A/N: To those that cry that I took this from SoCloseToToast, just let it be known that I am SoCloseToToast. I just can't remember the username or the backup e-mail attached to it, thus the non-posts on that account a while back. I suppose I could, if I get too many complains about it, spend the time and crack it. But why not just post it here and touch it up? I don't know. I'm closing in to my wits end with fanfiction as a whole anyway.

Summary: A prophecy is simply vague words given meaning and importance by those who believe in them. Indeed, prophecies are crafted to be purposefully obscure. And the problem with vague, world-saving prophecies is that they cut both ways. The prophecy states that someone will have the power to save the world.

However, that same prophecy turned on its head hints that they will also have the power to destroy it.

All your intentions take their toll

All you hate enthralls your soul.

When you win you sometimes lose

All you love does not love you.

- The Dolls of New Albion

Chapter One

Everything Has a Price

I should have realized from my mother's lessons that everything has a balance. For darkness there is an equal amount of light. For sanity, there is an equal amount of insanity. That in mind, the betrayal should never have surprised me so much. In that failing, I feel responsible.

Line Break

Naruto crouched just outside one of Konoha's alleyways, his right hand on the ground, balancing him as he did his best to get his breathing to a manageable level. His run earlier had been frantic and closely pursued by people who did not appreciate his sense of humor. The Hokage's monument had recently received a new paintjob, courtesy of one blond headed miscreant. Now the monument's security forces were after him.

Clearly the ANBU had no idea with whom they were dealing with, or else they wouldn't have tried to directly capture him like they had. Had they not considered the possibility that, if he was able paint the Hokage's mountain before the sun had risen, that he was capable of setting up traps to slow them down? Apparently not.

Naruto snorted as his breathing settled, standing up and forming a single seal with his hands. In an instant and a small puff of smoke, he appeared to be someone else. In place of his short, stalky, spiky and blond-haired frame dressed in an orange jumpsuit and sandals was a girl a few years older than, putting her at about sixteen, with auburn hair, dressed in a simple brown shirt and trousers that hung from her frame a few sizes too large. His normally blue eyes were now brown and his face was smudged with dirt. He'd learned that people ignored those who they viewed as far beneath their station. It was fascinating how the general population of Konoha did their best to ignore the impoverished. Though at times like this, that oversight had its uses. In a crowd of people, he was almost as good as invisible.

His Henge, as bastardized as it - and everything else he owned and knew – was, it was one of the few things he got decent marks in at the academy, along with the Kawarimi.

He set out into the market, transformation firmly in place. The ANBU would be looking for Naruto Uzumaki, prankster extraordinaire and general miscreant in an eye-catching orange jumpsuit, not an older girl dressed in conventional clothing. Crazy they called him. Well, who'd outfoxed whom now?

For all their vaunted training and experience, Naruto had discovered some years ago that picking someone out of a crowd of people, a fair number of whom were probably using an illusion to cover up a facial blemish or something else about their body they didn't like, was difficult to do. His control over his technique was tight enough that there was very little wasted chakra.

So long, suckers. Naruto thought triumphantly, smiling to himself as he pushed through the mass of milling people towards the corner he lived on. From there he could lay low and eventually catch up with Yutin. Yutin was Naruto's fence contact, the man he usually sold objects he'd obtained through less than legal means to.

Naruto was a thief, and had been for most of his life. He took things, small things, from noble household things. A vase or two, expensive silverware, things that could be overlooked by people who already had far too much.

Naruto turned abruptly, ducking down an alleyway and out of sight. That was when a white masked figure dressed in black, billowing robes over tailored black body armor and matching trousers, decided to materialize at his side, clasping one hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Hello," The ANBU said jovially, squeezing Naruto's shoulder with a grip so strong that Naruto felt his bones groan under the strain. A strange sensation came from the ANBU's fingers, like cold ice slipped down the neck. In a blurry burst of motion that made Naruto nauseous and loose grip on his transformation, he found himself standing in a circular grassy field surrounded by trees.

Blinking in an attempt to orient himself, Naruto looked around and saw the Hokage's monument far in the distance. He had been removed from Konoha, at least a three miles judging from the distance.

His stupefied attention was dragged away from the mountain by a soft sound of metal bouncing off grass and dirt. Looking down, Naruto saw a seven-inch long kunai resting just beside his foot, gray steel glinting menacingly in the sun.

"Nifty trick with the illusion back there, you almost fooled me." Came a hollow sounding voice from behind him. "Imagine my surprise to find that what I had assumed to be an illusion was a solid reconstruction."

Turning, Naruto saw the same ANBU who'd abducted him standing ten feet away, black-gloved hand holding a kunai identical to the one resting by Naruto's foot. The ANBU's voice had been made hollow by the porcelain mask worn over his face, intricate lines carved and inscribed on the mask giving it the impression of a dog, a high ranking officer if Naruto's memory of the lecture Iruka gave a couple of months ago was correct. The closer to a human's intelligence the animal the mask mimicked, the higher the rank. This ANBU was very highly ranked.

"Why did you bring me here?" Naruto asked, eyeing the ninja warily.

"Did you really think we didn't know?" The ANBU asked, kunai twirling through the air, dancing on this ANBU's dexterous fingers. "You think the ANBU so incompetent that we haven't known about your dual loyalties?"

Naruto stiffened in anger at the accusation. Konoha was his home! It may have treated him like crap, cruel eyed people forcing him to fend for himself for the majority of his life, but he always maintained the disposition that it would get better, that the coin would eventually turn up in his favor. That this self-righteous pompous windbag even so much as suggested that he was a traitor set his blood boiling.

"I'm no traitor." Naruto spat, eyes flickering to the weapon the ANBU must have accidently dropped when he transported him. If he could reach down and grab it fast enough, he might get lucky and get in a blow against this assassin. Then he could go to the Hokage and get this straightened out. He knew the old man and was sure he would listen and understand.

"Then please explain your association with Yutin, the thief and Iwa spy."

Naruto froze, eyes widening in surprise. Yutin was a spy? Naruto knew he was a thief; hell, he was one himself. You did what you had to if you were to survive. But he never thought of the grizzled thug who cared for coin above everything else as a spy. It didn't make sense. But then, that was the point of a spy.

"I...I need the money." Naruto said lamely, cringing slightly as the words left his mouth. Even he knew that was a weak excuse.

"The punishment for treason is death." The ANBU said icily, his words sending shivers through Naruto's spine. The detached, uncaring way the man had so simply said it unnerved Naruto. It was as if this man were death himself.

For an instant, it seemed as though it were true. Naruto saw a red gleam under the mask that suddenly seemed so skeletal under the hood; the kunai was a scythe ready to separate his soul from body.

"Wait!" Naruto cried, using his foot to kick the weapon up into his right hand and dropping into a defensive stance, feet apart, raising the hand holding the kunai to hovering just in front of a clenched left fist. "Take me to the Hokage. I want to see him."

"I'm a sporting man." The ANBU replied, unfazed by the appearance of a weapon. "That's why I left you the weapon. If you prove your loyalty to me, I might let you go."

Naruto felt a stab of incredulity. How would fighting a man both larger and stronger than he prove his loyalty? Unless… the kunai was meant for Naruto to mutilate himself with. He'd heard stories, after all. The thought made Naruto's stomach turn.

"A true Konoha ninja would be able and willing to fight no matter the odds. He would be willing to die to prove his loyalty. So… come, boy. Let's see just how loyal you really are."

This is insane. Naruto thought, steeling his mind against the panic welling up in him. He was Naruto Uzu-fucking-maki and he'd pulled more dangerous pranks before breakfast than fight a crazed ANBU. He'd get through this no problem and be laughing with the Hokage about the error by dinner tonight.

"Let's do this, then." Naruto said, chakra flaring in his body as he raised his weapon further. He glared at the masked ANBU over his knuckles that were white from the tightness of his grip on the handle. "I have a prank to brag about in class next period."

The ANBU slid forward, covering the distance between them in the blink of an eye, steel glinting in the sunlight as he swung. Naruto leaned back, allowing the blade to sail over where his head had been moments before. To Naruto, combat was instinctive, almost as easy as breathing. He lacked the refinement his fellow classmates back at the academy possessed, but he far from incompetent in the spur of the moment.

Reaching up, he grasped the ANBU's extended arm and used it like a horizontal pole, vaulting himself upward and kicking his feet to give him mid-air rotation, spinning him around so that he was facing the ground. Following through with the spin, Naruto struck out with his kunai in an attempt to plunge the weapon into the still charging ANBU's shoulder.

He could have – should have - aimed for the neck. But he was a thief, not a murderer. Taking a man's possessions and taking a man's life were two very, very different distinctions. A wound to the shoulder would bleed, but wouldn't be enough to be life threating. It should be just enough to slow the ANBU down enough so that he could escape.

The steel of the kunai passed harmlessly through the ANBU's shoulder causing Naruto's eyes to widen in surprise as the blade fazed harmlessly though the illusions body.

A Bunshin? Naruto thought in bewilderment bewildered as he roughly landed on the ground, shoulder first, rolling to break the impact of his short fall. When did he-?

Clambering to his feet, Naruto glanced around the clearing, trying to find where the ANBU had gone. The clearing was barren save for a few leaves torn from the trees and drifting in the breeze.

A sound; the creak of a branch in canopy of trees nearest to him. It was so faint he almost missed it.

Naruto reacted instinctually, throwing himself to the side and curling into a ball. He wasn't a second to late, a kunai shot into the ground where he'd been just a moment ago, the steel kicking up a small spray of dirt and grass from the force of its impact.

Before he could right himself again, he was hit by a blow to his ribcage. The blow sent him sprawling across the clearing like a stone across water, before he finally stopped as he collided with a rock that snapped his head back. His vision flickered for a moment, threatening to go, before clearing once again. Chakra lent the body several wonderful traits. Increased, strength, stamina, and most importantly for Naruto at the moment, the ability to endure more damage than what would ordinarily be possible.

Naruto slumped against the rock with his eyes closed, feigning unconsciousness. He'd landed so that his right arm was pressed under his back, while his left draped across his legs from where he sat. If he pretended to be unconscious, maybe the ANBU would think him knocked out from the impact and lower his guard.

Naruto tightened his numbed grip on the kunai that he'd managed to keep in hand as he tumbled. He would use the weapon as a distraction and then take that opportunity to either strike or escape.

"Do you like stories, kid?" The ANBU asked from a few feet away.

Stories? Naruto thought. Is now really the time for stories?

"I like stories." The crazy ANBU continued. "Long tales some call them - Stories that have dragons and princes that need saving from princesses… or something along those lines. I like them all. I'm here because of a story told by a old man who claimed to have heard it from a old toad, if you'd believe it." Naruto blinked. If the ANBU kept talking for a few moments longer he might be able to get enough feeling back into his fingers to throw the weapon with some degree of accuracy. He'd never been the best marksman in the academy. But with the ANBU this close, he'd be hard pressed to miss, not to mention it'd be near impossible to dodge at this range. "While I respect the old man, I find the ramblings of an amphibian a bit difficult to swallow, no matter how intelligent the old man claims them to be."

Naruto's fingers began to tingle as sensation returned to them. Pressing his head against the stone and arching his back, Naruto whipped his arm out around his body and threw the kunai with all the strength his body could muster.

Naruto stared as the ANBU caught the weapon with two fingers before his chest, displaying an indifferent grace that bordered on precognition. The thought that the ANBU would have been able to catch the kunai hadn't even crossed his mind. Hell, from this distance, he hadn't thought that the man would have been able to dodge.

"Impressive recovery." The ANBU stated lazily as he stepped on Naruto's chest, pressing him against the rock and forcing the air from his lungs. Naruto tried to push the man's foot off, but found it immovable. "I had thought for sure that you'd been knocked out after you'd hit your head."

Naruto grit his teeth even as he struggled for breath, glaring at the ANBU who stood above him. He wasn't going to give the ANBU the satisfaction of hearing him beg for mercy.

"Well, you have my vote, as I promised, but you're going to have to convince Konoha's best interrogator of your innocence before you're let go."

The ANBU vanished and for the second time that day the world blurred the sudden sense of weightless vertigo and nausea gripped his stomach. Squeezing his eyes shut, he fought back the urge to vomit even as he felt his body land in a wooden chair. He knew it was wooden because the carpenter seemed to have forgotten to sand it smooth if the splinters in his butt were anything to go by.

"Welcome." A gruff voice that sounded like rocks rubbing together said.

Naruto lost the battle with his stomach. Still with his eyes closed, he leaned forward and dry heaved, the blow to his head and lack of meal having left his stomach with nothing to evacuate. After another four empty heaves, he slowly managed to pull himself together. Wiping a bit of dribble from his mouth with the sleeve of his orange jumper, Naruto looked around, blinking with dry eyes.

He was in a small stone chamber occupied only by himself, a small wooden desk at which a giant of a man dressed in a thick black trench coat with silver buttons sat. The man's face appeared to have been on the wrong end of something sharp. Two long scars ran over his face, one extending from the left jawline to just under his left eye, and the other running from the middle of his jaw, bifurcating his lips and curling around his right eye.

Where did the dog ANBU go? Naruto wondered, unable to detect a hint of the ANBU in the room.

"Water?" The man asked, his deep brown eyes never wavering from Naruto's own.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked in a raspy voice, wincing as his throat submitted protest at the use.

"Morino Ibiki. Drink."

Ibiki pushed a glass of liquid towards Naruto across the table. Naruto took the cup, clasping the cool glass in both hands before giving the scared man a wary glance – the drink could be poisoned. Growing up on the streets taught you very quickly not to trust anyone that simply handed you liquids – not unless you saw them prepare it before hand.

Glancing up, Naruto met the eyes of his captor. The man stared at him placidly with a face that was completely unreadable.

The Hokage wouldn't let some lunatic drag me off unless he wanted me here. Naruto reasoned.

Somehow, the thought didn't comfort him.

He drank. The blessedly cool liquid slid down his throat like ambrosia gifted directly from the gods. Quickly, desperately quickly, the water was gone. Naruto gave the cup a mournful expression as he set it back down on the table, wishing there was more.

"Naruto Uzumaki…" The man said, picking up a folder that had been resting on the desk. What was his name again? He hadn't been paying attention. "Age: Thirteen. Hair color: blond. Eye color: blue. Bottom of the class with several reprimands for disrespect and a blatant disregard for authority."

Naruto's eyes sharpened. He was paying attention now. Every one of his instincts was screaming at him to get up and leave, but he was rooted to the spot by curiosity. The man continued on without pause.

"Has no friends outside of the small thieving ring he's been a part of since the age of seven. Contact with Yutin, a low ranked and petty criminal, fell off dramatically once Uzumaki started to receive a small stipend since joining the academy. No discernable skills or abilities have been observed."

The man dropped the folder, locking distinctly unfriendly eyes with Naruto.

"You've lived on your own since the age of seven when you managed to get yourself kicked out of the orphanage. You fell into the wrong crowd and have been working as a minor thief for a small time crime host until you entered the academy and started receiving money from the government for rent and food. On the whole you are a waste of the tax payers money to be trained as a ninja."

"I'm going to become Ho-"

"Silence." The man hissed in his gravely voice, cutting Naruto off mid-rant. "I was not finished."

The man steepled his fingers before him, leaning forward and staring at him with eyes that made Naruto feel like his soul was being picked apart and examined. He also had the distinct feeling that he was being found wanting.

"You are a waste and yet… You are here."

"Where is here?" Naruto blurted before he could stop himself.

"Here is either a place you will forget completely, or the only place that will have significance after we are done talking."

Naruto gulped. He wasn't good at riddles, but this one wasn't too difficult to figure out.

"You're going to kill me." He said, voice quavering slightly.

The man chuckled mirthlessly as a thin-lipped smile creasing his face, though neither emotion ever reached his eyes.

"No. That would be an even greater waste. As it stands you are woefully inept. Your chakra control scores are the worst in history, not to mention your knowledge of history. I'd be surprised if you knew what a Genjutsu was, even though your own fantasies consume so much of your life. Hokage? I wouldn't trust you to deliver my mail. If you want to climb the ranks and enter Konoha's nobility, then you're going to have to stand out." The man said, a hint of expectance entering his eyes.

He was waiting for something. What that was, Naruto hadn't a clue. But the man's words had set Naruto's blood on fire. Who was this man to compare him with the nobility? The man knew nothing. From inside their tangled web, the interrogator couldn't see the spiders pulling the strings. Naruto knew. He saw the nobility for the cancer they were.

"Come on, boy. Say something intelligent."

A flare of annoyance leapt to life in his chest. "Something intelligent." Someone said. Naruto was dismayed to discover that it was him.

A bark of laughter that sounded like a firecracker going off a steel tin exploded from the man.

"At last." He growled. "So there is something buried in there."

"I think I'll be leaving now, dattebayo." Naruto said as calmly as he could, standing up from where he sat.

"As you wish." The man said, nodding his head towards him, though not showing any signs of rising to stop him. "You may leave at any time during these proceedings if you wish."

Naruto made his way towards the door that was behind him, not turning his back on the interrogator until he reached the door. Reaching his hand for the knob, he was brought up short by the man continuing. "If you leave, however, you'll never have any of your questions answered if you do. Why are you here, boy? What do you want from life? But more importantly: Why is it that people hate you so much?"

Naruto froze, hand hovering just over the knob. The polished steel reflected his distorted image back at him. The three whisker-like birthmarks on each of his cheeks staring back at him accusingly. He hated them. They marked him as different, as something else, something feral and, apparently, dangerous.

He wasn't an idiot. Well, he wasn't a complete idiot. He knew that he was treated differently than the others of his age group, and it wasn't just in that he was an orphan. They hated him and he didn't know why.

Naruto spun, whirling to face the scared man who still sat behind the desk.

"Sit down." The man commanded. "We'll start again."

Naruto did as commanded, though he did so slowly in an effort to show that he still maintained some marginal control over the situation. Once seated, they regarded each other for a moment. Eventually, it was the man behind the desk that broke the silence.

"My name is Morino Ibiki. I and a colleague of mine was tasked to interview certain individuals from the village."
"Why?" Naruto asked.

"To train the next Sanin, and perhaps more." Ibiki responded, leaning forward. "But everything has a price. While training, you will have no free time and no regular team you would have been placed in if you managed to pass the academy's test. You will both compete, and occasionally team with, the other prospects, going on missions with whatever team composition we deem necessary. This will be your life until you either fail and we discard you, or you succeed and become what we forge you to be."

"What would that be?" Naruto asked, not only a little intimidated by the serious glint in Ibiki's eyes.

"What would you like to be?" Ibiki asked, leaning back and propping his feet up on the table comfortably. The scared man was so completely at ease that it made Naruto want to relax as well.

"I have a choice?" Naruto was taken aback by the sudden shift in Ibiki's manner.

When he'd first laid eyes on the harsh looking man he'd expected exactly what he'd received: Unrelenting and critical accusations. Suddenly the man was looking at him level-headedly, asking him in a moderate tone what he expected of himself. And Naruto'd be damned but he believed the offer to be real.

"We all have a choice." Ibiki said, with a shrug. "But the higher your demand, the higher the price."

The decision was easy. It was what he wanted – what he always wanted.

"I want to be Hokage." Naruto said seriously, leaning forward and putting his palms on the table, meeting Ibiki's firm eyes with his own.

Wordlessly Ibiki gestured towards to his right, indicating a door that Naruto swore wasn't there a moment ago. Naruto got the message. The choice to go through was his.

"You never told me why people hate me." Naruto stated distractedly, looking at the door skeptically.

"Figure it out for yourself, boy. I've given you no less than three hints during our conversation. It'll be a puzzle from me to you, no tricks."

"We'll meet again?" Naruto asked.

"Of course, boy."

Naruto stood. Without looking back he strode to the door, yanked it open and stepped through.

Line Break

An Uchiha was never surprised; therefore he was never caught off guard. So the involuntary muscle spasm when the unseen had was placed on his shoulder was nothing more than the readiness to strike and not a flinch of fear. That was what he told himself, at least.

"You must be thirsty. Most people are after their first Shunshin. Have a drink." Said the blond man behind the desk situated in the exact center of the small stone room they were both occupying.

Sasuke glared at the blond haired middle-aged man who was studiously scribbling on an unfurled scroll, ignoring him beyond asking him if he wanted a drink.

"You've asked me that already and I've told you no. Tell me what I'm doing here already." Sasuke said with agitation.

The man continued to write, gazing intently through spectacles at his work without glancing up, his hand carefully scrawling out line after line of text Sasuke couldn't read from the angle he was sitting out.

"What am I doing here, you myopic cur." Sasuke demanded, patience snapping. He was the rookie of the year, best at the academy and favored pick for the next three years.

"Not drinking." The man replied absentmindedly, picking up his scroll and inspecting it for a moment before replacing it on the desk and resuming his writing.

"Would you stop writing and pay attention to me?" Sasuke all but screamed, loosing control of his temper.

"And why should I?" The man asked, still not looking up.

"Because it's polite." Sasuke growled back. Now that the man had stopped talking about the glass of water, he finally felt like he was making some headway.

"And yet, you haven't introduced yourself, even after I did when you first arrived. Were you not paying attention? It's impolite, you see?"

Sasuke bit back his scathing retort and opted instead to swallow some pride and introduce himself.

"Uchiha Sasuke." He ground out.

"Hardly the optimal, but it is a start." The blond haired man set the paper down, took off his glasses and folded them, stuffing them in his pocket. "I'll reintroduce myself. My name is Yamanaka Inoichi, co-chief interrogator and Jōnin of Konoha. I'll be your interviewer today."

"Interviewer?" Sasuke asked, intrigued.

"Yes." Inoichi said musingly. "Myself and a few others in my division were asked to go through the people who had the potential to become something great."

Sasuke grunted. He was already great. He just had to graduate and then become trained by someone who could use his talents. Then, and only then, could his ambitions be fulfilled.

"It is a shame the famed Uchiha Sasuke is not what we're looking for. Sorry to have wasted your time. The door is directly behind you." Inoichi said, gesturing to a door directly behind where Sasuke sat.

Sasuke frowned, the hairs on the back of his neck bristling in agitation. The man implied that he wasn't qualified for the position they were looking for. Sasuke thought himself qualified for all positions.

"What do you mean?" He asked in a low voice.

Inoichi picked up the scroll he'd been working on, this time Sasuke caught words written on the edge of the parchment; his name.

"Perfect scores, excellent chakra control, and the paradigm of marksmanship, not to mention fine breeding among Konoha's nobility."

"How does this not make me qualified?" Sasuke growled.

"It makes you more than qualified." Inoichi said flippantly, rolling up the scroll and tossing it on the desk, his feet following.

Sasuke felt his eye twitch. How had this man made rank? He showed no decorum, no discipline.

"Answer the question, then. How am I unqualified?"

"You see, the fun thing about being the one in charge is that I don't have to answer that." Inoichi flashed a wide toothed grin at him. "But I'll humor you and tell you anyway. It's because of your arrogance."

"Are you questioning my skills?" Sasuke asked, affronted.

Inoichi snorted in amusement.

Unbefitting a ninja. Sasuke thought scathingly. This indolent insect is only in my way.

"And there it is." Inoichi said cheerfully. Sasuke blinked in surprise. Was the man reading his mind? The blond hair fit in with the Yamanaka clan, but they had to announce whenever they enter a Konoha residence mind. "What do you know of being a ninja?" Inoichi continued. "Your brother hardly counts. Last I checked he's still retains his S-ranked Missing Nin status. And from what I've seen of you, I give it one year tops before you follow in his footsteps."

"How dar-"

"And since you don't have a family to slaughter," Inoichi said over him.
"You're going to harm whoever is closest to you. But since you're so clever, you've alienated just about everyone from the academy. So that just leaves the entire village in danger."

Inoichi leaned forward, all hint of the friendly cheerfulness vanishing from his hardened face, his eyes becoming a bone-chilling icy blue. Suddenly, Sasuke was intimately familiar with why this man had achieved the rank he had. Sasuke shivered slightly, when had the room become so cold?

"And it is my duty to ensure that nothing, I repeat NOTHING, endangers my village. You are a walking psychological disaster waiting to happen."

"The academy phychologis-"

"Opinion means absolutely nothing to me." Inoichi said leaning back, the former cheerfulness returning with bi-polar speed.

"You can't-"

"I can and will…" Inoichi trailed off, then added as if an after-thought, "unless you submit to a few of my whims."

Sasuke clenched his fists in anger. He needed this training. The way this Jōnin dangled it over his head it was clearly superior to anything he'd get if he graduated the regular way.

Sasuke's father's voice rang in the recesses of his mind, a memory. Sasuke, you must be brilliant and the best. Being average means you are worthless. The only thing that matters in this life is success.

I know, father. I'm trying. Sasuke thought back angrily. His ghost of his father's voice had always been there. Ever since… Itachi.

"What do you want?" Sasuke bit out.

Inoichi's head cocked slightly, eyes glittering as he inspected him.

"In addition to training and the regular physical checkups, I want you to see me every weekend where we'll discuss your feelings."

"I don't have feelings." Sasuke spat with a disgusted expression as he said the word 'feelings'.

"We'll fix that in time." Inoichi said with a patronizing smile.

I'll let this pathetic excuse of a man think he's won. I'll take this training and endure his conversations until he thinks I'm just as 'normal' as the rest of this pathetic population of miscreants. I've placated the academy shrinks. I'll placate him. Sasuke mentally planed.

Inoichi's smile widened disconcertingly. Could the Yamanaka really read his mind without handsigns?

No. Sasuke thought, shaking his head. That's impossible.

"What may please does not contend. All resolves but never ends." Inoichi said cryptically.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sasuke asked ruefully. He was getting tired of this man.

"You'll understand if you don't fail out." Inoichi responded, pushing back his seat and standing up. He held out to Sasuke, who looked at it as if it were something disgusting he'd scrapped off the bottom of his shoe.

"Shake my hand." Inoichi instructed with no room for negotiation.

Sasuke did so, clasping hands with the blond interrogator.

"I look forward to meeting with you in the future." Inoichi said, gesturing to the side.

Sasuke followed the gesture and blinked in surprise. When had that door gotten there? He was always alert for any signs of genjutsu or a trap. How had someone smuggled in a framed door when he wasn't looking? For the second time in this relatively short meeting, he'd been surprised. He was not okay with this trend they had started.

"The choice is yours, Uchiha. Your price must be paid."

"My price?" Sasuke asked. "You never mentioned a price in your demands."

"It is the price all ninja pay sooner rather than later, don't worry about it. You'll tell me what your price was when you discover what that is."

Unlikely. Sasuke thought with a snort as he turned towards the door.

"I'll see you in a few days." Inoichi called out as Sasuke opened the door and stepped through. "If you make it that long, that is."

Line Break

Sakura sat trembling in her seat as the purple haired woman that sat – no, prowled – with her feet on the seat of the chair, one arm resting on bent knee as she idly picking at her teeth with a dango stick. She gazed at her with her purple, pupil-less eyes that made getting any sympathetically emotional reading from the woman difficult. All that left Sakura with was the fear.

The woman dressed in the tan trench coat over a chain fishnet mesh radiated the feeling of impending and unavoidable death, like a predator standing over its pray, talons sunk into flesh straight to the bone.

"I think I'll call you 'Leaf'." The woman commented with a twirl of the small stick before reinserting it into her mouth. It stuck out a few inches, and the small unpanicked section of Sakura mind reasoned that it'd probably been used to serve food. "I'll call you Leaf because you shake like one." She said through clenched teeth gripping the wood.

"Y-yes, Ma'am." Sakura stuttered.

"Name's Anko." Anko corrected cheerfully with another twirl.

Sakura nodded, not trusting herself to speak without screaming first. What was wrong with her?

"Kinda pathetic, don't ya think?" Anko drawled over her dango stick. "I'm hardly trying and you look ready to vomit."

"Y-You're doing this to me?" Sakura managed to get out. "W-Why?"

"Because I haven't decided if I want to spare Konoha the embarrassment of producing a Shinobi such as you. 'Ol man Hokage probably wouldn't even bat an eye if I told him a potential liability was thwarted. I'd have to clean up the body, of course, but taking out the trash only takes so long when you're as practiced as I am. I think I'll stash your body by the academy, you know, to make an impression on the other failures."

This time Sakura did vomit, or tried to at least. Anko hadn't offered her the water sitting on the desk just in front of her and she'd been far too afraid to ask. So the best she could manage were a couple heaves before regaining control of her body.

"Pathetic." Anko repeated, disgust mingled with distain plain on her face as she wrinkled her nostrils. "When I heard I was going to get to interview the top female ninja of the class I was expecting a lot more than… you."

Anko's inflection of the word you made Sakura cringe. Suddenly, all of her accomplishments and high marks seemed so insignificant coming out of the mouth of the snake-like woman crouched before her. It was taking every ounce of her self control not to reach over to the desk, grab one of the pens on the table, and end her suffering with one desperate plunge to the jugular.

Her fingers twitched and her heart stopped.

"Its' lucky for you that I'm required to offer you a choice. If I hada my way, the disposal squad would be packing you in a black bag at the moment. But the Hokage just wants one simple answer from you. Yes or no?"

"Yes or n-no what?" Sakura asked in a small voice, her hands wringing the hem of her vest with single-minded fervor. Better that than the alternative.

"The Hokage's booting up a new program." Anko explained as she rocked backwards and forwards on her chair with an easy grace. "For worse or disaster, you've managed to get your name on the list. And so, I've gots ta ask ya if you want to enter a special training program that's being formed. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but the chances of you lasting the first week are only about six percent."

"What?" Sakura asked with wide eyes, a mix of emotions running through her.

She had been selected for a special program? That pleased her, however, her enjoyment of the news was rather damped by the prediction of her death.

"Ta." Anko said amiably. "I can't say that I know all of the details. The upper brass are being rather tight-lipped about their little game, but I know enough to say a little wilting flower such as yourself stands no chance making it through the first couple 'a weeks, never mind a solid year."

Anko leaned forward conspiratorially and Sakura had to fight back the urge to throw herself backwards and out of her chair to escape.

"Between you and me, I'm a betting woman - good at it too. If you join, I have very solid money on two weeks before you crap out."

"What's the training?" Sakura squeaked, her knuckles white.

"Classified." Anko chirped, leaning back again which made Sakura sigh audibly. "But as I understand, it makes training that regular students go through after basic graduation look like children playing Ninja."

Sakura stared mutely at the woman. She didn't know what to say. What would make the woman happy? More importantly, what would make her go away? She'd say anything to achieve either of those goals.

Anko sighed, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand in an exasperated fashion.

"Figures that I'd get the stupid one." She muttered just loud enough for Sakura to hear.

"I'm not stupid." Sakura blurted before she could stop herself.

Anko's eyes snapped and latched onto Sakura's own with paralyzing speed.

"What was that?" Anko purred, leaning forward and placing her hands on the desk, sliding forward. "I didn't quite catch it."

"I-I-I'm not stupid." Sakura said as best she could. There was no hand around her throat, but for the world Sakura would have said there was. She could barely breathe.

Anko hummed in amusement, as she pulled up face-to-face with her, eyes scanning Sakura's for something.

"No." Anko said after a long moment. "You're a complete idiot."

Anko withdrew, flopping back into her chair, which groaned in protest.

"Shut up." Anko told it, shooting a scathing glance downwards. "I haven't given you permission to fall apart yet."

The woman was insane, Sakura realized. She was trapped in a room with a psychopathic woman who was likely to snap at any moment. What had she done to deserve this?

"Anyways," Anko said, snapping Sakura out of her contemplations about her imminent and untimely demise. "I need an answer from you. You gonna wimp out and play the safe route in the academy, or are you gonna woman up? Come on, come on, I haven't got all day."

"I-I'll take the safe route." Sakura stuttered out.

Anko growled and her lip curled in distain as she picked up a scroll from the table. Sakura was able to make out her name printed on the side.

"Get out then. The door is behind you. I'll tell the Hokage that his opinion of you was baseless." Anko chuckled. "In fact, you inspire me. I'll make sure the entire village knows just how cowardly you are. What would your classmates say, I wonder?"

Sakura paled, as her bloodless fingers tightened on her vest.

"You wouldn't." She whispered.

Sasuke would hear about her. How could he not? He would hear how she had backed out of an opportunity like this and he probably wouldn't even look at her again.

"And before you go back on your decision, know that I won't accept anything less than total commitment. I brought up your friends, not to motivate you, but as a warning. If you accept this based on your fear of what others might think of you. You're going ta fail for sure. I want you to look me in the eyes and convince me that you're worth the effort it'll take to show you the door."

Sakura looked down and could almost hear her bones cracking with the strength she was gripping her vest. With every fiber of her being she wanted to look this woman in the eyes and tell her that she wasn't a coward, that she wasn't afraid of the offer.

But she was.

Gods was she afraid. By the way this... this thing was eyeing her like a slab of meat put on display, this training would be the death of her. What kind of people did that to another? Didn't they have any sympathy?

"No sympathy." Anko crooned causing Sakura's neck to snap audibly as she looked up, adamantly refusing to meet the woman's eyes, opting instead to stare at her mouth. How had she known?

"No remorse." Anko continued. "We are ninjas. Feelings such as pity and empathy are put on hold when we fight to defend our homes. In this little show you have to be in all the way, or not at all. You'll just end up dead otherwise. If you're lucky you won't take anyone with you."

"You'll be teaching me?" Sakura asked with dread.

"Heavens no, girl. I haven't the time nor inclination to deal with kids. Others have that particularly onerous task."

Relief flooded Sakura at that particular revelation. Maybe she had a chance after-all. If her instructor turned out to be anything like her academy teachers, then she would be fine. She was good at tests and she had always been allowed to get out of spars.

"No. I haven't the inclination to watch you fall off a cliff because you weren't strong enough to keep hold. I've seen kids gut themselves with their own weapons before, because they were either incompetent or couldn't handle the pressure. It looses its' entertainment value after the hundredth or so time."

Anko chuckled again, white teeth flashing.

"I'll just be around long enough for them to cart your worthless ass out of the area to have your memory wiped. I'll be sure to wave, promise."

"My memory will be wiped?" Sakura asked, too afraid to even stutter.

"Standard operating procedure." Anko commented in an off-handed kind of way. "How do you think we keep knowledge of chakra limited to just ninjas? Your parents signed the waver when you were admitted into the academy and received your seal."

"My seal?" Sakura asked, despite herself.

"MM-hmmm." Anko hummed. "Time stamped to go off and wipe everything you've learned since you first set foot inside the academy's walls. Your family will receive a small stipend, of course. Kinda a consolation gift for the family of the newly made mentally eight-year old girl. Ah, that expression you've got on now always makes my heart sing. The suspense, the realization that there isn't anything you can do. It's wonderful."

A new feeling burst to life in Sakura's chest that overpowered fear, logic, and rational, brushing them aside with almost casual dismissal. She was angry.

"I'm not a coward." Sakura snapped angrily, her green eyes meeting Anko's brown. "I'm not worthless. I'm going to enter this program and I'm going to pass. Not you or anyone is going to stop me, even if I have to storm the Hokage's tower right now."

Anko's grin widened, her eyes twinkling with predatory amusement.

"The door is to your right."

Sakura stood with rage-fueled strength that sent the chair skittering away behind her. Without even stopping to wonder where the door had come from, she stomped over to it and flung it open.

"Ta." Anko called out to her as Sakura stormed from the room and slammed the door shut behind her. "I'll be seeing you real soon with your other teachers." Anko said to the empty room. "You see, I'm a pretty good liar. And half-truths are always the easiest."

Line Break

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, sat in his office with the four people he assigned to interview the kids who'd either shown an aptitude for combat or had managed to endure the pre-test. Yamanaka Inoichi with his hands clasp together, Nara Shikaku who looked ready to nod off to sleep, Mitarashi Anko who was chewing on her dango stick a little more fervently than usual, and Morino Ibiki with his straight-backed posture, each sat on the sofa situated before his desk. He'd had the sofa brought in specifically for this meeting.

Shikaku was a lazy, if supremely intelligent shinobi that served as his general and troop overseer. The man didn't so much as sit as he slumped on the sofa, as if prepared to fall asleep at a moments notice. His dress, however, didn't match his demeanor. His green Jōnin's uniform was well ironed and the cufflinks at the sleeves polished to perfection as were his combat boots.

"Twenty?" Sarutobi asked, looking at the short list in front of him. "There were twenty-six in just the academy's chamber. Out of the one hundred ninja and ninja prospects you interviewed this was the best you could do?"

Everyone but Ibiki had the good sense to look slightly abashed at his question. Anko shifted uncomfortably and Inoichi rubbed the back of his neck while Shikaku's lids half-closed. Ibiki didn't even twitch; he just sat there with an implacable expression on his face.

With a sigh, Sarutobi glanced down at the list of names once more. He was pleased that Naruto had made it. The boy had been dealt a bad hand in life and he did the best he could under the circumstances. He met with the child whenever his schedule allowed, which wasn't too often and not nearly as frequently as either of them would have liked. But with the political climate in the state it was, he didn't have much choice at the presence.

"Is there anything I should know?" Sarutobi asked, looking over the top of his paper at his advisors.

"Everything went as expected on my end." Shikaku said in a clear voice, once again displaying his presence of mind in spite of how he drooped in his seat. "The kids were fairly eager to have the opportunity to join a specialized training program. My son required a bit of cajoling but I just had to mention the fact that his mother would hear about his refusal and he chose the less dangerous of the two paths. When faced with speculative training and a decent chance of permanent injury, or facing my wife, my son chose the wiser coarse. At least this way he'll probably live to see the end of the month."

Sarutobi nodded. He'd met Shikaku's wife on a few occasions. He suspected that the woman was probably the only reason Shikaku got up in the morning. She had quite the temper and a very rigid ideal on what constituted proper decorum.

"And the three I mentioned?" Sarutobi asked. "They're names are on the paper so I assume they accepted willingly?"

"Yeah." Anko snorted in her typical brusk manner. "The pink one, what's her name, required a… forceful hand. I've seen jellyfish with stiffer spines than that girl. If she'd gone with her initial instinct, she would have ran from the room the first chance she got. In the end though, she agreed. She, along with the others, are probably being bunked as we speak."

"Good." Sarutobi said. "And you, Inoichi?"

The blond mentalist sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Uchiha Sasuke has been pampered for most of his life." Inoichi said slowly. "He excels in just about everything he attempts. The kid's apparently got talent and a willingness to put in whatever effort the task requires, but that's because he has an inferiority complex so convoluted that it has manifested as near schizophrenia."

"Come again?" Anko asked, looking at Inoichi with a raised eyebrow.

"He hears his father's voice." Inoichi answered flatly. "And his father was never the kindest of people. Sasuke expects all ninja to be like his father and brother; cold, calculating, stiff and formal to the point of impracticality, with a strong sense of hierarchy. And he becomes angered when the target of his attention does not fit his perception of what a ninja should be, he lashes out with derision. The entitlement he feels his family should receive and the reinforcement of this attitude he got from the academy have led him to believe that he is on the top of the social chain. Throughout our meeting, I dangled what he wanted in front of him so that he'd meet me half way, all the time acting contrary to what he expects from high-ranking shinobi. It's the first step in many I plan to have him make throughout this experiment. In short, the boy's grown up with a false self-image of himself and I've given him a little harsh truth."

Sarutobi nodded, pleased that – if the gods willed it – they might have one Uchiha that had at least a few of his marbles. Inoichi was the best psychologist Konoha had to offer and had never steered Sarutobi wrong in matters of the mind. He was the only man Sarutobi trusted to handle the unstable Uchiha.

Turning, Sarutobi faced Ibiki. The man began his report the moment their eyes made contact, not wasting any time.

"I sense that Uzumaki's had a bit too much of that in his life." Ibiki put in heavily. "From the reports I thought that he'd be like the Uchiha and would possess a falsely pretty view of his skills." Ibiki held up a hand to forestall Sarutobi's rebuke. "My mind changed once I talked the boy myself. I should have suspected sooner now that I look back on how the boy checked the drink for poisons. Naruto knows exactly how bad he is and covers it with false bravado. If he doesn't crack under the pressure the instructors will be putting him under during the first few months, Naruto will more than likely thrive."

Sarutobi didn't bother trying to keep the pride from his face. Naruto would make a fine ninja, he'd always known. The kid just needed the right instructors.

"There's one more thing." Ibiki put in, "When I brought up the nobility, the boy became strangely hostile until the subject changed. I suspect that there's something there, though at this point I can't say what."

"Then I'll expect another report by the end of the month. Dismissed."

End of Chapter One