Hey look at that, I managed to finish this part before Feb- heh...okay maybe not - but what can I say, I'm slow and easily distracted - so! Yesh damn those ducks...they are vexing me at the moment. Anyway, there's only one member of the Uzumaki family I've not checked in with and yes I know I'm wandering off on a tangent - but I really can't help it, Gaara is just too cool a character not to include so once again we're off...dattebayo

Still the supreme overlord of absolutely none of this and in need of some serious sleep...

Recipe for Disaster
by achitka

The Power of Two

Sasuke leaned against a nearby wall as he listened in on the goings on one building over via the short wave as Naruto's bunshin talked to Hito. Sasuke barely suppressed a smile when the bunshin flicked off the boy's headband but he had to admit, Naruto certainly had a flair for the dramatic. If the boy wasn't listening before, he was definitely paying attention now.

"You're on, teme," Naruto said as the bunshin made its 'exit'.

"I'm curious why would you have one of your bunshins henge into Moegi?"

Naruto continued watching his son and said, "Right now, Moegi is on assignment with Konohamaru, Hito doesn't know that and I wanted to see for myself just how mouthy that boy of mine has been." Naruto turned toward him and frowned. "Apparently Moegi's been holding out on me. Kakashi-sensei would have knocked me into next week if I talked to him the way Hito does. Anyway it's likely he'll figure it out before long and if nothing else goes wrong tonight, those two should be back in a few hours. I'll fill her in when she arrives, either way Hito-kun should be a little less cocky...if only for few days."

"Hn." The painful twinge that sent him off earlier was turning into a dull throb and Sasuke took in a deep breath, amazed at just how far he'd pushed himself today.

"Thank you for returning Yon-chan, my children can be so…single-minded at times and to think they were so cute when they were small…make sure you come to the hospital after you terrify the boy some more. I'll have Sakura-chan take a look at you."

"I'm fine, Naruto."

"Aaah, don't be stubborn, besides there's something else I need to talk to you about."

"Why not just talk about it now?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto looked back across the street and said, "It's complicated..."

Noticing the strange expression on the Hokage's face, Sasuke's curiosity was piqued. He nodded in reply and Naruto gave him almost a smile in acknowledgment and disappeared. Another puzzle. For all the years that had gone by it was odd to see that look; it was a closest to confusion as he'd seen on Naruto's face in sometime, and if Naruto was willing to irritate Sakura, then it was likely something extremely unpleasant. This amused the Uchiha for some reason he couldn't quite understand, and decided to care about later and returned his attention to his reluctantly acquired student.

Hito looked in the direction his father indicated but didn't see anyone on the darkened rooftop across the street. Still if his father said the old man was over there he'd best wait where he was for the geezer to show up. Bending down, he picked up his hitate and noticed a small slice in the corner that wasn't there before. Hito hissed in pain, dropping it, after he ran his finger across scratch. The metal along the nick was a lot damn sharper than he expected and he stared as a small drop of blood oozed from a cut it created. How could he do that just flicking it off?

Moegi-Sensei's appearance surprised him since he didn't recall sensing her chakra, but he just figured he was distracted, not that he was doing what he should have been anyway but if he'd heard it once he's heard it a thousand times:

Distracted equals Dead.

Still why would he be that angry? It's not like he heard... Hito paused in his thinking; it really did all depend on when his Father actually arrived. Moegi-Sensei's worried face popped up in his memory and Hito looked back toward the roof exit. Hito groaned remembering Moegi-Sensei never called him Hito-kun…ever…especially after the fit he thrown about it. Ah, crap. That meant...he thought about his reaction to Moegi's question and Hito took a really deep breath as he came to the realization that Moegi-Sensei wasn't Moegi-Sensei. She was one of his father's bunshin. Having a big mouth was one thing, having a big mouth and shooting it off to your superior was something completely different and he thought, No wonder I'm on notice…I am in way more trouble than I thought... Even still, Hito's anger flared knowing how easily his father had tricked him. He'd been caught off guard but his anger stifled itself as he caught sight of the headband again. Picking it up, Hito examined the nick and thought; He did that with barely a flick of his finger…crap, I'm lucky my head is still attached. It made him wonder what his father had done with his chakra to cause it.

Hito returned his attention to the world around him when the old man's chakra turned up near by. He also didn't dare ask any of the four hundred questions currently jumping around in his head and reminded himself he better not push his luck...The whole 'on notice' had rattled him a bit. Somehow Hito doubted even his father would make up something like that, so he relayed the Hokage's message and waited for a response.

"You're unusually serious, boy, something wrong?"

"My fath-," Hito stopped himself and his hand tightened around the hitate. Shoving it into his pocket, Hito decided whatever he said to the old man would likely end up being heard by his father somehow and said, "The Hokage put me on notice…I can't afford another screw up today."

"I see…I'm guessing the Hokage also informed you of your new training schedule?"

Hito took a deep breath and strained mightily to keep from asking the obvious question of why the old guy changed his mind. Since the chances of the old man not knowing what just happened were pretty damn slim, Hito instead gave a curt nod of his head. He wasn't at all sure what the bastard was smiling about now but the old man appeared to be taking a great of delight watching his internal struggle and Hito thought, Great now I get to be goaded by a geezer who isn't…damn, this is gonna suck!

When the old man said, "Fine, then we'll begin in the morning. This time you'll need to find me by 9am…oh, and bring your brother, apparently you two are a set." Hito suppressed a growl. Like he needed another reminder of what he was supposed to be doing and bit down on his tongue to hold back another smart remark. Again he nodded then turned and headed for the door.Just as he was about to leave the roof, Hito hesitated, there was only one way his father could have known the geezer was on the adjacent roof and now that he thought about it, only one reason the old guy would be there at all...Hito sighed, Okay, Pop, I get it, you're not so stupid…but didn't turn around as he said, "Thanks."

"For what?"

"Bringing my brother back." and Hito disappeared down the steps.

Sasuke waited a few minutes before heading toward the exit. Hito would likely get an early start in the morning, so as to not lose any time looking, while 'keeping an eye' on his brother. That meant he had two pursuers instead of just one this time, but since he'd already picked out a spot to wait, he wouldn't deviate from his original plan. It was a bit surprising to him that Naruto had guessed rightly since Sasuke was not expecting the boy to put together all that random information that quickly.

Up until today Sasuke thought Hito envious of his talented younger brothers. Hokage's son or not, people talked and it wasn't easy having siblings that managed by age nine what you didn't by age twelve. It made sense though, from what Naruto told him, Hito could have graduated from the academy when his sister did but the boy had purposely let himself lag behind. Now though, Hito was determined to make up for what he viewed as lost time, therein lay the problem.

The boy was definitely a loudmouth, but it was obvious he wasn't the overly cocky sort, that was good, but he tended to act without thinking and if he did hold any real jealousy for his brothers...still they were an interesting combination of instinct and intelligence, and it made Sasuke wonder if they were put under any real stress, would they be able to perform. Of course there was only one way to find out. Sasuke let out a snort, One just as smart as his mother and the other almost as stubborn as his father…damn, this is gonna suck…

Futa heard the howl of some animal in the distance, but she ignored it. Sitting at a small desk, she looked out the tinted round window at the lights of Suna. She really missed the forest that surrounded her home. Maybe that was why Futa stubbornly sat in the room she shared with her teammates. The hotel she was staying at was hosting a dinner for all the participants that had made it to the finals, and most likely her Sensei would ream her later, since the Kazekage was supposed to be in attendance, but she wasn't particularly hungry. Instead, for the past hour and a half she'd re-run that match through her head, picking it apart an attempt to weed out her mistakes. She knew there were way too many of them. It was only luck and that last ditch genjutsu that hit upon the one thing that terrified her opponent the most...spiders. Being the daughter of the Fire Country Hokage, expectations for her were pretty high, even if she was the only one on her team to make it through the prelims, she knew she barely made it through that match. Now with less than a month left to prepare, Futa was wishing she were anyplace else but here. She'd been here for almost three weeks and discovered she'd no liking for the desert…sand just got into everything.

A strong wind rattled the window of the small hotel room briefly startling her out of her thoughts. Futa frowned and went over to her bed. Pulling out her knapsack she dumped it and sifted through her belongings until she found what she was looking for. Why she was dragging around a picture of the four of them made her wonder, since the only thing that came in handy about having three brothers was the inordinate amount of time they spent trying to scare the bejeezus out of her. Still it surprised her how much she missed Hito's big mouth and her younger brother's mini traps. Everything was too damn quiet now and the restless nervousness she'd felt earlier returned as she looked out the window in the direction of the leaf village. Futa told herself it was just her imagination, told herself it was just her nerves on edge...still it wouldn't go away and she just couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was happening at home.

Futa wasn't given much time to think about it though when the window she'd been sitting next to a few minutes earlier shattered and a small furry something came flying into the room. Futa cringed at the chakra that flew at her in waves from the little monstrosity. It reeked of oily death and Futa immediately stumbled back, whatever that thing was she knew instinctively if those nasty looking teeth touched her, she'd be dead.

Struggling up, she got momentarily tangled up with the chair she was just sitting in. Hitting the floor she landed on her back and scrambled to turn herself over in what she hoped was the opposite direction from what ever the hell that thing was. She came to an abrupt halt when her back bumped up against the wall. The creature wasted no time and launched itself from the floor directly for her head. Futa ducked and dove over the bed in the direction of the door. It snapped at her legs, but only managed to get itself a swift kick as Futa passed beneath it. It smacked into the wall with a thud but immediately regained its feet.

Reaching out Futa snagged a kunai in one hand and a small pouch in the other from the pile as she passed by the bed. Still off balance Futa threw the kunai and cursed when it thudded into the wall as her target managed to dodge the lethal object. This room was too small for a fight, she need to get out of there so Futa tucked and rolled as she gathered enough chakra in her fist to smash the door open and without slowing down sprinted up the hallway with the fuzz ball in hot pursuit. Having been built into the cliff face, the building itself had few visible windows and at the rate the fuzzy was gaining ground, Futa knew she'd never make the stairs so made a mad dash down the long main hallway for the window she remembered was around the next corner.

The damned fur ball was still catching up with her and Futa pushed herself to go just a little bit faster even though she knew it would make taking that corner a real bitch. Channeling what she hoped was enough chakra into her hand to make it stick to the decorative molding; Futa propelled herself at top speed around the corner. The molding creaked but held long enough for her to make the turn but at least she was going in the right direction when the wood snapped and her feet left the floor. Futa landed hard but rolled out of her fall to continue toward the window. She didn't remember the hall being this long, but then the last time she'd wandered down this way she wasn't being chased either. She heard a satisfying thud when the creature, being unable to stop, smacked into the wall as it attempted to follow behind her. Futa now scattered the contents of small pouch she managed to grab on her way out of her room. The painful high pitch sound the fuzzy let out made the girl smiled as small explosions sounded as the creature ran over them.

The window she was heading for was only a few meters away and Futa hoped she would have enough time to gather the chakra she needed to break through the thick glass. She still wasn't able to come close to the type of damage her mother could, but damned if she wasn't going to try. Throwing her fist into it full force, she realized too late, she wasn't wearing her gloves...shit! Too late to stop now and she had a really bad feeling that if she didn't make it in one blow, she was toast.

The window turned out to be made of sturdier stuff than she was expecting and only cracked while Futa's hand screamed at the abuse. Smashing at the window again with her foot, she widened the crack some, but only managed to create a small hole. Now she was seriously pissed off and Futa let loose a stream of curses that would make even a stalwart anbu blush.

A snarl behind made her spin around in time to see the nasty had caught up to her and she tried to duck as it launched itself toward her again. This was not the best tactical move, trapped as she was in this damned corner. The fuzzy hit the window, again widening the crack, rebounding at her. With nowhere to go Futa snagged the nearest piece of furniture in the otherwise empty hallway and struck the furball in hopes of slowing it down. The damn thing clamped its teeth down into one of the chair legs and Futa shook the chair in an effort to dislodge it, but that was not working. The fuzzy had bitten down so hard its teeth were stuck so Futa sent it flying away from her back up the hallway.

The chair shattered and the fuzz ball hit the opposite wall, bouncing once before it managed to get its teeth loose. The acrid smell of acid burning through the wood only confirmed Futa's earlier suspicions about those damned teeth. It watched her with its beady red eyes and snapping jaws. The damn thing knew she was trapped, weaponless and worse, jutsuless. The blow to the window had broken at least three of her knuckles and her wrist; she couldn't make hand signs even if she could have thought of one right then.

Gathering itself, the little monster commenced its attack with frightening speed. Futa however, had no intention of going down without doing some serious damage to that...that...whatever the hell it was and launched herself in turn.

In the moment before they collided Futa felt a strange gritty substance suddenly impeding her progress. Alarmed she struggled against it only to realize the fuzzy that should have reached her by now…hadn't. Looking in its direction she saw the sand that stopped her attack was at the same time engulfing the creature's small body. Futa watched in horrified fascination as the fuzz ball struggled in vain to free itself from the sand. This was something she'd only heard stories about and the panic in the little animal's eyes made Futa, in a perverse way; feel really bad for the fuzzy.

Futa stumbled back when the sand abruptly released her and began to form a wall in front of her that blocked her view. Futa slid to the floor, at the same time covering her ears as the fuzzy menace on the other side of the sand let out a painful sounding high pitched keen before it went suddenly silent. Lowering her hands, she took a deep breath to get control of her breathing. Futa leaned back against the wall as the sand in front of her collapsed and retreated around the corner. The slow approach of footsteps pulled Futa's attention away from the floor as a tallish, red haired man came to a halt in front of her. Futa stared up at the Kazekage as he stood quietly arms crossed ignoring the crumpled mass of flesh and blood on the floor only a few meters away. She had no idea why he of all people was here, but then, that didn't really matter and Futa let her muscles relax and blinked at the proffered hand in front of her. As the last of the sand made its silent journey back into the large gourd on his back he said, "Uzumaki Futa, you're late for dinner."

While her mother claimed that Gaara was actually quite funny, Futa didn't see it, but had to admit that was as close to a joke as she'd ever heard from the seemingly emotionless Kazekage.

"Hai, Kazekage-sama, I apologize for not leaving sooner." He helped her off the floor and she winced when she accidentally bumped her hand.

"You're injured?"

"Aaah, it's nothing serious, just a few broken bones and maybe my wrist..." Futa trailed off and stared at the floor. This was just too embarrassing.

"What the hell was that?" another voice said, making Futa start. Gaara cocked an eyebrow but didn't turn to face the speaker.

"I wouldn't touch it, Kankuro, even my sand rejected it."

"Eh? Yeesh," Kankuro said as he pulled his hand away, instead he reached back pulling out a scroll. Once activated eight tiny mechanical ninja emerged and circled the mess. None were more than 10cm in height and to Futa's surprise they didn't touch it, instead she watched intrigued as they arranged themselves around the mess and unrolled even smaller scrolls. Each clicked or clacked in turn making an odd sounding rhythm. A net, she assumed was made of chakra appeared and became increasingly complex. The rhythm and tempo sped up dramatically as the net finally encased the body before all eight little ninja stopped and the 'package' along with the mechanical ninja dissipated into smoke before being drawn into the scroll they'd recently emerged from. Futa stared at the scroll as Kankuro cast a seal. He then rolled it up and put it away.

"So it was after you," Kankuro stated looking past his brother. Futa pulled her eyes from the floor and nodded, noticing the Kazekage was again quietly watching her. While Futa was used to a certain amount of scrutiny, she always felt nervous around the Kazekage, even if Gaara was a long time friend of her father, she always found talking to him unnerving. Futa knew she was already close to her limit, but she still felt unusually light headed and blinked when she looked again. Now there were two Gaara's in front of her and the world started to dim. She shouldn't be this tired, thoroughly confused now, the thought was lost as the girl could no longer resist the sudden urge to take a nap and was unable to stop herself as she toppled over.

"What happened?" Kankuro asked. Futa was suspended just centimeters from the floor, sound asleep. "She was fine a minute ago."

"That creature was some sort of chakra leech. It's surprising she managed to last as long as she did," Gaara said, "That's why the sand rejected it once it was dead. Take her to the infirmary, have them make sure she doesn't have any other wounds besides the broken bones in her hand. I'll have Temari contact the Leaf, perhaps they will have more information."

"Why bother them with this?" Kankuro asked.

"We have well over 200 ninja on duty and perhaps a hundred or so stray foreign genin in the village right now but it was only after her and she's barely large enough to rate being a snack for a summons of that strength. Today was also the first time I allowed the names of any of the participants in the exams to be listed publicly. I made a point of keeping the names of the candidates secret until the list for the main matches was settled."

"So whoever did this, can control a strong summons, but likely isn't a ninja from Suna, eh?"

Gaara nodded.

Kankuro adjusted the chakra strings until the unconscious Futa was right in front of him. He deftly caught her as he released them. "I'll set a guard and get Baki working on it."

"It would be better if you watched over her yourself, the fewer who know about it, the better."

"Got it," and with a nod, Kankuro disappeared around a corner.

Gaara looked back at the spot where the creature's oily chakra signature still lingered. If not for that he would not have known it was in the village.

Closing his eyes, the Kazekage concentrated as a stream of chakra infused sand slid from the gourd. Dozens of eyes of varying colors formed and Gaara opened one. Covering the other with two fingers he concentrated on each in turn causing the unblinking eyeball to shoot off down the hall or through the hole in the window. It was unlikely there would be another attempt on the girl, but Gaara intended to make sure of it. The Kazekage had no intention of leaving anything over looked.

He'd felt chakra like that only once before, but the encounter was only a blurry memory in his head. The experience had not been a pleasant one though and the Kazekage decided not to return to the dinner but instead went to his office to think on it some more.

As Hito entered Moegi's darkened apartment, he was more than a little nervous. This was heightened by the fact that he couldn't feel his brother's chakra, his Sensei's, or even his father's. It was like there was a wall around him that his senses couldn't push through.

"Hito…"

The whispered voice nearly made Hito jump out of his skin. It sounded female but unfamiliar and Hito's fear immediately shifted to anger. His father really needed to give it a rest already and without thinking, took a swing at the speaker. His fist didn't come even close to connecting, in fact, the woman easily dodged the attempt and slipped behind him, grabbed him by the hair and Hito abruptly felt his feet leaving the floor. His eyes went wide as the floor rushed up to greet him and Hito grunted as the assailant stopped his fall by snatching the back of his shirt. Struck momentarily speechless as he was carefully lowered. The woman behind him now pressed her knee into his back and covered his mouth as the wood beneath him groaned at the unaccustomed pressure. Hito immediately started struggling, the person only pressed a little harder and hissed, "Listen."

Being unable to do anything else Hito did as he was instructed. Whoever she was, if she'd meant to kill him she would have done it already...or at least he hoped so. The footsteps out in the hall became more obvious as Hito lay his head on the floor. Keeping his eyes glued to the crack of light at the base of the apartment door, he sighed when the footsteps passed it and continued up the hall. He was just about to move when the hand returned to his mouth and the voice said, "Wait."

The footsteps returned and this time stopped in front of the door. The doorknob twisted, but the door was locked. Hito started when he heard the knob snap off and hit the floor. The shadow outside the door disappeared briefly, but after a moment they were back. "Your brother is five steps back, four left, two back, three right. You are to let nothing touch him."

The pressure on his back vanished and Hito got to his feet and pulled out a kunai. The woman was gone or at least Hito couldn't tell where she'd concealed herself. The wall that had dulled his charka senses earlier was still in place. Shit...he never realized how dependent he was on that ability. No time to worry about it now though and Hito stuffed it in the back of his brain to work out later...if there was a later. Okay, time to get moving again. Five steps back...four left...two back...three right and Hito's leg touched an overstuffed chair. They weren't in the bedroom. Hito's eyes adjusted to the darkness and Hito looked down at his brother.

Hito sat on the edge of the chair but Yon didn't move or even acknowledge Hito's presence. Instead his brother remained curled up in tight ball with his face shoved into the cushion. Mi being gone was affecting Yon a lot worse than Hito thought it would, but he'd have to worry about that later. Right now they needed to move to a safer place.

Come on squirt, let's go visit Mi together this time. Hito sub vocalized this as he gently touched his brother's shoulder. He knew Yon could hear it, it was one of the ways he and his brothers communicated on missions when using a shortwave wasn't practical. Yon looked up from his curled position and nodded. The smaller boy climbed on to his brother's back and both headed toward the door. The silence of the apartment shattered along with the window in the bedroom next door and Hito gripped Yon a little tighter. The block on his senses was still there but Yon had much better chakra control, so maybe he could tell.

How many? Yon remained silent and Hito shook the passenger on his back, Come on Yon, this is no time to go deaf on me. The boy on his back stiffened at the term deaf, Yon hated it and Hito knew it, but at least Hito knew his brother was paying attention. It would get iffy if Yon decided to get stubborn on him now though. How many?

Two

Where

There was a pause before Yon responded, Kitchen, bath

That meant the main exit was out and Hito turned back toward the window and his eyes went wide. The window was open now, it wasn't when he came in.

Where?

Up, left

Shit! Hito jumped to the right as a body landed in the spot he'd just vacated.

No one outside!

Got it!

And out the window they went. Sasuke smiled. Still standing on the rooftop, he felt the boys presence fade as they bolted at top speed in the direction of the hospital.

"Not bad."

"Was that alright, Sasuke-chan?" asked one of two figures that landed nearby.

"Not too much?" the other asked.

"No, I've learned what I needed to, thank you," he said and bowed to them.

The figures dissipated and left behind a pair cats of varying size, the largest of which said, "Anytime, Sasuke-chan. Until tomorrow then."