Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Kishimoto does. But I wish I did.

SUMMARY: After a final attempt to turn the tides of war against an Orochimaru, Naruto suddenly woke up in a Konoha where the villagers saw him as a hero but all his precious people only saw him as a spoiled brat and a nuisance. But the biggest surprised of all is that a mother he had never knew was alive, and that he also has a younger sister with a terminal illness. Can he cope with this new world before him? Can he regain the trust of his precious people once again? And would he be able to defeat the Orochimaru of this world?

CHAPTER 7

Naruto woke up to the sound of explosions. Opening his eyes, he saw almost the entire forest is on fire. Specifically, black fire.

Amaterasu.

That on itself is already a big concern. The only Uchiha he could think of that could produce and control these amount of deadly fires is Uchiha Itachi. But it doesn't make sense. As far as his body's old occupant's memories, he knows that Itachi is in prison, serving, at what his mother keeps telling him, a self-imposed sentence.

Several Root ninjas are busy trying to put out the fire blocking their way out, while some are searching for the arsonist. He also saw several of Danzo's men laying on the ground dead with kunais and shuriken embedded in their bodies. Danzo himself is nearby, surrounded by at least half a dozen ROOT ANBU, while barking orders left and right. With his enhanced senses, he heard Danzo gave two of his men an order that chilled him to the bone. "Kill the older Hyuuga child and bring me the younger. She will provide as a meat shield."

He turned his head and saw the two agents already opening the cage. He knew he only have a few seconds before Hinata gets killed and Hanabi used as a shield againts the retrieval team so he gathered all the spirit and physical energy he could muster and added a third ingredient to the mix, natural energy, thus forming sage chakra.

For a couple of seconds, everyone stopped dead in their tracks when an enormous force came forth, suffocating the air and almost putting everyone down on their knees. Naruto's Kanashibari no Jutsu is already a potent technique with his mixed chakra, but combining it with natural energy, it was powerful enough to install fear to those ANBU ROOTS that doesn't even know the meaning of the word.

The last thing Naruto saw before being overwhelmed by his own technique are the Root falling to their knees before black flames covered their bodies.


Ino woke up with a spiting headache. Groaning, she sat up on the bed, massaging her forehead in an attempt to ease the pain. "Damn. That's the last time a let Anko talk me into one of her drinking games."

"Who's Anko?" came the sudden voice beside her.

She squeaked in surprise and turned to the stoic looking Shikamaru sitting on a bench beside her bed. "Damn it, Shika! Don't scare me like that. And what the heck are you doing in my. . . Hey! This aint my room!"

Shikamaru gave her a raised eyebrow and said, "You're in the hospital."

"I know that, you lazy ass. What the hell am I doing here?" she snapped, her headache getting worse.

"You don't remember?" he asked softly.

"Would I be asking you if I do? Honestly! Did your laziness finally put the rest of your brain in permanent hibernation?" Her headache finally getting the better of her, she flopped back into bed, covering her eyes with her left arm.

Shikamaru would have said something more but the door to the room suddenly opened, letting Yamanaka Inoichi and a female doctor in. The Yamanaka patriarch didn't wait a second longer before grabbing his daughter in a hug. "Princess! You're awake!"

"ACK! Daddy! Stop embarrassing me!" The little girl complained, pushing her father enough to breathe. "What the f**k is going on? One minute I'm walking inside the ritual room and the next I find myself in here, wearing this sorry excuse of a rag."

"It is a standard patient gown, Yamanaka-san. It's supposed to be dull." The female doctor said calmly.

"Well you should have it change. Fashion conscious patients like myself would feel sick just looking at it. Wearing it is just torture! It's simply atrocious!"

The doctor actually stopped to think about it for a moment before finally saying, "I'll forward it on the next committee meeting. Anyway, how do you feel?"

"Like hell." She groaned once more as she flop down on the bed.

The doctor step forward and placed her hands above Ino's forehead. As green chakra pulses out of said doctor's hands, she asked the girl, "Tell me, what was the last thing you remember?"

"Going to the ritual room with my dad at our house's basement." She then scrunch her face in thought. "Then, I remember something red. Then, blue. Nothing after that."

"Red and blue?"

"Yeah. I remember being scared of the red. But then blue came and everything felt right again."

For the moment, everyone digested her words while the doctor continued with her diagnosis. The doctor gave a small discreet nod at Inoichi while his daughter was not looking. Then, the doctor said, "There seems to be nothing physically wrong with her except for the small memory loss."

"Do you think it would be safe for me to look into her mind, just to make sure?" Inoichi asked.

"I don't see a problem with it, Yamanaka-san."

"Good." He said before turning to his daughter. "Honey, I'm just going to look into your mind for a bit, okay."

"Fine. But I would like to know what happened, got it?"

"Sure, honey. Now lie down and make yourself comfortable. I promise you it would be over before you know it."

Ino huffed but did exactly what her dad said. She loves her father very much but he could be so smothering sometimes. She's a pre-teen already but her dad keeps treating her like a six years old.

Going through several seals, Inoichi performed his jutsu. Several minutes later, he opened his eyes once more and gave a huge sigh of relief. "She's clean." He said before turning to his daughter. "Everything's alright now, honey."

"Great. It would have meant something to me if I actually know what's going on." She said, sarcasm evident in her voice.

"That's good news." The doctor said, ignoring the sarcasm. "I find no reason not to let her go home since physically she is also fine. Yamanaka Ino-san, I'll just go sign your release forms and you'll be set."

"But no one told me yet what brought me here."

"I'll let your father fill you in later. The entire Konoha medical staff is stretch out at the influx of nerve patients for the moment." The doctor said, pertaining to the amount of injuries due to the explosion of the earlier attack.

"Fine. Where's my clothes?"

"Right here, princess."

"Thanks, daddy." She accepted the articles of clothing her dad gave her before getting off the bed.

"What?" Inoichi asked when her daughter gave him a flat look.

"You really don't expect me to change my clothes in front of you, do you daddy?"

"Oh. OH! Right. Come on, Shikamaru." The man said as he hurriedly step out of the room, dragging Shikamaru with him.

Before he was out the door, he stop when he suddenly heard his daughter say, "That means you too, ANBU-san!"

Turning back, he saw his daughter glaring intently at an empty corner of the room. For a moment everyone was silent, Ino still glaring at the empty corner of the room.

Several seconds later, the hidden mole-masked female ANBU shimmered from the spot, having cancelled the genjutsu she used to hide. "How did you know?"

Everyone else wanted to know as well, particularly Inoichi. The man knew there was supposed to be a guard hidden in the room but even he wasn't able to pinpoint her exact location until now.

"Well, duh! You were broadcasting enough boredom for me to pinpoint from a mile away." Ino said grouchily, as if catching a well hidden shinobi like that aint a big deal. The ANBU was about to say something but Ino beat her to it and said, "I don't care if you're female as well, Miko-san, since everyone knows you swing both ways."

The female ANBU actually panicked and dropped into an attack stance. She was a trainee ANBU, barely three weeks in her post. No one else but the Hokage, her ANBU Squad Captain, and the ANBU Commander was supposed to know her name until her permanent insertion into the squad.

She was just about to attack when Inoichi's order rang out. "ANBU, stand down! As Second in Command of ANBU T&I, I am ordering you to sheath your weapons."

Obeying protocols, she sheathed her ninjato and stood in attention, watching as Inoichi suddenly rounded on his daughter, hitting her with a strange ninjutsu that seems to not do anything.

Suddenly, Inoichi gasp and said in an awed voice, "I don't believe it. How the heck did this happened?"

"W-what is it? What's wrong with me, daddy?"

Instead of answering his daughter right away, he turned to the doctor and said, "Could you diagnose her cranium? I need to be sure of something first." Before turning to Ino and saying, "Hold still for a moment, honey. This won't take long."

Ino was about to ague when her father gave her a stern look, making her pout but remain still as he and the doctor examine her again.

"Inoichi-san, you're daughter's chakra pathways on her brain are enormous. I haven't seen anything like this in any child her age." The doctor was in awe.

"Yes. Larger than any Yamanaka in the past hundred years." Inoichi said, his voice a combination of pride and fear.

"What does that mean for your daughter, Inoichi-san?"

For a moment, the Yamanaka patriarch went silent, everyone looking at him in curiosity. Then he said, "Half of her mental blocks are open. For a Yamanaka, it's like opening the eight Celestial Gates of the body. Even the Grand Master of the Yamanaka Techniques could only unlock two or three in their entire lifetime."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Shikamaru asked. "I mean, that's what the Yamanaka Rites of Passage for, right, to open those mental blocks to allow you guys to perform your mental techniques?"

Inoichi frowned. "Yes. But to open them without any negative symptoms requires more than single lifetime to achieve. But my deeper mind scan detects no such faults in her mental stability."

Ino thought about it for a moment before saying, "Really? Cool! I can't wait to shove that fact to everyone!"

Shikamaru gave a snort, shaking his head.

"Thanks, lazy-ass. But you shouldn't worry too much about me." Ino suddenly said.

"I didn't say anything."

"You don't have too. I could feel your relief flooding the room." Ino said smugly before turning to the still stationary ANBU in the room. "And you, stop feeling so nervous! You're giving me goose bumps!"

The ANBU finally had enough and shouted angrily, "Stop reading my mind!"

"I'm not reading your mind! Your nervousness is suffocating me!"

"Then how did you know my name?"

"Because of your nail polish, DUH! You're the only person I know throughout the entire Konoha who is proud to wear mismatched manicure."

Everyone then went to look at the ANBU's hand and saw a different colored manicure in each fingernail.

Shikamaru sighed before saying to his long time friend, "You, Ino, are the only girl I know who could identify anyone through their make up."

Trying to avoid a coming headache, Inoichi cleared his throat and said, "ANBU-san, please tell your commanding officer that the revelation of your identity is inevitable during the circumstance and would act accordingly should said identity be divulge by the people in this room."

The ANBU visually relaxed and said, "Thank you, sir. I'll have someone more appropriate for Miss Yamanaka's preference to replace me." Then, she made a single handsign and disappeared in a swirl of leaves, only to be replaced ten seconds later by another ANBU, this time a muscular man.

Ino gave the new arrival a once over before nodding her head. "He can stay."

Shikamaru gave his friend an incredulous stare and stated, "He's a man."

Ino shrugged. "Yes, but he's also gay so I don't see any problem."

"Are you?" Inoichi asked to the said ANBU, wondering how his daughter knew.

"Yes, sir. Yes I am. And on that note, that hospital gown is truly atrocious." The ANBU said in a monotone.

Shikamaru opened his mouth, but then decided to close it immediately before walking towards the door. "I don't want to know. So troublesome."

Inoichi merely sighed and gave the ANBU a nod before leaving the room as well, giving Ino the privacy to change her clothes.


"It was too easy." The Weasel masked ANBU stated in a flat voice as he scans the entire clearing for any survivors and found none, the incinerated body of DAnzo laying on his feet.

"You call this easy? I've never seen a more chaotic battle my entire life!" Hanabi, standing nearby with her sister, said in exasperation.

"I agree." Dolphin said, ignoring the girl's outburst, as he checks the rescued Namikaze heir for any injuries, the Hyuuga heiresses watching close by. He scowls internally as he found that the child was merely passed out due to chakra exhaustion. "It seems that Jiraiya-sama had been very zealous in his teachings." When Weasel look at him questioningly, he continued. "That was sage chakra that he used. I've only seen Jiraiya-sama fight using it once. He decimated an entire platoon of Waterfall nins, including the Mountain Bear Okobu."

Weasel nodded and said, "We better get back."

Dolphin agreed and placed the unconscious Naruto on his back, Weasel creating a single Kage Bushin and did the same with the Hyuuga heiresses. Soon enough all of them started heading back to Konoha.

They barely travelled a few miles before Weasel suddenly stopped, prompting Dolphin to do the same and look at him in a questioning manner.

"She is here." Weasel said flatly.

Dolphin immediately made a single handsign, creating a small chakra wave. Finding what he was looking for, he stared ahead and said to the forest, "You were told to meet us at the boarder."

Seconds later, Yugito dropped down from the tree she was hiding in about ten feet in front of them. Hanabi and Hinata reacted immediately. The older one started radiating fear, thinking that Kumo had managed to find them. The younger heiress started shaking in anger, but Weasel gave her a negative shake of the head, placating her immediately.

Yugito fidgeted a bit and said, "I-I didn't want to go and meet with Konoha nins without you there."

Outwardly, Dolphin was keeping his cool. But inward, he was kicking himself for forgetting that barely several hours ago, he and Yugito were still Kumo-nins, taught to threat Konoha as enemies. Promising to make it up to her later, once he discard his mask, he gave her a small nod and said professionally, "Yugito, you are to watch our six. Make sure you not to exceed 10 feet behind us. Let's move."

And they started moving again, this time, with Yugito trailing right behind them. They kept travelling in the same speed for the next few hours. As they travel, the Hyuuga heiresses, particularly Hanabi, couldn't help but look back at Yugito from time to time, particularly at her hitai-ate.

Yugito ignored them and did her job in looking for any trouble that may arise. But she also knows that very soon, she would be confronting other Konoha nins with a less than stellar thought about Kumo nins like herself.

She's afraid, that at least she could admit to herself. Several times she faltered in her steps the closer they get to the boarder of Konoha, but she kept up nonetheless.

They were almost at the boarder when they suddenly stop. Yugito saw Dolphin turn to her and give her another nod, telling her that no matter what happens she could count on him to be there for her. Strengthening her resolve, she gave a single nod back before taking off her Kumo hitai-ate. She stared at the forehead protector in her hand for several seconds before letting it drop in the ground, leaving it behind as she, Dolphin, Weasel, and the kidnapped children re-started running towards Konoha, and her towards her new destiny.


A/N: It's short, I know. I'm using this as a filler chapter while I finish up the next major chapter. I'm having trouble getting enough free time to research the some facts on the manga, namely the name of the Tsukikage and the people of Iwagakure. Could anyone help me out?And by the way, thanks for the tip on Shikaku's name.

Anyway, next chapter includes Kushina and her rescue of Naomi, Naruto waking up, and a bit of Iruka's history on how he ended up staying in Kumo.