Introverted

Chapter Thirty-Six

Otogakure's secret village was beneath the ground. There were tall wooden palisades that encircled the entrance however, each richly fortified with wires, caltrops and sharp blades. The stench of blood in the air was unmistakeable —it was clear there had been a battle recently, and it was even clearer that it hadn't been the first time, judging by the jaded eyes of the guards that looked at them arriving.

"You two!" one of the guards —probably a Chuunin— "Identify yourself!"

"Sasame Fuma said to come over here!" Naruto exclaimed. "Me pops and I, we're survivors from the monsters!"

"My poor Moyaaaa!" Jiraiya sniffled and wailed. Naruto actually sported a nervous tick-mark. The man was actually wailing that with his breath filled with alcohol…and he was taking in terrible sniffs every time he opened his mouth.

"Yeah, anyway we were going to the Daimyo but—"

"You don't know kid? The Daimyo's gone," the second guard —a tall muscular man with a giant sword on his back— said. "We're all that remains of Rice Field country. Come on in, we're closing the gates for the night anyway."

Naruto gritted his teeth as he stepped inside, carrying the fake-drunk Jiraiya with him as the wooden palisades slid behind them, trapping them inside enemy territory.

The man with the giant sword came down to meet them, extending his right hand for a handshake.

"I'm Hanzaki, the head of the Fuma clan," he said firmly. "I am the new Otokage…but that's just a name now," he exhaled. "The monsters that attacked your village, were they winged?"

"N-No," Naruto shook his head. The man hadn't even asked them from which village they came from, but simply asked about the monsters as if afraid…what was the reason for it?

"Thank Kami for small graces," the tall and broad shinobi murmured. It was then that Naruto finally got a good look around the outside area of the village, and that…that was when he saw misery in the face of others.

Many farmers were stiffly holding crude lances or old swords, while a few of the young one hesitantly held kunai or scythes. They had never wielded a weapon, and it showed. "Well, follow me inside –we'll get you a spot. Food's the only thing not lacking around here…" Hanzaki remarked firmly as he gestured for them to follow. "Food and rice sake," he sighed.

"Is it bad?" Naruto asked slowly.

"It's worse," Hanzaki shook his head. "One day, the monsters just appeared," he began to descend the stairs, passing by a hundred of tents that held what few men and women could fight. "And they…well, they didn't die. It was as if…as if they couldn't feel pain, or care for their life. We stabbed them in the heart, and they lived. We tried to bash their skulls and they lived. We decapitated them, and they still lived," Hanzaki shook his head. "If you can call that life, of course."

"And they're everywhere in rice field country?" Naruto asked in shock. Outside the walls, the rest of his team was in danger then!

"Yes and no," the man said as he knocked on twin giant bronze doors, the entrance to Otogakure. The doors creaked open, "They move at night, and during the day they're catatonic." The man nodded to the guards who had opened the doors, who began to close them back.

The corridors had purple walls, and were wide enough to let two ox carts pass through at the same time. Yet it was a tight fit trying to walk, because women and children sat frightened against the walls. Their eyes were gaunt and filled with dried up tears, while the mothers held onto their sons and daughters protectively while they passed through. There was pure desperation in the air, and even Jiraiya had a more sombre 'drunken mood' at that.

"Ehi pops," Naruto whispered. "What do we do now?"

"Hic," Jiraiya answered. "We help them, of course!"

Hanzaki smiled as he walked past a busy crossroad lit by eerie purple-light torches to reach for the granary. "You must be hungry, both of you," he said, nodding to one of the five men stationed in front of a metal door. The man nodded and opened the door, admitting the three of them inside.

It was a dining room. Normally it would be packed with people eating, but it was now eerily empty –safe for strange crystal-like growths that ran across the ceiling, giving the area a soft pink tint. "There's no way to keep people out of the food stores otherwise," Hanzaki stated. "And we need to keep them away from Guren-san too, or she can't concentrate."

Naruto didn't know who this Guren was, but then again…he was actually starting to think there wasn't a war to fight in Otogakure to begin with: it was as if they had been used by Orochimaru, and then discarded once they had served their purpose. Jiraiya was probably thinking pretty much the same thing.

The man finally reached the end of the room lit by crystals, opening one of many giant drawers and taking out rice cakes and rice onigiri. "As I said before…food's not the problem."

He gestured for them to sit, before 'breaking bread' with them.

"We need soldiers," Hanzaki said. "We're…We're planning on leaving and trying our luck in Demon Country. They don't have much of a military, and we can offer our services to them in exchange for protection. Orochimaru, the previous leader of Otogakure…he betrayed us. He betrayed all of us," Hanzaki shook his head slowly. "That's why…that's why I'm pleading you, Jiraiya-sama, help us!"

Naruto's eyes widened as he cursed loudly, jumping away from the table and palming the only weapon he had on him –the Yoroi Tanto. He ducked and rolled, evading a flurry of crystal shuriken that crashed against the ground and erupted in spikes that flew to Naruto's pursuit. He jumped away, slamming down one of the tables in the dining hall to use as a shield. The moment the shuriken touched it however, it crystallized on the spot. Fragments of pink began to fly in Naruto's vision, as the crystals overhead splintered and broke.

Cursing, he brought his hands together to begin his only wind technique, when Jiraiya's voice cut through calmly, followed by Hanzaki's own.

"Stop!" Naruto stilled, just as the crystals materialized into a dark blue haired figure wearing a long green coat with a white furred neck-line. The woman's lips were glossy, and she licked them while keeping a keen eye on Naruto.

"How did you know who I was?" Jiraiya asked then, looking back to Hanzaki.

"Orochimaru was extremely paranoid when it came to you," the woman said. "He had us learn all your possible disguises and mannerisms…by heart. He also told us before leaving that you might have come here after he began his attacks…so we just knew that, when an old man and a boy arrived without showing any sign of prolonged malnutrition…"

"You suspected," Jiraiya accused. "But you had no proof."

"The crystals on the ceiling emit a light frequency," the woman said. "I can hear them vibrate when something electronic is in range, something small like ninja radios emit a specific frequency."

"So you signalled him that we were indeed shinobi, and you took your chance," Jiraiya nodded. "Very well…" he exhaled before standing on the table. "Indeed it is! The Gallant Jiraiya of the Sannin!"

Striking a pose with a bright smile, the Sannin smirked. "What can I do for you, young lady?" he then said with a lecherous face moving closer to the woman who just shuddered and stepped back.

"You'll find no luck with Guren-san," Hanzaki said calmly. "You're too old for her tastes."

Guren narrowed her eyes on Hanzaki, who just shrugged. "And I'd rather not have to dispose of another crystal corpse."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing more. Naruto frowned. Crystal corpse?

"In any case," Hanzaki said. "We would like to leave for Demon Country…if not us, at least the civilians who have done nothing."

"Why not cross to Fire Country?" Jiraiya said with a questioning voice.

"We are still ex-Orochimaru loyalists," Hanzaki said. "Do you really think we'll be let go, even after delivering the information Konoha wants?"

"So it's a beneath the table exchange you'd like to make?" the Sannin queried.

"Exactly," Hanzaki nodded. "Guren-san? Could you bring Jiraiya-sama's apprentice out of here while we talk?"

"He stays where I can see him," Jiraiya retorted quickly. His eyes shone slightly.

"If that is your desire," Hanzaki sighed. "Very well, what I wanted to talk about was…"

The doors suddenly jerked open, as a scared Chuunin yelled out in the room. "We're under attack! The monsters found a way inside!"

"What?!" Hanzaki's exclamation was met with Guren dashing out of the room, faster than Naruto could follow her.

"Naruto! Assist them!" Jiraiya bellowed. "Hanzaki-san? We can let the discussion begin after we deal with this…problem."

"Of course," Hanzaki nodded stiffly. Naruto followed Jiraiya outside, not seeing the simple summoning technique the Sannin used before pursuing Hanzaki. A small red toad croaked in the empty room once, before slowly making its way deeper in the compound.

Jiraiya had a secondary mission, after all.

The tents were on fire when they stepped outside, as the few people who weren't screaming slashed and stabbed with their weapons against strange hulking creatures made of flesh and torn muscles, whose overgrown bones were used as crude make-shift maces to tear and smash to bloody pulps the defenders.

Overgrown sac of flesh pulsed eerily in the night sky, as their deformed mouths filled with crooked teeth moaned their despair and their pain. Their muscles pulsed as the monstrosities seemed to grow and rip themselves apart as they gorged on the flesh of the deceased, before slowly breaking apart into two new smaller creatures.

"W-What are those things!?" Naruto's exclamation was met with Jiraiya making a single hand-sign, letting a thick stream of oil coat the closest of the monsters, before the second hand-sign added fire to the mixture igniting the beast and making it scream a sharp blood-freezing shriek.

"Orochimaru's experiments!" Hanzaki yelled. "This is why we need your help, Jiraiya-sama!" as he said that, he pointed to the monster that the sage had burned…which was now shuddering as the charred skin began to crack and splinter, before showing raw red flesh that soon regrew and reformed.

"What do you do with them usually!?" Jiraiya's voice carried over just as Guren's crystal particles flew to freeze the beast in a prison of crystal. She smashed the creature to bits afterwards.

"That," Hanzaki curtly replied, "But even Guren-san can't hold for much."

The walls trembled as a roar echoed, soon followed by the crashing down of the wooden palisade to the side. Naruto had expected to end up battling a monster, not to find his teammate running across the landscape towards him eyes shining and with a kunai in her mouth.

Sakura didn't know they were trying to peace-talk with the Otogakure shinobi. She didn't know there were civilians inside the village. She only knew that her packmate was in danger, and that Sensei had told her they had to wait. She had waited until she had seen him in the thick of the battle, then she had charged ahead and blown up the wall with a dozen of explosive tags.

It didn't matter that the noise had brought in more of those monsters. It didn't matter that she had just made a hard fight a suicidal one-stand.

The Pink-Haired Chuunin used her right hand to tear apart the neck of an Oto shinobi, slashing at him from behind as she sped up, jumping in the air and twisting as she spat out the kunai to grab it with her free bloodied hand before using gravity to fall fasted and smash the head of one of those monsters like it was a watermelon.

A ripe watermelon.

She didn't stop, not caring that the monstrous creature was actually standing back up with its head reforming around the kunai…as if it was just…some sort of momentary trouble.

Naruto swallowed and sidestepped the bone mace of one of the creatures, his hands calling forth the chakra to his throat as he began to make it spin within his mouth. The moment he heard the familiar sound of chakra grinding against itself to form wind, he exhaled the lethal blades of air against his opponent.

The blades sliced through the experiment's chest, cutting him into two distinctive halves and scattering its limbs like it had happened with the deer itself. Naruto then felt Sakura's back against his, as the girl had apparently moved to watch his back.

"What are you doing here, Sakura!?" he exclaimed as he found himself parrying the attack of a sound-nin with the chakra reinforced Yoroi Tanto. The problem was that Hanzaki hadn't had the time to tell his men he was supposed to be on their side…and now that he was back to back with a Konoha ninja who had killed one of their own…it would be all the more difficult.

"You were in danger!" she yelled back.

"I'm a shinobi!" he screamed as he took a vertical slash forward against the sound-nin, before crouching and jumping forward to stab the thigh of the enemy ninja before he could bring down his kunai against Naruto's back. The boy then sidestepped, letting his blade tear through the man's thigh muscles and moving out of his range of attack as he extricated from the very bone of the leg his weapon.

The Sound-Nin screamed as he clutched his leg and fell on the ground, but his screams were gurgled to death by Sakura stomping down on the man's neck and breaking his spine, before she charged ahead to slam her own fist against an enemy behind Naruto.

The sound of a skull caving in was something Naruto would now remember forever –it made a strange crunching noise followed by a wet 'slurp' as the fist removed itself from the tender flesh.

Naruto saw a bone club coming down on Sakura again, from a strange experiment that held two heads rather than one, when an Ink Lion slammed into the foul creature and pushed it to the ground, before a fireball lit it up enhanced by the gasoline in the ink.

Sai's flurry of shuriken passed by Naruto and Sakura with grace as the boy neared, the volley used to force the incoming Sound-nin on their location to stop and duck away.

The moment Sai was at his left and Sakura at his right, Naruto began going through hand-signs.

Technically, all techniques could be done without hand-signs. It wasn't easy, but the Nidaime Hokage was renowned for having made a thirty-three hand-sign technique require only one, and the most skilled the shinobi, the less signs were required.

However…more signs meant more ease in controlling the chakra outburst, which meant a stronger technique.

Five seals later, and Naruto's air blades were enhanced by two fireballs that created a veritable maelstrom of scorching fire in front of the trio of Chuunin.

The fire charred through both experiments and shinobi, taking into its fiery embrace of death also the farmers who had taken up arms to simply defend their homes. The screams…the screams would not be something easy to forget.

In the midst of the battle however, Naruto couldn't think about that.

He had to survive by pushing himself down on the ground to avoid a swing of another bone club, and he had to roll back to avoid being stomped to the death. He had to pull Sai back by grabbing him by the shoulder and avoid suffering a kunai to the neck, just as he had to let himself be thrown away by Sakura from thin strands of wire that another enemy had used against him.

They had to fight one with the other, and they had to trust one another. It was…

It was glorious and exhilarating.

He felt adrenaline run through his body as he twisted sideways to avoid three kunai, only for Sai to tackle him to the ground and roll away as one of the three detonated –an explosive tag had been attached to it, probably. He barely managed to stand up that he realized one of the experiments had taken a swing against them –one that he could not dodge in time.

Naruto sailed in the air, feeling his entire left side unresponsive and mushy from the sheer impact, before hending up with his right side cracking as he landed in pain against the wooden remains of the palisade. The barbed wire and the metal blades tore through his skin as he rolled against them, before landing in a shuddering mess on the ground, face down.

"Naruto!" he heard a worried voice. "Naruto!" was it getting farther away?

"Blood," he muttered. His gaze unfocused, as Naruto watched his blood falling on the ground and dripping down from his torn apart body. He struggled to remain awake. He could hear the light chuckling sound of the Kyuubi behind his ears; he could feel the Ichibi's rotten corpse rise from beyond the seal, ready to take control of his slipping away mind…and then he saw the bone lance of an experiment coming down on him, just as a pink blur stood shakily in front of him, screaming to the top of her damaged voice.

"You won't get him! You won't take him away from me, you understand?!"

The black blur to his other side was drawing furiously, but the pink blur was in danger. He…He wanted to do something.

If he could grind the chakra…if he could…

The thought gave him…noise.

He heard a strange grinding sound around him.

He couldn't move his neck –It hurt too much– but he watched as the white blurred lance came crashing down against the pink blur…and was stopped by a giant yellow blur that looked like a floating hand.

"Get." He hissed out. "Away." He choked on his own blood, which was pooling in his mouth as he had bitten his tongue from the effort to remain awake. "From…" the blurred form took back definition in Naruto's eyes, which were bleeding just like most of his body. "MY TEAMMATE!" He roared that as the giant sand hand crushed through the experiment and pushed him away before snapping him in half and tearing it apart with the same principle of creating wind.

The monster…did not stand up, as only grains of flesh and blood remained smeared on the sand that gently floated now in the air.

"N-Naruto?" the voice was further away now, why was it getting away?

"Ehi, Naruto!" the voice was holding on his face with her hands. "Naruto! Answer me! Stay with us! Stay awake! You can't fall asleep now! Naruto! Stay with me! Please! Stay!"

Blessed darkness captured his gaze…

And Naruto Uzumaki exhaled.

He found himself floating, in the midst of a pitch black sea of ink. In that darkness, in that nothingness, he floated and felt himself growing heavy.

He heard a slight chink coming from somewhere close to his chest, and as he gazed downwards he saw something so bright that it hurt his eyes. It was a chain, a golden chain made of chakra that looked golden, which pierced him through the stomach and seemed to be going upwards.

There was another chink.

A second chain of gold appeared too, slowly coiling down the first one like a snake before it plunged into his stomach without hurting him.

He didn't understand. What had he been doing till then?

Where was he?

I am the one who will establish peace and order.

There was a voice now. It was deep, dark and ominous. It felt twisted. It felt wrong.

Destroy the village. Destroy Hashirama.

It wasn't the voice of his father, but he had to follow it as if it were…

It was wrong.

Fool demon! Be gone from our village, no wicked live here!

The rapist was there. Why were they stopping him?

The Sage is just a fairy tale, and you are just a demon! You will not take my son!

But he was a murderer, a murderer of hundreds.

The Daimyo is not a sinner, nor is he wicked! He was chosen by the heavens and no-one will listen to your words, demon!

Monster!

Prepare the archers! Call the armies!

He was doing his duty.

He was doing what the sage had asked. He wanted to bring peace to the world.

Why…Why were they not listening to him?

"I AM THE KYUUBI! THE BEARER OF HUMANITY'S HATRED!" he roared to the skies…as he cried his tears. "Why? Why must I be in this form, father? What have I done to displease you so much?"

His claws were wicked, his eyes crimson and evil. His fur soaked in the red colour of blood. "What have they done to us, father?" he whispered. "Where have my brothers gone…"

"Foul beast!" a female voice called to him. The figure had red hair, tied in buns, and was wearing a long sleeveless kimono. She held an ofuda in her hand and had tags as piercings. He didn't like her, but she smelled familiar.

"You have destroyed the lives of hundreds for long enough!"

"I have done what I was tasked to do by the Sage himself, fool!" the Kyuubi roared. "Nothing your pathetic existence can understand –you abominable beasts, bearers of malice!"

He charged at her, and she charged back.

A third golden chain came down with the first two, gently surrounding Naruto's body and beginning to pull him up.

Barriers of gold and chains of chakra wounded his flesh and corroded his body. He roared and screamed, as more and more chains sprouted from the ground, the woods, the air itself. She hadn't come alone.

He was shackled. He was chained.

He had been doing his duty.

He was torn to pieces; they tried to use him, but he was too strong for them. So he was merged in a single container.

He was whole again.

He broke the container. He escaped. He fought men whom he ate and that ate him back.

He was captured again. He was sealed again, in a living being.

He made her suffer.

She stopped listening. If you use your power, only hatred will come from it. Stay tranquil inside of me.

He was sealed in another.

He tried to make her suffer, but she knew not to listen.

He had a duty.

The world needed him.

He had a duty.

Naruto was lifted up outside of the darkness, and back in the light. He fell with his back against the water of his sewer-like mind, as giant Torii gates of red wood held imprisoned the Kyuubi himself. Had he come out of his mouth? The Kyuubi had…he had tried to eat him.

Yet there was a female with red hair and buns, holding the mouth of the beast open with her chains and moving her hands as more and more Torii gates fell down one after the other to entrap the tails of the fox.

Finally, the chains surrounded the demon's mouth like a dog's muzzle, and the woman took a step back. She looked young, younger than he remembered.

Naruto frowned: he had never seen the woman before. There was a moment of silence, as Naruto's eyes looked around. The Ichibi's rotting body was burning, as its chakra began to twist and pull itself apart before merging with the chakra chains that held the Kyuubi prisoner.

"I suppose…" the woman's voice was soft, "That presentations are in order, great-grandson."

She turned to look at him, and he widened his eyes briefly. She had striking purple pupil-less eyes, and her voice was stern but soft. "I am Mito Uzumaki, wife of Hashirama Senju, and first Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

The Kyuubi growled from his spot.

"We will talk more away from here," Mito stated, grabbing Naruto's shoulder and transporting them away, back to where the gates of the seal were supposed to be…but were not.

"The…the seal," Naruto croaked looking at the wide open gates, torn from their hinges and laid on the ground.

"Indeed," Mito nodded sagely. "It was torn apart. Your consciousness failed you, and when you lost yourself, the Ichibi possessed you. He always was able to commandeer those who fell asleep after all but I could hold him back by holding the Kyuubi's chakra away…at least from him. When you fell grievously injured, I had to let the chakra of the demon run through your body, lest you die because of your wounds. He broke the seal then, and then…he ate you."

"Nice," Naruto drawled. "I suppose I was fished out of his stomach?"

"Indeed," Mito nodded once more. "You are still alive, and while I do not know the state of your body…in your mind, for now, all will be tranquil."

"How much?" he asked.

"I…beg your pardon?"

"How much life do I have left," Naruto whispered. "After this…stunt, how much life?"

"You will probably live to see your grandchildren grow up," Mito replied firmly. "It is not…"

"The bastard lied on that too!?" Naruto groaned. "He said I lost ninety-years, meaning I would have until my thirties!"

"Desperation breeds recklessness," Mito answered sagely. "It is a common trick. Indeed, you have lost life…but you will still live to be that old."

"How old can an Uzumaki live, anyway?"

"I married the first Hokage…and I was old when your mother came to Konoha to become the new Jinchuuriki."

"That's…" Naruto blinked. "You're old, Granny."

Mito's forehead sported a tick mark then, as she ground out. "I am not old, I am venerable."

"That's…that's still old, Granny."

She smacked him on the head with a fan made of silk that appeared from one of her kimono's sleeves. "Desist or I will smack you again."

"All right!" Naruto chuckled. "So what now?" he asked, looking around. "Where is the exit to this place?"

Mito simply sighed, before taking a step forward and hugging Naruto firmly. "You can cry, child."

"Cry? Ehi Granny, I don't have to cry for nothing! Really, everything's fine! I'm alive, and…" he choked. "I'm fine and…"

"Shh," Mito whispered. "It's all right," she murmured. "I will tell you something I told your mother, when she too cried for what her destiny was…" she held Naruto firmly, as she spoke slowly. "We are the vessel of the nine-tails, but before that, we must find love and fill ourselves with it."

"What does it mean?"

"Hatred can do nothing against love," Mito said. "Kurama's ability…it ties to negative emotions. If those are countered, then he is powerless. If good emotions fill the vessel, then he can do nothing."

"But…where is love in this world?" Naruto asked firmly. "There's only…hell, and a slight variation of it, everywhere!"

"Hush now, child," Mito remarked. "Hell is only in your head," she said, ruffling his hair. "There is good everywhere. There is love everywhere. You just need to open your eyes and see it, a world built only on malice cannot survive, you know?"

"But there isn't only…"

"I had to get a pessimist eventually," Mito sighed. "Let me guess: there is evil in the world, everywhere, lurking around the corner ready to slit my throat if I hope…and you know? You are right. There is…but just because there is, should we live all our life without feeling love and hope? Should we live all our life in agony and despair? Should we only feel hatred and revenge? There is love…there is peace…there is forgiveness."

Naruto shuddered.

"Think about my words and sleep now, my wayward child," Mito softly spoke. "You have earned it."

And Naruto closed his eyes smiling, as he was still in the warm embrace of Mito who gently caressed his locks as he slept and…and for once, he actually felt loved.

Sakura hadn't left Naruto's side since they had left the Otogakure base, heading towards Demon country. Not that it was smart to do so: those who had survived the battle and seen her…well, they blamed her for the deaths of the civilians in the base.

Even with Jiraiya, the most they had managed to do was to use one of his toad summons to hastily take those he could and hop away from there. The rest had been killed by the monsters.

Children no older than six had probably turned to mush, mothers, grandmothers…the old and the unlucky young…Jiraiya filed it away in a corner of his mind, and decided never to dwell on it again. That was how he had coped through the war after all: forget the dead; they are just statistics even when you are the one responsible for them rising.

Sakura didn't even feel guilty about that. Her only reply was that 'Naruto had been in danger' or that 'He needed her'. Yugao had told him that the moment the radio communication had gone off –Guren's crystals no doubt– she had all but been forced to clasp down on Sakura's wrist to avoid the girl barging in.

The fact even Sai had tensed ready to follow her…

It was borderline-insubordination.

Especially because once Sakura had charged in, Sai had followed swiftly. Yugao's orders had fallen on deaf ears. He could now understand why Danzo had considered Sai a 'defective product'. Such an action done by a Root member? That was wrong on so many levels…

Still, they were still out of Konoha: if they had to face disciplinary charges, they'd face them once back in the village. Till then, they had to reach Demon Country, and they had to do so carefully.

Swamp country was mostly uninhabited, but the next two…the land of Claws and the land of Fangs were border nations and rivals most of the time. He had averted a war from breaking out there once, but he just hoped another hadn't started since he last checked.

He gave one quick gaze to where Sakura stood, holding Naruto's body on her back and growling whenever someone who wasn't Sai tried to come closer. Even Sai had to actually fight the girl to get his turn on 'carrying' Naruto.

"If he tries to poke my ass, I will drop him," Sai deadpanned then, eliciting another bout of inspiration for Jiraiya's muse. "Now hand him over."

"No," Sakura grumbled. "I can still carry him for another hour."

"You would be too tired then," Sai replied. "I will risk my ass for him, this once." He blinked again. "I wanted to add 'I already risk it more than once being with him' but that sounded dirty even for me, Cherry."

"I said I'll carry him, and I'll carry him!" Sakura snapped back, growling at Sai who simply looked back at her perplexed. "Understood?"

"Sakura!" Yugao barked then, "Hand Naruto over," she pointed to herself. "I will carry him now."

The girl would have wanted to protest…but in the end she had to comply with her sensei. Soon, Yugao hefted Naruto on her back and sped up, watching with ill-conceived amusement as Sakura tried to keep up with her pace, looking half-way between affronted and grieving.

Thankfully none of the Oto-ninjas were stupid enough to try and fight them –they knew they had a chance of reaching a safe haven only for as long as Jiraiya guided them.

Jiraiya was standing next to Hanzaki, when an orange-haired blur stopped in front of the column. "Hanzaki! I can't find Kotohime-san!" the girl, the one with the dark blue hat, was anguished as she spoke.

"She's probably dead, Sasame," Hanzaki whispered back.

Sasame clenched her fists then. "Why do we need their help?" she said, gesturing towards Jiraiya. "We can reach Demon country alone."

"As Oto-shinobi…do you think the countries will let us through their borders easily without someone vouching for us?" Hanzaki retorted.

"Then just drop the forehead protector!" Sasame exclaimed. "We should never have believed in Orochimaru to begin with!"

"The man was wrong in his ways," Hanzaki replied. "But he was not wrong in giving us somewhere to belong. Now more than ever we as a clan are united: can you really spit upon that too?"

"But Kotohime…"

"She died doing her best for the clan," Hanzaki nodded firmly. "As I would have done too that night."

"I don't like this," Sasame muttered as she moved towards the back of the marching column, her gaze moving from the civilians to the small empty circle that held the Konoha shinobi. She fixed her gaze on the raven haired boy who was asleep, and a small wicked smile formed on her face.

"I don't like this at all," she said just as, in another side of the world, Danzo Shimura said the exact same words while looking down at the map of the area.

His operatives had not yet come back, but…there were no signs of the invading army anywhere.

Unless they had grown wings or tunnelled beneath the ground like the best of the Iwa shinobi…

"Where did they go?" he hissed clenching the map, as his eyes one dark and the other green, moved furiously around the possible formations and movements he could execute. "I taught him," Danzo cussed. "I shouldn't have taught him that well."

"You can't hide an army that big!" he yelled, slamming his fist on the ground. "Have the shinobi swipe the areas again, send scouts to where the enemy was last seen…" he murmured. "There has to be something."

Elsewhere, up in the skies, Orochimaru looked beneath him while holding a spy-glass.

"Well then, men!" he exclaimed feeling slightly jubilant. "All shinobi, to battle stations!" his army roared its agreement, as the cannons of the Land of the Sky prepared themselves for a devastating and deadly volley.

"Cannons charged?"

A moment of silence.

"Primed?"

Another moment of silence.

"Hebi, do give the order to open fire and slaughter that village over there, would you?" he said then, gesturing to his assistant who was holding the spy-glass now, as Orochimaru-sama had given it back to her.

"B-But…"

"Hebi?"

"Open fire!" she squeaked.

"Louder Hebi, louder," Orochimaru tut-tutted. "They can't hear you: they're stupid, you have to scream the order."

And thus Hebi breathed in and out slowly, calming her beating heart for a moment…

Before she finally screamed it out pointing her finger forward.

"OPEN FIRE!"

And Chaos ensued.

Author's notes

Geography lesson.

The only map depicted shows land of Demons two lands away from land of Swamps, which is 'diagonally' shown to a purple nation (Naruto Wikia) purple usually= Otogakure. Thus, map in Naruto-Wikia is to be 'moved' of ninety degrees to the left (perpendicular) Meaning the 'Mountain Graveyard' is actually located in a country that borders with the Demon Country.

Geography lesson of Shade done.

Look for 'Shinobi Elemental Countries' and the map of 'Demon Country' for more clarification.

Guren's preferences are lamp-shaded. Nothing good anyway.

The experiments are a…fusion, of two Orochimaru underlings.

Guess them, and win a nice prize! (A digital cookie)

And…I lied in the AN.

Land of the Sky! Who saw it coming!?