Chapter Four

An Ultimate Homecoming

Naruto followed Kiba into a dusty alley. His "sister" Ringo was close behind them, and Akamaru walked slowly behind her. The alley was long and narrow, and the ground was unpaved. There walls on either side of them were bare, save for some poorly written graffiti, but at the end of the alley, a large wooden door stood. Pad locks lined it from top to bottom. There was no handle.

"So what's in there?" Ringo asked, her voice a harsh whisper.

Kiba looked back to her, smiling. Then he turned back to the door. Suddenly, all the locks fell off, and the door opened slowly. Three men stepped forth, talking amongst themselves and laughing loudly. Then they saw team Inuzuka, and stood in shock.

"What the hell are you doing out here!?"

Naruto looked at Kiba, who nonchalantly reached for his right thigh, where his weapons pouch was strapped. He looked up at Naruto and nodded. Naruto raised an eyebrow, and looked back toward the three strangers.

"Answer me! You aren't supposed to be back here!"

"Now!" Kiba pulled a shuriken from his pouch and threw it right between the speaking strangers eyes. As he fell, his two friends followed suit, but Naruto hadn't even moved. A confused Kiba looked to the man he knew as Jubei.

"What'd you do?"

"I told you I was fast." Naruto smiled, but it all honesty he hadn't done anything. He had assumed that Kiba was going to take care of all three. After all, he assumed any chunin-level or higher shinobi possessed the ability to accurately throw more than one projectile. Someone or something else had fallen the other two men, but Naruto didn't want to embarrass himself in front of Kiba, and kept this realization to himself. Kiba checked the pulses of all three dead men, and nodded to himself.

"Let's move." He moved quickly into the building, drawing a kunai and propping himself up against the door's opposing wall. He gestured to be followed.

"Would you please tell us what we're doing?" Ringo asked, frustrated. Naruto patted her on the back and walked into the building. The door slammed closed behind him. He heard the locks set. He and Kiba were trapped in complete darkness.

"What the hell did you do?" Kiba asked. He moved blindly in the darkness, and bumped into the Namikaze.

"Watch where you're going Kiba!" Naruto shoved his temporary captain away, pushing him into the wall.

"Take it easy Namikaze!" Kiba swung a fist lightly into the darkness, but he failed to connect with anything.

"Did you just try to punch me?"

"No!"

"You're the one who needs to take it easy!" Naruto stepped on Kiba's foot.

"Ow!"

"Sorry, accident."

"That was sarcastic!"

Suddenly the hall filled with light, and Naruto and Kiba found themselves staring at the business ends of thirty or so spears.

"What are you doing here?!" A voice called from behind the wall of spears.

Naruto looked at the spear-men. None of them seemed to hold themselves like traditionally trained spear-men, if it weren't for the fact that they had constructed such a perfect line of spear tips, He and Kiba would have been able to take them out with minimal effort. But now they had to worry about getting around eight inches of folded steel in every direction.

"SPEAK!"

Then Naruto remembered his special talent, and appeared behind the spear-men in a golden flash.

"Hi." He waved from behind them. The spear-men all turned their head, and stared at him in horrible fear. Because of their formation and the narrow walls, they could not turn around with their weapons and face him. They were completely exposed. Several of the more foolish men tried to turn around, slashing at their comrades in their haste. Others dropped their spears and tried to run, but found themselves trapped by the weapons of their allies.

Naruto drew his sword, and slowly walked toward them. Every step seemed to increase the fear and desperation of the spear-men. Most of them were screaming. Every few seconds one would go crazy from terror and spin around desperately with his spear, cutting up his friends, and ultimately impaling himself.

Naruto took a step and another step. He almost sighed. If the men had just calmed down, and slowly lifted their spears back to a neutral position, they could have safely turned around and recreated their formation. But, as Naruto had assessed, they had no formal training with their chosen weapons, and that would ultimately be their doom.

He took one more step, and by now the dozen men had been reduced to a third of their original number. He heartlessly slashed at them, and the collapsed to the floor, joining their fallen comrades. On the other side of the dead bodies, Kiba stood in amazement.

"That was awesome! You killed most of them just by looking at them!" By now, Naruto was sadly assuming that Kiba was a far worse ninja then he remembered. Of course, he thought to himself, maybe I've just gotten so good, that anything that resembles mediocrity looks just like lack of skill.

He smiled, his head now filled with self praise.

"So what are we doing here Kiba?" He moved toward the door, hoping that in the light he would be able to pick the locks. Then an alarm went off.

"C'mon! We need to hurry!" Kiba grabbed Naruto by the arm and raced down the hallway, dragging the Namikaze with him. The Inuzuka kicked down a door at the end of the stretch and threw Naruto through it.

"Find the leader! I'm going to free the hostages!"

"What the hell are you talking about!" Naruto screamed after him, but Kiba sped down the hallway and wasn't planning on turning around, "Damn!"

Naruto looked around the room he now found himself in. It was small, and there were doors on either wall. They weren't labeled, so Naruto had no clue which one to head through.

"Great... just brillant."

Naruto had tried every single door but one. It took him only a few seconds to eliminate all of them but the last one. All the doors he checked led to empty rooms. So of course, this last door had to lead him to where he needed to go. Of course sometimes the logical just didn't work out.

Behind the last door stood another empty room.

"What?" his eyes scanned the room quickly, but except for a painting on the far wall, it was identical to the other rooms. Sometimes instinct is more important than logic, so Naruto took a deep breath and walked over to the painting. It was pretty garish, and the small house looked like it was painted by a child. He slowly traced the sides of the frame with his hands, looking for something, something he didn't know what. He exhaled and pulled the painting away, revealing a square recess in the wall.

A rope hung from the top of the recess, and Naruto pulled at it.

Creaking gears sounded from behind the wall, and Naruto stepped backward as a hidden door opened. It was dark, and Naruto stepped hesitantly through the opened wall. His foot didn't touch the floor as he expected it to, but it fell a few inches further onto a step.

Stairs then.

He started walking, keeping one hand on the wall, tracing it as he followed the stairs downward. In his other hand, he clenched the weapon of his ancestors. His eyes adjusted to the lack of light rather quickly, and his surroundings became apparent.

He was overcome with the feeling that he was walking down into an ancient dungeon. Then a Samurai suddenly appeared before him, and he collided.

The Samurai and Naruto went tumbling down the cobblestone stairwell, ultimately landing hard on the cold floor at the bottom of the steps. To Naruto's shock, the Samurai had fallen to pieces underneath him. Then he realized that it wasn't a real Samurai at all, just a suit of armor someone had placed on the steps.

"Cool!" Naruto said aloud. Overcome with the coolness of the armor, he took off his blue vest and started putting it on. The plate armor slid easily over his chest, and the armor that dropped below his waist covered his crotch and legs in all the right places. Then he pulled the vambraces and the shin guards on, and slid the tabi socks onto his feet. Finally he put on the straw zori, which strapped around his ankles. He discarded the mustached mask, but pulled the horned Kabuto onto his head, and strapped it under his chin.

He wished he had a mirror to admire himself. Then he remembered he was a ninja, and summoned a shadow clone. Naruto stared at his doppleganger, admiring himself in his new samurai armor.

"I look so freaking cool." He swung his ninjato and slashed the shadow clone into smoke.

A voice pierced the darkness.

"I would appreciate it... if you took off my armor."

Naruto stared into the darkness, straining his eyes in an attempt to discern the owner of the disembodied voice. Then the lights turned on, and his world went white.

"Take my armor off now."

Slowly his eyes readjusted, and he took in the sight of a large bald man, wearing nothing but a tightly bound loincloth.

"Are you the... uh, the leader of whatever this is?"

"This is my establishment, my business, my home... and that is my armor." The bald man whispered. His voice trembled with anger.

"I think... that I'm supposed to kill you." Naruto said, frowning. The bald man tensed, and then started to shake. At first Naruto thought he was convulsing, then his voice erupted into boisterous laughter.

"Then at last my prayers have been answered!" The man walked across the room to a wall covered with weapons, he looked over them for half a moment, then back at Naruto. Then he ripped a ridiculously curved katana from the wall, "I only hope, that you are at least a worthy challenge."

He swung, and the sheath flew off of his sword, flying across the room. Then he charged at Naruto, and caught the boy off guard with his speed. He barely had time to block, and the force of the blow made his arm feel as if it had broken.

"Fuck!" Naruto dropped to the ground, rolling out of the way as another slash barely missed his head. He ducked, dodged and wove his way above and below his bald opponents hacking and slashing sword, but the moves were too quick for him to keep up with. Every time he avoided an attack, he would be powerless to throw his own. He had never met anyone of such dazzling speed.

Clearing his mind while running his acrobat act, Naruto focused on the image of Sakura.

Her lips moved.

"Down."

He ducked underneath his opponent, rolling between his legs. Bouncing off the floor, Naruto threw an upward slashed that was blocked with ease. The bald man had turned around before Naruto had finished rolling.

"Right." His image of Sakura commanded. Naruto did as he was told, rolling to the right just as the bald man swung to his left. Naruto took a downward strike, but his blade was bounced away by his enemies, "Stop fucking around and hit him, Naruto."

Naruto held his sword in his right hand, and batted at the bald man with his left. His enemy brought up his sword to block, and in his momentum, Naurto's middle finger suddenly felt extremely warm and wet. Naruto spun around, and sent his sword into the right side of the bald man's skull. This time he didn't parry, but fell to the ground. Dead.

Naruto let the image of Sakura fade from his mind, and pried the sword from the corpse's cranium. Then he felt extreme pain in his left middle finger. Looking down, he saw the skin hanging from the bone.

"Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck." He said, fucking shit. He imagined Sakura, and slowly he felt the pain fade away. But it didn't disappear entirely, he still felt it like a distant heartbeat, just on the threshold of pain. He walked back over to his blue vest, and in regret he tore a strip from the softest part of the fabric. It was either that or the bald dead guy's loincloth, he told himself. So in resignation, he bandaged his finger with his once treasured vest.

Naruto stumbled through in open door into the brillant stunning daylight. He was moving like a drunk, the sudden wash of light after wandering through what felt like miles of dark tunnels had thrown his equilibrium. He almost fell before his eyes adjusted to the influx of UV.

"Fuck you Kiba!" He yelled at no one in particular. He had no clue where he was, and looking back at where he emerged from did nothing to help him. Wherever he had actually been, all he saw now was a shack in the middle of a wasted landscape. The sand was hard and cracked, and all the vegetation was grayed and dried out from extreme dehydration. He reckoned that he would soon share their fate if he didn't find his way back to team Inuzuka, but one thing was for damn sure. He was not going back blindly into that tunnel.

He looked down at is middle finger, seeing the blue fabric soaked through with blood. He wished that Sakura was with him, but not for the usual reason. He rubbed his forehead, sliding his palm over the cool metal of his forehead protector.

"You and team Inuzuka can rot and hell! You fucking god-damned idiot!" Naruto kicked the air menacingly, then threw his hands around his body like a choking spastic. The pain returned in waves, but through his frustration he couldn't maintain the image of Sakura for more than a few precious, painless, moments. Then he remembered once more how handy his clan's secret technique could be, and focused hard on the alley he stood with his friends in some time ago. It was hard, for his mind was wandering while they were there, his thoughts were fogged with predictions of the upcoming battle, but eventually he was able to remember how far apart the walls were, and that would be enough to keep him from being crushed into oblivion in a millisecond.

Closing his eyes, he flashed.

"Open dammit!"

Opening his eyes, he saw Ringo and Akamaru trying to opened the heavily locked door, which meant, unfortunately, that Kiba had yet to come out.

"God damn that Kiba." Ringo and Akamaru jumped at his voice.

Naruto had, with great difficulty, teleported Akamaru, Ringo, and himself into one of the empty rooms he had explored while searching for the bald man. The now dead bald man. With his tight, creepy, sweaty loincloth. Naruto tried not to think about all the times the loincloth had touched the armor he now was wearing. Tried. Tried his damnedest.

"Where did you get those sweet duds, Jubei?" Ringo asked, touching his shoulder plates, "Samurai armor is expensive as hell, and you certainly didn't buy that in the market in town."

Naruto shrugged, but he blushed beneath his face plate. He was glad he wasn't the only one who thought the armor was totally badass. Akamaru's nose perked up, and he started sniffing the air around them.

"What is it boy?" Ringo asked, apparently during their time in the alley, she had taken a liking to Akamaru.

"Do you smell Kiba?" Naruto asked. The dog barked in return, and they followed him out of the empty room.

There was Kiba, with four other people following close behind him.

"Hey! I found you guys!" The oblivious Inuzuka stated, "Did you kill the leader, Jubei?"

"Yes." Naruto said, trying to show off his armor nonchalantly. Kiba didn't seem to notice though, obviously his mind was on other things than his teammates change in wardrobe. Then, one of the hostages behind him spoke up. He was hidden from view by the others, and Naruto could not see his face.

"Your friends, Kiba?" Naruto recognized the voice immediately, and he hid beneath the shallow folds of his armor.

"Yeah, Sasuke! These are relatives of Naruto's!" Kiba's excitement was seriously starting to piss Naruto off. He sheathed his sword and lowered his head, the large horns of his Kabuto pointed above the heads of the hostages. He looked at Kiba's feet as he spoke.

"C'mon, we need to get going." The Inuzuka led the way, and Naruto waited until the last Hostage passed him before following. Naruto pondered as they walked, how did someone like Sasuke get stuck as a hostage at this place? But the way he walked next to Kiba resolved Naruto's doubt. Obviously he was just undercover as a hostage, and this was Kiba and Sasuke's mission from the start.

"Let's get these people home, and head back to Konoha." Sasuke said. Naruto's body recoiled slightly from the name of his home, and he jumped when he felt a soft hand on his shoulder armor.

"You okay?" Ringo asked. Naruto looked at her, and for the first time realized how much alike they looked. Well, she looked like him whenever he henged into a woman. He was surprised with himself for not noticing before, but then again, he did look at his father almost every day and never put two and two together. He nodded, and she patted him once more on the shoulder, before joining Akamaru at his side.

"Hey sweetie." She said, scratching him behind the ear as he squinted at her, his tongue hanging loose from his jaw.

Naruto looked down at his aching finger, he'd need to change the cloth bandage again soon.

"Don't let that get infected." Naruto hadn't noticed Sasuke drop back to his side. To his surprise, the Uchiha smiled at him.

"Naruto was my best friend," He said, "and anybody who shares blood with him, is a good man in my book."

He extended his hand hand, and Naruto shook it. He tried to smile, but his lips just wouldn't turn right, and his face came across as being half frown half smirk. The flash of confusion on Sasuke's face did not go unnoticed.

"Sorry," Naruto said, "I think I got my head busted up in that fight, I'm finding it hard to think."

"You sound like him," Naruto swallowed hard, "Naruto I mean."

"Oh?" Naruto almost tripped over his own feet, Sasuke caught him, "Sasuke, right?"

"Oh, man. I'm sorry I wasn't trying to be rude. Uchiha Sasuke, and your name is Jubei? Namikaze Jubei?"

"Yeah," Naruto lied.

"Yeah, that's my name." Lies felt bad now, it was different when it was he and Ringo, pretending to villagers and other strangers that they were brother and sister, but Sasuke was his friend.

He was more than that, Sasuke was his brother. He was lying to his brother's face. He felt sick, the pain in his finger returned.

And he was lying right in his brother's face.

"I'm sorry." He said compulsively. Sasuke must've assumed he was talking about his own death, for the boy nodded solemnly.

"You move on... no you don't, you never do. But life moves on, and you have to move with it I guess. Unless you're Sakura."

"Who?" Naruto asked, feeling sicker by the second.

"The love of Naruto's life, only she didn't love him back. Or so we thought anyway. I saw her the day they announced his death, it was like the world just fell out from under her." Sasuke's face twitched, "I feel like a dick because I agreed to this mission as soon as I could. I've been gone for almost a year now, I couldn't bare her sadness. I could't stand to stay, and I didn't want to leave, but I'd rather be away from Sakura... her sorrow just makes me want to die."

"I wish it had been me, instead of... you know." Sasuke's eyes were watery, but he took a congested sniff through his nostrils and blinked the water away, "I'm sorry, this is a good day. We broke up the kidnapping ring, months of work paid off, we're headed home, and I meet a new friend."

"Everything's happy, right Naruto?"

He was going to throw up, he was going to throw up. I'm going to throw up.

"What?"

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"What'd you call me?"

"Jubei, of course... why?" Sasuke asked, there was something devilish about his smile. Something omniscient in the glint in his eyes.

"Nothing..." I think I may be sick, "I just heard you wrong." I'm going to throw up all over this armor.

"Okay. I'll talk to you again soon, okay?" He whispered the next few words, "I can't trust Kiba with remembering to chew before he swallows, if you know what I mean."

God, don't talk about food, he thought. He watched as Sasuke walked to the front to screw Kiba's head back in the right direction.

"It's this way dumb ass, didn't you study the map!"

God, don't talk about maps. He thought. I'm gonna lose my lunch, I'm gonna lose my map.

The gates of Konoha stood before them, and Naruto hadn't stop feeling sick the whole trip back. If his skin wasn't green, he sure felt like it was.

"Happy thought." Ringo as she and Akamaru passed him, walking straight into Konoha.

"Kit...I need to speak with you." The kyuubi spoke inside Naruto's mind, fear in his voice.

'What's up?'

"You need to remain Jubei Namikaze for now."

This was not the news Naruto had wished to hear.

'Why?! Lying like this is torturous beyond words...'

"I'll explain soon enough...just humor me for now.

"We can go in now Jubei, but you'll have to come with me and Kiba to visit the Hokage."

He could all but taste the vomit in his mouth.

"Um... sure." His voice cracked. Naruto disappeared in a flash, leaving Kiba and Sasuke confused.

"Yo!" Naruto said, flashing a peace-sign at the Hokage as her paperwork fell to the floor.

"Who... the... hell-" She looked up, and beheld the sight of a goofy looking blonde man in outdated armor, long horns extended from his red Kabuto, she was too distracted by his armor to look into his eyes. If she had, she might have censored her next comment.

"Who the fuck are you! Get the hell out of my office!" She stood up quickly, "Do you have any clue who I am, you clown-looking asshole?"

Naruto's eyes shot wide, then he realized he was still wearing his disguise. He pulled off his Kabuto, and pried away his face plate, revealing his famous whisker marks.

"Naruto!" She jumped over her desk and pulled him into a bone breaking hug.

Naruto sunk into the warmth of the hug, when she released him he bore a frown.

"Are you back for good?"

Naruto shook his head no.

"Jubei Namikaze is...Naruto's dead remember." He put his face plate back on, keeping his Kabuto under the crook of his arm. "The Kyubi said I need to keep under-cover, our trouble is far from over it seems."

Tsunade nodded grimly "So, why are you back then?"

"I helped Kiba and Sasuke with their mission, they're at the gates now, they should be in here soon."

The pressure from the hug made the blood from his finger flow freer, and it dripped out from under his bandage.

"Naruto you have to get that finger checked out. I'm going to go meet the boys, I'll have Shizune send up a nurse, okay?"

She patted Naruto on the cheek.

"Good to have you back kiddo."

Naruto stood in the Hokage's office alone, and nostalgia embraced him. It hadn't been that long since he stood here last, but he was under the guise of Tatsumaki. He took a deep breath and exhaled.

"Excuse me?"

The nurse I guess, he thought, not turning around.

"Shizune sent me up, would you follow me please?"

Naruto turned around smiling, but his heart stopped when he saw who would be fixing him up.

Sakura smiled sadly at him.

"Namikaze... uh, Jubei? She said your name was."

Naruto nodded more than he had to.

He tried staring into Sakura's eyes, but she would not meet his gaze. She moved about the room, pulling bandages from different drawers, and picking up and dropping various pieces of medical equipment. Then she closed the door.

"Sit here." She patted the hospital bed and Naruto pulled himself onto it. He put his Kabuto down next to him. She held out her hand, "Let me see that finger."

Naruto did as he was told. She pulled off the make-shift bandage, and revealed the skin that seemed to be hanging off the bone.

"Oh my god... who did this to you?"

She reached across a table and picked up a bottle of clear liquid. She poured it on the wound. It burned. Naruto cringed, but didn't say anything.

"How... how long have you been back?" She asked as she finished cleaning and wrapping the wound. She was still not looking at him.

"I... Haruno-san I'm not from around here-"

"Oh please cut the crap Naruto." She looked into his eyes. Hers were watering. He couldn't lie anymore, and in a sudden rush of the sickest feeling he had ever felt, he told the truth.

"... Oh god Sakura, I'm so sorry." As soon as the words left his mouth, the sickness left.

She threw herself at him, and he embraced her in a tight hug.