Fire Country

The red haze slowly receded from her vision. Hinata's back felt rough and tarry, like a ring of tree bark in a drought. It was likely that she would need surgery after this. Her healing had saved her before her nerves could totally be destroyed; those surface ones, at least, might still grow back. But it had come at a cost. She was running on maybe a quarter of her chakra at best, and couldn't use any more on herself despite the shaky feeling in her knees, because who knew when someone else would need her help?

Shakily, she got to her feet, and activated her Byakugan, scanning the scene before her. Naruto – when did Team 7 get here? – was as pale as a ghost, Ino was − oh no oh no please don't let her be dead oh thank goodness she's barely breathing – Shikamaru was on the ground completely gone nuts about something

And they still had no idea where the team that had called for their help were.

"What's going on?" Hinata whispered. The inside of her throat felt like sandpaper. She needed water, but –

"This, bitch."

The burnt scabs on her back threatened to crack open as she was forcefully yanked upright. Cold metal pressed against her cheek.

Oh.

Now was definitely not a good time.

"Let her go!" Sasuke hissed angrily.

"Uh-uh-uh," Hidan whispered. "I think I would rather like seeing you guys in pain."

The severed head of an ANBU dropped by her feet. Though they were lucky enough to have been protected from White Zetsu, he had not been afforded the same luxury. Hinata squinted more closely at the face, obscured by the animal mask. Behind the eye holes, she saw the faint outlines of pupil-less lilac eyes. A Hyuga, then. One of her own family. Dead, gone forever. He would be honored, and forgotten about right after.

If she looked at his bare forehead, no doubt there would be a curse seal there. Or maybe it was a she; you could never tell with the ANBU armor. Anonymous servitude. Lived in a cage, died in one. She wondered if they had ever spoken with each other before now, other than the mandatory formal greeting during the annual clan festivities.

Probably not. She'd never been social, limiting her interaction to her father, her sister, Neji, and her personal maids. Hinata clenched her fists.

"Stay down – " Sasuke flinched as he deflected another flying piece of – something – with his bare hands. "It's not – "

"Don't do this to me," she gasped. "If I do nothing, I'll definitely die. I cannot stand back and let you guys die for me, if I am not willing to do the same for you."

"Awww, how touching," Hidan sneered. "I'll make it nice and slow for you. Just to give you more time to spend your last moments with your team. I'm that nice, see?"

Hinata didn't hate a lot of things. She didn't like hatred in general, because it was such a terrible and tiring thing to hold in yourself all the time.

But she thought…she could get on board with hating the man standing right behind her. The man who liked hurting and killing people because – it amused him. And they couldn't even get him back because he was a stupid immortal.

To have to deal with someone like that was inherently unfair, but then again, the world itself was not a fair place. She had no choice in who her enemies were, as people rarely did, and so she could only make the best of the situation. If she was to fight a so-called immortal, then so be it; she would do it, and she would either walk away from that fight a winner or dead.

Everyone has a weakness. Even immortals.

She was a woman of science, and she knew – there was no such thing as immortality. All men must die, one way or another. That was the first thing she had learned as a healer. Humans, in all their infinite creativity, may skirt around Death and even cheat him for a while – but sooner or later, the reapers would get their due.

Without warning, Hinata slammed her elbow into Hidan's gut.

She noticed his grunt of shock in satisfaction; he hadn't expected her, a heavily injured little girl, to react so strongly. Reasonable of him to think so. Despite her activated Byakugan, she could barely see anything but her target. Her vision was tunneling, thanks to her blood and chakra loss. She could only maintain enough to keep him in sight; her natural blind spot had expanded to three times its normal size and her range, which she had developed to several kilometers normally, was now limited to right in front of her face.

But fear was a hell of a drug, and any threat of an imminent and painful death far outweighed a few third-degree burns.

And so, even as her entire body creaked in protest, Hinata pulled her arm back and shoved her fist knuckle-first into the dirt.

RRRRMMMMMBBBBBBLLLLLLL

Hidan stumbled, first from the sheer force behind the impact of her elbow, and then from his lost footing as the ground crumbled to pieces beneath their feet, taking his partially formed circle with it. For a second, he looked almost stunned, but then he laughed. "Damn Hyugas," he muttered. "So predictable. What are you gonna do, fight me?"

"Yeah, I am, actually," she said, charging him head-on.

Just kidding. She was high on adrenaline, not stupid.

Before Hidan noticed her feint, she ducked. A cloud of ash, courtesy of Asuma-sensei, flew over her head and hit him right in the face. He blinked, shielding his eyes with his forearms – then Sasuke flipped over him and kicked the handle of his scythe. The weapon twisted out of his grasp around the fulcrum of his wrist – Hidan reached for it with his other hand – but then Choji punched him and he had to redivert his attention to block the blow. The scythe went skidding harmlessly across the charred forest floor before it came to a stop, trapped in some underbrush.

Hinata packed her knuckles with chakra and punched him in the chest.

She felt his chakra nodes pop underneath her knuckles. More importantly, however, she also felt the cells surrounding them splitting – as expected from a person with advanced healing abilities.

She could use this.

His taijutsu might have been hellishly powerful, far better than Hinata's, even though that was what her clan specialized in. But that was not what she specialized in, no matter how much her father wished it. With a manic grin that she didn't know she was capable of, she shoved a glowing green fist of medical chakra at Hidan's chest.

This man could not be hurt. But logic stood that he could still heal, otherwise he'd be a mess of dripping parts by now, not very useful for fighting.

The trouble was, medicine was a very tricky field. The reason why medic-nin were required to have such good chakra control was because "treatment" in the wrong place was worse than no healing at all. Antidotes administered when no poisons were present could end up acting as poisons themselves. Miracle pills taken not according to prescription could be fatal. Unnecessary operations meant to get rid of problems that did not exist could create problems of their own.

And even something as simple as healing – stimulating cell division to patch up an injury – could be deadly if there was no injury to patch up.

Hidan staggered back, glaring at her. "What the hell?" he spat.

Hinata grabbed him by his ugly oversized collar. Swept his leg out from underneath him. Flipped him to the ground. Straddled his chest. Shoved his face into the dirt.

And proceeded to completely wail into him, using hands, knees, teeth, anywhere she could reach. Terror had turned her into an animal. There was nothing gentle about these fists.

So unrefined. Hiashi Hyuga would certainly have an aneurysm.

(Fuck Hiashi Hyuga.)

Normally, in order to sustain the healing process, the medic-nin would have to be actively channeling chakra into the wounded area to keep the cells dividing. But this man was an immortal. He certainly did not need a medic-nin to aid him. His cells would continue to divide, at an accelerated rate, long after she had left him alone.

Which was why Hinata was doing it. And at ridiculous rates.

Unregulated cell division.

Out of control growth.

A nasty cut or broken bone that took normal people months to regenerate could be done within minutes by a skilled medic-nin. So a man who could heal himself instantaneously – with medical ninjutsu added on top of that –

A cancerous mass that took months to become visible normally could manifest itself in under a minute with this guy. Even if the effects were visually invisible to anyone without a Byakugan, it didn't make them any less dangerous. She estimated his lungs and arteries would clog within a few minutes. His organs would start shutting down soon after. His body would starve itself as it kept siphoning off energy to feed trillions of useless cells. Each tumor that blossomed underneath his skin was like a sweet, sweet flower of justice.

Her tirade was cut off when Hidan clocked her around her temples. Hinata flew back and landed on her injured back, hard. Despite what Hinata had done to him, he still had a few good minutes before he was fully incapacitated. A lot could happen in a few minutes, as they had all just experienced. Even more so because Hidan had managed to get his scythe back.

Hinata watched as Choji, Asuma, and Sasuke formed a protective triangle around her and prepared for the worst.

The worst did come, but not from Hidan.


If there was anything that Sasuke could call the most terrifying thing in the world, it would be hearing that ear-splitting scream of despair again. The same one he himself had screamed the night his entire world had been ripped apart, his whole family slaughtered in cold blood.

But coming from someone else's throat.

Even though the voice was unfamiliar, Sasuke felt his heart tear for whoever it was all the same. The pain he had felt as a child, that sinking pit of darkness that came from losing everything…he wouldn't wish it on anyone. Not even the person who he hated the most, though arguably that might have been because Itachi had already brought it all upon himself.

More chilling than the memory of suffocating from Orochimaru's Killer Intent during the Chunin Exams, more horrifying than the illusion of his parents' deaths that Itachi had forced upon him, more painful than anything he had ever experienced before – it was hearing this, the universal call of anguish that too many, far too many, people had in common.

The shriek of rage came back again, and in the dark, silhouetted against the sky, Sasuke saw a great, pale, floating mass of – something – flying around, tearing through the forest like a flood but with something dry and harsh and angry instead of water – then there was more screeching and crumbling and roaring in anger…he smelled a faint tinge of blood and Killer Intent…

Dry dust exploded onto the ground. His eyes watered; his nose closed itself off. There were tiny, sharp little particles flying against his face. Sasuke realized it was sand.

"Shit. Rogue jinchuuriki," Naruto said, his voice a strange whisper-murmur, too quiet to her and yet unbearably loud at the same time. "Powerful, but also more likely to cause collateral damage and friendly fire than be helpful. Chances are he's mentally and emotionally compromised for whatever reason; that's the most common cause of even the strongest bijuu seals breaking. And if he runs off, he'll only be captured again by someone else down the road. He's coming this way. We have to contain him, now."

The way he said it, it was like he was reciting passages from a textbook, or speaking from personal experience –

Oh, who was he kidding. The dobe? And textbooks? Naruto was far smarter than most people gave him credit for, but he never was, and never would be, a classical scholar.

Choji's face went from battle-high blood red to pasty white in less than a second. "I don't suppose Shikamaru – or Ino – "

Thirty seconds. They had thirty seconds of victory. In that span of time, they had gone from celebrating finally killing Kakuzu, back to square one when both Ino and Shikamaru were knocked out cold from trying to go up against Zetsu, to minor success in fending off Hidan, back to square negative one now that they had a godforsaken rogue jinchuuriki running at their heels. Speaking of Hidan, he seemed to have abandoned them, the Ichibi seeming like a better prize, still under the delusion that he was immortal and protected by his precious Jashin-sama. Sasuke wondered how long he had before he realized just how seriously Hinata had fucked him up. He didn't seem like the brightest sort.

"Hinata," Naruto begged.

"I'll…" she swallowed nervously as she looked between Naruto's two teammates. She seemed to make her decision, as Ino was already being cared for by Kakashi-sensei, and knelt over Shikamaru. "I'll do my best here. Go on."

"Your teacher knows way more about sealing than I do," Asuma-sensei told Naruto nervously. "I doubt he'll be able to transmit information to us quickly enough without Ino's Mind Jutsu. He'll need to be physically present if he plans on being useful against – that."

"He's also the only one here who knows enough about lightning chakra to help Ino," Naruto replied darkly. "Fine way of repaying her, considering that if it weren't for her, we'd still be tied down fighting all the White Zetsu things."

"Of course, if the One-Tail loses all control, then she might as well die anyway, along with the rest of us," said Sasuke. "All of us are capable of fighting White Zetsu. But only he knows enough to tie down a bijuu. And if it goes loose, then it doesn't matter whether they killed those Akatsuki were not."

"Well – last time – Shikamaru and Ino also – " Naruto began. "Nevermind. This is an executive decision, as the leader of Team 7." And also the only fighting body left on Team 7, but whatever.

Last time. Yeah. Sasuke chose not to mention it. "Now what?"

"We stop it. Duh." And with that, Naruto walked into the waves of sand and disappeared.

"So…" Sasuke watched the golden Tanuki grow above the tree line until it dwarfed even Choji. "We're fucked, then?"

"Yeah, basically."

Choji whistled. "So, same as usual."


On either side of him, a group of his own clones stood guard. They'd be protecting him during this operation; as the designated sealer it had to be done. Or, designated substitute sealer. Well, nondesignated substitute's substitute, since the first was supposed to be Kakashi-sensei and the next was supposed to be Shikamaru, under normal circumstances. Simply put, it was because he was the only one who could. And also, because by now, Naruto was better equipped to deal with that sort of role, his raw combat power having far outstripped anyone else's. Hopefully Kakashi-sensei wasn't freaking out too badly on the other end.

(Oh, who was he kidding. Of course he was.) For all the independence he had imparted on them during training, Kakashi-sensei was a fiercely overprotective individual when confronted with real-life situations.

Naruto didn't get far before he was intercepted. The One-Tail was literally running around fifty meters in front of him, and he couldn't even get to it because this fucking asshole swinging around his giant scythe that was in no way practical was perched in front of his face like a dumb fucking duck.

He was not a happy camper, to say the least.

"Hey, dipshit," Naruto yelled, because he was so fucking done, as in, honestly, who else in the history of Konoha has had all of their B-rank missions, all three for three, turn into A and S-ranks right in front of their faces for something that was totally not their fault whatsoever? "The hell is that? Are you compensating for something?"

Evidently, given Hidan's reaction, that was not a polite form of greeting in any country or culture in existence. Naruto took this as a hint to run as fast as he could.

Hidan growled and attempted to pursue him, but ran straight into a tripwire set by one of Naruto's clones and faceplanted in the ground. It would have been comical if things hadn't been going to shit so awfully around them.

Right after that, an enormous fist of sand wrapped around him. Hidan screamed and whacked at it indiscriminately with his scythe, but since you couldn't exactly draw blood from a colossus of dry dirt and eroded rock, he had little success. Within seconds, he'd been crushed and shredded simultaneously into hundreds of tiny chunks of flesh. Pulverized bits of muscle and other organs Naruto didn't want to know the identity of dangled from the trees.

Through all that, Hidan remained alive. Only this time, he didn't have Kakuzu around to sew him back up. His body only lay there. In multiple pieces. Couldn't even scream or curse, not when his skull, tongue, throat, and lower jawbone were all lying at least ten meters from each other.

Hey, uh, Kyuubi, Naruto tried. A little help?

The fox smirked. Now? I thought you didn't want my evil tainting your pretentious perfect little angel act.

And I thought you didn't want to die, Naruto snapped back. Unless you're afraid of the Ichibi.

WHY YOU LITTLE – I WOULD NEVER LOSE TO THAT SORRY STUCK-UP TANUKI IN A MILLION YEARS; HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST SUCH BLASPHEMY –

But then it calmed down when it realized that Naruto had just successfully goaded it yet again, and reverted back to stubborn grumbling. Naruto shook his head and smiled to himself. Well, that was easy.

Do you even have a plan? the fox asked.

He'd make it up as he went along. For a second, Naruto considered attempting to use a variation of the same plan Shikamaru always liked using – mainly, using an enemy's own strength against him – but he immediately dismissed it. The bijuu, after all, were chakra constructs, and unlike Orochimaru they had no physical bodies to burn out or destroy. The blowout would only be toxic enough to kill everyone with incompatible chakra within a five-kilometer radius.

So no, he could not use the Ichibi's chakra against itself.

Don't you want to try reasoning with your madman of a sensei? The fox asked.

Naruto shot a dubious glance over to Kakashi-sensei, who was still pleading under his breath, "It's okay, please, please, please, just hold on for, I don't know, ten minutes, please just stay stable so I can neutralize all the residual chakra in your system – fucking hell, I turn my eyes away from you lot for a couple seconds and you pull this shit and I didn't ask for you to jump in front of me you stupid self-sacrificing girl you didn't need to do that we would have been fine if you'd been patient enough to give it a few more minutes − "

Something told Naruto he wasn't really talking about Ino anymore. The fact that both Hidan's and Kakuzu's corpses were now mincemeat wasn't making things any better, either.

Okay, yeah, the Fox agreed. I wouldn't let him within ten meters of any sealing equipment while he's in that state, either. Not that he'd be any help against Shukaku.

Naruto frowned. Shukaku who?

That's his name.

What, him? I thought he was Gaara.

The fox snorted. No, idiot. The Ichibi. Its name is Shukaku.

That made Naruto pause, despite the rogue bijuu in front of his face. Oh.

What, you didn't think we had names? You thought we were just giant mythical constructs of chakra and damnation?

Well, you kind of are, Naruto pointed out.

Silence, peasant.

So what's your name, then? Naruto asked.

The fox was silent for a bit, and Naruto thought he wouldn't answer, but then, he said, Kurama.

Kurama. So the Fox had a name after all. Interesting. Nice to meet you, Kurama. I'll remember you if I die.

How touching. No you fucking won't die; I'd never live it down if I lost to that bastard.

The humor was strangely relieving. It was stupid, it was pointless, but it helped Naruto calm down. Oh. So you DO care. Good to know.

SHUT UP, the Kyuubi growled. Listen, maggot. Dealing with you on a few tails is way different from going up against a thing with fuinjutsu built directly into his suite of powers. I can beat him in any regular battle of strength, but you'd be playing into his strengths if you choose fuinjutsu.

But a regular battle could possibly kill Gaara. Naruto didn't know much about the kid, but in addition to being important to Konoha (otherwise why would Ino's father be protecting him), he was also a human being. It was a stupid excuse, for shinobi were expected to kill other human beings all the time, but it was an excuse nonetheless. Kurama rolled his eyes at this.

Fine. Have it your way. Don't blame me if you fail.

Naruto sighed. So much for good luck and a quiet mission. Team 7's communicator down. Their general strategist out cold. Their Jonin sensei losing it. He himself barely keeping them all together. And also having to seal a fucking bijuu when he could barely hold a square of chakra paper without turning it into confetti.

Someone up there must have hated them a great deal. Naruto couldn't for his life figure out why.

But he didn't give a damn why when all that sand was headed his way. Or rather, headed right where the White Zetsu clones were. Where Kakashi-sensei, Ino, and Shikamaru all were as well.

Naruto sprinted forward and threw himself between them.

He felt his own blood on his hands.

Everything whited out.


The Dimension of the Dog Summons

The first thing Naruto noticed when he opened his eyes was all the grass.

The lighting was dim, but not dark. A ball of fur wound around his ankles.

"Pakkun?"

"That's me." Pakkun grinned. "You're better at this than we thought, kid. At first we all just assumed that Kakashi was spoiling you out of personal bias, but then more and more of us kept disappearing to the human world."

"Listen, that's really nice, but I'm kind of in a bad situation – " Naruto babbled. "I have to seal a freaking bijuu. Like there's another kid out there, and he's just like me. And Kakashi-sensei is busy saving Ino's life. I mean, I could totally fight that kid, hold him off while Kakashi-sensei finishes whatever he's doing – but – I don't know, I don't wanna hurt him, I'm just half scared and half freaking out and fuck my team is still out there – "

Pakkun held up a paw. "Calm down, kid. Time runs differently in our dimension. What is imminent danger in your world is not imminent in ours." He began walking down a worn path into what looked like a very deep canyon. "Tell you what. I'll take you to the boss. He'll know what to do."

"Really? He's – he's real? I kinda thought Kakashi-sensei was just trolling me…again…"

"You spent enough chakra and blood reverse summoning yourself into this place, which most would call impossible, but what do I know," Pakkun said. "The fact that you managed such a feat under pressure at your age would warrant an audience with the literal top dog himself, I'd say."

"So, uh, this…Boss. How, er, what's he like?"

"Tough but fair. Pretty normal in personality. A little on the big side, but not unreasonably enormous."

"Oh," said Naruto, wondering what special ability this dog must have had, to command so many other dogs.

"It's true that we are small, and that our raw power is less than that of the toads or snakes or slugs. But we dogs choose to focus on a different skill: endurance," Pakkun explained, though that did nothing to clear up the mystery. "You see, humans evolved, not as ambush predators, but as persistence hunters. You, my bottomless chakra pit of a friend, should know the concept of pursuing a larger and stronger target until they surrender of exhaustion. Konoha itself thrives on wars of attrition, using its superior population and natural resources to outlast an enemy they would otherwise have trouble outfighting."

"Yeah, I get that. So what does that have to do with dogs?"

"Dogs are man's best friend, not only because we are naturally social creatures, but also because we are some of the few animals that can keep up with the stamina of a human. It is fitting, then, that instead of utilizing the natural chakra available in sage mode, we have a…different sort of natural chakra." Despite his height, Pakkun seemed to be looking down at him. "Tell me, Naruto, what is the most persistent force in nature? One that will always be there, waiting for you, in the end? One that will always eventually find you, no matter how powerful you are, no matter how well you hide, no matter how fast you run?"

"I…" Even without having to think, Naruto knew the answer was Death.

"It's not a question you have to answer. The solution is already right in front of you. Hey!" yelled Pakkun. "I brought the kid!"

Naruto looked up in the direction of Pakkun's voice and nearly tripped over his own feet when he saw who the Dog Boss was.

"Welcome," said the three heads of the Guardian of Hell. "We have been waiting for you."


A/N: Again, if there's anything confusing, don't hesitate to comment.

Yes, the boss of the dog summons is Cerberus. Yes, I know it's from Greek, not Japanese mythology.

Come on, this is the DOG Boss! They were asking for it!