Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the characters and pretty much everything else is aaaaall Masashi Kishimoto! Cant believe I forgot these disclaimers...


A/N: Story Key:

Lines: Separate different times or locations.

Italics: Flashbacks. (Usually within lines)

I keep running edits on chapters to suit critisicsm, shouldn't be many changes, I'll post in A/N when serious changes occur!


Chapter 1

The infallible stone protrusion relentlessly prodded at her exposed shoulder blades and spine, ruthlessly punishing every painful twist and contortion with a chilling, bone bruising ache. The dank, chakra-infused oxygen hung thick with the stench of sweat. The icy bitterness of the ancient stone prison pierced the young kunoichi's lungs, biting at her extremities, snarling as its harrowing torture harassed her.

Hyūga Hinata twisted against her bounds, feeling the stone peel at the skin stretched across her shoulders and spine. Hot pain spat at her, electric spasms of shock shot up her back, snapping her neck inward as her face twisted with concentration, fighting against the navy strands of hair mortared to her face with frozen sweat, in order to catch a glance at the ritual.

Two figures stood to either side of her, obscured by the shadows.

A lean blonde teen stood by her feet. Calculating and precise, he stood painting complex, ancient seals of kanji, circles and tomoes in crimson blood. His unused wrist on his right arm was damp with blood, turned black against his white skin from the lack of light. His face, shaded from the dim candles lit behind him, seemed expressionless. The murky light from above fared no better to reveal his features, a gleaming Konohagakure Hitai-ate casting pure black shadows over his eyes. Six whisker-like markings, seemingly cut out of his cheeks, quivered as his lips trembled slightly,

'Sorry, Hina-chan...'

The two other figures closed in, raising kunai; the muted light dimmed the rose coloured hair of the kunoichi on the right contrasting the silver-white hair of the shinobi on the left as it flashed indignantly against the inky shadows. Their faces were expressionless and as cold as the stone grave beneath her. Hinata let out a muted scream as the ninja slashed across her wrists, wincing as they squeezed at her exposed cuts, rushing to extract the thick, hot, black liquid gushing from her screaming wounds. Mechanical pain pursued logic, twisting the quivering muscles along her back and arms to escape the searing pain. The stone acted as a grater, tearing at her delicate moving flesh. Again, Hinata forced back a scream. This has to be silent. If anyone caught us-

A green light emanated from the nimble fingers of the kunoichi on her right, working along her wrists as the cuts closed with a sizzling hiss. The blonde shinobi's face was aglow in the eerie green light, completely alien and pale to his usual tanned complexion. His ever so slightly feminine cheekbones, jawline and sharp chin moved in alongside the deepest of piercing blue eyes, turned turquoise in the light, towards Hinata's paling face.

A kiss scratched along her neck, the warmness emanating from his face brought a small amount of life back to her exposed, chilled flesh as his heated breath caressed and coveted her skin as he pulled back. Her chest inflated from the tenderness and deflated, resonating forgotten warmth around her body.

The tender touch of the blonde shinobi's Fūinjutsu preparation tickled the kunoichi's numb senses, increasingly so as the fingers and brushes worked higher, lavishly licking at her thighs. The warm blood quickly bit into her skin, as the chill from the air froze it in place. He worked past her thighs, drawing circles around her hip bones. A primal sensation snapped the Hyūga's eyes open as her mouth contorted into a small 'o' before widening, slipping her head back to rest her neck and close her eyes with a comfortable sigh as he worked inwards, electrifying emotions, sensations and memories clashed inside the woman's mind before she felt his tentative fingers paint on her stomach.

A pulse of foreign energy from inside her reacted to the shinobi's proximity, yearning for the father's presence.

A spiral was drawn, along with a set of trigrams to encompass it. The tickling sensation searched for a way to twist Hinata's body by spasms but with an iron resolve, she held still. This part was too important. Silently, the blonde's lips twitched,

'the old seal…' as he completed the recognisable markings on her stomach, 'transfer…' as he completed a delicate series of kanji and finally, he emitted a gritty growl, 'Jinchuriki…' adding a ring of tomoes around his new seal, backing off to check for the slightest error.

A sickening surge emanated from Hinata's stomach, evaporating the insincere faces the others held. Panic struck at Hinata's chest and heart with rapid quakes. With a flash, the blonde was by her as the green ambience from the pink medic-nin's fingers turned to a blue haze as a choking, caustic bile lurched it's way to the back of her throat, 'Sakura?' the blonde questioned, his smooth voice hummed low yet laced with worry and nerves.

'Nothing to do with the seal, yet. Just similar to morning sickness, I guess.' She reassured as her hand ran down Hinata's surprisingly lean stomach, wincing slightly at the cold flesh. '

Kakashi-sensei?' She questioned, 'How long have we got? We still need Sasuke-kun, she's getting too cold.' Hinata felt her head being turned to the right, the blonde's finger pushed gently from her collarbone and up her windpipe, causing the kunoichi to spew up on the stone. The rank taste of the liquid irritated her throat and burned at her oesophagus, a rabid creature tearing with vulgar claws.

'Just in time then.' A reply emitted from a muted yet powerfully confident voice, strung high with authority. Hinata caught an air of nervousness and despair tied up in it. 'An hour or two before he catches on and the hunter-nin arrive, everyone who's left is in position outside or in the field'

A figure, face hidden behind a snake like ebony mask, highlighted blue in the haze and clothed in a swirling blue-black cloak appeared. Matching raven hair danced across the shinobi's lifeless mask. Though unseen, through the shadowy eye-holes, nothing affected the inky onyx colour of his eyes as he appeared where the blonde had stood a moment before. From catching everyone else's eyes alight from the blue haze, Hinata saw a flash of relaxation in Kakashi, Sakura and the blonde. Her blonde. Uzumaki Naruto.

As quick as the moment lasted, all three lashed out with bloodied kunai and pointed them towards Sasuke's throat, a wave of killing intent sliced through the still air and impacted on the figure. He made no move to stop them.

'The ROOT organisation was created by Danzō, now the Rokudaime.' He sneered at the name,

'Trained to have no emotion, they are logical, ruthless killers. It's been rumoured that it's been three months since covert operations against Konoha-nin and villagers alike have been performed. Wether those targeted opposed his rule or were just deemed too close to any previous Hokage is questionable. I reckon the bastard just gets off on scaring people.'

Sasuke's shoulders dropped, his head hung just a little, 'It's also been two months since... That day. The day that ROOT-nin engaged every non-ROOT Kokoha-nin. ANBU, Jonin, Chunin, heck, even the low level genin.' With a click, Sasuke let the mask fall from his face, onyx eyes losing what little light remained, his slim, angular face paling past his usual snowy complexion, crystals of beaded sweat betrayed his cold demeanour as his speech went on,

'Captured Kinoha-nin were forced to join ROOT. Naruto-dobe and I engaged Danzō. We traded our services to stop the massacre while everyone regrouped at the Hollow, an old Aburame clan shrine of sorts. If it weren't for Naruto-dobe's Fūinjutsu protecting our minds,' his face allowed a small smirk in contempt towards Naruto, crumbling away as fast as it came, words twisting in to venomous acid as he spat every sour syllable,

'…We, like others, would have already succumbed to Danzō's training methods.'

The steel gazes from the three ninja flickered and died out at the mention of their lost comrades, the kunai fell to their sides, limp and useless.

Naruto became enveloped in his black cloak as he darted closer to Sasuke to catch him in a swirling embrace. The question as to his identity and loyalty dropped as he answered the question unanswerable by enemies or unprotected allies before they could ask him.

Naruto bowed and retrieved Sasuke's mask, passing it to him, noting the red marks around the eyes and hood of the cobra. He returned a slight, unpractised smile. No one had reason to smile any more. As they parted and shook their heads clean of the memories, both shinobi took to the task at hand.

The hard stone walls echoed as Naruto and Sasuke closed in on Hinata, security seals, privacy seals and chakra containment seals glowed as Naruto passed them, idly toying with a few as he closed in.

The pair split at the base of the stone and walked in parallel, coming to a stop at the seal on Hinata's stomach. A solemn tension arose between the two as piercing blue locked onto a bottomless onyx. The still air became energised as the two anticipated a jutsu, anxiety spiralled around them as the serious situation bit down onto the pair with unrelenting jaws.

Hinata gritted her teeth and looked up to the shinobi stood by each side of her sides, nerves and anxiety waging war against her sense to stay silent. The cold air bit into the throats of the two shinobi as they murmured hand seals,

'Snake… Boar… Ram… Rabbit... Dog… Rat… Bird… Horse… Snake!' Their breath fought out against the steely air, warm clashed with cold as they closed their eyes and focussed in the condensing air. Purple and blue visibly emanated from Sasuke and Naruto, seals to hide the huge chakra signature glowed effervescent as they absorbed the tremendous amount of stray chakra produced.

Waves of snaking purple and pulsing blue energy washed across Hinata, Kakashi and Sakura. They felt the light dizziness caused from huge chakra emanation, their senses sharpening as their own chakra lurched and fought against the overbearing waves. Blue and purple danced around the room, the black stone walls hidden in the inky shadows became energised and shone bright as sapphires and amethyst beneath the searing white glow of the seals.

Sand and pebbles, having laid dormant on the ground became revived and rose into the air, each pebble, a gemstone and sand, a colourful mist, ebbing and flowing through the air as waves break on a beach. Sakura and Kakashi warmly gripped Hinata's shoulders as the three became one with the energising colours.

As the two combined the flow into a portal behind them, a ghostly figure emerged. All colours evaporated, stones and sand dropped, birds killed in flight. The hyperactive energy choked as the air became as dead as stone.

His angular face, stone grey and shallow as a corpse, skin stretched unnaturally thin against prominent collar bones and ribs, each fighting to break the emaciated, undead flesh above. Thick white hair, a spiky pine forest blown over by the harshest snow created a shocking halo around the eternally dying face and dressed in an overbearing translucent kimono, the Shinigami, the God of Death summoned again.

'Two summoners? What are they planning?' mused the corpse of a god before Naruto and Sasuke clapped, cracking a thin lipless grin from him, dagger teeth sunk into his tantō, their fates sealed.


Pink cherry blossom leaves flitted peacefully in the light morning breeze around Konoha to the chimes of birdsong from the sugary pink trees beneath, completely unaware of a brooding discussion occurring in a small concealed clearing beneath. Naruto let out a sigh as he met Sasuke's dead eyes, knifelike sunbeams dappling his face as it cut through the cherry blossom, his face solemn, only partially reacting to the words as they clung to his dry throat.

'There's no way around this, Sasuke-teme,' he muttered, voice limp with the weight of depression, 'in a few days, no one will be safe-'

'-Dobe,' Sasuke cut in, his brow dropped to a serious expression as his eyes pierced Naruto's, the dark rings beneath the dimming blue becoming darker every day, analysing his words with a harsh intent, 'your seals protect our minds, no one, Danzō, Ibiki or Ino have got through or caught on yet. They all believe we're just not responding to his methods as fast as usual.'

Naruto's head slumped, his mind whirring against the exhaustion of the last few nights, clashing with the lightless eyes and stone expressions of Ino and Ibiki, comrades lost to Danzō's ROOT training. Gone were the two proud comrades he once knew, left only were the shells of flesh and bone resembling them.

Ice water chills shivered down Sasuke's back as a chilled breeze whipped up, the grass began to tremble with fear and the birds in the tree took flight to escape. It was as if nature had predicted what his comrade thought and would conclude. They both clung tighter to their shivering black cloaks as the cold began to creep in.

'Sasuke-teme, what i-if the seals weren't permanent?' Naruto choked, breaking the moment's silence. Sasuke's eyes snapped wide, onyx becoming an angry ruby, his face wrought with rage and panic, dry oxygen clung in his throat and choked him, threatening to not release its grasp until his answer was found. He wasn't lying.

'No, the boy isn't lying.' Erupted a violent voice in Sasuke's bewildered mind. The air around him and Naruto began to boil, grass wilted away and the cherry blossom leaves in the air browned, curled up and died, sizzling slightly as they spiralled downwards towards scorching earth. An acrid taste prodded at Sasuke's throat, his nostrils flaring, under siege from invisible smoke.

'Kurama.' Sasuke acknowledged, he scowled, having only just become used to the demon fox intruding into his mind over the last few months, a requirement to keep him and Naruto in secretive conversation around other ANBU.

'The seals have but hours before they fail. Then, the worm's mind games will take hold over you.'

Sasuke's eyes wouldn't close, unable to recover from shock, tears formed as noxious, choking smoke funnelled into his exposed eyeballs, stinging aggressively as it clouded over his vision, his head slumped and his mind fogged.

His blurry eyes locked onto a huge cage, bars as wide as logs. He was stood in a pool of stagnant water, browned from whatever stinking contaminant had seeped into it. Eyes burned at the physical stench as his stomach desperately raged to release its contents.

'Boy!' Kurama's voice exploded from an unknown location, Sasuke threw up his hands in front of his face as the shockwave ripped through the room, tearing up the pooled water and churning it into the air, releasing a visible vile stench. From behind the bars, two orange marks cracked through the strangling shadows looming behind them. Blistering red rubies opened as Kurama's behemoth presence enveloped the cage.

Sasuke spun as a hand clapped on his shoulder, sensing a deep killing intent, broadcasting the deep dread he had done so well to hide. Lashing out, he felt his fist impact on unforgiving metal, sending a black pile crumpling to the ground. It shuddered before him and giggled.

'Dobe' he smirked, the terrifying aura of the dark room evaporating as he eyed the laughing blonde spectacle before him as he sucked on his cut knuckle. Tears had formed in the quaking shinobi's eyes, unknown whether it was due to the impact or prank. In here of all places, the two finally had something to laugh about.

'Sa-sasuke-teme!' Naruto chuckled, 'it's not like you've been here befor-' interrupted by his own strangling laughter, Naruto lay backwards and winced as his quivering sides exploded. Sasuke's defeated smile shattered and his head bowed, deep set feelings of regret tugged at his heart, pounding the cheered inflated muscle to a tender pulp.

'I was so full of hate then…' He spluttered, feeling aching waves of nauseous remorse pulse through his chest. He had wanted to kill his brother before him then, his eyes, stinging, clamped tightly shut. Never again. Suddenly, a spark, his mind lashed out against the maddening upset,

'Hey, Dobe.' He smirked, sincerely glad his voice hadn't failed him, 'This part of your mind is damn dirty...' Kicking the stagnant water at Naruto, an evil grin splitting the Uchiha's face, onyx eyes gleaming with mirth as the stench prodded at his wrinkling nose, 'I wonder if I should visit the place you keep your favourite memories of Hinata? She couldn't have conceived all by herself...'

Naruto's face twisted into shock and with a cheeky grin, a giant caged door in the distance clamped down with a resonating clang. Sasuke mentally noted the position of the door with a quivering chuckle,

'next time, Naruto-dobe…' Images began flooding Sasuke's mind of Kakashi-sensei swelling up with libido as he poured his one visible eye, an inversed 'U' of perverted pleasure, over an orange spined, 'Icha Icha' novel, featuring two very recognisable characters on the front page.

'That's enough.' Kurama sneered, as tremors cracked in the waterlogged concrete below. He had enjoyed pranking the boy who, with blazing red eyes locked onto his, had dared enter his abode with such radiating arrogance some time before. But an unfamiliar feeling of weakness tugged at his muscles and dragged him to collapse, leaden, to the unforgiving ground with an earth shattering crunch.

Kurama knew his time and chakra were running short, as was the time the two before him would have together.

'The plan, Kit.' The fox boomed. Sasuke's head whirled back from the spectacle of a collapsed Bijū around to Naruto, ignoring the shockwaves triggered from the beast's voice and fall, rocking every rickety joint in his legs.

Naruto had pulled himself up to sit. With one leg tucked towards his chest and the other one extended outwards, he placed his palms behind him and leant backwards, his shoulders slumped in defeat as his chest deflated, allowing a deep sigh to escape. A remorseful mist hung above his face momentarily before dispersing as his cloak hung limply on his slender frame, soaked and sodden in the stinking mire. If Sasuke hadn't known Naruto better, the droplet running down his face could have been mistaken for a tear.

An air of exhaustion and defeat from the master and beast around him made Sasuke unwittingly gulp. 'What the hell is happening?'

Naruto's head slumped towards Sasuke's direction and caught his stare, the cool, deep sapphire eyes that usually twinkled with life and ecstatic, infectious, happiness looked almost colourless and opaque. A blank seriousness hung itself on Sasuke's shoulders, a cloak of lead. A solemn density bore down upon every crushing emotion until he couldn't take the entrapped sensation no longer, his heart beating against the oppression, spurting hot anger in to his throat. 'What plan?' he hissed venomously.

Naruto broke the glare and looked downwards, more droplets hissed from his stinging eyes as they carved burning ridges down his face. His chest inflated with thumping sobs as his stomach churned, an angry spiral of rage and despair.

He didn't ever imagine telling Sasuke could be so painful.

'Boy,' Kurama quaked, 'so far, my power has fuelled Kit's seals against the mind manipulation. But we Bijū don't take… Too kindly to Fūinjutsu, a sort of weakne-' Kurama snarled at the word, emitting a low rumble that shook the shinobi's bones,

'-so he can only supply us until tonight.' Naruto spoke, the tortured, rehearsed rhythm of his tone suggested that he had run this announcement through his mind time after time again, though the quiver from his vocal cords betrayed his practise, 'As Kurama mentioned, Sasuke, once they fail, our minds will fall to the lessons Danzō forced upon us. We'll end up like Ino. Unthinking ROOT tools.' Naruto's voice seized at the prospect. His very words clenching his throat closed as he tried to stammer more out.

Blurry memories, images of the times in a ROOT bunker manifested between Sasuke and Naruto. A plain white kanji symbol glowed in the centre, blurring the images out. Kurama winced slightly, feeling a harsher tug at his weakened reserves. The seal fizzled and faded momentarily, static, allowing one memory to broadcast clear for a split second.


Sasuke and Naruto stood clamped to a wall, facing a kunoichi opposite.

Her face shone silver as broken moonbeams infiltrated through a barred window above. Her arms concealed behind her back as glittery chains extruded from behind her, locking her wrists to glistening wall behind. She was on her knees, cut from the harsh floor beneath, a silver white blindfold clutched at her eyes as a brash Konohagakure symbol burned black in the centre of it.

As her mouth ruptured a cough, black blood sprayed outwards, a fine, murky mist. More blood oozed down her chin as the blindfold began to alter, blackening around the eye area as the piercing stains beneath oozed through. Ino's head lolled sickeningly to one side as her tongue was pinched from her agape mouth by unseen fingers. A seal of three lines and two more broken in the centre, arranged into a column were burned black onto her shining tongue. The kunoichi let out a meek gurgle as thick, oily-black blood welled up in her throat.

The hand grasped out and gripped her long silvery hair, a click released the tight chains as they danced mockingly, chiming in the muted colours of the silver moon, the hand gripped tighter, snapping shining strands of hair and began smashing her head into stone slabs below. She lay coughing as inky blood pooled around her broken figure, drowning in broken silver light and the glittering dark oil.


Both shinobi recoiled from the image, eyes and hearts blistered by the unravelling scene.

'The fates of us all, at the hands of Danzō, should we not act.' Kurama cut in, his gravelly voice was grave and sincere. Sasuke's lips trembled before he could stop.

'Act? And how would we-'

'-We do not allow him the weapon he wants. My power.'

Sasuke's face boiled over with rage upon the realisation. Eyes blazing red, his words, acid. 'You are all he wants? Why torture everyone else? Why massacre their minds and bend them into weapons just to get to you? Why should everyone suffer because of you?' The dullest laugh echoed from behind Sasuke, his eyes caught Naruto's quivering, crumpled figure as he choked and coughed on his own voice, his face wet with clear streams,

'How do you get Kurama, Sasuke? You attack me. You hurt my friends. You ruin my way of life. This is how you get to Kurama. You get me.' Naruto's eyes became harsh blue steel, his voice returned, as powerful and low as his intentions as he caught Sasuke's eye in his glare, 'but he won't get his weapon, you see? Yet we can't stop him having me. My mind will crumble after the seal fades. But Kurama will live on, in another.' A wave of realisation splashed ice water down Sasuke's chilled spine and sharpened his numbing mind.

'Naruto, even if we could move Kurama, there's no one but you who could possibly contain him, even since he became tolerant of us. You told me yourself, it's the Uzumaki in you, the sealers, the clan famed for vitality that enabled you to survive the transfer. Never mind the inhuman natural reserve of chakra required to hold him, even if he isn't fighting to get out. No one fits this plan.' Sasuke placed his hand on Naruto's head, ruffling the wet tresses of blonde hair, 'There's no known Uzumaki strong enough but you, dobe.' Naruto's eyes glanced upwards and stiffened, a resolve of steel undented by Sasuke's words,

'What about the Uzumaki growing inside of Hina-chan?'


A/N: Thanks for the reviews and follows! To the anon reviewer, thanks so much for the criticism, I've adjusted this chapter to fit your input and tweaked a few lines. I haven't written for years and I didn't know how to address the speech paragraphing. So much for the A in English GCSE's all those years ago, huh? Criticism is more than appreciated and I apologise in advance for jumping on the Japanese honorific bandwagon. So feel free to tear me for any mistakes!

Taku94 out!