AN: Hey guys, let's do this.
The gambler:
Lady Tsunade trudged quietly along the gravel path, moving along to the next village before her losses in the last one caught up with her. Shizune followed behind, scowling as she always did when her master ignored her ethics. The young woman sighed, she was long passed the point where she might have attempted to change the sage's ways for the better. For now, Shizune was focused on her training. The blonde woman spared a glance behind her, the apprentice having caught her attention. "Something wrong, Shizune?"
The young woman rolled her eyes, suppressing a groan. "No," she lied, before amending "At least, no more than the normal objections."
Tsunade grunted, not quite a laugh, not quite a dismissal. "How are you progressing with your study assignment?"
Shizune let her shoulders slump. Great, she thought. The only subject worse than Lady Tsunade's gambling, Lady Tsunade's homework. Outwardly, she grumbled "Not great, my analysis of lead based cellular toxins is being stonewalled. The cells always break down before I have time to complete the observations."
Tsunade nodded thoughtfully, considering the problem. "Have you considered using cells with a slower degradation rate? Stalkfish liver might be viable for slower observation."
Shizune shook her head. "Not when I'm trying to develop a cure, it needs to account for a lack of resistance present in human cells."
Tsunade nodded approvingly. "Glad you're paying attention."
Shizune groaned, she hated it when Lady Tsunade tested her, especially when the tests were so insultingly simple.
The conversation continued in this vain for several minutes before they were interrupted. Two figures walked the same path from the opposite direction. Shizune spotted them first and paid them no mind. An ordinary looking man and a young boy, probably family. Tsunade, looking backwards at Shizune, did not notice the two until one of them, the shorter one, called out to her.
"Hey, Tsuna, Tsuna!"
The slug princess froze in her tracks, her face going blank with shock. Very slowly, Lady Tsunade turned to face the newcomers. Shizune did not know what was happening, but remained on guard, unsure what to expect.
Catching sight of the smaller figure, Tsunade stared, a small trickle of moisture trailing down from her eyes. "N-Nawaki?" She mumbled, hardly daring to speak. "Wha… How?"
The taller figure was the one to reply, a young looking man with bluish silver hair. "I was told we were a gift. Hello, Tsunade."
With an apparent effort, Lady Tsunade tore her attention from the boy to stare at the man. "Dan?" She asked, her voice barely more than a whisper. "Is… can it really be you?"
"It's us, Tsuna, I promise!" Said the boy with a grin. "Wow, you got old, huh?"
Tsunade, still with tears in her eyes, shot the boy a wet scowl. "How can you say that? I look just the same as I did back then."
The man identified as Dan shook his head. "No, you're older. You think we'd be fooled just because you don't have wrinkles? You used to have laugh lines around your eyes, dearest. Your shoulders never used to be so stiff."
For the first time since Shizune had known her, Lady Tsunade sagged, stumbling forwards towards the two newcomers.
Shizune opened her mouth to utter a warning that died in her throat. Dan and Nawaki stepped forwards, wrapping their arms around the slug sage as if they had known her all their lives. The little boy buried his face in her jacket.
"I was so tired…" Tsunade said, her voice croaky, even through her sobs as she clung to the two. "What is this? Did you come here because it's time for me to die?" the slug princess did not sound displeased by the idea.
Carefully, Shizune drew closer, scalpel at the ready. When she caught sight of Lady Tsunade's face, she gasped. The illusion of youth was gone, replaced by the worn, lined features that Shizune had seen but a few times in her travels with her teacher.
"Not even close." Dan said, leaning back and taking in Tsunade's face with a smile. "There, that's better, I can see those laugh lines again."
Nawaki spoke, muffled slightly by the cloth pressed against his face. "Orochimaru sent us. He said he learned how to raise the dead."
Tsunade stiffened at Nawaki's words, looking Dan in the eye. "Is that true," She asked. "Did Orochimaru really send you here?"
Dan, suddenly serious, nodded. "Yes, he said we were a gift."
Shizune held back, totally out of her depth. Tsunade seemed to be debating furiously within herself. Finally, in a broken whisper, she asked "What does he want from me?"
Dan shrugged, displaying his palms in bafflement. "He said there were no strings attached for this. He told us to locate you, tell you that we were a gift, and to say that Orochimaru said 'Sorry.'"
Shizune tensed, it had become quite clear to her who these two strangers were. "This must be some kind of psychological attack."
Tsunade nodded, looking more confused and doubtful than she had ever been. "I… have to agree. You're telling me Orochimaru brought my family back to life, free of charge… as an apology?"
Nawaki leaned back, craning his neck to look at his sister in confusion. "What's wrong? I thought we liked Orochimaru? He's your teammate, isn't he?"
Hesitantly, Tsunade raised a hand to ruffle her brother's hair. "A lot happened after you died, Nawaki." She replied sadly.
"Are you… not friends anymore?" He asked.
Tsunade gave the smallest of chuckles. "No, I guess we're not."
Nawaki looked thoughtful. "Well… he brought us back, sooo… it sounds like he wants to fix that. Maybe we should go talk to him."
"Teacher," Shizune said quietly, her tone a warning.
Tsunade raised her hand to placate her student. "It's alright, Shizune. Nawaki isn't trying to manipulate me, he's always been like this." She sniffled a little. "Pure to the core."
Shizune nodded, not dropping her guard an inch.
"I think we should go and talk to him though," Tsunade spoke eventually. "This is a tactic. I don't know what for, but I know him. I want to know what's going on here."
Dan nodded. "I can guide you to him, he gave me a location where he'll be for a week or so. Just in case you wanted to talk to him."
"Just in case," Tsunade grunted. "He knew I'd come see him from the moment he thought of it. What in the hell does he want?"
Dan shrugged, just as confused as Tsunade was. In silence, the four ninja moved, Dan leading the way. Tsunade, carrying Nawaki on her back, felt lighter than she had in years, mixed with a deep apprehension.
Sasuke:
"So what do we do now?" The boy asked, standing across from his brother atop the crumbled heap that, according to Itachi, was where Kisame had taken their brother.
"I don't know," Itachi mused, stroking his chin. "It's pretty clear that something happened here. Hard to tell what happened or who wound up with Naruto in the end. Honestly? My bet's on Jiraiya and Kakashi, they're way too skilled for Kisame to handle."
"You're right about that." Came a voice from the treeline, causing Itachi to jump and Sasuke to tilt his head, confused.
"Kurama?" He asked of the open air. "Where are you?"
"… Promise you won't attack me?" The voice responded.
"I promise," Sasuke replied. Itachi did not. "Itachi, promise you won't attack."
Itachi scowled. "I promise." He grumbled, shaking his head.
Neither Uchiha saw it at first, expecting to see either Naruto's body or a gargantuan fox. The human sized form of Kurama made it a good few meters from the trees before either spotted him. "The hell?" Sasuke spoke, pointing. "Kurama, I thought you were supposed to be huge."
Itachi, following Sasuke's pointing finger, suppressed a snort. He could tell by the black markings, running across the fox's body like tattoos, that Kisame had hit it with a partial sealing jutsu.
The fox growled. "If either of you laugh, no fortress in this world will save you from me."
Itachi very pointedly snickered. Kurama glared at him. Sasuke ignored them. "Where's Naruto?" He asked, determined to get to the point. "Is my brother safe?"
"Safe? Yes," Kurama replied, his tone angry. "I have no doubt of that. After I saved the boy from Kisame, I was ambushed by his teacher and godfather. I had no choice but to surrender the boy."
Itachi let out a sigh of relief. "So he's fine. Not only alive, but back in the village. Fantastic."
"Awesome." Sasuke nodded cheerily. "Mission successful. Naruto is back in a safe place."
"I don't like it." The fox replied, shaking his head. "I don't like the thought of leaving him alone."
Itachi gave Kurama a strange look. "No offense, great and powerful being of pure might. But I think you might be a bit too attached to my brother there. I'm not comfortable with that."
Kurama returned the look balefully. "Naruto's body has been feeding off and adapting to my chakra since the very moment of his conception. He is, in a very real sense, my son. I can be as attached as I want, boy."
Itachi went silent, gazing at the fox. Sasuke shook his head, grinning. "I swear, he has the weirdest family tree I've ever seen."
The nine tails grunted. "The question remains. What do we do now?"
"I have an idea," Sasuke said. "Itachi, who was it that forced you to kill our family?"
Itachi gazed at his younger brother, he had a hunch where this was going, and he did not like it. He did not answer.
"At a hunch, I'd say Danzo Shimura." Kurama supplied into the slightly awkward silence. "He's the only one in the village with the resources to feasibly threaten an entire clan." Itachi glared at him. Sasuke, surprisingly, glared as well.
"You knew all along," he stated flatly. "And you never told me or Naruto because…"
Kurama shrugged. "I didn't want Naruto to run off unprepared and get himself killed."
Sasuke considered this, then nodded. The fox had a point. "Fair enough. Things are different now, though, I have you two to help me get strong enough."
Itachi groaned. "Sasuke, no. We aren't killing Danzo. He's very powerful and extremely useful to the stable function of the leaf."
Sasuke glared at his brother. "Itachi, he forced you to kill our entire family AND threatened to have both me and Naruto assassinated. We're killing him."
Itachi considered his brother in silence, gazing down at him.
"For what it's worth," Kurama said. "I agree with Sasuke." Itachi ignored him. Sasuke held out a fist and the fox silently bumped it with his front paw.
"You aren't going to change your mind here, are you?" Itachi asked. "Even if I beg you?"
Sasuke gazed stonily up at his sibling. "Remember how you conditioned me to hate you so much that I trained for five years just to kill you? I hate Danzo even more than that right now. On top of everything I thought you did, he also blackmailed and banished one of my brothers, while threatening to kill my other brother."
"I'm fairly sure he tried to recruit the two of you into his slave army at some point as well," Kurama chimed in. "It's the sort of thing he'd do."
Sasuke gestured at Kurama with one hand. "Slave army. Itachi, why are we not killing this guy?"
Itachi growled. "Kurama, you aren't helping."
"Tell me it's not something he'd try."
"That's not the point."
"Itachi," Sasuke said flatly. "If you don't help me with this, I will try it on my own, and I'm all the more likely to die if I don't have your help. Are you going to help me or not?"
Itachi considered his brother carefully, he really should have seen this coming. Motivating people through anger rarely ended when the target of the anger was gone, it just moved on to a new target. Itachi considered using Shisui's jutsu, Kotoamatsukami, to stop the boy. He hated the idea, even more so than the idea of killing Danzo, he had no desire to use mind control on his family. The young man groaned quietly. "Do you promise that it will end with Danzo? No one else dies but him."
Sasuke nodded. "Sure, it all ends with Danzo."
Itachi squared his shoulders. "Then fine, our objective is to kill Danzo and protect Naruto. But first, we have a lot of training to do, Sasuke."
Sasuke glanced at the fox. "What are you doing, Kurama? What's your next move?"
Before the fox could reply, Itachi answered. "He's coming with us. It's a miracle he stayed out of Akatsuki's hands, we need to keep it that way. Besides, our mangekyou is the only way to restrain him if he tries something."
"Fine," Kurama grumbled, casting Itachi an irritated glance. "I planned to accompany you anyway. Sasuke could benefit from my training as well, you know."
Itachi nodded. "The real question though, is where to go from here. All my Akatsuki hideouts are compromised, and the majority of Uchiha safe-houses are known to the leaf. We need a base of operations."
Surprisingly, Sasuke and Kurama both had an answer to that. "Wave village," the two said in unison.
Itachi cocked an eyebrow. "Wave village?" He asked.
"Naruto and I invested some money in helping them rebuild in exchange for a safe-house there." Sasuke explained. "It should be ready by now, it has been nearly two and a half months."
"Can we trust them to stay quiet about us?" Itachi asked.
Sasuke shrugged. "We saved their lives and their economy. I think they'll turn a blind eye as long as we sneak Kurama past them."
"Not an issue." Kurama spoke, pushing up on his hind legs and making a few, admittedly clumsy, hand signs. "Transformation Jutsu."
With a puff of smoke, Kurama disappeared. In his place was a tall, thin man with a mane of bright red hair.
Sasuke shrugged. "Yeah, that should work."
Their plan set, the three departed, heading east at speed.
Naruto:
The boy gazed at his new teammates appraisingly. It made sense that he had been reassigned. With Sakura off training, Sasuke off with Itachi and Kakashi off searching with Jiraiya, he was the only one left still in the village. The assignment was a surprising one, at least to Naruto. Apparently, Haku had reacted to his absence from the village by talking Jiraiya into sending him off for training. Naruto had grinned at the news before remembering what Kurama had said about his boyfriend's… unhealthy regard for him. Naruto had been assigned to fill Haku's absent spot on team eleven. Naruto gazed at Kimimaro, the memory of what Kurama had said about the white haired boy's devotion to Haku equally clear in his mind. Kimimaro gazed back, unblinking.
Kosuke, standing between Kimimaro and their group leader, Genma, decided to break the ice. "Good to have you with us, Young Naruto."
The boy ignored the older man. "So," he said, still focused on Kimimaro. "You're in love with Haku."
The white haired boy nodded, face impassive. "Far more so than you will ever be."
Genma winced, opening his mouth to speak, but Kosuke shushed him.
"And you're okay with the fact that he chose me?" Naruto asked.
Kimimaro inclined his head. "Whatever makes Haku happy is what I must make happen. In this case, you are what makes him happy."
Naruto nodded, absorbing this. Kimimaro's world view was pretty much as expected from having heard Kurama describe it. "And is that the same way Haku thinks about me?" He asked.
Kimimaro nodded, expressionless.
Naruto pondered this. "I don't like that." He stated eventually.
"Nor do I," Kimimaro agreed.
"We need to find a way to fix that," Naruto continued.
Kimimaro nodded, a slight smile crossing his lips. The two stared at one another for a minute or two longer, before Naruto grinned. "Glad to be working with you." The boy held out his hand. "That sword you made me was fantastic."
Kimimaro stepped forward and grasped the proffered hand. "I can make you a replacement if you wish."
With that, team eleven began the business of the day, primarily working on low grade missions while Naruto finished his recovery.
When Naruto got home that night, as soon as he was sure he was alone, Naruto allowed his eyes to revert to their true form. The boy let out a sigh of pure relief, holding the transformation back all the time was exhausting. Naruto prepared himself a simple meal. He had been quite relieved to find that, since the removal of Kurama, his own transformation had receded, albeit not completely. His teeth, while sharper than they had been, could pass for human teeth at a glance. His claws had been filed back at the hospital and, greatest relief of all, the boy was once again able to eat human food. His meal consumed, Naruto began to practice with his newfound powers.
AN: Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. Feel free to review and stuff. Bye!
