Naruto 1. Chapter 1

**JEP.V2**

**Author's note at bottom of page.**

**Chapter one**

Cool winds blew through the tiny civilian village located on the outskirts of the land of earth, bringing with it the beginnings of winter.

Normally at this time, the villagers would be up and about, enjoying what few establishments that gave the village its nightlife. Others would be in their homes, taking pleasure in the fruits of their labour in a hard earned dinner with a warm and loving family.

There had not been a war in years; Konoha had seen to that. Here even Iwagakure was scared of starting even a skirmish so close to the border of the land of fire. Still, telling it straight to the face of an Iwagakure shinobi was close to suicide.

The village had enjoyed prosperous peace for a long time.

Until tonight.

On this fateful night, the villagers were reminded of the fear that gripped their souls when they felt the ground shake from titanic forces that collided with each other, when they heard the shriek of sharp blades slide against each other, when they heard the roar of explosions and lastly the shrieks of a dying man.

It was for this reason that what could be considered their red-light district was empty except for two people, while every home and shelter had been locked up tight, the windows shut and the lights put off to give the pretense of being devoid of any souls, all the while the villagers were praying for a reprieve from this madness.

This was not their fight and they did not want it to be their fight.

As a local tavern crumbled to the ground, a dark haired shinobi walked out, a ninja covered in numerous cuts and burns, but he still walked with his back straight and head held high, his gait belying the wounds on his being. He dragged the body of his foe behind him, along the rough scorched ground.

On him was the attire native to the Hidden Leaf's Anbu Black Ops corps, with the mask of a fox hiding his face. His cloak over the armor had been reduced to a bunch of threads hanging loosely together while the short sleeved shirt he wore under the black torso armour had numerous tears were a blade had cut through.

One man who had dared to peek through his window to catch a glimpse of the battle found that perhaps the most unusual thing about this ninja was that he was shorter than his own fifteen year old son by a few inches. Unless that ninja was midget, that had to make him at least thirteen or twelve years old.

He watched as a red thick haze enveloped the boy for all of three seconds, before thinning into wisps that were absorbed back into the boy's body. The man was sure the boy now stood a little straighter. He was also sure there had been a bleeding cut on the boy's arm, but all of a sudden there was no blood flowing down his skin.

A demon then?

A demon in the skin of an adolescent boy?

He was prevented from pondering that question when the boy simply turned his head in the man's direction, an action that was enough to make the man collapse back from his window and paralyze him with fear.

The air whistled as something sharp cut through it and the boy barely flinched as a long bladed and long staffed scythe embedded itself into the ground beside him.

The weapon of his target; the man had been a pain to kill, both literally and figuratively. He had been a target the shinobi had been prepared to kill for months and only now that Danzou had lured him out to this village with no other shinobi presence for miles had the mission been fulfilled.

Tap…Tap…

The shinobi was assaulted by drops of rain, an assault that steadily grew in intensity until he was thankful for the mask that did not expose his eyes to the element. Every drop that hit exposed skin felt like a prick from a needle made of ice.

Strange, he only now noticed that the stars had been hidden from view, covered by a lumpy blanket of clouds.

He had to leave soon. Any Iwa ninja were probably still a long way off, but he would rather not leave it to chance.

"Oh, fuck everything! We finally find the bastard and it starts to fucking rain?! Kakuzu, I told you we should have come here before cashing in your bounty!"

"Shut up, Hidan. Your rituals did not help either."

The boy immediately turned to face the newcomer. An Iwa ninja? Was it pure chance that had drawn them here?

Down the road, two people, shrouded in darkness faced him.

"Are you sure that's him, man? I told you there was something wrong with that info bastard of yours."

"No mistaking it, that red chakra can only belong to a jinchuriki. It appears we've stumbled onto another one."

"Lucky us eh? NOT! Rain like this taints the blood I use for my ritual!"

No, they were not Iwa ninja. He barely made out the outline of the black cloaks with what looked like red clouds imprinted all over. Even with the dim light, a three- bladed scythe gleamed in the hands of one.

Visibility was extremely poor so he had to resort to a little body augmentation. He blinked and the blue in his eyes was replaced by a bloody red while his pupil narrowed to a slit. Now their faces were a little clearer. The taller one's entire face was covered with light blue cloth except for his eyes. A metal plate with the Takigakure symbol with a line scratched over it was stitched to the cloth over his forehead. The shorter one had white hair and eyes that gleamed with insanity. A hitai-ate with the symbol of Yugakure hung from his neck.

Missing-nin? From different villages but apparently affiliated here?

He let go of the body he had been planning to take back. It appeared Danzou would just have to take his word for it that the mission was complete.

"Goddamn it! It's fucking freezing and I'm wet. Let's just do this and get the fuck out of here." Hidan raised his scythe and pointed it at the boy.

If that was not enough of a clue, the crazed killing intent filled with bloodlust cleared any doubt and suspicions. He was their target.

Visibility was poor and he was pretty sure he could see better than them. A distraction of suitable magnitude would allow him the opportunity to escape. A shadow clone would do.

It was as he was forming the hand seal for that technique when they struck. Hand seals were a ninja's strength and weakness. While giving the ninja ability to perform feats worthy of legend, taking even a second longer than usual, was inviting a killing strike that would end a battle as fast as it begun.

This Kakuzu apparently had enough experience to know that, and had his fist already inches away from the boy's face.

The Kage bunshin fortunately only requires one hand seal.

The clone burst into existence, and smoothly deflected the strike past its face in one motion. However, Kakuzu's longer reach ensured that a precious few moments longer than necessary was needed to counterattack.

The clone still tried, but before his fist could reach Kakuzu's body, the missing-nin's other hand grabbed it by its head and slammed it into the wet earth face first. He received a satisfying pop for his efforts as the clone was destroyed.

The clone had bought its creator some time however. In those moments, the boy kicked at the scythe beside him, the part of the shaft next to the blade so that it flew into the air, spinning end over end. He snatched it out of the air and _swung_.

The blade cut through the air and rain, slicing drops of water in two. Kakuzu was spared from this fate, honed instincts making him jump back at the last second.

The shinobi earned no reprieve however, for Hidan yelled as he came down on top of him, swinging his own scythe with all his might.

The boy held his own weapon overhead and blocked, knowing enough to move so that the blade did not dig into his back.

"Oi brat, you sure you should be using a weapon you just picked up?" Hidan asked menacingly, the sneer plain as day in his voice, "If you aren't careful, you might just fucking get cut!"

Instinct told the boy Kakuzu was behind him and he pushed Hidan off with a heave. His hands gripped the staff of the weapon by the middle and it spun forming a pseudo barrier around him, daring anyone to come near him at the risk if being sliced and diced.

Kakuzu dared, and the scythe was brought to a jarring halt, his grip on the staff like iron.

Hidan's scythe whistled in the air, and the boy leaned back until he was lying on the narrow staff of his own scythe. Hidan's scythe sought his legs out next, and he flipped up to stand on the scythe which was now wholly in Kakuzu's hands. In the same motion, his hand went into the pouch on his back and drew out an explosive note.

Kakuzu's eyes widened and he reached out but it was already too late.

The frightened shrieks of a babe were drowned out by the explosion that rocked the village.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi sprinted across the bare soil of earth country, doing his best not to slip on the thin mud while keeping up the fastest pace he could.

His heart beat a furious rhythm and he could feel the pulse pounding in his ears.

An explosion. The thunder was intense on this night, but the roar of an explosion had won out for a second. Visibility was poor, so he had to rely on his dog-like hearing and the sharingan hidden behind his Anbu mask.

And in the slim hope that the resounding boom he had heard and the clods of mud he had seen fly into the air in the distance would lead him to his sensei's son.

His mind was ill at ease. An opportunity like this did not come often; where he had an alibi and Naruto was out of touch with any of Danzou's agents…no, moments like these were few and far in between.

He had to make it count.

* * *

The mask gave off no emotion, even as the blade of his scythe was trapped between the blades of Hidan's own and shattered with a cruel twist. He wasted no time, using the momentum of Hidan's own move to swing the other end of what was now just a pole into Hidan's face. The only thing he hit was rain drops, as the insanely religious shinobi side-stepped the blow with almost laughable ease and with an insane cackle to go with it.

The back-kick that slammed into the mask a moment later earned Hidan a grunt, but the mask remained stoic in its punishment.

The boy turned with the blow and saw the danger that had sought to take him from behind. He threw himself to the ground, yet before he touched the wet soil, a block of earth that probably weighed a tonne sped through the air over him, only slightly brushing strands of his hair.

The shriek of pain that could only have come from Hidan told him that the overly large projectile had at least found one target.

What a strange way of fighting these two had.

The boy had had all manner of jutsu tossed at him from the Taki nuke-nin, from all elements and all of them high-level destructive techniques. Kakuzu apparently had no regard for the health of his teammate.

Considering that Hidan still knocked the boy around when it came to taijutsu, he had come to the conclusion that Kakuzu did not even need to care.

No matter, that last one was meant to crush every bone in the body and anybody, if they could, would take a while to stand up after that, Hidan included.

But with the withdrawal of Hidan, meant that Kakuzu would step up to the frontlines and he did not disappoint.

"Doton: Domu!" (Earth spear)

A fist, that was tougher than the block of earth just thrown at him, slammed down on the position he had been standing on a moment ago. The boy had dodged, just barely, by performing a bicycle kick, the flipping motion of the move just carrying him above the fist that would have turned his inner organs to mush. He completed the motion by slamming his foot down on Kakuzu's head with all the strength and chakra he could muster in that moment.

The mask showed no disappointment when the man's head did not even budge an inch.

Kakuzu's hand came up in a parry that knocked the boy's foot away and set his airborne body spinning. His aim was true this time, as his fist slammed into the boy's stomach with unyielding force. At the same moment however, the boy's arm was stretched out and with his hand in Kakuzu's face, he sent forth a stream of flame.

A wall came apart even more as the boy's back slammed into it with bone-crushing force. He lay sprawled on the ground and watched as the blood that seeped through the space between his face and mask mixed with dirty rain-water, forming an even darker colour.

He would stand up though, despite the pain, despite the overwhelming odds.

The reason was simple.

It was all he knew. All he cared to know.

A step forward, even after many steps back.

The abyss behind him that he would fall into should he give up on taking any more steps was perhaps the only thing that scared him.

He finally cared to look up. That punch had brought unimaginable pain, enough to make him lose control of his chakra completely. As a result, the illusion was dispelled and it was wet red - albeit a dirty colour with specks of mud - hair that now stuck to his forehead.

Kakuzu took slow calcaulated steps towards him. He'd turned his head at the last moment, thus at least his eyes had not melted out of his skull. They had still somewhat been exposed to the searing heat and it hurt like something out of Hidan's Jashinism rituals. Soothing the rain may have been, but his eyesight was even worse off now. His hood had been burnt off and black threads that could not possible qualify as hair fluttered about in the harsh winds.

This was the moment Kakashi chose to strike.

A bolt of lightning struck the earth before Kakuzu, splitting the ground apart in an explosion of mud and rocks. Accompanying this blue light was not the booming clap of thunder but rather the deafening scream of a thousand chirping birds. From the ground the silver-haired ninja Anbu nin emerged, holding the very rage of nature in his hand.

Kakuzu did not stand a chance.

A lifeless doll slumped in Kakashi's loose embrace, as the new arrival removed his hand from the hole he had just created. He let go and Kakuzu hit the ground, splashing them with muddy rainwater.

"Uzumaki-san, are you alright?" Kakashi asked, his voice showing the barest traces of concern.

"Hatake…senpai," Naruto knew not why the man was here, but he would be lying if he said he did not feel even a little relief. This was one of the few people he could trust after all.

He was loathe to do this, yet if it worked out it would be a load off his chest. The red chakra surged through his body for the third time in the last hour. His original target had forced one round of healing out of him and the two missing nin the next one.

Two was his limit.

As if to reinforce this fact, the chakra burst into his mind, slamming itself into the gates he had built to hold back natural instinct, madness and insanity. With savage fury, he forced it back down into his gut, behind the seal so carefully woven by his father.

Any more and he would lose his mind.

Kakashi was beside him now, holding him upright. "Can you move?"

Naruto gasped. The red chakra fought against his will. It was so hard to speak. He had something important to say.

"There are two…Hatake…two…of them."

Kakashi tensed.

Naruto winced in pain, the sudden movement making his injury all the more worse. He did not mind though because otherwise they would both have been cut down by the madman.

Hidan stepped out of his swing, before looking to the body of his teammate. "Oi, idiot. Get the fuck up."

Kakashi calculated the odds in his mind. He did not know what the man was doing, talking to a dead partner, but he knew the man's attention was on them. Naruto did not look good at all, and judging by this man's sneak attack, he was incredibly fast. No, Kakashi thought if they took off now, the man would definitely catch up with them.

He thought all of this for two seconds before the body that should have been dead, stood up, without any pause or struggle, as if awakening from a refreshing nap. Needless to say, the gears in his brain ground to a halt from the sheer shock of the events he was witnessing.

"Hatake-senpai…need to…leave!" Naruto's words broke him out of it.

"You'll pay for that, Kakuzu; slamming a two-tonne rock into me. Do you know how much that fucking hurt?!"

"Shut up. Our opponent is a jinchuriki and Hatake Kakashi, the copy nin. If you're not serious, you'll die." Kakuzu dryly replied.

"Retard, how could I die? I'm fucking immortal!"

Naruto wheezed, "Speaks…truth."

Kakashi's mismatched eyes narrowed behind his mask. Escape was their only option then.

"Hatake Kakashi," Kakuzu called, "that Raikiri of yours is famous. Think you can catch me with it a second time?"

The tension between the two was so thick, a knife could not cut through it.

"Oi, Oi, OI! I liked this tavern, ya' kno'?" a gruff deep and obviously drunken voice said, announcing the arrival of a third party. A man, or rather, a giant of a man stood up out of the rubble of the recently destroyed tavern.

Naruto recognized him immediately as one of the patrons of this tavern he had seen while waiting for his target to show. A patron who had practically drowned himself in alcohol before passing out.

Clad in samurai-style armour that shone a dull red in this dim lighting, it was as if his mere size of his presence generated a gravitational pull that drew all attention towards him.

This was just what Kakashi and Naruto had been waiting for though.

"Humans, tch," the man scoffed as he watched the two flee, "already scared of me, I see."

Hidan's foot pushed against the ground, ready to take off after them when Kakuzu's hand fell on his shoulder. "Wait Hidan," he said, "that is our original target."

"Huh?! Him? Damnit, I'll have to beg for forgiveness for letting those heathens go." He spun his scythe in a circle. "One jinchuriki is as good as the other I guess. Your blood shall be used to serve the lord!"

Underneath the red helmet, an eyebrow rose. "Oh?" he said, with the hiss of steam accompanying his voice.

* * *

It was a few hours later, behind the safety of the land of Fire's borders, that Naruto took the chance to catch his breath.

They had left the rain behind them, and traded hard earth for rough bark and woody trees. The red-head sagged against a branch, his breathing coming out in ragged gasps.

Kakashi stood before him. "Ash," he addressed him with the codename assigned to him. Apparently, if Konoha was a forest that burned to the ground the night the Kyuubi attacked, Danzou believed Naruto to be the ash on the ground that a new forest would push through and grow into the sky.

He was a strange man, Kakashi honestly thought. Strange and cruel, even if his heart was in the right place.

"Ash, take off your mask. It has to be filthy with all the blood you've spit out."

The youth matched the taller man's stare with one of his own, but he had no strength to be stubborn at the moment.

The white fox mask with only three whisker-like marks on each cheek to serve as any form of decoration was pulled off with ease, only to reveal another mask beneath.

It always took Kakashi a moment to realize that this mask was also an actual face.

Kushina's round face and hair, with a more boyish look, whisker marks to make him appear all the more inhumane, the mind of his father and the expression of the yellow flash as he slaughtered the majority of Iwa's forces in five seconds. Kakashi knew the last part of that equation should have no place on the face of a thirteen year old child.

Dull eyes, like circular blocks of ice, stared down at the blood-stained mask.

Kakashi took off his own mask and sighed a sigh that came from the depths of his soul, dragging up all the grief and regrets he held in this life. "How healed up are you? If you can move some more, we can reach this stream where you can clean your mask."

"I'm fine. I've been directing the chakra for a while now to the injury and in three minutes, give or take, I'll be completely healed albeit greatly weakened." The boy replied. "If you still have your mission to complete, then I'd recommend you move on from me. In this condition, I can make it to Konoha alone, though I will probably be a bit slow in getting there."

"Oh, that makes things simple then."

Naruto's breath caught in his chest as he witnessed Kakashi's fingers blur in their formation of hand seals. Suddenly, a hand whose fingers burned with a purple flame, yet emanated no heat, was being thrust towards his stomach.

The Raikiri's scream echoed across the land for the second time that night.

It was not Kakashi's hand that glowed this time though.

Kakashi would have had trouble fighting down a smirk, had the circumstances been different. He held Naruto's glowing blue hand above the boy's head, pinning it against the tree. His other hand was pressed against Naruto's stomach and the blue flames disappeared into the younger ninja's body.

"Gogyo Fuuin," he said solemnly.

"Hatake…senpai…" the red-head croaked before his face which had been scrunched up in pain finally relaxed into a dreamless sleep.

"This kid huh," Kakashi sighed as he stood up over the boy, "He's already managed to turn Chidori into a sealless jutsu." He looked up into the stars that watched over the land with his mismatched eyes. "Don't worry Naruto-kun. We finally got a chance to save you."

"We won't let it go to waste."

* * *

The Hokage's office was busy at any time of the day. Five o'clock in the morning was no exception. The old man sat diligently behind his desk looking over the first forms for the day. It was a hellish job, that seemed to reward ungodly hours at the desk with even more ungodly hours, but this was his lot in life and for the sake of putting a smile on another denizen of his village, he had no choice but to endure.

A cool morning breeze rolled in from the open window behind him, doing its job of keeping him awake by tickling the skin on his neck.

A slight shift in that flow of air made him look up from the report he was so keenly skimming through.

His top Anbu was on one knee before him, head bowed in an obvious sign of respect.

"Rise, Kakashi. Is it done?" he asked, his tone grave, betraying none of the hope he held in his heart.

"Yes," Kakashi replied, "despite a few complications, all mission parameters were met."

A raised eyebrow. "Complications? Explain." He commanded.

Kakashi's report was brief, yet no detail was left out. He told of the two shinobi he had encountered Naruto going up against; their manner of dress and what he had seen of their abilities.

"So it is true," Sarutobi Hiruzen observed. He ran a hand through his grey hair, before reaching for his tobacco pipe. "An organization that is hunting the jinchuriki, or rather, the tailed beasts they house. This has the potential to be very disastrous for us."

Kakashi bowed his head. "With your permission, Hokage-sama, I can go back and try and pick up the trail of those two."

"Hmm…you probably could. If what you said is correct, they found themselves facing Han of Iwa after you left. He is the jinchuriki of the five tailed dolphin horse. A fearsome opponent during the last war. The land would probably have more than a few scars."

The pipe was lit, and the old man breathed out a ring of smoke. "However, to go after tailed beasts is more often than not a suicide mission, a very much deserved S-rank. Their might is known throughout the land and only an extraordinary shinobi would be sane to undertake such endeavors. Your description of their abilities, strange as they are, can only lead me to believe these are S-rank shinobi."

"You are strong indeed, Kakashi, but I'd rather not throw such promising shinobi of mine to the wolves. Besides, another matter has come up. Kakashi, hand me your mask."

A slight twitch was all Sarutobi needed to see the confusion and hesitation that plagued his subordinate. Nevertheless, Kakashi followed all his Hokage's orders to the letter and he did not intend to stop now. He pulled it off his face and handed it to his leader.

Then he watched as it was chucked it into the air, drawing an arc before landing right into the rubbish bin.

"I am grateful for your continued service all these years, Kakashi. As of this moment, you are relieved of your duties as a member of the Hokage's Anbu. You will be reassigned to the general shinobi forces as a jounin."

_If only that mask was not in the way, this moment would be perfect, _Sarutobi thought with a smirk.

When Kakashi was still trying to process what he had just heard after ten seconds, Sarutobi added, "You have accomplished a great many important missions for this village, Kakashi, but this was more important than all of them to you. Your own sensei would have appreciated this much more than the rest."

Those words lightened the mood considerably, enough for the silver-haired shinobi to reply with a broken, "Yes…he would," in a voice lighter than any Sarutobi had heard in previous years.

The mood was shattered into pieces however, when the door to the office was opened. Slamming the door open could not have had a bigger effect, considering who stepped into the room a moment later.

It was Danzou, complete with robe, cane, bandages and arm in a sling and the bad attitude he had seen fit to bring with him.

"Sarutobi," he began, in a voice that sounded the epitome of civil and calm. The Hokage however, thought the war hawk was doing poor job of holding back the venom. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Our worst fears have been realized, Danzou," Sarutobi replied, doing his best not to sound smug. He thought he was probably doing a bad job of it too. "There is indeed an organization out there after the tailed beasts. Our jinchuriki is probably the worst prepared."

Kakashi stood off to the side, wondering just when the room had become so warm.

"Where is he?"

_Is he slamming his cane harder into the ground with every step?_

"Halfway to Kumo by now, I believe. Do not worry, my three students are escorting him. They should be enough to put off any risk of pursuit or interception."

"These new talks with Kumo are barely a month old. What brand is it that you are smoking that would make you trust them with one of our greatest assets?"

The Hokage barely held the smirk off his face. "You are wrong, Danzou. Twice I believe."

"One: these talks were initiated by my successor years ago. The unfortunate incident that took his life just happened to stall it for a while. But now that they understand that we still have a common interest with them, they were all too happy to pick up where he left off. Two: Naruto was never an asset. He has always been one of Konoha's loyal shinobi."

"Not to worry though," Hiruzen interrupted, as the war hawk opened his mouth, "we are not entirely defenseless. Kumo was gracious enough to send us one of their own two shinobi to fill the gap left by Naruto-kun. Nii Yugito, you should know of her."

The grinding of Danzou's teeth finally settled.

"As Naruto-kun trains to master his power in Kumo's skilled hands, she will hold down the fort here."

"And if Kumo betrays you? Nine tails has always been better than two." Danzou retorted. The old man was a fool, a damned fool.

Sarutobi's slight cheer disappeared, to be replaced by a bored frown, as if this conversation no longer interested him. "That? Oh, I'm not too worried about that happening." He said nonchalantly.

Danzou turned away his back ram-rod straight for his age as he made his way out of the office. "This false peace has made you slow and unguarded Hiruzen. Hopefully it will not prove to be your undoing." A threat, disguised as advice, but wholly and completely a threat.

Kakashi's eyes followed the man with thinly veiled contempt. When the door was shut he said, "He will make a move on the two-tailed jinchuriki just as he did on Naruto."

"Don't say that, Kakashi. He might not."

The old man blew, and a smoky leaf floated into the air before dispersing into grey wisps.

"I really hope he does though."

**This is just what it sounds like; a reboot of the earlier Jinchuriki Exchange Program that I have currently lost complete interest in. The reason being that I cannot do an idiot main character like original Naruto any justice. Ironic huh? But it's not all too uncommon a problem given how many authors on this site make their Naruto a badass. He won't be too cool ('PWN Everything in sight' cool). I do plan to make him somewhat relatable.**

**I got the idea for this one off of a popular Light novel series that just got its anime airing. Apparently, it's still going strong. Kudos if you point it out by end of next chapter.**

**Hopefully, I have disappointed none of you. If I have…meh, authors like Ld 1449 have way better stories. THIS WILL NOT BE A 'BY THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP' FIC.**

**If you are interested in this one, read and review. I'll gladly accept advice/criticism. I'll pick up the original once I'm sure I can do that Naruto some justice. The next chapter will be uploaded immediately after this one to give a bigger impression of where this story is going. **


	2. Chapter 2

**JEP.V2**

**Not a 'by the power of friendship fic'. Not a 'badass who pwns everything' fic either.**

**Chapter two**

In the marshes of Kusa, deep within the surface of the earth, in an enormous cavern big enough to house all thirty feet of the crouching Gedo Mazou, ten ninja gathered in secret in a hellish ceremony that would herald a new world order, bring peace and other life goals that did not necessarily sound as pure as the first two.

The statue's hands were outstretched, palms facing upwards and fingers seeking to pierce the heavens.

The ten men stood on the tips of these fingers, their own hands clasped in some seal. Only two of these ninja were actually present though, the others represented by silhouettes the colours of the rainbow.

On the floor between the outstretched hands, Han's broken and bloodied body lay enshrouded by a light blue aura that extended up into the mouth of the statue. His red armour was cracked and in pieces and if one looked past the dried blood they would see the gash that could only have been opened by a large curved blade.

"You say you ran into another jinchuriki?" the figure on the left thumb voiced his question.

Kakuzu replied, he himself standing on the right ring finger, "He was a child in the attire of an Anbu agent. At that size I would put him at fourteen or thirteen years of age."

"Daaaaamnnn, that brat was annoying. Does the fucker know how painful it is to fix a broken jaw, sternum and ribs!" Hidan did not hesitate to exclaim.

"Shut up. It was your slow ass that couldn't dodge my jutsu in time."

"Go wank off to your money, you bloody heathen!"

A light sheen of sweat broke out over Hidan's forehead.

Kakuzu's limbs tensed.

This jutsu was a truly amazing piece of work, if it was able to convey just how little patience their leader had for their antics in the form of pure malicious killing intent. With their abilities, these two were practically immortal, yet when faced with an ancient power said to be handed down from the gods themselves, they were forced to realize their place.

It was not fear so much as something primal that awoke the 'flight' instinct in them while ruthlessly suppressing the 'fight'.

"Stop this foolishness and tell me what you encountered."

It took an extra second for Kakuzu to respond, as he fought down the annoyance at the fact that he had actually been cowed into silence. "This jinchuriki did not use his powers freely. It is possible that he has no skill with that chakra. We only saw him use it once to heal his wounds by channeling the chakra quickly. That was how we even identified him as a jinchuriki. But even using the chakra like that seems to add some risk to his self as when I severely injured him, he did not heal himself again. Also, Hatake Kakashi of the leaf appeared to assist him."

"I see…then that means the boy you encountered is actually the jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox. Konoha has apparently began to actively send him out on missions, or perhaps they have been for a while time."

"There are some rumours floating around that Hayama of Kusa's assassination was carried out by a child."

"Either way, the fact that he escaped means that Konoha will now be wholly sure of our existence and our goal to collect all jinchuriki. Therefore, they will be actively investigating us. They might even prevent their jinchuriki from leaving the village for a long time. If they spread word of us to other villages it will be even worse. At this stage of our plans we do not need such scrutiny. A distraction is in order."

"I hear that tensions in Konoha are rising as the Uchiha continue to act up."

"The Uchiha are over-estimating themselves as always. With their numbers they can only hope to eliminate the top brass to gain control, that is, if they do carry out a coup. They must be aware that any civil war would only serve to give an opening for invasion and in these lands, the Uchiha are not exactly popular. The village's destruction could be carried out before any other village has the chance to intervene. We need something that could affect all villages."

"In that case, Sasori," a short hunch-backed rainbow colored figure perked up at being addressed, "you have confirmed the jewel's authenticity?"

"Yes," Sasori replied in a strangely deep yet toneless voice.

"Then give it to _them._ Supply them with whatever other information they will need to find the other jewels. We will give them a chance to have their revenge."

"It will be in their possession within the month then."

* * *

Complete and clear consciousness of his surroundings was a slow and difficult process to complete. It felt like he had been plunged into the dark depths of a sea of tar, and pushing his way to the surface was a task he could not speed up no matter how hard he tried.

The first sense that returned to him was sight, and an impeccably clean white wall was the first image that greeted him.

Feeling was next, and he realized his back was pressed against soft fabric, while a blanket above him provided the warmth that currently enveloped his body.

Hearing was what followed, and the words he heard first were the first indicator that something was seriously wrong.

Mind-numbingly wrong.

"Oh yeah…take it off…take it all off, show me, show me all of that beautiful dark skin. Oh dear god, that chest!"

Naruto decided then that it was in his best interests to wake up and to do it very fast, because this was not his idea of a hostage situation, that is, if he was the hostage.

He sat up, as fast as his sluggish limbs would allow him and turned his head in search of the aggressor responsible for this disturbing situation, only to find a large man bending over a telescope that was aimed at the balcony windows and the building beyond.

Dressed in a green short shirt kimono with matching pants, a red haori over it and a mop of white hair on his head tied in a ponytail that flowed down his back, Naruto immediately recognized this man. Exasperated the red-haired boy realized the goofy laughter that accompanied his disturbingly perverted words should have been his first clue.

Naruto eyed the drool that dripped slightly from the man's lips with slight disgust. He was on good terms with the man, had gone on a training trip with him for a month; enough time to build some form of companionship that allowed him to forgive some of his more perverted tendencies. Jiraiya was one of the few Naruto did not mind holding a conversation with.

But this, this was enough to make anyone feel overly uncomfortable.

Presently, he knew of no ways to even slow this man down through his own power, that is, without using some extremely destructive jutsu. Another method was righteous female anger, but there were no dignified women present.

"Excuse me Jiraiya-sama," Naruto called out, deciding to use the tactic most likely to fail.

"Ah so you've woken up brat?" the boy was honestly surprised that Jiraiya had taken his time to actually turn away from the telescope to face him. Being ignored was the more the norm.

"If you're doing ok, then come here for a second. I want to show you something. Thirteen is a good age for learning these things."

"There's no need," was Naruto's immediate reply.

Jiraiya's smirk only served to put the red-head on guard even more. "I haven't even told you what I'm looking at."

"To this day, I have only ever heard of Jiraiya using a telescope for one purpose."

"Then you should know what lies at the other end of this lens. Can you honestly tell me you're not the slightest bit interested?" Jiraiya asked wagging his eyebrows in a mischievous manner.

_This man is impossible. To think he was responsible for my father being labelled as one of the strongest ninja on the continent, _Naruto thought.

When Jiraiya's eyes danced with delight and his grin grew wider, Naruto realized that the pause he had used to think those thoughts had been interpreted in an entirely different and completely impure method by the toad sage.

Flustered, but refusing to give this man anymore satisfaction, Naruto hurriedly changed the topic. "Pushing that aside, Jiraiya-sama, you have not informed me of the reason why I have woken up here."

"Oho~" Jiraiya apparently found more reason to grin.

Abruptly changing the subject could also be interpreted as false denial. Naruto mentally cursed himself for forgetting that key fact.

His words may betray him but his face did not.

Naruto's stern stare forced the older man into a compromise.

"Ok brat, this here is a letter from your Hokage," he said, pulling out a tiny scroll from his coat, "it'll tell you what the Hokage was thinking when he authorized this mission and answer most of your questions."

Naruto crawled off of the impossibly large king-size bed, and reached out to receive the scroll, but Jiraiya pulled it back just out of his reach.

"Now, I'll give it to you, if," Naruto mentally groaned at this, "if you take a look."

'take a look' obviously meant peek through the telescope and cross a line Naruto would have trouble forgiving himself for even putting an inch of his toe past.

His odds were not favourable. Jiraiya was a legendary sennin, one of the most powerful ninja on the continent today. That ruled out force.

Jiraiya also showed no openings. Trickery was ruled out too.

Oh well, as long as the lady on the other end never found out, then it should be fine.

Naruto sighed, "We'll do it your way then."

Giggling like a delighted school-girl, Jiraiya made room for Naruto, as if carrying out some holy ceremony even though it was anything but.

"Five seconds should be enough for you."

Unbelievable, Naruto rolled his eyes at the thought that man could still be stingy.

His eye descended on the eye-piece.

Five seconds later, Naruto straightened, thoroughly shaken in both mind and soul. He turned away and placed his palm over his eyes, as if penance for the sin he had just committed constituted robbing his eyes of light until the ends of time.

"So…you probably don't want to know this…" he paused for dramatic effect, "but you took ten seconds instead of five."

Naruto whirled round so fast, he actually got a little dizzy from the blood rushing to his head. Apparently his body had not woken up completely.

Ten? Impossible! He was not a pervert…was he?

Jiraiya's amused and mischievous expression greeted him and Naruto knew he had been had.

Good, if confronted with the knowledge he was even slightly as bad as Jiraiya, it might have resulted in a form of mental trauma.

He plucked the scroll Jiraiya had tossed at him out of the air. Time to put these shenanigans behind him. Forgetting what he had seen was a tall order, but he promised himself he would find a way to move on.

His eyes traced the brush of the strokes with practiced ease.

_**Naruto-kun,**_

_**Despite this being a mission in an official capacity, you may notice that this letter is not an actual mission directive, or rather, not formally written as one. I have done this in order to reach out to you in a way I have tried time and time again but have failed repeatedly, that is, as a friend.**_

_**Officially, your mission is to master the chakra of the bijuu sealed within you. Kumo is the only known village whose containers have come to be known as perfect jinchuriki. With the recently signed treaty coming into effect, this has been seen as a valuable opportunity.**_

_**You'll be surprised to know that this was a plan engineered by the Fourth Hokage, your late father.**_

Naruto's eyebrow rose by a milimetre, like it already had a few times while reading this letter, but overall it was nothing special, a fact the pervert noted with concern out of the corner of his eye.

_**He was engaged with talks with the Fourth Raikage about this matter by the end of the war. Your father's relationship with the man is perhaps the primary reason Kumo has accepted this treaty. So do not forget to be nice to him, Naruto-kun.**_

Nice? How was he supposed to be nice? Did the Hokage's definition of nice run parallel with polite? Wouldn't anything other than polite spell serious trouble for him?

He did not dwell long on his complete misinterpretation of what was supposed to be a joke, because he had other concerns he hoped the Hokage would settle for him with this letter.

_**Either way, you are to remain in Kumo until your skill in using the bijuu's chakra is deemed satisfactory, or until we call you back. I'm sure you have some concerns? Let me shed some light as to why you have no need to worry.**_

_**The most pressing issue is perhaps Danzou, right? And the seal he most unfairly cast upon you?**_

_**The seal is off, both the one above the Eight Trigrams Seal and the one that forbids you to speak of the former seal and Danzou. You may extend your thanks to Jiraiya, who is probably with you as you read this.**_

The boy raised his eyes slightly, catching a glimpse of the man who was currently on his hand and knees before the telescope, begging for a certain curtain not to be drawn.

Needless to say, he quickly ignored the man in favour of going through the rest of the scroll.

_**As of this moment, you are currently out of reach of Danzou's influence. You are no longer 'ash'. You need not worry about him bothering you anymore. Hopefully by the time you come back (hoping also it will not be too soon) Danzou will be a problem neither of us have to deal with ever again. **_

Naruto easily read between the lines. What the Hokage was alluding to, while dangerous was also a welcome thought.

Knowing this for the red-head was equivalent to taking the weight of the world off his back. Muscles he did not even know were tense suddenly relaxed.

_**Leave it to us Naruto-kun. There is no need to involve yourself in this.**_

_**Secondly; the manner in which you were 'prepared' for this mission. As you may have realized by now Kakashi was acting under my orders. We felt it better that he applied the Gogyo fuuin without your knowledge, just in case you did not feel like you could trust us pull you out of Danzou's grip. Also, the Gogyo Fuuin was implemented in order to increase the slim chances of removing Danzou's seal without the original breaking down completely.**_

_**After your 'capture', you were handed to my three students. Tsunade kept you stable while Jiraiya and Orochimaru worked on the seal. If you are still with them, do not forget to offer them your thanks.**_

_**As soon as they can the three of them will leave you in Kumo for they still have their own duties to attend to. Your last mission in Iwa created quite a stir. **_

_**While there you will soon meet with their Raikage who will flesh out the remaining details, as well as your training regimen and your accommodations.**_

_**Those are the details of your 'official mission'. **_

Sky-blue eyes narrowed.

_**This part is not all that pressing, but would still benefit Konoha greatly, as well as yourself. It sounds quite simple really.**_

_**Make friends. **_

_**Build relations with Kumo's people so that this treaty will extend past our generation and far into your own. It may be hard to accomplish, after all I am uncertain whether you see me as a friend, but I ask that you try, so that when you are in trouble, you have someone to turn to. You may turn to them for the village, but personally I believe that it's important you do so for your own sake.**_

Naruto did not raise his eyebrows in alarm, nor accept what he had just read like an emotionless machine that only worked to accept commands he had been given.

He sighed, and it was a deep sigh, but it was only in mind and not in body. The only outward reaction he showed was a slight tilt of his head and his eyes may have stayed shut for a second longer than it took to blink.

All reactions that Jiraiya observed as closely as if Naruto had been the lady on the other end of the telescope.

_**I believe that that is all I have to say, Naruto-kun. Stay safe, do not make me regret this treaty, do not give the council or the Fire Daimyou a reason to regret this treaty, and do not forget those who care about you that you have left in Konoha.**_

_**Until the next time we meet,**_

_**Yours truly,**_

_**Sarutobi Hiruzen, Third Hokage.**_

The scroll rolled up with a snap, before Naruto placed it down.

"Got any questions, kid? I don't have that much time left," JIraiya said.

Naruto's eyes shut in quiet contemplation. "A few," he said, "In all respects Konoha just gave away their one jinchuriki to Kumo, a village which has two which are both highly trained. What does Konoha stand to gain?"

"Simple, open up a few trade routes, get back some stolen artifacts, some random secrets here and there and a jinchuriki," he said it as if he were skimming through a newspaper.

"A jinchuriki, you say…so this is an exchange?"

"Yup, an untamed fox for a house-broken cat, interesting eh?"

"And this is for as long as it takes for me to master the chakra?"

"Yup"

Naruto concluded that this must have been the first treaty of its kind. Leave it to his father to come up with something like this.

He stood up and twisted his body, feeling joints snap back into place with loud popping noises. "Another question; how long was I out?"

Jiraiya answered immediately, "Two weeks, just got here in fact, with Tsunade keeping you stable and alive the whole way while Oro and I worked to remove the seal. You lucky bastard," Jiraiya chuckled bitterly at this part, "the way Tsunade held you as she fed your unconscious body. Even Dan would feel jealous. If I were you, I would not wash that face for weeks."

Naruto froze. "Just what did she do?" he was almost afraid to ask.

"Tell you so you can rub it in with that _'it means nothing to me'_ face? I'd rather die." Jiraiya said while imitating Naruto's still-developing voice. "You'll have to hurry it up though kid, clock's ticking."

The older man blinked in surprise at the sight of Naruto bowing to him.

"Allow me to thank you Jiraiya-sama. I know for a fact that Danzou's seal is very complicated. It must have caused you an extraordinary amount of trouble to remove it. For that, you have my eternal gratitude. Please, while I have little knowledge concerning Danzou's dealings, I would glkadly assist in any way I can."

_Eternal gratitude, eh?_ Jiraiya repeated in his mind. His large hand fell upon the boy's locks of untamed blood-red hair, ruffling it up even more. "It was nothing, don't even mention it. And forget about Danzou. He's none of your business anymore. Really, you know I'd do anything for my cute god-son."

Naruto accepted the rough treatment without a word. It got even worse when Jiraiya saw the slight up-turn the corner of his lips made. The pervert laughed, "Good, good, that makes what?...like four now? Can't wait to tell Oro, Hime and the old man. They have to realize I'm kicking their asses by now."

"Ok, so you be a good boy. I've left you all the currently out books in my Make-Out franchise out in the living room of this house. It's time you were introduced to my art, boy. And there's a cute girl next door, so you have to take advantage of that. If you need advice on it, just consult my books."

"I'm thirteen," Naruto blandly replied.

"Never stopped me, and sure as hell didn't stop your old man," was Jiraiya's witty reply.

_What kind of pervert was he?_

"Till next time, Naruto," and Jiraiya burst into a cloud of smoke, disappearing after forever tarnishing Naruto's image of the Fourth Hokage.

Naruto realized that was a shadow clone. Jiraiya's own mission must have been quite important if he could not afford to stay.

He strode out of the bedroom and along a corridor with but one goal in his mind. The living room was impressive and expansive, with obviously expensive couches, a conjoined kitchen and another balcony offering another view of Kumo's horizon.

Naruto noted all of this, before his eyes fell on the four books on the coffee table surrounded by the couches. Make-out tactics, arranged chronologically.

Right beside the books lay a blue-clothed hitai-ate on which was engraved Konoha's symbol. Naruto picked it up and felt his fingers rub against the worn metal covered with scratches and scars.

Jiraiya and the Hokage were trying very hard as always, Naruto noted. In this case, he did not particularly mind. He returned it to its place on the table.

Without an ounce of shame, Naruto then skipped the first two books for the third, looked over the cover and nodded to himself in satisfaction. In a sense, it bothered him because if Jiro and Makoto really were blood-related siiblings, he would seriously begin to consider his teacher's tastes.

* * *

After a quick shower and a fresh change of clothes, Naruto settled down at the small yet admittedly grand dining table in the apartment. Given that there was no wall between the kitchen and the living room, the dining table stood at a metre away from the couch which could probably be said to be where the boundary between the two lay.

Obviously, he was being treated as an honored guest.

He had heard the rumours.

In Kumo, jinchuriki were treated as gods. Perhaps putting it like that was an exaggeration, yet it was no lie that Kumo's people held nothing but respect and admiration for these people who acted as vessels for the tailed beast. In their eyes, they were their human champions whose will alone held back power that could obliterate mountains in the blink of an eye.

The story was not all sugar and spice however.

This adoration only blossomed out during the Third Shinobi World War, when the so-called Killer Bee had completely mastered the power in his fingertips. Shortly after was Nii Yugito, and a new chapter was ready to be written in Kumogakure's history.

If they would extend the same courtesy to him, he would not refuse. After all, Sarutobi-sama had told him to 'be nice'. Naruto however was not so conceited to believe he deserved this lavish apartment.

A ninja's level of skill dictated the type of missions he would be assigned. Amount of pay was proportional to the complexity or danger a mission posed. It stood to reason then, that the more accomplished a ninja was, the bigger his bank account. However, many of these bank accounts were barely emptied for most of the month, unless it meant weapon costs.

The reasons were simple.

A ninja never knew if the next mission would be his last.

Most of these missions meant the shinobi would need to spend weeks outside the village.

Therefore a ninja, unless part of a bigger family, would only ensure that his home offered the minimum amount of comfort. A ninja like Hatake Kakashi fit perfectly under this example, despite being the only heir to Hatake Sakumo's estate and undertaking years upon years of A to S-class missions.

Obvious exceptions to this unwritten rule were the clans, who practically flaunted their wealth and prestige as a demonstration of power. Konoha's Hyuuga clan was the first example to pop up in Naruto's mind.

The red-head obviously felt like he belonged to the former, even though back in Konoha he had settled in the Sarutobi estate. This was a far cry from his previous quarters though.

In the bedroom, there had been a double-door entrance to a huge closet.

He had felt like he was stepping into another world.

It was practically a room all on its own. It did not contain just clothes either. At its end stood a wall, mounted with a variety of weapons Naruto would be hard-pressed to find outside a hidden village.

From standard shuriken to the windmill type, from double bladed kunai to quad-bladed sword type kunai, from swords to chained _kusarigama_, it was enough to fulfill the fantasies of a pubescent male ninja. His ninja training had begun early, at an age where his body had not properly developed yet. To compensate for the lack of power in his blows, he had to settle for sharp pointy things and eight years down the line he was something of a weapons expert.

He proved this when he picked up the only scythe here and twirled it from hand to hand and around his back and neck, slashing through invisible opponents. The design of the staff appeared hellish, with streaks of black and red. Perhaps it was meant to embody the demonic nature of the nine tailed fox with its red fur and all.

In terms of shinobi armour, the most unique piece he found was a pair of gauntlets. They consisted of fingerless gloves that went just up to his elbows and a pair of thick white plates. The plates were shaped in the Hidden Cloud emblem, as in practically wearing the village's enlarged symbol on his sleeves. Still, declaring your allegiance like this was far from normal, so it would probably take a while for people to figure it out.

An extremely conspicuous design, yet their light nature and useful defensive capabilities overrode those disadvantages. Kakuzu's punch had left something of a dark imprint on his memory.

In terms of what he actually wore, he was obviously not a picky person so a dark long-sleeved shirt and pants did the trick for him. Whoever picked out his clothes obviously had his tastes in mind, right down to the selection of boxers. Naruto was disturbed by this, albeit mildly yet still disturbed.

The wraps that would have gone around his shins were too long, so he opted to try out Kumo's custom standard shin guards. The piece of white and red fabric fit easily around his leg. The weight on his leg was a little more than he was used to, but he could adapt with ease. If it could add even a little more power to his blows or a little more defense against impacts, Naruto would gladly welcome that practicality.

Kumogakure was situated in a mountain range as mentioned before and true to the fact that 'the higher you go, the cooler it becomes' the difference in temperature between here and the tropical Konoha was plain as day.

Naruto felt that the thick white scarf wrapped around his neck was a must. With the demon's chakra invading his coils drop by drop, there was extremely little possibility of him getting sick, but Naruto was not so much a machine that he disregarded his personal comforts too much.

As he sat down to once more drown himself in the plot of Jiraiya's literary works, the door shook as a knock reached his ears.

Frankly, he had expected it sooner, but now was as good a time as any.

He was in a foreign village and this was not any random mission. Of course, he would have to meet with the Kage. Common sense demanded it.

Opening the door revealed a dark-skinned man standing behind it. Shaggy white hair that fell over his left eye covered the crown of his head. He wore the standard Kumo jounin attire, the only difference being the high coloured sleevless shirt he wore under the one-strap-over-one-shoulder Kumo flak jacket. The slouched posture and hands that were dug deep into his pockets were all too familiar.

"Yo," the man said in the way of greeting.

That lazy voice was all too familiar.

"Would you happen to be hiding a **doujutsu** (eye-technique) behind that hair?"

Naruto felt that this question just had to be addressed, even if ninja were prone to guarding secrets about their techniques to a selfish extent.

The man was slightly confused, as shown by how he tilted his head slightly. Chills raced up and down Naruto's back.

"No…I don't have one of those. Why do you ask?"

"It's nothing, you remind me of someone I know." It was almost scary.

At least there was no mask.

"My name is Darui. The Raikage has summoned you. I'm here to escort you to meet him," the ninja, now identified as Darui, drawled, doing nothing to hide his lazy nature. Only the thickness of his arms spoke otherwise. Apparently, this was a personality that was locked away in the heat of battle.

Putting on a pair of black ninja boots and grabbing the key, the boy stepped outside and locked the door to the apartment. Darui had already begun walking down the hallway to the stairs, so Naruto's pace was already a fast one to catch up.

The boy wondered if he should strike up a conversation with Darui with the goal of information gathering but ultimately decided against it.

His reasons were that he was bad with small-talk, even to pick up some information, and that the Raikage would probably tell him everything. After all, this man had been trusted by his own father. Naruto's high degree of faith in the yellow flash demanded he show the Raikage at least a little.

The corridor was curved, due to the structure being built around a peak of the mountain range, as most of Kumo's buildings were. This meant the stairs spiraled down to the ground floor.

Two people were coming up just as Naruto and Darui stepped on the stairs.

"Darui-san," one of them greeted. It was an undeniably beautiful blonde girl wearing a pair of glasses, whose hair was a golden waterfall that flowed down to her waist and who at the age of thirteen also showed all the signs of becoming a voluptuous woman.

Naruto failed to notice even a single thing about her.

His attention was instead fixated upon her companion; a girl of similar age but slightly shorter.

Her silver hair covered her head like a mushroom, flaring out at the ends that pointed to the floor, except for bangs that clung to the sides of her face. This hair covered her forehead messily and one especially thick lock hung right between blood red eyes that stared dully at him.

She was dressed in a tight dark sleeveless sweater and arm warmers that extended to the top of her biceps.

Small drops of sweat gathered on Naruto's fore-head, yet if you asked him, he would say the warmth had completely fled from his body. It came racing back a second later though, as memory flashes assaulted his mind and the demon's chakra thrashed against the gates.

Naruto spoke instinctively.

"S-Sena-chan?"

Right before him, the girl seemed to come to life as previously dull eyes lit with a ferocious fire.

Darui had stopped to observe the second he saw Naruto's shocked face. The blonde girl had almost spoken up until she too heard the name that spilled from Naruto's lips. Her reaction was not as severe as her companion, as she only gasped with her hands over her mouth.

'Sena-chan' grabbed Naruto's shoulders with an iron grip. "S-Sena…my sister," she gasped, "you just said my sister's name! You looked at me and then you said my sister's name! Do you know her?! You know her right?!"

Naruto blinked at the word 'sister'. Recognition as well as realization as well as another feeling flashed across his face in stages before a stern expression permanently settled there.

As the girl before him continuously demanded him to speak, he reached up and pushed her hands away, before quickly side-stepping her and making his way down the steps.

"Hey you! Stop! You know something don't you!? Answer me!" Naruto ignored her shrieks even as he passed Darui and the blonde girl.

She would not be easily denied though.

A burst of speed had her standing a few feet in front of Naruto, her defiant stance speaking in volumes of how he would not get past her without answering her questions.

Naruto however, was not in the mood. Mental power kept the Kyuubi's chakra firmly behind bars, yet her appearance had already unbalanced him emotionally enough that some had slipped through.

She was perhaps the only one capable of this feat.

This did not mean that his father's seal failed to live up to its duties. The Eight Trigrams Seal was designed to let drops of the demon's chakra intermingle with his own. This was done to acclimate Naruto's body to handle the demon's chakra with a little more ease. Other benefits were to bolster his own chakra supply as well as an increased healing rate.

However, no benefit was without risks.

The rate at which the chakra flowed into his body could be said to be inversely proportional to the stability of his mental state.

In other words a more stable mindset meant a small stream of chakra.

A less stable mindset meant anything from raging river to roaring waterfall.

Naruto had held it back…barely. Some traces still lingered though.

These traces were responsible for Naruto's aggression, and thus the reason he said,

"Stand aside girl," his eyes were as cold as ice, "don't make me hurt you."

"Answer me!"

She stepped forward and grabbed at him, and then suddenly she was being pinned against the wall face-first, with her arm twisted painfully behind her.

Naruto held her there with an unshakeable grip, even as she struggled against him.

"Let her go, Uzumaki-san," Darui commanded. His voice had long lost that lazy edge.

His heart pounding in his chest, Naruto complied and let her go. She turned immediately to face him, but the boy was already beating a hasty retreat down the stairs.

Naruto arrived at the next floor, where the floor evened out and the next couple of steps would lead him to the next staircase that led to the next floor.

The girl stopped him here again, but at this point violence was far from her mind. On this flat surface, she fell to her knees before him, her face doing nothing to hide her desperation. Rather, she had not even thought of hiding it.

Tears threatened to spill out of her eye and her expression spoke of unimaginable pain.

"Please! I beg of you! I haven't seen my sister in years! She was taken from me! All I want now is to see her again! If you can tell me anything that will help me find her! Anything! I'll forever be in your debt!"

Her forehead was pressed against the floor now in a full bow.

Naruto did not notice. After seeing her anguished expression, he was suddenly _in the forests of Kusa, surrounded by thin tall trees and large mushrooms alike._

_Her anguished face stared at him desperately, her tiny left hand crushing his own hand while her right hand found purchase on his shirt, tearing it even more._

"PLEASE!" Her scream echoed in his ears, bringing him back to reality.

Naruto glanced at her, then looked away quickly. The image of her in complete submission would have melted the heart of any human being.

Naruto was a little different though.

"I don't know what or who you're talking about," he said, each word falling like a hammer strike. "I've never met anyone who even resembles you. You're talking to the wrong person."

His legs moved, almost not of his own accord as he continued to trace his path down the steps.

The blonde girl immediately moved to help her friend, who did not move an inch after Naruto's declaration.

"Ayame-chan, please take Sen-chan back home. Make sure she gets some rest."

"Understood, Darui-senpai."

Stifling a sigh at how troublesome this had just become, he quickened his pace. At the ground floor entrance to the building he finally spoke up.

"The reports said you were a pretty much emotionless guy. You definitely feel that way to me, but your first expression when you saw Sen-chan showed how shaken up you were."

Naruto's retort was swift.

"I don't know what you saw, Darui-san, but I will admit I am not a machine. Even I can be surprised."

"What do you think happened back there?"

"You saw it right? A girl I don't know rather enthusiastically thought I apparently know her sister. I corrected her."

"So who's Sena-chan? She didn't say her name. You did," Darui accused Naruto while amazingly being able to sound as if this was a very dull topic to him.

"I do not know what you're talking about."

Naruto already knew the evidence was stalked up against him. His only hope was to change the topic and pray to god that no one would ever ask him that question again.

These emotions were hard enough to deal with.

"Aren't we supposed to be on our way to the Raikage's office."

"Ah, you're right. The Raikage will kill me for being late." He did not sound scared at all. "Allow me to apologize for Sen-chan's behavior and for delaying you. Let's go before he sends someone to check on us."

* * *

Meeting 'Sen-chan' had set off a cyclone of thoughts in Naruto's head, none of which he had the capacity or the want to deal with. However he was unsettled enough that he was startled when they arrived at the base of the peak on which the Hokage's tower was built.

Kumo's streets were a series of anticlines and synclines.

Leave it to a ninja village to find strange places to settle.

Flat roads were rare enough. Any building not attached to a part of the mountain stood on a level platform raised over the sloppy land, no doubt the work of earth-style ninjutsu.

The streets were bustling with people going about their daily business.

Kumo had as much a healthy population of blonde people as well as dark-skinned people. Dark-skinned people were native to the Land of Lightning while blondes could be found just about anywhere up north, which was why even in the Land of Earth they were a common breed. Raven hair and brunnettes were common everywhere.

Yet red hair was a dying breed, ever since the fall of the Uzumaki clan.

As if that did not make him conspicuous enough, he was also walking around with Darui. The man with the dull look on his face was rather famous in this village, being one of the successors of the former Raikage's black lightning techniques and also considered to be the current Raikage's right hand man by many, even the Raikage himself.

Still this should not raise so many alarms by itself. The other factor was the rumours about the 'new jinchuriki' that Konoha had lent them.

Naruto had no fame to his name.

Most of the people of Konoha had forgotten he existed.

The missions he undertook under Danzou and the Hokage's orders had him wearing a mask and even in those missions, he rarely used the Kyuubi's chakra for active combat. As a result, even though the people of Kumo knew a jinchuriki is coming, they had no idea what to expect.

Seeing Darui, the man who was only anti-social due to laziness, walk side by side with a never before seen red-head was enough for people to connect the dots. Thus Naruto was the target of quite a few stares.

Add the whisker-like birth marks into the equation and it would take a special branch of ignorance to not figure out what was going on.

He noticed them, and they bothered him slightly. After all, in Konoha he had never walked about so freely. Yet that detail was forced to the back by the face of the sliver-haired girl which firmly implanted itself in his mind.

If he had paid more attention to the people around him, perhaps he would have noticed that the last thing in their eyes was hatred and disgust.

The Raikage's tower put the Hokage's tower back in Konoha to shame, in terms of height, though maybe you could say that using a mountain as a foundation was cheating in a sense. Naruto walked up and up the endless stairs of the blue tower.

He was not tired by the end of it. After all, he was a trained ninja, and they could run for a whole day if they had to, if the use of chakra was allowed.

Still, he had to admire Kumo ninjas endurance. A higher altitude meant the air had a lower oxygen content. He was already taking deeper breaths to compensate. Yet Darui beside him could have been a walking corpse, for all the movement his chest showed.

It was when they arrived at the office that a disembodied voice echoed off the walls of the hallway they stood in.

"Darui, sorry but he just left. Left through the window this time."

Kumo's Anbu, Naruto realized. Now that he had been jolted out of his thoughts, he could sense the faint wisps of presences around him, watching his every move.

To pry any deeper in order to find their actual positions would be rude, so he refrained. It was alright, since he could sense no killing intent emanating from those presences.

Darui sighed, "Reiko-chan?"

"Who else?" the mysterious Anbu answered with a chuckle, "He should be over at Unraikyo valley reshaping the landscape with B-sama."

"You can take a shortcut through the window he broke," another disembodied voice offered, but Darui scoffed, much to the amusement of the Anbu if the disembodied chuckles were anything to go by.

"Doors were made for a reason. Let's go Uzumaki-san." Darui turned on his heel and went back the way they came. He really was going to leave this place through the front entrance.

Naruto followed, a little perturbed and a little interested in the happenings. Anbu that freely had a conversation while he was present, even though they were concealed? Was this village really that lax? Was this some attempt to make him feel more comfortable here?

If he had to choose, he would go with the latter, but for Naruto who had trouble accepting good will even if he tried, this only caused the opposite effect.

They made it out back outside, where Darui turned to him and said, "Unraikyo valley is a little far from here. It would be better if we ran there. You don't mind taking to the rooftops do you?"

From the mouth of any other foreign ninja, those words would have only been seen as a challenge. Darui made it seem like he himself would mind going to all that trouble. It almost felt like a plea to walk.

However Naruto felt like a good run would only wake up his slightly sluggish body and if he had to watch his step then he could keep his mind off of silver hair and red eyes.

He nodded, and a moment later, the body flicker jutsu carried both he and Darui to the rooftop of a nearby building.

"It's this way," Darui said while coiling his leg muscles. Naruto meant to copy his actions when an alarm went off in his head.

Someone was watching him a little bit too closely.

It was not killing intent. This could probably just be called pure intent. This person was so focused on him, the village around her could have been swallowed into the depths of hell and all this stalker would be interested in would be which foot he used to take the next step.

Anbu were better than this, so he felt that he just could not ignore this as village security. A slight turn of his head, allowed him to catch a glimpse of silver moonlight in the shadows.

Naruto wanted to scream.

He opened his mouth to call her out and tell her to leave him alone, but instinct made him shut up. He would rather not face her. Perhaps if he ignored her, she would give up and leave? This were his thoughts as he rushed to catch up with Darui who was calling out for him.

Ten minutes later though, as he leapt off of steep slopes with Darui, his senses told him he was so wrong it was almost funny.

Naruto was not laughing.

Darui had to have noticed, but those dull eyes gave no sign that he was willing to do anything about it.

Fortunately enough, the rumbling of earthquakes and the roar of avalanches provided a welcome distraction.

Those Anbu were not joking when they used the phrase, 'reshaping the landscape'.

'Unraikyo valley' as the Anbu had called it, was a valley unlike most that Naruto had seen.

Putting it plainly, it was an oversized trench, whose floor was completely covered with water. Rock masses rose out of this water, spearing into the sky like some humongous spike death trap meant to trap and pierce titans.

They were like icebergs, only instea of icebergs, this was stone and soil.

On these rock masses, various craters of various sizes could be seen and on some entire portions had been blasted away.

In the centre of all of these, one rock mass had been excavated so that at its peak sat a small training dojo. From its entrance were a long flight of steps that led down to flattened ground, and that was where the two beasts in human skin, locked in fierce combat, battled for superiority.

Two men, whose bodies could only be described as pure concrete blocks of muscle dashed towards each other, their arms outstretched. Their arms collided with each other's upper body, and Naruto watched in awe as a cloud of dust expanded from their feet.

He had actually 'heard' the earth tremble beneath their might.

The one in a large dusty coat, that was once probably white, raised a foot and slammed it down, pushing himself forward and breaking in a new crater beneath his sole. His forearms was encased in some yellow metallic cylindrical objects, that looked like they weighed twice Naruto's own weight.

The other demon, dressed in Kumo's jounin garb, but with only the flak jacket covering his torso and a scarf roared out his defiance. The tips of his toes dug deep trenches in the worn ground, yet they lead away from his opponent.

His opponent roared back in kind and gave one more final titanic heave, completely lifting his opponent of his feet and sending him crashing into the stairs.

"We're in luck. Looks like their done."

Darui's voice broke Naruto out of his reverie.

Naruto had been in training since he was five years old. At that age, his muscles were far from developed, so he had to rely on tricks, jutsu and sharp weapons to take down his opponent.

Ninja in general, did not usually allow physical strength to win battles. If your earth dragon could crush a ribcage while your fist only left a bruise then the earth dragon was an obvious choice to take down your opponent.

Konoha's taijutsu expert, Might Guy, relied on a style called 'Strong Fist'. His punches could break bone, yet those were strikes. His punches knocked you out before you had a chance to retaliate with your own strength.

This was perhaps the first time Naruto had seen a battle where physical strength was used to determine the victor and not as a last resort.

For a first time, it did not disappoint. In fact, his expectations had been completely blown away.

The victor walked forward to his defeated opponent, with a scowl on his face. He seemed disappointed. His next words proved Naruto right.

"B! You're still too weak! All these years and your lariat still can't match mine!" He did not sound happy at all as he stood in front of the sprawled form of B. "Punishment: IRON CLAW!"

With one arm, he lifted B up…by his temples, as if this battle that had decimated portions of the valley had not been physically taxing at all.

B's shrill scream was not something Naruto had been expecting from such a large man.

"Bro! Let go! I can tell you fo' sho', next time I'll have it down yo!"

To rhyme poorly while in a very painful hold, Naruto wondered if he should be impressed or disturbed.

"Hmph, if you have any time to write more of your rhymes, then use it for training." Unimpressed, B's 'bro' tossed him away like a paperweight. He then turned, and looked straight at Darui and Naruto, the scowl on his face showing no signs of going away.

Naruto twitched.

"Looks like boss is still in somewhat of a bad mood, but you'll have to deal with it. Let's go." Naruto would have asked why _he_ had to deal with it, if Darui had not already leaped to his boss.

He followed doing his utmost to hide any and all hesitation.

The Raikage, Naruto decided, was not a nice man. Pronounced cheekbones, a white split moustache and a white small beard, this was not a face designed to make you feel comfortable. Standing before this moving mountain, the red-head had to struggle not to inch away slowly.

This could be the man with the most intimidating appearance on this continent. A peek under his Kage's haori revealed muscles Naruto never knew a man could have.

The man's eye scanned him up and down, measuring his worth in seconds.

When he bent down and brought his face to within an inch of Naruto's, the boy only kept his poker face on because he felt like prey that would be gobbled up if he made the slightest move under the watchful eye of this monstrous predator.

The Raikage walked around Naruto. The feeling of being smothered persisted. When the man reached out and grabbed his bicep, Naruto reflexively flexed and the Raikage scoffed at the size of the muscle.

Naruto glanced at Darui, the man who he had only met less than an hour ago, but the only one who could offer some sort of help. When the man looked away nonchalantly, only the desperation of the moment made his betrayal sting so deeply.

"Impressive, for a thirteen year old, but still scrawny. Still I guess you're scrawny old man was more than a match for me." The Raikage said, stepping in front of Naruto.

The boy only bowed. "Raikage-sama," he greeted.

"You look nothing like him…except for his eyes. Yes, those are most definitely his eyes. Enough of this pointless talk. Those three bastards brought you in here unconscious. Can you fight?"

Taken aback by this question, it took Naruto a second longer than necessary to answer.

"…yes, Raikage-sama. I'm fully recuperated."

"Good, my idiot brother will train you. Uzumaki Naruto, Jinchuriki of the nine tailed fox, meet B, Jinchuriki of the eight tailed ox-octopus."

"Yo, Mr Nine! With the bloody hair! We're gonna make them call you Kyuubi-sama, yeah!" It had to be the one with the horrible rhymes. Naruto cursed his luck.

The man in question, was very similar to A, the Raikage. Similar white hair that was combed back, the goatee and similar build. The similarities ended there. B wore dark sports shades, had the kanji for iron tattooed on his shoulder and tied a rope around the waist of his pants whose ends almost touched the floor. There were seven blades sheathed on his back, something Naruto found very curious.

He also wore a wicked grin that could only ever spell trouble.

Naruto disregarded the last part in favour of greeting him.

"Greetings B. I look forward to working with you."

"Don't be so stiff! Me training you is supposed to be like a treat!" B said, his arms flying all over the place as he rhymed.

And Naruto had thought Jiraiya and Orochimaru would be the strangest people he would ever meet.

"Shut up B," A commanded, "Let's get down to business. Uzumaki, you're completely in B's hands. Do what he tells you to do, go where he tells you to go, eat what he tells you to eat and shit when he tells you to shit. The timein which you may remain here is as of yet unspecified but don't use that an excuse to take your time even if you have no friends back home."

'…_.ouch?'_ Naruto was not sure what to think.

"But first, fight B. I wanna see what you're old man left behind."

B quickly took the stand. "Mr Nine, don't worry, the first to be your bro will be me, but only after getting your ass kicked by me! Yeah!"

If Naruto had the emotional capacity for it, he would have cursed. Fighting these beasts was the last thing he wanted to do.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it, he was spared.

"Wait!"

Her feet hit the ground a few yards away in a crouch which she slowly stood up from. All present looked to her curiously, except Naruto who adopted a poker face stone could not break through.

Silver hair gleamed in the sun as she tossed her head back and glared at him. "I'll fight him." She asserted.

Darui asked the question on everyone's mind. "Sen-chan, why are you here?"

Her lips curled back in a snarl. "He's lying! He saw me and said my twin sister's name before he even knew my own. As my twin, she had my face so he must have known her!"

"I didn't," Naruto objected.

"Liar!" her scream was painful. Not to Naruto's ears though.

"Fight me! If I win, you tell me everything you know about her. If you win, I'll never bother you again." She put forth her challenge.

There was only one way Naruto was going to respond this and it was to swiftly refu-

"Actually this is better. B doesn't know how to go easy on someone anyway. Rather than strong defense, he is more prone to swiftly counter-attack and I don't think you're scrawny body could handle a punch from him."

"Don't worry, little guy. You still get points for housing Mr Nine, alright?"

It was at this point that Naruto realized he had to actually work for respect while he was here. Beneath the clothes, he actually had some muscles, a gift from Danzou's hard training. He was just a little short and had not hit the height growth spurt yet.

"Alright, first one's back to hit the ground is the loser. Let's make this quick." A laid down the rules in his gruff voice.

Sen stood before him, firm determination carved into her face, a mirror image of another girl Naruto had known years ago, albeit a little bit grown up.

He blinked to dispel the memories, before they captured him in their unrelenting cruel grip.

Simple movement carried the Raikage and the rest to the top of the staircase, leaving the two alone for what felt like a cruel showdown fated to happen.

She crouched like some predator ready to pounce.

Naruto sighed and loosened the scarf around his neck a little.

He would finish this fight quickly and hopefully she'd disappear from his life forever after this.

_I have a little sister, Naruto-kun. I'm sure you'd like her._

The bones in his neck and shoulders popped as he twisted the joints.

"Three…Two…One…Begin!"

…_Sorry, Sena-chan._

**Read and Review**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three**

_**Five years ago…**_

_It has been two years since the incident, and already I'm forgetting what it's like to feel. _

_They say that a man is defined by his past experiences. Memories give our personalities shape and form. _

_How then, do memories accomplish such an amazingly complex feat? _

_At the tender age of seven I found the answer to be emotions. The feelings attached to past experience can determine just how one presents himself to the world. Remembering how a loved one gave you a special gift, whether intangible or tangible, means you can approach that person with the same happiness you experienced during the receiving of the gift. _

_What then, if those strong feelings are stripped from the memory?_

_If I am unable to recall the emotion known as happiness or sadness from a certain event, is that memory not then just simple information?_

_Am I an altogether different person just because my reaction from such a memory is entirely different than from the time their cruel gazes instilled despair in my heart?_

_I pondered this question as my feet pushed off of another branch in the dense forests of the Land of Fire. I'm in the middle of a mission, surrounded by comrades, yet my mind is miles away. _

_I felt it then, the warm sensation that only comes from the feel of skin on skin. _

_She was right beside me, having jumped close enough that her fingers would brush lightly against mine. _

_Her face was covered by a mask, yet to me, perhaps only to me and because she allowed it, I could still read her like an open book. I felt all of it; her concern and determination could not be held back by a simple white mask. Her unseen smile was blinding. _

_Those red eyes seemed to strip my soul bare._

_No one around us seemed to notice this magical moment between us, and that was just fine. It was fine being different. This girl had no problem with it. She struggled to be different, yet at the same time it was only natural for her to be different._

_All to achieve a goal with determination that was fueled by the raging maelstrom of emotions within her. _

_Her feet hit the next branch, and suddenly she was ahead of me. Before I knew it, I was pushing more chakra into my legs just to get closer to that beautiful silver hair that flared out behind her._

"Begin!" the Raikage barked out, and combat was engaged.

Darui's lone visible eye widened slightly as he watched Sen cross the distance between her and Naruto in seconds in a mad dash. Needless to say, but this surprised face bore some purpose in displaying his shock at the fact that the girl had been the one to attack.

As he watched her limbs move back and forth attempting to land heavy strikes, he reflected on the knowledge that for as long as he had known her, she had always fought by reaction.

He knew that Sen was much more comfortable letting her opponent bring the fight to her. It complimented her style and personality. Yes, even the part of it that meant she was lazy.

It could not be helped though. The nature of her jutsu, her kekkei genkai, allowed her such liberties where all she needed for a quick kill was to draw blood.

"The girl needs to calm down."

His 'boss' beside him was of a similar mind, however he came at it from another direction. The Raikage did not know Sen as intimately as Darui did. 'A' saw a young girl throwing wild and aggressive strikes that the young boy easily danced around.

Darui sighed, "It can't be helped, boss," he said, "Sen-chan's been obsessed about finding her sister. On that mission, we only found Sen-chan and there were no clues as to where Sena was. We obviously don't have any leads. Now that she thinks she's found one, she won't give up so easily."

"This level of strength will not get her anywhere. Watch."

As if on cue, Naruto validated the Raikage's words by unleashing his counter. He had both of her arms in his grip, holding them at the elbows. Sen tugged, but Naruto was not about to let go so easily.

With her arms in his hands he traced a circle in the air as if turning a steering wheel. By spinning round on his feet in the same motion, he added enough force to lift Sen off her feet and spin her in the air, with her body parallel to the ground.

In the middle of his own motion of turning around, Naruto's foot rose and smashed into her airborne body, landing a kick that would most definitely leave a nasty bruise on her collar.

Sen was flung back, and in that moment the match was sure to be decided. Disorientation from the spinning and the pain from the kick would surely rob anyone but the most talented of individuals the ability to stand on their own two feet.

Darui appeared disappointed at this undramatic end to the day's events while the Raikage's scowl never lifted from his face, just looking plain unimpressed.

Give Sen a prize though, for showing she belonged to these most talented of individuals. Two gleaming red swords dug into the ground, creating thin parallel trenches as they fought inertia.

The match would go on, simply because it was these swords, and not Sen's back, that had hit the ground.

These swords were held in Sen's hands, with her body held off the ground and perpendicularly to the swords, in a show of upper body strength that only a ninja of the elemental nations could pull off.

With her arms trembling slightly due to the exertion, she lowered her feet to the floor gracefully. After taking a breath or two to steady herself, she began to stalk towards Naruto, her twin wickedly curved red scimitars twirling in her grasp. Darui wondered if Naruto had figured out just where these new weapons had come from.

Darui saw the hellish inferno in her eyes.

She would definitely give it her all in this fight, for the sake of the sister, the last of her family, who was stolen from her.

He had never seen her like this before.

He had always thought this girl needed a little more motivation in her life (not that he was one to talk), but this was not what he had in mind. He also thought that if Yoruichi found out her student had killed the village's jinchuriki while he stood lightly by, there would be hell to pay. Her blades were already lashing out at Naruto, who with a cold expression rushed to move out of her range.

Darui's shoulders tensed as he prepared to move to stop the match, but a heavy hand on his shoulder made him pause. "Leave them Darui. Observe closely. Those 'swords' are nothing but blunt clubs."

Darui observed and he saw that the words of his leader rang true.

Sen's blades were one of the sharpest things he had ever borne witness to, right up there with lightning coated weapons. What she held in her hands struck the ground and left small dents.

If Naruto was not careful, he could look forward to a few broken bones.

But Naruto was being careful. Any veteran ninja could see that Naruto movements were the result of many experiences on the battlefield. He never leaned that much farther than he needed to. The red scimitars would practically caress the equally red mess of hair on his head. Her strikes would fly past him at the last possible moment.

"You're slow!" she declared.

Sen obviously did not think so. To her, her blows were always that much closer to knocking him off his feet. Obviously a ploy on Naruto's part, but Sen was too incensed to see that.

The Raikage had obviously seen it. B perhaps noticed, but Darui was not too sure, seeing as the 'Hachibi-sama' was scribbling furiously in a notebook, with a fountain pen he would occasionally poke his tongue with.

"Raikage-sama," Darui began his awkward question, "I believe, because it's fairly obvious, that Naruto does have some knowledge on her sister's whereabouts. For her sake, couldn't you just…"

"Couldn't you just what?" The way the Raikage urged him to finish reminded Darui of just how much his boss hated people beating around the bush. The man honestly had no appreciation for subtlety. All the more motivation for Darui to force the words to flow forth.

"You are the Raikage. Enough pressure from you would perhaps force him to give out information."

A was silent, for a second, before giving his immediate answer.

"I could, however I consider this treaty much more important than a girl who may or may not be dead."

Darui could not help but wince a little. Blunt as always, the old man was.

"Apparently any answer would have to be forced out of him and ultimately responsibility for that order falls onto me. More than just training him, we're supposed to implant the mindset that he can fight for Kumo as a Kumo-ninja. Picking a side now would only make that job harder." A said.

"So we are poaching him from his village?" Darui asked.

A shook his head. "Chances he'd fight against Konoha are practically zero. However, it's better to keep a few options open if we are in a pinch against an enemy who is not his home village."

The conversation was cut short when their eyes witnessed Sen's first decisive strike.

Another kick from Naruto had knocked her back a few feet. Her retaliation was swift, as she immediately leaped into the air to fall upon him, spinning head over heels with her blades outstretched. Naruto jumped back to simply dodge the human cannonball that was Sen.

He made a slight miscalculation though.

He thought he was out of range of her swords.

When they suddenly lengthened and combined into one though, Naruto was in danger of a cracked skull.

Reflexes and strength borne of multiple instances in combat saved him when his hands flew up and slammed into the sides of the club, holding it in place an inch above his face.

"Ooohhh, little lady got some skills to pay tha' bills!" B cheered.

That was not the end though. Naruto felt his shock growing, when the club morphed once more, deforming into a shapeless substance that wrapped itself around his wrists.

All of a sudden, it was a whip.

With chakra enhanced strength and an enraged scream (a tone of her voice Darui doubted anyone had ever heard before), she lifted Naruto off of his feet and over her head, seeking to slam him into the ground in a clear demonstration of her victory.

For a second, the 'dull' ninja believed she would actually win.

Naruto disproved this belief though. Perfect body control had him land on his feet, an impact that no doubt violently shook the bones in his body. A pained grunt showed just what he thought of that maneuver.

She snarled and swung her whip sideways, looking to pull him off his feet, yet Naruto did not budge. Chakra tethered the soles of his boots to the ground, making them stick together like glue.

This was a very common ninja technique. Focusing chakra like this could greatly enhance adhesive qualities, allowing ninja to exercise three dimensional movement by walking on walls and ceilings.

Sen changed tactics immediately. She moved her left hand away, pulling a part of the whip with it, which shifted and warped into a pole. Her intention was clearly to slam the pole into Naruto, and to do it very painfully.

Naruto would have none of this though.

The red whip, that was strangely warm now that he was touching it, was wrapped around his wrists holding them together.

In her rage, she seemed to have forgotten that a ninja's hands allowed them to form hand seals. Hand seals let them perform jutsu and jutsu were a ninja's most powerful weapon.

Naruto clasped his hands in the tiger seal and felt his chakra mold itself to meet his demands. He then inhaled and air rushed into his lungs, bonding with his chakra. He blew, and the chakra ignited, sending a misshapen stream of flame streaking towards Sen.

Taken by surprise, her hands moved before the fire enveloped her.

When Naruto let up, a gleaming red shield stood between her and Naruto. Incidentally Naruto's hands were no longer bound. The rod had disappeared too.

_Enough of this_, Naruto thought. Truthfully this match had gone on for too long.

His hands touched the ground as he settled into an animalistic crouch, that of a predator right about to catch its prey.

When her shield lost its form, he pounced, smashing into her less than a second later. The impact, with his shoulder digging into her gut knocked the wind out of her.

Naruto was not done yet. His tackle carried them some distance in the air, which he took full advantage of, maneuvering himself such that his boot now rested before her stomach. Before a replacement jutsu could save her, Naruto kicked off with that foot, essentially jumping off of her like she was a platform.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Therefore, pushing himself up also entailed pushing her down.

Sen's back hit the ground so hard she bounced off it, but the damage had been done.

The terms had been met.

Naruto was the victor of this battle.

"The match is decided. Naruto wins," the Raikage announced as he walked down the steps with Killer Bee and Darui behind him.

Sen was off the ground and on her own two feet in an instant, but this action did nothing to hide her labored breathing. The winning strike had robbed her lungs of air. The red substance, which had been left hovering in the air, even after Naruto tackled her, suddenly disappeared into her arm-warmers.

"No! I can beat him! Just give me another chance!"

"I believe the terms were to keep your distance if you lost."

"Yes, but-"

"Leave girl. You're wasting my time."

Sen opened her mouth to retort, but the Raikage's cold eyes, which seemingly dared her to oppose his command, made her body freeze unnaturally. Somehow the words got stuck in her throat, and her will faltered before this mountain of a man.

To make matters worse, there was no one present who was on her side.

"Sen-chan, I think it's best if you leave," Darui said. She made her plea with her eyes, but Darui silently shook his head. 'Don't make things any worse,' his expression seemed to say.

Behind her judges, Naruto stood with his back to her, while being assaulted with all sorts of silly rhymes by Killer Bee. His head turned slightly, as if he were about to look at her, but that was all.

A crushing defeat followed by zero acknowledgment?

This was too much for Sen to handle. Her nails dug into her palms and her teeth ground against each other. Painful heavy steps carried her to the edge of the training ground, before she leaped off in the direction of the village.

Naruto pretended not to hear her agonizing sob.

"Boss, I'll go after her." Darui declared.

However A's harsh treatment of her was not over. "Leave her be Darui. That's an order."

Obviously Darui was unsettled by his boss's words. "Wh-…Why?"

"You're words would not help her at all," A said bluntly, "To a ninja, power is everything. Therefore she must find her answer under her own power. If she was truly strong enough, then she would have won or she would not have cared and still gone after him even after losing."

How a small thirteen year old girl was supposed to find the will to disobey a direct command from the Fourth Raikage, Darui had no idea. He trusted his boss though, that went without saying, and if the man said she'd be alright…then she would be alright.

"Now we can continue. B!" he called out to his brother. "You're up."

The man in question immediately leaped back to create some space between him and Naruto. Danger instincts flaring, Naruto widened his stance as well, and focused all his attention on this new and far superior opponent. His heart was like lead, about to plunge through his stomach. He honestly felt like the departed Sen had run off with a piece of his soul.

However, fighting was something had been trained to do for a long time. Like many other ninja, it was what he did best. This would never change. Whatever he felt held no place on the battlefield, so if he could focus on his opponent, perhaps this pain would abate, if only a little.

Killer Bee raised his hands.

Naruto exhaled slowly in anticipation.

"_Spinning and kicking,_

_That's how we face the world baby!_

_Spinning and kicking,_

_Only coz we're both a little crazy!_

_YEEEAAAAHHHHH!"_

The sound of A's palm smacking his forehead echoed across the mountain range.

"How'd ya like that? You gave me the idea for that rhyme in your fight with the blood girl. Coz you're the inspiration I figured I'd give it a whirl. Cool huh?"

Naruto's mind started working again shortly after this. The only reply he could give after being so thoroughly dumbfounded was a slow nod. Interrogations conducted by men in horrific demon masks had been carried out with much more flare.

The Raikage was much more pro-active. "B! You idiot! I meant fight him! Not rap! You want a taste of my iron claw!?"

"Mellow, bro. Just a lil' appreciation for the inspiration!" was B's hearty reply. "Naruto," he said turning to the red-head. Having his name called out so seriously by this man put an even bigger burden on Naruto's mind, which was trying to understand what had just happened with varying degrees of success.

"I'm not gonna go easy on you."

The former Root operative realized the serious tone of voice meant nothing good.

Killer Bee reached behind him to the swords on his back and suddenly seven sharp-pointed double edged swords were in the air above him. B snatched them out of the air with perfect precision and held them in the most bizarre stance Naruto had ever seen.

A blade was held between the right side of his neck and his collar pointing behind him. Both his arms were bent to each accommodate a sword at the elbow. A sword was held under his armpit. His right leg was held up to hold a sword at his waist. Another sword was kept in place behind his right knee. The last sword was between his teeth.

"My mood is good, so I'll give you a taste of my hook."

It had been a while since Naruto had stood before someone whose sheer presence could make a bead of sweat roll down his temple. Rather than instilling confidence, this silly sword stance did the exact opposite.

"Isn't that a little overkill?"

"I said push him to his limits from the beginning, but my idiot brother might just kill him by mistake."

Darui's and A's conversation allowed Naruto to confirm that yes, this was not some weird joke like that strange rap earlier. His was indeed in danger of losing his life…or a few limbs. His eyes were wide with an unidentified emotion floating in them and the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood on end.

Killer Bee's foot pushed off the ground.

The man was a demon.

That was Naruto's true and honest opinion.

Currently the red-head was hiding behind one of the many rock masses in the so-called Valley of Clouds and Lightning. Hiding of course meant 'pressing his back into the rock so hard he wished to become one with it.'

If he recalled correctly, there was a jutsu for that, but he needed a strong earth affinity to learn it, which he did not. He found himself cursing his luck.

This was bad. Naruto realized he had never been one for wishful thinking, having been raised as the ultimate pragmatist. A day in this crazy village was already doing wonders.

Truly today was just not his day.

From dark tragedies in the past in the form of a pretty silver haired girl to a rampaging bull _that could not be stopped_, Naruto really found himself cursing his luck.

The issue on hand here was how to deal with his new - and quite possibly deranged – sensei. Wielding seven swords at once was crazy no matter how you looked at it. The eight tailed jinchuriki had used that idea to turn himself into a raging pincushion of death.

By a series of spins, flips and cartwheels, a whirlwind of sharp metal was created, coming from the most unexpected of angles at the fastest of speeds.

When B had attacked him head-on, Naruto already knew enough that charging into an unknown situation was suicide.

Two shadow clones served as a test. It was more apt to call them sacrifices.

They popped so fast, the yellow flash would have been proud.

Naruto had not seen enough so he immediately jumped away when Killer Bee reached him. With all those muscles the man could move deceptively quickly by hopping on just one leg.

Naruto's retreat at that point bought him less than a second's time. Why? Because B could use the body flicker even when handling so many weapons.

Having the man appear before him so suddenly, with the most sadistic of grins even with a hilt between his teeth had Naruto almost tripping over his feet to get away. A slash from the sword on the man's waist tore open the skin on the red-head's chest. The cut was shallow thankfully and Naruto was accustomed to such degrees of pain. However just because he could ignore it did not mean he could keep up.

B's swords came from everywhere. This was perhaps the most complicated sword dance on the continent, let alone the planet. Naruto did not even know where to begin. The first stance was apparently a starting point only. B could apparently use any joint in his body to hold a blade. The man was practically juggling while spinning and flipping, making him look like some very strange celestial body with sharp spinning satellites.

When he tried to run B would catch up. If he tried to dodge, B would still somehow cut him up.

Overwhelming did not even begin cut it, no pun intended.

It became so bad that when B suddenly plunged three of the blades into Naruto, he was not even surprised. What kind of spar was this? Could this even be remotely called training anymore? Naruto would have paid in organs for someone to explain all this to him.

One sword scraped against his scapula, the other pierced his right lung while the last had gone through his stomach.

He fell back, doing his best impression of a sack of potatoes. Blood trickled forth from the three newly opened orifices, and his mouth also made a generous contribution.

Hate was not a word truly in Naruto's vocabulary, but judging by the gaze he had levelled at the Kumo ninja while on his side, learning would not be an issue.

The three men watched Naruto's descent into the dark side, and possibly death, like scientists taking notes of a hamster spinning a wheel. " C'mon, Mr Nine, you gotta shine to survive," B's rapping was as annoying as ever.

His mind swimming with dark thoughts, Naruto had then realized what was expected of him, as well as his only way out, seeing as no medical help was forthcoming.

Bastards, the lot of them.

A simple 'we also want you to use the demon's power' would have sufficed.

Naruto acquiesced to their and his body's demands. The volcano in his belly erupted and fired its blazing red magma into his head. As always, the chakra was wild, untamed and unyielding, seeking to drive him to the limits of his sanity and break through like a bulldozer. Moving into a crouching position, while a red haze whipped about his body, he pulled out each blade. The wounds closed up after that one after the other, disappearing without a trace like the morning mist.

Fortunately for him, this was only his first use of the foul chakra, so it was relatively easy to rein it in, compared to when he traded killing strikes with Kakuzu and Hidan.

The Raikage's next words however, found a way to introduce a chill to his spine even with all the fiery hot chakra flooding his veins.

"B, draw a tail's worth of chakra out of him. This is not enough."

'Excuse me?' Naruto wanted to ask. That had to have been a mistake. Yet, Naruto's pragmatic mind assured him that those words were absolutely and definitely what the Raikage had asked. Still…a boy could hope right?

B widening his stance with the remaining swords on his person crushed that hope like a child that ruthlessly stomps on tiny ants.

"Mr. Nine using to little chakra. Don't worry, after all this we're gonna turn you into a master."

There was simply no way Naruto was sticking around for this. Healing was not the only trick he could do with this red chakra.

B, A and Darui then each lifted a hand to shield their faces as a wave of red chakra passed over them. Demonic chakra from the tailed beasts was demonic for a reason. Like radiation induces radiation poisoning, so was the same with chakra inducing chakra poisoning. Such a light concentration would do nothing to them who were ninja skilled in the art of chakra manipulation and especially B who housed a similar chakra, yet to come into contact with it was still unpleasant.

When each had lowered their hands, the little red-head had vanished like vapour, leaving nothing but three swords and a ground, both stained with blood.

That was the conclusion of the earlier events that were deep enough to leave psychological scarring on any normal ninja. For Naruto, he could probably hold out for five or ten more minutes…give or take.

Thus the reason why he was hiding out here using a mountain as cover.

As promising as the situation looked, he had only bought himself five minutes tops. It was impossible to fathom a way to hide from two S-rank and one A-rank ninja like this. As it was, he was barely lucky that in this hiding spot he had suppressed the red chakra quickly enough before those blades, better defined as the devil's teeth, located and descended on him.

Naruto sighed. What sort of messed up scenario was this? He had not signed up for torture. He had not even signed up for anything. In fact, he was only here because he had been knocked out by having his chakra sealed and then moved here without his consent.

No matter, how you looked at it, this was kidnapping.

If he explained it to some simple woman in a village, no doubt she would swear a solemn vow to protect him to the best of her ability.

Naruto _was_ grateful, for all this was done for his benefit, but honestly speaking, who would not vent out some frustrations in such a fatal situation. Was this training they usually underwent? Those muscular bodies of theirs, were they the reason they could handle it? If so, Naruto was envious. If those muscles were the result of this training, then pity was now the defining feeling.

Also, there was a reason he did not like drawing out the demon's chakra.

Interestingly enough, as he thought all this, his face could at best be defined as impassive, an impressive poker face given the situation, and no, there was no particular effort put into maintaining it.

The red-head placed the tip of his right index finger onto the ground, performing a simple, yet complex in execution, technique to determine the location of his torturers. Feedback assaulted his mind with startling accuracy and Naruto gasped the gasp of a man who was just witnessed his death. He moved, but it was too late, for the sword was already sticking out of his right lung, which collapsed right away…again.

If Naruto had a shred of Hidan's personality, the curses would be littered all over the place.

Instead, he could only widen his eyes as he wondered just how B tunneled through two hundred metres of rock without him noticing. The earth behind him collapsed, and the man himself stepped out. The blade was pulled out, and Naruto fell to the floor struggling to find his breath. He reached out with his hand to pull (crawl) himself away, but B's large foot on his back put an immediate halt to that.

"Use that chakra, Mr. Nine. I told ya, it's your time to shine!"

Naruto's mood would shine if he never heard another rhyme, let alone rap, for the rest of his godforsaken life.

Nevertheless, the red chakra surged forth, and the wound closed up in seconds.

Retaliation was in order, but B simply applied pressure with his foot and Naruto was almost certain his spine would snap in two.

A kick to the ribs flipped him onto his back, before B's large hand reached down and picked him by his face, with a rather tight grip.

Before his face was crushed, Naruto tried to think of a way to break free, but each attempt to use some of his own pure chakra made Killer Bee press harder, using pain to break his concentration. Punching and kicking was the same as admitting that against B's rock-hard body, his limbs could have as well have been made out of paper.

"Hmmm…let's speed things up."

When the similar potent and toxic yet foreign chakra invaded his system, all hell broke loose.

Darkness fell over the village hidden in the clouds which fought back against the impending gloom with an array of bright dots that spread a warm glow across the village.

Bruised, battered and all sorts of exhausted, Naruto's feet hit the roof of the apartment block which was now his new home. Using up the last vestiges of his strength, he had used the rooftops as his designated path here, which logically was the better option. His apartment was on the top floor. If he went in through the ground level floor, facing those steps would dump unnecessary amounts of steps on his already fragile mind.

Actually going into his apartment would have to wait though, for his legs buckled under him, and he sprawled onto the cold rough floor, even though he was completely topless, courtesy of his efficient (see 'murderous') sensei. The chill from the floor was pushed back however by his irregularly high body heat.

This was a side-effect of his training. After having such large amounts of demonic chakra flow through his body, Naruto felt like a walking furnace. Killer Bee's method of speeding it up was to forcefully draw the Kyuubi's chakra to the surface, in an effort to see the effects of the chakra on the mind and body. Having the chakra flow continuously through him for a minute was so beyond him, Naruto felt he would have better luck going against the nine tailed beasts in a nine-on-one handicap match.

He'd lost his mind, rampaged through the valley a bit, completely ignored their efforts to appeal to his more rational state of mind, injured Darui mildly (though that was due to the man's own carelessness) before the they finally and forcefully put him down.

That would have been alright in Naruto's book, had it not been for the fact that they fell into the pattern of 'rinse and repeat'.

Today Naruto had manifested the demon's chakra cloak five times, with one tail three of those occurrences and two tails the other two.

Therefore today's demon chakra output was only second to the first event when he was five years old. Still, it was more than his output in the eight years that had passed combined.

Paper would probably burn if he so much as flicked it. The steam was still rising off his body, that was covered in half-healed scars.

It did nothing to help his mood which could not be dragged out of the deepest abyss.

Today was really not his day.

Traumatic memories and hellish training was just not anyone's cup of tea. He could move now, but once he collapsed on that soft warm bed, he would not move an inch until noon the next day.

Sheer will forced him to his feet, and while cool winds brushed against his body and caused his blood red hair to flutter aimlessly, his body still felt like he was on fire.

Just as he was about to take the first step towards his only safe haven in this village, the door that opened into the roof of the apartment complex burst open. Long curly blonde hair was the first thing Naruto noticed, and it took him only seconds to recognize her as the girl who had accompanied that other 'wretched' girl.

"SEN!" her voice pierced the night, adding to Naruto's growing headache.

Her eyes locked onto his figure and almost immediately a flood of killing intent burst forth. It was as if Naruto had just stomped on her puppy. With a grimace decorating her face, she marched forward until she was right in Naruto's face.

The idle thought that she was pretty even with such an angry face passed through his mind, though it did not really matter much to him. Really, it did not. Naruto had the emotional range of a teaspoon, but he could still appreciate the aesthetic appeal of things.

"You! What did you do to Sen?!" she demanded angrily.

"Nothing," was Naruto's immediate reply.

Her fuse was short, or rather, tiny, because Naruto's simple word caused her hand to _move._

Naruto had had enough of getting hurt however. Her palm never reached his face, her wrist held in a titanium grip.

She struggled for a bit and their limbs shook where they were connected, until Naruto let go and she took a step back, massaging her sore wrist. That stare did not lose an ounce of its venom though.

"Because of you, Sen has disappeared. She's gone to look for her sister."

Naruto did not know what to think when he heard those words.

"I hate you. I do not like you one bit. I hope the fox in your gut eats you alive one day, but…"

Really, if all she could do was insult him, Naruto was off to bed. Without a word, his steps carried him past her. He left her there, struggling to find words she would rather die than say.

"…I need your help! If she said anything to you, gave you even a clue of which direction she was going…please tell me!"

He stopped for a bit, ran the words through his mind for a second and came to the understanding that this was not his problem and he should not care at all. Therefore, with a voice lacking the barest inflections of emotion, he said, "I can't help you."

The soft click of the door shutting effectively gave form to his finality, while the sound of Ayame's wordless scream gave form to her rage.

Thankfully, the path to his apartment was free of strange events. Once in his apartment, he did not even bother to switch on the lights. His only objective was to collapse on that bed, leaving reality behind for some rest and relaxation in the land of slumber.

"Excuse me, Uzumaki-san. I have something to inform you about."

Naruto did not bother to turn round. If he saw the source of that voice, he would have a target. If he had a target he would proceed to eliminate that target.

It had to be the Kyuubi's chakra. It was making him more aggressive, hence the murderous inclinations. This was the excuse he gave himself to explain the bloodlust that made his fingers shake like a cocaine addict.

"What?"

"Your neighbor, Yarizui Sen, infiltrated your apartment earlier."

The Black ops corps of the village had failed to stop a thirteen year old from getting into an apartment. Despite himself, Naruto was impressed.

"Her Kekkei genkai is a highly convenient ability, one we had not prepared adequate countermeasures against," was the explanation the shadow behind him gave. "Anyway, we observed her to determine a motive, however all she did was peek at your…literature collection."

She had to be female, if the obvious scorn in her voice was anything to go by. Jiraiya's Make Out tactics were a man's greatest treasure and a woman's filthiest trash, here in the elemental nations.

"After looking into the book she left immediately however. The Raikage has already been informed. If you wish to press charges, the Raikage will punish her accordingly."

"Leave her alone," Naruto said in a tired voice as he picked up the first book from the neatly stacked pillar of Jiraiya's literary efforts.

The shadow's reply was immediate.

"Have a goodnight then, Uzumaki-sama." An instant later, he was once again 'alone'.

Naruto did not bother to answer back. He only sifted through the pages of the book absentmindedly.

His leniency was not due to the softness of his heart, which remained encased in a block of hard ice. Rather it was due to the fact that he would do anything just to stay away from that girl. He could already tell that tonight, his dreams would take a turn for the worst, immersing him in memories best left forgotten.

This was all just too much for him to bear. Her very face was the spitting image of his failures and what he had lost.

Ignoring that pain was how he had lived all these years. Time had not healed his wounds. If banishing that girl from his life was what it took not to break, then so be it.

His fingers finally flicked through to the last page, where a map of the elemental nations had been artistically depicted. This two-dimensional image was meant to reveal the interesting settings where Jiraiya's stories took place, the really obscure regions where he visited during his travels.

Naruto had sometimes looked at these maps and wondered what it felt like to be a wanderer like the toad sage. Were these places that interesting, that his heart was never back at his home? Did they inspire such awe in him?

Were they fun?

The map he opened was different though.

A new addition, in fact.

Yes, in the form of a tiny tear, starting from Kumo, through the borders of the land of tea, right round the capital of the Land of Fire and right up to…

Konoha.

Fifteen seconds later, Naruto almost swore.

"That…that idiot…"

She had no idea of the danger she was in if she even set foot within the Land of Fire. If she did, one man would obviously hear about it and this man would no doubt be highly intrigued.

This man's name was Shimura Danzou.

He found himself outside the closet the Kumo ninja had so generously stacked for him, yet instead of a shirt he found among the ninja supplies chakra pills. He popped one into his mouth before biting down on it and that strange feeling of cold fire ran through his veins, breathing life into taxed limbs.

He stormed out, and once he was in the living room again he stared directly into a corner with startling intensity. "Kumo ninja, inform your Kage that Yarizui Sen is trying to or has escaped from the village. She should be heading for Konohagakure."

He probably looked mad talking to empty space, but a moment later, he drew back satisfied. Kumo's troops would be mobilized soon. He himself opened the balcony door, once again exposing himself to the cool atmosphere, yet Naruto's body was warmer than ever. Powerful legs had him jumping from rooftop to rooftop with ease. It was the first time he said her name, but he did not notice.

In this bright moonlight, a glimpse of blonde hair had him moving in a set direction.

"You!" he called out to her, not out of rudeness, but the simple fact that he had not bothered to catch her name.

She turned to him, her emotions frantic, yet when she recognized him, her negative feelings did not take long to show themselves.

"Wh-What?!"

"I know where she's going!"

"You do?! Where?! How do you know?!" This barrage of questions showed her obvious confusion but Naruto did not have the time!

"No time to explain. Just take me to the southern Village gates!"

"Wait!" Apparently, she was not going to move an inch until she knew more. Moving quickly, she pointed her index and middle fingers at Naruto's bare chest in the common hand gesture that imitated a gun.

Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief. She was going to attack him now of all times!? He did not know which technique this was, yet a dozen strategies to disarm her were being formed in his mind.

"Tell me where Sen is going!" she demanded in a voice that would accept nothing less than the truth.

"You are wasting your time! Every second we let her move farther puts her in danger!" Naruto countered with grit teeth.

"Answer me!"

Their second confrontation in thirty minutes, yet Naruto thought the same thing now as he did back then.

The moonlight that was not reflected off her glasses and pierced her eye turned the blue into a lighter shade of ice. The same phenomenon was reflected in his eyes.

"Konoha," he relented.

"How do you know that?!"

"Because I'm from Konoha." Naruto decided to play along with her little interrogation.

"She's gone to look for her sister there," Sen deduced rapidly. Naruto could only nod. "Did you really know her sister?"

This question made Naruto pause. Sen who sensed his discomfort could not stand for it. The concentration of chakra on the tip of her two fingers increased, causing the tiny hairs on Naruto's chest to stand.

A part of Naruto that he did not know he had forced him to nod after hesitating. It was not out of fear, but he had the sudden thought she would be on the other end of a jutsu wielded by a Root ninja if he let this go on.

"If something happens to Sen, I will never forgive you." The devil could not have said those words better.

Naruto ignored her though. "We need to move now," he urged.

Minutes later, their feet hit the ground in front of the enormous gate that served as Kumo's door. Surprisingly, Kumo's Anbu agents, clad in thick dark clothes, torso armour and masks were there just about to be sent out by their own Kage. They were on their knees as only a ninja before his Kage should be.

When they arrived, all eyes turned to them including the Raikage's.

"Uzumaki, what are you doing here?" he asked bluntly.

Naruto had not previously thought of an answer but the words just flowed. "Let me help find her."

"While I appreciate that you sent one of my Anbu to inform me of this, we can handle it from here."

"Please let us help, Raikage-sama." His support came from the unlikeliest of places. Sen was already one knee, her head bowed low. "He knows about her sister. Sen has likely gone to Konoha because that is where Uzumaki is from."

Everyone present noted the lack of an honorific.

"With his knowledge about her sister, he is perhaps the only one who can bring her back through peaceful means."

A seemed to digest their words for a moment like it was something causing a horrible chemical reaction in his stomach. "Tch…kids. Village security is not so lax as to let her vanish easily. It is likely she is still in the village."

However an Anbu appeared next to him in that moment. After whispering in his leader's ear for a few seconds he disappeared. A's face contorted in a frustrated grimace and he had to run a hand over it to smooth out the wrinkles.

"All Anbu on guard duty tonight, remind me to give each one of you the 'iron claw'."

Was the collective shiver that ran through the Anbu present part of Naruto's imagination or not? He felt their pain though. Killer Bee was an animal. His older and _bigger_ brother had to be a beast.

A's eyes bore deep into Naruto's, dissecting his courage and determination and weighing it all on his set of scales. Naruto stood fast and did not waver under his examination.

"Very well," he acquiesced, "you may help out. Simply flare out your chakra if you come into contact with her. C, keep an eye out." He said the last part to an Anbu whose pale blonde hair reminded Naruto of the Yamanaka. The Raikage leaped upwards, reaching the top of the gates in one bound.

Naruto, Ayame and the Anbu followed, but few of them (Naruto excluded) could match the Raikage's agility, having to run up the gate and leap again to reach the top.

Up here at the top of the gate that also served as a walkway with railings, the Raikage saw them off with two words.

"Begin operation."


End file.
