I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.

Succeeding At Failing

Ryuu stood, Lee and Gaara looking up at him.

"Where are you going?" Gaara asked.

"I'm going to make sure Sasuke and Naruto don't kill each other," Ryuu said.

"But you told Sai there was no need," Lee said.

"Let's just say that I'm not a hundred percent certain about Sai's loyalty," Ryuu said. "His boss is...well, I'd almost rather work for Orochimaru."

"He must be quite a monster then," Lee said. "Go. We'll stay here to rest a while longer then go and check on the others."

Ryuu nodded, taking off in the direction he thought Naruto had run. After a short while, he reached an area where the trees for half a mile had been cut to pieces. And directly in front of him, Tayuya was pinned below two of them. Ryuu stared at her, unsure how he had gotten so turned around as to have gone the exact opposite direction he meant to, but it wasn't a big deal. He was a little annoyed that Shikamaru, or whoever had helped Shikamaru, probably Temari, had simply killed Tayuya instead of trying to capture her, but he couldn't judge.

Suddenly, he saw Tayuya's finger twitch and he ran over, dropping to his knees and feeling her neck. There was no way she was alive. But there it was. She had a pulse. It was barely there, and fading fast, but it was there. He quickly formed a dozen clones who lifted the first chunk of tree off of her. Then, three of the clones, along with Ryuu, knelt around Tayuya, beginning to heal her crushed body even before the tree segment was lifted off. Once it was, the extend of the injury became clear. Her body had been crushed almost flat from mid-abdomen to her knees. It was low enough that she had survived, and her spinal cord had miraculously not been damaged in any way, but it would be a miracle all on its own if Ryuu could save her. As the other clones gathered around, also helping to heal her, Ryuu closed his eyes, praying to God to allow her to live, and to help him save her, not only from death, but also from Orochimaru. He didn't know her personality, and he didn't know her history or her heart, but she had survived her fight, and she would killed if she ever returned to Orochimaru. So if she could be put on the correct path and turned away from Orochimaru, if she could be given a second chance, she deserved that much.

Ryuu opened his eyes as he finished praying and focused, putting as much chakra as he could into his Medical ninjutsu, slowly managing to undo the would-be fatal injury. It occurred to Ryuu that Shikamaru was supposed to be there, but he didn't have time to worry about why they weren't. He focused on his jutsu, emptying his mind of all else. Then, finally, just as he was nearing the end of his strength, he sat back, allowing the clones to all explode into smoke. Tayuya was far from healed, but she was stabilized. He had done it. He had saved her from death. He smiled, closing his eyes and thanking God for his help. Then, he lifted Tayuya onto his back, already having used his Medical Ninjutsu to completely numb her entire body to keep her from waking up as he moved her. He took off again, heading back the way he had come, passing around Gaara and Lee, making sure they didn't notice him, then continuing.

After a few minutes, Ryuu finally reached a path where stone reached up over the path almost completely but was missing above it, making it look sort of like a gigantic, stone ribcage. Then, he entered a tunnel, seeing a spot of light up ahead. He ran faster as he heard the sounds of battle, along with Naruto shouting, though he couldn't make out the words. Finally, he left the tunnel into an utterly demolished landscape. He was at the Final Valley, and the statues of Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju were still standing, but the cliffs on both sides had been completely devastated, the ground ripped asunder and blown apart by explosions. He ran to the edge to where he could feel two incredibly powerful and incredibly dark chakras and froze. The sides of the cliffs were even more devastated, and at the feet of the statues were Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto was in a broken spot in Hashirama's ankle with boiling red Tailed Beast chakra surrounding him and slowly burning his skin, if Ryuu's Sharingan was seeing it correctly, and Naruto was holding a Rasengan in his right hand, the Rasengan having the Tailed Beast chakra condensed around it. The chakra all over Naruto's body seemed to be solid, but around the Rasengan it was thickest and had almost double the concentration of Tailed Beast chakra as the rest of the shroud. Sasuke, on the other hand, was in a broken part of Madara's ankle and had entered his Curse Mark Level Two. His skin was a dark grayish brown, like Kimimaro's had been, and his hair had turned light blue and grown a bit longer. There was a black four-pointed star across the bridge of his nose then running up and down his nose and between his eyes. From his back, two wings had sprouted, looking like clawed hands with webbed fingers. Sasuke's sclerae were black with his Sharingan glowing slightly. And in Sasuke's hand was a dark grey chidori that was making a distorted chirping noise several octaves lower than it should have been.

"No way," Ryuu breathed. "Sasuke...that power...what are you..."

Both of the shinobi leapt at each other, both shouting as they slammed their jutsus together. Ryuu shielded his eyes as the concussion of the impact sent dust and water flying up over the edge of the cliff. Then, he watched as the chakra being thrown off of both of the jutsus condensed around the pair in a dark purple, nearly solid, sphere. Then, it grew, solidifying and turning pitch black. It continued to expand, spinning around and around, until it was blocking the waterfall, having broken through part of the cliff to do so. Water cascaded over it rapidly. Ryuu actually felt fear form in his stomach as he stared at all of the chakra built up in the sphere, and building up even more inside of it. The sphere hurt his Sharingan to look at, and he could sense the chakra inside like a bonfire. Then, suddenly, the water shot up off of it, straight up against its own current and a hundred feet into the air. Purple light began to glow in the center of the sphere, somehow visible through the sphere without the sphere turning anything other than pitch black. Then, the purple light began to turn pure white as cracks began to spread. Ryuu fled instantly, knowing what was about to happen. He moved Tayuya around in front of him to shield her from the blast, since she was currently a lot more fragile than him. Then, it exploded.

Ryuu felt the concussion hit like a solid wall and send him pinwheeling a dozen feet into the air before he crashed back down, bouncing and rolling to a stop, feeling the vibrations of debris landing around him sending agony shooting through his battered and abused body, yet he couldn't hear the debris hitting. Finally, he groaned, again not hearing anything, and pushed himself up, reaching up and healing his eardrums, thankfully a fairly easy thing to do, and staggered toward what remained of the cliff, carefully picking up Tayuya on the way. Both statues had been completely obliterated below the middle of the chest, and at the base of what used to be Madara's, Sasuke was standing over an unconscious, hopefully, Naruto. Ryuu leapt off of the cliff, flipping and planting his feet on the opposite cliff, using chakra to slow his descent as he slid down it, stopping beside Sasuke and setting Tayuya down gently before wheeling around on Sasuke, rage flooding him anew.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Ryuu seethed, grabbing Sasuke by the left shoulder and spinning him, Sasuke instinctively activating his Sharingan to prepare for a fight, allowing Ryuu to see he had three tomoe in them now, only for them to instantly deactivate as Sasuke collapsed. Ryuu quickly set him down, beginning to heal him, starting with his right shoulder's bones, which had been almost turned to dust by Naruto's Rasengan. "Sasuke, that Chidori. Why were you trying to kill Naruto?"

"My...Curse Mark..." Sasuke croaked. "It's hard...to control. Its power is...dark. It made me...angry. Like you...when you...fought Ishidate. I hate it. But I couldn't...beat him...without it."

"I see," Ryuu nodded. "He definitely wasn't holding back once he lost control. Fu's warned me about that state. You know what he is, right?"

Sasuke managed a weak nod.

"That state's called a Tailed Beast Chakra Mode," Ryuu said. "It's powerful, but also dangerous. When a Jinchuriki doesn't have control over their Tailed Beast, the chakra corrodes their skin, and eventually they lose control to the Tailed Beast's rage, allowing it to control them. And if the cloak reaches the same number of tails as their Tailed Beast, the Tailed Beast is free. That would kill the Jinchuriki. In the end, it's good that you beat Naruto. Otherwise, there's no telling what could have happened."

Sasuke nodded.

"So, you have level three Sharingan now, huh?" Ryuu asked. "Lucky. Looks like you've finally surpassed me."

"What are you...talking about?" Sasuke asked, brow furrowing. "You really never knew? Your Sharingan...turned level three...when Ishidate almost...killed Fu."

"They did?" Ryuu blinked, drawing the borrowed tanto he still had and activating his Sharingan, staring at the reflection.

Sasuke was right. He had never thought to check, and so had never noticed, but Sasuke was right. He had three tomoe.

"Huh," Ryuu said, putting the tanto away. "You would think I'd have noticed that."

"I would have thought," Sasuke smiled.

"Well I don't exactly look in the mirror with my Sharingan active a whole lot, do you?" Ryuu asked.

"Not really," Sasuke said. "I think I can walk now."

Ryuu nodded, helping him up. Then, Sasuke turned, walking away. Almost as soon as he was around the corner of the cliff, Ryuu heard an odd, stretching rubber sound behind himself and spun, staring at a being with a venus flytrap sticking out of its shoulders, green hair, and a head with the right half completely black and featureless besides one perfectly round, glowing yellow eyes, and the left half snow-white with a human face and a dull yellow iris. It had a black cloak with red clouds wrapped around its body below the venus flytrap and a single leg with a white leg warmer, a blue sandal, and a snow-white right foot inside the sandal was extended from the bottom of the cloak, the other side turning into what looked like roots and merging with the ground.

"What the-"

"Hello Ryuu Uchiha," the being said, the left half's mouth moving and releasing a cheery, high-pitched male voice, but when it spoke again, the left half's mouth didn't move and the voice was much, much deeper and raspier, as well as much less cheerful. "And thank you."

Then, a long root shot out of the creature's right sleeve, swinging around and slamming into Ryuu like a whip before he could react, launching him backward into a cliff. Ryuu slammed into the cliff head-first and his world spun, all sense fleeing. Then, as it began to return, it was because someone was shaking him.

"Ryuu!" the voice said, Ryuu opening his eyes to see Kakashi kneeling over him. "Are you alright?"

"I think so," Ryuu nodded, slowly pushing himself up and looking around, seeing Naruto and Tayuya lying where they had been before. "Why did he say..." Ryuu's eyes widened. If that creature was a member of the Akatsuki like he suspected, and he had been thanking Ryuu without taking Naruto, then there was only one other thing he could mean. "Kakashi, we need to get home, now!"

"What?" Kakashi asked, bewildered and confused.

"Now!" Ryuu shouted, hurling a scroll with his giant crow's summoning seal on it into the air. "Summoning Jutsu!"

A cloud of smoke shot out of the scroll, which Ryuu caught and tucked away, and Ryuu leapt onto the crow hovering there.

"Get me to the Hidden Leaf Village!" Ryuu said.

"Ryuu wait!" Kakashi said. "What's going on?"

"There was an Akatsuki Member here!" Ryuu said before grabbing Tayuya with Chakra Threads and pulling her up to himself before the crow took off, flying much faster than Ryuu could run.

Ryuu clung to the bird, the minutes ticking by into hours before finally, five hours later, the crow finally landed outside of the main gate, Ryuu leaping off of it and releasing its jutsu, sprinting into the village on jelly legs. He was running, barely, on fumes and fear, and more than a few times he nearly collapsed. However, he continued to run, finally reaching his house and unceremoniously dropping Tayuya outside, throwing the door open. As soon as he did, he froze, seeing Fu standing before him, in the middle of a conversation with Yugao, though both were staring at him in surprise and confusion now. Ryuu felt his strength leave him as relief flooded through his body, dropping him to his knees.

"Ryuu!" Fu gasped, catching him as he tipped sideways, her eyes wide with fear.

He smiled, forcing his hand to move in order to reach up and cup her face, partially to make sure she was real, and partially to calm her. "I was...so scared."

"Ryuu, hang on!" Fu said. "It's going to be okay!"

Ryuu shook his head. "I'm fine. Exhausted, but fine. I thought you...were in danger."

"Why?" Fu asked, confusion filling her face.

"There was...an...Akatsuki member...at the Final Valley," Ryuu said, both Fu and Yugao tensing. "He...thanked me...for something...then knocked me out. I thought...he had hurt you."

Fu shook her head. "I'm fine. See?"

Ryuu nodded, smiling, and set his head down on the crook of her elbow, sighing. "I'm going to...rest now. Don't let them...put me in a hospital."

Fu nodded, smiling, and Ryuu closed his eyes, passing out almost instantly.

Ryuu waited as Shikamaru finished briefing Tsunade on how everyone else's individual battles went. Choji had used a forbidden food pill that increased his chakra a hundred fold at the cost of being fatal, as a result, he had very nearly died. Neji Hyuga had been fatally wounded by Kidomaru. Both had defeated their opponents with the last of their strength and killed them. Then, upon being returned to the village, Tsunade had used the Nara Clan's ancient medical tome and her skills as a Medical Ninja to save Choji, and Shizune and a team of the most highly skilled Medical Ninja in the village besides Tsunade had worked for hours to save Neji, eventually succeeding. Kiba, Akamaru, and Shin had all been severely wounded by Sakon and Ukon. However, Kankuro had arrived in time to save them by killing the twins, leaving the three with only moderate injuries and a two week recovery period. The, there was Shikamaru. According to his report, he had had trouble dealing with Tayuya, but before anything more than a broken finger had come of it, Temari had stepped in and defeated Tayuya. Shikamaru had reported her killed, but Ryuu corrected him, telling them both that he had managed to save her and that Fu was currently working on healing her in his house, Tayuya wearing almost a dozen chakra suppression seals now, as well as being unable to move due to her injury, which wouldn't be healed for almost a month.

Once Shikamaru had finished his report, Ryuu filled Tsunade in on his fight with Kimimaro, and with Lee and Gaara both helping him, then on saving Tayuya, who he stressed he had found on accident, in more detail, followed by his trip to the Valley of the End, ending his report with finding Naruto unconscious and passing out beside him. Tsunade finished writing the report down and closed the scroll, dismissing Shikamaru. Then, she turned to Ryuu.

"Are you okay?" Tsunade asked.

"Was...was it..." Ryuu stared at the floor for several long moments, Shikamaru's description of the others' conditions replaying in his head again and again. "Was it...worth it? I nearly got two four of my friends killed."

"That's a part of being a leader," Tsunade said. "You make a call, and then you live with the consequences. But, if you ask me, yes. It was worth it. No one died, we gained the Hidden Sound Kunoichi as a prisoner to get intel out of, and Sasuke was successfully placed in Orochimaru's organization without being possessed. Your mission officially was a failure, which means it was a success. If a hard-won one."

Ryuu nodded. "There's more to the report. Off the record."

Tsunade nodded.

"I didn't pass out beside Naruto, and he wasn't alone when I got there," Ryuu said. "Sasuke was there and was wounded even worse than Naruto. I healed him enough for him to make it the rest of the way alone, but as soon as he left, a creature with a venus flytrap around his head and a face that was half snow-white and half featureless black appeared and thanked me for something, I don't know what, then grew a root out of his black cloak with a red cloud on it and used it to knock me out."

"Akatsuki?" Tsunade gasped. "You're sure?"

"Not entirely, but that's the description you gave me was that cloak," Ryuu said. "Once Kakashi woke me up, I saw that Naruto hadn't been taken, so I thought maybe the Akatsuki member had done something to Fu. So I used my summoning crow to get back to the village, and since I had been the one to save Tayuya, I brought her with me, sort of because I felt like she was my responsibility, I guess. But when I got to my house, Fu was fine, so I passed out there."

Tsunade nodded. "Understood. I'll have ANBU keep an eye on Fu. And Yugao is keeping an eye on Tayuya while she's here. Since you saved her, you're right, she's your responsibility. While she's being healed, you'll keep her under surveillance yourself. Then, when she's fully healed, she'll be given to Ibiki to have information extracted from her."

"That might not be necessary," Ryuu said. "I'm going to try to save her."

Tsunade sighed. "Of course you are. You and Naruto. You're too forgiving and kind for your own good, the both of you. If you can't save her by the time she's healed, Ibiki gets her."

"Lady Tsunade," Ryuu said.

"What?" Tsunade sighed.

"Trust can't be earned," Ryuu said.

"Excuse me?" Tsunade asked.

"Trust can't be earned," Ryuu said. "In order for you to gain someone's trust, they have to be willing to risk giving it to you before you've earned it. If no one gives you the chance to earn their trust by choosing to trust you, then you will never gain their trust."

"What are you saying?" Tsunade asked. "That I'm going to have to trust a Hidden Sound ninja?"

"In order to know if I actually saved her or not, yes," Ryuu nodded.

Tsunade stared at him before taking a long, slow breath. "I'm going to need so much alcohol for this. Fine. She'll be on a team with you and Fu, and she'll have the rank of genin. Now we just need to find you a Jonin captain."

"Yugao," Ryuu said, Tsunade giving him a skeptical look. "She told me that fighting is difficult for her ever since Hayate Gekko died. So being an ANBU is bad for her health. As a regular Jonin, it would be more manageable."

"Okay," Tsunade sighed. "That's actually not a bad idea. Any other unreasonable requests? Or can I start drinking now?"

"Only one more," Ryuu said, Tsunade groaning.

"Of course there is. Alright, what is it?"

"Danzo Shimura uses the practice of forcing his subordinates to kill their best friends to remove their emotions," Ryuu said. "I want you to take Sai and Shin away from Danzo before he can force one to kill the other. Also, Shin is terminally ill. I was hoping you could save him."

"Danzo still...I see," Tsunade growled. "That fucking snake. Okay. I'll see what I can do about Shin's illness. And they'll both be out of the Foundation in a few days."

Ryuu bowed, thanking Tsunade then left, heading home to tell Yugao the good news, as well as help Fu with Tayuya, who had yet to wake up.

Leave a review. I really liked Tayuya, and thought she had so much more potential than what they gave her. Plus, her death was kind of bullshit since Temari beat her in like two hits without even trying to catch her. So, now I need a pairing suggestion for Tayuya. Male or female, but preferably someone who either accents or counters Tayuya's abrasive, fuck-everyone attitude, although she'll definitely be mellowing out a bit from thinking everyone but herself is scum.