"Ah, the sweet smell of fear," Naruto said to himself, crouching on a power line as he gazed across the street below. In his hand he held a bundle of red and blue crystals by their cords, with red being the dominant color. He felt a little bad taking crystals away from genin- but a few had wised off and been just generally annoying, so he'd taken theirs anyway. "That makes three blue and seventeen red," he said to the Kyuubi, perching in small fox form on his shoulder. He'd been working on that technique for years, though he still couldn't make Kurama bigger than Akamaru and he only had one tail. It was a testament to how far he had to go until he could summon Kurama outside the seal at his full size, with his eyeball being larger than a human itself. "Normally a thing like this would bore me," Kurama replied with a grin that was all teeth. "But I so enjoy seeing you humiliate these people." Naruto shook his head. His explosive pouches were full of grape-sized orange balls, the kind he could set off in the street without worrying about it. He'd set out in full "underestimate me" mode- his henohenomoheji shirt, a bright orange scarf, and shorts of the same hue- and moved all his storage seals to near his knees and elbows, hidden beneath bandages. The only part of him that looked like a chuunin was the bracers he wore on his wrists, a threepronged kunai devoid of their usual fuin tags secured on the outside of each one. "I agree with Mr. Foxy for once," Izuna commented idly, lounging on the edge of the building next to him with his chin on his hands and his feet kicking back and forth as he watched civilians walk by below. Naruto couldn't stop the smirk from slithering across his lips. "That stupid Uchiha called me Mr. Foxy again, didn't he?" Kurama growled. "Of course not, Kyuubi. Why would you think that?" "Grr, he did!" Naruto only ever called him 'Kyuubi' when he was purposely letting Kurama know he was fibbing to irritate him. "Really, Izuna? Spectating this useless competition?" Madara drawled from behind them. The fur on the back of Kurama's neck stood on end, and he let out a hiss as he wrapped his tail around Naruto's neck and hunkered down further on his shoulder. "Come on, nii-san. It's fun. You helped build this village, so you should be happy they can do something like this." Naruto rolled his eyes when Madara sulked, floating in midair just short of his brother. "Crazy-eyes is here, isn't he?" Kurama hissed. "Whatever makes you think that, Kyuu-chan?" "I can sense him." "Sense his ego, maybe." "Ego?" Madara's eyes snapped open as his brow twitched in annoyance. Izuna and Naruto shared a snicker, making him cast a glare at them. "Hey, Madara," Naruto said with a grin, looking over his shoulder, "do you think the moon has feelings?" "What?" Naruto couldn't help it. Sasuke ranted about a lot of things during training, Sakura's odd question having been one of them. "Well I mean, you're so obsessed with it and all I figured you'd be the most likely to know." Izuna lost it, throwing back his head and guffawing so loud that Naruto would have been concerned about disturbing people if they were able to hear him. "You are inane," Madara said. He sounded as if he were torn between incredulousness and scorn. "How we doin', Shin?" Naruto shouted. From across the street, the Yamanaka called back, "They're not in sight." "Who's not in sight?" Izuna asked when he calmed down, wiping a tear from his eye. Naruto wondered if ghost tears were even a thing. "Nobody," he lied smoothly, jumping down to an awning above a cabbage vendor. They followed after him dutifully, although he suspected Madara only did because Izuna had. Still, he just knew Tobirama would find a way to start a fight even though they were only ghosts. Naruto really, really, really did not want Madara turning into a poltergeist. "Naruto-sama!" Naruto had just landed in the street when he heard Karin jogging down the way, one hand holding a small bunch of crystals and the other on her glasses. He lifted his hand in a wave, waiting for her to catch up to him. Sasuke had taken the time to stitch the Uzumaki spiral on all of Karin's clothes, in blue instead of Naruto's red, as they were mostly purple and black. She deposited the crystals in his hand, smiling eagerly. "I found these laying around. It seems many chuunin and jounin simply lost them! They aren't taking the competition seriously at all." A dull gold clip on her belt in the shape of a bear gleamed in the sunlight, one of the items Naruto had taken from the Uzushiogakure vault; the rest were hidden away in the Uchiha District. However, he'd felt the clip would be useful to Karin, as it not only stored chakra for her but sent off a distress signal to the clip he had- a wolf on his hip- if she were put in life-threatening danger. "Their mistake," Naruto hummed. He took both his bundle and hers and transferred them to a storage seal on the inside of his wrist. He wasn't going to keep them in his pocket like an idiot and end up losing them all- plus, if anyone defeated him, it would be literally impossible to retrieve them; unless they were Jiraiya, but if Jiraiya stole his crystals Naruto's revenge would be both disturbing and humiliating. She adjusted her glasses again- a nervous tic he'd identified on day one. "How's it going?" Naruto smiled and the Kyuubi matched his expression. She gave the fox a confused glance, but ignored it. "Sasuke's gotten as many as I have, the same for Sakura. I'm not sure where the others are, but Shikamaru's conked out on a roof, I think I spotted Choji in Ichiraku's, and TenTen's been hanging out with Sakura all day beating people up. And, well, Neji…" Naruto tilted his head, letting out a sheepish laugh. "He dropped ten red crystals in my hand before running after Asuma-san. He wanted to test his metal, I think. Doesn't care much about the competition." She nodded and walked with him towards a barbecue joint. The competition had started bright and early at eight in the morning, and it was only eleven- he meant to take her for lunch before hopping back to it and scouting for crystals until the end at five. Fate, it seemed, had other plans. "Hold it right there," Kankuro called out, half amused and half serious. Naruto rolled his eyes when his puppet slammed down in the street ahead of him, caging the duo in between Kuroari and Kankuro. "I was trying to take my cousin to lunch, Kankuro," he called, not bothering to look behind him. He felt the grin in Kankuro's reply. "Never got the chance to test your skills, Uzumaki." "If you roll your eyes any further, they'll get stuck that way," Izuna warned him. Naruto rolled them again just to spite him. Madara sighed audibly. "How boring…" Naruto squinted up at him. Give him a fan to be airing himself with and he's just like a diva type in ero-sennin's stories… "Excuse me?!" "Did I say that out loud?" "Say what out loud?" Karin asked, confused. "Oh, well. Here, Karin." Naruto took out his wallet from the other seal on his wrist, taking out a few bills. "Go ahead." "All right, Naruto-sama," she replied, still befuddled, and went on her way. Naruto wheeled around and gave Kankuro a bland look. He hadn't seen him since he'd seen the Sand Siblings off after the invasion, a short affair in which he'd confused Gaara greatly by giving him a slip of paper with the Hiraishin mark with no explanation and only the purposely cryptic "Keep it secret…keep it safe." As he'd been patting his fellow (extremely puzzled, staring at his hand) Jinchuriki on the shoulder, Sasuke had been standing behind him, scowling, "You do remember he tried to murder you, right-" was how far he'd gotten before Naruto had set a hand on his head- a task, since he was three inches taller- and plastered on an eerie smile. "Sasuke, Sasuke," he'd said, "you'd make more friends if you'd shut the hell up." He'd proceeded to burst into laughter, ignoring the disturbed looks Temari and Kankuro were shooting him as Sasuke veered away, twitching wildly. "How's it been going?" Naruto asked, interrupting Kankuro in the middle of…whatever he'd been saying. Naruto hadn't been listening. Kankuro gave him a flat stare. "I'm fine-" he began with a sigh. "Also, is Gaara here?" Naruto asked, lighting up. Kankuro opened his mouth. "How's he been doing?" Kankuro huffed. "Only wants to know about Gaara, figures…" he muttered. "Hello, human," Kurama said in a gravelly tone for the sole purpose of seeing Kankuro freak out. "Have you seen my brother, Shukaku, around?" Naruto cackled inwardly at Kankuro's face. His jaw had dropped, eyes bugging outSpeaking of bugs… "Is this Sand shinobi giving you trouble, Uzumaki-san?" Naruto really wished he knew how to read Shino's voice. He couldn't tell if he was amused, completely serious, or both. "You again," Kankuro said wearily. He tensed both arms again, as he'd let down his guard to talk to Naruto. "I've been wanting a rematch," Shino said as his insects started to exit his sleeves. "Rematch?" Naruto parroted. "We went up against each other during the failed invasion," Kankuro said, slightly grudgingly. "Ah. I'll let you two go at it, then. Thanks, buddy!" Naruto patted Shino on the shoulder as he passed him, not noticing the slight pause he took. As soon as he was out of earshot, he turned to Izuna with a wide grin. "Now then," he said with a gleam in his eye, "let's go get ready for Kakashi-sensei." "Ah, paper-pushing. What jounin are best at," Izuna said with a snicker. Naruto raised an eyebrow at Genma and Raidou from above as they passed below him, carrying large stacks of paper and complaining about Tsunade the Taskmaster. He watched Genma drop his crystal and try and pick it up with his foot. "Why doesn't he set the paper down?" he whispered. "Why didn't they make a shadow clone? Why didn't they just make the clone carry the paper? Why don't they set it down, make clones, and get there four times as quickly?" Madara crouched beside him on the roof, frowning, momentarily forgetting himself. Izuna knelt on his other side, endlessly amused. "They're dimwitted," Madara decided, as if he'd answered the world's hardest riddle. "They're dimwitted?" Naruto repeated- unfortunately, louder, this time, as the two jounin stopped and looked up to find him staring straight at them. "Hey," Genma called around the senbon in his mouth, "who ya callin' dimwitted?" "Why don't you just make a shadow clone? Why didn't you make shadow clones and divide the paperwork? Why don't you put it in a storage scroll and take it there in mere minutes?" Naruto asked, frustrated. Kaka-sensei wouldn't be this slow. They both paused. "He does have a point," Raidou added. Genma huffed. "Say," he said suddenly, squinting as he got a second look at him, "aren't you one of Kakashi's brats?" "He's my sensei," Naruto replied. "Or, well, captain, now." "You're a chuunin?" Raidou questioned, tilting his head. "You don't…look it." "Isn't the whole point of being a shinobi making people underestimate you?" Naruto asked in pure confusion. "You do have a point," Izuna sniggered. "Oh well. I've got work to do. Tekcop sih ot nruter." Genma's crystal floated off the ground and into his pocket, making the two jounin jump. Naruto didn't stick around to chat, leaping over the rooftops towards the forest. From his vantage point flying over the roofs, he could see Gaara beating up Izumo and Kotetsu, a Sand Coffin completely wrapped around one of them. "Hey Gaara!" he called in an upbeat manner, waving. The redhead glanced up, raising his eyebrows- or lack thereof- at him. Naruto landed on a pole, cupping one hand around his mouth. "How are ya?!" Sand Coffin still trapping Izumo, Gaara paused, making Kotetsu give them a concerned look. "I am well," he called back. "Having fun in the competition?" Gaara looked at the chuunin duo. "…yes, I am having 'fun'," he replied, sounding as if he weren't actually having fun. "Raccoon-chan given ya any trouble?" "Not since you and the Kyuubi had your… 'talk' with him," Gaara replied uncertainly. Just before he'd left for the Sand, Naruto had slapped a hand to his forehead, told him to 'imagine a bridge', and stood there for two minutes while Gaara heard Shukaku screech from within before going strangely silent. "The Kyuubi?" Izumo mouthed, slightly pale. "Ah, great! If you have time, wanna go for ramen after the matches?" "…yes." Gaara closed his hand, muffling Izumo's startled scream. Naruto beamed. "Great! I'll meet ya at Ichiraku's around six!" With another wave, he took off for the forest. "You know, if you wanted to catch me off-guard, you might have chosen a place other than the literal area where you first caught me off guard since I met you," Kakashi said, eyes a perpetual upward curve as he pretended to read his book. "What if we didn't want to catch you off guard?" Sasuke asked with narrowed eyes. "…so you wanted me to see you coming?" "Maybe." Sakura slapped a hand to her forehead, sighing. "Did you start training with baa-chan?" Naruto asked her curiously, glancing at the new gloves she wore and the new pouch on her waist. It was adorned with a small green cross, a sign of trained medic nin, and meant she carried various poison antidotes and other medical supplies. "It's been amazing," Sakura sighed dreamily, stroking the blade of her sword. It was a well-known cliché "I'm trying to be threatening" move, but they all knew she unconsciously did it out of genuine, slightly disturbing affection. She'd even named the thing. She'd also taken a liking to dango, spending most weekends with TenTen and Anko (of course those two had hit it off). Kakashi cringed, placing his book back into his pouch. "Maybe I shouldn't read right now…" Sasuke coughed pointedly. "If we could get on with it?" he asked his squad mates wryly. "For once, I agree with shorty," Madara drawled, poking Sasuke in the shoulder to see him shiver. "This is so-" "If you say boring, I will gut you," Izuna interrupted way too cheerily. "…tedious." "All right, sensei," Naruto said. A grin stretched his lips, wide and showing off his sharp incisors. "Why don't we do just physical attacks first? No genjutsu, no ninjutsu. Just to see how far we've gotten." "If you say so," Kakashi replied warily, eyeing Naruto as he took out a long staff. "…by chance, you haven't been practicing with Sandaime-sama, have you?" "Yeah, why?" "…just, never mind." Without warning, Sakura dashed forward, sword in one hand and a handful of shuriken in the other. She let the shuriken fly, landing with dull thuds in the ground where the jounin had been. As soon as he appeared in the air above her, dodging her thrust, Naruto catapulted himself off a tree and swung his staff for his sensei's abdomen. Kakashi flipped around in the air and blocked the attack with his feet, pushing off the staff and going for Naruto's open side. Sasuke appeared in his path, blade swung in a wide arc, forcing him to retreat to a tree branch. "Ha!" Sakura lunged for him with one fist reared back. Kakashi darted out of the way, sweatdropping when not only the branch but the whole tree bowed under the force of her blow. He slipped a kunai into his hand and used it to block Sasuke's sword. Before he could sweep the boy's feet out from under him, Naruto appeared with his staff spinning in a strange figure-eights pattern, making Kakashi dodge to the side. Before he could attack Naruto, Sakura lunged for him again, a handful of senbon flying from her grip towards his pressure points. Before long, he realized what they were doing with a start. Whenever I attack one, another one protects them. They're not even trying to defend themselves, he thought. Essentially, they had each completely eliminated the need for defense, relying on the others for it and only focusing on attacking. The pattern went with one starting off the attack, with the other two backing them up- but it was totally random; Sakura would attack first one time, with Sasuke blocking him when he tried to retaliate and Naruto backing him; Naruto would start off next with Sakura watching his back and Sasuke ready to defend them, then Sakura again, then Sasuke finally would, with no discernable order. They're relying completely on their intuition with each other, he thought. Without ninjutsu, he could only attack one at a time, as they weren't close enough to perform a doubleattack; it was basically going around and around in an endless circle, one always there to shield the other, and he wouldn't attack fiercely enough to dislodge one of them from the formation. That would probably end up with someone in the hospital. Then, the game switched. Naruto's staff cleaved through a tree he ducked behind. A moment later, Sakura's fist demolished the ground below, and Sasuke swung his sword just behind her fist's arc. As soon as he'd dodged Sasuke, Naruto came up behind with, of all things, brass knuckles on his hands, planting his staff on the ground and using it to propel himself forward to strike at Kakashi's throat. Kakashi could see now Sasuke was calling the shots, too subtle for most shinobi beneath the rank of jounin to notice, and letting Naruto and Sakura have free range to improvise, but still directing them. His cute little genin really didn't mess around. Kakashi watched his shadow clone fight it out with them from a tree, sweating a bit as one eyebrow twitched. As it was, the clone hadn't been able to land a hit, but also hadn't taken any; even if it were Kakashi himself, with no fear of dispelling, he wasn't sure if he would be able to with how flawless their formation was. Just like that, his clone exploded with a puff of smoke. It was inevitable, dodging Sakura's monstrous strikes and swift blade, as well as Naruto's erratic staff style and Sasuke's skilled sword style that was fearfully similar to Itachi's. As soon as it happened, a mere six minutes after they'd started, Sakura let out her signature "Shannaro! Cheap trick, sensei!" He cringed. Well, better go down there and face them myself, he thought with a sheepish eye-smile. "Going somewhere, sensei?" Kakashi froze in abject horror. He turned, slowly, to look over his shoulder, sweat rolling down his face in buckets when he saw Naruto and Sakura crouched on the branch behind him. Sasuke stood on a branch further back, chin leaning on his steepled hands. Well...what did you know, they really had wanted him to see them coming. When he tried to move, he found his feet stuck to the floor. Two pentagrams glowed beneath him on the wood, an eerie blue color, stopping him from substituting out. "I-I thought you said no ninjutsu, Naruto-chan?" "Didn't you know, sensei? Shinobi lie," Naruto said with a predatory grin. Both he and Sakura reared their fists back, perfect mirror images, and he took a moment to ponder his life, think about his achievements, and ready himself for oblivion. Two fists slammed into him, and whaddaya know, Naruto punched just as hard as Sakura did. "He's lucky you didn't enhance that with any chakra." Sasuke's amused voice welcomed him into the waking world. That smug little bastard. "I didn't want to put him in the hospital," Sakura replied, a laugh in her tone. "It's just a competition, after all." "Got his crystal, Naruto?" "Mhm-hm. Dropped it halfway through the fight anyway." "Somehow, I feel we've been here before," Kakashi said flatly, opening one eye to give Naruto a dull glare. The blond grinned sheepishly at him. Izuna snickered, passing a hand through Kakashi's shoulder, grin widening when the jounin restrained a shudder. "That's fun. You should try it," he sniggered to Madara, who only rolled his eyes and tried not to look amused. "What time is it?" Sakura asked. Shading her eyes, she glanced up at the sun. "Around two," Sasuke replied, checking his watch. "We have three hours left. Here, Naruto." As one, he and Sakura took large bundles of mostly red crystals from storage scrolls kept in the pouches at their waist. Kakashi watched, twitching, as Naruto retrieved his own crystals and began counting. "Sweet. Ten blue and two hundred and seven red," Naruto grinned. Kakashi sweatdropped. "How the heck did you get over two hundred?" In his usual 'the more you know' manner, Naruto spread his hands. "Shadow clones," he said mysteriously. Sasuke rolled his eyes. "We've been at it all day. Sakura and her friend have been tag-teaming a lot of people." "But still, we have a few thousand shinobi. Someone else could have gathered more." Naruto glanced up at the sky, eyes narrowed. "We should get busy again." "All right. You take quadrant five, I'll take seven and eight. Sakura, you take fifteen," Sasuke directed. Kakashi quirked an eyebrow, wondering what their divisions meant. "On it, boss," Naruto drawled, flashing a two-fingered salute before disappearing in a swirl of leaves. Sakura followed soon after, leaving Kakashi and Sasuke alone in the clearing. "Say," he said curiously, "what are you guys planning on asking for a prize?" Sasuke glanced down at him, mouth widening into a smirk. "You'll see, sensei." With no further comment, he turned and strode away towards the village. With a sigh, Kakashi got to his feet, stretching. "Gonna feel that next training session," he muttered with a wince. He started for the village, taking his usual Icha Icha volume from his pouch. As soon as he neared the edge of the forest, the oddest sense of déjà vu hit him. Pausing, he slowly turned his eyes to his book. It couldn't be… Hesitantly, he flipped it over, visible eye widening when he saw a pentagram painted neatly on the back. As soon as he saw it, it glowed an ominous red. "Oh, no…" "Three o'clock," Aki said with a mischievous smile, watching a muscle somewhere in Naruto's cheekbone spasm. She giggled and floated off through a wall. "Quick, hide!" he hissed at Izuna, making him draw back in surprise. "What-" Naruto quickly shoved his Uchiha shadows into a building, raising both hands towards them and willing them to move. Their surprised expressions vanished into the wall, and he sweatdropped. I'm glad that worked. He'd never, per se, had control over ghosts, but could make them leave him alone when he wanted. "Honestly, Koharu, you should loosen up sometimes," the Sandaime's amused voice chuckled from around the corner. A moment later, the Council rounded it, Koharu and Homura still in their robes while Hiruzen wore a gi that covered the whole of his arms; unlike the one he'd worn in his youth, which stopped at the shoulder, that Naruto had spotted in pictures. The former Hokage floated along behind them, Hashirama pouting at something. "Having fun in the competition, jiji?" Naruto asked with a twinkle in his eye. He crossed his arms and tried not to look like he was hiding something. Tobirama still narrowed his non-existent eyes at him, frowning slightly. That guy is way too perceptive. Sarutobi turned and gave him a wide smile. "It's good for these aging bones to get out and exercise. The shinobi are loath to fight me for fear of injuring me, but the jounin have given me a good workout." "You also let them all keep their crystals, even though you won," Homura added, amusement clear in his voice. "What'd you do with your crystal, jiji?" Naruto tilted his head. "I gave it to Konohamaru-chan," Sarutobi admitted, a sudden blush rising to his cheeks. "You didn't tell me you'd taught him that jutsu, Naruto." No one had any idea what he meant. "What jutsu, Narutokun?" Hashirama asked with a curious expression. Ah, so they didn't see it, Naruto thought with a sweatdrop. Good. "Nothing, uncle, nothing at all. And besides, that jutsu is super effective," he shot at the Sandaime, who didn't bat an eye at his seemingly question-less answer. Koharu and Homura, however, gave him confused looks. The Sandaime grumbled around his pipe. "Anyway," he cleared his throat, "how many crystals have you and your team gotten, Naruto-kun? I assume you snared Kakashi's, as I saw him catapulting towards the Hokage Tower earlier." An amused expression crossed his face. "Uh…" Naruto held up his palm where he'd been writing the numbers down. It was four in the afternoon, and with all their efforts- as well as Karin scavenging and TenTen raging a warpath with Sakura (those two were terrifying together)- they'd reached a sound four hundred. Sasuke had joined up with the duo to take on some jounin, but they'd mostly targeted other chuunin. "Four hundred and three." Sarutobi choked on smoke. "F-four hundred and three?" "That's impossible," Koharu said, sounding insulted. Perhaps because she thought that he thought she'd believe the 'lie' so easily. "Well, nobody else is really taking it seriously," Naruto shrugged. "I don't mind if you don't believe me. I'll present them to baa-chan at the end." "…what did you plan on asking for, anyway?" Sarutobi asked, suddenly starting to sweat. He hadn't realized just how close to winning Naruto was- and now, the ability to make a rule for the whole village to follow seemed like a dangerous thing in the Jinchuriki and his team's hands. "Ah…it's complicated." With a sheepish smile, Naruto produced a scroll out of nowhere, letting it fall open. It tumbled down to the ground, the blue tassels attached to the end trailing the road beneath them. "…ah." Sarutobi examined the scroll with a blank expression, unable to read it from the distance he stood. "I see." He didn't see at all. A shape darted out of the building beside him. "What the ever-loving hell is wrong with you?" Izuna stormed, facial muscles twitching as he pointed in Naruto's face. "Hello, Izuna," Hashirama waved awkwardly. "…ohhhhhhh," Izuna said. With a smile plastered on, he floated back through the wall, leaving the trio who could see him to stare while the trio who couldn't wondered what the heck Naruto was looking at. "Are you hiding something?" Tobirama turned suspicious red eyes on him. "Tobirama!" Hashirama exclaimed. "He's acting suspiciously, brother!" "Oh, he is not! Are you, Naruto-kun?" Naruto cast them a blank stare. "…are you hiding something?" "Of course not," Naruto replied with a closed-eye grin. Dammit, his face is so hard to lie to. "Who are you talking to?" Koharu asked in irritation, scowling. "You can tell us, Naruto-kun. Did Izuna tell you to keep it a secre- wait." Hashirama froze. "Izuna is here. Does that mean … Is Madara here too?!" Crap, Naruto thought. "He is!" Hashirama yelled excitedly at his expression, jumping forward. "Where is he?!" "Yes, where is he?" Tobirama asked, exuding the exact opposite emotion Hashirama was, hands clenching his upper arms as his eyes narrowed to slits. "Ah, don't worry, he does this sometimes," Sarutobi explained to his old teammates with a smile. Koharu cast the seemingly zoned-out, speaking-into-thin-air Naruto a derisive look. "And we made him clan head…" she muttered. "Well, would you look at the time," Naruto said with a plastic smile, holding up his watch-less wrist without even looking at it. "I oughtta head over to the Hokage Tower!" He turned and sprinted away, sweatdrop running down his head as both ghosts ran after him. "Wait, Naruto-kun!" Hashirama yelled, making a fruit vendor shudder as he passed through him. "Madara is dangerous; you shouldn't hang around him!" Tobirama added, ignoring his brother's scolding. "He's a ghost for Kami's sake- dammit!" Naruto cursed when he realized he'd just confirmed what they thought he was hiding. Naruto stood in the crowd in front of the Hokage Tower, hands on his knees as he panted. "I think I lost them," he muttered. "What's up with you?" Sasuke asked, staring down at him with arched eyebrows. "Ghosts," Naruto replied, out of breath. Sakura slid up to them with an eye-roll. "All right then!" Tsunade yelled into a microphone. Naruto winced at the volume, watching her slam a wooden instrument into the gong atop the Tower. "We're ready to announce the winner!" Minutes before, the contestants had gathered in the lowest level of the Tower and turned in their crystals. Naruto had given them to Sasuke to turn in, not wanting to run into one of the few shinobi in the village who might actually sabotage him just because of his Jinchuriki status, before resuming his mad dash to lose his pursuers in the crowd. Tsunade made a show of ripping open an envelope. "Uchiha Sasuke, come up to the roof." A bout of screaming and cheering erupted, with several 'We love you, Sasuke-kun!'s, making Sasuke cringe. "Just had to be me, didn't it? Not Sakura." "Go get your prize, champ," Naruto snickered. Sasuke slunk up to the roof to stand beside Tsunade, slipping on a mask of indifference. "Now then," Tsunade grinned, "what rule will you establish for the village?" Naruto could tell quite literally everyone had expected the winner to come up with something stupid, like free barbecue day or something similar. Silence fell as Sasuke took out the scroll, holding up a quill pen. "A new law," he said. Of course…not everyone had expected a frivolous outcome. As a favor for setting Neji straight, Hiashi had sat down with Naruto and helped him craft the document. Tsunade took the scroll and blinked several times. Her expression became more confused as she read, but she signed her name anyway- Naruto knew it would go through much more paperwork than that; it was merely a formality for show- and rolled it back up, clearing her throat. "From this day forward, clan heads will be able to extend a fiveday period of immunity to any clan member accused of a crime, if that member is able to come forward before a court of law and prove their innocence, or status of deserving a lesser sentence than what was given them. Any standing accused will be kept in prison under guard, but will not be allowed to be executed or removed from there. If no evidence is produced, they will be dealt with according to Konohagakure law, but if evidence is produced, they will be pardoned and released into the custody of their clan head or given a lighter sentence." A clamor of confused murmurs spread across the crowd. Naruto rolled his eyes, gaze sliding to the two Council members he could see standing near the front; both Koharu and Homura looked nervous, even if they were hiding it well. They both knew it was no coincidence what Sasuke had asked; he only had one living relative and clan member accused of a crime. He could see the suspicion dancing in their heads. They must have guessed by now Sasuke had some inkling of the truth; they were like children who had snuck a cookie from the jar and thought no one had noticed it. In the same way, they both thought there was no possible evidence that could reveal what had happened. But Naruto knew for a fact there was one person willing to testify; he was standing with his pipe between his lips beside his teammates, a tiny smile on his lips. Of course, there was really one thing in particular that made them anxious, beyond the fact that they must have realized Sasuke was confident enough he could prove his brother wasn't an insane murderer and reveal what they'd helped happen to the general public. The stage had been set for Uchiha Itachi to return home. 1