A/N: It's been a long time, folks. It's taken me a while to sort through where to take the next chapter of the story, and how things should unfold. This one is shorter than I would like it to be, especially given that this is the One Year Anniversary of Misplaced Timing! I can hardly believe it's been so long already, and I've only managed to get twenty(one, now) chapters up.
Thank you, all of you, for your patience and dedication to this story. In a year, this is what the current stat page looks like: 154 reviews, 129,190 hits, 38 C2s, 290 Favorites, and 309 Alerts. Every time I log in and see that it brings a smile to my face. Each and everyone of you are awesome! Now to the 21st chapter!
Sharingan. That word echoed in his mind through the haze that seemed to be taking up so much of his thinking capabilities at the moment, just struggling to get air back into his lungs, and after a few long moments he was able to focus on it and the strange sensation flowing through his body.
A hand gripped his own and slowly and effortlessly lifted him to his feet and helped him stand while he adjusted to it. "Sasuke!" the other boy's voice rang in his ears painfully and he brought his other hand up to his head, where the hazy feeling was being traded for a growing headache. Wearily he turned to look at the blond and stifled the note of surprise he received at the sight; at the boy's core, beneath all the chakra lines he could barely make out, stood four different elements.
He could recognize the first two as probably being his different physical and spiritual chakra points, but the third tied directly into them seemed to hum to him in activity. He would have to ask Kakashi-sensei later what it was, once he thought of that, but it was the fourth and final of these that actually sent a chill down his spine.
Burning reddish-orange energy was both suppressed by and superseded each of these in how it was connected to his body, twisting violently in like thorn covered vines. As he stared at this the pain in his head grew, and he finally had to tear his vision away and look at something as common as the dirt to get some semblance of normality back.
"Sasuke! Are you alright?" the other boy's voice demanded more firmly and surprisingly clearly than before. The youngest Uchiha shook his head slowly, eyes closed to try and get control over his newly awoken dojutsu, and in a few seconds he felt the strain building up behind his eyelids and brain calm down and fade away. When he opened them again everything was back to normal, though his ears still felt like they were ringing when he heard the blond trying to talk to him.
"Gimme a minute..." He said wearily. Careful. Concentrate... He thought to himself, and with a sharp exhalation felt the painfully intense clarity burn itself back into his vision. Everything he glanced at was enhanced beyond his imagination, and he was wary enough to avoid examining the boy next to him again.
Over the next minute or two he found he could will the Sharingan to activate and shut down again within only a couple of seconds. He had done it! At last, his families renowned dojutsu had arisen within him! As he thought that he heard Naruto pace the ground behind him again, only now realizing that he had been doing so and looked rather agitated since the fall.
He helped. If it wasn't for what he said, for challenging me... I don't know when I would have unlocked the Sharingan. He thought and found himself frowning. "Thanks... Naruto." He said somewhat awkwardly. It felt strange addressing him by name for once. Naruto turned to face him with a grimace.
"Are you alright?" He repeated his earlier words, concern quite apparent along with something else beneath it. Sasuke nodded despite the slight ache it induced.
"Yeah. I think I'm good to continue." the Uchiha answered. To his surprise Naruto's golden vision faded to it's natural blue and the orange highlights drifted away as well.
"I think now might be a good time to stop, seeing as Kakashi-se- er, well your teacher is rapidly making his way toward us. It was fun, Sasuke, and I'm glad you're fine." Naruto told him equally as awkwardly before kicking off and vanishing back into the trees they had raced through.
Sasuke watched him go somewhat nonplussed. Two seconds later and indeed Kakashi-sensei came to a steady stop next to him, expression tense. "Did you really awaken your Sharingan already, Sasuke?" He questioned in a tone of quiet reserve. The Uchiha turned to face him warily at that.
In answer to the questioning look he concentrated and felt his vision change over. The muscle twitches beneath the others mask showed what looked to be both a frown and than a smile occur almost simultaneously. "Amazing. Two Tomoe already." the elder shinobi stated softly, and it was definitely in a note of pride this time.
"This will change much of what I had planned for you to learn, and what you already know from the books can be picked up far earlier. This is why I pushed you so hard all this time, Sasuke, for this moment when you could step into your families power and truly begin progressing as a shinobi of this age." He told the child seriously.
"Does that mean I'll finally go back to how I was training before?" Sasuke asked him partly in expectation and partly in further unease at leaving Lee behind.
As if sensing the slight turmoil his teacher grew silent and reeled in his own weary excitement. "No. No, not yet at least. I want you to perfect what you already know and have been practicing before we take such a step forward again. I won't go back on my word to give you knowledge, Sasuke, but now I will have to choose what I give to you more carefully. Your body can only create so much chakra at this age and you will have to be older with a larger reservoir of it before I can provide anything too extensive, too exhaustive." He explained.
The Uchiha managed to mask his own mixed feelings toward that somewhat successfully. "Alright. I can accept that." He responded quietly.
Two different Suna Jounin slipped inside of the open windows of the Kazekage's office and greeted him swiftly and efficiently. "Kazekage-sama, we have word of two men approaching rapidly across the sands toward our canyon entrance!" the first of them intoned rapidly afterward.
He sat up in his seat a little straighter. "Identifying features?" He demanded.
"Black cloaks are the limit to what we could manage to see, Kazekage-sama. Nothing else is visible through the sandstorm, and our sensor seals failed to register the degree of strength." answered the nearest. "We have left an advanced squadron in position with the authority to neutralize the threat should it carry on into Suna itself, sir, given the results from last time." He explained carefully.
As expected the Kazekage's eyes narrowed, both at the reminder and the brief superseding of his authority, but he nodded once. "Return and flank the entrance. Remember to keep up your genjutsu precaution's this time." He ordered. They both saluted and fled back the way they had come, while he himself rose from behind his desk and began the short trek down to the training chambers his youngest son and daughter were currently occupying.
"Konoha has struck my village twice to near ruinous effect. I think it time I use the currently available resources to do something about their third assault." He said aloud. On the way down he found Yura on the way up. "I was about to send someone to find you, Yura. Gather my son and meet me at the prison cells." He stated.
The lesser shinobi blinked in surprise and then turned back the way he had come, pausing only to give a bow of his head. "As you command, Kazekage-sama." He said and hurried along. Ten minutes later and everyone was gathered where they were expected. Danzo blinked up at the lot of Suna nin wearily.
"I have little to tell you." He said as usual. The Kazekage nodded irritably before gesturing to the red haired jinchuriki nearby.
"Than today we are fortunate, Danzo Shimura. I have little to tell you, save that this will be the last day you remain in chains- be them physical or spiritually binding. Before dusk breaks on this day you will be free of the mortal coil." and here, having said that, he turned to face Gaara. The boy looked back at him warily.
"You have been training better than I could have ever hoped, my child. Today you will be accepted into the traditional rank of genin with the other village shinobi if you execute this man, proving you are capable enough to follow my orders." He said with less gruffness than the jinchuriki had ever heard from him. It was by no means a kind tone, but given how his father used to speak to him, Gaara considered it as close to that as possible.
His eyes darkened as he turned to face the silent prisoner. He hated this man for what he had done, for what he had nearly accomplished. The One Tailed Shukaku within him even now stirred eagerly at the chance to avenge itself, and the sand grains along the floor began to hover into the air in anticipation.
For a moment the blond haired child he had fought with reappeared within his mind, and the words they had exchanged rose to the surface. If he did this now, he would truly be in control of his power and could never go back, could not claim the beast within was at fault as it had in the past. Then a whisper settled his mind, coming from someone rather unexpected.
Yura knelt down to the child and spoke to him quietly. "You will have to kill men like this when you are a fully functional chunin, and Jounin, and Kazekage of this village. It is righteous to end his life; look at how he suffers. You won't be murdering him, you will be euthanizing a sick beast already dying on it's own. End his life and spare the misery he would endure otherwise for untold years." the words stirred his resolve and shoved aside the guilt starting to make him doubt himself.
Gaara spared a quick glance between the three of them before focusing on the bound shinobi before him and, grimacing, directing more sand to rush down into the chamber and roar toward the prison cell. Danzo Shimura did not struggle, retrained as he was. He simply inhaled one long breath before he was entombed in a sphere of sand, and than grew silent once more save for the crunch of bone crumbling.
The jinchuriki stumbled backward after a few moments when he could feel no further resistance and turned away from the unwelcome sight waiting once the rubied-sand departed. His father placed a welcoming hand to his shoulder. "I accept your resolve, Gaara my son. You are ready to serve this village as a proud chunin." He stated firmly.
Gaara's confusion over the change in rank faded behind the slight feeling of sickness welling up in his stomach and the fact that he had actually made his father happy for once. "Now come, and let us defend it once more from another threat already nearly upon us." the Kazekage continued.
Kisame yawned as he sat atop the bodies of wasted Suna shinobi, Samehada noisily slurping up spare chakra from the almost lifeless pile. Across from him and waiting next to the Kazekage's office desk itself stood Itachi. "So what do ya think happened here, kiddo?" the shark-skinned man asked his partner to waste time while they waited.
Itachi spared him a dull look. "An assault." He answered simply. Kisame shrugged at the simplicity of it.
"Too easy. Looks almost like Deidara had a field day on the front door." He shot back with a smirk at the Uchiha. As usual he got a hum of neither agreement or disagreement in response, and when pushed a little further finally offered up a sheet of paper waiting on the desk.
Kisame read it, then whistled. "Hah! Looks like Konoha's finally growing a pair, eh kiddo? Wouldn't have thought your old Hokage had it in him to send an assassination attempt at the Kazekage. Maybe your trail actually has merit this time." He conceded and looked out the window toward the unending abyss of sand. Particles of it were still caught in his fins and teeth irritably, not to mention the arid state of the environment.
Itachi stirred about a moment before the noise of movement nearby registered and his partner turned to face the main entrance with a too-wide grin, leveling his sword happily. A wall of sand erupted through not just the doorway but the windows as well to surround the duo shortly thereafter, cutting across the wide space.
It in turn found an equally oppressive barricade of water exploding into existence nearly as soon as it entered the room and, indeed, pushing back against the sand more powerfully than could be overcome despite the difference in preparation time. Walls of mud began forming as the immense sand coagulated together with the water and effectively sealed the room up, trapping both Itachi and Kisame within and keeping the others outside where they were.
Once the sand stopped coming Kisame closed his jaws and swallowed the last of his Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave back down into his gullet in satisfaction. The Uchiha gave him an appraising once over, and the shark-skinned nin smiled toothily in return. "I keep telling you I'm always prepared, and you keep doubting it." He said with more than a hint of smugness apparent.
Itachi nodded twice. "Let us find out who truly rules this village." He said quietly and gestured for his partner to strike at the mud blocking up the main opening. Kisame grumbled good naturedly about it as he approached and swung Samehada down in a shoulder to toe strike.
The mud was blown back so violently through the release of chakra from the blade in the moment of action that it tore apart the actual walls on either side of it and sent the majority of the material backwards violently. The shark-skinned nin shrugged and leaped through, and Itachi followed almost as soon with his left Sharingan spinning clearly in preparation to cast Tsukiyomi.
His breath slipped out sharply, almost painfully, as the final moments of the transference jutsu passed. The boy's body was not perfect, no, but it was normal; no rare kekkei-genkai to be lost if he used it, a basic mold through which he could shape himself again. Each of the others were inadequate to suit his needs at this point but they could yet be shaped given enough time.
His old body lay discarded like a diseased snake skin, a crumbling heap as the damage Jiraiya had inflicted upon it never faded. It had truly been torturous to live and travel as he had been forced to without access to any of his chakra, but as usual he endured and trekked forward as he always had and always would.
The only reason he was even able to survive the transfer process was because of his true form well below the surface, a bundle of chakra kept sealed away from the rest of his host form. If not for that than he would have been trapped for an unknown and potentially decades long, crippled form.
But now after months of misery he was wholeagain. The modifications to the boy's body could begin shortly, and then Otogakure's bloodline limit expansion would begin yet again. His satisfaction lasted only as long as it took for him to depart the subbasement laboratory and cross the small maze of corridors leading back up toward the surface chambers, where he found his only true student awaiting him nervously at the end of the hall.
"What happened while I was missing?" He asked her softly. Anko looked over her shoulder toward the doorway and bunker where the children were kept, and he followed her gaze before striding forward. Peering through the window inside the door he counted the myriad heads training as usual for the time frame and came up two short. The first was obviously the current host form, but the second was Danzo's chosen disciple, a mindless brat with a budding skill in ninjutsu and little else; the only other normal child that had been here on his once-partner's insistence.
Anko trailed after her mentor and kept back somewhat, as if concerned by what he would have to say. "Where is he?" Orochimaru asked her.
"Gone. Along with the seal-scroll to the ROOT base in Konoha. I think he might have been summoned." She told him carefully. Despite the form he was in the elder shinobi turned to give her a very withering stare, and she refined her previous statement. "The sensor seals lost track of his presence, and the door was untouched. The only option is that Shimura himself activated the summoning contract on his student. We'll have to send someone into Konoha itself again since the scroll to ROOT is gone with him." She explained.
"... Very well. In time. I do not care what Danzo does with his pet project, but he has never set foot outside of this complex and neither have I given him our location. Continue to monitor the other children; fully this time." He ordered softly. She nodded twice and stepped up against the door beside him, activating the seal along the outside where it lacked a handle before slipping inside.
Orochimaru watched her for a long moment before departing.
End Chapter 21.