Chapter 1

A New Concept: Light

Seven years later…

The boy sat in his cell, unable to move. It was no different than it had been the last seven years of his captivity. Most of that time he had spent unmoving, in the dark. Being in a straightjacket, strapped to a table, and locked in several cages made it a bit difficult to move.

The boy's brother, Kansei, didn't like the dark. The dark was bad, and Kansei always curled up into a ball to escape the monsters that hid within the abyss. The boy always tried reaching out to him, but when he did, Kansei's image would explode. And then he would be alone again. He hated being alone. But every couple hours, Kansei would appear again and the boy would be happy to see him again. The monsters keeping him captive called him crazy. Some taunted the boy, telling him that Kansei wasn't really there. That he was merely hallucinating.

No. They were crazy. Kansei was real. Kansei had told him so on more than one occasion.

Kansei, the boy's twin brother, looked almost completely identical to him. While their faces looked the same, the boy had long black hair, while Kansei's was a darker shade of gray. The boy stared at his brother through the metal mask with sharp blue eyes. Eyes that had faded in color from his time here in the dark cage. His eyes were thirsty for the light of day, but had died and had their entire luster sucked from them long ago.

The boy's nose had been itching for a while, but he couldn't scratch it. Not because he couldn't move his head down to his shoulder, he could have done that. No, it was because of the clunky metal mask they had on his head. It only left his mouth, eyes and ears visible. He hated the mask. He wasn't even sure what the purpose of the mask was. He hated the straps, too. And the cages…all of it. He and Kansei would escape. They would go find their mother and they would escape.

"Mother," the boy uttered under his breath over and over again. "Mother, mother, mother."

"You can't do that," a voice said in a wispy tone. Kansei. He was next to the boy, whispering into his ear. "You know that, brother. We both know she died. She is dead, for good. We need to escape, but we'll be on our own. Just the two of us."

"Just us?" the boy said, pondering for a moment. "Yes. Just us. You, me, and mother. Just us. Yes?"

Kansei sighed and then his body faded away, like it did every time. And now the boy was alone.

The boy didn't understand why the monsters went to such lengths to keep him locked up; he could not possibly be that much of a threat. Right? But how would they know, he'd lived there since he was eight. He didn't know what made him so dangerous, but they must've been pretty afraid of him if they went to these extremes. Chakra-proof chains and such were all around the area, which helped him figure out rather quickly that they didn't ever want him to leave his captivity. He hadn't seen the light of day in a long time. As far as he could remember, for the past seven years, it was always darkness. Always.

The only time he was able to move around was once a month, when his captives tried running more tests on him. On test day, they would take the metal mask off and put a blindfold on him and lead him out of his cage to someplace else. Pain. All the tests did was bring him pain, pain that sometimes lasted for hours, sometimes for days. But the movement was worth the pain, especially since Kansei was always there for him when he returned to his cell.

Like always, he laid there and waited for them to come. Who were they? He didn't know for sure. He's never seen their faces, with the exception of the two monsters Deidara and Sasori seven years ago. They'd always been shrouded in darkness. He heard footsteps though, counting them as they came closer. They were finally in front of his cell, the door creaking open. It was test day.

The figure approached him slowly, opening cage after cage. Even after all these years, not once had he tried to escape. Even so, they were no less cautious than the first time. The boy had to admit, they were a careful lot. The figure entered the inner cage at last.

"It's now or never!" Kansei whispered from beside the boy. Kansei was right. They had to escape. He had to escape and see the light, see things normal teenagers saw. He had to be with his mother. She would tell him everything was alright. He and Kansei just had to escape first. They had been thinking about it for several months now, calculating the number of footsteps it typically took to reach the cage doors. He wasn't sure he could do it, or would even have the courage to try. But as his ears picked up on the steady rap of their sandals against the floor, drawing closer, he decided now was the time.

He heard them come closer to him, finally stopping in front of him. He could hear their breathing. He waited. He waited in darkness, wondering what the monster looked like.

The shadow loosened his table restraints and unfastened them completely.

"Stand up," the shadow ordered.

"Do it," Kansei urged. The boy complied, sliding off of the table and getting to his feet. As soon as the shadow stood before him and reached to unlatch his mask, messing with the locks on the sides, the boy let out a calm, deep breath. He could sense them. They were lax, unprepared for resistance. Cautious, but confident that seven years had made him forever obedient.

Their mistake.

As the mask was pulled free from his face and placed on the table, the boy awaited the signal. Patiently, he stood in silence, until he heard his brother shout, "Now!"

As the rush of adrenaline and desperation hit him, the boy focused it into his arms and managed to snap his jacket straps. They hung at his sides for the first time in a month, which sent strange sensations of freedom throughout his body. The boy snatched the mask from the table and hit him with it as hard as he possibly could, cringing involuntarily as he heard metal crack bone. As the shadow man stumbled back, the boy thrashed about as he came upon him, slamming his fists into what he assumed was the man's face over and over again. The man began to regain his awareness and started to push the boy off of him, reaching for a weapon of some kind. The boy realized he had to end him fast, and bit into his neck with all his might, clamping his jaws tightly around the man's jugular. Kansei watched his brother's face become drenched in blood.

"Get up!" Kansei ordered. The boy stood, blood dripping from his chin. The boy tried opening his eyes, but they saw nothing. It was pure darkness. Kansei snapped him out of his silence, screaming, "Go! I'll be right behind you!"

The boy froze. Aiko had said those exact words, just before Sasori captured and killed him.

"I'll be right behind you," Aiko said. "Go, I promise."

"No!" the boy shouted back, wiping his chin with the back of his hand. "I won't leave you here!"

Kansei looked up at his twin brother. "You must go. This is your only chance! I will be right behind you. Now get going."

Holding back tears, the boy nodded and began pulling on his other restraints as the monsters outside of the cell called for assistance. He finally broke free of all restraints once a group of footsteps stopped outside the cell. He didn't have to know where they were, years of darkness and focusing on sounds did that.

Feeling a sudden surge of energy, the boy felt around the body of the fallen shadow and grabbed a small metal pole from the man's back as he heard Kansei bite him once more, surely making certain that he was dead. It was some kind of weapon, so the boy was satisfied. It must've been the man had been reaching for when the boy attacked him. He would be able to bash their heads in with it. He pushed a button on the pole and felt it shudder in his grasp as it extended on both sides into a pole. He smiled devilishly, blood still on his teeth, filling his mouth with a salty taste. Much better.

He burst through the first couple cages with no problems, but near the last two several shadows stood in his way. He felt their forms obscuring the sounds of his footsteps as he approached, giving him their general location. In that moment, he realized that these years in the darkness had granted him an ability akin to that of echolocation. A grave mistake on the part of his enemies, who were trying to use the darkness to their advantage.

The boy started swinging the pole and began to bash them with it as he bolted out, breaking through his other cages. He heard them all fall, keeping careful track of numbers while he swung around, laughing maniacally.

He hadn't had this much fun in many years, and he hadn't been able to run since the day he was taken. Everything felt so strange, but right now, he felt alive. His captives had made him stand and walk once a month, but only to keep testing him. But now…now he was running. It felt good to run; it was a rush to be able to move. He ran until he heard footsteps, bashing people out of his way in a mad attempt to escape.

He felt something in front of him after a little, and felt around to find a ball-like thing. A handle. He turned it, hearing new sounds as the door opened. A flood of white hit his eyes, piercing through his eyelids to his sensitive eyes. He cried out and squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to drown out the painful beams that burned his retinas.

He ran out of the door, ignoring the light now and laughing as he felt the ground change beneath him from hard rock and concrete to dirt and grass. He ignored the sharp pains of rocks and sticks digging into his feet and kept running. He listened carefully for anything, stopping after a while to rest a moment. Because of the bright sunlight, he still couldn't open his eyes, so he didn't know where he was. But he knew he had to lose the jacket.

As he kept running along, he grazed by something. He stopped and turned toward it, brushing up against it experimentally. A tree.

The tree reminded him of his family. Why had father always been so angry? It wasn't very nice when he'd slap him or Kansei or mother. He wished his family hadn't been so chaotic. It wasn't too much to ask. He decided that once he and Kansei found their mother, he would ask her why father was so mean. Why he always chased them across the nation. Was it a game he was playing with mother? Was it some kind of joke? If so, it wasn't a very funny one. Kansei might know. He knew everything.

The boy put down his weapon and began scraping his body against a low branch, getting a few buckles loose on his jacket before pulling it off completely. He sighed with relief. At last, that jacket was finally off of him. As the jacket crumpled to the ground, he felt the air hit his bare chest. It had been a long time since he'd felt that.

He heard a noise behind him. He jumped and grabbed his pole weapon off of the ground, swinging at whatever had made the sound, but he didn't hit anything. All the new sounds were messing with his hearing, making it hard to focus on something, and he just swung the stick around until he hit something.

"Ha!" he exclaimed once the pole met its mark. "I knew someone was there." After hitting it a second time, he realized something wasn't right and felt the object. He felt something rough…bark. It was just a tree. "Oh, it's only a tree. I could have sworn that I heard footsteps…"

"There he is!" a voice whispered from behind him. His ears picked up on it, but only just. Which meant that they were quite a ways from him, stalking him.

He jumped again and his heart began to race. They were coming for him! He heard someone coming at him, and he swung. His attack hit something: a person this time. The boy cringed at the sound of metal cracking bone, as he had in the cage. He would never get over that terrible sound. A man cried out in agony. He heard another person come at him, but with a few swings they were taken out as well.

"Ha! Serves you bastard's right! My mother might want to have a word with you," the boy said with a smile.

"S-son of a bitch!" one shouted. "I thought he was locked up that whole time!"

"He was!" another quickly answered.

"Then how the hell did he learn to hit and sense us like that!?"

"Idiots," the boy mumbled as he readied his pole weapon. "I want my mother back! Give her and Kansei back, or I'll eat your goddamned heart!"

He swung with great force in all directions, hoping to hit a target or two.

"This kid is crazy!" one of the men shouted. "Fuck this! Get one of the Akatsuki to take the kid back!"

"Are you crazy? They're paying us good money to keep a kid locked up! If we can't even manage that—"

He came at the two who had been speaking, swinging, and hitting only metal at first. They must have been blocking with some kind of weapon. He kept pressing his wild attack until he connected, hitting both men. Once both were down, he turned and ran.

After several minutes, he heard another person move to his left. He stopped for a second and went at them. He didn't want to go back, not after getting this far! He felt the pole hit someone else. Another person yelled out a name after the sound of the boy's last victim hitting the ground. He heard another person and began swinging again, hitting nothing but air. After a few more swings, the boy hit someone and heard them fall to the ground.

He lifted the pole and started pounding the person on the ground over and over. "Stop it!" a voice cried.

"You're with them, aren't you!?" he shot back. "I'm not going back there! Not without a fight!" he began swinging again, hitting nothing and tripping. "Son of a—!"

He fell backwards and hit his head on the root of a tree. He grumbled to himself and sat up, grabbing the back of his head. A stream of swears left his lips as he swung frantically with the meal pole. "Kansei, help me out here!" the boy shouted.

"Who?" a female asked. "Here, kid. Tell us what happened. We might be able to…"

Feeling someone touch his hands, the boy jerked away. "Don't you touch me, beast!" he shouted as he smacked them away, grumbling more as he quickly stood, continuing in vain to swing at the air. He tried opening his eyes, and screamed as the light seemed to overload his senses. "Argh! Damn it!" he stumbled, holding his head in his free hand. "Kansei, where are you!?"

He began running, not knowing where he was going. He'd surely find Kansei if he just kept on the move.

"Wait!" the female voice shouted. "Stop! There's a—!"

Her words were cut short as the boy stumbled over a small ledge and fell into something. It took only a second for him to realize that he had fallen into a raging river. Water began to leak into his mouth as he struggled to the surface. In mere moments, his legs—which had weakened a great deal after years of imprisonment—gave in and he sank to the bottom, the current dragging his body along the rockbed, tearing into his skin.

He opened his eyes under water and saw monsters swimming all around him. Crooked teeth poked out from their closed lips and gnarly spikes protruded from every limb and crevice. Their mouths opened and showed that there were way too many teeth in their mouths than there should be, and the beasts bulky masses swam around in the depths of the water like fish. But what stopped the boy in his tracks were the heads. They each had mutilated and grotesque versions of his father's face.

The boy let out a scream and a stream of bubbles left his lips. The monsters would eat him if he didn't get out of this damn water. Just as his air left him, the monsters exploded in an array of bubbles and swirling water.

As he sank, he was entangled in a field of plants at the bottom of the raging water. There was a sharp pressure upon his throat as underwater plants wrapped around his throat, followed by a sense of suffocation. There was a frightful roaring in his ears, and all was cold and dark. There was no additional strangulation; the weeds around his neck were already suffocating him and kept the water from his lungs. To die now, after all he'd been through!—the idea of such a tragedy seemed to him ludicrous. The plants mutated and became a mass of corpselike arms and hands, dragging him into the darkest pits of the world. He opened his eyes in the darkness and saw above him a gleam of light, but how distant, how inaccessible! The light was a mere glimmer, but it was there without a doubt. He felt someone's hands wrap around him, pulling him up. The light began to grow and brighten, then, and he knew that he was rising to the surface—knew it with reluctance, for he was now very comfortable. To drown and be done with this hell of a world, he thought, that isn't too bad; but I do not wish to be recaptured. No; I will not be taken; that is not fair.

He felt his head emerge; his eyes were blinded by the sunlight; his chest expanded convulsively, and with a supreme and crowning agony his lungs engulfed a great draught of air, which instantly he expelled in a shriek.

He was pulled from the water and was now being dragged, then propped up against a tree. Someone shook him. The boy stared dully at the ground, the light blinding him. His eyes burned with an unbearable intensity, but he could not close them. For closing them would trap the water there, which he feared might be more painful than the light.

"Are you okay?" the female voice from before asked.

"Don't…touch…me," he panted as his eyelids started feeling heavy. Within seconds, he succumbed to the heaviness, and was unconscious. After that moment he saw darkness, the one thing he was used to.

He didn't know who these new people were, they didn't know him, and yet…they helped him. He didn't want to admit it to himself, but he was scared. He no longer knew anything about the outside world. Besides his brother Kansei, his mother, and his bastard of a father, the young boy didn't know anyone. What was going to happen to him now? He had no idea, but he did know that he had to run. He and Kansei had to run all the time now to keep his freedom.

The next day…

He woke up, immediately aware that he did not know where he was. The boy was in a daze as he sat up, his head throbbing. He tested his eyes, inching them open very slowly. He looked around. It was very dark, but not so much that he couldn't see anything. He was in a bed, his legs covered by a light blue blanket. He was in a thin gown that was completely white, and several needles were buried in his arm. They seemed to be pumping some liquids into his veins. His mid-length wave of black hair hung loosely on his bed.

The room was still too bright, so much that it hurt his eyes, so he lay down and pulled the blanket over his head. He heard someone sigh from somewhere in the room, making him stiffen as he allowed not even one breath to leave his lips. Shit. He wasn't alone.

"Great," the female voice whined. "Another Shikamaru. That's just what we need."

"What if he's smart like Shikamaru is?" a male voice piped in, hopeful.

"I doubt it," the female voice sighed in response.

"If the light didn't hurt so much," the blinded boy started, "I would get up and hit you."

"Well," the female said in mock surprise, "He does have a temper."

He felt the blanket get ripped off of him, exposing him to the bright light. He closed his eyes and covered them quickly.

"Why would you do that!?" he shrieked. "No, no, no, no! It's too bright! I'm blind!"

The blanket was laid back over him, a real relief for him and his eyes. He heard the girl and the boy whisper to each other for a second, and then a door opened. He heard more whispering, and then the blanket was stripped off of him again.

"Gah!" he shouted as he covered his eyes again. "What's your problem? What did I ever do to you? It burns!"

"You're right," the female voice stated. "He is very sensitive to the light."

"What kind of nightmare is this place!?" he shouted as he kept his hands over his closed eyes. "This must be hell!"

"Turn off the lights and close the blinds," the girl instructed. After a moment, he could hear the blinds closing. "Okay, open your eyes," she said after a few seconds. "It shouldn't be as bright now."

The boy opened his eyes as he was told and moved his hands slightly away from his face, blinking a few times to adjust his eyes. He looked around the room as he slowly sat up, blinking a few more times and rubbing his eyes.

"Any better?" the girl beside him asked.

"It's still brighter than I'm used to," he answered as he looked around. As he studied the two people before him, he came to the conclusion that both the boy and the girl looked about his age—fifteen or sixteen years old. "But at least I can see a little." The boy with purple face paint stuck his face near the other boy's, studying at him closely. The boy's paint started from one cheek to his lips and then to the end of the other cheek, and another line started from the top of the upper lip to the bottom of his chin, forming a T. He also wore a black outfit consisting of a long top with a hood, trousers, a red sash around his waist, and a green flak jacket. On his hood he had Allied Shinobi Forces stitched in.

The girl pushed him aside, sticking her face near the boy's just as the face-paint boy had. The young boy's face was a mere inch or two from the girl's now. This made him feel uncomfortable, so he scooted back a bit.

The girl wore a short-sleeved black kimono that reached down to her legs, with slits along the sides and a revealing neckline. She had a red sash tied around her waist and sported fingerless black gloves and had a forehead protector donned with the crest of the Allied Shinobi Forces, just like the boy. She also sported a flak jacket. He wondered what the Allied Shinobi Forces might be.

"Um, hello," the boy said. "Nice weather."

"So you're the boy that hit me with a pole," she grinned as she pulled away. "You're actually kinda hot."

"Hot?" the boy asked as he felt his forehead. "My head doesn't feel warm. I don't understand what you mean."

"You're pretty naïve too," she sighed.

"Do you have a name?" the purple face-paint boy asked.

"Name?" the boy repeated. "Surely you know that everyone has a name. A name is necessary to one's identity starting from a very young age, and I've not met a single person who did not have a name. Sure, when I was younger I met individuals with names that most certainly surprised me, but all born are given names. It is common knowledge. I simply do not know my name."

The two teens stared blankly at the boy. The face-paint boy cleared his throat. "You are a strange one, I'll give you that," he replied, raising his eyebrows.

The blond with four ponytails punched the black-clad boy in the arm.

"Ow!" he said, rubbing his arm. "It's true, though."

The blonde girl sighed in frustration. "Whatever. I'm Temari," the girl said, placing her hand on her chest. She glanced angrily at the purple face-paint boy. "This is my brother, Kankuro."

"It's nice to meet you two, for sure. Yes. Nice to meet you, that's a fact. Not a fact, actually, more like a statement. My opinion. Regardless, I know your names now," the boy smiled politely.

"Are you insane?" Kankuro asked, his eyes wide. Temari threw him a sideways glance, and Kankuro ceased his talking immediately.

"But…I don't know my own name. It's a forgotten element in my life, a mystery I have yet to crack. I think my mind is like a walnut. It has a tough exterior, but once you can get past the outer shell, the insides are as easy to access as water to a fish. Well, maybe not water to a fish. Because it lives in the water. Maybe air to a bird? Yes, that sounds about right. I like birds, and birds like air. Well, birds that fly. Because chickens don't fly, so they wouldn't like air. On the other hand, they do breath, so I guess they do love air. Anywho, those monsters just called me Nameless usually, sometimes it's 'The Subject'."

"Yep. He's freakin' crazy!" Kankuro said, throwing his hands into the air, as though giving up.

"Monsters? Who?" Temari asked, apparently impervious to both the unusual comments from the boy and the words of her brother.

"I don't know," the boy admitted. "I had that horrifying mask on since I was eight, and when I didn't have it on, they blindfolded me and my brother, Kansei. I don't know their faces that well or anything about them. I only a few names: Deidara, Sasori, and Akatsuki."

Kankuro's eyes flickered over the boy at these names. Temari did not falter. "You were in the dark for seven years? No wonder the light hurt you so much," Temari said, shaking her head slightly.

"Where am I?" the boy asked as he looked around. "And where is Kansei?"

"You are at the hospital," Temari answered. "You're in a place of healing, in Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. And we don't know of any "Kansei". You were alone when we found you. Except for a few hired hands that we took care of."

"He must have escaped and went to find mother, then," the boy smiled. "Good. I'm glad he made it."

"So…you escaped an Akatsuki hideout?" Kankuro asked, sounding both impressed and bewildered.

"Yes, my brother helped me escape. I don't want to go back," the boy answered quietly. "Never. I am never going back! No. It's bad. Those people hurt me. I don't like the darkness, the cages, or the jacket. I hate all of it. I don't understand why they put me there. It's all awful. It's bad. No. Not going back, never. Not happening."

"Earlier, you said the Akatsuki," another male voice said from the back of the room. As the boy craned his neck to look past Kankuro and Temari, he saw a third kid that he hadn't noticed before. This one was sitting in a wooden chair. He had a rather robust physique and wore a red suit with grey armor plating on his torso, arms and upper legs as well as the green flak jacket, along with loose-fitting black pants. The boy noticed this third kid had some red swirls marking his cheeks and studded earrings. His most prominent feature, however, was his long, spiky brown hair that went down his back. "Maybe the Akatsuki thought you were dangerous or something."

"Then why keep me in their base, close to them, for seven years?" the boy asked.

"Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, I guess," the larger boy shrugged.

"Nothing makes any sense. Kansei would know, though," the black-haired boy said, laying back down and hitting his head on his pillow over and over again. "Maybe we should ask him."

The door to the room opened and a light-skinned, blonde woman entered. Her eyes were brown and her hair was tied into two loose ponytails, and she had a violet rhombus mark on her forehead. She had a slender frame and a rather beautiful face. She was wearing a grass-green haori over a grey kimono-style blouse with no sleeves, which was held closed by a broad, dark bluish-grey obi matching the color of her pants. Her blouse was closed quite low, revealing her sizable cleavage. The first thing that caught the boy's eyes was the woman's massive breasts. He had to stop from gawking as she entered the room.

"You have huge boobs. Seriously. I thought I'd let you know. They kind of take the attention away from the rest of you, though. It's like they have a gravitational pull or something. It's crazy."

A vein popped out on the woman's head, and she growled. The boy flinched away, and the blonde woman clenched her fists as she tried to calm herself down. "Is this the boy I've heard so much about?" she asked Temari as she stood in the center of the room, motioning toward the boy with her chin.

"Oh, y-yes Lady Hokage," Temari answered, nodding once. She looked a bit fearful of the woman's wrath. "I…I don't believe he is at full mental capacity, Lady Tsunade."

The boy scowled at Temari.

"I can tell," said the blonde woman Tsunade, scowling at the boy.

"What's a Hokage?" the boy asked. "Gah! All of this is hurting my head!"

The Hokage glanced at the boy. She seemed to think for a moment, and then she motioned for the others to come to the hall with her. Once they all left, the boy got out of bed and walked around. His legs felt like noodles, and they didn't want to support his full weight. He stumbled and tripped a few times as he tried walking away from his bed, still a bit uneasy on his weak legs. Soon he began to get the hang of it, and had gathered his bearings rather quickly.

He tried making his way back to his bed, but before he reached it, he slipped on his bedsheet, which draped onto the floor, landing face first and knocking several medical machines down with him. He groaned when he felt the stinging pain on his face. He sat up and rubbed his face, which hurt the most. He looked at his hand, and was astonished to see some dark red liquid dripping onto it from his forehead.

"What's this?" he asked himself as he placed his hand on the spot of his face that felt wet, getting more on his fingers. "Red liquid?"

He heard the door open and felt the others look at him as he cocked his head to the side. The door opened, and the first to enter was Temari. She gasped. "You're bleeding!" she exclaimed as she sat next to him, taking his face in her hands.

Suddenly, a memory clicked inside his brain. He'd seen this before, somewhere during his earlier years of childhood. It was blood.

His eyes widened. Blood. He hated blood. His mother had bled before; she'd screamed in pain, and it had scared him and his brother a lot. It had petrified them both. Ever since then, deep in his subconscious, he had hated blood. Blood was bad. And here it was, on his hand and head.

"You got yourself pretty good, too," Temari said, studying the cut. Kankuro gave her some white cloth and some sort of liquid. She dampened the cloth with the substance and dabbed the wound with it.

She pressed a bandage on his face to stop the bleeding, taking a towel to his hand to wipe off the rest. The boy remained quiet, almost traumatized.

"Are you alright?" Temari asked, studying his expression. "Hey…are you afraid of blood?"

The boy only nodded, his eyes still wide.

The Hokage, Tsunade, closed her eyes in understanding. She, too, had been afraid of blood, ever since Dan's death. She shuddered at the thought. She knew exactly how this kid felt. She felt sorry for him, in fact. She knew all too well what it was like to fear blood in a world of shinobi. Her fight against Kabuto and Orochimaru had shown her the price of that flaw.

"What's wrong?" a familiar voice asked the teen. The boy looked past Temari and saw his brother, Kansei. He was smirking, and his arms were crossed. "What are you freaking out for? It's just a little blood."

"I…I don't like blood," the boy mumbled. "I don't like blood, Kansei. I don't like it at all."

"Who is Kansei?" the Hokage asked. She walked over to the boy and knelt beside him. "Is he your brother?"

The boy nodded. "Yes."

Kansei walked forward, standing right behind Tsunade. He looked down at her in disinterest. "Kill her."

"What?" the boy asked in shock. "No. No, I can't do that. That wouldn't be nice."

"What wouldn't be nice?" Kankuro asked, as confused as everyone else in the room. "What are you talking about?"

"No. No I can't, Kansei," the teen shook his head violently. "No!"

"Fine," Kansei scowled. "If you choose this woman over me, I suppose there isn't anything I can do about it."

"Kansei, I'm not choosing—"

Kansei's eyes began to bleed, the red liquid running down his cheeks and dripping onto the floor. His bottom jaw dropped and his mouth hung open. A stream of blood leaked from the corners of his mouth and then his nostrils, soaking his tattered clothing.

The boy watched in horror, unable to speak, unable to scream.

Kansei's body started to shake violently, and after several moments of the convulsions, his body exploded in a shower of red, covering the room and all of the people inside in blood.

The boy screamed a blood-curdling, ear-splitting scream. His voice cracked in the wake of his pure terror, and everyone in the room jumped, staring in utter shock. Blood dripped onto him from the ceiling, and the others, all covered in his brothers blood, simply stared at him. Were they all mad? Hadn't they just witnessed him explode?

Tsunade grabbed him by the shoulders, looking into his eyes with the expert analysis of a medical ninja. She places her hand on his chest, and her hand began to faintly glow blue. She shook her head. "There are some distinct disturbances in the boy's chakra. He seems to be hallucinating. It's a rather severe case."

"Is there something that can be done about it?" Kankuro asked.

Tsunade nodded. "I can use a special version of my Delicate Illness Extraction jutsu to try and abolish the hallucinations myself."

"Isn't that dangerous, Lady Hokage?" Temari asked politely, sounding rather concerned with the boy's health.

"Yes, but it must be done," the Hokage nodded. "Bring him to the basement level of the hospital. I'll perform the technique there, where his screams won't disturb any of the other patients in the hospital. The last thing we need is for patients to start panicking."

The boy couldn't help but wonder what was happening, but he had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Whatever she had planned, it wouldn't be fun.

The basement of the hospital was dark, and several wooden pillars were scattered all about, supporting the full weight of the wooden structure with the help of the log walls. Temari and Kankuro had draped the boy's arms over their shoulders and were carrying him down a large winding staircase. Once they reached the bottom, the boy caught site of Tsunade.

The Hokage stood in the center of the basement, standing in the middle of a circle of candles. Her body was illuminated brilliantly by the flickering fire, and she seemed to be drawing some symbols on the ground in the circle of candles.

Temari and Kankuro led the boy over to the circle just as the Hokage finished her circle. She instructed him to sit in the center of the circle. Hesitantly, he complied.

"Alright. Just as a forewarning, this may be painful for you. But it needs to be done. Do you understand?" Tsunade asked, waiting for his answer.

"I…I don't have much of a choice. Hurry on with it, then."

"Very well." Tsunade's hand began to glow blue once more. She placed one hand on the boy's head, and formed a seal with her free hand. "We will now begin the extraction."

"What's going to happen?" the boy asked. When Tsunade didn't answer, he looked into the darkness. "Kansei? What is she going to do to me?!"

"They are trying to make me disappear, brother," a voice replied from the darkness. "Do you really want that?"

"No! No, don't do it!" the boy cried. "Kansei!"

"Delicate Illness Extraction Technique!" Tsunade announced, flaring her chakra in one burst. A series of black symbols that had been drawn in the circle of candles crawled toward the boy, snaking up his arms and restricting his movement.

The blonde woman closed her eyes and attempted to dig into the child's chakra flow, searching for the disturbance. She could feel his chakra flow, feel it filling the boy's body. But there was a disturbance. The boy's body began to ache. He could feel something infiltrating his chakra, spreading throughout. The pain built to its peak, and the boy cried out in excruciating agony. It felt like a tug-of-war inside of his body, and his nerves were the rope.

"Brother, don't let them do this! I don't want to leave you!" Kansei's voice pleaded from the shadows. The boy struggled, but for some reason, he was frozen in place.

As she continued to search for the disturbance, something else caught her attention. Something far more dangerous than a crazed mind. A second set of chakra inside the boy's body.

"Let your inner demons take over, brother. They will save me if you just let them take you over!" Kansei shouted. The boy didn't want to lose his twin. Kansei was all he had.

The boy felt something struggling to push through the barrier around his mind, something evil. But he knew that this evil would do as Kansei said it would. After all, his brother would never lie to him. So, for the sake of his brother, the boy let the evil take his mind. He began to feel the darkness envelope his consciousness.

As Tsunade dug deeper into his chakra flow, her sense of chakra suddenly went dark. She waited, trying to find the boy's chakra flow once more. As she saw and felt only the darkness, there was a low, grumbling sound. Then, in one sudden flash, the face of a monster appeared, a piercing roar nearly shattering her eardrums.

The beast jolted her into severing her connection, stopping the jutsu. She fell back, startled. Her chest rose and fell with her labored and surprised breathing, and she stared in utter horror at the boy before her. What had that creature been?

"Lady Hokage!" Kankuro shouted as he and his sister Temari running to her side. "What happened?"

"I…I'm not sure," she admitted. "That boy…he has something inside of his body. Something dark."

"Something dark?" Temari said, her eyes widening. She looked cautiously over at the teen boy. "Is that why the Akatsuki wanted him?"

"The Akatsuki are involved with this boy?!" Tsunade said in shock. "Why didn't anyone tell me this sooner?"

"I—" Kankuro began.

"It's no matter," Tsunade said, waving away his response. "So the Akatsuki wanted him, for whatever reason. All I know is that the boy has something dark insides of his body. He isn't stable so long as he remains hallucinating, and so long as that beast remains within him. If it's inside of him, it has to have a seal of some kind on it, but I doubt it is a very powerful one. I'd like to reinforce it."

"So what do you purpose?" Kankuro asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I can't stop his hallucinations on my own with that beast remaining as is. It is creating some kind of barrier. I am also unable to seal the monster by myself. That much I can already tell. But we cannot leave him as is, because those hallucinations could lead to that creature breaking out. We've just rebuilt this village after Pain destroyed it, so we don't need a repeat of the Nine-Tails incident."

"Meaning?" Temari pried.

"We need to call a meeting of the five Kage at the Five Kage Summit. This problem must be dealt with, and since the Akatsuki are involved, this matter cannot be ignored," Tsunade explained, biting her thumb, her brow furrowed.

"It's pretty soon to jump to such a radical decision, don't you think?" the red-armored kid piped in. "Don't you think Kakashi or Yamato might be able to help?"

"I don't think Kakashi or Yamato have the ability to seal it, either, to be honest," the Hokage replied. "This is a perplexing situation, no doubt."

The darkness receded, and the boy regained his mind once more. What had happened?

The boy, a bit weak and proceeding on his wobbly legs with caution, walked beside Temari in Konoha. He wore sunglasses on his eyes, guarding him against the bright light of the sun. They walked for a while on the main street, away from the hospital, before Temari led the boy to a redheaded boy that was standing, arms crossed, near the blacksmith shop. He had a gourd on his back, which was emblazoned with several symbols.

He wore a long-sleeve red shirt and a thin, dark purple laced overcoat. He wore full-length baggy black trousers with a pair of laces on each leg, respectively a few inches below the waist and the knees, a long-sleeved crimson coat with flaring hemlines and slits down on the lower half of the front and the back, and a grey holster vest held in place by a single strap over his left shoulder as well as two buckled belts that carried his gourd. There was another pair of casually worn belts around his waist and a grey flak jacket. He was a little shorter than Temari and Kankuro, and his fair skin was sharply contrasted by his short, spiky auburn hair.

His eyes were pale blue-green, but had no distinctive pupils or eyebrows. His eyes were rimmed with tanuki-like black rings and the kanji for love carved onto the left corner of his forehead, the coloration of which matched his hair. His locks of hair were parted from the left side, making the kanji more visible. He had a strong air about him. Like Temari and Kankuro, the boy could tell that he was in his teens.

"Who is this?" the red-haired boy asked. His voice was deep and gravely, and the black-haired boy noticed that the red-haired boy was staring at him from the corner of his eye.

"He never said what his name was, Lord Gaara," Temari shrugged. "We don't know."

"I told you," the boy answered. "I don't know my name, but those monsters called me 'Nameless'."

"My bad," Temari said in mock defeat, then put one hand on Gaara's shoulder. She looked at the boy. "This is the Kazekage of Sunagakure, the Village Hidden in the Sand," she smiled. "He is also the Commander of the Allied Shinobi Forces." Then she turned to Gaara, looking more serious. "Lord Gaara, a situation has arisen. It involves this boy, and the Hokage has requested an urgent meeting at the Five Kage Summit."

Gaara's eyes widened in surprise, and his gaze moved to the boy.

Something caught the boy's eye, so he didn't pay attention to the rest of the conversation and eventually left to investigate. He sat down and stared at it, its wings moving up and down slowly as it rested on a small purple flower. It flew away as he tried to touch it. He sighed in defeat and bowed his head.

"It got away," he said quietly.

"You're a new face," someone behind him called.

"Huh?" the boy called back as he turned his head to look at the person. It was a boy, this one about his age as well, with brown spiked hair and two red fang-like marks emblazoned on his cheeks. He wore all black, save for his chunin overcoat. The boy nodded as a giant white creature came bounding up next to him.

"This here is Akamaru," the boy said, petting the creature. After a moment, the boy recalled that they called this kind of beast a dog. "I'm Kiba Inuzuka."

"There you are!" Temari exclaimed as she came over to the boy, only glancing at Kiba for a moment. "I wondered where you went. Come on. Let's find you a hotel."

"A hotel?" he boy asked as Temari led him away from Kiba. "What for?"

"You'll be needing a place to stay temporarily, but we'll find one close to the Hokage mansion so that Lady Tsunade can keep an eye on you. In a couple days, you'll be coming with Lord Gaara, Kankuro and I to the Five Kage Summit under the request of the Hokage."