Follow Me Down

[permetaform]

Follow Me Down

.o0o.

AN: Really mostly gen., pairing if you squint, strangeness ahoy. Many thanks to Nightmaric for the prompt.

.o0o.

Its a murky twilight, and even the busy streets seem muted and a little hollow. That's not rare these days though, to have Konoha feel like it's trembling in on itself.

Naruto catches Kakashi in an alleyway, catches his arms in a crucifix grapple hold, wrist at his windpipe, claws scratching at his jugular, at the mask at his jawline, and whispers into his ear, "They're coming." He was crooning, sing-song, "The sailors, they warn of red skies in morning, red skies, the red clouds, red eyes, they're coming, they're coming, I have to be stronger than clouds and make the eyes squish, squish."

The Jinchuuriki's claws stroke to the rhythm of his words, and Kakashi holds his breath. While the genin was really quite strange, usually not speaking much, speaking slowly if at all, eyes odd and very twitchy, he'd never been quite like this before during any of their D ranks. He wonders if the Hokage knows; he'll have to swing by and speak to Danzo later.

Once fingernails like blades aren't digging into his veins.

"Believe it, please, help, help me hide, run, things shake loose, words want to shake with the world, and froggy-san says to feel the wind but the earth is too noisy, ne?" The words are dreamy but sharpened with a sense of the feral.

"Froggy-san?" he asks carefully around the pressure against his throat.

"Can't say the name, can't say it, can't, they'll hear me."

"'They'?" There's many who keep an eye on the demon-container, and Kakashi wonders where they are. He wonders who else might be watching because someone's always; its why he wears a mask, reads a book, and tries to look tired even though he's not. (But its true that he's tired, Kakashi's mind whispers, he always is, and he hasn't stopped since Konoha was darkened with the Sandaime's death.)

"Them." The blond agrees solemnly. "You ask lots," the body somehow contorts so a whiskered face peers into his one eye, and it strains the hold, "but do you believe?"

"How can," Kakashi chokes around the wrist, "can I believe you?"

The boy huffs and there is a scream in there, suppressed.

"Ji-rai-ya." He hissed, very very quiet, mouthing the sounds into his hair. "Believe it."

There was no way the boy could know of the man; his name is not exactly banned but. Its discouraged. One does not speak lightly of missing-nin; and you're a missing-nin if you leave Konoha while not under orders.

"Ji—" The word is choked away.

"Nnnhu-uh! Not allowed! Can't! He's leaves on the wind, sand in the shoe, machine won't stop if he's not lifting gears on his back, he has to have sex." The boy concludes, firmly.

"...what?"

"The bouncy ladies hit him for it though, he says he doesn't understand why, but you're not supposed to make love to ghosts so they yell and chase him away from all the hot water," the hold loosens a little, the claws retract, the touches become softer. "Froggy-san is stupid, if he wants hot water he should just heat it up himself."

"I'll... have to tell him that." Kakashi is worried, because he thinks he's understanding the crazy sing-song a little and he doesn't like what he's putting together. There is no real way that Naruto could know so much about Jiraiya on his own (does he even have clearance to know of Tsunade's death?), so either he's met the man or someone told him. Or he is spirit-touched, a part of Kakashi's mind whispers, or simply completely mad. Except madness shouldn't make so much sense. The very fact that Naruto's trying to hide that he knows Jiraiya indicates there's something that needs hiding.

He thinks of his own masks, and wonders if Naruto's wearing one of his own. Perhaps he should just ask—

"No! Nonono, you can't, you can't tell him that!" And the crucifix hold's strung tight again," You can't tell! Wood listens, rocklistens, the roots of the tree are rotting and crawl like snakes and you don't know where they bite! You'll sleep!" Naruto is almost sobbing, "And I will be gone. They'll take me."

Idly Kakashi wishes that he trained a bit more, a genin shouldn't be able to choke this much air out of him, but it's so hard tocare these days. Or find anything that matters.

The blue of Minato-sensei's eyes set in the shape and the steel of Kushina's stare meets his own, and challenges him, "You were safe because you have two eyes, one half open and half closed and no one knows where it looks, and one all opened seeing above and beneath, and they fear you. You were safe because you were strong. But not if snakes bite."

Naruto's shaking enough for a little lee-way, and Kakashi twists quickly and grabs up the boy. But he changes his mind mid-hold and changes the grip into a firm, tight hug.

"Shh," he whispers into the blond hair. "Calm." He wonders what had happened to make the Jinchuuriki this way, if being raised by Danzo produced a mind this shattered or if it was simply a way for the boy to protect himself and to hide. (Or, his mind whispers, spirit-touched. He has the Nine Tails in him.)

"Naruto," he asks, very very quietly, "can you speak clearly?"

"Even sunlight has dust in it," came the reply.

Is it code, are they watched? Or does it mean that Naruto is truly sane and was pretending?

Or is it simply more babbling? Kakashi's hold loosens and the genin, even glowing with orange, flits away like a will-o-th'-wisp.

.o0o.

"You shouldn't ask that, Kakashi."

It is the second time the Copy Nin has gotten that response. He knows better than to ask around to get a third, because that makes it a pattern and patterns get observed.

.o0o.

"Heh, the boy's crazy Kakashi."

"Maa, is he now?" He'd stumbled onto the missing-nin during his solo A-rank. Not that he'd been really looking for the man, certainly.

"Mmm. Strange things come out of the kid's mouth, why are you bothering to read into it?" There was barely any expression in the Frog-Sage's eyes. His face, though, was full of frustration.

But for whom? Or for what?

"Now shoo, peeping waits for no man."

.o0o.

His penlight was wobbly, but it was enough to read by, and the list of Naruto's medications, tried, failed, used, discarded, were long.

The blond was still on two, both stabilizers, enough to drop an elephant.

.o0o.

Kakashi is loyal to Konoha, this everyone knows. Relentlessly loyal, to teammates, to shinobi, to their village, to their Hokage; but what no one knows is that the Copy Nin's mostly reflecting their loyalty back at them. A small part of him feels humbled by the loyalty he is shown, and tries, and tries to repay in kind. (This small part may, or may not be, an eyeball.)

No one can doubt that their Hokage was loyal to Konoha as well.

But Kakashi finds himself struggling with how to repay Danzo's loyalty, in kind.

.o0o.

"Come with us, said the fox to the hound."

Kakashi looks at the smile being offered to him and the wild, unsettling light in those blue eyes.

"The froggy leads and the fox chases to eat up his words; will the hound follow us down the rabbit hole?" Now the smile becomes uncertain, and the gaze becomes feverish and even more intense.

Kakashi's had enough conversations with Naruto by now to guess at what he's asking. He thinks to the very strange conversation he'd had with Jiraiya. He knows he was being tested but he didn't know tested for what, if he should believe the blond, or not; it's been a very frustrating few weeks and all his leads have given him more questions than answers.

Naruto could be wrong, he thinks. They might not meet up with Jiraiya. There's nothing to prove that the boy wasn't just insane. He'll be charged with helping Naruto turn missing-nin, most likely end up labeled a missing-nin.

"If I follow you—"

"You can, you can. Jiraiya is waiting, come with! He will raise you strong too! Trust me! Believe it!"

"I'm already strong." Those disconcerting eyes didn't leave his and didn't blink and he feels his eye water in sympathy. If this was an act, then it was flawless. If it wasn't an act, then it was just shy of frightening.

"You were genius, but then you talked to a rock, kept talking to the rock, and then became a rock instead of a shadow."

"I—"

"And Konoha did not wait for you to be more than you were. Come," the blond insisted. "It would change everything, patterns will tilt. Roots will shake, Tree will heal."

Kakashi has learned nothing that could prove Naruto's words. Not definitively, not with assurance.

He spins starlight for all Kakashi knows, impossibilities with grains of truth. Dreams within nightmares. But Naruto hints at the shadows Kakashi senses at the edges of his eyes, that it seems that only the Copy Nin would admit to. Hints at something larger that teases at the mind.

Looking at the wildness of Naruto's smile, Kakashi knows he has not been that wild since he'd learned to throw blades. And Kakashi knows he has not been more awake or alert or aware in years, perhaps a decade, perhaps even more. He has notquestioned, in far too long.

And something breaks apart in his chest. And Naruto's eyes spark, fanged, and turns to leave.

And he follows the changeling into the darkness.

.o0o.

end.

.o0o.

AN: Red pill or green pill? Or the better question, which one did Kakashi end up taking? ^_^