The next morning, Naruto was kicked awake at 5:30 and told that he had to get up and train. Kisame handed him Kubikiri and started dragging the still groggy Naruto out to a clearing, he then drew Samehada and started to explain.

"Okay, brat, listen up. Itachi and I don't think your ready for this mission yet, so you're going to be getting a two-week crash course on how to be a missing-nin. Your mornings will be spent doing taijutsu and swordsmanship training with me, and your afternoons will be devoted to Itachi teaching you the more general skills you'll need to stay alive"

With no more words, Kisame charged.

Caught unaware, Naruto was slammed fully awake as he tried to parry Kisame's first strike. Tried being the operative word. He was thrown backwards by the force of the blow.

The next 2 hours were spent pretty much like that. Kisame attacked from somewhere, Naruto tried to block. It took 45 minutes for Naruto figured out that this was not strength, but creativity and instinct training.

Naruto figured out early on that he could never overpower than shark man, but he found there were tricks he could use.

After trying to deflect shuriken with his sword the way he would with a kunai the first few times, he realized that if he turned the sword sideways, it was wide enough to shield him completely.

He also found that the best way to block Kisame's attacks was to counterattack. If they both charged each other at the same time, Kisame would lose the momentum advantage he had when Naruto was just standing there, waiting for the impact.

Some time around 7:30 they had breakfast, Kisame and Naruto had bacon and eggs, Itachi had orange Pocky. Right after breakfast they were back to training, only this time Kisame was actually teaching. He took Naruto through the basics of holding and swinging a sword, and then taught him some basic routines to practice.

Kisame felt this was very important, because he had seen some moments in their pre-breakfast practice where Naruto had pulled off a truly amazing block, only to be overpowered because he was holding the sword in the wrong place or at the wrong angle.

By the time lunch rolled around, Naruto was exhausted. After lunch, Itachi replaced Kisame, took one look at him, and declared he needed new shoes. Naruto was still wearing his now rather beat up impromptu sandals he had made from the remains of his boots.

It was for this reason that Naruto found himself in a shoe store in the nearest town an hour later. Naruto had complained that it was a long run for shoes until Itachi mentioned that he sometimes ran for half a day to get his weekly Pocky supply.

Naruto blindly picked out a pair of boots, which Itachi carefully examined before nodding. Naruto paid for the shoes and they ran all the way back to camp. Naruto, now completely wiped, glared at Itachi across what he had now come to call the 'training field.'

Suddenly, without warning, the old Itachi was back, the one that used to give him nightmares. Naruto's body ceased to function as every part of him screamed for him to run, but he couldn't move.

Just as quickly, the feeling was gone, and Naruto looked at Itachi in awe as the Sharingan user pulled out a stick of banana cream Pocky and started to eat it.

"Today's lesson," Itachi said between bites, "is for you to figure out what I just did, I'll repeat it as many time as you like."

And he did just that.

The first few times, Naruto was just as shocked and frozen as the first. But slowly, as the afternoon went on, he started to resist the feelings, and as he did, he started notice little things.

The way Itachi shifted his posture slightly. The way his eyes narrowed. The way he angled his head. The way his muscles tightened. The list went on and on until suddenly, Naruto's eyes widened in understanding. Itachi wasn't moving, but somehow…

"It's everything," Naruto said, "You're changing everything."

Itachi nodded slightly. "Orochimaru calls this killing intent," he said, "but what it really is, is the accumulation of fear stimulus"

Seeing the blank look in Naruto's eyes, Itachi tried to come up with another way to explain it.

"What do people do when you glare at them with your red eyes?" Itachi asked.

"They get afraid?" Naruto responded hesitantly.

"Exactly. And what do they do when you bare your fangs at them?" Itachi asked again.

"Um…they get more afraid" Naruto responded, wondering where this was going.

Itachi continued on, "right again. But, Naruto, we are a race that has huge numbers of instincts that we never need to use any more, instincts left over from when we were primitive hunters. And there are over a hundred more subtle movements that automatically set off a fear reaction in humans."

Naruto felt a chill run down his back and Itachi continued on.

"I just shifted my weight as if I was going to attack, and I'm sure you felt some fear?"

Naruto nodded

"So if I were to do 40 or 50 small motions at once, each of which triggered a small fear reaction…"

"they would build up into a paralyzing terror." Naruto finished

Naruto though about it for a moment, then grinned, exposing his fangs. "Teach me."

Naruto spent the rest of the day subjected to Itachi's fear stimulus, as it was explained that he couldn't learn the technique himself until he was fully able to resist its effect.

Naruto had absolutely no energy by the time supper rolled around and went to bed especially early, as Kisame's smirk promised another 5:30 wake-up.

It was in this way that the first week passed, and it this time, both his teachers were impressed with his progress. He wasn't a genius by any means, but his incredible endurance and work ethic made up for it.

In 6 days time Naruto had learned the basics of handling his sword, and had refined and smoothed his motions. He had also learned 15 of the 36 fear stimulus Itachi was planning on teaching him. He had yet to successfully use them all together, but he was working on it.

On the seventh day, it was time for Itachi to go shopping for food and Pocky, and it was decided that Naruto would accompany him. On the way to town, Itachi started a conversation about dealing with clients as a missing-nin.

"So say you find out that a client wants to meet you at a certain place and time," Itachi said, "What do you do?"

Naruto thought for a moment, "I'd send a clone, and watch from a distance," he said.

"WRONG," Itachi said firmly, "don't you think hunter-nins plan for that sort of thing? You should go yourself to meet the client, anything less would be insulting, but use at least 6 clones as sentries. You don't care if the hunter-nins find you; if they are stronger than you then you're doomed either way, because they will always find you eventually. You just always want to know when they're coming. It's also good to remember that if you are caught in a sting operation, whoever is posing as the client can be used as a hostage or human shield."

Naruto absorbed all this information as they arrived in own. Itachi handed him a shopping list and disappeared to the snack store, leaving Naruto to get all the regular food. 2 hours later, both were done their respective tasks, but Itachi wanted to make one more stop.

"What do you mean, I need a new sword wrapping?" Naruto growled.

"Your current one is too difficult to remove in combat and falls off too easily, instead of one large piece of cloth that you fold around it, we're going to get you a long strip of cloth to wrap around it, much as Kisame does." Itachi replied calmly.

20 minutes later, Naruto was heading back to camp with a weeks worth of groceries and 60 feet of what looked to him like bandages. The only reason he wasn't complaining more than he was was that Itachi had paid.

After arriving back at camp, things soon fell back into routine, and before Naruto knew it, 4 more days had passed and they were on their way to the hidden sound.

During the three-day trip, they planned and trained, spending every spare minute in preparation.

They stopped a day from the sound as the last 12 hours of the journey Naruto would have to make alone for Itachi and Kisame to stay out of range of the sound's regular patrols.

As they sat around the fire eating what would be their last meal together, each was reflecting on the past weeks. For Itachi and Kisame, it had been a unique opportunity not only to teach, but also to spend time with someone who wasn't afraid of them.

Everywhere they walked, fear followed, no S-class criminals, not even Orochimaru had the aura of fear carried by Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame. But here was a boy who was not only immune to it, but also impressed by it. In his weeks with Itachi, Naruto had become quite adept with all 35 fear stimulus and could now simultaneously use 12 without screwing up.

Both found themselves developing the same kind of relationship with the boy that they had with each other. They didn't necessarily like each other, but they accepted and tolerated each other. And for people like them, that was enough.

Itachi looked up from his musings, laughing slightly at his own emotions. He was a man who had slaughtered his own family, and here he was feeling an attachment, however slight, to a boy he had met only weeks before.

But then again, he thought as he watched Kisame try to teach the boy to use his new bandage like sword wrappings, how did someone define family? A large part of it was a feeling of belonging, which Itachi had never felt anywhere until he became Kisame's partner. So had the Uchiha clan really been his family?

He was broken out of his thoughts again as Kisame and Naruto wrestled in a pile of tangled cloth. He smiled as he silently watched them.

As the last of the fire was dying out, Naruto got ready to leave. He wanted to arrive at the sound at dawn. Kisame just nodded to him as Itachi handed him his bag. It had been a unanimous decision that any of them would deny to their graves what had happened over the last two weeks, so silence seemed appropriate. It would be unlikely that they would ever meet again.

Naruto turned, and ran out of the camp. Halfway to the sound, he stopped for lunch and found a box of Double Chocolate Pocky in his bag.

Naruto carefully approached the gates of the hidden sound. The gates were open and there was a small amount of traffic going in and out. Naruto waited for his turn and line then approached the guard.

"Who are you and what is your reason for being here" the guard asked in a bored tone.

"Fushichou Naruto is my name and I'm here to see a sword smith about getting this," he gestured to the neatly wrapped Kubikiri Houcho on his back, "fixed up." Naruto spoke without a shred of hesitation; he had practiced his speeches until he knew them backwards and forwards.

The guard looked at him curiously. "Village of Origin?"

"Mist," Naruto replied.

"Equivalent Rank?"

"Chuunin."

"Time since you left your village?"

"1½ years."

The guard appeared satisfied and waved him through. Naruto entered the village with his heart pounding. The last question hadn't been one they'd rehearsed.

The next few moments were some of the most anti-climactic of Naruto's life. Hidden sound looked like…well…a village. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but this wasn't it.

With the exception of the slightly more rough around the edges look the sound had, it could have been Konoha.

Naruto just wandered around for a few minutes, basking in all that was the Village of the Hidden Sound, but he soon remembered that he had a mission, and one that was very dependant on timing.

After a few minutes of asking around, he was pointed in the right direction and found himself in front of a house. The nameplate of the door read 'Kiran' but it didn't look like a shop of any kind. Then he saw smoke coming from the back yard.

He jumped over the fence and his face blanched. There was no way this person could be anyone other than Kisame's brother. There couldn't be many people in the world that looked so shark like. He appeared to be pounding on a red-hot hunk of metal, but Naruto didn't see any fire. He observed the man for another minute or two, watched him dunk the metal into a bucket of water, and suddenly his hands were forming seals, Naruto watched in interest.

Suddenly the man spoke, "Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" he called as he breathed a flame that engulfed the metal.

Naruto nodded to himself. Definitely the right guy.

Naruto jumped back over the fence and knocked on it. He heard grumbling for a moment before Kiran opened the gate, looking annoyed, and glanced down at Naruto and more pointedly at the wrapped sword on his back.

"What do you want brat?"

Naruto grinned; he had more in common with his brother than his looks.

Naruto tried to sound professional, "I have a repair job for you, one probably better discussed in private."

Kiran looked at him suspiciously, but let him in and closed the gate. He walked to the back door of the house and opened it, gesturing Naruto to go inside.

Once they were comfortably seated in Kiran's rather boring living room, Naruto took the sword off his back and with a flick of his thumb (it had taken hours to master the knot that held the bindings), the cloth fell off.

Back in Konoha, everyone was on edge. With the attack force leaving in 6 days for the Sound, kunais were being nervously sharpened all over the village.

The sand siblings sat nervously in their assigned room. Shortly after Tsunade's announcement, the sand had sent them a message telling them not to bother coming back; and that the sand was going to send 170 nins to support the Konoha attack on the sound. No one missed the irony of this act.

The roll the three siblings had been given was containment. They were each given a squad of chuunin and their task would be to patrol the forest and make sure no one important escaped from the chaos that would be the hidden sound.

At this precise moment, Gaara was feeling out of place. Not because he was a demon, or a murderer, but because he had nothing to polish. Kankuro was carefully wiping down Karasu, and Temari was buffing her fan with a dry sponge. And all this time, Gaara just sat there, doing nothing.

Temari looked at her brother oddly, he had been staring at her hand buffing her fan for about 5 minutes now. It wasn't helping her nerves. She had been in wars before, but this time she was in charge of a group of chuunin, and most of them were from the leaf.

She knew she had the lazy ass and his team under her command, but hadn't really heard much else. Leadership was a responsibility she wasn't sure she wanted, it was more suited to Gaara, with his unshakable calm.

Temari spotted a scuffmark and buffed furiously. She supposed all she could hope was that nobody dangerous tried to get past her section of forest.

Far away, Kiran was in shock.

"Kubikiri Houcho" he whispered, as if afraid it would disappear.

He reached out to touch it, and after getting an acknowledging nod from Naruto, he picked it up ad examined it.

"Where did you get this?" Kiran asked.

Naruto had practiced this to, "I was part of Zabuza's group, and am now the only one left alive. I've started to use the sword myself but needed it repaired."

Kiran looked at him carefully, "do you know how to handle it?"

Naruto nodded, "I've been practicing since Zabuza died, and I like to think I'm proficient. More importantly, how much for you to fix it?"

Kiran shook his head, "I can't be charged for fixing it, the sword isn't broken, it was just never finished"

Naruto's eyes widened as Kiran continued, "I was driven out of hidden mist before I could finish it, I had heard it had been given to Zabuza the Demon, who had also later fled, but I never dreamed I'd see it again."

He looked up at Naruto, "I don't want any money, it would be my greatest pleasure to finish the sword, but first I need to see you handle it."

Naruto would realize later that showing Kiran routines Kisame had taught him probably wasn't a good idea, but Kiran never noticed. It was imperative to the mission that no one, not even Kiran himself, ever find out Naruto had been working with the Akatsuki, so Naruto knew he'd have to be more careful.

Kiran nodded after a few minutes of Naruto showing off but then caught the boy off guard, "Ok, so your good up close, how good is your aim?"

Naruto blinked. "Aim?"

"When you throw it…" Kiran looked exasperated.

Naruto blinked again. He felt really stupid, after all, the first time he had seen the sword it had been flying in the air over his head.

Kiran sighed; the boy had shown he could handle the sword…

"Okay, new condition," Kiran declared, "I will finish the sword, but after you have to learn how to make use of its full potential, otherwise, your wasting it, and I won't allow that!"

Naruto nodded, it was better than he had hoped for.

He found out that it would take 5 days of solid work to finish Kubikiri Houcho, and that, until then, Kiran was to be left alone. This left Naruto with 5 days of spare time…he had never had that much spare time before.

The first thing he did was find a ramen stand and order 12 bowls, but after that, finding himself with nothing else to do, Naruto decided to train. He found a sound training field and joined those already there. He tried practicing Kirigakure no jutsu once, then switched to taijutsu when everyone else on the field glared at him and the mist he was making.

He threw himself into training for the next five days, fighting to become as strong as he knew he needed to be if he wanted to survive.

In Konoha, shinobi were doing much the same, preparing for a war.

On the fifth day, Naruto went back to Kiran's shop, and the man himself walked out holding a cloth wrapped bundle.

In Konoha, Tsunade strode up to a podium and faced her troops.

Though hundreds of miles apart, and in very different tones of voice, the sword smith and Hokage spoke in almost perfect synchronization.

"It's time for you to show me what you've got"

Author's Note: Today, for the first time ever, I saw the silence of the lambs, I'm not sure if it shows in the chapter, but the whole time I wrote this I kept hearing in my head: "Tell me, Clarice - have the lambs stopped screaming?"

As it is spring break, I'm going to try to update at least once every couple days. I'm hoping to get this story done with by the end of the month, not likely to happen, but I have other ideas running around in my head that need to be written and I wont start another story until this ones done.

Next Chapter: The attack on the hidden sound and Naruto's first contact with someone from Konoha since his departure.