Silver Feathers

By: Black Dragon Diva

Rating: PG-13

Anime: Naruto

Spoilers: Up to Episode 144

Disclaimer: I don't own the Naruto Characters

Summary: Sasuke comes home after four years away from Kohona. But he's not alone. There's something wrong with the young man he finds outside the borders of the hidden Sound village, and its not just because he can't remember who he is. Is he an Orochimaru spy or something far worse?

Chapter Four: Freakishness

Neji had never been an egotistical fool, but as he walked down Kohona's main street, he was proud of himself. On the inside only, of course, showing it in an outward gesture was unheard of for Neji. So he now walked with barely more rod in his straight back and tilt to his chin. He was frightfully tall walking in such a way. Already he was nearing six foot, tall as a poll and as muscular as a lean cat used to preying on creatures many times its size. Because of his height, he had taken to wearing longer pants instead of the shorts he had used to wear. It would save him the embarrassment of cat-calls from females who eyed his muscular legs with blushes and coy smiles. The thought alone made his chin twitch downward in shame. Girls could be scary.

But, away from his fine, shapely legs and back to why he was walking like he owned the world. Wasn't that usually reserved for Naruto? Or even Sasuke! Now those two could pass off as egotistical and the fool anytime. He smirked at the thought.

Once more, away from other thoughts. He was proud because he wasn't just walking anywhere. His presence had been requested by the Hokage herself! Or, rather, his Byakugan. Of course, she could have called for his uncle, whose Byakugan was (supposedly) superior to his own. So the logical conclusion was that she called for him because it was something concerning a matter he knew about that needed to be kept secret. Like, let's say, Sasuke's return to the village? Or maybe that freakish Chakra-Berserker guy.

Now, that guy was a freak. What would drive such a focused buy like Sasuke into picking up a war-torn nut like that beat-up Chakra-wuss? Granted, it wasn't Neji's place to judge, but the stranger was weird. That was by the standards of a shinobi, most of which were very eccentric themselves. Even if you compared him to 'normal' people, he still didn't fit. It wasn't that Neji didn't know a lot about people who weren't ninjas, he just didn't really care that much. He really didn't know a hell of a lot about the non-ninja half of humanity, but he did know that he would have noticed if they were that… freakish.

Upon reaching that thought, he also reached Tsunade-sama's office door. He couldn't remember climbing the steps to the top of the tower at all. Oh well. It was nearly three in the afternoon, but it was odd that there was essentially no staff on call. Normally he would be asked his business before he even got to the stairway, even though he and his clan were well-known and powerful. Still, you couldn't be too careful, he supposed. But, he reasoned, she was probably too exhausted from the night before to deal with anything that wasn't urgent, and had sent them home for her own peace of mind.

Which brought Neji back to where he was. Why had he been called here?

He knocked on the Hokage's door and stood patiently before his knock was answered with a grunted verbal acknowledgement. Taking it as a gesture to enter, he pushed aside the doors and stepped into the room.

Upon seeing the office, any shinobi with half a brain would know something important was up. The entire room was trashed, the bookshelves only half full, their charges on the floor or on a straining desk littered with scrolls and documents. The room hadn't been half this messy when the Hokage was studying techniques to help with Rock Lee's operation, or even when about to pit war with Sound!

Tsunade looked up, pausing as she was struggling to unbury a book from under a stack of scrolls. She seemed surprised to see him at first, until she looked at the clock on the wall, since the one on her desk had been knocked to the floor, replaced with an open map of the continent and Hidden Village territories.

"Neji-kun, come in," the Hokage said, gesturing him forward as she continued the never-ending search for that elusive book under the mountain of scrolls.

Neji stepped forward, closing the door behind him softly. Tsunade-sama seemed distracted for a moment before she looked up with a sigh. Hard, tired amber eyes studied him closely as the Hyuuga stood quietly, trying not to stare back disrespectfully. She grunted in the most unlady-like fashion and turned to open a drawer of her desk. There was a flash of blue fabric, then a gentle wave of silvery black.

Neji's eyes darted curiously to the object in her eyes, then back to her face.

"A feather, Hokage-sama?" he asked with brilliant collectiveness. It was an odd thing, why would she request him to look at a feather? He didn't know much about birds. She'd have more luck with Shikamaru. Wasn't he the one who stared at the sky all day? Surely he would know a bit about birds. Strangely enough, he felt compelled to touch it, to horde it away like a dragon with precious treasure. A chill struck the back of his head and he shook the stupid thought away. Hyuuga Neji, hording! What a laugh. That was more Naruto's thing. The guy kept everything, and managed to keep it (for the most part) neat and in a semblance of order. The kid's room was like a museum of mementos.

What was with all these distractions? He was really out of it today.

"Yes, I found this in the bag of the young man Sasuke brought back with him," she explained. "I want you to look at it with the Byakugan."

Neji was curious. It usually wasn't his thing to be that way, but this didn't seem to be a usual day either. The feather itself was something to look at. Golden sunlight filtered through the windows behind the Fifth, tickling silver smiles from the inky-black body.

Neji nodded, concentrating Chakra on his eyes to activate the Byakugan. What he saw was startling, to say the least.

"Neji?" The teen's amazed face was unnerving. This was a Hyuuga, who kept silly emotions like amazement to themselves, if they ever felt it at all. Of course, Hinata was an odd exception.

Neji shook his head slightly and deactivated the Byakugan. He turned back to her face, then the feather in her hand again. It sure looked normal. It was black, and that wasn't unusual for a bird. Of course, the highlights of silver that winked out when the right light touched it didn't seem very ordinary, but he wasn't an expert on bird coloration, or birds in general, as stated before. Judging by the length of it, it was a wing feather, and a large one. No matter how big, no sparrow-like bird would be gifted with such a feather. It belonged to a raptor, if such a large creature existed.

"Neji!" Tsunade-sama's irritated voice was harsh on his numbed ears, tinted with curious worry. He snapped his attention back to her and gave a brief bow of apology.

"I'm sorry, Tsunade-sama. Its just… interesting…" Damn, what the hell was with all this crap today? Was the weirdness stalking him!

He straightened. "I didn't think it was possible, but I suppose it is." He studied it again. "Birds.. normal birds, have not been known to store Chakra in their feathers."

He looked back at the Hokage, who's face hardened and glazed over in serious, deep thought.

"Is it live Chakra?" she asked.

"Yes, it flows as it does within a living body," he replied. All ninja knew this was not normal. Chakra could be stored in objects, or even living beings; Naruto was living proof of that. But if Chakra was stored in an inanimate object it 'died', or stopped flowing as it did in a living body, until it was expelled by force. It would always be 'dead' after encased in an object, as it would be unable to grown and replenish, or 'live'. But neither did the Chakra diminish. It could be used years later. Exploding tags were a useful example.

But this was different. It was unheard of to have living Chakra inside of a dead object. It shouldn't have been able to survive without living, regenerating cells. The only logical explanation was that it was extremely fresh. That was a bit absurd, and unless Tsunade kept live birds in her desk drawer, it was impossible.

Neji studied it with his Byakugan once more. There was a problem with this recent theory. The feather was still alive. It should have died by this time. The other explanation was a mythical one. Neji racked his brain. Wasn't there a legend about these kind of things? But Neji never had been one for fairy-tales, no matter how Fate-induced they were. They were just stories. What were fairy-tales? Nothing of truth, certainly.

Shizune paused a few paces from the Hokage's study. Neji walked past her, his cold, impassive face the same as it always was. But there was something frightening in his eyes. A dark thoughtfulness that further straightened the mature edges to his face.

She turned to watch the distracted teenager leave, uncertain if she really wanted to enter the room he had just exited. She took a deep breath, turning back to her destination and opening the door to the office.

She was appalled by the 'organized mess' on the desk and beside it. It was an organized mess because of course Tsunade-sama knew where everything was, but it was otherwise disorganized; an unsightly mess that looked better suited to be in a sloppy adolescent's room.

"Tsunade-sama, what is this?"

The older woman looked up from her desk, blinking at her bewildered student. She glanced about her desk in question, then returned to her work.

"Research," she said simply. Shizune was about to demand what when the Hokage continued.

"I'm looking for a clan… I think… or a village. Or anything." There was a hard, frustrated edge to her voice. "I found a clan and village symbol(1) but I can't identify them at all!" There was an annoyed shuffling of books and documents as the black-haired young woman watched.

Tsunade gruffly grabbed a rumpled pile of blue fabric and threw it at her, confident it would be caught.

Shizune held up the cloth that had been tossed to her for observation. From the front it seemed ordinary enough with the high, wide collar that was the current style, two pockets at the side for cold hands. It was long-sleeved, but they had been rolled up at one point, judging by the scrunch marks at the cuffs. The trim was white, but not drastically so, along the zipper than ran up the front and on the cuffs and seemed fit for the ordinary shirt.

Turning to look at the sleeve, where the village crest normally was, something seemed odd. Of course, not all younger ninja's, and for the most part no civilians, wore a village crest on their shoulder unless traveling to an allied village, but it was more than that. She had never seen the crest before.

Shizune studied it closely. Two 'heaven' swirls(2) chased each other, red as blood. She passed it off as perhaps a personal preference and turned to the back of the shirt. The clan symbol was normally emblazed on the back as a show of ninja pride. What was on the back of the shirt was odd. A giant bird, wove of silver threads, held its outspread wings across the back, arching upward. Although a simple pattern as was common, it was amazingly odd.

"A bird as the clan symbol would explain the feathers I found in his bag." Tsunade gestured to a bag near her desk and Shizune remembered seeing it beside the bed of the injured boy Sasuke had brought back with him. "If his clan worked with summoned birds. But I've been looking all morning and there is no village of heavens. The village symbol doesn't have anything to do with the clan symbol, or else I'd say it's just a small version of the clan symbol. But there's nothing here on a Village of Heaven."

"Then where did he come from?"

The Hokage lifted a brow, looking up at a confused Shizune.

"That's what I would like to know," she said quietly.

Kakashi's group was glad to be home. After two weeks away, I wasn't hard to be relieved at the immediate thought of coming home to see loved ones.

Kakashi dismissed his group, encouraging them to return home to see their families while he went on to report to the Hokage himself, waving away their half-hearted protests. They needed more time to spend with their families than he did, especially since he didn't exactly have one to spend time with in the first place. However, his first goal upon completing his report was to visit the stone of the fallen to trace the weathered names of his old comrades, and pray to those new names inscribed there from the war with Sound.

But other than that, Kakashi didn't have anything else on his mind but food, sleeping, and visiting Sakura and Naruto in the morning. He wasn't exactly their teacher anymore since the Sannin had taken over their training, but he still made it a point to stop in on them to check on their progress. But in comparison to his teammates, Kakashi had nothing to do.

Thus, Kakashi split up with his group to head toward the Hokage's tower to file his report.

The Copy Nin reached the building a few minutes before the sun set fully to the right of the giant stone faces of the past Hokages. He was surprised and a bit curious at the… emptiness of it. Granted, they were not at war, but war clean-up was bigger than the war itself. That in itself would have encouraged many people to be at the office, helping the Hokage with sticky affairs, even this late in the evening.

When he stepped into the building, he knew something was different. It didn't feel like a bad thing, per say, but it clearly said that something was up, whether it was a bad or a good thing, he couldn't tell.

Finding no one on the ground floor to greet him, Kakashi took to the stairs of the tower, toward the office Tsunade-sama used the most often. He trod about lazily, blandly looking about as he stuffed his hands into his pocket and hunched over nonchalantly. Belying his outward appearance, he searched hard for any sign of foul play within the building, including traps and illusions.

When he had come within feet of the Hokage's office, he had to jump out of the way to avoid bumping into the Fifth herself as she exited the room. Not wanting to be rude, he bowed and apologized to her.

"Kakashi-san, good, I was hoping you'd be back," Tsunade said, waving away the apology. "Naruto brought in a few guests you might want to meet."

The jounin's visible eyebrow shot upward, hiding from view under his hitai-ate(3). Kakashi was never truly socially apt toward anyone that wasn't part of his small shinobi 'family', everyone, including the Hokage, knew that. Curious, his head tilted, a rumble of question in his throat.

The Fifth walked by him, ignoring his curious gestures, trusting him to follow. Of course he did, but not before fully recognizing the look on her face that had been bothering him since he had glanced on her. Her face was tired and worn, heavy from exhaustion, with a few more wrinkles than were usual for her Chakra-induced youthfulness. It was suspicious, to say the least, especially when coupled with the empty tower.

"If I may, Hokage-sama, why is this place so quiet?" Kakashi asked. The two walked out onto the street, the ninja following his leader closely in his usual, casual slouch.

"I was into a project and didn't need distractions," Tsunade said off-handedly. It would be rude to ask about the project, and he didn't think she'd tell him anyway, since it was none of his business, so Kakashi stayed silent. So much for conversation, he thought and resigned himself to the gaudy silence of the evening streets in Kohona, that weren't that silent at all. Instead, he began to wonder why she hadn't asked for his mission report yet. Granted, she wouldn't ask in public, but she wouldn't have waited this long any other time, which told him that a lot was on her mind. The mission had been top-secret and the success of it desperately needed to ensure further peace, but she seemed to have forgotten. That put him on edge. Normally, you couldn't get the woman that distracted, no matter what, even when drunk out of her mind. She wasn't the type to let her focus waver.

Whatever was going on, it was big.

When they stepped into the hospital, he was both surprised and not so much so. Being Naruto, he had probably been putzing around and gotten his little friends to spar with him, then essentially gotten his ass handed to him. Well, the starting a fight part wasn't so surprising (although he had seriously thought the kid had become more mature than that. What a bother.), but it he hadn't had a true beating in many years. In fact, if you didn't count the part he played in the war, if only because it wasn't a spar gone nuts, but war, then he hadn't gotten his ass handed to him in almost four years. And then it was serious… it was by Sasuke.

The Copy-Nin pushed the Uchiha from his mind as he and the Hokage walked through the cool hospital. Sunlight no longer streamed into the windows and so the overhead lights burned brightly against the shiny floor. Tsunade seemed to walk faster after they ascended the stairs to the next level. Kakashi thought little of it.

When they stopped outside a room, he vaguely filed away the room number as Tsunade turned to face him. Her eyes were sharp as she looked him over, as though sizing him up to be sure he could handle the mission at hand. He was faintly amused as he looked back at her innocently until she turned away, seeming to be satisfied with the sudden evaluation.

The door to room 213 opened.

……………………

(1)-look on Naruto's sleeve, Sasuke's back, Sakura's back, Hinata's shoulder, etc. clan symbols.

(2)-like on Sasuke's seal

(3)-forehead protector

A/N: wee! Alright! Its been a month -hangs self- and I'm sorry it took so long! I'm actually like four chapters ahead, so its not the case of not writing, it's a case of not typing and posting! -bangs head on desk- please forgive me! Also forgive me again, this chapter was uncertain as to its ending place, so it's a LOT shorter than I had intended it! Sorry!

Rant on the Dub: Good, but not great

Now its been three weeks since the Naruto dub started in America. Personally, I think only Kakashi and Sasuke's voice actors fit their characters, but still its going to be great to see it in English! Don't worry Dubbers, you can never match up to the real thing, but we still love you!

Thank you all for reading! I feel the love!

J+