AN: This one might be a bit big.


Tsunade:

"Are you sure this is where he was supposed to be?" Tsunade asked, gesturing at the small building, a squat brown affair virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the sand village dwellings.

"Very," Dan answered with a nod. "He's in there."

"I'm really not sure about this," Shizune muttered quietly, to which Tsunade shook her head with a sigh.

"Yes, Shizune, I know. You don't think this is a good idea, every instinct is telling you we're being manipulated and you're worried because Orochimaru has already proven he has something he can use to control me." She gestured to Dan, Nawaki having remained behind at the inn, tired from the journey. "And you're right. Every instinct is telling you we should run because that is what we should do. But I'm going in there anyway because I can't not. I'm sorry for that, but it's happening. Your choice, Shizune, is simply whether you're willing to back me up on this or not. If you want to leave, I understand. I'm a big girl, I can make my own mistakes."

Shizune tensed, shaking her head almost immediately. "No. If you're doing this, I'm behind you."

Tsunade nodded. "Thank you, Shizune." Without anything further, she opened the door and stepped inside.

"Oh. Hello, Tsunade," A thin voice greeted her. "Not hiding your age anymore, I see." Tsunade would have been lying if she said she wasn't surprised. The slug princess had been expecting contrast, perhaps white paneling, perhaps a stairway to some basement complex. What Tsunade saw instead was the inside of a small, brown stone cottage. Orochimaru stood in a small kitchen, separated from the entrance/main room by a squat wall that came to waist height. He was scrambling eggs, a pair of cooking chopsticks poised in his right hand.

Tsunade cocked her head to the side, glancing at the food. "You know, I'm almost surprised you still eat food."

Orochimaru laughed. "Come now, I'm still human. For the most part, at least. Would you care for some eggs?"

Tsunade shook her head. "I don't trust you nearly enough to let you cook for me."

The snake sage shrugged. "A shame, I have eggs down to a science."

Tsunade was beginning to get irritated. Even from the very start, her old teammate had put her off balance, she came in here expecting an argument or blackmail and instead found him cooking. It was infuriating. "Enough, Orochimaru. I need to know what you want from me."

The pale figure sighed, taking the pan off the heat and tipping its contents into a small bowl. "Why do you assume I want something from you?" He asked, leaning against the wall opposite her.

"Because you're a conniving bastard who I haven't known to do anything good in the last thirteen years." The slug sage replied without hesitation.

The pale ninja nodded. "True enough," he admitted, taking a bite of his eggs. "And giving your family back was me apologizing for that."

"You never apologize," The blonde woman answered curtly.

Orochimaru nodded again. "Indeed, I never apologize to people who don't matter. But you matter, Tsunade, why wouldn't you?"

Tsunade shook her head. "Are you genuinely saying that you don't want something from me?"

The pale ninja hesitated, before shaking his head. "No, I do want something from you, or should I say need. I should probably say need. But this isn't entirely tied to that. Even if you refuse me, I won't take Dan and Nawaki away from you, they really are a gift."

Tsunade shook her head. "I don't like helping evil people."

Orochimaru cocked his head to the side, seeming genuinely confused. "Why do you call me evil?"

Tsunade was stunned. The question was so stupid and the answer so blatant. How could Orochimaru ask that? "You've killed hundreds of people!" She almost shouted.

"Thousands," the snake corrected.

"So how dare you ask why I call you evil!?"

Orochimaru raised his hands to the air with an irritated sigh, the plate of food falling to the ground with a clatter. "Of course! I was an idiot to think you might get it. Why would you stop to consider your 'evil teammates' actions?"

Tsunade remained silent, watching the rare outburst impassively.

"Yes, Tsunade!" Orochimaru continued, his usually calm voice suddenly angry, almost shrill. "I killed people! My experiments were very hard to achieve without massive expenditure of human life, but don't you see? I perfected it. The resurrection jutsu is practically complete. How can you call me evil for killing people when I did it to cure death!? I can even bring them all back now! In that sense, I've killed fewer people than you or Jiraiya."

Tsunade gazed at her former comrade, utterly shocked. "Are you kidding me? That argument is completely sociopathic."

"I AM a sociopath!" Orochimaru shouted, more aggravated than Tsunade had ever seen him. "But that doesn't make me evil. What reason do you have to call me that?"

The slug sage had no response to that. Orochimaru's argument made sense, twisted though it was. "Fine," she conceded. "Let's go on the assumption that you're not evil then. What do you want my help for?"

Orochimaru took a few moments to visibly calm himself before he responded, folding his arms and shifting his gaze to the floor. Tsunade almost laughed, one of the strongest men alive, and Orochimaru still pouted like a little kid. "Nothing yet," The snake muttered quietly. "I wanted to give you time to see for yourself that my actions made sense, to decide for yourself. Things will start moving soon. Maybe in a year, maybe in two, but soon. War is coming again and I've chosen the sand village to play my part."

"And what is your part?" Tsunade asked, curious and more than a little nervous.

"We need peacekeepers," Orochimaru said quietly. "A dedicated force for preventing collateral damage. An army without political dispositions that can defend those caught in the crossfire."

Tsunade thought back to her time in the land of rain. The war there had destroyed the local people utterly, leaving nothing but a blasted shell. "And my purpose in all this?"

Orochimaru gazed at Tsunade, a hard look in his eye. "I want you to train medical ninja. One thing the last war didn't have nearly enough of, Tsunade, was doctors."

The blonde woman's eyes went wide. She remembered making the exact same point to the leaf village, and being rejected out of hand. Orochimaru was giving her another chance at that idea. "How… how can you possibly have enough influence in this village to put me in charge of ninja?"

Orochimaru shrugged. "I have the Kazekage under my control. Oh don't look at me like that, the man's a bastard. Go take a look at what he did to his kids sometime."

Tsunade shook her head. "I can't decide whether you've gotten better or worse."

"Well," Orochimaru grumbled. "When you figure it out, come talk to me. For now," he pointed to the floor. "I have eggs to clean up."

Tsunade left, somewhat dazed. Shizune and Dan were waiting for her outside. "Well?" Shizune asked. "What happened?"

"We had an honest conversation for once," Tsunade replied absently. "It was disturbing."


A few days later, outskirts of the sand village:

The house was small and drafty, battered into virtual wreckage by raids during the previous war, as had so many other dwellings in the area. Since then, this district had become something of a slum, housing those among the sand village too poor to afford better. Among their number, veterans too wounded to fight, the crippled, and the merely unfortunate.

The red haired boy walked quietly towards the house, the first along from the strange, unseen dividing line that split the good houses from the bad. The old man who lived there, saw him coming and recognized him. "H-hey now," he said, raising his hands. "I don't want any trouble, I swear."

Gaara didn't respond, raising a hand and calling the sand that made up the ground of the village to rise up around him. At the boy's command, the streams of sand shot forwards. The old man let out a terrified yelp, flinching back, only to find that the sand had not touched him. Instead, it had begun to layer itself against a particularly large opening in the wall of the dwelling, forming a temporary seal in the ruined wall. Stepping forwards, Gaara began making hand signs.

"Earth style: Lesser unity."

The redhead pressed his hand to the compacted sand and, as the old man watched, stunned, it began to flow, melting into itself. Soon, the hole in the wall was gone, replaced by a patch of smooth, solid stone. Gaara gathered more sand, and began repairing the next hole, continuing until the dwelling was whole once more. The whole process took around five or so minutes. The old man stared at Gaara the whole time, open mouthed. He wasn't the only one, all around, people had looked around at the scream, only to have their attention caught by the actions of the small boy. When he finished, Gaara stepped away from the building. The old man rose clumsily, leaning against a wall for support as he tried to stand on a badly damaged leg. "I… I don't… Thank you," he said uncertainly.

Gaara stopped, turning to face the man. He stepped forwards, walking towards the man. It was common knowledge what tended to happen to people who got too close to Gaara, and the man let out a little shriek, turning to run and stumbling on his bad leg. A tendril of sand rose from the ground, catching the man before he could fall and lifting him back to his feet. He screamed, trying to fight the sand back. Too late. The old man felt pressure as the small boy's arms wrapped around his waist and he clenched his eyes shut, the air escaping through his teeth in a terrified whine.

For several seconds, nothing happened. The old man opened his eyes tentatively. He was exactly where he had been, the small boy's form still clinging to his waist. All around them, people were staring. Gaara was touching someone, and that person was still, miraculously, alive. Hesitantly, the man raised a hand to clumsily pat the boy on the back a few times.

After a minute or so, Gaara broke away. The people watching let out their held breath in a gentle sigh of relief.

"Thank you," Gaara said quietly. "That was a nice hug." Without another word, Gaara of the sand moved on to the next destroyed house. Beginning his repairs.

Word spread through the village quickly, and by nightfall, everyone in the hidden sand knew that Gaara, for reasons known only to himself, had repaired the entire slum area in exchange for hugs with its inhabitants.

Gaara sat on a couch that night in his small apartment, his father had commanded he live separately to the rest of the family, curled up with his head on Temari's lap. She smiled down at her little brother, stroking his hair. "You did good today, Gaara. I'm very proud of you."

Gaara gave his sister a shy smile, tentative, almost as if he was afraid the praise would vanish if he acknowledged it.

There was a knock on the door. Kankuro, busy preparing supper in the small kitchen, glanced across at it, an eyebrow cocked. Strange, the only person who usually visited Gaara apart from them was their father, and he never bothered knocking. "Who is it?" he called.

"A person!" A child's voice shouted back.

Curious, Kankuro walked towards the door, the other two gazing across at it as well. Kankuro opened it.

A young, brown haired boy stood in the doorway, practically bouncing up and down on his heels. "Hi there," he said excitably. "I'm Nawaki, nice to meet you!" The boy stuck out his hand and Kankuro, somewhat nonplussed, shook it.

"Kankuro," he responded, his head cocked to the side. "And that's Gaara and Temari." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

Nawaki leaned in, gazing past Kankuro to look at the other two. The boy was grinning. "Oh, so YOU'RE Gaara!" he exclaimed, stepping past the protesting Kankuro.

Kankuro tried to stop the boy, bar his path, but the kid dodged nimbly out of the way. A ninja, Kankuro realized, probably quite skilled.

Nawaki walked towards Gaara and plopped himself down in front of the couch, smiling amicably at the redhead. Both Gaara and Temari stared at him.

"So," Nawaki spoke. "I heard you were doing some really cool stuff for poor people today, is that true?"

Silently, Gaara nodded.

"Awesome!" Nawaki said, his grin growing wider. "I wanna be friends. Can we be friends?"

Temari and Kankuro stared, eyes going wide as dinner plates. For his part, Gaara went utterly still. "D-d… do you m-mean it?" The redhead asked, his voice small.

"Course I do!" Nawaki replied. "You're awesome!"

A small tear trickled down the side of Gaara's face. "Yes, I would very much like to be your friend," he said, his voice breaking towards the end.

"Cool!" Nawaki exclaimed, leaning in to give Gaara a tight hug. "I heard you like these," he said, his voice muffled against the other boy's chest. Gaara nodded, tears still running silently down his cheeks.

After a time, Nawaki broke away. "Well, I gotta get home or my sis will get mad. Wanna hang out tomorrow?"

Gaara nodded, still stunned.

"Great. See you then." With that, the boy stood and ran from the room, leaving the three shell shocked sand ninja behind him.


Timeskip:

Throughout the world, from the land of waves, to the hidden sand, to the village of rain and even to the land of fire, time passed on. Days spread onward into weeks, weeks spread forth into months.

In their own ways, the Genin and new Chunin of the many villages trained and developed themselves, forming new ties and friendships along the way. In the quiet privacy of his own home, hidden from the eyes of the world, Naruto Namikaze learned to fly.

One day, nearly a year after Orochimaru's attack on the leaf village, Naruto opened his eyes. He lay suspended above his bed, his weight supported by a constant repulsive force. The purple eyed boy grinned, he was ready.

AN: Friggin finally! Timeskips take friggin AGES to set up. To those questioning, I'm not making stuff up, flight is a rinnegan power. Now, to those of you scared I'm making Naruto too powerful, don't worry, he may be powerful, but that only becomes a problem if he's stronger than anyone else. Trust me, he isn't even close to outpacing the others yet. But yes, I have escalated everyone's power development somewhat. That's because, unlike the original manga, I don't want this fic to last fifteen years. We have ground to cover. Some of it was admittedly accidental. For example, I had no idea that implanting Sasuke's eyes into Naruto would give him rinnegan until I realized that Madara used the same technique to get his. At which point I was bound to let it happen because of my own rules of logical progression. This was luckily countered by Kisame kidnapping Naruto and extracting Kurama. The kid would have been stupidly hard not to make OP without that.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, or you have advice for me, why not review? Till next time!