AN: Whirpools is way past 1000 views right now, and almost 300 people have read last chapter. This chapter is for all of you who fav/followed and reviewed. And for myself, but that's a given.

Also, let's take a moment to wave Canon goodbye.


Three years passed, and an eleven year old Naruto spent his (hopefully) last summer at the Academy, ticking the days off his calendar one at a time with a mixed sense of dread and excitement.

The line of ticks was still several months away from the end line in early January and the final graduation tests, but every new mark was a day less to prepare, and he still couldn't manage more than ten running steps up a wall or a tree, much less water-walking.

'Kaasan was right, I spent too long on great-grandma's books.'

"Naruto."

"'Right, sorry Sakura-chan. Daydreaming."

Sakura looked at him askance, then she resumed chewing on her thumb, attacking the tender skin around her non-existent nail until the pink underneath showed. Her attention soon snapped back to the training ground, where Obito-sensei's favorite group exercise of the year, fondly renamed King of the Hill, was in full swing.

In the merciless afternoon sun painting tattoos and clothes' tans on the gathered students, two teams squared off for the control of the central 'Hill', an ugly stone embankment crossed with faux fortifications and small platforms one of the Chunin instructors erected with a Doton jutsu every time. Blunted ninja tools flew, connected, clanged and clattered, intermixed with the wet, hollow whacks of taijitsu strikes, small spikes of chakra and the clashing of weapons.

No matter what the Bastard preached, there was little in terms of friendly competition on display, or any competition at all, and Naruto couldn't deny that, despite his lingering worries, the prospect had his heartbeat pick up in anticipation.

Shikamaru looked far less eager, crouched as he was in 'meditation'.

"This is going to be a pain."

Naruto nodded at the familiar remark, lip twitching into a frown at the exclamations of the crowd to a particular excellent strike on Sasuke's part that pounded Kiba into the ground, again.

As of late, Shikamaru and he had been paired up several times in the same team, even two weeks in a row now, and the redhead was slowly becoming accustomed to the limited repertoire of lazy remarks the Nara cycled through on a daily basis. Still, recurrent combinations were a tendency that Naruto observed in several other teams: less and less students were shuffled around with every week leading to graduation.

The previous week it had been Kenta and it couldn't pass quick enough, this week Sakura-chan had joined their duo instead. Shika said the instructors were solidifying what worked in advance and save themselves some work during the winter break.

Naruto didn't believe the Academy personnel shared in the Nara's brand of work ethic, but looking at the mock battle taking place, he couldn't deny some teams really had teamwork down more than others.

"Three minutes left," Mizuki-sensei announced. Naruto was sure this particular match would wrap up before that.

Each week, before the Sunday break, ten teams would be selected at random for King of the Hill. Obito made it clear it didn't matter who made them up, whether top students or dregs or any combination in between, or even if some were made up by four students while other followed the more traditional three. Fights were hardly fair among shinobi, he said. Adaptation was key to survival, but good teamwork could even most odds.

The game itself played by painfully easy rules. First team who could hold the Hill's Flag for ten minutes straight or knock out every member of opposing team won, and continued on the next match until they were defeated; that meant the attacking team was on a time limit to complete the exercise, either by kicking the defenders into dreamland or conquering the top of the Hill and the Flag planted there and then holding out ten minutes. The defenders, on the contrary, started with height and position advantage and only needed to hold out, but would tire with every match.

Ultimately, the team who held the longest winning streak would be declared victor, even if toppled at some point, and the last team to hold the Flag at the end of the exercise would be the first on the Hill come the following week.

Naruto himself quite preferred being the first to conquer the Hill at the beginning of the exercise, set down his traps before the Hill was too banged up, and then hold on for as long as possible. His dream scenario had been crowned in victory only once, when he'd established his personal record of six round in a row.

Results were logically very prone to ups and downs though: chances had any given student would never face the same people in the same circumstances, not with almost a hundred students rotating, and those who insisted on playing lone wolf wouldn't last long. Which was likely one of the exercise's goals.

Lately, however, it wasn't that odd to see the same people duking it out more than once; the competition, already fierce with more shifting combinations, had gone up another notch.

This week, however, Sasuke's team had pushed it to an entirely new level.

"If they win this one too, it's a new record!" someone whispered, loud enough half the class could easily hear or over the sounds of combat.

Naruto really hoped that wasn't the case, but there was little point in deluding himself.

The teme's team had held the Hill since halfway the previous week, and one match now from the end, they didn't look any eager to cede it to anyone.

Choji sprung back on his feet, his cheek already bruising purple, and substituted with a kunai embedded higher up on the hill as Kiba snarled and engaged Sasuke into another vicious bout of Taijutsu on the ground, cutting off the Uchiha's chase before it started.

Several steps away, an instructor picked up an unconscious Hinata and carried her away from the scuffle, but the victor of that particular bout had already rerouted to intercept Choiji's advance up the Hill at a shout from Yakumo Kurama, who currently guarded the Flag for Sasuke's team.

"Mokuton: Anguraruutsu!"

Choiji took all of two steps before he stumbled with a grunt, his feet forcibly detached from the Hill by thick wooden roots curling all the way up his knees, and growing still, trying to wrap him in a cocoon. Choji's hands inflated in response, five engorged fingers digging deep furrows into the Hill as the other tried to eradicate the ensnaring wood, only to find himself dangling when a kunai sliced through the roots.

"Choji, switch!"

The Akimichi nodded at Karin and thundered as fast as he could to intercept Namikaze Tamako, a bo-staff finding its way into his palms as his hands returned to normal proportions. A moment later, the Namikaze's tonfa were crossed in front of her to block an overhead bash that sent her skidding down the Hill on chakra-coated feet. Choji pressed on with a flurry and tonfa clanged with staff again as they met.

Karin jumped past them, giving the Namikaze a berth to avoid more Mokuton trappings, and run vertically up the Hill to close in on Kurama, whose hands were running through hand seals. The sequence, short as it was, was completed far ahead of the Uzumaki's approach, and Yakumo's voice, usually faint and whispery, rung clear to everyone present.

"Magen: Kanashibari."

Everyone waited for Karin to break stride, topple over like a frozen marionette and stay there, an altogether common result to Yakumo's Genjutsu. The redhead sped up instead, blunted kunai at the ready for a knockout as the Kurama rose slowly to unsteady feet, sweat tricking down her face from exertion.

Behind Naruto, Shikamaru sighed and resumed his cloud-watching.

Karin stumbled, her foot refusing to move, a thick root stopping her only a few steps away from her goal, then her eyes rolled in their sockets as Tamako struck at the back of her neck with a chop, rendering her unconscious and catching her before she fell. Choji reappeared in the arms of one of the instructors at the edge of the makeshift arena, his body frozen in the act of throwing a punch; the focused expression on his face was belied by his frantically moving eyes and Naruto couldn't help but snicker at it. He was joined a moment later by a slumped Karin, who was lain on the ground to recover beside Hinata, fast asleep.

The final act was punctuated by Kiba's snarling, but there was little threat to his barking: Sasuke was sitting square on his back, showing off an amused smirk as he held both dangling ends of the ninja wire tying the Inuzuka and Akamaru together for everyone to admire. The bound boy struggled to no result, only digging the blunted shuriken attached to the wire deeper into his uniform, and after a moment Obito's voice stated the obvious:

"Team Kurama-Namikaze-Uchiha wins. Again. Seriously, everyone, this is embarrassing." Sasuke smirked, and Obito sighed, staring at the sky for a divine guidance that refused to manifest. "We have a new record, boys and girls."

A ragged clapping cheer erupted, sincere praise and admiration tampered by envy and no little amount of hesitation at the prospect of being the next to try and meet the seemingly unstoppable team. Naruto clapped along - teme or no teme, it had been quite the performance, just the last one in a long number - and to avoid the few furtive and not-so-furtive glances aimed at his own team, he turned to Shikamaru, who nodded briefly and then returned to his cloud gazing.

Naruto resisted the urge to smack him over the head and instead let out a long, harsh breath that earned him a few pitying looks.

As soon as Kiba was untied, he shoved the Uchiha's offered hand away and limped to his downed team, head hung low and teeth bared in frustration. Naruto could relate, but knew that any kind of praise at his team performance wouldn't be welcome were he and Kiba in each other's shoes, so he offered none.

The Inuzuka plopped down beside a now freed Choji and as the Instructors went over the loser team with balms and Medical jutsus, Obito cleared his throat.

The excited chatter abated.

"Alright, a five minutes pause. Who wants to get started and pick apart what we've seen here?"

Students talking and out-shouting each other was a very veritable risk in a class of one-hundred, so a small forest of hands rose instead, waiting and wanting to be selected.

"The attackers let the defenders dictate the rhythm and chose who engaged who nearly from the start," Senju Magusa offered. "Rookie mistake. Hyuga and Inuzuka should have teamed-up on Sasuke first thing, take down the team's sword. Instead, Tamako had the time to turn Kiba's nose on him with that scent and then use the sleeping draught on Hinata. At that point, it was already over."

Kiba groaned and Choji hung his head, but Obito ignored him. "Good, but you can do better. Shimura?"

A dark haired girl straightened up, somber face scrunched in thought. "Hai. The defenders had good teamwork, especially Tamako-san and Yakumo-san, but they didn't exploit the terrain as well as they could have, and Sasuke-san was too far from the Hill most of the fight to fall back swiftly had the tide shifted." Her lip pursed as she tapped her chin, then shrugged and Obito called up another student.

It went on like that for another few minutes as Sasuke's team enjoyed the victor's respite before another wave, one ear to the discussion and one to themselves as they planned and plotted. Naruto saw Kurama's weariness was not a ploy by the way she guzzled down water and snuck in a chakra pill he almost missed, but Tamako and Sasuke looked far better than he hoped after nine matches in a row only that week.

The Namikaze walked in a large circle around the Flag, stopping every few steps to put her hands on the ground and set up what someone had fittingly dubbed 'Mokuton pressure snares' in frustration after one too many were sprung.

'Talk about home advantage.' Everyone knew the Wood Release techniques were strengthened and easier to overpower on Konoha's grounds, courtesy of the Shodai's extensive manipulations at the time of Konoha's founding. The sentinel trees towering over the Village were proof enough of that, and the most visible, but Hashirama Senju had gone quite a long way to make sure his Clan was right at home and capable of defending Konoha.

It kind of sucked when that boon was turned against him and his though.

Some considered it cheating the same way the Sharingan was considered thievery - 'and thank Kami Sasuke has yet to awaken it, or his smugness would blot out the sun' - but to the Academy rulebook, any Kekkei Genkai was just another tool, not unlike the girl's draughts or Kurama's far too effective Genjutsu. That didn't mean Naruto had to like it… but then again, moping about it would accomplish nothing.

"We stick to the plan. We hit them hard and we hit them fast, before they can put us on the defensive," he said to his teammates in a whisper, but he was looking pointedly at Sakura, who had balled her chewed hand behind her back and was now tormenting her lower lip.

"It's a long shot," said the girl, checking the kunai holster strapped to her leg. "Too long a shot. They should be more tired by now, but Tamako is still setting up traps and did you see how easily Sasuke-kun held out against both Choji and Kiba?" Her shoulders slouched and she shook her head, but the undercurrent of admiration was loud and clear to Naruto's ears, as was the sparkling in her eyes kaasan assured him was the first stages of puppy love.

Naruto pushed those thoughts back, focusing instead on the part of him that was more than glad Sasuke's team wasn't exhausted. He had wanted to test himself against the two top students in his year and the 'Genjutsu Juggernaut' at the best of their condition for a while now. This was the next best thing.

He placed a reassuring hand on Sakura's shoulder, the wiry muscle relaxing only a fraction under his touch, and grinned his largest grin. "No way we're losing this, Sakura-chan! We keep them off-balance and deny them the first move, and that Hill's already ours. Trust me!" Blind confidence was a bad thing, but Naruto preferred that the kind of self-doubt and hesitation Sakura was all too prone to.

"They may be top students, but we have better teamwork," he continued, and her shoulders relaxed a bit more. "Right Shika?"

The Nara shrugged, then sighed and stood up, popping his neck. "Whatever. If it'll work, it will work. Day's almost over anyway."

"Come on man! Where's you fighting spirit?" Shikamaru rolled his eyes in response.

"We're about to get thrashed and you don't even bother!" Sakura snapped, then turned to Naruto. "If he's like this, maybe we should..."But she cut herself off, biting down on her cheek and shaking her head.

"Forfeit looks worse on your file than honorable defeat." Shikamaru muttered, sighing at Sakura's sputtering and Naruto's glare, then he tilted his chin upwards. "It's our turn now."

"Team Haruno-Nara-Uzumaki," Obito beckoned, cutting off any further argument. The other students parted, stepped back and Naruto's team walked forward. Shikamaru still had his hands in his pants, and Sakura was no better, only hiding her nervousness behind a thin face of determination.

Naruto shooed those thoughts away. They could do this. They had to do this.

"If I have to see one more of Sasuke's smug smirks," Obito informed them. "I'm going to hold you three responsible.

Sasuke, of course, smirked right back at all of them. Then Obito whistled, and King of the Hill was on again.


Rin Nohara had stood beside Genma Shiranui just that morning as he waved at the retreating silhouettes of his sister and her team, on their way out of the border outpost on a routine escort mission for some local tax collector. Her first C-Rank, he had told her, and the usual small smile always present on his face had turned just a bit wider and more genuine.

Now she knelt in the cratered bog that had become that stretch of the forest, hands aglow with green medical chakra, while Genma fought like a man possessed to give her the chance to save Tenten's life.

The girl lay on a slab of stone, her skin waxy and matted with cold sweat, her lids fluttering as the eyeballs underneath darted around despite the sedatives she'd been given already. Rin had already extracted the broken chokuto blade from her lower belly and stopped the worst of the hemorrhage, but the dark sheen still coating the metal underneath the girl's blood meant poison, and that poison was currently trying to rip the genin's chakra pathways to shreds by turning her own chakra against her.

Several chained explosions - kibakufuda, she noted - went off just out of sight and the forest bulged outwards, trees swaying, many uprooted by the blast. She heard a sickening thud, the echo carried by the hot air picking at her hair and carrying enough dirt and leaves to turn the wound in a worse sloppy mess. For the next few moments her ears rung as she worked to prevent that, almost drowning her own words.

"Neji, sit-rep!"

She felt the Hyuga's Byakugan activate and the boy suppressed a grunt of pain as he forced himself to stand straighter. If from skirting chakra exhaustion or his broken arm and sprained ankle she couldn't tell, and Gods preserve her she couldn't afford to care at the moment.

"Yuhi-san and Yamashiru-san brought down their opponent and remain uninjured. The explosions were Shiranui-san's work. Quite… effective."

She silently wished he'd keep to the essentials, but then again she wished she had a full back-up team of iryo-nins to multi-task on Tenten and Gai right now.

"Did they win?!" Rock Lee half-shouted, leaning against a fallen trunk with his semi-conscious sensei's head in his lap, applying pressure of the chakra bandages wrapping up the Green Beast's battered form. The man had shielded his Genins from several attacks that would have killed lesser Jonin times over and had at least two different poisons coursing through his veins… and yet, be it his impossible physical fitness or some freak mutation, he still had far better chances at survival than Tenten.

"It appears so. Shiranui-san is wounded, but moving unaided. Yamashiru-san and Yuhi-san have secured the last of the fugitives and are proceeding after the enemy shinobi."

Which meant that Genma was barreling to her position, leaving Aoba and Kurenai to fend for themselves against retreating, but extremely dangerous Ame shinobis with a penchant for poisons she had no antitoxin for. He wanted to be close to his sister, but he was in no condition to provide anything but a distraction.

And Tenten was dying. She couldn't afford any more distractions.

What kind of Hunter-Nin uses a degenerative chakra toxin against a fucking child? Rin wanted to scream as her Mystical Palm failed to contain and reverse the damage and spread of the toxin, already slowed down as it was by Neji when he shut all the tenketsu around the injury.

Rin was sure that had the Hyuuga showed less initiative or skill, the girl would already be dead. He'd probably receive a field promotion to Chunin, considered he'd also held out with a disabled Jonin-sensei and a critically wounded teammate while the Akatsuki remnants and the Ame hunters razed half the forest around them, but that hardly mattered in the face of Tenten's wounds, her pierced uterus, nicked spine, and the thrice-damned poison!

Something stirred in her gut and Rin found herself wanting to go out there and cut the damned Ame hunters to pieces, then have the Akatsuki stragglers, those impudent, trespassing brats, watch and beg and scream as she came for them too, one at a time until they wished Hanzo the Salamander had gotten to them first!

'Never lose control, turtle girl. The seal is just ink on skin: you are your first and last line of defense.'

Ibiki's ghost words, etched in her psyche as a lasting, conditioned warning, burned the mounting rage away and brought much-needed clarity to the fore. Or maybe they didn't, but turned the insanity to more productive uses.

"Rock Lee, intercept Genma-san and tell him to assist Aoba-san and Kurenai-san. Stress it's an order from his squad leader, and that Tenten will live." The boy's eyes went as wide as plates under the ridiculous bowl cut, darting briefly to his downed teammate before returning to her, and he stammered something along the lines of Gai-sensei

"Now!"

"Y-Yosh!" Rock Lee disentangled himself from his sensei and shot out like he had a demon on his heels. She waited until he was out of earshot, then turned to Neji. He beat her to the punch.

"Tenten is dying," he said with no inflexion, the veins around his pale eyes bulging, but his voice carried a certainty that stemmed from an unwavering confidence in what he said.

"She won't," Rin ground out, and her annoyance at the genin's cockiness tipped the scales. One hand went to her belly and blue chakra enveloped her fingertips, trembling only for a moment before steadying. She knew that was going to hurt and it'd be worse than the time before, because every time it was worse than the time before that and she knew one day it wouldn't be bearable any longer… but she'd never forgive herself if she let Genma's sister die.

"If her fate is to succumb, there's nothing you can do but accept it. Can Gai-sensei afford to wait for you to accept the inevitable?."

Obito's nindo on trash echoed like a bell chime in her head, steeling her resolve as she felt the seal on her belly flare and rotate.

She couldn't extract the poison from Tenten without extracting the chakra it used as a conduit as well, and there were no batteries nearby to provide safe storage. Letting it dispel into thin air would only poison anyone nearby now that the toxin had been activated by merging with Tenten's chakra. Finally, her oaths as an iryo-nin also stopped her from using Neji as the receiver - she squashed that thought as not entirely her own -, which limited her options to channeling the tainted chakra into herself to save her patient.

Or into something that could deal with the poison because it was itself so much worse, it wasn't even funny.

"What you're about to see is a S-rank secret under Konoha's -" was all Rin managed to say before the pain flooded over and into her and every nerve in her body flared as the youkai stabbed at her like a thousand coralline spears trying to rip her apart at the seams. Her hands locked up, her back stiffened to the point she thought it would snap her in half and her throat let out a cry that was more akin to the growl of a rabid god.

But Rin's hands didn't waver and the seal didn't rotate any further than she wanted it to, no matter the roar of a thousand oceans urging, compelling her to; youkai chakra inundated her own pathways, but rather than shred and tear it carpeted every inch of in a protective cocoon, and barely a wisp escaped from her tenketsu.

As Tenten's corrupted chakra passed into her and disappeared further into the seal, Rin's awareness of her surroundings dimmed, and then she was floating above a vast, boiling ocean. A single, red eye locked on her and she felt its hate at being used as a chakra sponge as if it were her own, but the bars of a gigantic cage, rusted and chipped and bent as they were, and the tiny strip of paper still stood between them. Rin was more than content to leave the Sanbi smoldering behind it.

YOU WILL COME TO ME AGAIN, TURTLE GIRL.

AND AGAIN. AND AGAIN.

AND THEN I'LL BE FREE.


The moment the whistle found his lips and the first note shrieked Sasuke darted down the Hill, every inch his team's sword. Then smoke bombs went off all around Naruto's team, engulfing them in moments.

Grinning, Obito activated his Sharingan and leaned back to enjoy the show.


Atop the Hill, her back to the Flag, Yakumo Kurama's hands stopped mid-seal as her target disappeared from sight.

She narrowed her eyes, but the purple smoke was thick and pushing forward enough to pause Sasuke. Her teammate dug two handfuls of training shuriken from his pouches and waited, arms coiled. Yakumo exchanged a glance with Tamako twenty feet below her: the other girl shrugged, then hung her tonfa and palmed kunai of her own.

Sakura was the first out of the smokescreen, far to Sasuke's right where Sakura should have been, but disappeared a moment later when another smoke bomb went off, then another. Sasuke didn't waste his shuriken, and Yakumo held her genjutsu at the ready.

Naruto jumped in the open on the other side of the smokescreen, throwing metal at Tamako's platform. The Namikaze deflected and dodged, then Sakura shot out of the smoke in Taijitsu range from Sasuke. Yakumo completed the last seal and whispered.

"Magen: Narakumi."

Yakumo felt the Hell-Viewing technique wrap around Naruto and twist his senses with his own fears. Tamako took his stumbling as her cue and raced through hand-seals. Sasuke, shuriken dropped, settled into an Interceptor Fist stance to meet Sakura's kick.

Then the Genjutsu unraveled by the seams and Naruto was moving again.

'Wha - but he -'

Yakumo's eyes widened, her head whipped around to see Sasuke push Sakura's leg aside and move into her guard. Then he froze, dropped his guard, raised his hands above his head and started spinning in place.

Sakura's face split into a full grin that was so not-Sakura. Yakumo boggled, then saw the shadow, snaking under the smoke and half hidden in Sakura's own, touch Sasuke's own.

'Oh Kami, the Nara!'

The pinkette reached into her weapon pouch and produced a seal tag and two kunai. The grin widened, turned predatory.

"Tamako!"

The blonde's hands slammed into the ground.

"Mokuton: Anguraruutsu!"

Roots as thick as Yakumo's arm exploded from the ground, twisting and searching… and headed for the charging Naruto.

"No Tamako! That's Sakura!"

Her hands were moving as she shouted, but so was the henged Naruto. Another smoke bomb dropped and engulfed Sasuke. The last she saw of him was Naruto-as-Sakura slapping the tag on his forehead and the faint signature she'd grown sensitive to in two weeks of daily joint training was snuffed out.

'How? A suppresion tag?'

Tamako's roots raced for Sakura-as-Naruto. They turned with every near miss and the Henge shimmered. The now-revealed pinkette dodged and weaved, then yelped as one snatched her by the waist from mid-air. More moved in, then the real Naruto erupted from the smoke , running up the Hill and throwing both kunai before Yakumo could complete her seals.

She deflected the first and ducked under the second. Naruto grinned again, pushed himself away from the Hill and Sakura covered her eyes. Yakumo's zeroed on the tags wrapped against the kunai handles.

"Fuin: Kai!"

White filled her vision, harsh and burning. Yakumo cried, tears running down her cheeks as she blinked, but the white only shattered into dancing, swirling spots. She felt her hands rubbing on her face, but for the life of her she couldn't see them.

Someone cursed. A lot of someones cheered and shouted. From a great distance, she felt the air shift behind her and tried to turn, hands rising in blind defense.

She was out before she touched the ground.


The moment he slapped the chakra suppression tag on Sasuke's forehead and he stopped struggling against Shikamaru's Kagemane, Naruto knew they had it.

Smoke engulfed them and Naruto let his nose lead him as Shikamaru stopped fooling around and led the teme further into the smokescreen. Naruto didn't need the Sharingan to burn the Uchiha's expression into his mind. His grin widened.

Sakura was herself again and cutting wildly at roots with her kunai when the smokescreen parted around him, the thick one around her waist holding her in the air. Naruto nodded at her, then made for the Hill, focusing chakra on his the soles of his feet.

Three steps up, Tamako was moving to incercept him. Four steps, he palmed the two kunai with the flashbang tags. Five steps, and he threw them at Yakumo's general direction.

He managed eight before he had to push himself away or slid down. For long moments he felt weightless, suspended in the air before gravity reasserted its rule.

In that moments he made a single seal, grinned and shut his eyes.

"Fuin: Kai!"

Yakumo cried as he landed, and Naruto cursed. He looked up at the girl covering her weeping eyes and he was suddenly sure he had messed with the seal.

'No, kaasan checked them. Minimal charge. It's only temporary.'

Tamako stopped halfway between Sakura and him, cerulean eyes finding the Flag and her teammate, then Naruto and the smokescreen behind him. She looked torn for a single moment, then her hands started going through the seals for the Kawarimi.

'Oh no, you don't.'

Without their mistresses' directing them, the roots had stopped, allowing Sakura the head start she needed to complete the technique before Tamako.

She substituted with the kunai Naruto hadn't detonated, a short distance behind Yakumo, but well within the circle of traps that no roots exploded upwards. Then Naruto's attention was all on Tamako as he tackled her to the side of the Hill with a chakra-propelled jump.

'Sakura has the Flag. Shika can hold Sasuke for half an hour as long as the tag is on him. Only one left.'

But he needed to get the Namikaze away from the Hill, the Flag and those traps. Also, she could wall-walk, and he could jump at best.

The tonfa slamming into his side drove the considerations out of him. Those were followed a moment later by his breath as she double-kicked into his chest, but Naruto grabbed at her ankles, coated his feet with chakra as he gulped down his breakfast, and pulled.

Everyone knew Sasuke was the top male student for his speed, Taijutsu and Katon, while Tamako reigned on the girls with technique, chakra control and Mokuton.

But nobody argued either that Naruto was the second strongest student, and that on a good day he could stall Choji at arm wrestling.

So when he pulled, muscles straining and joints popping under the deluge of chakra he poured through his limbs, he overcame the thin layer of chakra coating Tamako's hands and back that kept her stuck to the wall. Then the Namikaze was plummeting towards the ground, Naruto hard on her tail.

She righted herself before landing and Naruto crossed his arms as he fell into her meeting tonfa strike. Naruto skidded into a crouch, the muscles in his shoulder and upper arm numb, and swept her legs as he pumped chakra to awaken the muscles again.

She jumped over his leg, then a tonfa came down on his other shoulder, her other hand reaching for a pouch. Naruto stepped into the strike, slapped her arm away by the wrist and shoulder-checked her in the chest. Tamako stumbled, he followed up with a kunai trust at the pouch where she kept her draughts and senbon. She turned the stumble into a back-roll towards the Hill and Naruto hesitated, Hinata's demise flashing in his mind eye, then threw the kunai and rolled sideways.

The senbons flew an inch above him and a Chunin plucked them from the air before they reached the other students. Naruto jumped on his feet again, only to find Tamako in his face, her own a scrunched mask of concentration.

His knee came up as he leaned back from her tonfa, then her other hand snaked in, twin senbon protruding like claws. He continued backwards, his sandal coming up to kick at her wrist, then he stopped on a handstand and pushed himself up to avoid her sweeping leg.

The air rushed from his lungs and he tasted bile when her following kick dug into his stomach. Naruto crashed on the ground and bounced, but on the second spin he was on his feet, arms crossed to defend himself and the fading smoke lapping at his back.

Tamako sped past him, throwing two shuriken that cost him precious seconds to deflect. Naruto cursed: the smokescreen was fading and he could see Shikamaru's and Sasuke's silhouettes already. By the time he gave chase, Tamako was two thirds of the way there.

Shuriken cut through the smokescreen. Tamako dodged to the side and rolled, coming up palming two more senbons and cocking to throw at the now visible Nara.

"Magen: Kanashibari!"

Naruto stumbled, but it was Sakura who spoke, and Tamako who froze mid-throw. The Uzumaki tried to shrug the sudden weight turning his limbs into lead, then his eyes noticed the thin, crimson line running along his forearm.

'Oh… fuck me.'

"Naruto! Hurry up!"

Sakura was kneeling atop the Hill, her shoulders trembling as she held Tamako still, but the Namikaze was starting to shake it off already. Naruto grit his teeth against the wool stuffing his head and drew more and more chakra from his reserves, pushing it through his pathways until his limbs hurt and his nails left crimson half-moons into his palms, but he could move again.

A burst of speed carried him forward and he locked eyes with slouched Sasuke for a moment. The Uchiha was glowering and though his vision was getting a bit woozy, Naruto thought he saw several people snickering in the students' lines.

'Obito will probably have them run the gauntlet just for empathy's sake. Who cares.'

The handle of his kunai impacted behind Tamako's ear, and her body slackened even if the jutsu kept her standing like a puppet. A moment later Sakura stopped feeding it chakra and Tamako crumpled onto a heap.

Naruto kept standing by willpower alone, panting and sweating as Obito walked into the training ground, eyes a Sharingan crimson. He studied the seal on Sasuke's forehead for a moment, earning himself a dose of teme-glare, then nodded to himself.

"Team Haruno-Nara-Uzumaki, you have the Hill. Well done!"

Naruto pumped his fist into the air. "We did it, 'ttebayo!"

Then he promptly fainted.


October 8th came and went for Sasuke Uchiha like many others before: a quick prayer at the Naka Shrine, morning training with otou-san, a long day at the academy reinforcing his position as the top student of his year – one-time incidents didn't count -, a small visit home to refresh himself… and then an entire evening at the dobe's birthday party.

Kushina-san had gone overboard, as usual, and almost a third their class was assembled on the back garden of the dobe's home, just outside the main compound. Orange paper lights adorned the trees covered in flowering hardenbergia climbers and cast warm light on the many shrubs of luculia, cyclamen and lavender, making for a nice background.

Really, the dobe should have become a gardener with the Yamanaka rather than try and be a shinobi: the blooming winter garden made it clear where his talents lay.

Sasuke himself had been more interested in the many non-academy guests in attendance though, so much he'd earned a reproach or three from kaasan that left him miffed, but feeling more than justified. He'd given the dobe his present, let Kushina-san ruffle his hair and even half-complimented him on his performance at the last King of the Hill. Sort of, his side was still bruised from that kick of his.

After that, he felt completely justified in pursuing more interesting company.

The other adults fell easily in that category, but none more so than the Morino. The younger brother, fifteen by his judgement and quite stocky for a Genjutsu-heavy Chunin, had spent most of the evening playing with the younger children that inevitably popped up at such events. A shame, but the elder one… Sasuke had been equal parts terrified and excited to approach the towering, scarred bear of a man lingering in the outskirts and engaging rarely in conversation, obviously preferring the company of his drinks.

He had made sure his face showed neither when he finally made a move to approach him. Or, at least, he tried.

A single glance from those heavy set eyes seemed to drill into his soul and pick apart his deepest secrets at his leisure. He was kind of proud to say he'd withstood the visual onslaught for the better part of a minute despite the ice shooting down his spine. Then caution reared its head from where he'd buried it, and he walked away to less troubling shores.

Despite the minor setback, he honestly couldn't say he didn't enjoy himself: the food was good - someone obviously kept Kushina-san away from the kitchen - there were onigiri with okaka and tomato sauce, and it being Naruto's birthday there weren't too many of the annoying kunoichi-wannabes that often pestered him.

Tamako Namikaze was another glaring absence, but it wasn't the first time and he'd noticed nobody really brought that up anymore. The rumor mill - in the form and voice of Yamanaka Ino - had it Kushina-san and Senju Aiko couldn't stand each other, but Sasuke didn't really care.

On the other hand, Obito's change of attitude when his iryo-nin teammate arrived halfway through the evening had been terrifying.

How did Kushina-san put it? 'They've been dancing around each other since they were in diapers. Completely ridiculous', or something equally disturbing. Kaasan had laughed with her old teammate though, so that was good.

And all in all, Obito wasn't half bad as a teacher, despite being a cripple. That he would turn into a fool the moment the Rin woman stepped into his sight, however, was demeaning for every Uchiha. To think he'd even started to respect the man somehow, despite otousan's admonishment.

Still, despite the not-so-unpleasant company, coming back to the Uchiha Compound couldn't be soon enough. Sasuke left kaasan at the entrance and covered the distance between the gates to the inner lodgings quickly, the faint sense of unease that bugged him for the entire day growing to be more than an insufferable itch at the base of his neck.

A clan guard was posted in front of Itachi's personal quarters, separated from the rest of the Clan for meditative purposes. Just one of his prerogative as Clan heir, but one that always annoyed Sasuke.

"Ushiro-san." The man dipped his head in response.

"Good evening, Sasuke-kun. Itachi-dono is resting."

Oh, how he wished his Sharingan had already awakened. It was the last step between him and becoming a full clansman, and it couldn't come too soon. Just hearing the respectful san after his name, rather than the childish, condescending kun would be worth the effort.

Sasuke nodded. "How is Itachi?"

Ushiro smiled in sympathy, and Sasuke knew something was off. "He's recovering quickly. But I think Fugaku-sama will tell you more at home, Sasuke-kun. He was here not too long ago."

Sasuke looked at the closed door, maybe a bit too long if he had to be honest. His chances to slip past the guard didn't look good, and what if Itachi was indeed resting? Sasuke sighed and bid Ushiro goodnight.

The cobbled streets were empty of any clansmen and only faint light from the Naka shrine indicated anyone else was up and about. Probably some late-night prayer: a few clansmen shinobi had trouble sleeping at times, and the Shrine was a favorite spot of many.

He hurried past it, heading home as fast as he could without breaking into a run. Kaasan had told him to be quick, as it was already well into the night, but if he was lucky otousan would be still awake and willing to finally tell him something about Itachi.

Itachi had come back two weeks before from some ANBU assignment, but what he'd seen first time he was allowed into the hospital was a recurring sight in his sleep. Sasuke shivered. He'd never seen Itachi so beaten - he'd never seen Itachi beaten at all -, broken bones in slings and body covered in chakra bandages. Several machines and fuin arrays had been arranged all around his bed, plastic tubes and VI emerged from the gaps in the wrappings.

Itachi himself had been barely conscious and clearly delirious, so much kaasan had led him away not five minutes in.

It was still hard to wrap his head around it, so hard his mind refused to accept it even after weeks. That was Itachi! His niisan couldn't be defeated! Not Itachi who'd made ANBU Captain at thirteen and was considered the greatest Uchiha genius since the times of Madara and Izuna. Not Itachi, who otousan always said one day would be Godaime Hokage, nor Itachi who'd awakened the Sharingan at seven.

And yet the vacant, empty look on his bandaged face he would see every day at the hospital had been that of a broken man. Itachi had struggled to even talk when kaasan and he visited, often stopping mid-sentence and staring past them at something nobody could see. Other times he'd startled when Sasuke or kaasan entered, and the slings holding his hands and arms creaked as he tried to move, as if to try and touch them.

Later, he'd overheard two of the doctors say he'd been the only one of his unit to return. Sasuke wasn't sure otousan knew that, but he was pretty sure he hadn't been supposed to hear any of that.

And otousan was worried, Sasuke could see it on his face when he spoke with kaasan or Kagami-dono. Itachi's confinement to his quarters once he'd been dismissed from the hospital a few days before only made it more obvious something was going on. Nobody beside otousan and the iryo-nins had been allowed inside to see him. Not even he, or Shisui.

The light in otousan's office was out when Sasuke arrived at home and kaasan coaxed him to bed shortly after.

"Your father is out on Clan business, Sasuke-kun. Sleep: he'll be here in the morning."

Sasuke ended up staring at the wooden beams above him for a long time, his futon itching against his skin and wrapping around his legs as he shifted and tossed.

At some point he must have fallen asleep however, because the next thing he knew he wasn't alone in his room any longer, and cries of alarm cut through the night by the dozen.

Sasuke shot on his feet and reached for his weapon pouch, or at least he tried to. A bony hand closed around his shoulder like a vice and pushed him flat on the futon. Sasuke snarled, fist flying, but then the fight went out of him when he locked eyes with Itachi crouching above him.

His brother's eyes were wide, spinning with a Sharingan like the turning blades of a fan. Light and shadow danced on his face from the open window and Sasuke felt a distant heat on his skin and into his chest when he breathed. Then something sticky and wet dripped on his cheek, and Sasuke recognized the feeling from one too many broken noses.

Blood. Blood streaked Itachi's face, flowing from his right eye down to his chin, and from there dripped on Sasuke's own face as Itachi loomed over him.

"They don't understand. Father, Kagami, Shisui… none of them does. They think they know the truth." It took a moment for Sasuke to recognize the gurgling wheeze as his brother's voice. "They won't listen, but I saw it all, the Sage knows the truth has been tampered with. You must listen, Sasuke. You must See, and you must understand."

Sasuke's voice died in his throat, then his head spun and he was no longer in his room. No, he was staring at the moon as it shattered and then formed again, the pieces slotting together to suffocate a thousand million voices singing, screeching praises in a thousand different tongues.

"Some things must remain hidden, not be rediscovered," Itachi's disembodied voice said. "We're walking to our doom and our Sight is blind, cheapened and sold."

The moon vanished, the voices fell silent and Sasuke was back in his room, his body numb and shivering, but he couldn't help but see. Itachi, the hospital scrubs dangling on him like a scarecrow's, bones jutting out beneath his paper-thin skin, loose bandages picked by the wind and floating around him like tails. The blood dribbled from his chin and Sasuke followed a single drop falling in slow motion into his lap.

Only then he saw his hands were clasped around something. His fingers were numb as they brushed the red from the unblemished hitai-ate. Even there, he recognized Itachi's beyond any doubt.

And then Itachi was at the window, standing against the light streaming in from outside. "They will come for you, Sasuke. He will come for the Uchiha, because we are sinful and faulty in his eyes and he can't stand our existence. You must be strong."

"You must be ready to stand by your own. Don't repeat Madara's mistake."

And then Itachi was gone and Sasuke saw smokeless black flames burn darker than the night they stood against. A hundred black, swirling tongues of fire immolating the very ground where the Naka Shrine once stood.

He didn't know how long he watched the flames, enraptured and unable to move, his body shaking and reeling from the images Itachi carved into his brain, before someone found him, Itachi's hitai ate still clutched in a death grip.

But the next time he closed his eyes against the white of the hospital and the kind smile of Inoichi Yamanaka, the black flames continued to dance against his eyelids, as vivid as if they were still before him.


AN:

Mokuton: Anguraruutsu no Jutsu (Wood Release: Underground Roots) – C Rank

Magen: Kanashibari no Jutsu (Genjutsu: Temporary Paralysis Technique) – D Rank

Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu (Genjutsu: Hell Viewing Technique) – D Rank

Ninpo: Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Technique)

Now, do you remember when I said almost 300 people viewed last chapter? Good, because only 4 reviewed. Come on guys, the math is depressing. More so since this story's favs and followers more than doubled since I uploaded chapter 2. If you've spent 15 to 20 minutes reading a chapter, what is one more to drop a few lines to the me, the writer? Especially if there's stuff that's not clear to you.

'Till next time,

Alexeij

P.S. Thanks to the guys at DLP's for providing feedback on this.