(Posted 3/2/14)

10: Land of Wind Arc: Part IV

Sasuke woke unexpectedly. He was by no means a sensor-type—compared to someone like Karin, he was a total novice in that department—but he suddenly felt there was a heavy, cold presence nearby. As he lay in his bed listening, keeping his breathing even, sleep slowly lifted from his mind and he cast out his senses as far as they would go. It soon became plain that he could detect the large, cold chakra because the person was making no effort whatsoever to mask it. He knew that presence. That chakra was almost as familiar to him as his own—it had been part of his own for four years.

Orochimaru.

Sasuke threw back the covers and put his feet on the cold stone floor. He made his way carefully out of the bedroom and into the adjacent lab where the Sharingan eyes were stored. He had never seen his room or the lab before, but he still knew them like the back of his hand. There had been plenty of time to become acquainted with his surroundings after he and Tobi had fled to this hideout after the Land of Iron.

Sasuke paused in the back of the lab, near where several large shelves stood. He could hear voices coming from up ahead, around the tanks. He had no idea if he could be seen where he was standing, but it didn't matter. He wasn't trying to hide.

"No one among the Wind Daimyo's group knows where he is. Only the Kazekage himself and a select few others are privy to that information," he heard Orochimaru say smoothly. "But you can probably use your Sharingan to get the information out of my other little experiment."

"Kisame's information was not very precise," Tobi said thoughtfully. There was a rustle of paper. "He must have been under quite a bit of pressure before dying, if the scattered nature of his message is any indication."

"That's neither here nor there to me," Orochimaru started, but then he paused. Sasuke stiffened. He could tell that he had been noticed. But instead of commenting on his presence, Orochimaru simply continued. "As long as you make sure to draw attention away from Suna and Konoha, I don't care if you go after him now or later."

"Don't get carried away. After improving the Zetsu, I still need you to revive the Jinchuuriki."

"Oh? So you have recovered it then? The Rinnegan?"

"Orochimaru," Sasuke said, walking toward their voices, tired of being ignored. "What are you doing here?"

"My sympathies," Orochimaru said in a conversational tone, as if he hadn't been interrupted. "You've probably come to realize how impetuous he can be sometimes. I personally find it an endearing trait."

"Aa. As for the Rinnegan, I haven't retrieved it yet. The Allied Shinobi Forces are gathering near Kumogakure, so I am going to concentrate on launching the Zetsu first. I will go after it very soon, though."

"How did you survive?" Sasuke demanded, stepping closer to where, by his best judgement, Orochimaru stood. "Itachi had sealed you away with the Sword of Totsuka."

"Oh, Sasuke-kun. You may be blind, but I know that you are not stupid." Orochimaru finally turned to him, sounding amused. "That time, you saw for yourself that I'm never really gone, as long as a part of me exists somewhere. I need to conclude my business here quickly, so unless you have something worthwhile to contribute…"

"Tobi told me that you're helping him in exchange for his cooperation with this ridiculous thing you're planning with a younger Naruto. What are you trying to do with him?"

"You don't have to be jealous," Orochimaru responded soothingly. "Just because I decided to make a little side project, it doesn't mean I'm no longer interested in you. There was a jutsu I managed to complete after a long time, so of course I had to test it out right away."

"It's not that," Sasuke said. "I don't want you interfering with my revenge against Konoha."

"Oh, you are going after them now? I suppose that means you know the truth about Itachi, then. I'm not terribly concerned with Konoha at the moment. I will be more than happy to sit back and watch what you do instead, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke paused. "You knew?"

"Of course. Is that a surprise?"

He couldn't see his expression, but he could imagine the snake's knowing smirk. Sasuke stamped down his temper. He knew it wouldn't do any good to fly into a rage against Orochimaru in his weakened state; not to mention he was a little wary now of attacking blindly. But it was difficult not to throw out the obvious accusation: Orochimaru had known, yet allowed and even assisted him in throwing years of his life away in pursuit of killing the one person he had love left in his heart for.

"No, it's not a surprise at all," Sasuke said with a bitter smile.

"Hm," Orochimaru laughed lightly. "If you want to get back at me now, you'll have to destroy my new project. Though, it probably wouldn't be easy. That child holds one of the most intriguing possibilities for immortality I've seen in a while."

"Orochimaru," Tobi interrupted, "shouldn't you be getting back before someone notices that you're gone? The last thing we need is more reasons for the Kazekage to delay his departure."

"Aa," Orochimaru agreed. His voice changed, becoming deeper and smoother, yet maintaining his underlying tone of mocking amusement. "Until next time, Sasuke-kun."

He looked so small and young that it was almost funny. Of course, Yamato knew full well there were plenty of shinobi his age and younger—hell, he had been one of them. What made it humorous was the less-than-intimidating glare the miniature version of his subordinate was currently giving him.

"You smell like an old guy, worse than Kakashi-sensei," he said obstinately. "Are you really the one who's supposed to be my bodyguard when everyone leaves?"

Yamato fought down the urge to use his intimidation tactics to get some respect out of the little brat. From what he had heard, the younger Naruto had had a very traumatic experience recently. He deserved a little benefit of the doubt.

"Yes, I am. You can call me Yamato. As you've probably heard, I am the captain of Team Kakashi whenever Kakashi-senpai is on another mission, or gets himself laid up in the hospital. I was just overseeing your older self's training. I guess that's what I'm going to be helping you with too, to make sure nothing strange happens while you are training with the Toads. Especially with that unusual body you seem to have." He cleared his throat. "By the way, I am actually younger than Kakashi-senpai."

"You were just with aniki?" Naruto said, lowering his crossed arms.

Yamato looked quizzically at the rest of his team. Sakura and Sai were there to help with the introductions, though it wasn't proving too successful so far.

"That's what he calls his older self," Sai explained.

"Oh. Er... yes," Yamato told him awkwardly. "And I have to say, it's pretty strange to see you after that! You sure did hit a growth spurt at some point." He held his hand out at the approximate height of the older Naruto.

Naruto jumped up from where he had been sitting on the edge of his bed. "I don't need someone like you to help me with my training! I know you're really here to keep me from getting away, or going out of control while everyone's gone. Just like with aniki, right? What kinds of lies did you tell him to keep him holed up somewhere, huh?"

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Hey, just calm down." Yamato made to touch his shoulder but Naruto Substituted himself with a flower vase from the bedside table, which fell and broke on the floor, soaking Yamato's shoes. He hopped down from the bedside table and dashed for the door, only stopping when Sai caught him by the wrist.

"Let me go!" Naruto growled, pulling out of Sai's grip. "You... you fake! You're not my teammate or my friend! You're not Sasuke!"

Sai's eyes widened. He was caught off guard enough to just stand there as Naruto turned and ran out.

"And here I was thinking he might be the easier of the two to deal with," Yamato sighed, carefully picking up the broken shards of the vase off the floor. "He seems to know a lot about what's going on."

"Yes," Sakura said guiltily. "I'm not sure exactly what Madara was trying to do, but if his goal was to upset Naruto, he did a good job. We were getting along well until all this happened."

"Aa, that may have been his goal, if he was telling the truth about not being able to use him for the Tsuki no Me plan," Yamato said darkly, depositing the ceramic pieces onto the bedside table. Yamato was one of the few people aware of the alleged 'real' reason why Sasuke had not returned home. He had been there when Madara told them the story of Itachi's mission. While he didn't think that Madara had told the younger Naruto the same story, he understood better than most Madara's talent for turning people's inner darkness against them to suit his own needs. "Is it alright for Naruto to go storming off like that?"

"He won't be left unfollowed, but we should make sure he doesn't do anything crazy, like pick a fight with the Suna ANBU or the Daimyo's guard," Sakura said. "He didn't mean it," she added to Sai.

Sai nodded. "I know. I suppose it was inevitable, once he was made aware of the truth."

A rare break in the rain illuminated the tips of Amegakure's famous skyscrapers with warm evening light. The city sprawled out below where the young woman stood at a breathtaking height, wind flapping and tossing her black coat emblazoned with red clouds. Its vastness was lonely sometimes, but this was her favorite view of the city, nevertheless.

Today, the pause in the rain was a simple gift from nature. The discarded rain drops dripped from balconies and overhangs, glimmering in faceted colors when they met the sun. It was a good omen.

It's just about that time, Konan thought, a smile curling her lips. She turned and walked back inside, pulling the flapping edges of the coat around her.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Naruto slammed his hand down on the stucco roof of Suna's administration building, but nothing happened. He sighed and walked over to the edge of the roof to sit down. It was worth a try. His chakra and blood had changed just enough to disrupt his connection with the Summoning Contract, so he hadn't entirely expected it to work.

"No good, huh?"

Naruto looked up with a scowl that faded into surprise when he saw Gaara standing beside him. Naruto whirled his head back to glance behind Gaara, but was surprised to see that no one else had followed him. He turned back to the desert horizon and curled his arms around his knees.

"I don't think they're going to come after me again," Naruto mumbled. "So I don't really need someone to guard me anymore."

"What makes you say that?" Gaara asked quietly, sitting down beside him.

"Well, it's true, isn't it? They had me, and let me go. Guarding me isn't about protecting me anymore, it's about protecting other people from me, in case I'm working with the enemy. I mean, I don't blame you, I guess it's for the best; but if everyone is going to be suspicious of me, then I at least wish they wouldn't be so nice. It makes things harder. It makes it harder to be mad at them."

Gaara was about to answer, but suddenly a loud 'POOF!' sounded and a cloud of smoke appeared on Naruto's other side. Almost instantly, thick tendrils of sand hovered protectively all around Naruto, daring any threat to try and pass them.

"Hey! Did you happen to call, little bro?"

Naruto blinked at the sight of the red-and-blue toad sitting beside him, holding his webbed hand up in greeting.

"G-Gamakichi? Is that you?" Naruto got to his feet. Standing up, the toad was taller than he was. "Wow, you got big! Does this mean my summoning worked?"

"Hm, not exactly," Gamakichi said. "I just kind of got a funny feeling in my stomach a minute ago, and I heard about the trouble Fukasaku-sama had getting in touch with you before. So I just decided to follow my funny feeling, and here I am."

The sand floating around Naruto pulled back and retreated into Gaara's gourd. Naruto had no doubt that the sand could reappear to protect him nearly as quickly as it could for Gaara himself.

"So, what's up?" Gamakichi prompted.

"Oh, right," Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I wanted to ask Sennin Jii-chan if I could start training soon. There is this old guy Yamato that's supposed to watch over my training and he finally got here, so I want to start as soon as possible."

"Should be fine on our end," Gamakichi said. "But are they really gonna let you go the mountain after what happened before?" he looked curiously at Gaara.

"As long as Yamato-san is able to go along as well, yes," Gaara said.

"Oho! Awesome! You know, even the old man was saying we probably lost the chance to hang out with you. I'll go let everyone know! What time should we come pick you up?" Gamakichi sounded excited. They both looked at Gaara. Naruto had the most beseeching, puppy-eyed look he could muster.

"You can start tomorrow," Gaara began. Naruto let out a whoop and jumped up and down and gave Gamakichi a high five, grinning all the while. Not even the current situation could dampen his excitement over new training.

Gaara cleared his throat. "You will not be staying there, though. You can train there in the day, as long as you come back to Suna every evening."

"Awww, what?" Naruto whined. "But if that Moku-oji is going to be with me, why do I have to come back here? It's boring here." He didn't mention how much he would prefer to not have any more chances to be alone with the creepy Wind Daimyo again.

"Yamato-san has to come back here to make regular reports. That is the order of the Hokage. She wants to be kept informed of your progress. And it is for the best anyway; everyone will worry less if you come back here often."

"I understand, I guess," Naruto grumbled.

"Shima-obaasan is gonna be so excited when she hears," Gamakichi said. "I'm going to go tell everyone. I'll see you tomorrow, little bro!" he clapped his hands together and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto stretched. "Well, I guess it could be worse. If I'm training, at least I'm doing something!"

He knew that if Gaara wanted, he could have refused to let him go to Mount Myoboku. Many other Kage in this situation would have done just that. And Naruto didn't know how well his training would work out. But it was something. It was a start.

Two weeks passed. As Naruto began his training, signs of the upcoming war became more and more apparent. Most of the troops had already left before the Konoha group had even arrived in Suna, but soon the final wave would depart for the Allied Shinobi Force headquarters, leaving the minimum behind necessary for Suna's defense. The tools and supplies they were taking with them were sent ahead, and now that almost all of it had arrived safely, the only thing that remained was for the shinobi themselves to leave.

All this happened on the periphery of his awareness. Naruto spent the maximum amount of time allowed at Mount Myoboku once his training began. Training gave him a sense of purpose, even though he still didn't really know what he was going to do in the end. Being stronger would help no matter what happened, and being able to take a new power home with him when he went back to the past was a really exciting prospect too. This also had the effect of keeping him from seeing his friends very often. They always ate together in the evening; sometimes with one of the Sand Siblings in their own apartments, sometimes out on the town as a group of just Konoha-nin. Naruto was glad for any meal that offered more edible fare than Shima's home cooking, but it was somewhat awkward. He was stuck between being angry with them and wanting to accept some—any justification they had for betraying his trust. Turning his back on them altogether would be inconceivable no matter what they did. He knew they hadn't meant to hurt him. But it didn't change the fact that they were wrong. At night he mostly stayed in his room, in order to avoid the equally tempting prospects of starting another fight, or forgiving everything.

Things on Mount Myoboku were a lot simpler and happier. They alternated between Sage training and the basics of Frog Kata, the taijutsu form specialized for Sage Mode. Unfortunately, they could only talk about the more advanced moves in theory, because many of them were physically impossible in his normal state. But since he was never all that great with learning things from theory, that progress wouldn't get very far until he could actually use Sage Mode.

Naruto sat in the shade of a gigantic leaf, meditating, trying his best to master 'stillness'. Yamato sat on the grass nearby, leaning back against the stalk of a freakishly large fern. Fukasaku stood ready with his stick beside Naruto. So far there hadn't been any signs of a transformation, whether good or bad, and it was getting harder and harder for him to sit still without complaint. Perhaps it was to be expected, but the first step was already taking longer than it had for his older self.

Naruto's eyes snapped open and he flopped backwards onto the grass with a very loud and frustrated groan. "I know I can do this. Are you sure I can't just copy what you said aniki did? I think we should try some of that toad oil stuff, at least."

"I told you that it's too risky, Naruto-chan," Fukasaku said. "The purpose of the oil is to draw Natural Energy to you, so that you can sense and take it in more easily. But you are attracting a lot of energy already. Any more would be dangerous. It might even too much for you to handle as it is, once you first start using it."

"Hm…" Naruto sat up and crossed his arms. "I still don't really understand. How am I supposed to use it even if I was able to sense it? Do I just… take a big breath and hope it goes in through my nose, or what?"

"Ahh…" Fukasaku scratched his head with a sigh and then put his hands in a ram seal. "You learned about advanced chakra manipulation with the Rasengan, right? You already know not only how to focus your chakra to a specific point, but also how to control other variables like power level and rotation. If I remember correctly, you also already learned how to mix Wind Element energy in with all of that."

"Eh?"

"Not yet," Yamato interjected from where he sat, shaking his head. "He had only learned how to use Fuuton a short time before his original Sage training. That was also the first time he used the Kage Bunshin to accelerate training."

"Hmm," Fukasaku mumbled. "You have even less experience than I thought. Nevertheless, as I explained at the beginning, the point is that you need to combine the Natural Energy with your normal physical and spiritual energies. It's much like other types of chakra manipulation, except that part of what you are using comes from outside of yourself, rather than from inside."

"Wait wait wait wait," Naruto waved his arms. "Back up a minute. I can use Fuuton? Can you guys teach me how to do that, too?"

"You should concentrate on learning Sage Mode first this time," Yamato said. "The final jutsu you were able to create from adding Fuuton to your Rasengan ended up being unsafe to use without Sage Mode. And besides that, it is relatively easy to find someone to teach you how to use your element. If we have time after you get the hang of it, I can get you started on chakra nature manipulation."

"Yatta! I misjudged you, Moku-oji. You are alright!"

So it was with that added incentive that Naruto settled back into his meditation pose.

Yamato watched him thoughtfully. This version of Naruto was every bit as enthusiastic and dedicated to his training as the older one was, but in most other situations, the two were more different than he expected. Instead of the bright, loud, unfailingly confident shinobi he had come to know, the younger Naruto pulled pranks with bitter bravado and sulked in his room whenever he was made to go back to Suna. But Yamato could tell that the boy was struggling to accept the way things were in this time, and tried covering up his sense of hurt and betrayal with impudent behavior. It was immature, certainly, but it was undoubtedly a pattern he'd learned to revert back to in order to protect himself. It was usually during moments like this, when Naruto's thoughts were wholly concerned with training, that he forgot the act and seemed a little more like the young man he would become.

That was why he regretted it later that evening when he had to remind Naruto that they had to go back. Yamato stood up from the grass and lightly brushed off his pants. He walked silently over to where Naruto was sitting, his face scrunched with a look of utmost concentration. He was sitting so still it could have almost been a miracle, considering he had been doing nothing but meditation all day and was clearly sick of it by now. Yamato was about to speak up softly to break him out of it, but he stopped when he noticed that something was finally happening.

A bright orange pigment brushed over Naruto's closed eyelids as if painted on by an invisible hand, and Yamato held his breath. Fukasaku stared at him intently, stick at the ready. Naruto frowned, his lower lip sticking out slightly as he struggled. Suddenly his cheeks and hands started poofing out rapidly, expanding to a comical, unnatural size in the span of a single blink.

"Ack—!" Naruto cried as he faceplanted to the ground, courtesy of a hard thwack to the back of the head from the training stick. He sat up quickly, rubbing the back of his head. "Owww! What the hell, Sennin jii-chan? I think I finally felt something that time!"

"Yes," Fukasaku said, smiling widely. "It seems you were finally able to tap into the Natural Energy that time, even though it overwhelmed you very quickly. I'm proud of you, Naruto-chan."

"Congratulations," Yamato added with a warm smile.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head again, flushed with success, looking more sheepish and happy than pained this time. "I felt it! I don't know what happened, but… what you said about the Rasengan reminded me of what Ero-sennin taught me about concentration. I think I finally get what you were saying before about having to balance the energies. It's really hard, but I know what to expect now. Yosh! I'm ready to start training with Kage Bunshin so I can speed up my progress!"

"Alright," Fukasaku conceded, "but we'll start off with just one. As I suspected, it seems the Natural Energy overwhelms you more quickly than normal once you lose the balance. We have to be careful."

Predictably enough, Naruto started to complain, but Yamato interjected before he could get too far. "Oi, Naruto! Sorry to interrupt, but I was about to tell you right before all that – we need to go back to Suna now."

"Whaaat?" Naruto scowled without missing a beat. "I just started to get the hang of this Natural Energy thing! Why can't we stay a little longer today? It's not even the time we usually leave yet!"

"That is true, but we have to return a little early today." Yamato sighed. This was probably going to be difficult. "Everyone is leaving, and we need to head back now if you want to see them before they're gone."

Naruto stared at him wide-eyed. "What? What do you mean, leaving? Leaving for good?"

"Try to stay calm," Yamato continued. "This has been the scheduled day of departure for a little while. There were some people who thought it would be better if you didn't know until after the fact, but we negotiated that you would at least be able to see everyone off. You do want to, don't you?"

Naruto stood up. "Of course," he said roughly. "It won't make everything completely alright again, but I can't just let them leave without saying goodbye."

They had waited until nearly the last possible moment to catch everyone leaving Suna. Team 7, Neji, and the Sand siblings all lingered at the back a large group of shinobi just outside of Suna's great entranceway. Everyone else was chatting, reading maps, hydrating, or checking their equipment one last time before the start.

Gaara was the first to notice them. He turned away from the conversation of the others to turn and watch as Yamato and Naruto approached. The rest stopped talking to follow his line of sight. They all looked relieved.

"Naruto!" Sakura trotted up to him. He was surprised when she swept him into a hug, but she let go before he had a chance to respond. "I'm sorry we had to wait to tell you when we were leaving. The Council and the Daimyo didn't want want it at all, but we all knew it'd be worse if we just left without saying goodbye, so Gaara put his foot down."

"I'm sorry, too," he mumbled. He looked from face to face. Sakura, Sai, and Neji were all wearing Konoha flak vests. It made them look so serious and official, and he felt the gap between them even more acutely. He was always terrible with goodbyes, but this was probably the worst one he'd ever faced so far. It wasn't like when he made new friends on missions and had to say goodbye to go back to Konoha. His friends were going to war, and he had to stay behind. Yeah, he had been mad at them. But they could die. They could die and leave him alone and he could be stuck in this terrible future for all anyone knew, and—

"Don't worry about us," Sakura said, correctly interpreting his silence. "We won't go down so easily. More importantly, keep yourself safe, all right?"

"It isn't right! Everyone going off to fight while I just sit back here. You know I can't—"

"Aa, I know."

And that was all they could really say. It wasn't like they hadn't already gone over the same subject a million times already.

"Naruto, take this." Sai stepped forward and held out a small green scroll toward him.

"Eh?" he took the scroll and unrolled it a little. It was completely blank. "Uhh… thanks?"

"If you hold this scroll out to one of my Chojuu Giga, the ink will display whatever was sent with it. Usually I need to have at least some idea of where I am sending a message, but the seal at the center of this scroll is imbued with my chakra, and they should be able to seek it out. That way, they could find you even on Mount Myoboku. I can send you reports as often as you want. Although, you won't be able to answer…"

"Thanks, Sai," Naruto said awkwardly, putting the scroll in his tool pouch. "For the record, I'm… sorry I said you weren't my friend. And for ignoring you and everyone else. You're kind of a weird guy, but you're nice, in your own way."

"Don't worry," Sai said. "We'll finish the war before your pea-brained older self can get out and ruin everything. And maybe by the time we come back, you'll have grown a little taller."

"Hey—!" Naruto scowled. "Don't mess it up now."

Sai just laughed. It was hard to tell sometimes if he was completely serious, or if he just had a strange sense of humor.

"Neji," Naruto said, turning to him. "Go out there and show them what a Branch House member can do."

"Of course," Neji answered with a confident smirk.

"Gaara…" he felt more awkward than ever, but it wasn't the time to think about how ridiculous he sounded, even to his own ears. He plowed on ahead. "I didn't say it before, but I was really happy to see that you became the Kazekage. I mean, seeing where you came from and all... even though I can't imagine what you had to go through after that, just to reach where you are… I know it must have been really—"

Gaara held out his hand, smiling faintly. Naruto blinked.

"I know: you're not really good with this kind of stuff, right?" he said.

"A-Aa," Naruto laughed, shaking Gaara's hand.

"Try not to give Baki-sensei too many headaches while we're gone." Temari smirked and leaned forward conspiratorially. "But between you and me, you can feel free to use your natural powers of annoyance on anyone trying to butt in on Suna's governance."

"Osu!" Naruto saluted, grinning. "Good luck everyone! All of you better come back alive, or I'll beat the crap out of you when I go back to the past, and make you train with me every day so you don't do anything stupid like that again."

They all agreed, and whether it was only to humor him or not, Naruto didn't care. He wholeheartedly meant it.

When they were done saying their goodbyes, Gaara and his siblings made their way to the front of the group and led them away. Yamato and Naruto stood behind and watched until the group had disappeared completely behind the horizon.

The next day was gloomy, figuratively and literally. Rare rainclouds hung over Suna from early in the morning, hovering ominously and blocking out much of the usual sun that baked the clay streets during the day. Even though the final parting group hadn't been all that large, the town felt strange and almost empty with most of the shinobi gone. As usual while in Suna, Naruto was withdrawn and antsy to leave. Yamato brought him out for breakfast at the local ramen place to try cheering him up a little, despite Naruto's protests that he wanted to get back to training as soon as possible.

"Moku-oji, you know I don't even need to eat anyway, because of this weird plant body of mine… what's more important is the fact that I finally made some progress in my training yesterday!"

"There's still plenty of time before Fukasaku-sama is supposed to come get us," Yamato said, steering him inside the ramen bar. "Honestly, do I really have to ask if you'd rather eat ramen, or hang out in the Administration building with the Daimyo's Guard hanging over you?"

Naruto mumbled his assent. By now, of course, most of Suna's civilians were aware of the presence of Konoha's Jinchuuriki in their midst. Torn between the gratitude they felt toward his older self, and a fear driven by associating him with a younger Gaara, they were wary but tentatively friendly. The ramen place the Konoha group had started frequenting wasn't as nice as Ichiraku's, but it made up for that with interesting varieties and warm service. The old lady that ran the shop was even friendlier than most of the population, since she had gotten to know the Naruto of this timeline, and was very fond of him.

"Good morning Naruto-chan, Yamato-san," she greeted as they stepped in. "Is it just you two today?"

"Yes," Yamato said as they settled in at the bar. "The rest of our group left for the Lightning Country yesterday evening."

"Oh dear, that is right. I suppose there really is no stopping this war, now... I had hoped that I would never live to see Suna involved in another war."

"Yes... only this time, the countries of the world are allies. If anything good can come out of this, it would be the strengthening of our ties and hope for everyone to get along better in the future."

"True, true."

Naruto didn't say anything. He just put his elbow on the bar and his cheek in his hand, tracing imaginary spirals on the counter with his other hand.

"How is your training going, Naruto-chan?" the proprietress asked kindly.

"Good," he sat up a little more, and a spark finally appeared in his eye. "Actually, I took a huge step forward yesterday right before we came back! In fact, I'm sure that I would have mastered it by now if Moku-oji would let me stay longer."

"Well, if you do your best, I'm sure you will get it very soon, even with your time constraints."

"Hah! You said it; a little thing like that isn't about to hold me back! Ah, now then... hm... I want to get... hey, Moku-oji, is it alright if I get the deluxe with the tempura desert radish and..." Naruto broke off when he noticed that Yamato was turned around on his stool and looking out into the street. "Moku-oji?"

Yamato stood and lifted the curtain in the entranceway out of his line of sight so that he could see. Naruto got up and stood beside him to see what he was looking at.

A group of five Suna shinobi were walking down the street, heading toward the Administration building. That alone would have been slightly unusual, considering most of the few shinobi left behind were tasked with guarding the village's perimeter and entryways, and were under strict orders to keep to their posts. They looked distinctly uncomfortable and kept glancing at one another, and at a woman in the center of the group, who they seemed to be escorting. Her hands were tied behind her back and another kunoichi walked close behind her, pointing a kunai at the back of her neck.

"What is going on?" Naruto asked.

"An intruder?" Yamato wondered out loud, eyes narrowed. "No... the situation looks too quiet for that..."

The woman wore the wide light-colored wrap typical of Suna, and it draped down her front and back the way Temari often wore it—but it couldn't be clearer that she was an outsider. Underneath the wrap she wore a form-fitting purple top with mesh sleeves that ended at her elbows, black shorts, and tall purple boots. Her hair was a paler shade of lavender, tied on top of her head in a little bun, and adorned with a delicately folded paper rose.

As if sensing their gaze, she turned her head to look at them. Her golden-amber eyes rested on Naruto for just long enough not to be incidental before looking away again. Despite being restrained, she looked completely calm.

"It looks like they are taking her to Baki-san," Yamato said. "We should go, too. I get the feeling we'll be called in to vouch for her soon, anyway."

"What… why, do you know who that is?" Naruto asked curiously.

"I've never met her in person, so I didn't recognize her at first, but I've seen her file. That's the current leader of Amegakure, S-rank kunoichi and former member of Akatsuki, Konan."

"...What?"

By the time they reached the office where Baki carried out his duties as the stand-in leader of Suna, all but two of the escorts had been dismissed to go back to their posts. All that remained was the kunoichi holding Konan at knife-point, and another shinobi standing on her other side. Baki was sitting behind the desk, looking tense, and Yamaguchi was watching the scene from the sidelines with his beady eyes fully open.

"Intel from Konoha does suggest that you are indeed the leader of Ame, but it also indicates that you and your Hidden Village were formerly affiliated with Akatsuki. It would just be sheer idiocy to allow your people to watch after him… and the Allied Shinobi Forces have already agreed that this is the best place. I'm sorry, but it is completely out of the question," Baki said.

"Excuse us," Yamato said to get their attention. "What is going on?"

"Yamato-san," Baki said, looking disconcerted. "I am not fully up on Konoha's alliances with smaller countries. Maybe you will have a better idea than I as to why Ame would feel comfortable coming here to offer a hiding place for Konoha's Jinchuuriki."

"What was that?" Yamato said.

Konan turned around as much as she could and inclined her head in a small, polite bow, "It is as he says. I have heard about the situation here with Naruto, including his recent capture at the hands of Uchiha Madara. As you can imagine, I have been monitoring Madara's activities very closely ever since I assumed leadership of Amegakure. I believe that Naruto would be safer in Ame than in Suna. Our forces are powerful, and more importantly, they are all at home instead of at war. It has also been a well-known fact for generations that no one can enter Ame undetected. Madara most of all."

"Why would you offer something like this?" Yamato asked. "Ame is neutral, not part of the Alliance. You aren't even officially friends with Konoha, even though we have a non-aggression agreement."

"Ame does have an allegiance—not with Konoha, but with Uzumaki Naruto, himself," Konan explained calmly.

"Eh?" Naruto was terribly confused.

"It is strange that the leader of a Hidden Village would come by themselves to make a visit like this, leaving their village unattended," Yamaguchi put in. "I am sure that many small countries would do anything to get their hands on a Bijuu, but to go this far?"

Konan examined him coolly. "Ame will get along without me for a few days. I do not plan on staying away long."

They stared at one another for an uncomfortably long time. Naruto had the distinct feeling that something was going on above his head here.

"No matter what you say, we can't let Naruto-kun go with you," Baki said. "We have the situation under control here already, and he has his training."

"And if he wanted to come to Ame, instead?" Konan asked. "Would it be so unthinkable to ask his opinion on it?"

Everyone turned reflexively to look at Naruto.

"Uh… hold on a minute," he said, holding up his hands. "I guess I know you in this time or something, but right now I have no idea who you are. Moku-oji said you used to be in Akatsuki, so… I don't even really understand how you can be here without being arrested. The boss toad of Mount Myoboku told me that Amegakure was where Akatsuki's leader lived."

"Yes," Konan said. "Akatsuki was originally ours, but it got corrupted by Madara. Our loyalty was always to what it originally represented: a new era of peace for Ame and the world. We lost our way, it is true. But it was your older self that helped us remember our original ideals—an ideal that has been entrusted to you, Naruto. You also convinced the Hokage to absolve Ame of its previous connections to Akatsuki. Even Madara would tell you that Nagato and I betrayed him."

Nagato. That name struck a chord in his memory. Madara had said they had similar ideals. That was the person he was supposed to find. If she knew him… maybe she knew where he could be found? Naruto didn't want to ask her in front of everyone else.

"Well, if the older me accepts that Ame isn't on Madara's side, that is good enough for me too," he said. "And I don't have to be here to do my training, anyway. I think it would be fun to go."

"What—hold on a minute!" Yamato spluttered. "Tsunade-sama has ordered you to stay here. You can't go off somewhere else just because it 'sounds fun'."

"Well then, ask her if I can go. It shouldn't be a problem then."

"That's not the real issue here..."

"Then what is?"

"Naruto," Baki growled, rubbing his forehead. "You and Yamato-san are meeting with Fukasaku-sama soon, aren't you? Why don't you go ahead and start your training for the day, and let us talk about this some more?"

"What, so I don't get any say in it at all?" Naruto asked stubbornly, voice rising. The more Baki seemed to resist the idea, the more he found himself wanting to go along with it.

"You go on ahead, Naruto," Konan said calmly. "Don't worry, I'll still be here when you get back." Even though she was speaking to him, she was looking at the Wind Daimyo again with a polite smile. Yamaguchi looked back at her searchingly.

"...Okay," Naruto said. He turned to leave, only pausing once at the door to look back at them. Yamato sighed in relief and followed after him.

His concentration was shot. There was practically nothing to show for the previous day's progress.

"Naruto-chan, you're lacking focus," Fukasaku said, tapping the training stick against his own shoulder. "Hm… maybe it's time to move on to balancing on the precipices to improve your stillness…"

"Well, you're only letting me train with one Kage Bunshin," Naruto countered irritably. "Maybe if you'd let me use more, like aniki…"

"Increasing the number of beings that cannot sit still will do nothing. What's the matter? You seem agitated today."

"Say, Sennin-jiichan," Naruto said suddenly, opening his eyes to stare at Fukasaku. "If I were to go to another village, I'd still be able to come here to do my training, right?"

"Eh?"

"It turns out, I was offered a place to stay in Amegakure," Naruto explained. "So if I go there, I wouldn't have to stay in Suna with people hanging over me all the time anymore."

"A-Amegakure?!" Fukasaku spluttered. "Why in the world would you want to go there? After what I told you about Jiraiya-chan—"

"I didn't forget," Naruto said quietly. "I just feel like… everyone is going off to war. There is no one left in Suna that I care about staying for. I don't like being around the Wind Daimyo, and most of the people in Suna are halfway afraid of me. And I get the feeling that in Ame, I can find more clues as to how to get back to my own time."

"Eh? How do you figure that?"

"Well…it's just a gut feeling I have."

Ame may have been the place where Jiraiya had died, but it was also the place where Pein had lived. If there was anywhere he would be able to find traces of where the resurrected Nagato might be, it was Ame. And he couldn't shake the feeling that somehow, Konan knew what he was looking for.

Of course, Naruto couldn't explain his reasoning without revealing that Madara told him everything about who Nagato was, and about how to undo the jutsu keeping him in this timeline. Everyone thought that the only thing Madara had told him about was Sasuke.

"I can see why staying in Suna may be somewhat uncomfortable for you," Yamato commented. "But going to Ame would be too risky. It is very secure against outsiders, true—but that includes the Allied Shinobi Force as well as Akatsuki."

"Good. The only thing I can do at this point is search for a way back home. The Alliance has enough on its hands with the war, so it's better if they don't have to keep up with me."

Yamato sighed. He didn't completely disagree with Naruto, but he knew that the chances of the Allied Shinobi Force agreeing to this were very small. He wondered what Tsunade would say. She was the only one besides the older Naruto who had met the leader of Ame in person before this, and the two S-ranked kunoichi had corresponded in the past for the sake of working out a non-aggression agreement between their lands.

"Depending on the circumstances, I could actually see Tsunade-sama allowing it," Yamato said. "But I wouldn't get my hopes up. We already have things worked out with Suna, so it is unlikely that anyone will find it necessary or appropriate to change plans."

Naruto wasn't listening. He was already animatedly discussing possibilities for continuing his Sage training in Amegakure with Fukasaku.

The leader of Ame was out, and Tobi noticed right away. It was a logical sequence of events, really. He had intended on hunting the Rinnegan after setting the Zetsu army loose on the world, but this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. With the bothersome woman out of the way, he would be free to search for it without a hindrance. And if all went well, Orochimaru would be using Hashirama's cells to improve the Zetsu by the time he got back from Ame.

But now, something didn't seem right. After just a little bit of searching, he had found what he was looking for. Even though Konan was away, he hadn't expected to reach the place with no resistance whatsoever. It was… too easy.

Tobi cast his eye warily around the magnificent tomb, scanning the shadows that crept in all around the resting place of the two former Akatsuki leaders.

The perfectly preserved bodies of Nagato and Yahiko lay side-by-side on a vast bed of paper roses, overlooked by angels carved into the marble wall behind them. He scoffed at such an extravagant display of mourning. Because of her misplaced loyalty to these two, Konan had followed Nagato's example in defying him. Why couldn't she understand that assisting with Tsuki no Me would enable her to see them alive again?

Tobi jumped and landed in between the two bodies, tense and alert for any traps. He crouched down beside Nagato and scanned over him carefully. There didn't seem to be anything. No wires, no paper bombs, no illusions, no substitution. It was his real corpse. Tobi moved his hand over Nagato's peacefully smiling face.

Ah. Of course.

The eyes were missing. The sunken eyelids gave the white-haired, skeletal-looking body an even more ghastly appearance.

"You won't find them in Ame," someone said calmly.

Tobi quickly jumped back off the shrine and looked around for the speaker. They stepped out from behind a marble pillar and gave him a smile that mimicked the one on the corpse.

His face was fuller, younger-looking, and his hair was flaming red instead of a dead white. His purple eyes etched with bizarre black rings were a reflection of the very eyes Tobi was searching for.

"I knew you would come for them, so I took and hid them somewhere," Nagato continued. "I am the only one that knows where they are now."

Tobi stood stiffly, appraising him. He narrowed his one visible eye. "I suppose I just have to make you tell me, then."

"You can try," Nagato's smile widened slowly. "Genjutsu won't work—even the shadow of a Rinnegan I have now would render it useless. I am Edo Tensei, so you can't kill or hurt me, and even if you could, I still wouldn't tell. You're much better off giving up."

"We will definitely see you on the battlefield later, Madara." Another voice came from behind him, and Tobi whirled around. It couldn't be—it was. He had figured it out from the moment Nagato appeared. The Edo Tensei Itachi was also here in Amegakure.

"For now, however, it is in your best interests to leave this village in peace. Wouldn't you agree?" Itachi said.

Tobi cursed internally. Without the power of the Rinnegan, he knew that he would not fare well against Nagato and Itachi at the same time; especially not now that they were Edo Tensei and had bodies that could not tire or die. Even with the Rinnegan, it would be a challenge. And if it wasn't even here in the first place… but then, how would he ever be able to find it?

There was only one choice. Nagato and Itachi would have to be put out of the way first. He would have to get Orochimaru to seal them, or bring them back under his control.

"Tch," Tobi said. "It's just one thing after another."

There was another option, actually. He knew where Konan was, and where Sasuke was. And both of them had bodies that could die. He had already asked Orochimaru to capture Konan if possible, while he was going after the Wood-element user.

But it seemed as though Nagato and Itachi were willing to let him go. Why would they, knowing Konan was out there alone; knowing Sasuke was already in his grasp? It was even possible they knew that Orochimaru was in Suna.

His whole body was tense, ready to move at the slightest sign of attack. Tobi moved his eye back and forth between Nagato and Itachi.

What to do?

Sasuke slashed out with his sword, feeling the impact as each stroke went smoothly through a training dummy. He paused, listening. One, two, three, four, five. Each of the dummies fell neatly where he cut them. Sasuke stood from his stance and sheathed his sword. He had hit all five without missing this time.

"Oh? You're not going to fry them all to finish it off?" he heard White Zetsu's perpetually amused voice.

"What do you want?" Sasuke said, annoyed.

"Nothing," White Zetsu said in a singsong tone. "Just thought you might be interested in hearing something."

Sasuke frowned. Something about Zetsu felt different from normal. "Where is your other half? What is going on?"

"You noticed, huh? You are improving; I guess doing without your eyes for a while had an upside. Well, you'll be glad to know that that's almost over. Your eyes should be mostly healed by now. Tobi has gone to fetch the Rinnegan, and Orochimaru will be back here soon to upgrade my clones, and everyone's getting ready to start the war~! I'm just supposed to watch over you until you can fly by yourself, little bird." Zetsu never tired of teasing Sasuke about comparing himself to a hawk.

Sasuke thought for a moment, head tilted slightly to one side.

"So, you're saying that we are the only ones here right now?" he asked slowly. "And I can finally use my eyes again?"

"Eh… well…" Zetsu blinked in confusion as Sasuke gave a wicked smile and tugged off the bandages blindfolding him.

Sasuke slowly opened his eyes. He had wasted no time in activating his new Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, and it spun and glowed red through the gloom.

"What are you—"

Amaterasu!

Naruto stared at the ceiling of his room so hard it was almost as if he hoped to burn a hole through it. Konan had, as she'd promised, been there when they returned for the day from Mount Myoboku. However, he still hadn't had the chance to speak with her alone. Konan, for her part, hadn't seemed very concerned about the fact that the Wind Daimyo and Baki had all but flatly shot down her invitation for Naruto to come to Ame. As long as they deferred a real answer, she continued to persist, exchanging polite courtesies and trading the occasional concealed barb with Yamaguchi. Naruto couldn't be nearly as patient. He wanted to ask her what the plan was; why she had come all this way for something that seemed like it had such a small chance of working out. There was more. He just knew it.

What would happen if he went to Konan and said he'd come along, no matter what anyone else said? Naruto bit his lip. It would be a very reckless thing to do, depending on how well the Alliance would react to him going off on his own without permission. Not to mention it was reckless in another way. It really could be dangerous to go to a place he'd never been with someone he didn't know, especially when said someone was unambiguously a former enemy, and the place was where his teacher had died. If the idea had been suggested before he'd been captured by Madara, Naruto probably wouldn't have even considered it. Now, though... it was clear that being careful wasn't going to get him any closer to getting home. It wasn't even certain that he was any safer in Suna than in Ame. Being careful hadn't really helped him that much so far.

Naruto let out a long, slow breath and got out of bed. He made a Kage Bunshin and had it crawl under the covers and pretend to be asleep. This time, when he snuck out of his room, he used a Henge to make himself look like one of the many Suna chuunin he had seen running errands around the Administration building. It wasn't a very sophisticated disguise, but hopefully it would be enough to get him out to the upper floors without being challenged.

The hallway was dark. Ever since the others had left, it was just him and Yamato on this floor, but that was hardly a cause for relief. Naruto knew that the other Konoha nin was the biggest obstacle to him sneaking around. He usually left Naruto alone in the evenings, which meant the Kage Bunshin ploy probably wouldn't be discovered, but the downside was that Naruto didn't know what Yamato did with his free time. He had no idea if the man would be in his own room, somewhere else in the Administration building, or in town.

Keeping all of his senses fully alert, Naruto crept up the staircase that led to the upper floors. Either Yamato wasn't down here, or completely missed Naruto sneaking out, because he scaled the stairs and ended up in one of the building's curved hallways without a problem. It wasn't as dark here as down below, but things were still very quiet. Naruto started walking briskly, as if he had somewhere particular to be, just in case someone spotted him.

Another problem occurred to him now that he'd already made it further than expected. He didn't actually know where Konan was staying. Seeing as how she wasn't exactly a welcome guest, there was a good chance that she wasn't even in this building. It would make more sense for her to be at one of the inns in town.

It doesn't matter, he thought, clenching his hands to stave off the rising sense of frustration. He couldn't give up now. If he found out Konan wasn't here, he would figure out what to do after that.

Naruto climbed another set of stairs, heading vaguely in the direction of Gaara's apartment and the fanciest guest rooms. If she wasn't there, it was most likely that she wasn't in this building at all.

He tensed up when he saw a member of the Daimyo's guard walking in the other direction. Naruto glanced at him but quickly looked away, trying his best to look natural. The guard looked at him but didn't pass comment.

That was another thing: the Wind Daimyo was staying up here, too. Technically Naruto could go where he wanted, but it would be really hard to explain why he was sneaking around in disguise near the Daimyo's suite at night. The closer he got to the guest rooms, the higher the chance was of running into one of his entourage.

Paradoxically, the first thing Naruto noticed when he reached the top floor was how deserted it looked. The silence lay heavily in the hall like cold, dead air. He stood still for a moment and closed his eyes, tentatively trying to reach for any energy external to himself, the way Fukasaku taught him. He couldn't feel anything, but that could just be because he was still bad at sensing Natural Energy. Naruto continued on, walking with his back pressed to the wall.

He heard a soft thump from up ahead and froze, searching up and down with his eyes to figure out where the sound had come from.

A door was slightly ajar, and he knew that had to be it. He wanted to investigate, but… this was increasingly feeling like a bad idea. Thinking about it realistically, there was really no reason why this floor would be completely empty. This was starting to feel like a late-night horror flick he'd watched one time. That experience told him he shouldn't go near slightly-open doors to check out mysterious noises, but run as fast as possible in the other direction instead.

...No. He was a shinobi. If something strange was going on, and there was a possibility of Suna or the Wind Daimyo being in danger because of it, he had to do something about it. Naruto walked toward the door slowly and pushed it open with a trembling hand.

The first thing he saw was the body of the Wind Daimyo, splayed out right inside the doorway. The space from his chest up to his head was nothing more than a messy, gaping hole, as if something had crawled out from inside his body and left the dead shell behind. His fine silk robes were soaked with blood. Naruto clamped his hands over his mouth to fight against the urge to scream or vomit. Further back, the room held clear signs of a struggle. There were overturned pieces of furniture, kunai stuck in the ceiling and walls, and seemingly random twisted bits of wood laying around.

But the worst of it was the sight of the familiar black-haired shinobi in front of him. Orochimaru turned around leisurely. Naruto's eyes darted from the snake man's face down to his feet, where Yamato lay. The Wood-style user looked very pale, and his eyes were closed. A gigantic snake wrapped all around his body with its fangs dug deeply into his neck.

"Oh?" Orochimaru said in his dry, raspy voice. "So there was a little rat snooping around, was there?"

The Killing Intent in the room spiked, and Naruto winced. This was just like that time in the Forest of Death. He lost control of his Henge and felt his knees shaking violently, but he managed to keep standing.

"Let him go," Naruto said roughly. He pulled out a kunai and got into a defensive stance.

Orochimaru chuckled. "You still know how to make a nuisance out of yourself, don't you? I was going to let you stay free a bit longer, but then you had to go and see something you shouldn't have."

Snakes crawled out of Orochimaru's sleeves and uncoiled on the floor, hissing lightly. Yamato's eyes wrenched open and he looked at Naruto blearily. He lifted his head, a movement that seemed to be costing him quite a bit of effort. The snake's venom was taking a heavy toll on him.

"Naruto… run," he whispered weakly.

A/N: A very large and warm thank-you to Iron Monkey Fist for reccing this story on chapter 24 of "Naruto: Potential Realized" (story ID: 7113972)! Though I highly doubt anyone reading this hasn't seen it already, go check that story out if you haven't!

Oh yes, and this is now the longest fic I've ever posted, and the one with the most reviews, so many thanks to all of you, too! (: