Disclaimer: Refer to chapter 1.

AN: Full Chapter Title: A Sage Training A Caesar: Day 28!

'Dammit.' It was all the bleeding Jonin could think. His breathing was becoming more and more difficult, his basic medical skills useless for a wound like his. Blood pooled around him no matter what he did and he knew his fate.

"N-No…" Blood filled his mouth when he tried to move. Agony ripped through him, his torn body refusing to obey his will, and he could hardly drag himself forward. Blood trailed behind him in the meager distance he had managed before his strength had nearly entirely left him, the trail thick and too wide to give hope for his survival. "N-Need…H-Hokage-sama…"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's fear of an invasion was correct. Hayate Gekko had overheard the plans and had paid for such information. He had never seen an attack like whatever his attacker had used, wind had lacerated his body between rooftops as he hurried away. He had fallen to the alley below and had been left to die.

It was a miracle he had stayed alive as long as he did through sheer force of will. He hadn't even made it out the alley through. If he had the Chakra he would be content to die with a Summon on the way to the Hokage but fate was against him. His night was long, filled with Kenjutsu training that left him with too little for the Summoning Jutsu.

"Y-Yugao…" He couldn't rise. Darkness swam in his eyes the same way he saw her standing before the oncoming wave.

'Forgive me.' He couldn't stay above any longer.

His last thoughts were on his lover when the blackness rushed to claim him.

It was too early to drink to most people. The four Jonin gathered at the bar in the early morning were not like most people. The four sat together at their usual table and they had, collectively, downed more than two bottles in a fairly short amount of time. Gai refilled their glasses with the third bottle since they had sat down.

"Kakashi…do you even know what that kid is doing?" Asuma brought up the question that the Jonin had avoided in their other gatherings. Kakashi paused in speaking with Gai at his question before he shrugged his shoulders and waved his hand to the side.

"It doesn't matter even if I did." Kakashi's stare was enough to unnerve some of the best and Asuma was no exception as he shifted in his seat, glanced away from Kakashi to the drink in his hand. "I wouldn't tell you and let your student have an advantage like that."

"Don't you hate him?" Kurenai received a nod from Kakashi. "Why not make sure he fails then? He already doesn't stand much of a chance against someone like Neji."

"I have no doubt Naruto will become a Chunin." The way Kakashi spoke, the certainty that filled his stone, made no one want to question him.

"That's a great deal of faith in your student, Kakashi." Gai had drunken the most out of the four and it showed. His words were slow, as if he was considering just how to say each one, and his cheeks were tinged red from the alcohol. "I'm not so sure you should be so confa-confe-confida-sure of that boy."

"Believe me, if I thought he would die, I would be happy right now but I'm sure he'll survive." Kakashi leaned back in his seat, resting his hands behind his head. "These Chunin Exams, despite the caliber of Genin in them, won't be able to get rid of him for good. He'll be out of my hair as a Chunin but he'll still be a pain since he'll still be alive."

"You need to stop with such morbid thoughts Kakakashi." Gai didn't seem to notice the extra syllable he added to Kakashi's name and none of the Jonin wanted to point out his mistake.

A drunken Gai was a Gai prone to punching things. None of them wanted to deal with that so early in the morning. His body would deal with the alcohol quick enough and he would return to his senses in full most likely within the hour but it was still an hour no one wanted to see Gai go crazy during.

"I don't hate all of my students at least, just two-third of them." Kakashi refilled his empty glass and earned a look from both Kurenai and Asuma.

Neither could tell either how or when he had downed the entirety of its contents but he somehow had done it. All without ever removing his ever present mask.

"That's still not good." Kurenai pointed to his covered eye. "Everyone here hates Naruto but you don't even like the Uchiha with that eye of yours? I thought you would see some of him in Sasuke."

"The Uchiha I got this eye from is not only dead but Sasuke's nothing like him." Kakashi placed his hand beneath his cover eye. "For all the good qualities he had, Sasuke has only bad. He's obsessed with vengeance, crazy when it comes to power, a shoe in for future Missing-nin status, and he's loyal to Naruto to a fault."

"You should con-grab-jewel-late him Kakakashi." Gai let his head rest on the table in front of him. "Loyalty is vital to the Shinobi!" He rose a hand up over his head and gave a thumbs up. Kakashi shook his head at the sight and turned back to Kurenai and Asuma.

"Either of you two have any more questions about the kids I hate having to teach?" The way the corner of Kakashi's eye crinkled told them the correct response was silence on that front.

"What about Sa-crew-war?" Gai's mumbled voice rose from the table.

"I actually like her." Kakashi seemed to be a different person when he began to talk about the pink haired Genin. The darkness that he seemed to exclude was gone suddenly and replaced with something none of the Jonin could place. Not even Gai could pin it down when he was perfectly sober. "It's a shame she won't be able to become a Chunin this year but I'm sure she'll sweep the competition next year. Without Naruto there to be in the way she'll do fine in the Exams."

"'Be in the way'? Did I see the wrong Exams or wasn't that kid the reason she got to the preliminaries at all?" Asuma probably said the wrong thing if the death glare Kakashi gave him was any indication.

"Yes, once he stops being in the way of her I'm sure Sakura will succeed without a problem. She won't have to deal with any of his insanity and can focus on what she needs to do without having to worry about whatever he'll end up doing and whatever insanity he'll come up with excusing it." His tone brought with it no room for arguments.

'Better not to bring that up again I guess.' The three Jonin didn't know their thoughts were synchronized in that moment.

Across the village, Naruto stepped out of the gates of his fortress and found Jiraiya waiting for him.

"This is an irregularity Toad Sage. I thought you had agreed on my meeting place?" The march of his Praetorians came to a stop when he did. He looked into the eyes of the Toad Sage and saw something foreign to them within.

Hesitation. It was not towards meeting him but towards something else. An unknown to the Uzumaki.

"Caesar, has something happened?"

'So that's the Uchiha?' It was the first time Jiraiya laid eyes on Genin that the reports had identified as the second in command of Naruto's army. 'You're just like your old man.' Jiraiya didn't need to get to know the boy to know that. It was the way he stood that told him more than enough. He had slid into his role without issue and looked to thrive just like his father had.

"Nothing's happened to your boss, kid." Jiraiya stepped forward into view. He had been hardly visible to Naruto because he wanted to be seen. "I'm training him for the Chunin Exams and decided we'll start a certain bit of it early."

"I see." The Uchiha's hand had been on his sword when he stepped outside the gates and it didn't leave it. He nodded his head towards Jiraiya and placed his fist over his heart. "I have business to attend to for the Legion in your absence Caesar."

"Of course." Naruto dismissed his Praetorians with a wave of his hand, his eyes focused on the white haired Sannin. They narrowed. He at least waited until they were alone and began walking to voice the question that had truly begun to burn in his mind. "Why are you here Toad Sage?"

"Your training today needs a bit of an introduction." Jiraiya looked straight down the road. "We're going to be focused on drawing on the power of the Kyubi sealed inside of you."

"Really?" Naruto's eyes flashed with something indescribable. It almost looked like he was happy. Realization dawned on his face around the same time but both emotions were quickly suppressed behind the face of a Caesar. "I now see why Sarutobi-jiji instructed you to train me. The Kyubi is a fearsome power."

"Yeah and I'm going to be the one who teaches you how to use it." Jiraiya sighed.

'Here goes nothing.'

"You may need this kind of power sooner than you think so the training will be pretty unorthodox. I wanted to start on this last week but we didn't have the time between everything else I was teaching you. We'll need to make up for as much time as we can today." Jiraiya looked to the blonde out of the corner of his eyes. "Think you can handle it?"

"A Caesar can handle whatever task is placed before him Toad Sage."

'He doesn't know.' Jiraiya could see the lack of knowledge in his eyes, the lack of suspicion turned to realization. Naruto, with an entire army at his beck and call, knew nothing of the invasion Sarutobi feared would come sooner rather than later. 'He doesn't understand why I'm training him at all.'

Jiraiya didn't know if he should be relieved or disappointed.

'He'll do the right thing when it happens. He's got to be like his father when it comes to the village if he really wants to be Hokage.'

No he's not. Jiraiya didn't let that vile whisper reach him. The same vile whisper that tried to come forth every day he spent with the blonde. He was just like his father. They looked alike, they both were geniuses, and both were able to do things thought impossible with the Jutsu they created.

'He's just like his father.'

Jiraiya laid a hand on Naruto's shoulder and pointed in the direction of their training ground.

"We'll race to the training grounds."

"You'll be disappointed when I beat you Toad Sage."

Both took off without another moment wasted.

"I knew I was forgetting something." Sasuke was alone so he allowed his palm to strike his forehead with a resounding thud. He sighed as he turned abruptly and walked back down the way he had come to his office. "I need to speak to those two about their offer. Caesar will be too busy the next two days to bother with speaking to them."

He marched back out the doors and towards the gates.

"Legate." One of the Praetorians placed there saluted him and he returned it. "You wish to leave?"

His answer was a nod and the heavy gates were swung open and Sasuke didn't waste time walking, he took to the rooftops immediately and was a blur across the village.

'I should have departed with Naruto.' In the privacy of his own thoughts he didn't need to address the blonde with any titles. 'I would probably be there by now if I did.'

"Yes…we wanted to talk to Naruto Uzumaki on behalf of our father, the Kazekage." The words of the sister came to his mind unbidden.

'An invasion…it's almost insane to think Suna would attempt such a thing if it didn't make so much sense. Everything is suddenly clear knowing the Kazekage plans to attack the village.' The Uchiha could only shake his head. It had taken time to see the real reason of the Kazakage's children looking to speak to Caesar but it was clear now. Sunagakure was planning to invade during the Chunin Exams. The two wanted to know how Caesar would react for one simple reason.

They were afraid, terrified of what he represented: A wild card.

Caesar could either do nothing or commit his forces to repel the invasion. Five Cohorts were active, three away from the village and two within, but five others itched for battle, for blood. They waited to prove themselves worthy of carrying Caesar's dream and the invasion would be the perfect place. Not many knew of just how large Naruto's force was of course, many only knew he could summon various amounts at his leisure and his First and Fifth Cohorts were spread across Konoha and the Land of Fire. The Second and Fourth continued their mission and the Third maintained their position in Nami no Kuni.

It was certainly enough to make anyone who wanted to attack the village hesitant to do so. If they had even the slightest of ideas to Caesar's might, many would tremble and flock to fall under his banner. But many did not have such knowledge in the end. Many failed to understand the true force Caesar's glorious Orange Legion held.

Few understood the certainty of his dream becoming a reality.

'I still wonder what you're going to do Caesar.'Kikyo Castle was within his sight. He could spot more than a dozen Sungakure Shinobi present no doubt because the Kazekage's children had come so far in the Exams. He himself was most likely present by now as well. 'Will you defend the village like a loyal Shinobi would do without question or-'

"DAMMIT!" He slipped and hastily made to grab onto the side of the building with a Chakra laden hand. He couldn't find purchase on whatever filth coated the wall of the alley and he was lucky he had enough time to reorient himself.

"That was close." He rose from his crouch open landing but his feet refused to move. "What the h-" He shouldn't have looked down.

Blood was at his feet. The alley was replaced with a street. Corpses took their proper places. He shook his head and closed his eyes.

'I'm not there.' His free hand curled into a fist, his nails bit into his palm. He opened his eyes and the unforgettable scene was gone.

He did not look at his other hand. He took hold of the back of it with his free hand to stop the shaking. He did not care when the four fresh cuts there burned at the contact. It helped him focus on what was in front of him.

The proctor for the preliminaries was in a pool of his own blood in front of him.

So many bodies surrounded him. The alley shifted. The corpse breathed. It shouldn't but it did. It was a shuddering, gasping, pitiful thing but it breathed.

The mark Naruto had given him burned. He didn't know how but now he sat on the floor of the hospital, his hand on the chest of the man he didn't even know the name of.

"Get a doctor." He barked out an order to the Praetorians and they did not question him. They headed off as he looked at the man that was dying.

Dying. Not dead.

He wasn't like the others. He w-

"Legate." The voice of the Praefectus Castrorum tore him from thoughts he had once believed suppressed to the deep abyss of his mind, used only as a focus of his hatred and vengeance. What laid within those depths were supposed to lay unseen.

"I almost forgot Caesar stationed you here to watch over Tenten, Praefectus." Sasuke did not rise from where he crouched next to the body. He moved his hand from the chest of the ruined and bloodied Flak Jacket to the neck, finding the faint pulse there. "How is she?"

"She heals." The Praefectus dropped to the other side as two Praetorians wheeled over a stretcher. "He needs to be moved."

Sasuke did not bother speaking. A Praetorian joined both on either side of the dying man. They used the board to lift the bleeding man up and Sasuke walked with the Praetorians as they wheeled him away.

"Return to your post Praefectus." The Legate of the Orange Legion received a salute from the high ranking Praetorian before he left down the halls.

Sasuke Uchiha did not visit the two Genin from Sunagakure.

"Before we begin, I need to talk to you Naruto." The two sat across from each other on the water. Jiraiya had instructed Naruto to close his eyes and now they opened. Blue eyes that were so familiar sent him into the past. "This training is going to be some of the most challenging, beyond anything you've ever done and probably beyond anything else you'll ever do."

"Truly?" Naruto glanced down to his bare torso, the armor and clothing he wore on his upper body rested on the ground. He refused to leave his sword and it rested across his lap. "Do you believe me to be weak in spirit Toad Sage?"

"No." Jiraiya glanced into the water. "When you enter the seal, you'll have to face what's within alone. There will only be the Kyubi and there's no telling what that creature has planned. The seal that keeps it imprisoned is like no other in the world, created by the Fourth Hokage on the night the village was attacked. Only he had a chance of truly understanding it and he's dead. I have the key but it's not worth much without knowing why he chose the seal in the first place. I'll be able to monitor your condition outside and influence some things with Chakra but my help will be limited if it's even available."

"You worry for nothing Toad Sage." Naruto's voice was strangely comforting. "The machinations of the Kyubi will be of no interest to me. I do not crave its companionship or help beyond the power I will take from the creature. I am a Caesar who cannot afford to waste time with a beast locked within a cage."

"Hmm, if I didn't know you any better, I would say you were being arrogant." Jiraiya looked up from their reflections on the water and lifted his hands from his lap. "Follow my lead."

He had summoned Gerotora and looked over the key given to him for the entirety of last night. He was only up now because of a handful of Military Ration Pills he had forced down his throat. It had taken hours to begin to decipher the hand signs needed for this part of the training but it was well worth it.

As Naruto mirrored him, just like their reflections did below, a darkness spread from his belly button to consume his stomach. It was like a black ooze that never rose past his skin but took shape.

'So that's the Eight Trigrams Seal…' Symbols spread from the seal, up and around Naruto's torso. He saw an almost inscription appear across both arms, a meaning he slowly deciphered even as his body continued to form the necessary seals and Naruto copied him flawlessly.

If he didn't know any better, he would have thought the boy had gotten himself a Sharingan somehow.

At last, he came to the last seal but he paused.

"Remember what I said." He needed to be sure before he sent Naruto to confront the Kyubi. "The Kyubi is manipulative by nature and is almost impossible to predict. It is a creature that can manipulate you without you even realizing it. Remember why you're there and don't listen to anything but your gut."

"I will not fall to my prisoner Toad Sage." Determination burned in Naruto's eyes and Jiraiya felt his fears leave him.

"Alright then." He and Naruto formed the last seal simultaneously.

Naruto's eyes almost immediately widened as blackness took hold of his eyes. His mouth opened in a silent scream before his entire body seemed to lock up. He was the picture of calm a moment later, his eyes closed and head bowed with his breathing perfectly even.

Jiraiya brought his hands together then, each of his fingertips burning with white flames on one hand and black flames on the other. Five tags he had placed beneath the water rose from the depths burning with white Chakra. Strands of said Chakra moved from their sides and from the face of the seal, arching and all five connected above Naruto's head as they formed a ring around him.

"The Five Element Seal? Impressive." The voice behind him didn't surprise him. Neither did the growing wooden platform enclosing both Shinobi on the water.

"No." Five more tags emerged between the five already present and the process was repeated but this time with black Chakra added to the cage, ten strands of Chakra meeting in the middle. "That wouldn't hold him if he loses control for even a moment. This is something the Fourth Hokage thought up. The Five Element Seal is the basis but comparing it and this is like comparing the Academy Clone Technique to the Shadow Clone Technique. They're hardly similar."

"Indeed." Totems rose form the wooden platforms topped with foo dog heads and burning wicks. "Forgive me for being cautious Jiraiya-dono."

Jiraiya was silent. His eyes drifted close as he began a low chanting, his hands moving through dozens of seals at speeds few could match.

He was being just as cautious it seemed.

Within the seal, Naruto stood before barred gates.

"Uzumaki." Red eyes burned with malice from within. The name was spoken with hate, pure and simple hate at the boy that stood before the being of Chakra.

"Kyubi." He was answered with a sneer, blue eyes shined with a savage glee at the sight before them. "How has your great might faired in battle with my glorious Legion?"

"Uzumaki." Pain shined the same as hate within the red eyes before him. The beast was wounded.

"I see you have fallen like all others. You thought yourself my better when my Ninth Cohort was lost in this seal but you were wrong. My forces are too great for you to ever dream of triumphing against them. My Tenth Cohort proved wiser when they did not attack you but created a bastion you could not overcome. My Ninth, those who survived, returned wiser and they thirsted for vengeance." A banner hung on both sides of the gate Naruto stood before, one displayed the sign of his Ninth Cohort and the other his Tenth. Both were arrayed on either side in full, their centurions present at the front. "You were blinded by your prior victory and fell to my restored might when my Legion unleashed their fury upon you."

Naruto had nothing to fear of the Kyubi. The beast was chained to the ground. It could not move without agony and knew it. If it attempted to lunge at him, it would draw the chains around its neck tight. If it attempted to use its claws, the limb would be on the verge of being severed. If it attempted to snap its jaws at him, it would find itself muzzled. Even its tails were restrained, chains binding them in nearly their entirety. The great tails that were said to crush mountains, spawn hurricanes, were rendered immobile.

"Now." Naruto laid a hand on the gate of the seal and closed his eyes. "A Caesar requires your Chakra beast."

He drew his hand back and the beast roared.

Naruto opened red eyes.

AN: Nothing here.