"W-what are you doing, Naruto-kun?"

The young Uzumaki looked up to see Hyūga Hinata standing over his bed, holding a bowl of curry that smelled heavenly, despite the meager selection of spices available to make it. The whiskered boy blew his wild, blond hair out of bright blue eyes and smiled at the pale heiress. "Hey Hinata! It's dinner time, huh? Does that mean that Sakura-chan is gonna come by soon and tell me that I finally get to get out of this stupid bed? She knows that I feel fine, right? Nothing keeps the future Hokage down for long, dattebayo!" The blond's proud declaration was somewhat diminished by the splint and sling holding his left arm close to his chest.

"You should listen to what she says, Naruto-kun," Hinata chided gently as she placed the steaming bowl on the ground next to the blond and knelt by his sleeping mat. "Chōji-kun broke your arm when he showed O-orochimaru how much stronger the Chikara no Jutsu made him. If you don't let it heal properly, you could get hurt even worse later. Besides, Sakura needs to be our doctor."

Naruto scowled darkly at that reminder. Shortly after the kidnapped children had settled into their cave prison, Orochimaru had taken blood and hair samples from Sakura-chan, trying to see if she had secret superpowers that the Snake Freak could use in his 'experiments'. It had turned out that, aside from pink hair, there wasn't anything unusual about her. The pale man had decided to kill her, but Shikamaru's quick thinking saved the day when he pointed out that the captives would need a medic to tend the injuries they got while learning their clan jutsu. Orochimaru had agreed and brought the young Haruno girl a scroll detailing first aid so that she could care for anyone who got hurt.

Naruto was by far her most frequent patient, ending up in the pinkette's care whenever he irritated their captor or acted as a test dummy for one of his friends' jutsu. Most times, Sakura-chan was able to patch him up and send him on his way with little difficulty. Occasionally though, he needed extended care, which inevitably meant that he was confined to his bed for days after he was fully healed because, even though he was awesome and healed super-fast, Sakura-chan wasn't willing to go against what "Tsunade-sensei" said in the scroll and release her patient early. Naruto stayed in bed, even though he was invariably bored out of his mind, as Orochimaru had made it clear that he would have no need to keep the pinkette around if she wasn't useful. That, and Sakura-chan could be terrifying when she got mad.

Seeking to distract the blond from his gloomy thoughts, Hinata asked her question again. "W-what were you doing, Naruto-kun? You had something in your hand, didn't you?"

"Ah, yeah," the blond smiled, excited to be able to shelve those depressing thoughts and show off his new game. "I was racing rocks." He held out his right palm and concentrated, sending the two small stones sitting there zipping around in circles. "When I first learned about chakra, Jiji made a leaf move around his hand by holding onto it with his chakra. He taught me how to make my chakra sticky so I could grab stuff too. I wanted to try to make the leaf dance like Jiji did, but there's no leaves around here, so I used a rock. Then, that was boring, so I started moving two rocks at once. Now, I'm making them race."

"Sugoi," Hinata praised, as the pebbles traced circles around the blond's palm. "That is quite impressive, Naruto-kun."

Grinning broadly, Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated on the small stones. They began moving up and down his arm, sliding over and under his shirt in the fanciest swirls that the blond could manage. After several seconds of intense concentration, Naruto cracked his eyes open to see what his visitor thought of his demonstration. When he did this, however, the blond's concentration slipped, and his tenuous mental connection to the pebbles surged as he frantically tried to regain control. Thus, instead of continuing to spiral around the boy's skinny torso, the stones accelerated wildly. One raced up his chest and struck the young Uzumaki on the chin, leaving an angry red welt on the underside of his jaw. "Yowch!" Naruto yelped as he fell back on his sleeping mat.

"Are you alright, Naruto-kun?" Hinata leaned forward, brow furrowed in concern. "Should I go get Sakura-chan?"

"Eh he he, I'm alright," the blond replied guiltily, massaging his chin as he sat back up. A sudden thought occurred to him, and bright blue eyes scanned her pale frame in concern. "They didn't hit you, did they Hinata?"

"N-no," the quiet Hyūga pulled back quickly when she realized just how close she was to the sunshine-blond boy. "The other one flew over there." She gestured towards an open stretch of ground between the 'hospital' and the rest of the cave. "I think you may have hit Kiba-kun, though," she amended as the wild Inuzuka's angry shouting echoed back to the pair.

Naruto listened for a moment to gauge his friend's distress. "Yeah, but he's fine. It sounds like he's blaming Sasuke for it, anyway." The sounds of a scuffle followed, with Akamaru's yapping and Sasuke's taunting joining Kiba's outraged shouts. Reveling in the ruckus that his actions had caused, Naruto turned back to Hinata with a grin. "Besides, Sakura-chan will-"

"Shannarō!" Sakura's voice echoed thunderously across the chamber. "I said to cut it out!" Two ominous thumps followed the enraged command, the second of which was accompanied by a pained yelp, and the noise from the fight subsided.

"She didn't even go after Sasuke," Naruto complained as he picked up the bowl Hinata had brought and moved it awkwardly to the arm bound to his chest before grabbing the spoon with his free hand and scooping a mouthful. "Even the puppy got hit, but nooo, we can't hurt Sasuke-kuuun."

Hinata giggled at the blond's mocking tone. "I'm sure that Sakura didn't actually hurt Kiba-kun. She probably knew that the fight would only stop if he did."

"Yeah, maybe…" Naruto allowed grudgingly; his voice muffled with stew. "But Sasuke was fighting too! If it had been me over there, she would have hit me, even if I didn't do anything!"

"M-maybe she doesn't want Sasuke-san to pull away from the group again, so she's being nicer to him," Hinata offered hesitantly. "You know how long it took for him to start eating with us. He said he could be alone because he didn't need us, but I think he just didn't know how to be friends. He seemed lonely and sad for a long time."

"Oh yeah," Naruto nodded in agreement, setting aside his meal to consider the small Hyūga's observations. "I had to kick his butt sooo many times before he stopped being such a huge jerk! He's still kind of a jerk sometimes, but he's also part of our family, 'ttebayo! Sakura-chan shouldn't treat him special, or he might go back to the way he was."

"I-I don't think that's how it happened, Naruto-kun," Hinata offered, tapping her index fingers together hesitantly as her pale eyes fell to the floor. "Sasuke-san didn't become our friend because you got in fights with him. It was because you didn't stop trying to be his friend, no matter how mean he was being." The shy girl hesitated for a moment before continuing. "The first night after O-orochimaru took us, I came to offer Sasuke-san some of the stew we made. He said he didn't need anything from t-trash like me."

"He what!?" Naruto exploded, rising to his feet, his meal forgotten. "That's so mean, 'ttebayo! I'm gonna go punch that jerk in his stupid face until he comes and apologizes to you."

The blond made to storm over to where the rest of the children were eating their dinner, but he stopped short when Hinata grabbed his sleeve. "Please, Naruto-kun. Don't start a fight with Sasuke-san because of something that happened so long ago." The Hyūga heiress' small fingers held tightly onto the rough tan fabric of Naruto's tunic, as the fiery Uzumaki looked quite willing to go and pick another fight with Sasuke, heedless of the consequences. "The reason I wanted to tell you that is because it shows how strong you are."

Momentarily distracted from his ire, Naruto's face scrunched in confusion. "What do you mean, Hinata? I didn't even do anything."

"Not then," Hinata agreed, peeking through her bangs at Naruto's face. "But I was s-scared to talk to Sasuke-san after he said those things to me. I was afraid that he would say even worse things the next time. But he told you t-truly terrible things every time you talked to him, and you kept trying to be his friend. And now, look. You and he are friends, though you sometimes have a funny way of showing it. That's what shows how strong you are. You care about all of us, and you encourage us to do our best. I think that's why we've really started to be a family." By the end of her explanation, the small Hyūga's face had grown an interesting color of pink, but the whiskered seven-year-old had other concerns.

"Is that really what you think, Hinata?" Naruto asked searchingly. When his visitor nodded mutely, the blond's face blanked as he contemplated her words. After a moment, the skinny blond flopped back on his sleeping mat, barely avoiding his forgotten bowl of curry. "To tell you the truth, Hinata, I've been kind of sad and tired lately," he admitted, blue eyes joining lavender in inspecting the floor. "We've been here such a long time, none of our escape plans have worked, and no one from Konoha has found us yet. Sometimes, I wonder if we're going to get out of here." The last admission came out as a whisper, a dark secret that the whiskered boy was ashamed to share.

"N-no." Hinata's suddenly firm voice drew Naruto's attention from the floor to see the Hyūga heiress' normally soft gaze fixed solidly on him. "W-we're all going to get home because of you, Gekage-kun." The small girl smiled gently as she used the teasing epitaph that the children had adopted for their Uzumaki friend. "You protect us from O-orochimaru whenever he comes to see our jutsu. You help Sakura take care of us after he performs his 'experiments'. You encourage all of us when we're feeling sad or scared, and you never give up trying to escape. You get hurt and knocked down, so many times, but you get back up and keep fighting. That's what I consider true strength. I… I believe you're an incredibly strong person, Naruto-kun."

Hinata blushed and buried her chin in her chest as she finished her pep talk, but Naruto didn't notice. He was too distracted processing what was possibly the greatest compliment that he had every received from someone who wasn't Jiji or Kaka-nii. After a moment spent considering, the blond surged forward and wrapped his tiny classmate in a somewhat awkward one-armed hug, lifting her into the air and spinning wildly. "Thanks, so much Hinata," Naruto whispered after he had settled the girl's feet on the floor. "That's one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me, dattebayo!"

The blond started to release his hold, but he stopped when he felt Hinata slump in his grasp. Naruto's momentary elation was replaced with panic when he realized that his quiet friend's face was bright red, and her head hung limply to the side. "Hinata?" When the Hyūga heiress didn't respond, Naruto began to shake her gently. "Hey, Hinata, are you alright?" Still, there was no response, so the blond turned back toward the main chamber and shouted for help. "Sakura-chan! Come quick! Something's wrong with Hinata!"

Naruto's frantic calling drew the desired attention, and within moments, the rest of the stolen children had raced over to watch as a furious Sakura berated her cowering blond companion. "What do you mean, 'you didn't do anything'? She was fine when she came to bring you your dinner! Lay her down so I can give her a check-up."

Eager to comply and appease his terrifying friend, Naruto carefully made his way over to what had been designated the 'hospital mattress'. "Really, Sakura-chan, I gave her a hug, and then this happened. I didn't do anything to her, dattebayo." The whiskered boy wilted under Sakura's disbelieving glare. "Well, maybe I… picked her up and spun her around too?" Green eyes began to burn in fury, and Naruto verbally retreated as he sought to make himself as small as possible without dropping the unconscious heiress. "But Hinata has to spin really fast because of her Kaiten training! She wouldn't get dizzy from me spinning her around, 'ttebayo."

Sakura huffed in irritation at the blond as she knelt by the mattress and unrolled the scroll from which she had taught herself basic first aid. "Well, clearly she did, baka. Now, set her down and get out of here. I need to figure out what's wrong, and I don't need you distracting me."

"Yes, Sakura-chan!" Naruto replied, only too eager to appease the raging pinkette. Carefully, he laid Hinata on the mattress before retreating to the rest of the group.

"Wow, look at the big hero." Kiba drawled, teasingly. "You can stand up to the guy who kidnapped us no problem, but put you against a girl, and you run off with your tail between your legs."

"What about you, Kiiiba-kun?" Ino asked, drawing out the Inuzuka boy's name as she stalked over to him, a predatory smile on her face. "You're not scared of girls, are you? I think I've just about got the hang of the Shintenshin no Jutsu, so you can be my practice partner, if you're not. I have all kinds of fun ideas of what I can have you do…"

"Ah ha ha, sorry Ino." Kiba laughed uneasily, looking anywhere but at the smirking blonde. "I… need to run my latest escape idea by Naruto. Sakura hasn't let him do any more planning since Chōji broke his arm." Throwing an arm over Naruto's thin shoulders, the brunet pulled the whiskered blond back over toward the dinner table. "The idiot's all clear to come back and eat with us, right Sakura?" he called over his shoulder to the pinkette.

"Yes." Sakura replied testily as she poured over her scroll, completely ignoring Naruto's sputtering protests. "He's felt better for days; we just needed to give the bone time to heal fully. I'll take off the splint tonight. Don't pick any fights with him, though. It's probably still fragile."

"No promises," Kiba smirked. "His face is just so punchable, and Sasuke's not nearly as well behaved as I am. Akamaru and I'll keep them on a short leash, though."

"Your bragging is in poor taste, Kiba," a low, droning voice joined in the conversation as Shino appeared on Kiba's other side and lazily dodged the Inuzuka's startled swipe. "The reason is that you picked a fight with Sasuke-san, not ten minutes ago. Only Naruto and Hinata might not know of your scuffle and subsequent beating by Sakura, which is unlikely, given how loud you were being."

"Ha! Hinata and I totally heard her whack Kibble," Naruto agreed, smiling as the wild boy growled at the terrible nickname. "I don't get why she didn't hit Sasuke too, though…" A lightbulb lit above the blond's head, and he slipped out of Kiba's grasp to approach the Uchiha. "Hey, Sasuke. When Hinata wakes up, you need to apologize to her, 'ttebayo."

The raven-haired boy raised a dubious eyebrow at Naruto's statement. "Why would I need to apologize to your girlfriend, loser? I'm not the one that knocked her out."

Naruto sputtered incoherently for a moment while Sasuke smirked at him and Kiba howled with laughter. "She's not my girlfriend, jerk!" the blond eventually got out. "You need to apologize because you called her trash when Orochimaru first brought us here." The whiskered blond's explanation killed the levity in the air as the assembled group turned to glare at Sasuke.

Before the Uchiha could respond, the glowing script that lit the cavern began to flicker and flash purple, a signal to the cave's occupants that Orochimaru was about to make an appearance. "What? But he was here yesterday!" Naruto complained. Turning, the blond began to address the suddenly tense group. "Ino, can you help Sakura-chan get Hinata up?" The blonde Yamanaka nodded and raced back to the 'hospital' to help Sakura wake the Hyūga heiress. "Shino, Kiba, Akamaru, can you make sure our stuff is hidden?" With a pair of tense nods and a yip of affirmation, the trio rushed to secure several mementos the children had hidden away after Orochimaru first destroyed their old outfits and commanded them to wear his horrible tan tunics. "Sasuke and Shikamaru-"

"We know," Shikamaru nodded grimly. "We'll try to see where he comes in this time. You and Chōji should save what you can of dinner. Who knows the next time we'll be able to cook?"

The hefty Akimichi boy paled at his best friend's ominous words and hurried to the stew pot to begin spooning their leftovers into bowls that Naruto would then seal away. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it extended the life of their meals by several days, which could be very important if their captor was in a particularly vindictive mood when he arrived.

Most of Orochimaru's visits consisted of exhibitions where the children demonstrated what progress they had made in mastering their families' jutsu. These sessions were relatively painless for everyone except Naruto, as the blond was frequently called upon to act as a sparring partner or training dummy for his friends to demonstrate the effectiveness of their techniques. Sometimes though, the pale man would show up and forcibly administer strange medicines that left all but Naruto feverish and bedridden for days. That the Sannin had returned so soon after his last visit suggested that the children were likely to experience something more akin to the latter than the former.

Within a minute, all eleven captives were seated around their table looking outward for signs of their captor's arrival, though Hinata was obviously still groggy, and Sakura was busy untying the splint around Naruto's left arm. Orochimaru generally gave them some warning before his arrival so that everyone could be woken, dressed, and gathered when the Sannin finally made his appearance. At Shikamaru's suggestion, the children had taken to watching for the pale scientist to appear, combining their observations after he left to hopefully uncover a way that they could trap their tormenter and escape. Unfortunately, the snake summoner entered the underground prison from a seemingly random location every time, taking some measure of sadistic joy from hampering those efforts.

After several minutes sitting in tense silence, there was a small call, and the group turned to see Shino's finger pointing in the direction of their training ground. "Orochimaru will make his entrance from somewhere near the rightmost post," the quiet boy declared confidently. "My kikaichū sense vibrations in the stone around that area."

"Most impressive, Shino-kun," Orochimaru's silky voice laughed from the shadows behind the group. "Your tenants are truly adept sensors." As the children scrambled to turn and put the Sannin in their sights, the pale man stalked into the light, still chuckling. "Unfortunately for you, I've infiltrated your clan's compound before, and I know how to fool their sentries."

"What do you want, Snake-face?" Naruto cut in, moving to the front of the group, and crossing thin arms across his chest. "You were just here yesterday. Nobody learned any more of their jutsu since then, so just leave us alone. We don't have anything for you, 'ttebayo."

"Ah, but I have something for you," the pale man grinned maliciously. "News from your beloved Konoha! Surely you want to hear what I have to say, Gekage-kun. It's been so long since your 'family' was last home, after all."

Orochimaru's leering offer startled the children out of their defensive postures, and they looked at each other in unbelieving confusion. Their kidnapper had never offered even the slightest hint of what was happening in the outside world during the entirety of their captivity, insisting that it would do them no good, as they would never leave their dungeon 'home'. Before any of them could collect themselves enough to respond, their captor started to speak.

"Konoha has been at war with itself for years," Orochimaru began, a sinister smirk stretching across his pale face. "Shortly after the Kyūbi attack, one of its most ancient and revered clans began to feel mistreated. At first, they met in secret, complaining to each other of the injustices that the Hokage inflicted on them. They quickly grew tired of simple complaints, however, and decided that there was only one way to reclaim the respect they had lost: kill the Sandaime and take over Konoha." There was a startled gasp of surprise, and the mass of children huddled together even more tightly. Sarutobi Hiruzen was a beloved fixture of the village; to want him dead was unthinkable. Orochimaru noted with satisfaction that even the normally obstinate Uzumaki brat looked lost at the revelation.

"The reason I tell you this," Orochimaru continued, his tone mocking, "is that several days ago, this honorable clan hired mercenaries and put their plan into motion. They ambushed the Hokage, his counselors, and the heads of many of Konoha's major clans." The pale man took a moment to lick his lips, savoring the naked shock that he could feel rolling off the children before he continued. "The fifteenth generation of the Ino-Shika-Chō trio, along with Hyūga Hiashi, were killed in the attacks. Aburame Shibi is in the hospital with severe burns, and Inuzuka Tsume is waiting to hear whether her partner, Kuromaru, will ever walk again. The Hokage survived, though he too was badly injured."

"What about my family?" Sasuke broke in, desperate panic written all over his face. "Are they alright?"

"I'm so glad you asked, Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru's grin grew wider as he turned malicious yellow eyes on the Uchiha scion. "Perhaps Shikamaru-kun will share what he has realized."

Sasuke's coal-black eyes turned to find Shikamaru, who squirmed uncomfortably at the pleading look on the Uchiha boy's face. As the rest of the group turned to look at the Nara heir, he broke eye contact before mumbling a soft explanation. "He's saying that your family were the ones to attack the village, Sasuke. The Uchiha were one of the first clans to join the village, and none of the rest of our clans use Katon jutsu like yours does to have burned Aburame-sama. The Sarutobi do, but they wouldn't have any reason to attack Sandaime-sama. Orochimaru's telling us that your family committed treason, and it sounds like it didn't even work, if Sandaime-sama is still alive."

Horrified, Sasuke reeled back in a desperate attempt to distance himself from the claim. He didn't notice that he had started backing toward Orochimaru until the snake summoner chuckled from directly behind him. "That's right, Sasuke-kun. You're now the orphaned son of traitors. Your family was rounded up and executed for their crimes, so you, my boy, are the Last Uchiha."

Laying a hand on the seven-year-old's shoulder, Orochimaru leaned down and gestured at the lost faces of the rest of the children and continued with the same honeyed words that had recruited hundreds of other outcasts over the years. "Your family killed or injured your "friends'" parents. Look at them. They will hate you now. Soon, you will have no one who wants you. No one except for me. Leave them behind, and I will give you a place to belong."

"Shut up!" Orochimaru bit back a curse as an abrasive shout filled the air. The Uzumaki brat's defiance was apparently back in full force, as the boy pushed forward, dispelling the subtle genjutsu that the snake summoner was weaving over the vulnerable Uchiha. Grabbing Sasuke's arm, Naruto pulled the bewildered boy back to the other children. "You're lying!" the blond declared, blue eyes blazing angrily at Orochimaru. "You stole us from Konoha, and you're making us betray our families by telling you about our jutsu. You don't do anything that doesn't get you what you want. Sasuke's our family, and he belongs with us. You can't have him, so stop lying about his clan."

"Always the family man, aren't you, Naruto-kun?" Orochimaru sneered at the blond. "Watch yourself, or the annoyance you pose might come to outweigh your usefulness." Turning back to Sasuke, the vile man continued. "You know that I'm telling the truth, don't you Sasuke-kun? Even before you came to join me here, I'm sure you recall troubling interactions within your clan. Heated arguments that faded to nothing as soon as you got close. Loud declarations from a drunken uncle that things would be better if your father was the Hokage. Confusing conversations between your brother and your parents that you were sure meant something, but you couldn't figure out what…"

At Orochimaru's suggestions, what color had previously existed in Sasuke's normally pale face drained away. Looking at his friends, the young Uchiha began to shake as he recalled the tense conversation between his brother and father mere days before Orochimaru had stolen the children from Konoha. "We will all have our parts to play in the future, after all," Father had said. Itachi and Mother had seemed to understand what Father meant, but Sasuke hadn't understood at all. If he thought of that moment as though they were planning something bad, though, the young Uchiha found that his father's comments made a chilling among of sense.

Thinking back further, Sasuke recalled other moments where his family had demonstrated disdain for the Hokage or other clan leaders: misused honorifics that went uncorrected by his normally very proper mother, angry glares cast at the ANBU as they leapt around the village, and the time that his father had sat through the entire Academy entrance ceremony time with his head bowed and arms crossed. Sasuke had thought that Father's posture was disappointment at having to come spend time with his youngest son instead of Itachi, but maybe it was frustration that he had to listen to Sandaime-sama speak? And what about -

*POW*

"Snap out of it, Sasuke!" Naruto demanded, as he straightened from having decked his friend. Ignoring the shocked expressions on the rest of the group's faces, furious azure eyes met the Uchiha's accusing ebony glare. "You don't believe Snake-face, do you? You always talk about how your brother is in the ANBU. Well, guess what: ANBU protects the Hokage. Do you really think that he'd do anything like try to kill Jiji? And your family's the police. They help keep the village safe!" Turning to the pale man towering over him, the blond swelled up to his full height before he began to shout in earnest. "I told you I'd protect them, Snake-freak! I won't let you hurt them, no matter whether you want to use kunai or tell lies. Sasuke belongs with us! YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM!"

"I've heard quite enough out of you, urchin!" Orochimaru snapped in reply. Turning away from Sasuke, the snake summoner advanced slowly on the whiskered boy, flaring his chakra to drive the rest of the children back and keep the blond pinned in place. "You remind me far too much of Sarutobi-sensei, Naruto-kun," Orochimaru whispered when he was sure that only the blond could hear him. "Both of you occasionally make me think that there might be some value in your continued existence, but then you prove me wrong when the moment of truth arrives."

Pausing to take in the subtly shivering blond's resolute face and clenched fists, the mad scientist smirked wickedly. Those tiny hands had been damaged dozens of times, sometimes beyond what Orochimaru expected the whiskered boy to survive, but Naruto's skin remained pristine and unblemished. Perhaps there was a way to pit the Uzumaki's most intriguing traits against his most frustrating. At worst, Orochimaru decided, he would be rid of an annoyance. At best, the boy's irksome tenacity would be put to good use. "You have worn out your welcome, Gekage-kun. However, your constitution continues to intrigue me. Thus, I am going to conduct an experiment."

Before Naruto could react, Orochimaru raised his hands and pressed his palms together, middle fingers crossing over their respective pointer digits. Summoning his chakra, the Sannin no Hebi's head shot forward as his pale neck suddenly extended, allowing him to bite the stunned blond just above his collar, much as a viper struck at its prey. Releasing the jutsu so that his neck shrunk back to its normal size, Orochimaru watched in satisfaction as a trio of black tomoe appeared on Naruto's skin, a clear indication that the Sannin's Cursed Seal of Heaven had been successfully applied. Now, all that was left was to see whether the boy's body or spirit would crumble first.

The blond howled in pain and fell to the ground, where he began wildly convulsing as foreign chakra invaded his system. "This gift I've just given you is a fragment of myself, Naruto-kun," Orochimaru declared smugly over the boy's pained cries. "You now have a simple choice: surrender your will to me or die."

Stepping back, the snake summoner released the genjutsu he had cast to restrain the other children, allowing them to rush to the blond's aid. The pale man's satisfied smirk disappeared, however, when a deep, rumbling voice echoed through his mind, driving a lance of primal fear through the Sannin before he quashed the traitorous emotion. "You dare, worm? This brat's soul is mine!"

Vile, crimson chakra erupted from the seal on Naruto's neck, which began to glow a sickening purple. The caustic energy thrashed around Naruto's flailing form, driving back any of his friends who tried to get close. Orochimaru watched in fascination as his cursed seal was ripped from the boy's skin in a flash of crimson and crumbled to nothing under the onslaught of fiery power, much like scraps of paper being consumed by an inferno. The air in the small cavern grew hot and began to whirl around the blond as he unsteadily rose to his feet, the crimson energy spiraling around him in a double helix. "That hurt, you freak!" the boy roared before lunging at the slender Sannin, his stance fierce and feral.

As he dodged furious swipes from the whiskered Uzumaki's suddenly clawed hands, Orochimaru noted with interest that the potent chakra seemed to have dispersed, but in its aftermath, Naruto-kun's physique had changed. The small boy moved much more quickly than he ever had before, his strikes still trivial for the mad scientist to avoid but easily fast enough to destroy a moderately-talented Chūnin. There were also cosmetic changes. The boy's blond hair stood wildly on end, as though charged with static electricity. His normally subtle whiskers had become dark and jagged, while sapphire blue eyes had turned blood red as the pupils contracted to slits. Well, wasn't this interesting? "Well done, Naruto-kun," Orochimaru congratulated mockingly as he sidestepped a vertical slash from the crazed boy. "Though perhaps I should call you Kyūbi-kun. You've managed once again, through no virtue of your own, to become interesting enough for me to let you live."

"Shut up!" the blond snarled, his slashes becoming even more wild and erratic. "I'm sick of you treating us like we're your toys! I'm going to destroy you, and then we're going to break out of here and go home."

"Ah, but you'll always be a toy, Kyūbi-kun," the pale man leered as his tongue shot forward much like his neck had, ensnaring the flailing boy mid-leap. Pasty fingers tore the blond's tan tunic away, revealing an incredibly complex spiral seal inked on the seven-year-old's stomach. "This seal right here guarantees it." Orochimaru declared gleefully. "You're a jinchūriki, a monster in human flesh, meant only to kill at the whims of your betters." Purple flames lit on each finger of the vile man's right hand, five kanji glimmering faintly in the blaze. "Whether it's myself, the old warhawk, or even Sarutobi-sensei, someone will always be holding your leash." With that, Orochimaru plunged his fire-wreathed hand into the boy's stomach, taking care to break several of the blond's ribs as he did so. The brat needed to be punished for his impudence after all, and it would be informative to see how quickly he healed now.

The fire disappeared from Naruto's eyes, and the blond slumped forward in Orochimaru's grasp, his transformed features melting away. Retracting his tongue, the snake summoner let the whiskered boy fall limply to the floor. "The rest of you should count yourselves lucky," he said, turning a leering smile at the petrified children. "Your friend is none other than the Kyūbi no Kitsune, the beast who destroyed Konoha, sealed away in a human shell." At the startled gasps, the pale scientist smirked maliciously. "The Yondaime Hokage was a talented shinobi, but not even he could destroy such a monster. He locked it away, transforming it into a newborn baby, which apparently grew to be our dear Gekage-kun. As you've just seen, when he gets very angry, the beast begins to remember himself. You children are too young to remember the horrors your precious 'Gekage-kun' inflicted on the village, but I imagine that you have heard the names of those he killed. After all, two thousand nine hundred ninety-six people were slaughtered by the raging beast, and every year, on the anniversary of their deaths, the village reads the list."

Orochimaru chuckled internally as he watched the children's suddenly hard eyes focus on the battered blond. The clan children had lost dozens of family members during the Kyūbi's attack. If he played his cards right, the pale man decided, he could use this half-truth, instead of his altered retelling of the Uchiha's rebellion, to rip this little 'family' apart. Their unity came from their faith in the blond, he could see that now, and without Naruto-kun they would tear themselves apart, leaving their captor to reap the benefits. "I'll leave you children to work out your 'family' issues," the Sannin laughed cruelly as he melted into the stone floor.

"Identify yourself and come out so I can see you,"

Kakashi stood at the edge of the rescue team's small campsite, a kunai clenched tightly in his right hand. The chakra presence that the young man had felt approaching for the last several minutes was familiar, but the Hatake prodigy wasn't going to take chances. He had been accused of paranoia before, and that caution had saved his life more than once. If this visitor was who he thought, they would have to forgive his suspicion. "I won't repeat myself."

"Calm down, you paranoid brat," a deep voice cut through the early morning fog, as the newcomer stepped into full view. At nearly two meters tall, the other man towered over Kakashi. His wild, white hair was tied in a ponytail that hung down to his waist, while a horned hitai-ite engraved with the kanji for oil kept his bangs from hanging in his eyes and a line of red face paint ran like teardrops down each side of his weathered face. The man wore a forest-green kimono over chain mesh armor and a bright red jacket with a fist-sized yellow spot on each side of his chest. The whole ensemble was completed by the man's wooden geta and the giant scroll strapped to his waist. "You could at least offer me a place by the fire and a cup of sake before you start threatening me," the older man's face broke into a silly grin. "It's good luck to entertain unexpected visitors, you know. But if it will put you at ease…"

The older man bit his right thumb and raced through five hand seals before slamming his bloody palm on the ground. There was an explosion of smoke, which cleared to reveal the same man standing atop a crimson toad nearly a meter-and-a-half tall. "The most holy hermit sage of the Mount Myoboku toads," the old man began, hopping sideways on his wooden geta as he held up a splayed hard. "His equal is not found either North, South, West, or East! The toad master, the white-haired prodigal son, one of the Sannin! A ladies' man that can hush even a crying child! Lord Jiraiya, that's me!" The old man's introduction came to an end with a loud shout as he leapt off his toad platform and landed in front of Kakashi. His face, which a moment before had held a manic glee, was a blank mask as he regarded the silver-haired Jōnin who had snapped to attention at the start of his little display. "Well, now that I've proven my identity, how about you have your little friends come out of hiding and do the same. Then, we can get down to business."

There was a momentary pause before Kakashi's companions came into view behind their leader. Gai bounced eagerly into view, while Anko stalked forward, sliding a kunai into her sleeve, and Kō walked calmly up, the quiet grace of his clan giving an elegance to his movements that few could match. "Jiraiya-sama!" Gai began, his smile sparkling even in the early morning light, "to what do we owe this unexpected pleasure?"

"None of that yet," the older man replied, crossing thick arms over his chest. "Your captain demanded that I prove my identity, so it's only fair that you do the same." The cocky smirk reappeared on his face as he regarded the young adults in front of him. "Well, come on. Don't keep an old man waiting."

"You know who we are, you old toad," Anko scowled petulantly before leaping forward, her serpentine familiars extending from her sleeve to constrict their guest, who made no move to resist. "You wouldn't have waltzed in here if you weren't sure of it."

"Ah, but there's manners to consider," Jiraiya smirked unconcernedly at the viper hissing in his face and the angry woman behind it. "If I'm going to be treated with such hostility, I really need to return the favor. You pass, Anko-chan. What about these others?"

Seeing that they wouldn't be able to get out of this impromptu demonstration, the men behind Anko began to charge their chakra. Kō held two fingers to his lips and the veins around his eyes bulged out. Using his enhanced vision, he scanned the figure in front of him. "You have a book titled Icha Icha Paradise in your satchel, Jiraiya-sama," the Hyūga began, his lips curling in distaste as he recognized the book. "Also, you were fluctuating your chakra from your head to your feet on a three second interval, presumably to disrupt any genjutsu we might have tried to use on you."

Jiraiya's face broke out into a huge grin as Kō finished his observation. The old man then turned an expectant gaze to the last two members of the rescue team. With a series of nine hand seals, Kakashi's hand began to crackle with barely controlled lightning, and a moment later, Gai's skin turned an angry red from opening the first Celestial Gate. "Well good," Jiraiya declared once the respective jutsu had taken shape. "Now that we know we're all who we say we are, it's time to get down to business." Anko's snake summons retreated into her sleeve as her teammates cancelled their jutsu and the toad behind Jiraiya disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

Leading the way over to the cold firepit, the toad sage ran through several hand signs before breathing a gentle flame that started the logs crackling merrily. As the rescue team took seats around the fire, Jiraiya's face once again grew somber. "Your last report to Konoha was intercepted," the toad sage began, folding thick hands in front of his face. His audience was professional enough to refrain from any outbursts, but their faces clearly showed their frustration and concern. "The Uchiha intercepted the runner bringing it from the rookery to the Old Man and managed to break your encryption seal. They read your report on that Ozumo creature and decided that the Hokage had assigned you the role of fabricating evidence to implicate them for being complicit in Orochimaru's kidnapping last year."

"What! Why would they think that?" Kakashi finally asked, surprise and frustration evident in his voice. "I specifically told Hokage-sama in that report that I thought someone was trying to frame them."

"Ah, well," Jiraiya responded, his own frustration apparent, "I don't know if you kids have worked with many Uchiha, but they can be kind of close-minded. Sensei once told me that he thinks it's a consequence of possessing the Sharingan. Nothing's that powerful for free, you know. The Uchiha can see things so clearly and notice tiny details that most of us miss, which makes them nearly impossible to fool. The Old Man wondered, though, if that insight combined with their perfect recall meant that they can't really comprehend the possibility that they read a situation wrong with their first look, so they have a really hard time changing their mind. It seems like the Uchiha decided a long time ago that the village meant to burn them as scapegoats for the kidnapping, and they twisted all the evidence to support that idea."

"Yeah, yeah, Kekkei Genkai physiology's real interesting," Anko cut in, "but the why's not the question right now." Her light-brown eyes bored into Jiraiya. "What happened after they read the report?"

"You've all figured out the answer to that," the toad sage responded somberly. "They hired missing nin, including heavy hitters like Jiongu no Kakuzu and Gisuru no Toru, to invade the village and help them kill village leadership, primarily the Hokage and his council. The Old Man survived," he assured his tense audience. "He may be getting up there in years, but he's still the Kami no Shinobi and he had some support from Uchiha Itachi. Danzō's personal security kept that old bag of bones alive, too. Koharu-san and Homura-san didn't make it, though."

"Did the Uchiha make any moves against the other clans, Jiraiya-sama?" Kō asked, his voice filled with dread. "How did Hiashi-sama and the Hyūga fare?"

"And what of our fair village?" Gai interjected. "Despite the unyouthfulness of their actions, surely the Uchiha wouldn't destroy its defenses or attack the civilian populace in their villainous assault."

"The village is intact; the violence was kept away from civilian sectors," Jiraiya confirmed. "No one wanted to damage the defenses or infrastructure. There were assaults on different departments, so some clan heads were attacked because of their role, but nothing specifically targeted the clans. I don't think any clan leaders ended up dead, either. A couple might never walk again, but they're still breathing."

Turning back to Kakashi, the older man's voice turned heavy again. "Kakuzu and Fugaku were part of the team that assaulted the Hokage. When the fight turned against them, the Traitor of Taki killed Fugaku and fled. Apparently, he also took care of his buddy, Taru, on the way out of town. More than half of the Uchiha died in the assaults, and the rest were rounded up and are waiting to be put on trial." Pausing so that his audience could absorb what he had told them, Jiraiya looked over the somber faces before he continued. "Nearly a hundred active-duty ninja were casualties of the attacks, in addition to more than two hundred Uchiha from the Police Force. The Old Man and I are doing our best to control the situation, but news like this is bound to get out. It hurts morale, and it's blood in the water for anyone in Kumo or Iwa with a grudge. Konoha needs a big win right now, and you brats are the best chance of that. What leads do you have on finding our missing kids?"

"Nothing," Kakashi admitted, his voice thick with disappointment. "There was nothing useful in that last hideout we cleared, and we've tracked down every lead we can find and scried every night. There's no sign of them. I'll get the Hokage's crystal ball; maybe you can get lucky where we couldn't, Jiraiya-sama." The lanky Jōnin rose and made his way to his tent, opening the flap to see his bag subtly glowing red.

"Ah!" Kakashi leapt forward, tearing open the pack to get at the glowing crystal orb contained within. Almost instantly, the door to the tent was filled with four concerned faces, but Kakashi didn't notice. Settling cross-legged onto his sleeping pad, the last Hatake concentrated his attention on the tenuous chakra connection he could feel the sphere forming somewhere far across the world. As he stabilized the link, an image of flames swirled across the transparent surface before they morphed into the shape of a maliciously grinning vulpine head. The face leered at the Konoha ninja for a moment before the image shifted to show Uzumaki Naruto, wreathed in a vile crimson chakra and charging recklessly at a pale figure robed in tan.

Jiraiya, Anko, and Kakashi each inhaled deeply when they recognized Orochimaru smirking maliciously at the blond. "Shut up!" the boy's image roared as he swung clawed fingers at the leering Sannin. "I'm sick of you treating us like we're your toys! I'm going to destroy you, and then we're going to break out of here and go home." In the fight's background, the rest of the kidnapped children were visible, their faces pale from lack of sunlight, lean from poor nutrition, and pinched in worry.

"Shift higher!" Jiraiya commanded suddenly. "See if you can get a view of where they are."

"What?" Kakashi responded, turning his disbelieving gaze to the Toad Sage. "Naruto's fighting Orochimaru! We need to make sure he's okay."

"He isn't okay," Jiraiya countered, his voice hard. "He's being held captive by a madman who's going to experiment with the chakra he's leaking right now until he can't take any more. The only way we can help him, the only way we can help any of them, is to figure out where they're being kept and get them out of there."

The old man's words were painfully true, so with some reluctance Kakashi focused to raise the orb's vantage and get a view of the nearby terrain, despite how it hurt to hear Orochimaru's snide taunts and see his little brother suddenly captured by the Sannin's prehensile tongue. The rescue team watched with bated breath as their observation point rose through the earth to reveal a forest dappled in early morning sunlight. Nearby, a stairway into the earth was barely visible at the edge of the sphere's distorted perspective, its entrance marked with a white snake.

Higher and higher their vantage point rose, gradually revealing that the forest lay on a mountainside with a river gently flowing through the cleft between two nearby peaks. It the valley floor below, a small village came into view. Kakashi tried to shift over toward the buildings, but a flash of purple exploded across the sphere's surface, leaving the orb transparent, as normal, when it dissipated.

"What happened?" Anko asked, frustration evident in her voice. "Where'd they go?"

"Orochimaru likely severed the connection," Kō offered, the veins around his Byakugan receding as he let the dōjutsu deactivate. "The chakra link which Kakashi-taichō was using to scry on the children has been severed by a chakra strongly reminiscent of that in your curse mark, Anko-san." There was a momentary pause before Kō spoke again. "I will mark the direction it came from on the map." The Hyūga retainer hurried away to do so before his memory faded.

"You're awfully quiet there, brat," Jiraiya commented as Kō disappeared from the front of the tent, turning his attention back to Kakashi. "I know you're worried about Naruto, but there's no way Snake-face would kill him after seeing that chakra. There wasn't any backlash after you got cut off, was there?"

"No, I'm fine," Kakashi replied slowly. "I was just thinking that I've seen those mountains before." There was a pregnant pause as the observers waited for the young Jōnin to organize his thoughts. "I haven't seen them from that angle," Kakashi admitted, "and it's been several years, but those mountains reminded me of the Dueling Peaks in the Land of Rice Fields. Minato-sensei took me there once, on a mission to retrieve stolen paintings from some bandits. We made our base in Hanamaki, the village in the valley, while we searched for their hideout." Idly, the Jōnin began to repack the items he had removed from his bag.

"Yosh!" Gai exclaimed, his voice shattering the tense quiet that had gripped the clearing. "My rival, your memory is an inspiration! To recall such a small village from among your hundreds of successful missions! After we rescue the children, I must endeavor to strengthen my own powers of recall. If I cannot recall every mission I have ever gone on, I will spend an hour a day reading mission reports until I can repeat them in my sleep."

"Gai, what you do during your downtime is your own business, but we're on a mission right now," Kakashi responded without missing a beat. Turning so that he included Anko in his directions, the last Hatake began to issue orders. "Both of you, go pack your tents. If Kō-san's map confirms my hunch, we move out immediately. Jiraiya-sama, could you stand by to send a message to Hokage-sama?" Anko and Gai disappeared, and Jiraiya retreated to the fire, drawing out a scroll and ink to begin drafting a message.

"Taichō!" Kō reappeared a moment later at the tent flap, their travel map clutched in his hand. "I traced the chakra as well as I could, but we will probably want to fan a degree or two on either side of it as we search."

Kakashi made his way outside and took the offered parchment as he straightened. "Thank you, Kō-san," the masked Jōnin replied as he traced the new line with his finger. A moment later, the last Hatake looked up at his team, a fiery excitement visible in his one visible eye. "Send word to Konoha," he directed the widely grinning Sannin. "Orochimaru has the kids in the Land of Rice Fields."