Chapter 38: Light in the Darkness, Part One

Tenten and Shizune walked hand-in-hand through the streets of Suna at night, which were decorated with strings of painted lanterns hung between buildings. Natives of the Sand village – civilian and shinobi alike – thronged the streets even at the late hour, and fireworks were still bursting overhead.

It wasn't every day in Suna that a scion of the Sabaku was married. Tenten and Shizune had been surprised and flattered when Kankuro had sent them an invitation to his wedding; outsiders to Suna were rarely extended the honor. Tsunade had been only too happy to give the pair the time off to attend; the icy silence from Suna's official channels since Hinata's escape had the Hokage on edge.

The wedding between Kankuro and a Sand kunoichi – apparently of his long acquaintance – named Midori had been an expensive and lavish affair, as well as something of an excuse for the whole village to celebrate. On leaving the reception, the pair of Leaf kunoichi had been intercepted by a courier who had extended another invitation, to call on Kankuro and his new bride at the Sabaku residence before they departed on their honeymoon trip.

When Tenten and Shizune arrived they were admitted through the gates and shown inside immediately. Wending their way through the residence, Tenten couldn't help but admire the architecture and the expensive art on display. It was a far cry from the largely functional buildings in Konoha, and different in style from the more lavish structures like the Hyuuga compound. For one thing, the building extended as far below ground as above, to help keep the interior cool during the daylight hours.

They were shown into a sitting room where the newlyweds were awaiting them, and after an exchange of pleasantries Tenten got to study Kankuro's new wife. Midori was a blonde, unusual in Suna's native population, with pale gray eyes. Her skin was tanned to a light caramel, but Tenten had the sense that away from the desert's fierce sun she would be quite pale. The way she held herself confirmed what Tenten already knew: that Midori was a kunoichi, and a skilled one. She'd reached the rank of jounin during the war with Iwa.

"So, congratulations aside, to what do we owe the honor of this invitation?" Shizune inquired smoothly.

Kankuro and Midori exchanged a glance, and a pained look crossed her face. Kankuro took her hand in his before turning back to Tenten and Shizune. "You two are… well, among the closest friends I have. Certainly the closest I have who aren't part of Suna and its politics and factions. That's why I wanted to ask you a fairly serious favor."

"Behind Kankuro's request – and mine – there is a short tale to be told," Midori chimed in. Tenten blinked in surprise. The blonde's crisp and notable accent was one she'd expect to hear in the Land of Lightning, not the Land of Wind. There's another story there, I bet.

"I fought on the front lines of the war with the dogs of Iwa," Midori continued, hatred flashing for a moment in her pale eyes before she mastered it. "In the battle to take the gates of the village itself I was badly wounded. A Rock ninja put a stone spike clean through my gut." She lifted her tunic enough to bare her stomach, and Tenten heard a hiss of indrawn breath from Shizune as she winced herself. The round, messy scar was surprisingly wide.

"You're fortunate to have survived that," Shizune replied.

Midori lowered the cloth and smiled. "I am; I have someone you trained to thank, in fact. A Leaf medic was standing just steps away from me when I fell. He saved my life, else I would have quickly bled out on that foreign soil."

Shizune looked between Kankuro and his bride, her expression calculating. "With an injury like that… this is about procreation?"

Midori blinked and nodded. "Kankuro said you are perceptive. Yes, the attack shredded my uterus and one of my ovaries. What's left is – I'm told – a jumbled mass of scar tissue that will never bear life." The blonde's expression was pained, and Tenten's heart went out to her.

Shizune nodded slowly. "I can guess what you want to ask, but the answer is probably not what you want to hear. Replacing internal organs is far more problematic than a severed limb. The damaged tissue would have to be destroyed through a highly invasive surgery, and in this case we're talking about one of the most complex structures in a woman's body. There's no guarantee that a regrown womb would function properly, even if regenerated by a medic of my skill or Tsunade-sama's."

Midori held up a hand. "I understand," she replied quietly. "The doctors here in Suna told me the same thing."

"The request I – we – want to make wasn't actually of you, Shizune," Kankuro chimed in before looking at Tenten.

Tenten blinked in surprise. "Me?" She couldn't think of what kind of favor she could do for Kankuro. "Well… sure. You've given me a lot, Kankuro. Whatever you need, I'm happy to help."

"Wait until you hear the request before you agree," Kankuro cautioned. "We'd like to ask you to stand as a surrogate for us."

Tenten's jaw dropped. That was definitely not what she'd been expecting. "Umm… what?"

"The same doctors who told me that my womb is beyond repair confirmed that my surviving ovary has viable eggs," Midori chimed in. "They can be extracted, fertilized and implanted in a surrogate."

"Oh, okay…" Tenten murmured. "But why ask me? I'm a foreigner; I live a country away. Surely there are countless women in Suna who would be happy to stand as a surrogate for one of the Sabaku?"

Kankuro's jaw tightened. "You'd be surprised." A pained expression crossed his face. "If Temari were still alive I'd ask her to be our surrogate. You're correct that if we just needed a warm body there would be no shortage of volunteers here in Suna… but it comes back to politics. Any kunoichi here in Suna would be seeking to try and leverage the connection to the Sabaku family for themselves, and I don't have any female friends here in Suna I trust as much as I do you and Shizune."

Midori shrugged uncomfortably. "I have the same problem," she admitted. "My parents and I moved to Suna when I was small and this has been the only home I've known, but still I am viewed by many as an outsider. Kankuro had to fight just to see us wed, especially given my injury. As to finding a surrogate… it would be very difficult to do so here. A surrogate who is an outsider to Suna would actually simplify the matter greatly, provided it's someone we can trust."

"You'd be well-compensated for the service and time away from the field, of course," Kankuro hastened to add.

Tenten's gaze turned silently to Shizune, who shrugged. "It's not an uncommon request or transaction, love," the medic said calmly. "It's your choice; I have no objections."

"I see." Tenten lowered her gaze for a moment, thinking about it. It would mean more time away from shinobi work when she'd just recently gotten adept enough with her prosthetic legs to fight at her old level. Beyond that, she'd be signing up for the personal discomforts of a pregnancy. After consideration she looked up with a smile. "Kankuro, you helped me walk again. I wouldn't have found out who tried to kill Shizune without your experience and knowledge. If I can help you and Midori have a child… yes. I'd be happy to be a surrogate for you."

Kankuro's answering smile was happy and relieved, while Midori actually got up to hug Tenten. "Thank you, oh thank you," the blonde murmured.

Shizune studied all of them once they'd settled down. "So when did you want to have the procedure done?"

Kankuro and Midori exchanged a glance. "We hadn't discussed timing yet; we wanted to hear your answer first," Kankuro replied. "When would it be convenient for you, Tenten?"

Tenten shrugged. "I don't have any pending missions. I could do it now."

"Extracting eggs without a clear passage through the uterus will involve a minor surgery, but it's still invasive," Shizune cautioned. "The process of fertilizing the ovum in the lab and verifying their viability will take a few days. Implantation and observation of the surrogate to ensure successful bonding with the uterine wall is a few more days on top of that. Since you two are departing on your honeymoon in the morning, it might be best to pick a date after your return."

Kankuro and Midori looked at each other again and he took his bride's hand in his, squeezing it and nodding. "How about this," Kankuro offered. "We'll plan to visit Konoha in a month, and give ourselves enough time there to do the procedure and make sure it's successful?"

"Sounds like a plan," Tenten replied with a glance at Shizune who, just nodded.

Kankuro and Midori walked them back to the compound's gate, where the festivities seemed to be dying down a bit due to the late hour.

"I was meaning to ask," Tenten commented in parting, "where is Gaara? I wouldn't have thought he'd miss his brother's wedding."

Kankuro's expression darkened a bit. "I… can't actually tell you what he's up to, sorry. It's classified. He had to move to take advantage of an opportunity with a narrow time window, and it had to be now." He shook off his funk with a grin. "Besides, he'll probably get us even nicer gifts to apologize for missing the event."

Tenten nodded slowly. "I understand. Don't break any confidences on my behalf. I'm sure it must be important." She didn't need to look at Shizune to know that her girlfriend probably shared her sudden sense of foreboding. Not much information had come out of Suna in Konoha's direction since Hinata's escape, so hearing about something that could take the Kazekage away from his village so urgently didn't seem to bode well for anything. "We'll see you in a month, then."

Hinata's waking hours since being abducted from Uzushio by Gaara were divided into caring for her child and spending the intervening time wondering how everything was going so wrong. Her needs and Minato's were tended to by Sand shinobi jailors, and while they rarely deigned to talk to her, she'd learned that the madness that had brought Gaara to Uzushio wasn't limited to the Kazekage. They all believed that she had not only murdered Temari Sabaku but had engineered evidence that triggered the war with Iwa, and even killed her own father. The last accusation was the most ridiculous and hurtful. Her father and sister had been killed by assassins from Iwa!

The situation would almost be farcical if the planned outcome wasn't so grave. Gaara intended to return her to Suna to face a public execution for her 'crimes', and her attempts to convince anyone that this was horribly wrong had earned her scorn and even a few beatings. The chains she wore restricted her movement and dampened her chakra; she was left with enough mobility to take care of Minato, but not enough to defend herself or escape, even if she wasn't on a ship in the middle of the ocean.

Several days after leaving Uzushio, a different sort of visitor had appeared outside of the bars of Hinata's cell. The short, slender woman with pale hair and milky, unseeing eyes identified herself as Sanne, and was the first person on the ship Hinata had met who didn't radiate hostility and hate. When she inquired, Sanne explained with a shrug. "I'm not a Sand shinobi, and I never knew Temari Sabaku as Gaara and his subordinates do. I was a prisoner of the Tsuchikage until Gaara freed me."

"Maybe you'll hear me, then," Hinata replied desperately. "I don't know what's happened to Gaara or the rest of Suna, but I didn't kill Temari! No one else will listen."

"Interesting," Sanne replied at last. "I was born blind, so I've relied on listening to people's voices to gauge them my whole life. When Gaara expressed his anger at your protests, I assumed they were simply a desperate attempt to avoid death. But you really believe you're innocent, don't you?"

Hinata's shoulders sagged in relief. "That's what I've been saying! Thank you!"

"This is interesting," Sanne continued, "because I've heard your voice before." A chill of foreboding went down Hinata's spine. "I was at your wedding to Naruto Uzumaki, though we were never formally introduced."

"That's… not possible. I was married to Naruto in Uzushio. No one from Suna was present," Hinata objected.

"Such an odd thing to be mistaken about," Sanne wondered. "You were married in Konoha. Gaara and I were among hundreds who attended the ceremony."

Hinata's jaw dropped. "That's not true."

Sanne shook her head. "I've heard your voice another time beside that. When Gaara returned from Konoha after your trial, he brought back the transcripts, including a full audio recording."

"Trial?" Hinata shook her head despairingly. "There was no trial, why do all of you believe this?"

Sanne moved one hand from behind her back where it had rested, revealing a hand-held tape recorder. She pressed a button on the side.

"Hinata Hyuuga, you are entitled to legal counsel to represent your interests in these proceedings. Do you understand that?" Hinata's eyes widened in surprise at Tsunade's unmistakable voice.

"I don't need an attorney," was the reply, but a tone so flat, broken and defeated that Hinata scarcely recognized it as her own. "I don't deserve one."

A sigh from Tsunade escaped the recorder. "Very well; you have indicated that you wish to make a statement to the court?"

"A confession, yes; I am guilty of all charges levelled against me." The recording dissolved into crowd noise, a jumble of murmurs and shouts. Listening numbly, Hinata thought she could hear Naruto's voice protesting amid the noise. "I abducted Sakura Haruno from Konoha and handed her over to shinobi from Iwa. I killed Temari Sabaku by drowning in Suna. I poisoned my own father," Hinata's recorded voice broke off in a choked sob, "and framed my sister for the crime, leading to her imprisonment and suicide in Hozuki-jo. I attempted to kill Ino Yamanaka during the attack on the Harbinger of Hope by Mist shinobi."

Sanne's finger clicked another button, and silence reigned for a moment as Hinata stared at the tape recorder like a live serpent. "You can understand my confusion and Gaara's disbelief at your current protestation of innocence," Sanne said softly. "Far too many heard your confession in Konoha for your words now to be believable."

Hinata shook her head. "I… I don't know what that is, or where it came from, but my memory is clear. I think I would remember what you describe."

Sanne tilted her head curiously. "Would you?" The blind woman handed the recorder and extra tapes from the pouch on her belt to one of the guards, who slipped them through the slot where her meals were delivered. "Listen to them yourself if you wish. There's a great deal there for a fabrication." With that the pale blonde left. Hinata studied the recorder like a live snake before picking it up in shaking hands.

"You think what?" Gaara snarled.

"I've done nothing to earn that tone from you, Gaara," Sanne replied sharply. They stood together in the state cabin of the ship bearing them at full steam towards the Land of Wind.

Gaara winced, rubbing the spiky hair at the back of his head. "Sorry, it's just… what makes you think that bitch's protests are anything more than an effort to save her own skin?"

"A lifetime of listening to voices, mostly," Sanne told him calmly. "The woman Konoha put on trial believed that she was guilty. The mother in the hold now believes that she is innocent. She could be an uncommonly skilled liar, but it seems equally likely that her memory has been altered. We both know such a thing is possible. You stated yourself that her husband's eyes exert powerful influence over the mind, and when Naruto Uzumaki fled Konoha with Hinata Hyuuga, he also took Ino Yamanaka, perhaps the most potent adept of mental ninjutsu alive. So what makes more sense: that Hinata really believes you'll fall for her continued protests of innocence? Or that the man who loves her made her forget the horrible things she had done?"

Gaara turned away from Sanne, pacing to the windows and staring out over the waves and the wake of the ship. "It makes a twisted kind of sense," he admitted at last. "The woman Konoha put on trial was broken. Even I could sense that she couldn't bear her guilt; that she wanted to die for her sins. That's why I left before the execution; I didn't doubt it would be carried out. When word reached Suna of her escape I cursed myself a fool for buying her act… but your theory does make more sense. It's something Naruto might do, were he able."

"Then you accept the possibility?" Sanne asked softly.

"I do," Gaara admitted. "But it makes no difference."

"Doesn't it?" Sanne challenged him.

"None at all; if being unable to remember one's crimes was a valid legal defense the Yamanaka of Konoha would be even richer than they are now. Hinata Hyuuga killed my sister and plunged my nation into war. It doesn't matter if she doesn't remember her crimes. She'll still die for them."

"Even though doing so will cost you your oldest friend and provoke a demigod?"

Gaara turned back to Sanne, his eyes narrowing. "Naruto chose to end what existed between us when he helped Temari's killer escape justice," the Kazekage growled, "and as for Uzumaki… the Elemental Nations cannot cower in fear of that demon. He's powerful, but he's no god. No one really cared about Ame, but if Uzumaki attacks another Elemental Nation in the same manner, he'll turn all of the daimyo against him. Besides, I know a little bit about weather manipulation myself. I wouldn't have made this move if I didn't believe that he needs weather patterns that don't exist in the deserts of the Land of Wind in order to conjure his storms."

"All right," Sanne said, calmly accepting as always.

"You don't approve?" Gaara inquired.

"Is it my place to approve or disapprove of the mighty Kazekage's edicts?" Sanne replied playfully.

Gaara crossed the distance between them in a few steps, bracketing her slender waist in his hands. "Has that ever stopped you before?"

"Well someone needs to keep you grounded when your brother isn't around," Sanne informed him archly. Gaara was fighting a smile when her delicate hand rose to brush his cheek and across his lips, as she often did of late to explore his facial expression in absence of sight. "Ah, there's a crack in that stern shell of yours," Sanne murmured. "For a time I despaired of the possibility." Gaara leaned down, and Sanne – feeling the movement – tilted her head back obligingly before their lips met. No more words were needed, for the moment.

Hours later in the fading light of the setting sun Gaara lay awake in bed, aware of the line of warmth against his side that was Sanne, curled up against him in her sleep. He studied her with a kind of wonder. Sanne was a subtle creature, he reflected wryly, perhaps too much so for a blunt, straightforward person like him. He'd worked with her for so long and hadn't even realized she was flirting with him in her patient way until Kankuro had pointed it out.

In fairness, Gaara hadn't really had much experience in his life with women who weren't afraid of him. Even after his battle with the Akatsuki and quiet resurrection most of the female attention he'd gotten had been of the fan-girl or opportunistic variety, both of which were repellant to him. Sanne wasn't intimidated by him, and she was as far from being worshipful or materialistic as he could imagine. She was indifferent to his wealth and had surprised him with her willingness to challenge him, offering the kind of contrary opinions and advice he'd only ever gotten from Baki or his siblings in the past.

Once assured that her interest was returned, Sanne had opened up to Gaara a bit more, and he was constantly amazed that after the life the Tsuchikage had inflicted on her, she remained so… unscarred. Not physically, of course. Gaara fingers ran down her bare flank, finding the abundant evidence of the brutal training that had made her Iwa's Secret Keeper; irregular patches of skin marked old burns from hot irons and caustic acid, while narrower ridged marks announced the locations of old cuts from whip and blade. In spite of everything Onoki had done to her body he hadn't managed to break her spirit, and Gaara found that remarkable. She'd served him because there had been no other choice save death, but she'd never given him any loyalty, even that created by fear.

Gaara regretted the lives of Sand shinobi lost in a war started under false pretense, but he no longer regretted the war itself. Future generations of Sand ninja would be safer and more prosperous with Iwa gone, and in Gaara's opinion Onoki absolutely deserved what he'd gotten. His gut clenched at the thought of Sanne spending her entire life in that records vault, her light hidden from the world until the passage of time snuffed it out.

Sanne stirred next to him, a quiet whimper escaping her throat. He hadn't realized until she started sharing his bed how often nightmares plagued her sleep, though in hindsight it made sense. He drew her closer, stroking her long, pale hair with his fingers until her creased features smoothed and she settled into a more peaceful rest.

"Soon we'll be home and this whole miserable business will be done," Gaara whispered to Sanne, placing a soft kiss on her brow. You'll pay for killing my sister, Hinata Hyuuga. I don't care if you've forgotten the murder. Nothing can change what you did, and nothing will stop me from seeing justice done. Not a demon… and not Naruto.

Because he was pacing the forward deck of the Blue Serpent –ostensibly an independent freighter named the Porpoise but actually a Kiri spy ship – Naruto was the first to spot the aft end of a Land of Wind-flagged cargo vessel on the western horizon. "There's a ship," he called out. "Is that it?"

Captain Buba, a portly man in his fifties with a thick salt-and-pepper beard and hair and a rolling gait that spoke of a lifetime at sea, looked up from the helm and squinted. He removed a collapsible spyglass from a pocket of his tarred sea coat and raised it to one pale blue eye. "Aye, that be the ship ye described," he answered after a minute. "Lads! Look lively now! Our quarry nears!"

The members of the ship's crew who were actually disguised Kiri ANBU started appearing from below decks, their disguises shed and their armaments openly worn. Haku and Ino emerged from the cabin they'd been sharing as well, similarly geared.

The ship's crew offered respectful glances at Naruto and his companions, and he felt a hint of guilt whenever he saw it. They believed, after all, at a level of their minds too deep to question, that Naruto was a high-ranking agent of the Mizukage. They knew he was vested with the authority to roust them from their surveillance of Uzushio and order them to sail halfway around the world in pursuit of his quarry. Powerful compulsions wrapped around the emotions of trust, respect and loyalty created by the Soul Mirror had gotten Naruto, Haku and Ino on board, where Ino had delicately altered the memories of the captain and his ANBU subordinates to enhance the ruse, just as they'd done with the Indomitable to escape the Land of Fire.

The Blue Serpent picked up speed for the final chase, its main hull rising out of the water entirely as the narrow blades attached to the ship by sturdy supports became its only contact with the water. It had taken him a while to get used to watching the coastline of the Elemental Nations race by at shocking speed when it was engaged.

When their ship drew closer to the Wind freighter, Haku's eyes narrowed. "I can feel chakra building on that ship; jinchuuriki level."

Ino nodded in agreement, shivering slightly. "It's Gaara; he knows we're here."

Haku blinked and then looked down in alarm. "Captain, evasive course!"

Buba threw his weight against the helm, and not a second too soon. As the Blue Serpent slalomed to port, a column of wet sand half as wide as the ship itself broke the surface of the waves right where they would have been. Grasping tendrils of sand found nothing to hold, and sank back beneath the surface as quickly as they had come.

"Again!" Haku called out. The agile ship skittered over the waves, evading first one, then two more sand columns apparently drawn from the floor of the shallow coastal waters they were plying.

"Who the hell did you piss off, agents?" Buba demanded as he wove an erratic course back and forth across the wake of Gaara's ship. Such was the Serpent's speed that they were still gaining.

"The Kazekage," Naruto replied. "But don't worry; I'm the one who's going to have to fight him. You just get us close."

"That might be a problem," Buba yelled, pointing ahead. Gaara had tired of the ambush approach, and had simply raised a wide wall of damp sand in the Serpent's path.

Haku filled her hands with shuriken, and her chakra spiked. Each of the throwing stars was rimed with frost as it left her hands. When they struck the sand wall they froze huge sections of it. "Fire the launchers," Haku called out.

Members of Buba's ANBU crew in the bridge pressed buttons on their controls, and two seemingly featureless sections of the deck popped up to reveal ballistae with fuma shuriken already loaded, the large steel stars papered in explosive tags. Both launchers fired with a musical twang of steel cables. When the projectiles struck the brittle barrier of frozen sand it was blown apart moments before the Serpent's bow would have impacted.

There was another sand wall behind the first, too close to replicate Haku's trick in time. Naruto had anticipated his old friend, however. While Haku was dealing with the first wall, he'd formed a trio of shadow clones and sent them to the front of the bow. Two formed a rasengan, while the third injected wind chakra into it. When the rasenshuriken's howl rose in volume above the ship's engine they let it fly. The projectile detonated on contact, and the thousands of wind darts it threw off completely shredded the chakra web that was holding the sand together, sending it sloughing back below the waves.

The first trio of clones dissipated and Naruto staggered from the feedback, but grimly formed five more. Three started forming another rasenshuriken while the last two transformed themselves into fuma shuriken identical in size to the ones used by the launchers. "Fire these to either side of that ship," Naruto called out as he tossed them to the ballista crews. At a nod from the captain they obeyed.

While they were loading, Naruto's other clones launched a second rasenshuriken at the stern of Gaara's ship. A cloud of more agile dry sand from the ship's deck leapt back to form a barrier that the wind construct exploded against short of reaching its target. The second trio dispelled after launching their projectile, and while Naruto's arms were burning from the feedback of the clones' destroyed chakra networks, he made a third trio and set them to charging yet another attack.

A moment later the ballistae sang and sent the last pair of transformed clones flying. They turned back to human form in midair, forming two more clones each and then two more rasenshurikens total. The shadow clones on deck and the shadow clones in the air now to port and starboard of Gaara's stern all released their howling discs at the same time with the same target.

Naruto grinned slightly as Gaara tried to block all three and failed, not having time to get enough sand in place. The starboard barrier was too thin, and the rasenshuriken there punched through without detonating. Then it struck the stern at the waterline and exploded.

Gaara's ship bucked on the waves like a wounded animal, and almost immediately its bow slewed to starboard. "Ye took out her starboard screw," Buba called out with a grin. "They'll not be sailin' in aught but a circle until they make repairs."

"Good to hear," Naruto replied, "now get me close enough to board."

"And how am I to avoid the sand from below slowing down enough to do that?" Buba demanded.

"I will safeguard the hull," Haku replied. She hopped over the rail and stuck to the side of the ship, sliding down until she was under the Serpent. Naruto felt her chakra surge again. When he looked back at the ship's wake he saw a growing trail of ice and realized that she was freezing the ocean surface between the blades as they passed over it, which would hopefully block a sand attack from below.

Haku's ice was indeed struck and buckled from below several times as they drew alongside Gaara's ship, but her defense held, protecting the screws in the blades from being damaged. As Buba slowed down the main hull touched the water again, but Naruto knew Haku could breathe under water, and would be fine assuming he neutralized Gaara. Once they were close enough Naruto leapt up onto the deck of Gaara's larger ship and Ino followed behind him, as well as several untasked Mist ANBU from Buba's crew.

Naruto had been expecting to face a contingent of elite Sand ninja as well as Gaara, and had gambled that Ino and his hijacked Mist ANBU could hold them off. But when he landed on deck, Gaara was alone. There weren't even other crew members visible.

"Naruto," Gaara greeted him neutrally.

"You took my wife, you son of a bitch," Naruto growled, "and you took my child. Is this how you repay all I've done for you?"

Gaara's eyes narrowed. "You and Uzumaki left me with no other recourse, Naruto. I will not forgive Temari's murder. I will not forget, even if your wife has."

"I'm not leaving without them, Gaara," Naruto warned. "I don't want to hurt you. Give my Hinata and Minato, and we'll pretend this never happened."

A humorless smile crossed Gaara's face. "The feeling is mutual; I don't want to hurt you either, old friend. But Hinata Hyuuga will die for her crimes. Accept that. There is nothing you can do to stop it." Gaara raised his hands and tons of sand rose, not only from his gourd but from grates in the deck as well. It built up into a wave before plunging at Naruto, relentless as an avalanche. The Mist ANBU blasted apart sections of the torrent with water ninjutsu, allowing Naruto and Ino to duck through gaps in the wave. Both moved closer to Gaara to outdistance the mass of sand when it inevitably turned around to pursue, but that didn't happen. Seeing a victorious smile on Gaara's face, Naruto got it a second too late. He turned to see the remaining sand compact into a dozen lances of molten glass that plunged over the rail – and stabbed down into the hull of the Blue Serpent.

Naruto winced at the sound of metal buckling and tearing. Returning to the rail, he watched the broken ship sink under the waves in seconds. Haku and the remaining crew bobbed to the surface in short order, but the Serpent was gone.

"What did that accomplish," Naruto demanded of Gaara. "I can still make it to shore once I have Hinata."

Gaara shook his head. "Hinata's not here, Naruto," he replied, almost apologetically.

"What?" Naruto breathed. He hadn't been able to pay his chakra sense much mind until now, but when he cast out for the familiar sensation of the pendant he'd given Hinata, he realized it was still somewhere to the west, even though he was standing on the deck of Gaara's getaway ship.

"I knew you'd find a way to catch up, Naruto," Gaara replied calmly. "You always find a way, no matter the odds. I learned that about you a long time ago. So I transferred Hinata and most of my men to another ship two days ago. They should be making landfall shortly. I'm afraid it's just me and a skeleton crew on this ship." Gaara gestured negligently with one hand and the deck shuddered. Slowly, the ship began to list. "Now I've finished what you started with that rasenshuriken. This ship's engine is scrap and there's a hole in its hull, so it's going to sink in the next few minutes. Your ship is on the bottom of the sea. You'll never catch up to her now."

"Gaara!" Rage and despair filled Naruto, and he took a step forward, seeing red.

"You could try to kill me, I suppose," Gaara added, "but you might want to spend the time before this ship sinks rescuing your son, instead."

Naruto blinked. "What?"

Gaara waved a hand and one of the grates on the deck popped open, revealing a ladder going down into the darkness. "The child is down there at the end of the hall." The Kazekage looked around at the listing deck of their sinking ship. "You might want to hurry."

Naruto glared murder at Gaara, but didn't hesitate. Could be another trick… but I can sense something familiar down there. Can't take the chance! He sprinted across the deck and dropped down into the hatch Gaara had opened. He landed in a narrow corridor, and took off running. It was long and twisted a few times, but ended in a metal door that he hit without slowing down much as cold sea water started rising to the level of his ankles.

Inside Naruto could hear a baby's wails, and he flickered across the room to a bassinet that was starting to slide across the floor as the ship listed and water rose. Sure enough, there was a crying newborn with a fuzzy cap of blond hair and wide eyes with silver irises. "Minato," Naruto choked out. He snatched up his son in his arms, cradling the baby tightly to his chest as he ran back the way he came and jumped back out the hatch towards the oval of sunlight above.

"Naruto, this way," Ino called out. She, Haku and the crew of the Serpent were climbing into lifeboats, and he sprinted over to join them. As soon as he was in they cast off and started rowing away from the sinking freighter. They got to a safe distance before it sank beneath the waves, avoiding the vortex in its wake.

"Where's Gaara?" Naruto growled.

Ino pointed north and handed him binoculars. Through the lenses Naruto could see a smudge close to shore in the distance. It was Gaara and a handful of Wind sailors, standing on a floating platform of sand. As he watched they landed on the beach, where more Sand ninja were waiting with camels for the civilians. He saw Gaara look back once before vanishing with his men into the jungle.

Rage still boiled in Naruto's gut, but as much as he wanted to pursue Gaara the infant in his arms was more important. Minato was still wailing in distress, and Naruto rocked his son in his arms until the baby boy quieted. "Hello, son," Naruto murmured. Minato cooed and waved chubby fists in the air in response.

"He's quite a cutie," Ino observed with a catch in her voice. "He's safe now, at least."

Naruto nodded slowly before looking up at the beach they were rowing toward. "For the moment; not sure what I'm going to feed him between now and when we make it back to civilization."

Haku cleared her throat, and held up a bulky cloth bag embroidered with teddy bears, of all things. "This was left in the lifeboat. It appears to contain formula, disposable diapers and a number of other essentials."

"Well that was nice of Gaara," Naruto reflected bitterly. "If only he wasn't planning to kill Minato's mother in the bargain."

Minato, sensing Naruto's dark mood, started to wail again, and Naruto forced the anger off of his face and out of his heart. "Hey little man, it'll be okay." He looked to the west. "Somehow, I'll protect mama and bring her back to you."