Chapter 43


"No matter what happens, no matter how much changes, in the end life will always go back to normal. 'Normal' just might have a new definition."


"Your daughter is a disgrace to our family name."

Hinata's breath caught in her throat as she stood outside the door to her father's study, her body tense and rigid. Beyond the painfully thin rice paper walls she could hear Elder Fumito speaking all too clearly, his voice still smooth and deep despite his advanced age. "Not only did she flee before her match, but she did so in front of dignitaries from nearly every country."

"If she hadn't fled, she would have been caught up in brunt of the invasion," she heard her father rebut, sounding ever calm and stoic.

"The Hyuuga clan is fortunate that the invasion occurred in time to mask her cowardice from the public!" interjected the disapproving voice of Elder Nobuko, her words twisting in Hinata's chest like a knife. "It does not matter if her status as heiress has been revoked. She is still a member of the Main House, and her actions reflect upon all of us. If it were to become public knowledge that she was intimidated by a genin from the Branch house—"

"Neji may be a member of the Branch House, but he's also one of the most talented geniuses to come from our clan in several generations," Hiashi interrupted. He did not raise his voice, but his words held a hard and impatient edge. "I doubt even I would have been able to match his skill at that age. Expecting Hinata to do so is wholly unfair and unreasonable."

"The difference in their skills doesn't matter," Fumito declared coldly. "What matters is that she fled after he fought. That alone would have brought unspeakable shame and doubt to the Main House's reputation."

"We have allowed her slacking to go unpunished long enough," Elder Kyotoki added darkly, and Hinata felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, her heart seeming to stop. "It is time for us to take action and do what we should have long ago."

No.

Dread sunk in Hinata's stomach like a stone and she took a step back, her eyes wide as her pulse quickened. No, he can't mean, he can't—

Suddenly the doors flung open and a flock of men in white robes surged out, their faces hidden behind long paper tags bearing the kanji for 'sight'. A strangled scream caught in Hinata's throat as she turned to flee, racing for the door, but as she ran the hallway seemed to stretch to infinite lengths, the door seeming further away with each step. Hands grabbed her from behind and pulled her back, the long, fingers with nails far too sharp painfully digging into her arms and sides and face.

"No, please, stop! Don't! Don't!" Panic and desperation surged as she screamed, thrashing desperately against their hold. Her struggles proved futile though, and the world seemed to fly past her as they dragged her into the room, thrusting her to the ground and planting her in a forced bow. Gnarled fingers grabbed her short hair and harshly jerked her head upwards, forcing her to look at the elders. They towered above her, impossibly tall and imposing and their faces covered in shadows, their glowing white eyes full of nothing but icy disdain.

"We have allowed your insolence to go unchecked long enough," Elder Fumito declared above her, his voice echoing painfully loud in her ears. "From this day forth, you will be expelled from the Main House to live as a member of the Branch House, and branded as such!"

"NO!"

Hinata's eyes popped opened with a gasp, her body convulsing sharply before going still. Ragged breaths escaped her as she laid atop the futon, staring at the ceiling tiles with wide, horrified eyes. Early morning light filtered through the window to tint the air a pale, pale blue, and slowly she made herself sit up. The tangled blankets slipped down to pool in her lap, and her hand ghosted over her forehead, as if expecting to feel ink and muted chakra. Swallowing thickly, she forced her head to turn to the mirror mounted on the nearby wall, her fingers twisting in her bangs and lifting them up to expose her forehead.

Blank, paper-white skin greeted her, untarnished by even a pimple.

Exhaling shakily, she let her bangs fall back into place and leaned forward, pulling her knees towards her chest as she tried to regulate her heartbeat. So fast, so hard, it almost hurt, but ever so slowly it stopped pounding and slowed down.

In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.

Still a bit shaky, Hinata got to her feet and staggered towards the wardrobe, stripping out of her nightgown and reaching for the clothes already waiting for her. Her favorite sweatshirt, thick and baggy, with a mesh undershirt and a pair of black pants just slightly too big for her. Tape took care of that, the hems soon bound tightly to her shins and the bandages extending to her sandals.

Quiet footsteps sounded outside the door just as she finished folding her nightgown, slightly muffled but loud enough for her to hear. A soft knock sounded, and she opened her mouth but no sound came out right away. Hinata frowned, and swallowed away the overwhelming dryness before managing to croak, "C-come in."

A beat, and then the door slid open, a man in a dark yukata and a black mask covering his upper face peering inside. "Hinata-kun, breakfast is ready," he informed her. "Shino is already waiting for you."

"Th-thank you, Torune-nii," she responded, offering a feeble smile. "I'll—I'll be out shortly." The older teen nodded once and she turned back to the wardrobe, placing the now-folded nightgown in the drawers and grabbing her hitai-ate. Only when she heard the door close and his footsteps recede did she pause, smiling bitterly to herself as her fingers twirled around the braided bracelet that clung to her wrist.

It had been two weeks since she'd last gone home.


After the initial chaos from the invasion died down, a strange sense of monotony gradually settled over the village.

Life slowly resumed as the more immediate damages from the fighting were cleaned up, but returning to a sense of real normalcy would take time. A good quarter of their forces died in the invasion, meaning the remaining shinobi had to pick up the slack more than ever. The ninja academy remained closed while the instructors went to work in the field, and most of the jounin sensei had also been put back on active mission rosters, leaving a majority of Konoha's younger genin on their own.

Naturally, that included Masaru.

Masaru sighed as he strolled down the street, hands shoved in his pockets as he mentally reviewed his list of potential activities for the day. D-rank missions abounded right now and any genin could take them, no jounin supervision required, but he'd been doing that pretty often lately and didn't really want to clean up more debris. Training would probably be the most productive option, but he'd rather not do it alone.

So that left... socializing, maybe? He hummed as he considered his options. Team Seven, his most obvious choice, wouldn't work. Sasuke had been in one of those "I need to be alone" moods that morning and left right after breakfast. Sakura had spent the past two weeks mostly at the hospital, both as a volunteer and to spend time with her father who apparently terrified Sasuke and Naruto? They got kind of twitchy whenever he was mentioned. And Naruto—

Well. Naruto had more important concerns right now. "Not like I'd know where to find him anyway," he muttered to himself sulkily.

Next on the list was Tenten, who'd become his go-to sparring partner and a loose friend, but she was currently busy. Some of the residential areas had been demolished by the fighting, including the one with the orphanage she'd grown up in, and she'd volunteered to help watch the kids in the temporary quarters established until more permanent structures could be built. Kiba, his next choice, had been out training with his own team when Masaru tried to visit the Inuzuka compound. Which struck out Hinata and Shino from the options.

...And that was basically the extent of his social circle. Masaru didn't really know anyone on Team Ten outside of Ino's fangirl tendencies, and he'd rather not risk his sanity by approaching Lee or Neji. He hung his head with a groan, his shoulders slumping in dismay. "Why are people so hard," he moaned mournfully.

"Masaru?" He gave a small start as he heard someone call his name and quickly turned to spy the familiar form of his teacher approaching, a plastic bag swinging from his hands. His eyes widened in surprise at the brown-haired man man, turning to face him more fully as the man came to a stop.

"Gaku—uh." He stopped, uncertainty flickering across his face before hesitantly amending, "Um, I mean, T-Tenzo... sensei...?" His teacher's smile grew a little softer at that, chuckling sheepishly.

"It's Tenzo," he confirmed. "Sorry I haven't been around to talk, I got caught up with work."

"Ah, yeah, I figured." Masaru shrugged feebly, glancing to the side awkwardly. Even though a full two weeks had passed since the invasion ended, he hadn't seen his teacher once during that time. He heard from Sasuke that he'd stopped by the hospital when he was still unconscious from exhaustion, but he'd already left by the time Masaru woke up. It had been a bit disappointing, but it didn't come as that big of a surprise given his ANBU status and newly revealed possession of mokuton. The village needed him far more than Masaru did.

His thoughts cut off when Tenzo suddenly placed a hand on his head, making Masaru snap his gaze to stare at him wide-eyed. "S-Sensei?"

"Hey, don't make that sort of face," Tenzo told him, and then ruffled Masaru's hair. The boy squawked in dismay as he ducked away, quickly trying to fix it. Naturally it didn't help much, since his hair always looked like perpetual case of bedhead, but it still felt really weird and lopsided.

"Don't do that!" he whined, and Tenzo just grinned down at him.

"Sorry, couldn't resist. I've wanted to do that forever, but I was always afraid I'd get my hand tangled in there." Considering Masaru had broken three different brushes in the past five years, he decided Tenzou's concerns were perfectly justified.

"Still rude," he grumbled with a pout.

"Anyways, I think we're overdue for a talk," Tenzo continued, and eyed the surrounding street. "I'd prefer to have it somewhere private, though. How about we go to your apartment? I can make lunch." Masaru looked at him in faint surprise, but after a moment he frowned and slowly nodded before leading the way.

The two lapsed into silence as they walked to the apartment, and upon arriving Tenzo went straight to the kitchen to prepare lunch. Masaru meanwhile headed to the living room, his eyes roving over the furniture which become so familiar over the past five years. He made his way to the couch, which had once seemed so large when he and Sasuke had been tiny eight-year-old boys, and stopped to stare at the painting hanging on the wall above it.

Wispy silhouettes danced beneath a tree decorated with glowing lanterns, waving red and white fans styled after the emblem donned by the Uchiha clan. Glowing blue embers circled the tree and dancers, giving the image a mystical, otherworldly feel, and in the center of the scene a small child clad in a white yukata reached for one. Masaru leaned forward and carefully traced a finger along the child's face, their features vague and indistinct yet still somehow portraying a sense of awe and wonder.

This painting had been one of his mother's most prized creations, and one of the few pieces of art he'd retrieved from his house after everything that happened. When he first saw it she'd explained that the embers symbolized hitodama, the souls of the dead, and that the child represented life. He remembered Akari had always found the painting a little creepy, but Masaru always felt a strange sense of peace when looking at the flames and dancing silhouettes.

Fittingly, she had titled it Requiem for Our Ancestors.

"Lunch is ready." Tenzo's voice drew his attention, and Masaru glanced over his shoulder to see his teacher standing by the kitchen counter with two plates loaded with onigiri and minced vegetables on the side. The man eyed the painting a bit strangely, shuffling awkwardly. "That's, uh, a nice painting." His voice held a note of hesitation, but Masaru barely noticed as he glanced back to the painting with a fond smile.

"Yeah. It is." Turning away, he trotted over to the counter to grab one of the plates and sat at the table. Tenzo slipped into the seat across from him, poking his own meal with a faint frown.

"I guess I owe you an explanation, don't I?"

"That would be nice," Masaru agreed quietly, and the man sighed.

"Well, I suppose I should start at the beginning. You're pretty bright so you've probably figured it out by now, but I'm not a normal jounin. I'm a career ANBU, and my latest mission was to take on the role of teaching and monitoring you after you failed your first team. Obviously, the mokuton makes me a valuable target though, which is why I was given orders to hide it as long as possible. That's also why I was assigned a codename—we didn't want to risk more identifying information spreading if I slipped."

"Why?" Masaru asked, frowning at him quizzically as he pushed around some of the vegetables with his chopsticks. "I mean, I get why I was allowed to graduate anyway, since the Hokage explained it, but... why you?"

"A few reasons," Tenzo began. "For starters, your Sharingan meant you'd have to train with Kakashi-senpai at some point. I'm one of the few people who's worked with him enough to have a basic idea of his training style, and also what using the Sharingan actually entails. On that note, by now you've surely noticed the Sharingan is a highly sought-after ability. The council wanted to make sure whoever took on the role of your teacher would be sufficiently prepared to defend you."

His expression grew a bit more somber at that, his mouth twisting into a rueful frown. "Of course, it looks like I didn't do a very good job though," he sighed. "A lot happened during the invasion, and I haven't even been by to visit you since it ended."

"It's fine," Masaru assured him quickly. "I know you've probably been busy with ANBU stuff, and it's not like I was actually hurt. I was just in the hospital for chakra exhaustion, so—"

"Masaru." Tenzo interrupted him calmly, and when Masaru looked at him to find the older male giving him a level look that left him silent. "I'm not going to talk to you about what Gaara said. I never met your mother, so I'm not the best one for that. But one of the duties of a jounin sensei is to support their students after their first kill." Masaru opened his mouth but no words came out, and he blinked slowly before lowering his gaze to his food.

"Oh," he whispered lamely. A tense silence fell over them, the boy shifting uncomfortably as his teacher studied him with unreadable eyes.

"Only one other person from your class killed someone before the invasion, and you killed two people. That's not something most people would find easy to digest." Masaru didn't look at him, his mind flashing back to the day of the invasion. The sickening crack of the first man's neck as he hit the tree, and then the sight of the charred body falling from the fireball—and then their corpses, glowing bright white inside his mindscape.

He frowned, shoving the memory away. "I don't regret it," he declared bluntly, and speared one of the vegetables on his plate with a loud clink. "They wanted to capture me. I acted in self defense." His eyes flitted up towards his teacher, his mouth curving into a dry, humorless smile. "I told you when we met, I don't have problems killing in those situations."

The look on Tenzo's face suggested a bit of surprise at the bluntness of his response, and Masaru just quietly began eating. The older male's brow furrowed, frowning deeply. "Masaru, it's okay to be upset. You're not in the field, you don't need to act tough and hide your emotions."

"I'm not acting though. Killing someone still feels weird and kinda freaky to think about, but those men wanted to capture me. I heard them say it." His hands tightened around the chopsticks, but he still managed to shrug and add nonchalantly, "If I didn't kill them, who knows what would have happened?"

Tenzo didn't respond right away, just studying him closely. "...You're unusually calm about this," he remarked, clearly probing for more information.

"I had a lot of time to think the past few days," Masaru responded simply, focusing more on his meal than the conversation. "I'm fine, sensei. By the way, do you remember Fu?" The blatant topic change seemed to catch Tenzo off-guard, and he eyed Masaru with a thoughtful frown before nodding.

"Fu... She was that girl from Taki, right? The one who said you two would be best friends?"

"Yeah," Masaru confirmed with a nod. "I had a lot of time to think in the hospital, and I ended up running into Shibuki when I got discharged and I gave him a letter to give to her. So we're probably going to be pen pals."

"Pen pals, huh?" Tenzo raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's one way to get around your social anxiety, I suppose. Did you get approval from the Hokage?" Masaru froze, and then slowly sank down his seat with a low, drawn-out groan. Tenzo's face quickly morphed into shock and then panic, and he quickly waved his hands. "H-hey, don't get upset! I'm sure Shibuki took it to him and got formal approval!"

"What if she writes the letter and it gets taken at the gates because it's not allowed, and no one ever tells me and so she waits forever for me to write?"

"Masaru, even if it got intercepted for being unapproved, someone would tell you! At the very least you'd probably get a visit from an investigator about it."

"I'm going to be dragged to T&I!?" Tenzo stiffened, his face frozen in panic and horror, and Masaru proceeded to calmly push his plate away so he could safely plant his face on the counter with a long whine.

"N-no! No, no, no, you won't get dragged to T&I! I mean, even if you did, you wouldn't be tortured, the worst you'd have to deal with is a mind walk and, oh kami that still sounds awful," he realized gravely when Masaru's shoulders started to shake, and then quickly backtracked. "It won't get to that level, really! I swear—" He stopped as he heard a small snort, and then his face smoothed into a blank mask. "...You're not crying, are you?"

Masaru lifted his head to reveal a cheeky grin, his eyes twinkling mischievously. "Sensei, remember that question about why you're my teacher?" he asked. "Follow-up to that: who thought it was a good idea to place two people with horrible social skills on a team alone?"

"...Masaru. Friendly reminder, I am your commanding officer." The smile Tenzo sported could only be described as ghoulish. Masaru blinked and then dove under the table with a yelp, still grinning even as he curled into a small ball on the floor. The earlier tension had evaporated, replaced by a playful, if slightly intimidating atmosphere. Masaru preferred it that way; talking about serious topics like death felt too heavy.

He knew he wouldn't be able to avoid it forever, but for now he'd take any break he could get.


"So, how do you like Ichiraku's so far?" Naruto asked enthusiastically as he ate from one of the disposable containers Ayame had given him. "It's awesome, don'tcha think? I mean, it's way better fresh," he added off-handedly, "And they usually don't do take-away. But this works too!" He beamed at his companion, eagerly waiting for his response.

Gaara just stared at him blankly. He seemed to do that a lot.

"You are very... loud," the redhead finally remarked. "Are you always like this?"

"Heheh, yeah," Naruto confirmed sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. "I guess it can be kinda overwhelming sometimes, huh?"

As he spoke Gaara regarded him with contemplative eyes and Naruto let his smile fade naturally, turning his gaze to the nearly-empty ramen container on his lap. Today marked his fourth visit with Gaara since the invasion ended, and the first time he'd introduced Gaara to the majesty that was Ichiraku Ramen. It had been a pain to convince old man Hokage to let him meet Gaara, and it had taken another three days to break down the Pervy-Sage enough to agree too.

Truth be told, Naruto still felt a little uncomfortable around Gaara. Just two weeks ago he'd been crazy and under the influence of a psychotic tanuki after all, and for all his naiveté and optimism, Naruto wasn't stupid. Every time they met Gaara acted so guarded and quiet; he wasn't hostile, but he wasn't really friendly, either, just... quiet. He knew that Gaara's personality shift could be attributed more to shock from his seal being modified than an actual change, and who knew what would happen once the shock wore off?

Gaara seemed to pick up on his discomfort, because he narrowed his eyes and questioned, "Why are you trying to be so nice to me?"

Naruto perked up at the question, looking at Gaara in surprise before shrugging and allowing an easy smile to slip onto his face. "Well, it's just, we're both jinchuuriki, so I guess I kinda know what you're going through." As he spoke he scratched at the whisker marks on his cheek. "Like I told you earlier, I have the Kyuubi—the Nine-Tailed Fox. Don't really talk to him much, though. He can break through the seal and comment now and then, but usually he just sleeps."

Even as he spoke a snort sounded inside his head, making him almost wince. He'd been able to feel his fuzzy brain-mate stirring inside the seal throughout lunch; the fox had been making snide comments about his fellow Tailed Beast's jailor, but most of them had been quiet enough that Naruto had little issue ignoring it. For the time being he shoved it away.

Gaara regarded him silently for a moment as he digested the response, his face unreadable. Forget Sasuke or Neji, Gaara was on a whole other level of emotional blankness; Naruto couldn't tell if he was glaring or just thinking. Eyebrows really added a whole other dimension to facial expression that Naruto hadn't appreciated before.

Eventually, though, he looked down to his ramen container, much to Naruto's relief. "I... have heard Shukaku for a majority of my life," Gaara commented. "It is... different, to not hear him constantly anymore."

"Yeah, I can imagine," Naruto grumbled, frowning slightly. From what Pervy-Sage told him, the Ichibi had basically messed with Gaara's mind his entire life and tricked him into thinking he was Gaara's mom or something. Naruto didn't totally understand, but it made the comments about "mother wants you blood" a lot creepier in retrospect.

Hopefully now that it couldn't talk to him freely anymore, Gaara's current personality shift would become more permanent.

...Aaaand now the fox was ranting about weak drunkard tanukis. Great. Naruto sighed and closed his eyes, focusing on forcibly closing the link. It took some effort Fortunately he had a decent amount of control over blocking the fox after almost five years of practice, so he managed to shut it off with minimal problems. He'd probably get an earful for that later, but right now he didn't really want to hear it.

"Did Konoha not shun you as well?" Gaara asked, breaking him from his thoughts and prompting Naruto to look at him in surprise. Blinking owlishly as he processed the question, his mood fell a little further and he glanced to his empty ramen bowl with a mild frown.

"Yeah, a bit," he admitted softly. "I grew up mostly alone. I pretty much had to raise myself. But I've found some awesome people who care about me!" His chest warmed as he remembered getting ramen with Iruka-sensei and the team dinners at Sasuke and Masaru's apartment.

Mostly awesome, he mentally amended with an internal wince as he remembered the long period of silence between him and Masaru over the past five years. Back then he'd thought Masaru might be the closest thing to a best friend he had, but then Masaru suddenly stopped coming to school and when he came back he was totally different. At least now they were talking again, which was great, but Naruto might never be able to fully get over that.

(He waited for two hours.

Two hours at the foot of the Hokage Rock, constantly checking the time on his watch and patrolling the area to see if Masaru would come. Even by the end of the first hour he'd started to lose hope, but still he stayed and waited, because—

Because what, exactly? For a second Naruto didn't know. He didn't want Masaru to be like the rest. He didn't want him to pretend he didn't exist. He wanted to hope, dammit! He wanted him to show up and then they'd go celebrate his birthday and Masaru would finally smile again and everything would go back to the way it used to be!

But even after two hours, Masaru didn't show up. As the sun began to set Naruto scowled at the reddening sky and reluctantly shuffled off to the woods, his head drooping in disappointment.

Just one friend... Was that too much to ask?)

Remembering that night made his stomach coil in discomfort, the muscles beneath the seal seeming to throb. Naruto swallowed and pushed the memory away, focusing his attention on Gaara instead. "What about you?" he asked, leaning forward. "You still had your siblings, right? Uh... Puppet-guy and... Tem...pu...ra...?"

His voice tapered off slightly as he struggled to remember their names. He'd seen them and talked to them a couple times, since they were staying in the same area as Gaara, but he hadn't really talked to either of them beyond basic greetings. If Gaara found it insulting, he did not comment on it.

"We lived separately," he replied blandly. "We did not interacted often outside of training."

"...Oh," Naruto said lamely, slumping dejectedly. Great going, he thought sarcastically. Why don't I bring up his dead uncle while I'm at it?

"...However," Gaara suddenly said, and Naruto sat upright in keen attention. "I... believe I did have one friend. For a time." The hesitance in his voice gave Naruto pause, and he frowned as he leaned back, trying to figure out how to proceed. Obviously, Gaara had just divulged a major secret, but the way he said it made Naruto unsure if he should pry for more information or try to avoid it.

"Do you, uh, wanna talk about them?" he asked after a few seconds, and Gaara seemed to contemplate this for about a minute.

"Perhaps," he finally decided. "But not now."

...Okay, that was just kinda confusing. Either he wanted to talk about it or he didn't. Naruto managed to restrain himself from voicing this out loud though, somehow realizing that might upset Gaara—and upsetting an only recently stabilized jinchuuriki seemed like a bad idea. Sakura had drilled Naruto's lack of tact into his head hard enough at this point for him to recognize that some topics shouldn't be pressed.

"Well, in that case, what do you want to talk about?" he asked.

Gaara just stared at him in silence, and then proceeded to slowly lower his gaze to his ramen begin eating his ramen.

This time Naruto didn't even need to block the kyuubi's damn laughter, his own internal groaning drowned it out just fine.


Hiruzen watched through his crystal ball as Naruto slumped with an exaggerated groan, unable to help the fond smile that took shape on his tired features. Only Naruto would treat a former enemy as a long-time friend after such a short time. He still had his reservations about the blossoming friendship between the two jinchuuriki, but the sight of the blond's bright enthusiasm and generally goofy nature never failed to lighten his mood, however briefly it might be.

Across from him Jiraiya chuckled, leaning back in his seat with a smug smile. "Gotta hand it to the kid, he's got some kind of magic touch," he commented lightly. "He doesn't have Minato's charisma, but he's definitely something special."

"He does," Hiruzen agreed with a tired smile, but the worry didn't leave his face. He had been apprehensive about Naruto's insistence on meeting the other jinchuuriki; he knew his main motivation was their shared experiences with Mito's array. It still ached to think about what happened to the poor boy. Naruto had not suffered as much as Gaara, but the alterations to his seal had ultimately allowed the fox to speak to him more freely. A steep price to prevent it from breaking free that horrible night.

He shelved the thought for the time being as Jiraiya spoke. "Onto business, I hear the next Kazekage has been appointed," he commented. His earlier mirth had vanished from his face, his expression now schooled into something more somber and serious as he gave his leader a pointed, probing look.

"To an extent," Hiruzen allowed with a brief nod. "His wife has agreed to take on his role until a more qualified replacement can be found." Jiraiya snorted in faint amusement, rolling his eyes.

"Funny. Last I checked, she married him just so Suna could have a qualified backup Kazekage in case he kicked the bucket before his kids had enough experience to take the title. They sure as hell didn't marry for love. Although I guess the sex was probably pretty good..."

"In any event, she has requested we send Gaara back at our soonest convenience," Hiruzen continued, ignoring his former student's perverted musings as he gave him a pointed look. To his credit Jiraiya picked up on the underlying question rather fast, huffing a sigh and crossing his arms.

"Honestly, I can't get a proper read on his seal. I don't even know where to begin with mapping it. But it's been two weeks and it hasn't broken yet, so I'm just going to assume it won't suddenly unravel overnight. It should hold at least long enough to ship him back to Suna. And on that note," he added dryly, "I'd like to get him away from Konoha as soon as possible."

"This isn't about his seal anymore," Hiruzen observed, studying his former student intently.

"It's not," Jiraiya confirmed shortly. "He's not hostile, but he's still showing an interest in Masaru and Sasuke—especially Masaru," he added with emphasis. "It's already bad enough he got that information on Akari, and can I remind you we still don't know why he cared about her at all. I don't like it. I'd rather not let him traumatize my other godson any more than he already has."

"We would prefer to avoid that as well," Hiruzen replied with a weary nod. "I can assure you now, I plan to do everything in my power to keep them apart."

"I'll be holding you to that." Jiraiya rose from the chair as he spoke, his serious expression relaxing a bit. "Anyways, I better head back. I'd rather not leave those two brats alone for too long, especially since Tenzo's finally on break." Of course, it went without saying that he didn't consider the full ANBU guard stationed on Gaara at all times as suitable supervision without Tenzo there. "I'll be sure to send in a formal report on the seal tonight."

"Very well. Farewell, Jiraiya." The white-haired man waved as he took his leave, closing the door with a soft thud, and just like that Hiruzen found himself alone with only his thoughts for company. Alone in the privacy of his office he allowed himself to slump tiredly in his seat, taking a long drag on his pipe. His gaze slid to the stack of mission requests and promotion forms sitting on the corner of his desk, mind already racing. Exhaling a ring of smoke, he reached over and pulled one form closer, nodding to himself in mild approval.

Yes, this should work nicely...


Hello everyone! At long last, Echoes of Light is back! I am so sorry for the long wait, and to apologize here's an extra long chapter!

This might be the longest chapter to date? I'm not sure. Not much happened, except for some interesting foreshadowing of a lot of things: Masaru and Tenzo finally cleared up Tenzo's name, Naruto is trying to be friends with Gaara, Gaara still wants to talk to Masaru, Rasa was married to someone else who is now Kazekage—oh yes, that is very interesting. Also, Hinata is STILL under way more pressure than canon and has run away from home to stay with the Aburame family, including Torune. Yep, lots of interesting plot bunnies.

Sorry again for the delay. I wanted to build up a buffer before posting again and I planned to post last week, but then I got news that a bunch of my files from my old hard drive could be recovered! My files aren't complete and everything's kind of scattered, but it is just such a relief to have any of my files. This chapter is actually a mishmash of recovered scenes, with a few newer scenes added (particularly the last segment). I'm thinking of going back and changing a couple scenes in the last two chapters with the original version, too, namely Sakura and Sasuke's conversation at the hospital, and Konan and Tobi's brief talk last chapter.

Beyond that, in other news: the story idea I mentioned last time for a Mokuton!civilian-Hatake OC sadly won't be real. I keep getting block and the concept I have is too limited for my liking. However, with the recovery of my documents, I also recovered two more awesome stories I might post sometime soon! One's a time travel fic about Shikamaru, but unlike most fics he went back at a point still mid-Shippuden, among... other twists. I only have the first three chapters saved, but the first major plot twist gives me a LOT of possibilities. The other one is about an SI-OC who ends up in Kiri, who is NOT stressing over changing canon or saving the day, or even trying to hide her reincarnation status... mainly because she stopped following Naruto before things got REALLY crazy. It's more silly, in a black humor sort of way (her first encounter with Kisame is at age 5/6 after cutting off a bully's toe, which she then gives him; Kisame is... slightly disturbed by her).

Whatever I post, the updates would probably be erratic compared to this one. I'd like to know what you guys think of those ideas!

Anyways, other than that, I have one more piece of news: Echoes of Light will now update on Thursdays. On Mondays I have classes from 12-4, and on Tuesdays and Wednesdays my classes start later, but they go until at LEAST 5. Thursdays are the only day I'd be guaranteed to have enough free time to edit and post the chapters at a reasonable time. So, yeah. That's all for now. See you guys next week!