Raven street wasn't what it once was. There was a bunch of urban development happening in the city, and Sasuke had bought a good amount of Raven street and remodeled it to help the area along. Where Naruto would have once passed the homeless and drug addicted, there were flowers and trash cans, signs of better lives. He walked up to the black bird building and smiled. He had loved what Jugo had done with it. A bright red door and a coat of light blue paint made it homely, then several small ravens painted at the top let it stand out.

Naruto walked up, opened the door and yelled: "Knock knock."

After a second there was rustling and Tayuya walked out with random white and pink things in her hands. She smiled and pointed to the stairs. "Oh hey, your sponge is up stairs wasting all our hot water."

Naruto scratched his neck and sighed. "Figured I'd find him here."

Tayuya followed him close behind messing with large napkins. "How's college?"

"Good." Naruto was pleased he didn't have to lie. His classes were going well. It was everything else that seemed to go downhill. "How's wedding planning?"

"I told you my parents were Catholic right?" The woman asked quickly. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and watched him stop at the landing. "We're having a gypsy wedding."

The blond laughed. "You're just trying to get disowned at this rate."

"You think?" Tayuya grinned and then stopped and raised a finger. She disappeared for a second into the kitchen and came back with a basket. "Fresh towels."

"Thanks." Naruto grabbed two and dashed up the stairs, checked the boy's bathroom, and then headed to the third floor. He walked into Karin's room and opened the side door to the bathroom to be hit by a wall of smoke.

"I asked... Oh. Hi." Sasuke quickly extinguished his cigarette and smiled up at his fiance, but it was overshadowed by a look a pure exhaustion.

"Hi." Naruto set the towels down on the vanity and curled himself against the side of the tub facing Sasuke. A quiet lull came over them as they just stared, the red eyes seeming to glow in the dim light from the window. "Do you need anything?"

"No," Sasuke muttered weakly. He raised a wet hand and traced his finger tips down Naruto's face. Two little beads of sadness welling in his eyes. "I want to kill them. All of them."

"No." Naruto responded with a quiet whisper.

"They deserve to die." Sasuke insisted sitting up a bit. "If not me, who? Who is going to take them out? They can't keep doing this!"

"I'll tell my dad." Naruto shifted uncomfortably. He had this conversation several times over the last few months. For Sasuke it seemed to be his only goal recently.

"Why does he get to do it?" The Uchiha suddenly thrust both of his arms up. "Your father has been absent and not involved and suddenly he shows up and we're supposed to throw all our trust behind him?"

"Why do you need to do it?" Naruto asked of him. Sasuke blinked once and then anger flashed across his face. Naruto reached out to touch him but he pulled away. "I'm afraid you'll get hurt. Orochimaru's on par with-"

"No. He's not." It was then Sasuke wanted to tell him everything he had been doing with Nagato. All the advancement the man had been making and trying on him. The work they had accomplished. How much stronger Sasuke had made himself. "Trust me. I'll be fine."

"You worry me when you say things like that." Naruto tried once more to reach for his lover but the pale skinned man flung him off and stood up in the tub. Sasuke plucked the plug up from the drain with his toes while grabbing a towel and slamming it on his head. "Sasori said he might be able to start reversing it and my dad offered to help."

"To make me helpless?" Sasuke roared at him. He violently scrubbed his hair with the towel before tossing the second about his waist.

Naruto sighed and stood up. He grabbed the towel on his head and began patting down everything in a loving manner. This time Sasuke let Naruto touch him. "You were never helpless, honey."

"Why would I want to go back to what I was?" Sasuke asked. He waited for Naruto to finish and saw the blond was looking away like he was disappointed. A quick snatch and Sasuke had his lover's wrist in a vice. Naruto squealed and pulled but Sasuke only squeezed tighter. "I was nothing before this! I'm never going back!" There was a pop followed by a scream. Sasuke released him and realized what he had done. Calmly Sasuke grabbed the wrist again but Uzumaki pulled back. "Naruto, I didn't mean to-"

"There's something wrong with you! You need help!" Naruto cradled his wrist as he ran down the stairs.

"Naruto. Come back. I can fix this." Sasuke pleaded as he followed him. His heavy, hurried steps left a trail of water behind while Naruto moved faster and faster..

"Not right now. You can't right now." Naruto nodded to Tayuya as he walked out of the open door and out onto Raven Street making a sharp right towards the college.

"Mon renard I didn't mean to!" Sasuke walked out onto the porch, but Naruto didn't look back. He kept going, head down, shoulders tucked forward. Defeated, the raven hared boy stepped back inside. His hair dripped on him and then down his bare chest. He stood like that for a moment before he felt a slap on the back. Tayuya had gone around him and shut the door.

"PANTS! In this house we wear pants!" She screamed. Her arms flailed about with long white and gold feathers. "Do you want the police here? Jugo's growing in the basement!"

Their dorm room was 90% back to normal. The walls were patched and painted. Minato had painstakingly rebuilt the lego castle. Anko and Sai fixed Han, and even put up a shelf for their things. Gaara was glad to see that their diorama was untouched. One of the new additions was via Sasori who insisted that Gaara sleep upright for a bit. It was a large bean bag chair. Bright yellow with smiley faces plastered about it. Gaara wanted to say he hated it, but it was the only thing comfortable to him. He found himself falling asleep constantly from lack of coffee, in fact, he slept through his classes if he even went to them at all.

There was a knock at the dorm door and Gaara startled awake. He slid his hand under the mattress finding the sword hilt and called whomever it was to enter. The door opened and a tuft of blonde hair poked through followed by an older looking version of his roommate. He looked over and smiled trying to find Naruto. "Hey, is Naruto in?"

Gaara lifted his head and looked over to Naruto's bed. It was still empty. "He left with Lee a little while ago. They're out in the research fields last I knew."

"There are research fields now?" Minato went to scratch his stubble but felt a clean shaven face. He groaned and looked over at Gaara. Minato opened the door, revealing he was in a nice button up shirt and black pants. "Would you mind showing me the way?"

"Nope, not at all." Suddenly Minato felt very bad as he watched Gaara roll onto his hands and knees to then push himself up onto his feet using the side table. Gaara didn't seem to notice it as a hindrance, and started to walk out grabbing his lanyard with his keys. He locked the door tightly after they exited and pointed towards a wooded area across walked in silence for a few minutes until the crowd thinned. Gaara scratched his head and looked over at the bigger version of his roommate. "Um, so...Naruto and Sasuke are fighting again. I wouldn't bring it up, or Sasuke. It seems bad this time."

"Do they usually fight?" Minato was worried. This was the second fight he had seen since he came back, and he had only been there a few weeks. "Not to sound horrible, but they don't seem to get along well for a couple."

"They didn't used to fight this often, maybe once every few months. It could simply be stress from college. Might want to watch for depression, college freshmen have the highest suicide rate." Gaara scratched his head again and saw Minato looking over at him concerned. "Naruto will not commit suicide, sorry to put that image in your head. It was more to point out the stress levels for freshmen. Naruto has a pattern of insulting then defending Sasuke, but this time, he didn't defend him at all."

"You're good with picking out patterns. They could probably use you on a police force." Minato mentioned offhandedly.

"I don't want to get shot." Gaara muttered in response. Gaara turned down a dirt road and whistled when he noticed Minato had kept following the road. Minato stopped, laughed with an 'oops' and turned. Gaara pointed to a clearing beyond a treed area. "It's this way."

Minato was surprised the college had done well enough to secure all this land. He remembered when it was small, but the campus was huge now. The two crested a hill and found a group playing baseball. Naruto was standing at third with a mit chatting with an older student who was currently on base. Then he picked out that Naruto's left wrist was in a cast. "Well, haven't seen them do that in a while."

Minato had seen his son sleep and eat, so him playing something outside was a little new to the attempting father. "He plays baseball?"

"Yea, I've got to get him on his diet soon or I'll get yelled at for letting him eat junk food." Gaara said remembering. He took out his phone and put in a note about getting Naruto's diet on track. "They start in January and Naruto's not a sure in with his stomach. He didn't scholarship for it."

"He's barely got a stomach." Minato said confused. He remembered sports being much simpler. Then he stopped and scratched his head. "Who's yell at you for what Naruto eats?"

"I don't know his name." Gaara muttered. He scratched his hair under his beanie and sighed. "The coach. All roommates are responsible for their eating habits as we are one of the largest influences. It's a smart policy but I don't like being yelled at."

Minato patted him gently on the head and began to stroll down to the field. He whistled and called the game to a stop. He pointed to Naruto. "Hey, can I borrow him? For like five minutes."

"Holy crap, he does look like you." Chouji stood up taking of his catcher's mask and shook his head. "It's like a twin.

"Many thought Naruto was lying when he said his father came back, I'm glad to see he wasn't mistaken!" Lee trotted over and slapped Minato playfully. He smiled widely and gave a thumbs up. "Welcome back!"

"Just keep playing." Naruto rushed over to his dad.

Minato threw an arm about him and pulled him in. "The boy in the green jumper. Is he on coke?"

"No, he's always like that. He has all these strange mantras as well," Naruto explained. He shuffled off the field with him and sighed trying to hide his left wrist. "What's up?"

"I have a meeting with Nine to go to. I'll be gone for a week." Minato stopped and let go of him. "Think of it as a business trip. Except I'm not getting paid and he threatened to kill me if I don't show up."

"Can he come here?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

Minato scratched his head, then his neck. He shook twice. "That's a little dangerous."

"Sasuke's becoming more... assertive." Naruto watched his father's eyes immediately darted to his lower left arm which was behind his back. Minato looked at him straight in his eyes. He knew. Naruto looked down and took a step back. "I might need you here if things don't go well. He's not having an easy time lately."

"He's not?" Mianto asked. "About what?"

"It's the mutations." Naruto shifted again. Without thinking he used both hands to scratch his head. "You can see it in his eyes. And his body seems to be changing too. He's getting paler and he's-

"Did he do this?" Minato grabbed Naruto's hand and looked at the cast. Gaara had gotten to it first. It was covered in well drawn frogs and then a single godzilla in a frog costume. Naruto didn't answer but pulled away. "I have to go meet Nine. I can't just tell the devil no, that's not how it works."

"Can't you just skype?"

"What's skype?"

"Remember the Jestsons? It's basically that face to face tv thing." His son explained.

Minato blinked a few times. "We have that?"

"Yea, it's over the internet." That was when he remembered they had barely begun to introduce Minato to the internet. He had a cell phone from the nineties he kept advancing but relatively stayed to dive bars without televisions. Naruto sighed. "We'll cover more of the internet soon."

"I'll talk to him. I'll see if I can delay." Minato shuffled a bit and then decided he couldn't leave the conversation on this note. "Gaara says you're going to get him yelled at if you don't eat healthier."

"Yea, Ebisu stuck him in charge of me. Said just because I was good doesn't mean I'm college good." Naruto looked back at the game and then up at Gaara. He had sat on the hill and was now slumped back. Naruto needed to get him to the room before he fainted. "I'll work on it. Call me or text me tonight. Or just show up."

"Probably show up. Take you out for some ramen before your diet." Minato messed up Naruto's hair and walked away. Lee called Naruto back to the pitch but he pointed to Gaara. Shikamaru patted Chouji as a goodbye and left his referee position to come help.

The pale white finger tapped on the small blue tea cup. Orochimaru wasn't happy, but not mad or sad either. He chalked it up to boredom and set the tea down on the table in front of him. Against Madara's request, he had set up a small tea area in the warehouse in the old office of the foreman. It happened to work out wonderfully and gave them a seated comfortable are to have meetings. He brushed his hair back with his right hand and laid it back down on his knee. "I don't know if we've had an effect. I thought he'd be here, guns blazing. I'm a little disappointed but proud. He did grow up enough not to charge."

Kabuto shook his head and quickly replenished what little his master had drunk and then refilled Madara's cup as well. The old man said a quick thank you and relaxed back into his chair. "Some days I'll never feel like I'll understand you completely."

Orochimaru shrugged and smiled. "If you understood me completely you'd come to find me boring."

The door burst open and Hidan stomped in throwing off a band tee shirt and grabbing a dark sweater off the couch. He had been hiding on campus and hated having to wear color or act in a manner befitting a young person. "Oh my God, I fuckin' hate teenagers! I learned more about their social lives than anything. She's dating him, he likes to eat here. It's fuckin' stupid."

"All information can turn out useful." Madara responded. He shifted his cup and sipped at it. With a swirl he began thinking. Behind Hidan Nagato walked in with files. Madara smiled at him and then looked at Kabuto. The man made a quick frown. "I've been thinking that we've been focusing on the wrong areas. Why are we inciting panic into a group that knows we're trying to panic it."

"Insert panic into a group that's unsuspecting? Friends and family that aren't involved?" Nagato asked. He spread the research out before Madara for review, but Kabuto had already relayed what he has suspected. It was incorrect, and it was done purposefully.

"Some innocent bystanders." Orochimaru insisted. "That little girl didn't do it, but I bet five of them will."

"Nagato, will you go get Kakuzu? He'll want to budget." Madara asked in a 'do it' tone.

The researcher nodded. "Of course."

A few moments after Nagato exited the warehouse office Madara, Orochimaru, and Kabuto grimaced. Hidan nodded his head towards the large doors where the heavily pierced man was calling out to the accountant. "Him?"

"Yes. Kabuto?" Orochimaru motioned to the door.

"He was in Itachi's office the other day, and the sight didn't even bother Sasuke." Kabuto nearly whispered. He closed the door and took his place behind Orochimaru and his kettle. "Konan even went to a meeting of their little 'Black Birds' and was having a grand ol' time. They've been feeding us false research as well as information. Konan is up to something as well but I haven't been able to pin it down."

"Thank you Kabuto. You're so useful. I wish I had four more of you." Madara insisted. Orochimaru turned the cup nervously.

"Thank you. I was just doing my job."

"I go spy all day and get nothing, he spys for two hours and it's 'thank you, you're so wonderful.'" Hidan mocked. He flopped down on the couch and swore. "I can solve it. One good hit in the back. Nothing's going to save a severed spine."

Madara shook his head. "You'd be surprised. And that's if Nagato's spine can be severed anymore."

"Might I add a suggestion?" Kabuto asked. Orochimaru looked up and nodded. Kabuto pulled out his phone. He then played a video showing a dark figure outside a bar somewhere. He was having an arguement with a woman and suddenly the woman was thrown through a wall. "This was fifty miles from here. Let's do nothing."

"Who is that?" Orochimaru snatched the phone and attempted to get a better look but simply couldn't. He scrolled down and checked the comments. Dozens we're attempts to dismiss the news cast as fake or how they had messed up and done their april fools report in October. The description held another story.

"I don't know, but we keep our head down and our enemies might take care of them. Or the other way around." Kabuto waited and accepted his phone back.

"You think Minato would handle them?" Orochimaru asked. This was helpful, but out of Kabuto's job description. So was spying for Madara. He didn't like that. It smelled of rat.

"I think Nine would have him handle it." Madara insisted.

"I think all those fuckers have stupid names." Hidan commented and pulled out his own phone. "How much longer until we can start my treatment?"

"We have it ready, but not while Nagato's here." Madara insisted. The old accountant walked with Nagato. He shouted about how his coupons were missing.