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–The most powerful souls are often sent to the darkest places.
 ~*~     “There’s no need to rush back into things,” Naruto said with a small smile, his chin resting on his interlaced hands. “C’mon, you’ve been fighting since you were a kid. Rest up a bit.”     Kakashi sighed softly, though outwardly he showed no sign of reacting to his new Hokage’s words. Dressed in his standard jonin gear, shoulders slouched and hands stuffed into his pockets, he was the definitive image of laziness that he had perfected years ago. Anyone watching would quickly make the assumption he was barely even awake, let alone paying any attention.     “I rested for a month,” he said smoothly, sliding his heavy gaze to the large windows situated behind the Hokage’s desk. When this office had been his, for the few years he could stand wearing the hat, he’d wasted many late hours gazing out those windows. Long after Shikamaru had gone home and the village was dark, sleeping soundly. The moon was his only companion then, silent and cold and comforting.     “Shinobi don’t often get time off,” Naruto huffed a small laugh, pulling a stack of papers towards him, pen at the ready. He waved his hand, dismissive, his tone distracted. “Enjoy it while you can, old man.”     Kakashi’s eye twitched.      “You must have something,” he said, sounding bored, flicking some invisible lint off his vest. “Even a D-rank…”     Naruto looked up again and frowned, his gaze sharpening. He slowly set the pen down and leaned back in his chair, hands folding behind his head as he stared hard at his former sensei. Kakashi met his gaze, giving nothing away, his face a perfect mask of indifference. As if he couldn't care less, as if he wasn’t itching to get out of his own skin.     As if he didn’t want to put this whole village far, far behind him.    “Hey.”     Kakashi raised a brow at the seriousness of Naruto’s face, his quiet tone. It never failed to surprise him, despite having watched the blond grow into the man he was now. Despite having a hand in his upbringing, even if just a small one.     “You can talk to me,” Naruto continued. “About anything. You know that, right?”     It was a nice thought. A genuine gesture. Kakashi knew better, though. His recent thoughts, these bitter feelings stirring in his chest, would probably shock the other. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t trust Naruto with any of it.     “I’m fine,” Kakashi shrugged. “Like you said, been fighting since I was a kid. Retiring is…more difficult than I expected.”     Naruto suddenly grinned and laughed. “Feelin’ restless, sensei?”     Kakashi offered him a smile back, hoping it didn’t come off as flat as it felt. “Something like that.”     Naruto shook his head fondly and dug through the piles on his desk, muttering under his breath until he apparently located the scroll he was looking for. “Ah,” he muttered, performing a hand sign to open it. Kakashi blinked curiously, taking a step forward.      “Gonna be up front with ya, this is probably a huge waste of time,” Naruto shrugged, pushing the scroll towards the elder. “Only reason it’s still on my desk is because no one wants it. Not even my fresh genin. As far as D-ranks go, this is the bottom of the barrel.”     Unable to fight his growing curiosity, Kakashi leaned forward and quickly read the contents of the scroll. He blinked and read it again. A third time. Finally, he looked up at Naruto who, the brat, was giving him a very fox-like grin.     “You’re kidding,” Kakashi deadpanned.     “Mm, ‘fraid not,” Naruto shrugged, tapping his index finger on the opened scroll. “Sounds like a classic ghost story, huh? Some demon haunting some cursed mountain or other, terrorizing the village. Honestly, I probably would’ve been all over this a genin–”     Kakashi snorted.     “--even if it was in the Land of Snow, but, well, here we are. It’s most likely just some locals with overactive imaginations, or punks pulling pranks,” Naruto shrugged again, scratching the side of his nose. “Though…it’s–whatever it is–has supposedly killed a few of the local men.”     Kakashi hummed, tracing his fingers along the inked words. “Murder is a bit much for just a prank. Do we know who it’s supposedly killed?”     “Ah, yeah,” Naruto leaned over the scroll. “Well, the village is pretty isolated, but even so it still has its class of citizens like anywhere else. Not a shinobi village, but it has its own, uh, elites I guess you could say. Ya know, the rich and powerful type. Anyway, a few of them went missing. Their bodies turned up later, completely frozen over. Like they had just walked out into the snow and stood there until they died.”     The elder tilted his head, silver strands of hair falling over his eyes. “Yet we aren’t being called to investigate murders.”     “Nope,” Naruto made a popping sound on the ‘p’. “Officially, the government there ruled all three deaths as suicides. The locals are a superstitious bunch, though, and are blaming this ghost demon thing. The families of the men are terrified. They think they’re next, but the snow nin won’t budge. So far, we’re the only nation that’s accepted the mission.”     Kakashi straightened his long frame and sighed audibly, rubbing the back of his neck. He played the reluctance heavily, hemming and hawing, ignoring the snicker from Konoha’s newest Hokage. Naruto might be right; it could be a huge waste of his time. But, time was his only companion these days. And lately it was a daunting thing, stretching out before him endlessly, holding only promises of loneliness and an empty life.      In just a few years, he’d be 40. If he were a citizen, he’d perhaps consider this his mid-life crisis. As a shinobi, he felt ancient. Tired. He’d lost so much to this village. It had taken everything and everyone from him. Most shinobi didn’t make it to 40 and he fully intended to be gone before that day hit. Whether that meant gone from this life or gone from this village, he wasn’t quite sure yet. Not so long ago, he would have never even entertained these thoughts. He had been loyal to Konoha to a fault, always playing by the rules, never hesitating to bleed and kill for the Leaf. He was a weapon and he had been okay with that.      He remembered all too clearly when he’d taught Team 7 that little lesson, after having nearly lost one of them. He’d let them think he was fine, that coming so close to burying a 12-year-old boy was just another day for him. That losing another Uchiha wouldn’t have shattered him beyond recognition. That it was okay for children to die for this village. He’d fed them those words and been proud at how his kids took them in stride.     Just thinking about it now made Kakashi sick.     “Don’t worry about it,” Naruto said, snapping him out of his thoughts. “Somethin’ else will come in. Check back in another few weeks–”     “I’ll take it.”     Naruto paused and blinked up at the man, mouth falling open. “S-sensei, seriously, just wait for something else to–”     “It will stretch my legs at least,” Kakashi snatched up the scroll before Naruto could take it away. “I do love a good ghost story.” ~*~     Kakashi packed carefully. The Land of Snow was a few weeks travel over land and sea, and the environment in Snow was obviously frigid and harsh. He sealed the cold weather gear into a scroll for later use, as well as plenty of provisions and dog treats for his huskies. He also made sure to pack thermal camping gear and fire starters. He’d rather not waste chakra on a fire jutsu if he could help it. Freezing temperatures can disrupt chakra flow just as it can blood flow. Unless born in the environment and raised as a Snow nin, most shinobi had a hard time keeping up their usual stamina in that kind of weather.      Essentials packed, sealed, and ready to go, Kakashi took one last look around his home. During his stint as Hokage, he’d moved into a proper house. Coming back to that sad little apartment had been too much for him. At the time, he’d thought living in a house–even a small one–would help it feel more like a home. For a while it did, but as all things dear to him that feeling had slowly faded into something painful. A house was nice, but the empty rooms and echoing walls pressed down on him like the confines of a coffin. Sometimes he felt like he couldn’t even breathe.      He’d be gone a long, long while and he was glad for it.     His eyes landed on the picture of Team 7 and held there, a rush of memories and emotions washing over him. He drifted on the tide for a while, allowing the torrent to carry him, taking the good with the bad as memories bombarded his mind. Eventually it led him where it always led him; to the end of it all, at the Valley. Yelling, screaming, the howl of the Rasengan and the sharp electric screech of the Chidori. His two boys flying at each other, one’s eyes full of determination and the other’s full of pain, of loss, of such overwhelming grief and hatred it took Kakashi’s breath away. He could still see the flash of light, blinding, feel the tremors of the earth below him from the force of impact. There’d been a ripple then, strange, a current in the air that had made Kakashi’s hair stand on end. The complete absence of sound then an abrupt roar rushing through his ears as reality settled back into itself.      When he and Sakura had stumbled their way to the site, they’d found Naruto lying unconscious amongst the rubble. His right arm was gone, but he was alive. But Sasuke…     They’d searched–everywhere–high, low, stretching their exhausted senses to detect even a flicker of that familiar chakra. Eventually, they had to accept the harsh truth that there was nothing to find. There was nothing left of the last Uchiha. Kakashi had never felt so empty–so broken– than he did that day. Despite the passing of years, that gaping wound had never really healed.      Without a second thought, he plucked the picture off the side table and placed it carefully in his pack. He usually didn’t bring anything sentimental on his missions, but…well. He might not be back this time around. ~*~     He didn’t look back when he passed through the gates, nor when the village was just a speck on the horizon. Kakashi kept his back to the Leaf and ran. ~*~     In the darkness, it stirred. A purple eye blinked open slowly. Moonlight fell on pale skin. Something in the air quickened, rippled. The earth trembled, the mountain groaned.      In the darkness, it stirred.

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The moon is a friend for the lonesome to walk to -Carl Sandburg
 ~*~     It was, by all accounts, the worst time to be traveling north.      The Land of Fire, aptly named, did not usually experience much of a winter. Cold days, perhaps some dusting of snowflakes, and mild wind gusts made up their winter months. The farther Kakashi traveled north, however, the more he realized what sort of survival test he was in for. Once he made it to the village, he could find an inn, but until then he’d most likely be camping once he got into Snow. The land was understandably barren for the most part; villages scattered along the coast with even fewer more inland. The one he was headed towards was one dug deep into the side of the stretch of mountains that cut the land in half, locally called the Spine. As such, the village was far inland and Kakashi would have a few days of traveling on foot to get there.     If the ship he was on could ever get there, that is.     The first leg of his journey had been largely uneventful, which suited Kakashi just fine. Once out of Fire Country, he’d had to decide whether to take the Fang route or the Iron route. The stretch of water between Iron and Snow was comparably small to that of Fang–a three-day boat ride at most-, but it also meant at least another two weeks of traveling by foot to get to Iron’s port town. Traveling to Fang’s coast town would be considerably shorter, but the travel time over the gulf would be a week or so.     In the end, Kakashi had figured it would all be a wash and chose what he’d assumed would be an easier route. He cut through Fang and, after just waiting it out for two days, managed to book passage on a ship to Snow. Sailing for someone like him was cumbersome, as he very much enjoyed his privacy. Traveling on foot through Iron, however, was not ideal this time of year. They were getting their own fair show of snow by now and Kakashi would rather avoid dealing with the white menace as long as possible.     After day four on the ship, Kakashi was beginning to think he’d made an error. Winter storms were just as bad, if not worse on sea. The wind alone felt like knives slicing through even his thickest clothing and the waves crashed against the ship with a fury that Kakashi almost thought god-like. He’d never been an overtly religious person–most shinobi aren’t save for some of the bigger clans–but when the ship went practically sideways before, reluctantly, righting itself, he managed to toss up a quick prayer to whoever would listen.     It would be just his luck to drown on a sinking ship instead of actually enjoying his supposed retirement. For the first time since he left, Kakashi was almost regretting taking this joke of a mission.     But…still. The information he’d managed to gather so far was, well…interesting, and he’d be lying if he said his interest wasn’t piqued. And he couldn’t help but wander, deep in the back of his mind, at the faint possibility of this being something more than just a ghost story.  Something he dared not even hope for.      “You a leaf shinobi?”     Kakashi blinked out of his thoughts and glanced over, squinting his eyes through the dark cabin. He, along with the other passengers, had been stowed away below deck while the crew battled the storm. He’d tried to convince the captain to let him stay on deck (easier to throw up over the side then down here), but the grizzled man had not heard a word of it and forced Kakashi down with the rest of them.     “Yeah,” he sighed, closing his eyes again when his head swam. He usually didn’t have trouble on boats, but this storm was testing his limits.     “Don’t Snow have their own ninja?” the man scoffed. “Seems an awful long way to travel for you.”     “I’m especially adept at dealing with curses,” Kakashi snarked back, his state of motion sickness wreaking havoc on his usual indifferent facade.      “Curses?” the man snorted, chugging a bottle of cheap sake. Kakashi grimaced. “What kind of half-wit hires a Leaf shinobi for–”     “You must be going to Spine,” came another voice, softer. Kakashi looked over his shoulder, spying an older woman tucked into the back, cocooned into several layers of blankets. She met Kakashi’s gaze steadily, conveying knowledge and experience well beyond his years.      “I am,” he said, bowing his head respectfully.      “Hm,” she grinned, “You poor fool. The Hokage only sent one? Spine will chew you up and spit you out.”     Kakashi turned to face the woman, cocking his head. For the moment, his motion sickness was all but forgotten as he regarded her curiously. “What do you know about Spine?”     “Everything,” she cackled. “It’s my home.” She shook her head with some exasperation. “I had no idea they’d actually found someone to take the mission. Our own nin wouldn’t give them the time of day.”     “They?” Kakashi raised a brow.     “The Sato family,” the woman huffed, giving him an impatient look. “The ones who commissioned it. They thought their status among the village would garner the attention of the Yukikage, but he’s too busy with the revolts to deal with a ghost story.”     Revolts? Kakashi had heard that there was civil unrest in Snow Country, but he had no idea it had come to violence. Suddenly the idea of ignoring three deaths of a supposedly prominent family made a little bit more sense. Pushing them off as suicides wad decidedly easier than sparing his valuable nin at such a precarious time.     “Makes sense,” Kakashi shrugged. “The Kage is a political figure. He can’t be seen sending soldiers to investigate something like a curse…the people would look at that as a waste of resources.”     “As well they should,” the woman hummed, settling deeper into her blankets. “Spine takes care of itself. We don’t need shinobi poking about…” She sent him a hard look and Kakashi chuckled softly.      “So I take it you don’t believe in this demon or other?”     “Oh, I didn’t say that,” she shrugged, offering a secretive smile. “It’s as I said. Spine takes care of itself.” ~*~     Her name was Keiko and Kakashi thanked whatever had sent her his way. She was full of knowledge on the place and seemed more than willing to share. She’d lived in Spine all her life, “know it backwards and forwards” she said. They’d named the village after the mountain it was carved from, and the mountains had always been a subject of superstition and fear.     “The mountain range has a sinister reputation,” she shrugged, her voice nothing but a whisper. By now the cabin was mostly quiet, the inhabitants asleep or passed out. The storm had abated as well, nothing but the occasional wind gust and medium swell to rock the ship. “Always has. Kills more people than anything else out there. It’s treacherous, is all. Steep, with sharp black rocks and ice. One false step and you’re gone. Parents tell their children stories about demons and monsters to keep them from trying to climb it. If the mountain didn’t kill you, the eternal snow did. We are so far inland that the snow never melts, so far under the mountain’s shadow the sun can’t hardly reach us. Why the Sato’s ancestors chose such a hellish place to build a village I’ll never understand.”     “So why do you stay?” Kakashi asked.     “Oh…” she sighed, waving her hand. “Because it’s home. Where else I would be?”      Huh , Kakashi thought. Where else indeed.      “So this curse…” he prompted, leaning in closer.     “Yes, yes,” she tsked. “I’m getting to that. Well, I suppose the Satos, being so proud, thought they could conquer the mountain. I guess for a while it seemed they did. They grew rich, powerful. And like all before them to gain so much, they grew corrupt. Kept Spine under their thumb, hoarding the resources for themselves.” She sighed. “Money doesn’t mean much in Spine. Where would we spend it? No, it’s wood, coal, furs, meats. That’s the true gold, shinobi. And the Satos keep most of it for themselves. The rest of us get the leftovers.”     “The Yukikage doesn’t help?”     “Bah!” she barked. “He’s just as bad if not worse. We haven't had a decent Shadow in decades. Well…” she chuckled darkly. “Not until recently, when Spine woke up. A true Shadow, he is, with all that word entails.”     Kakashi frowned under his mask and narrowed his eyes. “The mountain woke up?”     “Seems like,” Keiko shrugged, tightening the blankets around her. “As I said, the mountains had a reputation, but that’s all it was. I climbed up and down those peaks since I could walk. Nothing up there but a fall to your death if you’re clumsy enough. No…no it wasn’t until, oh…I’d say 7 years or so that something changed. During one of my last trips up there, before these old legs finally gave out on me, I felt it. A…shift in the air. Something so dark and cold it made the ice look warm.”     Kakashi shifted forward, unable to contain a bare hint of excitement. Perhaps this mission really had something to it after all.     “Perhaps you were just imagining things,” he said, his eyes betraying the smirk under his mask.      “I’d be inclined to agree with you,” she said with a laugh, “If I hadn’t died that day.”     Kakashi jerked back, eyes widening. “You–”     “Died,” Keiko nodded a-matter-of-factly. “Yep. I had gone up there alone, foolishly enough, to prove I still could. Well, my bad knee gave out, and I went straight down.” She smacked the wooden floor hard, the cracking sound loud and abrupt in the otherwise quiet cabin. “I damn near broke every bone in my body. I laid, broken near the base, my eyesight going dim. I knew it was death coming. Oh, I could feel that icy breath on my neck. Felt his presence. I took my last breath, shinobi. I’m sure of it. No one survives a fall from Spine. Those rocks have taken more souls than wars, seen more blood. Can’t say I was surprised. I knew it’d take me too one day, and it did. Spine gobbled up my soul like the old monsters from the stories.”     She grinned a toothless grin, her dark eyes brighter than the lightning through the porthole. “You see, the thing about souls is that they show who you really are. Can’t hide that from death. And I was no innocent. No human is, shinobi, but I was no Sato either. Spine ate me up, but I heard his whisper. A dark voice, clear as day in these old ears.”     Kakashi lowered his head. “And what did he say?”     Keiko leaned forward, grin never wavering from her face. “ I will consume all the hate in this world. ”     Kakashi’s lungs froze, cold fingers clutching his knees tightly.     Keiko leaned back with a sigh. “I don’t know how long he held onto me, but when I woke I was completely healed. Not a scratch on me. But I could still feel him, right here,” she patted her chest, “And I knew I’d never escape him. Spine had claimed me. He has my soul in his belly and when I die the true death, I’ll go to him. I believe he only spared me because I wasn’t the one he was after. Not much hate in these old bones.”     Kakashi huffed and sat back, relaxing his fingers. “An interesting story, grandma, but sounds like just an intense dream to me.” Except the miraculous healing. Kakashi couldn’t explain that, unless she had simply hit her head and imagined falling to her death.     “Ah, perhaps so,” Keiko shrugged, unconcerned. “I would have thought the same thing. I’ve never believed in curses or demons. Hearing his voice is one thing, easily explained away, yes? But seeing him, feeling his claws on my skin…I don’t think even I can make that up.”     Kakashi drummed his fingers on his knee. “You saw him, hm?”     Her eyes widened with her grin. “Oh yes, shinobi. I saw him. Death, Spine, the personification of darkness itself. He was there that day. He kneeled over my broken body, placed his hand on my cheek when he whispered his words to me.”     “So what did he look like?”     She tilted her head to the side and closed her eyes. Kakashi watched her body sag, relaxing as if suddenly asleep. He heard her deep breath, a soft exhale, and then she spoke. “Beautiful, pale skin. The darkest hair, raised up as if he carried lightning in his veins. Strange, black markings across his skin. And those eyes…so mesmerizing, like a cobra’s. Dangerous and deadly, but you can’t look away. One was black, blacker than blackest night. The other, amethyst, cold as the stone itself, with black rings that twist and spiral like an endless whirlpool. You stand no chance, Shinobi of the Leaf,” she grinned wickedly, snapping open her eyes to stare into his wide, shocked pupils. “Spine is awake and he will consume everything .” ~*~     Despite his careful packing and planning, Kakashi had not quite braced himself enough for the sharp temperatures of Snow Country. He was bundled up from head to toe, wrapped in furs and thick wool, and yet when he finally stepped off the ship and onto solid land he felt as if he was in nothing but his skin. Perhaps his days behind the desk had weakened his fortitude, or his age was finally getting to him. He distinctly remembered his last trip to Snow and couldn’t recall feeling this kind of chill that went straight to his bones.     It was almost enough to distract him from the turbulent thoughts currently raging inside him.      He wanted desperately to send word to Naruto right away, if for nothing more than to give voice to the insane theories bouncing around in his head. That’s all they were, though: theories. If Kakashi were honest with himself, they were more like wishful thinking. The description was uncanny, but no reason to start causing some sort of panic. He had to be patient, wait until he got to the village and investigated thoroughly–     “Still intending to go, eh?”     Kakashi blinked and turned, staring incredulously at Keiko. She was no more wrapped up than she had been on the ship and yet she stood against the icy wind without so much as a grimace. She was either so numb to this kind of cold she barely felt it (likely), or just insane (more likely).      And to think she was his leading source of information right now.     “It’s my mission,” he stated simply.     “Yes, yes, of course,” she chortled, shuffling past him. “Well, since I’m going that way as well, I suppose you’ll be wanting my company and expertise.”     “That really won’t be necessary–”     “Oh, shush,” she waved a wrinkled hand at him. “No need to be shy around me. I don’t mind at all. Can’t have you getting lost out there. That new Hokage won’t take too kindly to me letting you freeze to death.”     “Your faith in my abilities is heartwarming.”     Keiko cackled madly and stepped lively, ambling off into the crowd swarming the deck without a backward glance. Kakashi sighed and reluctantly followed, a summoned husky ninken at his side. Given the terrain and temperature, Kakashi only planned to use his huskies for this particular mission. Shiba, a silver husky with a tuft of fur on his head that reminded everyone of a mohawk, was one his best trackers. He had an excellent sense of direction and knew the Land of Snow well. Even if Keiko abandoned him, Shiba would get him to Spine with relative ease. Plus, his thick fur was a good source of warmth at night when he slept.     “Sure we can trust that one?” Shiba asked, tilting his head up at Kakashi.     “No,” Kakashi shrugged. “But she’s all we’ve got right now. Until she came along, I had just been chasing rumors. She’s the only one with the first real description of…whatever this is, and how it operates.”     “Hm,” Shiba grumbled, his paws padding against the ground as he trotted to keep up with the man. “Sounds like a crazy old lady to me. Her description doesn’t match what we’ve heard so far.”     “Exactly,” Kakashi nodded, keeping his eyes trained on the woman up ahead. “I want to follow that thread for a while. See where it takes us.”     “Whatever you say.” ~*~ 
    “It’s an omen.”
 
    “Nothing more than a story to attract tourists, if you ask me.”
 
    Kakashi looked between the two men and raised a brow. “What sort of sight-seer would want to hike up an icy mountain to visit a demon?”
 
    The man, middle-aged and bald, shrugged disinterestedly. “The stupid kind. Thrill seekers. Rich heirs with too much time on their hands.”
 
    “It’s an omen,” the other man repeated. This one was older, skin sagging with age and a head full of gray hair.  He stared down into his drink, taking no notice to the other patrons of the tavern.“We shouldn’t speak of it. It’s bad luck.” 
 
    “Everything is bad luck to you,” the younger snorted into his drink as he took a long swig. “I’m tellin’ ya, it’s nothin’ but a scam. Snow’s been in financial straits since their first Yukikage. They’d do anything to bring money into the country.”
 
    “I’ve heard tales from those who saw it,” the older said stubbornly. “It’s a monster. Feeds on people…feeds on their fear.”
 
    “What do they say?” Kakashi asked, pushing his sake aside. He hadn’t taken a single sip. “The ones who have seen it?”
 
    The younger male snorted and roughly stood, his chair screeching across the wooden floor. He walked unsteadily to the bar and pointedly took a seat at a stool, ignoring their presence completely.  
 
    “It killed members of a prominent family up there,” the man murmured, tapping on the side of his glass. “Lured them into the mountains. Bodies found frozen to the ground, eyes wide with terror. One of the family members who found the first body…he said he saw it. Staring down at them from the cliffs. A monster, a demon with horns and giant wings. Its eyes glowed a bloody red, he said. Looked at them like a predator would its prey. Hungry and evil…”
 
    “Anyone else see this?”
 
    The man hesitated then shook his head. “No…just him. Thing is…” he swallowed down the rest of his drink, setting down the glass with a shaky hand. “The man who saw it…turned up dead a week later. Just the same way.”
 ~*~     The night sky was beautiful.     A sheet of black velvet studded with glittering diamonds, splashes of iridescence and otherworldly lights that danced among the darkness. And the crown jewel of it all, the moon, hanging high, its shine a beacon among the desolate iceland.      Tucked against the warm, sleeping body of Shiba, Kakashi gazed up at it with a strange sort of longing he couldn’t explain. The moon’s cold glow was a comfort, warmer than the snow surrounding him yet possessing a chill that he felt deeper than the ice underneath him. It settled inside him like a deep lake, cool and fathomless, a welcoming reprieve from the incessant state of his life.      A fire burned a few feet away, casting flickering orange glows across the snow. Truthfully it offered very little warmth, but it was better than nothing. He’d been smart to seal away some firewood during his packing. Trees were not exactly common in this country.     “You seem at ease to be walking into death.”     Kakashi blinked lazily at Keiko. He shifted, folding his arms underneath his head and settling deeper into Shiba’s thick fur. “You seem pretty content knowing your soul belongs to a demon,” he retorted calmly.     She chuckled softly, unperturbed. “I can think of worse fates, but I don’t believe Spine is a demon at all.”     “Oh?” Kakashi tilted his head. “A god or something, then?”    She shrugged and nodded. “Or something.”     “You don’t care if it's killing people?”     She scoffed at him. “That family has had us shivering in our beds for decades. The ones he’s killed were the worst of them, but certainly not the last. They deserve to be knocked down a peg or two. Besides,” she smiled humorlessly, “what would caring even accomplish? He’s well beyond any of us. I felt his power. Feel it still. You will too. It’s dark and endless. No one has any hope against something like that. No, best to keep out of his way. Play nice, and perhaps he’ll be benevolent.”     “Interesting philosophy…” Kakashi said dryly.     “Don’t get self-righteous on me,” she snapped, glaring at him over the fire. “I know what you shinobi do for a living. Assassinating on nothing but orders, with no mind as to what kind of life you’re ending…paid to kill and maim. Shinobis have more blood on their hands than even the foulest of demons.”     Kakashi remained silent, glancing down at his gloved hands. He remembered the way his hand crushed Ren’s tiny chest, fragile bones snapping against his fingers. Haku’s face smiling as life faded from his young eyes. Sasuke’s crazed, wide eyes staring back at him as he prepared to kill his beloved student.     No matter how hard he scrubbed, even if he scraped his own skin off his knuckles, he’d never be able to wash the blood away. ~*~

Its blood crackled and sang in its veins. The darkness within and without echoed, echoed, echoed. The sky above swirled with a fierce storm, lightning crashing and thunder rolling. It stretched its hand, pale fingers tipped with black claws curling around the image of the moon shining amongst the chaos. It hungered, hungered , so insatiably. An ache at its core. Its mind drifted, stretched and stretched, grasping at its territory’s borders.      And faintly, so faintly, it felt something. An answering call to the fire and lightning running through its blood. Something that it stir and take notice. Something so familiar but just out of reach in its subconscious.      And it hungered.

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I often think the night is more alive than the day -Vincent van Gogh
  ~*~      Kakashi dreamed.     He dreamed of somewhere dark and deep, of icy walls and fire licking at his bare skin. A voice whispered at him, sultry and inhuman, in words he couldn’t understand. He could feel it, this voice, stroking his insides, deep in his core. He dreamed of black and purple eyes peering at him, through him, as if he were something to devour. Black wings wrapped around him, silky feathers brushing his skin, the silhouette of something caught between human and monster hovering over him. Kakashi felt a pull at his core, something searching and touching him deep inside. He dreamed of ice cold chains wrapped around him, covered in blood, screams in his head. Rin, Obito, Naruto, Sasuke–he dreamed of the moon bathing his skin, the light washing away the horror, the chains loosening and draping over him like a warm blanket. He felt himself begin to slip, sinking into the darkness, surrendering to the pull at his core, his soul, so tempting to just let go, to be consumed–     Kakashi woke with a start, his heartbeat erratic and his skin drenched in sweat despite the freezing temperature. He felt along his chest, his arms, checking for–something. He shivered violently and curled in on himself, an ache blossoming in his chest, one he recognized instantly. Complete and utter emptiness, a yearning so deep it could not be satisfied.      He panted, feeling like he’d run for hours, and stared down at his trembling hands. He could still feel it, a dark touch lingering inside him, pulling at him. He’d never felt so bare before, so raw and vulnerable. Laid out like a buffet to a ravenous beast. Even more alarming, he hadn’t been afraid at all, not in the dream and not now. No, he’d liked it, had wanted nothing more than to let the thing take him however and wherever it pleased. Even now, he wanted to go back to sleep and chase the feeling, let the dark tear him open–     Kakashi closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and another, forcing his mind to go blank. His dreams were often nothing more than painful memories that refused to rest, haunting him like ghosts but otherwise harmless. Never had he dreamt of something so real . Kakashi half expected to open his eyes to find the thing right in front of him, its claws outstretched.      “What was that?”     Kakashi snapped his head up to find Shiba fully alert, his fur and hackles raised, lips curled into a snarl. Kakashi blinked at the husky, trying to calm his heart.     “What do you mean?” he asked carefully.     “You started making strange noises in your sleep,” Shiba said, sharp eyes glancing around nervously. “I tried waking you up, but you didn’t even react to me. And then I felt…something.” Shiba shook his head, pawing at the ground nervously. “I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t human. Never felt an energy like that before. It was so dark…” He eyed Kakashi carefully. “Your dream, what was it? Do you remember?”     Kakashi waited for a breath then shook his head. “No…” he lied, “I don’t.” It took them both a minute to realize that the snow and ice around them had melted completely.  ~*~     Kakashi’s reception was mixed to say the least.     He was used to the occasional suspicious and generally cold stare. Not everyone was a fan of shinobis and given that some of the world’s greatest rogue ninjas had come from Leaf, it was safe to say some didn’t care for the village either. Still, the looks he got when he entered into the village of Spine were downright hostile and if it wasn’t for Keiko’s presence, he may have been dealing with more than just angry looks.     “They seem pleased to see me,” he said dryly, hands shoved into his pockets. Shiba huffed beside him, padding quietly and glaring at anyone who looked their way.     “They don’t trust shinobi,” Keiko tossed him a grin. “But mostly, they just don’t want you here.”     “Why is that?” Kakashi looked around, keeping his posture relaxed and casual. The village was both nothing like he expected and exactly what he’d been picturing. He’d imagined small, rundown ice shacks and frozen paths, a wasteland of snow and half-starved residents under the shadow of a monstrous mountain. Well, the mountains were certainly there, a jagged line of jutting sharp peaks covered in ice and black rocks. From the ground, it looked every bit the spine of some ancient colossal beast. No wonder it inspired legends and myths. The homes were older, but not decrepit and leaning. They looked sturdy enough, made of hard stone and thick wood. The residents looked hardened, rough, and though all a bit on the skinny side they stood tall and steady. All were wrapped in furs, some finer than others, and leathers from head to toe. Every chimney had smoke rising above it and the small street market seemed to be busy enough. It was by no means a bustling, prosperous place, but not a dying ghost town either. Simply a village living life as best it could in a frozen wasteland.      “It’s the Sato family who wants the demon gone, not the village,” Keiko shrugged as she trudged along, expertly navigating the icy paths. “Most here are more than happy to turn a blind eye to a few Sato deaths. Some see the demon as a blessing, a miracle…” She gave him a secretive smile. “I even know a few who have a hidden shrine to him  in their homes. ‘Course, the Sato family has forbidden the worship of gods for decades, but they never really enforced it until now. They send their lackeys to do random inspections now, searching for shrines to the demon. They’ve cut off paths up the mountain too, though I don’t know what they expect that will do.”     “Perhaps they just don’t want people wandering up there,” Kakashi suggested, avoiding a patch of black ice.     “They cut off the paths to prevent the villagers from seeking the demon,” Keiko barked a laugh. “They think we go up there to worship at his feet, drink his blood, and sell our souls.” She paused and chuckled, a glint in her eye. “Though, I guess a few have tried since I came back from my last climb and told my story. The people here are desperate, trapped with no help from the outside. Selling your soul to a dark god starts to sound like a good idea after a while.”     “Why don’t they just leave?”     Keiko stopped and stared at Kakashi, her old eyes suddenly sad and tired. “This is their home,” she murmured softly. “Why should they be forced to leave the only home they’ve ever known?”     Kakashi had no answer for that. He followed her silently, wondering if this village even had an inn to stay at, when he suddenly found himself in front of a door.     “Come inside,” Keiko beckoned. “I’ll get the fire going. Been gone a bit, so it will take some time to warm up. I’ll make you some dinner.”     Kakashi blinked and followed her inside hesitantly, Shiba at his heels. “That’s very generous, but–”     “The inn will charge an arm and a leg,” Keiko waved him off as she bustled about the small home, setting a few logs into the fireplace before striking a match.  “We don’t get a lot of travelers.”     “Can’t imagine why…” Kakashi mumbled as he took a seat by the fire,  holding out his hands to warm his numb fingers. Shiba settled beside him, leaning against his side to offer up some warmth.     Keiko laughed and poked at the wood to coax a bigger flame. “So, he does have a sense of humor.”     “Why are you helping me?” Kakashi asked suddenly, looking at Keiko curiously. “You seem to carry some affection for this creature. At the very least, you think he’s doing the village a favor. Why help the shinobi who is here to kill him?”     “Despite what you  might think, I’m not crazy,” Keiko winked at him and Kakashi flushed, because, well…he kinda had thought that. “But I know what I saw when I was on that mountain, and what’s been going on here isn’t just a few suicides. You won’t be able to kill him, but at the very least you might find out a thing or two. And maybe if you play nice, he won’t eat you.”     “That’s comforting.”     “Well, it should be,” Keiki chuckled, catching his sarcastic tone. “You’ll understand once you see him…feel that darkness. Our village is just the beginning. Ground zero. Once he’s done here, he’ll move on to the next.”     Kakashi hummed and rubbed at his knuckles, blowing on them. “He sit down and tell you all this over some tea?”     Keiko barked a laugh. “Oh, I like you!” She stood up and began to dig around in the small kitchen, producing a big pot. “It’s just a hunch. Something like won’t be satisfied by a village like this. He’ll want more; demons are greedy, always hungry.”     Kakashi turned his gaze back to the fire, the noise of Keiko cooking fading into the background. He absently rubbed at his chest, his heart fluttering. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he glanced back, feeling eyes on him. Keiko was humming to herself, busy chopping fish, paying no attention to the Leaf shinobi. The feeling of being watched didn’t dissipate and Kakashi tugged his cloak closer around him. He looked out the window and saw the jagged peaks of Spine, looming over the village like a giant specter.      “Shiba…” he murmured, the husky’s ears perking as he looked down at the dog at his feet. “I’m not so certain this is just a ghost story anymore.” ~*~ 
    “He’s not gone.”
 
    Kakashi sighed tiredly as he gazed down at his former student, gray eyes meeting determined blue. Naruto was sitting up in the bed, hands clenched into the fabric of his hospital gown. His body was bruised all over, his right arm gone, half of his body bandaged up. He was so depleted of chakra it should have killed him, but of course the kyuubi prevented that. The fox had done what he could to heal the most serious of injuries, but the war and fight with Sasuke had left even Kurama weak.
 
    “There was no sign of him anywhere,” Sakura said gently, his voice wavering only slightly. Kakashi wanted to reach out and hold her, tell her it would be okay. He kept still, quiet, watching the two and wishing with everything he had that things had turned out different for Team 7.
 
    “So we just find him again,” Naruto huffed, as if it could be so simple. Kakashi wanted to cry.
 
    “Naruto…” Sakura took a deep breath, her hands shaking. “Naruto, we have to accept the possibility that…that there’s n-nothing left to–”
 
    “No!” Naruto shouted, his eyes misty. “I was there, okay?! He’s too strong to be wiped out by that rasengan. I wasn’t trying to–it wasn’t–”
 
    “Naruto,” Kakashi murmured, reaching out to place a hand on Naruto’s arm. Even after everything, the boy felt so small. “We know you weren’t trying to…to kill him. We know that. We’re not saying you did. But the force of the two attacks…with so much intent behind them–”
 
    “I don’t care!” Naruto ripped his arm away, tears falling freely down his scarred face. “It makes no sense! I lose an arm and he just–just, what?! Turns to dust?! I don’t buy it! The attacks weren’t strong enough to kill either of us anyway.”
 
    Kakashi frowned. “Naruto, I know you think of him as your best friend, but his intentions were clear–”
 
    “He pulled off at the last second,” Naruto said, glaring up at his former teacher. “I felt it, okay? The last second, he–he just let off. He was never aiming to kill me. At least, not really.”
 
    “Maybe Kurama protected you from the impact,” Sakura suggested, biting her bottom lip. “Kakashi and I saw it, Naruto. It was…powerful. It put a crater in the valley.” She took a shaky breath and wiped at her eyes,  her hands coming away wet. “S-Sasuke was strong, but he was only human. There’s…there’s no way he–”
      “Shut up!” Naruto pounded a fist onto the bed. “It doesn’t end like this! Not after everything we’ve been through, not after everything we lost. I don’t care if you two have given up on him, I never will! I’ll get better and I’ll keep searching. I’ll bring him home. Sasuke…he deserves–deserves to b-be happy, it’s n-not fair, he didn’t–he l-lost everything, he can’t b-be–”  
    Kakashi wasn’t comfortable with physical affection, even with those he considered close. Touches were always brief. A hand on the shoulder or ruffling hair, a quick pat on the back. He hadn’t given or received a hug since his father died. But on that day, in that room, for just a moment he forgot all of that and pulled Naruto to his chest. He felt his shirt grow damp, felt the boy shaking as he sobbed, and allowed a few of his tears to fall.
 ~*~     No matter how determined Naruto was, nothing was ever found. Kakashi couldn’t recall the day he gave up, the exact moment he let that faint hope die, but he never let it show. After he took the hat, he allowed Naruto to select a team and carry out an official search for Sasuke Uchiha–alive or dead. In those early days, he’d really thought they’d find something. He sent his best tracking ninken with them, along with Kiba and Shino who could cover wide territory with his bugs. Shikamaru went too, and of course Sakura. Even if the blast had killed Sasuke, it should have left something . Remains, a scrap of clothing, anything. Kakashi had never heard of a chakra release vaporizing a body.     The first mission turned up nothing. The second, third, and fourth the same. They searched all through Fire Country, hitting every village and all of Orochimaru’s lairs. They questioned the snake himself and Team Taka. None had a clue where the Uchiha had disappeared to, what happened to him. They had been searching too and had also found nothing.     Naruto wasn’t deterred. He searched outside of Fire. Gaara even helped, dispatching a team of his own to aid the search. The boy had even confronted Lightning, questioning whether the Raikage had taken Sasuke prisoner for his transgressions at the kage summit. Lightning had been generous despite the accusations, perhaps because of Naruto’s role in the war, and allowed Leaf to search high and low through the land and their prisons.     Of course, Sasuke wasn’t there either.     After a few years, Kakashi finally had to put his foot down. Search parties were sent out less and less, until they eventually stopped all together. Naruto ranted and raved at first, but over time even these outbursts lost some of their steam. Kakashi watched the hope fade from Naruto’s eyes over time, watched him grow quiet, his smile dim. Even on his wedding day, after saying ‘I do’ to the Hyuuga princess, his smile hadn’t quite reached his eyes–eyes that had searched the crowd the entire time, as if Sasuke would suddenly appear.     The boy grew into a man. Started a family. For a time, Kakashi had thought Naruto had finally given up too. It was the day Naruto took the hat that he’d learned differently.     “He’s not dead, ya know,” Naruto had whispered to him that night, sitting his new desk, hat laying in his lap as he gazed out the big windows.     Kakashi had been on the couch, reading his book and enjoying his new freedom, and looked up at the other. “Hm?”     “Sasuke,” Naruto had whispered the name like a prayer, something precious. “I can still feel him. Through our bond…I’d know it if he was dead. When we fought, it’s like we could read each other’s thoughts…feel what the other was feeling. I felt him that day, felt all his pain. Thing is…that never went away.” Naruto looked back at Kakashi, smiling sadly. “I can still feel it, like he’s standing right here.”     Kakashi should have known better. Naruto has always been stronger, more resilient. Where Kakashi had failed, Naruto had shined. When everyone else had been ready to strike the Uchiha down, including Kakashi himself, Naruto stood alone in Sasuke’s defense. He hadn’t given up on Sasuke at 12 years old and he wouldn’t give up as a grown man. He would always search for him.     Kakashi wished had half his strength. Wished he still knew what hope felt like. He’d lost too many people , though, to hang onto something so fragile like hope. He’d lived with his failures with Rin and Obito, and countless other fellow shinobi. He’d live with this one too. He had failed Sasuke completely, hadn’t been enough to pull the boy from the abyss. He’d seen the signs and had chosen to ignore them, putting too much faith on the small shoulders of a traumatized boy. He had realized much too late that his inaction was one of his greatest mistakes.      He deserved to take the brunt of Sasuke’s death, feel the overwhelming pain of losing another Uchiha. The last one, the culmination of Itachi’s hope and sacrifice. Kakashi let himself drown in it, let the grief pull him under until it nearly suffocated him.      And now, here he was, far from the Leaf, gazing up at the crescent moon through the small window of Keiko’s living room and feeling the faint stirrings of hope. And this time, instead of pushing it away, Kakashi dared to reach out and grab it. ~*~     He was so close now. The one it wanted, the soul it could practically taste. The night was young, the moon a mere sliver in the dark sky, barely illuminating the black that had settled over the village. The creature reached out to the man, a beacon of light in the dark. It could see his soul, feel it. The creature hungered for it, wanted to wrap itself around it, keep it deep within itself, to possess it. This was a soul it knew, had met before. The creature whispered a name into the night, watching the man sleep, slipping easily into his dreams.  
    “Kakashi…”

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“Darkness approaches from outside. I feel no light inside of me strong enough to resist it.” –Christopher Pike
 
~*~
   
    “I know you.”
     Kakashi lay naked on the stone ground. All around him snow fell and swirled in the icy wind. He felt warm, hot, the stone and rocks underneath him damp. The snow and ice had melted a full foot around his body. The moon was above him, shining through the storm clouds, blood red.     Something was just beyond his peripheral. A shadow hovering beside him, a black mass rippling and pulsing. The thing’s power was immense, endless, dark. A voice was inside his head, surrounding him, echoing off the mountainside.      He was on the peaks of Spine. 
    “I know you.” 
     Kakahi shivered as if it touched him, skin prickling. He found he couldn’t move, not even a twitch, laid out bare and vulnerable. Somewhere inside his mind, he knew this was a dream and tried to wake from it. He tried to twist his body, screamed until his throat was hoarse, but the mountains around him were as solid as ever. He gave up, panting heavily, muscles tensed and strained from the effort.     The shadow just outside his vision finally took form in front of him; a beautiful creature of pale skin and dark hair, black horns and fingers tipped with claws, a lithe body with sharp muscle and black carvings–strange symbols– embedded into the skin. Shadows jutted out from his back, wings made of glossy black feather and flame. And mismatched eyes, one black and one purple, boring into Kakashi with a dark look he couldn’t even begin to decipher.     “Sasuke,” Kakashi croaked, renewing his efforts to break free of whatever was holding him down.     The creature–Sasuke–tilted his head as he came closer, straddling the man’s waist with fluid movements and leaning down closer. Kakashi jerked at the sudden, intimate, closeness. His whole body trembled, the heat radiating from Sasuke almost too much. He wanted to shrink from it and bury himself in it, the relief of seeing his former student again mixing with the horror of what he’d become.     “Sasuke,” Kakashi said again, twitching when a forked tongue ran along the column of his throat. It seared along his skin. The man had to bite his tongue to keep from moaning. Kakashi couldn’t be sure if it was from pain or pleasure. “Sasuke, let me go.” 
    “Who are you?”
     “It’s me,” Kakashi murmured, willing himself to calm down, to keep his voice steady. “It’s Kakashi. It’s Sensei. You know me.”      “...I know you, ” Sasuke repeated hesitantly, sliding his hot cheek along Kakashi’s jaw. “Kakashi. ”     “Yes,” Kakashi nodded–the hold on him was loosening–and licked his lips, heart hammering in his chest. Was this even a dream? It felt too real, too much. “Sasuke…I need you to let me go.”      “Kakashi…” Sasuke purred, a dark and guttural sound, so sensual it slid along Kakashi’s skin like silk. Claws teased over his ribs, sharp and deadly points just inches from vital organs. His other hand gripped Kakashi’s chin firmly, the tips of claws biting into the skin as he pried the man’s mouth open. Kakashi tried to jerk back, to move at all, but his body refused any of his commands. He felt something inside him tug, pulling free, a piece of him giving way to the soundless call from the creature above him. A siren luring him, a demon out to claim his soul. 
    “You’re mine.”
     A hot, forked tongue plunged into his mouth, seeking, seeking, devouring. He felt sharp fangs scrape and nip, drawing blood. Lips covering his own, the kiss engulfing him–     “KAKASHI!”     He woke with a shout to Shiba standing over him, growling and barking his name. Kakashi bolted upright, a hand going to his chest, right over his heart, beating uncontrollably. He placed his head in his hands, dragging in deep breaths. His body shuddered and convulsed, a sheen of sweat shining across his skin. He was in Keiko’s home, his futon rumpled, clothes plastered to his skin. Spine loomed outside and the weak morning sun glittered dully on the snow covered roofs of the village.     Kakashi looked down at the bulge between his legs, a wet spot forming on his sleep pants. He covered his lap with a pillow, fingers digging into the material. That hadn’t been a dream. He could still feel Sasuke’s weight on him, that tongue on his neck, down his throat. His body was singing with desire and fear. There was an emptiness in his chest, a longing. He wanted desperately to fall into that darkness, let Sasuke drag him down into the depths.       What the fuck, Hatakake , Kakashi tugged at his hair harshly, the sting helping to ground him back into reality. He’d always been a little fucked in the head, but this was a new level for him.      “Are you alright?” Shiba asked, nudging his master with his nose     Kakashi exhaled loudly and reached up, laying a hand on Shiba’s head. He dug his fingers into the thick fur and nodded shakily. “Yeah…yeah, I’m fine. Where’s Keiko? I need to speak with her.”     “Left a little while ago,” Shiba said, ears flattening against his head. “They found another body.” ~*~     Kakashi circled the corpse slowly, keeping a fair distance while Shiba reluctantly sniffed and searched for anything out of the ordinary. Aside from the actual body anyway. The previous reports had only stated that the deceased had been found out in the snow, completely frozen. They had never mentioned what Kakashi was seeing now.     The body was indeed left out in the snow, laid out almost peacefully save for the unhinged jaw and look of pure terror on the man’s face. The skin was gray, sunken, wrinkled–as if already partially decomposed and dried out. He was nothing but skin and bones, quite literally, his clothes hanging off him like rags. It looked like the man, previously healthy and in his prime, had had the life sucked out of him. According to Shiba, there was no blood to be found, his organs were practically dust, and the heart ripped out with claws and teeth.     “Like something out of a horror story,” Kakashi muttered to himself, finally taking a step closer and kneeling beside the body.     “This isn’t natural,” Shiba said grimly, tail hanging low. “The smell is all wrong.”     Kakashi leaned forward, careful not to touch anything, looking the corpse over with critical eyes. There was no visible cause of death that he could see. No puncture wounds or slash marks from a weapon, no bones were broken, and according to witnesses the man had been seen just last night–alive and whole.     “Who is he?” Kakashi stood, looking over the one who had found him. She was a slight girl, barely in her twenties, with dull brown eyes and a permanent frown on her lips–Hana Sato.     “Shuichi Mori,” she murmured, barely glancing at the body before looking away. “Employed with the Sato family.”     Kakashi looked down at the man again. Before now, the deaths had only been members of the Sato family. Keiko had mentioned lackeys before, men who did the Satos’ dirty work. This, perhaps, had been one of them.     Hana shifted on her feet, arms pulled tight over her chest. She’d been married–briefly–to Akio Sato before he had turned up dead just like this one. He’d been the second to die. The widow seemed uneasy, glancing around suspiciously. A crowd had gathered and the villagers muttered to themselves, some looking all too pleased. Hana had been the only Sato to come and confirm the man’s identity, the rest insisting that they could not leave their estate.      “Cowards,” Keiko had spat when she’d heard this, a wicked grin on her face. “Spine will come for them all. Hiding in their homes won’t save them.”     Kakashi was inclined to agree.     “You can account for his whereabouts last night?” he asked her.     She shook her head. “No. I was home all night, but he enjoyed drinking. The Sato family paid him well. He was probably at the bar. I’m sure someone saw him at some point.”     The woman was tight-lipped and had little information. Kakashi eventually dismissed her, watching as she skirted the crowd and hastily disappeared down the street. A few villagers confirmed that Shuichi had indeed been drinking most the night, as per usual, but had abruptly left the bar at about 2am.     “Seemed scared o’ somethin’,” one man said, shrugging carelessly. “Runnin’ out like that.”     “No one followed him?” Kakashi asked, raising a brow. “Try to help him?”     The man barked a laugh. “Shuichi was one of Satos’ men. One of the worst of them, too. Almost everyone’s had a run-in with him, gettin’ roughed up to a bloody pulp. I’m tellin’ ya, shinobi, no one here did this–but we ain’t exactly sad to see him gone.” ~*~     “What happens to the bodies?” Kakashi asked Keiko later on, after determining there was nothing more to learn from the scene.     “Can’t bury them,” Keiko hummed as she sipped a hot cup of tea. “Nothing but ice here. Traditionally we would take them up the mountain. There’s a system of caves we’d entomb our dead in.” She huffed a humorless laugh. “As you can expect, that hasn’t been the case with these. To tell you the truth, I don’t know what’s being done with them, but I suspect they are being burned. Waste of fire if you ask me.”     “This Shuichi…” Kakashi stared down at his empty cup. “Was he a bad sort?”     “One of their lackeys,” Keiko shrugged. “Enjoyed the work. Rotten to the core. Particularly enjoyed harassing younger women. Some spoke out, claiming rape, but of course the Satos never did anything. Those same women ended up dead. After that, the rest kept quiet.”     She eyed him for a moment. “There’s no stopping him, you know,” she smiled serenely. “And he knows you’re here by now. I like you, Kakashi. A good man…stupid, but good.”     “Thanks,” Kakashi snorted.     “I mean it’d be a waste,” she stood, carrying their empty cups to the sink. “A waste for a good man to die, defending those who are wicked.”     Kakashi looked out the window, through the ice crystallized on the glass, at the jagged mountain peaks. “I wasn’t sent here to guard them,” he said lightly. “And I don’t intend to.”     Keiko blinked then hummed, old eyes crinkled as her smile widened. “Well then,” she reached out, laying a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe there’s some hope for you yet.” ~*~     Kakashi stared down at the blank scroll in disgust. He was hesitating, stalling, making up excuses. He should’ve sent this out the moment he woke from that…encounter. As much as he mourned the loss of the Uchiha, he could never have conjured up a horror like that. Somehow, Sasuke was here, alive, but not entirely human. Naruto should–needed–to be informed. If not as the Hokage, then as the one friend who never gave up on Sasuke. He was owed that much.     And still, Kakashi hesitated.     He was second guessing himself. After all, the past few years had been eye-opening for him, changing his world views and steadfast morals he’d stuck to all his life. His mind was rewriting itself even still. He wasn’t Kakashi Hatake of the Leaf anymore, but who he was now…he wasn’t sure. This mission had been a way to get some distance from Konoha and its ghosts, the hypocrisy and lies and blood it was built upon. To perhaps create a new path for him, away from a system he no longer believed in and couldn't bring himself to support any longer.      It couldn’t be too much of a stretch, then, for his subconscious–so burdened with these regrets and losses–to stick the face of what he believed to be his greatest failure on that of some dark dream. A creature so otherworldly he couldn’t possibly be real, so powerful he could change the face of the world. Sasuke had been a revolutionary at heart, wanting so badly to bring an end to hate their current world had fostered, to prevent tragedies like those Itachi had been forced to endure. Like the slaughter of an entire clan based on prejudices, like that of sending mere children to war. Perhaps Kakashi was just so far gone in his grief, wanted this world as they knew it to end so something better could come in its place, that his fucked up brain had conjured a ghost back from the dead and placed him on a divine pedestal. An ex machina to spread his godly wings and fix what humans had destroyed. Even if that meant his own death.     But—     Kakashi was also a shinobi, mind and body trained and honed for strict discipline. He’d fought countless enemies, encountered jutsus beyond imagination, and had somehow come out the other end alive. He knew reality from illusion, could tell dreams from what was actually in front of him. What he’d seen had been no dream, no illusion brought on by desperation. He’d felt it, could still feel it, had heard Sasuke’s voice as clear as day, as if the boy had been sitting beside him. He couldn’t explain how or why, but Sasuke Uchiha was alive–though in what capacity, he wasn’t sure.     And until he knew more, he couldn’t give Naruto’s hopes up. Kakashi pushed the scroll aside and stood. Deep down, he knew it was an excuse. He was being selfish, wanting to keep this discovery to himself. No one grieved the loss of Sasuke more than Naruto, but Kakashi thought–bitterly, perhaps–that he had nothing but his grief while the blond had a family to fall back on. He had the love of a wife who was there to soothe his pains and wrap him in a warm embrace. Someone to talk with, fall into bed with, to sleep beside and make love to. Someone he could touch, hold, feel . All Kakashi had were memories, ghosts, pains and regrets so deep they could never heal. And Sasuke was the deepest of them all.     His heart had broken that day on the bridge. Beyond Sasuke’s cruel words and cold eyes, through all the anger, Kakashi had seen pain like no other. A devastation that had torn the boy apart, changed him into something else. Sasuke, as a child, had not been a cruel person. Cold and aloof, yes, but never cruel. He’d even been gentle at times, soft with animals and kind to his teammates when it really counted. He didn’t have that killing instinct, that thirst for blood. Kakashi had felt both in waves that day, felt the darkness in Sasuke that he’d failed to protect him from. His heart shattered as he steeled himself to kill the last Uchiha, to soil his hands once again with the blood of a child.      Kakashi learned that day how much he’d truly loved Sasuke. He’d wanted nothing more than to take the boy away from everything, shelter him, protect him from those who would corrupt him. He’d thought he was too late, that Sasuke was too far gone, out of his reach forever. And he’d mourned, mourned for the boy Sasuke used to be, for the future he’d never have.      In the darkest days following the war, on the loneliest nights, his traitorous mind would remind him what he had lost.      Now it was just outside his grasp, teasing him, daring to offer up a small grain of hope. And Kakashi, greedy as he was, wanted to keep it for himself. He didn’t want to share Sasuke. Didn’t want this world to rip them apart again. Monster or not, Kakashi still loved him, still wanted to see his student thrive, wanted to see him happy.      Kakashi selfishly wanted to be his reason for happiness.     “You’re going, aren’t you?” Keiko asked him softly, suddenly appearing beside him.      He glanced over at her and nodded silently, his gaze sliding to the window. Night had descended. The village was quiet. The sky was nearly black, save for the full moon shining above.     “It’s too early for a full moon,” he murmured almost absently.     “Ah,” Keiko shrugged. “The moon does strange things here. Ever since Spine woke up.”     The Sage of Six Paths had called Sasuke the moon, and Naruto the sun. Perhaps the Uchiha had truly ascended to his role.     “You’ll die up there,” Keiko warned as Kakashi carefully bundled up. He’d dismissed Shiba earlier, knowing the husky would fight tooth and nail on this.     “Like you?” Kakashi said as he adjusted his weapon pouch.     “Yes,” she said seriously. “I knew my way and still I fell. If the mountain doesn’t kill you, he will.”     “A shinobi always faces death,” Kakashi hummed, opening the front door and stepping out into the snow and ice. “If I don’t come back in three days, please send word to the Leaf, will you?”     “And what shall I tell them?” Keiko asked.     Kakashi paused. “Tell the Hokage…that I found him.” He left the woman staring at him in confusion and the swirling snow quickly swallowed him up. ~*~     Kakashi remembered teaching Sasuke the Chidori technique. There had been something very personal, intimate, about that time. Chidori was the one jutsu Kakashi hadn’t copied, the only thing he’d truly created on his own. Lightning was a rare chakra type and even more rare were those who mastered it. Lightning was wild, dangerous, prone to hurting its user just as much as the one it was aimed at. It was powerful, however, with very few weaknesses and even fewer counters. Chidori was a risky chakra release, honing the power of nature into a blade capable of immense destruction.     Kakashi often wondered if he’d been right to give it to one so young.     He’d been admittedly desperate, though. The mark on Sasuke’s neck was like a ticking time bomb, waiting to go off any moment. Orochimaru’s influence over the boy grew stronger every day. The Chuunin exams had reminded Sasuke that he wasn’t the strongest or the best, and therefore could never defeat Itachi. Orochimaru’s threat that Sasuke would come to him for power had left Kakashi shaken, because he knew the snake was right. Itachi’s betrayal was a deep wound and the boy’s hatred knew no bounds. If he wanted to keep Sasuke out of Orochimaru’s grasp, he had to offer up a juicy carrot. And the only thing that motivated Sasuke was power.     So he’d given him Chidori. Spent a month training and pushing Sasuke to his limits, because he’d seen himself in the boy. One who had lost too much already, who had both lightning and fire in his blood, who had suffered far more than anyone should have before he was even ten years old. Kakashi had looked at the boy and saw lightning and fire personified, lethal and wild and untamable. He’d thought, briefly, he could capture it, hold it in his hand and mold it to better fit what society–what the village–demanded.      Kakashi understood now that Sasuke, like lightning or fire, could only ever be who and what he was. Such a force could not be contained and controlled, not entirely. It was fire’s nature to burn and only a fool would seek to touch it.      Kakashi was that fool.     The slopes and peaks of Spine were treacherous and slick with black ice. Each step was a battle, man against nature. The air was thin and froze his lungs. His blood pumped sluggishly, heart working overtime. His chakra flickered and waned the higher he got. He used it sparingly to adhere his feet to the slippery ice when the spikes under his boots failed to dig in deep enough. He’d almost fallen a dozen times a mere hour into the climb, felt his limbs begin to fail three hours into it, and had finally collapsed in exhaustion after four.      A fool indeed.     Kakashi leaned up against a jutting boulder and fought to catch his breath. His leg dangled off the edge, the other bent at the knee. Despite the thick furs and leathers, the cold was inescapable. It seeped into his bones and stiffened his muscles, each movement sapping him of all his strength. How Keiko at her age had climbed this was beyond him. It was no wonder she had fallen, no wonder these mountains held such a sinister reputation. There was nothing but black tundra around him, sharp rocks and even sharper shards of ice sticking out like wicked blades. The wind was relentless, blowing from every direction, stealing his breath away.      Nothing could survive here. Death was the only one who could thrive in a place like this.      “And here you are,” Kakashi muttered to himself breathlessly. “Trying to seek him out.”     He only allowed himself a few moments of rest or surely he’d freeze to the rock he sat against. Every cell in his body protesting, Kakashi dragged himself to his feet and continued onwards. The mountains were pockmarked with caves and crevices, most too small to guard against the wind. Every once and a while, he spotted old carvings and shrines tucked inside them. He couldn’t make heads or tails of the carvings. They seemed ancient and written in a language long lost to time. Some of the shrines were more recent, with offerings and prayers dedicated to the god of Spine.      Free us , one prayer read. Most just said a simple ‘help’. One, however, caught his eye.      He raped her. He killed her. My only sister. Take him, Spine. Take him . Beneath these words the kanji for ‘Shuichi Mori’ was written in dried blood. His or the writer’s, Kakashi could only guess. The words were written in jagged, angry strokes. Tear stains blotted the parchment.     Kakashi let them be, trudging along the crooked path that slowly wound its way up. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for. Had no idea if Sasuke made his home up here or if the mountain was just a convenient place for a ghost story to take hold. Still, everyone who claimed a sighting had been on or near the mountain. It was the only place to look, to come face to face with this thing without the vulnerability of sleep.      It was seven hours in, when Kakashi was sure he could go no further, that it appeared. He was near collapsing, the last of his strength ebbing away as he fell to his knees. There was nothing behind him or below him but steep rock and the promise of death. Before him was just more of the same, black ice hugging the mountainside. He stared at it bleakly, his mind and body so numb with the cold that he couldn’t even summon the feeling of regret. Keiko had been right; he’d die here, chasing a ghost.     He blinked sluggishly, his heart in his ears. When he opened them, a cave entrance stood in front of him. It was massive, too big for him to have missed. Kakashi stared at it disbelieving, his brain struggling to comprehend. It was pitch black inside, the light of the moon giving nothing away. He felt a wave of warm air, beckoning. The ice around him began to melt. The feeling in his limbs started to return and his blood began to pump faster.      Kakashi crawled towards it, his body shaking with the effort. All he could think of was the heat, the shelter from the wind, the drive to survive outweighing anything else. He barely made it into the mouth of the cave before his body finally gave him. He landed roughly on the cave floor, hands outstretched over his head. His vision grew black and the only thing he remembered before succumbing to the darkness was the sound of wings.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

It is in the darkness of the night that the beauty of the moon is recognized.
  ~*~     Kakashi had contemplated his death dozens of times.      When he stood over his father’s body, he thought about taking his  own life for the first time. He could recall staring down at his father’s sword, mere hours after burying him, running a finger along the sharp edge. He did this every night for weeks, wondering if that was the night he’d do it. But he’d still been a child, too afraid of the specter of death to really go through with it.     Kakashi remembered standing in front of a mirror and gazing blankly into his new, red eye. A gift he didn’t deserve. He’d thought about death then, about little Obito being buried alive, about what those last moments must have been like. Obito had faced it head on, with a smile on his face even as he offered up the bloody hand that held his eye.      As he scrubbed and scrubbed at his hands, unable to wash away Rin’s blood, death was like a monster breathing down his neck. Surely, he had thought, it would come for me next. He almost welcomed it.     His days in the Anbu taught him any moment could be his last. Kakashi thought maybe that was why he stuck to it for so long. Maybe he’d been teasing death, tempting fate. Too cowardly to do it himself, but all too willing to die by the blade of an enemy. Maybe he’d been wishing for it with each new mission, hoping he’d make a mistake and that would be that.     Then he’d passed his first rookie team and his thoughts of death slowly changed. No longer did he throw himself into danger recklessly, putting out the barest minimum effort to see the mission through, no care for his own life. Instead he went head to head with death, unwilling to back down as he fought to protect his kids. And they were his kids.     A boy, ostracized and spat on by the very village his parents died protecting. A boy with a big heart and even bigger dreams, forced to be the vessel of the beast who’d made him an orphan.      A girl with extraordinary potential but no self-confidence, who chased her two teammates for years before finally coming into her own.     And another orphan boy, who had lost everything he’d ever known in one brutal night. A boy lost in pain and grief, whose kind heart had been tainted by hatred and darkness. A boy he’d grown to care for in a way beyond that of family or a lover, but of something he had no words for. A boy he’d so desperately tried to keep yet knew he didn’t deserve; a boy he’d failed utterly.      It was fitting, then, that his death would be at that boy’s hands.     Kakashi wasn’t sure where he was, but knew without a doubt Sasuke had put him here. He’d been on the brink of death, his body succumbing to hypothermia and chakra depletion. A cave entrance had materialized where a sheer, steep cliff had been before. He had crawled until his last breath when his body finally gave out. Logic told him he should be nothing more than a frozen corpse stuck to the side of a mountain.     He was warm now, albeit incredibly sore and aching in all the wrong places. His limbs were heavy, the muscles strained beyond their limit. Kakashi had never felt more exhausted in his life, or more vulnerable. Even if he tried, he couldn’t defend himself from a mosquito let alone a powered up Sasuke Uchiha. Why the other had bothered to bring him here instead of just killing him, Kakashi could only guess at. Perhaps he just liked to play with his prey first.     A part of him still hoped his little genin was in there somewhere, but the last dream had shaken more than he realized. Sasuke, barely recognizable, was nothing like his former self now. Kakashi wasn’t sure if there was any humanity left in him. And if there was, Kakashi doubted he was enough of an influential part of Sasuke’s life to draw it out.      I know you, he’d said. But did he really? Or was the memory of Kakashi just an echo? Was the human side of Sasuke even aware enough to truly recognize his former teacher?     Too many questions and no answers.     With little else to do but wait for whatever fate had in store for him, Kakashi tried to survey his surroundings. It was…otherworldly, this place. He wasn’t sure if he was even on Spine anymore. He was suspended in a large pool of water–just on the side of too hot, like that of an onsen. His clothes were gone, as well as his mask.  Above him hung the moon, large–too large–in a soft shade of lavender, its light casting the world in violet hues. The night sky was a dark curtain of twinkling stars with splashes of color that reflected off the water. Around him seemed to be the silhouette of Spine, vague and far away, like the background of a painting. Yet he clearly wasn’t in Snow Country. The air was comfortable, perfect. Around the pool was lush green grass and enormous trees. There were no sounds aside from Kakashi’s breathing, not the chirp of crickets or the rustling of nocturnal creatures.     After a few moments, Kakashi began to move. He began to swim to the edge of the pool, with little idea of what he’d do next. He was naked, weaponless, and there seemed to be no shelter in sight. His muscles protested at the movement, and every part of him wanted to simply float and bask in the hot water and let his troubles melt away. 
    “Be still.”
     Kakashi froze mid-stroke, his whole body tensing. He twisted around and sucked in a breath, instinctively backing up as he came face to face with the demon–with Sasuke.      He looked much as he did in the dream, his purple eye glowing softly, sharp horns curling up. The wings were gone, but the black markings that seemed to be embedded into his skin were still there. Sasuke was perhaps a foot away, staring at Kakashi calmly. He made no move to attack, his body lax in the water.     Kakashi took another move backwards. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, displeased.      “Be still,”  he repeated, his voice laced with power that made Kakashi’s skin prickle. “I am not done yet.”      Kakashi stilled and the water around seemed to shift, growing a touch hotter. His muscles–his whole body–involuntarily sagged. He dropped until just his head was above water. Sasuke moved closer and Kakashi could only watch warily, too tired to put up a defense.     “Sasuke…” he murmured, eyes tracking Sasuke’s movements as he slowly circled him. Kakashi was reminded of a predator sizing up its prey. “Please, I–”      “Do you want to live?” Sasuke asked suddenly, coming to a stop in front of Kakashi. The water lapped at his chest and the markings, Kakashi realized, were moving across that pale skin in lazy, snake-like patterns. He thought about the question, because he could sense it was not simply rhetorical. He had accepted this would be his death, was content with it being dealt by Sasuke’s hand, but did he w ant to die? A month ago, he may have said yes. He was tired, tired of the shinobi life and tired of saying goodbye to those he loves.     But someone he loved, someone he long thought gone, was here in front of him. And gods, he’d missed this kid. Every volatile inch of him.      “Yes,” Kakashi breathed and felt a weight lift from his chest.       “Then be still ,” Sasuke muttered, almost sounding grumpy of all things.      The water stirred again, heating up another degree. Kakashi vaguely thought he should be uncomfortable, that it was too hot, but it felt perfect. His muscles relaxed even more, the soreness slowly–slowly–fading away. And he realized with a start that this was Sasuke’s doing. He remembered every encounter with this demon, how the ice and snow always melted, how it felt like fire was searing his skin when Sasuke touched him–licked him. It had never hurt; in fact, the last encounter had felt extraordinarily wonderful.      Kakashi traced the surface of the water with his hand, watching it begin to bubble around him. Sasuke moved, circling him slowly, lazily. He never took his eyes off Kakashi, that dark gaze fixated and–and hungry.      “You’re healing me with the water,” Kakashi said softly. Sasuke moved to float on his back and the elder realized with a blush the boy was as naked as he was.      “My fire is healing you,” Sasuke said, gaze unblinking. “Bringing you back. The water is just a conduit, so as not to harm you.”      Kakashi blinked, trying to make sense of it all. Sasuke’s fire–his chakra?--was heating the water, the two elements–normally at odds–working together.     “Bringing me back…?” he muttered thoughtfully, his mind slowly coming to the realization even before Sasuke spoke.      “From death,” Sasuke answered, his eyes glinting in the strange lavender light. “Don’t you remember?” Sasuke floated towards him and extended a clawed hand, cupping Kakashi’s chin and pressing a thumb to the man’s bottom lip. “You’re mine.”      This time, when Kakashi felt that mysterious tug inside, he understood what it was. Sasuke was a siren, an incubus, a demon, a god–all of those and none of them–and he called to Kakashi’s soul. He’d already gotten a piece of it; Kakashi recalled the feeling of something inside him breaking away when Sasuke had kissed him. He’d resisted then, denying that siren call that tempted him to fall into the deep, blissful dark. Sasuke had a claim on his now, though, and Kakashi could feel him–all around, on his skin, inside, clawing and searching and scorching –     Like fire and lightning that seared across his body, sending every cell singing and aching for more–     Pleasure and pain, the likes of which Kakashi had never felt, didn’t think humanly possibly, flooded his senses, sending him spiraling–     He was screaming–screaming for it to end and never stop–barely aware he was clutching desperately to the creature who he was sure would destroy him. Sasuke opened him up and took him apart, grasping tightly at his soul–devouring him whole, that delicious darkness calling–     And this time, Kakashi fell. ~*~     Kakashi sat on his single bed in his tiny apartment, watching the boy silently. Sasuke stood in what constituted a living room, hands stuffed into his white shorts, and slowly circled the small space. This was a memory, an old one. If he turned his head, he knew he would see the night sky outside the window. This was the first time Sasuke had come to him after one of his frequent nightmares, gruffly asking if he could sleep there for the night. Kakashi had, of course, agreed despite his shock. Sasuke asking for any kind of help at all was extremely out of character.     But, Kakashi had reminded himself that night, this was still just a 12-year-old boy. Kakashi had plenty of nightmares at that age, but had had no one to turn to. Admittedly, when he had first gotten Team 7, he’d been at a loss concerning the young Uchiha. Sarutobi had been convinced Kakashi’s connections to the Uchiha clan would grant him unique insight into helping the boy, but Kakashi personally felt he was vastly under qualified. So when the boy had come to him he’d jumped at the chance to help in any way.     “I am not this boy anymore,” Sasuke said, his voice deeper than that of his 12-year-old self. He turned to face Kakashi, young face peering up at him with an unreadable expression.     Kakashi nodded, eyes downcast. “I know,” he whispered sadly. The shadows of the room shifted slightly, just enough to catch Kakashi’s peripheral.      “You wish I was,” Sasuke said, voice flat. He took a few steps closer to Kakashi, just a foot away from him now. Kakashi saw the shadows move in closer.     “I wish I was given more time with this boy,” Kakashi corrected. He made care not to flinch when the shadows reached for him, leaning back on his hands in a deceptively bored manner.      “To use him,” Sasuke muttered spitefully.     “To help him,” was the soft reply.     Shadows caressed Kakashi skin, making it prickle in response. He let it happen, accepting the almost curious touches.      “There was nothing you could have done.”     Kakashi bowed his head, his heart twisting painfully. “That wasn’t going to stop me from trying.”     “Why?” Sasuke spat, his dark eyes blazing with barely held back anger. The shadows twitched and pulsated. “Because of some guilt over a dead teammate? I am not Obito.”     Kakashi flinched and shook his head, gritting his teeth as the shadows sharpened and sunk into his skin like claws. “No, that’s not–”     “I’m inside you, Kakashi,” Sasuke warned, black eyes bleeding into red. “I’ll know if you’re lying.”     Kakashi took a deep breath, ignoring the sting of pain as the shadows dug in deeper. Alright, the truth then. “At first,” he admitted, shame filling him. “I saw myself in you. I didn’t want you to make the same mistakes I did. I wanted to repent for my past failures.”     Sasuke’s face twisted and the shadows morphed around them, the room melting away until there was nothing but pitch black. Kakashi squeezed his eyes shut, reminding himself it wasn’t real. It was an illusion, just another dream.     “I didn’t want to get close to any of you,” Kakashi went on. “I tried to stay detached, but I couldn’t. I loved each of you, but with you…” He shook his head helplessly. “It was different. It wasn’t just guilt anymore, or some sense of duty. It was…I wanted…” he trailed off, unable to put it into words, hardly understanding it himself.     Sasuke knelt in front of Kakashi and tilted his head, dark eyes boring into gray. “Did you want me, sensei?” he whispered darkly, lips pulling into a sinister smirk. He pushed Kakashi onto his back effortlessly, crawling on top of him slowly. “Did you want this body?”     Kakashi’s eyes widened in horror, momentarily forgetting the pain lacing through his body. “No!” he shouted, surprising even himself with the forcefulness behind it. “I don’t fuck children, Sasuke.”     “I was never a child.”     “You had the body of one,” Kakashi growled, anger spiking at the idea that Sasuke would ever think him capable of such a thing.      “Ah, then maybe this?” Sasuke’s form morphed into that of his 17-year-old self–just on the cusp of adulthood, the last time Kakashi ever saw him. His white shirt was open, exposing his torso. Sasuke trailed his hands up Kakashi’s chest, smirking when the man couldn’t hold back a gasp. The shadows holding Kakashi down suddenly dissolved, the pain disappearing. “Did you want this body , Kakashi?” he practically purred, tightening his thighs around Kakashi’s stomach.     “Sasuke, please–”     “Don’t lie to me,” Sasuke warned again, nails digging in.      Kakashi closed his eyes and turned away, breathing in deep and exhaling harshly. The warmth of Sasuke’s weight was heady, seeping into him. He felt that pull again, the siren song calling to him. He felt his body reacting to Sasuke, to the feel of him, the timber of his voice, the hands grasping his chest.     “Yes,” he choked out. There was no denying how beautiful Sasuke had grown to be; a stunning creature that practically demanded to be seen. Kakashi had not been immune.     “So take it,” Sasuke whispered, smirking in grim satisfaction. “Touch me, sensei.”     “No,” Kakashi stubbornly kept his arms at his sides, his face turned away. It wasn’t real. None of this was real.     “If it’s not real, what’s the harm?” Sasuke hummed, sliding a hand up to trace the curve of Kakashi’s neck. “Orochimaru wanted this body, too. He never hesitated.”     Kakashi’s eyes snapped open. “Don’t you ever compare me to him,” he spat, glaring up at the smirking boy. Inside his gut clenched at the implication of Sasuke’s words, stomach churning at the thought of that snake’s hands on him.      “I feel your hatred for him,” Sasuke chuckled darkly. “And your desire for me. Jealous he got to me first?”     “I was never jealous, Sasuke,” Kakashi said sincerely, staring up at him, willing him to understand. “I was heartbroken.”     Sasuke paused at this, taken aback. He frowned, looking both confused and frustrated. His little game wasn’t going like he’d hoped. “You–”     “I loved you, Sasuke.” Kakashi spoke softly, finally reaching up to grasp Sasuke’s hand. It was hot to the touch and just slightly smaller than his own. “I didn’t realize it until it was too late and you were already too deep in your hatred. I knew he just wanted to use you, like everyone else. You’ve gone your whole life being manipulated by others, even your own brother. I never wanted any of that for you.”      He took a deep breath, letting it out shakily. “My attraction to you is a physical response, Sasuke, but it does not encompass what I feel for you…something I don’t even fully comprehend. You say you’re inside, that you can tell when I’m lying. Am I lying now, Sasuke?”     Sasuke gazed down at him thoughtfully then, softly, said, “No.”     “I love Naruto and Sakura like my own kids,” Kakashi murmured. “For a while, it was the same for you. But somewhere, something changed. It went beyond family or that of a partner. I’m not sure there’s a word for it.”     Sasuke sat back and his form changed again, morphing into a creature with horns and strange eyes. Wings jutted out from his back, arching up, huge and batlike with obsidian feathers across the tops. Kakashi couldn’t take his eyes off him; he was monstrous and breathtaking. Sasuke stared down at him with mismatched eyes, unblinking and fathomless.     “What will you do with me, Sasuke?” Kakashi asked softly, gazing up at him openly. “Why did you bring me back?”     “You’re mine,” the demon said, echoing his own words. “I am your new god, Kakashi.” He bent down and cupped the elder’s cheek, tracing the scar over his eye with a claw. “I’m going to devour your soul and you’re going to worship me for it.” ~*~     When Kakashi gained consciousness, he immediately became aware of two things: one, he was in yet another unknown location and two, he was starving. He sat up slowly, expecting pain and fatigue, but his body moved fluidly. He paused at this and took stock of himself, ignoring the strange surroundings for a moment. He remembered climbing Spine and, according to Sasuke, apparently dying. He remembered waking in that pool, and the pain and pleasure that had ruptured through his body. He had felt stripped and worn, his muscles torn, his bones having felt like they’d aged 20 years. He’d barely been able to move and now…     Now, he felt like he could move mountains.     Kakashi flexed his fingers and stretched his arms, then his legs. His torso was next, arching his back and groaning in satisfaction when nothing popped or strained. He hadn’t felt this good in ages, not since his Anbu days when his body had still been young and spry. That was how he felt; youthful and indestructible.      “Feel good?”     Kakashi snapped his head up and locked eyes with Sasuke across the room. The raven was lounging in a plush, black leather chair. He looked…normal. The demonic horns and markings were gone, the wings tucked out of existence. He wore a simple black yukata like an afterthought, one sleeve sliding down to show a bare shoulder. Sasuke’s hair was a little longer, his stature a little taller and broader–out of the teen phase and firmly into adulthood, though he was still lithe and finely muscled. One eye was black and the other purple, the rinnegan staring Kakashi down with its unnerving, alluring gaze.     Subtly changed, but still Sasuke.      “How long have I’ve been…out?” Kakashi asked. He had a million questions, but decided to start simple to gauge Sasuke’s current mindset. The other’s moods had always been erratic at best. Their last encounter only further proved that fact, going from hot to cold in quick flashes, leaving Kakashi grappling to catch up.     “Not long,” Sasuke said simply. Perfectly vague and unhelpful. His voice was lower than that of his 17-year-old self, but lacked the echo of power from before.     Kakashi looked down and flexed his fingers again, marveling at how strong he felt. “Was all of that real?” he murmured, mostly to himself. He really didn’t expect Sasuke to answer.      “As real as anything else,” Sasuke said, watching Kakashi with a curious tilt of his head.      “Then I really did die,” Kakashi said, lifting his head once again to look at the other. “And you brought me back.”     “I was surprised you came to me,” Sasuke hummed, resting his chin on his elbow. “Even more surprised you went as far as you did for me. Foolish way to die.”     “You really think I would have just walked away?” Kakashi asked, raising a brow, inwardly marveling that he was having a civil conversation with a student he had thought dead just a few weeks ago. “Knowing you were here? Of course I came. I’d do it again if I had to.”     Sasuke blinked slowly, lids lowering over his eyes as he regarded Kakashi almost impassively. “I had no idea you cared so much, Kakashi,” he said in a low voice. “I thought you had written me off a long time ago.”     “I never stopped caring, Sasuke.”     Sasuke’s eyes flashed with something, so quick Kakashi didn’t quite catch what it was. Anger, longing perhaps. “Even when you were declaring your intent to kill me on that bridge?”    Kakashi didn’t flinch, but his gut twisted painfully. “Yes,” he whispered. “Even then.”     Sasuke didn’t respond. Kakashi sighed softly and took in his surroundings. He was in a large bed, soft and luxurious, covered in furs and silks. The base and headboard twisted and curved like a tree’s roots, black in color and arching up into the wall behind him. The wall itself had the texture of a tree as well, black as the bed, with natural knots and curves. The ceiling–if it could be called that–was dark and vague, and soft lights twinkled in and out of existence like fireflies. There were several bookshelves full of books and scrolls. There were two doors, both of them closed, and the room–while beautiful in a way–lacked any personal adornments.     “Where is this place?” Kakashi finally asked.     Sasuke shrugged. “In between worlds. My own little pocket of space and time.”     “You created it?” Kakashi’s eyes widened just a fraction, taking in the room in new awe.     Sasuke seemed to contemplate this. “I suppose,” he murmured. “It just…formed around me, over time. Only I can open the portal. It’s linked to me.”     “Is this where you’ve been all this time?”     Sasuke shook his head slowly. “Not entirely, no.”      He didn’t offer up any more information and Kakashi figured that was as good as he was going to get for right now. Kakashi shifted, very much aware he was still naked, his face exposed. After so long of taking care to hide as much of himself as he could, he felt uncomfortably vulnerable. Though he supposed at this point Sasuke had seen just about everything.     “I don’t suppose you have food around here,” Kakashi muttered, glancing around the room. He almost jumped when a small table appeared with a traditional spread complete with onigiri, miso soup, and a steaming plate of nikujaga. A teapot sat to the side.      “That’s a handy trick,” he said dryly, casting Sasuke a glance.     “I’m full of little tricks these days,” Sasuke answered back, just as dryly, and for a moment Kakashi was reminded of that sarcastic little genin. He stood and produced a dark green yukata, laying it out neatly on the bed. “Eat. Come find me when you’re ready.”     “You won’t stay and eat with me?” Kakashi asked, trying not to sound too disappointed.     Sasuke paused as he headed towards one of the doors. “I do not eat human food anymore.”     “I wouldn’t mind the company,” Kakashi tried.     Sasuke snorted and looked at him over his shoulder, eyes half hidden by dark strands of hair. “You can barely look at me, Kakashi.” With that, he left quietly through the door and shut it behind him.     Kakashi exhaled, a tension in his shoulders loosening. He had wanted to ask, ‘ready for what’ but was afraid of the answer. He wasn’t sure what exactly Sasuke had planned for him or anyone else for that matter, but he doubted Sasuke was just going to sit quietly. The boy had never been one to be idle for very long.     Kakashi quickly slipped into the yukata, pleased that it fit him perfectly. He sat at the table and began to eat, finding the food to be delicious and tea soothing. It allowed his thoughts to calm and his mind to think rationally. He’d been sure Sasuke would kill him, but that seemed very unlikely now. Sasuke would not go through all this trouble just to kill him. He wanted Kakashi around, but for what? 
    I’m going to devour your soul and you’re going to worship me for it.
     Kakashi could still hear those words in his head. Had that been the demon talking or Sasuke? Were they one in the same, or different entities sharing a body? No, Kakashi had never sensed another presence. It was all Sasuke, but perhaps the boy was warring with this other side now. Trying to retain his humanity while embracing the monster he had become.      He was certainly beautiful enough to inspire worship. Isn’t that what gods were? Ethereal, terrifying creatures capable of great miracles and horrible destruction. He thought of Keiko surviving her fall and the corpse of Shuichi, brittle and drained of any life. Drained of his soul.     Keiko had described her encounter with the demon as being ‘gobbled up’ and that the creature had her soul ‘in his belly’. At the time, he’d taken it as the ramblings of an old woman too caught up in ghost stories. A metaphor, as tales of gods often had an abundance of.      Now, though, Kakashi wasn’t so sure of anything. Sasuke was different. He could drape himself in human skin all he liked, but he still had an air of other around him. Whatever had happened to his student had changed him irrevocably, creating something inhuman and full of dark fury. Sooner or later, Sasuke was going to unleash that black fire onto the world and Kakashi wasn’t sure there was anyone around to stop him.     That all still left the question of why Kakashi was still around. Why he was brought back with an improved body, fed and clothed.  
    I’m going to devour your soul…
     Kakashi rubbed at his chest and closed his eyes. He felt Sasuke’s siren call even now, a darkness tempting him to fall into the pitch black. Something in him throbbed, yearning for the presence just on the other side of the door. He knew, without a doubt, Sasuke had already taken a piece of him. Some part of his soul was already within that darkness and if he concentrated, he could feel it. Like some distant memory, he could feel himself basking in that shadow and reveling in the warmth, the pleasure, the pain and the cold. He wanted more of it, wanted to fall into it completely. He wanted to let Sasuke have all of him, lay down and surrender himself to the monster. 
    And you’re going to worship me for it.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"They wanted me to be like a sunflower, constantly longing for the light, but I was a moonflower, always waiting for the night." - JD Lynn
 ~*~     Sasuke’s hand was small as it rested in his palm, pale skin charred with burns and peeling around the fingers. Kakashi was gentle with it, lightly spreading the cool salve over the wounds and pretending he couldn’t hear the hiss of pain from the boy sitting beside him.     “You’re doing well,” Kakashi said, the urge to praise the boy still a foreign feeling. The words felt awkward on his tongue, but he knew they were important. As much as Sasuke would deny it, the last Uchiha craved approval just like any other student would from his teacher. “You can almost form a second Chidori…though I think two will be your limit. We don’t have enough time to-”     “Just bandage this so we can keep going,” Sasuke snapped, nodding at his injured hand.     Kakashi shook his head as he carefully began to wrap gauze around the blackened fingers. “No, we are done for today. Your body needs time to recover.”     Sasuke, predictably, opened his mouth to argue but Kakashi quickly silenced him with a hard stare. “You have limits, Sasuke,” Kakashi said firmly. “You may not like it, but you’re still a child and have the body of one. The amount of strength and chakra needed to release a proper Chidori is exceedingly high. Even I have trouble and I have years of training under my belt. You will rest until I decide you’re ready to try again.”     Sasuke grunted but didn’t argue any further, perhaps too tired. The boy was impatient at the best of times, down right reckless at the worst. He didn’t seem to care if he tore his body apart as long as he reached his goal. Kakashi sighed, watching small fingers twitch with pain as he wrapped them. Teaching Sasuke the Chidori was probably not the wisest of decisions, but it was worlds better than letting that snake get to him.     They ate their dinner quietly and Sasuke had quickly fallen asleep tucked inside his sleeping bag. Kakashi lay awake long after the Uchiha’s breathing had evened out. He was on his back, gazing up at the stars-so vivid atop the cliffs-when he heard the telltale whimper beside him. Nightmares were frequent for Sasuke, understandably, and most of the time they came and went quickly. The first time Kakashi had tried to to intervene, Sasuke had been so embarrassed he immediately became defensive and bit Kakashi’s head off any time the man spoke for the rest of the day. Since then, Kakashi had been careful with how he approached these moments. Sometimes they passed on their own. Other times, like now, Sasuke would wake up screaming.     “Shh,” Kakashi murmured, gathering the shivering boy into his arms. Sasuke didn’t fight him, too far gone from the nightmare to give a damn about Kakashi seeing him cry. It was in these rare, precious moments, when Sasuke was curled into a ball against Kakashi’s chest, that the man realized just how small the boy was. How fragile and vulnerable he was to the world; a child among murderers, a fawn among wolves. Sasuke tried so desperately to appear strong, in control, completely independent from his childish teammates. The truth was, however, he was just as scared as they were. The mission to the Land of Waves had shown Sasuke the deadly reality a true shinobi faced every day. The Chuunin exams showed him how far he still had to go before he was strong enough to survive it. It was a harsh world and Sasuke, for all his abilities, was still only a kid.      Kakashi cocooned Sasuke with his big body, shielding him from the wind, and stroked his unruly black hair until the boy finally drifted off again. They stayed like that until morning and, just like all the other times, never spoke of it.~*~     The man before Kakashi now was so different from that boy, so far removed from that innocence that Kakashi felt a keen sense of loss. The man–the creature–before him was no child seeking comfort from a nightmare; he was the nightmare. Wreathed in shadow and black flame, monstrous and beautiful, deadly and mesmerizing. Sasuke’s head was tipped back, the horns jutting from his head black and sharp and blending in with the dark flames dancing around him. His wings were outstretched, huge and encompassing as they reached towards the moon overhead. The black markings on Sasuke’s skin seemed to cover him entirely, lines and symbols accenting his muscles and form. They looked like ancient carvings, a language not known to any human. Some dipped down Sasuke’s torso, shaping the perfect ‘V’ before disappearing between his legs.      Kakashi wanted to lick them.     The urge should have startled him, but that was the least of his worries. Once he had finished eating, Kakashi had stood with the full intention of heading out of the room to confront Sasuke. Except he hadn’t. He’d stood there, paralyzed with indecision and fear. Not fear for his life–no, it was safe to say Sasuke meant him no real harm. The fear was for what he’d found on the other side of that door. Fear for what this creature would do to the rest of the world–and the people in it–once he finally grew bored terrorizing this small village.     When he’d finally worked up the courage to step outside, the vision of Sasuke in all his dark glory had stolen his breath away. He could only stare as the black flames grew and danced and roared around Sasuke’s form, ethereal and dangerous. Sasuke himself seemed to be lost in his own power, black and purple eyes gazing sightlessly up at the violet moon. Kakashi caught movement just underneath Sasuke’s skin, a shadow of something rippling and moving as if wanting out. And it occurred to Kakashi that Sasuke, like any other demon or god, might not wear this humanoid form all the time and, perhaps, something even more sinister lurked beneath the surface.     “ I was beginning to think you’d never come out, ” Sasuke spoke, his voice inhuman and other . It sent a shiver down Kakashi’s spine. Shit, he was in trouble.     “I wasn’t too sure either,” Kakashi spoke honestly, taking an inexplicable step closer. “Every man experiences moments of cowardice, though.”     “ You are many things, Kakashi ,” Sasuke murmured, turning that deep gaze towards the other man. “A coward was never one of them. ”     “Stupid, then,” Kakashi met Sasuke’s eyes, suddenly glad he’d put his mask back on. Even though Sasuke had certainly seen everything by now, it was a small comfort he was reluctant to let go.     Sasuke tilted his head and stretched out his arm, the flames expanding around him. He held out his hand, palm up, claw-tipped fingers curled into a beckoning motion.  
    “Come.”
     Kakashi found himself moving forward, feet taking him closer and closer to the ring of flame. The heat was unnatural, hot enough to melt the skin right off a man without ever touching him. He recalled the Amaterasu flames that could destroy anything it touched, burning for eternity. Flames that could reduce a human body to nothing but ash in seconds. And he was blindly walking towards them.     He abruptly stopped, just a few feet from the nearest pillar of fire, and swallowed thickly. His gaze flickered to Sasuke who looked back at him with a curious expression.     “What will happen if I walk through the flames?” Kakashi asked.      “A good question,” Sasuke smirked, a sharp fang peeking out from his lips. “Come to me and you will bask in my darkness…or it will destroy you completely.”      “Ah,” Kakashi cleared his throat, fighting to keep his heart from beating out of his chest. “How will I know which–”      “You won’t,” Sasuke said, smirk dropping. “My fire protects only those who truly seek to willingly give their souls to me. Those who will worship their new god and give me their complete loyalty. For those whose hearts waver even the slightest…my fire will obliterate them.”      “Do or die, hm,” Kakashi hummed.     Sasuke didn’t answer, watching him calmly. Kakashi met his gaze and took a step back, pushing his hands into his pockets to hide how much they trembled. Sasuke laughed softly and dropped his hand. The black flames rippled as they shrank away until they were gone completely. For a moment the two stood facing each other in silence, the land around them dark and still.     Kakashi was in no hurry to break the peace, too busy taking in the sight of his former student. He hadn’t had a real moment to fully appreciate that Sasuke was here, alive, right in front of him. As if that day at the Valley had never happened, as if Kakashi hadn’t already buried his hope of ever seeing him again. He wanted to crush Sasuke into a hug and never let go. Wanted to sob with relief and beg forgiveness for all his failures as a teacher, a guardian. He also wanted to ask why , shout until he was blue in the face about the hell he put them all through, the sheer pain they’d had to endure all these years.     “Your thoughts are loud,” Sasuke finally said, his voice sounding more human once again.      Kakashi glanced down. “Can you hear them?”     “...more like feel them,” Sasuke answered.     Kakashi’s shoulders sagged and he laughed humorlessly, rubbing the back of his head. “That might be a good thing,” he huffed and walked to the treeline,  lowering himself to lean back against one of the giant trees that surrounded the body of water he had woken up in. It was an ancient looking willow, the wispy limbs hanging low and nearly touching the ground.      “And why is that?” Sasuke asked.     “I’ve never been particularly fond of expressing emotion,” Kakashi shrugged, stretching out his legs. The green yukata parted slightly and the lavender moonlight hit his exposed chest.      Sasuke hummed and began to slowly weave through the willow’s limps, the leaves rustling as they parted for him. Kakashi found himself watching as each one caressed pale shoulders before sliding off as the creature moved through them. It was almost peaceful if not for the sheer power radiating off Sasuke. Truly his presence loomed and Kakashi felt it on his skin.     “What do you want with me?” Kakashi finally asked, the words coming out as nothing more than a whisper.     “To possess you,” was Sasuke’s immediate answer. “Consume you. Give you everything you want. Drag you into my darkness and never let you go.”     “Why me?” Kakashi watched him warily as the other slowly paced the tree, the green of the leaves striking against the blackness of his wings.     “You’re mine.”     Kakashi ignored the thrill those words sent through his body and focused his mind. “You’ve said that before,” he ventured, forcing his body to remain lax as Sasuke disappeared behind him. “Do you know who I am, Sasuke? Do you remember me, truly?” Or are you too far gone, he thought.     “You are Kakashi,” Sasuke answered from somewhere behind him. He could hear the leaves rustling gently.      Kakashi licked his lips behind his mask and took a calming breath. “And what does that mean to you?”     Sasuke came into view again as he circled the tree fully, fingers outstretched to catch at the leaves. “Mine.”     Kakashi sighed. “Sasuke, please…” He took a steadying breath. “Do you know me…or do you only know the memories of me?”     Sasuke paused at this and finally turned to Kakashi, looking at him fully. He slowly approached and Kakashi braced himself as the man lowered himself to the ground on all fours. He blinked as Sasuke crawled towards him, moving every bit like the sleek predator he resembled, until he came to a stop at Kakashi’s outstretched feet.      “I know you,” Sasuke murmured, his dark gaze penetrating Kakashi down to his core. He shifted, feeling like Sasuke was entirely too close and too far away. “As much as you allowed me to know you, which wasn’t much at all…” He paused, tilting his head and flashing his fangs as he smirked. “Sensei.” He moved closer, hands on either side of Kakashi’s feet.     “...fair enough,” Kakashi nodded, his heart skipping a beat. He wasn’t sure if it was the proximity or the way ‘sensei’ rolled off Sasuke’s tongue like pure sin.      “The question is,” Sasuke continued, shifting closer again, his hands bracing the sides of Kakashi’s legs. “Do you know me ?”     “Does anyone?” Kakashi countered.      Sasuke chuckled darkly and shook his head. “Not now…not anymore.”     Kakashi gazed at Sasuke softly, wanting to reach out and tuck a strand of dark hair behind his ear. “What happened, Sasuke? We searched everywhere for you. How did you become…this?”     A low, dark rumble emitted from Sasuke’s chest like the purr of a wildcat. He shifted even closer, now braced on either side of Kakashi’s thighs. Their faces were inches from each other. Kakashi unconsciously spread his legs, as if to make room for Sasuke. Despite not touching, he felt every inch of the other. Sasuke radiated heat and Kakashi automatically leaned into it. Those dark wings loomed over them, blocking out the light of the moon and casting them both into shadow. Kakashi became lost in Sasuke’s eyes, black and purple drawing him in relentlessly.      Sasuke licked his lips. Kakashi’s eyes snapped down, following the movement, transfixed by the forked muscle as it slid over long fangs. “ I was in the darkness…” he whispered, his gaze unwavering and hungry. “...and so the darkness I became.”      Kakashi swallowed thickly, not even flinching as a claw grazed his cheek before hooking underneath his mask and slowly pulling it down.  “And what will you do now?” he asked, voice nothing more than a husky whisper.      “Burn,” Sasuke hissed, his lips brushing against Kakashi’s as he spoke. “Burn it all down.” Their lips smashed together in a hungry kiss and Kakashi didn’t fight it, glad it wasn’t a dream this time. Sasuke pressed into him, forcing his back to dig into the bark of the tree. Kakashi barely noticed, his hands cupping Sasuke’s face as he granted access to his probing tongue. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Kakashi thought he should stop this. They needed to talk; he had thousands of questions, but that siren call was thrumming through his veins.      He suddenly found himself on his back, the tree canopy above him before Sasuke moved to hover above him. His purple eye glowed softly and his wings spread, framing his pale form. The moonlight highlighted Sasuke’s skin beautifully, casting hues across his black horns. He made a striking vision.      Their lips met again and Kakashi didn’t hesitate to open up for the other, moaning as that forked tongue slid against his. Sasuke growled deeply, a hungry sound that had Kakashi’s toes curling. He straddled Kakashi’s waist, claws running up his chest and parting the yukata roughly to get at the warm skin beneath.  The kiss was messy, full of fangs and saliva and that long tongue halfway down Kakashi’s throat. He couldn’t stop even if he wanted to, so lost in the sensations. Sasuke’s siren call pulsed around him, making Kakashi’s soul sing with desire. His body hummed with energy, blood pumping loud in his ears.      He felt the pull of the darkness, the sweet promise of relief if he would just give in . He felt that small part of his soul Sasuke already possessed, their connection pulsing between them. Kakashi wanted to sink into it, bask in that cool dark, let Sasuke take all of him. Hadn’t he given enough? Didn’t he deserve to rest now, hand the reins over to someone else? He was so tired and this felt so good . The way Sasuke’s fangs grazed his tongue, the way his hands and claws seemed to be everywhere all at once, the way that slick tongue tasted him as if he was a meal and Sasuke a starving man. Kakashi wanted it, wanted all of it. His mind was drifting, all sense of thought washing away, Sasuke’s words echoing in his head.

“I’m going to consume your soul. And you’re going to worship me for it.”

“Burn….burn it all down.”

“...and so the darkness I became.”
     Kakashi panted roughly as Sasuke pulled away for a moment, mouth parted and forked tongue snaking out to lap at Kakashi’s kiss swollen lips. “You taste so good…” Sasuke moaned, gazing down at Kakashi almost desperately. “I can barely…” He took a deep, shuddering breath, wings shivering above him. “...control myself….”     “Sasuke,” Kakashi breathed, glad for the moment of reprieve. “Sasuke, we have to…have to stop,” he groaned as Sasuke latched onto his neck, deadly fangs grazing his artery. His back arched, their groins pressing together. Sasuke growled and Kakashi felt it against his skin, hot and wet and hungry. The sound went straight to Kakashi’s cock, already hard and straining.      “Sasuke,” he tried again, pressing  a palm to the other’s chest. He felt it vibrate with another low growl, sending tremors through his fingers.      “ You’re mine ,” Sasuke bared his fangs, three sets on top and two sets on the bottom, the largest easily the length of Kakashi’s index finger. Kakashi took a steadying breath, fighting the lust-filled fog in his brain. He honestly couldn’t tell if his reaction was because it was Sasuke or if he was awakening some long-buried monster kink, but his control had never unraveled so quickly with anyone else.      “Sasuke,” Kakashi said firmly, albeit breathless, and braced his hands on either side of Sasuke’s face. The boy stilled, breathing harshly, eyes wide and unblinking as they bored down at him. “Shh,” Kakashi soothed, the pad of his thumb stroking a pale cheek. “Slow down, little genin. You’ve been gone for almost 10 years…this old man needs some time to catch up.”     “But you want me,” Sasuke murmured, crinkling his eyebrows and glancing down between their bodies where Kakashi’s evident arousal was clearly shown. “Your body and your soul. They call me…they’re mine.” He tilted his head, eyes clouded over with lust and hunger. He licked at his fangs and growled lowly, wings flaring behind him. “Mine to consume. You came to me. There is no reason to wait any longer.”     Kakashi watched Sasuke’s eyes drag down his body, eyeing him like a juicy piece of steak. He couldn’t tell if this creature wanted to fuck him or eat him, and he shuddered at the thought. Gods, he was fucked in the head.     “Humor me,” Kakashi said, shifting beneath Sasuke’s weight. The boy could easily overpower him, but Kakashi didn’t truly believe Sasuke would force anything on him. He seemed to put great value on those who followed him willingly. Even in his younger years. According to the former members of Team Taka, Sasuke had never forced or threatened them to do anything, preferring them to follow him on their own accord. Kakashi had thought at the time how ironic it was that Sasuke valued loyalty so greatly.  
    “And yet he didn’t hesitate to kill you,” Kakashi had told Karin, not long after the events of the war. She’d offered up her healing skills and never failed to defend Sasuke when his name inevitably came up in conversations. She had been an endless stream of Team Taka stories.
 
    “That wasn’t Sasuke,” Karin had said, her face set firmly. 
 
     “Maybe you just wish it wasn’t.”
 
    Karin had looked him in the eye. “Grief…real grief, tears even the strongest apart. Twists them into something terrible. Something even those closest to them wouldn’t recognize.”
     “You can’t escape me,” Sasuke said, bringing Kakashi back to the present. He felt a claw graze his cheek. Gentle, careful.      “I’m not trying to escape,” Kakashi said softly, leaning into Sasuke’s hand. “I’ve missed you, Sasuke. Grieved you. I have no interest in leaving now that I’ve found you.”     Sasuke seemed to give this some thought before nodding slowly, crawling off Kakashi to allow him to sit up. Sasuke leaned back on his hands and relaxed his wings, the huge appendages draping across the grass. Kakashi sighed as he sat up, adjusting his yukata to cover his chest and unrumple the fabric that had bunched up around his thighs.      “Such enthusiasm,” Kakashi joked. “You know how to stroke an old man’s ego, Sasuke.”     “That’s not all I can stroke.”     Kakashi choked out a laugh, surprised more than anything else. “My, I didn’t think you had it in you. You’ve definitely changed, Uchiha.”     “You have no idea.”     “No…,” Kakashi hummed as he shifted to lean back against the tree. He regarded Sasuke carefully, gazing at the deceitfully harmless posture and the intelligent, cold eyes. He couldn’t even begin to fathom what the last several years had been like for Sasuke, what sort of events had transformed him in such a way. A beautiful creature, deadly and captivating, and no doubt capable of–and hungry for–complete destruction. “No, I suppose I don’t. Why don’t you fill me in.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"How terrible this darkness was, how bewildering, and yet mysteriously beautiful.” –Stefan Zweig
 
~*~
      Despite being born into the Uchiha clan, Sasuke had never been particularly religious.      Every prominent clan had its personal deity or pantheon to whom they built their shrines and revered. The Nara clan had Omoikane and the Hyuuga clan had Fujin. Omoikane aided the Nara clan in their pursuit of intelligence and knowledge; they were a clan of thinkers and philosophers. The Hyuuga clan, always a bit pompous in their ways and possessing a superiority complex preferred their Fuijin, one of the eldest of the old gods and said to be present at the creation of the world. Even as the clans expanded and shrunk, some drifting away to other parts of the land while others settled into Konoha, the observance of these deities never waned. They were quiet, formal affairs held in classic shrines in accordance with tradition.     The Uchiha clan prominently worshiped Amaterasu. Goddess of the sun, the one who shines in Heaven, believed to have given the Uchiha clan their power over the flames. Uchiha shrines were secretive things, never shown to outsiders, carved deep into mountains far outside the beaten path. By the time Sasuke had been born, many of the original shrines were long abandoned. Before they helped found the Leaf Village, the Uchiha clan had been a nomadic warrior clan who roamed the lands. Therefore, many of their shrines were widely spread and unknown to others. When they had settled into Konoha, these shrines were eventually forgotten. Sasuke had only ever known one major shrine dedicated to their goddess. It was buried deep under the Uchiha compound, its entrance a closely guarded secret. He remembered attending his first ceremony as a small child, clutching his brother’s hand tightly. The main sanctuary was lit by a large fire situated on a platform, a statue of the goddess looming over the flames. The clan surrounded her, Sasuke and his family being the head of the clan right up front. His father led the proceedings, speaking words Sasuke’s young mind didn’t understand. He knew, however, that their ceremony was quite different from other clans.      The Uchiha were warriors and put great value in the shedding of blood, both on and off the battlefield. While the Naras and Hyuugas uttered words of prayer and burned incense, the Uchihas chanted ancient songs of glory and death, slashing their palms and dripping their blood into Amaterasu’s fire. The flames would hiss and spit, seeming to grow with every second as the clan’s voices rose together in a haunting crescendo.      Sasuke had been terrified and fascinated as a child. He absorbed as much as he could at first. The Uchiha name was steeped in the old mythology; they believed they were the direct descendants of the goddess herself. As such, the clan was also linked to her divine siblings,  the storm god Susanoo and the moon deity Tsukuyomi, as well as their parents and creator gods Izanagi and Izanami. Coming from such an important family tree, the clan kept a close eye on their bloodline. Outsiders were rarely allowed to marry into the clan, for fear of diluting their divine blood.      Sasuke had taken to the ceremonies readily. As a child, he was exempt from spilling his blood into the fire, but he’d anxiously awaited the day. When his brother was finally given the black handled dagger, Itachi had looked oddly reluctant and gazed disdainfully at the blade. Nevertheless, he completed the act with cold detachment. Sasuke had not understood Itachi’s blasé attitude towards their clan’s goddess. He’d found great comfort in the statue, feeling as if Amaterasu herself was watching over him, hearing his whispered prayers every night before bed.     The night after the slaughter of his clan, Sasuke had stumbled down into the empty shrine. The eternal fire blazed before him, casting shadows across the goddess’s face. He’d raged and screamed, small voice echoing off the stone walls. He cried and smashed his fists against the floor until they bled, and still she did not answer. No divine voice whispered to him, the earth did not move, the heavens did not open. His family was still dead, his brother still a traitor. Sasuke was still alone, no matter how much he begged, no matter how many times he slashed the dagger’s blade across his little arm.     Sasuke never entered the shrine again after that, and Amaterasu’s name was only uttered when he summoned the black flames of the Mangekyo. He’d turned his back on the old gods and instead gave his soul to the dark, walking the lonely road of vengeance. If the gods wouldn’t help him, he’d bring retribution himself. He’d gain as much power as he could, climb to the peak of his potential and awaken the true powers of his bloodline.     With the truth of Itachi’s love and sacrifice, and Konoha’s involvement with his clan’s destruction, Sasuke had taken a hard look at the state of the world. He realized that hate ran too deep, that political intrigue and those in power had woven knots within knots. It wasn’t just Konoha, it was the shinobi world in its entirety. The system was corrupt, soaked with the blood of people just like Itachi who had been nothing but a lamb fed to the gaping maw of a monster created by those who sat safe and secure in their seats of power. He realized that he, along with the rest of his teammates, had been conditioned since day one to be nothing but weapons for those who saw themselves as superior. His clan had been a breeding program for the leaders of Konoha, a way to control the Sharingan and keep tabs on those who wield it. Like dogs raised to fight in the cage. And when the dogs began to bite back, they were slaughtered like cattle.     The Uchiha clan hadn’t been the first to meet such a fate, of course. It’d happened to dozens of others over the centuries. Hundreds of clans were wiped out completely, some of which the Uchihas themselves had helped do the deed. Their world was just groups of people squabbling for power, to get the upper hand before someone else did, all the while throwing lives at their cause and not caring how many had to die.      The realizations had made Sasuke physically sick with rage, body trembling with the suppressed urge to unleash the black flames upon the land and sit back as the entire planet burned. Rage was not the answer, as tempting as it was. Sasuke refused to let Itachi’s death be in vain. He would bring real change to their world, no matter the cost, even if it meant becoming so isolated in the dark that even the brightest light couldn’t penetrate.     Defeating Naruto would simply be a means to an end. Sasuke had ignored the way his heart clenched, his head swam, the trembling of his hands at the very thought of ending the blond’s life. He fully believed he had the fortitude to do what had to be done, to do what Itachi had done before him. To destroy what he held dear. It had been clear to him that day in the valley that he loved the other boy. Naruto had been the only light in his life, the only one to see Sasuke for something else other than his bloodline. The only one after Itachi to show him the true meaning of loyalty and bonds, of friendship and love. The pain in his heart could only be explained by love. Just as he had to experience loss to awaken his Sharingan, just as Itachi had to sacrifice himself to grant Sasuke the eternal Mangeko, so too would he gain power by killing the one he loved.      It was in the last second, however, the moment of truth that he failed. Looking into Naruto’s determined eyes, his Chidori inches from his friend’s chest–the same friend who was willing to follow him into death–Sasuke pulled back.     Or, at least he tried.     Energy cannot be destroyed, merely redirected. The amount of intent, of power, he’d poured into his Chidori had been greater than he’d ever achieved before. All the hate, the love, the darkness in his heart consumed him completely in that moment, culminating into a lightning blade strong enough to cut a mountain in two. Unwilling to unleash it on Naruto and with nowhere to go, Sasuke had made the split-second decision to direct the blow inward.     His final moments were strangely calm. Instead of feeling the Chidor’s heat burning into his skin, searing his bones, he felt numb. Instead of a bright light welcoming him, a dimness encircled him, shadows seeping in from all sides. Instead of a mind full of regrets and unfinished work, of a vengeance never enacted, it was overcome with precious memories he’d so carefully locked away. That time when he and his brother slept outside on the porch gazing up at the stars, Itachi’s arms around him. The moment on the bridge in the Land of Waves, when he jumped in front of a wave of needles aimed at Naruto. The first night he came to Kakashi after a nightmare, falling asleep in the older man’s arms and feeling so safe he never wanted to leave.      While his atoms split apart as his own power ripped through his body and the darkness enveloped him completely, Sasuke’s last thought was how painful it was to love. ~*~     “...so you did die,” Kakashi said, a waver to his voice. He almost sounded sad. Sasuke didn’t understand this.     “I was neither alive nor dead,” he answered, gazing at the other man impassively. He felt Kakashi’s emotions, wave after wave. Felt the part of Kakashi’s soul deep inside him pulse in response, warmth flaring slightly before settling once again. Sasuke didn’t understand this either.     “What were you then? Where were you?” Kakashi asked, hands clenched in his lap. Even though half of his face was hidden, Sasuke could see the scowl behind the mask.     “In between,” Sasuke shrugged. “Caught between the strands of time, the fabric of the universe…in a realm adjacent to earth but imperceptible to humans. Take your pick. It’s all of those and none of them.” He tilted his head back, eyes penetrating the blades of the willow’s leaves to gaze at the violet moon hanging above. “I was where the mortal flesh dies and a god is made.”     Kakashi was silent for a long while, watching him with a look that even Sasuke’s keen eyes could not fully decipher. “And how is one made into a god?”     Sasuke smiled, a twisted thing full of teeth. “Painfully.” ~*~     The dark remade him.     It crept into his veins even as they split apart. It soaked into his blood, penetrated his skin, slid down his throat and coated his insides all while his flesh was ripped, shredded, torn right from his bones. Lightning surged through him and cracked his bones before the darkness fused them back together, the process repeating and repeating. Fire burned and scorched him from the inside, erupting from his muscles and tissue even as the shadows seeped into every crevice.      Sasuke was sure he was screaming, but could not hear it over the sound of his body ripping apart and stitching back together. It was not merely from the torture of feeling his flesh tear itself apart, however. Greater than the flames, the lightning, even the darkness was his rage. It filled him, consumed him, fueled him. The physical pain was nothing compared to the fury that ripped through his mind, incinerated his heart. While his bones splintered, he raged against the Leaf–for all it took from him, for the sacrifices his brother made, for all the lies he was fed and the hypocrisies forced down his throat. As his skin cracked and bled he raged against his family for putting Itachi in such a position, for being so blind sighted by their pride that they did not see the writing on the wall. Most of all, he raged against himself–for his weakness, his ignorance, his failures, his helplessness, his utter lack of power against those who broke his world. 
    This is not the end.
     A voice began to whisper to him, warped and mangled. Perhaps it was always there and the sound of his own screams had drowned it out. 
    You are not done.
     Sasuke screamed, shouted, his torn body writhing against the dark that surrounded him. There was no up or down, no forwards or back, no ground nor sky. It was only him and the darkness, thick shadows–tangible, touching him like a lover’s caress.  
    You will become what you must.
     Sasuke’s eyes were gone, nothing left but bloody sockets, yet he could see clearly. He saw in the darkness, through it, saw it for what it really was– who it really was. 
    You will not be forsaken. 
     Sasuke stopped fighting it then, realization clicking into place. He focused, stretching his senses, his mind. His pain was replaced by pleasure, his anger by euphoria; fire and lightning and shadow pulsed together as one. 
    You will walk as Death. You will become the nightmare they feared. You will seek them–
    The voice–his voice–grew in volume with each word. He stared into the dark–his very being, his essence, his soul–and smiled as it morphed, changed, and this time he did not fight it. His body and the shadows of himself became one. 
    You will devour them whole–
     Yes, yes he will rip them apart. He laughed as his teeth elongated, sharpened, ready and hungry to rip into mortal flesh.     – and you will take the world for your own.      He held up his hands, watched the fingers tighten and the nails grow into pointed, black daggers. Ready to grip the world in his talons and slice it down to the core.     Sasuke arched as his body changed, leaving behind the flesh of his human-self. Horns, black and curling up to deadly points burst from his skill. Wings, as dark as the shadows, spread from his back. Black feathers rained down on him, soaked in his blood. His spine curled and cracked as the bones inside burst from his skin in sharp points. The darkness that had surrounded him now seeped inside, searing onto his skin to leave dark marks from head to toe. They were in a language Sasuke had never seen yet understood perfectly, spelling out his purpose, his mission, his dark promise. They spread and spread until the pale skin was completely covered, leaving only black scales in its wake. They shimmered with the colors of the shadows, violets and sapphires. Sasuke let the darkness–his darkness, the blackness of his soul he’d held back for years, the one true element he called his own–consume him completely.  
    You will do what the others cannot. You will feast on them, on their hate and their fears, until only those who are worthy are left to serve you. 
     What was human was gone. What was mortal was dead. In its place– a dark presence, a monstrous form, black as night and writhing with shadowy flames. A beast with fangs and claws, wings and horns like the demons of old, black scales and spikes down its spine, a long barbed tail, strong jaws made for crunching bones–     A tongue darted out, long and forked, hungry as it licked along his new fangs. He snapped his jaws, an inhuman growl rumbling in his chest as his lips morphed into a twisted grin.      You will reshape this world as you have reshaped yourself. You will burn it all down. You will swallow  up their souls.     And they will worship you for it.  ~*~     “Is this how all gods are made?”     Kakashi’s voice brought Sasuke back to the present. He blinked slowly and tilted his head as he gazed down at his fingers. “I wouldn’t know,” he murmured, “I am the only one.”     Kakashi seemed to consider this for a moment. “The only one to be born human?”     Sasuke shook his head. “The only god. I am all there is. Amaterasu…Tsukuyomi, Izanami. Dead, perhaps…or simply gone, abandoning this world for another. Maybe they just never existed.” He smiled, gazing at Kakashi through the bangs framing his face. “But the world is no longer godless, Kakashi…and you are all mine for the taking.”     The other man met Sasuke’s gaze, his expression resigned. “And what are you going to do with us, Sasuke?”     He looked at Kakashi, his former sensei, a man he used to think larger than life, someone he once sought comfort from. Someone who once defended him with his life. A Shinobi whose strength he had admired. Sasuke would take this broken man and remake him, save him, show him just what this little genin could do.      “Don’t look so glum, Sensei,” Sasuke purred, leaning forward to graze a claw across Kakashi’s masked cheek. “I know your thoughts. Your desires. I sensed you the moment you left the Leaf. Heard your soul’s plea. There’s a darkness in you that’s clawing to get out. I’m going to set it free. I’m going to set everyone free.”     Kakashi took a deep breath, as if bracing himself. He spoke slowly, carefully, as if afraid of the response. “And what if some don’t want what you’re offering? What will become of them?”     Sasuke laughed coldly, the purple moonlight reflecting off his sharp teeth. “Dinner.” ~*~     When the creature first became aware, there was a hunger in his belly he’d never known before.     He had no idea where he was, who he even was, but none of that compared to the gnawing emptiness inside him. No other thought mattered but to feed, consume. This creature, new to his own existence, had no name for this hunger or what would satisfy it. Instinct alone would drive him.     He unfolded his body, a mass of shadows and flames, and spread his wings. The air was cold around him, but he felt none of it. The creature stretched his senses, tendrils of shadow creeping along his surroundings until they found an opening. He was deep within a mountain whose ragged peaks reached the sky. He looked further, finding nothing but ice and sleet until he came across a massive cemetery at the mountain’s base. Hundreds of bodies entombed deep into the rock, perfectly frozen and preserved. The creature’s hunger grew, his jaws opening and saliva dripping from his fangs. But–no, these bodies were no good. The flesh was dry, their life essence was long gone. He needed more, a beating heart, hot blood and pink flesh, a soul still attached–     There.      A lone human, its body old but still working, steadily climbing the edges of his mountain. The creature waited, watching–for what, he wasn’t sure. He could take the human now, swallow her up, but still he waited. His hunger clawed at him, the beat of her heart a steady drum in his ears. The wind whipped at her frail body, but still she climbed. The snow threatened to bury her alive, and still she climbed. The creature waited, licking his fangs, watching–     The human stumbled and slipped. He watched as she tumbled down the side of the cliffs, her fragile body hitting each rock with a crunch. By the time she came to a stop, her body was mangled and bloodied. Each breath was a struggle, each weaker than the last. The creature heard the call, the one he’d been waiting for. He spread his massive wings, darkness and flame and lightning roaring as he glided down the side of the mountain. He landed beside her, his body a giant shadow hovering over her broken form. His hunger roared inside him, the emptiness of his core demanding to be filled. He opened his jaw wide, full of dripping fangs and a darting tongue, ready to swallow her up.     She gasped beneath him. Her soul cried out, reaching for him, drawn to him. He paused, tasting it, shuddering as it slid over his tongue. This, this is what he hungered for. More than the flesh, more than blood, he wanted her soul. A light for the dark cavern of his own heart, to consume and possess for eternity. She whispered to him, begging for release from the pain. The creature obliged, swallowing her soul with a hungry growl. In an instant, he knew her. From her conception to this very moment of her death, as her heart beat one last time. He saw her life, the bleak reality she was born into. He saw her family die–murdered–leaving her an orphan of just 10 years-old. He saw her grow, always on the brink of starvation, praying to gods who never answered to bring justice for her village–revenge for the cruelty they suffered. In an instant, the creature knew the pain she sought relief from was not that of her broken body, but something much deeper.     The creature looked at her corpse and once again followed his instinct. Slowly, he began to change. His shadowy form shrunk, the flames and darkness compressing. He morphed into something with pale skin and dark hair,  and eyes like amethyst and blood. He knew this form–was intimately familiar with it– but did not know from where. He knelt down and pressed his hand to her cold cheek, sharp claws cutting into her skin. He remembered his purpose, the meaning of the dark language written on his skin. The markings moved and pulsed as her soul settled deep inside, stroking the fires of his being. He breathed, the air around them still, time coming to a stop.       “I will consume all the hate in this world,” he whispered, his voice distorted. He poured his darkness into her, stitching the muscles back together, mending the bones, pushing life back into her old heart.      Keiko gasped, taking a gulping breath, her eyes popping open to gaze at him fully. He smiled at her and caressed her cheek lovingly. His wings came forward, shielding her from the icy wind, his fire surrounding her body in a protective cocoon.  
    “You’re soul is mine.”
 ~*~     “Why did you take her?”     Sasuke tilted his head. “I was hungry.” He paused, dark eyes dragging across Kakashi’s form. “You have no idea, Kakashi. I wanted nothing more than to devour her whole. This hunger…it’s never satisfied. Even now, I restrain myself from taking you.”     Kakashi frowned and leaned forward, propping his chin up on his elbow in a bored fashion and seemingly unbothered by this. “But you brought her back.”     “Yes,” he purred, wings shuddering at the memory of her soul–the first he ever tasted– sliding down his throat. The pleasure that had coarse through him in that moment had been unparalleled– until very recently. “She lives because I allow it. Because she freely gave herself to me in exchange for the power to enact her revenge. I didn’t realize it then, but I had just gained my first devotee. The first worshiper in a long line of many in this village.”     “So the first Sato you killed–”     “The man who killed her family,” Sasuke nodded. “I didn’t remember who I was then, not yet, but I knew her pain well. I knew the need for revenge.” He growled, the marks on his body pulsing. “And I was still so hungry…” ~*~     The man was not as old as his Keiko, but he was far past his prime. Fat and balding, with a weak heart and a bad liver, the creature could see death was creeping around the corner whether he intervened or not. But Keiko did not want his age or lifestyle to take him. She wanted her new god to reap his soul, wanted to watch the horror as his face.     The creature was only too happy to oblige. As foul as the human was, the soul called to his hunger. It was putrid, tainted with the dark deeds of his life, and it made the creature ache with the need to devour.    “I want him to suffer, my dark master,” Keiko had whispered deep into the night, kneeling at the base of the mountain that had killed her. “I know you seek to eat his soul. Take it, it’s yours. But make sure he feels every second of it. Let him bask in the horror of your dark glory.”     “I will rip into his flesh and swallow him whole,” the creature had promised her.     “You must leave the body, master,” Keiko replied hesitantly.     “You dare to order me?”     He felt her fear and relished in it. “No, master, no,” she hastened. “The others–they must see his death. They must see your power for themselves. So that the Sato’s may cower and the villagers may seek you out. Once they see you are real–they will come to you. They will give themselves to you.”     “You will bring me more souls,” the creature purred, letting his shadowy tail wrap around her small frame loosely.      “Yes, yes,” Keiko nodded, grinning widely. “All will be yours.”    And so he waited and watched as the man fell asleep, a shadow in the corner of his room. It was easy to enter the human’s mind and find his darkest fears. The creature exploited these, conjuring nightmares. The man woke screaming and thrashing in his bed, clutching at his weak heart.      “Run, little human, ” the creature whispered, his shadow rippling in the corner. He bared his teeth, tongue snaking out and dripping with saliva. “Or the monster under your bed is going to get you.”      The man stumbled out of bed and ran, raving and shouting. The others of the household woke, startled, and watched with confusion as the man ran outside in nothing but the clothes he’d slept in. The creature laughed and chased him through the village, his flames nipping at the man’s heels. The human stumbled and shouted, panic making his movements erratic. He ran blindly until he was knee deep in snow, a mile outside the village.      The creature reached out a clawed hand and grabbed the man’s ankle, lifting him easily into the air and dangling him like a worm above his gaping maw.      “ God, please no!!” the man begged as he stared down into the abyss of the creature’s throat, massive fangs dripping and a long purple tongue darting out. The man could only squirm and scream in terror, powerless against the dark monster.     “ There are no gods here,” the creature hissed. “ No one to save you. It’s too bad she wants your body spared. I would have enjoyed sinking my teeth into your flesh.”      He opened his jaw wider, the man’s screams music to his ears, and engulfed the man’s body in black flames. The human’s screams turned mangled as his soul was sucked out, a murky wisp that was pulled from his flesh. The creature purred, tongue sliding along the smoke-like substance and guiding down his throat. As it faded, the man’s body–once plump–began to wrinkle and collapse in on itself. The skin turned to an ashy grey, drying up like that of a long dead corpse.      The creature flung the husk to the ground, uncaring of what became of it now. He felt the man’s soul settle into his belly, heard the man’s screams as his darkness ate away at him.      “Welcome to your own personal hell,” the monster whispered, his massive body convulsing with pleasure. He threw his head back and roared, his darkness spreading until it blackened the sky. He felt the man’s terror, his pain. He felt Keiko’s elation knowing the deed was done. And still he wanted more, more, more. He wasn’t just hungry.     He was starving. ~*~      “Was she right?” Kakashi asked, his voice barely above a whisper. “Did the villagers seek you out?”     “Over time,” Sasuke said.     “They were frightened at first,” Kakashi drew his own conclusion.     “Perhaps,” Sasuke murmured. “Humans fear what they do not understand. Desperation, however, has a way of subduing those fears. The death of this man–at the time the head of the Sato family–caused quite the panic. Instead of repenting for their ways, they grew even more cruel.” He laughed darkly. “They practically threw the villagers at my feet. It was a fucking buffet after that.”     Kakashi leaned back and folded his arms over his chest, looking at Sasuke curiously. “Keiko said this all started about 7 years ago…in all that time you only took a few members of the Sato family…”     “I’ve taken over half of that family,” Sasuke clicked his tongue. “The number in your little mission debrief was just what they told others.”      Kakashi blinked. “Why lie about the number?”     Sasuke snorted. “Come, Kakashi. You’re a smart man. Think about it.”     Kakashi nodded and sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Power, of course.”     “Of course,” Sasuke echoed. “The Satos are linked to the Yukikage. They are one of the oldest bloodlines in this wretched land. If word got out that the Yukikage’s family–however distant– was being wiped out, his claim to his little throne would be vulnerable. He’s already neck deep in revolts and assassination attempts. The fact that he had to ask for help from other hidden villages already shows his weakness. He’s a desperate man, making increasingly desperate decisions.”     “Why not just take the Yukikage then?” Kakashi raised a brow. “Cut the head off the snake.”     “Did my killing Danzo change anything?” Sasuke retorted. “It’s never just one or two, Kakashi. It’s a swarm. The world is far too gone, too corrupt, to enact real change without getting your hands dirty yourself. There are too many pulling too many strings. Even if you kill a daimyo, an elder, a kage–there’s always another waiting to replace him. The only way to fight an infection is to eradicate it completely. Besides…” Sasuke tilted his head head and licked his lips, purring deeply. “It’s much more fun this way. Their fear makes it that much more delicious when I finally eat their pitiful souls.”     Kakashi was silent for a long while after that, staring through the limbs of the willow tree and out at the calm lake. Sasuke watched him patiently, could practically hear the gears in his head turning. As a young shinobi under the man’s tutelage, he’d always wondered what Kakashi was thinking. The older man had been an enigma of sorts, giving away nothing about himself and always hiding behind that mask. Now he could feel the emotions coming off the other, their link letting him know just what was going through Kakashi’s mind. Shock and fear, sadness and regret, happiness shadowed by doubt, and most intriguing of all–desire. Not just the physical. Sasuke knew he inspired lust from most who crossed his path. No, this was a desire to give in–give in to the sweet darkness Sasuke offered and watch the world burn.     He’d sensed Kakashi’s wavering loyalty the moment he left the village. Felt his weariness, his sadness, the heartache from all his losses. As Hokage, Kakashi had seen behind the curtain and saw just how deep the corruption ran. How the elders manipulated the clans like pawns, breeding them like cattle to control their unique abilities then snuffing out any who dared to question them. He had finally opened his blind eyes to the monstrosity of the system, training children to become weapons of war and brainwashing them to die so that those who sat in seats of power may live.     “It was you who reminded me who I was,” Sasuke spoke, drawing Kakashi’s attention. “Until you came to find me, Kakashi, I had no name–no memory. I asked who you were and you told me  your name–do you remember?”     Kakashi nodded, swallowing thickly. “I do.”     “It was as if a switch went off,” Sasuke tapped his forehead. “And I was Uchiha Sasuke once again. And you…you called out to me so loudly. You sounded so desperate. Your soul was aching for me…I couldn’t deny you. Not even if I had wanted to.” He moved, gliding his body closer to the other and smiling as he straddled Kakashi’s lap, hearing the man’s heart rate speed up. “So I took a little piece and hungered for more. . Do you know how good you taste, Sensei?” He hummed and leaned forward, bracing his hands on either side of Kakashi’s head. He purred as Kakashi’s hand automatically settled on his hips, gripping him tightly.      Kakashi gazed at him with lidded eyes, his voice hoarse with lust as he spoke. “How good?”     Sasuke’s tongue slid out, the forked tendrils teasing along Kakashi’s neck. “ Divine ,” he growled. “I could eat you up.”     “...what happens if I give you my soul, Sasuke?” Kakashi asked softly, shuddering beneath Sauske’s weight.     “I will be your god,” Sasuke murmured into his skin. “And you, my worshiper. Anything you wish for will be granted. None can harm you. I will free you from these shackles you’ve placed upon yourself. I will show you pleasures you’ve never even allowed yourself to dream of. And you will be witness to the reshaping of this world.” He lifted his head, eyes glowing in the moonlight. “This village is just the beginning, Kakashi. I will spread my wings and engulf everything in darkness.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“They’ve promised that dreams can come true–but forgot the mention that nightmares are dreams too.”- Oscar Wilde~*~

Kakashi never claimed to be a good man.
 
    Despite the respect earned as Leaf’s infamous Copy Ninja from his fellow shinobi and his reputation as the perfect soldier, Kakashi wasn’t exactly a monk. His penchant for reading dirty books in public was pretty tame compared to what he got up to in private over the years. The shinobi life was bloody, dark, and often times short. As such, it bred certain habits and odd appetites, behaviors that the average citizen would balk at. When one was never sure which mission would be his or her last, one tended to have a different view on morals and values.
 
    Most in his line of work were not very materialistic, valuing experiences and moments over things. After all, shinobi were likely to die out in the field, far away from their homes and possessions. The only comfort they would really have in their last moments are the memories, the precious seconds in between missions. Kakashi, like others, tried fill these with as much pleasure as he could. Whether that be reading his books, drinking with his fellow shinobi until he blacked out or a heated tryst in a back alley, he rarely turned down a good time. By the time he was in Anbu, he was familiar with the warmth of sake and the pressure of another’s hand on his cock. At the tender age of 13, he’d already witnessed a bloody war and the death of his teammates. His father was gone and with no other to lead by example, Kakashi quickly fell into bad habits. 
 
    Even if the war was ended, the violence of a shinobi’s life was never done. Killing and watching others be killed had a way of warping the mind, turning innocence into debauchery and a heart into a lump of coal–black and brittle. Kakashi was good at killing and quickly climbed the ranks of Anbu, becoming a captain t 16 years old. He excelled at assassinations and many of his nights were spent slitting the throats of Leaf’s enemies. He became accustomed to blood, the smell and feel of it, the way it splattered, even the way it tasted. Kakashi stopped keeping count of how many he killed, the names and faces blurring together. He was almost numb to it, numb to everything. It got to the point where he would do anything just to feel something.
 
    Smoking, drinking, sex–anything to keep his head from drowning in all the blood soaked memories. Morals had no place in his world. His soul was destined for hell, so why not enjoy the ride? Kakashi developed tastes that would’ve shamed his family if he had any. He was no stranger to brothels and bars, losing himself in the sensations of warm bodies and a foggy mind. He couldn’t risk drugs as a shinobi, so he replaced that with more sex. Men, women–he never had much of a preference in gender or even body type. All that mattered to Kakashi was discretion and detachment. Prostitutes were easy to come by, most of them used to the strange and often violent tastes of ninja. They didn’t bat an eye if he asked them to choke him, cut him, tie him up or drip hot wax on his most vulnerable parts. They didn’t care if he fucked their face or pressed his kunai to their throats while he pounded into them. 
 
    Despite all of this, however, he had possessed a warped sense of right and wrong. Sex–no matter how rough it got–was always consensual. Drinking was only done once the mission was over. And the deaths he rendered were sanctioned by the Hokage and the council. He believed in the system, in loyalty, just as his father did. He had been proud to wear the Leaf symbol, had faith that his bloodied hands and tainted soul were all for the greater good. That his actions and his eventual death would one day lead to peace.
 
    Even after witnessing the cruelty inflicted on a young boy the 3rd Hokage turned a blind eye to, Kakashi had faith. Even after watching them shuffle a traumatized boy–so soon after watching his own brother slit the throats of his parents–back into an empty, blood stained compound to live alone and unguided at the mere age of seven, Kakashi had faith. Even after watching those two boys break themselves to gain respect, beat themselves bloody to grow stronger, and ultimately rip themselves apart to achieve their gails, he had faith. He took up to the Hokage title believing the system, while flawed, was the only thing that keep the tentative peace after the great war. After all, despite all the odds, his boys had pulled together to defeat the greatest threat their world had ever faced. 
 
    Kakashi hadn’t anticipated how much of a change of pace being Hokage really was. Instead of leaving for missions every week, facing death and unknown enemies, he was stuck behind a desk for 12 hours a day. Instead of the rush of adrenaline he got from a close call, the only rush he got was from a fresh cup of coffee. Instead of the satisfaction of a mission accomplished, there were endless stacks of papers and scrolls. And as Hokage, it was nearly impossible for him to indulge in those filthy habits he’d depended on.
 
    The change had inevitably led to his mind wandering and finding all those dark thoughts he’d been able to keep at bay with the help of alcohol and sex. The war had been a nice distraction, but once things settled Kakashi had found himself struggling to push his doubts to the side. They only became more prominent with each day until his nights were practically consumed by them. He’d often been caught by Shikamaru in the early morning still at his desk–having never left the night before–staring sightlessly out the windows with a deep frown.
 
    Every time he handed a mission to a rookie team, his heart clenched at the thought of one of those kids not coming back. Every time he signed K.I.A report, his stomach dropped as he gazed at the list of names–men and women who left behind families and friends. When he sat at the first Chuunin exams held since the war, his throat closed up as the contestants–children–battled it out, risking life and limb, while others watched and cheered. Like it was some sport.

There’s something not right here,

he had thought.

This can’t be what I fought for. What Sasuke and Itachi died for.

The first and only time he tried to voice his concerns to the council had been a turning point for Kakashi. He’d been met with stoney silence and poorly concealed threats, reminding Kakashi of the Hokage’s true role–to serve the daimyo and the Land of Fire’s best interests.
 
    “The balance of power is ever shifting, Kakashi,” the elders had said, cold smiles pulling on their pale lips. “Konoha’s grip must remain tight. We have control of the board and must move our pieces carefully. If we perceive any threats…any at all,” their eyes bored into him, “our Anbu will snuff them out quickly and quietly.”
 
    “The Anbu answer to the Hokage,” Kakashi had said darkly, meeting their gazes head on.
 
    “Perhaps yours do,” they hissed. “But Root answers to us.”
 
    “Root was disbanded with the death of Danzo,” Kakashi retorted, his heart racing. 
 
    “That goes to show how little you know.”
 
    They had been right. After that meeting, Kakashi had never approached them again, but instead started his own investigations. He had dug deep and far into classified archives, the extent of which only Shikamaru knew. He’d discovered every dirty secret and blood-soaked lie. The practice of sacrificing children to house the tailed demons–most of which died, the careful and meticulous planning of kekkei genkai bloodlines, the assassinations, the massacres. The destruction of the Uchihas had been decades in the making, starting all the way back to the second Hokage. Even leaving little Sasuke alive had been carefully thought out. A way to keep the Sharingan under their control, they had manipulated the boy into hating his brother and to remain loyal to the Leaf with the hopes of breeding him later on. There had even been talks of an arranged union with the Hyuuga heir, Hinata, to combine the two bloodlines. 
 
    All of this and more, so much more, that Kakashi had had to force himself to quit digging lest he put a kunai to his own wrists. For the remainder of his days as Hokage, he’d tried to make changes in the system. Tried to enact small deeds that wouldn’t raise the elders’ suspicions, but it was all rather worthless. In the end, nothing really had changed at all. He’d handed the hat over to Naruto with a heavy heart and an even heavier conscious. 
 
    He’d left the village for a short while during his vacation, throwing himself into debauchery to fight the creeping darkness in his mind. Sex and booze and drugs–he indulged in all of it, drowning in it. Nothing was off limits and for a short while, he forgot about the world and the role he had in shaping it. For a short while, he simply didn’t give a fuck about the village or the people in it. He’d been selfish and greedy and filthy, chasing every want and gave way to every lust. He didn’t think about the bodies of so many comrades rotting in the ground, or the young man who had transformed from outcast to hero now sitting in the very role that had ordered the callous destruction of his friend’s life. And Kakashi certainly didn’t think about that young man’s friend, a boy betrayed and used and so broken that in the end not even Naruto could save him. Because if he did, even for just a second, he’d take the path of his father and end it all himself.
 
    No, Kakashi was not a good man. But even so.
 
    Even so.
 
    Kakashi stared out of Keiko’s window at the full moon and dark sky, hands stuffed into his pockets. The last conversation he had with Sasuke was playing over and over in his head.
 
~*~

Sasuke straddled his lap, his weight a pleasant warmth that seeped through his clothes. The boy’s mouth was attached to his neck, the the thin material of his mask doing nothing to shield him from the wet heat. Kakashi’s hands clutched at Sasuke’s waist, fingers twitching with indecision. He couldn’t get his mind to focus, couldn’t shake the images that Sasuke had shown him just moments prior. Images of what he truly was and what he was set out to do.

A monster ready to devour him–and dammit if Kakashi wasn’t tempted to let him.

“What is it that you’re asking of me exactly?” Kakashi finally spoke, breath coming out in a huff. He felt as if he couldn’t get enough air. He wanted to rip his mask off, but was afraid what the lack of layer between himself and this creature would cause. What he would let happen.

“To walk beside me,” Sasuke answered, lifting his head to meet Kakashi’s eyes. “To be my partner.”

Kakashi slide a hand up Sasuke’s side, feeling the hard muscle beneath the hot skin. A part of him still couldn’t believe thisw as real, that Sasuke Uchiha was not only alive but here in the flesh, right underneath his fingertips. “Why?”

Sasuke didn’t answer and Kakashi didn’t really expect him to. He had feeling the boy himself didn’t even know. He was more emotionally stunted and damaged than Kakashi.

“Would you kill me if I said no?”

Sasuke sighed softly, a small puff of air against Kakashi’s neck. “No,” he said quietly.

Kakashi looked past Sasuke’s shoulder, eyes trailing up the powerful limb that made up his left wing. He wanted to run his fingers along the black scales and stroke the dark feathers. “Why not Naruto?”

Sasuke visibly tensed, muscles in his wing tightening. “...Naruto is naive,” he murmured. “He thinks he can still change things if he played by their rules. You and I know differently.”

“And if he gets in your way?” Kakashi asked, lifting a hand to cup Sasuke’s cheek. His skin was hot, blazing against his fingers. “What will you do?”

Sasuke turned away and abruptly stood. He stepped back, gazing down at Kakashi with a blank expression. “Come to me when you’ve made your choice.”

Kakashi’s vision blurred, the landscape around him shifting and fading. He had the brief sensation of falling, his stomach dropping before everything went black. When the world righted itself, he was sitting in Keiko’s home with no memory of how he got there.

~*~
 
    There was no way of telling how much time had passed since he went up the mountain. He’d told Keiko to send his message to the Hokage if he didn’t return in three days. For all he knew, Naruto was on his way here right now.
 
    Gods, how would he even explain this? Naruto wasn’t like him. He was pure through and through, all the way down to his marrow. As much as the blond cared for Sasuke, Kakashi just couldn’t see him stepping aside. Naruto believed everyone had innate good in them, that he could enact change without the cost of lives. Though he entered battles with the intent to kill when necessary, he’s never actually killed anyone. He always tried to rely on his words to reach people’s hearts, to change their path without harming them. Naruto would never condone Sasuke bringing about his own version of the apocalypse, even if he seemed to only be going after the truly corrupt–and those who stood in his way. 
 
    And how long would that last? Sasuke hadn’t been stable when he was human. Half the time, Kakashi couldn’t tell where Sasuke’s loyalties lied–what his true plans were. He’d been volatile, quick to anger when the right buttons were pressed. This Sasuke was a powerhouse, capable of immense destruction. If he decided the human race was was a lost cause, what would keep him from destroying everyone? Even his so-called devotees. 
 
    Really, he didn’t need Kakashi at all. And yet.
 
    And yet he was giving Kakashi a choice. Not only that, but giving him time to think it over. He didn’t need Kakashi, but he

wanted

him there–for reasons Kakashi couldn’t even begin to guess at. They hadn’t exactly parted on good terms. It could all be some sort of revenge–forcing Kakashi to watch his loved ones die one by one. But–no, his instincts told him there was no intended malice here. The offer was genuine, but Sasuke was keeping his reasons to himself for now.
 
     All of this went ‘round and ‘round in his head, bringing Kakashi no closer to his choice than before. He believed what Sasuke said–that saying no wasn’t a death sentence. He believed whole heartedly he could walk away right now and Sasuke would leave him be. In fact, anyone else in his shoes would. They would take the first ship back to the mainland and not stop until they reached Konoha to bring the news to Naruto personally. But here he was, hesitating, because…
 
    Because he wanted it.
 
    “So he spat you back out, did he?”
 
    Kakashi jerked out of his thoughts and snapped his head to the side. Keiko stood in the small hallway the led to the single bedroom of the home, wrapped in her usual furs and holding a small candlelight. He’d been so engrossed in his thoughts he hadn’t heard her come in.
 
    “For the time being,” he said carefully. Knowing what he knew now about Keiko, about how she had been the first to sic Sasuke on the Sato family, he thought it prudent to be a little cautious around her.
 
    “So you saw him then,” she whispered, eyes growing wide. She sounded envious, the flame of the candle flicking as she breathed. “Do you understand now, shinobi? What you are up against? Do you still think you can fight him? Do you still think you can put up any resistance at all?”
 
    Kakashi blinked slowly and turned back towards the window, his posture relaxed. “No,” he murmured, the image of Sasuke clear in his mind. All that beautiful darkness beckoning him. “No, I don’t think I can.”
 
~*~
 
    He’d been gone for a little over two days. His message to the Hokage was never sent and he couldn’t decide if he felt relieved by that or not. Despite Sasuke’s seemingly nonchalance, Kakashi felt a sense of urgency. Like the calm before the storm, he knew Sasuke was just biding his time before he struck again. He would only give Kakashi so much time before he moved on with his plans. And Kakashi had to choose which side of the board he was going to play on. 
 
    “Do you realize what he will do to this world?” Kakashi asked Keiko later that night, sipping on a cup of hot tea as he gazed into the fireplace. 
 
    “I doubt any of us can truly comprehend what his endgame is,” Keiko murmured from her chair, wrapped in a ball of furs and blankets. “But, yes–I know what he is going to do. He will fly across the land, death on wings, and end this world as we know it. What will be left–who's to say?”
 
    “And you’re okay with that.”
 
    Keiko shrugged and sipped her tea. “There have been great extinctions well before humans ever started waking the earth. Species wiped out or irrevocably changed so the world can start again. Our time has come. So yes, shinobi, I am at peace with that.”
 
    “Millions will die.”
 
    Keiko nodded. “Millions already have, most of them undeserving. There’s a lot of bad out there, Kakashi. The world is broken and it is the humans who broke it. Love has given way to hate. The innocent suffer while the evil prevail. Children are starving and dying. Rivers could be filled with the blood shed over our nations’ petty wars.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, her old wrinkled face showing her age and sorrow. “Humans had their chance. We failed. He was born for a purpose, created by the universe to heal this gaping wound that’s been festering for centuries. We are a disease, Kakashi.”
 
    Kakashi stroked the side of his cup, watching the shadows flicker from the fire. “Do you think he will stop there? You said it yourself…demons are greedy, always hungry. Once he’s taken the souls of all the corrupt and wicked…will he be satisfied?”
 
    Keiko turned her head to look at him and smiled, the kind a mother offered to her frightened child. “I do not think we would be here if he did not truly mean his word.”
 
    “You have a lot of faith in a creature you barely know,” Kakashi huffed a weak laugh.
 
    “It’s not faith, it’s logic,” Keiko shrugged. “He is not mindless. If he wanted to, he could cover this planet in flames and be done with it. Move onto the next. Why take the time to weed through the mess if he simply meant to destroy us all?”
 
    “Sasuke’s always been a bit unpredictable,” Kakashi mumbled, swirling his tea around in its cup. “One can never be sure.”
 
    “Sasuke…” she whispered. “Did you give him that name?”
 
    “No,” Kakashi grunted. “His parents did, when he was born about 25 years ago. He is Sasuke Uchiha of the Leaf…or he was, until he defected when he was 13. He was a rogue ninja, a traitor, at one time the most wanted shinobi for his crimes against the nations.” He took a deep breath and let it slowly. “He was also my student…and the only reason the Allied Shinobi forces won the Great 4th War. He was human as much as you and I are…and believed to be dead.”
 
    Keiko was silent for a moment, taking in the new information with relative  ease. Kakashi wondered if it was her old age. Perhaps nothing really surprised her anymore. “So the student has surpassed the master,” she chuckled. “Uchiha, eh? Even

this

village knows that name. The last of the great Sharingan bloodline turned dark god bent on destroying the very world he helped save. How poetic.”
 
    She set down her tea with a definitive

clack

and turned fully to face him. “Why did he send you back, shinobi?”
 
    Kakashi set his down as well. “To make my choice.”
 
    She hummed knowingly, clasping her hands together. “And what will you choose?”
 
    Kakashi eyed her warily. “It seems as if you already know.”
 
    “And you do as well,” Keiko smiled. “In fact, you’ve already made it. You’re just too frightened to face it.”
 
    Kakashi leaned back and rubbed at his eyes, fingers bumping against the Leaf headband as he sighed heavily. His voice was weary when he spoke, dark and foreboding. “I’m not sure I have it in me…to walk beside him, to watch this unfold. And if I

can

…what does that make me?”
 
    Keiko waved her hand dismissively. “You think it merely circumstance you’ve come to this moment?” she snorted with a roll of her eyes, as if it were all so simple. “That

you

were his Sensei? Think of the odds alone. Of all the students you could have had, it was him. Of all the missions and wars you’ve endured, you’ve somehow lived long enough to be here

now

. You are Kakashi Hatake, correct? Sixth Hokage, just recently retired from the title. Why were you even given this mission? You should have been at a hot springs, enjoying your rest. No other hidden village wanted this mission, and yet it somehow landed in your lap.”
 
    Kakashi laughed hollowly. “So that’s your answer? Fate?”
 
    “Yes, damn you!” she shouted. “Who else could it have been? Even those of us here heard about the war, about the defeat of Kaguya. Stories were rampant about the two young boys who saved us all. Naruto Uzumaki, the sun, and Sasuke Uchiha, the moon, come together. The 7th Hokage is where he is supposed to be, where fate always intended for him to go. Sasuke has ascended to his role. And you, their teacher, have been instrumental in their making. Who else but you to guide this fledgling god on his conquest? It is time for you to step into

your

role, Kakashi.”

“You make it sound like it’s really that simple.”

“It is,” Keiko huffed, sagging into her chair as if her outburst drained her of energy. “You’re just too stubborn to see it yet.”
 
    “And the question of morality?” 
 
    Keiko huffed a humorless laugh and closed her eyes as she leaned back in her chair, flames’ light flickering across her tired face. “Having morals has gotten us nowhere. The knights in their shining armor have all died for the greater good to no end. Perhaps it’s time we let the villain have his way and see where that takes us.”
 
~*~
 
    The news of Kakashi’s trek up the mountain circulated quickly. Keiko reminded him that in such a small, isolated village any news travels fast. When the weak sun peeked over the horizon and Kakashi blinked his weary eyes out at the town, he was met with curious stares. The hostility, strangely enough, had been replaced by an almost awe-like reverence. 
 
    “Spine spared you,” Keiko explained as they walked the icy roads. “Whether they worship the creature or not, his decision to let you live is not to be taken lightly.”
 
    “No doubt the Satos know then,” Kakashi murmured, hands in his pockets, striding leisurely. 
 
    “No doubt that’s why they have summoned you,” Keiko  nodded. “No one expected you to return, least of all them.”
 
    Kakashi blinked at her. “Did you?”
 
    Keiko grinned. “I figured 50/50.”
 
    “Gee, thanks…”
 
    She escorted him to the Sato estate, waiting outside the main gates as he trudged up to the main entrance. There were only a few guards scattered about whose heads were constantly rotating as they gripped their weapons in a death grip. Kakashi snorted under his breath. Even if Sasuke were still human these goons wouldn’t stand a chance. 
 
    He was led inside by a nervous servant who instructed him to wait in what appeared to be a small study. The servant disappeared quickly, offering no refreshment. Kakashi sighed and took a seat in one of the chairs. He wasn’t sure why he even came, considering what the future likely held for these people, but he was still a Leaf shinobi with a mission-even if he was just going through the motions. It was a nice distraction from chaotic thoughts he was currently wrestling with.
 
    “Kakashi Hatake.”
 
    A man’s voice cut through the silence. Kakashi glanced up, turning his somewhat bored gaze to the man standing in the doorway. He was an unimpressive lanky fellow dressed in traditional robes, with thinning brown hair and a scowl on his face. He looked disdainfully down at Kakashi as he crossed the threshold to take a seat at the large desk centered in the room. 
 
    “And you are?” Kakashi drawled, glad his mask was in place to hide the curl of his lips. 
 
    “Haruto Sato,” the man sniffed. “Current head of the Sato family.”
 
    “Of course,” Kakashi said smoothly, picking the invisible lint off his pant leg. “The previous one died rather tragically, didn’t he.”
 
    Haurto stiffened, his scowl deepening. “That was my father, you Leaf filth. You will show the proper respect due to us.”
 
    “Based on what I’ve heard of this family, I believe I’m being very polite,” Kakashi murmured, clasping his gloved hands together. 
 
    “How dare-!” the man stood abruptly, bracing his hands on the desk as he glared at the other. “Is this how your Hokage lets all his shinobi behave while guests in an allied nation? Perhaps I shall send him a message, reminding him our Lord Yukikage does not take kindly to his family being insulted.”
 
    “Yes, the Lord of Snow must be awfully worried about his extended family,” Kakashi snorted, letting his bored gaze trail to the window. “Couldn’t even be bothered to send his own shinobi.”
 
    “You insolent-!”
 
    “Your nation has no leg to stand on when it comes to threats,” Kakashi interrupted, his patience already beginning to wear thin. “The Land of Snow is practically destitute and on the cusp of civil war. Your Yukikage couldn’t care less what happens to this backwater village. Right now, I’m the only ally you have.” He snapped his gaze to Haruto, eyes hard and cold as the ice outside. “So how about you sit down and play nice?”
 
    Haruto glared and seethed, fingers digging into the wood of his desk. Kakashi stared back at him calmly, his chin resting on his elbow. Finally, after a tense moment, the other slowly sank back into his chair. Kakashi bit back a snort. This man had no idea what was coming for him, no inkling of what Sasuke could–and would–do to him. 
 
    “Have you seen the creature?” Haurto asked, his voice wavering only slightly.
 
    “I have,” Kakashi said simply. 
 
    Haruto waited a beat. “And?”
 
     Kakashi shrugged. “And, as far as I’m concerned, you’re a dead man walking.”
 
    Haruto paled and sputtered, eyes darting nervously to the guard posted just outside his window. “But surely you can–”
 
    “I can’t,” Kakashi said firmly, sparing a glance at the guard outside. “And neither can he, nor anyone else here. It’s not human. Its power is immeasurable. There’s nothing I can really do to stop it.”
 
    “B-but you escaped!” Haruto said desperately, sweat pooling on his brow. 
 
    “No, it let me go,” Kakashi sighed. “I’m not the one it's after.”
 
    “You’re telling me the famous Kakashi Hatake, former Hokage and leader of the Allied Shinobi Forces, cannot exterminate some

beast

-”
 
    “This is no mere beast,” Kakashi spoke over him, narrowing his eyes dangerously. “This is something this world has never seen before and is not prepared to face. It is not mindless nor bound to any laws of nature that I can see. It is not human and I am only a man.”
 
    “Then we will leave!” The man shot up out of his desk, tripping over his own feet as he rushed to the door. “As we should have done when this started! We will leave and-”
 
    “And it will find you,” Kakashi stood, hands stuffed into his pockets as he regarded the man dully. “The blood of the Satos is marked. The only reason you still breathe is because you’ve been given a chance, a choice.”
 
    Haruto paused, scowling impatiently. “A chance for what?”
 
    “To change things,” Kakashi said exasperatedly. “Why do you think it only comes after you and your goons? You’ve bullied this village, raped its women, stolen and hoarded all that is valuable and left the others to starve and freeze. The death of your father, and those who have come after, were all warnings. It will stop if you just-”
 
    “You’re insane!” Haruto spat, eyes wide and crazed. “That thing is a monster and will kill us all!” He ran out of the door, shouting orders at the servants as he flew down the hall. 
 
    Kakashi sighed and glanced out the window, eyeing the sharp peaks of the mountains. “Well…I tried.” The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and somehow he knew Sasuke had been watching.
 
~*~
 
    Kakashi had very little sympathy for fools. 
 
    He watched from atop a roof as Haruto’s ridiculous caravan attempted to drag sleds loaded with possessions through thick snow. It had started to come down shortly after his meeting with the man, blanketing the village in fresh white powder that was quickly hardening into ice. Haruto, greedy and selfish, had insisted he leave ahead of the rest of the family to secure a place for them in Yukigakure. He had apparently deemed his entire wardrobe and prized possession necessary for the trip. It had taken hours to get everything packed and loaded, dozens of sled dogs strapped to the heavy burdens. Night was quickly closing in, the sky darkening with each second that passed.
 
    Kakashi felt a tightening in his chest, a sense of foreboding. The stupid, stupid man. Wasting so much time. He could have been clear of the village by now, hours away. Not that it would have stopped Sasuke, but he may have lived another day. 
 
    Kakashi glanced at those staying behind. There weren’t many left. Hana was there, standing just outside the doorway with a small child held closely to her chest. A young man stood next to her, looking grim and pale with fear. A few other women were spotted in the win
dows and Kakashi could see a couple more children. Widows, he concluded, women had lost their husbands to Sasuke’s onslaught. He hoped they would at least be spared.

Sato’s men were all dressed with severe weather, bundled up so thoroughly Kakashi couldn’t tell one from another. It seemed Haruto was taking everything and everyone with him, leaving the women and children to fend for themselves.
 
    Kakashi scowled in disgust and thought, not for the first, the man deserved what was coming to him. And indeed it would come. Kakashi felt it in his bones, felt Sasuke’s power and hunger stirring from the mountain. He would strike tonight, perhaps right here, and feast.

“You feel it, don’t you?” Keiko asked from the ground, peering up at Kakashi with a wicked grin. “He is coming for them. The moment they decided to run, they sealed their fate. It will be a bloodbath tonight, Hatake.”
 
    Kakashi didn’t answer, his gaze firmly fixed on the fleeing caravan. They finally managed to cut their way through the ever increasing snow, dogs braying and barking as they pushed their way forward. Villagers watched in silence as the caravan made their way through the town, quickly disappearing through the village gates. 
 
    Kakashi hopped down from the roof. 
 
    “You’re going to follow them, aren’t you?” Keiko raised her brow.
 
    “...I need to see it for myself,” he answered, his heart in his throat. He didn’t know what would happen, or what would become of him, but Kakashi knew after tonight his life would be irrevocably changed. 
 
    “Your student is gone,” Keiko murmured, her voice softening. “He is the stuff of nightmares now. What you will witness…it will haunt you forever.”
 
    “He will always be Sasuke to me,” Kakashi said, tightening his cloak. With those words, he took off, leaving the village behind with his eyes trained on the group ahead.
 
~*~
 
    The blizzard was in full force. The sky was pitch black and the horizon was nothing but white ice. Kakashi followed the group steadily, wind whipping at his body and the cold seeping through his clothing. It was downright stupid to be out in such weather, but Haruto’s fear knew no bounds. He drove the dogs faster and faster, driving them all recklessly into the night. The men, who had grown up here and therefore used to the cold, were starting to flag under the onslaught of the snow.
 
    Kakashi didn’t even feel out of breath.
 
    He had braced himself for the worst, fully expecting to be a half -frozen human popsicle by the time Sasuke showed up. The climb up the mountain had proven just how harsh the elements were in this country. Kakashi should have been exhausted by now–they’d been going at a full sprint for hours now–but he felt…fine. Good, even. 
 
    Kakashi recalled how he had felt when he woke up in Sasuke’s bed, fully healed and back from the brink of death. The aches and pains of a man his age were gone. His body had felt strong, as if he was in his prime again. At the time, he had simply brushed it aside as a side effect of Sasuke healing him. Now he wondered if Sasuke hadn’t done something more.
 
    The muscles of his legs burned slightly, but it was nothing he couldn’t push through. The wind was frigid, but he hardly felt it. His heart pumped steady and strong, his lungs pulled and pushed air out easily. His energy didn’t wane and his chakra, helping to keep his feet from sinking into the snow, never seemed to run out.
 
    He was so busy marveling at his newfound strength and durability that he almost didn’t sense it, the shift in the air. Something in his chest tightened and his heart fluttered. He skidded to a halt, watching as the caravan pulled steadily away ahead of him. His whole body tingled, stomach filled with butterflies as something inside him–his soul–sang with the proximity of

him

.
 
    In the sky, the stars began to wink out one by one until there was nothing but black. The wind suddenly died, leaving a deathly silence  in its wake. The snow ceased to fall and the land became utterly still. Haruto and his men, driven blind by fear, did not notice and continued forth. The dogs, sensing the impending danger, began to pull wildly at their harnesses. Each one tried to run in a different direction, causing sleds to tip and spill over. Soon the group was in chaos, shouting and cursing as they tried to rein in the panicking dogs. 
 
    Kakashi crouched near an ice covered boulder, eyes darting around the terrain. He could feel Sasuke, but couldn’t

see

him…
 
    Realization dawned and he slowly looked up, his heart jumping and lungs seizing. A writhing mass of shadow and flame blanketed the sky. Two large glowing eyes stood out from the darkness, one purple and one red. Massive black wings beat the air and with every stroke the black flame danced, dark smoke swirling. Inside the flames, Kakashi could see flashes of lightning illuminating the darkness. He caught shades of color within the blackness, violets and sapphires, glowing like the night sky. Enormous jaws opened wide, a long purple forked tongue darting out to taste the fear in the air. Its huge fangs dripped with saliva, ready to tear open the flesh of the men below.
 
    It was a nightmare made real. Darkness personified. Death on wings. Kakashi couldn’t help but think it was one of the most beautifully horrific things he’d ever seen.
 
    The creature began to morph, the flames and darkness rippling. It formed into a pillar of dark fire, hitting the ground with a deafening roar. Kakashi braced himself against the boulder as the ground heaved below him, but Haruto’s men stumbled and fell with the impact. The dogs and sleds forgotten, each screamed and fought to stand back up, running from the sight. The snow was thick, though, and they were exhausted from the breakneck pace they’d been traveling at. They stumbled and fell in their panic as each took off in a different direction.
 
    A figure began to appear in the pillar of fire, pale skin and black horns with wings that stretched to the sky. Sasuke’s eyes glowed menacingly, zeroing in on Haruto who stood frozen with fear.

“Your time has come,”

Sasuke spoke. 
 
    “No! Stay away from me!” Haruto shouted, turning and attempting to flee. Kakashi could only watch as Sasuke moved with inhuman speed. His claws struck at Haruto’s like a snake. Kakashi heard the crunching of bones as Haruto shrieked, crumpling to the ground. His leg was a twisted mess, blood seeping into the white snow below. 
 
    Sasuke smiled coldly and straddled Haruto’s chest, bending down to swipe his tongue across the man’s cheek, catching the tears as they ran down Haruto’s grizzled face.

“You cannot run anymore,”

Sasuke laughed, a demonic sound that made Kakashi’s heart clench with horror.

“You’re going to watch me as I feast on your men. Then…

” he purred and licked his fangs, “

It’s your turn.”

Haruto choked on a scream, spit and dribble foaming at his mouth. Sasuke paid him no mind, snapping his head up in the direction of the nearest soon-to-be victim. The unlucky man was just a few yards away, limping from what appeared to be a twisted ankle. Kakashi watched with morbid fascination as Sasuke pounced, snarling as he easily brought the man down. Sasuke wasted no time, the poor lackey not even having time to scream before black claws punched through his chest and ripped out his still beating heart. Sasuke opened wide and sunk his fangs in, blood spurting and running down his chin and neck as the man below him twitched and jerked before finally going still.  Sasuke tossed the drained heart aside and gripped the man’s face with both hands, bringing their mouths just inches apart. His jaws opened and his tongue slid out as a wispy, smoke-like substance slowly floated out of the deceased’s parted lips. It glowed faintly as Sasuke’s tongue coaxed it out and into his mouth, swallowing with a low growl. 
 
    Sasuke hunched over and shuddered, wings rattling and stretching high. After a moment, he sighed, his body relaxing. He slowly brought his head up and caught Kakashi’s eyes, a smile pulling at his bloodied lips. Kakashi swallowed thickly, caught somewhere between fear and desire. He didn’t have time to analyze the latter as Sasuke snapped back to action, beating his wings to fly across the field with deadly speed. He caught another in his claws and lifted him up into the air, the man screaming and kicking the whole way. 
 
    Sasuke ripped away the many layers of clothing separating him from the man’s neck before powerful jaws latched on. He jerked his head, ripping the throat out in one swift motion. The man’s movements ceased and he hung limply as Sasuke lapped at the gushing blood. He sucked out the soul, swallowing the wispy trail of light before letting the corpse fall to the ground with a sickening thud.
 
    He made similar work of the rest, chasing them down one by one no matter how far they ran. One he ripped off each limb, another he sliced in half. The last he decapitated, holding the severed head high as he let the blood drip down his throat. He took each soul, swallowing them up greedily, until all that remained was Haruto. It occurred to Kakashi that Sasuke could unleash his power and fury on all of them, burning them in seconds and taking their souls at once. But Sasuke–this creature–liked the hunt, enjoyed ripping into them one by one. Enjoyed forcing Haruto to watch what could only be described as a horror fest.
 
    The current head of the Satos was crawling towards Kakashi, reaching his hand out towards the other. “H-Help me,” he pleaded, tears and snot streaming down his face.
 
    Sasuke slowly approached from behind, walking almost leisurely, covered in the blood and gore of his victims.
 
    “Please,” Haruto begged. Kakashi gazed down at the broken man as he continued to crawl and squirm in a feeble attempt to escape. The snow crunched under Sasuke’s feet as he took another step forward.
 
    “I tried, remember?” Kakashi finally spoke, his voice hoarse. Part of him knew he should try to intervene, that no matter what this man did Kakashi didn’t have a right to dictate how and when he died. Another part of him, a much larger one, knew it was futile and that Sasuke would do what he was going to do, regardless of Kakashi’s actions. Knew deep down that this man deserved what he got. Kakashi had no intention of dying for him.
 
    “Y-you can’t l-let him do this,” Haruto sniveled, flinching with each step Sasuke took. 
 
    “I told you how to stop this,” Kakashi murmured, blinking down at the hand that grasped at his ankle. He shook it off and took a step back, glancing up as Sasuke finally came to stop behind Haruto. “What happens now is out of my control.”
 
    “Worthless Leaf filth! I hope he guts you like a fish next–” Haruto screeched then yelped as Sasuke’s hand closed around his mangled leg, squeezing mercilessly. He yowled and writhed in pain, trying desperately to pull away.

“You will not speak to my Kakashi in such a way,”

Sasuke growled. Kakashi’s heart leaped at that. He pushed down the sensation almost automatically, terrified of its implications.

“

Getawaygetaway

getaway

!” Haruto pushed and pulled to no avail, kicking as Sasuke gripped his throat and lifted him easily off the ground to bring him to eye level. Glowing eyes bored into wide, frightened brown. 
 
    Sasuke licked his lips, smearing the drying blood.

“Do you know what happens to the souls I eat?”

Haruto trembled uncontrollably as he clawed at the grip on his throat.

“They don’t just cease to exist,”

Sasuke continued.

“That would be too easy for ones like you. Each of your wretched souls settle deep inside my belly, surrounded by my darkness, tortured for eternity. I know your deepest fears, where it hurts the most. I will feed off you…forever.”

Haruto whimpered, his face turning blue.

“The best part?”

Sasuke whispered.

“With each soul I consume, I get stronger.”

“

P-lease,”

Haruto choked.
 
    The plea was ignored. Sasuke opened his mouth wide, fangs on full display. The black markings across his skin writhed and squirmed, pulsing with the black flames that seemed to erupt out of thin air. It surrounded the pair, a swirling cocoon of heat and smoke. 
 
    Kakashi watched with unblinking eyes as Haruto’s body began to decompose, drying and shriveling up like a mummy as his soul was forcibly taken. His body sunk in on itself, skin graying and clinging to brittle bone. His wispy soul floated easily into Sasuke’s mouth, who swallowed it readily. The husk was tossed to the side as Sasuke threw his head back with a roar, wings spread and fire dancing around him in a macabre display. 
 
    When the flames died down, Sasuke shuddered visibly and closed his eyes. With his head tilted back, his pale skin glowing under the moonlight and black hair swaying softly in the wind, Kakashi was struck by Sasuke’s otherworldly beauty. The boy had been handsome before, but he now possessed an ethereal allure that no human could ever duplicate. 
 
    Or ever resist.
 
    Sasuke slowly straightened, lolling his head to the side to gaze at Kakashi. The two locked eyes for a moment and the rest of the world fell away. Kakashi held his breath as Sasuke approached, the snow around him melting with each step. The blood that had covered Sasuke was gone, leaving nothing but skin and the black markings that covered it. He wore no shirt, but luckily for Kakashi’s willpower he was wearing bottoms. Simple black pants that rode low on his hips and a chain wrapped around his waist that held up a purple sash, the end of which dangled down to Sasuke’s right knee.
 
    The chain dangled as Sasuke came to a stop in front of him. Kakashi faintly noticed he had a few inches over the other, if one didn’t count the horns.
 
    “Did you follow them out here to try and stop me?” he asked softly, gazing up at Kakashi with an unreadable expression. He didn’t sound angry, though, merely curious.
 
    “No,” Kakashi murmured. “I just…needed to see it in person I guess.”
 
    “Ah…” Sasuke tilted his head, placing a hand on Kakashi’s chest. Even through the many layers of clothing and furs, Kakashi could still feel the heat radiating from his palm. “Come to gawk at the monster then.”
 
    “You’re not a monster,” Kakashi said honestly, reaching up to take Sasuke’s hand in his gloved one. “You’re still just Sasuke to me.”
 
    “Sweet words,” Sasuke smirked, eyes narrowed. “Will you still say that when I sink these fangs into Konoha?”
 
    Kakashi was silent for a moment, running his thumb over a sharp claw. “You left the innocent alone here,” he finally said carefully. “Gave them hope and set your hunger on the corrupt. Gave them a choice.” He glanced up, taking a deep breath. “Will you do the same for Konoha?”
 
    Sasuke stared back at him, Sharingan spinning lazily and the glow of the Rinnegan casting a soft lilac hue over his cheek. 
 
    “There are people there I love,” Kakashi continued, forging ahead despite how Sasuke’s intense gaze made his heart pound. “People there

you

love, and you can’t tell me there aren’t. Naruto–”
 
    Kakashi caught a barely perceptible flinch.
 
    “-Sakura…they have families now. People they care about too. And I know…” He cupped Sasuke’s hot cheek, sighing softly. “I know you don’t truly want to hurt them.”
 
    “You know how deep the corruption runs,” Sasuke said darkly. “How far back it goes. You saw it yourself. The Elders are merely the beginning. And now Naruto serves them.”
 
    “He serves the people,” Kakashi said firmly. “He’s working tirelessly to make real changes, despite their threats. The only reason they haven’t acted on those threats is because there’s no one alive you can truly challenge Naruto. Even the most skilled of the Root can’t kill him.”
 
    “Whatever changes he makes won’t be enough,” Sasuke insisted, scowling deeply. “It will come too slow. He will not be around forever, Kakashi, despite Kurama’s influence. He will be replaced with someone who they know they can manipulate.” 
 
    “You’re right,” Kakashi said and Sasuke blinked in surprise. “It won’t be enough. It goes too deep, spans too far back. Despite what you might think, I’m not trying to manipulate you into sparing Konoha.” He sighed and dropped his hand, gazing at his former student with tired eyes. “I just want to make sure your own hatred doesn’t cause you to raze the entire village to the ground. You want to be their god?” He bumped their foreheads together, staring unblinkingly into violet and blood eyes. “Show them you can be benevolent and they’ll come to you in drones.”
 
    “And the Elders?” Sasuke asked, reaching up to card his fingers through Kakashi’s hair. “Those who serve them ...those whom they answer to?”
 
    Kakashi glanced at a mangled body half buried in the snow. “Seems like you’ve got that part figured out. Guess we’ll have to figure out the rest.”
 
    Sasuke’s eyes widened as he registered Kakashi’s words. “Then…have you made your choice, Kakashi?”
 
    Kakashi brushed dark strands out of Sasuke’s eyes. “I made it the moment I saw you, Sasuke.” He sighed, Keiko’s words echoing in his head. “Just too damn stubborn…too scared to see it.”
 
    Sasuke purred loudly, the sound still so foreign to Kakashi he jumped a little. Sasuke chuckled and pressed a thumb to Kakashi’s lips, careful not to knick the skin with his claw. The same claws that had, moments ago, ripped through the flesh of the men laid out around them. “You’ll give yourself to me?” Sasuke whispered, eyeing Kakashi hungrily. “Body and soul? You’ll step into the fire willingly?”
 
    Kakashi closed his eyes, recalling Sasuke holding out his hand, beckoning him into the ring of black flames that had separated them.

“Come,” Sasuke had said.

“What will happen if I walk through the flames?”

“A good question,” Sasuke smirked, a sharp fang peeking out from his lips. “Come to me and you will bask in my darkness…or it will destroy you completely.”

Kakashi opened his eyes, something in his chest finally loosening as he breathed a soft “yes”.
 
     Sasuke pressed their lips together. Kakashi wrapped his arms around his waist and tilted his head as he parted his mouth. Sasuke’s tongue slipped inside, tasting and sliding along his own. He felt the nip of a fang, the same ones that had ripped a man’s throat out, now so gentle…careful.
 
    “So,” Kakashi said as he pulled back, breathing heavily. “Does that mean I get to make a wish?” He teased, giving Sasuke his trademark smile.
 
    Sasuke’s lips twitched with amusement. “Sure,” he drawled. “What’s your wish, Sensei?”
 
    Kakashi looked around at the dogs still tied to the sleds, untouched and unharmed despite the slaughter around them. The sight made Kakashi breathe just a little easier. His little genin, who had loved to pet his dogs in between training, wasn’t completely gone.
 
    “Help me get these dogs back to the village?”
 
    “Done.”