Night began to fall and the team found a small cave opening to duck into. Naruto found this to be somewhat too risky and decided to question the decision.
"Given Iwa shinobi usually prefer doton jutsu, wouldn't it be unwise to go into such a cave? If discovered we would be at a severe disadvantage."
Talon's posture changed, and Naruto thought it meant he was grinning. All his old observations about how people did things were hidden somewhere in his mind, long unused by years in hiding. They were slowly coming back into use for him.
"Well then we don't get found do we?"
That was that then. He was good at not getting found. He followed them into the cave as the sun ducked behind a steppe and darkness descended more thoroughly. No fire was lit, nobody needed it, and it was too much of a risk in the cave. It wasn't deep enough to disguise properly.
The ANBU settled down somewhere that was comfortable enough for themselves, and went into ANBU crash sleep mode. It was the perfect mode for resting whilst being aware enough to respond fast.
Naruto didn't bother sleeping and kept watch out of the entrance, bow primed and ready for action.
He heard Talon slide over next to him.
"So, what was it like?"
"What was what like?"
The man's voice was a low whisper.
"Those years. I know you don't want to talk about it, but I have to know. How did you manage it? Food? Drink? Other...necessaries?"
He tried to recall only the most basic of information. He wanted to tell him everything, and he could have. But it wasn't the right time.
"I stole food from the kitchens or ate when I was disguised as a cook. Some days I didn't eat, because of the patrols."
Talon nodded slightly, he knew about days when you didn't eat, but they were rare for ANBU. Stealing food was slightly less common, but over three years? For a mission you got called up for at very short notice?
"Drink I got from a small water source where I made my home base. It was enough."
"Where was your home base?"
"A small gap in the rock by a ventilation shaft."
That was interesting at least. The only place he could find and he found it. Luck, but used to the full.
"Those were the only necessities other than intelligence gathering, which I did with care."
Talon considered asking about going to the toilet and other such things. He decided against it. He didn't want to push Naruto too far.
"Sounds like you had a tough time."
"It had challenges I was able to overcome."
Talon placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. The young man didn't turn from his watch.
"If you need to talk to people, we're always here Naruto. Anko will be as well. I'm sure Hokage-sama will find you someone to talk to."
The boy was silent for a few moments until he removed the hand and crept a little back into the cave to sleep.
"Thank you Talon-san."
"No problem."
He found a comfy enough spot and went to sleep. Naruto merely kept watch.
His summons could alert him to enemy presence easily enough if needed. What he wanted to watch was the world around him.
The cloudless night was dark under the new moon. The only lights Naruto could see were those of the stars in the sky.
The full glory of the heavens was displayed in all its majesty before him. He could not only see a few stars, like you got in the cities and near the towns. Or underground, like he had been.
The sky, the open sky before him. He realised how much he missed it. He saw the stars up above, and wondered what they were. They couldn't just be spots of light in the sky. They had to be something more. For all his shinobi knowledge, an education into people and things that didn't have practical use was lacking.
His keen eye took in the bands of lighter materials that stretched through the sky. What were they? How did it work and why?
He pondered all of these things as he kept watch through the night.
The patrol lasted for three days without any kind of incident. No Iwa forces were building on the border, and there was no sign of any forces whatsoever. The rocky steppes were peaceful and without any real danger.
The rest of the ANBU seemed satisfied that nothing was going on, and they continued to move to the most remote point they would reach into the Iwa lands.
Then Naruto felt the tremor of chakra, and judging by the reaction of the others, so had they. Pig stared in its direction.
"You guys felt that as well right? That was insane. Something big is going down."
Talon turned to Naruto.
"Can you see what is going on there?"
The Byakugan had already been on when the blast of chakra occurred, and Naruto could see what looked like a glow coming from a valley a mile away. He was at the limits of his vision just looking at it, and the glow was very strong.
"No, there's too much chakra, the jutsu used is large."
Talon thought for a moment.
"We need to check this out. It could be an Iwa Junchuuriki, and information on them is well prized. Don't get seen, and if you do, run like hell to Konoha."
The team spread out to get more vision on the target, Naruto taking the most circuitous route. His thin frame was more powerful than before as his recovery continued, and he ran low to the ground from cover to cover. He already had the distraction genjutsu on himself.
The amount of chakra being used ahead was entirely staggering. It was similar to the levels he had briefly seen when the One-Tails had reformed.
It had to be another person like him. He suddenly felt the need to be there with them and talk to them.
Then there was another burst of chakra that was very different. That meant there were at least two people of high power there.
That meant someone was fighting him? Or his training was more extreme than anything he had ever encountered. He felt excited.
He ran forwards faster and began to climb the slope as fast as he could whilst maintaining a basic level of stealth. He was near the top. His Byakugan could only see a seething mass of chakra in the valley on the other side.
He realised that there could be any number of figures hidden in that chakra and slowed down a little. Whilst it was unlikely that there was anyone in that battle other than the two powerful figures, it was possible.
He peered over the lip into a valley of heat and steam. Then there was lave spreading outwards and more water meeting it. An entire mountain was slowly getting built in the middle of the valley as water met fire.
Two people were moving very, very fast at the bottom of the valley. He could see the chakra signatures, there were three. Two were moving together, with one moving around the other. They were the same signature. Twins? No, that wasn't it. It was likely a clone of some sort.
The other was burning bright red chakra into his vision like a small sun. It was a man encased in chakra and spewing forth more. The Junchuuriki.
He realised that this was not a fight to get involved in. It was not his fight, or his orders to be in the fight.
The amount of swirling chakra was almost hypnotic.
The noise however, was cataclysmic. He could barely hear anything over the thunder of the battle, and that worried him. He was nearly blind and deaf to all threats that could sneak up on him. Then again, they were blind to him.
He snuck along the top edge as the battle continued to rage below. It seemed there was less lava around. Then the steam flowed upwards. He went to ground.
The hurricane like wind slammed over him and ripped up smaller rocks and trees and flung them out of the valley. His radio became a wash of static that he tuned out, and he stayed flat behind a small ridge until things died down.
Then he peered up after a few seconds and was hit by the second shockwave as the beast below roared.
It was a four tailed monkey, taller than a house and wider as well. Two giant fists slammed onto the ground with such force that it became molten and cracked.
With the steam and lava cleared, its opponent became clear. A man with blue skin stood before it holding a large blade that gently twitched. That was the same chakra signature of the man. That meant the sword was definitely not normal, and likely alive.
He scanned for other figures and saw four. That was a potential problem.
There were only three others on his team, and he couldn't discern which was which with this much residual chakra in the air.
He couldn't risk drawing attention to himself, so stayed put. The battle below had taken on a less visible but somehow more intense phase.
The man with the sword was hurting the beast with every swing of his weapon and he could see why. Its chakra was being siphoned out into the sword with every hit. That was certainly a good weapon to have, even if it was too large and out of his depth for Naruto to even consider using.
The beast was also shedding a fair amount of blood from a lot of light, gashed wounds. Its glow was getting weaker as it tried to strike the elusive man again and again, but it was too slow. The man was reading it and blocking it in. He wondered why the beast didn't just flee.
He checked his surroundings again; one of the figures was closer, but not enough to really concern him.
He realised the great monkey was faltering as it spread lava once more over the valley floor. The man used water to cool some and danced around the large fists that tried to swat into a burning death.
He realised the man with the sword was going to win. The Junchuuriki had over-committed himself to the fight and only now saw that it wasn't going his way.
His attempts to flee saw him flattened by a tidal wave of water than sent steam rising into the valley and the body of the beast slammed hard into the rock face. Naruto flattened himself further as the apocalyptic sound died down. He checked his surroundings again.
There was a figure not ten metres from him. His headset was still nothing but static. He crawled back silently and readied his bow, throwing up his distraction genjutsu.
The battle in the valley was forgotten as he prepared to fire. He remembered the last shot he had fired and nearly twitched in his aim. That was then, this was now. He could hit. He would hit if he knew the man wasn't an ANBU. He knew now it wasn't Pig, the size was too small.
He watched the walk; it was slow and meticulous, as if nothing was happening. It was almost casual to the eye. It wasn't Hare either. But was it Talon?
The figure was five metres away and the steam was so thick he still couldn't tell. The smell of sulphurous lava crept up out of the valley from the amount of cooling volcanic rock.
The seconds felt tense. Was it Talon or not? Yes and he was safe, no and he fired and took the figures head off. It walked like Talon certainly.
The figure got closer and he saw the loose robes surrounding the figure and fired before the figure split apart into crows.
Naruto realised that there were now several figures around him and he was very much alone with very few places to hide.
He put another bolt into the crossbow, and created two shadow clones to run in opposite directions.
He shrunk back deeper into the rocks, watching for the figure. The chakra haze was weaker here and he could just see his clones moving out beyond his sight range.
He expected one of them to die and the other to make it round to Talon. People didn't expect two decoys with no real one.
Then both sets of memories came back to him in a flash. His attacker had clones of his own, and he had a sharingan Naruto had ever seen before.
There was only one person that could be, and Naruto's mind whirred even further into overdrive. There was no time for fear, he would flee as quickly as possible, and fight what little he could if he needed to.
He drew the tanto blade and tightened the crossbow around his back. Speed would be important now, his bow was not a fast weapon.
He prepared to deactivate the outer reaches of his restriction seal to use more chakra for speed.
Then he looked out with his Byakugan and saw the eyes of the man ahead of him light up before the world changed.
This was not the valley. He pulsed his chakra to no effect.
The voice came from everywhere.
"Welcome to Tsukotoyumi. There is no escape for the next 72 hours."
Then the air in his lungs was punched clean out of him and he fell onto freezing black sand. A figure stood over him, eyes glowing bright red like some unholy fire. The voice was slow, deep and deliberate, resonating in the subsonic and somehow chilling his very soul.
"Who are you little Ghost?"
He was picked up, and found himself unable to resist the man's efforts at all. His muscles were dead and he couldn't move. The man knew his moniker, if not his name. If anything that was more dangerous.
He wouldn't answer though.
The man threw him into the air and suddenly he was tied to something, arms outstretched and being pulled. His arms didn't like the feeling at all.
"Answer me and this can hurt less. I don't know enough about you to want to kill you just yet."
Itachi paced around him, and somehow he was able to turn and face him at all times despite being tied still. It was disorientating. He was in pain, but he'd suffered worse. The Root torture teams had inflicted worse than this in his training. Orochimaru and his men worse still. He wouldn't be made to talk by that.
"Three years ago I returned to Konoha very briefly in search of the Fourth Hokage's Legacy. I came in search of a Junchuuriki that held the Nine-Tailed beast, and unfortunately it was too early for such a search. I was found and left to avoid fruitless conflict, but not before catching up with some old friends."
He kept pacing. The thing he was tied too was both boiling and freezing at once. That was a neat trick.
"There was no sign of a Junchuuriki though. By that time, there should have been a thirteen year old running around with the beast sealed into him or her, being scorned and hated by everyone. At least, that is the usual fate of the Junchuuriki.
Yet after the attack, no baby was guarded. Nobody paid any attention to the sudden disappearance of a tailed beast at all. In fact, the official word was that the beast had been defeated by the Fourth at the cost of his life. How noble. How brave. The people ate it up because its a story people wanted to believe. It is only human of them. They would prefer to know their hero succeeded in death rather than only delayed the inevitable."
He stopped and sat down on a stone throne that had appeared behind him.
"Yet you can't kill a Tailed Beast, at least not in the traditional sense. Actually, now that I see your equipment you might know this already. You killed the Suna Junchuuriki. I sense it. Lady Tsunade told you it would reform.
Interestingly, a lot of people knew that and wondered what had actually happened. A lot of those questioners died in the months following the attacks in accidents whilst travelling or on missions. That was odd as well. Those than did afterwards suddenly kept it very much to themselves so as not to fall prey to the curse.
So when the organisation I work for decided to search for all the beasts, the most powerful of them all appears not to exist as a Junchuuriki. So that Junchuuriki must be hidden. Who hides a weapon like that? Who can hide a weapon like that?"
He tilted his head sideways to observe Naruto.
"Even Zetsu couldn't find it. The finest sensor in the world unable to find a giant chakra entity. Impossible. Any Junchuuriki should stand out like a beacon to him. So where was he?"
The man leant back and sighed. Naruto wondered whether or not he was actually going to be tortured or just talked at. Even so, it was interesting enough and far more pleasant than being hurt.
"Then a couple of weeks ago one of our little people in Orochimaru's main hideout tells us about someone who infiltrated his hideout and killed my brother. Poisoned."
The man leant forwards, the red eyes somehow becoming more intense and burning even brighter. It was like something ripping into his soul. He wasn't going to be intimidated by something like that though.
"At first I thought such a thing was impossible. Not only is such a hideout near impossible to locate and infiltrate for even a day, let alone the length of time he had to have been there. Nearly three years. That was incredible in itself.
But to then poison someone in that place? To poison a snake summoner who is the apprentice to a man who comes up with deadly poisons and another man who is probably the second most brilliant medic in the entire world? That was what caught my attention. Nobody should be capable of that. Nobody would dare conceive of it being possible."
The man stood, a short katana blade in his hand, held facing the ground. The sky seemed to be made of fire now and he felt like his hair was on fire. The air was acrid and sulphurous and he felt like he was choking on it.
"So I paid my old partner a visit. It turned out he had finally captured a clone of the person who had infiltrated and undone him. He told me some interesting information."
Naruto didn't blink as the katana made a few neat cuts. His shirt fell away in tatters and burst into smoke and crows as it left. That made for interesting watching, but the man now knew more than he wanted.
The man played the tip of the katana on the spiral that adorned his stomach.
"Apparently the boy in question had a large amount of seal matrices on his body. A very large, very strong, eight pronged seal that could only have been put there by a master as skilled as the Fourth Hokage."
The tip moved along to the outside seal, blocky and built like a fortress.
"And some other seals which nearly completely blocked his chakra down to minimal levels. What he didn't mention was this."
He indicated the Memory Eating Seal.
"And it's been used hasn't it? That is...abhorrent. Yet I am not here to judge your failure. What could drive you to such lengths I wonder? What scares someone who spends three years in a rat-hole in the base of a missing nin that much? What causes fear in the fearless one? Apparently you didn't even say anything on the torture slab beyond your serial number."
He walked back to the plain throne and sat, cocking his head.
"Well you are a mystery aren't you? I must say I was fortunate to find you in the haze of chakra. You're good at hiding, but not good enough. My eyes strip away a lot of the illusion and give you a slightly different glow in the light. Your eye too. I cannot fault you for being found by me, I am one of a small number of people skilled enough to notice you. That you should be proud of."
Naruto tried to shrug but still couldn't move. So this was Itachi Uchiha. This was the most feared missing nin Konoha had to offer. Apparently he liked to talk a lot and pose a lot of questions. Yet he felt a bizarre kinship with the man.
"So now I find my brother's killer is someone I have to capture for my organisation. If my partner were not otherwise engaged you would have your limbs cut off and be carried away nearly dead."
Naruto showed no reaction. There had to be a way to escape the genjutsu.
"If you think there's a way out of this jutsu there is. Either I stop it, I die or seventy two hours pass. You cannot break it; your mind and senses are under my control. I could undo the memory eating seal or have you kill yourself. I've done the latter before."
That meant he just had to last seventy two hours. That was as long as Orochimaru and his men had done before killing him. He could last this.
"You think you can last this? Your outermost thoughts are not hidden from me, although I would require more effort to get deeper than that."
That was getting annoying.
"I can put you through more pain than Orochimaru could in an instant with a flick of my mind."
There was a moment of total agony that drew a cry from Naruto. That was bad. That was very bad. Still, he was sure it could be worse.
"It could very much well be. Tell me, why did you kill my brother?"
He would not yield under torture. He prepared himself for more pain.
"I don't want to break you to get the information out of you. Tell me the truth and this can go without pain. I just want an answer to that question."
He knew how to be interrogated.
"Naruto. Serial number 002953. Rank: Chunin."
Itachi just sighed and the agony returned for ten seconds. Naruto counted through the growl of pain he let out.
"Don't just give me that. Give me an actual answer. I could rip it out of your head you know, I'm no specialist so not much will be left of use. Just give me the answers and this can end."
His voice was quickly becoming hypnotic and he blanked it out with a furious effort. He still had some control. Itachi looked a little surprised and he took some solace that he could resist.
"You are stronger than you let on, but you cannot last. So far I haven't been trying properly. Fighting like a rat in a corner."
The man was so calm and so in control Naruto found himself feeling a pang of respect towards him. This was how Naruto would have hoped to carry out an poeration. Calm, collected, objective and efficient.
The agony doubled for a full minute. The man was standing, holding the katana outstretched, the tip touching the Memory Eating Seal.
"Tell me or I unleash the one thing you fear; something that terrifies you!"
He couldn't face that yet. He wasn't ready.
Itachi relaxed into the throne again.
"Now, why did you kill my brother?"
"It was my mission."
Itachi tilted his head to the other side.
"No it wasn't. You think it was but it wasn't. You've fooled yourself. Let's go back shall we? The memories are already in your mind. Let's take a look again shall we?"
The world swam again and there was rain. Itachi floated above the valley on his stone throne as he watched the scene.
It was all from his perspective, and that was disorienting. He was behind his own eyes with no control, knowing what he was going to do. He tried to force his finger back but couldn't.
He saw the crossbow quarrel hit Baka and he winced. He didn't like this memory at all, but he'd kept it. He'd relived it and dreamed it before, but never this vividly.
He saw himself take one fleeting glimpse back before ploughing onwards.
The world faded again.
"That was interesting. You kept going on the mission when any other shinobi would have stopped. If you'd gone back then you would be better of perhaps?"
"No. I had to complete the mission, making any required sacrifices."
"Even unto death?"
"If I had to."
Itachi smiled a little.
"I wonder if it will ever come to that. Your life or your mission. Although..."
Itachi paused as he considered something.
"I think you'll figure it out for yourself. Eventually you'll find the void in your memory and wonder. I believe the seal will undo itself when you want to remember badly enough, and I think I know what you'll see."
Itachi stood and stretched.
"But back to the matter at hand. Why did you carry on? Certainly not duty, your mind was in chaos. That memory. Yes. You were torn until you found your hidey-hole in the base. So why keep going?"
"It is my purpose."
"Purpose to what?"
Itachi snapped. Turning to face him with fiery eyes again. He was again taller, far away and near and small and fire and smoke. He was all around and nowhere. Naruto's sense struggled to keep up.
"Purpose to do missions. Purpose to kill."
"No."
The agony flared up again. As it finished he panted and hung from where Itachi had him bound with his mind.
"You were not doing it simply out of duty. There was something more driving you. Think deep and find the answer before my patience runs dry."
His voice was a snarl now. The angry snarl of a wolf preparing to lunge and rip and tear until nothing was left.
He thought deeply as Itachi seemed to prowl around him. Why had he felt to driven? What had he felt when...the answer came to him. A word he had heard and knew the definition of but not the feeling.
"Redemption."
The world calmed and Itachi was there in his thrown, head tilted gently to one side with a small smile on his face.
"Good."
The slight constant pain stopped.
He found himself standing opposite Itachi in a void like environment. The colour wasn't white, but it wasn't anything else. It was colourlessness and indescribable he was standing on nothingness that stretched for eternity.
"Now we can talk more civilly. I do not wish to capture you, even though that is my purpose. My associate knows nothing of this, nor ever will. Your team will not find me; do not get them to look. This conversation is between us. You will speak nothing of it to anyone."
Naruto nodded warily.
"One day I will end you Naruto, of that much you can be assured. For the moment, consider me your ally. Here is what I am going to do."
Naruto listened as Itachi explained his part.