Tale of the Setting Sun

Chapter 32: "Distant Thunder"

Despite the years that had passed since they had last seen one other, Kakashi didn't appear to have changed much. He still wore his hitai-ate over his Sharingan eye, and a mask covered the lower half of his face. There may have been one or two more wrinkles around his lone visible eye, but his hair had always been silver—and while three years had felt like a long time to Naruto, in the grand scheme of things, it probably wasn't very long at all.

"You look the same, sensei."

While still facing the counter, Kakashi's eyes veered to the side towards him. "I'd say the same about you, Naruto, but I'd be lying. You've grown."

"I finally hit my growth spurt," he replied drily.

"It's not surprising, given who your parents were."

"Who knows? At this rate, I'll catch up to you, sensei."

Teuchi slammed two steaming bowls of ramen before them. "Eat up!"

Taking out a pair of chopsticks from a wooden box, Kakashi said, "'Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his teacher.' Or so they say."

The miso broth and the ramen noodles were thick and hot, and the pork belly slices melted into Naruto's mouth. They downed their broths at the same time, lowering the bowls down on the counter. The other customers in the stall had started to talk again, and the ambient noise of their chatter circled around them.

It was Kakashi who restarted the conversation. "I'm heading Team Shirakumo now."

Naruto had suspected as much. "Are they giving you as much trouble as we used to do?"

Through the mask, the corners of Kakashi's mouth lifted back. "If only. With the way Sakura and Menma are constantly at each other's throats, I'm just amazed they made it in one piece through their chūnin exams. I suppose Sasuke probably had something to do with it..."

"Then I take it they won't be participating in the chūnin exams going on right now?"

"They've been chūnin as of two years ago. While the other jōnin teachers have been exercising a bit more caution with preparing their students, when it came to this team, I couldn't have stopped them even if I'd wanted to." His old teacher's voice was exasperated, but Naruto could detect a note of pride in it.

The news of the other jōnin teachers holding back their genin was hardly surprising for Naruto. In wartime when personnel was running scarce on the battlefields, any schmuck who could throw a shuriken was promoted to chūnin and sent out to fight. But in peacetime as they were now, when their ranks were already thinned out, it must have been quite the unexpected blow to lose two promising young chūnin and a veteran jōnin on what had started out as a standard B-rank mission.

What was more disconcerting for Naruto, however, was the careful way Kakashi was treading regarding the topic of his new team. He thought it was a given that a ninja of his talents would be charged with the instruction of another promising team. Still, considering the atmosphere of their last exchange before Naruto left the village, Kakashi's trepidation was understandable.

"Is that you, Naruto? You're back!"

Naruto took a second to identify the blonde male in Leaf chūnin fatigues beaming down at him as a member of Team Shirakumo. Or rather, Team Kakashi now, he supposed.

Drawing up before them, the male—Menma, as he recalled it—took in Naruto's appearance with a wide-eyed look of disbelief. "Wow, it's really you. How was your training?" Menma leaned in towards Naruto, dropping his voice conspiratorially. "I heard you were with one of the Sannin."

It seemed Menma had yet to learn a thing or two about personal space; Naruto felt himself sweat. "Congratulations on your promotion."

Surprisingly, Menma waved a dismissive hand. "Oh, that was a while ago. What's more impressive is that you got direct training from one of the Sannin. I mean—Kakashi-sensei, no hard feelings, but—a Sannin."

"None taken," said Kakashi cheerfully. "Menma, aren't you supposed to be helping to proctor the chūnin exam?"

"Ugh, right. I was looking for Sasuke, but then I heard that Naruto was here..." With a grimacing salute, Menma disappeared under the stall flap.

Left in the wake of what felt like a passing storm, Naruto looked down into his bowl, his reflection swimming in the remaining flecks of oil. While he didn't know exactly what he'd been expecting, it looked as though everyone was doing well. In his absence, the world had continued to move.

The flap to the ramen stall lifted up once more and someone walked in with an exclamation of hunger—the dinner rush was about to begin. Standing up to make room, Naruto and Kakashi paused and regarded each other. Though he'd barely reached Kakashi's shoulders before, they were almost the same height now, and the idea of him outstripping the jōnin no longer seemed so far-fetched.

The same thought must have occurred to Kakashi. "It's been a while since we last faced off. We'll have to have a rematch sometime soon."

Naruto nodded, his thoughts already racing with possible strategies. "I'd like that."

The Forest of Death was a common training ground for chūnin, and Naruto himself had favored it in his earlier years. It had been some time since he had last stepped foot in Area 44 however, and most of it was unfamiliar to him: the forest had evolved in his absence. Still, one thing had remained the same, and that was the unsettling feeling of being trapped in a maze.

All in all, it made the perfect stage for the chūnin exams.

The second test was now fully underway, with multiple candidate teams already clashing with one another. Perhaps fueled by adrenaline, the majority of the teams seemed intent on the offensive instead of preparing sustenance and shelter for the inevitable days ahead. In true genin fashion, the majority of the skirmishes weren't lethal—and given the massive scale of the forest, Naruto would have been hard-pressed to find anything worthy of report.

"I've already put operatives in place to report back on any suspicious activity. It would give me some peace of mind if you would lend me your strength and join them."

In the eerie stillness of Naruto's surroundings, far from the hubbub of the village, it was easier to attempt to discern the Hokage's true intentions. The most superficial interpretation was that the Hokage wanted to gauge Naruto's abilities, and also bring him back into the Third's service. While it was already an underhanded way of killing two birds with one stone, Naruto couldn't help but feel as though there was something else lurking beneath the surface. Something bigger than his return was happening in the village right now, and he would bet his tantō it had something to do with the presence of the Hidden Rock in the exams.

There.

Naruto came to an immediate stop. Through a patch of vines, he could make out two teams facing each other down. Judging from their apparel and hitai-ate, it would be a showdown between Leaf and Rock; an inevitable confrontation, given their shared history of conflict in the world wars. Of further note, he thought he could vaguely recall the Leaf team—two females and an overweight male—from his initial class at the Academy.

"Just hand over your scroll, and maybe we'll let you walk away from this," said the Rock team's leader.

One of the Leaf genin scoffed, flipping her long blond hair. "Someone's going to be handing over their scroll, alright, and it's not us."

Out of principle, Naruto fought against the urge to roll his eyes. While trash talk was a basic strategy to stave off one's opponent while sizing them up, he had a feeling it would be empty words rather than fists that determined the outcome of this specific encounter.

"You Leaf ninja think you're so smart inviting us here, but we know what you're really trying to do," said the Rock genin. "And we're here to make sure it doesn't happen."

This caught the attention of the lone male Leaf genin, who for some reason, was munching on a bag of chips. "What do you mean?"

"Drop it. They're just genin, what would they know?" hissed another Rock genin.

"Look—I don't know what crazy stuff your Kage is telling you guys, but honestly, that's got nothing to do with us," said the blonde. "We're here to pass the exam."

All three members of the Rock team stiffened.

"You dare insult the Lord Third?"

"You'll pay for that!"

Finally abandoning words for fists, the screeching sound of metal meeting metal resounded through the air. The two teams seemed evenly matched, and it could go either way—Naruto wasn't interested in sticking around for a genin fight, especially when it seemed the teams were done talking. At the very least, he wouldn't be leaving empty-handed, thanks to the Rock genin's slip of tongue.

In a small clearing deep in the woods, dark blood rained down from the sand-encased body. Temari could hear it splattering heavily on the top of her umbrella.

As was usually the case around Gaara, the teammates of the genin who had just been crushed to death began to beg for their lives:

"We'll give the scroll to you!"

"Please, just let us go!"

And as usual, their voices fell upon deaf ears. Dropping his umbrella, Gaara raised his two hands and squeezed. His sand rose to his bidding, and two splatters later, the entire team was dead.

Distastefully taking in the bloody sight, Temari let out a sigh. From the corner of her eye, she saw their new teammate—a younger genin named Matsuri who'd been hastily recruited as replacement—wave her hand cheekily. "Bye, bye!"

Temari's lips twisted into a half-smile. Once upon a time, she had found such scenes similarly amusing, but nowadays, they merely brought her a sense of increasing apprehension for Gaara. He'd never been normal, but family was family and when it came down to it, he was her brother. It was one of the reasons why she'd agreed to remain a genin over the past few years, instead of being promoted to chūnin, as was expected of a kunoichi of her age and prowess in the village: To keep watch over the Sand's greatest weapon.

While he didn't listen to anyone, at the very least, he acknowledged Temari's existence, and in theory, she could keep him in check. It was a haphazard system that had somehow gotten them through the past few years—these days, however, something was changing in him. Whatever was left of Gaara was slipping away. She could feel it more and more acutely—she could feel the something else in his body glowering out at the world through dark rimmed eyes, biding its time.

As Gaara's blood-soaked sand returned to his gourd, Matsuri walked over to the chunks of flesh that now littered the ground. Her nose wrinkling in disgust, she bent over and picked up a damp scroll. "It's a heaven scroll," she announced.

While Gaara didn't respond, Temari felt his eyes turn towards her, and she suppressed a shudder. "Good," she said instead. "Let's head towards the tower."

Although the trees were too dense to see much past the canopy from the forest floor, judging from the ever growing darkness, the sun had just about set on the day.

"They're late. Did they get killed off already?" Burami grouched, hungrily tearing the cap off a large mushroom.

Kazami paced, as he had done for the past hour. "It's hard to believe Shiore and his team, of all people, would've been taken out so quickly. It's not like them to run late, but if Karin can't see them..."

Despite having already searched the forest several times within the last hour, Karin had been unable to locate the chakra signatures of their fellow Kusa genin. With her current capabilities, the range of her mind's eye was wide enough to cover the radius of a large swathe of the forest; it was a grim indicator of their fates.

"Well, she could've messed up, so have her check again," said Burami impatiently.

Opening her mouth in protest, Karin had to stop herself. While she'd yet to meet anyone who could hide their chakra from her, her teammates didn't have as much faith in her abilities. And in her opinion, it was always better to be underestimated.

Compliantly closing her eyes, she concentrated her mind's eye—and froze.

There was a new chakra signature within her range, rapidly approaching them, and it was so foul, she felt bile creeping up her throat. It reminded her of the pungent smell following a battle, when the reek of rotting flesh from both the injured and dead started to permeate the cloth of the medical tents. It was moving at almost unbelievable speeds, and it seemed as though it would pass them by…when, to her horror, as though sensing her gaze, it suddenly seemed to slow down by them.

If there was one thing Karin's years in the hands of Zōsui had done for her, it was honing her survival instincts. Said instincts were screaming at her now, and immediately opening her eyes, Karin stood stock still as sweat poured down from her temples. While it was not the biggest or most powerful chakra signature she had ever seen before, she had never before felt so much like prey, trapped in the impending fangs of a predator. Even if she were to run now, she knew it was far too late.

"What's wrong with you?" As though sounding from a distance, Karin heard Burami ask. It was astonishing to her, how unaware her teammates were of their imminent demise. They were almost within the striking distance of an absolute monster, and yet Kazami continued to pace and Burami, to eat.

Several minutes went by, each second passing like daggers stabbing into her chest. But nobody approached them, and when Karin finally reigned in the courage to check again, the chakra signature had somehow disappeared.

She was just about to open her eyes, when suddenly, she felt what she had been searching for from the moment they entered the village—an immense chakra, both sharp and rough, both cold and yet strangely nostalgic—a chakra full of contradictions.

They said that three heads were better than one—and in Naruto's case, twenty. While the Hokage had said there were other operatives in the forest running surveillance, they would not be reporting back to Naruto; nor did he have any faith that the Lord Third would be in the mood to divulge any information.

Once his shadow clones had been sent out to disperse themselves throughout the forest, Naruto decided it was late enough in the day to pursue his next priority of interest.

Naruto bit into his thumb for the blood offering. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)!"

Clouds of smoke fanned out from a red fox that landed nimbly beside him. "About time. I was starting to think you'd finally given up."

"You won't get rid of me that easily."

"We'll see about that," said Amakurō, flicking his tail.

Naruto eyed the fox critically; it had definitely gotten bigger since he'd last summoned it just a few days ago. Whereas the fox had barely reached his knee the first time they'd met, its head now reached Naruto's shoulder—and that was with his own growth spurt over the past two years. It was a possible indicator that, no matter how much Amakurō griped about helping Naruto, it was reaping some tangible benefit of its own out of their contract.

Either that, or Amakurō was as much a 'shooting beanstalk'—as it often delighted in describing him—as Naruto.

The Forest of Death was almost entirely covered in a canopy of dense foliage, but it thinned out towards the center, allowing moonlight to peek through to the forest floor in patches. Taking in a deep breath, Naruto settled down in one such patch. Bringing his hands together on his lap, he closed his eyes and stilled his heart.

By signing the summoning contract with Amakurō, Naruto had expected to eventually be granted access to the foxes' sage region. When Jiraiya had first introduced the notion of sage mode to Naruto, he had told him of the wonders of Mount Myōboku; an entire hidden land that served as home for the toads and training grounds for hopeful practitioners to hone their senses.

When he'd first ventured the topic with Amakurō, however, the fox simply looked amused. "Why settle down when foxes can live anywhere the moon reaches?"

The key to reaching sage mode was concentration and balance. The first part was not an issue for Naruto, who had long since mastered the art of meditation; the issue was with the latter. Balancing natural energy with his own physical and spiritual energy wasn't as simple as it sounded, especially when his energy happened to harbor a tailed beast. Whenever he thought he had achieved balance, something in the beast's chakra rejected it, creating a disturbance that destroyed it.

Something about it brought back some dusty memories for Naruto; back when he had been in the Academy, he could remember trying to study the seal on his abdomen and the Nine Tails' chakra that always seemed to disrupt his ninjutsu. Ultimately, his efforts hadn't led anywhere thanks to the interference from the Taboo Seal, and he had simply chosen to ignore the alien chakra.

Given this frustrating impasse with the beast's chakra, Naruto was beginning to wonder if there was something he could do to block it from his own. However, while Jiraiya had taught Naruto the fundamental basics of fūinjutsu over the years, it wasn't something that could be properly explored for a pair that had constantly been on the move.

Dismissing these thoughts, Naruto was just starting to channel his focus when Amakurō spoke: "I sense a giant mass of chakra in the forest—another tailed beast." Its voice was low and urgent, with none of its usual snide.

In an instant, the implications of such a statement became clear: A freed, rampaging tailed beast would undoubtedly have made itself known by now, which could only mean that there was another jinchūriki in the forest besides Naruto. The question then became—were they were one of the genin candidates, one of the foreign delegates...or something else?

Before Karin could convince herself that it was a bad idea, her mouth opened on its own: "I've found him."

Her teammates shot to their feet.

"Lead the way," said Kazami, his voice tinged in obvious relief.

Swallowing, she nodded.

Though Karin would pay for it dearly when they found out she'd been lying, she couldn't let this chance slip through her fingers. For all she knew, Naruto was simply taking a shortcut through the forest on his way out of the village. She wanted to meet him, properly this time—she wanted to thank him for the fish, and ask if he remembered their fight in the Hidden Sand's chūnin exams, and… well, she didn't know what else she could say to him, but in her surging excitement, she brushed that negligible thought aside.

She could tell Naruto had several clones spreading out through the forest, but the real Naruto wasn't too far from their team's position. As she focused, she could sense a secondary chakra presence with him. Though it wasn't human, she could sense a connection between the two—a summons, perhaps?

The trees were starting to thin out—they were drawing close. Karin could feel her heart pounding in her ears, and she sped up, leaving behind her teammates.

Soon, they would meet.

As though Naruto didn't already have enough on his mind, Amakurō's ears fell back flat against its head. "There's a sensor-type nearby, and they're coming straight for us," it warned. "They shouldn't be an issue for you, but there's something about one of them…"

By then, Naruto could pick it up as well: A team of three was rapidly approaching, making little effort to hide their presence, which meant they either thought he was weak—unlikely, considering the pinpoint accuracy with which the sensor-type had detected him—or that he was their ally. Neither was true.

However, while he could have used some light exercise, he wasn't a participant in the exams, and he had a feeling the Hokage wouldn't be appreciative of such direct interference.

It was time to leave.

A wave of blue lightning crackled from his feet up to his head before dissipating into the air. The low, almost indiscernible hum of electricity filled the air, and as Naruto felt his hair stand on end, he knew that if he so chose, he could have been to the other side of the forest before his pursuers could even stop to blink.

But something about the way Amakurō had described it had piqued his interest, and Naruto slowed down just long enough to get a glimpse of his would-be pursuer: A red-headed Kusa genin about his age, eyes starting to widen in belated shock as he passed her.

As he shot out of range, he thought she looked vaguely familiar.

A/N: If you've reached this point in the story I'm assuming you already know by now, but given some of my recent reviews, I'm gonna announce it plainly: This fic is no longer (if it ever was…) canon-compliant with the backgrounds of many characters. This fanfic started coming out before some of those backgrounds aired, and others are filler-exclusive, which I don't watch. I'm also nerfing a lot of powers, to cut down on the scale of the story.

There was a bit of an information dump regarding what Naruto's been up to in this chapter, but I didn't want to spend too much time on training/learning montages, hence the time skip. Sorry for the wait and thanks for reading + commenting.

Thanks to the best beta in the world, blueandgold, for editing!