A/N: Surprise! I'm not actually dead! Brain dead maybe, but still capable of writing. The chapter is a little shorter than usual (if 9K words counts as short), but there's a lot of action and a little bit of plot… so hopefully that'll make some of you happy. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.

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Chapter 11: Battle of the Jinchuriki

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Konoha was full of a million things that it ought not be full of: terror, blood, screams, fire, and so much more. Everywhere one looked, death and destruction could be found. The Leaf-nin fought back bravely against the Cloud, but ninja battles like these rarely occurred without serious collateral damage. They had protocols for evacuating the citizens, but evacuating an entire village was no small task and the rain and chaos of the battle hampered their ability to move civilians. Even if they'd done everything perfectly, casualties would have been high… and things like this were never perfect.

The sky overhead was black as heavy clouds and smoke swirled together while the rain fell without stopping. It was as though the night was weeping as it watched the war from above.

Hinata had long since gotten used to what she thought was war. She'd seen it all before. She had fought and killed, she had protected and attacked, and she had even been a part of efforts that had destroyed buildings not unlike the ones being destroyed now. It was different, though, when it was your village being attacked, your people being killed, and your home being destroyed. Everything that she had gone through before seemed to pale in comparison to the battle that she was trying to move through now.

As she and Naruto's clone hurried towards the Hyuuga compound, it seemed they could barely take more than five steps without stumbling over the corpse of an enemy or ally. Even worse, there seemed to be nearly as many civilian corpses – including those of children – as there were ninja.

Hinata thought that, perhaps, she hadn't really known war until that point.

Naruto seemed to be even worse off than she was. He'd gone through something terrible, but he'd never seen the carnage of real war. He'd seemed to carry a heavy heart since returning from Orochimaru's prison, and that weight doubled every time they found came across a new body or found ninja engaged in pitched battles. Strangely, he never seemed terribly surprised at what they found, but his eyes held a guilt that was out of place considering the circumstances.

Whatever he was going through, it was affecting his abilities. He was definitely not the Naruto that she'd seen at the Chuunin Exam two years earlier. Gone was the speed, the sharpness, and the unbreakable confidence of that time. Instead he was hesitant and awkward. He never really needed her help, but he struggled with even the weakest of opponents. He moved as if he expected his every action to result in total failure. His punches were halfhearted, his evasion showed he was thinking too much, and his seal forming was sloppy.

He was Hinata from about two and a half years ago.

That Hinata had been blessed with having a friend who patiently worked with her and encouraged her, building her up until she could stand on her own… for the most part. Unfortunately, Hinata had no idea how to help Naruto. She wasn't even exactly sure what he had done to help her.

She did her best not to focus too much on things that she couldn't do anything about at the moment – especially since Naruto wasn't really with her anyway – and turned most of her attention back to hurrying towards the Hyuuga compound. The black smoke drifting into the rainy evening was more than enough to hold her attention. The two of them reached the gates without further incident and went over them without pause. What they found on the other side caused Hinata to completely forget about Naruto.

All she could see was the main house, her house, engulfed in flames.

Without a thought, Hinata began running towards the burning building. She was dimly aware of the fact that the clone of Naruto was calling out to her and moving to try to stop her, but she was faster and he wasn't very determined.

There was a small crowd of Hyuuga around the building and a line of them passing buckets of water that were being drawn from a nearby well that was mostly just for decoration.

If ever there was a time where having a few Hyuuga who actually knew how to use elemental – particularly water – ninjutsu would have been helpful, it was now. Unfortunately, her own use of ninjutsu was still seen as something of a curiosity, a weird bucking of tradition that the clan heiress had chosen as a mild form of rebellion against the system that she predominately complied with.

Neji was the only one who found the potential changes to Juuken to be exciting and interesting, but since the war had started, they'd had few chances to work on it together. Even with only those few meetings, however, he'd progressed through the Juuken form Naruto had taught her at a pace that didn't seem human, even finding a few areas where her improvements on Naruto's moments of improvisation could be refined.

Hinata wished that Neji was there, but was certain that he and his team had been assigned to either a scouting mission or to guarding one of the walls around the village. Neji was a leader. People looked up to him with the respect that genius always earned. Because of the house he was born into, he couldn't lead the clan, but people still listened to him when he spoke. Were he here now, there wouldn't be a crowd staring at a burning building wondering what to do.

The Hyuuga were a clan with a strict hierarchy, a hierarchy that had been protected for generations. There was always a leader, someone telling everyone else what to do.

The crowd that Hinata was pushing past had no leader. They weren't sure what was happening. There were explosions and sounds of battle outside their walls and the fire before them burned as though it couldn't feel the rain or water being poured on it. To make matters worse, all of those who had reached chuunin or jounin level had obviously been called away to other assignments. Those who were left were mostly women and children and they were confused and scared. She heard one of them yell, "Hinata-sama!" as they realized who she was, but then she was past them and they no longer mattered to her.

Chakra surged into her eyes and she peered into the flames that were devouring her home. It only took a second to spot her father, sister, and several other members of the Hyuuga leadership spread throughout the house. Most were getting close to various exits, but her father and sister were still near the center of the house. They'd probably been having another meeting when the fire broke out, which explained why there wasn't even a clan elder to give orders to those outside.

Hinata's fingers flashed through a series of seals and a spout of water shot from the ground near her foot and crashed into the door, shattering it but doing little to put out the flames that continued to dance up the walls. She didn't even pause as she dove into the smoke-filled interior, Naruto's clone right behind her.

ooo

Yugito stood over the fallen Naruto for a moment, staring down at his unmoving body and then turned towards the Hokage Tower, looking up at it as though expecting to see the Hokage watching everything from above. Her face set in determination, she started to walk towards the building, but before she got more than a few steps, she heard the sucking sound of something being pulled from the mud behind her.

She paused and glanced over her shoulder, her eyes narrowed.

Naruto slowly pushed up from the muck and lifted his face towards her. He was covered in mud; it was in his hair, all over his face, and caked onto his clothes as well.

"Don't… don't run away," he whispered as he spit mud from his mouth. He got himself up to the point where he was almost in a sitting position and then stood, brown sludge dripping off him as he rose. "I'll go easier on you next time, I promise. Just… play a little longer."

His voice was that of the exhausted, gravely injured teen that he was, but there was a fire in his eyes that Yugito hadn't seen in their fight until that point.

"You aren't dead yet?" she asked in a bored voice. "My apologies. I didn't give you enough credit. I thought for sure that was all you had, especially after you laid there in the mud looking dead for so long, but I guess a jinchuriki wouldn't go down without showing the power of his bijuu."

"You won't see… a-any of the Kyuubi," Naruto replied with a pain-filled grunt. "Even if… you k-kill me, it won't be… be coming out."

Yugito almost laughed at him. "You think you can stand against me without it?"

Naruto turned his head to the side until his neck popped and then winced as he pulled the kunai from his chest and then pressed his hand against the wound. A steady stream of blood ran between his dirty fingers, mixing with the mud before dripping off his hand.

"It doesn't matter," he whispered. "I won't let that damn fox have a… a foothold in my life. I don't… don't have the willpower to hold it back at the moment, so I can't risk even borrowing a little of its powers… and really, I d-doubt I'll need it anyway."

"A 'foothold in your life?'" Yugito asked, raising an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you can't control it." When Naruto didn't answer she shook her head and said, "I see. I assumed that all jinchuriki could do what Kirabi-sama and I have been trained to do, but perhaps we are the exceptions rather than the rule."

"What are you talking about?"

"As you said, it doesn't matter." Yugito drew another kunai, spun it around her finger, and then caught the handle as she lifted it in front of her. "If you can't use your bijuu, you're just another ninja. The next time I drop you in the mud, you won't get back up unless I command you to."

He flashed her a feral grin that seemed completely inappropriate considering the state of his body. "Bring it on."

Yugito pushed chakra into her legs and sprang forward, intent on ending it in a single shot. Naruto was clearly exhausted, he was injured, and he hadn't been breathing for several seconds only a moment earlier. There was no way he would have the energy to keep up with her at full speed. She watched as he started to lift his arm to swing at her, a slow and clumsy movement that was clearly hampered by his injuries, and then planted her foot just beyond his reach, and shot to the side. In the blink of an eye, she'd changed directions twice more so she was now coming at him from behind while he was still swinging towards the spot she'd long since vacated.

It was almost sad that he'd worked so hard to get back on his feet only to be killed a second later by an enemy that was superior to him in everyway.

Naruto's foot shot up as he bent over at the waist, catching her under the chin and lifting her into the air.

As she crashed back down into the mud, so surprised by the attack that she'd been unable to recover and protect herself from the fall, he turned and smiled at her.

"Is that… all the speed you have?" he asked, through clenched teeth as he pressed a hand to his chest once more. "If it is, then you're a-a hundred years too early to beat me!"

Yugito pushed herself back to her feet and charged at him again, a kunai clenched in her fist. He stepped back, dodging the first swipe of the blade and then twisted to the side as the second passed harmlessly by him. Yugito didn't bother with a third; instead, she threw the kunai at him from point blank range, but he read the move and flopped onto his back, rolling backwards through the mud and then up onto his feet.

As he was still rising, Yugito's hand went to her back where a ninjato was strapped between her shoulder blades. By the time he was as close to full height as he was going to get, her sword was already coming down towards his head. Naruto's hands shot up and caught her by the wrist. He'd read her perfectly, but lacked the strength to block her strike fully. He managed to avoid being hit by the sword, but the force of the blow forced him to his knees.

Yugito's foot lashed out, catching him in the face and sending him tumbling away from her.

Curiosity raged within Yugito. She'd spent almost her whole life in training to be Kumogakure's weapon, it seemed impossible that a mere boy – an injured boy at that – could be this close to her equal, even if he was a jinchuriki. She was, however, well aware of the old adage about curiosity and cats and had no desire to endanger her mission to satisfy something that was ultimately pointless. She rotated the grip on her sword and started moving in for the kill. It would be far less tempting to question him once he was dead.

Naruto pushed off the ground in mid-roll and landed on his feet, before falling to his knees. He started to move as if to put his hand over the bleeding wound on his chest, but stopped the motion before it was completed and instead began forming seals. Yugito was only a meter away from him when he reached down and grabbed hold of the ground and made as if to throw a clump of mud at her.

Only, it wasn't just a small clump of dirt that flew through the air, but the beginning of a long wall of earth.

Yugito tried to dodge, but was a hair too slow. The earth slammed into her body and threw her back. Naruto used the space to indulge in clutching his chest for a second.

"Sakura-chan's going to be so pissed at me," he grumbled as he brought his hands together once more, forming a quick series of seals. His right hand glowed bright green for a second and then he pressed it against his chest and clenched his teeth together. The sound and smell of searing flesh drifted up from his chest and when he finally pulled his hand back, there was a very large, very red, handprint-shaped cluster of blisters on his chest. It somehow looked even worse than the muddy stab wound that had been there before.

"Still can't do it right," he sighed as he stood once more.

ooo

"Why? Why is it… why is it you?"

Gaara reeled away from the sound of his own voice when he was a child, his eyes wide in horror at the words and the memory they were attached to. All around him was darkness, but the sounds echoed and reverberated off the unseen walls of his prison.

"It was… an order. I was ordered to assassinate you."

He still remembered the chill of the desert wind that night, the smell of the sand and blood that it carried. And he remembered his only real companion in life, the closest thing he had to a true father, the only person he'd ever loved in his short life… bleeding from internal injuries that that Gaara himself had inflicted after that man, his uncle, had tried to kill him.

"I could have declined it if I'd wanted to…"

Gaara covered his ears and tried to block out the words, but they didn't seem to need his ears open to be heard.

"You were never loved!"

Gaara screamed in anguish at the memories.

"Please die…"

It took him a moment to realize that he hadn't heard those final words; he'd spoken them himself.

It was absolutely his most painful memory.

"Wow, that's just messed up," Han's voice said with a chuckle. "Personally, I would have killed every last one of those bastards and then used their hollowed out skulls for toilets."

"Don't be crude," a slightly high-pitched voice chided him. "It's really impressive that he stayed sane after something like that."

Gaara turned towards them and his right hand shot forward to send sand to crush both.

Nothing happened.

"Heh, a little shit like you's barely worth puttin' up with fish bait here. I can't believe you made me go this far."

"I have a name," the voice sighed. Just behind Han, Gaara could see two bright blue eyes surrounded by a pinkish rim staring at him. The rest of whatever-it-was remained hidden in the darkness.

"A lame one," Han shot back with a snarl. "And no one gives a shit, Kelpie."

"I've told you before, I'm not a fish."

"You aren't anything, that's the problem with you. If you were something, then you'd make a little sense every once in a while instead of being a freakin' contradiction of everything normal. Probably wouldn't have such weak-ass powers either."

"My 'weak-ass powers' just saved you," the voice replied.

"Whoopity-freakin'-doo, you goddamn hippocampus. You're only makin' me hate you more."

"Still not a fish."

Gaara shook his head and tried again to summon sand to crush them. And again nothing happened.

"Doesn't work here," Han told him with a grin. "Fish-shit gave me the lame power to trap you in a genjutsu after you inhale the steam. It gets in your lungs, I get in your head, and you get dead easy to follow, right?"

"Genjutsu?" Gaara asked, frowning.

"Not as good as ninjutsu, and not even close to as good as taijutsu, but what can you do?" Han replied with a shrug. "If I'd had a choice, I would have rather have Roushi's monkey. It, at least, isn't such a goddamn pussy of a bijuu that makes me ashamed to even admit that I'm a jinchuriki."

"I'm going to stop letting you borrow my powers if you can't be more polite," the voice said with another sigh.

"Heh, try to stop me then."

Gaara gave up on the sand that was obviously not coming and ran at the two of them with all the speed he could muster. He brought his fist back and swung at Han, but his hand passed right through the giant man as he seemed to turn to vapor.

"I'm afraid that won't work either," the voice of the bijuu told him, though it sounded more proud than regretful. "For all his stupidity and overconfidence in physical attacks, Han really is quite skilled at using my genjutsu abilities. In this world, you are powerless. We can make you see anything, feel anything, and relive anything. If his twisted mind comes up with it, you'll experience it."

Han reformed in front of Gaara and drove his fist into Gaara's stomach. Gaara fell to his knees, gasping for air. Han reached down and grabbed him by the hair, dragging him back to his feet and then kicking him in the chest and sending him flying. He landed in a heap, barely able to breath and completely unable to stand.

Suddenly, the ground beneath him crumbled and then gave way. Down he went, tumbling end over end. The world of darkness vanished to reveal a deep pit that he was falling through. Then the pit disappeared and he was falling from thousands of feet up in the air, passing clouds and birds as he picked up more and more speed. As he neared the ground, a large mountain seemed to rise up towards him. Gaara watched in horrified fascination as the top of the mountain shifted until it was covered in hundreds of sharp spikes, and then the middle spike rose still higher and became thinner until it was the shape of a large sword.

The sword pierced his chest, cutting all the way through his body as he slid down its smooth surface. He should have been killed instantly by such a wound or at least passed out from the pain, but unfortunately neither happened. Even worse, the sword was so wide that, as he continued down it, it cut more and more of his body until finally he'd been split completely in half.

The pain made the wound he'd received when his father and village turned on him after the Chuunin Exam feel like a goodnight kiss from the mother he'd never known.

Even cut in half, he continued to live, continued to feel, and continued to fall all the way down until the sharp spikes that awaited him skewered his body.

Gaara screamed in pain and threw up all over the suddenly solid ground.

"Do you see why I hate using this?" Han asked him as he squatted next to him in the darkness. "Where's the challenge? Where's the excitement? Where's the fun in killing you? The damn seahorse takes it all away from me! How the hell am I supposed to enjoy your death when all I do is will something to happen and you fall down and cry? I'm a warrior, but I've got a pussy of a demon inside of me! It's not fair!"

Gaara could barely make out what was being said to him. His only response was to whimper in pain as his brain tried to reconcile the fact that it wasn't dead with the information every nerve in his body had been reporting until only a second ago.

ooo

Fuki's hand moved like lightning, far faster than someone with her level of injuries should have been capable of. A scalpel that had been hidden in her sleeve slipped into her hand and slashed at Sakura's throat. A tenth of a second faster and she would have cut the carotid artery on the right side of Sakura's throat, a wound that Sakura would probably have been unable to even think of healing before she passed out from the blood loss.

That one tenth was an important one.

Had she time to think about it, Sakura probably would have wanted at least one or two more tenths. Without them, the scalpel was still able to graze her throat and the bottom of her jaw, cutting all the way to the bone of her jaw before she was able to completely move out of the way.

Sakura's hand instantly went to her neck as she threw herself backwards away from Fuki, crashing to the ground with a thud.

Fuki rose from her kneeled position and began to stagger towards Sakura. "I'm sorry," she whispered over and over. "I'm so sorry."

Sakura started to scramble to her feet, trying to get some distance between herself and Fuki, but the other kunoichi was capable of moving far faster than seemed possible given her injuries. The scalpel flashed through the air again, this time cutting deep into Sakura's right leg.

Sakura kicked out with her left leg, catching Fuki in the stomach. She was knocked back a half-meter, but that was it. She didn't seem to have even felt the kick as she continued stalking towards Sakura after only a moment's pause.

Sakura knew she didn't have any choice at this point. Whatever was wrong with Fuki, there didn't seem to be anyway she could stop the young woman without resorting to more serious attacks.

Her blood covered hand came away from her neck and joined her other hand in flashing through a series of seals.

Fuki should have started seeing the images instantly. Sakura should have disappeared and an army of ghostly figures should have stepped out of a mist to attack the young woman. And it seemed that she did see those images, her eyes widened, shifting back and forth wildly, but that didn't matter because her body continued forward without pause.

Using her left leg to push against the ground, Sakura did her best to slide away from Fuki. She wasn't armed and was beginning to feel the blood loss. More than that, she didn't want to have to start using deadly force against someone who didn't seem to be completely right in the head. Even if she did want to, she wasn't on the ground floor, so she didn't have access to any earth that she could manipulate with the few elemental ninjutsu she knew and the injury to her leg was such that she didn't think she would be very effective with taijutsu.

The only thing she could really do, besides scoot along the floor until she ran into a wall or body, was hope that Fuki was dumb enough to get in her range and then swing as hard as she could.

Fuki wasn't that dumb. She stopped just before she was close enough for Sakura to even try to kick her and then lifted the scalpel.

"I'm sorry," she whispered again, tears rolling down her blood-smeared cheeks.

ooo

Danzo prided himself on never being caught off guard. In fact, it was practically his life mission. He was careful, he was secretive, and he didn't show off. Even as a ninja just starting out in the world, he'd always been careful to never reveal his full potential. He was the last of his team to advance to both chuunin and jounin. He never stood out on missions or in training. He almost never did anything that would call attention to himself unless he felt he could benefit from it.

This was why, except for high-ranking jounin and the village leadership, he was practically unknown even within his own village. In the other villages, he could probably walk through the streets without getting so much as a second glance. The only enemies who had ever seen what he could really do were all dead.

Danzo liked to be the one who did the surprising. He liked to know his enemy inside and out while remaining a complete mystery. He lived in the shadows, he worked in the shadows, and he killed in the shadows.

And so he was very angry with himself as he stared impassively down at Uzumaki Naruto while the young man fought Nii Yugito. Naruto was a surprise. Not just a surprise, he was a completely unexpected surprise.

Danzo had thought that the boy would access the Kyuubi's abilities and use them to win the fight. He had done it before and apparently was skilled enough that he could at least partially remain in control. The Third had made notes about it after a conversation with Kakashi following one of Team Seven's missions.

There had been no notes about Naruto being this sort of person. Even in the Chuunin Exam, he hadn't shown this level of talent and he'd been great beyond all reasonable explanation during the Finals of the Exam.

It was after the Exam, that Danzo had begun investigating Uzumaki Naruto. Even with the boy kidnapped or betraying the village, it was important to know how someone who was considered a failure and a relative nonentity – even if he was a jinchuriki – could have so thoroughly trounced all three of the Kazekage's children. Naruto had shown no great skill before graduating; in fact, he'd barely graduated at all. Danzo had been aware of the circumstances surrounding Naruto's graduation, but hadn't placed any particular importance on them. Mizuki was a pathetic ninja, beating him up was nothing to brag about.

It wasn't until Danzo began searching for Naruto's lineage that any interesting information came up. Though most of it was wrapped in lies and confidential information, it hadn't been too hard for him to piece it together.

Uzumaki Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's son.

That sort of talent was the kind that couldn't help but be passed on to a child. It explained enough that Danzo had stopped investigating. Naruto had either been handicapped by his instructors' dislike of him – a dislike that Kakashi would naturally not share – or had been hiding his abilities just as Danzo hid his own.

What was happening below, however, had nothing to do with hidden talent passed on from a father who was also a prodigy. If Naruto had truly been in captivity for the last two years, and all information seemed to indicate that he had been, then what he was doing was learned before that. Unfortunately, the simple truth of the matter was that it was impossible learn how to do what Naruto was doing in such a short period of time.

Danzo glanced out of the corner of his eye at the ANBU sitting cross-legged next to him. Though obviously well trained in hiding his emotions, the ANBU's back was a little straighter and he was leaning forward in obvious wonder at the battle below. He'd noticed it as well.

Uzumaki Naruto's ninjutsu was at the very least at jounin level, elite jounin level. He'd used three elements – earth, water, and wind – and used them in the space of only a few seconds. He'd also, apparently, learned some medical ninjutsu as well. Even more impressive, he'd used wind without the using hand seals.

It simply was impossible for this boy to have that much ninjutsu knowledge at his age. It took most ninja years to even master one element to the point that they could use it without seals. To learn a second and a third, even if he had to use seals for them, was almost beyond prodigy level.

Beneath his calm face, Danzo frowned. He didn't like surprises and he didn't like Naruto. He'd hoped to have Naruto quietly removed at some point once the plan was a little farther along, but now it seemed that he would have to be far more cautious about it. Naruto kept his true skills quiet, but he let enough of them show that people would start expecting big things of him if they got many chances to see him in action. It would be difficult to remove him once those expectations reached a certain level.

ooo

Naruto watched as Yugito also got to her feet and then turned his head at the sound of an explosion in the distance. "You idiots are causing me a lot of problems," he told her as his hands came together. A shadow close appeared at his side and then immediately released itself. "Letting the hatred get out of hand like this, you're just perpetuating the cycle."

"What are you talking about?" Yugito growled as she glared at him, no longer curious about his new power. Curiosity had been completely replaced with anger. It was one thing to annoy her, it was quite another to make her look as bad as he was starting to make her look. "What was that clone for?"

Naruto gave her a cocky smile that looked extremely out of place on his mud and blood smeared face. "Just spreading some good thoughts."

Yugito threw her sword at him without warning, probably hoping the conversation would cause him to be caught flatfooted. Even before the sword reached him, she was moving forward, her fingers forming seals.

Naruto dove to the side to avoid the sword, but before he could get back to his feet, Yugito was above him. Fire danced up her arm as she lifted it over her head. Naruto didn't have time for anything as fancy as using a ninjutsu, but he did reach down and grab a handful of mud and throw it up in her face.

It wasn't a particularly honorable way of fighting, but at this point he didn't much care about that. After seeing him use several earth elemental ninjutsu, Yugito had to react as though he were about to do something impressive. She quickly saw the truth, but her hesitation was long enough that he was able to escape and get back to his feet.

Naruto was forming seals even as he rose. He drew his hand back as Yugito began to move towards him, and the rain falling around him seemed to change direction in midair, drawn towards his hand. Water from the ground and the air gravitated towards his hand, and then shot forward as he thrust his arm towards her. Yugito had spotted what he was doing, however, and was already in the midst of casting her own jutsu.

As near as Naruto could tell, Yugito only used fire jutsu and this time was no different. He'd actually decided on a water jutsu in hopes that she would just use more fire, since water beat fire.

Water beat fire, but only when they were on the same level.

Naruto didn't see what jutsu she used before she was engulfed in steam, but it must have been a big one. Whatever it was, it had definitely been stronger than the hastily thrown water jutsu he'd used. Her jutsu wasn't powerful enough to completely overcome his elemental advantage, but it was close enough that he was sure he hadn't done any damage with his jutsu either.

Yugito exploded out of the steam, her fist already cocked. Naruto's foot slipped smoothly across the mud as he sidestepped her first punch and then his arms came up in front of him as she delivered a kick that sent him sliding back. Before he had any time to recover, she was on him again. He dodged three more punches before he spotted his opening. A final punch came at him and he ducked under it, stepping closer to her so that their hips were almost touching. His right hand shot up and caught her under the chin while his foot kicked her feet out from under her. The combination left her in the air with his hand around her throat.

He put ever ounce of power his small frame had into slamming her into the mud.

The second she hit the ground, chakra was swirling in his left hand. His plan was to hit her in the face with the Rasengan before she had time to recover. Unfortunately, she was either very quick to recover or he was even weaker than he'd realized.

She caught him by the wrist just before his hand could reach its target. With him leaning so far over her, it was a simple matter for her to lift her knee, catch him in the stomach, and send him flying over her head.

Both ninja were quickly back on their feet. Each sensed that the fight was nearing its conclusion and that even the slightest misstep or slow down could lead to instant death

"I can't believe it's come to this," Yugito said with a shake of her head as she let out a slow breath. "I didn't think I'd have to go this far unless I met someone like the Copy Ninja or the Hokage himself. How annoying."

She flashed a feral smile at him and the atmosphere seemed to change instantly. The rain still fell, but the water already on the ground began to swirl around her and the falling rain started to alter its trajectory as if running into some invisible force that surrounded her body. The wrap around her recently-cut hair came undone and her blond hair stood on end as she crouched down until her hands were in the mud.

"Congratulations, Uzumaki Naruto," she yelled, her eyes going completely white, "you're going to die now!"

Blue chakra enveloped her like a raging fire and began to take the shape of an immense cat with yellow glowing eyes.

"Damn it," Naruto groaned as he stared up at the monster, "you might only be fifty years too early to beat me."

ooo

The smoke and heat choked Hinata and made it difficult for her to see, even with her Byakugan activated. Naruto seemed to be having less trouble with it, but that might have been because he was only a shadow clone.

She squeezed her eyes shut, took as deep a breath as she could handle without choking, and then opened her eyes and quickly searched once more for her father and sister. There were others inside the building as well, but not many. Most of them were near exits and seemed to be getting out on their own.

For someone of her father's level of training and ability, getting out should have been no problem, but for some reason he had not. He, Hanabi, a Branch family member that she didn't immediately recognize, and Hiroshi were all in the meeting room near the center of the house. Her father was on the ground, perhaps to get under the smoke, with Hanabi and Hiroshi near him while the Branch member was a little farther away and standing in spite of the smoke and ash in the air.

Hinata hurried towards them, Naruto following at her heels.

Fallen support beams and pieces of the burning roof blocked the doorway into the room, but a wall was no obstacle for two ninja. Hinata's eyes spotted weak points within the wall and she and Naruto easily broke through.

With the structural integrity of the building as a whole and the roof in particular so weak, the destruction of the wall nearly caused still more of the house to fall down on them. Naruto spotted the problem quickly, however, and pushed Hinata through the hole as he got his arms under the largest beam that was cracking.

"Hurry," he yelled as the flames on the wood drifted under his hands, "I won't last long like this."

Hinata nodded in understanding and turned towards the other occupants of the room. "This way!" she shouted.

"Get out of here, Hinata-sama!" Hiroshi yelled without looking at her.

It was at the moment, that Hinata realized there was something more amiss than just the fact that her home was burning to the ground all around them. Even with the stinging smoke in her eyes, she could see that Hanabi had tears in her eyes and Hiroshi had a kunai in his hand. Even more strange, her father, who was normally in command of every situation and giving orders when they needed to be given, was still on the ground, his hand over his chest and an odd look of disbelief and shock on his face.

Before her brain could put everything together, however, the wood beam Naruto was holding up creaked and the clone grunted in pain and frustration as he was almost driven to his knees by the added weight of more debris falling onto it. The noise drew Hinata's thoughts away from the scene in front of her and the thought that had nearly reached her slipped by.

"Hiroshi! Ko! Get over here!" Naruto yelled. "I can't hold it!"

Hinata started to move towards her father and sister, determined to get them moving no matter what it took. Even with Hyuuga Ko and Hiroshi helping, the roof wouldn't stay up much longer in that area of the house and they had to get going.

Hyuuga Ko instantly hurried towards Naruto. Hiroshi turned, a strange look in his eyes, and lifted his hand as if reaching out to grab Naruto.

Hinata barely heard the pop of the clone being dispelled, but the sound of debris crashing down over their exit was more than enough for her to realize what had happened.

They'd been betrayed.

ooo

Sasuke ducked under the thrust of the naginata, allowing the thin blade to pass so close to his shoulder that he could feel the whisper of it even through his damp shirt, and then it was all over. His sword slipped up through the Cloud-nin's stomach, into his chest and then pulled to the side and away as Sasuke spun on his heel, ending up behind his enemy. The man was probably still coming to the realization that he was dead while Sasuke was already flicking his wrist to shake some of the blood from the blade and turning his attention to more pressing matters.

The number one pressing matter of the moment was the fact that he was now facing two things he absolutely didn't want to see: Naruto fighting a halfway decent opponent and Yugito Nii fighting anyone he cared about.

The fact that Naruto and Yugito were fighting each other and that Yugito had turned into a monster made things even worse.

Had this been Danzo's plan all along?

It didn't make sense. It especially didn't make sense for Danzo to summon Sasuke to see this fight. Sasuke had always considered himself a loyal citizen of Konoha, but at that moment he was having some decidedly treasonous thoughts.

Danzo's death, however, would have to wait. Saving Naruto was what mattered at the moment. If he managed to somehow save his friend then perhaps he would consider allowing Danzo to keep a limb or two.

Just as he was about to leap down into the middle of the battle, he spotted a shift of chakra off to his right and suddenly a hand shot out of thin air and grabbed hold of him. Sasuke was a half-second from cutting the hand – and whomever it was attached to – in half, but stopped himself as he came face to face with Naruto… or a clone of Naruto anyway.

"Sorry," Naruto told him with a grin that had been absent from his face since he'd been rescued. "Didn't mean to scare you."

Sasuke bit back his retort, but not quickly enough for the clone not to see that it was coming, causing him to smile even bigger.

"You can't go down there."

Sasuke pulled away from the clone's grasp. "What are you talking about?"

"I've got it under control. If you go down there, you'll be in the way."

"You've got it under control?!? You could barely bring yourself to look anyone in the eye just yesterday."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "I was Hokage only a few years ago. You're just a little kid in my eyes. Stay. Back."

Sasuke held Naruto's gaze for a moment longer and then shook his head. "You're back to being your old dumb self," he shifted his eyes towards the fight and then shrugged. "Fine, I'll wait until you need me."

"You'll be waiting a lo—" In midsentence, Naruto's eyes widened as a look of unmasked horror fell across its face. In an instant, it had completely forgotten Sasuke and turned towards a different part of the village. "Oh no."

"What is it?"

Naruto spun back towards him and grabbed him by the shirt. "Where's Sakura-chan?!?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen her since the fighting started."

Sasuke could feel the clone's hands tremble as it released his shirt. "Shit!"

"What's wrong?"

Instead of answering, Naruto said, "Go find her, right now. Start at the hospital and then go to wherever you think she'd be if she wasn't there. Don't let your guard down around anyone, even if they're supposed to be on our side."

Sasuke wanted to grab Naruto and shake him, but the look on the blond's face was enough to worry him. "Why?"

"Orochimaru has a jutsu or something, it messes with people's minds. Kumo allied themselves with him and there are people on our side that are being controlled. If you meet up with anyone that you know was the only survivor of a mission or was captured for any length of time, they could be under the enemy's control."

Sasuke opened his mouth to point out the obvious, but decided against it.

"I know you don't believe me about all that future stuff," Naruto continued, "but as much as you betraying us hurt, Sakura-chan's death was worse. I'm trusting you to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Sasuke nodded and turned towards the hospital. "When we see each other again, I'm going to want some answers."

Any other time, Sasuke was sure that Naruto would have flashed him a cocky grin. Instead, all he got was a very somber face as Naruto said, "If we see each other again, and Sakura-chan is still alive, I'll think about it. Get going."

ooo

A drunken giggle echoed in Gaara's mind and his eyes snapped open.

"Not that," he whispered as he looked pleadingly up at Han.

The large jinchuriki didn't seem to have heard it, nor did he even react to Gaara's movement. In fact, he wasn't moving at all.

The laughter came again, louder and closer this time.

"Go away," Gaara said as he tried, unsuccessfully, to rise to his feet.

"Why, oh why, would you want me to do that?" a voice laughed in his ears.

"You can't have me!" Gaara yelled. "I won't play your stupid games anymore."

"Stupid games, stupid games… you don't like my games?"

"I'm stronger than you, I don't need you."

"You aren't really that deluded, are you? Besides, you loved it once upon a time," the voice said with a giggle. "All the blood, all the screams. The power you felt when you wiped someone's life out. It made your mother so proud."

"You aren't my mother."

"Maybe I am and everyone else has just been lying to you," Shukaku shot back with a chuckle. "It wouldn't be the first time, would it?"

"Shut up."

"You shut up." The giggling was gone. "You don't like the games, you don't like the power, you don't like the blood, fine. Let's play a new game."

"What are you talking about?"

"Let's make a wager."

"Wager?"

"You are unable to control my powers, I am unable to control you. Let's stop dancing around each other and play a game in which either you emerge as the master, or I do."

"How?"

"Hee hee hee, just like that, huh? You don't want to think it over? If you lose, I'll own you forever and the darkness you're so afraid of will never leave. I'll swallow you whole."

"I have something precious to protect. If that doesn't give me the strength to overcome you, nothing will."

"Precious?"

"My brother and sister are in this village, if I don't win here, they will die."

"Fighting for your family, eh? Very well. If you lose, I'll kill them first."

Gaara's eyes narrowed. "Then I won't lose."

"So be it. Relax and let my chakra start to swallow you. If you can keep your sanity, you win, if not… well, I'll be sure to keep you close enough to the surface that you can watch all of my fun."

Before Shukaku had even finished speaking, the bijuu's chakra surged through Gaara's body. He gritted his teeth, every muscle clenched as he struggled feebly to push it back down. Then he dropped to his knees as the chakra ran untapped through him. His mouth opened as if to let out a scream, but all that came out was a soft giggle.

ooo

For the second time that day, Kakashi awoke from unconsciousness and found himself in a rather copious amount of pain. This time, however, he quickly remembered the person who had put him in such pain – mostly because it was himself and his shattered, but free, hand was quick to remind him of the plan he'd devised shortly before.

The Rasengan that he'd pushed managed to push into his own wrist in order to break the manacles that trapped him had been small, but still had plenty of power to break bone and iron. His left hand was still trapped in the shackles, but now that he could move both arms freely and could twist his bound hand it wouldn't be difficult to get out.

It would have been easier if his one free hand was still functional, but he wasn't in any position to get picky.

Actually, it was now a very simple thing to get free. There were several small pieces of metal both on the ground and imbedded into his hand, all he needed was a decent sized one that he could get into his mouth and then into the lock on the manacles. Picking the lock with his mouth (and for a few seconds, his feet) was harder than he expected, but not by much. He was an expertly trained jounin, there were few locks in the world that could last long against him when he was determined.

The lock clicked and fell to the ground with a loud clang. A few seconds later, the lock to the cell was also open.

Kakashi wasted no time in walking over to the body that he assumed had belonged to the ANBU guard and examining it for a few seconds. The man's death had been merciful, a single thrust of a blade to the back of the head. He would have felt no pain, might not have even realized he was being stabbed before it was all over.

It was the attack of a well-trained medic-nin.

It was the sort of attack that Rin would have used.

Kakashi sighed and stood back up. She had attacked and killed a Leaf-nin and there was really no one else he could blame it on. The ANBU found outside of Konoha on the day Naruto was kidnapped could have been killed by the Sound-nin that Kakashi and the rest of Team Seven had fought as they tried to save Naruto. Rin had never denied killing them, but she hadn't confessed either. He hadn't pressed her for the truth, in part, because he didn't want to know.

He'd let too much slide with her. She'd been his friend, once upon a time, and so he wanted to protect her, but that time had ended. The next time he saw her, he really would have to kill her.

At that moment, an explosion rocked the building. Kakashi's eyes widened and he quickly hurried up the stairs. Before he'd even reached the main level, the sounds of battle reached his ears and the scent of blood hit his nose. He looked down at his useless hand and cursed under his breath.

He would be extremely limited when it came to using ninjutsu and even taijutsu.

He reached up and lifted his hitai-ate, exposing Obito's Sharingan. Limited as he was, he was still a jounin of Konoha.

It seemed that, once again, he was going to have to put off killing Rin for the time being. A part of him hoped that one of them would find a way to die before they met up again so he wouldn't have to break his word to Obito, but something told him he wasn't going to be that lucky.

ooo

They'd reached the moment they'd been waiting for, but Danzo didn't give the signal. The ANBU seated next to him waited for a second, not taking his eyes off the very small boy and the very large demon cat below them, and then slowly shifted his attention towards the leader of the village.

It wasn't polite. It wasn't really acceptable for an ANBU to do. And yet, he couldn't help himself. He'd bit down his tongue to keep from arguing when he'd first heard the plan. He'd frowned behind his mask when he saw the young man step up to face the woman who had been such a thorn in the side of Konoha's forces. He'd forced himself to sit as still as possible, and mostly succeeded, when Uzumaki Naruto went down and didn't rise for a few seconds.

He couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Now?"

If Danzo was annoyed by the question, he didn't show it. He didn't even turn his eyes away from the two combatants. "No, let's see what he does."

There was more than a frown behind the mask this time, but the ANBU's voice was calm and even. "She might kill him."

Danzo shrugged marginally. "Then that's what will happen."

There was no threat in his tone, but the ANBU still felt it. The conversation was over. Really, it had been over before it even started. "Of course, Hokage-sama."

Danzo was quiet for a second and then said, "We will do everything in our power to make sure that he is not killed, but that is not your job nor your concern."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"If he does die, however, feel free to begin the operation."

The Hokage's word was law, there was no arguing. The ANBU hoped that Uzumaki Naruto could continue to be as impressive as he'd been before the transformation, but there seemed to be little hope for him now. Skilled as he was, this monster had killed dozens of Leaf jounin over the course of the war. Naruto was ultimately a weak, injured boy. He didn't really stand a chance.

The blond's head snapped to the side as though he'd been struck and, even from the distance, the ANBU could see a tremble run through Naruto's body. He was now a distracted, weak, injured boy.

He knew the potential consequences. He knew, but he didn't care. The ANBU's fingers began forming seals as he put Danzo's plan into action without permission.

o

o

A/N: Wow, I just could not write this chapter and I fear the quality may have suffered as I forced myself to do so (or it could be that I've stared at it for so long that I just can't stand it anymore). I'm really sorry that it took so long. I think the problem was that there were so many things that I wanted to deal with that I just couldn't get through them all and they kept getting bunched up in my brain… like a traffic jam or something. I hope the next one won't be like that because school is starting soon and I really can't deal with homework and another chapter like this one. I'd like to say that I'll update again in two weeks (or even three), but after this one, I'm not sure when the next will work its way out of my brain. I'll "most likely" update in less than a month, maybe even as little as two weeks, but I can't make promises until I'm sure how school and everything will work into my schedule. Sorry.

I will reiterate, however, that no matter what, this story will be finished. If I seem to drop off the grid for a while, it means that real life in general or school in particular is hammering me, but I'll always update eventually.

A big thanks goes out to TimeShifter for reading the chapter and telling me that it wasn't as terrible as I thought it was. Seriously, if he'd even hinted that it was subpar, you might not be getting the chapter yet. He didn't however get a chance to beta the chapter as he's going to be travelling to Japan, so I apologize if there's a lot of mistakes.

Thanks for reading, hopefully you enjoyed it. For those of you who found this story (and its predecessor) recently and were thoughtful enough to review, I apologize for not responding. Normally I do, but I've wanted little to do with fanfiction in general and this story in particular during the past month. I'll be better in the future, God willing.

Han – The idea behind Han's powers comes from my thoughts on the idea of combining land and sea animals as well as the fact that a steam "element" must be a combination of fire and water elements (which seems odd because water trumps fire when it comes to chakra). To play this up a little, I decided that Han should be a ninja who favors taijutsu – a purely physical type of attack – but is stuck with a bijuu who gives him powers related primarily to genjutsu – a purely mental type attack. I'm absolutely certain that Han's canon powers would be extremely different from this, but it made for some fun dialog and makes him a bit different from the other jinchuriki we've seen so far.

Hyuuga Ko – For those of you who don't remember, Ko was the Branch family member with Hinata during the end of Pein's attack on Konoha. He told her not to go help Naruto… and she totally listened to him.

Naginata – a polearm consisting of a long wooden pole with a curved metal blade at the end.

Ninjato – a short sword seem most often strapped to the backs of ANBU, but in pop culture, many ninja use it (there seems to be some debate about the historical accuracy of assigning this weapon to them). Basically, they look like a slightly shorter version of a katana.