Chapter 26: The Spider that Ate her Children


"True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost."

-Charles Colton


/Tadashi Plaza

/Genbu City

/River Country

Naruto Uzumaki


Dawn came and went slowly, turning from a paint streak of red, purple, blue and white to the full sun of mid-morning as Class 5U, all twelve KSMA hopefuls, held position in the burnt out husk of what used to be Genbu City's commercial district.

"Naruto, can you fucking stop?"

The Uzumaki caught himself mid-stride and realized he'd been pacing the same short circuit by a cafe table where both Satsuki and Sakura lounged, reading a book and sharpening a variety of knives respectively. Sakura hadn't stopped pressing the whetstone against the edge as she spoke to him. The other nine members of their class occupied various areas, with rotating scouts mounted to the tops of buildings so nothing could catch them unaware.

"Sorry. I'm just—"

"We know. We feel the same. You don't need to apologize, but you do need to chill the fuck out."

Despite being tied back in a messy ponytail, Naruto still felt the urge to rip his hair out. Sakura was right, but it didn't make doing that any easier. Despite the professionalism of everyone on their team and the precautions of Shikamaru Nara, Naruto felt as though the world teetered on the brink of disaster. A deja vu strangeness stole over him and he ignored Sakura and Satsuki both, speaking instead to his...guest.

[Am I crazy?]

[You realize the ridiculousness of asking me that question, my Seed, yes?]

Mentally scoffing, trying to hold back real laughter, he seeded the point to Kaguya.

[Really though. We're sitting here doing… nothing. What could they possibly tell from this about us as shinobi? Does the way this Field Exam is playing out strike you as… odd?]

[The young...genius has the same concerns you do, my Seed. Do not seek answers in me when the resources you require are right in front of you.]

[Meh. You're no help.]

[Agree to disagree, Seed.]

Stepping over rubble shattered by his enhanced Explosive Tags, Naruto made his way gingerly over to where Shikamaru leaned over a stone block the size of a basketball where he'd placed his surprisingly detailed map of Genbu City. Before, he'd had a crudely drawn stop-gap of a map, but it was clear he'd raided some of the houses and commercial shops and gotten lucky.

"Well?"

"Hello Naruto, I see you're doing well at keeping your impatience in check. Well done."

"Har, har. Cut the shit Nara. You know why I'm antsy."

"I do? I thought that was Ino's specialty…"

Naruto opened his mouth angrily, then realized Shikamaru was doing this on purpose.

"Fine. I get you. I'm just… this isn't what I thought this would be. None of this makes any sense. But maybe I'm just fucking crazy. I have this bad feeling—"

"Can you tell me, because I know you aren't as dumb as you look, why Mizuki would change the protocols with the Headmaster so each class is together instead of separated into smaller squads as is custom?"

Shikamaru turned, folding his arms, muscles standing out in his forearms in a way that made Naruto reassess him as maybe more competent in taijutsu than he let on. The Nara tilted his head, looking so much like a hawk searching for a field mouse.

There was a point to this method, this drawing out of the point.

Naruto played along.

"I would imagine the point of keeping us together is strength in numbers—paired with the fact all of our tests up to this point were done as a class, not individually, at least as far as the big ones went. We're used to working in larger squads."

Shikamaru shifted his gaze, staring at the broken and hanging sign of a local bakery that proclaimed, 'Fresh Loaves Made Daily!'

"Ostensibly, that seems the most logical answer. But consider: smaller squads are the mission-standard and are the preferred logistical deployment because each squad gets more individualized attention from the Proctor. Thus, a better Field report about the capabilities of each trainee. That, Naruto, is why the Field Exam exists. So, if smaller squads serve the purposes better overall—"

Catching on, but still playing his part, Naruto finished.

"—why change it NOW?"

Naruto shrugged.

"We're on a war footing? They can't spare so many ninja to supervise each group? Take your pick. So keeping us together means one proctor per average group of twelve trainees? That's more manageable with a smaller group of Jonin and Chunin."

Shikamaru nodded, as if that confirmed what he suspected, and pushed off the building he was leaning against, calling to the rest as he did so.

"...I would think that was the case too if I didn't also know that Mizuki received authorization from the Headmaster to head up Field Communications."

Naruto processed the information, trying to figure out where the Nara was headed as he scanned his comrades' faces: Ino seemed totally at ease, though that was probably a facade. He'd realized how incredible she was at controlling herself. Choji seemed inflapable as he continued munching.

Shino, who knew?

Ami seemed oblivious most days, but constantly surprised him with how much she actually did pick up while seeming not to. Aiko and Yuna were also Shino-level mysteries. Kiba… Kiba was practicing tricks with Akamaru, though both of them were starting to come to Shikamaru's huddle.

Satsuki, he had to say, looked like how he felt.

Like a dagger rested on the back of her neck.

The Mizuki thing could be a coincidence as they'd had no indication up till now that anything nefarious was afoot, right? So was this Shikamaru being overly paranoid?

Sakura and Hayato were off scouting rooftops, so he'd gauge their reactions later.

Feeling his forehead, where a deep ocean of power waited in the Yin Seal, Naruto reassured himself that his trump card remained. Not that he could empty it if he tried. That was comforting at least. Only the absolute worst possible case could force that scenario.

"What exactly are you saying then?"

"I'm saying that no matter how many shitty civilian military contractors they throw at us, Command knows for a fact we can handle it-unless something goes drastically wrong. You want to know why I used an excessive amount of explosive tags to whittle down our admittedly paltry foes?"

"...because you're obsessed with explosives?"

"Besides that, obviously."

Naruto thought, remembering how surprisingly easy it was to kill so many of Gato's PMC on the beach.

"...because this isn't about how many we can kill. It's about the way we approach obstacles and missions. That's why the rubric doesn't grade us on that. It's too easy. You approached the targets as if they were on an equal playing field to show we weren't underestimating any of the challenges. I'm right, aren't I?"

Shikamaru nodded.

"I can't help feeling that we'll need to be completely fresh—"

But any further response from the Nara was cut off.

Static crackled as everyone received the same message at once, judging by everyone jerking away from the sound as one.

"ALL TEAMS: HOLD CURRENT POSITIONS. WAIT FOR INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTIONS. AUTHORIZATION: MIKE, TANGO. REPEAT: ALL TEAMS, HOLD CURRENT POSITIONS. WAIT FOR INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTIONS. OVER."

For one long thoughtful moment, everyone was frozen, processing the order.

Training took over and everyone swallowed the visible questions on every tongue, waiting for Shikamaru to process and give them their instructions.

Outwardly, the Nara seemed calm, but Naruto noticed that he wiped his palms on the back of his pants before speaking and when he did his words were weighed and measured.

"...we hold position. Orders are orders and Iwashi is watching to make sure we do exactly that. Our hands, unfortunately, are tied."

Most people looked unhappy with that, but accepted it, separating from each other and milling about. Naruto, in contrast, grabbed Shikamaru's arm and pulled him close.

Opening his mouth—

Concern, not his own, flooded him with an alien anxiety, compounding on his own, leaving him sweating.

[I feel power. So much. Too much to be normal. Ware, my Seed. There is strength walking this day. No mere foes.]

Sweat beaded on his forehead even though the day wasn't particularly hot, paired with the sea breeze washing in from the Hanguri Gulf. A foe that Kaguya could sense and was wary of was tantamount to a Kage, he was sure.

Shikamaru noticed, concern crossing his face.

"What is it? What's wrong? Why'd you suddenly go white?"

But at that moment, Ami, Aiko, and Yuna walked up with Ami speaking rapidly.

"Shika, we received communications from Professor Touji to report to Chunin Squadron A. They are not responding. It's Observation-only. We gotta go."

Naruto put dots together and grabbed Shikamaru's arm.

"Shikamaru, I can't tell you how I know—but you gotta trust me when I tell you someone, an enemy, a strong one, is here with us. Don't let them go. Don't split the team."

Emotion warred on Shikamaru's face as he eyed Ami, Aiko, Yun, and back to Naruto.

"You should trust him, Naruto's earned that much."

Satsuki was adjusting her gloves, clearly ready to leave, her comment seemed to put Shikamaru on the back foot. Naruto knew this was bigger than some stupid Field Exam. Whatever made that battalion stop responding couldn't be good. The two of them already had suspicions about this Exam and it seems Satsuki did as well.

What if it was a trap?

The three of those girls would be walking into a slaughter.

Shikamaru turned, facing the three directly.

"Regardless of whether this is a legitimate order, I think we need to gather as much information as possible before committing ourselves to anything. I want you three to sneak in; eyes only, and get the fuck out—report any further communiques with Mizuki directly to me. That's an order. Then meet back here. After that, I'll decide where we go—direct command or not."

Naruto, pained, could only watch.

Shikamaru was right: orders or no orders, they needed information to make the best call. But his gut still said it was a mistake.

The girls nodded, Aiko loading senbon into her umbrella-cannon, Ami hefting her hammer, and Yuna saying nothing. All three took off in the direction of the last known location of Chunin Squad A: the Eastern Gate, an area of known heavy resistance.

Naruto watched them leave with a sinking feeling; a stone dropping in his gut.

#


Almost forty minutes passed with Shikamaru in discussion with Satsuki and Ino over something Naruto was too frazzled to focus on. No word over communications from their missing teammates.

Pacing didn't help, but it did disperse just a little of his anxious energy.

All of them buckled as the earth seemed to vibrate for a full minute. Naruto processed chakra towards his feet into a familiar pattern, anchoring him to the ground, waiting for it to stop. Hayato tapped him on the shoulder, shouting for everyone.

His Byakugan was active and his bow out, arrow held loosely in one hand.

Naruto could see the strength of the chakra strings attached to the back of the arrow.

Naruto followed Hayato's outstretched arm pointing up at something.

Above them, they all stopped to watch as something emerged from the top of a rotating, clicking, whirring clockwork tower. Spinning open like a sunflower finding the sun, a gargantuan dish sprouted. The entire Communications Tower lit up like a Yule tree, beams flashing and piercing even in the sunny mid-afternoon light.

"I'm guessing that's the Communication Tower."

Hayato grimly nodded.

"Naruto… it's not good. Up there, I mean."

"You can see it?"

Hayato swallowed, nodding. "There's… it's a slaughterhouse. There are a few retreating, still alive but..."

"Any of the girls?"

He shook his head. "I can't tell. There is a weird fog that I can't pierce that far up. Chakra generated I imagine. A Water Release technique, if I'd have to guess."

"You should tell Shikamaru. Go."

The Hyuuga didn't bat an eye, just shot off to the front like a rocket, speaking quietly.

Static crackled and Naruto's heart leaped.

"RED CODE ONE: AKATSUKI. Immediate withdrawal! Location, Primary Objective. Multiple casualties. Jonin Battlegroup A down: Chunin Squadron A, Down. In FULL RETREAT back to LZ, I repeat—"

Screaming came through loud and clear, so piercing Naruto could hear it from the others' earpieces; shrill and soul-chilling. Crackling static cut the communication in an instant. AKATSUKI wasn't a known code, nor one they'd been tested on and they'd been tested on all of the ones they'd need to know during a real operation.

The name did ring a bell, though. What was it?

5U, before the communique was even finished, was all signaling Central Command for instructions. That was Chunin Squadron A, the same group that Command signalled Ami, Aiko, and Yuna to go after, observation-only.

But CS-A wasn't supposed to be at the Tower.

Kiba, for once utterly serious, growled and spat, voicing what everyone knew.

"That was a localized distress. Whoever is close will hear it. The fact we did means we're probably one of the closest. What do we do?"

The Inuzuka looked around and rolled his eyes, then grinned.

"Aw, fuck. We're going into it aren't we?"

Sharingan a blazing, spinning pinwheel, Kiba stepped back when he saw Satsuki's gaze on him. He held up his hands, shaking his head.

"Will of Fire. That's it. We don't leave our own."

Shikamaru nodded. Naruto reluctantly. Everyone else followed suit.

"There is a break in the chain of command somewhere. No one is doing anything about this and it stems, no doubt, from Field Communications. I think this is sabotage—either that or gross incompetence on an unimaginable scale. Why are we the only ones over here? In such an important location? I don't think it's a coincidence."

Nobody needed to be convinced; but they did look troubled after Shikamaru finished.

With the military precision they'd trained for, Shikamaru recalled Hayato and Sakura and all of them collapsed into a battle formation, one they'd practiced specifically for assaulting heavily-fortified positions. They wouldn't leave Ami, Aiko, and Yuna for whatever was going on there—they'd grab their friends and then get the fuck out. Naruto's worst fears were real and he couldn't help but pray to the Shinigami, Jashin, The Sage, whoever would listen: please keep my friends safe. Yet, before he could finish his thought, another communication, this time Central Command, sounded across all of their earpieces.

"This is Field Command: Tokubetsu Jonin Mizuki Touji, sounding the General Retreat with all haste. I repeat, General Retreat with all haste. The River Daimyo has reversed its position and this Exam is now unwanted and illegal. General Retreat to the LZ. OVER."

As they listened, Naruto's eyes traveled up above the roof line of Tadashi Plaza and his nose registered the precursor to what he was seeing: a huge blaze that engulfed most of the eastern quarter of Genbu City, the sounds of heavy fighting coming from just across the way towards the harbors and the LZ. That meant their response to the distress call, once technically allowed since a RED CODE was a mandatory backup indicator in the Shinobi Handbook, was now in direct violation of Central Command and the River Daimyo's explicit orders.

There was a famous story about The White Fang, Sakumo Hatake, and his refusal to abandon his comrades. That story was a tragedy—and told as a warning for just this kind of situation. Hatake ended up inadvertently causing the death of the previous Daimyo's family due to his refusal to follow orders.

Geopolitical History class was full of those sorts of stories.

This was now the kind of violation that resulted in missing-nin status.

Shino, Hayato, and Satsuki continued moving after Command finished. Kiba, Ino, and Choji followed suit, with Sakura, Shikamaru, and Naruto watching the rest of them with questioning looks.

Satsuki stepped forward, face hard.

"I don't see how this changes things. Do you?"

Shikamaru nodded once. "No, it doesn't change things."

"So let's go."

Naruto followed behind, steps feeling like they were dragging. The enormity of the decision they all made without properly thinking things through was mind-blowing. Was this the privilege that shielded those with Clans?

Moving at a good clip, they proceeded out of Tadashi Plaza towards the northernmost plaza, Setsuna, which splayed out at the base of the ascent to the tower. Battle-torn alleyways passed in a blur, most houses receiving some kind of damage to their once-vibrant exteriors. Bodies were strewn about like dolls, most if not all in the uniform garb of the Black Ocean PMC. Blood ran in rivulets in certain areas where the bodies were piled highest, creating a horrifying facsimile of a strained gutter in a rainstorm.

Naruto looked at each one of the still forms expecting to see Aiko, Yuna, or Ami.

None of them were and each moment of relief gave him the strength to keep moving.

They only got to the foot of Setsuna Plaza, what was supposed to be the last of their objectives, before they realized that Setsuna, or where it was supposed to be, was covered in some kind of black stone.

Obsidian?

No, obsidian was a volcanic rock. How could this place be covered in obsidian?

Resembling stone sand dunes now, more than a formerly cobble-stone plaza, Naruto hissed as he withdrew his hand from where he'd knelt to feel it.

Irregular bumps clustered near them, breaking the otherwise smooth surface.

[The power is growing stronger. You would be wise to turn back, my Seed. No friend is worth dying for.]

That bothered Naruto. He was tired of running from situations. He was ready. Anything that threatened his friends would die.

Naruto filled his body with the power of chakra, mentally setting himself. Seals flared on his wrists as he quickly initiated a repair sequence for his side, finishing the healing process a hundred times quicker than if he'd left it to a natural process.

Preparing his Lightning Mark and Control Seals, Naruto gripped both his longswords and spun them in lazy circles walking to the front, passing Satsuki.

Unintelligible screaming, like so many mouths working against each other, but suffering the same, came through their microphones at max volume until pain lanced through his ear. His earpiece squealed and died. Naruto ripped the burning hunk of metal out of his ear clumsily as both hands were occupied with the hilts of his weapons and dropped it on the ground, ahead of everyone else.

They were now alone, cut off from the rest of command, and adrift in the middle of a blazing, dying city facing the unknown.

Unbidden, a memory swam to the forefront of his mind: Mifune, straight-backed and strong, standing amidst the sea of enemies he'd invited into his home and how he'd looked back then. Resigned to do the right thing, even if it killed him.

We're all dead, Naruto. Life is what you do with your time here. You must act, just like we've all tried to teach you. Honor first.

What you do with your life is what defines you.

We bend, we do not break.

A shout pierced his angry ruminations. Sakura was eyeing the stone with something resembling horror.

#


/Setsuna Plaza- Ascent

/Genbu City

/River Country

Ami Totsuka


She watched the fathomless darkness behind the eyes of the shrouded shinobi in front of her with an odd sort of calm.

Death was now nothing new to her.

Today she'd seen all its varieties.

Cat-like, with a vertically-slitted pupil, the gaze of the man behind the thick robes of midnight and scarlet clouds was the only thing she could truly make out of his skin. He held a long, slightly curved blade loosely in his right hand. A bandanna, dark like his eyes, covered his skull revealing not a single inch of hair, or whether he had any at all. Inky tracery, lines like Naruto's, covered the man's face in thick streaks.

Breathing deep, she shot a quick look to either side where Aiko and Yuna stood like statues. Receiving nods of acquiescence from her two best friends, she unsheathed her hammer where wind already started gathering around it like a whirlwind, enhancing the area-of-effect damage many times over, and braced herself to kick off.

Around them, the plaza burned.

Stone crackled with the heat, the riot of colors on the houses couldn't even be distinguished from the smokiness, the paint peeled from the heat further obscuring the fact they were even in a city to begin with.

If you'd ask Ami now, she'd have said she was in the first layer of Yomi.

The dead were all that were left in this part of the city, closest to the tower. She'd seen some things that made her question whether being a shinobi was something she really wanted. This wasn't single, honorable combat. This wasn't a spar. This wasn't even two evenly-matched groups of shinobi contesting and struggling, with perhaps the odd death or two.

No, this was horrible.

Families died from smoke inhalation. Collapsed buildings condemned those who attempted to follow the lawful orders of the River Daimyo to stay inside. Ami, Aiko, and Yuna spotted the Black Ocean reserve troops as they moved further into the target zones as the Gato-employed scum were hauling people out of their homes and executing them one-by-one.

Ami killed over a dozen of them herself.

She'd never forget the thumping impact, the squelching noises, and the clangor of armored heads meeting the unyielding steel of her hammer. The aftermath was almost worse. Rage fueled the first two kills, but grim purpose helped her finish the rest.

Blood coated her arms up to her elbows like a soft pair of velvet opera gloves.

Aiko and Yuna, sensitive girls that they were, wept after they were done. But Ami did not. She felt she couldn't.

So when the three of them finally reached the base of the ascent to the tower, a cobble-stone switch-back that curved out of sight, the grade of incline so severe that she knew anything could be waiting for them on it, she was almost relieved to see the fully covered stranger.

Aiko, Yuna, and her knew they would have to fight. Shikamaru told them to make it back no matter what, so that's what they would do.

In a swirling dust devil of wind and leaves, their proctor Iwashi stepped out and didn't even acknowledge the three of them as he spoke.

"Run. Don't stop. I'll hold him—"

A flare of chakra hit them like stepping into a sauna. Iwashi took a single step back.

Ami held her hammer out defensively, as if to protect herself from whatever attack the mystery shinobi was about to throw out, but it was Aiko who seized her wrist and pulled her back in a stumbling, halting run that snapped her out of that stupidity.

She couldn't fight him. That was for Iwashi.

Yuna, Aiko, and her made it only three steps. Ami turned, feeling the heat increase and outpace the over-like city.

The man glowed like a deep coal in a strongly banked furnace. No, he was lit from within like he was made from molten lava, glowing brighter and brighter, the lines on his face expanding to his body, replacing the cloak with just pure molten skin criss-crossed by lines of white light.

The technique was beautiful; oranges, and browns, and reds, and whites flared in corruscating patterns like oil floating on water as it reached every bit of the man inside, spreading, spreading into his sword. The man glowed like a furnace, a man made from glowing, molten coals.

Like a conductor raising his baton to start the symphony, the man's sword pointed at them.

Spears of molten metal erupted from the ground like the spines of a porcupine, pinning Iwashi, but not where was, where he'd gone. The technique anticipated the high-speed movement technique their proctor employed and tracked him perfectly. A single flare of heat and white light, a percussive thump that rang in her bones and in her mind, and Ami found herself somewhere else as the sky spun around her in a kaleidoscope.

A deep pressure on her chest restricting her from moving or breathing. Her breath wouldn't come, lungs feeling impossible to move.

What the hell was this?

Ami heard crying, heaving sobs and felt like the stories of the man who held up the earth as she pushed chakra, that suddenly wasn't responding to her commands, into her arms. It did nothing. So Ami strained and strained and suddenly she could see the whole field.

Aiko knelt on the ground next to her, staring, sobbing sightlessly at a headless body.

"...Ai..ko?"

No, Yuna wasn't dead. She just needed medical assistance and quickly.

If only she could get rid of this weight on her chest!

Ami looked down and her brain sort of fizzled, not processing the absence below her waist where her legs used to be.

Struggling, she attempted to find them. They had to be here.

She needed to put them back.

Burnt, blackened flesh met her fingers as she clawed at the ground blindly, heedless of the scorching heat of the newly-incinerated ground. Somehow, she knew suddenly that they'd been burnt away. There were no legs to be found.

A seeping cold grew in her chest. Air didn't come when she called. There was no relief as she started gasping, her vision fuzzing at the edges. Aiko. Aiko!

"AIKO!"

But only a gasping croak came out where a powerful cry should've been.

Shadow fell on her and tears, not Ami's, fell onto her cheeks. Aiko was so beautiful; a mirror of her sister. Yuna was bright light and Aiko was her dark opposite; even right down to the clothes they chose to wear.

Right now Aiko looked as if she was attending a funeral.

Her brown eyes, that as Ami watched glittered with a hint of green and hazel, glimmered with tears. Movement, her mouth saying words, attracted Ami's lazy gaze but she couldn't push away the cold and everything was so hard. Trying to understand what Aiko was saying was so hard.

Another shadow fell over Aiko and Ami both, but no, it was a glowing, blazing figure.

Ami knew this was her last opportunity to exert herself, to understand what Aiko was saying. She knew she should've told her everything about how she felt. But the cold voice came as if from a million miles away.

"Lava Release: Piercing Stalactite."

As death fell like a spear from the heavens, Ami understood what Aiko was saying.

I'm so sorry.

Aiko's face went slack as a molten spear pierced her face as Ami watched, flesh and bone separating like a pencil through a thin sheet of paper, then it was Ami's turn as the spike grew larger in her vision, so fast, so fast

#


/Setsuna Plaza- Ascent

/Genbu City

/River Country

Kyūsuke 'Wingfoot'


Dropping his Lava Release Chakra Mode: Molten Shroud technique, Wingfoot walked back past the frozen tableau of molten stone that used to be a Jonin and three Academy students, and started walking up a remarkably intact bell-tower that stood in the shadow of the towering edifice that occupied the central location in Genbu City, watching the lights of the tower blaze with renewed power.

Wingfoot felt as though he was watching his own Lord achieve another step in his rise to ultimate power.

With one hand embedding itself in the porous stone of the belltower, Wingfoot leaned off the three-story structure and stared upwards.

Like a corpse exploding out of the soil of its last resting place, The Ark shot up into the sky, unfolding and taking its proper place in the skyline.

Lord Pein commanded me to interfere minimally, to not assist Fugaku and Jūzō at all, and to observe this most interesting test of loyalty to come… it seems as though we are not far off from at least one of those things.

Mission success was important, but knowing the loyalty of those around you was priceless.

Especially since today… they were hunting a Kage.

"Step One: complete, Fugaku. Now let us see how far you will take those goals of yours. Shall we?"

Chakra spun in his veins as molten chakra manifested around his fingers and started to consume the structure he stood atop. Letting it pour out, he waited until the whole area of Setsuna Plaza was consumed and his crimes hidden.

In a blur and flare of light and heat, the Akatsuki member known as Wingfoot was gone.

#


/Tower Ascent

/Genbu City

/River Country

Shikamaru Nara


Just because one knew that they were in a trap, didn't necessarily mean that the optimal choice was to escape: plenty of tacticians, in the history that Shikamaru devoured, used the assumptions of the enemy as the very lever that turned their assured victory into an assured defeat. But information, specifically accurate information, was the commonality in most of those historical instances.

Shikamaru was essentially blind.

The discovery of molten corpses did not improve morale, but it did increase their eagerness to find their friends by almost a whole factor. Shikamaru didn't have the heart to tell them that those corpses they'd found, an adult and three children, were most likely Iwashi and their friends. This was exactly where they would've gone as Chunin Squad A's last known location before communication termination.

This was a high-level Lava Release technique.

Shikamaru contacted Iwashi privately after the first instance of something off and they'd been in constant contact until his decision to send the three of them, following Mizuki's orders. Shikamaru insisted that Iwashi split and cover the three as he intended to keep the vast majority of his squad together as they moved towards the RED CODE. Iwashi agreed, but insisted it was observation-only and to wait for him to engage.

All attempts after the rumbling and the activation of the tower to contact Iwashi on his private channel were unsuccessful. Then the retreat command came through and further complicated the situation.

Shikamaru told his team none of his thoughts.

Guilt ate him up from the inside. He gave that order to the girls, despite Naruto's warning and Satsuki's support. Yes, Mizuki placed them in harm's way, but Shikamaru let it happen. Knowing about Mizuki and the irregularities he'd been monitoring all year, Shikamaru still made the call.

Aiko, Yuna, and Ami were dead because of a bad call: his call.

Shino appeared at his elbow. The team had spread out, covering all areas of the former Setsuna Plaza and were staring up the incline, waiting for Shikamaru's orders.

"My kikaichu, the ones I'd placed on Aiko, Ami, and Yuna, are dead. Buried under this rubble."

Shikamaru hung his head, pressing his palms against his eyes, trying not to let his emotions out. His stomach churned with the need to vomit. But he couldn't do that, not now, not in this scenario. A cold part of his mind, the reptilian brain that calculated survival odds, knew that if he threw his team off-kilter by showing weakness, they were much more likely to all die in this Yomi-hole of a city.

"Yes. I know. Iwashi-sensei is there as well."

Shino simply nodded, adjusting his sunglasses to peer up at the tower.

"You need to tell them. Why? Because they cannot be led into this without eyes open. You know this. There is nothing up there except death."

Hayato came jogging over. Shikamaru welcomed the interruption.

"What is it?"

"There is almost a thousand heavily-armed and armored Black Ocean heading in this direction from the Western Gate. Three unidentified shinobi are with them; no colors, no markers, no hitai-ite."

"What do they look like?"

Hayato thought for a second as Shino and Shikamaru watched him quietly.

"Judging by nothing more th-than gait and weapon-type: Mist."

The seconds stretched out as his mind circled itself, fruitlessly pulling together plans and tossing them away as the simple fact of this was: there was no earthly reason for them to continue staying here. They needed to get the fuck out. Period.

But the mystery remained lodged in his head like a thorn.

Why was there so much effort given for the test to be here?

Why is Akatsuki here?

Shikamaru knew Akatsuki was commonly acknowledged to be the elite arm of Amgeakure's ruler, the self-proclaimed God of Rain: Pein. They were, by field report, almost to a man S-ranked or higher on the lethality rating given to ninjas in the Bingo Book.

There was no way they could ever hope to face even one Akatsuki and live.

To the West, there was a force that they could probably survive, albeit with injuries and sufficient prior planning, but the ninja made things… not impossible, but close. East of them lay the other walls of Genbu and a forest that stretched from the Hanguri Coast to the immense delta that they crossed coming from Fire. Who knew what awaited them out there? Reinforcements or a circling force coming from the other direction?

How many Jonin remained? How many Chunin?

Most were probably bolstering the evacuation order. The coordination provided from Field Command was also supposed to be accounting for Trainee teams that hadn't made it in, at least according to the Field Exam manual. Nothing had happened since the very first engagement they'd participated in exactly according to plan.

Shikamaru needed to compartmentalize his thoughts, focus on what was in front of him. Naruto shouted, breaking his train of thought.

"Shika—mist! I can sense someone in it. It's powerful!"

A pale thread, like a tendril of some wavering sea creature made of fog, slipped over the path above them falling like a slow-motion waterfall. Like the edge of a cloak, a solid wall of the stuff dropped in front of them, quickly overtaking them all.

Unbidden, their circle formation tightened as the silver mist deepened.

...they needed to retreat, now.

That was a decision too little, too late. He knew that.

Resolve broke the stranglehold that anxiety had on him and he spun, grabbing Ino by the sleeve of her uniform.

"I need you to leave. Now."

Ino's sky-blue eyes stared daggers at him. He'd never noticed how blue they were.

"The fuck I will, Shikamaru. I'm not leaving you or anybody here—"

"Get the fuck out of here, now. That's an order. When you get close enough to the LZ, I need you to reach out through your Hiden and contact Gai. No one else, but Gai. Got it? Do not talk to Mizuki. I'll explain later, but if you can't reach Gai you need to talk to literally anyone else but Mizuki, okay?"

Everyone was looking at him and he felt the weight of those gazes.

So did Ino and she understood the order and the necessity.

Turning in a flash, she sped away.

"What about the rest of us?"

Shikamaru glanced at Kiba who spoke.

"Don't die."

Kiba grinned. "What great advice. I think I'll take it."

The mist parted, revealing a perfect corridor that led up the mountain. Behind them, the mist thickened spreading further, obscuring Ino's long hair disappearing over the top of the buildings behind them.

Naruto and Satsuki stepped up, glancing back at him once. He nodded. They led the way into the mist. Just because one knew that they were in a trap, didn't necessarily mean that the optimal choice was to escape, right?

The walk up the mist-shrouded corridor easily took only about fifteen minutes, but the eerie silence sequestered as they were from a view of the city, the fires, the screams, made it seem an eternity. Balanced on a knife edge, the team of eight proceeded up the mountain. Shikamaru walked, careful not to look at either side of the mist. His foot, as they reached where he approximated the top to be, hit a body.

Naruto peered down and then up, violet eyes meeting Shikamaru's.

"Hayama Shirakumo, Advisor of 4S. Assigned to the main objective."

Shikamaru nodded. He knew Naruto was correct. The man's scarred face was matted with blood, eyes open. The rest of the body barely qualified. Shikamaru closed the dead eyes with two fingers and stepped quickly to meet with the team, who stopped and waited for him.

He couldn't stop the slight growl in his voice as he said, "Be on your guard."

No one spoke.

More bodies, piled like cords of firewood, met his gaze. The mist thinned and disappeared as they reached the top, a plateau of some kind of artificial stone with steel guard-rails ringing a massive courtyard that, in the center, housed the base of the tower.

Splashes of dark color dotted the stone and the sides of the tower.

Blood.

Weapons of all types littered the ground, senbon and kunai plentiful.

Naruto held up his arm and Shikamaru ran into it. For all his vaunted intelligence, this situation was overwhelming him, he felt his powers of prediction failing him, common sense deserting him. He felt so small, ineffectual, like his past self. That weak child that let Choji take the beating without so much as a peep of resistance was still lurking inside.

"Oh I am truly sorry, but the Communication Tower is closed today. As you can see, someone has made quite the mess. Hehe, haha, hehahe!"

The voice laughed, guttural and sounding faintly garbled, like the man was speaking around a mouthful of rocks; an echoing madness clung to it.

"I see you insist on sticking around? Tsk. Tsk. Naughty of you. I thought school children would be taught better than that. Orders are orders after all!"

A huge shape, which Shikamaru almost took for a gargoyle perched as it was on a ledge hanging above the gargantuan half-open double-doors that led into the atrium of the Communication Tower, resolved into a human man covered in a recognizable red-and-black cloak. The symbol of Akatsuki.

The largest sword Shikamaru had ever seen was clutched in one massive paw.

What did Hidden Rain want with a defunct Communications Tower in River of all places?

Naruto stepped up.

"Who the fuck are you?"

The man, with elongated canines prominent in his serrated mouth, seemed put out.

"Fine, FINE! You got me. I killed 'em all. The Jonin and the Chunin here, nasty business that," the man paused, "..fine, I killed the back-up squad too! The one before you. Fuck."

He paused again.

"Does feel good to get that off my chest though. Fugaku always did say admitting your faults let's you start working on fixing them. Good advice, that. Oh, I also killed a random janitor inside. My bad. My bad. But still, confession fixes everything does it not? Forgiveness for all and all that?"

With a barely visible movement, the huge figure dropped to the ground in front of the door, cloak fluttering and settling around. Straightening up, the man pointed the gigantic cleaver at Naruto. Once covered in blood, the liquid dripping off it swirled, seeping into the metal as Shikamaru watched.

The man's demeanor and face shifted from contrite and apologetic to rage-filled. Watching him gave Shikamaru whiplash.

"Who the fuck spoke to me like that? Rude as hell!"

Naruto stepped forward, brandishing his blades in something like a challenge.

Fucking idiot, we don't want to antagonize this psycho!

The scored line running through the man's hitai-ite made his identity all too clear with the addition of the famous blade in his grip. The man cocked his head as if listening to something beyond the hearing of most people.

Jūzō Biwa, Monster in the Mist. Rogue ninja from Hidden Mist.

Shikamaru held out a hand, to grab his shoulder or to warn him, he wasn't sure. Maybe both.

"Naruto—"

Naruto held up a hand behind him without looking. But the man spoke before Naruto could say anything.

"My partner is already inside. He should be finishing up by now. So I guess… I guess I'll deal with you lot. I doubt anybody would mind."

The blonde seemed, in a moment, more like his older, more aggressive self: a cold smile on his face.

"Do you know Raiga Kurosaki?"

A strange expression crossed Jūzō's face then a rictus sprouted from the once-calm face.

"Whose fucking asking?"

Naruto started walking forward, blades spread out on either side of him like wings.

There was a savagery suppressed in his voice. If Shikamaru didn't know better, he'd swear Naruto was grinning. The Nara chalked this up to one more mystery about the Uzumaki: how did he know yet another of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist?

"The man who killed him."

What? Did the Nara hear what he thought he did? Naruto claimed to have killed one of the Seven...before he came to the Academy?

Shaking himself mentally, he realized that wasn't relevant to the situation. A distraction at best.

Jūzō started laughing, the same wild manic guffaws from before.

"Ah kid, you're good. Too funny. I'm going to enjoy playing with you kids."

Kiba snorted in the back.

Shikamaru prayed he wouldn't say anything inflammatory.

"This guy is a couple screws short of a full tool box."

And there went that hope.

Jūzō didn't seem to hear, thankfully.

The others were simply quiet, watching, waiting. Satsuki stepped forward.

"You said, what was that name you said? And why are you here?"

"We are on a little errand for the Seifuku-sha. Nothing for you to worry about, little bites."

Jūzō squinted, staring a little harder at Satsuki. Connections were firing in Shikamaru's brain as he started to panic. Suspicions bloomed as he recognized the name.

Fugaku.

As in Fugaku Uchiha.

"Satsuki-"

But Jūzō cut him off with a wide grin. Everyone took a step back as they saw his full face for the first time. And his teeth. Filed to points, razor blade teeth filled his mouth in a way that Shikamaru wondered idly how he didn't cut himself to ribbons. Each word he spoke hammered home like spikes in a crucifixion, delivered between each throaty laugh.

"Oh why hello little Satsuki. Not so little anymore, eh? You've grown ripe like your mother."

Jūzō dropped his blade with a heavy thud, grounding it in the dirt and leaning on it, one hand coming up in an invitation to the doorway.

"Daddy dearest is inside bathing in a little Leaf blood. I would just bet he'd love to see you. Go on inside, I won't stop you. This ought to be very entertaining."

Satsuki went rigid after the first word, but soon became panicked, eyes darting around as if she couldn't decide what the right thing to do was; one look at Naruto, then the rest of the team, then the tower. Shikamaru locked eyes with Naruto, who turned from his position in front of Jūzō.

"Satsuki, don't!"

Satsuki broke into a sprint, straight past the missing-nin who didn't move a muscle to stop her. Naruto was right on her heels having understood Shikamaru's look in an instant. They both knew she would take any opportunity where her dad was concerned.

Jūzō attempted to stop Naruto with a blade as tall as a man and thicker than Shikamaru's waist, blurring to bisect the Uzumaki.

The hit never connected.

Faster than Shikamaru thought possible, Naruto was outlined with white fire. He leapt into a low spinning flip, sliding under the blade, bending almost in half before throwing himself forward towards the open door where Satsuki had disappeared in one smooth motion. One violet eye looked back before he disappeared into the darkness and Shikamaru noticed, perhaps for the first time, how white his friend's hair looked.

Then there was no time to think.

Shikamaru's hands were already blurring in hand seals, using the shadow of the massive blade as a connecting bridge.

Jūzō froze, half-turned to the door to follow his teammates.

Calmer than he felt, Shikamaru spoke.

"You're staying here with us."

Teeth bared in a rictus snarl of a wild beast more so than a man, the Nara gave out orders to the tense squad around him.

Frozen as he was holding Jūzō in a hundred threads of shadow, he knew he couldn't keep this up for long. The man's will was already in a direct contest with his.

Turning his head slightly, Shikamaru spoke quickly.

"We only have so long with this fucking guy as that force is moving in from the West, presumably to fully secure the area around the tower. We have at best twenty minutes to deal with Jūzō—"

Sakura and Hayato stepped forward almost as one, then did a double-take. Sakura motioned with her hand for him to continue.

"No Shikamaru, we have to do something to delay them. I'll take the explosive tags and rig the area. Then I'll come back and help you finish this guy."

"Hayato can't go alone. I'll go with him. The two of us should be able to avoid Black Ocean and the ninja if we move now."

"Sakura…"

"Shut it, Hyūga. This is my choice. And you know you need help."

Hayato opened his mouth, but Shikamaru cut him off, straining against Jūzō.

"No. Sakura stays, so does Hayato. Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino are going to stall that force ONLY. Don't die. Meet back here when you're done."

Kiba grinned, but it faded looking at the Monster in the Mist, and Shino just nodded.

All three: Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino faded into the mist without looking back.

Shikamaru felt the strain in the tenketsu of his hands, burning needles that pressed into each of the areas that shadows emanated from in groups of threads.

"Sakura, Hayato- I can't be sure that Ino made it… so I need you two to move as fast as you can, avoid patrols, and get help!"

Screaming to the others in warning, Shikamaru held on as long as he could.

Hayato and Sakura looked torn, but nodded. Just in time. He waited for them to crest the mountain and start descending.

His jutsu broke in a fiery backlash that left him gasping for breath.

Strangled, he choked out, "He's free!"

That same blade, the unfathomable slab of iron that slaughtered Jonin like Genin, stabbed at the defenseless Nara who watched it coming and could do nothing; a guillotine slamming down on the guilty.

But then Choji wassuddenly there.

Half the size of an adult oak tree now, Choji Akimichi met Jūzō Biwa, Monster in the Mist, shield-to-blade and for a half-second it seemed like Jūzō would prevail as the veins in the now-gigantic Akimichi bulged.

Shikamaru fell to his knees gasping, desperately processing chakra to his limbs in an effort to regain control, and was unprepared to feel a pulse of chakra flash out from Choji and then he watched in stupefaction as the S-rank Missing-nin was blown like a ragdoll into the wall of the tower, kicking up a cloud of dust that obscured where he landed.

The mist around them thickened and Shikamaru levered himself up as Sakura materialized on his right side, helping. They both watched Choji breath heavily, sounding like the bellows of a blacksmith's forge, as laughter echoed in the rapidly fogging area.

Jūzō Biwa's huge shape walked steadily out of the mist and it reminded Shikamaru so much of Mr. Smiles; a relentless manifestation of chakra itself.

The missing-nin wiped blood off his grinning mouth. A terribly small amount for the hit that Choji delivered. A hit that almost certainly would've nearly killed Shikamaru in one shot.

Readying himself, Shikamaru pushed off of Choji, who did the same to him, as he watched Jūzō disappear from sight and appear above them, slamming his blade down into the ground, cratering a three meter sphere below them.

Together, with no discernible signal, Choji, Shikamaru, and the hulking brute that was his trump card, a shadow taller than their enemy, all converged on the enemy ninja and their battle was joined.

A minor delay was all they could hope for and death the most likely outcome: but Shikamaru hoped he'd sent away enough that some would survive.

#


/WILDFIRE Communications Array: Deep Storage

/Genbu City

/River Country

Naruto Uzumaki


Like elsewhere in the city, the atrium of the Communications Tower was a carnal heap. Lines of blood, like a particularly talented painter beginning the bottom layer of a canvas with only the color red, decorated almost everything one could see; from the high, circular walls that ran past his vision, obscured only by the central shaft that Naruto presumed led down to the guts of the thing, to the pathway that led to the elevator itself, which was adorned with some lighter stone than the rest in a straight line that Naruto followed, occasionally broken by more more bloody streaks. Naruto only had time for an impression of spartan furnishings in the atrium before he had to lunge at the closing elevator door.

Jamming his whole arm through the gap, there was a fearful moment or two of wondering if the door would just chop off his arm before the sensors activated and halted the progression, widening the entrance again and revealing his quarry staring at him with a heated glare.

"Don't give me that fucking look Satsuki. This was stupid and you know it."

Stony silence descended as Naruto carefully stepped over a body and a pool of blood and into the golden-adorned elevator car.

The doors closed. Naruto stared at his reflection and hers, distorted by the shiny metal. Satsuki looked like nothing more than an avenging deva from the stories; flawless, beautiful, and cold. She'd filled out from when they first started, not looking rail-thin anymore, but powerful; with muscle girding her from head-to-toe. She was powerful and looked the part.

Puberty, Naruto found out, started much earlier for shinobi.

Chakra couldn't accelerate muscle growth, except in rare circumstances, but the nature of what they did and the effect of chakra on young bodies, combined with their extensive physical training, meant that almost everyone who went through the Academy left looking much older. Twelve looked like sixteen. Thirteen looked even older.

Naruto felt much older than sixteen, regardless of how he looked. There was a dull throb still where Orochimaru's sword stabbed through him. That would never go away and he knew it was psychosomatic more than a real wound. He felt as old as Mifune as he stared at Satsuki because he felt like he somewhat understood the motivation that drove her to abandon all reason and rush inside, if not the exact feeling.

He watched her jaw grind, the muscle flexing in her cheeks.

Romance was the last thing on his mind, he told himself. No, he noticed these things about her now because he realized he'd never asked her at all about what she wanted from her life. He saw the person, but didn't know her.

Did she want to become Hokage?

Naruto knew she had a strained relationship with her mother. That, and she loved her older brother Itachi with everything she had; worshiped him even. She freely admitted that when he'd asked about him. Yet, beyond that, the whole Uchiha situation had never been explained to him. This was beginning to seem like a massive oversight. Some bubbling trauma, reminding him a lot of himself, clearly burned her deep down. Or not so deep down, looking at the hard expression on her face.

He knew she loved dango, The Travels of Derring Redmane novels, that her nose scrunched when she did any complex problem that required a writing instrument, and that she had a habit of sleeping in a little too much. That wasn't all a person was, however.

Naruto slapped the button for, 'Deep Storage,' as it was one of only two: the one they'd come from, and the place they were going.

Silence continued as Naruto struggled to figure out what to say.

Satsuki spoke first.

"You didn't have to follow me."

"I know."

"You can fuck off if you think you can convince me to turn back."

"We abandoned our team for this, so we better make it worthwhile."

Naruto could smell the guilt on her, but some things, he knew, were worth the guilt.

Satsuki opened her mouth, but Naruto cut her off.

"I want to meet your brother."

She stared at him.

"What? You want to meet Itachi? Why?"

Naruto shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable. "Because?"

Satsuki clearly was waiting for a better answer. Naruto scrunched a hand in his hair, catching on his ponytail.

"...you've met Shizune and she's the closest thing I have to family at the moment. Seems fair that I meet yours, right?"

After that, it was Satsuki's turn to look uncomfortable.

"Yeah, I guess that's true."

The elevator clanged away, a soft hum surrounding them as the car plunged downward at what felt like a breakneck pace. How deep was this thing?

Naruto caught her looking at him out of the corner of his eye. He hoped she'd open up, at least a little bit. But maybe he could prod her, just a bit?

She looked just a tiny bit lost. But it was her turn to interrupt him as he opened his mouth. She spoke softly, not like her normal voice at all. Hesitant. Reluctant.

"My Mom was...away from the compound when the Nine-tails attacked Konohagakure. I don't know what she was doing that night, for sure, but I think she was at your birth. Kushina, your mom, unbeknownst to most people, was the previous container of the Nine-tails."

Naruto listened quietly. He knew parts of this from Mikoto and part from the actual Nine-tails itself and probably the rest from his Dad's journal.

"...apparently the Seifuku-sha had something to do with its appearance. I'm not totally sure on the details. All I know is that after that- Danzo-fucking-Shimura, traitorous ex-Hokage, started these nasty rumors that the Uchiha had something to do with the death of the Fourth and his wife. There were accusations made in the Jonin council. The Uchiha Clan, who provided policing services to the city were spit on, ridiculed, and suffered attacks in the streets."

Her fists tightened at her side. Naruto could believe every word. Konoha was no exception to the universal law of humans.

"People started to turn on us, people we knew, people we worked with, friends, other clans: they believed we were jealous because my dad was passed over for the position of Hokage in favor of your dad. They thought he was petty enough to get revenge by withholding the aid of our clan while Konohagakure was in dire straits."

Naruto murmured, "...the attack."

Satsuki nodded tightly. "Exactly."

"Unfortunately. They aren't wrong."

She whipped around and glared daggers at him.

"What the fuck does that mean?"

He faced her calmly, "The Seifuku-sha, the, 'Conqueror' is Madara Uchiha."

She stared at him, eyebrows raised, incredulous. "No, you're serious, aren't you?"

Naruto scoffed. "I told you all this, Satsuki. Madara is famous for his control over the Nine-tails. Who attacked my mother? Killed her and then my dad? Who found me in Iron and tried to extract the Nine-tails from me? Fucking Madara Uchiha."

Turning away from her, Naruto returned to staring at their reflection in the door.

"So ironically, yes, it was an Uchiha that killed my father. They are right, in a sick way. But they blamed your clan, right?"

Satsuki returned her gaze from the side of his face back to the door.

"Ever since, you know, That Night… well, there was a sentiment in the Uchiha clan that Konoha was ungrateful for the sacrifice of all the Uchiha who had defended the Leaf with honor. I don't know, I was so little at the time…"

She cleared her throat, adjusting her gloves.

"Anyway, my mom told me that my father became secretive after that, going on strangely long missions outside the village. When he came back he was... different."

She sighed, shrugging as if to say she couldn't account for the rest.

"One night, the clan just… up and left. Migrated out of the village. The only two people that didn't leave were my mom and Itachi, who went after them. People I've talked to said there were a lot of people killed that night, those who tried to stop the Uchiha from leaving—innocent people dead at the hands of their own shinobi. Guards, sentries, all dead."

He watched her gloved hand make a 'poofing' impression.

"My clan disappeared overnight. My brother Sasuke, my father… my cousins, uncles, aunts. Gone."

Naruto watched the progress bar of the elevator while listening intently.

Satsuki was quiet for a full minute. When she spoke next, she sounded tired.

"...The only reason given for them up and vanishing was that there was a new Kage in Hidden Rain who offered them sanctuary, a place that would appreciate 'us' properly. Which is crazy. The Leaf is our home…

Naruto let her speak as she started to ramble. He tried not to watch as she surreptitiously swept at her eyes. Reaching out, he grabbed her hand impulsively, squeezing it. She squeezed back.

"My older brother, not Itachi, Sasuke is the middle child—went with them. I don't remember what he looks like now. Probably like me I bet. That was also the night Itachi lost his eyes. Won't tell me how. I think it was my dad. But I can't prove it."

She looked thoughtful now.

"I guess I can prove it since I can ask my dad directly."

She eyed him, he turned and looked at her. Violet to red and black.

"...then what?"

Her response, slow in coming, sounded dead.

"Then my mom went out after them all. And came back alone."

Naruto thought the story through. A lot of things were vague or just flat out didn't make sense. He spoke up after a second, hands coming up involuntarily.

"I don't get it. How do you know they are even still alive? What if this new Kage lied and just killed them all? Can you trust a clan that left a village and abandoned their oath?"

Satsuki laughed. Bitter didn't begin to describe it.

"I doubt it. I bet they are sitting pretty, getting pampered by their new buddy. Fucking traitors. Every time people look at me, I see them wondering if I'm a good Uchiha or a bad Uchiha. Itachi fought for years to get back his official status. Some bullshit about not knowing his whereabouts the night of the Uchiha Betrayal. A load of horseshit. He's the last person to betray the Leaf, Uchiha or not."

She kicked the ground, growling.

"My mom is constantly having to wave her authority around. They obey her, yes, but they don't love her. She's held to a much higher standard of conduct just because she's an Uchiha and a woman to boot. She probably wouldn't be Hokage at all if she didn't personally help the Third kill that fucking traitor Danzo."

Piecing together events and things in his head, Naruto struggled to make sense of it all. The elevator was slowing down.

Ready or not, Fugaku Uchiha would be waiting.

Pressing their bodies to opposite sides of the elevator car, they waited with baited breath as the door chimed, sliding smoothly open and revealing a brightly-lit, high-ceiled space filled with strange metallic obelisks covered in steadily-blinking colored lights.

"What do you think these are?"

Voice deliberately low, Naruto asked Satsuki who didn't answer right away, staring around.

"I think these are the information storage devices Professor Namiashi mentioned in some of the older histories. Servals? Servers?"

Puzzled, Naruto stayed in a low crouch as the two of them paralleled each other, walking down the blood-covered walkway.

Satsuki pointed and Naruto followed her finger.

There was a large sign overhead, glowing with a steady white light, that read, 'The Ark.'

"I did some research for Shikamaru before we left in the historical archives. Turns out this repository has been here since before the empire shattered."

Mulling that fact over in his head, Naruto wondered out loud.

"What could the Seifuku-sha want with information in this place?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Satsuki shrug.

"The question I'm more concerned with is this: if it's a communication tower, what does it communicate with?"

The area they'd been following, a well-lit length of floor bracketed by running lights, opened into a wide and shallow bowl of an area.

Fugaku Uchiha, or what Naruto assumed was Fugaku Uchiha, stood with his back to them in front of the largest server yet. Many screens stared at them like a spider's eyes, each reflecting the light.

His voice was smooth, strong, and commanding.

"That's a rather excellent question. I'm proud of you, my baby girl."

Naruto couldn't help but think that, when Satsuki's father turned around and looked up at them, that he resembled nothing so much as the Land of Iron's folktales about the vampire: a high-collar covered half of his head and the rest was impossible to see, concealed beneath a black and red mask painted with a laughing face.

Yet there was nothing remotely funny about the sheer power radiating off the man, nor the darkness in his eyes, or the blood soaking the hem of his beautifully-worked silk robes etched with the same blood-red and black clouds. But on Jūzō Biwa it looked cheap, off the rack.

On Fugaku, they looked expensive, tailored, and moulded to his body.

Naruto couldn't see his hands as they were concealed in the voluminous cloak.

"I've wished for this for so long, wondered which of us you'd look like when you grew up. So, too, do I think about Sasuke. Wondering the same things. Wondering what he would've been like had he…"

Risking a quick glance at Satsuki, he saw the same confusion he felt painting her face. Fugaku noticed. Naruto could only see his chin and his eyes, but he knew the man quirked a smile.

Not one out of laughter. There was only bitterness.

"Confusion? Hm. An interesting reaction. I think I know why… so let me tell you a story of a naughty girl unsatisfied with her lot in life and a cautionary tale of what happens when you get a little power to go along with such a person, shall I?"

Fugaku folded his hands, which now Naruto saw had long, extremely sharp-looking nails.

"Well! I think our story should start with a little secret, hm? My dear daughter, the Uchiha, for many centuries now, have unlocked most of our juiciest powers by watching people we love die. How quaint. Strong emotion really, if I'm forced to be specific about it."

Naruto's mind raced a thousand feet a second. That… tracked with what he knew about the Sharingan, which was admittedly not as much as he wanted.

Satsuki looked… well, he honestly couldn't tell. She was fixated on her father and his words.

"So, little Mikoto, my once-dear, demure little wife, goes and watches her best friend," here he shifted his gaze and Naruto saw raw grief in his eyes as he looked at Naruto, "get slaughtered in cold blood by an Uchiha. One I'd never met or known about. I told her not to go, I fucking told her! We'd been expressly ordered by Danzo not to interfere."

Spittle flew and his Sharingan blazed in his eyes. Naruto swallowed hard.

Keep him talking.

[This man will kill you, Seed. There will be nothing I can do for you.]

[I don't think Fugaku will kill his daughter. I hope not, anyway.]

Naruto reminded himself that he did have the Yin Seal. That reassured him.

But not much.

Fugaku paced, silver-buckled boots making clicking sounds.

"Ravishing, beautiful, nasty, sweet Mikoto used her new fancy Mangekyo power to apprentice herself to the Third Hokage after Minato died and worm her way out from under what she saw as my thumb. I started taking care of you and Sasuke, all while trying to balance being the Head of a Clan, a Jonin with a team of my own, and trying to prevent my eldest from plunging into the darkness of ANBU under that fucking snake Danzo!"

Satsuki took a step back from the shouting. There was an instability here, in the way Fugaku spoke, that was starting to worry Naruto. He half-put himself in front of Satsuki but she shoved him out of the way, opening her mouth-

Fugaku hissed, spinning, pointing a finger at his daughter. He was speaking now, not to her, but at them.

"I cried and mourned my friend and rival Minato in my own way, but my very clan was in the crosshairs. Public opinion turned, as fickle as the wind, and lit a fire in the Uchiha. Economic issues, and insult after insult were swallowed until the bellies of the Uchiha were bursting with the poison Konohagakure fed us. Sasuke… Sasuke was a genius. I saw in him what I saw in Itachi."

Fugaku stopped, folding his arms and staring at the ceiling as if he could bore through it and look at the endless sky above.

"I dreaded what you three would confront when you reached your majority: a biased, prejudiced Konoha that made you resent your very name. To doubt, to question the Uchiha's integrity? Our faith? Our honor?"

That last word he fairly spat.

"I could not let it go on… I looked and looked for a solution, one that would satisfy all parties… but the cost was too high in every direction I looked. Except one. I thought joining a neutral country would be our best hope for survival. I wanted you and Sasuke to grow up in a peaceful place. With Hanzo gone… Hidden Rain could be the place that snuffed out the fire burning all of us to death. Could be the thing that pulled the poison out and let us retain our honor."

A cold, piercing laugh, not the sound of a sane man rang throughout the Ark.

Involuntarily, both of them took a step back.

Fugaku whirled, pinning them both with a look and a pointed, sharp-nailed finger.

"But Mikoto wasn't satisfied with her life and chose The Hidden Leaf over her clan. Chose her ambition over me. Chose her aspiration and power over her family!"

Satsuki's face twisted into a confused rage, clearly grasping onto the one thing she knew as the accusations of her father hit a little too close to home. Naruto knew how she felt about her mom and her lack of involvement in her life.

"This is a load of horseshit. You killed people on the way out of Konohagakure. You're a goddamn traitor. You and all the rest!"

If her previous words triggered a reaction, this one went off like one of his enhanced explosive tags.

Fugaku shouted with all the force of an S-ranked shinobi out-of-control.

They both felt the wind and felt the pain and hatred in it.

"'All the rest? All the rest of what? Our clan?I'm all that's left you stupid fucking child! Three hundred and sixteen souls walked out of Konohagakure searching for peace and found DEATH at the hands of your traitor mother. We didn't even get ten miles before she fell on us like a spider finding flies in her webs!"

Fugaku was, Naruto realized, crying. But that quickly passed in favor of a cold anger that was somehow worse than anything before it.

The man was beside himself with fury and madness and grief. Naruto could understand what that felt like and looked like and all signs pointed to the fact that if they stayed: he'd kill them.

But Satsuki…

Satsuki looked like she now placed the final pieces into a puzzle she'd been working on for so long and found her own time and place of death staring her in the face. She looked like someone killed all the hope in her life.

Naruto gently took her elbow and whispered to her, "Satsuki- I know," he swallowed, finding the words hard, "I know… this is hard. Believe me, of all people, I understand. But we have to leave. Our team is out there and this is… this isn't going anywhere, okay? We'll deal with this later, yeah?"

Fugaku was pacing and shouting now, his agitation growing with each damning word. Naruto shut his mind down to the information- the horrifying story of their own Hokage murdering her whole clan, and backpedaled, attempting to drag Satsuki away.

"...she's a fucking monstrous spider, a butcher who eats her own children! She carved up her own son. MY SON! Three generations of Uchiha families- gone! Women, children, feeble old men- it didn't matter to her!"

Glittering red threads spiraled up from a pool of blood spreading around Fugaku's feet, wavering in the air like searching sea anemones. Diamond-like blood poured from the S-Ranked shinobi's cloak like a waterfall. Naruto watched the man's eyes, spinning now with a diamond-shaped tomoe in his Sharingan.

"...as I held my son, carved up by black blades, in my arms. I felt his blood in my mouth, in my eyes, under my fingernails. I felt, Satsuki, I felt my eyes burn like a fire that wouldn't ever stop. I SCREAMED AND I SCREAMED."

Satsuki backed up from his fury, grief twisting her face. Unsure.

"That's impossible. She wouldn't do that."

Mikoto wouldn't do that. Would she? Konohagakure wouldn't do that? Would they?

But Naruto read his father's journal: they would and did. Minato himself slaughtered over a thousand Iwa-nin. But wasn't this different? That was war, these were civilians- non-combatants. This was very different, right?

Naruto knew it was, but what about all the misgivings he'd had with the way the Daimyo ran Fire Country? All the sins committed in the cities and towns that people in power could fix if they really wanted to?

How was this any different?

A refusal to see the evil being done around you and deliberately choosing to maintain the status quo instead of changing things was surely the same as actively participating in evil, was it not?

Yes, he'd felt this way for a while. What Mikoto had done was evil.

Plain and simple.

It felt like a punch to the gut when he realized something similar wiped out the Uzumaki and now he and Satsuki had far more in common than he ever would have wished.

"The Hokage… would do anything to protect their own. Anything and everything."

Satsuki started to cry. Naruto felt frozen.

"No, she wouldn't… she didn't…!"

"Search it in your heart, you know it is true. I've etched that fact on my heart since that day, sweet Satsuki. But you know what?"

In a flash, Satsuki snapped from grief to rage. Fugaku went from snarling to smiling in a breath.

"...Mikoto spared you, didn't she?"

Everything happened all at once.

Naruto heard Fugaku's voice, cold as winters breath.

"I gained my own powers from watching my son die… and as I said, we gain power from strong emotion, my love."

Sharp fingers rose and the blood, pooling around him like a pond now, rose into iron-straight lines, honing into finely-detailed spears of blood.

"Hunger Release: Ragnarok Strings."

A fire technique bigger than a house erupted from Satsuki with no warning and such a fast flare-up that Naruto flinched away on instinct.

Fugaku didn't even flinch.

"Hunger Release: Symphony of Blood."

A hundred, then a thousand lines of diamond-hard blood lines shredded the fire in a way Naruto couldn't understand, almost seeming to drink it, growing brighter as if lit from the inside.

Naruto watched as if outside his body as Satsuki's spinning Sharingan eyes widened in sudden alarm and fear. The Symphony of Blood technique, a cloud of bloody spears, all banks in a forty-five degree angle, as if etched on the world, and homes in on Satsuki directly.

Kaguya is screaming in his head and Naruto finds he's yelling out loud as he forces his body to move. Satsuki dodges one, then two of the spears, then a hundred red strings stab her all the way through and she hangs in front of him like a puppet divested of strings. Blood runs out of her mouth and sprays onto the side of the servers nearest them. Fugaku clenches his fist and the strings hoist her up, blood dripping off the points protruding from her back, and slams her body down.

Arms outstretched as if to catch her, Naruto doesn't do anything except listen to her choke.

The Ragnarok Strings reverse, pulling out of her with a sucking sound, and hover over her directly now, stitching together into one thick spear.

Ignoring Kaguya's fear and the guillotine above his neck, Naruto covers her body with his and, focusing with an effort of will, activates his Control Seals, flooding Satsuki's body with precise bursts. Changing the regular chakra into the Yang-dominant regenerative chakra, this quickly put everything he'd ever learned to the test.

While he did so, Naruto used a diagnostic jutsu to blast through her body.

There was too much damage, too quickly. He needed to use more than his meagre Control Seals would allow. Multiple punctured organs required immediate critical care that he couldn't provide. Dozens of vital, nicked veins required sealing. One String went through her neck and he could see the pulsing of her esophagus as she attempted to draw air through a punctured lung.

Anguish built in him like an appendix on the verge of rupturing. All Naruto saw was Kazan. He couldn't hear anything except a buzzing in his head. He couldn't even hear Fugaku shouting.

"...seems fitting that I take the only thing she ever cared about besides herself from her, don't you think? Step aside, child of Minato. That nice request is the last favor I owe my rival."

Without bothering to answer, or look back, Naruto picked up the dying Satsuki in his arms, ignored the blood coating him like a macabre mirror of her father's cloak, and sprinted in the other direction.

"So be it. He can't say I didn't try when I see him in the afterlife. Hunger Release: Bloodpuppet."

There was a sound like a wet gurgle, a cannonball splash in reverse as something pulled itself out of blood. Many somethings. Tiny, wet slapping sounds and growls like an underfed dog spotting a steak followed him and Naruto dared not look back.

Satsuki didn't have much time.

[KAGUYA! Please- I don't- I can't- I need help!]

[I… can't help you with this, Seed. I urge you to keep running. Leave her!]

There was nothing in his mind except memories of his flight through Iron. Each step flashing to the same one through the bowels of his mountain home. Each step reminding him that he'd run from that Mist ANBU and ran right into the same man that orchestrated all of this: the place he'd seen the only family he'd ever truly known killed and treated like their lives never mattered.

Each step flashed him to Master Ouran's workshop and Yojimbra's desperate, futile fight with Orochimaru, a man with the title Sannin given for a reason. The frantic attempts at staunching Ouran's wounds, as his hands slipped over Satsuki's bloody flesh, flayed him anew with the failures he'd thought he'd forgiven himself for. But of course not, because wounds like that stayed and festered despite the healing process, didn't they?

Orochimaru caught up with Naruto in the end, almost killed him, and he did his best to, yet failed.

This time, it wasn't just Naruto- it was Kazan all over again. The same variation on the same damned tune and he was well and truly sick of running, of hiding, of surviving.

Legs pumping in blur, he dropped into a ground slide with Satsuki cradled in his arms, that carried him into the elevator and dumped him on his ass, spilling the dying girl, but giving him time to slam the 'close door' button just in time.

Red horrors were snarling and falling over themselves in a wave to get to the door. Fifteen, then ten feet, then five.

Naruto lashed out with a fist, yelling out all his anger and fear.

"Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder!"

The hall thundered with the crash of jagged swords of light, a million degrees of heat obliterating the wave of bloody creatures just in time for the doors to shut. With a last slitted glimpse through the shutting doors, he saw fires break out from the electromagnetic damage in the machines. Fugaku didn't look fazed. They stared at one another.

Then the doors closed and Naruto leapt into action.

He poured all he had into closing the worst of the wounds; but it was like bailing water out of a sinking ship. The floor of the elevator was covered in the sticky mess of her life fluid.

Sketching a shaky Aegis seal in the air, the chakra staying where his fingers traced burning runes on reality, he attempted to craft, on the fly, an Aegis that would heal her.

Slamming his palm, complete with a huge chunk of his remaining reserves, he watched with bated breath as the healing script sunk into her- and failed.

I can't let her die. I can't let her die. She won't fucking DIE! WHAT IS THE POINT IF I CAN'T EVEN SAVE ONE PERSON?

Tsunade, with her scornful face and cutting words, swam into his head.

I refuse to teach you. You've shown yourself to be nothing but selfish. 'You'll use this for the wrong reasons,' that was what she'd said about-

Naruto's fingers brushed his Yin Seal, the hardness of it providing something to ground himself on as he waited on Satsuki to die.

I know it won't be the Creation Rebirth… I still don't know enough to do that… but I can try something like it, can't it?

[Seed, if you use that energy now…Jūzō is still out there. So are all the other enemies surrounding you. Use this reserve now and you'll have nothing.]

Naruto didn't hesitate. Feeling around mentally using his spiritual sight, he felt the deep reserves of power, of pure chakra, and broke the seal.

A raw thunderstorm of energy, all-encompassing, flooded him, filled him up, his mind ran with energy and he felt his Lightning Mark and Control Seals flare with energy.

The elevator dinged its way up, but Naruto ignored it as he steadied himself, calmed his emotions, and directed a dammed-up ocean of chakra towards Satsuki… and broke the dam.

Naruto couldn't say how long he rode waves of energy, directing and converting so much his Control Seals ached and his bones felt leaden as he recombined ratios of Yang to Yin in precise amounts over and over again for an infinite age; lost in the subtleties of white blood cells, platelets, organ regeneration, and stitching. Repairing nerves was tricky and he did his best, but Naruto knew- even as he directed an unbelievable amount of healing energy- that Satsuki would still not be okay when he was done.

At best he'd buy her time- time enough, hopefully, to get her to a field hospital with better trained medical ninjas that could save her for real.

This was no Creation Rebirth. He was not rebuilding on a molecular level, no, he was simply accelerating healing processes and supplementing her own energy, in dwindling supply since her body was focused on preventing her death, with his own energy. She was so close to death's door that Naruto was draining himself dry merely to keep her on that fine edge. Creating blood from Yang chakra was even more difficult, the limits of what he could truly do. That blood wouldn't even really be enough as it wasn't, strictly-speaking, real enough to sustain her for long. No, he was not working a miracle, merely helping her body buy time till someone else could do something real.

The elevator dinged and he came back to himself; the exhaustion stealing over him feeling not physical, no, that would be easy to ignore, but a kind of smothering blanket over his mind and chakra system that no self-healing could shake.

Slumped against the wall with Satsuki half-in and half-out of his lap, Naruto carefully started applying bandages to her whole torso where countless wounds were obvious from the shredded KSMA uniform.

Finishing up with his last bandage, pulled from the reserve supply on his thigh holster, he grabbed her under the arms and yanked her out of the elevator, unsticking her from the rapidly-drying pool of blood on the floor.

Feeling her pulse, Naruto channeled yet another diagnostic jutsu. Information connected in his mind, received as impressions that he needed to use his meager experience with the jutsu to decipher.

She's in a coma.

He'd given her enough artificial blood to hopefully prevent hypovolemic shock, a condition caused primarily by a lack of blood flow to organs and tissues. The coma was… worrisome, but not anything he could do anything about at the moment. This was the part where he prayed to whatever deity was watching and hoped for the best.

Piercing sounds of the clash of weapons and rumbling of technique detonations or something explosive reached through his focus.

I can't stay here. Fugaku will be coming. But I can't go out there into combat with a wounded comrade. Fuck.

[You must save yourself, Seed. You did well to save the girl, but you can't save everyone. Two hares chased is two lost. Pick one.]

Mind in flux, still not sure what the right call should be, Naruto focused on the fact that Shikamaru and Choji were still fighting on the other side of the door. That meant there was hope. Where there was hope, there was a chance.

Hoisting Satsuki's dead weight up, he settled her across his shoulders with one leg and one arm on either side of his head, secure. Naruto realized, as he did that, that he'd lost his swords at some point.

Fuck. So stupid.

Luckily, he'd packed more. Not that he totally needed physical swords. He carried swords around, as Sakura said, like other kids carried their baby blankets. Comfort.

Breathing deeply at the door to the outside, Naruto carefully pushed the bar and left the tower, taking in the mountain top that had become a warzone.

As Naruto watched from the doorway, Jūzō Biwa sped through a long string of hand seals, seemingly unconcerned about the several tons of armored Akimichi rushing at him from twenty feet away.

In the next moment, Naruto saw why.

Puddles of water dotted the still fog-shrouded mountaintop, some steaming, some not, obviously as a result of some fire techniques. Those same puddles coalesced as Jūzō finished his last seal and water streamed from everywhere to form a massive water prison around the raging Akimichi.

Choji was trapped and struggling.

But Shikamaru was not idle. Naruto saw it about the same time Jūzō did, but the Missing-nin was faster.

A tag, hissing, came arcing down from above the water prison holding Choji and detonated almost above Jūzō, who threw himself backwards and covered a good chunk of his body with the flat of the hulking zanbato.

Slipping sideways, Naruto avoided the concussive whump of the explosion and the storm of metal shards by hiding inside the tower. Nervously, he looked back and saw the elevator had disappeared and seemed to be rising back up.

He needed to move. Forward, apparently.

His chakra was still topped off from the Yin Seal, but even those reserves started to dwindle. He'd need to dip into it more in order to help Shikamaru and Choji disengage from that fucking psycho. But he didn't want to put Satsuki down. They didn't have time to keep fucking around.

Control Seal flaring, Naruto wove together an Electromagnetic Murder and primed himself.

Settling his breath, he thought over his plan. It was shit, but it was all he had.

Stepping out of the doorway, Naruto locked eyes with Shikamaru.

His hand darted towards Jūzō Biwa who looked, for all of four long seconds, surprised, confused, disappointed and then he settled on smiling with all of those crocodile teeth, before Naruto raised an arm, scripts flaring around his wrists.

Naruto pointed at Jūzō Biwa.

And released.

An almost solid-bar of white light, lightning tightly controlled by plasma channels created through the air in a conduit between him and his target, thundered out and struck Jūzō dead center in his chest.

The explosion rocked the side of the mountain, one of countless, and smoke, dust, and debris shot up and mixed with the fog. Naruto could hear Jūzō Biwa yelling angrily as he was blasted off the edge.

Hopefully that bought them some time.

The dust cleared, the fog cleared, and the missing-nin was just barely clinging to the side of the mountain with his zanbato anchoring him into a stable position.

Barely.

Then out of nowhere, Shikamaru's nightmare shadow Mr. Smiley, muscles bulging obscenely in a kind of a chimera-monster, trucked Jūzō Biwa off his perch and down the mountain, grappling together as they fell.

The water prison technique holding Choji dropped and he dropped with it, gasping for air. Naruto wasn't sure what that meant, that the technique dropped, but it had to be good.

He shook out his hand, pins and needles tingling it from the overpowered Lightning Release, and did his best to help Choji up one-handed as Shikamaru limped over to the both of them.

Shikamaru smiled tiredly when he met Naruto's gaze. Naruto spoke to Choji, who looked like death warmed over.

"You look like shit."

"Fuck off Naruto- holy fuck, what happened to Satsuki and how is she still alive?"

"Not important, Choji. Let's get the fuck out of here."

"No argument there, Shika. I thought I was a goner."

No sooner did they take steps towards the exit that a voice sound behind them, chilling Naruto's bones in their marrow.

"I wasn't done playing with my daughter, Naruto."

"I was very much done with you, sir."

Oddly, terrifyingly, Fugaku sounded… sad. Nostalgic.

"I was there when Kushina and Minato were debating names. Both my wife and Kushina were shocked when I supported Minato's odd choice. I thought it was perfect. She'd always been obsessed with ramen, Naruto being her favorite topping. She'd resisted because she said it made her seem narcissistic. Like her son would be just an extension of her. Minato wanted that very badly. He loved her more than life itself."

There was an odd moment where Naruto wanted very much to learn more and hated himself for it. How could a man be brought so low as to become something so evil?

Where love died, evil grew.

That was a line from his father's journals and he'd initially skipped over it because it didn't make sense to him. But now, he was getting the sense that Fugaku embodied that line more than any other.

A small movement near the edge of the Communications Tower drew his attention to a creature he recognized: the Gudo, one of the Hokage's minions.

Naruto relaxed, fractionally. Mikoto was… still the Hokage. She'd save them. But the more he thought about what he'd learned not twenty minutes ago; there seemed to be a pile-up of troubling questions and the beginnings of real fear.

Was it a good thing she was here now?

Who was she… really? What are her goals? Was she moving us all like pawns? To what end?

Not important right now. Later.

"Ah, finally the butcher herself. The spider who ate her own children. I'm surprised you deigned to step out of your web for little ole me."

Mikoto Uchiha, Sixth Hokage of Konohagakure, stepped out of a swirling portal that opened in front of the four trainees; seven swords, so impossibly dark they looked fake, like portals into nothingness, floated around her head like a crown. The pressure they put on his spiritual senses instantly gave him a headache. Dense chakra, reminiscent of his Tool Creation Technique, but a hundred times more potent, carved itself into reality around all seven swords. All the elements of chakra focused and condensed into tiny points that floated on each of the points of the swords.

One minute Fugaku was leaning against the battered door frame of the tower, the next he was materializing in a blaze of bloody chakra, those Ragnarok Strings whipping around him like a spider at the center of a million-threaded web.

[Ironic given his penchant for labeling the Hokage. Now, Seed, I command you to leave while you can. This place isn't a garden safe enough for a seed like you to grow. I'd hate to see my investment pruned too early.]

Naruto ignored her and focused on the conversation, readjusting Satsuki. Shikamaru was edging towards him, he saw him out of the corner of his eye making his way over to the Uzumaki. What did he want?

Mikoto's words cut through his curiosity.

"Why is Pein bothering with some backwater communications array? You and I both know it is useless without the other. Tell me and I'll consider making your death story a heroic one in the After-action report."

Fugaku smiled. Naruto knew that look. The same one that Madara Uchiha gave him when they started extracting the Nine-tails. Feverish insanity shined like a lighthouse bulb out of his Mangekyou eyes.

"Oh, how unfortunate. Seems you are a bit behind the times."

Mikoto swept the scene with her eyes. Naruto made eye-contact with her and shrugged sadly at the implied question about her daughter.

Shikamaru tugged on his sleeve. "We need to leave. I'll ask about all the black lines running across your face like inky squiggles later."

Without looking away from the familial tableau, Naruto nodded.

"Fugaku, you know you cannot win against me. Withdraw. Now."

"I intend to, after a fashion. I've gotten what I came for. A shame I could not kill our daughter like you did with our son… and the rest of the Clan. For now… I'll settle for a little foreplay."

"Strange. I remember you not caring much for foreplay, nor being very good at it. I'll oblige for old times' sake."

Choji practically scooped Shikamaru up and Naruto already broke into a sprint as Fugaku suddenly was in Mikoto's face. Behind the little group of them, the whole mountaintop exploded with power, thunderous concussions popping off in succession.

#


Choji took over carrying Satsuki almost immediately as they got down the mountain and passed the bell tower marking Setsuna Plaza. Naruto helped Shikamaru who was practically pulped by Jūzō Biwa in taijutsu. Choji fared much better, escaping without much damage whatsoever, thankfully.

They ran in silence.

From Naruto's vantage point on the ground, he had the odd sense that the fighting in the city was almost gone, though the fires seemed more numerous than ever. More storefronts and homes were burned than not and despite the bodies in the street, this section was quieter than it had any right to be.

"If you're going to ask me if Mr. Smiles killed Jūzō Biwa the answer is a resounding, 'hell no.'"

Naruto squeezed out a tired laugh. "I wasn't, but that's comforting."

The three slowed to a stop as they knew that Kiba and Shino were supposed to have been stalling for time in the next plaza, the same place they secured in the beginning: Tadashi Square.

There was no sound. An eerie, deathly quiet.

But even as they were almost four hundred feet away from their destination they could smell what was up ahead before they even saw it. The wind shifted, hiding it, but now the wind was back, bringing smoke, heat, and the shit-stench of death and dead bodies.

A lot of them.

"Shika, how many of my tags did you give to Kiba?"

"None. I think Shino stole most of my stash actually, before they left."

Grim-faced, bracing for the worst, Choji, Shikamaru, and Naruto stepped into a slaughterhouse. Blood smeared everything. Not a single inch of the square remained clear from the massive explosions that turned this once-beautiful public place into a carnal heap of broken weapons, torn limbs, smashed skulls and exploded humanity. A cordone of bodies, ten feet high, formed a kind of dam in the center in front of which Kiba sat cross-legged, almost unrecognizable.

There was something in front of him and something in his lap.

Dread pooled in Naruto's gut. Choji and Shika, normally stoic, were shaken too.

"...Kiba?"

"We fought in a retreat away from the LZ. They had these um, new weapons that fired these short beams of chakra. Ate through Shino's defensive web of kikaichu before we could react. We fought and fought until they were coming over their own comrades' bodies. I lost my kunai, stabbed some guy with a sharp stone. Then… uh, after Akamaru died, I-"

The three of them remained rooted. Speechless.

"-yeah, I couldn't let the fuckers win, right? So I beat them to death with my bare hands. I think… I think my hand is broken. My chakra held out for the majority, but in the end… well… I did my best, Shikamaru. Right?"

Shikamaru pushed off Naruto and limped to Kiba, gripping his friend's shoulder. Pain made his face spasm and Naruto came around to see Shino, clearly dead, in Kiba's white-knuckled grip. His hand was a riot of colors, but mostly a dark black. Broken and clearly in need of dire assistance.

Kiba started crying.

Naruto looked to Shikamaru, who looked like a man facing the gallows.

Choji shoved past both of them and Naruto could barely process why he was raising his arm as if-

A slap, full-bodied, echoed in the dead silence of the newly-minted mausoleum that was Tadashi Square.

"We have to go or we die. Don't make their sacrifice meaningless, okay? We still have Satsuki, who needs medical attention, we need to find Ino and Sakura and Hayato, too."

Kiba looked up, fire burning in his eyes before it guttered slightly.

Akamaru's body, twisted wrongly, had his jaws still tightly clenched about the throat of the only enemy that seemed to have made it past the dam of bodies. Naruto exhaled slowly as tears burned the back of his eyes. He never would've guessed how much Akamaru's death would hurt until it happened.

That fucking nin-dog never liked him, but he was still one of them.

Still 5U. That meant something.

"Choji's right. We have to go."

A grinding sound, like a knife against a whetstone, started up behind them. Kiba didn't even look up, but Shikamaru's hand twisted on Kiba's arm and yanked him up into a run that took them around the mountain of bodies. Shino's body flopped to the ground in some grotesque parody of movement and Naruto steered his eyes away from his friend's body, looking at who was following them.

It was Jūzō Biwa. Of course it was.

Though the man was looking slightly worse for wear, sporting a clearly dislocated shoulder and a collection of scrapes and cuts.

Other than that… the man looked perfectly healthy. There was no doubt in his mind the man wouldn't stop until they were all dead.

Shikamaru darted back, a dead-looking Kiba in tow.

Jūzō Biwa was still fairly far away, not seemingly in a hurry. Choji looked at Naruto and Naruto looked back at him, seeing the question, the agonizing decisions playing out the same way in the other.

Naruto laid a hand on Choji's shoulder, next to where Satsuki's face rested, a wildly unhealthy pale color that he didn't like. His decision crystallized.

"Choji, give Satsuki to Kiba. Shikamaru is hurt, so you'll need to get them all back, okay?"

Choji, seemingly aged a decade, looked sharply at the Uzumaki.

"You think you can take this Missing-nin yourself? That's insane. You're good, but not that good."

Naruto grinned, showing his elongated canines. His gaze shifted to Shikamaru who came back to stand next to the Akimichi.

"...I wish I had a better plan, but… we aren't strong enough. Or well-planned enough. I'm sorry."

Naruto looked around on the ground and pulled out a slightly-curved longsword from one of the dead bodies. They weren't using it. He twirled it to test the balance. Doable.

"Stop apologizing, Shika. Get Satsuki to the foils, yeah? There should be a medic-nin named Gatsuda. Tell him that Shizune Kato gave you a priority-patient, yeah?"

Choji and Shikamaru both looked at Jūzō, who was spinning his massive zanbato liked it weighed nothing, then back at Naruto.

"...you're going to die. You know that don't you?"

"Nah. I have a secret weapon. I have a goddess in my stomach."

The two of them looked at him with the same expression: like he'd lost his fucking mind. He couldn't help but laugh.

[I can't save you Seed.]

"I know, I know. But I still have some cards to play. We don't have any time. Please. Get out of here. I didn't sacrifice so much to have Satsuki die because you chucklefucks took too long, yeah?"

[This isn't a battle you need to fight. Just run.]

[No.]

[You are no good to anyone dead.]

[Seems I'm no good alive either.]

Kaguya had no answer. Naruto closed his eyes, visualizing her standing next to him. He pictured her annoyed and just as severe as her voice depicted her as.

[I know that you were in that prison for a reason. I know that my soul space gave you room to escape that broken vessel. I also know that there were more scripts on there than I let on. I know you need a host. You're a parasite. I don't know how or why, but I know that's why my hair is getting whiter by the day, isn't it?]

Illusory Kaguya, dressed head-to-toe in her pristine robes, faced him head on. Naruto hesitated to call it a guilty expression, but more… complicated.

[Yes. I knew I couldn't hide it for long. You are… a runesmith, as we call it, of the highest caliber. Weak in training, but your intuition is… impressive.]

[Thank you.]

[Not a compliment. Merely fact.]

[Yeah, yeah. So listen- I'm giving it up.]

There was a pause, her head cocked, watching him with suspicion.

[What?]

[You heard me. Take me. I'll give you control, you take this guy out and go back and help Mikoto. I'm not strong enough… but you are. I know you are.]

There was silence so heavy that Naruto realized his perception slowed, Jūzō moving as if through molasses.

[...I will not.]

[What? I thought-]

[You don't know anything, Seed. Besides, my Throneworld isn't ready. I can't do anything besides give advice. My advice is this: run.]

The Uzumaki couldn't help it- his calm evaporated and he found himself shouting at her. Without realizing it, he'd grown up and now he and Kaguya were the same height. That seemed wrong somehow.

[No matter how fucking hard I try, the world keeps throwing shit at me that I can't handle and my friends keep dying. Everyone dies and leaves me here all alone and I- I can't-]

Kaguya doesn't speak, simply looks.

Naruto drops onto his knees in front of her, feeling as pathetic as he'd ever felt in his life.

[...why is the world so unfair?]

She doesn't answer.

Finally, Naruto looks up, trying one more time.

[Kaguya- I haven't asked for much. I'm begging now. Please, take my body, save my friends.]

Before he could say another word, Kaguya is shaking her head.

[No.] Surprise, so strong that it comes across their connection, thunders through her. Naruto sits back, half standing.

Then her face firmed, settling into something that resembled resolve.

[No, if you want anything to change in the world, you have to do it yourself. Stop waiting for powerful people to do the things you want to do and start doing them yourself.]

Naruto closed his eyes against her words.

But the next one shocked them open.

[No one is coming to save you. You have to save yourself.]

Then she was gone; her illusion vanishing as she stepped sideways into nothing and Jūzō sped up to a normal speed. Choji and Shikamaru still looked at him as Kiba stared at the ground.

"Well?"

Choji handed Satsuki over like she weighed nothing. To him she probably didn't. Kiba looked shocked and scrambled to hold her up as Choji relinquished his hold.

"...I'm just going to get her killed like I got Akamaru and Shino killed."

"Shut the fuck up. Every moment after their deaths is yet another chance to atone for whatever you think you've done wrong. Only in death is there the absence of possibility. My grandfather taught me that. There was so much I should've listened to. So much. Don't be like me."

Kaguya… you were right. I need to take responsibility for the way things are, and create the future I want for myself. The world isn't the way I want, but it can be.

I'm sorry Mifune. You were right.

"I'm going to buy you as much time as I can. Get out of here."

Naruto spun the borrowed blade, running a hand across the edge. Lightning Release chakra crackled where his hand touched the metal, sharpening it. Refining.

All three of them left with a lingering glance, angling around the mountain of bodies.

Then they were gone.

All that remained was Jūzō Biwa, the Monster of the Hidden Mist, and Naruto Uzumaki, Trainee of Konohagakure.


A/N: Thank you to everyone that read- a special thanks to those of you that reviewed. Hard to know when I'm doing things right (or when I'm doing things wrong) unless I get those precious critiques.

We have, at most, one more chapter left to go, assuming I don't split it. (I might... so definitely two, max). A huge shout-out, as always, to MisticalNinja and Fuyuriku for their beta-work. Another shout-out to VermillionVortex for the most thorough reviews an author could ask for. Thank you.

To everyone who has enjoyed so far and been encouraging about writing- I write for myself first and foremost, but I consider you all the icing on a very fine cake indeed.

J.B. Macleod