A/N: Well, it's been a while. Sorry to keep you chaps waiting. I've been at school at San Francisco for over two months now, and I swear, I've been having too much fun here to actually be able to sit down and write. Come on, I've had an entire city to explore! Give me a break!

As some of you might have remembered, I'm a culinary student. I'm learning to be a chef, eventually. That takes a lot of energy, and I'm working all the time. Looking for a job right now. Anyone in the Bay Area hiring?

Not too much to say right now. Hoping I'll be able to hop onto the horse again soon. Wish me luck, peeps.

Gonna get right on the next chapter, after I catch up on some of my webcomics. I haven't read Dominic Deegan, Misfile, Unshelved, Penny Arcade, Ctl Alt Del, or any of my awesome internet fixes since January. Here's to digital overdose, folks.

Time to answer reviews.

HeartBound 101: I do try to draw my readers into the story. Someone said I over-describe things sometimes... Yeah, I'm guilty of that. But my imagination takes over my fingers. I need to buy a better filter for my brain.

Evilshroom: Glad you liked the smut, dude. Please try not to hit me with too much backlash this time. I have limited time on the net when I can really get the writing I want done. The San Francisco public library, as awesomely stocked with reading material as it is, only lets you online for an hour a day. Definetly not enough time to do what I gotta do. Any peeps in the Bay Area, by the way?

Alehhandro: Thanks for reading. The lemon really was one of the hardest parts of the entire story. Probably gonna do another one next chapter. I decided to portray Sarutobi as a darker figure for the sake of suspense and plot development, as well as setting the groundwork for some important scenes in later chapters. Keep your eyes open.

Ren Mizuki: I really didn't want him to be a dork :-) Did my best. I'm pretty good with the soppy stuff.

Ookami88: Longest review I have ever gotten from a fan. No doubt. Trust me, I did everything for a reason. I wouldn't put Hinata in harm's way like that... Just read the story, and you'll see what I'm talking about. The little Hyuuga can be very scary. I'll admit, I was going to run the story a little bit differently... But once the chapters were out there, it hit me like a ton of bricks: I have a little sister that my family adopted who's about the same age of the main characters of the story. Long before then, however, I thought pedophiles were the scum of the universe. Castrate them all, I say. You aren't wrong in anything you say, not at all. E-mail me at for further talks, if you would like.

Ok, that's about if for my author's notes. I'm on a friend's computer right now, and he's standing right behind me. A six foot two, three hundred pound football player who is in culinary school with me. Please don't hurt me, Mark, ok?

Read on, internet soldiers!

Chapter 14

The week passed by both slowly and quickly for Naruto and Hinata as they spent their time at the Nagasaki household-- slow, in that each and every single second was with the full awareness that their mission would soon be at an end, but quickly that they spent almost all of their time together, and it still didn't seem to be enough.

For the few days they had together, they spent their time mostly with Kaoru and Gan, often in the kitchen. There they exchanged stories, mostly made up on the part of the two young shinobi, but with a few kernels of truth thrown into the mix. Gan instructed Naruto in some of the finer points of cooking, especially with ramen, while Hinata and Kaoru had their girl time together.

On Hinata's part, this was something like a dream come true: never before had she really had another girl of her age be perfectly willing to spend time with her. Kaoru was a genuinely kind and caring girl, almost doting on her, in fact. She gave Hinata several sets of clothes that she'd outgrown, on top of what she'd bought from their shopping trip. Thus, every day Hinata herself looked amazing, dressed in the finest coverings a lord's money could buy.

When they weren't occupied with their hosts, however, or undergoing other... activities... they were usually in meditation, conversing with their masks' spirits in what proved to be a grueling mental tutorial. For the most part, Naruto spent his time in the library that Sando had conjured for him, absorbing jutsu after jutsu from the veritable catalog that his father and his own predecessor had possessed. Strangely, though, Sando wouldn't let him know who the first bearer of the Inugami mask was. It was a puzzle that he was determined to piece together, eventually, but had decided to let it go for the moment, satisfied with the awesome knowledge that he was soaking in like a sponge every night. Technique after technique, skill after skill… He was at last truly beginning to respect what a great advantage the mask was.

It seemed like infinite knowledge was at his fingertips every time he grasped a book off of the shelves in his mindscape. He had barely the need to flip the tome open before its information was imparted into him with seeming finality.

Hinata had told him that she'd too been spending time with her spirit, Aoiryu, although she had had more one-on-one time with her than he'd with Sando. It still seemed that the great dog was weak to the point that he could barely be accessed or aware for more than an hour at a time any given day. Reason being, it had been over twelve years since he'd absorbed any elemental energy, the greatest source of his strength. He said that he would take some of Naruto's chakra, but it was still too intertwined with Kyuubi's to be of any use to him. When Naruto was able to use the dog's signature ability to soak in elemental affinities of his enemies, he would undoubtedly become as strong as he was in his prime. Until then… he was on his own, so to speak.

The days passed like this, but on the forth day after Kakashi, Sasuke, and the members of the house had left for the festival, a chill seemed to befall the residents therein. Where for a few brief days they could all forget their problems, however temporarily, the knowledge that the Nagasaki, Kakashi, and the rest would return sometime that day snuffed their good cheer.

Though Hinata seemed to be putting on a good front, he could sense her inner turmoil. Today, the man she was supposed to kill was coming back to his home.

Naruto found her that afternoon when he walked into the room that they shared. She was sitting on the bed, slumped forward, with her hands over her mouth. A thin line of sweat brushed her brow. She seemed to have temporarily reverted to her prior personality, from before she had joined him and Sasuke as the Sanseirei.

Naruto went to her side, knelt down beside her, and took her hands gently into his. "Hinata?" he said softly. "Are you ok?"

Her lips quivered slightly. "I—I don't know, Naruto," she mumbled. "I-I just…" She closed her eyes, took a deep breath. "It's like I can feel him coming back already. I just feel him, every step he takes. I know he's supposed to be here today, t-this is his home… but I just can't help feel that I can't do this. I-I'm still not strong enough to just kill s-someone like that." A sob escaped her lips. "I don't want to do t-this, I don't want to hurt anyone, not ever! This isn't fair!"

Compassion filled the young man. He wrapped his arms around her belly and back and held her close to him, her heart beating in his ear. She put her arms around his head, pulling him to her as he was. He could almost literally feel the turmoil inside of her conscience as the morbid reality of their situation rolled over her. "It's not fair," he murmured. "None of this is. We didn't ask for all of this responsibility. It was put on us. Sometimes I wish we could just go back in time and forget all of this ever happened. Sometimes I just want to leave and go home…wherever that might be. But I can't. I have a job to do, and that's to protect you while you do your job." He withdrew a few inches and looked up at her tear-stained eyes. "I keep asking, and you keep telling me no… but I'll ask again. Do you want me to take your side of the mission? Finish off Nagasaki?"

"I-I don't know," Hinata said. "I just don't know anything anymore. The longer it takes, the more time I have to think, the more time I have to take it back, the more scared I get with this whole thing!"

Hysteria seemed to be creeping into her voice. He had to stop it before it got out of control. "Calm down," he said, authority heavy in his voice. "Calm down, breathe, relax. Stop thinking, stop talking for a moment." He dropped his voice to just barely above a whisper. "Breathe… inhale… exhale." He repeated the mantra a few more times until Hinata calmed down. Though still visibly shaken, she had returned more to normal.

"Are you ok?" he asked as he got up from the floor and sat next to her on the bed, draping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her gently into him.

"I'm a little… better," she said. "Thanks, Naruto. Sometimes I still fall into this depression that just takes over." She bit her lip and looked down at the floor. "I hate it, every moment of it. Knowing that I'll have to kill someone who won't be seeing it coming. If it were a full fight, I think I could do it. But assassination?" She exhaled in a huff. "It will be tough."

"I know," said Naruto as he squeezed Hinata's shoulder gently. "In a few days, once us and Kakashi figure out the plan, we'll be on our way out of here and back home just a few days after that. Imagine, inside of a week and we'll be safe and sound."

She looked up at Naruto with a small smile. "I like the sound of that," she said. "Speaking of which… I might as well try to see if they're on their way here yet." She closed her eyes, then with a flash of brilliant light the Byakugan activated. She paused, then a kind of cold analysis came through. "Kakashi, Sasuke, and the others are just over a mile away. They are arriving from the east."

Naruto sensed something was wrong. "And?" he gently prompted.

She fell silent for a moment, as if contemplating something important. "When I activate the Byakugan," she said, "sometimes there's a kind of filter. I see through most things, but I rarely have the focus to look through clothes and see the skin underneath, as a matter of modesty."

"Wait—what?"

Hinata turned to Naruto with a fierce fury on her face. "Just now, I saw Kaoru getting out of the bath, but she hadn't yet gotten dressed. Have you noticed that she only wears long-sleeved kimonos, and nothing else?"

"I guess," Naruto said. "I never really paid any attention to that, to be honest."

Hinata deactivated her doujitsu. "When I saw Kaoru's arms," she said, "there were scars running up and down each one. Some were fresh, some were old. I'd guess the oldest to be about two years old. They're all short and shallow, not enough to kill… but they all look like they're self-inflicted. Naruto, she's cutting herself on an almost weekly basis!"

Terror filled Naruto's heart as he heard Hinata's words. "You don't think—"

Hinata nodded curtly. "Yes," she said. "This is just the confirmation that we've been needing. I'm going to go talk to her. Get the truth out of her." She stood up and strapped her sword across her back. "Start packing up everything we need. Might as well throw in some of the clothes we got as well. One way or another, we're leaving tonight."

"Hinata! Wait!" Naruto shouted, but it was useless. She was out the door and on the way to the other side of the building before he could recover his wits. "Shit!" he shouted. This was not the way the plan was supposed to go at all. He wanted to stop her, but with the pure righteous fury Hinata had, he knew there was no way he could stop her.

He hurriedly set about collecting all of their possessions he could and packed them into his and her packs. When he realized that it wouldn't all fit, he had a flash of inspiration: he took a brush, a bottle of ink, and a long piece of paper and quickly made a storage seal. After a few moments to let it dry, he wrapped all of the surplus in a bedsheet and activated the seal with a small surge of chakra; he put the sheet onto the seal, and with a small puff of smoke, it was gone, only the paper left on the floor.

He put the paper in his pocket, tied his sword onto his shoulder, and grabbed his bags on the way out of the door. He walked toward Kaoru's room, already dreading what he would find there.

He could hear the sobbing from ten feet out the door. When he entered, he saw Kaoru weeping heavily in Hinata's arms. She had an undershirt and a pair of panties on, but nothing else.

Naruto, for the first time, saw the extent of the damage Kaoru had suffered at her own hands: lines, pink and red and grey, crisscrossed everywhere between her shoulders and just inches above her wrists. Revulsion turned into horror, which quickly mutated into a seething rage. His pulse quickened as his anger reached a boiling point.

"Her father," Hinata said softly as the other girl sobbed almost violently on her shoulder, "rapes her. Almost weekly, although sometimes it happens more often, sometimes less. To make business deals, he sometimes trades he body for favors. Favors." A chill rose up Naruto's spine from her tone of voice even as he struggled to not vomit. "He will be here in ten minutes. Naruto, stay with her." She gently placed a hand on Kaoru's head. It glowed blue, and within seconds she was sleeping, slumped on Hinata's shoulder. "I can't help her," she said. "There's nothing I can do to undo the past. But… I can make sure that he never hurts her… or anyone… ever again."

Naruto wordlessly stepped aside as Hinata left the room. He shut the door behind her, and sat on the chair next to the sleeping girl. This is all wrong, he thought. All of it. He brushed the drying tears from the girl's eyes. I'm so sorry, he thought. For all of it.

Time passed too slowly, much too slowly. The quiet of the house was eventually broken by the arrival of the incoming party, though. Naruto hid himself and his effects in Kaoru's closet, leaving just enough space open to see through.

Nagasaki opened the door just a moment after Naruto had concealed himself. He held his breath as Nagasaki took a half-step into the room and gazed upon her. His expression was blank, but Naruto could almost read his mind. He was certain he was thinking of the next time that he would be able to get his hands on his daughter. Rage boiled and writhed inside of Naruto's gut; this man deserved what was coming to him, as sickening as it was.

No, he silently amended to himself. He deserves a lot, lot more.

After a moment, the door closed as Nagasaki left. Naruto knew that his room was only a few feet down the hall on the other side. He didn't know how long it would take for Hinata to dispose of him, but he didn't think that she could restrain herself for long.

He silently counted the seconds to himself. When he got to sixty-eight, the door opened again, Hinata's profile evident. Naruto left the closet to greet her. "What is the status?" he asked her, almost rhetorically, knowing the most likely answer.

Her expression was cold as ice. "He is dead," she said. "I destroyed his heart with my Juuken. It resembles a heart attack closely enough to pass a casual autopsy. Our job here is done." Her eyes were still ablaze with the Byakugan. "Kakashi and Sasuke are in their rooms right now. The rest of the samurai are in their own rooms, or on patrol. Get them, and let's get out of here. This place sickens me."

Naruto was stunned at her sudden authoritative tone, but didn't hesitate to do as she asked. He hurried to relay her message to the remaining members of the team, first Sasuke, then Kakashi. Although they seemed surprised at the turn of events, they complied, repacking the few items that they had already taken out of their bags and wordlessly followed him back to Kaoru's room, where they met Hinata.

"So..." Kakashi said, his eyes cold and hard. "You did it."

Hinata met his gaze. "Yes," she said. "I'm sorry I jumped the schedule, but I didn't have a choice."

Kakashi nodded. "Understood. What is the easiest way to leave the compound?"

Hinata concentrated for a moment. "If we go out of the south entrance in two minutes," she said, "there will be a gap in the patrol that we can slip through. It will be tight, but we could get to the forest that has the hot springs without being seen."

"Good," said Kakashi. "We'll worry about everything else, later. I don't want to be questioned by the other staff if we can help it." He took off, his students closely behind him, to the southern portion of the estate. They slipped through the kitchen, relying on Hinata to keep them out of sight, and hunkered down next to the door that lead to the expansive lawn that separated them from the grove.

All eyes were on Hinata as her Byakugan focused on the outside. Seconds seemed to drag onto minutes, until she gave the signal. Quick as a flash, Kakashi opened the door, allowed the Sanseirei to exit, closed the door, and as one, bolted for the treeline.

They were there within seconds. When they were fifteen feet in, they stopped for a moment, dead silent. Something was wrong-- very wrong.

Blood. Naruto could smell it in the air. Human blood. He turned to Hinata. "What the hell is going on?" he asked her, his voice edgy. "Who's out there?"

She frowned. "I can't see anything," she mumbled. "Nobody is in the forest with us."

"Kakashi?" Sasuke said. "What the hell is going on? What could hide from the Byakugan?"

His face was in an expression they had never seen before: panic. "Run," he said. "Now. The other way we came."

"But--"

"I said go Naruto!" Kakashi snapped. "Don't question me!"

"Who is it, Kakashi-sensei?" Hinata asked.

A chuckle broke the tense silence of the grove. It came in softly, as if from a great distance, but gradually grew in both volume and malice. It seemed to come from all directions at once, and from nowhere. They looked around them, frantically craning their necks to find the source of the ominous sound. "Don't tell me you haven't figured it out yet, Kakashi-san," someone said from behind them.

Twenty feet away, lit by beams of afternoon light filtered through the leaves and branches overhead, stood Yamamoto. His short blond hair shone in the golden sun, highlighted by the black shirt and pants he wore. "I hadn't expected you to have acted as early as this, child," he said matter-of-factly. "That old bastard was just begging to die, but it seems that you just can't wait for the right moment, can you?"

Sweat beaded on Kakashi's brow. "Kids, get out of here!" he barked. "You can't fight him! That's an order!"

Yamamoto chuckled. "Oh, no no no," he said. "I don't think they can do anything right now. Why, just look at them!"

Kakashi turned to look at his students just behind him, and was shocked to see them on their knees, paralyzed in fear. "Stop it," Kakashi growled. "This is our fight. They don't have anything to do with your grudge against me."

Yamamoto smiled. "But I'm afraid that they do, young man," he said.

Naruto struggled to his feet, struggling to surpass the killing intent given off by Yamamoto. "Wha- what's he talking about, Kakashi-sensei?" he rasped.

Kakashi looked back quickly at his pupil. "I fought this man, once," he said. "It was an assassination mission to the Water country. Nine years ago, when I was still in the ANBU, I and my squad crossed swords with him." He closed his eyes while recalling the memory. "We were dead the moment he laid eyes on us. Before we could react, my entire squad was destroyed, just by one man. There was nothing I could do. I retreated, but he still managed to cut me with his blade from a great distance. I escaped with my life... Just barely."

Naruto was speechless. This man was strong enough to make his sensei run away without even confronting him first? "Is he really that dangerous?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," Kakashi growled. "Which is why I want you and the others to get outta here! GO!"

Naruto sighed. "I can't do that, Sensei," he said. "The old man would have my hide if I let you die on my watch. If we abandon you..." Naruto slowly drew his sword from over his shoulder and got into a battle stance. "We wouldn't be anything more than trash ourselves."

A flurry of memories hit Kakashi like a brick. He was certain that he had never told Naruto about that conversation with the boy's father all those years ago, and yet practically the same words were coming out of his mouth. Could the Yondaime's spirit still live on in his son?

"This is all very touching, very," said Yamamoto. "But I have things to do and people to kill. So if you don't mind, can we wrap this up?" He smile was twisted. "My sword is still thirsty, very thirsty."

"Thirsty?" Naruto asked, an edge in his voice.

Yamamoto laughed. "Yes, thirsty. Koukon Shikon hasn't had the blood of a jinchūriki in so, so long. Not since... Oh, it must have been when it slew the host of that tanuki, almost thirteen years ago. Poor kid didn't stand a chance, not at all." He licked his lips. "Tasted like... sand and a burning desert air."

Naruto blanched. This guy was strong enough to kill a jinchūriki? A bead of sweat formed on his brow. "Sensei..." he said, a quiver in his voice, "I think it's time to run, now."

Kakashi shook his head. "Not an option anymore, Naruto," he said. "He'd slaughter us from behind; the other two can't move at all. His killing intent is too huge. I'm surprised you can move at all. No, we fight for our lives." In a lower voice, he said, "If you get a chance, run with them when I distract him. I'm strong enough, I think, to hold him off for at least a few minutes. That's your job, Naruto. My life doesn't matter anymore." He steeled his gaze on their opponent. "My name is Hatake Kakashi," he said to Yamamoto. "As of this moment, I am dead. I fight to reclaim my life, and protect the lives of my comrades."

Yamamoto snorted. "Romantic poetry," he said as he raised his right arm and pointed his palm at Kakashi, "but worthless. Now DIE!"

A blur of red shot out of his palm, directed at Kakashi's head. Kakashi and Naruto dove out of the way in opposite directions, Hinata in Naruto's arms, Sasuke in Kakashi's. They deposited them behind the cover of trees to keep them safe, then attacked Yamamoto from opposite sides, left and right.

The red blur flew at Naruto; in a flash, he realized what it was: a large cleaver on a long, manipulated cable made of--

Blood?!

The cord originated from his palm, where a large gash connected the bloody cord to his soft tissue. He managed to backtrack swiftly, but the blade followed him, extremely quickly. He drew his sword in a flash and slashed diagonally, deflecting it when it was just inches from his belly. The blade wavered, then retracted back into Yamamoto's arm.

In the scant seconds his weapon had been occupied by Naruto, Yamamoto was dealing with Kakashi barehanded, deflecting kunai and shuriken with his bare hand, then effortlessly batting Kakashi away before he had a chance to get a blow in with his sword.

He did all of this without moving one inch from his spot.

"Shit!" shouted Naruto as he swiftly circled around behind Yamamoto. "Kakashi, cover me!"

Kakashi nodded and flung a brace of smoke bombs at Yamamoto's feet, which he looked upon with amusement and didn't even attempt to avoid. Naruto leapt into the air, directly over Yamamoto. "Fūton: Daitoppa!" Naruto shouted as he reached his apex. A monumental blast of air pressure released from Naruto's sealed hands, impacting directly onto the ground where Yamamoto had just been. As Naruto landed, he drew his sword and waited for the dust to settle.

Seconds passed... the dust cleared.

Yamamoto had survived without a scratch.

The man yawned dramatically. "Is that all?" he drawled. "Aren't you the jinchūriki of the Kyuubi? Show me what you got."

Naruto winced. Currently, the fox was sealed, and he wasn't coming out, not if he could help it. Before he could say anything, though, the ground under Yamamoto rumbled. To his apparent surprise, a pack of dogs, from tiny to huge, leapt out of the ground like missiles and clamped onto his arms, shoulders, legs, and waist. Yamamoto winced and hissed in pain as the dogs dug their teeth into his flesh. "Interesting summoning technique," he said through gritted teeth as he tried to shake off an enormous bulldog from his right forearm. "Most contracted beasts wouldn't let themselves be put into this sort of risk."

A high-pitched chirping sound came from behind Naruto, behind a cluster of trees. "I raised these hounds since they were pups," Kakashi said as he stepped out from the trees. His hand glowed with a white and blue light-- his infamous technique, the legendary Lightening Cutter, Raikiri. "They'd do anything for me, if I asked them to." He approached a couple steps toward Yamamoto. "You're getting sloppy, old man," he said. "I didn't think it'd be this easy to beat you. My children are safe, and you..." He focused his eyes on Yamamoto's. "...You are done."

He charged in a blur, the glowing hand held closely by his side. When he was barely four feet away, he thrust his hand, fingers first, at Yamamoto's chest and bellowed a mighty "RAIKIRI!!!"

As quick as a flash, the blood-made blade and cord blitzed out of one of the wounds on his shoulder and intercepted the attack, point to point. Kakashi was moving to fast to dodge or compensate; the impact dislocated his shoulder, jarring it out of joint with a sick pop. He flew off to the side and landed in some ferns, hitting his head on a tree as he skidded on the forest floor.

The dogs popped away, vanishing in a cloud of smoke as their connection to Kakashi was terminated. He smiled, just a little, and slowly turned his head to Naruto. "And then there was one," he said. "Well, boy... How do you like my sword?"

Naruto flinched. "That's no sword," he replied. "That's... it's just sick. It's not just your own blood, is it?"

Yamamoto laughed, louder, his voice reverberating amongst the trees. "Good nose!" he cried. "No, this is the blood of those useless idiots who worked with me, guarding poor Nagasaki." He frowned. "Except for Ishin," he said. "I couldn't find him. But the blood of those two more than suffice to fuel my fires."

"You BASTARD!" Naruto cried. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Without another word, a hundred clones appeared and charged Yamamoto, most of which drew their swords. They came at him from all directions-- up, left, right, behind, but the blade and cord sprouting from Yamamoto's chest cut a whirlwind of destruction, slicing each and every clone before they could even get close.

"Come on!" Yamamoto cried, a laugh on his lips. "Give me everything you've got! Show me the value of your blood!"

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto cried again, his fingers in the cross shape. This time, only ten clones appeared around Naruto, who once again charged the monster.

"Not this again!" laughed Yamamoto as he easily cut them all down. "Is this it? Is this the extent of your worth?"

A hand plunged through the earth and grabbed him by the foot. "Not quite!" Naruto said. He held up a half ram seal. "Bunshin Daibakuha!" Yamamoto looked down in shock as realization set in. He tried to break away, but the clone's grip was too tight. Yamamoto yelled, but it was drowned out by the sound of the explosion from underneath.

KABOOM.

Naruto had imparted so much chakra into the clone, the explosion blew even he away, though he had a good forty-foot space between them. As long as I got him too, I don't care, Naruto thought as he landed and just barely managed to keep his footing. He looked up just in time to see a large piece of earth falling straight toward his head, way too close to dodge.

Sasuke and Hinata appeared at Naruto's side, the latter using her natural speed to slap the bits of ground away from his face. "Thanks," he panted. "You two ok?"

Sasuke frowned. "We've been better," he said. "Mostly just embarrassed to be taken down as easily as we did."

Hinata nodded. "Aoiryu and Shukusatsu had to pull our butts out of trouble," she said, "although it took a moment to take effect. Sorry we made you wait."

Naruto nodded. "Don't worry about me," he said. "Kakashi's in trouble. Unconscious, probably injured.

Hinata activated her Byakugan. "I see him," she sad after a second. "He's hurt, but not bleeding. I see no internal injuries, except for his shoulder. He'll live."

"What about Yamamoto?" Sasuke asked.

She frowned. "I... I don't think the Byakugan can see him," she said. "I didn't notice him earlier. I think he has some weird bloodline ability to keep hidden from detection, or something."

"Not quite," a soft voice said from about ten feet to their left. Startled, the quartet leapt away through the trees and scanned the forest floor.

"Heh heh," Yamamoto chuckled as he stepped out from behind a tree. "I love scaring baby chicks like you." His shirt had been blown off by the explosion, and his pants had become little more than rags. Other than that, he remained uninjured. "No, it's not that I have a kekkei genkai, duckling," he said in a mocking tone. "Koukon Shikon remembers the taste off all those it has devoured before, and can identify those related to them. That's how I knew who you all were." He cocked his head. "It's too bad young Kakashi didn't know that little detail. It was such a bore stringing him along while we were out... Being on my best behavior... Koukon Shikon was getting restless, it was all I could do to reign it in all that time!"

"Monster!" Sasuke shouted. "Come on, it's time to tear him apart!"

"Sasuke, wait!"

Sasuke stopped in midstride and glared at Naruto. "What?" he barked.

"Kakashi and I together couldn't take him down," he said. "We need to retreat and plan this out."

"Fuck that!" Sasuke exclaimed. "If we go anywhere, Kakashi's finished!"

Yamamoto smiled grimly. "You have wise friends," he said. "But no matter. You'll all die by my... little friend, here." He twitched, spasmed, unexpectedly. "Oh, is that right," he muttered. "You really want to come out? I don't think they're worth the effort... Oh, all right. You deserve to have some fun, too."

Hinata's sword shook in her grasp. "I have a bad feeling about this," she said.

The whip-blade retreated into Yamamoto's chest, slithering like a serpent, the blade liquefying and entering his body with a sickly sucking sound. "Rejoice!" Yamamoto crowed. "Koukon Shikon wants to come out and play, at full power!" He held his had out, palm up, and within a moment blood began to drip like syrup down to the forest floor.

Naruto felt bile creep into his throat. An evil, oppressing chakra came to him in wave after wave, getting stronger the more blood was spilt. His keen nose picked up multiple scents from the vile stalactite of blood...

"Oh, gods," he murmured. "There must be dozens of peoples' blood swirling around in there."

Yamamoto smirked. "Hundreds," he said with relish. "Thousands, maybe. I lost count." He twisted his palm, and the blood took shape into a massive blade, five feet long, three wide, and with a wickedly sharp-looking point. The blood in the blade seemed to swirl about in random patterns, while its physical definitions remained static. "Sooo..." Yamamoto drawled as he swung his sword around lazily around him, as if limbering up, "Who's gonna be first?"

"FUCK THAT!" shouted Sasuke. "We're not going to die today! Come on, move it! Maneuver three! GO!"

Naruto and Hinata reacted automatically to Sasuke's command. This was a formation that they had drilled dozens of times before in practice, until they had gotten it exactly right. Naruto leaped into the air, flying through a dozen seals in a blur. "Fūton: Shinkūgyoku!" he shouted, releasing a flurry of blades made of his own wind chakra at Yamamoto's body. Yamamoto leaped backwards, almost lazily, and grinned as the jutsu kicked up a large cloud of dust around him.

"Doton: Ganchūsō!" Hinata called from below. Within the dust cloud, a horrendous rumbling was heard, and over a dozen spires of earth protruded from the ground from every angle. They were enormous, twenty feet long, and anything that had been caught on them would be easily skewered.

Unfortunately, the trio couldn't be that lucky; an instant after the jutsu was initiated, Yamamoto had jumped clear of the spires, straight up into the air. He hadn't been completely untouched, though: his left leg had obviously been gashed before he could get clear of the site. Naruto was amazed that their maneuver had worked this well, but it wasn't over yet.

"Katon: Haisekishō!" bellowed Sasuke from just to the other side of the spires. A gigantic cloud of ash spewed from his mouth to surround Yamamoto. To their satisfaction, bellows of pain rang from inside of the ash as it coated Yamamoto's skin, and most likely got into his eyes and other orifices. He was tough, but not invulnerable.

As one, they grabbed from their persons kunai with exploding tags and hurled them at the spot they predicted Yamamoto to land. They impacted the ground bare inches from each other in a perfect triangle, perfection brought on by hours and hours of practice.

Yamamoto fell through the small cloud, his sword noticeable gone, head-first towards the kunai and paper bombs. The tags exploded when he was just a few feet in the air, creating an extremely large explosion that nearly deafened them as the concussion knocked them on their collective asses.

With all of the explosions, concussions, and destruction, Naruto had lost track of his teammates. A thick layer of dust reduced his visibility to ten feet, not nearly enough to begin looking for his friends. He sat still, waiting for the dust to settle. Minute after minute passed, and slowly he could begin seeing more clearly, farther. The crater caused by the paper bombs came into view, and after a moment, Naruto saw into the bottom of the depression... and his blood ran cold.

Yamamoto stood there, stooped, heaving, gasping for breath, holding his shoulder, hobbling on one leg, as the other had sustained injury... but he was alive. After all of that, the exploding ash, the paper bombs, the burns on his skin, all these techniques that should have killed him, he was yet alive. Banged up, yes. But alive.

"What the fuck?!" shouted Naruto. "Why aren't you dead, you bastard?!"

Yamamoto turned an eye on Naruto. Only one eye, as the other was damaged and covered with soot and blood. "My... My... s-sword," he wheezed. "It is... no... normal... sword..." he coughed and hacked, spitting what looked like a tooth onto the ground.

"That's obvious," came Sasuke's snark reply from the opposite side of the hole. "It's made of blood, for god's sake."

Yamamoto turned to him and grinned. "Of course, kid," he said. "But that's only part of it. Have you children ever heard of... vampires?"

Naruto frowned down on the man. "Those are myths," he said. "Nothing more than stories. Fiction."

Yamamoto chuckled softly to himself. "So are demons," he said. "And... Angels." He turned again to look up at Hinata.

Sasuke blanched. "That's different," he said. "We know demons exist because we've seen them! Fought them!"

"So... The only things that exist in this world are things that you've seen? Or fought?" Yamamoto laughed hoarsely. "You little fool. While you weren't even an idea to your parents, I encountered and killed--" He stopped and coughed, droplets of blood and spittle raining from his mouth. "I've killed things that you couldn't even... Imagine..." He swayed on his feet, a glassy look coming over his good eye. "One of them... was a man with the power of demons. His family... were descended from... a monster."

Yamamoto's words were gradually losing strength, but he spoke on to a rapt audience. "His blood was... alive. Sentient, like a parasite. To stay alive... it needed to feed. I killed him... but not before his blood left his body... and invaded my own. It granted me some level of immortality... Invulnerability..." He dropped to his knees, his head drooping. "It took over me, a little. Made me stronger. More... savage. I killed one of the Mist's Seven... Swordsmen... destroyed his weapon. I took his place, for a time. I left when the Yondaime... Mizukage... tried to capture me to... study my blood." He raised up his ruined hands and looked at them with regret. "My living... blood."

He smiled, a small, genuine smile. "You three... You killed it. I can't recover. I'm... dying. I have a... a favor, please."

Naruto looked down on him with suspicion, although Hinata and Sasuke had a little pity in their eyes. "What do you want?" Naruto asked.

Yamamoto looked up at Naruto and smiled. "You will one day be much, much stronger than you are now. You might even tame the beast... inside of you. If you... do... and you meet the lord of the Mist... the jinchūriki for the Sanbi... Kill him. If you dare... at least... It was he who killed... all those people... Those loyal... people..."

His sentence trailed off. He slumped while kneeling, his head held low. For a moment, Naruto thought he was merely recovering his strength. But he was wrong.

Yamamoto had stopped breathing.

He was dead.

Naruto looked at the man in the pit with pity, scorn, disdain. Politics, even in the world of the ninja, didn't interest him. Was he really expected to kill his bretheren? He didn't know if he was capable of it.

"No promises," he said under his breath. He turned to Sasuke. "Go collect Kakashi, make sure he's safe. If he's injured worse than we thought, do your best. Hinata, grab our gear. Scan for the fastest way out of here. I want to be rid of this place by sundown."

They nodded, and without question, turned to their tasks. Not even for a moment was he surprised that they had obeyed his command, but neither had it brought him any elation. He knew that, after Kakashi, he would probably be the one to answer for their actions.

"No need to worry about me," said a voice behind Naruto before any of them could get to work. Naruto turned around, and there stood Kakashi, a bit mussed up but mostly fine, with their bags at his feet. "I caught the last couple minutes of that conversation, probably it was the explosions that woke me up. Putting my shoulder back into place hurt... but that's the extent of my damages." He looked down the hole to the body of Yamamoto. "You three did this?" he asked, though he knew the answer to the question already. "Impressive. I honestly thought at least one of you would die if you fought." He smiled through his mask-- he had taken the newer one off already, and returned to his real face. "Thanks for disappointing me."

"You're welcome," Naruto snarled. "Let's just get out of here. Now."

Kakashi looked taken aback by his outburst, but took it in stride. "All right," he said. "Good idea. Hinata?"

"Oh! Um..." She searched with her Byakugan momentarily. "If we go north... We can get to a path that will take us back to the main trader's road and back to Konoha."

"Well then," Kakashi said, "lead the way. Come on, everyone... Let's go home."

A/N: Well, there it is, in black and white. Love it or hate it, there's my story. Next chapter in a month or so, though we all know how bad my ability to keep to deadlines is. Read and review!