A duty held by darkness

by SortaCore

He wasn't wearing these clothes a few seconds ago. And what were these scrolls in his hand? / A twelve-year-old is ordered to infiltrate Konoha and observe a certain naïve shinobi. By himself! / Canon Narutoverse with minor time-travel. Mostly OC-centric.

37. Dangerous gambling

A Duty Held By Darkness

Chapter 37: Dangerous gambling

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AN: 16k words. Give yourselves half an hour to read this one.

Thanks for your reviews on last chapter, guys/gurls. Very appreciated :D
So that's 7, Bob-Just-Bob, LilyVampire, Risuna23, and other folks. And I tip my hat to DocKucCRO, who clearly doesn't understand what the suspense genre entails.
To be honest, I wasn't planning for suspense – it's just Yasha's mindset anticipates problems at every corner. He's constantly tense, waiting for the other shoe to drop, and that carries over to the story.

Anyway, back to what I was saying…

Naruto's logic, while very simplistic, doesn't tend to be inaccurate, thanks to Occam's Razor. His logic isn't really real-world-suitable logic, it just… misses all sorts of complex factors.

Yet despite that, he has such good luck that it seems to work out for him. I won't hand him things on a silver platter though – he has to work for it.
Work, I say! *cracks whip*

---

"Kaka-sensei?" the Death Release user asked innocently.

"Hmm?" Kakashi idly looked up.

Yasha looked more focused than normal. "I need a hand from you, Sensei. I'm sure you know my weak points."

"Hmm. Your bulimia?"

"It's a stomach bug, and that stopped a couple of days ago," Yasha corrected, eye twitching as he tried not to scowl. "Anyway, when I release chakra, I release killing intent. Can you help with that?"

The other two genin were yelling at each other a few metres away, pulling up plants. The D-Rank for gardening was going swimmingly.

Kakashi turned a page. "I can get you to target KI, but normally, you need to be able to conjure it on demand, not without trying. Without trying implies it's the insects releasing it, in which case you'll be better off talking to an Aburame than me."

Yasha blinked, trying to recall what an Aburame was. Oh yeah, insect clan. "Even if it's just my bloodline causing it, it'll make me an easy target on any battlefield and draw attention to myself. Anyway, insect KI aside, I want to target my own KI, if I do have any."

Kakashi's eye trailed over him. Yasha looked more serious than usual. Well, it was a crippling weakness. "I suppose I can do that. What's your chakra control like?"

Yasha shrugged. "Kurenai is of the opinion it's good."

"Kurenai, huh," the jounin mulled. Interesting, might want to talk to her later. She was the "Genjutsu Mistress" wasn't she? Genjutsu required fine control. If it had passed her standards, it had to be good.

Odd that precise chakra control didn't make for precise KI control.

"I think you should talk to an Aburame, though. I'm guessing you're not communicating with your swarms properly," Kakashi advised, idly making a shadow clone seal and popping out four clones.

The original wandered off to check on the other two boys while three of the clones Henge'd into various civilians. The untransformed one beckoned at Yasha. "I need you to think about attacking me."

"As in, to kill you?"

"Yep. Don't put anger in it, just think about it, in any fashion you want to imagine."

A few seconds passed, with no killing intent released.

The clone nodded. "Okay. Now let your chakra leak slightly, don't think about it anymore."

A mild killing intent started to leak as Yasha built up chakra in his hand. The two boys halted to the side, both glancing over at the disturbance.

The lead clone hummed. "Interesting. If you're not thinking of killing me, that shouldn't release anything. Even if you were subconsciously angry at me, it would be near undetectable. Try thinking of me as a friend you trust with your life and in no way want to hurt me."

"It's kinda psychological, huh?" Yasha asked rhetorically, complying. The KI still rolled out, albeit it felt slightly milder to the lead clone.

The clone sighed. "If that's how strong your killer intent is for your closest friends, we've got a lot of work to do."

"It's pretty strong isn't it?" Yasha asked, turning back to the original who was coming back. The two boys were trailing behind him, their earlier argument forgotten.

"'Potent' is probably a better word. Cancel your chakra thing." Kakashi waved vaguely, dispelling all the clones. Yasha wasn't at the level he expected, so the plan he had with the clones wouldn't work. The jounin slumped against the fence, eyes trailing the kids. For once his book was away. "Tell me kids, what do you know about killer intent?"

"Is it a jutsu?" Naruto was, as always, first to try to prove himself.

Kakashi hummed. "It is related to chakra, yes. Some people can use it so powerfully it will seem like an outright genjutsu from the effect it has on you. Sasuke?"

Sasuke frowned. Truth be told, he knew nothing about this. "It's closer to a chakra flow. A state of mind."

"Again, not inaccurate." Kakashi nodded his approval. This topic wasn't discussed in any textbook, barring perhaps some in T&I training. "Yasha?"

Yasha whistled, looking up at the sky in thought. "My guess is… judging from how you treated their answers… it's similar to the way regular chakra sensors pick up chakra, and can sometimes feel the basic intent of the person. With killing intent, your body would be more coded to react to that, biologically, and after a while as your chakra stores increase your level of KI you could send against a person would increase proportionally."

Kakashi's eye was wide. Spiritual chakra meant high intuition, and Yasha was meant to be intelligent on top of that, but damn. Just a couple of hints from other answers and he had the whole system from pure conjecture. Had Yasha already thought about this? Wouldn't surprise him. "Got it in one."

With a cough, Kakashi hastily continued, hiding his surprise. "Killer intent for genin is mild at best. For chuunin, it will be enough to make a genin like you cute ducklings very scared." Kakashi ignored the half-hearted scowls. "For a jounin, it'll make a genin poop their pants. And for levels higher… it'll make you feel like you're dying before they even attack you."

"Whoooaaa," Naruto drawled out in awe.

Kakashi grinned. "Quite. Now, I'm at a level of an elite jounin, or so…" ANBU was still a secret role, but while it mean strict and high-level training, it wasn't a rank per se. "So if I released the amount I normally would if I were attacking you seriously, you wouldn't stop shaking for a couple of hours."

"Is it worse for chakra sensors?" Sasuke asked thoughtfully.

Kakashi nodded. "Indeed it is. Far worse. A lot of sensor training time goes towards becoming resistant to it. But, as your chakra stores grow, you become more resistant anyway – your own chakra intent won't be overwhelmed so easily, because its own intent will be stronger, so it'll take the edge off."

Yasha spoke up. "Hey, do Bijū have the same sort of KI? I'm surprised it didn't knock out the entirety of Konoha when the Kyuubi attacked long ago. Most people wouldn't have chakra stores to resist it."

Naruto flinched, and Kakashi's eye shifted briefly to him and back to Yasha. "Yes, but Bijū chakra isn't compatible with human chakra, so the intent has less effect. I'd expect the reverse to be true too: a bunch of Kages wouldn't have much effect on a Bijū that somehow had genin levels of chakra stores, for the same reason… but obviously that's just hypothetical, no Bijū has that level. While the Bijū's chakra is extremely intimidating, it's the potency that makes it suffocating. The density, in other words.

"A Bijū doesn't rein in its chakra presence because it has a constant supply of nature chakra. It's primarily a chakra-based being, but a human is primarily flesh and blood, so our limited chakra has to be retained carefully within our body or we won't survive. For that reason, you'll have a hard time trying to pinpoint chakra coils on a Bijū, because its chakra leaks everywhere. But because the Bijū chakra lacks severe intent, you can only be physically harmed by it if it's thick enough, as if breathing in a toxic gas."

He paused, looking around. Yasha looked fascinated, Sasuke looked very interested and Naruto… looked a mix of fascinated and overwhelmed by the amount of information.

Such cute genin.

"Human chakra doesn't tend to leak so easily, as while you could flood it out around you without much trouble, you won't be able to pull it back in so easily. Plus, it's essentially pointless gesture anyway, you're just draining your chakra to show off how serious you are. But you may see particularly strong opponents gain chakra auras around them when they get serious, but only once you get to jounin and higher. Their chakra gets so riled up it starts to show, although it's still contained, like how waves on an ocean can grow but are still connected to the sea beneath it."

The ex-ANBU was giving them the book on it. Normally, he'd teach in short bits, but with Yasha's interest, he knew he'd memorise the whole thing. Sasuke would have no problems either, and Naruto would harass Yasha about it if he couldn't pick it all up.

Kakashi had been unsure, but the lack of a kunoichi did make things easier. Imagine if he had a team which couldn't communicate properly because of a love triangle. Urgh.

Yasha was clearly thinking hard about it, and voiced another question. "Would a Jinchūriki, instead of a Bijū, be capable of massive killing intent then?"

Naruto blinked, looking interested. Kakashi turned back to Yasha, hesitant to answer. "Not using the Bijū's chakra, no." He waved his hand vaguely. "But normally their chakra stores have to increase to match the Bijū they're hosting. So yes, they'll be able to give off quite a big level anyway on their own stores. If they managed to work with their Bijū voluntarily, then I have no idea – it might be possible to increase their KI even further, with the incompatibility bypassed. But the odds of you ever fighting a Jinchūriki are almost nil; you could count the number of Jinchūriki on your hands."

Sasuke spoke up this time. "How strong is a Jinchūriki?"

The conversation had turned toward something a bit sensitive for one of the members. "Very strong," Kakashi replied vaguely.

"Come on, Sensei," Yasha protested, obviously unsatisfied by the response.

Kakashi internally noted Yasha probably wouldn't have insisted if he knew Naruto was a Jinchūriki. The jounin's gaze turned to Naruto, and the blond nodded slightly, unconsciously.

Kakashi felt inclined not to answer for his sake, but it wasn't really a secret. He wasn't talking specifically about Naruto, after all, and it wasn't a village secret either, just the Jinchūriki's identity was. "From what I understand – and this may be inaccurate – there are two different stages of being a Jinchūriki. The first simply have the Tailed Beast inside them. They have large chakra stores, and awful chakra control.

"But the second can use their Beast's chakra; they have even larger stores – actually, they have two stores entirely, cut off their human chakra and they can draw from the Bijū's store, but the Bijū chakra is poisonous to them and whoever they touch. So it's not a seamless switch; the extra power comes at a cost."

Sasuke nodded. "And how strong is a Jinchūriki in comparison to a Kage?"

Kakashi sighed, eyes rolling as he guessed. "You're fighting at minimum a team of jounin. Maximum, they're a Kage or worse. Their chakra control is normally poor, but they can do lots of large-area attacks and they have more speed, strength, and stamina than you, so even hiding isn't going to work."

Yasha was first to think up counter-strategies. "Well, Naruto could just Shadow Clone a few times and let the real one scurry away."

Naruto held up his hand. "Oi. I don't 'scurry'."

Yasha smirked at him and turned to the other brunette. "And Sasuke could just roll over and die."

Sasuke scowled and tossed a punch, but Yasha had already leaned back in anticipation. The manipulator quickly deflected the temper by asking, "And what would you do, Kaka-sensei?"

His sensei snorted. "I wouldn't go anywhere near an enemy Jinchūriki solo. If it happened, I'd use all sorts of earth hiding techniques, anti-tracking, clones, yadda yadda, and get the heck out of there. I wouldn't even bother fighting one on my own."

Yasha nodded slowly. Well, at least he was honest about it. "Couldn't you use gas on them?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No good, you'll need too much of it. They could run too fast out of it or create such a breeze it's cleared in seconds. The Bijū chakra destroys any chemicals you put into their body, much like your swarms do, Yasha-kun."

Yasha frowned. He should've guessed that. "So there's something wrong with my chakra intent?"

The conversation had turned back to killing intent, fortunately for Kakashi. "Normally I'd say so. But you don't have the chakra capacity to produce that level of KI, so it must be your insects giving it off by themselves. They're carnivorous, so maybe that's to be expected, but you won't be able to deal with your KI being released until you can control your insects' bloodlust in some way."

Yasha tutted, turning away. That was a crippling issue – he had no idea how to communicate with his insects. He knew gestures like flicking his fingers worked, and that flooding out chakra with thoughts of where they should go kind of worked… looked like he had to spend a large amount of time training just that.

That was irritating, as KI pulses would draw attention to himself, and he didn't want civilians getting on his case for it. It broadcasted his presence to anyone who knew his ability, so anyone who wanted to observe or track him down could do it with ease. It'd also make any training schedule he had obvious without anyone even watching him.

The fact he pumped out KI whenever he trained would limit him to training in daytime anyway – otherwise it might wake people up, which would get really old, and turn any tired jounin or ANBU into possible threats the next day.

All this made him predictable.

And the surest way to make sure people can't manipulate you is to be unpredictable. Change your schedule all over; switch things around as easily as breathing. Change training locations, eating locations, living locations if possible. Have nothing concrete, make no habits, keep everything vague.

Even with relationships, to an extent – you have to play that a bit more cautiously, so they have a good opinion of you but still can't really predict you. To them, you should be a friend who you trust more because of his past than because you know how he'll behave in the future. Someone you could go to for help with something dodgy you needed done, just as easily as you would go to them for help with something morally sparkly white.

Being unpredictable also gave the option for backstabbing. Yasha saw no reason to take that option with anyone, but the point was, if they tried to backstab him, they'd find out the hard way he was ready to counter-backstab.

Anyone who's attacking someone unpredictable can be persuaded that the attacked person would rather join the attacker's cause, or that the attacker confused about what actually happened – and they were attacking under false assumptions.

Or that they share a common enemy.

If the attacker doesn't know how you think, it gives them reason to pause and hear your protests out. Which gives you time to plot your own counters.

It was a safety net that encompassed every person Yasha knew. Even Naruto didn't know for certain about Yasha, for this reason. Yasha wasn't sure if he knew himself, truly, "wear the mask too long you'll become the mask", but he knew his missions were simple, they benefited him, and humanitarianly, they benefited people in general.

Frankly he didn't mind if his methods were black or white, whatever got the job done.

He'd blackmail someone into attacking someone else, if that someone else was secretly a baddie. He'd kill someone good to save multiple other good people. He'd considered these sort of scenarios and his responses before.

It wasn't morally white, but he wouldn't really regret it. He put too much thought into decisions as irreversible as that for him to regret them – he'd think about killing someone for days before he would go ahead with it. The choices he made would have to be the best option, because if someone knew something black you did, it would tar your relationships with them forever.

Yasha shook himself lightly and brought himself back to the present. Brooding over his logic was something he did often, but he never really found fault with it, so the effort was pointless.

Back to what Kakashi was saying.

The KI release was a beacon to any enemy or spy, an interference to civilians, and something incredibly powerful if controlled; the ability to intimidate a person with just a change in your chakra? No technique released onto them, no hand seals?

Yasha had everything to gain and nothing to lose from mastering KI. He resolved to work on this as hard as possible, and Kakashi was all but agreeing to his prioritising. After all, your genin can't keep the "Konoha is nice" impression if they're leaking KI everywhere.

"Kakashi, can you give me some serious training on that?"

"Serious, huh?" Kakashi repeated with a hum.

He didn't seem to be taking it seriously, so Yasha gave a mostly empty threat. "Otherwise I'll have to practice by myself and wake up everyone in Konoha again."

Kakashi frowned. He probably would, not out of spite, but out of necessity. Yasha didn't like being predictable, as any manipulator wouldn't, so he wouldn't like something that announced his presence.

Well, to be fair, no ninja would like being predictable. Yasha just had extra reason not to. He'd train his hardest to remove that limitation, and obviously, training hardest meant training as soon as possible.

Kakashi was now in an awkward position. He wanted to ease the team into D-Rank missions, then into training, C-Ranks, and improve gradually – no rush after all, there wasn't a war on – but with the pace Yasha was setting, the entire team would be rushing into power usage their bodies and minds weren't prepared for.

Unlike Yasha with his KI to train, and Naruto with his massive chakra stores, at this point Sasuke merely had a good chakra store. Any other time he'd be a high genin, perhaps low chuunin, which was amazing for a new genin… but amongst these two, he would be surpassed in a hurry.

Until he brought out Sharingan.

And then… the end result was the team would be taking B-Ranks before they were mentally prepared. They'd have the chakra stores and control, but they wouldn't have time to do enough missions.

The team would turn out just like the Sannin did – a disillusioned mess. Or as Kakashi's team did – killed in action. Rin, Obito, Minato-sensei – all three died early.

It was obvious to Kakashi that the team that got too strong too quickly became a mess.

But not a single genin here would accept his reasoning, though. They lacked the experience to see that they lacked the experience. They were only concerned with strength; Yasha for power to be in control, Sasuke for power to kill Itachi, and Naruto to get everyone to recognise him. Even if they agreed on a slow pace, the agreement would hold little value to them; they'd just end up training themselves outside Kakashi's eye.

Kakashi had to remain their teacher figure, and insist on his pace. He couldn't reveal his reasoning, that would distance them from him. So he had to control their training, especially Yasha, because he was the one character who would find a way to get things done his way.

"I'll be training you three as I see fit," Kakashi replied sternly. He had to make it obvious this was something Yasha had to leave him in control of. "You'll have to trust my judgement as your sensei."

Yasha blinked, opening his mouth to protest, but thought the better of it and shut it again. If he was accepting Kakashi as his teacher, he had to accept his teaching methods – it only made sense.

"Fair?" Kakashi asked him flatly, eye narrowed.

The brunette scowled. He didn't want to turn Kakashi into an enemy, or blot him out the picture. But he honestly didn't think Kakashi knew what he was doing. After all, the attack from Orochimaru would be coming in a matter of half a year or so. Kakashi had no way of knowing that.

If he spilled the beans on that, to Kakashi or anyone else, chances are Orochimaru's spies would find out – after all, they'd have to prepare the entire village for a village-wide attack.

But if he insisted and messed up his relationship with Kakashi, then he could be deemed disloyal; Kakashi would have ammo against him. Yasha could become a defiant idiot to the other two boys, he might receive training he didn't want… this was a no-win situation right now.

Worst, this was a time-critical response. The other two boys were looking at him strangely, not realising what a burden this decision was. If Yasha delayed too long he might as well have said no.

"I will defer to you, Sensei," he replied, although it took effort to make it not sound heavily reluctant.

Kakashi's eye widened a bit. He was expecting a yes, but that was a weird way of saying it. (He had figured Yasha wouldn't be dumb enough to say no; that could only resort in disciplinary action.)

Anyway, control established.

Time to defuse the other two boys from thinking the KI training was favouritism. He turned to them, eye-smiling. "As Yasha has a serious problem with his bloodline, I'll be training him earlier than you two, as his problem is something you two won't have an issue with."

"Yasha has a problem?" As always, Naruto was worryingly sensitive on that topic.

"Basically, he can't use any technique without it feeling like he's going to kill you." Kakashi turned to Yasha. "Demonstrate, put on a Henge, only for half a second or so."

Yasha sighed, putting his hands up and making the seal (unnecessarily; he could do it seal-less by now, but one had to keep up appearances). "Henge!"

Kakashi's stance automatically became ready as some serious KI washed over him. Sasuke and Naruto both gasped in shock, hands coming up defensively and stumbling backwards. Yasha released an instant after he applied the technique, but both boys were gasping for air, eyes wide in fear.

"What was that?" Naruto stammered, teeth chattering.

"That's the bloodthirstiness of millions of carnivorous, microscopic insects becoming active in his body," Kakashi clarified, stance relaxing. He knew it wasn't a threat, but if Yasha had kept that up much longer, both boys would be out cold, and he would have a hard time fighting off his counter-attack instincts.

Yasha shrugged, putting his hand on Naruto's shoulder soothingly, the blond's eyes flickering over his face rapidly. "So if I ever use a technique near any of you…"

"He'll knock both of you out in seconds if he can't control that," Kakashi explained calmly. "So do you two agree he needs to get rid of that before I start you two on training?"

Sasuke nodded slowly, eyes still wide. His mind was flickering back to the time Itachi had stared him down, the parents' corpses at his feet. 'So that was the feeling… high-level killing intent…' He scowled angrily, turning away. 'I thought I was being a coward, but he just overloaded my chakra intent. Anything to strike more fear.'

Naruto was more energetic with his nodding. His voice was noticeably different. "But, but… how are you going to st-stop that, da-dattebayo?"

Kakashi smiled reassuringly. "I'm going to train him how to control his chakra intent."

Naruto didn't grasp it. "B-but h-how are you go-going to do th-that?"

Yasha shrugged. "I'm going to be thinking a lot, basically?"

Kakashi nodded. "That's the general idea. The more you get control over your chakra's intents, the more you control it."

"Ohhh… Is th-that all?" Naruto turned away, laughing sheepishly.

Everyone else on the team blinked at his turnaround in attitude. The blond grinned at them, suddenly cheerful. "Then no problem, Yasha's good at thinking!"

Yasha's jaw went slack. He wasn't sure whether to snort, facepalm, smirk or sigh at the response.

---

"So these beetles, note how they are more responsive but less accurate with their responses."

"Hmm. I also note they are on a different pheromone frequency…"

"Shino, my man!" Yasha yelled.

Shino turned, his gaze trailing his upsetting classmate. "Yes, Yasha-kun."

"I need some guidance from you," Yasha said grinning. He turned to Shiho and quickly shifted attitudes. "And Aburame-san, please pardon my intrusion."

"It is not necessary to apologise. You are welcome here," the Aburame head said neutrally.

"That makes a first," Yasha muttered under his breath, although both Aburame heard it clearly.

"What is the guidance you need, Yasha-kun?"

Yasha straightened. "I need help controlling my insects' killer intent. They seem to leak it whenever I use chakra. Do you have any suggestions?"

The two Aburame stared at him.

"Stop being so angry," Shino said calmly.

"Eh?" Yasha paused, put out. "I'm not angry?"

"You must be. Your insects, however carnivorous, do not release any intent to kill unless the host does."

Yasha was totally confused. "But I'm releasing it when I just put on Henge. I'm not trying to attack anyone, I'm not angry with anyone."

"Perhaps you misunderstand," Shiho explained calmly, "If you are slightly, even subconsciously, angry at someone, your insects will release all of that unchecked."

"You do seem to wear a mask, if you don't mind my saying, Yasha-kun," Shino added calmly. "And while that is not necessarily a bad thing, your insects don't care that you are trying to suppress your feelings."

Yasha frowned. "So… if I'm just the tiniest, titchiest, smallest bit angry at someone…?"

"Your insects will magnify that," Shino confirmed.

"Damnit. Kami damn it," Yasha swore under his breath, kicking at the ground. "So someone can bump into me on the street and I'll be leaking intent to kill them?"

Shiho spoke up, expression unreadable as normal. "Only if someone bumping into you on the street makes you murderously angry."

Yasha raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't think it would."

The adult shrugged, a slight roll of the shoulders. "Neither do I, but I can't speak for you. Some people are ready to murder more easily than others. Fear and anger are the emotions you have to look for."

"You don't say," Yasha said thoughtfully. "Well, any idea on how to change that?"

"Just don't be so angry," Shino said brightly – well, as brightly as an Aburame could. "The less you're inwardly angry at people, the less your anger can be magnified. Forgive people, let things go, don't get worked up over the past."

"The past, huh." Yasha hummed, as some flashbacks tore through him. "I think I understand what you two are getting at, I have some ideas now."

"It was a pleasure."

Yasha bowed again. "Thanks for your service, Shino-kun, Aburame-san. Let me know if you two need anything."

Shiho bowed back slightly. "Your offer is noted. Come again whenever you need, Yasha-kun."

Yasha turned and went back out, a dark look on his face.

Shiho spoke once he had turned the corner and gone out of earshot. "Maybe the hives are only disturbed because of his internalised anger. If he amends it, it will benefit the Aburame too."

Shino turned back to him. "Perhaps, but they also mentioned a lot about hunger."

"His insects' small size must cause his entire chakra intent to change," Shiho theorised. "It becomes more apparent to me why having the kikaichu instead is more beneficial."

Shino frowned slightly. "I question that. Why? With killer intent as strong as his, most potential opponents would be too intimidated to attack."

Shiho didn't take offense at his son disagreeing with his more experienced father, merely countering his point. "It's clearly hard to control. Perhaps it's his personality, though."

Shino nodded shortly. "He is a hard to read character in the best of times."

A small pause passed, before the adult turned back to the hive. "Let's resume what I was telling you here."

---

"Let it go, let it roll right off your shoulders; don't you know, the hardest part is over…" Naoki sang, "Let it in, let your clarity define you; in the end, we will only just remember how it feels."

Yasha's clone gave her a dull look. "How what feels?"

"Shut up, it's a song," Naoki told him off, then turned back to her imaginary audience. "Let it slide, let your troubles fall behind you; let it shine, until you feel it all around you…"

Yasha gazed off into the distance as she sang on. "…and I don't mind, if it's me you need to turn to, we'll get by; it's the heart that really matters in the end."

Keito snored quietly a few metres behind him, grateful for the chance to sleep. Naoki had wanted to sing, so Yasha left her to it – she wasn't loud enough to wake up a tired eight-year-old. "Our lives are made in these small hours, these little wonders, these twists and turns of fate…"

There was something nostalgic about her voice. Was she remembering a song her parents sang? Yasha heaved a sigh. He'd never had parents to sing to him. What songs would they have sung?

"Time falls away, but these small hours, these small hours, still remain."

Would they have sung often?

Naoki started humming and swaying back and forward, the melody to the song. "All of my regrets, will wash away somehow… but I cannot forget, the way I feel right now."

She gazed up at the clouds and sighed, speaking so quietly Yasha barely heard it. "I miss them."

'You and me both,' Yasha thought sombrely, gazing up at the clouds with her. "Who wrote that song?"

"Hmm…" Naoki said distantly, "I forget."

"Where'd you hear it?"

"A film," she said, still distant. Then her focus came back. "I forget which."

Oddly, the last part sounded like a lie, but Yasha discarded the instinct – it didn't really matter if she knew what film it was from. He couldn't afford a film, or a TV to watch it on.

His bank account was getting low. He needed more D-Ranks, badly.

Come to think of it, when was the last time he had actually checked his bank balance?

Yasha hadn't trusted his bank with much of his sponsor's cash, since he distrusted the village that called him and Naruto monsters as easy as breathing, but it was worth it as apparently his bank would handle translating his paychecks to "real money". If they were charging monster tax or something, he ought to find out.

He wondered if he should attempt to clone, with his original still wandering around.

Best not – he hadn't attempted multi-clone yet. In fact he was dubious about single clones a few days ago. He'd rather not disturb the original unnecessarily and risk vomiting with it.

The brunette glanced at Keito, and decided to leave him be. Plenty of time to check the bank. Might as well leave it for the original after the clone technique released.

In the meantime, he just had to watch the other kids. Yasha did a quick headcount, and nodded to himself.

At least he didn't have Ino breathing down his neck. That made a pleasant change.

---

"So now my insects are apparently revealing little pieces of crap," the original Yasha growled to himself, stalking up the side of the Hokage mountain. "And basically if I drop some toast in the morning I can't use any ninjutsu forever."

He was understandably pissed off at the revelation.

Which didn't really help matters, since he wasn't meant to be internally angry.

But apparently, as soon as he moved his insects by moving his chakra, if he had the slightest amount of anger or fear underlying what he was thinking, they'd turn that tiny amount into a huge amount of KI. If only there was someone who he could learn from… but to be honest, the line between "suppressing emotions" and "controlling emotions" was blurry at best.

Compare the Hyuuga with the Aburame. One controlled them out of apparent necessity, the other out of some misplaced sense of nobility. Then there was Nara, Yamanaka – both hid their emotions, both because they were too knowledgeable to give information away.

But if he went to any of those for help with his emotions, he would literally be giving away how the deepest parts of his mind worked. He'd be giving away the fact his mental state was angry constantly.

He'd rather not. Even the Aburame had found out more about him than he wanted, from such a small tip.

What was his options?

One, go to a Yamanaka and let them give him advice, at the cost of probably having to go through very revealing therapy.

Two, attempt to become happy-go-lucky like Naruto. Anger out the window.

Three, suppress his apparent anger to an even further extent.

Four, ignore the issue, and just get used to not being able to fight… in most circumstances.

…Okay, for starters, there was no way he would go to a Yamanaka. His past was not something he wanted to raise with anyone, even for the sake of therapy.

If he was going to share, it'd be with someone he genuinely would not part from at the cost of his life. But that wasn't going to happen any time soon, so that option was pointless to pick.

On the plus side, his KI would be massive if he left it as is. If he released serious KI when bored, when he was literally fuming, he'd scare the enemy's pants off.

A dark grin crossed his face imagining it, but it soon vanished. The KI would be strong if he was fuming anyway; holding onto constant internal anger wouldn't help that. At least, not significantly.

Reaching the top of the monument, he flopped down on the Fourth Hokage's head, gazing out over Konoha.

He couldn't suppress his anger further – he hadn't even detected his anger, which could only mean it was things he didn't like people for – inactive anger. For example, Konoha's treatment of Naruto made him angry towards them.

Let that go? But it was totally correct and valid, expected even, to have anger about something like that. What was he meant to do, be all smiles and glitter and rainbows around child abusers? Brush past it? Dismiss it until Naruto eventually became strong enough for them to change their tune?

Bullshit. A person should be treated correctly at all ages, regardless of accomplishments. There was a certain level of human decency everyone deserved, especially children.

It was what stopped Yasha from tearing through every civilian who worked at the orphanage. That, and he hadn't the time to investigate anyone for their direct involvement.

That and Naruto and the eight Uchiha brats wouldn't have a fun life if he was gone.

Yasha sighed wearily, scratching his forehead. He couldn't ignore the problem, it'd cripple his performance on the field far too much.

He couldn't get much help from strangers without revealing how screwed up he was, and he'd seriously rather not.

And he barely knew what to do with his emotions otherwise. He could deal with getting rid of conscious emotions, hiding something that angered him, but getting rid of background anger?

How would you even start with that?

Forgive them?

Forgive them for being abusive?

The hell?

Why don't they just stop?

Why don't they just think?

Yasha dragged his hand down his face, knowing but hating what he had to do.

He had to decide they were still good people. Confused people, but good people just like everyone else.

He gritted his teeth, furious at the fact he even had to.

'Why?' his analytical brain asked, plainly. 'Why is this so hard for you? Why do you want the option of hating them?'

"BECAUSE THEY'RE FUCKING EVIL SHITHEADS!" he yelled.

The world seemed to reel from his shout, the ambient sounds fading away. He glared, full force at the scumbag village below him. Simultaneously a cheerful, happy village, Naruto's beloved home… and the biggest piece of shit in existence.

As his hearing came back to normal, he idly wondered how many people actually heard that. How many Jounin just turned and looked up at him on the Hokage monument.

He didn't want to forgive them, because he wanted them to pay.

Not necessarily him making them pay. No, it could be anyone doling out the punishment, he wasn't concerned about that.

But you can't be cruel without consequences.

Yasha could justify every single time he had threatened or hurt people. There was good reason, every time, because he knew what it was like to be hurt without good reason.

These scumbags had to apologise, or they had to pay. They couldn't just change their tune and shift their morals in response to the situation.

Morality was about ironclad rules, lines you would never cross, things you would never do. As a manipulator Yasha knew this all too well. And he hated the people who didn't have lines, who bent their own rules, who had situational ethics – say they would never steal then change their tune once they're starving. Just say you'll only steal if you're starving. Tell the fucking truth. Have morals worth a damn.

Someone who would decide to treat a kid like shit on an assumption they were a monster, then treat them nicely on an assumption they might use Hokage powers to slap some punishment on them, no. Fuck no.

If you have morals, stick to them like they're worth shit.

Accept the consequences of your actions.

And don't mess with kids.

Yasha glared out over the village, and breathed deeply. A minute later, the same internal voice piped up. 'What are the alternatives to forgiving them?'

Well, he wasn't going to attack them. He wanted harm on Konoha… but yet, that wasn't true either. His glare softened.

If Konoha came to harm, even if all the people he cared about were outside the safety of its walls… the Uchiha kids would be left homeless, and Naruto would be devastated. With Konoha gone the whole Land of Fire would be invaded. Yasha couldn't head to another shinobi village and there was no way they'd be safe out in the wild or in some civilian Fire city.

Realistically, even if all his friends were S-Rank, he'd prefer they were here, surrounded by allies, than the whole village destroyed. Sure, the village deserved it… well, majority maybe. But that meant all the people that didn't would suffer too.

Summed up, he didn't really want the village to come to harm. Too many innocents would suffer, and that'd be a hypocritical thing to cause. He'd be doing the exact thing he didn't approve of – hurting people without really knowing if they were responsible… without really having a reason.

So why be so adamant about hating them? He'd be crippling his own progress and ultimately that rage could never be fulfilled. Even if he got away with it there'd be no way Naruto would be happy with what happened.

Hell, Naruto was capable of fighting back when scumbags showed up, but chose not to. Didn't that sum up his feelings on the matter?

His watch beeped, and he sighed, glaring at it wearily. Perfect timing.

He had to let this go. If he couldn't let it go, every bit of this, he couldn't progress.

And while he was at it, those flashbacks were a problem. He wasn't even sure why – he'd dealt with the people involved. They were dead and gone.

Yasha could think about the event easily, recall every detail. He could recall what happened to him, and what he did back. He could recall the moment he snapped – after that was a bloody blur, but he could recall it and afterwards.

He didn't feel anything, bar disgust at the people involved, a deep, nauseating disgust. But he wasn't scared by it.

Was he angry?

…Yes, that it happened, but there was no one alive to be angry at, and he wasn't going to Edo Tensei anyone so he could re-kill them. Literally no desire to do that, at all.

So… what was needed with his past?

Letting go, huh?

"Ironic." Yasha sat up, readying himself, and a few seconds later his clone released and he bent over double, retching and coughing as his insects bounced around in his system, churning up his chakra.

Thankfully, no vomit. He, or his swarms, were getting used to it.

A minute later, the nausea had faded. He sighed. "Let it go."

Naoki's song she had sung to his clone immediately played through his head, and he smirked, then his smile slipped off his face as her sad statement. "'The heart that really matters in the end', huh?"

What even was his heart? Yasha sighed again, letting his exhaustion drain out, and imagining it pooling on the ground below him.

Well… he was doing right by the Uchiha kids and Naruto. That part of his heart was fine.

The fact he could literally walk to a building and kill eight children, all but unnoticed by everyone, was kind of scary. Hell, he even stored a kunai there.

They were all too young to fight back. Keito was exhausted most of the time.

"Stop wondering about whether you can kill them; yes, you can, and you'd get away with it," Yasha muttered tiredly. "Let's move on."

And that kind of summed up his heart. Taking care of them while simultaneously wondering about whether he could kill them. For no damn reason!

That was just what his mind tossed up.

He ran his hand down his face again, silently noting he was running out of ways to express how wearied he was with his own bullshit.

There was something educational about being vague, and not thinking linearly – it didn't bias you into some way of thinking and get you stuck in that rut. Look at Hyuuga with their nobility rut, Jiraiya with his perversion rut…

But on the other hand… this sort of thinking where just anything was free game just was so jarring. Yasha idly wondered if anyone else had that problem with their brain coming up with totally outlandish thoughts.

Then again, how many had heard of what the future would hold? That time travel was possible, and the result of a bloodline?

Who knew their village would be invaded? Who had to fight Itachi on the massacre night? While rescuing kids?

All of that was pretty outlandish.

Curiosity at just how far random thoughts could go resulted in allowing anything… did he regret that?

…He was now thinking about feelings about his thoughts.

"Stop wasting time," he muttered to himself, staring out over Konoha.

He had to let go… but how? He'd spoken to Naruto and the kid didn't exactly talk him into loving Konoha, despite Naruto's passion.

Maybe simply because it was Naruto, the one wronged, the love of Konoha meant nothing.

Yasha was reminded of when he was in the Hokage's office and confronted the Kage about Naruto's treatment. The Kage basically blamed politics: too much favouritism of the Kyuubi brat and the Hokage would upset the civilians. But the Kage regretted that his poor treatment happened – it was obvious, even in the original timeline. That regret wasn't a lie.

Yasha couldn't remain an enemy of Konoha in general while working as their protector. It made no sense.

He simultaneously wanted Konoha destroyed and protected. No wonder there was cognitive dissonance, when his basic desires were so conflicted.

(How many people his age even knew that term?)

Yasha had to drop his hatred of Konoha – either that, or abandon Konoha and the people in it he cared about.

He frowned at his sheer unwillingness to drop it, even knowing objectively it was the best way forward. "If I find it this hard to let go of hatred, I can see why Sasuke had such a problem."

Problem isn't he was hostile to Konoha, but that Konoha was hostile back, to him and Naruto both. There'd be ample opportunities for him to get angry with them again and be back at square one.

What could solve that?

Yasha couldn't leave Konoha, their opinion wouldn't improve. Moving to the outskirts might make things better – less exposure – but it might make things worse, too, as villagers that did want a piece of him would think they'd get away with it due to that same less exposure.

It was possible that if he got his KI under control he could use Henge regularly to move around. People wouldn't pick up on that – they'd literally have to watch his house and assume he wasn't some friend or classmate of the two. Unlikely at best.

After all, civilians didn't really know how chakra worked, so they wouldn't know of Henge. If he was wearing one he'd be seen by civilians as a different person.

But for that to work, Yasha had to totally lose the killing intent. Or at least drop it to barely discernable levels. Civilians weren't used to KI in any sort of level, so it had to even be mild for them, which didn't leave much margin.

Maybe he wouldn't even need the Henge after a while once people realised their fear of him was gone. It may well be just over-spilling KI that made them hate him in the first place.

His gaze narrowed as he looked over the peaceful village as he came to a conclusion. "Konoha, I don't forgive you. But I expect you'll make up for it, and you'll feel every bit of remorse that is due you."

He sighed and felt a bit lighter. He embraced the feeling, trying to spread it.

No one but sociopaths had no remorse when they did something wrong. They always had justification, and they always felt remorse even if their ego prevented them admitting it. Yasha made the same mistakes. He had done something wrong before. Not as bad as this, but something he thought was right and was actually all sorts of wrong.

People's conscience forbade them from doing something morally wrong without justification. And even if they ploughed past their conscience in the heat of the moment, they regretted it. Their conscience just wore away at them until their ego came up with some sort of justification to let them forgive themselves – even if it was justification like "it's not a big deal", "it was a white lie", "she over-reacted", "just a fling, it means nothing".

Yasha's thoughts turned back to Ino. Truth be told, he was manipulating her feelings for him. Justified, yes, eight kids' lives depended on it – but frankly it was still wrong.

If Ino refused to forgive him once the kids were grown up and the truth could be out, how would he feel? He'd basically have a permanent enemy, a constant souring on his life – someone he had to avoid every time he went in the street or get treated with accusing glares.

She'd sour the whole of the Yamanaka against him, and basically anyone else who she spoke to about it. Forget that.

It was unfair to expect Ino to forgive him when he couldn't forgive a whole group – most of which were uninvolved or completely clueless about the factors about Naruto.

A clueless civilian, who had no idea how chakra even worked, how reliable the seal was – add the factor of the five stages of grief. Anger, right in there.

Every time a civilian saw Naruto, they were reminded what was in him, or what he was itself… and what the Kyuubi did to them.

He sighed, and tried his best to understand them, forgive them.

People lost whole families, their homes, their livelihood. While meanwhile a blond kid was grinning everywhere, seeming to mock them with his happiness. Probably his resemblance to the favourite blond Hokage made it even worse.

Just… let… go.

Five minutes later, with a sigh, he stood up. He felt both lighter and yet exhausted. Almost wobbling, he stood back up and went down the steps, heading back home.

The entire journey was a blur, and he just got home, wandered straight to his bedroom soundlessly, and faceplanted onto the bed, drifting to sleep in seconds.

---

"Darn it, I can't find him anywhere, dattebayo!" Naruto cursed. His clones had poured everywhere, donning a varying Henge each so they wouldn't be interrupted.

Now that he recalled, there were a lot of jounin giving him wary looks. It took Naruto only about half an hour to comb the whole village; in his eagerness he'd pumped out hundreds of clones and all that was left was to form a line and cross the village, and yell to the original if they spotted an ANBU.

(Naruto still hadn't caught on that he received memories from his clones, so they called to each other when they found an ANBU.)

He had spotted 3 ANBU total. But by the time the original got there to talk with them, there was no trace of them. The clones just couldn't keep track of them. All it took was one flickering technique and they were gone.

"I might need to change tactics," the blond considered. "I can't keep track of them, so I need to find their base instead. But how would I do that?"

Firstly, it wouldn't be a public building. ANBU liked vanishing, so they must hide somewhere they could vanish. In all his visits to the Hokage tower, he'd never seen them, but because the Hokage commanded them directly, their base must be nearby so they could get to him quickly.

All his clones dispelled, Naruto started off to the Hokage tower, still wearing a Henge. Once he was on top, he gazed around, looking for any building that was hidden.

Nothing. But hang on… the Hokage tower was pretty close to the forest. If you wanted to hide a building, there was no better place than a forest.

Once again Naruto formed a line of clones, but instead of the streets they all went to the treeline and trawled through the forest, quietly.

Or as quietly as someone with a Jinchūriki level of chakra could. It didn't take five seconds before he was confronted by an ANBU.

"Uzumaki-san, what are you doing here?" she asked, obviously a female despite her mask's seals obscuring her real voice.

An ANBU actually talking to him, it sent excitement all over him. An elite soldier, talking to him.

Of course, an ANBU would hide where other ANBU were. He was on the right track. Naruto grinned at her. "I'm looking for someone, dattebayo!"

"There's no one in the forest." The ANBU waved that away easily, being it was her job to scan for people hiding in the forest.

"No, I mean I'm looking for an ANBU."

"You're looking for ANBU?" she repeated confusedly.

"Yeah, a certain one. He has a black mask."

Her eyes widened in shock. "Yūrei? What do you want with him?"

So that was his name. Ghost. Naruto's grin stretched wider. That was an awesome codename. "I want him to train me, dattebayo!"

The ANBU held a hand to her temple, trying to avoid sensory overload from all the chakra round her as she tuned into his chakra intent. "How do you even know about him?"

"He told me about Yasha being in hospital a while ago, and took me there."

According to her chakra sensing, he wasn't lying, thankfully. Her pounding heart slowed a little. She was seconds away from taking him to the Hokage to psychoanalyse for Yūrei's mental handiwork. On a Jinchūriki, that would have been a catastrophe.

Nothing nefarious going on, just a genin trying to get stronger. Of course, he wouldn't know that Yūrei betrayed them and ran from the village, and she didn't want to give off the impression ANBU couldn't be trusted.

Deflect then. "Don't you have a jounin-sensei for that?"

Naruto scowled. "Yeah, but Kaka-sensei is too lazy to train me."

She held back a snort. That sounded like Hound, alright. Odd to think he was a by-the-books guy a few years back.

Shinobi getting poor training wasn't to be tolerated though.

She smirked at him. "Well, we can't have that. I'll have a talk with him."

Turning quickly to the side, she tapped the transmit button on her earpiece. "Base, there's a boy looking for Hound. Do I have the okay for escorting?"

A confirmation came through quickly. "Yes, please. He's making my sensory go haywire."

She held back another snort and turned back to the eager-looking blond. "If you dispel all your clones, I'll take you to Kakashi and have a talk with him."

"Cool!" He did just that and she felt the pressure in her head lessen as large power sources all around her morphed into just one giant one. "Let's go!"

"Hold on, let me find him." She flickered away into the village, out of his clouding chakra, and sensed. There he was. At home, actually. Chakra suppressed to jounin levels like normal.

Sensors have an unwritten agreement to not spill the location of other people's private affairs, so she wouldn't take the kid all the way there. She flickered back and grabbed the Uzumaki, wrapping her chakra around him and body-flickering.

Halfway there she paused on a roof to let him recover. He was all sorts of dizzy, and she chortled quietly, before a thought hit her. "Actually, if you see that Yūrei guy, do let me know. He's not turned in his last few mission reports."

"Are you his captain?" Naruto asked eagerly.

She scoffed. "I wish." She was nowhere near his level; she had two years under her belt and he had over ten, not to mention doujutsu, fuuinjutsu… ugh, the list went on. "I'd have to work for years to get to his level."

Naruto grinned at her. "Just use shadow clones! Then you can do two things at once!"

The ANBU blinked at him, as something in her gut fell like a rock. She flickered away to whack her head against a wall and groan.

She could be researching something and relaxing in bed at the same time. Why hadn't she thought to use clones outside of sparring and combat? It took a genin who said it in such an obvious way for her to consider the use of clones outside training.

She crushed her shame and flickered back, voice normalised. "Thanks for the tip."

"Uh… no problem," Naruto replied hesitantly. To his eye, she was gone and back in half a second, like she flickered invisible and back. "Um, what does that Yūrei guy look like without his mask?"

"No one knows," she replied, taking out a shuriken and flinging it off into the sky at just the right angle, chakra buzzing around one of the tips. "No one's seen him out of uniform."

The wind blew it around the corner, flying right through Kakashi's open window, the sharpened tip embedding in the floor. The jounin jolted.

In seconds a Kakashi clone was standing by the two, the original on another roof entirely.

"Jackal," Kakashi greeted in surprise. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

She pushed Naruto forward. "One of your kids needs more training."

Naruto crossed his arms, scowling at Jackal. She could have made it sound like he wasn't weak.

Kakashi's eye flickered over Naruto, then returned back to Jackal. "I didn't take you for a babysitter."

"He needs serious work on chakra suppression, for one," she deflected, not rising to the bait. "And he can't even handle a body flicker."

"Hey, I…" Naruto's protest was cut off as Jackal flipped through six seals in a heartbeat, muting sound for the whole area. She didn't want this convo dragging out.

Naruto stopped trying to speak, so she released the technique. "Seriously, Kakashi, I know it's day one, but they shouldn't be wandering around in forests looking for ANBU to train them."

Kakashi frowned, finally catching on as to why she was involved. His gaze shifted back to the blond genin. "Naruto-kun, a bit overly eager aren't we?"

Jackal vanished in a cloud of leaves. Now that Kakashi finally acknowledged the problem, she didn't have to deal with being next to a fog of chakra any longer. Cute kid, but she'd get a headache in half an hour from being so close to that much unrestrained chakra.

"I want to be stronger. I want to know cooler techniques," Naruto said flatly, arms still folded.

Kakashi sighed, holding his forehead. "Naruto-kun, you'll get there. Be patient. Once I'm sure you guys are working together and you all are familiar with your D-Rank missions, I'll change it up. By then I'll have a stronger grasp on your capabilities anyway."

Naruto scowled. "Why not just teach Sasuke and Yasha Kage Bunshin? Then you can teach us while our clones do the D-Ranks."

Kakashi blinked. He wasn't expecting Naruto to try and solve the problem, just to demand training with even more vigour. Was that one of Yasha's influences? To analyse things?

But his solution was a dud anyway. "No, Naruto. Sasuke wouldn't use your techniques. And for Yasha, with his bloodline, it's just dangerous to give him that."

Dangerous as in, Yasha would be far harder to monitor and the Hokage would have Kakashi's head.

"Imagine how confused the swarms in his body would get with their host being divided. And anyway, both of them have far less chakra than you."

The silver-haired jounin analysed Naruto's uncertain look and delivered the finisher. "And besides, do you really want Sasuke knowing the only technique you have that he doesn't?"

Naruto shook his head vigorously, arms uncrossing. "Fine," he agreed moodily. "But I really want training."

"Don't grouch about it. Be patient." Kakashi dispelled, and the original blinked, processing the memories – the original could already hear and see the convo anyway, as relying on the memory processing to be fast was a rookie mistake.

The original hummed in thought, body-flickering back into his home.

Naruto scowled, kicking the roof he was on. "But I want training now, dattebayo!"

His energy was burning in him like normal, pushing him, urging him to move and drain it off. He looked around, but Kakashi had gone. Kakashi wasn't going to help. In fact, he'd left him on a roof without a way down. Probably his idea of a joke.

Naruto cursed, kicking the roof harder. He wasn't going to give up! He needed serious training. It had only been a day and he already knew he was far behind the other two boys. Kakashi didn't seem to understand that gap.

Fine. He'd just have to get help outside of Kakashi.

Naruto slid to the edge of the roof, dangling his legs off and kicking idly. He could look for Yūrei again, but if he went back to the forest, he'd just get in Jackal's way again, she'd bring him back to Kakashi or the Hokage, and they'd tell him off for being impatient.

He knew where ANBU base was now, but that didn't help him; Yūrei wasn't even there according to Jackal.

But if he wasn't there… he must be around town. Yūrei seemed like he wasn't going to do what you expected, if he was ignoring reports and stuff, but he was a better ANBU than Jackal, according to her.

Sooo…. if he liked being hidden, and he wasn't at the ANBU base, maybe there was a building hidden elsewhere; Yūrei's home. Naruto had already checked for ANBU around Konoha, and he knew the few ANBU he saw weren't the black-mask guy.

Naruto racked his brains. It would be near the ANBU base, probably, since Yūrei was a lazy ANBU, and wouldn't want to travel far to get to base, so… maybe it was invisible?

He grinned at the idea, but dismissed it. Nah. The only thing that would hide something like a home was a seal, and that would use a lot of chakra. If his home was revealed every time he went on missions because he wasn't around to power the invisibility seal…

Maybe it was buried?

…Maybe. But would someone who was lazy go to the effort of digging his own home? No, it was probably just hidden somewhere.

Not in the trees on that side of the village – that was too close to ANBU. "So…" Naruto said aloud, his gaze turning to the trees on the other side of the compass. "How about there?"

---

"That's probably the most tense meal I've had in a while." Yūrei grinned as he put the money down.

The other two looked at him – Itachi sourly, Kisame wearily.

Not a single one of them had lowered their guard for an instant in that restaurant. Yūrei had no apparent motive to attack them, but it was just stupid to lower your guard around someone with a rank that high, even being S-Rank yourself.

Itachi made a mental note that crow clones were probably the thing to be using from now on. It used a lot of chakra, but it would allow him to come close to Yūrei without their talks turning into something massively tense. Yūrei may well seem relaxed all the time, but he was constantly alert.

Activated Sharingan gave a person a safety margin to respond, even to completely non-telegraphed movement, so there was reason for Yūrei to relax – all the more so if this Yūrei was indeed a shadow clone. Itachi, however, simply couldn't retain inner peace around someone who had murdered Shisui. Unlike Yūrei, he cared about people dying, and he had feelings for the people who died.

Although Yūrei's enigmatic way of talking about Shisui was making Itachi confused, it didn't do anything to make him relax. Yūrei seemed to disassociate their death with his previous memories of them – Itachi wasn't sure how, but it didn't seem healthy.

Kisame was fine in Itachi's book – at least as fine as an S-Rank missing-nin criminal could be. He didn't care about Yūrei's crap, and was very matter-of-fact about things. There was a sinister side to him, an obvious battle fever and bloodlust, but Itachi expected that from every missing-nin, particularly the high-level ones.

But Kisame was readable. Very readable. His stance, his no-nonsense attitude… it was easy to see where he was coming from. Yūrei was the complete opposite.

Itachi idly noted he could comfortably settle down for a year in a high-end part of Konoha with Kisame's bounty. He also noted Kisame's chakra level was off the charts – and he meant off the charts. That man had more chakra than he'd seen in any person, ever. Granted, he had a large build, so larger coils, but the sheer mass of chakra in his system…

Maybe that explained his desire to fight someone. He was itching to most of the meal… if you could call it that. He looked disappointed when both Sharingan-bearers backed down. And with his chakra level, no wonder, he probably had so much chakra it would make him buzz with energy.

As a rule, fight-loving meatheads are easy to out-strategize, but rules tend to be off when it gets to A-Ranks and higher. Best idea with them is treat everyone without any assumptions; they'll play off your assumptions otherwise and use them against you.

All three were still together when their rings buzzed. Itachi mentally cursed as he had to take his focus off Yūrei.

"Thanks to Orochimaru's leaving, I'll be reorganising the teams. We're gathering a new member from inside Iwagakure," their Leader's voice rang clearly. "I need Sasori, Itachi and Kisame for the recruitment. Yūrei, I have a private mission for you."

"Hai, boss," Yūrei replied cheerfully. "I hope it's not anything to do with stealing a ring back from Orochimaru."

The ginger-haired corpse frowned. "It's not. Stay where you are." It did annoy him that Yūrei wasn't intimidated by him, so for all his poking fun at Konan, Pein did see where she was coming from.

"You other three, I'll have you meet on Iwagakure border, to the south. There's an inn called 'the Prancing Pony' just shy of the border. Stay there until you meet with Sasori, who should be with you in two days in the evening. You'll receive further instructions at the time."

"Hai," both other S-Ranks replied clearly, mostly from engrained training. They looked at each other assessingly, knowing there was no point to splitting up for the journey.

Kisame smirked, eyes becoming predatory. "Well, we've already been introduced, so shall we get going?"

"Of course. Don't try anything funny, Kisame-san." Itachi's eyes evolved and he glared down Kisame. It would be pointless to actually hurt him, but for powerful people, power was the only thing worth respect, and no better way to brandish that than a threat.

Kisame's smirk widened. "Naturally. We're comrades. Allow me to send those words right back to you."

"You two have fun. I'm going to go do a thing." Yūrei waved as he made his way back through the streets.

The other two gazed after him wordlessly, before their images shimmered and they body-flickered away.

Konan watched from above, paper wings still flapping slowly. Paper didn't weigh much, but chakra-laden paper required a little Wind Release to keep airborne. She didn't want to attract a Sharingan user's attention though, and while it may seem paranoid, someone like Yūrei would probably see her following him and show no visible reaction.

At this point, with him inside a building she'd have to send paper planes to follow Yūrei, but her sensing with individual paper wasn't exactly top notch, and even with civilians she could track their chakra but not actually figure out what they were doing.

With Yūrei, Mr. No Presence, she couldn't even do that. She'd literally have to stick a paper to his clothes to get away with tracking him, and the odds of him not noticing was miniscule.

Plus, this may well be a clone. From what she knew, he sent a clone everywhere. With a lack of chakra presence, for all she knew he had fifty of him walking around this town under Henge. She'd have to check each figure for a chakra signature.

Shadow Clones couldn't hold indefinitely, but half a day was probably doable. Maybe a full day. He was using the technique for years, and he had a doujutsu and seals to tell him of any issues with its performance.

Her sensing was useless against him. Probably against Kisame, too. He had no doujutsu, but his sword could sense chakra, even under Henge the chakra was the same aura per person – Konan as a sensor could tell that. He'd spot her easily if Samehada reacted.

She frowned. She could wait for him, or call it quits – Orochimaru might still be nearby – unlikely, given his opponents, but he did seem the type to attack in subtle, sly ways.

Of course, being Pein had all but invited her to carry on monitoring him, she was free to keep doing just that for as long as she cared. Pein had no fear of Yūrei, firmly believing he was more than capable of taking out anyone who dared go against him. He actually considered himself a god – and to be honest, Konan wasn't sure what she thought about that.

The red-haired boy had died with Yahiko that day. He had gone from someone who had loved peace and avoiding fights into… that. There were still traces of his old self, and Konan knew she couldn't force him out of his ways. She definitely couldn't overpower him, but even if she did, she wasn't adept with words. What would her fighting him bring about but more pain to both of them?

A ghost of a smile flickered. True enough, peace had fallen in Ame. The people in Amegakure were subdued by Pein's ever-watchful eye and the mysterious nature of their protectors, but cheerful and most importantly, at peace. Pein's way had worked so far.

And she'd be damned if she let him drift in darkness alone. If Nagato ever woke, she'd be there to take his hand.

With a sigh, she broke her technique, the paper fluttering down and reforming on the roof nearby, condensing. With a tingling sensation her real body formed.

Glumly, she slumped, and collapsed her hand onto her chin, vaguely staring into the distance. She couldn't hover around Yūrei like a moth around a lightbulb. She hadn't even done that with Orochimaru, and she hadn't trusted him either.

The difference was, Orochimaru's goals were obvious. It was also apparent what would make him part ways – a rare bloodline to steal from Akatsuki. It was obvious he couldn't touch Pein – not just because Pein was far stronger, but because the Akatsuki rarely met in person. Neither Pein nor Konan trusted him, but they understood him.

For some reason, Pein was content to allow Yūrei the same treatment as Orochimaru, and Konan didn't like it. Yūrei was a blank mask, a ghost like his name, drifting unaffected by the slaughter around him, of comrades and enemies alike.

She considered her options. She couldn't spend all her time watching him – although Pein could certainly handle any attack on Ame, the citizens of Ame wouldn't like to see a person speared through with chakra rods, and Konan's ability to send paper warnings to every corner of Ame at once was invaluable for an evacuation.

She wasn't content to let him roam free, but she couldn't watch him. Her curiosity about his origin could be fed, perhaps. Itachi worked with Yūrei, and there was always further records in Konoha about him that Zetsu could investigate, although he had brought back quite a few copied records already.

However, there was little reason for Itachi to explain any weaknesses of Yūrei. Although Itachi's actions practically defined betrayal, he did them out of a quest for power.

He would gain no power from telling Konan about Yūrei, and possibly even make an enemy out of Yūrei. Regardless of who was stronger, Itachi didn't attack Yūrei just now, so chances are they didn't want to fight – perhaps simply out of Itachi's respect for Pein.

Madara had hinted Yūrei was also there during the Uchiha massacre, but oddly, he was kicked out of Konoha a few days after that night. If he was capable of hiding his involvement in over a hundred murders, then he was worryingly capable of covering his tracks if he did turn on Akatsuki. Given his power level, he could fight on equal grounds with any of the Akatsuki members bar Pein/Konan themselves.

The problem wasn't how strong he was, nor the potential damage he could do. Any Akatsuki member could cause massive damage. It was that you couldn't figure out the motive for his attack, so you could never work out when/if he would do it.

And the last thing you wanted was him not only attacking silently, but getting away with it to do it again.

If an Akatsuki member was caught or killed from this moment forward, with no obvious perpetrator, and Yūrei's location wasn't confirmed to be at least a country away, Konan would suspect him.

But you needed motive to suspect someone. You couldn't suspect them because you knew they were dangerous – by that reckoning most S-Rank would fit the bill. Konan didn't even know Yūrei's motive for joining Akatsuki.

She remembered when they met…

---

"…And the situation with Konoha is under investigation by Zetsu," Konan reported, eyes flickering over the paper document.

Pein frowned, and turned his head. "That's strange."

Konan put down the report, her chakra instantly flowing into the familiar Shikigami no Mai [Dance of the Shikigami] pattern, body morphing into paper. "What is it?"

Nagato's Rinnegan narrowed as he focused inwardly. "I have a void in the rain technique. It's not a person with suppressed chakra, it's more like… a person with no chakra."

"No chakra? …Sasori?" Konan suggested.

"He's just outside Kumo [Lightning] right now. I confirmed it just earlier today. Unless he's crossed the lands of Frost, Hot Water, and Fire in a few hours, he's not the one outside."

"So we have a significant attack?"

"They're not attacking. It's a single person figure, and he's not hurrying. Wait… he's sped up."

"Where's he going?"

"Straight towards here. He's incredibly fast. He'll be at the base of this tower in thirty seconds at this rate."

"Better get ready," Konan said grimly, her body exploding into paper.

She reformed in mid-air outside the tower in the next second, gazing down with a hard expression.

It was obvious where he was, even though she couldn't sense him. His speed was so high the rain was actually being pulled after him, like a cyclone. S-Rank speed.

His figure blurred to the side of the tower Pein was in, and she clenched her fists, ready to send explosive notes on him.

In a heartbeat he was running vertically upwards, and she blinked in shock as he ran right over the seals hidden in the walls. His lack of chakra expelling must also mean he didn't trigger the seals.

But that didn't make sense, you would need chakra to stick to the walls.

He went to the floor Nagato was on… and Konan was stunned again as he went right past, higher, ignoring the easy target – in fact not even glancing at the figure visible through the glass window.

Because Nagato hadn't anticipated the building seals to be ineffective, the Six Paths had exited the building on a lower floor. The Paths paused and watched blankly as he climbed to the very peak. Although their expressions betrayed nothing, she knew Nagato was staring in confusion.

While it was true the tower was a giant chakra transmitter for Nagato, at this distance from the Six Paths Nagato would have no issues controlling them without the tower's assistance. If the assailant's game was attacking Nagato, he was going about it completely the wrong way.

Konan and the six ginger-haired Paths watched as he paused, catching his breath, before he produced a large umbrella with a puff of chakra smoke, and put it up, a cup of tea appearing in his other hand.

There was a few seconds of silence as he sipped with the mask tilted upwards, calmly looking over the towers of Ame, rain drizzling. A pulse of wind chakra flared from him, and the water around him bounced off, his clothes becoming dry. Konan would later find out it was a seal.

Pein approached him, slowly, while the other five Paths spread out. He had no idea what to say, even how to greet someone who entered like this. If this was an attack, he'd blown his best opportunities already.

Fortunately the black-masked figure spoke first. "Lovely view up here."

Pein politely turned to look over the village, shimmering and reflective in the rain, and agreed, half out of obligation and half meaning it. "Indeed."

"My name is Yūrei. I understand you become a member of Akatsuki here."

Pein turned to look at him, tensed. "And why are you interested in that?"

Yūrei's tone was slow and measured, each word carefully picked. "There's… a certain… powerful man I'm trying to track. Akatsuki has the resources to keep me concealed while I look for his trail."

Pein analysed the forehead protector. A leaf symbol, crossed out. "And what of your relationship to Konoha?"

"Missing-nin. I was involved in the Uchiha incident," Yūrei said shortly, taking another sip.

In a heartbeat, both Pein and Konan knew two things: the man was incredibly dangerous, and he was jaded to mass murder.

---

With Pein carefully monitoring him over the next couple of days while White Zetsu investigated his records, it turned out Yūrei had told the truth. Madara vouched for him being involved too.

The fact he was hiding in Konoha from that man seemed apparent, as well.

Konan scowled at the village around her. She had to call off watching Yūrei… or at least, get Nagato to tell her when he moved out again. He'd probably tease her again.

Unaware to her, in the street below a Henge'd Yūrei was striding past with a smirk, very aware of where she was. He paused under the building she was in, wondering how to handle her.

Confronting her would just make her more paranoid. He shrugged, leaning against the wall underneath her. Might as well see if she moved on, eavesdrop if she didn't.

Pein's god complex prevented him from being wary of Yūrei like most people. Of course, he wasn't dumb enough to dismiss the ex-ANBU entirely, but end result was Konan was doubly paranoid – she felt protective of Pein, and him ignoring the threat meant she paid more attention to make up.

He watched idly as people bustled by. It took the better part of three years to nail a way to combine something Henge-like with no chakra presence, but Yūrei had found it had paid off massively, on missions and everyday life alike.

It was ironic, but the civilians didn't react to him like a threat. The civilians didn't notice the without-presence person – he basically felt of no importance to them, similar to how people tuned out the homeless.

In contrast, shinobi were geared to notice things that were out of the ordinary, so Yūrei had the opposite effect – by seeming unimportant to watch, he became extremely important.

No shinobi in this town though, it was civilians only. If there was a shinobi, chances are they wouldn't recognise him – and if they did it'd be from a Bingo Book and they'd scurry away from Mr. Flee-On-Sight at a detectable high speed.

Yūrei was a sensor – with quite a distance and sensitivity on his ability. It required focus and stillness, though, unlike some who could just sense on the go. His scroll to pull names from chakra signatures used methods only Zack could make available to him now.

Mind-reading the people around for their names was a very unreliable method – scrolls for mind-reading was a fine art that required years to do just targeting one mind. Using literally anyone's mind… ridiculously difficult. It would take so many years to make the seal (shadow clone years that is) Yūrei hadn't even attempted it. The gains were just too low.

And the other option was a massive grid of chakra signatures, each with a corresponding name, and a seal to test all of them matching all the nearby people's signatures. A bit brute-forced, but simple.

A person's chakra had a certain size and general intent – you could (fairly reliably) determine the person from those two characteristics. Of course, chakra intent was changed in moments of high emotion, and people could always get stronger or weaker, or hide/reveal more of their chakra size, so it wasn't a perfect system, but it was reliable enough. Rather than "is size equal" mechanic, you just allowed a margin of error.

Where it worked perfectly was detecting White Zetsu spores. Those things stayed the same constantly. And with shinobi, once you get to higher ranks, they basically went through the whole day with the same state of mind – alert yet relaxed, prepared but non-expectant, that sort of thing, so their intent was relatively consistent.

Using the combination of these methods – using a seal to read off nearby chakra sizes/intents and display them namelessly, manually re-coding the seal with the names… eventually you had a fairly robust brute-force detection method. All you had to do is activate the seal while standing by someone, and you had their chakra size/intent, but no name to identify. So you just added their name alongside the recorded size/intent, to the seal's detection list, and next time the seal detected them you'd have a name too.

Rinse and repeat.

Itachi seemed stunned by the scroll Yūrei had shown him (although, you had to read between the lines – spending those years in the Uchiha compound had paid off), but the name list wasn't the result of just throwing detection into the wild. It required you to manually record a name for each chakra signature. It wasn't a perfect detection either – if someone was normally calm and they became angry, the detection would fail.

Orochimaru's name wouldn't have shown up on the list anyway, even if he had been nearby. Yūrei's sample from him was from years and years ago, and he would have been suppressing his signature. He might have even body-hopped since the sample was taken. However, there'd be an ominous unknown signature in the list, so from that he'd be detectable, just not his name.

The scroll always ended with a few false positives Yūrei hadn't managed to eke out, too.

So it wasn't really that impressive; raw sensing ability was more accurate. Yūrei's gaze shifted to the forest on the outskirts.

---

The real Yūrei sighed, kicking back on a branch. The clone that had waltzed into Grass to buy a room at an inn had just re-cloned and dispelled, sending him the usual pulse of memories.

Konan was still hovering over the town, barely visible even to his Mangekyō. He took a moment to admire her persistence – she must be pretty astute to watch his clone at such a large distance.

His clone had also made another clone to observe Konan closer up.

A spot on the left shoulder-bone buzzed, and he scratched absently, before realising it was a seal going off. An uncommon seal he'd rarely felt activating before.

He frowned, hopping off the branch and cracking his back into shape. He should only have… three? Yes, three summoning seals set up in various places. That one was for… his home back in Konoha.

The Black-Mask opened his Akatsuki gown, hand going into his chest and exposing the myriad of seals. He had about ten seconds to decide before the capacitor at the other location filled to its limit and emptied into the Summon.

His finger hovered over the sub-seal switch which would cancel the technique.

No, whoever was setting it off, they had quite a mass of chakra, the capacitor was filling up far faster than he expected. His expected ten seconds became a single second and he sighed, donning the mask, evolving his Sharingan to Mangekyō state, hands set into Henge.

It was the one weakness of Summon seals: they always pulled the original person, clones ignored. If someone set off one of his Summons, his real body would be sent in response. Someone with this level of chakra and willingly flooding it to his Summon could only be a Sannin or Kage. He was probably heading into a full-out battle now.

With a final pull, his body vanished into smoke.

---

"What is this?" Naruto yelped, trying to move with several clones pulling him. His foot was stuck to the ground, but nothing was sticking him to it. He hit his shoe frantically, trying to dislodge it, but it didn't seem to work.

When his foot got stuck, he had touched the ground to see if it was sticky, and although it just felt like wet dirt, his fingers became locked to it as well. The clones around him were pulling him, but they weren't making any difference.

Suddenly, red writing was glowing and rotating around him, and he felt himself draining of energy. Before he could react, there was a large cloud of smoke in front of him.

A black-mask ANBU looked down at him, his eyes shifting back to the red dots Naruto had seen before. Naruto felt weirdly light-headed for a second as he looked into the eyes. When he had looked around, all of his clones had dispelled. He didn't remember dispelling them.

"Well, if it isn't you, Uzumaki-san," the ANBU said neutrally.

Naruto felt that same awe. Yūrei was looking down at him with what seemed like amusement, his stance relaxing. "Can you let me out of this?"

"That's a movement locking barrier, how are you still able to tal…" Yūrei muttered, eyes flickering over the ground. "Ah, crap, the denomination is wrong." He kicked the ground distastefully, and Naruto stumbled forward, suddenly broken out of the invisible hold.

It was just like that time he met Yūrei on the night Yasha was hurt. "And what can I do for you, Uzumaki-san?"

Naruto hesitated briefly under the intense stare. "I want you to train me, dattebayo!" He beamed.

Yūrei's eyes flickered with some emotion, and he looked him up and down. "Hmm," he hummed noncommittally.

He was going to say no, wasn't he? "Aww, come on!" Naruto pleaded, using his best puppy eyes.

Yūrei shrugged. "What will you do for me if I train you?"

Naruto stopped short. "Um… do for you?" Well, only fair. He racked his brains. "I could do your reports for you?"

"My reports?" Ghost repeated, a small smile forming.

"The reports that um… Jackal wanted you handing in!"

"Jackal?" Yūrei was a little lost.

"She said you had reports you had to hand in and to tell her if I see you," Naruto explained.

The blond suddenly realised he could threaten Yūrei with telling Jackal where Yūrei was. He hid his smirk and waited to see how the ANBU responded.

"I don't actually work for ANBU anymore." Yūrei gestured down at his red cloud-covered cloaks. "I'm undercover at a criminal organisation."

Naruto recoiled. "Wait, you're… That's so cool, dattebayo!"

Yūrei grinned. "I was actually a good distance away, but you activated my seal and summoned me here. That's why you were stuck. It's part of my home defences."

Naruto was getting more and more excited with each thing he said. "That's so cooool!"

"Indeed," Yūrei drawled, smiling at him. It'd been a while since he had to work with kids. Their unrestrained emotions were always entertaining.

They were too immature to be guarded. It was like a breath of fresh air compared to S-Ranks and ANBU he'd been dealing with for… years now. Wow, how did time fly.

The Black-Mask gestured downwards. "Unfortunately, this seal will expire in a few minutes, and I'll be pulled back to where I was. I can work around it, though."

"Oh, wait, where were you?" Naruto asked curiously, fidgeting. "I didn't… pick a bad time?"

Yūrei shrugged again. "You didn't pick any time, you couldn't have known any context." Naruto blinked at him. "But no, it's fine. No one was watching me, they won't notice even if I'm gone a few hours."

Naruto bounced on his feet excitedly. "So what are you doing? Who are you watching?"

"It's not a specific person, per se," Yūrei corrected, "I'm watching the whole group, seeing what they're doing. The organisation is called the Akatsuki."

"Daybreak, huh…"

The ex-ANBU smiled. "It doesn't sound threatening, but every person there is an S-Rank missing-nin."

"S-Rank?" Naruto repeated.

"It's like three A-Ranks put together in one person," Yūrei dumbed down.

"That's pretty bad… I guess?" It sounded powerful but Naruto had no experience with anyone A-Rank to compare with. Apart from… He brightened. "Hey, hey, what's Kakashi's rank?"

Yūrei blinked. "Oh, Kakashi is an S-Rank, I think." Yūrei trawled his memory. "Yeah, he was an S-Rank a few years ago. I think he's out of practice though."

"He's out of practice?" Naruto said in shock, remembering the ease Kakashi defeated all his hordes of clones.

Yūrei nodded. "Quite, although it's not my place to say why." Kakashi wasn't the same after the Fourth died.

And here was the Fourth's offspring, right in front of him. In literally a second, Yūrei could assassinate a Jinchūriki, or force him into genjutsu submission, or possibly release the Kyuubi.

It was still kind of odd how something so powerful could be in a container so blithely unaware. Konoha could be half destroyed by a single decision Yūrei made now, and worst of it was, Naruto would have made it possible by his own actions. If the genin had never come this direction and triggered the Summon trap, Yūrei would never have even considered doing it.

His eyes narrowed.

But no, random acts of maliciousness wasn't his thing, and anyway, he owed the Fourth big-time. Maybe it was time to settle the debt. Training his son wouldn't be a poor method.

"But Kaka-sensei beat me and Sasuke so easily, dattebayo!" Naruto half-pouted, too excited to really

"How did Yasha do?" Ghost asked curiously.

Naruto grinned as his best friend came up, not even twigging that Yūrei shouldn't know of him. "Oh, he was really good. He even stole the bell, dattebayo."

"Really?" Yūrei said in surprise. "And what did he do with the other?"

"The other?" Now it was Naruto looking puzzled. "There was only one bell."

"Really… that's interesting." Yūrei trailed off in thought. 'Just what changes have Yasha made already?'

Naruto frowned at him. "Hey, hey! But what about my training?"

Yūrei shrugged. "I don't need reports done for me. That was just Jackal's way of trying to get you to tell me where I am."

"And what's stopping me from telling her?" Naruto crossed his arms, trying the aggressive approach.

Yūrei leant down, hands on knees. Truth be told, the short Uzumaki only came up to his chest. "Once the Summon expires I'll be a couple of hundred miles away in an instant. There's not much point in telling her."

"Oh," Naruto replied blankly. 'So much for the aggressive method,' he thought glumly.

Yūrei spread his hands in a shrug. "Uzumaki-san, I would be willing to train you, bar the fact I'm literally going to be miles away for several years."

Naruto frowned at him. "But you said you could work around that."

Having his own words thrown back at him, Yūrei grinned at his insistence. "Well, yes. But to be honest, I'm undercover, but deep cover."

"Deep cover?" Naruto wasn't sure on the difference. "What's that mean?"

"Well, it means only the Hokage actually knows I'm doing an undercover mission. To everyone else, I'm a traitor. So if someone spots me, they'll attack me."

That was a weird mix of truth and deception that Yūrei himself couldn't quite find a term for.

Naruto frowned, trying to process it. "So… wait, you're an enemy?"

Yūrei nodded, smiling. "To you, yes. If I'm Konoha's enemy, then people who don't like Konoha will hire me. That way, I can monitor the baddies. Otherwise they won't risk it." He had to really dumb down his wordingto get to Naruto's level. "It's the only way I could have infiltrated Akatsuki."

Naruto needed a couple seconds, but he processed the odd scenario rather quickly and looked thoughtful. "Oh, so you shouldn't be here at all."

Yūrei nodded again, briskly. "Not at all. If anyone else in Konoha knew I was here, I would get attacked immediately."

Well, maybe not. He had a Flee-On-Sight order for him, not an Attack-On-Sight. Still, any of Akatsuki's spies would have no problem attacking him. But since Naruto had never left the village, and there was little chance of his demise in Kakashi's hands, there was no Zetsu spores on his person. Akatsuki wouldn't risk the chance of them getting spotted – in their experience, the Sharingan-user Yūrei could remove them all too regularly. And because Kakashi had Sharingan too, it would be a risk to expose the spores – not just because they could probably be spotted with Sharingan, but because Sharingan could easily genjutsu a Zetsu.

Naruto's enthusiasm was dampened by what he had heard. "That's kind of sad, your own village attacking you."

Yūrei smiled genially. "A shinobi is one who endures, Uzumaki-san."

The blond nodded morbidly. Naruto was beginning to realise just how much pain could be behind that adage.

Yūrei considered. What could he teach? The five elements was a bad idea. Naruto knowing wind chakra would be obviously suspect at this point, he barely knew how to control his chakra. Fuuinjutsu was also a bad idea, it would be too obvious there was a teacher.

He didn't want to drop Naruto after he'd gone to the effort to seek him out. Hell, even when ANBU scoured the village after he'd left, they hadn't spotted his home – mostly because of his seals. You'd have to have unsuppressed chakra constantly like Naruto did to avoid their influence.

He needed something he could teach Naruto without it being obvious to others Naruto didn't come up with it on his own. Given Naruto's lack of intelligence, but good creativity, it would be something you wouldn't need much knowledge for.

He could spill the secrets on Kage Bunshin – memory sharing, suicide bombing. Give him some tips about the future, but something he'd only work out right before it was relevant. Give him tips about Yasha – despite his suggestion he only knew of him through Zack, Yūrei knew Yasha more than he had let on.

ANBU hand signs so he could mess with everyone – nah, Naruto might get mind-walked…

Details about Akatsuki – nah, Akatsuki was Yasha's problem, he didn't want to interfere. Yasha was far more powerful than he knew, if he only learned how to tap into it.

Well, he was out of teaching topics. The only thing left were gifts.

With a sigh, he stepped forward. "Naruto, I can't think of anything I can get away with teaching you, much less a way to give you multiple teaching sessions. So instead, I'll give you a gift."

Naruto paused. "Wait, what do you mean?" he asked, eyes uncertainly flicking over the ex-ANBU.

The ANBU held out his hand, pulling off the glove to reveal pasty white skin. "I'll show you what it's like to be me."

He put his hand on Naruto's forehead, and the blond's eyes opened wide as the world expanded. Suddenly he could see right past all the trees, like he had eyes around every corner. The barely-visible building ahead of him exploded into seals, writing written all over the walls, the meanings jumping out but just as quickly fleeing. Everything slowed down, the wind rustling through the trees suddenly a series of dull scraping sound. He could predict where everything was going, every leaf and insect.

His heartbeat became a dull thudding sound, and he could feel every part of his body contracting, each muscle tensing as he moved to step away. It took only a second or two for his forehead to separate from Yūrei's hand, but it felt like twenty.

Naruto gasped for air, eyes wide, stumbling backwards.

"You haven't even seen Sage Mode or Mangekyō yet." Yūrei smiled. "Motivated?"

Naruto just blinked at him, still gasping.

"Overwhelmed is probably a better term," Yūrei considered, eyes flickering over him, pulling the glove back on. "So that's the gift for you. I've just implanted a seal on your forehead. If you're in serious danger, just says these words: chocolate, fifty-two, disturb. You'll see the world like you just did now, but it'll only last a couple of minutes. And you'll have a severe backlash. Got it?"

Naruto nodded, still speechless.

The ANBU chuckled at his expression. "Awesome. I'll be going, then." He crouched, pulling out a scroll and rolling it out on the ground in one deft motion. He placed his hand on it and closed his eyes.

Ink trails flooded across the ground, surrounding him, and Naruto watched as they glowed slightly before vanishing into nothing.

Yūrei smiled at him, dusting his hands off and pocketing the scroll. "Don't come near my house again, Uzumaki-san," he gestured, "because you'll set off that new seal, and you might pull me across at a bad time."

"Wait!" Naruto said quickly, on instinct. "I… er…"

He couldn't really think straight, his mind was swimming with what he had just seen. Why was it again? Why did he need Yūrei? "I still need… training!"

"You should trust your sensei, Uzumaki-san. I used to work with him," Yūrei replied soothingly. "Trust me, he'll keep you safe enough. You just focus on improving – and here's a tip: use your clones."

With a poof of smoke, Yūrei vanished, leaving the blond boy sprawled out on the grass, staring up at empty air.

It took Naruto a few minutes before he had caught his breath. His eyes were watering and itchy from whatever Yūrei had done, and despite him wiping the tears away, they just kept coming. Whatever it was, he was suddenly grateful Yūrei hadn't gave it to him permanently. It was a massive power boost, anyone could tell, but he was nowhere near ready for it.

Naruto laughed, his body shuddering involuntarily. The massive boost of power… the flood of information…

He stumbled up, and began to walk home, his head starting to ache.

---

Yasha woke up, feeling a bit ill. His insects were puzzled again, for some reason. Probably his sudden change of heart about murdering everyone had upset them.

He dunked his head down and tried to sleep again, and was nearly asleep when he heard Naruto at the front door. He tracked the footstep sounds – same weight as Naruto – and relaxed a little.

As the blond appeared, Yasha looked through half-lidded eyes at him, then paused, suddenly awake. "Whoa, Naruto, what happened to your eyes?"

"Huh?" Naruto responded intelligently, sounding tired.

Yasha sat up and leant closer. His eyes were red, all the veins standing out on the white.

"What did you do? It looks like you've not slept for days!"

"I feel… kinda like that too…" Naruto replied tiredly, eying the bed.

Yasha scooted over and Naruto faceplanted on it instead. The brunette suppressed a grin at how similarly they had entered, scanning his friend carefully.

No visible injuries. He'd cut Naruto a break, then, wasn't some villager slapping him around. "I'll let you sleep, but when you wake up you're gonna tell me what happened."

Naruto didn't respond, already snoozing away.

'Weird.' Yasha shook his head slowly, scanning him again. 'Did he stare at the sun or something?' He let his head drop back to his pillow, and shut his eyes. 'Whatever. I'll deal with it tomorrow.'

---

"Again!" Tsunade slammed down her hand, frowning angrily. "Even!"

The dice rolled as the cup slammed down, and she glared at the revealed dice.

"Thirteen, odd!" the announcer smirked.

"Damn it!" Tsunade drank down a shot of sake. "Again! Odd!"

The cup slammed down again. "Six, even!"

"Again! Odd!"

"Seven, even!" The announcer said cheerfully, before he paused and inspected the dice again. "Wait… seven, odd."

Tsunade gazed at the dice, reading the four, one, two. She'd won. She'd won, for the first time in weeks. "Yes!" Tsunade whooped, pulling the chips towards her. "Even!"

The dice slammed down again. "Ten, even," the announcer said, subdued by the change of events. Tsunade whooped louder – she'd not won twice in months.

"Even!"

"Eight, even."

The other players watched perturbed as Tsunade's luck flipped on a dime.

---

AN: …And we know what that means.

If you want more stuff, check out Disillusioned, my other fanfic. Number is 11867982, and I updated it a couple of days ago. (I've mentioned it before in this story, but it's not getting the number of followers I expected, which kinda surprises me. I'd have thought all the ADHBD fans would've piled on that.)

Please review, and happy holidays!