Absolute Zero: The Azure Sky

by James D. Fawkes

Jiraiya had always thought Nagato was Rikudo Sennin's reincarnation. But what if he wasn't? Nagato inherited the Sage's power and eyes. What does it mean for Naruto to have inherited the Sage's soul? "Soten ni zase...Hyorinmaru."

4. No More Shallow Dreams

— "You will be the protector of all my children. You will be my sword. You will be my shield."

Absolute Zero: The Azure Sky
By: James D. Fawkes

Chapter Four: No More Shallow Dreams
— o.0.O.O.0.o —

The room was dark and cast in gray-scale. The windows were shut tight and the curtains were fully drawn, and what little light struggled through was dim and pale. Naruto rubbed his eyes and thought again about the dream that had awoken him a scant few minutes before.

But it was little use. The images were fading away like water falling through his fingers, until all he could remember were tiny snippets and short clips of sound — a girl with long silvery hair and bright blue eyes, whose voice dipped from a loud whisper in his ear to barely audible, then back again — "You shall be my Azure Knight," that's what she'd said. Then — "All of water shall be your weapon. All of heaven is yours to command."

Then — then, after that, there'd been something else, he was sure of it, but he couldn't remember what, and then a girl with long dark hair in a black kimono and a white haori with the kanji for "Zero" stitched on the back. Even if he forgot the rest of the dream entirely, he could not forget her and her incredible beauty — and the other girl's voice had come back, too, that was right, and it'd been clearer and something like, "Do you like her? She's the head of my Royal Guard, a warrior that might someday give even you a difficult time."

And then the first girl again, wearing a shimmering silvery gown that appeared woven from liquid moonlight as it fluttered in a nonexistent breeze. And she'd spoken again — "Tsukuyomi has betrayed us" — and given him a sad smile.

Then the girl was offering him a sword, a familiar sword with a familiar blue hilt and star-shaped guard — "A great force; the power it holds can bring salvation or destruction at the whim of the wielder. Do you accept it?"

Then only snippets of conversation, all in that blue-eyed girl's voice.

" — my right hand…"

" — for I will have betrayed —"

" — you have my blessing —"

"— not many can say —"

And on and on it had gone, snatches of speech too garbled and fragmented to understand, until —

"It's time again." She was looking down at him, and she was stroking his hair lovingly and his head was situated in her lap. "I leave it all up to you, Naruto-kun."

And then he had lurched awake, frozen in his bed, covered in cold sweat, and his heart racing. His sheets were frosted over and the alarm clock beside his bed had stopped ticking. The dream, so vivid and so very, very real, was burned into his eyelids and the words echoed in his ears.

Even after an hour of thought, it still didn't make any sense. He didn't recognize any of it — not the first girl, not the strangely formal uniform the second girl was wearing, not the stuff about some Royal Guard — that was for princesses and kings and people like that, right? — not some guy named Tsukuyomi, and definitely not why anyone would want the kanji for "Zero" anywhere on their clothes.

But the black haired girl was startlingly familiar, and his chest gave an unfamiliar clench at the thought of her. She was older, of course, and more mature looking, but if Hinata grew her hair out, then she'd look just like the strange girl in his dream a few years from now. In fact, they could probably pass for sisters.

Naruto peeled his sheets away and sat up, letting his feet fall to the floor. Clothes were strewn about the place haphazardly — all along the floor, hanging from the posts of his bed, slumped over his bedside table and the top of his wardrobe. His room looked as though it had been struck by a hurricane.

"Those people," he thought silently. "That dream — were they…no, memories?"

He reached out to Hyôrinmaru, but was, at that moment, repulsed. The dragon drew himself up and pulled away from Naruto, and it was, for that instant, as though Naruto was alone again. It was as though Hyôrinmaru had never existed. He felt so incredibly hollow and oh so heartrendingly alone.

And then Hyôrinmaru's familiar cool presence came rushing back and sent an oddly comfortable chill down his spine. Naruto let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and sagged in relief.

"I'm sorry," Hyôrinmaru said sadly. A rush of warmth bloomed in Naruto's chest — Hyôrinmaru's way of apologizing, a sort of hug of the heart.

Naruto brushed off the apology — there was nothing to apologize for, and he could never stay angry at his closest confidante. He might get frustrated every now and again, but the one thing that always assured him was the knowledge that everything Hyôrinmaru did was for Naruto's sake, even to the point of sacrificing others sometimes.

"What was that?" Naruto asked silently. "Those images…I feel like I knew those people, like I've met them before, but I've never seen them in my life. Were they…memories? Your memories?"

There was a long moment of silence.

"I'm sorry," Hyôrinmaru said, suddenly curled around him protectively. "You ask me the most important of questions, and yet I cannot answer you. I cannot tell you to whom those memories belonged, nor who the people that appeared in them are. I don't even know why you're seeing them — though, perhaps it's a result of our temporary merge."

"So I'm seeing them because we used Ryûjin no Torai?" Naruto asked with an uncharacteristic quietness.

Hyôrinmaru shifted uneasily, as if he had accidentally revealed more than he intended, then finally said, "Yes. And it is likely that you will continue to see these images in your sleep, and that they will appear to you as flashes of moments, too small to make anything of. I imagine…" And it was incredible, because he had never known Hyôrinmaru to hesitate like that. "I imagine that the only way to make sense of them, to see them all and know their meaning, is for us to merge fully."

Naruto's brow furrowed, "But we can't!" Frustrated, he slammed his fist down on his bedside table, rattling the alarm clock — and it started to tick again. Naruto paid it no mind. "We went as far as we could, and even that was only halfway! And this happened!"

He glared angrily at his bandaged left hand. He wasn't sure how bad it was now, after having a day or two to heal, but when he'd woken up in the hospital and asked what was wrong with it, the nurse had told him that his fingertips had been burned black, and that any normal shinobi would probably have to either gotten them amputated or undergone some intensive surgeries. The doctors had shrugged and brushed it off as chakra burns, but Naruto knew better — the power of Ryûjin no Torai had started to consume him from the inside out, and if the technique hadn't deactivated when he'd lost consciousness, he would have burned to a shriveled crisp.

"You achieved Bankai less than a week ago," Hyôrinmaru said sternly. "You have used it only once — against Gaara — and have little experience handling its full might. I told you, Naruto, that you must normally train ten years to master your Bankai, and I told you that we have never been normal — but that does not mean you don't need to train your Bankai. You are far from being its master and you are far from unlocking its full potential. It's natural that Ryûjin no Torai is incomplete because your Bankai is incomplete."

Naruto cringed, but it was not the scolding that bothered him — he'd been told off too many times to be bothered too much by it — it was the reminder that he was inexperienced with his Bankai. And that reminder only served to remind him of the consequences of his inexperience.

The fight with Gaara had been an intense one, and even though Naruto constantly told himself he could have found a way to win without his Bankai, he could still not find a better solution. At the time, he'd been cornered and boxed in and had nothing else he could have done (except summoning, but he'd never summoned the Boss before, so there was no point risking it when he couldn't be sure he'd actually manage, especially when he also ran the risk of crushing his teammates underfoot). He hadn't really been thinking about the consequences at the time, nor the magnitude of his Bankai and the amount of area it would cover.

That had been his mistake.

Hyôrinmaru was an ice-type, and his Bankai was no different. But when he'd activated it and his reiatsu flooded the forest, covering everything in frost, the one thing he'd forgotten to take into account was his comrades: he had completely forgotten about Sasuke and Sakura, had completely forgotten that they were only a few branches away, unable to move. And it had cost them dearly.

The doctors had told him that it was touch and go for a while, but that both should make a full recovery. That did little to soothe Naruto, who had been haunted by the images of their frozen, blackened fingers and toes since the moment he'd seen them. And he had promised himself, no more Bankai. Not if those were the consequences. The boost of power wasn't worth his friends' lives or careers.

"What is the point of mistakes, Naruto?" Hyôrinmaru asked. Naruto was startled out of his thoughts.

"That doesn't mean anything!" Naruto sputtered. "If I had just —"

"What is the point of mistakes, Naruto?" Hyôrinmaru asked again, a little more forceful. Naruto frowned and looked down at his feet. The floor was suddenly very interesting.

"To learn from them," he muttered quietly.

"In the heat of battle, you forgot the consequences of your actions and forgot about your teammates, and so they paid the price," Hyôrinmaru explained. "But they still live, and are likely to make a full recovery. And so you have learned your lesson. You understand now the true magnitude of your power, and you understand why I told you that your Bankai is not to be unleashed lightly. You understand what it means to hold the power of the heavens themselves at your beck and call."

There was a pause, and the message sunk in fully. Yes, Naruto understood now. He understood why Hyôrinmaru had stopped him from using his Bankai against Neji, and why Hyôrinmaru had always stressed just how powerful a Bankai actually was. He understood the old adage the Hokage had once quoted at him long ago — "With Great power comes Great responsibility."

"Nonetheless," Hyôrinmaru said, "using your Bankai was not your mistake — indeed, Bankai was the most feasible option you had in that situation. Rather, your mistake was forgetting to move your teammates out of the line of fire. And you have learned from that mistake, so there is nothing to be gained from lecturing you now. There are…other things to worry about today."

But that did nothing to make Naruto feel better, because today was also the day of the Hokage's funeral — a reminder not only of his failure to save someone he held dear, but that he had indeed lost his oldest friend, who had loved him as he would his own grandson for as long as Naruto could remember.

Naruto did not cry. He had cried all his tears already, and somehow, a small part of him had already accepted the truth that he didn't want to: Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen was dead, and he wasn't coming back.

But that was still no comfort. That he had started to accept it did not change the fact that it was true, that his oldest friend, the first person to believe in him, the first person to care for him, the man he had looked up to and loved as much as he would any member of his family (especially since he had none), was dead and gone.

It did not change the fact that it was Orochimaru's fault.

It did not change the fact that he, for the first time, understood Sasuke's desire for vengeance.

Hyôrinmaru said nothing — he knew best of all that words couldn't comfort Naruto when he'd lost someone — and vanished into the air when a knock sounded from the door, which opened a moment later to reveal Hatake Kakashi dressed all in black. His little orange book was conspicuously absent.

"Naruto," Kakashi said solemnly. "It's time."

Naruto nodded. "I'll be with you in a minute, sensei."

Kakashi nodded back and closed the door behind him. Naruto stood and shucked off his pajamas, pulling on a black shirt and pants quietly. They fit perfectly, but felt oddly constricting and suffocating. He wanted nothing more than to tear them back off and burn them, but steeled himself and ignored it. Everyone would be wearing it, he reminded himself, even Sasuke and Sakura, so he couldn't just put on his usual clothing.

With everything in place, he forced himself forward and through the door. Kakashi sat staring off into space at the small table where Naruto usually ate breakfast. He looked up at Naruto and stood wordlessly. It was not a time for talk. Neither of them appreciated useless platitudes about how Sarutobi was in a better place now. Because of how they'd grown up and how they'd lived their lives, Naruto and Kakashi appreciated their loved ones more than most. Now, Sandaime was dead. Words could never make it better.

"Let's go," Kakashi said at length. "We shouldn't be late."

In another time and place, Naruto might have laughed or gawked and wondered who had replaced his sensei, because Kakashi was practically synonymous with late. If you looked up 'late' in the dictionary, Naruto would have joked, you'd find a picture of Kakashi staring up at you.

But now was not the time or the place.

"Yeah."

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

It was already raining when Naruto took his place between Iruka and his teammates. Sasuke and Sakura said nothing, and though their hands and feet were wrapped in thick gauze and several fingers were splinted, both of them were whole and relatively undamaged. Whatever wounds they'd suffered because of him seemed to be healing quite nicely.

The rain showed no signs of stopping as the large crowd of mourners paid their respects one by one. They were all, like Naruto, dressed in black, and it seemed almost as though the entire village had shown up, from the tall, rotund Akimichi to the stone-faced Hyuga to Yuuhi Kurenai, Hinata's sensei. The only one who seemed to be missing was Kakashi, who had vanished somewhere along the line while Naruto hadn't been paying attention.

"The sky is crying," he heard Asuma — Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji's sensei — mutter quietly.

No one else really spoke, and Naruto was dimly aware that the funeral honored all of the ninja who had given their lives for Konoha during the invasion, not simply the Sandaime, but all the other pictures propped up at the front of the procession seemed like featureless blobs. They were complete strangers, and though the more altruistic part of him mourned them, the Hokage was the only one he really cared about.

The rain fell heavier and soaked into his clothes, dripping down over his cheeks and off his chin. He thought absently that it must look like he was crying. It was a strange, odd sort of feeling that he couldn't really describe, except that his stomach gave a gentle lurch. A mild case of indigestion — that's sort of what it felt like.

Everything seemed surreal. He felt lost, standing there amongst hundreds of unfamiliar faces. It didn't feel real. It didn't feel like it was happening to him. It seemed more than anything like he was watching someone else's life. It was like he was watching some stranger stand in his place, staring listlessly at the face of the man who had been his oldest and kindest friend.

Why? He wondered silently. Why did the old man have to die? His fists clenched tightly and his fingernails carved crescents into the flesh of his palms. Why was it that everyone he cared about was dying around him? First Haku, who had befriended him despite the fact that they were enemies, and then the old man, who had been the closest he'd ever had to family. Who would die next? Sakura? Sasuke? Kakashi? Iruka?

…Hinata?

Frustration welled up in his belly. He'd never felt so helpless before, not like he did now, not like he had that day atop the stadium, watching the old man's life wither and vanish before his very eyes. He'd gotten so much stronger since becoming a Genin, since Kakashi's bell test, since Wave, since the Forest of Death. Did it mean nothing? Was all that strength useless?

Even if he got stronger, perfected his Bankai and completed the full form of Ryûjin no Torai, would it even matter? Or would everyone and everything he cared about just…disappear, like so much dust in the wind?

Konohamaru bursting into tears jerked him from his thoughts. He glanced to Iruka's other side, where the younger boy stood, rubbing his eyes and crying, and immediately felt guilty. Naruto had already lost someone, so he was familiar with the cacophony of what ifs that bounced around in his head. Konohamaru was innocent. He'd never had to lose someone he loved before. And now Naruto felt ashamed that he couldn't protect that innocence, and that he couldn't say anything to make it better. What kind of hero was he if he couldn't even stop a kid from crying?

Before he knew it, it was Hinata's turn, and she laid her single white flower atop the pedestal and bowed to it. Her lips moved silently for a moment, then she stood again and moved back to her place in line. Pearly tears made silent tracks down her face, but other than the slight downturn of her lips and the knitting of her brow, her face didn't betray whatever she must have been feeling.

Shino was next, and after him, it was finally Naruto's turn, and as his feet carried him forward, he felt utterly numb. Every step took forever, and it seemed an eternity must have passed before he stood in front of the Sandaime's picture. He lifted his right hand and turned his eyes down to his palm. It was empty.

The rain swirled and bent above his hand, curving inwards and slowly coalescing into a shape. First came the long, thin stem, then the smooth, narrow leaves, then the petals that bloomed and curled outwards at the tops. Bit by bit, drop by drop, a perfect rose formed in his palm. It was made entirely of ice and etched with exquisite detail, something a sculptor might have made.

A myriad of thoughts and things he wanted to say burst to life in his brain as he set the rose down with the white lilies everyone else had offered. He wanted to tell the old man that he'd miss him. He wanted to ask him why he'd had to die. He wanted to promise revenge, that Orochimaru wouldn't get away with what he'd done. He wanted to cry and rage and shout about how unfair it all was.

In the end, his hand fell back to his side impotently, and he simply said, "Thanks…Jii-chan."

Thanks for everything.

He turned back and took his place in line again. The swirl of emotions rose up inside him again, and he felt then that he understood Sasuke a little better. He had just lost the closest thing he'd ever had to family. How must Sasuke have felt, then, to lose everyone he had ever loved, all in one night and all to the same man?

But there was a fundamental difference to the two of them. Naruto would not go out of his way to seek out Orochimaru. He would train, he would get stronger, and then when their paths crossed again (and they would, if the Forest of Death was any indication), he would kill Orochimaru, but he would not dedicate his entire life to it, and he would not abandon his friends for the sake of revenge. If he did that, then it wouldn't matter if Orochimaru died or not, because he'd win in the end, and Naruto would be left with nothing but emptiness.

But Orochimaru would die. Naruto would make sure of it.

The rest of the funeral went by in a blur, and before he knew it, it was all over and everyone was leaving for home. Naruto silently watched his team head off somberly, saying their goodbyes to one another and turning to go their separate ways (including Kakashi, who seemed to have appeared again when he wasn't looking), then spun on his heel and vanished.

He reappeared on an empty street, already in the middle of taking a step, and continued forward absentmindedly. What now? He wondered as the pounding rain filled his ears with a loud buzz. What was going to happen now? Who was going to be the Godaime? Who had made Chunin, if anyone had, during the Finals? When would missions start up again?

And, most importantly, how was he going to get stronger?

"Hey, kid," a familiar voice called quietly. Naruto stopped, then turned to look at who had spoken and blinked as rain trickled down over his brow and bled into his eyes. There, leaning up against the wall of a shop, arms folded across his chest and face serious, was Jiraiya. And, Naruto realized enviously, he was dry.

Naruto frowned, then turned away and made to continue on. He was going to go back home and collapse onto his bed, and try to forget the dull pain in his chest and the hollow emptiness in his stomach. He didn't have to patience to deal with Jiraiya right now.

"Go away, Ero-Sennin," he said quietly. "I don't want to bother with your nonsense right now."

"I know how you feel," Jiraiya told him abruptly. Naruto stopped again, and had to squash the sudden anger that surged in his belly as he realized that it was probably true. Jiraiya was one of the Sannin, and they were taught by the Sandaime, right? So Jiraiya had lost his teacher. He did have a pretty good idea of how Naruto felt right then. "What're you gonna do now?"

"Get stronger," he declared solemnly. "So that the next time I see Orochimaru, I can kill him."

"Are you really going to try killing Orochimaru?" Jiraiya asked. "That's not an easy task, you know."

"I almost had him." Naruto revealed. "On the roof. I almost had him. If that freak with six arms hadn't knocked me out from behind, I would've killed that bastard then and there. I would've…"

He trailed off.

"What's it matter, anyhow? You did your part, right? The Chunin Exams are over. I beat Neji. You don't have to train me anymore."

Jiraiya snorted. "Give me a little more credit than that, brat. I'm not gonna stop training you just because the Exams are over. When did I ever say I would? Besides." He grinned. "I've got a mission for us. Just you and me. No Kakashi, Sasuke, or Sakura to get in the way."

Something stirred in Naruto's belly, something he recognized as the beginnings of excitement, and he turned back to Jiraiya slowly. "Mission?"

"Yep," Jiraiya nodded. "And, hey, I'll even teach you a really kickass technique along the way. It's even stronger than that Chidori Kakashi taught to Sasuke. So, what do you say? You feel like coming with me?"

Naruto grinned, and suddenly felt much lighter than he had in days. A mission, just him and Jiraiya and learning all the kickass jutsu he could while they traveled the countryside. How could he resist?

"When do we leave?"

"A week from today," Jiraiya said. "We're going to look for a teammate of mine so we can bring her back here for something. We might be gone for a while, so make sure you pack enough to last you about a month."

Naruto nodded. "Right!"

He turned to leave but had only taken a single step forward before Jiraiya's voice stopped him again.

"Naruto. This mission…" there was a slight hesitation. "We might see Orochimaru while we're away. With his arms the way they are, my teammate, Tsunade, the one we're going to be looking for, might be the only one capable of healing him. If we do see him, I don't want you doing something stupid in the name of revenge. Understand?"

There was a moment's pause.

"You don't have to worry about that, Ero-Sennin." Naruto said quietly. "I'm gonna be Hokage someday! I've got too much to live for to throw my life away for something like that."

Jiraiya gave a hum of understanding, then vanished with a puff of smoke, leaving Naruto alone in the rain again. But he felt better now. The weight of his own pain was lighter, easier to carry. It was true that the Sandaime was dead, and that he wasn't coming back, but Naruto still had people who cared for him and people that he cared for, too. As long as he had them, he'd be all right.

Because he wasn't alone.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

The rain that had soaked the Sandaime's funeral did not last longer than a day, so the day after was bright and sunny, even though the ground was still pretty wet. So, figuring that he really didn't have anything better to do, Naruto decided to make good on his promise to Hinata and take her to Ichiraku's for Ramen, and that was how he found himself slurping noodles while he regaled her with the story of his first C-Rank mission. She was the perfect audience, gasping and oohing and awing at all the right parts.

"…and then this HUGE sword came out of nowhere!" he told her between bites. She had already finished eating, and her single bowl sat innocently on the counter as she devoted her entire attention to him. He himself was on his third bowl and had no intention of stopping any time soon. "And Kakashi-sensei pulled up his headband and was like, 'Momochi Zabuza, missing-nin of Kirigakure no Sato…Against you, I'll have to go all out.' And Zabuza was like, 'Hand over the old man and I'll let you live.' So Kakashi-sensei said —" slurp, chew, swallow, "—'I can't do that.' So Zabuza went, 'Then I guess we'll have to fight.'"

Naruto paused to eat some more, finished his third bowl, and started on his fourth — it gave him a moment to gather his memories of that day. Hinata was eyeing him with something akin to disbelief.

"Zabuza-san sounds scary," she said with quiet awe.

"Oh, he was nothing," Naruto promised, grinning. "I mean, he did capture Kakashi-sensei for a little bit there, but Sasuke and I managed to free him all on our own! And Zabuza was really a big softie on the inside! He just didn't…" he trailed off. Everything was coming back — the fear, the anger, the determination that had burned inside him, the righteous fury for Zabuza's coldhearted dismissal of his partner's death. Haku, Naruto remembered. Zabuza had loved Haku like his own child, and Haku had sacrificed herself for Zabuza. Haku, the first person to really understand Naruto's pain, had died right before his eyes. "He just didn't…show it all that well," he finished somberly.

Hinata's hand came to rest comfortingly on his own, and when he looked back up at her, her cheeks were aflame but her eyes were resolute. He was seeing that other Hinata, he realized, the same girl that had fought Neji and refused to stay down. He was seeing the same girl who had defended her home during the invasion with all the ferocity of a mother lioness.

"W-What happened?" she asked.

There was a long pause, and he looked down into his half-empty bowl of noodles. Ayame and Teuchi had disappeared to give them some privacy. He suddenly didn't have much of an appetite.

"After the fight," he said at length, "Zabuza was down. Kakashi-sensei was going in for the kill, but an Oinin from Kirigakure used senbon to do him in and took his body — except that it wasn't really an Oinin, it was Zabuza's partner, Haku. Kakashi-sensei fainted from chakra exhaustion right after, and when he woke up, he told us that Zabuza was actually alive."

He paused, and she gave his hand a comforting squeeze.

"After that, we trained. Kakashi-sensei taught us the Tree Climbing exercise. Sakura finished it right away, so she went to the bridge to protect old man Tazuna while Sasuke and I kept going. One day, I woke up on the forest floor to a really pretty girl, who was gathering herbs for her sick friend. She explained to me, 'A person is strongest when they have something to protect.' A week or so later, Zabuza showed up with his partner and attacked the bridge. Kakashi-sensei fought Zabuza and Sasuke fought his partner. I didn't show up until later because I'd slept in from training too much. I helped Sasuke, but neither of us stood a chance."

He swallowed thickly.

"Zabuza's partner used his senbon to put Sasuke in the same fake-death state he'd used on Zabuza. I thought Sasuke was dead, and after that, it gets fuzzy. I beat him up, broke the Kekkei Genkai technique he'd been using on me and Sasuke, and split his mask in half — only, it wasn't Zabuza's partner under the mask. It was that girl from the forest. She told me to kill her, and when I refused, she explained to me that she didn't have a purpose anymore if she couldn't serve Zabuza. She told me that her father had killed her mother for having a Kekkei Genkai, and that she'd been forced to kill her father in self-defense, and that her life after that was an orphan's hell — until he came and saved her."

He could feel the hot tears forming at the corners of his eyes, the tears he had never cried for Haku before. He sniffled and wiped his nose on a napkin. Hinata clasped his hand in both of hers and rubbed soothing circles over the backs of his knuckles.

"What h-happened to her?" she prompted gently.

"She died," Naruto said numbly. "She took Kakashi-sensei's assassination technique to the chest and died protecting Zabuza. She died saving the man who gave her a reason to live."

She died before he'd really gotten the chance to know her…

He slammed his fist against the counter and squeezed Hinata's hand painfully tight as the tears spilled out over his cheeks and carved burning paths over his whisker marks. She flinched, but did not let go. All of the emotions that had boiled inside of him since that day, the ones he'd pushed aside and hadn't really dealt with, burst inside his chest like an overinflated balloon. The memories of his childhood, his years of chilling loneliness, fed the flames. That day on the bridge, he'd lost someone who could have become his best friend. A good tantrum, a small part of him thought, was long overdue.

"She didn't have to die!" Naruto declared vehemently. "She didn't have to sacrifice herself like that!" He choked out a sob. It wasn't fair."Why did she have to die? I'd finally met someone, someone who knew what it was like to be hated and shunned for something you couldn't control. And then she died, just like that!"

She died before they could really be friends. She died before he could tell her that he understood her better than she realized, before he could tell her about the ghastly beast that had shadowed him every second of his life — the first person he would have actually told.

He looked down and gingerly rubbed his stomach, where he knew the seal holding the Kyubi was drawn, "I'd…finally found someone who…who understood what it was like to be an outcast because of something that'd happened to you before you could even walk…"

Hinata's fingers stopped cold and her eyes went impossibly wide. He remembered only then the implications that would have, and how much more it would mean to a Hyuga, whose clan used a Juinjutsu to mark and subjugate the members of their Cadet Branch.

"Naruto-kun," she began bewilderedly, "what…?"

He froze and looked at her with a growing pit of horrified realization gnawing at his stomach. He'd said too much. He had almost revealed the Kyubi, the seal, the circumstances of the day he was born. He'd almost told his friend, his newest and most familiar friend, a secret that could cause her to hate him. He couldn't risk that. "Please don't ask!" he said desperately, because he'd break if she did. "Please, Hinata-chan!"

But she just looked at him, eyes wide, mouth open, silent and unmoving. His face fell. He turned away. He couldn't bear to look. Any second now, she would ask, and when she did, he would tell her about the Kyubi. He wouldn't be able to stop himself. And when he told her, she would understand, and she would hate him, and he just didn't know if he could take that kind of rejection —

She moved. He heard her stool creak as she stood and her hands left his. His heart sunk. She was leaving, she didn't want anything to do with him anymore, and it hurt so bad, why did it have to hurt so bad — except she hadn't left. Her arms wrapped around him and pulled him to her as her chin settled on his shoulder. She hugged him tight, but not too tight, just enough to anchor him, and the relief that surged through him had never felt so good before.

"Y-you don't have to say anything," she whispered in his ear. "I-it's your problem. A-a deep, d-deep problem. I don't have to know. I-I don't h-have a method of stepping into your h-heart without getting it d-dirty. So I'll wait. When you w-want to t-tell me, w-when you think i-it's okay to tell me…Tell me. Until then, I'll wait."

A slight smile, not a grin, but a real, genuine smile, curled on his lips. He reached up and grasped her hands in his. They were soft and delicate, but strong. They were warm.

"Thanks, Hinata-chan."

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

The sun had already risen when Naruto stared out the village gates and into the world beyond. It was warm against his shoulders and the back of his neck, but not uncomfortable, and in the distance, a flock of birds chirped a good morning to the rest of the world. It was strangely peaceful, and there wasn't even a hint of rainclouds on the horizon.

He could not help the smile that curled his lips, nor the restless energy that rushed through his veins like fire. He was about to go on a mission — the kind that wasn't technically official, that didn't have a rank and could be anything from a simple C to a dangerous and exciting A.

Or — dare he even hope — S.

The pack on his back was strangely light, he mused to himself. He could remember the mission to Wave, how his backpack had felt like a lead weight after the first hour or two of walking. Now, it was like it wasn't even there. For all the difference it would have made, it might as well have been empty.

But he wanted to get moving. He'd already been waiting for nearly half an hour. He wanted to get started already, leave the village for the mission and beat up some bad guys along the way. Because if this lady was as good as everyone said she was, good enough to maybe even heal Orochimaru's arms, then she had to be good enough to help Lee.

Right?

Oh, who was he kidding? He just wanted to see some action and learn some new jutsu. Finding that Tsunade lady so she could heal Lee was nice, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't just as interested in learning that technique Jiraiya had promised, the one even better than Sasuke's Chidori.

"Hey, kid, ready to go?"

Jiraiya's voice snapped Naruto from his thoughts, and he turned his head to see the older man standing a ways behind him, hand on his hip and grinning like the cat that ate the canary.

"Sure, Ero-Sennin," Naruto said. Jiraiya's grin dropped and his eyebrow twitched.

"I thought I told you not to call me that!" Jiraiya yelled furiously, a vein throbbing dangerously on his forehead. "It's Jiraiya! Jiraiya, damn it! Say it with me! Ji – rai – ya!"

Naruto stuck out his tongue, then faced back to the gate and laughed loudly. The image of Jiraiya's face — his eyebrow twitching, his teeth bared, his eyes wide and furious as a vein on his neck pulsed — was hilarious. He suddenly understood how Kakashi felt when he himself got all worked up.

"Naruto-kun!"

Naruto turned around mid-laugh and his mouth was still pulled into a broad grin when a cream-and-indigo blur launched itself into his chest like a missile. The remaining air in his lungs left his mouth in a sudden whoosh as a thin pair of arms wrapped tightly around his midsection. He turned his head, buried his nose in familiar strands of bluish black hair, and took a sniff. Lavender.

Hinata.

His arms lifted of their own accord and curled around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. She took in a short sharp gasp, and he could feel at that moment the rapid thump, thump, thump of her heart beating in tandem with his own. Her breath came in quick, anxious pants in his ear and her cheek was hot against his face. When they pulled away from each other a few moments later, Hinata's entire head had flushed a bright red that reached halfway down her neck. Her eyes fluttered, and it seemed it was all she could do to keep herself from fainting.

The feeling that squirmed in his belly was at once wonderful and terrifying.

Her head bowed down and she looked up at him shyly from under the neat line of her dark bangs. Her face grew impossibly redder and her arms wiggled a nervous pattern against the small of his back. Her mouth opened and closed several times soundlessly before she finally spoke. "A-Ano, Naruto-kun…B-be safe?"

A pleasant jolt shot through his stomach and his own cheeks flared as a huge grin pulled at his lips. It felt so…amazing to have someone to wish him well as he was leaving for a mission. Was this what everyone else felt when their parents told them stuff like "come home soon" and "we'll miss you"?

"You know me, Hinata-chan," he said brightly.

"Th-that's why I worry," she replied, and then her cheeks flushed brilliant red again. Naruto could hardly believe it — Hinata, who was often so worried about offending him that she didn't joke at his expense when he practically handed it to her, had just teased him. He couldn't help the laugh that burst from his mouth, and though she didn't join him, she did smile. It was a start.

"I'll be fine," he told her seriously, still smiling. It was impossible to describe exactly what he felt then, to know that someone cared so much — it was like he was walking on air, invincible and untouchable, and he'd never be sad again.

She looked down again and her fingers curled in his vest, then she looked back up and darted forward to peck him once on the cheek. Her cheeks bloomed red again, and he did not need a mirror to know his had as well.

"I-I'll miss you," she murmured quietly.

"I'll be back soon," he promised her softly.

"Oi, Naruto!" Jiraiya's voice called. "Quit with the romancing and let's get going!"

Hinata let out a squeak that sounded something like 'eep!' and the blush on her cheeks spread to consume the rest of her face and a good portion of her neck. Naruto ignored the rush of blood to his own face to concentrate on his retort.

"Yeah, yeah! Keep your shorts on, you old pervert!" Naruto called back. He ignored the response of "I don't hear you denying it!" and turned towards Hinata again, smiled, and pulled her into quick hug. "See you later, Hinata-chan."

Because she had become his best friend, this girl who leant him an ear when he needed one and a shoulder those rare moments when he couldn't stop the tears, this girl who was both nearly identical to him, yet also his exact opposite, and who never once thought him stupid or silly when he wasn't trying to be. This girl was his best friend. This girl was his best friend.

"Bye," she mumbled as he pulled away.

"Hurry up, brat!" Jiraiya said as Naruto jogged to catch up with him. "I want to make it back in time for the Tanabata Festival next month. Noone celebrates Tanabata as well as Konoha does."

Tanabata? Damn, Naruto thought, it had crept up on him. Was it really only a month away? March, April, June, July — August. Next month was August. August thirteenth was Tanabata this year, the most celebrated festival of the year, even bigger than the October tenth victory celebration that marked both his birthday and the day the Kyubi was defeated. The Tanabata Festival, which he planned on going to with Hinata (she was so sheltered! He'd get her away from those stuffy, stuck-up relatives of hers and show her a good time, he swore it!).

But Tanabata was still a month away, and finding that Tsunade lady shouldn't take that long, should it? Besides, there was other stuff that needed to be done first. Worrying about the Tanabata Festival could wait until later.

"I wanna be back in time for it, too," Naruto told him. He fell in step slightly behind Jiraiya, blindly fishing around in his backpack. "But you're the one who knows where we're going, so lead the way."

"Alright, alright," Jiraiya grumbled, "let's just get going."

Naruto's hand finally closed around something soft and crinkly, and as Jiraiya led the way down the road and the gates of Konoha disappeared behind them, he pulled a carefully folded letter from his backpack. He'd found it sitting on his kitchen table with a pair of scrolls that morning and hadn't yet had the chance to read it.

He unfolded the letter gently so as not to tear the delicate rice paper, and found enclosed within it a picture of a beautiful red-haired green-eyed woman who was very much pregnant standing in front of and holding hands with a blue-eyed man with spiky blond hair — Yondaime Hokage, he realized suddenly. They were both smiling at the camera and seemed very much in love.

But what did the Yondaime and his wife — girlfriend, lover, whatever she was — have to do with him?

He lifted the photo out of the way, found the beginning of the letter, and started to read.

Naruto-kun, it began without preamble. The words were written with precise black brushstrokes.

If you are reading this, then Kakashi has executed my will and you will have been given two other scrolls. Ordinarily, a Genin would not be trusted with the information enclosed within them, but if Kakashi believes you are mature enough to inherit such a powerful ancestral weapon from your mother's clan, then I believe I can trust you with these scrolls and the secrets they contain — a trust that I could not lay on the shoulders of any other ninja, for fear of what might become of these secrets. You, Naruto-kun, possess both the unwavering dedication to moral righteousness and love for the village necessary for that trust. And it does not hurt that you are low-ranked enough to carry these secrets without suspicion, nor that your incredible charisma can turn even a timid girl like Hyuga Hinata-chan into a fierce kunoichi. No one would dare believe I would share these secrets with you.

One scroll details the truth of the Uchiha Massacre, the whole and unedited truth as I know it. That scroll is intended for my student, Jiraiya, and though I would prefer that you never read it, I know there is nothing I can do to stop you. Please make sure Jiraiya receives it; I could not leave it to him directly lest I attract unwanted attention. Enclosed within it is a set orders that Jiraiya must ensure are delivered.

The second scroll is a guide to Fuin Jutsu that your father wrote shortly before your birth. It is uniquely designed — it starts out with beginner techniques, and the reader must have a complete grasp of those techniques before he moves on because he must unseal the next level of techniques using what he has already learned, and so on and so forth, moving steadily upwards in complexity and difficulty, until, knowing your father, you reach the pinnacle of Fuin Jutsu: your father's Hiraishin no Jutsu.

This scroll was written for you, and I have no doubt that many of the Uzumaki clan's legendary sealing techniques are included in it as well. I have not read it, nor has anyone else, but I estimate that it would take the average ninja ten years to master everything that is in that scroll. That is why I have unwavering faith that you will master it in two.

And now that I have hit upon that subject, I think once again of the maturity you have shown recently and the statement it makes for Kakashi to have given you such a priceless heirloom. So I have decided there is no reason for me to keep this secret from you any longer.

Your mother, Naruto-kun, was a beautiful red-headed woman named Uzumaki Kushina. She, like you, was a very boisterous and excitable person, and she loved you since the moment she realized she was going to be a mother. She was also the previous host of the very beast currently sealed in your belly. She died as I once told you, when you asked me that time so many years ago, protecting you from the Kyubi.

Your father was a tall man with blond hair and blue eyes the same as yours. He, too, possessed an incredible charisma, though his was of a different kind, and he was an incredibly capable ninja. His name was Namikaze Minato, the very man who went on to become both my successor and predecessor, the Yondaime Hokage, and he loved you no less than your mother did.

And now that I have told you this, I must ask that you keep it a secret. Your father made many enemies, enemies who would gladly burst through the village gates to take their revenge on you if they knew you were his son. When you are strong enough, strong enough to have your name carved into history, that is when you can stand tall and proudly announce to the world that the Yellow Flash was your father.

Humbly and always yours,
Sarutobi Hiruzen
Sandaime Hokage

Naruto did not know right away how to react to what had just been revealed to him, and the bittersweet love he had always held for his parents, now Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato, whose names he had not known even a day ago, did not make it any easier to decide whether he should be furious that his father was the man who had essentially ensured his life would be miserable or proud he was the son of his hero.

His mother was much easier, and he could not find even the slightest ounce of resentment for her in his body. This was the woman who had brought him into the world, who had loved him enough to sacrifice her life for him mere moments after he was born. It made his heart ache, because he had lost her before he'd even had the chance to know her.

He looked at the picture again, at his mother's smiling face. Mother. He tried the word, curling his lips and tongue around it silently. Mom. Something warm filled his belly, and wet tears prickled at the corners of his eyes. Uzumaki Kushina. Mom.

He was struck by a sudden wild idea, then, to tear his father's face out of the picture, but he had barely considered it before his heart gave a shuddering, rebellious throb. He turned his eyes to his father's visage, smiling and brilliant as he rested one gentle hand on his wife's swollen belly, as proud as any father could be, and found he couldn't do it. Whatever else had happened, his father had loved him dearly, enough to sacrifice himself for his son's sake. And whatever else had happened, that counted for something. It had to.

He handled the picture gently, folding it back into the letter and holding it to his chest. This was his proof. This was the proof he had that his parents had loved him.

And that — that was worth everything.

"Mom. Dad. I love you."

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

Though Naruto had truly been frustrated that Jiraiya had left him alone in order to woo an attractive woman who had done nothing more than look in his direction, he was also sort of thankful. There had been no time to sit down and open the scroll about the Uchiha Massacre for the day and a half they had been walking on the road — no privacy to read it without Jiraiya looking over his shoulder when Naruto wasn't even sure exactly what he would find (and his curiosity refused to let Jiraiya see it before he did).

So, while a little upset about being blown off for a pretty face without even being given a technique to practice, the first thing Naruto had done when he got back to their shared hotel room was to lay the Uchiha Massacre scroll on his bed and roll it open. After glancing around one more time to make sure that no one else was around, he began to read.

It had only taken the first paragraph to make his stomach squirm.

But it was like a watching someone burn to death; once he had started, he couldn't stop reading, and the pit in his stomach grew and grew. His blood had turned cold and his fingers shook with horror. More than once, his stomach had threatened to rebel.

All those people…An entire clan…Gone, because the clan leaders had let their pride get the better of them. Pride — what a stupid thing to let your family die for. What a stupid thing to risk a civil war for.

When he got to the part about the Massacre itself, when Danzo went behind Sarutobi's back and ordered Itachi to kill the clan, and unrolled the scroll to read on, a carefully folded letter fell out. It was addressed to Uchiha Itachi. Naruto pocketed it and read on.

The Sandaime's report on the clan's deaths was brutal and detached, and Naruto suspected in the back of his mind that it was taken almost verbatim from what Itachi had probably said when he reported the incident. But the fact that it was unbiased and straightforward did nothing for the queasy feeling in Naruto's belly as he read the finer details of what had happened — thankfully, Itachi had not prolonged any of his kills. Each Uchiha who had died had died swiftly — most, in fact, had been killed in their sleep. Naruto could take a little comfort in that. It was hard enough to read all the gory details, but it would have been worse to read about these people being tortured and dying slow, painful deaths.

When he finished, Naruto rolled the scroll back up and hid it in his bag again. He wasn't quite sure what to think right then, whether he should be disillusioned with the man he had considered a grandfather or decide that what had happened was a necessary evil, done to protect the people of Konoha at the cost of one rebellious clan.

He wasn't sure how long he had been sitting there thinking when a knock sounded from the door. He rose from the bed and slung Hyôrinmaru back over his shoulder, and for all the turmoil boiling in his brain, he found comfort in the familiar icy chill that swept down his spine.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Naruto shouted as a second, much more insistent knock resounded throughout the room and echoed off of the walls. He reached up, twisted the lock, and pulled the door open.

Cool red Sharingan was what he saw first — and he only knew a single person who had the Sharingan in both eyes. But what was Sasuke doing here?

"Hello, Naruto-kun," but the voice was all wrong, too deep and too smooth. And he was too tall and his hair was too long and the clothing was too weird for Sasuke's taste. No, this wasn't Sasuke, and there was only one other Uchiha left besides Sasuke. This had to be Itachi, the one who had killed his entire clan in the space of a single night and spared only his little brother. But what was he doing here? "We'd like you to come with us."

A taller, blue-skinned man moved to stand next to him, gazing down at Naruto with a skeptical look, "Is this brat really the Kyubi's vessel?"

"Come out of the room," Itachi commanded, and Naruto felt himself obeying and stepping outside of the room's safety.

"Alright!" the blue man cried excitedly, grasping the yellow hilt of the object on his back. "Let's get this started. After all, we don't need him running away! Let's cut off a leg!"

Alarm bells went off inside of Naruto brain and he came to the sudden realization that he was in danger and there was no one there to help him. Hyôrinmaru was free and in his hand in a flash, and he swung at the smaller of his new enemies, who had no visible weapons with which to defend himself.

Itachi held up two fingers and blocked Hyôrinmaru effortlessly (Naruto should have expected it — S-Rank ninja were on a whole other level from guys like Neji). Then the calm, stoic look faded into a frown as blood trickled down his hand — a jolt of triumph leapt through Naruto's stomach. He might not have done much, but the fact that he had cut Itachi, even if it was only the equivalent of a paper cut, meant that Itachi could be cut, and that meant that Naruto had a chance, however small.

But a hallway was no place to be having a sword fight, and it was especially not a place to be using all of his incredibly destructive Ninjutsu. He needed to get them out of the hotel and out of the city.

He grinned and blurted out the first thing to come to mind. "Catch me if you can!"

He leapt backwards and thrust himself out and away with Shunpô, and the world around him blurred and flickered as he navigated his way through the hotel's halls and stairs, then across the streets and around the people, who would probably feel only a swift breeze as he passed. He did not need to look behind himself to know that Itachi and his blue-skinned partner were following him, and he paused only occasionally to stick his tongue out at them.

He screeched to a halt in a huge clearing just outside of the city. A large building stood at the edge of one side and a wall of trees guarded the other. A moment later, his pursuers landed across from him, undaunted and not even breathing hard. He took in a deep breath and wondered what it would take to beat them, and if he even could beat them.

"I guess you guys…wouldn't just leave, right?" he asked. Itachi's eyes narrowed and the blue-skinned man chuckled darkly. Naruto's fingers tightened around his sword. "Damn it. Why's all the crazy stuff gotta happen to me?"

He suddenly whipped through a set of hand seals and Itachi's eyes went wide for a moment, then he sped through a seal chain, too. The air around them condensed and shimmered, then formed into the shape of a dragon and leapt at the two men in black. "Suiton: Suiryûdan!" Naruto called.

But Itachi was prepared — "Suiton: Suijinheki!" — and a wall of water exploded out of the dirt and grass and protected him and his partner, then both techniques splashed uselessly to the ground. Shark-man started his own chain, but Naruto sped through another set and yanked control of the water that Itachi's sidekick had been shaping and used it himself.

"Sensatsu Suishô!" Naruto named it.

But, again, Itachi was faster, and a blazing wall of fire turned the needles into steam as Itachi spun on his heel and turned the Gôkakyû that Naruto had seen Sasuke use once or twice into a shield. It would have been amazing if it weren't such a pain in the ass.

Naruto was already halfway across the clearing by the time the last of the embers died down, and the blue-skinned man had just finished a set of hand seals. Bursting up from the ground was a geyser of water, which spun and twisted in the air to form a shark-like shape that dove in Naruto's direction.

"Suiton: Suikôdan!" (Water Shark Bullet)

Naruto leapt over the water shark's nose and carved a shallow gash into it. By the time his foot set down on its back, the entire thing had become a perfect ice sculpture, and Naruto used it as a springboard to launch himself into the air. He formed a single hand seal and beside him appeared a Kage Bunshin — just one. His Bunshin plummeted, aiming for Itachi, while the real Naruto gripped his sword with both hands and brought it down in a colossal slash that the shark-man blocked with the large, bandaged object that had been slung over his back. The object, whatever it was, held.

"Nice try, kid," shark-man grinned, "but you have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat one of the Mist's Seven Swordsmen in kenjutsu."

Naruto said nothing and planted a foot against the bandaged thing — it had to be a sword to have withstood that blow, or at least a big slab of steel — using it to vault himself over fish-man's head and land behind him. Fish-man didn't turn fast enough, because Naruto had already landed in a crouch and pivoted, swinging his sword upwards. There was no escape from the spiked crescent of ice that formed along the path of his blade and jutted outwards, not at that range.

"Zekku!"

But the skewered fish-man didn't fall to the ground dead and bleeding, he burst apart into water. A clone and a substitution — a basic trick that even the best ninja employed often and with great success.

The blow that came down for his head would have crushed another man, and had Naruto not lifted his sword to block it, he would have been crushed, too. As it was, his arms strained with the effort of keeping the monstrous slab of whatever-it-was from descending further, and it didn't help to have the sudden influx of memories — his clone's memories, the clone that Itachi had just dispatched — burst to life in his brain. Fish-man's sword-thing pressed him down, down, down, slowly forcing him to his knees, and he knew that it would not be much longer before his arms gave out —

"Kisame," Itachi's voice said coldly, "we are not here to kill Naruto-kun."

Fish-man — Kisame — scoffed in annoyance, and the slab was suddenly lifted and Naruto was free of the oppressive weight as Kisame hefted it casually over his shoulder. He looked as though he wasn't concerned with the enemy before him, as though he needn't worry because he was untouchable.

That would be his mistake.

The size and weight of Kisame's weapon put him at a disadvantage in a number of areas, because it was harder to swing, no matter that Kisame could hold it with one hand. Such a heavy sword needed a little bit of wind-up before it got any real speed, and once it got moving, it took a little while to stop, and that little while either before or after the swing meant the difference between whether or not you could block and whether or not you could stop yourself from overextending.

But Naruto's sword was much lighter — lighter, in fact, than any sword of such a length should be — and didn't need as much inertia behind it before it got fast, and Kisame was too close and his sword a little too slow to avoid Hyôrinmaru's razor sharp edge as Naruto swung for his gut.

In the end, it was Kisame's skill that made the difference between life and death.

The black cloth of Kisame's robe split open as though it were tissue paper, and red blood splattered along the grass. Naruto let out a breath through his nose, and Kisame, now several yards away, regarded the sticky red liquid on his fingers as the shallow cut on his belly, wide enough to have disemboweled him if it had gone even half an inch deeper, bled sluggishly.

"You got the drop on me, brat," Kisame said, and he sounded as though he didn't know whether to be impressed or upset.

"I do that a lot," Naruto said breathily.

Without so much as a warning, Naruto swung Hyôrinmaru's chain around, but Kisame back-flipped over it once, then again on its second pass. Naruto gave him no reprieve, and Kisame had not even landed yet before Naruto was digging swiftly through his hip pouch for Explosive Tags. His fingers found crinkled rice-paper.

It wasn't an Explosive Tag.

Naruto swung again and unleashed an ice dragon at Kisame, then spun around, searched out Itachi (who had been calmly watching the proceedings until that point), and leapt for him with his sword poised to stab. Itachi didn't move but for the twitch of his eye, and when Naruto came within range, Itachi grabbed hold of his sword arm and sent Hyôrinmaru sailing harmlessly past his hip.

But killing Itachi had never been Naruto's intention, and he was close enough, now, to whisper.

"I know the truth about the Massacre," Naruto hissed quietly (there was a sharp intake of breath). He pulled the folded note from his pouch and shoved it into the sleeve of Itachi's other arm. A calm, warm, steady hand found his fumbling fingers and took the note effortlessly. "Orders from the old man," he mumbled. "Don't know what they say."

Itachi gave no sign of acknowledgement.

"It was foolish of you to get so close, Naruto-kun," he said in his deadly soft voice. He'd spoken loud enough for Kisame to hear, no doubt to keep from blowing his cover. The strong steady hand that had held Naruto's sword arm left and glided along Hyôrinmaru's edge with just the right amount of pressure. Itachi's hand lifted to reveal his bloodied palm and he pressed two fingers, dripping with his own life's essence, against Naruto's bare forehead. The blood that dribbled down into his eyes forced Naruto to blink.

"You don't know the full truth about the Massacre," Itachi muttered to him, so quiet that he almost didn't catch it, "but knowing even as much as you do will be hazardous for you later, so consider this my…insurance. I'll give you a bit of my power so that no man may alter your world with Genjutsu."

…what?

"What does that even mean?" Naruto hissed back.

There was no response; the Itachi standing in front of him burst apart into a flock of crows, and he had only a moment to gape in surprise before one of them swooped down and threw itself into his mouth and down his throat. He coughed and coughed, and though it definitely felt as though he had just swallowed a bird, there was no taste upon his tongue. He wanted to throw up, but he had not eaten since the night before, so his stomach was empty.

"You're sure this is the Kyubi brat?" Kisame asked skeptically. Itachi, the real Itachi, gave only a nod — they were enemies again.

"You're not getting away!" Naruto declared loudly, ignoring the fact that they hadn't been trying to in the first place. He whipped his hand out and a yellow rope made for Kisame. "Sajo Sabaku!"

Kisame dodged again, but Naruto was already prepared and made another gesture with his hand. "Rikujôkôrô!" he called.

Kisame could not dodge the six shafts of light that speared his midsection, holding him in place with his arms pinned by his sides, and Naruto started through more hand seals, but Itachi suddenly appeared in front of him, grasping his hand mid-seal with almost enough force to break his wrist. Almost.

And then Naruto was flying through the air with the grass a green blur beneath him as Hyôrinmaru's chain flailed wildly in the wind behind him. Kisame was suddenly free and moving and Naruto flipped in midair and shoved his feet down to the ground. It took all of his strength not to go tumbling ass over teakettle as he tore up two long gouges in the earth. He'd barely come to a stop before he lifted his sword and swung.

"Kongô Hokori!"

The wave of ice particles that gushed outwards was smaller than it had been in Bankai, but it was still large enough to swallow Kisame whole, and Naruto lost sight of his foe as he was consumed by the ice. His heart pounded in his chest. Had he done it? Was Kisame dead?

But when the dust settled, Kisame stood there with his large sword poised protectively in front of him, safe and untouched — and Naruto felt a brief flash of both inexplicable relief and frustration — undamaged but for the utterly disintegrated wrappings on his weapon. Naruto's attack had done nothing.

Wait.

Were those shark teeth?

"Pretty good, brat," Kisame said, grinning. "That might have actually killed me."

He lifted his sword (made of steel-blue shark teeth of all things!) and dashed forward, "But let's see how you do against my Samehada for real!"

The attack never connected, because a plume of smoke erupted between Naruto and Kisame just as the massive Samehada was about to come smashing down, and the shark-tooth sword clanged against something hard and metallic. There, arms raised defensively, was a toad as tall as a man clad in steel gauntlets, chest plate, and pauldrons.

"You didn't think a man such as me would be seduced by a woman so easily, did you?" a familiar voice called haughtily. There was another plume of smoke that burst into life just behind Naruto, and standing there as the dust cleared was Jiraiya, grinning broadly with the woman who had winked at him slung over his shoulder.

"A man such as Jiraiya," he declared, "is not seduced by a beautiful woman! When you become a man as great as me, women are attracted by your beauty and greatness!" He struck a dramatic pose, one he must have thought was heroic and amazing. Naruto just thought he looked stupid.

Itachi did not look particularly impressed (but then, his expression hadn't changed much since the beginning of the fight anyway), and Kisame's smirk made it clear that he wasn't very impressed either. "So," he said slyly, "you really are that Jiraiya, of the Densetsu no Sannin. I knew we couldn't hold you off that easily. Heh."

"It seems that you dispelled my Genjutsu," Itachi observed quietly.

"How shameful of you to use your doujutsu so underhandedly," Jiraiya's features suddenly turned serious and he set the woman down on the ground gently. When he stood again, his eyes were narrow and solemn and his mouth was pulled into a thin line. "So," he said, "you really are after Naruto, aren't you?"

Itachi closed his eyes briefly and gave a slow, shallow nod, as though he had just confirmed something to himself, "Then you are the one who told Kakashi. I see. That makes sense, then." His eyes snapped back open. "Kisame. We're leaving."

"Che," Kisame hefted Samehada back onto his shoulder. "Just when things were getting interesting."

They leapt out of the clearing and Jiraiya moved to follow as his summoned toad vanished, but Naruto threw out his arm to stop him. "Let them go," he said. Jiraiya gave him an odd look, but Naruto couldn't explain why they should let Itachi and Kisame go, why they had to let Itachi go. Jiraiya didn't know the truth about the massacre, and Naruto wasn't sure enough about his own thoughts on the subject to tell Jiraiya about it yet. "We don't have time to chase them halfway around the country. We're here to find that Tsunade lady."

That seemed to work, because he felt Jiraiya relax and pull back. He let his arm drop and sheathed Hyôrinmaru, then turned back towards the city. Behind him, he heard Jiraiya chuckle beneath his breath, "Never thought I'd see the day when you actually made sense."

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

God or Fate or Destiny — whoever it was seemed to like giving Naruto very few breaks, because not five minutes had passed after he and Jiraiya returned to their room before the door slammed open again and Sasuke stood there, panting, out of breath, and so high strung that it was a miracle he had not started pulling out his hair.

"Naruto!" Sasuke declared desperately, and there was something in his tone that suggested both urgent concern and exasperated relief. He crossed the room in three stiff strides, grabbed Naruto's arm, and tried to pull him out the door. "Come, we've got to get you out of here!"

"Eh — Sasuke — what are you doing here?" Naruto asked bewilderedly. At any other time, he might have been embarrassed that Sasuke had barged in on him while he was busy packing up one of his spare pairs of underwear (which he held in his hands at that very moment), but he was more worried about that insistent hand that was trying to drag him forcibly from his spot.

Sasuke turned back towards him but didn't move his hand and snarled furiously, "We don't have time right now! We have to leave! Come on, Naruto!"

"Hey, Sasuke, are you feeling all right?"

"I'm fine!" Sasuke's lip curled angrily. "Let's go — "

"And where are we supposed to be going?" Naruto demanded, feeling a little angry now himself. "And more importantly, why are we supposed to be going?"

"I told you, I don't have time to explain right now!" Sasuke gave another insistent tug, and a part of Naruto realized distantly that this was the angriest and most agitated he'd ever seen the normally composed Sasuke. "We have to get going before he gets here — let's go,Naruto!"

"He?" Naruto parroted bewilderedly. "Who's 'he'? Is someone after me?"

"I don't have — "

"Actually," Jiraiya's rumbling baritone interrupted suddenly, "I'd like to hear about this, too, Uchiha-chan." Sasuke bristled a little at being addressed so childishly, like his was only a five-year-old. It took Naruto a moment to realize that it was exactly that reaction Jiraiya had been hoping to provoke. "Is there something we should know?"

"I don't have time to explain, you old geezer!" Sasuke snapped impatiently.

Uh-oh. Insulting Jiraiya was a sure-fire way of getting him to do his silly introduction.

"Old geezer?" Jiraiya demanded as though the very thought were terrifying. "Do you not know who I am, Uchiha-chan?" Naruto could practically here the grinding of Sasuke's teeth. "I am the man without enemies in the north, south, east, and west!" Jiraiya began his dance, making long, ridiculous sweeping motions with his arms. "I am the Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku!" Hop, hop, hop. "Enemies tremble and women swoon at my very name! I am —" he slammed his foot down, rolled his head theatrically, and flashed a cocky grin that he must have thought looked dashing "— the Gallant Jiraiya!"

There was a moment of silence. Naruto turned to Sasuke. "I just call him Ero-Sennin," he said flatly.

Jiraiya had crossed the room in an instant and bopped Naruto on the head. Pain blossomed from where he'd been hit and Naruto's vision swam for a single instant. But damn did Jiraiya pack a punch.

"Damn it, Naruto!" he declared tearfully. Naruto scowled at him as he rubbed the new bump on his head. "You ruined my introduction!"

"Whatever!" Naruto said. "It's not important! Sasuke still hasn't told me who I'm supposed to be running away from!"

Sasuke's anger returned in a flash. "My brother, Itachi!" he revealed venomously. Both Naruto and Jiraiya jerked in surprise. "He's already got Kakashi, and now he's after you, so we have to get out of here, Naruto!"

Naruto reeled. There'd been a confrontation between Kakashi and Itachi? Was he missing something?

"Wait," he began, "Itachi was just here — and — what happened to Kakashi-sensei?"

That would explain why Sasuke was alone.

"He'll be fine," Sasuke said, but he didn't sound too sure of himself, "it was just a Genjutsu! But you won't if — Itachi was already here?"

The switch was so sudden that Naruto couldn't prepare himself in time to stop Sasuke from grabbing him by his shoulders and shaking him furiously like he was a drink Sasuke was mixing — he was tempted to ask if Sasuke would prefer stirred instead. "Where is he?" Sasuke demanded loudly. "Where did he go? What did he want?"

"We fought him just outside the city," Naruto told him. Sasuke went deathly still and his grip on Naruto relaxed. "Ero-Sennin scared him and his blue-skinned sidekick off — Sasuke, where are you going?"

Sasuke had turned to leave, but not before Naruto had reached out and grabbed him by the wrist. A small part of him, the part of him that still wanted to prove he was better than Sasuke, loved the fact that Sasuke flinched under the strength of his grip.

"I'm going after him, to avenge my clan." The statement was delivered as though it was that simple, as though that was that and it was going to happen no matter what anyone did to stop it.

But the real world rarely worked that way.

"Whoa, hold up," Naruto squeezed a bit tighter. Sasuke's wince was obvious. "Lemme get this straight. You wanna go after your brother, who killed your entire clan in a single night by himself, and you plan to attack him and his gill-faced partner — one of the Hidden Mist's Seven Swordsmen, by the way, nearly bashed my skull in — all by yourself with nothing more than a handful of fire jutsu and the Chidori?"

"Naruto — "

"Cause that ain't revenge, Sasuke, that's suicide."

Sasuke scowled, but relaxed and turned back around. Naruto let him go and could see just how much Sasuke hated the fact that he was right, but Sasuke could hate him all he wanted as long as he didn't do something incredibly stupid — because if he did do something stupid, it was Naruto who would have to tell Sakura, and Sakura had the nasty habit of shooting the messenger (as long as the messenger had blonde hair and blue eyes).

"Fine," Sasuke said at last. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Then I'm coming with you guys. That way, if Itachi tries again, I'll be there."

"Oh, no you're not!" Jiraiya jumped back into the conversation. He drew himself up imperiously. "You, boy, are going back to the village and sitting tight, or else you're liable to be declared a nuke-nin! You want to get revenge on your brother? Your first step is making sure you're not executed for abandoning your post during wartime! And that means taking your prissy little butt back home and waiting until you have another assignment!"

Naruto blinked and had the sudden mental image of Jiraiya as a rooster sticking his chest out to intimidate a chick into obedience. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

"But I —"

"You heard me! Go! Go! Go!"

Sasuke's face contorted into an expression of the blackest hate, then he turned around and stomped out of the room furiously. Naruto sighed and palmed his face — somehow, this was all going to wind up backfiring on him and he was going to have to deal with all of the fallout of Mount Sasuke's quiet eruption — and, later on, Mount Sakura's loud and violent eruption — all by himself, he just knew it.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

Naruto and Jiraiya checked out of their hotel early the morning after the confrontations with Sasuke and Itachi, and by midday had made their way to the next town over. The streets there were bustling with activity, and Naruto found himself wishing he had three more pairs of eyes so he could take in everything at once. There was so much stuff to look at, from masks to games of luck and chance to food stalls selling exotic things like squid-on-a-stick.

"All right," Jiraiya said suddenly as he fished about in his own backpack. He pulled out a canvas bag and from the bag produced a colorfully patterned water balloon about the size of an apple. He tossed it to Naruto, who caught it and eyed it dubiously, then pulled out one of his own. "I'm going to go look for information on Tsunade. In the meantime, you'll be doing some training…on that jutsu I promised you."

He held out his left hand, and in it formed a glowing sphere of blue chakra with hundreds of rotating currents going in every conceivable direction. Naruto watched it with amazement, and then it dissipated and Jiraiya let his hand drop. He held out his other hand next, the one with the water balloon, and Naruto watched as the calm, smooth surface suddenly came to life, bulging in every which direction and contorting grotesquely, slowly at first and then faster and faster until it burst.

"This technique is called 'Rasengan'," Jiraiya explained, and another sphere of swirling chakra formed above his now wet right hand. "You learn it in three stages, and the first is what I just showed you with that water balloon. Combining the tree-climbing exercise, where you release a certain amount of chakra, with the water-walking exercise, where you release a constant amount of chakra, you create the Rasengan. For this first step, you release a certain amount of charka and maintain that amount constantly, then force it into a rotation to break the water balloon. Understand?"

"Yep," Naruto grinned. "Just you watch. I'll pop this balloon in no time!"

"All right, then," Jiraiya grinned back and dropped the bag of water balloons into Naruto's arms. "Good luck!"

And then he was gone, and Naruto was standing alone in the crowded street as people milled around him without a care. Naruto scowled, glaring in the direction Jiraiya had left, then sighed and shrugged. Nothing for it, then, he decided, and he turned around to find a private area to train.

To Naruto's good fortune, it seemed, he found a small park near the outer edge of the town, and it was completely empty. It looked like everyone else was busy at the festival — probably the leftovers of Umi no Hi or some regional holiday. Whatever the case, it worked out best for him, because he had nothing to disturb his training. He set the bag of balloons down by a tree, walked into a clear patch of land, and began.

His original estimations were way off.

Popping the water balloon was a difficult task, because it didn't seem to want to work no matter what he did. Nothing he tried worked, and even his best spin served to do nothing except force the balloon into a disk shape. By the end of the second day of training, his hands were shaking from the strain of forcing so much chakra through them — he couldn't even hold a pair of chopsticks properly.

But his hard work and determination did pay off — after three days of training, with stops only for the essentials, like food, water, sleep, and using the bathroom, he finally figured out how to do it. Hyôrinmaru, who had remained obstinately silent during his training, had finally given him a hint: try rotating his chakra in more than one direction.

With a loud pop, the water balloon burst in his hand and soaked his shaking fingers. His face pulled into an exhausted but triumphant grin.

It took Naruto four tries to form the proper hand seals before he managed it and a Kage Bunshin popped into life. "Go find Ero-Sennin," he told it tiredly. "Tell him I did it."

The Kage Bunshin snapped off a sarcastic salute and bounded back into town. Naruto sat down, leaned against the back of the nearest tree, and closed his eyes to take a short rest. An icy numbness trickled down his spine and into his arms, soothing the burning ache of his overstressed hands and fingers. A relieved sigh hissed out his lips.

"Thanks, Hyôrinmaru," he mumbled. A hum that reverberated in the back of his mind answered him.

Naruto wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting there, but he'd dozed off for at least ten minutes and was halfway asleep when something foreign — fear, falling, ground-getting-bigger — jerked him awake and he was suddenly sitting ramrod straight as his heart pounded a tattoo against his ribs.

"What the hell was that?" he breathed. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, summoning the foreign whatever-it-was to the forefront of his brain. The answering memories came in a jumble — walking through the village, wandering around, finding Jiraiya, telling him about the first step, turning to lead him back and tripping over someone's leg — "Wait. Are those…my Kage Bunshin? But, how…?"

Come to think of it, hadn't something similar happened during his fight with Kisame? And…and, wait, in the forest, when Sakura punched him. Then, too, right?

He frowned and stood, and when he made the hand seal, his fingers were no longer shaking and his arms no longer burned. With a pop, another Kage Bunshin appeared before him, blinking curiously. He handed it a kunai and said, "Go over behind that tree over there and carve something into it, then dispel yourself. Don't tell me what," he added as it opened its mouth, "just do it."

It shrugged, then walked casually behind the tree and vanished from his sight. Ten minutes and a puff of smoke later, more memories flooded his brain — the clone had chosen "Minato and Kushina Forever."

"Whoa," Naruto blinked and sat down. "That's like…Whoa. Can you imagine the kind of training I could get done that way? Ha! If I'd made a hundred Kage Bunshin and gave them each a water balloon to pop — hey! Why didn't I realize this earlier?"

"That's what I've been wondering, kid."

Naruto jumped to his feet and lifted his eyes to meet Jiraiya's grinning face. "Ero-Sennin!" he shouted. One finger was outstretched and pointing at his teacher. "When did you get here?"

"Just a minute ago," Jiraiya replied. "So, what's this, now? Not only have you figured out the Kage Bunshin trick, but you've also mastered the first stage of the Rasengan?"

"Oh!" Naruto spun around and pulled a water balloon from the bag, then brandished it like a trophy, grinning. A moment later, the balloon contorted and expanded, then popped and splashed water all over his hand. Jiraiya looked vaguely impressed.

"Good job," he said. He gave Naruto a short applause, then reached into his backpack and pulled out a plain beige rubber ball the size of his palm. He tossed it to Naruto, who caught it bewilderedly. "Now, stage two is to pop that rubber ball. The first stage emphasized rotation. This one emphasizes power. Think you can do it?"

"Easy!" Naruto declared. He held up the ball and poured his chakra into it, then sent the chakra rotating and spinning. The rubber ball contorted and expanded, but did not pop. Naruto blinked and stopped. Jiraiya barked out a laugh. He pulled another bag from his backpack and set it down, and Naruto could see that it contained nothing but rubber balls.

"Here you go," Jiraiya declared simply. "If you happen to need more rubber balls, go ahead and use these. We head out again the day after tomorrow. See you tonight!" And he left.

"Che, who do you think I am, Ero-Sennin?" Naruto grumbled. He put his fingers in a hand seal, and in an instant, thirty Kage Bunshin stood around him. "All right!" he called out to them. "Each of you grab a rubber ball and get to work!"

"Ossu!" they answered in unison.

But having his clones help did not seem to make it go any faster than before. Even three days later, with thirty Kage Bunshin trailing behind him as he followed Jiraiya down the road, Naruto had not yet managed to properly pop the rubber ball. Every night, he went to bed with his fingers and arms shaking uncontrollably. It was not until dusk a day later, four days after starting stage two, that, with a final triumphant shout, the obstinate rubber ball burst. Jiraiya looked back at him as his Kage Bunshin all congratulated his success, and grinned.

"Oh," he said, "so you finally managed stage two, did you?"

"Yep," Naruto answered with a grin. Behind him, a chorus of pops rang out as all of his clones managed the second stage and dispelled one at a time with a victorious shout. "Easy."

"So it seems." Jiraiya pulled out a balloon, and Naruto could see from the way it sat on his hand that it was filled with air, not water. "But this is step three."

Naruto watched, and waited. And waited. And waited some more. Nothing happened. The balloon was untouched, pristine, and there didn't seem to be anything going on beyond the fact that it was just sitting there in his hand.

"Ne, Ero-Sennin, are you feeling all right?" Naruto asked. "Nothing's happening."

"It might look like nothing's happening," Jiraiya said. He lifted his other hand and formed a Rasengan. "In actuality, however, this is what's happening inside the balloon. Step three, Naruto, is creating a thin layer of chakra and compressing the hurricane of currents you learned to make in steps one and two into that thin layer — all inside the balloon. The third stage is complete when you can form the Rasengan inside a balloon without popping it."

"I'll have it done in no time!" Naruto declared. He picked up a balloon, grasped it in his hand, and focused, letting the swirling chakra rise up inside him. He let it leak out his palm, spinning and rotating, and then tried to form the thin shell of chakra as Jiraiya had demonstrated. For a single moment, there was silence and calm, then the balloon contorted, bulging and expanding, and burst apart. There was another moment of silence, broken when a growl bubbled up in his chest and rumbled out his throat.

"Damn it!"

"Keep up the good work, Naruto!" Jiraiya laughed. "But don't stay up too late! I want to make it to Tanzaku Gai by noon tomorrow!"

POP!

"Damn it!"

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

The remains of a decimated castle lay before him, broken and destroyed utterly. Only bits of stone and wooden planks were left. It looked like it had been struck by a natural disaster, but no natural disaster would have been nearly so selectively devastating. A hurricane or earthquake would have reduced the entire town to rubble, not just the castle. The only thing Naruto could think of, then, to explain exactly what had happened was a summoned animal — though he had never seen the Toad Boss himself, he knew it was massive — or a transformed Jinchûriki, like Gaara.

"This is Tanzaku Gai?" Naruto asked. Jiraiya nodded solemnly.

"This has Tsunade written all over it," he said calmly. A frown creased his lips. "By the way, how far have you gotten on that Rasengan?"

"I'm still having a bit of trouble with stage three, but it shouldn't take me much longer to figure it out," Naruto glanced at Jiraiya. "Should we really be discussing my progress when we're searching for Tsunade?"

"No, I suppose not," Jiraiya admitted. He looked up at the sun, which hung low in the sky. He mumbled something about wishing they'd gotten to town sooner, but didn't say anything else about it. "But it's too late in the day to do much of anything, so let's go eat some dinner, huh?"

Naruto frowned as his stomach gave a telling rumble, but followed Jiraiya as he led the way to a nearby restaurant. The moment he set foot inside, his nose was assaulted with the smell of cooked fish, rice, and the low undercurrent of sake. No one seemed to take notice of their entrance, even though they must have looked quite the sight (a tall old man with long white hair and a blonde haired kid with a sword strapped to his back — if that was considered normal, Naruto wondered if he should start worrying about the state of the world).

"Speak of the devil," Jiraiya muttered suddenly. He was looking at something that Naruto couldn't quite see, his eyes narrowed. Not for the first time, Naruto cursed the fact that he was one of the shortest people in his graduating class.

Jiraiya's posture straightened from his usual half-slouch as he grinned and waved and called out cheerfully, "Tsunade-hime!"

A blonde woman shot up from the crowd, leaned forward over her table, and stared, startled, at the two of them. "Jiraiya?" she asked incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

Naruto kept his eyes locked on her as he and Jiraiya wiggled their way through the crowd and into the seats on the opposite side of Tsunade's table. When he'd first heard of her, when Jiraiya had told him she was his teammate, Naruto had imagined a wrinkled old woman about Jiraiya's age. The woman before him, however, was beautiful and couldn't have been older than twenty-six.

Then there was the girl who sat with Tsunade, and she seemed to be about Kakashi's age, if he were any accurate a guess. She looked sort of timid and nervous, like she didn't often speak up out of turn or like she was expecting something to go wrong. Next to her sat a pig of all things, and when the waiter brought them food, the pig stuck its nose into the bowl and dug in unceremoniously.

"Itadakimasu," Naruto clasped his hands and mumbled. He broke his chopsticks apart and started with the fish. If it had been up to him, he would have had ramen, but it was not, sadly, on the menu.

Beside him, Jiraiya sat silently. He picked up a plain white clay pitcher, and there was a slight smirk on his face as he poured saucer after saucer of sake for Tsunade, who downed them all almost as fast as he could pour them. She must have had incredible tolerance to alcohol.

It felt sort of strange to eat so quietly — there had never been a moment of peace traveling with Jiraiya, except when Naruto was too busy training to talk or when Jiraiya was out womanizing and partying. Besides those (admittedly common) exceptions, they were usually arguing or making conversation about some thing or another. It was sort of like having someone to be your father, older brother, and uncle all rolled into one — no especially authoritarian moments, but enough scolding and lectures for it to feel like there were limits to what Naruto was allowed to do.

"Today…" Tsunade broke the awkward silence suddenly. "I met with someone who brings back a lot of bad memories."

"Orochimaru, you mean?" Jiraiya asked. Naruto's focus suddenly homed in on Tsunade, and she gave him a short, dismissive glance out of the corner of her eyes. "Did anything happen?"

Tsunade shot a quick glare at her companion, then responded nonchalantly, "Nothing much. Just a little greeting."

She gave Jiraiya a look.

"You're here, too," she pointed out. "Why? What's the reason for this unexpected reunion?"

There was a pregnant pause, then Jiraiya fixed her with a serious look and told her, "Konoha's Elder Council has issued a request for you to become the Godaime Hokage."

Both Tsunade and her sidekick gave a start, and their eyes went wide. Naruto shot Jiraiya an incredulous stare, then looked back and forth between him and Tsunade, wondering if he had heard right. This blonde woman was going to become Hokage? Why hadn't he been told?

"The Third," Jiraiya looked down sadly. "Sarutobi-sensei is…"

"Orochimaru told me," Tsunade interjected stonily. "It was his work."

"You met with Orochimaru?" Naruto asked her heatedly. "And you didn't kill him? After he told you he killed the old man?"

"Who is this brat?" Tsunade asked Jiraiya. She ignored Naruto pointedly.

"He's Uzumaki…"

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto interrupted. He was on his feet and out of his chair, jabbing a thumb at his chest proudly. He would not let her ignore him, "and I—!"

"And he's made it his personal mission to kill Orochimaru," Jiraiya added firmly. He pulled Naruto back into his seat and gave him a stern glare. Naruto stuck out his tongue but turned back to his food anyway. There was no reason to let good food go to waste. He'd let Jiraiya handle her for now; his stomach demanded attention. "So, what's your answer?"

There was a long pause, as though she was thinking about it, considering the offer, then, "I decline."

"What?" Naruto stood up again and leveled his mightiest glare her way. Food could wait. This lady refusing to be Hokage was way more important. "Konoha offers you the position of Hokage on a silver platter and you simply turn it away like yesterday's news? Damn you! Don't just toss it aside like that!"

Tsunade's chuckle was derisive and dismissive and it made his blood burn, "Jiraiya, this brat is worse than your previous student…in terms of looks, speech, and intelligence."

"It's hard to compete with the Fourth…" Jiraiya started. Naruto fumed at being waved off again, but sat back down. He wouldn't let her get to him, he told himself. "He had the talent. Talent that only comes alone once per generation. He was like me: smart, reliable, and handsome!"

"But even the Fourth died quickly," Tsunade added. "He sacrificed himself for his village. Life is different from money. It can't be gambled so easily, and whoever does so is a fool. My grandfather and his brother were fools, too. They hoped to bring peace to the world, but they died before they could."

Naruto's chopsticks broke with an audible snap, and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from blowing up at her. Calm down, he told himself. They're just words. But it wasn't working, and even Hyôrinmaru's hissed admonishments went unnoticed.

Jiraiya frowned at her over the edge of his sake dish, "You've changed, Tsunade."

"Age changes people," she waved her hand, as if brushing off the question, "but only a fool would be Hokage. Sarutobi-sensei was the same. When an old man tries to act brave, he'll get himself killed."

Plates and food jumped off the table as Naruto tried to jump over it, fist raised and poised to smash her face in. Jiraiya's fingers, however, were curled in the back of his vest and around Hyôrinmaru's sheath, and no matter how hard he struggled, Naruto could not get free. He settled for the angriest glare he could manage as a snarl curled on his lips.

"Let me go, Ero-Sennin!" Naruto growled. "No one says that about Tousan or Ossan!"

"You do realize we're in a bar, don't you?" Jiraiya asked rhetorically.

"I don't care if we're in a bar or in the middle of an open field! I don't care if she's supposed to be the new Hokage! I don't care if she's a woman!" Naruto hissed. "I'm going to beat the shit out of her!"

Tsunade shot up out of her seat and planted one foot on the table as her right hand found her hip and her left rested on her knee. "You've got guts to say that to me," she told him with a confident smirk on her face. Her cheeks were rosy and she was obviously drunk. "Let's take this outside!"

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

It was sort of like an official duel, the kind Naruto had heard about in stories, where the two combatants started ten yards away from each other and it was up to them to close the distance. There was something about fairness involved, if he remembered those samurai tales right, so that each opponent could prepare themselves mentally and physically for the fight ahead.

The one thing it did do, though, was let Naruto cool off enough to give his approach some thought. The big stuff was out; stuff like Suiryûdan, Daibakufu, and Bakusui Shoha would probably flood the entire town, and he didn't have anywhere near enough money to pay for that kind of collateral damage. He'd be stuck with his smaller stuff — the only problem was, he didn't really have much in the way of smaller stuff. Even a number four Hadô could be downright devastating if it had enough power behind it.

Tsunade smirked at Naruto and held up her right index finger. "I've been one of the Sannin since before you were even born," she informed him cockily. "I don't have to take this seriously. One finger should do."

Naruto wondered angrily when people would stop underestimating him.

"I wouldn't be so quick to judge, Tsunade-hime," Jiraiya warned her. "He shows even more promise than Minato-kun did."

"If you won't take me seriously," Naruto said heatedly as he yanked his sword from its sheath. "Then I'll just have to force you!"

Then he was in front of her, and he had a moment to see her eyes go wide as he swung downwards. Then she was moving, ducking inside his guard and poking his arm with that single finger hard enough to send it jerking backwards. Suddenly off balance, Naruto took a step backwards to regain his footing as she reached into his kunai holster and pulled one free with that same finger. She spun it into a reverse grip and swung upwards, letting the kunai go soaring into the sky as a cut formed on Naruto's left cheek, crossing over each of his whisker marks. If she'd wanted to, she could have jammed it through his chin and into his brain, a part of him realized. Naruto took his second step backwards and pushed himself back into balance with his heel.

But she was too fast. By the time he managed to get his footing back, she had already lifted a finger and poised it at his forehead. He had only a second's warning before she flicked him — flicked him, of all things, he couldn't believe it — and he was sent tumbling backwards as he tried to keep his grip on his sword. When he came to a stop, he was face down in the dirt and his head was throbbing.

"Why are you so obsessed with the Hokage title?" Tsunade's voice asked him.

Naruto slowly pushed himself to his feet. The cut on his cheek had already sealed over and was halfway through healing, and Naruto rejected Hyôrinmaru's offer of assistance. In a real battle, where there were lives on the line and he couldn't afford to lose, he would never dare. But this wasn't a real battle. No one was going to die, not unless Orochimaru popped up out of the ground (which wasn't entirely impossible, he realized absently). No, this was a matter of pride. He was going to kick her ass. No one got away with bad mouthing the two men who had made him who he was.

"Unlike you, I'm definitely going to be Hokage. Without a doubt. Absolutely," he told her lowly. "Because being Hokage…that's my dream!"

Tsunade looked down distractedly, and she looked like she was reliving some painful, bittersweet memory. She was completely open.

"Sajo Sabaku!" Naruto snapped off. Thick chains of yellow energy wound around her arms, and that, if nothing else, seemed to catch her attention. "Bakudô no Rokujuu-ichi: Rikujôkôrô!" (Locking Bondage Stripes and Six-Staff Light Prison)

Six thin, broad beams of light slammed into her on top of the yellow chains. She frowned down at them and started to stretch her arms outwards. His two Kidô began to groan ominously, and he took only a short moment to wonder just how strong she had to be to break one of his strongest binding combos so quickly before he started on the main course. (He wished very briefly that Hyôrinmaru had taught him stronger Bakudô, like something in the higher seventies, or even something in the eighties or nineties; his un-incanted sixties level Bakudô were getting broken left, right, and center.)

"Ruler!" he called. He noticed Jiraiya perk up out of the corner of his eyes. "The mask of flesh and bone! All creation, flutter of wings! Ye who bears the name of man! Truth and temperance, upon this wall of sinless dreams, unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws! Hadô no Sanjuu-san: Sôkatsui!" (Blue Firefall)

The burst of blue flames that shot from his outstretched hand was larger than he remembered, and he was glad in that instant that he had not chosen something more powerful, because his Sôkatsui took up nearly the entire alleyway as it was. Anything bigger or stronger could have done some serious damage.

At that moment, Tsunade broke free. She lifted her arm up and struck downwards, and the ground beneath her rumbled and caved, and a large chunk of earth and rock jutted upwards in front of her. Naruto's Sôkatsui splashed harmlessly against it and fizzled out. Just like that, she'd blocked a fully incanted mid-level Hadô. The Sannin were unreal.

"Not done yet!" Naruto declared. He swung his sword down and sent a wave of ice spikes in her direction. "Guncho Tsurara!"

But she lifted the block of earth she'd made moments before and held it up as a shield, and it blocked his icicles like they were nothing. The moment the last one had crashed uselessly against the stone, she hefted it up and threw it in his direction as though it were weightless.

His eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth as he held out his left hand, gathering chakra as quickly as he could and sending it spinning. He hadn't mastered it yet, but it would have to do. Destroying it with another Kidô would leave him far too open.

The rock came down and he threw his hand forward, thrusting his half-complete Rasengan into the boulder. It exploded outwards, sending clods of dirt and stone flying every which way. An instant later, he formed the Rasengan again as best he could and leapt towards her through the dust and debris.

He came upon her, and her eyes were wide, and he could see it, he was going to beat her. Then she dodged, leaning out of the way and grabbing his forearm (and Itachi had done the same thing — was there some sort of convention S-Rank ninja went to just to learn this stuff?). She pressed her thumb into his skin and his hand suddenly went numb. Behind her, the Rasengan exploded outwards and carved a spiraling gouge into the earthen street. She snapped her knee up into his stomach and the air in his lungs burst out of his mouth, and he couldn'tbreathe — then he was flying and skidding across the ground and his chest hurt and his hand was consumed by pins and needles and he knew he'd lost.

"Jiraiya!" Tsunade's voice barked suddenly. Naruto blinked wildly and tried desperately to force air into his lungs. Breathe, he told himself, breathe! "What were you thinking, teaching a kid like that the Rasengan?"

"Well, I am his teacher, even if only in principle," Jiraiya said calmly. There was only the slightest touch of sarcasm in his tone.

"Only you and the Fourth could ever use that technique. To pretend you're his master and try to teach him something he'll never be able to learn, you're a fool," she replied venomously. "It's better if he doesn't think that way, so that he won't joke about idiotic dreams like 'becoming Hokage'."

Naruto felt the anger boiling up inside him again, and it was through sheer tenacious force of will that he managed to drag himself to his knees. It wasn't a joke, and he wasn't about to let her belittle his dream. He would become Hokage. He would master the Rasengan.

"It's not a joke, you old hag!" Naruto wheezed as loudly as he could as he tried to pull himself to his feet. It took a supreme amount of effort. "Give me three days and I'll have it done! I guarantee it!"

Tsunade's eyebrow twitched and a slow, malicious smirk curled on her lips. "Is that a bet?"

Oh, it was on. He'd never lost a bet yet. Naruto grinned nastily, "What are the stakes?

"I'll give you one week," she held up a finger for emphasis. "If you can master the Rasengan in that time, I'll acknowledge your skill and give this necklace."

"Tsunade-sama!" the attendant's voice cried in the background. She went ignored.

Tsunade thumbed the pendant around her neck, "But if you lose, all your money is mine. Deal?"

He didn't even need to think about it.

"Deal."

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

Later that night, Tsunade's younger assistant — Shizune, he thought her name was — knocked on the door to his hotel room. When he opened it up to greet her, she was hunched over and her brow was knit worriedly. It was like she was scared of being caught out after bedtime. "I'm sorry for coming here so late," she whispered. "I need to talk to you for a minute, Naruto-kun."

Naruto hummed and cocked his head to the side. He supposed that there wasn't any harm in it. "All right," he said, "but I can't stay up too late. I gotta get up in the morning for training."

"I know," Shizune said, "and I'm sorry, but I don't want you to get the wrong idea about Tsunade-sama. And…and also…about that necklace."

Naruto scoffed.

"Whatever," he said flippantly. He walked back and sat down on his bed, arms crossed. Shizune followed him inside and closed the door behind her quietly. "Doesn't make a difference to me. I'll win that old hag's bet, and you'd better believe it."

"Tsunade-sama isn't the person you think she is! Please don't talk about her like that when you don't even know anything about her!" Shizune snapped suddenly. She blinked and bit her lip nervously, then glanced quickly at the door. When no one burst through it a few seconds later, some of the tension in her shoulders left. Naruto wondered what had her so high strung. "I'm sorry I shouted," she muttered timidly.

There was a moment of silence. Naruto wasn't exactly sure what to say.

"She wasn't always like this," Shizune told him finally. "A long time ago, she was a kind person who loved the village. But…ever since that day…" she looked down sadly. "She's changed."

Naruto frowned and straightened. What was this, now? "That day?" he prompted quietly.

"The day she lost her dream, her love, and her hope," she said helplessly. "The only thing left is that necklace, filled with so many memories…To Tsunade-sama, that necklace is more important than her life. It's not something she should use in a bet."

Naruto snorted. "That's her problem. I don't really care one way or the other."

"It's not that simple!" Shizune said with sudden frustration. "Tsunade-sama is the only person who can safely wear that necklace! It's cursed! Any other person who tries to wear it…will die."

She went on to explain it all, about how Tsunade had first given the necklace to her little brother, who later died, and how she'd given it a second time to her lover, a man by the name of Dan (Shizune's uncle), but Dan had died, too, and there had been nothing Tsunade, for all her medical skills, had been able to do about it.

"Do you understand now, Naruto-kun?" Shizune asked afterwards. "Ever since that day, Tsunade-sama has done nothing but wanderer. She has no direction and no drive, and there's nothing you can do. You can't win, because if you do…Tsunade-sama can't have your death on her conscience."

Cold anger, much calmer than usual, settled in Naruto's belly, and he stood, slipping Hyôrinmaru over his shoulder, and moved towards the door. Shizune didn't move; she only watched him, a look of uncertain confusion about her face.

"Naruto-kun?" she asked as he twisted the doorknob. "Where are you going?"

He fixed her with a cold blue stare. "I'm going to train," he said quietly.

Her face fell and she looked as though all her efforts must have been for naught, and he must have seemed incredibly heartless to her just then. He didn't care. Tsunade could suffer as much as she liked if that's what she wanted, but the moment she insulted his heroes and spit on his dream, he had to take a stand. Enough was enough.

Shizune didn't stop him.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

The clearing Naruto wound up choosing as his training field was rather sparsely forested and had only a handful of short, skinny trees that were widely spread out. The grass beneath his feet was thin and patchy, and there were large sections where there was only dirt and rock. Behind him, cutting the clearing in half, was a stream about five feet wide and just as deep, and not far away was a fifteen foot cliff over which that stream flowed and fell. It wasn't exactly an ideal place for a picnic, but it fit his needs just fine.

At the beginning of the week, the clearing was mostly untouched. But at the end of the week, as Naruto stared triumphantly at his handiwork and his Kage Bunshin vanished with a series of pops, and a surge of pride swelled in his belly, the clearing around him had undergone drastic changes.

The majority of the trees around the clearing, particularly the one standing in front of Naruto, had been almost utterly demolished. Most of them had been snapped in half, and broken twigs and branches were scattered about the ground. Those trees that still stood were misshapen and deformed. Great big craters the size of cannonballs had been gouged into the wood, as though someone had simply dug into them and scooped up as much of the trunk as they could.

Naruto turned to the last sturdy tree, the only one he hadn't touched during his training, and held out his hand. The last tree stood firm as a sphere of swirling blue chakra formed above his palm. As soon as it was complete, Naruto surged forwards and thrust the sphere into the tree's trunk. There was a groaning, high-pitched whine and the bark and wood began to give. "Rasengan!"

The ball of chakra sunk into the tree and vanished, and there in front of Naruto's palm was a hole that would surely have cut a human being in half. The tree gave an ominous moan, then shuddered and the last hair-thin strands of fibrous tissue gave way. The upper half fell backwards and landed on the ground with a slam. The bottom half stretched forlornly towards the sky, but reached no further than Naruto's waist.

Naruto stared down at his palm and experimentally stretched his fingers. He'd done it, then, hadn't he? He'd mastered the Rasengan. He formed it again and it was perfect, shining and blue and powerful, then let it go and it dispersed like dust in the wind. He'd mastered the Rasengan.

He'd won the bet.

Now what? The question echoed in his head. Now what? He'd mastered the Rasengan, so he'd won the bet. It was too late at night to go and show it off right then (and he didn't know where Tsunade was anyway; he had no intention of spending half the night looking for her). Jiraiya was probably out at some brothel or strip club. So what was there to do?

The answer was actually simple: nothing.

There was no point in searching out either of the Sannin, not so late in the night, and there wasn't really anything else to train right then and there, so there wasn't really anything else to do. He'd might as well just go back to his hotel room and get a good night's sleep. Everything else could be handled tomorrow.

Yeah, actually. That sounded pretty good. A good night's sleep.

Something prickled on the edge of his senses as he turned to leave, and he stopped to look for whatever it was. He cast his gaze around the clearing and strained his ears for the slightest disturbance. Nothing. He found nothing, not across the land littered with broken trees and long gouges, nor across the stream or the pile of shattered branches, or even among the boulders that had been ground to dust. He squinted at the cliff. Maybe that was…No, there was nothing.

It must have been his imagination.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

Naruto woke to the sun shining in his eyes early the next morning. He blinked and rubbed his eyes as he sat up, then stretched and yawned before he stood and dressed. As he slipped his sash and Hyôrinmaru over his shoulder, however, and turned towards the door, he saw Shizune lying on the bed next to his atop the covers. She was dressed in her usual kimono and looked as though she had fallen asleep waiting for him to wake up.

"Hey, Shizune," he put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a little shake. She didn't move. "Shizune, wake up."

He gave her another shake and her face scrunched up, then she suddenly lurched upwards and it was only Naruto's leaping out of the way that prevented her head from slamming into his mouth. He liked his teeth where they were, thank you very much.

"Naruto-kun?" she mumbled as she rubbed her forehead. Then she froze and looked at him with the most frantic expression on her face. "What time is it?" She shook her head. "No, no, what day of the week is it?"

Naruto frowned. "Sunday," he told her.

"You're up already?" she asked incredulously. He cocked his head at her curiously so she explained. "Tsunade-sama said you tired yourself out last night, so you wouldn't be awake another day or two."

"I feel fine," he said frankly. "A good night's sleep has cured most of my injuries and stuff since I was a kid. But now that you mention her, where is that old hag? I've got a bet to win."

"So…you completed that jutsu?" she asked.

"Yep," he grinned at her. "Finished it last night."

"Last night, huh?" she started to chuckle, but winced a second later. Then she was on her feet and heading for the window. "Naruto-kun," she called over her shoulder, "please stay here!"

She had barely flung the window open before a kunai flew in front of her and embedded itself in the window frame. Naruto couldn't see how close it had come, but as he joined her at the window, he figured it must have missed her because she hadn't pitched sideways or anything like that.

Her head was turned to the side when he reached her and he heard her whisper, "You're…"

"What's going on?" he asked as he leaned over to see what she had seen. There, slouched against the wall on the awning was Jiraiya, and he was panting and heaving as though he had just run all the way from Konoha.

"Wait, Shizune," he wheezed out and lifted his hand weakly.

Naruto and Shizune were out the window moments later and helping him sit without collapsing all together. Every little thing seemed to take him a supreme amount of effort, and it was a miracle he had managed to reach their hotel room without bowling over a sign or something on the way (though Naruto was a little skeptical that he hadn't at least knocked over a pedestrian or two).

"Damn that Tsunade," Jiraiya cursed lowly. "She put something in my sake. I can't mold chakra or throw knives correctly, and my whole body is numb."

Naruto felt like saying that it served him right for drinking and partying all the time, but kept his mouth shut. Jiraiya went on, "Regardless of her current state, she's still a medical specialist. Someone like her could probably make a colorless, odorless, tasteless drug that works on ninjas in her sleep. I just didn't expect her to find a chance to poison me, even if I was a little drunk."

Shizune suddenly stood and went back inside, leaving Naruto and Jiraiya alone in silence. Naruto thought of showing Jiraiya the completed Rasengan, but it felt so out of place then and there that he hadn't even lifted his hand all the way before he let it drop back down to his side.

Shizune returned moments later with a pitcher and a glass full of water. She handed the glass to Jiraiya, who drank it all in three large gulps, then held it out for more. "Jiraiya-sama," she said as she poured another glass, "how are you feeling?"

"Better than I did at dawn," he answered. "But even then, I'm only at about a third of my usual strength."

Jiraiya's head suddenly jerked up and he was staring with narrowed eyes at something behind Naruto. Naruto frowned and discreetly tapped the wooden awning beneath his feet. There, he felt it, the thing that must have caught Ero-Sennin's attention. There was a presence, muted and hidden and faintly familiar, scurrying away quickly.

"Hey, Shizune," Jiraiya barked suddenly. "You're going to tell me about what you guys discussed with Orochimaru, and you're going to tell me right now."

Shizune looked surprised for a moment, like she hadn't expected him to know or something, then her head dropped in shame. "I've kept quiet about it until now," she whispered, "because I wanted to believe in Tsunade-sama…but…" she held her hands to her stomach as though she were touching a tender wound. She leapt to her feet. "We're short on time. Please follow me. I'll explain on the way!"

And as they took to the rooftops and leapt through whatever trees stood in their path, she explained. She explained about how Orochimaru had approached her and Tsunade looking for a way to heal his arms, and how Orochimaru offered to resurrect Tsunade's lover, Dan, and her little brother, Nawaki, in exchange.

"Of course she's going to say 'no'!" Naruto declared. He thought it was obvious. Who would trust a scumbag like Orochimaru?

"And once his arms are cured," Shizune finished, "he plans to renew his attack on the village!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Naruto said fiercely. The growl in the back of his mind voiced Hyôrinmaru's agreement.

"We need to stop him now," Jiraiya said, "or things may take a turn for the worst."

When Shizune led them to the site where the deal was to take place, they alleyway was demolished and several parts of the ancient stone wall were missing. There were craters littered about the ground, and as Shizune kneeled to pick up the green haori Tsunade had worn when last Naruto saw her, Jiraiya voiced the obvious: "It seems Tsunade-hime declined the deal. Looks like she went pretty wild here."

Naruto glanced askance at the trail of destruction that had been left in Tsunade's wake. "I guess we just follow the breadcrumbs, then."

And they were off again, following the craters and broken boulders that had been left behind and dashing as fast as they could. It was not long before they saw three figures in the distance, getting closer and closer each second, two of which were fighting and the third of which was standing to watch. Besides Tsunade's newly familiar presence and Orochimaru's oily purple aura, the third presence was familiar, too. It was the same as the one that had fled from near the apartment only that morning.

And there was Tsunade, and someone was shouting something as he came upon her with a kunai, and it didn't look like she would react fast enough. Jiraiya reacted first, and something small and black left his hand and exploded into smoke between the two combatants. With one final leap and a quick burst of speed, Naruto, Shizune, and Jiraiya landed in front of Tsunade just as the cloud of smoke began to clear.

"Jiraiya?" Tsunade whispered.

"It's been a long time, Jiraiya," the figure who had been observing the fight said. He had long black hair, pasty white skin, and snake-like yellow eyes. Orochimaru.

"Oho. Your eyes are as evil-looking as always," Jiraiya retorted.

Naruto turned his eyes to the man who'd been attacking Tsunade and a ripple of shock shuddered down his spine. This was the third presence, and now he knew why it was familiar. "Kabuto-san?" he asked. His heart gave a nervous thud. He had a bad feeling about this.

Kabuto smirked. "Naruto-kun," he returned silkily.

"I see," Jiraiya said heartily. Naruto thought his attitude was wholly inappropriate to the situation. "So you two know each other."

"We took the Chûnin Exams together," Naruto said hollowly.

"Move!" Tsunade pushed them both out of the way and leapt at Kabuto, who dodged her as best he could as she pushed him back and back and back. She kicked the kunai out of his hand and it lodged itself into a boulder. "Just because you can control your body now doesn't mean you can move normally!"

She backed him into a boulder — "You're not getting away now!" — but it was the worst possible boulder she could have because Kabuto pulled free that kunai that had been lodged there and slashed it forwards — into his own hand. Blood splattered over Tsunade's face and chest and she suddenly stopped and started backing away. She was shaking and staring at her bloody hands with the most terrified expression on her face.

"My body's finally started moving normally," Kabuto said with a smirk. He sheathed his kunai. "Dealing with two of the Legendary Sannin would be too much trouble. So I'll immobilize one for now!"

He punched her and she didn't do anything to stop him, just flew backwards and fell limply into Shizune's arms. She had gone from one of the Legendary Sannin to a helpless, motionless rag doll. Naruto couldn't believe it. A little blood and she turned useless.

But why was this happening in the first place?

"Kabuto-san," Naruto began lowly, "why are you fighting Tsunade-baachan?"

"My, my, Naruto-kun," Kabuto drawled silkily, "you're so slow. This is why you can't compare to Sasuke-kun."

Naruto's hands curled into fists. So it was true, then. He hadn't wanted to believe it, but the proof was staring him in the face. The sound note carved into Kabuto's hitai-ate was as much an advertisement of his allegiances as anyone should need. But he hadn't wanted to believe that the kind person who had helped him during the Exams could possibly have anything to do with the man who had killed the Sandaime Hokage.

"So you've been working with Orochimaru?" he growled. "How long?"

"So you finally figured it out," Kabuto chuckled darkly. "I've been Orochimaru's spy since the beginning, Naruto-kun. Since that moment during the first test of the Exams when I met you, and before even then. It really was convenient. Helping you guys out was an easy way of getting information."

He pushed his glasses up with a finger. "And what I discovered when I gathered data on you, Naruto-kun, is this: you have…absolutely no talent as a ninja."

Naruto's blood ran cold. Any fragile hope he'd had that it was all a joke, that Kabuto wasn't actually a spy, evaporated. A frigid anger pooled in his belly and spread steadily to his limbs. He reached up with deliberate slowness and freed Hyôrinmaru with a long, sharp, grinding ring. He pinned Kabuto with his darkest glare and unleashed all of his tightly held reiatsu. The people around him gave a short jerk, and Shizune took in a sharp gasp, but none of them had any trouble standing.

"Even if you make such a scary face at me, you're nothing more than an out of place Genin," Kabuto told him. "It's true that we expected something from that monster inside you, and you may have discovered something with that beautiful sword you have, something we ourselves would like very much to understand, but with the members of the Legendary Sannin in front of me, you're insignificant. You're like a tiny little bug right now, and if you interfere…I'll kill you."

There was a moment of tense silence.

"Ero-Sennin, Shizune-neechan, take Tsunade-baachan and keep as much distance as you can," Naruto said quietly. "If you stay too close…I can't guarantee I won't kill you by accident."

"We're not going to let you face these two alone," Jiraiya said firmly. "You're a Genin, Naruto. There's no way you can take both Kabuto, who's as strong as Kakashi, and Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, on at once."

"…Fine," Naruto shot back bitterly. "But don't blame me if you get hurt. And if you die, Ero-Sennin, I'll kill you."

"Heh," Naruto could practically hear the grin in Jiraiya's voice, "that's my line."

Kabuto leapt backwards to stand beside Orochimaru as Naruto swung his sword forward and intoned, "Bankai!"

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Kabuto's voice answered.

The wings, dragon's head, gauntlet, greaves, and tail of ice all formed in an instant as a humongous plume of smoke erupted where Kabuto and Orochimaru had stood, and as the smoke cleared, there were two giant snakes with mottled brown scales. They looked just like the one that had tried to make Naruto a snack in the Forest of Death. The sky above turned black and rumbled with distant thunder.

But Bankai wouldn't be enough. Naruto was not naïve enough to think it would be, not when he was going to take on Orochimaru. He'd had difficulty facing Gaara's transformed state with just his Bankai, and Orochimaru had been good enough to kill the Hokage. There was no way Bankai would be enough.

He had no time to do anything else, though, because the snakes threw themselves forwards at that moment and slammed headfirst into the ground. Naruto and the others leapt backwards and out of the way, and Naruto swiveled his wings around to guard against the chunks of dirt and stone that had been thrown up from the impact. He landed with a stop in midair, and he heard Jiraiya's voice cry: "Doton: Yomi Numa!" (Earth Release: Underworld Swamp)

The two snakes let out angry hisses as the ground beneath them suddenly became a dark swamp and they sank into it, but from their free heads and the parts of their long, thin bodies that remained above it, it was not a very deep swamp. It was probably that drug Tsunade had used, Naruto figured. Hadn't he said something about his chakra being out of whack?

But, high above the battlefield, Naruto had the time, now. He could work his technique without interference. He closed his eyes and reached deep within himself, pushing past all of the chakra and skimming the surface of his inner world. He ignored the violent red chakra that offered itself up and dug deeper and deeper until he found what he was looking for.

"Once more, Naruto," Hyôrinmaru's familiar voice rumbled.

Naruto's Bankai evaporated like steam, and he felt a long, black glove form over his right arm and hand. A heavy necklace settled about him like a loose collar — Magatama, some strange, unfamiliar part of himself whispered. The wing did not appear, but he knew he could form it in an instant if he so wished. Again, the feeling of emptiness gnawed horribly as his stomach and heart, but he ignored it. He opened his eyes, and there were now two rings inside his irises that formed concentric circles around his pupils.

He breathed in, and felt a cool, calm anger. It was anger not from the transformation, but at Orochimaru, who had killed the Third, and Kabuto, who had betrayed him and his friends. It was a cold, steady rage that made his vision sharp and his mind clear.

He was furious.

He shot down like a bullet and slammed into the ground; the earth around him buckled and cracked like glass. It was reminiscent of that time above the stadium on the roof of the Hokage box, when the tiles and concrete had bent and shattered beneath the force of his landing. And, like then, he cared little for it. He had no reason to concern himself with it.

He stood straight, and moved, and then he was in front of Tsunade, who was weeping pitifully and begging for her torture to end, and stopped Kabuto from striking her again, grabbing Kabuto's clothed wrist with his bare left hand. A look of utter surprise crossed Kabuto's face, and it quickly morphed into agony as his purple glove burned to nothing beneath Naruto's fingers and his skin began to char. Kabuto pulled himself free and Naruto let him go. It was only prolonging the inevitable.

"Kabuto," Naruto said suddenly, "when did you stop gathering information about me?"

Kabuto looked up at him from his blistering skin with suspicious eyes. "After your fight with Hyuga Neji-kun during the Chuunin Exam Finals," he said. The smirk suddenly came back. "There was no need to watch you any longer. Any of the skills you showed during the match were easily explainable and unremarkable. After all, Jiraiya-sama, as one of the Sannin, was easily capable of teaching you enough to help you beat Neji. That didn't mean you were any more of a threat, just that you weren't completely hopeless."

"I see," Naruto lifted his bare hand and studied it a moment, flexing his fingers experimentally. Such a small difference between the Bankai version of Ryûjin no Torai and the Shikai version, but the increase in power was amazing. "Then you don't know anything about either this or my Bankai. Good."

Naruto was suddenly in front of Kabuto and backhanded him casually. Kabuto was sent flying backwards as though it had been Tsunade who had punched him and skidded to a halt several yards away. As he climbed shakily to his feet, Naruto could see a patch of blistery red skin on his cheek, and though he didn't know why contact burned others, he decided that it didn't matter. Whether it was something to do with Hyôrinmaru or something to do with the merge, it didn't matter.

Then Naruto was moving again and he could see Kabuto's eyes widen in slow motion as he carved a shallow gash across the older boy's back. It would not maim or kill or disable, but it would certainly hurt like hell. Naruto came to a stop and Kabuto was suddenly pitched forwards, screaming and clawing desperately at his back but unable to reach.

"It won't kill you," Naruto declared calmly. "But this might."

A single Kage Bunshin formed and hefted Kabuto up by his arms pits, locking its fingers together behind his head. Naruto stepped forward and stood in front of him, then looked over his shoulder at Tsunade, who was still trembling and watching everything with wide, frightened eyes.

"Hey, Baa-chan," Naruto called over. She met his gaze and he could not stop the grin that split his face. "Watch this real closely. I won our bet."

He turned back to Kabuto and formed a perfect Rasengan, then thrust it forward into Kabuto's belly and cried, "Rasengan!"

There was a moment when Kabuto was simply suspended there as Naruto's attack sunk into his gut, then he was suddenly thrown violently backwards, destroying Naruto's Kage Bunshin, and dug a long gouge into the ground as he went. A boulder finally stopped him a good ways away and caved in under the force of his collision. Kabuto fell to the ground, and no matter how hard he seemed to try, could not stand back up.

"D-damn it," Naruto heard him muttering to himself. "That attack…Even with my healing ability, I can't…"

Naruto looked away and frowned down at his hand. His fingers were twitching and jerking and his entire hand shook. It seemed he was beginning to feel the effects of Ryûjin no Torai. The increase in power he got from using it in Bankai must mean he also had less time. "Already?" he mumbled to himself. "Damn it. I need more time."

"Naruto, look out!" Tsunade's voice called.

He had no more time to muse on it as something whistled through the air like a bullet. He'd barely turned around before a blade shot forth and sunk into the soft flesh of his stomach. He grunted. Standing there with a snake protruding from his mouth and a sword protruding from the snake's mouth was Orochimaru, and his lips were formed into a smirk around the creature that had somehow (and Naruto didn't want to know how) come from his throat.

Whatever reaction Orochimaru was expecting, it probably wasn't what Naruto actually did. He grinned and laughed a little. It couldn't have gone better if he had planned it all himself. A giddy satisfaction bubbled in his belly.

"This is perfect," he said to the open air. Orochimaru's smirk fell. "You might as well have wrapped yourself up in a bow."

He grasped the sword with his left hand and held tightly, then dropped Hyôrinmaru (whose chain snapped out and wrapped around his waist of its own accord) and held out his black-gloved right hand. A swirling orb of blue chakra formed there in an instant and a look of understanding passed over Orochimaru's face. Naruto's grin widened to show all of his teeth.

"Rasengan!"

If he'd been a little taller, he would have aimed for the face, but the stomach was a good choice, too. Orochimaru was sent flying with an agonized and angry cry, and his sword slid from Naruto's grip and his belly, leaving behind two shallow cuts along his fingers and palm and a wound that, in retrospect, Naruto wasn't sure how to heal.

And then came the crippling pain, not only from the wound, but also because Naruto had run out of time. The tips of his left hand's fingers were burned and blackened, and it was slowly spreading up his hand, and his entire body suddenly ached. It took all of his strength to ignore the pain and push Hyôrinmaru out and away as he fell to his knees and groaned. The sword lying next to him had returned to normal, and all of the incredible power he'd had not moments before left him like sand in a sieve. He suddenly felt incredibly weak, and his body ached in ways that made Naruto wonder how Lee and Gai could stand to do their special brand of training.

The last remnants of his strength finally left him and he collapsed back onto the grass. His breath had left him and the new hole in his side throbbed and burned like lava. There was a single moment where he thought he might be dying, but he'd not had thought it for more than a few seconds before Tsunade was at his side, her hands glowing with green chakra, and pressing her fingers to the sluggishly bleeding wound in his belly. "Idiot," she was saying as the burning pain was soothed away, and he was sure he wasn't meant to hear her, "you keep getting yourself into so many stupid fights against people who could flatten you, Nawaki…"

"Hey, Baa-chan," he said with a grin; he purposefully ignored her calling him the wrong name. He lifted his shaking fingers to her necklace and caressed the beautiful green stone. "I won."

She smiled — actually smiled — and it was the first one he'd ever seen on her face. "Shut up and let me heal you," she told him, but it lacked any bite. It was said — dare he believe it — fondly, like an older sister talking to her younger brother.

"Guess you're over your fear of blood," he needled.

She stopped for the barest moment, and he wondered if perhaps he had gone just a little bit too far, but she pressed her hands back to his wound and the green glow returned.

"It's your fault," she groused good-naturedly. It felt almost surreal to see her acting so friendly when mere days before he'd hated her, and she him, with a boiling passion. "If you would just stop doing stupid things like picking a fight with one of the Sannin, I wouldn't even be here."

He just let out a breathy chuckle and relaxed as he felt the wound stitch itself back up like it hadn't even happened. Every second, he could feel it shrinking and shrinking under her attentions. A minute or two later, she'd finished with his stomach and had even undone the damage to his fingers. She must have been some sort of miracle worker, he figured. None of the doctors at Konoha's hospital were anywhere near as good.

"You damn brat!"

But they'd been working on borrowed time. Orochimaru came barreling down upon them again, sword bared and aimed for Naruto. Naruto reached out and grasped Hyôrinmaru — he had strength enough to at least parry the blow — but he needn't have bothered, because Tsunade stood firm in front of him and took the blow herself — right through the chest.

Orochimaru's eyes went wide. He took a step backwards and jerked his sword free, then swallowed it again. He frowned at her, "Tsunade, you were the only one I didn't intend to kill. That boy, however, will be troublesome if I let him live. Get out of my way."

It was said in a conversational tone, almost as though he were discussing the weather. Naruto wondered what kind of sick mind could talk about the cold-blooded murder of a kid (and he was, technically, still a kid, even if being a ninja meant he was considered an adult; he had no shame in admitting that).

"This boy…." Tsunade began lowly, "I will protect him no matter what."

"Covered in blood and trembling," Orochimaru smirked and chuckled. "Why would you, one of the Sannin, want to risk your life to protect a mere slip of a Genin?"

"To protect Konoha!" she bit back at him.

Naruto blinked — he was lost. How was protecting him the same as protecting Konoha?

The smirk fell. "To protect Konoha?"

"This kid," she looked back Naruto, who met her eyes incredulously, "will one day become Hokage."

A thrill shot through Naruto's belly. She believed in him. She really believed in him. And it was really such an incredible thing to have someone believe in you, to have someone who believed you could accomplish your dreams and who actually thought you were worth something. The warmth that bloomed in his chest was familiar — it was similar to that feeling Hinata evoked, that feeling of belonging.

Orochimaru chuckled again. "Such nonsense…Besides, the title of Hokage is nothing but shit. Only a fool would actually take on the job!"

Naruto could imagine her eyes narrowing as a familiar anger coiled in his belly. "Then I guess I'm a fool," she said solemnly, "because as the Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, I won't allow you to kill this boy!"

Naruto, frozen to his spot, could only watch as the wound that had gone straight through Tsunade's chest closed up like it had never been there, and all her scrapes and bruises vanished. She stood up and squared her shoulders, and in the steadiness of her form, Naruto saw the same something in her that he had seen in the old man. She looked, for a moment, like the Sandaime had that day atop the stadium. She burned with the same fire.

"Now," Tsunade declared confidently, "let's get started. After today…there'll be one less person out there who can lay claim to the name of Legendary Sannin."

Orochimaru suddenly leapt over to Kabuto, who was slowly pulling himself to his feet, and Jiraiya, who had climbed out of the hole Orochimaru had apparently driven him into, began a set of hand seals as Kabuto and Tsunade started their own. Each gave also, Naruto just barely made out, a sacrifice of blood.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" three voices cried out simultaneously.

Three humongous plumes of smoke erupted over the field, and Naruto was suddenly sitting atop a giant blue and white slug at least a hundred feet off the ground. Jiraiya stood atop a great orange and red toad that was just as tall, and it was dressed in a blue hoari and white obi with a tanto tucked into its belt. It was smoking a long, brown pipe. Orochimaru and Kabuto stood on the crowned head of a great purple snake with a black underbelly.

These must be the bosses, he realized as he slowly and shakily got to his feet. He pulled chakra from the well in his stomach and fed it to his limbs — a temporary fix, sort of like a soldier pill, but a necessary one all the same.

"Katsuyu and Tsunade, and Orochimaru and Manda, it's been a while," the Toad Boss said calmly, puffing on his pipe. "What's going on, Jiraiya? Are you having some kind of reunion or something?"

"This is the first time in a long time I've called on you, Gamabunta," Jiraiya said sarcastically, "don't go saying such stupid things right now. Today is the day we end our long relationship with Orochimaru."

"You!" Manda flicked his long tongue at Gamabunta. "Maybe I should turn you into toad jerky!"

"Heh!" Gamabunta reached for his sword. "I've always wanted a snake-skin wallet!"

"This is quite the reunion," Katsuyu mumbled.

Manda didn't respond, instead looking up at the man standing on his head, "You owe me a hundred sacrifices for this, Orochimaru!"

"You'll get your sacrifices," Orochimaru hissed back, "just as soon as you — !"

Naruto tuned them out.

"Do I have enough?" he murmured lowly.

"One attack," Hyôrinmaru answered. "If it isn't decisive, you'll have lost your chance. You'll have to rely completely on whatever chakra you have left."

Naruto nodded, then shot forward as fast as his legs would carry him and zipped past Tsunade. He heard her call his name, but he was already leaping off of Katsuyu's head and towards Manda, sword raised. Manda snarled at him and opened his mouth as far as he could, and it was obvious that he intended to eat Naruto.

He wouldn't get the chance.

Naruto swung downwards with Hyôrinmaru and unleashed every last drop of his remaining reiryoku into the wave that surged from the arc of his blade. "Kongô Hokori!" (Diamond Dust)

The wave swept down and consumed the entirety of Manda's head and a portion of his neck and drove the great snake to the ground with a loud slam. It poured over him like a mighty waterfall, pounding down and pushing him deeper into the ground. Grass and dirt were washed away or outright disintegrated, and everything nearby frosted over. When at last it subsided and Naruto landed, a number of scales had been stripped from Manda's nose and snout and great globs of blood sputtered out of his mouth with every breath. He was alive, yes, but definitely no longer in any condition to fight.

A little ways away, Orochimaru and Kabuto were picking themselves off the ground. Naruto could see a portion of white bone beneath the shredded skin of Kabuto's exposed arms and legs, then his flesh knitted itself back together with an incredible speed. Muscles, arteries, and skin reformed in a flash. Naruto wondered just how much damage he could take before he finally died.

Orochimaru was better off, though as he stood, Naruto could see a very female portion of his face that did not look like it belonged to him peeking out from the curtain of bloody black hair. A great deal of his clothes had been shredded and patches of beautiful feminine skin mottled his ragged body. He seemed to be on his last legs, and it was a miracle or some kind of divine intervention that he had not been killed yet.

Naruto wanted to know just what the hell those patches of skin were supposed to mean. Was Orochimaru really a woman in disguise?

"You stupid brat," Orochimaru wheezed. He began to sink into the ground. "You've won this battle…but in the end, I will be victorious! Because I…I am immortal! And I swear to you, I will kill you!"

Then he was gone, and Kabuto offered only a smirk before he swept through a set of hand seals and vanished as well. Naruto, tense and prepared, waited for the attack that would strike either from his blind spot or underground, but as minutes passed and it never came, he let the adrenaline drain from his body and relaxed into the embrace of sleep.

The last thing he heard that day was Tsunade's voice calling his name.

— o.0.O.O.0.o —

To be continued

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach

Massive chapter today.

I wanted this out much sooner, but you guys have been so underwhelming. Those of you who reviewed, thanks. I appreciate it. But if I could get an average of at least 100 reviews per chapter, I think I could get a new chapter out every other week. If I could get an average of 200 a chapter, I could damn near guarantee a new chapter every other week (with the exception of extenuating circumstances and real-life interference — you guys have no idea just how much that many reviews could motivate me).

Currently, the next "chapter," which is already posted, is a calendar of the events so far. I've made some changes from the original timeline: first off, the Wave mission ends in the middle of May, and the Chunin Exams are held in June instead of July. This chapter starts at the beginning of July and ends on August 8th. Next chapter, the real next chapter, will be a special one, and after that, the Land of Snow.

NaruHina fluff ahoy! (Even though they're not actually or officially a couple, just friends getting to know each other better — at this point, anyway. Yeah, they've kissed each other on the cheek once or twice, but until they're lip-locking or professing love, I don't consider them a couple. I'm building their relationship mostly using my own experience, so, yes, I had a relationship with a girl that was sort of like theirs, and she would later become my girlfriend — and even then, the falling-in-love part didn't come until quite a while after that).

Since I've explained Naruto's Fullbring and said in last chapter's A/N how he got a Fullbring in the first place you should also understand that it is entirely possible that others will manifest Fullbrings as well (just check for anyone born after Naruto, and it's entirely possible). That doesn't mean that those who could manifest them actually will…

I will admit that I worried a little about how you all would react to the dream at the beginning of this chapter. And the meaning of Itachi's words should give you some clue about what sort of power he lent to Naruto and what conditions will cause it to activate.

The quote below reveals a significant part of the Madara fight a long ways down the road. There are several things I could say that would make translating it easier, but I don't hand out anything. If you can figure out what the quote says, then you deserve to know the spoiler. If not, then you don't, and you'll just have to wait. (Incidentally, if those of you more fluent speakers manage to find any flaws with it, I blame it on the translator I had to use, courtesy of how rusty I've gotten and the fact that some of the words were not in my vocabulary).

One last thing: something you guys should factor into Naruto's growth rate is the fact that, in this story, Naruto is the reincarnation of the Rikudô Sennin. In this story, that is why he has Hyôrinmaru and why he can do a lot of the stuff he does. A lot of ninja consider the Sage a god, after all. Why is his learning curve so unbelievable then?

Ore wa kisama no Sharingan wo watashijishin no seishin wo jitsugen suru tameni hitsuyou to shinai!
俺は貴様の写輪眼 を私自身の精神を実現するため に必要としない!

James Daniel Godric Alan Fawkes

James Daniel Godric Alan Fawkes(Signature best viewed in Wendy Medium font style)