Sorry for the wait folks, there's been some troubles but i'm back now! Chapter Nine has finally arrived :D If you're still out there, come and get it!


Arc I: The Direction of Home

As The Years Pass
Chapter Nine


Naruto was beginning to realise that the world outside the secret villages, the world of thugs and mercenaries, was more brutal and held more secrets than he could've ever imagined. Indeed, very soon, he was about to find out just how deeply complex that maze of lies could run.

The mission seemed simple enough. It was just a scouting mission, apparently, as it was only his third under the orders of the Tsuchikage. He was to enter the household of Iwa's Daimyo, and gain intelligence for them on a group of ninja who they (Iwa) believed was blackmailing the Feudal Lord.

Easy, no? Of course, stealth and secrecy had never been Naruto's forte; that's why he was relieved that it was not the Daimyo himself he was spying on, and just his household — this way he could just walk straight in the front door, and not have to worry about the Daimyo knowing about his presence there.

So walk through the front door he did, and Naruto was immediately struck by the imposing grandeur the Daimyo slathered his manor in. This extravagance was not lost on Naruto, for as he was led down a spacious, decorative hallway to meet with this Feudal Lord, it dawned on him that this man was very wealthy, very respective, and so it was no surprise that he was being blackmailed.

Naruto and his nameless guide, a girl of ten or so he guessed, stopped before a pair of large, impressive doors, towering above the youth and his guide as small giants over sheep. With a steady, unperturbed hand, the child beside Naruto rapped once, twice, upon the frame, the hall reverberating with a hollow, wooden knock.

Without a spoken word of permission, at least not one heard by Naruto's ears, one of the doors swung inwards with an almost inaudible groan; Naruto glanced down to his guide for a moment, poised in the half-doorway, as if to gauge whether he had been given consent. The girl looked up at him with innocent, shaded eyes, before giving the novice mercenary the slightest of educated nods. Smiling his thanks slightly, Naruto moved confidently into the room, to meet with the man with whom he was about to join in cahoots.

The Daimyo of the Earth Country was an intense man, with fervent, humane features that contrasted noticeably with his sharp, piercing eyes. When Naruto first locked sights with this diplomat, across the Daimyo's desk, there was a moment in which Naruto was confused; he simply couldn't tell whether this man was kind or calculating. Then, the middle aged man broke into a wiry smile, and stood with a smooth swish of his official robes.

With a cautious, but pleasant smile in return, Naruto took the hand that was offered to him. The Lord's handshake was firm and controlled, full of long years of meaning, and for some reason it reassured Naruto that this man was fair. However, Naruto still felt slightly uncomfortable under the man's dissecting gaze.

Looking him up and down, the man hmm-ed under his breath, his arms crossed and a finger resting thoughtfully upon his narrow chin; then, he let out a heavy breath through his nose. Offhandedly, but with lack of an accusing tone, he said, "I didn't expect them to send a child."

Naruto started slightly, his eyebrows rising as he opened his mouth to object. The man's casual tone matched neither his sharp, intelligent eyes nor his keen features. However, Naruto held his tongue, for he didn't know how much trouble simple backtalk to this important man could land him in. The Daimyo seemed to sense this, for his smile turned humorous, and Naruto realised that the man was baiting him for amusement.

The Feudal Lord smiled at him, fixing him with quietly mischievous eyes, and brushed off his own comment kindly with, "Never mind, never mind." Then, it seemed, the man grew serious, for he motioned to the seat across from his desk and sat down himself. He then glanced across meaningfully at two men Naruto had not noticed, stationed silently beside the ornate doors, and who had obviously been the ones to let Naruto in. They left, and then the Daimyo focused his attention back onto the blonde ninja.

"A child you may or may not be," he said, "but I assume in any case you have a name?"

Naruto nodded, momentarily forgetting to speak. "Ah, Uzumaki Naruto…sir." A moment after he said it, he wondered if he should have given fake name. Too late now, of course, but perhaps he could hope the Daimyo assumed it was a fake name. The man, however, gave no hint either way. Instead, he stood from his desk once more, after hastily scribbling down a few unrelated notes upon various formal-looking documents. With a silent wave, he motioned for Naruto to follow.

Naruto was then led through a serious of small hallways and doors, until the two of them emerged into a large, endless expanse of garden, which Naruto had earlier glimpsed from the great window stationed behind the Daimyo's desk. The sunlight was bright, and insects buzzed noisily in the grass.

Naruto fell into step beside the older man as the Daimyo strolled leisurely through the garden, for a few minutes not saying a word. However, once the man deemed they were far enough away from his stately house, he said to Naruto, "I hope you don't mind this detour, but considering the circumstances I find myself in, the same circumstances you have been assigned to help me with, I think that out here there is less chance of us being overheard." Naruto nodded absently; it made sense, of course.

"Now," the Lord carried on, "as no doubt my leader, Lord Tsuchikage, has informed you, I am being blackmailed, and thanks to a recent slip on their part, I have good reason to believe that my blackmailers are hiding amidst my staff in this very house." Naruto was immediately attentive, acknowledging and repeating the information in his head, and as he did this, committing everything to memory, the Daimyo continued to speak.

"I've asked for your presence specifically, young mercenary, because any intruder in my house will not recognise your face or your fighting style as that of Iwagakure; there's no use alerting them to their discovery." The two wandered to a stop next to a large koi pond, Naruto finding his eyes drawn to the swirling colours and flashing scales of the large fish. "Uzumaki-san, do you understand what you've been brought here to do?"

The blonde nodded, and broke his gaze with the koi to look the powerful lesser-ruler in the eye. "You want me to spy on your household, and discover who these blackmailers are," he summarised.

"Precisely," the Daimyo replied jovially. "I trust you can do that?" Naruto nodded. "Excellent. Now, when my staff ask, and believe me, they will—" the man let out a soft chuckle, "—they're very nosey people! You tell them that you are my nephew, who is an emissary. That is all you have to tell them, for staff are not permitted to know any diplomatic information, in case of— well." The Daimyo stopped, and let out a bemused huff. "In case of exactly this, I suppose."

Naruto gave the middle-aged man a bleak grin. "I understand," Naruto replied. "Once I uncover the intruders, I shall reveal them to you."

"Excellent," the Daimyo agreed. "Now, if you find anything at all, don't hesitate to report it to me, day or night. I'm usually up until the early hours anyway. Speaking of early hours," he continued, "I shall have someone show you to a guest room. From there, you shall be left to your own devices."

They were heading back to the house now, Naruto realised, although he couldn't remember when they had begun walking again. Pushing this aside, however, Naruto voiced his concurrence to the Daimyo, stating that it was in his own best interests to get started searching right away.

True to his word, the Daimyo called for one of his staff once they re-entered the large house, and with a friendly word of parting, Naruto was led from the presence of the Feudal Lord swiftly, and shown to a guest room on the other side of the manor house.

It was in that room that Naruto stayed for a few days, hiding away through the afternoons when the house was at its most awake (most alert), venturing outside only in the early mornings and the sleepy evenings, when diplomatic visitors to the Daimyo's household had left, and the staff had the majority of the manor to themselves.

If Naruto was completely honest with himself, he had to admit that he didn't have a clue what he was looking for; a sign, maybe, a slip-up. He probably wouldn't know it until it slapped him hard in the face. As it was, it wasn't until the third night of his mission that Naruto finally caught wind of suspicious behaviour.

It was midnight, and everyone had finally turned into bed; but just as Naruto was dropping off to sleep, he heard a noise. Footsteps, quiet and swift — whoever they were, they were in a hurry, and if that wasn't grounds for suspicion, Naruto didn't know what was.

Awake once more, Naruto was alert and on edge, slipping from his bed to the door in a matter of seconds, only pausing to grab his weapons from the nightstand. With deft movements, silence courtesy of well-oiled hinges, the Jinchuuriki pried open his door just in time to spot the receding glow of a lamplight slink round a corner and out of sight. Curious, Naruto followed. 'What's going on?'

The footsteps led him quickly through several hallways, before creeping down a long flight of stairs. Amusedly, Naruto wondered if he was being led to the basement — how cliché. But no. Instead, two floors down, the footsteps veered off down another hallway, and Naruto managed to catch a glimpse of a shaky silhouette.

The blonde sped up now, because he recognised the gangly figure as the head of the kitchen staff, Aoi. Naruto recognised him, because just yesterday he had been scolded by the man for trying to sneak food out of the kitchen. However, that was unimportant, despite the small sense of satisfaction the Jinchuuriki gained from realising he would be able to settle the score.

Aoi didn't lead him very far after that, because he only crept a small distance down the corridor before slipping into a room on the right. The door creaked slightly in the dark, but otherwise there was no sound. Naruto's senses were heightened from apprehension and the surrounding darkness — no mere kitchen staffer could move with such stealth. So with extra caution, the blonde ninja slid up to the door, and with bated breath gripped the handle; he hoped whoever was in there wasn't watching the door.

"—still, if you had done your job better, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess!"

Upon hearing the voice clearly, and uncomfortably nearby, Naruto froze his movements and pressed his ear close to the gap. The chink of yellow light issuing from the doorway cut a sharp knife through the darkness, falling across one of Naruto's whiskered cheeks. He focused on keeping his breathing shallow and his body still, and listened intently to the conversation that was going on beyond the wooden frame.

"Calm down, Yu, you're making a racket." That second steely, clipped voice belonged to Aoi. He appeared to be addressing someone younger than himself; a subordinate, no doubt. But who was it? Naruto tried to remember. Had there been anyone called Yu amongst the staff he had met? The name seemed familiar, but Naruto's memory failed him. Before he could think back further, however, he was interrupted by a third voice. From the uncertain tremor in their tone, Naruto hazarded a safe guess that this was the person Yu had been yelling at.

"Maybe, maybe we can still carry on with the original plan," the third's voice reasoned shakily. "I messed up, I know, and now the Daimyo knows that we're somewhere right under his nose. But, that's all he knows, right? So, so we just need to push and get him to agree to our terms, before he can find us. Right? That's all. We've pushed him real far already. It shouldn't be that—"

"You dolt!" Yu's voice cut across him scathingly. "'Shouldn't be that hard, right?' After your little slip, the fool's bound to have appealed for some sort of help, at least. Not to mention his guards will be keeping an even closer watch on everyone. You think we got this far so easily?"

Naruto heard rather than saw the warning glare Aoi sent Yu's way. Aoi shifted sharply, and gave a low, "Watch your voice, Yu." But the subordinate was either too caught up in his rising temper to hear him, or chose to ignore his superior. Yu's voice rose from a cutting mutter to an angry decibel just below normal tones. He carried on, addressing the third person by name for the first time.

"No siree, Eiji," he said, "We worked damn hard to get this close, then you come along out of the blue, and mess it all up! We were so damn close! And then you—!"

"Yu," Aoi cut across him sternly, "voice! Shut it!"

Grudgingly, Yu obliged, and drop his voice back to a harsh whisper. Outside the door, Naruto frowned. It sounded like this Eiji was a second subordinate, from the way Aoi seemed to be in charge and Yu was bickering at him, but it was strange how Yu claimed he showed up later than they, unannounced — there could have been any number of reasons why this Eiji had shown up unexpectedly to help them, of course, but Naruto still found it suspicious.

Naruto's thoughts were interrupted, however, as Aoi finally ordered Yu to lay off the other boy. "Now's not the time to be spouting accusations, Yu. No matter how much you yell, it's not going to change the fact that he screwed up." Naruto winced at that. Didn't the man hold any sympathy at all for his subordinate? Even though Aoi was silencing Yu, his own comment must have stung Eiji as well.

"Both of you need to be extra careful now," Naruto heard Aoi continue regardless. The man's voice dropped to an even graver note, and Naruto had to strain to hear him. "The Daimyo may have already received help; there's a young man just arrived, he's claiming to be the Daimyo's nephew."

"Claiming, sir?"

Aoi nodded. "He's not the Daimyo's nephew. It may be nothing, he may be impersonating him for the man's own safety, or for other diplomatic reasons, but keep your eye on him, there's something not quite right about his abrupt arrival."

Outside the door, Naruto gulped. Obviously he hadn't been doing as good a stealth job as he had thought. He paused as he thought what to do, slightly panicked by the murmurs from the other side of the door, but then tentatively rested his ear upon the door once more. Aoi was still talking. "—so be careful. I won't tolerate any more slip ups. We don't know who he is, so the least we can do is be cautious." There was a soft grumble of assent from the two subordinates.

"Now," Aoi commanded. "In the morning, I want you to go about your business as usual…"

Naruto drew back from the door then, satisfied that they knew no more about him. He found it slightly odd that they didn't seem that worried about his presence, but then again their confidence wasn't harming him anyway. It was all just presumption, he guessed, but even that small bit of relief didn't ease his mind completely. For a second, he crouched on the floor, his body tense in fight mode, and wondered what to do. He glanced around. It was late, but perhaps the Daimyo was still up. He had said he was up until the early hours, after all. Mind made up, and extremely conscious of the enemy presence just behind the door, Naruto bit his lip, and slipped away.

Five minutes later found Naruto stowed in the Daimyo's office, a warm light issuing from the lamp stationed on the large, official-looking desk. The man himself was apart from his desk, standing with his back to a small fireplace, hands clasped behind him in a gesture that reminded Naruto (with a soft tug at his chest) of the Third Hokage.

"Thank you, Uzumaki," the Daimyo said sincerely. "I had faith that you would do as I asked without delay. Might I ask you now to confront these men?" The old Lord looked at him hopefully. "Please, detain them, if you can. And find out whether anyone sent them. Do you think you can do that?"

Naruto thought about it. Really thought. Any other time, he would have said yeah, bring it on! But that was then – when he had Kakashi and Sakura to back him up, to bail him out if (when) things turned ugly. Now, if he couldn't handle these three men he was truly screwed, because he was all alone. He didn't know if the Daimyo had any experienced fighters or ninja to back him up at all, he just had his personal guards. Hell, Naruto didn't even know if these blackmailers were ninja or not – if they weren't, all well and good, he most likely had the upper hand; if they were, it raised not only the level of danger, but also many questions - how powerful were they, did they have any secret weapons or techniques, did they have support readily available? The dangers were endless!

Nonetheless, Naruto couldn't deny that there was a stirring of excitement deep inside his gut. He was never one to back down when the opportunity presented itself, and all in all he didn't see why a little danger should stop him now – he would have to face the same thing sooner or later, after all.

"Alright," he said after a moment, a grin spreading across his face despite himself, "I'll do it."

The Daimyo visibly breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Uzumaki-san."

Naruto cornered them the next night. He wasn't one to refuse a good fight, his nerves were usually blunt and hard to jitter, but even he (number one knucklehead that he was) couldn't ignore the heart-in-his-mouth feeling of fear he felt, stealing up his spine as he lay in wait for the opportune moment to strike. Despite that, though, his three gold rules held him in place: never reject a good fight, never back down, and never go back on your word; he had sworn to the Daimyo that he would take care of it.

And so it was with bated breath that the blonde shinobi watched the rouge ninja troop inside their meeting room one by one. The last one in was Eiji, the nervous one, and upon seeing his back retreat through the door, it took Naruto all of three seconds to trail him, unseen, inside — he took one second to cast a stealth jutsu, and the other two to first thank Kakashi for drilling the technique repeatedly through his head, and then pray that he could actually pull it off. He really sucked at keeping quiet.

Somehow, though, Naruto managed, and grinned triumphantly as he slipped inside the door, unnoticed by the three scheming assailants. However, the Jinchuuriki barely had time to pat himself on the back and settle down before the leader, Aoi, suddenly looked up. Naruto froze, because he swore the man looked right at him, through him, as he hissed with an angry snarl, "Who was the last one in?" He rounded on Eiji, though, before the bullied youth could even raise a trembling hand. "I told you not to leave the door open!" With a harsh irritation and a short temper, Aoi lashed out at his subordinate, but it was Naruto who was to blame, and there was a sickly second of cold surprise in which the blonde boy felt the bullet he had dodged pass him by.

Until, that is, Yu tapped his master on the shoulder, and pointed, "He's left a light on too, Aoi-sama, should I turn it out?" And from his hiding place, Naruto's first reaction was to frown: he hadn't seen any of them light any lamps to guide them, and it seemed Eiji was on the same wavelength as he, because he thought so too.

"P-Pardon me, Aoi-sama," he stammered under the thug's poised fist, "but I didn't touch any lights, just— just like you said not to."

Towering over him, a vein pulsed in Aoi's forehead, and he ground out impatiently, "Then why is there a light in the hallway?"

Oh.

A sickening jolt twisted Naruto's spine, and Aoi's fist shot to his weapon's pouch, both men realising what had happened at the same time: it had been Naruto's lamp, that he had lit when he first settled down to wait outside — so much for stealth!

Oh well, Naruto supposed, he hoped in time this situation would be funny. Smothering his rising panic, he stood, heaved a theatrical sigh, and complained, "Aw man! I was just getting good at this!" before donkey-kicking the door shut with a slam.

Immediately, on instinct, the man Aoi leapt towards him, but not bothering to drop the jutsu, Naruto had a split second advantage and used it to slam his fist into the man's gut. The older man grunted, snorting angrily through his nose, but the brief shock failed to hinder him, and Naruto realised this with a gutting curl of dark surprise as Aoi latched onto hiss fist before he could draw away. Naruto cursed through gritted teeth, gave his arm a short tug, and felt the man's grip tighten, fingernails scratching against his wrist.

The whites of Aoi's eyes were bloodshot, and he grinned with stretching skin; he was an unpleasant man up close, and as Naruto's concentration faltered and he dropped the jutsu that shrouded him, Aoi's grin only stretched wider, revealing a row of surprisingly white teeth. A few were missing, however, and his hot breath slipped through to warm Naruto's cheek.

With a grimace, the Jinchuuriki recoiled, and as he did he brought a knee up to feign a jab at the man's stomach, distracting him for a split second. Naruto dropped down and away, twisting out of Aoi's pincer, rigid grip, and only narrowly avoiding a blow to the neck as the two subordinates leapt up beside their master. The first, Yu, lashed out with a cruel-looking blade and a mad yelp as his momentum carried him too far, having missed, before stumbling forward into the space where Naruto had been only moments before.

"For Kami's sake, Eiji!" the enraged Yu snarled as he picked himself up, as if it had been the other's fault Naruto had dodged. Eiji stuttered out a small apology, his gaze already fixed on Naruto. Naruto, not expecting the shaky brat to suddenly attack, was caught off guard as Eiji pressed suddenly into him, the distance between them closed in a single blink, swinging what appeared to be a large baton towards his skull. At the last second, Naruto threw himself backwards, feeling the club clip his temple. He smashed to the floor, on his ass.

"Oh great," Naruto groaned pathetically, "I'm going to be clubbed to death by a stammering idiot!" Said idiot must have had a secret speedy jutsu up his sleeve, because he was suddenly right on top of the blonde ninja again, bringing down another blow. Naruto gave a rather high-pitched yap of distress, and rolled across the floorboards to escape the hit. The truncheon smashed heavily into the floor, splintering the wooden slats.

"Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap—!" Scrambling to his feet, Naruto grabbed whatever his hands fell upon first to defend himself as Aoi came from nowhere with a sharp kunai and an angry fist. Of all things, he grabbed a chair. A freaking chair! Still, he swung it, resulting in a messy consequence but success nonetheless, as it caused the man to jump back, lest his midsection be mauled by splinters.

Naruto stumbled as the chair landed with a thunk on the floor, pulling him over with it. As quickly as he could, he straightened, feeling very un-ninja-like at his shabby fighting style, and picked the chair up again in both hands, stabbing it in the air like a lion tamer would with a stool. His eyes were fixated on the looming figure of Aoi, and he could feel their blue irises prickling with the need to blink, but Naruto didn't dare look away even for a second, not even to grab his own weapons.

Aoi's knuckles cracked as his fingers flexed on the handle of his kunai. Naruto's jaw tightened and the man gave a guttural laugh in the back of his throat. "How do you expect to fight us off with a chair, boy?" Aoi spoke, addressing Naruto for the first time, an overbearing air of confidence smothering his words. It was clear he expected to win. "Are your arms getting tired yet? How about you stop dragging this out, you should have known better than to take three of us on alone."

"Oh, I don't know…" Naruto replied, trying to sound light and offhand while he was faced with a very unpromising outlook, and a large club swimming in his peripheral vision. "I've taken on a lot more with a lot less before, and I'm here now aren't I? Really, you should be asking yourself, why are you dragging this out?"

A slight crease marred the man's brow for a second, confused at the slightly amused quirk in Naruto's voice. Seeing this, Naruto felt a grin slowly break across his face, and he finally began to settle back into his usual approach. "I mean, come on," he carried on recklessly, giving a short snort, "all I've got is a chair, surely you can take me out in no time!" Aoi's eyes narrowed; he had this brat cornered, facing certain death, and he had the nerve to taunt him as if he had the upper hand!

Sensing the rising tension, Naruto covertly dropped his shoulders, hunching forward to protect his centre, and felt his weight shift into his legs. He tensed, ready to move, and smiled craftily. "Come on," he said again, his grip flexing on the wooden legs in his hand. He laughed, "I dare you."

The man snapped, "You cocky little shit!" With an angry cry, Aoi leapt forward, and sank his kunai deep into the seat of the chair as Naruto swung it upwards in defence. There was a loud crack, and the seat snapped in two from the large split the blade created. Naruto was left holding half a chair in each hand as Aoi yanked his blade free, and shoved himself bodily at the blonde ninja, fingers groping for his tender throat.

Naruto gritted his teeth, and once again brought his leg up to place a blow against Aoi, this time instead of feigning, however,he packed as much force as he could into his one foot, slamming his heel into the man's lower navel. Aoi's own momentum didn't aid his chances, and he crashed into Naruto's blow with a scream of pain and fury. He stumbled back a few paces, dropping his weapon and pressing a fist into his gut to numb the pain. Naruto wouldn't have been surprised if he had caught the man's pelvic bone – he had felt a sickening thud tremor through his heel on impact.

Naruto didn't have time to take advantage of the situation, however, as suddenly there was a short scrape of metal-on-metal, and then the all too familiar whirr of razor-sharp shuriken as they closed in upon their target. Twisting frantically, Naruto spun to face the weapons and felt a sickening wrench in his stomach upon seeing them already much closer than he had anticipated. Not having time to dodge — they were mere seconds away from ripping into his flesh — Naruto swung his arms desperately on instinct, and actually succeeded in batting most of them out of the way with the chair legs.

Not all were knocked completely away, however, being too low to have been caught by his clumsy defence, and Naruto cried out as he felt a few of their pointed blades embed themselves in his thigh. He didn't need to look down to know that blood had been drawn; he could feel the warm liquid already starting to trickle in small rivets down his leg.

Toppling backwards into a wall, knowing he only had a brief moment, the blonde reached down gingerly, his fingers skilfully hooking through one of the weapon's centre ring. With a sharp hiss through his clenched teeth, Naruto jerked the blade free. The razor-edges scraped painfully through his already wounded flesh, and Naruto felt the blood begin to pour faster. He dropped the shuriken to the floor where it issued an innocent-sounding clatter. For a star-shaped weapon, it could bury itself into a body pretty deep, and Naruto hoped it hadn't hit bone as he reached down to dislodge another one – one of four, as it turned out.

After pulling the weapons free, Naruto heaved a deep, steadying breath. Only a few moments had passed, bit it had felt longer; Aoi was only just tottering to his feet, still grimacing in pain. With his back to a wall, Naruto now successfully held all three assailants in his sight: Eiji, the spineless one, was still clutching onto his large baton, although Naruto saw plainly hesitation still written all over his face, and Aoi was a few feet to his right, now angrier than ever. However, it was Yu who was the closest, and Naruto noted with a jolt of misgiving that he was looking overly eager and very optimistic.

"We got him now, Aoi-sama," the young enemy smirked, and raised his hands. "Let me finish him off! I've been waiting to try this…" And before anyone could do anything, Yu rattled off a series of hand signs that Naruto found forebodingly familiar.

For a singular, unique moment, it seemed that both Aoi and Naruto were on the same side, because in the same second both shinobi jerked into movement with a loud cry of, "Stop!" However, where Aoi had dashed forward to stop his subordinate, Naruto had dropped to the floor with his hands over his head, anticipating the disaster to come – the seals Yu had been forming bared a similarity to the jutsu Naruto used to witness Sasuke using: fire-based jutsu, and he had been aiming to use one whilst confined in-doors.

It seemed, though, that it was too late stopping Yu from making a rookie mistake, the entire room would burst into flames after a small explosion, until suddenly there was a sickening crack and the said boy was suddenly collapsed on the floor, clutching his arm and screaming in pain; Eiji was poised over him, baton raised for a second strike if his teammate retaliated.

Aoi actually breathed a sigh of relief to see his student huddled on the floor, before a dark cloud settled over his countenance and he stamped his heel angrily into the floorboards. "Are you a complete fool, Yu?" he spat at the pained boy. "Using a fire jutsu inside at close-range? Surrounded by a wooden room no less? You put yourself to shame!"

"S-sorry, Aoi…-sama…" Yu's face was flushed with pain, his eyes screwed tight as he clutched his arm pitifully, and beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. Aoi just tutted at him. Meanwhile Naruto, whilst secretly agreeing with the furious man, couldn't help but notice that he didn't thank Eiji, didn't even look his way. Then the blonde realised, all three foes had taken their eyes off him, and with one enemy down this was as good a chance as he was liable to get.

The blonde didn't register the pain in his leg from the shuriken wounds; he was too busy feeling adrenalin pumping through his veins. With only a scuffled thump as his warning, Aoi didn't have any time to react as Naruto bodily tackled him in the knees, bringing the man successfully to the ground, both of them skidding with a screech along the floor, Naruto's body trapping Aoi's legs.

Still, the man wasn't a ninja for nothing, and in a blink of an eye his kunai was back in his hand, which Naruto hadn't even had the chance yet to pin; before he knew what was happening, the blade sunk downwards into Naruto's neck, slicing right through his jugular and embedding itself handle-deep inside his chest. All of a sudden, everything stopped.

There was a deep, vacuumed silence, and the only sound was Aoi's heavy breathing. Then, a triumphant smile slowly spread across his face as, suddenly, Naruto gasped. Blood stained his lips. With eyes wide, he choked, and Aoi saw the awful wound flex around the unyielding blade, blood oozing fast from the gash. The man grinned. With a small wheeze, the blonde abruptly flopped forward into the man's lap, and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Aoi blinked. "What?"

He was suddenly confused, his brain not catching up with his eyes. Naruto had just been right in front of him, what happened? And his answer arrived a split second later, in the form of his own kunai to the gut. Naruto was inches from his face, nose-to-nose, and all smiles were gone. He churned the blade a few inches deeper and a look of utter disgust marred his features as he answered the puzzled look Aoi was giving him, the man's eyes glazed with pain and surprise.

"Shadow clone, idiot," the youth spat shortly, before delivering a swift punch to Aoi's forehead. With a gasp of surprise, Aoi's eyes widened, and then rolled back in his head as he went limp, slouching to the ground. Naruto straightened and turned away with a small spit of contempt. He didn't want to talk to the man, and the stab he had delivered wasn't exactly fatal – the Daimyo could do whatever he pleased, judgement was his — so he decided it was best to detain him before turning his attention to the last man standing.

"Ei-ji," Naruto said easily, rolling the syllables round his tongue. "That's you, right?" Eiji gave a small jump, and his eyes snapped to Naruto's, baton thumping to the floor. Naruto rolled his eyes. "You know, even for a coward, that was pathetic— ow!" A sharp pain jabbed him suddenly in the side of the head, and it was only then that Naruto became aware of a slash across his temple. He grimaced as he reached up gingerly with his fingertips. For a moment he tried to remember how it happened, but then he brushed it aside. "Right."

Moving forward, Naruto none-to-gently slipped his hands beneath Yu's armpits and hefted him into a nearby chair, ignoring his sudden yell of pain. Dumping the enemy into the seat, and then causally kicking away the remains of the first chair he had used as a shield (in some respects also, a sports-bat), Naruto pointed at Eiji again.

"Right, you, sit yourself down right where you are; your friend isn't going anyway, you hit him so hard I couldn't be surprised if you shattered all the bones in that respective limb." He drew closer. "Still, don't think I'm going to get soft on you just because you seem less willing to fight than a pacifist!"

Naruto waited until Eiji had done as he'd asked, and suddenly he was cheerful again. "Right. Goodie." Backing away, Naruto took a seat on the nearest object he next found – it turned out to be a slightly battered chest-of-drawers. He plunked himself down on its low-built surface, and then gave another small groan as his head gave deep throb. Feeling both wet and dried blood flaking and mingling on his forehead, Naruto decided to hurry things along.

"You." He jabbed a foot at the half-present Yu, seeing one bleary eye squinting in his direction. "You're going to tell me a few things, and before you object let me just remind you of how easily I can kill you right now, you couldn't defend yourself against a fly with that arm. Your teammate here really buggered you in!"

Said teammate received a pained, scathing glance from the injured young man. "Teammate," Yu spat through gritted teeth, "hardly. Barely know the bastard." Naruto's eyebrow raised, but as his threat when unchallenged he decided to press forward. Their fighting must have woken everyone in the building, and now that quiet had fallen no doubt the Daimyo and his men would be along to investigate. The Jinchuuriki leaned forward.

"Who sent you?" he asked quietly, blue eyes unnervingly piercing in the lights now clicking in the corridor outside.

Yu scowled. It seemed he wouldn't be as cooperative as Naruto would've liked after all. "That's none of your business." He ground out. Naruto's patience, of which he usually had very little anyway, snapped in a heartbeat, and he stomped forward to press against Yu's broken arm.

"Who sent you?" he repeated calmly over the enemy's renewed yowls of pain.

"Oww, ow, oh—okay," Yu's face strained against the pain. "Ah! It—the Daimyo's—brother, his brother— let go, oww!"

Naruto frowned. The Daimyo had shared with him his suspicions on who had hired the assailants, but the possibility that it could be any of his relations had not been one of them. "Are you sure about that?" Naruto pressed him. "The Daimyo's brother?"

"Ow, yes!" Yu replied, squirming in pain. "The one whose, ah, nephew you're, ow, imperson—sonating!" However, Naruto still wasn't convinced, and held onto Yu's arm a while longer. The enemy continued to fidget, and when Naruto didn't let up he burst out desperately, "how do you think—ah!—we knew you weren't him? My master's seen his nephew!"

It made sense, sure enough, and after another second, Naruto let go. He sighed. At any rate, even if they were lying, they were still captured. The Daimyo himself could extract more information if he needed to, from Aoi himself when he came round.

Yu was now breathing heavily in relief, the pain probably making him nauseous. As Naruto backed away again, he saw the teen slump forward and visibly relax. Seeing him in such a miserable amount of pain made Naruto feel almost guilty about what he next wanted to do. Almost.

"Okay," Naruto sighed, cracking his knuckles purposefully and feeling an answering twinge of pain in his forehead, reminding him of the trouble they put him through. With a look of utter seriousness, he made sure both boys were looking him in the eyes. "Now I'm going to beat one of you into a coma, and one of you gets to stay awake." He flexed his hands. "Any suggestions on who that'll be?"

"W-what?" Eiji spoke up for the first time, eyes as wide as dinner plates, while Yu did not say anything, just kept his head dipped low into his chest.

Slowly, Naruto explained himself, "I'm sure the Daimyo wants someone to run back to his brother, to relay some sort of vague, threatening message on his behalf. The question is, who gets to toddle back home with his tail between his legs and spread the bad news, and who gets to stay here and be a vegetable?"

Eiji was looking up at him anxiously, and Yu was now peering at him disgustedly from behind strands of matted hair. Naruto looked between the two of them, and something inside him was turning sickly cartwheels at the way he was playing with the two captives, not much older than himself – hell, they could even have been younger than him, for all he knew. Only, caring was now neither here nor there. He had information to get still, and if he didn't then he wouldn't get paid.

His eyes finally landed upon Eiji, and his face split into a wide, taunting smirk as he announced with a small flourish, "You, wimpy, get to trot on out of—"

"No!" A sudden, short bark of protest spilled from Yu's mouth, and Naruto turned to him, slightly surprised at the sheer force in his voice, the sheer contempt as he shot a look at Eiji. "Don't send that bastard, he'll scarper and leave us here to rot! He's not even one of us! If you send him, he'll only—!"

Naruto's fist slammed into the chest behind him. Yu was cut off, and Naruto raised an eyebrow once silence fell. Eiji's eyes were fixed on the floor, and he was completely still. It was strange, Naruto had expected him to become a blubbering mess. Perhaps, he had been faking the whole thing?

Still, pushing it aside for now, Naruto turned his attention back to the other teammate. Quietly, with an unbothered air, Naruto addressed Yu. "Oh?" he said, "Well, thank you." Yu frowned, before Naruto continued, "You've just told me another thing I wanted to know. Alright…"

Yu raised his head, hopeful suddenly as Naruto trailed off. "Do I get to go now instead?" he asked boldly, "You can't honestly expect him to give word to anyone…"

There was a slight pause as Naruto looked down at Yu, still cradling his arm tentatively against his chest. Then, the Jinchuuriki scoffed. "No you idiot, I lied. Neither of you are leaving." And he smashed his palms into Yu's temples, putting him out in a heartbeat.

All the while, Eiji never moved. Thinking his cover had undoubtedly just been blown, not knowing that Naruto had overhead the team's previous conversations and already had his suspicions on the matter, the blonde assumed he was keeping schtum to come up with a suitable excuse. Naruto moved closer, until he was sure Eiji must have a front row seat to the view of his sandaled toes.

"So," Naruto said, and this time Eiji looked up. Naruto realised that the boy was looking slightly sick — perhaps the cowardice really wasn't all an act, just as he had been beginning to suspect. Taking advantage of this small, yellow-belly streak, Naruto leaned in very close to Eiji's flushed face, so close that the captive went cross-eyed, and repeated gravely, "So. Who sent you?"

Eiji, however, stayed silent, and his manner seemed to have calmed for the first time since Naruto laid eyes on him. Perhaps he wasn't as much of a coward as they had been lead to believe, then. Still, Naruto watched the boy's Adam's apple quiver, the fear was there.

Sensing people approaching now from the other rooms in the Daimyo's residence, Naruto decided to hurry things along with the aid of a weapon. He wasn't one for physical torture, oh no, just a bit of persuasive intimidation. Had he known, perhaps Ibiki would have been proud.

Slowly, purposefully, Naruto pulled a kunai from his pouch, and dangled it in front of Eiji's face. "Still not going to tell me? This can only go two ways, you know." He whipped the blade round into a suitable offensive grip, and moved it closer to the boy's throat. Eiji began to sweat, his lower lip trembling. He bit it with a small, pointed tooth.

"I-I…"

Naruto snapped, "Speak up!" He pressed the cold metal against soft skin, seeing it wrinkle under the pressure. It was pitiful, really: suddenly, feeling the blade snagging slightly, Eiji cracked, and his voice box squeaked around the ominous pressure:

"O-orochimaru! H-he did!"

"…What?" Naruto started unpleasantly, and the other kid winced as the blade jumped in the blonde's hand. "You work for him?" Naruto's tone gave away his disbelief, until he slowly began to frown. Quietly, as if to himself, he said again, "You work for that snake bastard…?" The blonde's face had become pinched, he had not been expect that serpents name to dredge up among the Daimyo's household. For a small second, Naruto felt a pang of fear, surely the man himself wouldn't be lurking around here?

Suddenly, fury bust within him, and with a snarl, almost desperate in his anger, Naruto grabbed Eiji by the throat, hoisting him into the air as far as his strength would allow. He pressed his face close. "Is he here?" Eiji simply swallowed loudly, eyes wide. Naruto was trembling, his angered intent clear-cut in the air. Naruto shook him. "Is he here?"

"N-no!" the captive wheezed, scrabbling at Naruto's sudden vice-like grip. "P-please I, ack, I j-ju—!" Naruto shook him, again.

"Shut up!" He cracked the knuckles of his free hand menacingly, his kunai discarded on the floor. "If he's not here, then, why are you? Why pretend to be one of these ninja? Why does he want you here?"

Eiji stammered, both hands now clasped around Naruto's wrist, his toes just about reaching the floor. His feet flailed as he wheezed out, "O-orders—!" He spluttered, Naruto was forced to loosen his hand slightly, lest he crush the boy's windpipe – his face was turning slightly purple at its flushed edges. "C-close to Daimyo…"

Naruto gnashed his teeth angrily. "That's all? Think harder! Why does he want you close to the Daimyo? Information, is that it?"

"I-Iie!" Eiji gasped. "A-ack-person!"

Thoughts were bursting into Naruto's head, roaring confusion, all clammering for attention, for some sort of confirmation. He gazed at Eiji with a steely glare for a second, before suddenly dropping him back into the chair with a thud. Eiji gasped in air hungrily, rubbing his neck where red finer-marks stood out like flames. Ignoring this, Naruto leant in close, wetted his lips and asked slowly, simply, "What?"

Eiji took a few steadying breaths. "An… escapee… I don't know, I'm just a subordinate! He wants him back, that's all I know! He deployed us, everywhere, anywhere. That's all, I swear it! That's all I know, please…" Naruto said nothing, just continued to glare. Eiji trembled. "I-if you don't believe me, look at my mission scroll! It's his orders, word-for-word!"

Silence fell, and Naruto sized him up for a few moments, but then his curiosity got the better of him. Whatever the snake was up to, he had to know; he couldn't not know, not after everything Orochimaru had done. After Naruto nodded, Eiji made a few short, familiar signs, and suddenly a snake-summon appeared in front of him. Naruto's lip curled in distrust. There was a scroll hanging from its jaw.

Eiji leaned forward, but before he could do anything the snake abruptly lurched forward, sinking its fangs into Eiji's cheek. The brat immediately went pale, eyes wide. Naruto yelled, darting forwards, but it was too late; the captive made a short, gurgled cry, and a small drop of spit fizzed at the corner of his lips. He suddenly fell forwards, dead.

"No!" Naruto cursed, and the snake and scroll disappeared in a puff of smoke. "What the hell?" he cried angrily, "what the hell was that?" He kicked at Eiji's chair. "You did that on purpose, bastard?" Of course, Eiji couldn't answer him.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, there came a short laugh from behind him. Naruto started and turned on his heel, only for his gaze to fall upon Aoi's crumpled form, immobile thankfully from the wound still open in his stomach, but conscious nonetheless.

"How long have you been awake?"

"You idiot," the man gasped around no doubt a lot of pain, his breath laboured. "Don't you get it? Eiji didn't know it would kill him. He was a traitor, he'd leaked the information, leaders have ways of finding that out." He gave a strangled laugh. "It was an execution."

Naruto's face scrunched into a scowl as Aoi smirked spitefully, and his voice was steady in his hatred. "Do you know nothing of the shinobi world, kid? You're playing with fully-fledged adults, you know! Specially that monster…"

The Kyuubi vessel was quiet, and he just stared at the floor for a long while, listening to the sound of people hurrying down the corridor; the household was now fully alerted, and in a few moments they would finally barge in on the scene. Aoi heard it too, no doubt, because he suddenly spoke up again, knowing it would probably be his last chance to do so.

"Hey brat," he said, coughing slightly, "I'll tell you one last thing. From what that scum kid said, there's more than one spy like him about, and by the way you're acting, all desperate and agitated, it sounds like that Orochimary's not very happy with you."

Naruto stared at him for a moment, unreadable, before he sighed. "…Something like that. But why are you suddenly telling me this? You're my enemy."

Aoi shrugged, and then winced as pain shot through him again. "Enemy, friend, it's just a job description. Still, I've always hate snakes."

Naruto stayed silent at that, eyes on the ground as the door suddenly opened from the outside. Aoi and the two youths were immediately swarmed upon, while Naruto was ushered through the door by a nameless guard, and hurried away.


Disclaimer: I Don't Own Naruto