegant purple locks that Sakura can’t help but take note of now that her own hair has been shorn short.

The ANBU woman guides them through the quieter and more deserted paths and alleys of the village, many of which are clearly for shinobi use only. The entrances and exits are hidden discreetly between the buildings, either by illusion or disguise. Evidently feeling self-conscious, the blanket over her teammate shifts further and further over his head as they go. 

The woman stays with them all the way to the hospital. Even here they enter through an unassuming side-door. A medic-nin comes to meet them the moment they do. One of the other ANBU must have gone ahead and tipped off the staff about their arrival. He guides them into the nearest chamber. Sasuke-kun is pulled on his feet again, and Bull the dog is dismissed.

The ANBU woman stays out in the hall. Naruto and Sakura both follow their teammate right in, reluctant to leave him. Kakashi-sensei doesn’t appear to mind, but Sasuke-kun seems less happy about their presence. Sakura supposes she might be uncomfortable too if her team got to be around for a medical examination. A curtain is drawn between them as a compromise, banishing Naruto and Sakura to the other side of the room but nevertheless still inside it. Their sensei on the other hand insists that Sasuke-kun not leave his sight. This measure meets no further complaint.

The diagnosis is… Well, it’s nothing too serious at least. 

What was likely ‘moderate’ hypothermia has since turned ‘mild’ and is well on its way to disappearing within the hour given that Sasuke-kun can hold down some warm fluids. 

What’ll last a while longer is the superficial frostbite that has damaged the skin on Sasuke-kun’s fingers and toes, as well as various other spots like on his shoulders and even cheeks. It will heal, but it’ll be sensitive and uncomfortable for a while yet.

There’s a host of other minor injuries too, like the bump on Sasuke-kun’s head. (Sakura cringes at that one, she’d seen the way the tracking thing had impacted with his head after all.) And muscle soreness that the medic attributes to a lightning-style technique. Kakashi-sensei confirms his use of one and apologizes for it. It paints a haunting picture of the encounter their sensei had had with Phantom-san back in that basement. 

There are also mysterious scratch-marks on Sasuke-kun’s right hand, almost as if someone had clawed at it. No explanation is offered on that one.

It’s a relief knowing that Sasuke-kun will be in better health again soon, but Sakura’s stomach nevertheless continues to twist itself into knots.

The medic then equips Sasuke-kun with the promised hot drink and a hot-water bottle, promising to come back in a couple of hours for a check-up before taking their leave. Behind the curtain Kakashi-sensei continues to discuss something with Sasuke-kun. 

Sakura can’t quite make out what they’re saying, so she opts to allow them their privacy. She turns to her other teammate instead, who appears to be glaring out the window. Sakura tries to figure out what Naruto might be looking at but can’t find anything of note.

“Sakura, a word?” sounds Kakashi-sensei’s voice all of a sudden. 

Sakura jumps in her seat. Her sensei has pulled the curtain back some. Sasuke-kun is still shivering, resolutely looking away from them.

Reluctantly, Sakura rises from her chair. Kakashi-sensei gestures towards the door. She exits the room.

Out in the hallway Kakashi-sensei turns to the ANBU woman. “Keep an eye on him for me?” he asks. The woman nods, entering the room noiselessly- leaving just the two of them in the hall. Sakura braces herself for the scolding of a lifetime.

Kakashi-sensei doesn’t seem quite yet ready to address her. He pinches his nose, clearly exasperated. It’s not long before he packs it all away though. When he looks at her, he surprisingly doesn’t even seem all that angry.

“I need you to tell me everything you know about ‘Phantom-san,’” he says. “As much as you recall, no details should be omitted. I need to know everything.”

Sakura blinks. She opens her mouth and then closes it again. Right, it would make sense for her sensei to prioritize this. 

It doesn’t feel right to go behind Phantom-san’s back like this. But then, hadn’t explaining this situation to their sensei not been her intention all along? Hasn’t she been waiting for him to ask her about this very subject? The knot in her stomach still grows a little tighter. 

She recalls how her sensei lied to Phantom-san again in their last encounter. “There’s no use in us trying the same thing again,” he’d said, despite the contrary statement he’d told Sakura shortly before that. “We’ll make the next one count.”

Shouldn’t her sensei understand by now that this will only cause further problems? If Sakura means to secure some kind of peace between them, then this is it. Yet she hesitates. Her sensei looks at her expectantly, but the words don’t come.

She’d been so sure before that Phantom-san’s story would convince him. But now she’s not even sure if she’s convinced herself.

“How about we start at the beginning?” Kakashi-sensei prompts patiently.

Sakura swallows. “Y-yes, sensei…” she produces softly.

And so, she starts from the beginning. She tries to include everything- from every use of Phantom-san’s abilities, to every line that she recalls out of his mouth. She tells him about their first conversation, and about the ‘map’ he initially asked her about. She tells him about the wounds that Phantom-san had treated for her, and about the bizarre exchange they had over those stitches. She tells him about the Sound-nin too and the way that Phantom-san helped them escape. She’d seen little of the ghost since then, but witnessing Sasuke’s side of their conversations had still clued her in on a thing or two.

Occasionally Kakashi-sensei interjects with a question. He asks for clarification after clarification. He asks about her stitches too and she shows him the couple that still sit in her arm. (Her leg had already been healed at the tower after all.) Even her personal opinion on Phantom-san’s character is apparently considered necessary to her account. 

She kind of wishes she could tell how her sensei is receiving any of this, but the man remains all but inscrutable, nor does he seem inclined to provide any commentary at any point.

It’s nerve-wracking. Worse yet, just when she thinks they’re winding to a close he ends up asking her to go over certain parts again. It’s exhausting. But she cooperates to the best of her ability.

“I’ll have to ask the other two to expand on this later…” Kakashi-sensei says finally, when their conversation seems to be winding to an end for the second time.

He’s not going to talk to them now? “Are you leaving…?” she asks, frowning slightly.

“I need to speak to Hokage-sama sooner rather than later,” he says. “Operative Cat will keep an eye on Sasuke while I’m gone.”

Sakura nods slowly. She fidgets with her hands, still a little distracted by her thoughts. If her sensei trusts this ‘Cat’ though, then she supposes she will too. 

She’s still waiting for that lecture. Worse yet, she almost craves it. If he chewed her out now then perhaps she could stop feeling like such a fool. “Sensei…” she starts, wringing her hands further. “About what I-”

“We’ll get to that,” he interrupts. Still, when she looks up she finds that his expression is gentle. “For now, why not keep your teammates company- Cat will make sure I’m informed the moment anything changes. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he reassures.

Sakura nods again. “Good luck,” she says for a lack of anything better to say. At that her sensei finally seems to find the opportunity to do one of his infuriating eye-smiles again. But without further ado, he turns around and makes his exit.

Sakura’s feelings remain in turmoil, but somehow- watching their sensei leave gives her at least one reassurance: Kakashi-sensei will have their backs no matter what happens.

With any luck she might not be in as much trouble as she thought she would be.

-

Sasuke watches his sensei exit the room with Sakura, and for a moment his heart races as he’s left on his own.

Naruto is still there, but it’s only when the ANBU guard steps inside that his adrenaline starts to fade. The guard stations herself by the door.

He hates this. Kakashi had told him mere minutes ago that his ANBU guards would stick around to keep an eye on him. There was no reason for him to be scared in the first place.

Not to mention that he hasn’t had an ANBU guard in years. He hasn’t felt this reassured by such a guard since-... It’s not a time he likes to remember. All he knows is that he hates how much he needs this.

It’s infuriating, but between the irrational bouts of fear, it seems he has little energy left to be angry about it. Instead, he focuses on the feel of the wool in his hands, and on the heat of the hot water bottle in his lap. His fingers have begun to sting painfully now that some sensation has begun to return to them.

He tries not to think about how much worse it could have been.

From the corner of his eye Sasuke can see a blob of orange entering his bubble. Naruto is strangely quiet in the face of all this. Sasuke sends him a wary look. He doesn’t exactly want Naruto to go, but he isn’t exactly in the mood to chat either.

In an uncharacteristic show of tact Naruto goes to sit in the furthest of the two chairs that stand by Sasuke’s bedside. He doesn’t even say anything. Sasuke would almost think him to be a different person entirely, but then Naruto has been surprising him a lot as of late.

Naturally, this pleasant change of pace could only ever last so long. Naruto fidgets with the zipper on his jacket as he stares Sasuke down thoughtfully.

“… How are you doing…?” Naruto asks quietly.

Sasuke will likely never be too tired to give Naruto the stink-eye. “Peachy,” he says, while continuing to shiver in his blanket. The shivers aren’t as violent now, but still distinctly there.

His answer apparently gets the message across, because Naruto shuts up properly. That thoughtful expression appears on his face again.

Sasuke does his best not to succumb to his own contemplation. His thoughts aren’t a pleasant place to be right now.

Unfortunately, there’s little else to keep him awake, and stay awake he shall. It’s a good thing that the thing sharing his body isn’t saying anything, but that doesn’t make Sasuke any less keenly aware of its presence.

He can’t believe that the thing is still there.

Well, in a way he can. It’s not like his life has ever let him catch a break before. He should have known that this curse wouldn’t be so easy to discard.

Fate having it out for him is preferable to the alternative at least. Because if it isn’t fate, then-

“So long as you will it to stop Phantom, it will. Do you understand?” Kakashi-sensei had said. “The seal draws its power from the strength of your will.” He can almost hear the words echo.

He wants to moan in frustration.

This was all his own damn fault, wasn’t it?

Sasuke had wanted the seal to stick. He’d wanted to be rid of the thing so badly that he would have given almost anything for it. And yet-!

And yet he’d doubted. He hadn’t had any reason to do so, but that clearly hadn’t stopped him from entertaining the most foolish train of thought in history. After all, it isn’t even human. What does one measly demon, or ghost, or whatever it is even matter? What could he possibly have been thinking when he considered- 

No. He’s not revisiting that topic. The thing doesn’t matter, and Sasuke should have learned that lesson long before the suppression seal even came into consideration.

He tries desperately to corral his thoughts onto a less contentious topic. But instead all he gets is further anxiety about all that ‘Phantom’ could have done to make things even worse- about all that ‘Phantom’ could still do. Sasuke still doesn’t have a clue how it managed to escape from both his sensei and- Would his ANBU guard even be enough?

No, don’t think about that either, he orders himself. There must be something better-

He slumps forward, raising his knees towards himself so that he can bury his face in them. His arms still hold fast onto the blanket. He tries to focus on the rough wool texture once more.

It feels scratchy against his still bare torso.

… Could his shirt still be back in that basement? His backpack must still be back at the tower too.

Then he realizes that all of this -the whole maybe demon thing- likely spells the end of the Chuunin Exams for them.

He moans in frustration after all.

Sasuke wallows in all his shortcomings again for a moment, until…

“Is he talking to you again?” asks Naruto.

“No,” answers Sasuke emphatically, raising his head only slightly to get his glower on.

It’s still just Naruto. Whatever Kakashi-sensei wanted to discuss with Sakura must be taking a long time.

Naruto looks uneasy, he’s shrinking away in his jacket once more. That sort-of-thoughtful frown is still there. “There’s… something I’ve been meaning to ask him,” he starts. Sasuke looks at him incredulously.

“Really?” Sasuke asks snidely. “You want to ask the demon a question? You’re on speaking terms now, are you?”

Naruto’s frown grows more severe, but he only sinks deeper into his jacket.

“Was meeting the thing everything you thought it would be?” Sasuke goes on, words dripping with poorly disguised hostility. “Were your suspicions validated? Or did it turn out that you didn’t know what the fuck you were dealing with as always?”

“Shut up,” says Naruto, his hands balling into fists atop his thighs.

“Maybe you should consider shutting up about things you know nothing about,” Sasuke argues.

“You bastard-!” Naruto replies. “Don’t think I won’t fight you just because we’re in the hospital!” 

Sasuke shuts up. He’s mostly said his piece anyway, and as punchable as his teammate’s face is, he’s really not feeling very tempted to start any fights right now.

Unfortunately, Naruto refuses to let it rest. “Why wouldn’t I know anything about demons, huh? You always call me Dead-last but why shouldn’t I get to know something, ya know?” 

“Well, it’s not like your ‘expertise’ did me any good, did it?”

Naruto doesn’t seem to have a response for that, but he nevertheless keeps a fierce glare leveled at Sasuke. Sasuke glares right back. Then Naruto’s gaze flicks to something on the other end of the room, which Sasuke follows to the ANBU guard with the cat-mask that still stands by the door. When Sasuke looks back to Naruto he finds that for whatever reason- the reminder of the guard caused Naruto to sit back into his chair, arms crossed resolutely, his glare now determinedly fixed away from Sasuke.

Fine, Sasuke thinks, leaning back against the hospital bed himself as he readjusts his blanket and hot water bottle. So what if Naruto is also starting to go all soft for the thing that’s regularly possessing Sasuke. Why should he care?

Sasuke swears he can almost sense ‘Phantom’s’ eyes judging him, but things ultimately remain quiet.

-

The Hokage is massaging his temples. Kakashi can relate. He still has a heap of dirt caught in his pants. Being a sensei had been troublesome enough even before Orochimaru had to start meddling.

He’s glad that at least his hearing has gone back to normal. Phantom’s horrid scream had done a number on him, but the medic had done a good job fixing him up again. Only his palms still itch from when he plunged them in that strange aura.

“Let me get this straight…” the old man begins. “Young Sasuke Uchiha had Orochimaru’s curse seal cast upon him. Somehow, this seal includes the presence of what may be a demon- but which calls itself a ghost.”

“Correct, Hokage-sama.”

They’re not in the biggest among Hokage-sama’s offices, but the room is still deep enough to put a solid ten feet between Kakashi -who is essentially standing in the middle of it- and the Hokage’s desk. The room isn’t particularly narrow, but given the lack of windows it still feels somewhat cramped. A heavy-duty privacy seal glows by the door behind him. 

From across the room Homura Itakado, one of Hokage-sama’s councilors who is similar to the Hokage in age, continues to appraise Kakashi critically. Next to him sits Danzo Shimura, another councilor and contemporary of Hokage-sama, but one who is decidedly much more infamous. Danzo’s expression is less readable. The bandages covering the man’s one eye likely don’t help with this endeavor. Kakashi has no doubt however that Danzo would remain just as inscrutable without them. He never found the infirmed look to suit the man much, but it appears he’s stuck to it for decades now.

A slight creak in the ceiling earlier revealed the presence of Hokage-sama’s ANBU guard. It’s an amateur mistake to signal their presence like that, but they must be reliable if they’ve been given a position in this room.

The Hokage goes on. “You and your team had an altercation with the… ‘creature’… and managed to appease it for the time being. It now resides in the secure wing of the hospital, dormant within Sasuke Uchiha once more.”

“Yes, Hokage-sama,” Kakashi confirms again.

A gruff sort of noise escapes the Hokage, his fingers still on his temples, ceasing their massaging. Kakashi can almost hear him thinking “I’m too old for this.”

“The good news is that we can play the situation to our advantage,” Kakashi reminds him. “’Phantom’ may dislike working with us, but our experience shows that he is capable of remarkable patience given the slightest odds that someone may assist him.”

“Or so your student had been convinced,” says Danzo. “Given her actions, you put an awful lot of stock in her testimony.”

“I do,” he responds. He knows full well that he’s falling for the bait right now- but it’s not just Sakura’s word that causes him to argue for cooperation. Phantom had seemingly cooperated just fine with Kakashi too up until shit hit the fan in that basement. But it’s not like they haven’t just gone over this already, and Sakura’s testimony is important. He can’t have what little information they do have be discredited like this. “Her recollection showed no signs of tampering. Her judgment of the situation may have been flawed, but I am reasonably confident in her retelling of these events. Should you feel it necessary them I’m sure Sakura would be amenable to having this confirmed by a Yamanaka.”

The Hokage folds his hands in front of him again. “I take it that your other student didn’t contradict her either?”

Kakashi hesitates for perhaps a moment too long. It’s not for whatever reason they must picture however. “I haven’t gotten the chance to repeat procedure with Naruto yet,” he says. Then he steels himself somewhat. He’d hoped to get to this later. “I felt it was unwise to separate both of them from Sasuke at once.”

Varying displays of shock appear among the men in front of him. “You can’t be serious-” starts Homura. “Both of your students remain in the presence of this demon-situation as we speak?”

Kakashi interjects before he can continue. “With all due respect, Homura-sama, there are a number of reasons why I felt this to be a beneficial course of action. The situation is volatile enough as is-”

The councilor begins to say something else but promptly gets cut off when the Hokage raises a hand. The look their leader sends at Kakashi then is difficult to parse, but Kakashi gets the distinct impression that he better explain quickly. He’ll have to choose his words carefully.

“Before I explain, I would like for us to remember Phantom’s history with us so far. Notably, there is reason to believe that Phantom possesses some fondness for my team. Allegedly he has been springing to the defense of my students right from his very first appearance- two other Konoha teams were present for this event and should be capable of corroborating this. However, I can provide my personal experience as well. Phantom reacted markedly different to the words of my students, in contrast to mine. I can’t reasonably say he held any warmth towards them at the time, but he’s invested in what they have to say and feels compelled to defend them from me.”

Danzo huffs disapprovingly. “Be that as it may, none if this discounts the fact that this ‘Phantom’ sent the Uchiha-boy to the hospital half-frozen. Regardless of its apparent ‘concern’ for the boy, this doesn’t preclude it from causing any further harm. This level of risk is unconscionable, Hokage-sama.”

Kakashi’s temper flares. The hypocrisy of this man to feign concern for a child! “It is out of my concern for my student that informed this very decision,” Kakashi barrels on, hoping that he can be permitted to finish. Danzo sends him a severe look, but Kakashi pretends not to see it. “The point I was leading up to is this; our current –comparatively peaceful- circumstances hinge on one crucial factor: Phantom’s willingness to stay put. Maintaining that must be our priority while we lack the means to address this problem otherwise. Isolating him however- isolating Sasuke… It would likely raise Phantom’s stress significantly. Phantom’s trust is already hanging by a thread. Any missteps we make now only serve to endanger Sasuke more.”

The Hokage sends him a grave look. Kakashi steadily holds his gaze.

“Assuming the creature can be reasoned with at all is ridiculous,” Danzo spits. “I say we lead the boy into one of the former Root halls, the seals there are equipped to handle a Tailed Beast. Nothing short of the founders themselves could break out of that place.”

The Hokage’s eyes remain fixed on Kakashi however- at least until the man’s hands come up to hide them. Tiredly, he drags his fingers down his face. “I see your point, Kakashi,” the man says at last. “However, are you truly comfortable with this approach?”

Kakashi remains outwardly stoic- but he quietly takes a deep breath. He’s not comfortable with this at all, really. But given what he’s learned and what’s at stake, he’s made up his mind. “I believe that the risk involved is manageable. Should circumstances change, then I believe that Naruto’s and Sakura’s safety can be secured before things get out of hand.”

Danzo’s severe look turns towards their Hokage then. “Hiruzen,” he says, a warning evident in his tone. The Hokage shakes his head for a moment but remains in apparent contemplation of the situation. 

“You’re certain of this ability it has…?” he asks after a moment, eyes fixed on Kakashi once more. “That it is capable of passing through anything, so to speak?”

“Yes, Hokage-sama.”

The Hokage sighs quietly, seemingly resigned to whatever conclusion he is coming to. They stew in silence just long enough for Kakashi to feel like he might be driven up the wall. And then- 

“Kakashi is right,” the Hokage says. “We cannot afford to gamble on any sealing methods while they remain unreliable. If appeasement has proven successful so far, then we shall continue with it until a more suitable remedy becomes available to us.” 

Kakashi inwardly sighs with relief. He’s not sure he could have been a part of any ill-fated alternative- not where his student is concerned. 

“Fortunately,” the Hokage continues. “It appears we’ve been given the perfect cover to address our issue.” His lips curl into a small smile and crow’s feet crinkle around his eyes.

Kakashi needs perhaps a second longer than usual to catch onto what the Hokage is talking about. Ah. He’d considered something similar. “We take advantage of Phantom’s ignorance,” he surmises.

The Hokage nods. “We maintain our intention to help him, while furthering our understanding of ‘Phantom’s’ abilities and limits. We will still seek to separate ‘Phantom’ from the child of course, but if this being serves as the vanguard for Orochimaru’s new designs, then we must make the most of this opportunity. We cannot afford to be caught unequipped for what may follow.” Hokage-sama pauses, considering for a moment. “We’ll iron out the details once Jiraiya is located. Then we’ll have a full council-meeting to confirm our course of action, but I don’t imagine that our approach will change much.”

Kakashi nods too. Good, he’d loath to be pulled into any extended arguments about this.

Homura speaks up then. “That leaves the matter of the girl.”

Kakashi suddenly feels himself withering away again.

“To disregard her superior like that, her actions are the definition of insubordination!”

Technically, she’d done worse by also attacking Naruto, but Kakashi isn’t about to volunteer this.

Kakashi suddenly finds himself grateful for the fact that he hadn’t had the privilege to deal with Homura much in recent years. Between the men sitting before him, he supposes he had forgotten just how closely the man’s instincts could align with those of their more… problematic councilor. His eyes slide over to Danzo, who nods in agreement. “She’s twelve,” Kakashi interjects, because he just can’t help himself.

“She’s a shinobi,” returns Homura. “We were in the throes of war at her age, forgiving insubordination would be ludicrous! We cannot accept this behavior!”

As was I, thinks Kakashi, but he’d sooner let Phantom bury him entirely before he’d see Sakura turn into the husk of a child that Kakashi himself had been. The itch in his hands worsens.

This is going to be a long meeting still, isn’t it?

-

It’s getting late by the time that Kakashi exits that room.

Unfortunately, given his responsibilities as a jounin-sensei, he’s still stuck filling out the many pages of paperwork that come with events such as the ones that took place today. Not to mention the many ways in which they’d broken protocol that he needs to either explain or excuse somehow. 

This is why he was supposed to keep rejecting academy students, he laments. But no, he’d had to give these scamps a pass and take them on as his, didn’t he? 

He hopes the kids are up for a sleepover at the hospital, he muses as he finally stacks all his paper together. Despite the mild nature of Sasuke’s injuries, they’re nowhere near ready to let him leave, not while he still suffers his current circumstances. Increased surveillance on the hospital would have to do for now.

There’s still plenty of hubbub around the administration building at this hour. A shinobi village never truly sleeps, but it doesn’t help that they’re still in the midst of hosting so many foreign shinobi as well. He catches a couple fragments of a conversation while he waits for his paperwork to be assigned the appropriate confidentiality level.

Apparent attempts to pass Phantom’s destructive scream off as benign don’t seem to be going well back at the tower.

It will likely pass, Kakashi thinks. Given that no one else got hurt it seems unlikely that the outrage will last. At most this whole thing will be remembered as a smirch on their reputation. So long as the Chuunin Exams otherwise continue uninterrupted they should be fine.

If it doesn’t, Kakashi can only hope that it will stay far enough away not to concern him for some time.

The clearance on his paperwork finally comes through, and Kakashi hastily takes this opportunity to get away.

He is not successful. Danzo Shimura stands by the door in the entrance hall, making quiet conversation with an ANBU operative that Kakashi does not recognize. They stop speaking the moment Danzo catches sight of him.

Kakashi does a silent prayer to let him pass without any trouble, but to his dismay the councilor dismisses the ANBU operative and goes to approach him. Kakashi is sorely tempted to power-walk out the door anyway. But knowing that Danzo will not take kindly to this, he slows his step instead. The man falls into step beside him, apparently allowing Kakashi to exit the building regardless, provided he allows the councilor to join him.

“You’re headed back for the hospital, I take it?” Danzo inquires almost casually.

“I am,” Kakashi replies curtly. 

“Excellent,” the man replies tonelessly, leading the way onto the next street.

For a solid minute, the walk remains quiet. They pass the occasional civilian, but it’s only when they turn onto a quieter street that Danzo finally speaks again.

“I’ve found that your choices with regards to the Uzumaki boy merit discussion,” he says.

Not this too, Kakashi laments. “Is that so?” he responds almost lightly.

“You knowingly brought the boy into a precarious situation,” Danzo says sharply, all pretenses abandoned.

A sneer threatens to cross Kakashi’s face. At this rate Orochimaru may as well show up next to lecture him on lab ethics. They both know that Naruto is nothing but an asset in the councilor’s eyes. “Would you have me order him to stay behind? Would you have me write him up for insubordination as well when he would inevitably come to defend his teammates?”

Danzo turns a disapproving eye to him, showing his own displeasure, but remaining notably calmer. “I realize you are averse to the concept of discipline, Kakashi. But abandoning it will see this village crumble. Don’t think I will stand by idly should you refuse to address this,” he says.

“With all due respect Danzo-sama,” Kakashi responds with all the restraint he can muster. “Discipline should be reserved for lessons that merit teaching.”

The councilor stops in his tracks then, eyes full of carefully dammed rage. Kakashi swears he can almost feel the man’s killing intent. Kakashi stops with him, meeting his gaze without blinking.

Danzo’s hateful expression soon hardens into something else, as if appraising Kakashi once more. “Learn to judge your students’ Will of Fire, Kakashi,” he says. “Unlike some, I think you’ll find that most are perfectly capable of withstanding this lesson.”

Unlike some, like your father. Goes unsaid but is implied heavily.

Kakashi’s blood boils. Danzo walks away, clearly finished with their conversation.

This is probably a good thing, or Kakashi would have been sorely tempted to commit treason right then and there by killing the man.

It takes a good while before Kakashi calms down enough to comfortably continue on his way. It wouldn’t do to face his students after all while he is still in such emotional upheaval.

At least the cool night air on his way back to the hospital helps him cool down somewhat. He flexes his hands on the way, willing the strange texture on his palms to heal already. There’s nothing for it unfortunately, there are other matters to focus on.

By the time that Kakashi reaches the hospital, things almost seem manageable to him. Unpleasant conversations aside, at least his students are here, they have an approach now. Odds are he might actually get a wink of sleep tonight.

He slips through the hospital’s side-entrance again, and it’s then that his hopes for a peaceful night are dashed. 

A commotion sounds from Sasuke’s hospital room, and worse yet- the temperature suddenly drops.

Panic rises within him once more as Kakashi hurries to throw open the door.

What he finds is two foreign teenagers, one hunching by the bed by Sasuke’s- no, the curse is there- Phantom’s side, and the other thoroughly pinned to the floor by Operative Cat.

“Wait!” yells Sakura. By now, Kakashi knows better than to ignore her. “They’re Phantom’s friends!”

Oh, thinks Kakashi. Seems like he’ll be up all night after all.