His friends were tenser on their way back than before. Naruto could understand where they were coming from. They were carrying sensitive documents and - he glanced at the tube Shisui's left hand was pressing protectively against his chest — a pair of stolen Sharingan eyes.

Itachi was still moving gracefully, but Naruto could see the slight tension in his shoulders. An aura of alertness was surrounding the older boy that told Naruto that Itachi was ready to move at any second.

Tobirama was staying close to them, too. The ghost alternated between scouting ahead and keeping a close eye on the way behind them, careful not to stray too far.

His presence was reassuring, but Naruto still did not allow his focus to waver. This might not be a mission, but he was determined not to let his friends down.

If things went haywire, he would be there to back them up in whatever way possible.

They stopped almost simultaneously when the light cones hit a solid rock wall.

"Wasn't the hidden door supposed to be here?" Naruto asked and squinted at the wall.

"Yes," Itachi agreed. He sounded calm. "It seems the entry has closed itself."

Shisui turned around and passed the tube to Naruto. "Hold that for a moment, will you?"

Naruto put his flashlight away and gingerly took the glass container. He was thankful that it was dark enough that he did not have to see the contents. It would have been rather unnerving to hold a pair of floating eyes. Still, he was touched by Shisui's casual trust. The eyes obviously meant much to him.

"They belonged to his ancestor," Tobirama told him quietly. "Uchiha Kagami was a good a man."

Shisui's ancestor. Naruto's grip tightened around the glass. He would take good care of them.

"Found it!", Shisui muttered triumphantly. He bend down to activate the switch but Itachi's hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Naruto," Itachi turned to look at him, "You have felt the ROOT agent approach before. Can you tell us if there is a chakra presence inside the room?"

"Um," Naruto glanced at Tobirama.

The ghost inclined his head and phased through the stone wall, only to reappear a few seconds later. "The room is empty, but I would advise to remain cautious. There are three signatures nearby."

"I don't think there's anyone directly behind the door," Naruto answered Itachi's question, "But there are a few signatures around."

The two Uchiha exchanged short looks.

Itachi nodded once. "Very well. Shisui, please open the door. Naruto, stay behind us anyway."

Shisui activated the switch.

The wall slowly sunk down.

The grinding sound echoed loudly through the tunnel.

They tensed.

Itachi's hand twitched to his kunai pouch.

Shisui switched his flashlight to his non-dominant hand.

They waited for any kind of reaction.

The air remained silent.

Shisui exchanged another look with Itachi.

They stepped out of the tunnel.

Tobirama had been correct. The room was indeed empty. "Well, that was anticlimactic," Shisui commented and leaned against the wall.

An ominous clicking sound came from below him and suddenly the ground gave away.

Shisui could see the deep, dark hole opening below his feet.

Then he fell.

Itachi almost immediately flickered over, and his hands closed around Shisui's right wrist.

Shisui's weight was too heavy.

Itachi's momentum not strong enough.

He would not make it.

They would both fall down.

The realization hit Naruto like a bucket of ice.

Not Shisui.

Not Itachi.

Not his friends!

Shisui's head vanished in the abyss.

The flashlight was ripped out of his hand and tumbled down.

They heard no impact.

Itachi was wavering dangerously now, trembling hands firmly closed around Shisui's wrist.

Any moment and he too, would be swallowed.

Naruto tried to storm forward, but hand landed heavily on his shoulder. "Calm down," Tobirama demanded sharply, "and trust me."

Naruto automatically relaxed into his grip.

Suddenly he felt a weird sensation. Like something cold was moving into him. He could feel another consciousness brush against his mind.

His jiji.

He could feel his jiji.

'Trust me,' the man repeated inside his mind.

So Naruto did.

His hand moved on his own and for a moment their chakra merged. "Suiton: Suiben!"

The water whip crashed forward and closed around Itachi, pulling both him and Shisui back on solid ground.

Naruto could hear their distant voices. His vision was blurred, and he saw something dark moving out of the corner of his eye. It was gigantic and demonic, and it was slowly coming closer. A grotesque face emerged out of a thick, heavy fog.

Naruto had a vague feeling of déjà vu.

He had seen this thing before.

On the very day he had been born.

'Shinigami,' Tobirama whispered inside his mind and ripped himself out of Naruto's body.

Naruto stumbled back.

The dark figure was still there, but it was silent and unmoving, grinning at them with a mirthless face. Then it began to speak. Its voice rattled like rusty chains. "You broke nature's law. As punishment your souls' fates shall be chained forevermore."

The fog receded slowly, and the figure was gone again.

Naruto's mind was still reeling.

'Are you alright?' Tobirama inquired. There was an uncharacteristic undercurrent of panic in his tone.

'Yes,' Naruto replied, slowly. 'I think… I am.'

'Good.' Tobirama sounded relieved - and also strangely close. It was like the voice was coming from his own mind. Strange.

"Naruto!" Shisui's voice yanked them back into reality. "Are you alright?! Did you overexert yourself with that jutsu?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, it's alright." He smiled shakily at his friends. "I am just a bit…you… you almost died!"

For a short moment, four pairs of eyes stared at the dark hole that had nearly swallowed two of their own.

"That… was close," Shisui muttered. "I had not expected a trap to be there."

"We were careless," Itachi replied. His expression was grim and still full of worry. He looked at Naruto. "You saved our lives. Thank you."

Naruto ran forward and threw himself at both of them. He buried his head in Shisui's stomach and grabbed Itachi's arm, not even caring about the fact that they were both soaked. "I was so scared," he whispered. "I didn't want to lose you."

Shisui's arm settled around him and Itachi's free hand landed gently on his head. "It's alright, Ruto-chan," Shisui told him, "We are here. You saved us. Thank you."

'I couldn't have done it without jiji,' Naruto thought quietly, 'Thank you, jiji. They would be dead without you.'

To his great surprise, he could hear Tobirama's voice answer back.

'Of course, child. But I am worried about the repercussions and the punishment that was mentioned. I only intended for our chakra to merge, but you let me in completely. It should not have been possible, but for a moment, our souls became one and we were both half-alive and half-dead. I believe this is the reason the Shinigami appeared and why we are connected now. We unwittingly broke an existential law. But this is a situation to worry about later. We should leave now before something else happens.'

"Let's go back," Naruto muttered into Shisui's stomach.

"Agreed," Itachi answered, "Shisui, don't forget the eyes."

"Never," Shisui replied.

It was a relief to all of them when Itachi's flashlight finally hit the rundown wooden walls of the storage unit.

One after one they stepped out of the tunnel. Itachi immediately put the flashlight down and closed the entry. "Naruto, can you restore the array?"

Naruto looked thoughtfully at the inscription and nodded slowly. "I just need to wash away my seal in reverse order. Um… does anyone have water?"

Itachi handed him his flask and Shisui threw a handkerchief at him.

It was embroidered.

Naruto and Itachi stared at him.

"What?" Shisui crossed his arms. "I got that from a client during my last bodyguard mission."

His friends still stared.

"It's not mine, Naruto!" Shisui huffed and threw a heated glare at Itachi, "It's not a love token, either! I just forgot to throw it away!"

Itachi snorted. "Of course, it isn't. Whoever would date you?"

Shisui nodded. "Exact- Hey! Wait a moment! What is that supposed to mean?!"

Naruto snickered and hastily started to undo his seal when his jiji's expression became rather annoyed.

It was a very quick procedure and the last tension left them when they saw the locking array flare up again.

They shared a moment of amicable, retrospective silence.

"Well, that was quite an adventure," Shisui stated finally.

Itachi nodded in agreement. "It certainly was."

"Do you have any idea how long we have been away?" Naruto asked.

"We met each other around four pm," Itachi answered and looked out of the stained window. "I would say it is around one am."

"We have been down there for nine hours?" Naruto nearly dropped the flask he had been about to hand back. "That long?"

Itachi inclined his head. "About nine, yes. It easy to lose your sense of time when you are underground and driven by anxiety."

Naruto nodded slowly. He was suddenly feeling very tired.

Itachi smiled slightly at him. "I believe we should catch a few hours of sleep, and then we can decide how to proceed."

"Good idea," Naruto muttered, "I am tired."

Shisui snickered slightly and hoisted him up. "Sleep, Naruto. We will wake you up later."

"'Kay," Naruto mumbled sleepily. "Night 'Tachi, night Shisu."

He leaned his head against Shisui's shoulder. 'Good night, jiji.'

'Sleep well, Naruto.'

Naruto woke a few hours later and blinked tiredly at the unfamiliar surroundings. "Where are we?" he asked curiously as he eyed the rather sparse interior.

"The outer parts of the Uchiha district," Shisui answered, and he flopped down next to Naruto. "Itachi and I found this place when we were younger. We still use it when we want to be unbothered."

"We believe it used to be a communal bathhouse," Itachi explained and joined both of them on the floor. "There are a few seals on the doors that you usually only find on the changing rooms of bathhouses."

"Really?" Naruto was instantly interested. "I'll have to look at them later."

His friends exchanged slightly amused looks at his apparent enthusiasm, before their expressions turned solemn again.

"We need to decide to what to do now," Itachi told them seriously, "these documents contain proof of Orochimaru's involvement with Danzo, illegal experiments and attempted bloodline theft."

"Then we should just give it to the Hokage," Naruto replied, not really seeing the problem. "He will know what to do."

Shisui and Itachi exchanged a long look.

The sudden tension in the room completely perplexed Naruto. Why did his friends suddenly act so strangely?

It was Shisui who finally broke the silence. His voice sounded heavy and very serious. "Naruto, what do you know about the Uchiha clan?"

"They are one of Konoha's founding clans," Naruto answered, thinking back to his jiji's last lecture. "Their bloodline limit, the Sharingan reacts to their emotions. They feel very deeply and if you take their loved ones' away, they can lose themselves in a path of hatred and destruction."

"Correct," Itachi agreed and threw him a curious look. "But the Uchiha are also very stubborn and resentful when they feel slighted."

"Over the last years an unrest grew in our clan," Shisui added quietly, "some people think that the Uchiha clan is responsible for the Kyuubi attack. Rumors spread and people started to shun the clan."

"Some of the older clan members think the village has abandoned them," Itachi continued and shifted in a more comfortable position. "They feel isolated from the rest of Konoha. A feeling that started decades ago with the formation of the Uchiha Police Force. There are many of us who think that it had been a move by the Senju to control our clan."

"The resentment in our clan grew," Shisui took over once more. He sounded both pained and detached and placed the sealing scroll on the floor between them. "So the elders came to a decision. If the village did not want them anymore, they did not want the village, either."

"What do you mean with that?" Naruto asked, alarmed by the grim expressions on his friends' faces.

There was another moment of uneasy silence, before Itachi spoke again. "They are planning a coup d'état."

Dun,dun, dun. Well, that was a content heavy chapter, right? Shisui and Itachi nearly died, Tobirama merged with Naruto, the Shinigami turned up and we learned about the planned coup. When things happen, they happen fast.

So what are they going to do with the proof? Hand it to the Hokage? Blackmail Danzo? Or something entirely different? How is Tobirama going to react? And the most important question:

Why the hell are we already over 40000 words in and we haven't seen Naruto eat ramen once? What kind of Naruto fanfiction is this?! I am leaving!

Thanks for your comments. :D

I'll reply to them tomorrow. It's past 2 am now and I stayed up way too late to write this. *xD*