Tale of the Setting Sun

Chapter 45: "Confrontment"

In a rowdy, crowded tavern, somewhere deep in Snow country, the hostess warmly regarded her patrons. It was to be another successful night, but that was only to be expected. Her business was well-regarded for the sweetness of their drinks and their company, and there was more than enough for her customers to fill their stomachs and hearts for the night.

As her gaze traveled fondly from one smiling face to another, she noticed a lone man with a shaggy white mane hunched over a table. Something about him looked familiar… It took her another moment to put the face to the name, and when she did, for a split second, a crack appeared in her pleasant demeanor.

If she wasn't wrong (and she rarely was), there should be a lifelong ban on that old pervert — so what was he doing here?

One sharp look towards her hired men, and a few minutes later, the hostess watched with satisfaction as the pervert was roughly escorted to the door. He went without protest, to her surprise, but perhaps the cretin was finally starting to see his wrongdoings? His expression even seemed rather distraught and remorseful; if the hostess had been a weaker woman, her heart might have even twinged at the sight of him.

But she had not gotten to where she was today by being weak, so she slammed the door shut behind the infamous hermit and thought, Good riddance.

Waves sloshed against his feet as Naruto looked out at the shore. The skies were clear, and beyond the circling seagulls, the horizon seemed endless. It reminded him of a different time, in another part of the world.

"This is the ocean?" Karin's voice said wonderingly. "It's my first time seeing it."

For a moment, Naruto found himself taken aback by this piece of information — before realizing that for a genin, especially one like Karin, her inexperience wasn't all too surprising. Looking back out at the water, he found himself wondering what else she had yet to see.

"Somewhere beyond that horizon, there's a hidden village," he said. "The Hidden Whirlpool."

Officially, the village was destroyed in a war, but that didn't mean there was nothing left there. In fact, there was a chance Naruto would be able to learn something there to help him control the Nine-Tails.

It was all there in the letter Jiraiya left behind for Naruto with the messenger toad:

As you well know, the Fourth Hokage entrusted the key to your seal with me, to strengthen or weaken it as needed, when the time came. I have not forgotten that you did not wish to depend on a power that you could not completely control.

But now that the time has come, I wonder whether you have found yourself looking towards a goal that you cannot reach on your own. And while it is no longer safe for you in the Hidden Leaf — a large part of which may be due to my deplorable actions — as I once told you, Naruto, where there is a will, there is always a way.

When Jiraiya spoke those words to him before, it was in the context of learning fūinjutsu — specifically, the place where Jiraiya had studied the esoteric art: The Hidden Whirlpool. Given that information, it seemed to be the logical location where Jiraiya had hidden the key to Naruto's seal.

Of course, going to Whirlpool was a feat easier said than done. It was a widely acknowledged truth that with the destruction of the village in the war, there was virtually no way to access the islands that had once encompassed it. The secret to navigating the whirlpools that were a natural phenomenon of the region was said to have died with its people, and the lack of natural resources had dampened any possible interest in repopulating the area.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)!"

In a cloud of smoke, ten of his clones materialized around Naruto, before leaping away into the forest at their backs. They had the instruction of gathering information on the current unfolding situation, in order to report back to Naruto as needed. The location of any nearby settlements; the movements of Akatsuki; the whereabouts of any remaining jinchūriki; the ongoing hunt for Naruto, now a missing-nin — all this was just the tip of the iceberg. There was so much more he needed to know.

But that was nothing new for Naruto.

"I think my mom used to talk about the Hidden Whirlpool," Karin suddenly spoke up. She had been wandering the shore, her gaze purposeful and focused. Now, her feet came to a stop, and her shoulders rose up and down with every slow intake of the salty air. "She used to say that years ago, before we were in the Hidden Grass, we originally came from the sea. That the sea protected us from the war." She paused. "I guess she was wrong."

"After the Hidden Whirlpool was destroyed, most of the survivors moved to the Hidden Leaf...most, but not all. I wouldn't be surprised if Karin is one of their descendants."

Naruto's gaze drew to Karin's bright red hair. A lone seagull squawked in the air above them.

"Let's go take a look, then," he said at last.

Even for a place like Rain country, it was an especially foreboding day.

Rain poured down from the dark skies, disappearing into the already drenched earth. Lightning shredded the sky, followed by a deep rumbling. The streets of Amegakure were mostly barren, as its inhabitants closed their shutters in favor of the warmth of their homes.

Not so far from their gates, a lone hooded figure stepped along a muddy pathway, accompanied by a trail of faintly flickering blue flames. A pair of dark eyes glared out from under the hood: They belonged to the Hidden Cloud's surviving jinchūriki, Yugito.

Yugito had seen better days, which was saying something, given her history and the harsh training she had undergone in her childhood. But now she was the lethal combination of cold and wet, and ever since she had lost track of her target in the fog, she had been rapidly losing morale.

How much time had passed since Killer B had been captured? Four, five days? While Yugito didn't want to consider it, she was a trained kunoichi first and foremost, and the decreasing likelihood of her fellow jinchūriki's survival was something she could no longer deny.

Nonetheless, she could not abandon her mission — not without evidence that it was a lost cause. That, at the very least, was what Killer B deserved.

At this point, entering the Hidden Rain, the enemy's stronghold, would be nothing short of suicide. But the Hidden Cloud was a village that considered — had considered — their allies with a caution that rivaled their regard for their enemies, and she knew there had to be some long-term undercover agents still out in the field. Unfortunately, the issue was that with news of the Hidden Cloud's demise, it would take some time to re-establish contact with these agents. Some may have called it hubris, for they had never prepared for the possibility of total, utter defeat.

Whatever the case, one thing was clear: Yugito had to do something before she drove herself insane.

"You're fighting a losing battle there," purred the Two-Tails.

Ajisai had heard the rumors — heard that their Lord had transcended all limitations of mortality, and she had always had faith in such whisperings, of course. But seeing was sometimes more than believing, and as she followed at the heels of this feminine deity that had revealed herself to them, she felt tears come to her eyes.

Everything would be okay, she realized. Now that Lord Pain was here, all her worries were meaningless, her concerns made trivial.

As such thoughts swam about in Ajisai's head, a short distance away, her teammate Haku continued to survey their surroundings with a keen gaze — in particular, the cloaked girl who was silently leading the way.

While her features had struck Haku as oddly familiar, with every passing second, he was growing increasingly certain that he had never met her before. And increasingly uncertain as to whether the girl was even human.

Was it true? Was she actually the leader of Akatsuki, Pain? Then who was the man that Haku had glimpsed on rare occasions back in the Hidden Rain? In fact, who was Pain? Haku had heard the rumors of Pain's omnipresence, but was Pain just a shared name for a group of individuals?

Somehow, Haku didn't think that was quite right.

Suddenly, with a shrill chirp, a blue bird burst through the fog and landed on the girl's shoulder. Again, Haku was struck with a strong sense of deja vu that he tried to shrug off with little success.

"The Hidden Cloud has fallen," said the girl — Pain, Haku reminded himself. She turned around, her strange eyes slowly scanning each of their faces. "The Hidden Mist is still picking up their pieces, the Hidden Rock has run away with its tail between its legs, the Hidden Sand is a mere shadow of its prior self, and the Hidden Leaf is on fire. Now, at this crossroads, you have come to us." She paused. "But by whose call?"

"Yours, and yours alone, Lord Pain," murmured Ajisai, her head bowed in deference.

Pain didn't respond; instead, she raised a hand, and immediately, the thick fog drew back in a display of absolute obedience.

Haku felt his eyes widen as he took in the giant maw of a cave that seemingly appeared out of nowhere before them. He hadn't been able to sense it at all; undoubtedly, he would have walked straight past it if he had not been shown the way.

Without any hesitation, the others began to follow Pain into the dark cave. But as Ajisai's form was swallowed up by the shadows of the cave, Haku's felt his right arm suddenly throb. Instinctively, he brought it closer to his body, and his feet faltered.

Caught alone before the pitch black that gaped before him, the impenetrable fog at his back, Haku's heart stilled.

He had thought that with the death of Kakashi of the Sharingan, the throbbing would cease. That by avenging Zabuza, the phantom pains that woke Haku up in the middle of the night would subside.

It seemed…that was not the case.

A face emerged from the dark: Pain — the girl with the horrifyingly familiar face. Her ringed eyes pierced ruthlessly into Haku, and her tone was just as hollow: "You are lost."

"Who are you?" asked Haku. "Why do I know you?"

She didn't respond, silently regarding Haku instead with an unreadable expression.

"What's in this cave? Is this Akatsuki's hideout? What do you want from us?" When no response was forthcoming, Haku stopped; it was clear that he was asking the wrong questions. His right arm throbbed by his side, and he exhaled. "...What can you offer me?"

Finally, that earned him a smile — a disarming smile. For a lingering moment, Haku thought he could have believed that the girl had once been human.

"A world where you are needed," she said in a cold voice that belied her face and her words.

A shiver ran down Haku's spine; he knew she was lying. But when she beckoned towards Haku, this time, he didn't hesitate.

With the help of Naruto's clones and Karin's sensory ability, they soon discovered a small fishing village along the coastline. It seemed it had once been a busy harbor that bridged Fire country with its greatest ally, but these days, very few ships took refuge in its docks. Instead, a series of worn-down fishing boats dotted the harbor, bobbing listlessly in the hot summer breeze.

The few people outside gazed hungrily at Naruto and Karin as they made their way to the lone structure with smoke rising from its chimney — a local pub. They made no effort to disguise themselves. In a village so small and out of the way, the moment that two strangers had appeared, word of them would have spread through the villagers like wildfire.

Standing atop the steps leading to the pub was a child dressed in a threadbare smock, and as they passed by, he stumbled. Naruto's hand whipped out and firmly grabbed the wrist of the child.

"Careful," he said, giving a reprimanding squeeze before letting go. As the boy let out an answering yelp and scampered away, Naruto was struck by an odd sense of déjà vu.

"Naruto," Karin called, motioning towards the pub. "It's here."

There were four people that looked up at them the moment they entered: The male bartender, and three locals. The one that immediately drew Naruto's attention was the man sitting in the far back corner who'd quickly averted his gaze. Dressed in a working man's garb and cap that almost concealed his bright red hair, his face was worn in a way that hinted at extensive seafaring experience. Even without Karin's confirmation, Naruto knew that this was the chakra signature they had followed to the village — the signature that was far too large to belong to any ordinary civilian.

"Can I help you?" said the bartender, his tone guarded but polite. While he seemed to be trying to hide his scrutiny, Naruto could feel his eyes lingering on the tantō strapped to his back.

Naruto slid a coin across the counter. "A tonic, please, for the two of us."

The bartender's gaze sharpened at the sight of the coinage; quickly palming it, he got to work, and soon, they were both nursing pints with suspiciously strong aromas.

While the locals had grown quiet amongst themselves, the man closest to them cleared his throat. "We don't see travelers around here often. Where are you coming from?"

"Just a bit further north. My sister and I are looking for job opportunities."

"Well, you won't find that around here. All you'll get around here's a bit of fishing. Most of the young people already left a long time ago."

"I've heard there's growing business further south," piped in the lone woman. "With that new bridge they built along the southern coast, and all that increased traffic, business has been booming."

Nodding, Naruto replied, "Yes, so I've heard. But the climate there is a little too warm for my sister, so we've been looking around this area." Immediately, Karin began to fan herself. "And… When they were alive, our parents used to say our ancestral roots were here."

There. Naruto turned his attention to the door.

"Ancestral roots, you say…"

There was a disruption in the flow of the air. One, two… By Naruto's estimate, there were three individuals waiting outside for them. A full squad, then. Given the expertise with which they had disguised their approach, they had to be ninja. It would have escaped his notice if there hadn't been a badly patched break in the window letting in the outside heat.

"Well, where are our manners? What are your names — "

Boom.

With a deafening cracking sound, the ceiling split open in a ragged reveal of the blue sky. Amidst the sudden rain of splinters, Karin hurled herself on top of the red-headed local in the corner, and after a moment's consideration, Naruto kicked aside a large wooden beam that would have otherwise impaled the bartender.

Their faces hidden in the ensuing dust cloud, their attackers swiftly assaulted Naruto in a flurry of deadly swipes. As he dodged, he thought one of his attackers' taijutsu felt oddly familiar. The rhythm and the flow of each movement reminded him of someone he had once sparred very frequently with...

Ducking below a kunai blade, Naruto crouched low to the ground and sent out an electrical current through the floor of the building, updating him in a flash: Karin and the civilians were largely unharmed, though one nursed a small injury to their shoulder.

It was time to move this elsewhere. With a swift draw of a kunai from his holster, Naruto threw. It sliced through the air, aimed straight for the face of the most mobile attacker. They evaded, nimbly ducking and shooting forward — only for Naruto to grab them by their collar, and throw them bodily at the door. With another splintering sound, the far wall shattered into pieces.

"Lee!" shouted one of the attackers. A female voice, and a familiar one at that.

As the dust cloud settled, Naruto stepped out into the open, and took in the faces of his opponents, who had regrouped around the one he had thrown:

A kunoichi with hair rolled up into buns. Two men, one with a bowl cut, and the other with pale eyes. The three all sported hitai-ate with the familiar swirling leaf etched on the metal.

So his pursuers from the Hidden Leaf had finally caught up with them. Naruto was far from surprised — on the contrary, he thought it had taken them long enough to find them. With the loss of two jinchūriki, he would have expected Danzō to exhaust all of his resources in a manhunt. While Naruto knew little of the newly instated Hokage, given the limited information he had gleaned before leaving the village, it seemed the most likely direction of his authority.

But…the identities of his pursuers was a surprise. Naruto had expected masked ANBU, not a squad that he had history with, however limited.

"Please, Naruto," said Tenten, as she helped a bloodied Lee to his feet. "It's not too late — turn yourself in. You can still come back to the village."

"That's funny," Naruto replied, drawing his tantō. "Because you three were definitely trying to kill me just now."

"Our missive was to catch you, dead or alive," said Neji. "As for my preference…" His eyes bulged as he activated his Byakugan, and he held his hands up in a seal — but raising a hand, Tenten blocked him.

Rock Lee spat out a glob of blood and wiped his lip. "Naruto… How could you kill those people? How could you betray the Leaf?"

"I don't understand. Why did you turn on our village?" Tenten pleaded.

"Stand aside, Tenten. I always found it suspicious how his teammates died… He's merely showing his true colors now."

At that, Tenten flinched. Her eyes darted searchingly towards Naruto, but he didn't say anything. After a long moment, she lowered her arm in defeat.

Then, Naruto called out, "Karin."

Clang!

Brightly glowing chains burst out from the building behind them, circling around the three Leaf-nin. While Neji and Tenten leaped out of the way, Rock Lee was a beat too slow with his injuries, and the chains tightened around him.

Quick drawing kunai into her hands, Tenten kicked off as she landed and burst towards Naruto —

But he had already predicted Tenten's trajectory, because her way of fighting was familiar to him.

"This is Tenten, guys. These are my teammates, Mayu and Naruto."

He recalled now — Tenten had trained alongside his old teammate, growing up. Like Rai had been, she was a weapons specialist and even now, years later, he could see Rai's taijutsu echoed in some of her movements.

But while the similarities would have once given Naruto some pause, he continued to swing his tantō through the air, because he couldn't let it stop him. Not here. Not now. Not when, for the first time in years, he could see so clearly the path laid out before him.

That was why he wouldn't apologize for what he was about to do.

Who is your enemy?

Plunging his tantō into Tenten's shoulder, Naruto slammed her down to the ground. The sound of cracking bone rang out sharply, and Tenten let out an agonized splutter. Behind them, still struggling against Karin's chains, Lee screamed. Neji, to his credit, didn't blink. Hands outstretched, his famed eyes focused, he swung around his teammate and aimed a deadly blow at Naruto.

Lightning crackled.

One instant, Naruto was sitting atop Tenten, his hand still on the blade; the next, he was behind Neji. He raised a hand, crackling with lightning chakra, to Neji's neck — but just as he chopped down, Neji rolled forward in a quick dodge.

Rising to his feet, his chest heaving, Neji directed a hostile glare at Naruto. "Things won't go quite as they did the last time we faced each other."

"Perhaps." Lightning chakra began to surge through Naruto's body. "Perhaps not."

Yugito was trailing the border between Fire country and River country when she spotted something oddly shaped in the murky distance. If it weren't for the dense fog, she would have seen it earlier, as it stood out starkly amidst the endless plains. As she drew closer, she realized it was an arrangement of different-sized rocks — a flat sheet of rock rested on four smaller boulders, with several rocks scattered across its top. It must have been a shrine, or a memorial of some sort.

At the thought, an image flashed through her mind:

Bright, flickering flames. Crumbling rocks.

A charred body, lying on the ground.

Yugito let out a sharp exhale, clearing her head, but despite herself, she could feel her eyes growing hot. She'd stopped through two villages now, but she had yet to find any of the Cloud's undercover agents. It was improbable — nay, impossible — that she was the sole survivor of the Hidden Cloud. And yet, as she traveled through the endless plains of Fire country, she had never felt so alone.

Looking down at the rock shrine, as she remembered everything she had lost, she had a sudden thought.

Back in the Hidden Cloud, their customary rite of passage for their dead included keeping vigil for three days and nights, in order for their spirits to arrive safely in the afterlife. She hadn't had a moment to herself since the bombing of their village, let alone three days to spare to mourn her lost comrades.

Standing alone in front of that foreign shrine, however, she finally allowed herself a moment to bow her head, and utter a prayer.

Watch over me, Yugito said silently. Guide me to my comrades. And I will make our enemies pay.

In her mind, she saw Darui's white-haired figure walking away from her. His body was whole and strong, the way she remembered it, and not the charred log that she had last seen. If he had lived, and if the Hidden Cloud had not fallen, she thought he could have become Raikage.

"Very sentimental and all. But are you sure you have the time for this?" the Two-Tails said suddenly.

"Quiet," she hissed back.

"I'm sensing a large chakra signature nearby."

Yugito's eyes snapped open. She immediately dropped down to her haunches, her fingers sharpening into claws. "Reveal yourself!"

A shadow appeared in the fog. It grew darker and larger as it approached — and then, a young man staggered into view.

The first thing Yugito noticed was the hitai-ate slung around the band by his waist that told her he was a Sand-nin. The second thing she took in was the emaciated appearance of his frame; he looked as though he hadn't eaten or drank water in several days.

Finally, she looked at his face. Dark, unfocused eyes, and a prominent red tattoo that stood out starkly on his forehead: Love.

"Who are you?" asked Yugito.

While Karin was getting more and more used to handling her chakra chains, its use still required the entirety of her concentration. Which meant that as long as they were out, she couldn't sense anything, and for someone like Karin, she might as well have been blind.

Nonetheless, at Naruto's command, as they had previously discussed, she had summoned her chains. Unfortunately, only one out of the three Leaf-nin she had detected had been caught in them. Karin could feel him currently struggling to free himself, but it was futile, of course. Her chains had been strong enough to contain a rampaging jinchūriki, so there was no chance an ordinary ninja could escape.

This did mean, however, that Karin was essentially useless in the remaining fight against the other two…an admission made only slightly easier by the knowledge that Naruto had already accounted for this:

"Your chains will keep at least one of them down. But that should be enough for me to take care of the rest."

It still gave Karin a thrill to know that Naruto now counted her in his plans — counted on her to be there, by his side. She was already squirming at being unable to see him in her mind's eye, and once she had confirmed that the civilians, especially the red-haired fisherman, were safe, she finally ran back outside.

Just before she stepped across what remained of the divider, an intense bright light suddenly flashed in the air, almost searing her eyes, followed shortly by an explosion. Karin managed to look away just in time, but even then, all she could see was throbbing circles of yellow and orange. Shaking her head, her eyes narrowed, Karin staggered outside.

The circles faded, and as her vision cleared, the sight she saw there took her breath away.

Naruto stood alone in the midst of three fallen Leaf-nin, his entire body surging with lightning, and a ball of wind chakra churning in his hand. Behind him, a bloody tantō pinned the kunoichi by her shoulder, and the remaining male lay prone on the broken ground — the one with the Byakugan. Had Naruto discharged that bright light to momentarily blind the male?

But above all, what caught her attention the most was his expression. Nearly every time she had ever encountered Naruto, his face had always been blank. Whether he'd been facing her in the chūnin exam, or offering her fish in the forest, or even fighting against Gaara, his face had always resembled an emotionless mask. In Karin's opinion, that was even a part of his charm.

But his expression now —

It was as though a tight lid on a box had finally knocked loose, and while Karin didn't have the exact word to describe what she saw peeking through, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise.

She thought of the times back when she had lain on the ground looking up at the dark sky through the cracks in her ceiling, and she realized, someone had been listening to her prayers this whole time.

How blessed she was, to be by his side.

To have been led to him.

"Are they...dead?"

It was a soft, unfamiliar voice — the red-headed fisherman had stepped outside. He seemed taken aback, but not entirely unsettled, by the sight of the scattered Leaf-nin on the ground.

"No," said Naruto.

Karin swallowed hard. While their wounds looked severe, if they were treated, they would not be fatal. "Is that going to be okay?"

Naruto knelt on the ground by the fallen Leaf-nin, his fingers raised in a Tiger seal. "By the time they wake up, we'll be long gone. And they won't remember a thing."

Suddenly, the Leaf-nin caught in Karin's chains blurted out, "We will never give up!" He had been quiet until now, and while he seemed to have given up on trying to free himself, his face was contorted with angry tears. "I did not want to believe what the others say about you… That you are a monster. But I understand now. You are a traitor, and a danger to the village, and we will chase you no matter how far you go!"

"No... You won't."

Stretching his hand out over the Leaf-nin's neck, Naruto made a twisting motion. A black character blazed over the Leaf-nin — and then it disappeared.

"What kind of seal is that?"

Jiraiya almost jumped at the sound, and whirled around to see Naruto regarding him from the opposing chair. For someone whose voice had only just started to crack from puberty, he was entirely too stealthy.

"This, my young apprentice, is a precious tool of the trade," said Jiraiya grandly, with a sweeping gesture to the body strewn across the floor. "Thanks to this luckless fellow and his propensity for talking under the influence of a drink and a willing ear, I've made more than enough headway in my research."

"The moment he wakes up, he'll be out howling for your blood."

After all this time they had spent traveling together, it was remarkable how unconcerned the boy seemed to be for Jiraiya's well-being. Minato had never been so callous… Perhaps Naruto took after his mother in this regard?

"And that's where this seal comes in handy. It's a little something I picked up back in the day… By the time I'm done, this fellow will think all of this was just a very, very bad dream.

"So it isn't the Taboo Seal?"

Jiraiya stopped, the jovial smile on his face fading a degree. "Where'd you learn about that?"

"I heard the Fourth Hokage invented it." As usual, Naruto's face was a blank. But in Jiraiya's long-spanning career, he had yet to meet anyone who could truly hide the depth of their thoughts, and he saw a glimmer of it now in his eyes.

"Yes... So he did. But you know… After the fact, Minato always regretted it. The Taboo Seal is forbidden for a reason. It is a terrible seal, leaving the victim at the mercy of their own mind. No, there is absolutely no reason why it should ever be used."

The sky was black, the moon was bright, and the air was cold.

It was mid-summer, but up here in Snow country, it wasn't unusual to see snow throughout the year, and given how he'd just been thrown out of the last three taverns he'd visited, Jiraiya considered it a blessing that he wasn't knee-deep.

He could have always used a henge, of course, but perhaps as a consequence of the sake currently swirling around in his belly, he couldn't seem to muster one.

Stumbling, Jiraiya clumsily sat down on the hard ground. Tipping his head back, he tried to pour another pint of sake into his mouth, craving the sear and burn of it in his throat, but nothing came out. Grunting, he peered into the opening of the pint — it was empty. There was nothing left.

Jiraiya looked around to see a large lake nearby, its dark surface frozen over. He reared back his arm, about to fling the bottle into the lake — when, after a moment's consideration, he lowered it and placed it gently on the ground in front of him.

"Forgive me, little one," he said genially to the bottle. "You have fulfilled your duty."

There was no response, but he hadn't expected one.

After that, Jiraiya looked out at the lake for a long time.

A/N: I live! Is anyone still reading?

Anyways, the train's officially off the canon rails now, meaning this story is going to be a lot more AU than it's ever been so far. Hopefully, it continues to be interesting.

See you in the next chapter. I'll try not to take another seven months.

(Thanks to blueandgold, the best and most patient beta in the world!)