Chapter 13:
Broken Village

Jiraiya waited until they'd traveled for a day before he started the training. The stupid brat didn't deserve it, after what he'd done. However, the kid was going to be hunted by a lot of powerful people and to keep the Kyuubi from falling into their hands he was going to need to be able to defend himself.

"Alright kid," he grunted as they left a small village neighboring Konoha. "If you want to mess with seals, you're going to learn how to do it right." The Sannin removed a hefty book from his pack and dumped it in the blonde boy's arms. "Start studying that tonight."

"Yes, sir," Naruto meekly agreed.

"But during the day, I have something else for you to do." Jiraiya stopped walking and fixed the genin with a stern look. "You don't deserve to learn what I am about to teach you. However, this technique would take even a genius a long time to learn. Letting you tackle it should keep you out of trouble for the entirety of this trip and then some."

The boy flinched.

"Now, there are three steps to learning this jutsu," the white-haired man continued. "I will show you the first step and when you can replicate it, I'll show you the next step."

He carefully removed a water balloon from his pocket and cradled it in the palm of his hand.

"Here is step one."

Kushina ran through her morning routine, eager to escape her apartment. Normally she loved her nice little two-bedroom abode—it was perfect for her and Naruto. But without her son around, and with the reasons for his absence so grim, her happy home felt cold and empty.

Outside her front door, she found fresh evidence of angry vandals.

When Naruto had been small, waking up to hateful graffiti sprayed on her door, poisoned food, hate mail, explosive packages, and the odd fox carcass on her doorstep was a daily occurrence. She had gotten into the habit of getting up extra early to take care of the mess before Naruto had the chance to see any of it. Eventually, it happened less and less frequently until by the time Naruto was in school, it only happened around the time of his birthday—the hated anniversary of the fox's defeat and the beloved Sandaime's death.

With Naruto's recent blunder, the vandals were back in full force. This morning's decoration was a fox skull with a large kitchen knife stabbed through the brain case, withered funeral flowers, a few crumpled threatening notes, and some fresh curses spray-painted on the outside of her door. As Naruto was away, she didn't bother to do anything with the door and simply gathered up the hateful offerings to dump in the building dumpster on her way out.

After taking out the trash, she tightly gripped her tea thermos and headed off to work at the Tower…with a brief detour.

On her way to the hospital, Kushina distracted herself by remembering how Jiraiya had worked his magic over the Council. With the ladies his persuasion was hit-or-miss…mostly miss. But when facing down the clan heads and ninja elders that formed the Council, he performed magnificently.

At first, they wanted him to consider taking over the office of Hokage. He was the student of the Sandaime, the teacher of the Yondaime, and a legend in his own right. But he had turned the tables on them and made a convincing case for Tsunade—a woman who might heal the current Hokage, and who had an even more impressive pedigree to take over village leadership in necessary.

And then he had thrown in the request for Naruto.

That had been the trickier debate to win. The Council didn't want to deal with Naruto, but they also didn't want him out of their sight. It had taken hours for Jiraiya to win enough of them over to his point of view.

Next to the late Sandaime and Yondaime, he was best-suited to overseeing a Jinchuuriki with his great knowledge of seals. He was a strong and experienced ninja who had successfully taught his own brood of students; he knew how to handle kids. And if he took Naruto out of the village, they wouldn't have to worry about the civil unrest brought on by his presence, or punishing him because Jiraiya swore to take care of that.

Uneasily, they had granted his request, and for the most part had happily forgotten all about Naruto.

Ungrateful bastards, she thought blackly as she entered the hospital lobby. They don't appreciate Naruto for imprisoning the fox. At best, they see him as an abomination—a mark of shame. At worst, he is the demon incarnate.

She navigated the halls the busy hospital, dodging scurrying nurses and wheelchairs. The building was still overfilled with ninja recovering from injuries sustained in the attack barely a week prior. The only real difference that Kushina could see was that the halls were slightly less chaotic.

Security had been beefed up since Naruto's ill-fated visit to the Hokage's room. Instead of a single ANBU at the door and one on the roof guarding the window, there were now two guarding the door and another two on the roof. When she entered the Yondaime's room, one of the door guards followed her inside to watch her every move.

Kushina ignored the intrusive shadow and put her full focus on her stricken boss.

The bandage on his neck was gone as the snake bite had healed, but now he had bandages on his forehead. Underneath, there were stubborn chakra burns that resisted the doctors' attempts to heal them faster. There was a tube shoved up his nose and down his throat so that his inert body could be fed and kept alive. There were more IVs in his arm, saturating his system with sedatives that kept him so deep under that he almost needed a machine to breathe for him. Knowing that Tsunade was coming, the doctors had decided to keep him unconscious until the great healer arrived to deal with him.

The Yondaime looked deceptively peaceful as he lay in the bed. His eyes were closed now instead of half-open and staring blankly into space. His breaths were sluggish, but regular, as was his heart rate. She would've thought he was just very deeply asleep if she didn't know better.

After watching him for a few minutes, she gently brushed at his blonde bangs before turning to leave for the Tower and keep it running without him.

I love you, Minato. If you die…I'll be royally pissed off! I'll track you down in the next life and beat the ever-living crap out of you!

…So you'd better not die.

The hallway echoed with the taps of his cane as Danzou slowly marched towards the secret door that was one of the gateways to the forgotten underground tunnels that formed a labyrinth beneath the village. They were formed by dead lava tubes that had been reinforced against collapse with wood the same way that mineshafts were shored up. The tunnels had been built up at the time of the village's founding, but almost immediately forgotten by most people.

It was the perfect base for ROOT.

Never mind that that division of the ANBU had been formally disbanded—the members of his organization were still loyal. So long as Danzou still lived and breathed, ROOT would exist. And Konoha was all the stronger and safer for it.

Danzou came to the secret door and waited. When he was certain that he hadn't been followed, he channeled some chakra into a spot on the wall and the door swung open. The crippled ex-ninja carefully stepped through into the darkness and shut the door behind him.

Service to his village had demanded a great deal. He had lost an eye, part of his arm, and crippled his leg. His body was covered in all kinds of scars. But he would do it all over again and more if necessary.

Konohagakure no Sato was his home and the greatest ninja village in the world. He would protect it with his life and soul. He would spend all his energy strengthening and glorifying his village.

There was nothing he would not do to achieve his goals and defend the Leaf.

As he journeyed through the dark, he mused over a great many things. Orochimaru's strike had done a great deal of damage. The destruction of infrastructure was manageable and not much of his concern. What interested him were the personnel losses.

His forces had not suffered overly much, nor had the rest of ANBU. But the chuunin and the genin of the village had taken moderate casualties. And the Hokage was down, with a good chance of being dead.

He had wanted to be Hokage once. He still wanted to be Hokage. Holding the highest leadership position in the village would allow him to protect and guide the village most easily and effectively.

But people were leery of having a cripple as Hokage. They preferred a young, handsome, whole man, even if that man happened to be a mental imbecile. Danzou was the opposite: a physical cripple with a whole mind.

He was the better choice by far.

When the Yondaime had first ascended to power, Danzou had allowed it because the Namikaze would be easily influenced. Namikaze would be the perfect puppet so that Danzou could guide the village into prosperity from the shadows. But Jiraiya and Kakashi had done their best to interfere. And then that woman had appeared.

Uzumaki Kushina… She was a foreign ninja, which made her untrustworthy. And with the Hokage wrapped around her little finger and the host of the Kyuubi her loyal son, she was one of the most powerful and dangerous people in the Land of Fire, and perhaps the entire ninja world.

His remaining eye narrowed as he neared the chamber that he treated as his office.

He had been trying to subtly oust that woman for years. First he sought to strip her of her son and mold him into a loyal servant of the Leaf. Then he attempted to separate her from the weakling Hokage.

But she stubbornly hung on to the boy and clung to the Hokage's coat.

The Yondaime is disabled now, perhaps gone forever; she no longer has his protection, Danzou mused. And with the vessel's disgrace, she will have even greater difficulty getting the boy back and keeping him. …I can use this.

If he could bind her to him—offer her protection and the uncontested custody of the boy for her loyalty—he could gain access to the demon host. Once he'd built up a relationship with the child, he could quietly dispose of the mother and get the boy all to himself to mold and shape as necessary. And then he would have the most dangerous and unpredictable power in the village safely under his thumb.

It's all a matter of planning it out right, he nodded to himself as he eased down into a padded chair. The right plan and the right situation… Danzou briefly smiled. …With a little luck, I shall tame the raging whirlpool.

And so the spider began to repair and re-weave his subtle webs.

Hinata held a box of nails for Shino while he worked to repair the roof of the building they were assigned to. Akamaru held another box of nails for Kiba. They were on a D-rank mission, assisting in the repairs of the village, and their sensei was off on some other mission without them.

She was relieved to finally feel better, and glad to finally be of some use again. It had been so frustrating to sit by the previous weeks with her lungs burning from the slightest exertions. It was worse knowing that her teammates were training without her, and she was falling behind.

But she was healed now, and once again a working part of Team 8.

Nearby a crew of professional carpenters worked. They were in charge of the work site and made sure that the genin help that they'd received did things right. While Team 8 had to focus on what they were doing to avoid mistakes, the carpenters chatted freely as they slaved away.

Hinata didn't mean to eavesdrop, but she and Shino were only a few yards from a pair of the burly workmen and they didn't do much to be quiet.

"…'m not joking! My sister-in-law works in the hospital. That whiskered monster burned his face off!"

"Huh. I knew that freak was trouble. Hell, we all knew it was trouble. But Hokage-sama had to let it live and now it's gone and bitten him on the ass!"

"Why would Hokage-sama let that thing get so close to him anyway?"

"I hear that it enchanted him—used its cute human face to trick Hokage-sama into letting his guard down. Heck, if you saw it on the street and didn't know what it really was, would you find it threatening? If not for those stupid whisker marks it would look like any other kid."

Hinata resisted the urge to turn her head and stare directly at them.

Are they talking about…Naruto-kun?

It kind of sounded like it. Naruto was the only person she knew who had any kind of whisker-like markings on his face. But…why would these men—total strangers—refer to him as some kind of thing—monster?

She discretely activated her Byakugan to watch them.

"But…Hokage-sama's a ninja! He's a smart, smart guy! How could he fall for a cute face like that?"

"It's easy when you remember what's hiding behind that face. A thing like that—"

"Shut up, will you?" a third man—the head carpenter, Hinata noted—snapped. "We can't talk about that. …Besides, I was in the stadium. That kid ain't nothing but another ninja. Now get back to work!"

The men seemed cowed and reapplied themselves to their work.

Hinata was about to relax her eyes and refocus herself as Shino's assistant when the two men leaned in and started to whisper.

"I say we burn it out. Set fire to its den. It's no secret where it lives."

"Doesn't it live with some woman?"

"Forget her! She's some foreign wench—she protects it! She's just as under its thrall as Hokage-sama was."

"Fine, let's talk more about it tonight. I don't wanna get in more trouble with the boss."

"Deal."

Hinata trembled. Were they talking about Naruto? Were they really going to set a fire? Why?!

She turned to ask—

Shino's hand on her wrist startled her and stopped her.

"Do not confront them," he ordered softly. "Doing so will only interrupt our mission which—although D in rank—is paramount to the village at this time. I have sent some insects to track them."

Hinata swallowed hard and nodded, and handed him another nail.

Why would those men talk that way? Had Naruto been the "whiskered monster" they spoken of? Why would they hate him? What could Naruto have possibly done that was so bad?

And where was Naruto anyway?

She always kept her eyes out for the blonde boy and could usually get a peek at him once or twice every few days. But it had been a whole week since the Chuunin Exams had ended in disaster and she hadn't gotten a single glimpse of his spiky blonde hair or orange-sleeved black jacket. All healthy genin were on repair duty, so he should be around doing D-ranks like everyone else…

Naruto-kun, where are you?

Sasuke scowled as he painted a newly-refurbished storefront. As if it wasn't bad enough that he was back to doing lousy D-rank missions, he was stuck with Sakura and no Naruto or Kakashi. When he'd asked the dobe's mother where he was when the pair of them drew painting duty, she'd said that he was out of the village on some kind of assignment.

How is it that he gets to leave the village while the rest of us are stuck back here? the Uchiha fumed. Why just send him and not all of Team 7? I'm all recovered, and so is she…

"Um, Sasuke-kun?"

The boy resisted a wince and turned to stare at his pink-haired teammate. What does she want now? She'd better not ask me out again. I'm not in the mood…

"I…" she squeaked nervously. "I never got the chance…to thank you…for saving me."

Sasuke frowned. What?

"…From Gaara's sand," she added anxiously when he kept staring at her in confusion.

The Uchiha turned away and grimaced like he'd bitten into an exceptionally sour lemon. "I didn't save you. Naruto did."

It was a hard admission to make. Sakura had been hurt because of him. She had almost died while he lay helplessly by, unable to save her. If Naruto hadn't managed to defeat Gaara, she would be dead.

The silence didn't bother Sasuke—he preferred to work in silence—but Sakura seemed to be very uncomfortable with it and tried to strike up more conversation.

"I was kind of surprised that Kushina-san said that Naruto was off on a mission."

He didn't even bother to grunt as he kept on painting.

"Because…well…the other day I overheard my mom on the phone talking about how Naruto was in jail."

Sasuke's paintbrush froze mid-stroke. "What?"

"Well, my mom always calls Naruto 'that awful boy' and she was telling someone on the phone how 'that awful boy' had finally been thrown in jail," Sakura hurriedly explained. "I tried to ask her about it, but she just shooed me out the door and told me to forget about it."

The Uchiha snorted. "That sounds like a stupid rumor to me. Do you really think the Hokage's Pet would actually do something bed enough to land in jail?"

Sasuke had come up with the mocking nickname shortly after the three of them had been stuck together as Team 7. Naruto had always talked about the Hokage and how awesome he was and how the village leader would sometimes give him candy and stuff like that. When their team had been officially confirmed, and the first few D-ranks afterwards, Sasuke saw that the blonde wasn't making stuff up about being so friendly with the Yondaime. Playing off the idea that pets and owners tended to resemble one another, he started calling Naruto the 'Hokage's Pet'. Not only did Naruto and the Hokage look eerily alike, Naruto also had those weird whisker-like markings. Naruto was the cute little puppy-pet, and the Hokage was the owner.

"I…I guess not," Sakura shrugged. "But…why would someone make up a story like that?"

"Hn," Sasuke grunted and got back to painting. Who cares?

"I wonder…" Sakura muttered as she also got back to painting the building. "Why does my mom not like Naruto? I mean…she never liked him. The first day I told her about him asking me out back in the Academy, she looked angry and called him 'that awful boy.' It's weird…"

"Hn," Sasuke snorted at her nervous ramblings.

That was weird, but he wasn't interested in talking about it. He just wanted to finish painting so that he could get to training. Naruto's triumph over Gaara where he had failed showed him that he was slacking off somehow, and he needed to catch up badly.

Uchiha Mikoto sliced some tomatoes in preparation of making Sasuke his favorite meal: tomato-stuffed onigiri. But her mind wasn't entirely on the culinary exercise. There was too much bothering her.

First and foremost was Itachi.

An anonymous message, probably from some ANBU who had been friends with an Uchiha who Itachi had slaughtered, had informed her that her elder son had been captured during the Sound-Sand attack. It didn't tell her how this had been accomplished, or why Itachi had returned to the village. After reading it, she burned it.

The last thing she wanted was for Sasuke to know. She knew of her younger son's driving desire to kill his older brother and avenge the death of most of their clan. She had tried to encourage other goals, like being the best ninja that he could be so that he could lead the clan one day, or find a nice girl so that he could help rebuild the clan's numbers. Sasuke never seemed terribly receptive to her suggestions.

She feared what he might do if he learned that his brother was back in the village and within his reach.

Her greatest nightmare was of her two babies facing off and fighting to the death.

Shivering, she gathered up the diced tomatoes and started to fold them up in the sticky rice.

Sasuke must never know. He's only just now seemed to find some friends, some other reason for growing stronger. If Sasuke finds out, it will all be destroyed…

Jiraiya frowned as he watched Naruto diligently studying the text he'd been given by the campfire. The boy had attacked his Rasengan training with a fierce but quiet intensity. And now he was doing the same with his education on seals.

But he was being too quiet.

When Naruto had thrown himself into summoning, he'd always been saying something. He cursed, he swore he'd get it this time, he demanded to know what he was doing wrong. The kid was simply noisy—a trait clearly inherited from his mother.

Now it seemed he'd done his best to muzzle the Uzumaki in him. And considering the situation, Jiraiya was very worried. This wasn't really healthy.

Even more worrisome was the boy's radical change in attitude. He expected the boy to be a little subdued considering what he'd done, but being polite and respectful (when the boy had called him "Jiraiya-sama" earlier he'd nearly had a small heart attack) and submissive was a bit much. And he was still wearing his hitae-ate around his neck instead of on his brow like he usually did.

I wish I could've taken Kushina with me, he sighed. This mess needs a woman's touch to get sorted out. …Maybe Tsunade can help.

But finding Tsunade was a while off still; they were only a few days out from Konoha. With her bitterness towards the village, she'd be much further away and gambling her heart out. Even so many years later he was sure that she'd still be at it. He knew her, and the look in her eyes as she'd walked away that day…

The Sannin sighed and leaned back against a tree trunk as the campfire crackled and popped.

If memory serves, they'll be a small festival going on soon in that one village, he mused as he considered the towns he was going to visit on his search. While I sniff around for information on Tsunade-hime, I'll let the kid screw around. Hopefully that'll get him to loosen up, be a bit less grim.

He blew it big time… He thought of Minato and shuddered. He really screwed up, but I want him to learn from it…not be destroyed by it.