Hey there, folks! It seems the general consensus on the last chapter was much better than that of chapter 7, which is a relief to me. I'd also like to give a shout out to HikariYuna of DeviantArt, the artist of this story's lovely new cover image. Thanks a bunch, Yuna!

I'd also like to apologize for the wait on this chapter. First it was just writer's block, but I also have broken up with my girlfriend of four years. I've been pretty unmotivated to do...much of anything, really. I've been chipping away at this chapter for a while, but it took a long time to make any real progress.

So a bit of a heads up about this chapter. Just to head off any raging canon-lovers (no offense intended), I am making some executive decisions here. The one I'm mostly concerned about is relating to a few jutsu that I'm bringing in. These exist in the anime/manga, and I have decided to establish them as kekkei genkai due to a general lack of information about them. It should become fairly evident what I'm talking about when you get there.


Two Weeks Later

The sun hadn't yet climbed to the sky when Naruto left the Hyuuga compound. The moon was getting ready to settle over the horizon and bed down for the day, and streaks of orange and red were just becoming visible to the east.

He had been having nightmares consistently for the past two weeks. They were horrid, usually involving Tsumeki's death or reclamation by her mother. It was getting to the point where he would almost rather not sleep just to avoid them.

He sighed. The hairs on his arms were on end; the morning was chilly, and he was wearing a wife beater. He thought about turning back to get an actual shirt, but that would mean going back to his room, and he didn't want to be near his bed right now. His subconscious was beginning to associate it with the nightmares, so he was getting anxious whenever it was in his field of vision.

Naruto grabbed at his pockets. When he felt nothing, he scowled and stopped. He had taken to reading on the advice of Kakashi, whom he had been visiting regularly over the past few years. His old sensei said that sometimes, reading an engaging book clears the mind of worries and helps melt stress, and Naruto found that he was absolutely right. Unfortunately, his book would be back in his room, along with his wallet. He looked back at the building, some five hundred feet behind him now.

Recently, it didn't feel like home. It never really had, but at the beginning of their stay there, Naruto had at least felt welcomed and safe. The Hyuuga hadn't changed their attitudes so much as Naruto's perception had changed. The building felt less like a residence now, and more like a prison. He couldn't believe he was thinking it, but he was beginning to miss his apartment. Small and average as it was, it was home, and it was his.

He sighed. Looks like today will be having a different form of entertainment. He kept walking.

A puddle lay on the side of the road, and Naruto's reflection caught his eye. As he passed it, he looked at himself. He was tall, fit, but haggard looking. A yellow fuzz covered his face and neck, the product of a week's unshaveness. Light bags hung under his eyes; they had been darker, bigger a few days prior. Perhaps he had been getting more sleep than he thought. Then, as always, his eyes wandered to his ANBU tattoo. It still looked strange on him, even after almost two whole years of having it. He grinned slightly despite himself. It was an accomplishment, if nothing else.

The puddle was behind him now. He turned back to face the road as he headed into the heart of Konoha.

The streets were mostly empty, but the sparks of life were beginning to take hold. Some windows showed lights from inside, and some people hobbled to their jobs, rubbing the sleep from their eyes. Rhythmic rushes of air signified a blacksmith coaxing his forge from its slumber with his bellows. The sun was peeking over the edge of the walls now. Somewhere in the distance, a cock crowed, in attempt to make the world as damned miserable as he was for being up this early.

That's what Naruto figured, at least. There was always the off chance that it was a dumb animal and didn't know that people were trying to sleep.

The worst part about the last two weeks wasn't just that he felt trapped in the Hyuuga compound. It was that despite his and Tsumeki's best efforts, they couldn't find her mother nor draw her from hiding. She hadn't attacked since her first attempt, and she was evidently smart enough to realize when she was being baited. There seemed to be no end in sight for their time with the Hyuugas.

"Hey, Naruto!"

He snapped his head to the right. Ino was hanging out the window of her family's flower shop, waving.

He smiled. "Hey, Ino." He raised a hand towards her in greeting.

"C'mere a second, will you?"

Naruto walked over to her. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to know how everything is going. Are you and Tsumeki still at the Hyuuga compound?"

He sighed. "Yeah. Trouble hasn't blown over yet."

Ino frowned. "Sorry to hear that. But hey, I'm sure being there beats those Stipend Act apartments, right?"
"You'd be surprised. The rooms are kind of small, and there isn't a ton of privacy. And, you know, the ever present paranoia that someone is watching you change through the wall."

She laughed. "I hadn't thought of it that way." She paused for a moment. "You sure you don't want to talk about what's going on? You and Tsu clammed up pretty good when Chouji asked about it last week."

Naruto shook his head. "Really, there's nothing anybody but us can do about it. Telling more people would only make it worse."

"If you say so. Anyways, I have to get back around to opening this place up, so I'll see you later."

"Yeah. See you."

He walked away, going back to his aimless wanderings around the city. A lot of people had been asking about the reason he and Tsumeki had been staying with the Hyuugas. The only people who actually knew what the problem was besides the two of them were Hiashi, Hinata, and the Hokage. Shikaku had actually given them time off of active duty to try and deal with it.

He sat down on a bench and held his head in his hands. He tried desperately to expel the thoughts he was having from his mind. All sorts of horrible, miserable futures laid themselves out before him. Futures in which he was forced to live without Tsumeki. He didn't know if he could do that.

"You're looking a little homeless there," someone said. Naruto lifted up his head to see who was talking, even though he already knew who it was. He had spent enough time with her that he'd recognize it no matter how far away she was.

Tenten stood before him, dressed in a white blouse and red pants. She was smiling sadly at him. "Hi," she said.

"Hey."

"Mind if I sit?"

"I don't own the bench."

The smile left, leaving only sadness on her face. She sat down.

Neither of them spoke. It had been a long, long time since they had last spoken. If it wasn't the day she tried to bed him, it was shortly after.

"So I owe you an apology," she said after a while.

He didn't respond at first, but then nodded. "Yeah. Maybe a bit."

"It was...definitely wrong of me to try and pressure you into that. I...I was being stupid. And jealous. Insanely jealous."

"Jealous?" Naruto looked at her, confused.

"Of Tsumeki. Sure, we trained together a lot, and we were friends, but I wanted what you two had. You were always together, always having fun, always trying to learn some new thing to make yourselves better ninja. And...I wanted more, too. Obviously." She looked at him, as if expecting a reply. He gave none. "So...I'm sorry. For what it's worth. I wish I had done things differently, so we could have at least stayed friends."

Naruto remained silent.

She sighed. "It's been hell without you, these past years. You were one of my best friends. And...we interacted in a way that I didn't have with anyone else. I mean, I don't really have a ton of friends, being a bit of...well, a lot of a tomboy, and most of the girls my age, even the ninja, being decidedly...girly. Rock Lee isn't someone you go to for a deep conversation with, and Neji is...Neji." Pause. "I guess what I'm trying to say is it's been rough, because I didn't have anyone to talk to for a long time."

She looked at him again. This time, he looked back. "What, two years we didn't talk? No interaction whatsoever? Why now?"

Tenten looked at the ground. "Foolish pride. I thought that if you weren't going to have me, I didn't need you at all. And there was my war with Tsumeki. I didn't think she'd take kindly to me trying to be around you after...what happened."

Naruto scrunched up his eyebrows. "War with Tsumeki? What?"

"You didn't notice?" She asked.

"I mean, I noticed you two were quite a bit less than civil even before the incident, but I never noticed a war."

She sighed again. "While I was in the hospital, she came to visit me. We had an argument over whether or not I could make a move on you." She laughed. "She claimed you were hers. Like you were property or something. Isn't that weird?"

Naruto laughed halfheartedly. It wasn't a huge stretch to imagine Tsumeki saying something like that.

Tenten turned to face him. "Look, Naruto. We don't have to go back to what we were, at least not right away. But I would like to be friends again, and it would mean the world to me if I at least knew you forgave me."

Naruto didn't respond right away. He was thinking.

However, Tenten began to speak more quickly, a slightly panicked tone entering her voice. She probably thought he wasn't going to forgive her. "And, you know, you don't have to worry about me having feelings for you. I don't. I mean, I do, maybe a little still, but you're with Tsumeki now, and let's be honest here, everyone knows you two are practically joined at the hip already and there's really just no chance that you're going to break up and there's actually quite a few people who think you're already married and -"

"Woah, Tenten, calm down," he said. "Take a breath."

She stopped and breathed for a moment. "Right. Thanks." She bit her lip. Despite himself, Naruto couldn't help but think it was kind of cute. "So...are we good? Or at least, not bad?"

He took another moment to think before talking. "We're definitely not bad," he said. "As far as being good...I need to talk to Tsumeki. I don't want her to think something is going on that she should feel threatened about, because that wouldn't end well for anyone. From there...we'll see."

Tenten smiled, relief flooding across her face. "Thank you. You have no idea what a weight off of my shoulders this is."

"Yeah, sure thing."

A rather awkward silence descended over the bench. People were starting to move around the streets.

"So...I hear you made ANBU."

"Yup."

"Straight from Genin, too. That doesn't happen often."
"Only a couple of times in the history of the village, as best I can tell."

She nodded. "That's a pretty big thing. You should be proud. Tsumeki, too."

"Thanks."

"Is your mask cool?"

"Well enough, I think."
"What is it?"

Naruto laughed. "If I told you, that would defeat the entire purpose of the masks."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."

Silence again.

"So the whole homeless look-"

"Just didn't really dress much today."
"Right. Figured that was the case."

After the third silence, Tenten stood up. "It's going to be a while before we're back to normal, isn't it?"
"At least a while, yeah."

"Well...I'm glad we're at least on speaking terms again."

Naruto thought for a moment. "Yeah. Me too."
"You think maybe we could...you know...spar together sometime? For old time's sake, if nothing else?"
"Sometime, yeah. I don't know when."

"Well, I still live in the same place, so you know how to find me, I guess." She paused. "You, ah, can stay outside this time. If you want. I know that last time you came into my apartment..."

"Yeah. I think I probably will."

"...Right. Anyways, I've got to go, training with the team this morning. I'll...I'll catch you later."

"See you."

She smiled weakly and left.

Naruto sighed. I worked for two years to get that image out of my head. All for nothing, now. He stood up and looked around to get his bearings. He had been aimlessly wandering before; he needed to get back to the Hyuuga compound now. He needed to have an important talk with Tsumeki.


"She didn't try anything, did she?"

"No, she didn't. She just apologized and we talked."

Tsumeki frowned. "I'm...really just not sure I like it."

"I didn't figure you would, but if she really just wants to be friends again..."

"I mean, yeah, I guess. Just...don't be dumb, okay?"

"What, like I would ever go for another girl." Naruto hooked his elbow around Tsumeki's neck and pulled her across the couch towards him. She laughed, lightly punching him in the gut.

"I love you," he said.

She looked at him, eyes twinkling. "Yeah, you're all right. I mean, until I find someone cuter."

"Oh, thanks a lot!"

She laughed again. "I love you too, goofball." She rested her head on his chest and shut her eyes.

Three rapid taps on the door behind them interrupted their time together. Tsumeki's lips curled up in a snarl, but she made no effort to move.

"It's a public room, you can come in," Naruto called over his shoulder.

It slid open, and Naruto frowned. The steps coming into the room were heavier than a Hyuuga's would have been. He looked, and there was an ANBU coming around the couch to stand in their view.

"The Hokage has need of you," the ANBU agent said. "You are to report to his office in twenty minutes."

Naruto furrowed his brow. "What for?"

He felt the ANBU giving him an irritated look from behind his mask. "I was not informed."

"Never are," said Tsumeki, sighing and getting up. "I'm taking this time out of somebody's hide."

Naruto expelled air from his nose, a ghost of a laugh. "Yeah, we'll be there."

The ANBU left without another word.

"It's been two weeks, then," Tsumeki said quietly.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Back on active duty. And we never dealt with my mom."

"...Yeah."

"She'll be there," Tsumeki said, her voice beginning to crack. "Wherever we go, she'll be there, and she'll be waiting for us to be in over our heads."
"Tsu..."

Tsumeki's voice became higher, panicked. Sobs began to steal into the spaces between words. "She'll be there, and she'll jump us when we're in trouble, and she'll take me!"

"Tsu, I'm not going to let that happen."

"She'll probably kill you first!" She was wailing now. The sound of it wrenched at Naruto's heart. "She'll kill you, and take me, and my life will be Hell!"

"Hey. Come on. Listen to me. We're going to be okay. We'll figure it out."

Tsumeki gave no indication that she had heard him. "I'd rather die! I'd rather die than go back with her!" She turned to look at Naruto, tears filling her bright green eyes. "Please Naruto," she begged, "Please kill me if she takes me!"

"Woah, hey, don't talk like that," he said. "That's not going to happen, okay? We're going to be fine. I promise."

"But what if -"

"But nothing," he said. "There's not a thing in the world that can stop us. We're a team, remember?"

Tsumeki gave him a weak smile. "Yeah, we are."

"And we're the most badass ninjas this village has ever seen. Especially you. I mean, really." Naruto turned to face an imaginary crowd of people. "Show of hands, how many of us singlehandedly defeated the most powerful Tanuki in the world and his jinchuuriki? Anyone? You? No?" He looked at Tsumeki again. "Doesn't look like anyone else has ever done that. Sorry, but you're special."

She managed a laugh. It wasn't a strong one, but it was much healthier than the smile she had given him before. "You're an idiot," she said, hugging him. "And I love you for it."

"I love you too, Tsumeki." He pulled back from the hug. "And I'm not letting anything happen to you. Ever. As long as you're with me, I'll keep you safe. I promise."

She smiled again, this one broad and toothy. "Okay," she said. "But only because you promised."

"Atta girl. Now come on. Go get your killing people clothes on and let's go see the Hokage."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "My killing people clothes?"

"Unless you have a better name for them," he said, getting up.

"Well, some people would almost call it a uniform."

"Bullshit. Never heard the word."

She laughed again. "You're the one who's special, you know."

"Eh, I got dropped on my head a lot as a kid. See you in front of the compound in ten minutes."


"In the ruins of Uzushio? Really?" asked Tsumeki. "It's got to have been, what, twenty plus years since the village was destroyed now?"

Shikaku nodded grimly. "Yes. We don't know who – or what – might be in there, but our spies have been sending consistent reports about travelers seeing activity within the ruins. It's enough to warrant an investigation, and I want you two to scout it out. Capture any enemies you can and determine their purpose there. Kill them if you must."

Naruto nodded. "Secondary objectives?"

The Hokage sighed and stood up. He turned to face his window. "I have...a suspicion. I believe that someone has found – or believes they will find – some sort of library or reliquary, as it were. As I'm sure you know, Uzushio shinobi were skilled enough in Sealing Jutsu that they were destroyed for it. If there is such a repository of knowledge in Uzushio, I want you to find it. Recover it for Konoha if possible. If not, I want you to burn it, smash it, or whatever you need to do to destroy it. Do not leave fires burning. Wait to confirm the destruction before departing."

"Yes, sir," Naruto and Tsumeki said together.

"You are dismissed. And...be careful. Keep an eye out for your stalker, hm? I'd not care to lose either of you."

Tsumeki paled visibly, and Naruto rested a hand on his shoulder. "We'll both be coming back. Have no doubt about that."

"That's good to hear."

Naruto and Tsumeki turned and left the room. They were silent for some time as they worked through the hallways of the rather large building, but as they walked out the door, Tsumeki looked to Naruto.

"Hey, Naruto?"

"Mm?"

"So, Uzushio...that's, ah, that's a good part of your last name."

"How astute of you. No, that's not a coincidence. I looked up my name a few times when I was in the orphanage, looking for family." He was quiet for a second. "The Uzumaki clan made their home there. In Uzu, that is. And, as best as I can tell, I'm the only one left."

"I'm...I'm really sorry. I didn't know."

Naruto shrugged. "I got over it a long time ago. At least, as over it as you can get. You have a lot of time to come to terms in an orphanage."

"Yeah...Yeah, I suppose you do." She bit her lip for a moment. Then she said, thoughtfully, "Do you think he chose us for this mission for a reason?"

"We're pretty well equipped for it," Naruto replied. "You've got interrogation for anyone we catch, we're both pretty effective bruisers and/or assassins in case people need to be dead, and you've also got fire jutsu for mass disposal of...whatever. And I've got wind jutsu to help you with your mass disposal." As an afterthought, he added, "But, if you're implying that he sent us on this mission because it's my clan's ancestral home, yes, the thought had crossed my mind."

"Do you want to go there? To the clan house, I mean."

Naruto didn't respond right away. "I'd imagine we'd have to, to scout for the library or whatever the Hokage thinks might be there. As to whether I want to go there...I'll get back to you on that."

"No hurry, love." Tsumeki stepped in closer to him and wove her fingers through his. It felt a little odd; they had gloves on, and that wasn't normal.

It didn't make it any less nice.

They left the village in happy silence, simply enjoying each other.


"Sleeping in shifts sucks," yawned Naruto. "I miss the good old days, when we'd go up into a tree, you'd drop an illusion on us, and we'd conk out for eight hours."

"Not really an option at the moment," Tsumeki said gravely, re-packing her bedroll.

"Yeah, I know." Naruto took a bite out of some jerky. "And I'm used to real food. That's no fun either." His mostly empty stomach voiced its agreement with his statement.

"Ready to move," said Tsumeki. "You?"

"Yeah, I'm good to go." Naruto got up, heaved his backpack onto his shoulders, and sprung up into the trees. Tsumeki was right on his heels.

"How much farther to Uzushio?" she asked.

"Should be about half a day, I think. Maybe less if we keep a good pace."

"When don't we?"

"When we're fattened up from city life," he responded. "I didn't exercise nearly as much as I should have in the last two weeks."

"Speak for yourself," she laughed. "I sparred with Hinata every day."

"Oof. No thank you. No Jyuuken for Naruto."

"Baby."

"I'm wounded. Do we have a layout of the village?"

Tsumeki shook her head. "I checked the entire book we grabbed before I went to sleep. There's a topographical map of the surrounding area, but no street map."

"Hn. What's the best approach?"

"Depends if you want to come in high or low. There's a river we can come in that should run under the walls, but it's probably barred off."

"That wouldn't be a problem. We could remove the bars."

"Or," she said, ignoring him, "there's a pretty steep incline a ways away from the village. If we play our cards right, we might be able to hook a line from the hill to a building and come in that way. It'd be a bit more visible at daytime, but at night it'll be fine unless someone is actually patrolling the walls."
"I'm liking the river a bit better here. What are the odds of you doing your fire claws to tear them up?"

"Underwater? Next best to zero. It'd work better if you used your sword."

Naruto clicked his tongue. "Be hard to get good momentum going underwater. I'll see what I can do. I'm assuming, of course, that there are breaches in the walls we could go through, or simply over the wall itself?"

"It's probable that there are still holes in the wall from the siege. However, if there is indeed someone in there, they'll be monitored, if not outright guarded. Over the wall is as much of a coin toss as it is with an inhabited city."

"We could always stake it out and observe it."

"Well duh, but that's a given, and might require time we don't have."

"I know. I'm just giving you a hard time."

"Ass. So the plan is to go in through the river, under the walls, deal with any bars we come across, and then what?"

"Find any inhabitants of the ruins. Figure out why they're there. Carry out the mission. We'll check for a library or whatnot after we're sure nobody else is there – or anyone who was is dead."

"Sounds good."

They proceeded in silence for several minutes before Naruto spoke again. "Where do you think she is?" he asked in a low voice.

"I'd bet anything she's already in Uzushio. She's going to be waiting for us. Find the best spot to ambush us from."

"How do you think she'll go in?"

Tsumeki snorted. "Through the front door. She's too arrogant not to. She'll use illusions or foxfire as necessary, but she can't help herself when it comes to making declarations of power."

"We'll be ready for her."

"Yeah. I hope so."


The river had been a good entrance. The bars had practically rusted off with neglect; Naruto hadn't even needed his sword to remove them. They swam into the village under the cover of night, only surfacing under bridges, just in case someone was watching.

"Look!" Tsumeki whispered. "In the building nearest to the river! Firelight, in the window!"

Naruto finished taking in his breath – this bridge had been some distance from the last – before looking to where Tsumeki was pointing. It was a building farther down the canal they were in, almost to the rear wall of the city. There were indeed fires in the windows; the one she had noticed was the brightest, but in that same building, several other windows glowed softly, betraying the people within.

"Neutralize the building first, or outside guards?" asked Naruto.

"It'd take time to locate guards, especially if they're trying to hide. Let's take the building out and then find the guards."

"That's what I was thinking." Naruto moved his mask from the top of his head to over his face. "Let's do it, Vixen."

Tsumeki rolled her eyes and mirrored Naruto's gesture. She also dropped her Concealment. Her lips spread in a fanged grin as she took in her surroundings with improved senses. "Last one there buys dinner," she said. With that, she stuck to the side of the canal like a spider and scurried towards the building.

Naruto laughed quietly and went back under the water. He gathered up a sizable amount of Wind chakra, performed a hand sign, and then put his arms in front of him as if he were about to take a dive. With a mighty breaststroke, he brought his arms to his sides and, body straight as an arrow, shot forward just under the surface of the water, propelled by the air he had summoned. When his propulsion wore out, he surfaced and gulped in a breath. As he looked around, he realized that he had overshot his target by about seventy yards. No guards were in sight, so he climbed up out of the water and drew his sword. With a flick of his wrist, the water droplets jumped off of the blade. He made a mental note to thoroughly dry both it and the scabbard later, and then set off at a loping pace to the target.

He reached it in little time, and did not break stride as he ran up the side of the building as silently as he could. He found the lowest window with light coming out of it, went slightly past it, and then stopped. He put his head down so that he viewed the room upside down through the window. He reversed the grip on his blade so that it ran parallel with his arm, prepared to leap into the room after he surveyed it.

There were three men inside; one was awake, but facing the opposite direction. The two who were sleeping were on bedrolls; the half-rotted couches were disregarded entirely. The sentry did not appear to be very disciplined; he was leaned against a wall, looking out the other window. His head bobbed up and down at irregular intervals; he was falling asleep.

Naruto saw, for just a moment, a flash of white and red in the other window. It was Tsumeki's mask. He grinned in spite of himself; looks like he was getting a free dinner after they got back. It had been a while since that had happened. Tsumeki didn't tend to make bets she didn't think she would win.

However, the guard's head snapped up, and Naruto was sure that he had seen the mask as well. He cursed softly and wrapped his free hand around the inside lip of the windowsill, using to flip himself into the room. He landed silently.

The guard stood up straight and began to rub the sleep from his eyes. As he did, he walked towards the window. He never reached it. Naruto crossed the room in two bounding leaps, and as he did, he channeled chakra through his blade. Though he didn't watch it, he knew that it wreathed itself in sky blue chakra, emitting a soft glow. Naruto brought his sword around and separated the guard's head from his shoulders. He didn't stop, moving to catch the falling body in the crook of his sword arm and snatching the head out of the air with his free hand.

It didn't seem to matter. The wet squelch of his blade passing through flesh, as well as the following splat of blood on the walls, floor, and himself, caused one of sleeping men to stir. Naruto moved to drop the body, but stopped himself at the last second. Tsumeki had blurred past him, her dark red tails sending droplets of water all around as she sprinted across the room. She held a kunai in her hand. Before the waking man could lift his head, she had clamped her supernaturally strong hand around his mouth and buried the kunai directly into his windpipe. His eyes opened, and he tried to scream, but between the lack of proper air flow and the gloved hand over his mouth, no sound came out. His eyes glazed over and his body went limp. Without wasting a moment, Tsumeki removed the kunai and repeated the process with the third guard in the room.

She stood up, spots of blood on her chest protector and on her forearms, and looked at Naruto. He nodded a silent thanks.

She did not return it. Instead, she pointed to her forehead. Naruto blinked, confused, and then understood what she was communicating. He looked at the disembodied head he held by the hair.

On its forehead was a head protector with a music note on it.

"Shit," he said aloud accidentally. He set the head and body down and pushed his mask up, revealing his face. "The others?" he mouthed.

Tsumeki nodded. He couldn't see her face, but he knew her mouth would be pressed tightly into a grim line.

Naruto scowled, but gave her the Proceed With Mission handsign. She nodded again. As an afterthought, he mouthed, "You owe me dinner."

One of her ears twitched, and she facepalmed, but she nodded again.

Naruto put his mask back on and made for the window that Tsumeki had come in from. She followed shortly after.

The next floor had no lit windows, but the one after did. In fact, this was the one that Tsumeki had originally noticed. The fires burned brightly. Naruto didn't stick his head in the window, and he knew Tsumeki wouldn't either. There were voices drifting from this window, faint and indistinct. Naruto focused chakra into his ears, using a trick that Tsumeki had taught him, and tried his best to listen in.

"The dig team made it through the rubble on the east side," came a woman's voice.

"Yeah? Did they find anything?" said a man.

"A whole clan house," the woman replied. "They searched the entire first level, and what they could of the second. Most if it was caved in. But, they did find a hidden basement."

"Yeah, Koruko was telling me about that when we switched off," said a second man. "They didn't go in because it was trapped or something, I heard?"

"Something like that. There's a seal of some sort, at any rate, and they don't want to try to pass through it until they know how to get around it, or at least what it'll do if they try to pass."

"Do you think the library is there?" said the first man.

"The library doesn't exist," said a new voice, also male. "It's some crackpot scheme they cooked up to stick us in the ass end of nowhere."

"Shut your mouth, Mizinu," said the woman. "That's not our place to decide. Personally, I do think the library is in there. I mean, they had to keep some sort of record of all of their sealing jutsu; with the village's main library burned out, I think it's pretty likely that we'll find some of them in a clan house. Especially one with a basement so well guarded."

"Whatever," said the third man. "I'm going downstairs to talk with Inagi."

Naruto tensed at that, and knew that something had to be done. He looked at Tsumeki, on the other side of the window, and she waved a hand in dismissal. Then she let go of the building and fell freely for a whole story, and regripped the wall at the window they had come out of. She dove in, and Naruto stopped looking. He knew that she would take care of it.

He risked a peek into the room. There were three ninjas in there now, all gathered around a large fire burning on a block of concrete. He grinned viciously. Since they were all looking into the fire like fools, they wouldn't notice his head in the window even if they looked; their night vision would be too harshly obscured. The one that was facing in his general direction now had his view obscured by the fire anyways.

Naruto pondered briefly how he would handle the room, and then nodded to himself. He moved above the window, his position similar to how he had entered the previous room, and went through the window with the same flipping movement. However, this time he caught the ceiling with a chakra-laced hand and foot, sticking to the ceiling – and the shadows – like a bug. His blade was still parallel with his arm as he moved around the room where the wall and ceiling met, an odd three-limbed gait that did not lend itself to speed. Speed, however, was not his goal. He crept into position above the fire, being careful not to look at it and keep his eyes trained on the dark corners of the room. When he was directly above the ninja, he scowled at his sword. The three Sound ninja were still chatting as he slowly moved his sword from his hand and pressed the hilt between his arm and torso. When both of his hands were free, he performed a chain of hand seals. At their conclusion, he sucked in a mighty breath, and the fire went out as the air fueling it was pulled away. The room was left in darkness.

Naruto dropped from the ceiling, grabbing his sword on his way down, and then plunged it into the body of the female ninja. Her cry was brief and quiet as she died. He didn't retrieve his blade as he jumped off of her still crumpling body and hit the second shinobi with a fist backed up by enough chakra to make it as strong as a mule's kick. His neck snapped, and the momentum of the punch carried him to the ground, where his head bounced loudly – perhaps too loudly – off of the wooden floor.

The third ninja, however, did not die so easiy. He had recovered his both his breath and his wits in the time it took Naruto to kill his comrades. He began to throw hand signs together in attempt to use a jutsu, but Naruto interrupted him with a kunai throw. While the knife was meant for the man's heart, he moved quickly enough that it simply sunk into his shoulder. His jutsu disrupted, the ninja must have considered fighting briefly. Naruto sprung towards him, and in what little light the coals of the fire still gave, he saw the man's eyes glint briefly. He made no move to defend himself.

Instead, he yelled, quiet loudly, "INTRUDER!"

Naruto landed on the ninja and bounced his skull off of the floor hard enough that he heard it split open, but the damage was done. The above floors were alerted.

"Nicely done," Tsumeki said as she came up the stairs.

"Hey, I can only move so fast. Not all of us are superhumans."

"I'd say none of us are, considering I'm not even regular human." She didn't stop while she spoke, instead moving to the upward staircase. She sheathed her sword, which Naruto saw had glints of blood on it, and flexed her claws.

Tsumeki was no psychopath, not some vicious killer. She was a trained ninja and assassin, just like Naruto was. However, she had a fierce sense of pride about her heritage, and was more than eager to show any enemy just how deadly her kind was. When precision was necessary, she was content to use man-made weaponry, but in a pitched fight, she was more likely to use her claws. That sort of fighting was bloody and brutal, and had an effect on enemy morale which was eerily similar to the effect her claws had on their flesh. He had seen her carve bloody swathes in multiple men in a matter of seconds, hamstringing and gutting them with feral efficiency. It was terrifying to behold.

Naruto supposed that was the point. That and her whole pride thing.


Naruto and Tsumeki had finished clearing the guards from the wall shortly before the sun crested over the horizon. They had operated in pairs, or occasionally threes, and it hadn't been much of a challenge to deal with the isolated groups.

Now, they were in front of the unburied clan house the sound ninja had mentioned earlier in the night. Naruto wasn't entirely sure that he believed what he was seeing, however. Unless his eyes were lying to him, they were standing in front of the home of Clan Uzumaki.

"Naruto, we need to move," said Tsumeki. She shoved him to jog him out of his thoughts.

"Right...yeah. Got it." His heart was pounding in his chest. His mind was brimming with questions. What was in there? What would he learn? What –

CRACK!

Naruto held a hand to his stinging cheek. Tsumeki had just slapped him, and she had slapped him hard.

"Naruto, you need to be here. You need to be with me. If you can't get yourself out of there," she punctuated the word with a double-fingered jab to Naruto's forehead, "Then you need to let me handle this one. You got that?"

"Yeah. Sorry. I'm with you."

"Make sure you stay that way. I can't afford to lose you halfway through a battle."

"I'm with you," he repeated. "I'm good."

She nodded and pushed the door open.

Naruto was...underwhelmed...at what he saw. It looked just like a home that anyone would live in, at first glance. Other than, of course, the mostly destroyed state of it.

A large number of bedrolls were spread across the floor, but they were all empty. Naruto gripped his sword tightly and snapped his head around, trying to locate the enemy. He failed to find them, but there were a large number of malnourished looking men huddled into a corner, quaking in fear.

"D-don't kill us!" said the one in front. He was doing his best to seem confident. He had a mining pick in his hands. It shook enough to betray his absolute terror. "P-please, I don't want to use this!"

Naruto relaxed his sword, and he saw Tsumeki drop from a fighting stance.

"Take it easy," she said, walking towards him. "We won't hurt you."

The man looked at her, did a double take, and began to shake even harder. "W-what are you? Stay away from me!"

"Shit," Naruto heard her say under her breath. Then, she appeared human again. Her Concealment was up. "Look, I'm normal. Just an illusion. Okay?"

"R-right," he said, looking unconvinced. "If you s-say so."

"Who are you?" she asked.

"We're just...ah...uhm..." the man licked his lips. His eyes darted to Naruto.

Tsumeki turned to look at him. "Love. Sword."

Naruto looked at it like it was a completely foreign object. "Right. Yeah. Sorry." He sheathed it and held up his hands. "See? Not going to hurt you."

"We're just a couple of ninja who heard about some shady stuff going on around here," Tsumeki said, continuing her walk towards the group. "Thought we'd see what was going on. Who are you?"

"We're prisoners," he said. "V-villagers from the Land of Hot Water. Those ninja captured us, brought us here, and made us dig up b-buildings buried under rubble."

"Okay. You can go home, if you want. Here, a little money, to buy you transport." She took some ryu from her wallet and handed it to the man.

"Really?" he asked. He was still shaking, but now it looked to be from excitement. "We can go? And this money...how can we thank you?"

"You found a hidden basement in this building," Tsumeki said. "Show it to me, please."

"Yeah, anything! Come on, it's this way!" He moved at a run. The people who had been quaking behind him were now talking amongst themselves excitedly. Naruto and Tsumeki followed their leader.

"Here it is," he said, gesturing to a trapdoor next to some displaced floor paneling. "There's some sort of a seal on it, the ninja said, and they never actually came back to deal with it." He looked at them and licked his lips. "I, uh, think that's probably your fault."

"Probably," agreed Naruto. He stepped forward to inspect the trapdoor. Tsumeki knelt down next to him.

"Well, uh, now that you've seen this, I'm going to, uh. Go."

"Sure," Naruto said absentmindedly.

"Be safe," Tsumeki said.

The next several moments were filled with the sounds of packing and people moving, and ended with the sound of a door shutting.

"How do you think it opens?" Tsumeki asked.

"Not a clue," said Naruto. "I only ever learned the basic sealing techniques. Weapons and whatnot."

"Same," she said. "Though I did hear that sometimes you can make a seal show itself..." she trailed off. She put a hand on the trap door and very likely channeled chakra into it, because in the next moment the seal came into visibility.

It was the Uzumaki Clan emblem.

"You ever hear about blood seals, Naruto?"

"Never," he said.

"Well, if what they say is right..." She dropped her Concealment. "Give me your hand."

Naruto did so without asking why. She put his hand over the seal and pricked his finger with a claw. A dribble of blood spilled out, and a few drops fell onto the seal.

The seal reacted immediately. It glowed red, dully at first, but building up to such a searingly bright intensity that they couldn't bear to look at it. When it faded, and they looked back, the seal was gone.

"Wanna try the handle?" Tsumeki asked.

"You think the seal is gone?"

"Probably. I mean, I can't see what else that could have been."

Naruto swallowed. He had heard stories of seal traps, and the small bits and pieces that were left of the people who triggered them. He hoped that it was indeed disarmed.

He reached down, grasped the handle on the trapdoor, and swung it open.

Nothing happened.

"Well, I'd say that's a good sign," said Tsumeki. She stood up. "After you, Mr. Uzumaki."

Naruto shivered in excitement. "Thanks," he whispered, and went down the stairs.

When he reached the bottom, he blinked. He couldn't see a thing. "Uh, want to bring a light?" he called up.

Tsumeki bounded down the steps. "There's a torch right here," she said. She reached into the darkness, and within a moment she had a lit torch in her hands. "Ready?"
"I think so," he said. "Yeah. I'm ready. Let's go."

It was a short hallway they walked down, ending in a heavy double door. It had no visible locking mechanism, and channeling chakra into it revealed no seal. Naruto opened the door.

Inside the room were several bookshelves, full of scrolls and books, as well as a small armory and what looked like a training area, judging by the mats. It was not a huge room, but the bookshelves were sizable. This very well could have been the library that the sound ninja had been searching for, and that they had been ordered to find.

"We need to investigate all of these," Naruto said. "That's...a lot of reading."

"We can probably skim them, judge their importance. Don't need to read all of it."

"Yeah..." he said. "Best get to work."

Tsumeki mounted the torch in a sconce and they began to sift through the books and scrolls. Most of it was relatively unimportant; some were novels, some were sketches of nothing in particular, some illustrated fighting styles. There were scrolls of basic jutsu, some more advanced jutsu, and...

"Naruto," Tsumeki breathed. "I think you may want to look at this."

"What?" he said, moving to look at the scroll she was holding. When he began to read it, his heart skipped a beat.

The scroll – and, upon rapid examination, several it had been stored next to – detailed the use of several techniques, most of them derived from the one on the scroll Tsumeki was holding. What made them significant, however, was that they were utterly unique from anything else Naruto had ever heard of, and that they were specifically identified as kekkei genkai of the Uzumaki clan.

Kekkei genkai of the Uzumaki clan.

Naruto had a kekkei genkai.

From the illustrations and the descriptions, they had something to do with summoning chains forged from chakra. Naruto struggled to absorb more information than that, as his mind was still trying to wrap itself around the information he had just gleaned. He had a kekkei genkai.

"We need to keep these," he said.
"You do," Tsumeki corrected. "These are yours." She rolled up the scroll she was holding, put it on the stack of related scrolls, and presented them to Naruto. He took them, looking upon them with a sense of wonder.

"You should put them in your pack," she said.

"No," he replied. "Not safe enough."
She raised an eyebrow. "What, then?"

Naruto opened his bag and pulled a small box out of it. From it, he grabbed a brush and ink. He removed his left arm protector and glove so that he could paint on one of the few seals he knew. When it was complete, and with a small expenditure of chakra, he sealed the scrolls into his arm.

"Not a bad idea," Tsumeki commented. "That's probably as safe as they're going to get."

Naruto nodded. "We should...we should keep looking through these. See what else we can find."

They sat in that basement for what felt like hours, tearing through the contents of the shelves. There were no profound finds of sealing jutsu, like the Hokage had hoped – or perhaps dreaded – there would be. While they were largely scrolls on jutsu and other ninja arts, they were common knowledge, and therefore of no great import.

"Well, that's the last of them," Tsumeki said, setting the last book aside. "Doesn't look like there's anything else that's...what are you looking at?"

Naruto was intently flipping through a book he held. His heart was hammering again. "Birth certificates. Death certificates." He looked her in the eyes for a moment. "Marriage certificates."

Her eyes widened in understanding and she moved to read over his shoulder. "Have you found them?"

"I've found her birth certificate, but I can't seem to find his..." He reached the end of the book. "...and no marriage certificate for them either."

"W-what?" she stammered. "What do you think that means?"

Naruto made a couple of sounds, as if he was about to start a word, but each time he fell silent again. "I think...there's really only one thing it can mean. Arashi Uzumaki doesn't exist." He shut the book, a thoughtful and troubled look on his face. "Meaning that someone falsified documents in Konoha. Someone lied to me about who my father was." He sealed the book into his arm along with the scrolls. "I'm going to be having words with someone about this. I don't know who yet. But someone."

"Definitely," she breathed. He could feel hear heart beating just as fast as his was, with her chest pressed against his back.

Naruto stood up. "We've learned all we can," he said. "It's time to go."

"No," Tsumeki said. "We have to destroy it."

"What?"

"The Hokage gave us orders. Salvage what we can, and destroy the rest."

"But it's not...none of it is important enough to destroy."

"We have orders, Naruto." She paused for a moment, then gestured to the armory. "Is there...anything you want to take?"

"I...maybe." His tone was defeated, and more than a little somber. It felt wrong to destroy this library, but Tsumeki was right. "Let me look."

Naruto went to the other side of the room. The racks held some armors and many weapons. He passed over them all in relative disinterest. It was standard ninja equipment. However, he stopped in front of a singular sword stand. The hilt and sheath were highly decorated in red and blue, and the Uzumaki clan emblem was set in the pommel. He picked up the sword and unsheathed it. The blade was rusting, and beyond saving. However, Naruto looked at it with fondness. He resheathed it and slung it along his back, next to his other blade.

"I'm good," he said, walking back to Tsumeki. He stopped halfway there, and looked back at the armory. He felt like he was missing something, forgetting something. He looked at it for a long time before he realized what it was. When he did, he smiled.

"You okay?" Tsumeki asked.

"I'm just fine," he said. He strode back to one of the suits of armor. On the floor next to it was a headband, fallen from its place. It bore the symbol of Uzushio. Naruto picked it up, tied it on his right arm, and headed for Tsumeki.

She smiled at him, looking at the armband. "It looks good."

He smiled back. "Thank you."

"You, uh, want to get behind me?"

"Yeah."

Naruto stood in the hallway back to the clan house. Tsumeki looked over the room and began to make hand seals.
"Fire Style: Fire Breath Jutsu!"

The hidden basement was consumed in flame.

"We have to watch it, don't we?" Naruto asked quietly.

"Yeah."

He nodded. "It's fitting, I think. The Uzumaki clan has ended in Uzushio." He looked at her. "But it's just getting started in Konoha."

She smiled at him and took his hand.

The fires burned for several hours before they died down. Everything had been destroyed, or in the case of the weapons and armor, damaged beyond usefulness. Naruto and Tsumeki walked back into the world above, hand in hand.

They were met with the overwhelming stench of death.

"What in the -" Naruto said, covering his nose.

Tsumeki responded with a choking gag. It took her a moment to regain her composure. "Be ready," she said. "Someone is out there."

Naruto drew his sword. Tsumeki flexed her claws. They carefully stalked out of the clan house.

Immediately outside of it, the bodies of the captive villagers were strewn across the ground, some of them in multiple pieces. Each of them bore wounds from a sword.

Naruto looked up from the bodies to find the wielder of the sword still present.

"Hello, Naruto," said Sasuke Uchiha. "And Tsumeki, of course. It's been a while."


Aaaand asshole cliffhanger. Hahaha. Again, sorry for the wait. I'll try and get the next one out soonishly.

So Naruto has a kekkei genkai in the form of the varied chain jutsu used by Kushina and...I think Karin was the other one. He'll be learning them up at some point. We still don't know where Tsumeki's mom is, and this Sasuke fight promises to be very interesting. I hope you're all excited for the next installment! Till next time!