Sealed in a Coffin Chapter 4, a naruto fanfic

UPDATED: (12/12/2013)

Changes:

*Grammar fixes

*Added in the Neji vs Hinata and Lee vs Gaara fight because I somehow convinced myself that I wrote those parts in, but I didn't… O_O

*Added in little tidbits of smart!Naruto since some of you complained that he was too 'dumb.'

*Smoothed out some choppy scenes.

*Added in some details that some reviewers wanted. :D

A/N: I am so sorry to those who was confused by the missing chapter; here it is. : ) I took it down because I wanted as few people as possible to read the previous posting which was an absolute mistake. If you have already read this chapter, the only changes are listed above. I have not added much else, so there's no need for you to re-read this if you don't want to, or you can skip to those two fights, which are a little choppy themselves… whoops.

I am so sorry for posting the previous version of this chapter. I really thought that it was okay, but when someone asked me about why the Hyuuga fight wasn't in there, I realized that I had been kidding myself and it wasn't nearly as ready as I thought because who in the world forgets that?!

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize isn't mine.

Review Responses:

Questions about Kurama's killings: Several of you have asked why Kurama killed those people. My reasoning for that is that he knew that there were Ne spies hidden amongst the civilians. Remember, Kurama's goal is to capture the Ne agents; everything else is gravy. And yes, the disappearances brings some attention to Naruto, but not a lot. Kurama has a pretty air-tight alibi, so there isn't solid proof against him or Naruto; all the villagers have is speculation.

Black Eye-Patch Pie: Fixed! Thank you!

MagnusVolcanus: No, I do not believe that Danzo is evil, but I do believe that he is a utilitarian, meaning he believes that ends justifies the means. And you have FANTASTIC ideas! Thank you! :D If you don't mind, I'd love to implement some of what you've said in the later chapters. And yeah, what you said about natural chakra would help out with Kurama a lot, but I think that that's going to come later since he still has a clone body and will probably keep having one for a while.

Also, I want to thank you for your offer of being my beta, and I will keep it in mind, but for now, I'm going to try to slough through it myself. My reason for this is that whatever I post is usually drastically different than what I've written before, so I don't want to have you waste your time editing sections that I ultimately change or cut out. :)

werewont: So, I knew that I said that your guess on the title wasn't right, but your idea was so much better than what I had planned that I want to incorporate your idea in, so I guess you can say that you are right? (Haha.) And thank you for reminding me of that jutsu because for some reason I completely forgot!

DarkPirateKing69: Hm, I deleted the part that said 'creatures,' but if I remember it right, I wanted to make a statement that even though people see Kurama as a literal demon, Kurama sees humans as metaphorical demons, thus he doesn't consider (some of them) to be humans at all, but 'creatures.' That was completely my fault, sorry, but I'm trying to not stray too far from the canon because I think that too much deviation would just create problems later, haha.

To everyone else: Thank you for your lovely reviews, and hopefully I'll re-edit the whole story within the next week!

CHAPTER 4 REVIEW RESPONSES:

thor94: Kurama is 'gary-sue' because he's a demon that's lived for thousands of years; he's had literally all the time in the world to make his mistakes, so of course he knows what he's doing. I really don't expect a demon to make the same mistakes as a human because he simply won't.

Erasels: I actually don't understand your question? _ ?

Guest: I know that you think that too much control is going into Kurama's hands, but that'll change. : )

Also, if you re-read the parts where Kurama and Naruto interact, you'll see that my version of Naruto knows what's going on (to an extent) and he works with it; he's not oblivious, but he is very political and is letting Kurama do what he wants for a better future for himself.

sparrowhawk13: I think that you're forgetting that Danzo and Sarutobi go way back and that Danzo operated Ne while Sarutobi was Hokage with Sarutobi's knowledge. Sarutobi knows that Danzo would never do anything to harm Konoha, and knows that Danzo would never risk her; he doesn't have that assurance with Kurama. That's why Sarutobi brings Danzo into this.

musketau: Naruto doesn't saturate the rest of Konoha with his chakra because that would make it difficult for other shinobi to use their jutsus. Also, it would make it hard for chakra sensors to do their thing. ;)

Naruto didn't talk about his dreams, not the ones that involved being respected in Konoha, and not the ones that plagued his sleep. Instead, he kept those nightmares to himself and locked them under the guise of a forgetful mind and inattention; then he thanked Kami for expedited healing that lightened the darkened bags that would otherwise have been under his eyes. Naruto told no one, not Iruka, not the Hokage, not Kurama, especially not Kurama because sometimes he dreamt of Sharingan eyes flashing in the darkness and claws disemboweling him. He imagined Kurama's claws carving canyons into the ground, ripping up homes and families; he imagined the smell of fresh and old blood mingled with soot and dust.

Naruto kept his dreams to himself and worried about controllable things. He upped his weights, intensified his taijutsu schedule (a daunting task), and made friends. He trained and laughed and pranked and ignored the homicidal gleam in Kurama's eyes when they sparred. That would never change.

Naruto ignored Kurama's killing intent the same way he ignored the villager's hatred; it was a skill born out of necessity, so when Naruto dreamt and saw his village burnt to the ground, crushed underneath paws the size of Hokage Mountain, he kept quiet and laid awake. If he didn't sleep for the next week, who would know?

Naruto gazed out his bedroom window and imagined Kurama above the horizon, tails flaring, and for a moment, he realized that if there were tails waving, summoning earthquakes and destruction, they would be his.

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Sakura screamed at her father, who poured another cup of sake down his throat. He needed the liquid courage.

"Honey. I know that this is hard for you to accept, but-"

"YOU'RE lying! Kaa-san's missing, and you're trying to DEFEND the monster that killed her!"

"Your teammate is NOT a monster! How could you -"

"It can't be coincidence that night after she spoke out against him, she disappeared!"

"The fact that your mother spoke out against a child is laugh-"

"Why are you focusing on THAT? YOUR WIFE is missing!"

"And the person responsible could very well be someone who sympathizes with the boy!"

Sakura paused for a breath.

"'Someone who sympathizes? No one sympathizes with him but you! You probably killed her!"

Kazashi slapped his daughter. The ends of his hair curled from the heat of his rage.

"How dare you! I loved your mother for over twenty years; I'm as devastated as you! But we have to face the facts-"

"Like how you're a sympathizer!"

Kazashi held his fist at his side.

"No. I know for certain that Tachibana-san changed that night; he was...deranged, when I found him. And then the hospital staff found your mother's blood in his stomach, enough to make them hypothesize that he drank it. There's enough evidence to suggest a blood ritual, something that your mother possibly participated in."

"M-m-maybe she was ki-"

"Kidnapped? No," Kazashi shook his head sadly. "If it were for something against that boy, then I have no doubt that she voluntarily participated."

"Don't you see?" Kazashi mused as he comforted his only daughter, who slumped against him in a sobbing heap. "Don't you see that if that's true, it's not he who is a monster, but us? Your mother?"

"She wouldn't; she wouldn't; she wouldn't; sh-"

Again his daughter chanted.

Neko almost lost Miren in the mid-morning rush. He had been assigned to observe Tachibana's neighbors, a simple task since four of the seven people he observed were elderly and didn't stray from their chairs. Miren, however, made his rounds around the crowds, chatting with other civilians, before heading home, but as he passed underneath an awning, Neko saw the shadow of the building move.

The shadow touched Miren's heels as the man passed, and as the man strolled past a window display, crushed against the crowd and the building, Neko saw the man disappear.

A flicker of chakra alerted him to the abductor's position.

Ah.

The abductor headed towards the industrial side of town, where Neko's comrade, Tori, trailed Danzo.

Sarutobi grunted at the reports in front of him; it seemed that Kurama was right about Danzo's Ne still being active.

Danzo stood before him, eyes hard and chin tilted upwards defiantly.

Sarutobi activated every privacy seal in the room.

"Now tell me, Danzo, old friend, why shouldn't I chop your traitorous head off." Sarutobi steepled his fingers underneath chin. Danzo, focused his single eye on the other man and weighed his options; there weren't many.

Miren's broken body lay in a cell, tortured by faceless Ne. Ibiki stared at the broken skin and couldn't find any pity in himself to give the man.

As late night approached, Danzo remained in the Hokage Tower, sitting in the darkened Hokage Office, restrained by more seals than were used to contain the Kyuubi.

As he slept in the wooden chair, Danzo wished he uncovered Shisui's Sharingan against Sarutobi; the chair was really uncomfortable.

Dawn's beams struck a breathless Team 7 as they ran for their lives as a sequence of explosions sounded behind them.

BOOM!

"Naruto-baka! What did we say about using untested seals?!" Sakura screamed over a second explosion.

"They're tested n-o-w!" came the cheeky reply. Sasuke watched amusedly as Kakashi, who jogged backwards while reading his perverted book, smacked the blond on the head.

"Mou… sensei!" Naruto whined, but Kakashi gave him an eye smile and glanced at the plumes of smoke Team 7 left behind.

"Dobe, what was that seal supposed to do?" Sasuke asked as he made a left turn; the team followed.

"It's my 'Anti-decapitation" seal!" Naruto cheered boisterously. The group stopped as they landed on the dumpling shop's roof and watched as Naruto's winds successfully scattered the plumes of smoke from their training ground. The aftershocks of the explosions quieted.

"Oh good, they've stopped," Naruto murmured off-handedly, bright grin on his face. "Anyways, it's a protection seal that's supposed to be placed on a vital area, like the neck."

"…and it just magically prevents decapitation?" Kakashi asked. He could use one of those (if they worked and had been tested by many, many, enemy nin) against his spars with Anko; she had trouble discerning 'friendly' spars from 'assassination missions.' Unless there was a standing assassination mission against him, which he was starting to suspect because Naruto didn't know the difference either.

"Well, it works because of changes in air pressure. The seal won't work if you're unconscious and the enemy just walks up to you and slits your throat, but if you're in the middle of a fight and they come at you with a blade, their speed causes them to part the air in front of them, which creates a sudden drop in pressure around the area they're aiming for. As soon as the wind components in the seal senses this, the elemental chakra stored in it lashes out to fill the gap. You might get nicked a little, but ultimately your opponents get a surprise when they try to kill you." Naruto shrugged. It was all fine in theory, but, as Team 7 just saw, it was volatile in practice. Something as simple as a strong gust of wind could destabilize the entire matrix.

"…I see…" Team 7 stared at their blond member as one.

"I'm probably going to ask Ibiki for a prisoner…" Naruto scrunched up his eyes.

"Dobe. Your seal exploded while being attached to a rock."

Naruto gave a one-shoulder shrug at his teammate.

"Maybe it's different with human chakra."

"You could always just use your Kage Bushin," Sakura said with a dry stare.

"Eh? I guess..." he crossed his arms behind his head. "But I just like using traitors; makes me feel patriotic when their heads explode like fireworks."

Sakura breathed in deeply; 'Naruto is not a monster. Naruto is not a monster. Naruto is not a-'

"Since he was the target, it is possible that the group went to his home to ensure a higher success rate for their ritual. Shinobi generally have traps in place for unwarranted visitors; it is conceivable that they are caught in those," Danzo stated. In front of him Sarutobi deflated, his age showing.

After a night of sloughing through Danzo's (borderline) treasonous acts, Sarutobi came to a decision: he would transfer Ne to the Anbu commander, who would decide whether or not they could be integrated into Anbu or immediately eliminated. Then, he would milk Danzo's brain for all the man knew; Sarutobi needed that intellect and those resources to discover the truth behind the disappearances.

"But to have Ne members missing as well… it could be that they were the real target and that the villagers were collateral." Sarutobi frowned at the evidence in front of him.

"According to Tachibana, it was an impromptu mob. Haruno found out Uzumaki's location that day," Danzo replied.

"But Tachibana also said that there were no plans for a curse ritual-"

"-but he came back with a broken mind, though he did say that they had the wrong house."

"No, no," Sarutobi shook his head. "That's Naruto-kun's address. There are misdirection seals, but they only work if the exact location isn't known to the person looking for the compound; the mob knew."

"And that ridiculous story that Tachibana spun with a Senju," Danzo snorted. Sarutobi refrained from gnashing his teeth together. Giant trees that swayed without wind? Check. A priest? Check.

'Of course the fox was involved,' Sarutobi mused.

"Your earlier observation was sound. If we hurry, we can examine Naruto's house before dinner." Sarutobi rose quickly and waited for Danzo to finish shoving all the papers together. A flick of his hand and a Ne agent swept the files away. Sarutobi turned his head; they would revisit the details of Ne at a later date; right now, there was a demon on the loose.

"Sarutobi, I know that you're going senile in your old age-" said man snorted at this because the Kyuubiwas infinitely older than he was "-but I distinctly remember your promise to keep Danzo away from Naruto," Kurama spat.

"Kurama, we are investigating the disappearance of several villagers. We have reason to believe that the night they disappeared, they tried to perform a curse ritual-" Kurama snarled "-on Naruto. There is a possibility that they came here to-"

"That's impossible. There's a light genjutsu on the house that prevents most civilians from noticing the compound; they would only be able to find it if they knew the exact location," Kurama said curtly, hands sliding into his sleeves as he stood regally.

Sarutobi sighed.

"It's quite possible that someone who didn't know the consequences of their actions told someone in the group. Danzo and I are here merely to make sure that none of them are trapped in any of your intruder traps."

"It must have been that Haruno girl," Kurama's teeth elongated. "But that does not explain Danzo's participation, especially since you know that we do not have intruder traps."

Sarutobi snorted and tilted his head to both sides. Kurama ignored the gesture.

"Danzo's instinct is unrivaled; it has saved me many times in battle. I understand that you distrust him, but I still trust him. His goal has always been to protect the village, and I see no reason to prevent him from aiding the investigation," Sarutobi gave Kurama a cold look.

"So you suspect us, now," Kurama gave an arrogant glances towards Sarutobi and Danzo, who waited patiently by the gate.

"T-"

"I suppose, like many of your kind, your contracts are only upheld when you want them to." Kurama stared down his nose at the old man.

"Kurama, your intention was to keep Naruto out of Ne; this does nothing to jeopardize that!"

"Do the exact terms not matter to you humans? Does the contract not state that Danzo is to be kept away? What does it matter if intent behind the words do no conflict with this action if the action directly challenges the words!"

Sarutobi's face transformed into a snarl.

"And what do you plan to do? Forbid Naruto from continuing to be a shinobi? I let you negotiate because your demands protected him, but I cannot turn a blind eye when you use his protections as your shield!"

Kurama straightened.

"Mark my words, Hokage-sama, you will come to regret this."

"What do you-"

"Naruto!" Kurama turned with a flourish and barked into the compound. "Hokage-sama has a guest that needs to be let in."

Sarutobi turned quickly and went to inform the other man that they would be let in. His refused to glance back at the irate fox.

Naruto poked his head out of the doorway, glanced at Kurama's stormy face, then the Hokage's back.

"Jiji!" he screamed as he bolted for the man, who turned with a smile as Naruto hugged him. Naruto looked up and saw another man, bandaged on one side of the head and with a fierce stare.

"Oi! Jiji! You brought another jiji!" Naruto pulled back and pointed to the man behind Sarutobi. Sarutobi chuckled.

"Boy. Show some respect to your elders," the man said disdainfully.

"Ah… hello jiji-sama?" Naruto responded. From the other side of the doorway, Kurama snorted.

"Let them in, brat," the fox couldn't suppress a smile.

Danzo tensed at the unknown voice, but masked his apprehension. Beside him, he felt Sarutobi twitch.

"Danzo-sama, welcome to our humble abode. My name is Kaneshiro Kurama, and I am the caretaker here." A red-haired man bowed in front of him, dressed in a priest's ceremonial robes.

"And such a lovely home it is, Kaneshiro-san." Danzo cast an appraising glance at his surroundings; it was the perfect place to hide bodies.

"If my Lords so desire, I shall have tea brought ready in several minutes," at the priest's cold smile, the whistle of a tea kettle carried on the wind.

Danzo and Sarutobi shared a glance.

'Was Kurama forewarned about our arrival?' Sarutobi mused. No, their decision to inspect the Namikaze compound was improvised, and unless someone from Anbu told him, there was no way for the fox to know; it was more likely that Kurama, who always drank tea, had coincidental timing.

"That is not necessary; we are here on business," Danzo replied with an equally cold smile.

"What kind of business?" Naruto asked from Sarutobi's side. The boy made sure that the old man was in-between him and Danzo; Kurama warned him about the other old man.

"They're curious about the garden; it seems that they want to see if what you've done can be applied to the forests surrounding Konoha," Kurama smoothly lied.

Sarutobi was instantly on guard. For Kurama to lie to Naruto about such a thing; the fox must have been involved and wanted to keep Naruto, who could most easily find evidence, in the dark.

The muscles around his mouth relaxed as he almost opened his mouth, but he stopped himself as he saw a twitch of Kurama's lips as the red head looked away from him.

Informing Naruto also meant that the boy would see how far some of the village's hate for him extended, which in turn would make the boy warier of the villagers and village. Sarutobi was grateful that the boy made some friends, but what were several friends in the face of an entire hidden village's hate? Insults were one thing; digging into obscure religions at the cost of one's life to snuff out the life of a child was another.

It seemed that Kurama had his way, this time.

He gave the demon another irritated glare that Danzo caught and raised his eyebrows at. Sarutobi flicked the hand sign for 'later' and turned towards Naruto, who observed their exchange with guarded eyes. The blond accepted the proffered reason without batting an eye, but from his movements, Sarutobi knew that the blond was likely to go digging.

"Naruto, we are her-"

"Don't worry about it, jiji," Naruto smiled. "It's official business; I'll read all about it when I become Hokage!"

Sarutobi gave a grateful smile.

Their investigations turned up nothing.

As petty revenge, Kurama offered them the chance to dig up the trees to see if anything was hidden under them, uprooting Sarutobi's favorite ginko tree in the back East corner.

"I think this spot will make a good Zen garden," Kurama chuckled, eyes alight. Sarutobi sighed and mourned the loss of his favorite thinking spot.

Kurama's satisfied smile went unnoticed.

The next day brought more digging to Naruto. He stood with Team 7, leaned on shovels covered in pig slop, and gazed hatefully at their jounin instructor.

"Maa, is that any way to treat your team leader?" Kakashi chided with a smile.

Sakura growled.

"You purposely pick the worst missions for us!"

"That's quite an accusation, I'll have you know that-"

"Sensei. In the last week, we've mucked out five stables, dealt with the Inuzuka kennel twice, took care of pigs thrice, and we've done volunteer work at an aviary," Sakura stated as her teammates nodded their heads frantically behind her.

"Ah, but I have the perfect mission-"

"Sensei! You said that yesterday! That's how we got stuck with the pigs!" Naruto shouted unhappily.

"And the stables the second time," Sasuke chimed in.

"So my cute little genin don't want this C-ranked mission?" Kakashi smiled under his mask.

Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"For all we know, that just means that that the horses have gigantic turds," the blond responded waspishly.

The rest of Team 7 pulled disgusted faces.

"…n-o… we're going to Sunagakure..."

"To shovel their horse stables?" Naruto tilted his head.

"Baka, Suna's in the desert! They don't have horses!" Sakura admonished.

"…their camel stables? That's worse, you know, because those things spit."

"No, Naruto. We are escorting a merchant to Suna," Kakashi said with a sigh.

"Oh! Why didn't you say so, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Right. We leave in two days; meet up at the Western gate by 0600. Dismissed."

Kakashi snickered as he headed towards the Hokage Tower; he wondered if he should have told his kids that they were escorting a merchant who had a three caravans full of goats, which needed to be shoveled and cleaned every five hours. Oh well, the genin should have been grateful that he hadn't accepted the mission that escorted horses to Cha no Kuni.

"We're going on a C-rank tomorrow, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto cheered as rice spilled from his mouth. Kurama, disgusted but used to this, pretended not to see.

Hinata and Shino twitched at the display.

"Naruto, manners!" Iruka chastised, but even he knew that it was a futile battle.

"When will you return?" Shino asked from his spot at the table.

"Oh! Well, Kashi-sensei said that it'll take us a week to get there but only a couple of days for us to get back," Naruto replied brightly.

"A week to get there?" Iruka asked, confused.

"Yeah! We're escorting a merchant, so we have to go his speed," Naruto nodded sagely.

From the kitchen, Kurama snorted.

"I don't know why you couldn't just seal him in a scroll, travel at shinobi speed, and let him out at night."

"..." the whole room pondered that method.

"...maybe we could? I'll ask sensei!"

"Er, Naruto, you probably shouldn't. Sometimes people sealed in scrolls have... adverse reactions. But maybe you can seal his wares? That is, if they aren't living creatures," Iruka butted in.

"Yatta! That's better than nothing! As long as it isn't the goat merchant that I saw today, then we'll be fine!" Naruto happily scooped another bite into his mouth.

"I suppose that it'll be a very quiet house without you here," Kurama chuckled. Iruka smiled as well.

Naruto tilted his head inquiringly at the two other teens.

Shino nudged Hinata to speak up.

"A-A-h, Shi-no-kun and I ar-are going to be tra-in-ning for the Chu-chu-chunnin exams, so we won't be over." She blushed and looked at her hands in her lap.

"Oh... I didn't know that they were so soon," Naruto replied softly.

"They'll happen several days after you're scheduled to return," Iruka informed him. 'If you make it back on time,' was left unsaid. From behind a forkful of pie, Naruto wondered if Hokage-jiji was trying to keep Team 7 from taking the exams. Especially if the only reason that this C-ranked mission was available was because no one else was available; the genin teams were busy with training for the exams, and the chuunin were busy preparing for the influx of foreigners.

If only he knew that Team 7 was given the mission because there were no one else who wanted it.

And then Naruto found out that their client was really the goat merchant and swore up a storm. Team 7, as an entity, drafted a letter that demanded a new instructor. Pouting in the background, Kakashi walked beside the merchant as the genin manned a caravan each.

The genin gasped when they reached the Konoha-Suna border. One minute they were in a thick forest, batting away tree vines and resting snakes, and the next, they were ankle-deep in sand. The leafy shade dissolved into intense, penetrating heat.

Shielding his eyes, Sasuke stood next to his teammates and observed the sand dunes that towered over them. Then he heaved a sigh and trudged on.

Behind him, Team 7 sighed just the same and followed his lead.

"How is your new technique?" Kurenai asked Shino, who was paying half-hearted attention to Kiba and Hinata's spar.

"Very well, Kurenai-sensei. It takes a while to perform, but I am working on that flaw," Shino responded; his eyes fluttered behind his sunglasses.

Last night he and Naruto had sparred in the courtyard, the blond only using his fuuinjutsu, as usual. Shino still recalled the manically pleased look on Naruto's face as he managed to write four of the five seals necessary for containment, but Shino moved out of range before the fifth was completed. He tried to use his new technique, but knew that if Naruto attacked before he completed it, he would be defenseless.

A spark of lightning flew from his opponent's brush towards him; he jumped.

Balls of foxfire burst in front of him; he curled up to defend his face.

Wind threw him up into the air. Then he was falling, disoriented as the winds rotated him head over heels. He fell faster as gravity tugged on his body.

His bugs clung to his body, but that wasn't going to help him. He needed something... anything...

His blood rushed with vigorous adrenaline.

Nothing he knew could save him, and from the way Naruto stood and crossed his arms, the blond would let him fall. He wouldn't die, maybe, but apparently Naruto was waiting for something.

Not his new technique? How was that going to help? His new technique was meant as a defense against elemental attacks; Shino spread his kikaichu outwards in a sphere, their chakra connecting the small spaces and their shells facing outwards; If a chakra attack came, it would be either deflected or absorbed by the kikaichu's extra-tough exoskeleton; the ball formation stabilized the chakra diffusion and allowed for 360 degree protection, but that wouldn't help a head-on collision with Mother Earth.

Maybe if he charged his kikaichu with more chakra? And if they spread their wings to def-

If they spread their wings.

He summoned his kikaichu to surround him like a shield, but then created a rift in front of them so that the sphere swept outwards.

'Fly,' he commanded, and as a unit, he spread his arms and his kikaichu spread their wings. Their motion jarred him backwards, the furious beating of their straining wings sounding in his ears.

From below, Naruto grinned at him and flashed a thumbs up with his right hand, his left idly twirling his brush. Shino staggered in the air, the strain of his weight foreign to his kikaichu.

Kiba's grunt woke him up from his reverie. He took a step away from Kurenai-sensei and spread his bugs into his defense, which seemed anti-climactic after he learned to fly.

A shimmering dome of kikaichu surrounded him.

"Well done, Shino-kun! You've polished this a lot since the last time I saw it." Kurenai began throwing weapons and low level jutsus at the shield. When she saw it holding up well, she tried more advanced techniques.

The good thing about the shield was that it was dense enough that Shino's opponent couldn't see inside, where they could watch his strength slowly draining away. Being netted allowed him to use less chakra to maintain the defense, but every time the shield took a hit, chakra needed to be replaced to keep the structure stable.

Shino thanked his lucky stars that Kurama and Naruto sent him away last night with a large basket of fruit; he would need it if Kurenai continued putting him through his paces.

Naruto felt half-vindicated, half-disgusted when he drank his first sip of goat's milk. Vindicated because those stinking goats finally gave something back to him after he mucked out their caravans with his bushin; disgusted because ew, he knew what hygiene they kept.

Beside him, Sakura and Sasuke were completely disgusted, though the latter masked his feelings well. Kakashi wasn't even forced to drink a cup of goat's milk out of politeness; at the first sign of milking, he disappeared with the flimsy excuse of spotting rogue shinobi and needing more firewood.

Right. As if the man could find any firewood hidden in the dunes.

A gust of wind blew sand into their mouths.

"Pweh! Naruto! Can't you do something about that!" Sakura complained. The blond shook his head.

"Nope! Kurama said not to mess with Mother Nature because she was a vengeful bitch!" Naruto shouted back, scrapping sand off of his tongue. Sasuke, eyes and mouth firmly pressed shut, snorted.

"Oi! I don't see you don't anything, teme!"

"Don't call Sasuke that, Naruto-baka!"

"Hn."

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Naruto huffed.

"Uh... guys. Not to be pushy... but, uh... the caravans need to be shoveled out again," the merchant piped up from the other side of the camp. Kakashi appeared from behind and clapped the man on the shoulder.

"That's right! This is not the time to be careless, troops," he sang as he pointed towards the goats.

Naruto's swearing made Kakashi, hardened veteran of Anbu's men's shower rooms, blush.

Though that could have been because of the third chapter of the fifth installment of Icha Icha Paradise.

Suna was a village that Naruto figured he could grow to love, given time. It was sandy, sure. Blazing hot, yes. Friendly? Most definitely. But no one knew what he was here, so no one discriminated against him. Merchants showed him their best wares, and restaurants didn't serve him rotten food; it was a novel experience.

His storage scrolls were filling up with all the stuff he bought; new earthenware dishware for Rama's tea ceremonies, colorful straws for himself, a delicious assortment of jerky-

In-between stalls of glass figurines and corn, silence descended. On instinct, Naruto whirled around, ready to flee angry merchants from Konoha, but what he saw was something different.

A red-haired boy stalked from a building, complete with dark circles around his eyes and a menacing aura. Naruto stared at him, because this boy... he felt... like family, like the Kurama-type of family; not the Iruka kind. Like the kind of family you're stuck with, not the one you chose.

"Sensei, who is that boy?" Sakura whispered as she tugged on Kakashi's jounin vest. The man raised his book to hide his face before whispering back, "The Kazekage's son."

"...oh..." she stared at the red-head. "Maybe that's why the people are like this! He must get away with a lot of things!"

But the longer Naruto stared at the boy, the less convinced he was that the boy got away with anything. He wasn't smug, wasn't territorial, wasn't cruising on his father's name. This boy, the Kazekage's son, was more like a lost sibling of Kurama and he.

"What's his name?" he asked absently. Sasuke gave him a puzzled glance.

"Sabaku no Gaara," the hiding figurine shopkeeper murmured, his head tilted down.

Alone in the compound, Kurama didn't have to hide his glee at the sand garden forming under his careful manipulation. Underneath the currently undulating sand, his captives were kept. The Ne agents were ages deep underneath the rocks, with carved paralyzation seals holding them in place. Mebuki and the injured man he kept in the epicenter, where the circles originated from. Above them was a dark red rock Kurama found while digging the hole for the prisoners.

He wiped the sweat from his brow.

For once, Shukaku was silent. He'd been roaring just seconds ago, but now the demon didn't even murmur.

'Shuu-kaa-san?' Gaara inquired, but the demon shushed him.

'My child, do you sense that?' came the rumbled reply. Gaara kept walking, but raised his head ever so slightly.

There. To the right.

'If you kill that person, it shall prove your worth!'

'Oh shit,' Kakashi thought as he gathered his genin into his arms and leapt away.

Sand raged behind them, raising up high and crashing down as waves. Naruto watched as it twisted through the village, sweeping civilians to the side as it raced towards them.

"Sensei! What's going on?" He screamed as Kakashi made his way towards Sunagakure's gates.

The jounin ignored them and kept running. Soon, they reached the outskirts, and instead of signing out like they were supposed to, Kakashi waved behind him frantically.

The guards shooed them away, terror evident on their faces.

The guards had two options. Either they restrain the Konoha nin, which would cause them to fight, or they let them go. With the first option, they were doing their actual duty, but the fallout for letting Sabaku no Gaara fight against Sharingan no Kakashi was that there would only be cons. Sure, if Gaara killed the jounin, Konoha would lose a strong nin, but the political repercussions would be dire. If the Konoha nin killed Gaara (because that was the only way to stop him), Suna would lose their only jinchuuriki. Or release it… right next to the city.

Team 7 made it back to Konoha two days ahead of schedule with a chakra exhausted jounin.

Kurama left Kakashi's unconscious body just inside that gate and gave it a kick for good measure.

Iruka, who had been nursing a grudge the size of his Big Head no Jutsu after he learned that Kakashi taught the previous Team 7 nothing other than the tree-walking exercise, made sure to nail the jounin several times in the place where no man likes to be stomped on. Then he went over to Sakura, the medic-in-training, and asked her to show him some of the fruits of her training.

He added in as a side-note that if she managed to mangle the Copy nin's sense of smell or anything, they could just blame it on the chakra exhaustion.

Iruka resolved himself to the fact that he was a hateful person years ago. Once upon a time, he hated the Kyuubi, and by extension, Naruto, but soon (compared to the rest of the village, who still hated the boy) realized that it was wrong of him to blame a child; he didn't hate the Uchiha (before the massacre) for locking up murdering civilians, did he? But just because he didn't hate Naruto anymore didn't mean that it went away; it only transferred.

He hated the villagers for being as hateful as he used to be, if not more.

He hated the shinobi who agreed with the villagers, because didn't they understand?

But most of all, he hated for Fourth for sealing the demon within Naruto in the first place, because, Iruka thought bitterly, if the Fourth was going to die anyways, he should have dragged the beast with him.

His hate didn't dissipate, but it broke off into smaller, more diverse pieces, so that a couple of years before Naruto entered the Academy, Iruka accepted the Hokage's offer of a teaching position because he didn't trust anyone else to teach the boy.

And then the Council clinked their money bags and opened those and their mouths wide open and declared that Naruto, no, the Kyuubi couldn't gain any shinobi skills to kill them all. As if the real Kyuubi needed any skills, as if Iruka hadn't witnessed with his own eyes that a subconscious flick of its tails caused more damage than a whole army of Iwa or Kiri nin.

Hokage-sama apologized, but by that time, Iruka taught out of love, not spite. He liked the job, liked being able to teach the next generation who hadn't seen the terrors of war; he saw in their shining faces the potential lives of the children that died, of what he was fighting for, what he used to fight for.

And now those innocent children were adults, at least in the eyes of the law, and Iruka had the chance once more to teach them.

Kami. Never in his wildest nightmares did he imagine standing next to the very demon that murdered his parents, who frolicked as an imitation of a human, in an imitation of a human body, a clone. A demon hidden in a clone.

Together they stood in the courtyard, where Kurama explained organs to Sakura, who slowly dissected a full grown pig while Iruka trained Naruto. Kakashi and Sasuke were by the new zen garden, running currents through their feet and into the sand.

"If you nick the large intestine, we won't be having tonkatsu tonight, and you know how much Sasuke-kun likes it," Kurama drawled as Sakura sliced the lungs and set them on the rickety table. The heart followed.

"Wait. Why don't you explore those two organs," Kurama ordered. Sakura nodded and picked up the heart, softly tossing the heart in her hands. Then she placed her hands inside the tubes and felt the inside of the heart.

"Oh. I broke through a valve," she mused curiously as she tipped the heart around. Sludgy blood plopped out.

Iruka rolled his eyes and focused on Naruto, who was painstakingly painting seals onto ninja wire. The plus side was that the wire would only respond to him and would never break or tangle, the con was that it took a shitload of time and patience, neither of which Naruto had. But Naruto had determination in spades, so after the blond saw Iruka morph wire into a prancing creature, he begged the man to teach him how to use it. Iruka, whose skill in using wire was akin to Naruto's skill with wind, couldn't quite explain how he felt the metal move like an extension of his fingertips, but Naruto understood that some things just couldn't be put into words.

"Are you doing alright, Naruto?" The scarred man asked gently. Naruto's face furrowed as he erased a seal he messed up and the resulting stain tarnished the silver metal.

"Pass the acetone, Iruka-sensei," the boy muttered back, disgruntled. Iruka chuckled lightly and handed the squirt bottle over.

"Holler if you need me. I'm going to help with Sakura's training."

Another grunt.

Iruka smiled as he ambled over to the dissection table, blood dripping on the grass. Naruto threatened that if blood dropped into his ponds, he'd slice their throats with a leaf.

"You are progressing very rapidly. I applaud you, Sakura-chan," Kurama smiled as the pinkette curiously poked the yellow gallbladder until it burst.

"You know, Kurama-sensei. I used to think that priests only prayed!"

Iruka chuckled.

"I distinctly remember that we went over priests and other shinobi derivatives for a whole lesson." Sakura shifted at the Academy teacher's declaration.

"I did take notes, sensei," she pouted, but Iruka waved her expression away.

"And you were the only one that did," he replied, raising his voice so that Sasuke heard and wiped any expression from his face.

"Yes, the role of priests have dwindled with the subsequent ages, but we still uphold traditions-" Kurama lectured to an enraptured Sakura.

Hidden in the shade, Naruto muttered, "-he must have ate a whole monastery," while scrubbing incorrect seals from the wire. Iruka quirked an eyebrow, but chalked it up to a stress rant.

Civilians, unsurprisingly, were not cut out for torture. Kurama pressed a blade to Mebuki's brachial vein and she squealed like the pig her daughter slaughtered earlier that morning.

She tried admirably. She swore that she wouldn't tell him a thing because he would kill her either way, and yes, that was exactly what he planned, but Kurama knew torture better than any human. It took, after all, a lot more over-stimulated nerves for a demon to register pain than it did for a human.

Kurama had a list of every vocal 'Naruto-hater' that Mebuki knew of. Unfortunately, most of them where civilians, but for those that weren't… Kurama planned on dressing up as an Iwa-nin and slaying them.

And if he started the next Shinobi war?

Well, this wouldn't be the first time.

There were these… rumors, floating around. Shino ignored the mutterings at first because he had no interest in civilian fairytales (and there were so many, ranging from fantastical tales of desert worms that crawled into people's ears and ate brains to the newest magical beauty powder), but then the rumors became louder and he couldn't ignore them because they talked of a 'Senju priest.'

There was a chance that these rumors were about another priest, but Shino's instincts screamed otherwise.

Could it be true that Kurama-san was a Senju? That did explain the plants, but his kikaichu assured him that the plants belonged to Naruto, who could have been a Senju as well, but who definitely wasn't a priest. Maybe the rumor was about the two of them, and it managed to condense into a rumor about one person throughout the game of telephone?

But the villagers knew Naruto; they didn't know Kurama, however.

Was this why Kurama didn't have any papers? To protect him against enemies? Who would have guessed that Konoha's royalty housed together with Konoha's martyr.

But why didn't Kurama-san live in the Senju compound? If he thought that it was too obvious, the seals on the Namikaze compound could be added to the Senju compound…

But still, neither of the compound's inhabitants had the last name of Namikaze…

Or maybe the Namikaze were a branch of Senju that went extinct, just as the Uchiha and Senju line nearly were.

He wouldn't involve his father, for now, but he needed a second opinion; Hinata would be helpful.

( * * * * )

Kurama howled when Shukaku took a step past Konoha's gate. He reared his head, and if anyone was in the compound, they would see the distorted form of the clone, struggling to maintain its shape as a demonic spirit twisted, vulpine ears and a snarling snout mutating the once handsome face. From the neck down he still maintained a somewhat human frame, but anything upwards was a fox.

"SHUKAKU!" Kurama roared and pushed the seals on his body until they broke. For a nanosecond, he hung in the air, bodiless, before Naruto's Shiki Fuujin called him back into his jailor.

It was… nostalgic, being back in his prison after his years of freedom. After being accustomed to the beauty of the garden, the dank sewer walls seemed like the worst sort of hell.

'Kit,' he spoke, voice deep once again.

Naruto, strolling through the streets, stumbled.

"What the hell?" he bellowed as he clutched his head. Parents gave him (more than usual) dirty looks and clapped their hands over their children's ears.

'How eloquent, kit. You make me so proud of your etiquette skills; such a wonderful heir you'll make.' Came the sarcastic reply. Naruto straightened.

"Rama-chan. Why are you back in the seal?" Naruto whispered as he began walking to avoid any more suspicion.

'I sensed… another demon. His name is Shukaku, the tanuki,' Kurama explained. 'He has a habit of… destabilizing his containers. You will need my help if Shukaku manifests himself.'

"Right. I'm going to tell jiji right now."

Kurama rolled his eyes, but nodded.

"And we'll need to create the stabilized body for you as soon as possible-"

'We shall attempt it after the Chuunin exams. I do not need you to deplete your chakra so close to the exams,' Kurama sneered.

"Aw! You do care!" Naruto cheered as he shushin-ed into the Hokage's office.

It was the same redhead that Naruto saw before. The same swollen, black-rimmed eyes. The same tattoo of love on his forehead.

So that was Suna's jinchuuriki.

"You shall prove my existence," the redhead hissed. Naruto held the intense gaze and shuffled Konohamaru behind him.

'How arrogant,' Kurama scoffed at the other boy.

"Mother will have your blood."

Sakura and Sasuke's shoulders relaxed as tension dissipated. This boy was delusional.

'…Shukaku has really lost it.'

'He's male, right?' Naruto inquired silently while still maintaining his staring contest with the redhead.

'We are genderless, but yes, we have leanings towards one gender over another.'

Naruto broke eye contact and turned towards the redhead's siblings. Kurama's smile filtered out of his mouth, cold and cruel.

"I wonder how well Suna would do in a fight, considering you," he nodded his head towards Gaara, "only have one, while I have nine."

The siblings paled. Nine. The Kyuubi. But could that be true? If Konoha had the Kyuubi, wouldn't they be lording it over the countries?

Temari calmed herself, although she perspired. Maybe the kid was bluffing, but it was better to play it safe for now; they couldn't get caught before the exams even began.

Behind Naruto, his teammates mused quietly. Nine what?

Gaara's eyes narrowed as his Mother simpered.

'Stay away stay away stay away.'

In a swirl of sand, Gaara disappeared, leaving his siblings with a heated situation.

Inside his seal, Kurama smiled. And to think that he was afraid that being back in the seal was going to be so boring.

Chuunin exams were blessings and curses. The hosting village stressed over security while the other villages relaxed with the knowledge that infiltrating another village at this time would be useless. Attacking the hosting village that was already cautious and prepared was… stupid. Attacking another village was just as bad, considering that most villages recalled their shinobi during the exams so that the village could continue fulfill client requests.

Konoha was no different, but as the jounin left to hand chuunin exam applications to their genin, Sarutobi wondered if he could do more. All of the villages sent at least one team, except for Iwa, given their history with Konoha, but that relief was countered by the fact that sent Kiri two teams. Two very bloodthirsty looking teams, but even those two didn't compare to the team from Suna.

Jinchuuriki. If Kurama and Naruto didn't tell him, would he have picked up on it? But now that he knew about it, what should he do? Bringing a jinchuuriki into another village was as good as a declaration of war, but should Konoha bother? Especially since Kurama assured him that Shukaku could be easily taken down… (The tanuki was mentally unstable, apparently.)

Could he trust Ne? Danzo? He could trust Danzo to protect the village, but didn't put it past the man to murder Sarutobi in his sleep if that would grant him more power.

Sarutobi puffed his pipe. For now, he would keep the war-hawk in the dark; he needed to see how his old friend reacted when the gauntlet fell.

"Sasuke-teme, no." Naruto dragged the last Uchiha away from the idiots on the second floor. The avenger got three words into his condescending spiel before both Sakura and Naruto dragged him away.

"Sasuke-kun… we should try to eliminate as many rivals as possible." Sasuke crossed his arms at Sakura's words, but didn't complain.

"-but they're mostly Konoha nin," he muttered back after they turned the corner.

Inside Naruto, Kurama laughed.

"…yeah… but that's because we're the hosting village. Even the weaker genin teams want to try competing. If this chuunin exam was anywhere else, those teams wouldn't be going; villages only send their strongest team to foreign exams; they don't want to appear weak," Naruto explained.

"B-u-t~ I didn't know that you were so patriotic, Sasuke!" he continued.

Sasuke choked on his spit and fought down a blush. Beside him, Sakura giggled.

"Shut up, dobe."

"Boys! We're here!" 'SHANNARO!' Sakura exclaimed as she motioned forward. She pretended to enthusiastically bounce on the balls of her feet, but the underlying nervousness shined through.

"Let's go! CHARGE!" Naruto cheered as he paraded towards the door. Sasuke snapped his fingers and a small spark travelled from his fingers and towards Naruto's neck.

zzzzzzaaap

"Dammit, Sasuke!" Naruto pouted and rubbed the spot where the spark hit.

Sakura ignored the two and barged in by herself, pushing the two away from the door, rolling her eyes all the way.

"Forehead girl!"

"Oh Kami," Sakura breathed out, then turned towards the open door, "Oh, Sasuke-kun!"

Redirected, Ino ran straight towards a shell-shocked Sasuke.

Naruto stepped next to the pinkette and gave her a thumbs up.

Smiling, the two headed towards the other Konoha genin.

"Who's the new guy?" Kiba shouted as the two stepped into the circle. Behind him, his teammates nodded their acknowledgement.

"Ho-w was your-r mission, Naruto-kkun?" Hinata asked. Shino stood beside her.

"Awful," Naruto and Sakura growled at the same time.

"We mucked goat caravans the whole way while our lazy sensei slept on top of them!" Naruto complained.

"Better than training. It's so troublesome," Shikamaru raised his head from the desk.

"Naru-chan! You haven't been by the flower shop!" Ino scolded. Behind her, Sasuke trudged towards them.

"Hehehe, Ino-chan~"Naruto scratched the back of his head.

"Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait. Does everyone but me know this guy?" Kiba jabbed a finger at Naruto.

The group looked at each other before shrugging.

"Yes?"

"… WELL, THEY WERE JUST SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST!" Kiba nodded self-assuredly as he shook Naruto's hand. "Inuzuka Kiba."

"Uzumaki Naruto," the blond replied cheerfully.

"You Rookies should keep it down," a white-haired boy stepped up to the circle, sidling next to Sasuke.

The group stared around them at the scowling foreign shinobi.

"Watcha lookin' at?!" Naruto yelled at the onlookers. Several Ame shinobi made a threatening step forwards, but Naruto glared harshly. Sakura ignored the red tint that seeped into the blond's eyes.

"Naruto!" Ino hissed, but Naruto waved her away.

"They're our competition, right?" Sasuke grunted at Naruto's question. "Then come on, you suckers! We're going to wipe the floor with you!" And then he flipped them the bird.

"Naruto! Don't lump us with you!" Shikamaru groaned.

Bzzt. A kikaichu bit the sensitive skin at the blond's neck.

Hinata refused to heave a sigh.

Sasuke and Sakura wanted to pummel the blond, but refrained since they needed three members for the exams.

Kakashi, watching with the other jounin in the surveillance room, snorted into Icha Icha.

"… seeing as you've already made enemies, maybe I could be of use…" Kabuto laughed uncertainly.

"Really? That would be really helpful, uh-" Sakura smiled politely.

"Yakushi Kabuto."

"Ah, Kabuto-san. Is this your second time taking the exam?" Sakura asked.

"Haha. It's actually my seventh. But because of that, I have a lot of information about the other participants. Are there any genin that you are particularly interested in?" Kabuto offered.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Sasuke piped in. The Rookie 9 collectively raised an eyebrow.

"Really, teme? Really? You know that if you wanted to know anything, you could just ask me," Naruto pouted.

"Ah," Kabuto flipped through a pack of blank cards that were in his pocket.

"Uzumaki Naruto. Rank, Genin. Missions-"

"Yes, I know that information. Tell me something else."

"- an orphan."

"Skills?" Sasuke pressed, much to Kabuto's growing annoyance.

"…I have none listed." The glasses boy gritted his teeth as he smiled apologetically.

"Really? You don't even have enough information on a genin from your own village?" Sasuke raised a brow and turned his back towards Kabuto, knowing fully well that Sakura and Naruto were covering him.

"That just means that your teammate is very adept at hiding his information. If I couldn't find it, then it is doubtful than any foreign shinobi know it as well," Kabuto explained.

"Are you really that good?" Kiba asked skeptically.

"Yes. I know about lesser known villages as well. Like Sound over there. They're a relatively new village, so their shinobi are still rather weak-"

"What did you say Konoha scum?!" a member of said team bellowed at them. Dosu attacked, just as they planned, but as his sound weapon launched, nothing happened. He awkwardly stood as his fist stopped inches away from Kabuto's face, but no sound waves came to crack the glasses like they practiced.

"Pfft. What was that?!" Kiba clutched his stomach as he laughed. Akamaru tilted his head curiously at Naruto.

Naruto, who felt the disturbance in the air without knowing the cause, created a vacuum, which subsequently snuffed out Dosu's attack before it launched. And the best part was that the Sound team and Kabuto both didn't know what happened.

The Rookie 9, thinking that the Sound nin was incompetent, relaxed their stance. Only Naruto's warning seal, a heat array placed inside their shoes, warned Sasuke and Sakura that something was amiss. Naruto pulsed a Morse code message through theirs shoes, and because Team 7 was a team, Kakashi's as well.

"Alright, maggots!" Ibiki stormed into the room, scars enhanced by the bright lights and his black bandana. Naruto snapped to attention (because Ibiki was probably the only human alive that Kurama was even slightly wary of) and his teammates fell into line.

After the first exam was over and Anko herded the brats towards the Forest of Death, Ibiki glanced over the tests in the surveillance room. Most of the questions were badly answered or skipped; several were copies of another test, but Ibiki knew that since he saw the genin cheating. Kakashi's team, however, threw him for a loop.

Three tests with the exact same answers, syntax and all. Not a word out of place. It happened before, not often, but what was most puzzling was that they were answers that Kakashi would have given, not what the smartest shinobi on the team, in this case, Sakura, would have answered. But that was impossible because Kakashi was with dozens of other jounins during the test and they saw first-hand that he couldn't have given his genin those answers. And it wasn't like the Copy Nin could have told his genin the answers to the test beforehand because Ibiki himself wrote the test scant hours before the exam began in order to prevent a worried jounin instructor from sneaking a peek at the test beforehand.

As if they could get past his protections.

Ibiki hated mysteries like this.

The genin sat comparatively very far from each other, and at angles where the perfect copy of a Sharingan would be hindered (since the Uchiha couldn't see his teammates very well from his seat). The Haruno girl probably knew the answers, but used her sensei's words instead. Naruto, Ibiki knew from experience, would have blunt answers, if he had any at all (not to say that Naruto was stupid, but just that the boy was more of a hands-on learner). And the answers were most certainly Kakashi's; even if the genin knew their instructor so well that they could mimic his speech pattern, they couldn't have known the snide remarks that the jounin often made on missions or in the Anbu break room.

How did they do it? He hadn't seen a single one of them cheat. Not once did they look up from their papers, not once did their lips move or their fingers twitch.

Unless Naruto found out a telepathic seal, which Ibiki was fairly certain couldn't be accomplished; but what did Ibiki know about ancient and mystical arts? (Only everything. It was amazing the things he learned in the interrogation rooms.)

Befuddled, the head of the T&I department made his way towards the one-eyed jounin; Morino Ibiki would have his answers, no matter what.

"No matter how useful your seal is, Naruto, I'm still afraid that it's going to blow my foot off," Sakura commented as they ran through the trees. "Especially after we saw it blow it…."

"Pish posh. The 'anti-decapitation seal' blew up; this one didn't," was the flippant response.

"They're the same seal! You recycled that one into this one!" Sasuke ground out from the left of them.

"Hey, recycling helps the environment."

"Not this kind of recycling!" Sakura snorted. She patted her pack which held the miniaturized Earth scroll. Team 7's plan was to head towards the tower and picked off people who came because those teams would have both scrolls.

"Yeah, but since we've all replaced our seals after the first exam, the chances that they'll overheat are reduced. Because you know, heat really messes with the seals, so try not to use too much fire by your feet, Sasuke-teme."

"…Thanks, dobe."

Sasuke and Sakura knew more about malfunctioning seals than functioning ones thanks to being guinea pigs for Naruto. Anything too hazardous was filtered out by the Kage Bushin, but real people were needed at certain stages of testing. In deference to this, Kakashi had taken to capturing missing nin to take his place as Naruto's tester; the two other genin didn't have that luxury.

"Wait. Guys, I really need to pee." Naruto halted on his branch and scoped the area. "Be back in a second."

"Really? Really? Naruto, you baka! Don't say things like that in front of a lady!" Sakura shrieked.

"Hey, everyone needs to pee! Don't tell me you don't."

Sakura scowled in response.

"We need a password to make sure that we can differentiate between Team 7 and imposters," Sasuke stated before Naruto left.

"Ok."

"It needs to be something we can all remember," Sasuke grinned smugly at Naruto, who rolled his eyes, "How about sensei's "I'm sorry I'm late but my car turned into a Transformer and tried to fight a Deceptacon in my front yard so I had to dig out my old bike from storage, but it had two flat tires so I had to ask an old lady if she knew a bike repair shop, but it was closed, so I had to return the bike to storage and walk here.""

"Yes. Fine. Whatever. Now can I go?" Naruto pleaded. Sasuke shooed him with a wave while pulsing, 'I am Sasuke' through the seal.

His teammates nodded in understanding.

Kakashi was proud of his team. They worked together for a handful of months, but their teamwork was better than the teams that had a year together.

And to think that if the Council hadn't passed their restriction years ago, Team 7 could have been even stronger, more like a team.

When Ibiki icily sat down next to him in the Tower's lounge, Kakashi knew that Team 7's little joke worked. Sakura figured out that the test was about intelligence gathering first and relayed her findings to her team, which included Kakashi because the heat seals couldn't be directed at people, it flashed on every heat seal with the same frequency. So, being the little devils they were, they asked Kakashi for the answers because who better than a jounin would know?

Kakashi debated on giving in to their demands, but their strategy wasn't cheating. Well, it was cheating if they weren't caught. But this prank was also good practice with Morse code and determining if the heat pulses decreased with distance, or whether some of the signals would be lost.

Did Team 7 get the exact phrasing, or did they miss words in-between? Were the pulses stronger the closer the seals were to each other, or was the heat strength the same?

But really, Team 7 was entered in the chuunin exams, and Kakashi was a part of Team 7. There was nothing wrong with teammates helping each other out.

Kakashi ignored that 'This is Sasuke' that pulsed on his foot and focused on the jounin and their betting pool.

"Kakashi. I insist that you tell me how your genin did this," Ibiki ordered, but kept his voice down to escape the interest of the other shinobi.

"What?" Kakashi yawned sleepily.

"I need to be aware of new information gathering techniques to better protect Konoha."

"Don't worry. Anyone using the same method as my kids would probably kill themselves within days."

"Days are a long time to gather intelligence."

'Naruto? If you, pulse back.'

'Guys?'

'Dobe?'

'Where - you?'

'Snake! Ate me!'

'With imposter-'

'Sensei! Help!'

'Wh-'

'Orochimaru.'

Kakashi darted out of the lounge and immediately head towards the Forest while sending Pakkun to inform the Hokage of the new predicament.

Not for the first time since Akio's death, Kakashi thanked his lucky stars that Naruto was placed on his team.

'Kit, you need to return to your teammates immediately.'

'Naruto? If you, pulse back.'

"Shit. What's going on, Rama?" Naruto turned to go back the way he came, but a snake intercepted him.

'That is Orochimaru's summon. Kill it,' Kurama growled.

"With pleasure." Without breaking his stride, Naruto slashed the snake to pieces.

'Good. But your teammates are fighting in a new location.'

"Shoot. If I use my wind to search out their voices, it'll be too much of a drain on my chakra reserves. I don't want to have a disadvantage when I fight a Sannin."

'Kid. You're already at a disadvantage.'

"I know that! But-"

'I know how you can find your teammates.'

"I'm all ears."

'The plants that are imbued with your chakra have special properties. Not only do they refill chakra reserves faster, but there's another trait. Because it is your chakra, it is drawn to you, even after someone eats it.'

"…what are you saying?"

'I am saying that for up to a week after someone eats a meal of your fruit, your chakra lingers in their system. It's not usuable to them, but it's more like… a tag. And because it is yours, you will be particularly sensitive to it if you search.'

"So I'll be able to find them?"

'Among other things,' Kurama thought to himself.

'Spread out your chakra in a circle with you being the center. Because we know that they should be in the Forest, this shouldn't take long.'

Naruto complied. His chakra flew outwards like a flock of birds, but then the birds dived towards two narrow pillars of wind chakra. His chakra curled around it, assimilating this new chakra into him.

"Found them."

Sakura landed the first blow. Her kunai, enhanced with her medic chakra sliced through a minor artery in the Sannin's arm, but the man-snake-thing kept moving, not registering the cut on his arm. He dived towards Sasuke.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" the Uchiha shouted. A snake materialized behind the Sannin, ate the man, and shriveled as the fires burned its body away. Unfettered, Orochimaru stepped out of the corpse.

"Kukukuku. You are both rather interesting genin. Too bad that I only need one vessel." A long tongue flickered to lick the man's lips as he leisurely examined their hostile expressions.

"Ah, Sasuke-kun." A cascade of long hair from a tilted head. "I think that you should let me see your eyes!" The crazed, split pupils prompted Sasuke to enact his get-away plan earlier than anticipated. He twisted out of the way from an over-eager tongue, and frantically rubbed at the piece of wool hidden in his weapons pouch, increasing his electrostatic force.

Orochimaru whirled with terrifying flexibility and launched another attack.

Sasuke ran for his life, running atop Sakura's mesh of wire so that he wouldn't accidently discharge himself on ground. Orochimaru's steps vibrated across the wire, heavy enough that Sasuke knew where the man was without needing to look back.

A netting of medical wire separated Orochimaru's face from Sasuke's neck when the Sannin leapt forward. The boy shuddered and thanked Sakura a hundred times in his head.

"Kukuku. Such a unique method…" Orochimaru ran a figure down the wires, ignoring the cuts that bloomed.

'See you. N.'

Good, Naruto was here.

'Coming. K.'

Even better. Kakashi was coming.

"Discharge!" Sasuke gripped Orochimaru's hand from the other side of the net. A thousand volts ran through the Sannin's body, electrocuting him with direct current so that the man couldn't let go of the wire even if Sasuke's hand was there.

"Argh!" Snakes slammed into the net, breaking it. Sasuke, knowing his ploy wouldn't work for long, sprang away and immediately set the area on fire.

When Orochimaru leapt up into the air to avoid this, Sakura met him with a chakra-infused punch to the spine.

As the Sannin twisted again to pierce Sakura with dozens of kunai and shuriken, Naruto re-directed the projectiles.

One member short, but Team 7 was fighting admirably.

"Teme!"

Naruto and Sasuke put a hand to their lips at the same time. Thinking that it was a double fireball, Orochimaru laughed and once again cocooned himself in a snake.

"Che. Dumbass," Sasuke sneered as he watched as the fire-nado ravaged the snake and the man inside. Winds ripped apart skin at the same rate that the fire consumed those smaller pieces of flesh. Encapsulated, Orochimaru gave a scream of rage before he tore himself out, burn marks littering his pale skin.

The face of the woman whose body he borrowed melted like molten glass. An irritated Orochimaru ripped the hanging flesh off, revealing cauterized wounds.

'Dodge!' Kurama ordered. Naruto complied and barely missed Kusanagi slicing through his neck.

'I'm going to seal this motherfucker,' Naruto murmured to himself. He leaped towards Sasuke.

"I need you to immobilize him for twenty seconds," Naruto instructed out of the corner of his mouth.

"I'll try, dobe."

Naruto nodded.

Sakura's wires kept the man down for two seconds, but that tactic didn't work as well the second time.

Sasuke could only dodge as the man focused entirely him. He lasted five seconds before teeth sunk into his skin.

It took six heart-stopping seconds for Orochimaru's curse seal to set. Sasuke felt his nerves flare and saw blackened characters flaring across his pale skin. Seeing seals, Sasuke tamped down his chakra, and to his relief, the marks receded.

Sharingan eyes flashed.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yelled, relived.

Orochimaru sprung away and launched towards Naruto.

"Gogyou Fuuin!" Orochimaru's fingers reached towards the Kyuubi seal.

"Ugh!" pulsing pain spread from Naruto's stomach outwards. Kurama let out a shriek before Naruto's connection to him dissolved into silence.

But Naruto still had enough brain activity through the pain to retaliate.

"Fuuin: Shi no Omomi (Death weight)." Orochimaru fought his body as it slumped, a sudden burden bearing down on it.

"Raiton: Shinkei (Nerves)," Sasuke overloaded the electrical signals in the Sannin's nervous system. The man lashed out, refusing to go quietly even if his vision was white and he couldn't feel the ground underneath his feet anymore.

"Raikiri."

"Mokuton: Hobi no Jutsu!" A wooden dragon erupted from the ground, its mouth swallowing the Sannin and blocking Kakashi's attack.

"Raikiri!" Again the jounin attacked, but the shield remained firm.

"Raikiri!"

"Sensei! Stop!" Sakura ran to him, unnerved by the sweat pouring from her normally disheveled sensei.

"Raikiri!" The dragon's face cracked.

"Senpai." An Anbu stood on a nearby tree branch. Kakashi didn't glance at the newcomer, but set a reassuring hand on Sakura's head.

When Sakura glanced back at the dragon shield, she saw the Anbu's hand caressing the cracked face. Then, with a subtle push of chakra, the shield crumbled, exposing an underground tunnel and a missing Sannin.

Team 7 remained in the forest, their bodies battered and their energy sapped. Kakashi stared at his drained team with the outraged cries of Anko in the background and wondered if he could steal the scroll that Team 7 needed and give it to them.

During the war, he'd experienced the same thing. He remembered fighting for his life even as his body shut itself down one organ at a time. He remembered falling unconscious as adrenaline left him and he had no will to hold himself up. He remembered the orders to continuing fighting, and with each subsequent fight, he remembered leaving his comrades bodies where they were but snatching their hitai-ate.

Orders were for Team 7 to proceed through the Forest of Death to avoid any suspicion by the visiting Kages. News of Orochimaru was to remain classified.

Kakashi could have argued; he'd been an unparalleled Anbu Captain, held in the highest respect, and he had the favor of the Hokage. Not to mention Naruto had the Hokage's favor and Sasuke had the village's favor as well.

Kakashi could have protested; any other sensei would have.

But Kakashi wasn't just anyjounin. He'd been a cold-hearted killer long before he learned to laugh; knew how to kill before he knew of the birds and the bees. Kakashi knew war better than these fresh jounin who coddled their genin, hoping to preserve innocence, and he saw that if he didn't force his kids to do this, to fight when they were already defeated, they would die on the field and how wouldn't be there to save them.

Kakashi could have protested, but that didn't mean that he should have. Instead, he stood in front of his team and told him to slap away their tired eyes because they were going back into the field. And yes, Kakashi saw the strain in their muscles, and yes, he realized that these were children in front of him, age-wise.

Naruto squared his shoulders with a resigned smile, and Kakashi saw that the war never left the boy. It was hard to ignore the war if the war was sealed in you.

Sasuke's eyes hardened, and Kakashi could see the crazed look in his eyes, and instead of fearing it, Kakashi reveled in it because once upon a time Itachi was his kouhai, and not once did Kakashi ever see the flicker of a man who would grow up to kill his family. Itachi was a man who grew into a killer; Sasuke was a child who was growing into a shinobi.

Sakura, surprisingly, held the most bloodlust in her. He expected pleading eyes, but she stood in-between her teammates with shaking hands and a scalpel hidden under her wristbands.

Amidst the scrabbling Anbu who investigated remnants of the battle, the Forest sounded as much of a battlefield as No Man's Land, and Kakashi dismissed them was a firm nod and turned back towards Hokage Tower to give his report.

When Ibiki told him that his kids maimed the remaining Kusa team, Kakashi didn't bat an eyelash. He continued reading his book as details of irreparable torn ligaments and spinal cord injuries surfaced. When Ibiki concluded his report by stating that those Kusa genin would never be able to be shinobi or self-sufficient ever again, Kakashi didn't hide his smile.

Good.

The night they reached the Tower, Sakura cried and didn't stop until she felt her bones echo with her grief.

Sasuke screamed as Orochimaru's cursed seal flared to life again. Restrained by jounin, Sasuke seizured as Kakashi placed a seal that would limit the seal's power. Ideally, Naruto would take a look at it and construct a nullifying seal or find a way to destroy the seal, but the blond was busy destroying his own gift from Orochimaru.

Naruto swore that there was nothing worse than odd-numbered seals.

Team 7 slept soundly until the preliminaries began and appeared in the arena with dark bags under their eyes and a hair-trigger glance that made the other genin shift uncomfortably. Sasuke itched his neck like a heroin addict; Naruto's bloody lips imitated that of a ravenous carnivore who just ate his fill, and Sakura's long hair was chopped in an even bob that made a line across her neck.

When Kakashi walked in on her cutting it, he wasn't sure if she actually planned on shearing it off like that, or if she was trying to kill herself and he interfered.

"I congratulate you all for making it to the third part of the Chunnin Exams," Sarutobi began. Behind him sat delegates and a couple of Kages that wanted to watch the preliminaries.

Sarutobi had a suspicion that Danzo knew why his former student was in Konoha, but was reluctant to ask. What was the use of asking if he already knew that the other man would lie? Sarutobi's only consolation was that Danzo would never harm Konoha if he could prevent it, but Danzo card more for Konoha the ideal than Konoha the village.

"We will have preliminaries-"

And hadn't Danzo and Orochimaru struck a deal, once upon a time? Hadn't Sarutobi caught the remnants of secrets codes or furtive gestures?

"-randomly selected-"

His secret weapon against the both of them was Kurama, but could he trust the fox? The man certainly knew information that others weren't privy to, but he had nothing to lose. The worst that could happen was that the fox played him, but Sarutobi knew that the fox could never go against Naruto, not when the boy could take away everything the fox craved for except freedom.

"Let us begin."

"I would like to withdraw." Kabuto stepped up from the line, not signs of visible injuries. Beside him, Naruto stood, pale and suffering from the side-effects of taking apart Orochimaru's Gogyo Fuuin. The blond peered up at Hokage underneath his sweaty bangs and gave a small nod; he would be okay, hopefully.

"Very well. You may leave the arena." Kabuto left. Gekko Hayate continued, "The first match will be… Uchiha Sasuke and Akado Yoroi."

The rest of the genin sprung away, leaving only the two contenders.

Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akado Yoroi

Lightning streaked the ground, but fizzled out within meters of Akado.

Fire rained from smoke clouds, but Akado phased away from the dying embers.

Sasuke watched as his opponent absorbed his chakra and thought, 'Oh shit.'

At first Sasuke blocked the blows, but each elbow that met a fist was grabbed, and chakra drained from Sasuke's body.

He couldn't rely on chakra or taijustu. Chakra would be absorbed, and that was dangerous enough considering his reserves hadn't refilled after the Forest of Death. Taijutsu would render him chakra-less even faster.

Akado attacked, and the cursed seal flared.

"Argh!" Sasuke clutched his neck, his vision going white around the edges; seeing weakness, Akado kept going; Orochimaru-sama told him to agitate the Uchiha enough to let the cursed seal take over.

Team 7 watched in horror as black markings grew along the bluenette's neck, stretching out like a mass of snakes.

Naruto's body was barely out of the arena as the blond leaned as far out as he could, anxious by the seal.

'Naruto! Calm down! You're blood pressure's skyrocketing; you're about to give yourself a heart attack,' Kurama growled. All of his chakra was busy healing the damage that Orochimaru, Orochimaru's seal, and Naruto unsealing said seal caused; Naruto's chakra coils and organs were perforated with small nicks that were barely keeping the organs from shredding.

A rapid increase of blood from the heart rushing through the boy's veins and organs wasn't helping the healing process.

"I know," Naruto muttered, clutching his heart. Kakashi dropped a hand on his shoulder and gazed at the arena.

"Teme!" he gasped out. "What's up with your weak will? Weren't you the first one to break one of my seals?" the gravity one, in fact.

"Maybe your seals just suck, dobe," the boy retorted, but already the cursed seal was retracting.

"Psssh," Naruto scoffed and smiled.

Akado relentlessly attacked, trying to invoke the cursed seal again. Sasuke withdraw senbon and shot forward. The wonderful thing about Team 7 was that because Kakashi focused on being a team, they learned each other's skills: for the most part. Each of them knew the basics of seals, even though only Naruto was proficient with it. Each of them learned different forms of taijutsu, even though only Sasuke found it to be second nature. And each of them learned anatomy, even if Sakura was the only one to specialize in it.

Charged with a spot of lightning, senbon flew from his hands and into Akado's body; being such a small amount of chakra, Akado's special ability didn't even react.

Shocks rattled through Akado's nerves and the man fell.

"Winner, Uchiha Sasuke!"

Damn right.

Abumi Zaku vs. Aburame Shino

It took Shino less than five minutes to sense that his opponent's chakra was roughly in a cylindrical shape right above the boy's wrist and that whatever was there was man-made and was responsible for the sound attacks.

His kikaichu happily clogged the chakra dense area, causing the weapons to backfire.

Tsurugi Misumi vs. Kankuro

Haruno Sakura vs. Yamanaka Ino

The Yamanaka Clan's family techniques had a glaring weakness; they took a set amount of time to work. It was a weakness easily overcome by a team, and it made every chuunin Yamanaka leagues stronger than their peers, because for them to rise in status with a glaring hole in their power meant that they were beyond adequate in other areas.

But Ino wasn't ready. She knew this. Her father knew this. And unfortunately for her, Sakura knew this.

Perhaps if Naruto never came along, if Akio never died and Zabuza never slayed him, Ino and Sakura would be evenly matched. Ino had the skills and the instincts, honed by her father; Sakura had her brains, honed by her loneliness.

Ino came at her with kunai. Sakura let them pierce her and pressed the blonde's pressure points to disable her arm; Ino avoided fatal areas, just as Sakura knew she would.

A stunned Ino gave Sakura enough time to press points in the blonde's other arm.

Seconds into the fight and Ino was defenseless. Better shinobi would see this predicament as an itch, as Zabuza did, but Ino was more of a girl than a kunoichi.

"Give up," Sakura stated sadly.

"No! I have to show Sasuke how strong I am!" Ino cried and rushed towards the pinkette.

Sakura nailed her in the gut.

"Winner, Haruno Sakura."

Sakura wasn't the weak girl that Ino knew; she wasn't the weak kunoichi that Akio died for, not the one would fawned or the one who braided her hair.

Here was a kunoichi who faced Orochimaru and survived, who understood that Uchiha Sasuke cared more for power than he did for Mrs. Sasuke, and realized that she didn't slough through years in the Academy to be a housewife; she did it to be strong.

Haruno Sakura was going to be a medic, damn everything else.

Tenten vs. Temari

Nara Shikamaru vs. Tsuchi Kin

Inuzuka Kiba vs. Uzumaki Naruto

"His main weapon is his wind and seals," Shino answered Kiba's wheedling.

"…that's it? So basically I just need to attack him before he can cast a jutsu? Ha! This is going to be easy!" Kiba barked in happiness.

"That is not true."

"What are you talking about? Akamaru and I can outrun anything!" Kiba narrowed his eyes. Akamaru barked his assent.

"You could never outrun Naruto."

"You're choosing him over your own teammate!"

"I am not telling him about your abilities, am I?"

"You probably told him before! Who knows what secrets you've been telling him!"

"Kiba-kun," Hinata said sternly. "Shino-kun hasn't said anything about y-y-you to N-N-Naruto-kun."

"Yeah, whatever." Kiba glanced away from them.

"B-b-ut I can tell you that Naruto-kun is almost out of chakra," Hinata murmured. Kiba's ears perked up.

"Really?! Lucky! Akamaru and I will be chuunin in no time!" Happy, Kiba hopped towards the sandy arena where Naruto waited for him, popping his joints.

"Come at me, dog boy!" the blond cheered.

"Shaddup! Akamaru and I are going to wipe the floor with you!"

A content atmosphere settled in the arena; both contenders positive of their victory.

Kiba and Akamaru sprung forward but clawed air as Naruto leapt out of the way. Akamaru, being smaller, lighter, and more nimble, swung to his right, where Naruto's scent lingered. A low spin met the dog's face.

"Bastard! I'll get you for that!" Kiba went in for the kill again, but Naruto danced away, the bristles of his brush rustling loudly in his ears.

"Gravity." The seal Naruto drew in the air glowed briefly before Naruto leapt away again.

"Ha! What was that supposed to do?" Kiba jeered. He saw an opening; the blond jumped too high and his way down was a difficult position to defend.

The brunette was three fist-lengths away from the blond's face when the blond's feet touched the ground.

Whump. Kiba's body slammed into the sand. Mouth full of blood and grit, he heard Akamaru's yip.

The puppy made it halfway to his master from the other side of the arena before his body hit the ground too.

"I think I won," Naruto tilted his head at Hayate.

"Bastard," Kiba spat into the sand. He wiggled, but couldn't do more than twitch.

"What's going on?" Kurenai asked aloud. The rest of Team 7 were in their own corner in varying degrees of sleep.

"Probably seals," groaned the Uchiha, arm thrown across his eyes.

"Seals," Sakura yawned.

Kakashi flipped to another page of Icha Icha.

"Calligraphy," the jounin nodded once at Kurenai and returned back to his book.

Below them, Kiba sneezed into the ground.

"Well, that's one way," Kakashi commented, but before Kurenai could ask what he meant, the man motioned towards the arena, where Kiba was standing up again.

"Che. I told that baka that a technique like that was vulnerable-"

"-it's good for multiple enemies-"

"-it's just Kiba and his dog-"

"-that's still two-"

"Excuse me," Shino interjected into Team 7's squabble. "He keeps using that method because he plans on countering its vulnerabilities."

"… we know, but this is the chuunin exams, not the T&I department," Sakura responded flippantly. The genin who weren't in any way acquainted with Naruto stared at the group in befuddlement.

"I believe that this method has merit."

"M-m-me too. But I wonder where Kur-r-rama-san is?" Hinata's head peered from behind Kurenai.

"Ah! He said that he had full belief that we would make it past the preliminaries if there were any," Sakura preened. Next to her, Sasuke gave a smug smile.

Kurenai peered down at the arena where Kiba struggled to stand after inadvertently messing with the seal.

"What happened?"

"He drew the major parts of the seal with his feet while Kiba attacked him," Shino informed his sensei. "Usually, he would draw the seals with his wind, but manually works as well."

Down below, Naruto pouted.

"Darn. These kinds of seals really are useless without reinforcing chakra," Naruto muttered. He flicked a finger towards his opponent and discharged the bead of demon chakra that wormed its way into his chakra system. To a highly developed Byakugan eye, his coils would be spotted like a leopard instead of having a smooth flow; the demon chakra had yet to stabilize, and as a result, was leaking back into its system in stuttered gasps, so that beads of potent chakra interlaced Naruto's own so that it was difficult to control.

"Rrrrr!" Kiba launched back at Naruto who idly redrew the seal with his foot.

Pressure points tapped.

'Winner, Uzumaki Naruto."

The blond cheered loudly, his voice drowning the silence that pervaded around him.

The demon had won.

Hyuuga Hinata vs Hyuuga Neiji

This was Hinata's greatest fear. She trembled as she discreetly gazed at the crowded stands, her father and her sister among them. This was a fight between Hyuugas, and tradition dictated that she, as heir, should win, since heirs were trained to be the strongest so that there would be no question of their leadership. But she wasn't strong. She wasn't a prodigy. She wasn't-

"Don't worry, Hinata-chan! You're strong on the inside," Naruto smiled from beside her. She blushed.

"Ah, N-n-naru-to-kun. How d-d-did you know?" she asked.

"You always think that," Shino said quietly. Kurenai gave him a hard stare.

"You can do this. You're a prodigy too, remember? Just not in the same way as him." Naruto pulled out a small tub of the salve she made for him. She blushed.

"B-bu-"

"Play to your strengths. It's like how we're never going to use kikaichu better than Shino, and you guys aren't going to control wind like I do. His special thing is combat, and yours isn't, but that doesn't mean that you're not special too," he grinned and placed a flower in her hand.

She blinked away tears and glanced at her hands. Mi-ne's blue petals fluttered.

"T-thank you, N-Naruto-kun," she bowed. He scratched his head awkwardly.

"Good luck," said Teams 7 and 8.

"Thank you everyone."

She leapt into the arena, the blue flower tucked safely in her pocket.

"Neji-nii-san."

"Hinata-sama," Neji replied coldly.

"Begin."

Neji's Juuken was as beautiful as she remembered. His precise strikes countered hers, the wide sweep of his arm compensated the small turn of his ankle. Together they waltzed in respectful silence, but where a dance dictated a spin, she dodged a fatal strike; where he should dip her, he aimed for her jugular.

"Is this all that the famed heir of the Clan can do? A disgrace," he sneered as he swatted away her blows, too forceful for Juuken.

"Look up there. The whole Clan is here to support you, even if they know how useless you are-"

Hinata bit her lip and parried; she wasn't useless; she wasn't.

"You're wrong. Ot-t-ou-san and Han-n-nabi are here for you too."

He sneered.

"T-they are! W-we're family."

A vicious strike rendered her arm useless. She bit back a scream.

"Look at that. You can't even lie without stuttering."

"I-I'm no-"

"Why not? Is it not your prerogative to?" The look on his face was anything but kind.

"That's not-"

She twisted out of the way of his strike to her heart and the palm hit her already useless arm.

"-how it is? You know nothing! A useless heir!" His sped up, and she struggled to keep up.

She couldn't beat him in Juuken, and for once that assessment wasn't self-deprecating.

"T-t-then talk to me! Tell me what's wrong" she screamed, her hand reaching out to grasp his arm. Surprised by the grip, he stopped. Then he sneered again.

"How pitiful. The heir can't even win with Juuken and resorts to brutish methods." She didn't flinch even if her emotions fluctuated. He pulled out of her grip.

Something sticky was on his arm.

"That's a paralytic, nii-san," she told him. Her eyes were unrepentant.

He scoffed.

"Tricks."

She shook her head.

"We're shinobi," she countered, but she knew what he thought. The Hyuuga had long been seen as shinobi royalty and thus behaved in a certain fashion; low brow tricks like this were frowned upon. A Hyuuga won with grace, finesse, and Juuken, or they did not win at all.

They clashed again, but with one working arm, she was easy prey. He toyed with her, and with every redundant tenketsu he closed, a flurry of bruises accompanied it. She was sure that her left arm was shattered, but she was too numb to feel it.

The paralyzing cream worked well, but it was only meant for medicinal purposes, like keeping a patient still while relocating their shoulder. It slowed him, but didn't make a difference in the fight considering that Hinata was limping and had a broken ankle.

She could see the futility; she wasn't going to win, but hadn't she known that from the beginning?

She bent backwards and dodged a strike aimed at her neck.

"Forfeit!" Kiba cried from the stands. Others cried out the same, but she wasn't listening.

In front of her, Neji panted, eyes glaring at her.

"Give up. You were Fated to lose."

She stood in the arena: an empty jar of salve on the ground, a weapons pouch, and a blue flower.

"It's an embarrassment that you're the heir. Are you surrendering?"

She shook her head.

"A Hyuuga never gives up."

"So be it," he snarled and leapt towards her. She heard the rustle of Naruto screaming on the wind and felt more than saw the proctor gearing up to intervene.

"If killing me relieves some of your suffering, Neji-kun, I'd gladly die for you. That is my duty as heir of the Hyuuga Clan." She closed her eyes, blood clinging on her lashes.

She didn't imagine the shift in the wind as he faltered.

But she was sure that she imagined the smiling face of her mother as the darkness behind her eyelids meshed with the darkness of unconsciousness.

"Yo, Hyuuga," Naruto leaned against the railing as Neji climbed up the stairs. "I'll see you in the next round, and you're going to regret everything you did to her."

Naruto's voice was devoid of emotion, almost detached as he spoke to the other genin.

"I doubt it." Neji headed towards Gai, who was had a bright smile masking his hesitance. He felt a draft from the open roof stutter against his cheek.

"Is that Fated?" Naruto smiled cheekily. "Because I don't believe in Fate."

"Someone like you would never unders-"

"-what you're going through?" Naruto finished for him. The blond walked over to the other male.

"Believe me, Hyuuga. Your curse," Naruto tapped his own forehead, "takes you down with it; mine takes the world."

"How did you know?" Neji growled harshly, breaking composure.

"My curse sensed yours. Seals regulate chakra; I can see yours pooling in your forehead, even without a Byakugan," Naruto chuckled.

Neji immediately switched on his eyes and reeled back at what he saw. Jaws snapped at him, canines dripping red chakra. Slitted eyes smiled as lips curled back to exposure another row of sharpened teeth.

He pushed back the desire to faint, even as the fox face dissolved into the air.

The blond laid his hand on Neji's shoulder. Instantaneously killing intent flowed directly into his body.

He convulsed once before the blond let him go.

"Wh…" Neji panted.

"It's not like a Hyuuga to be speechless," the blond hummed before leaning closer, "If you hurt one of my precious people again, your Caged Bird Seal will be the least of your problems," Naruto hissed.

"How can you possibly know that?"

"It's just a seal."

Rock Lee vs Sabaku no Gaara

'Now, this is a fight that I'm curious to see,' Kurama rumbled. Naruto leaned over the railing and observed the other jinchuuriki curiously.

'Sabaku wouldn't unleash Shukaku, will he? He's leaking demonic chakra everywhere.'

'It isn't different from your 'Mokuton.' He's saturating his sand.'

Naruto shook his head.

'No. He's not doing that on purpose. His control is cracked or something; he's wasting the majority of it.'

'Kit,' Kurama snorted, 'demons rarely worry about wasting chakra. We're constructs of mental and natural chakra. To recharge, we meditate in nature.'

'So, are you saying that when you 'nap' in the garden you're really recharging your demon chakra?'

'No. Sometimes naps are naps kit, but if you used more of chakra, then yes, I would meditate in the garden to refill our demonic chakra stores.'

Thud. Lee's weights crashed into the dirt with a shockwave.

'Don't dodge the question. How close is Shukaku to getting out?'

'Closer than me.'

'Kurama!' Naruto thought exasperatedly.

'The other gaki still has enough control now, but that control is slipping.'

The pair sensed another pulse of demonic chakra, the malicious tongues flicking at them. Kurama gave it a rough push back towards its owner. Kakashi's uncovered, normal eye flickered to the blond.

"He's going to lose," Naruto stated bluntly, still slouched on the rail.

Sakura whipped towards him.

"Naruto! How dare you say that! Lee's one of us, and didn't you see that crater that formed when he dropped his weights?" she screeched. When he remained silent, she stopped ranting and shakily glanced back at the fight.

"They're extremes of the scale, Sakura-chan. That green leotard guy doesn't have any chakra or he can't access it; that's why he's only been using taijutsu. The red head has too much; it's leaking everywhere."

"How do you know that, dobe?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto cracked a wry grin at him.

"I thought I told you to stop calling me that, teme," he teased.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"You're the smartest idiot I've ever met. You're only smart when you're talking about fuuinjutsu, and even then you're stupid about them half the time, I mean, really, a seal that brushes your teeth?"

"Better than being a teme all the time," Naruto grumbled back. "But his wind chakra has been clashing with mine since the fight started, and I've been extra careful to keep my chakra under wraps, so it's not me whose been reaching out," he stated matter-of-factly.

"Oh," chorused the other two.

"Kaimon!"

A wave of chakra spilled over them.

Kakashi dropped his book and glared at Gai, who crossed him arms and stared back.

"It was necessary."

"The Gates are never necessary for a genin. You know what opening those gates while he's young will do to his body!" Kakashi's hair wilted as his anger rose.

"I saw it fit to-"

"It's irrespon-"

"Let it go Kakashi-sensei," Naruto intoned. "Lee will need the Eight Gates (Hachimon) to survive this battle. He'll die without it."

Kakashi gave him an assessing gaze.

"Those morbid words sound like something Kurama-san would say."

"It's hard not to pick up his bad habits when I live with the guy, but trust me, sensei, that red-haired guy's 'just like me.'"

Kakashi's back stiffened.

"Jiji already knows." Naruto didn't glance towards the Hokage's seat. "At least Lee's fast; the sand can barely keep up." He quirked his lips.

"YOU MADE ME BLEED! ARGH! MOTHER SHALL HAVE YOUR BLOOD!"

Naruto almost felt detached as he watched the brutality happening underneath him.

(Maybe this was how the shinobi felt when the villagers beat him as a child?)

"That'll be me, one day."

Naruto left the stands and strolled out as Lee's battered body was carried out on a stretcher.

( * * * * )

"So I guess that you're taking Sasuke, huh, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto rolled a shoulder easily. It came as no surprise to him, who knew of the arrangements before they had even been made. Beside him, Sakura's eyes widened.

"Don't worry my cute genin, I've found alternate senseis for you both."

Naruto hid an exasperated eye roll.

"You mean I found replacements. And no need to worry, Sakura-chan, these senseis will neverbe late."

"Maa, no need for that, Naru-naru."

"A-n-y-w-a-y-s~ Iruka-sensei and Kurama promised to train us both during the two month span. I mean, it's all for the better, really, because sssuuurre Kashi-sensei can kill a person, but he doesn't know anything about the anatomy, while Iruka-sensei has studied all about the anatomy and Kurama was a priest, so he knows morethan sensei about harmlessincapacitation," Naruto explained with a flamboyant spin.

"Maa. Naruto. No need to-"

"You're right!" Sakura cheered slyly. "Kakashi doesn't know anything about being a medic-nin!"

"Ahem. I had a teammate that was a fantastic medic-nin," he countered.

"My mother used to be a fantastic medic-nin, but that doesn't mean I know anything about it," Sasuke argued from beside the jounin, who, along with the rest of Team 7, froze at the mention of the boy's family.

"Ah~ That's true," a firm pat landed on raven tresses.

'Finally.' It felt so nice to stretch his toes on the grass, even if he disliked the cumbersome need for clothing.

"The gaki's out of it," Jiraiya commented from his perch on the wall, eyes narrowed at Kurama. Naruto's unconscious form laid comfortably on the grass.

"Everything has a cost."

"I'm not sure that the cost doesn't outweigh the benefits, or if there are any benefits at all."

Kurama smiled coolly.

"At least he can monitor himself, unlike that useless father of his." He tossed a blanket over the blond.

"…so you know," Jiraiya's stance shifted, ready for war.

"There's not much that I don't know, boy."

Jiraiya turned his head and kept his lips pursed.

Naruto and he ventured out of the compound earlier that morning to test the durability of the new body, which stayed strong no matter how far away from the compound they were. It had, however, an unpleasant side-effect of killing the plants underfoot if Kurama stood there too long; it was a problem that need to be addressed later, but Kurama could probably fix it with some chakra regulation seals and chakra exercises.

Around them, villagers murmured behind their shopping bags and turned backs, an action that Naruto knew from experience meant trouble. His fingers idly tugged his companion's sleeve as they walked, whispers of 'Exorcise the demon!' floating through the air. Kurama never stumbled; he never faltered as villagers with pleading eyes urged him towards murder. Naruto supposed that this wasn't new to the demon; there must have been hundreds of humans who sold their souls to the devil.

'Save us.'

Naruto heard the echo of Kurama's inner laughter in his mind, even as his physical face remained peaceful. Naruto held the man's hand and closed his eyes; he imagined a furry, orange muzzle wide-open in mirth, saliva dripping from elongated canines.

Kurama tugged him towards the public baths. Naruto kept his eyes forward, but once they were out of sight, he gazed questioningly at the red-head, who continued walking.

"That's your godfather."

Naruto's eyes focused on a white haired male crouched in front of the bath's fence.

'Kami.'

"You're lying," Naruto replied with a scrunched nose.

"Go on, say hello," Kurama smirked and gave the boy a push. Naruto rocked back against the hand, effectively not taking a step.

"Being my godfather means that he knows who my parents are, right?" Kurama glanced down at yellow hair.

"Knew."

The boy's gaze steadied on the faraway figure.

"Where was he all these years? Shouldn't he have taken me in when my parents died? Doesn't he know that I'm an orphan?"

"Ask him." Kurama thought about coloring Naruto's impression of Jiraiya by mentioning that his godfather was the writer of the Icha Icha books, maybe snidely commenting on the man's frequent trips to the Red Light District. Or He could have told the boy about how the other countries feared and hated his father, and that Jiraiya spent a decade testing the waters of that hatred, but honestly, Kurama saw it as the man running away from the problems in Konoha.

Kurama ended up not saying anything.

Naruto left his side.

"Yo! Ero-Sennin! Pervert! Pervert peeping into the bathhouse! Pervert!"

Kurama spared a moment to relish the surprise on the other man's face as buckets clattered. A horde of angry women rose from their baths to pummel a pervert. Then, he grabbed the back of the boy's collar and high-tailed it out of there.

"Why did you not greet him?" Kurama asked once the duo was safely back inside the town.

Naruto shrugged slightly.

"Revenge for wherever he's been since now; I'll talk to him next time." A bright grin flashed.

Kurama shook his head fondly.

"You may have to catch him soon; that man does not stay in the same place for long," he advised.

Naruto tilted his head cutely.

"Ne, Rama, how do you know all these things?"

A human hand ruffled golden hair.

"It is human nature to run when trouble begins."

Kurama spent Naruto and Jiraiya's bonding time acclimating his new body to his smoke. He inhaled the green gas with a contented sniff.

"-control seals tend to leave lasting scars-"

Kurama snorted back the wisps of green smoke that drifted from his nose; it wouldn't be good for Jiraiya to catch him eavesdropping before he wanted to be discovered.

"-but what if it was specifically tailored? To control just the mental facilities, or restrain the person from physical actions?"

"It's only an insignificant help. The truth is, the brain is too complex for effective complete or semi-control, and physical restraints can be over-ridden by the brain with enough willpower."

"…then, I don't have to worry about Kurama taking over?"

Jiraiya's sharp inhale matched Kurama's own.

"Are you worried about that?"

Naruto shook his head.

"No, but I think Shukaku is controlling Sabaku-san."

Kurama felt the green gas bubbling through his 'blood.' His eyes gleamed. Mebuki and the spare were no use alive anymore, and Kurama knew to what ends their deaths would serve.

He picked up the tea tray that sat on the table, kept warm by pinpricks of foxfire.

"It's his mediocre seal. Resealing him would solve the control problem," Kurama shrugged as he entered through the sliding door. Jiraiya tensed, but Naruto gazed at the red-head carefully as the man sat on the floor, legs tucked gracefully underneath him.

"Will it kill Sabaku?"

Foxy canines lengthened.

"Unlikely."

"Probably," Jiraiya interjected. "The boy's body won't be able to handle the flux of demonic chakra."

"That is, if there is no medium," Kurama purred.

"Medium?" Jiraiya's eyes narrowed.

"Shukaku is a sand demon; sealing him over normal sand would strengthen him, but if you reseal him over sand infused with, let's say, Naruto's chakra, he weakens. Shukaku will be drawn to the sand, but a high concentration of Naruto's special plant/human/demon chakra mixture will trap him." And blood, Kurama thought to himself, soaking the sand with blood would ensure that the blasted tanuki would never be 'pure' enough to mingle with his host for decades.

"And you just so happened to walk by as we were discussing the very issue that you have exclusive knowledge of, and you are just so willing to grant us this information for free," the old man dead-panned.

Oh Jiraiya. So untrusting.

"There's nothing worse than a one-tailed tanuki pretending to be a child's mother. Demons live long enough to have more pride than that," a feral grin, "Besides, there's nothing better for the ego than pinning a demon down against their will."

Jiraiya pondered silently. Granted that you succeeded, it was a pretty good thrill.

"Is that why you made a Zen garden? Because you knew?" Naruto asked quietly, blue eyes drilling holes. Damn that boy. If anyone could spot Kurama's underhand ways, it was his vessel.

"Yes." Kurama steadied his gaze.

"I'll need to research your… theory, and brush up on sealing bijuu." Jiraiya stared at Kurama, who shrugged.

"Go ahead and distrust the demon, who would know the most about other demons-"

"I'm not quite sure that your method wouldn't free Shukaku," Jiraiya snarled back.

"Sabaku no Gaara is unstable; everyone in Suna knows this, so what was the Kazekage's intention in letting loose his jinchuuriki here? Let me tell you, Sannin, that Shukaku's seal will break, whether in his next fight or right as the boy leaves, but the seal will break; you, as a seal master see this as well. When the tanuki escapes, there is only one person who can take it down, Naruto- no, Jiraiya, your jounin and tokubetsu jounin will be of no use; they remember the last war, no?" Kurama's smile was smug. "Naruto can use up to six tails if pressed, and those tails will be necessary. He will not be able to kill the demon because we can only be sealed, you know this, so if Konoha survives, it will because Naruto reseals the demon, but exposes his tails, thus eliciting even more hatred, if that is possible, and fear. If we do this my way, we can reseal Shukaku with no one the wiser; no villagers to see fox tails flying, no more demons roaming.

Tell me, Jiraiya, would you condemn Naruto to an execution?"

Naruto's eyes traced the grains on the wooden wall, his head turned away from the two, the shadows from the sunset streaming shadows tears down his cheeks. Kurama held in a smile because he smelled victory in the air. If Jiraiya refused, Konoha would lose Naruto.

Kurama rose and exited quietly. It was time to execute those pests in his garden.

"Hello, my dear."

Mebuki's screams were softer than the crunch of the other prisoner's femur snapping in two.