So... am back. Been a long time. Real life does tend to get in the way of writing fanfiction unfortunately. But here we go again.

"I hope for both our sakes that you have some good news Captain."

Said Captain suppressed a grimace, not that it would be visible under his mask, "The hunt for the perpetrators is ongoing, we hope to apprehend them soon."

"Don't patronize me," the Kusakage hissed, "and give it to me straight"

"I have dispatched teams to follow the trail, unfortunately they seem to have gone cold."

"Elaborate."

"We had the suspects cornered on at least three different occasions," he said, "unfortunately we lost track."

"Explain to me how one an ANBU squad loses track of a target... not once, not twice, but three times?"

"There were multiple targets, pursued by multiple teams," the captain grimaced. It did not sound good no matter what.

At this time there was an interruption in the form of a breathless chunin.

"Kusakage sama!"

"What is it?"

"Its a Code Red."

Immediately all colour escaped the village leader's face.

"Captain I need you to drop everything," the Kage said gravely, "this takes priority."

"Yes sir!"

As he walked out of the room, after being briefed by his leader he still didn't understand why his current task take precedence over the previous one.

XxX

"Please sir," the girl pleaded, "we really need the work."

"All the slots have been filled," the man said dismissively, "come back next week."

"I can't wait for next week," the girl said, "my mother is very sick and..."

"Get her out of here," the man signaled to a couple of men manning the crowds who promptly dragged the girl out and threw her to the streets.

"Asshole," the girl spat at the men and one of them retaliated with a heavy kick to her ribs before moving back in

Another girl walked to her and knelt beside her. She put her arms around her as if shielding her from the cruelty of the world around her. A couple of people hesitated, wanting to help the wretched women but then seemed to think the better of it as they went about their way.

"Think that'll work?" the woman kneeling by her wheezing friend asked.

"Guess we'll find out," the girl replied, "c'mon help me up. Bastard got me right in the ribs."

Sakura wrapped her arms around the transformed Naruto. She couldn't help but be impressed by his ability and commitment to hold on to the henge. Already she could feel the bandages becoming wet with his reopened wounds. She wanted to heal him but he had flatly refused.

Not to say she didn't understand his reasons to do so. The 'Healing Palm' technique could speed up regeneration and close wounds instantaneously, with the drawback that it reduced the efficiency of the cells to reproduce further. Effectively reducing one's lifespan.

Naruto limped to the side of the building they had just been kicked out of and collapsed, leaning on the wall.

"Have I told you I really hate this plan of yours?" Sakura muttered.

"I never said it was a good plan, only that it was the best I had."

"At this point I'd rather take your river kites over this."

"Really?"

"... Forget I said anything."

"No takebacks," Naruto laughed, before dropping his smile, "look pathetic, we've got company."

"Are you girls okay?"

Sakura studied the new arrival. It was a woman in her mid-twenties looking down at them with pity.

"Yes, we're fine," Sakura replied.

"Are you sure?" she tried to put a hand on Naruto's shoulder who flinched, she moved her hand away on seeing that reaction.

"Look," the woman continued, "you girls look like you can use a hot meal. My kitchens are down the street, so come on."

Sakura shared a look with Naruto, who gave her a brief nod of approval. She helped him to his feet and followed the kindly woman.

She smelt the place before she saw it. The smell of boiled rice and assorted vegetables hit her senses like one of Tsunade's legendary punches. Despite herself she felt her mouth-watering. Hearing Naruto's stomach rumble told her she wasn't the only one affected. It made her wonder when was the last time she had a meal?

12 hours?

15?

24?

The source of the smell came into view soon enough. It was an unremarkable single-floor structure. But her attention was held by the three enormous copper vessels in front of it. She could see people rushing about, struggling to control the flames underneath, while others worked with huge spatulas to stir the contents of the pots.

She could see people lining up to with utensils while a few of the volunteers were distributing the food to the people.

One of the volunteers rushed towards them.

"Shigure-sama We need more people to work the distribution stations," he said frantically.

"What about Nami?"

"Occupied."

"Ren?"

"Distribution."

"Baji?"

"Kitchens."

"Guess there's no helping it then," she sighed, "hand me an apron."

"Can we help?" Naruto offered to Sakura's surprise.

The woman bit her lip as she considered the offer, before nodding.

"Put them to work."

"Follow me," the man said as he rushed off.

Sakura could only follow bemused by the situation.

Few minutes later she had joined the distributors while Naruto was put into work at the kitchens. When Naruto had explained his plan to her she did not expect that this is what she would end up doing. The lady who had brought them here was working next to her. Interacting with the people and accepting their thanks.

"So what's your name?" she asked.

"Sakura," they had decided that changing her name wasn't really required with how common it was.

"Pleased to meet you Sakura-san. I'm Shigure. The girl with you..."

"My sister Hana," she said, she had to talk him out of using Naruko as a name.

"So Sakura what brings you to my town?"

"If I'm being honest," Sakura said, "desperation."

"Guess that's everyone's story here," Tama sighed, "dreams of a better life. Reality as you see is often disappointing."

"Was it always like this?" Sakura couldn't help but ask.

"Actually no... Hachi I'm running empty here," she pointed to her nearly empty pot, two men immediately replaced it, "This place used to be a busy trade-post, between the Earth and Fire Kingdoms."

"What happened?"

"The war happened. The Third Shinobi War to be more precise."

Sakura couldn't help but feel guilty. After all if she remembered her History right, Konoha was be the one directly responsible for the plight of these people. All they learnt in the books was how they won the war. This was the first time she was confronted with the aftermath.

"At least," she said desperate to change the subject, "these people have you."

"It's not enough," she said, "all I'm doing is trying to put out a forest fire with a bucket."

Their conversation was interrupted by commotion within the crowd. Tama took off her apron and went to investigate.

"What's the problem?"

Said problem revealed itself in the form of a trio of Kusa-nin manhandling the people there, judging by their uniforms two special jounin led by a jounin. Shigure walked up to the shinobi and drawing herself to her full height confronted them.

Sakura's hands went into her pocket instinctively reaching for her kunai.

No No No. This was too soon. They were nowhere close to being done.

"We are looking for someone," one of the Kusa shinobi said, "help us find them, and there might be something in it for you. Get in our way and... "

By now Shigure had been joined by a few of the volunteers who were glaring daggers at the shinobi. She raised an arm getting the men to back down.

"We have nothing to hide," she said, "as long as you don't harass the people here, we cooperate. There's no need for violence."

The man looked like he wanted to disagree with the last part of the statement, but eventually decided against it. The men moved around eyeing the people, until the jounin reached her. Sakura automatically dropped her gaze, her traitorous heart beating loudly enough that she felt that the entire Kusa squad would soon zero in on her.

Her body tensed as the man got closer, then next to her and then kept on walking, without giving her so much as a second look.

"How're you feeling kid?"

"I don't know... it feels like I can't..."

"Breathe, your hands are shaking and it feels anytime the whole world is going to collapse on you?"

"... yes."

"Good. Hold on to that feeling. If harnessed it is what will keep you alive. This is the time when your senses will work overtime, keep your wits about you and you will see things you otherwise might have missed."

"I...I don't know how."

"It's okay kid. By the time I'm done with you, you will."

Naruto was worried.

To be honest, he wasn't that worried about his life.

That was not true, as much as his life sucked at times he really didn't want to die. What really worried him was him getting his comrades killed. In the absence of Sasuke and Kakashi, which was a big worry all on its own, Sakura was all he had for now.

Thankfully they had contingencies in place for situations like this and he was confident that the two of them couldn't possibly in a situation worse than his and Sakura's.

He was not worried about them, not too much anyway.

He was worried about failing the one who was with him, especially after she was willing to trust him so much, despite how much she had hated the river kites.

His new plan was just as if not more dangerous. With the added prospect of getting caught which in some ways was even more terrifying than dying. Their exit plan was risky. A couple of desperate women made ideal target for human traffickers. Few places were as notorious for traffickers as the ones at Kannabi.

The porous border with Iwa didn't help matters. But it was this very fact that Naruto was counting on. All they needed to do was get the attention of the local Oyabun and let the pieces fall where they may.

And once they were out of Kusa... well, they would cross that bridge when they got to it.

The possibility of getting there was diminishing rapidly with the arrival of Kusa shinobi. He moved closer to the distribution area where Sakura was and saw the woman who had led them here defusing the situation.

The more Naruto observed them he became convinced they weren't the regular run of the mill shinobi. He had tangled with enough ANBU to recognize the signs. They carried themselves the same way Kakashi and even that prick Sasuke did. The air of superiority that came with being one of the elite.

Kami he hated them.

He had greater things to worry about at the moment. The implications of the ANBU being here did not bode well for him and Sakura. If it came down to a fight, he wasn't sure they could escape. Their anonymity was all that was keeping them going for now.

He changed positions so as to better observe the leader of the group. His heart leapt to his mouth when he started approaching Sakura... Who unfortunately was doing a terrible job of playing it cool. And just when Naruto was sure her cover was blown, he walked past without giving her a second glance.

Naruto's relief at Sakura's close shave barely exceeded his confusion. Sakura raised her head and their eyes met, he could see the relief in them, but they weren't out of the woods yet.

They were definitely looking for someone, and the longer they stayed the feeling in his gut became stronger that it wasn't them. Then came the obvious question. If not them who?

While Naruto was fairly confident that they weren't the target, it wouldn't do to have them hang around any longer than necessary.

So he decided to give them a hand.

He took a deep breath and extended his senses. A trick he picked up from Jiraiya. He was a novice at it, but he felt he knew where to look or rather for whom to look. Someone who was even more nervous than him and Sakura. Someone who would have a reason to hide. All he had to do was look for the best hiding spot.

There was a space near the storehouse where all the utensils were. He started lifting up the lids one by one, until he finally lifted on of one which could not have been large enough to hold an adult.

He wasn't prepared to find what he did.

A pair of frightened brown eyes met his own

Naruto found himself unable to look away.

"What do we have here?"

Naruto's blood froze as he turned around and saw his antics had apparently been noticed by one of the nins.

"Nothing," Naruto said quickly, "just replacing the pots here."

"Really?" the shinobi walked closer to Naruto, "you don't mind if I take a look do you?"

"No," he said moving out of his way, "of course not."

He proceeded straight towards the pot which Naruto had just closed.

Just as he opened the lid, Naruto acted.

XxX

Sakura couldn't believe what was happening. One moment she was sure she was done for. And just when she thought the worst was behind her. Out came Naruto, holding for some very weird reason a cooking pot over his shoulder.

Every one froze, probably not quite believing what was happening. Sakura, who by now had somewhat gotten used to his quirks and unpredictability was the first to recover. A punch to the back of the head of the nin closest to her, followed by a flip over the shoulder, sending him crashing on the ground. Before the remaining nin could react she followed Naruto, jumping over the rooftop as she did so.

She had however underestimated the recovery time of the Kusa-nin. As they gave chase almost immediately. To make matters worse there weren't enough buildings around the place to justify roof-hopping. She was about to be overtaken.

She turned around just in time to block the first strike by the tanto of the enemy nin. She was disadvantaged. The enemy was stronger, and fresher than her. Lack of food, sleep and being on the edge in general had only served to make matters worse.

Using the momentum behind the strike to gain more distance from her opponent she backflipped, landing on the edge of a rooftop, before allowing herself to drop down barely avoiding the follow-up horizontal slash. The man followed her down, and Sakura knew she won't avoid the next one. Judging by the grim look of satisfaction in the man's eyes, he knew it too.

She felt the tell-tale pull of the Kawarimi on her coils, allowing herself to be substituted by the clone Naruto had made to get her out of trouble. She would have felt a little more grateful if it weren't for the fact that he got her in this to begin with.

But for now, she fell in step beside him, and followed his lead. She wanted to punch him so hard right now.

"What's the plan?" she settled for asking.

"We run," he said promptly.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"C'mon," Naruto whined, "there're only three of them."

It was at this point, when one of their pursuers shot up a flare in the sky, lighting up the twilight sky with a burst of yellow smoke, obviously calling for reinforcements.

Sakura chose her glare to convey her feelings.

"Shit!" he said summing up their situation perfectly.

Before long, the reinforcements had arrived. And yet, the strange thing was that none of them tried to engage them up close.

A stray kunai here a hail of shuriken there, which frankly were more of an annoyance to deal with rather than truly threatening became the hallmark of the chase.

"They're corralling us," Naruto said grimly.

It made sense. No point engaging when they could simply corner them. Changing directions at this point would be suicide.

"Can't we use that kunai you gave me which got me out of the jam against that... " she said desperately.

"It can teleport people to me," Naruto interrupted her before she could finish, "not exactly helpful in this situation."

Before long they came close to what seemed to be a broken bridge.

"Is that...?"

"The Kannabi bridge?" Sakura said, "seems like it."

They had officially reached the end of the line. No more point in running. The gap was too big to be traversed anyway and even if they could they would be at the mercy of Konoha's greatest enemy. They were better off making a stand here, than taking their chances beyond.

She would have laughed at the irony of the situation if not for the grim fate that awaited them. She had always let her imagination run away with her when they covered the battle of the Kannabi Bridge. The place where the Yondaime had single-handedly turned the tide of the Third Shinobi War.

The two of them slid to a stop as their enemies surrounded them.

Hooked ropes were shot at them. The two of them avoiding barely avoiding getting tangled in them, as they kept getting back. One of the ropes managed to snag Naruto around his waist. A flick of shuriken from Sakura, severed the rope preventing him from getting captured.

"Ok, that does it!" Naruto said with an air of finality, which caught even Sakura by surprise. He pulled out an exploding tag, wrapped it around his kunai, but instead of throwing it at their adversaries, he held it in front of him like he was about to enter melee combat.

Sakura had no idea what he was thinking, but once again to her surprise, everyone stopped trying to kill them. She did not drop her guard.

Their leader, Sakura recognized as the man from came forward, keeping just close enough to hold a conversation but far enough to avoid any unpleasant surprises.

"That's a grade five explosive tag," the man said, "blast radius, five meters, low yield. Even if we allowed you to use it, and we sure as hell won't, you won't kill a pigeon with it."

"And yet I don't see you making a move," Naruto countered, "Let's face it, your boss won't be pleased with damaged goods," Naruto pointed to the vessel he had hanging on his back.

"Speaking of bosses," the jounin said, "who's yours?"

Sakura had mixed feelings about their anonymity. On the one hand, Kusa was an ally... technically, and for all she knew the current conflict could be cleared up with something as simple as them revealing their identity as Konoha nin. On the other hand, that reveal just might get them killed on the spot. As they were in their territory without the knowledge of their allies, depending on what they stumbled on, they were just as likely to be let off with a slap on the wrist as they were to be killed right here, and buried in unmarked graves.

"My boss?" Naruto said, "don't get me started on my boss. She is this old hard to please hag, who refuses to give me a raise no matter what I do, and if I haven't even gotten on the jobs I have had to do the last few months... and have I told you about her temper?"

In the middle of Naruto's rant it had started to rain.

"... she has the biggest pair of..."

"Naruto?" she whispered.

"What?" Naruto sounded a little annoyed on being interrupted.

"It's raining."

"What about it?"

"There are no clouds."

The first body to drop did so without much of a warning. Like a puppet whose strings had been severed the nin just collapsed. The air was saturated with the blood of the unfortunate Kusa nin as their jugulars opened up almost simultaneously.

"Get rid of it!" Sakura got over her horror just long enough to scream, thankfully Naruto complied instantly, throwing the pot, sending it sailing over the remains of the bridge. Sakura barely caught sight of the shadow that flew over them following the projectile over the edge.

XxX

The figure held the utensil in their hand, carefully removing the lid.

Only to find it empty.

They drop had been a few hundred feet. By the time they scaled the cliff the quarry had escaped, and the cooling corpses of the Kusa shinobi brought them no solace.

This would not do. Failure wasn't an option.

The ones responsible would pay for this transgression with their lives.

XxX

Sakura was on her haunches panting as she struggled to get enough oxygen in her aching lungs. Naruto was next to her rubbing her back, without even having the decency to look winded. It was little comfort to watch the terror in his eyes, because it only reminded of her own close call with death.

She could not be bothered to suppress her rage at how once again his actions nearly gotten them killed. Once she had gotten her breathing somewhat under control, Naruto handed her a canteen of water, which she proceeded to snatch out of his hand.

"I know you're mad at me..." he began his apology.

"Don't," Sakura warned him punctuating each word, "say. A. word."

Naruto thankfully shut up looking contrite. His big blue eyes watering with remorse as he squatted himself on the floor.

After executing what had to be the fastest series of shunshsin she had ever performed, they had found themselves in what had to be an old abandoned outpost.

"How safe are we here?" she couldn't help asking despite her less than charitable feelings towards her partner.

"Probably not a lot," Naruto admitted, "but we shouldn't be pursued by Kusa for now, and I had my clones go in different directions from the bridge, so tracking us won't be easy. I think we have a few hours."

Sakura did not like the sound of that and something about his manner was really putting her off.

"Since you got rid of the pot," she said, "no one should have any reason to track us should they?"

"Its not that simple Sakura-cha..."

"They shouldn't," Sakura interrupted feeling her anger rise again, "unless... you son of a bitch, you still have whatever it is that they were looking for, don't you?"

"Well..."

"What the fuck Naruto!" she barely had the presence of mind to whisper, "we just saw twenty shinobi drop dead like houseflies."

"It was 27 actually. Sorry!" he quickly apologized seeing the look on her face.

"So you're telling me you just pissed off someone who can kill 27 trained killers in the blink of an eye," she said, "and to make matters worse, that someone still has reason to pursue us."

Naruto remained silent, but her question was answered when another one of his clones walked in with a pot on his back.

"Before you react," he said, holding his hands up in a placating gesture, "I need you to take a look at this."

Despite herself Sakura couldn't help but be curious. Things couldn't possibly get worse, could they? The clone opened the lid to the pot, and what Sakura saw inside rendered her speechless. It was an unconscious child, curled up in a ball.

She immediately checked her vitals, and found them sound, if somewhat weak.

"Did you sedate her?" she accused her partner.

"I thought it best if she slept through all the excitement," Naruto explained unapologetically.

Instead of satisfying her curiosity she found herself more confused than ever.

"Who is this?" she asked once she regained her ability to speak.

"Not a clue," Naruto shrugged, "but someone clearly has no qualms about killing shinobi in their home turf in order to get her and you know what that means."

Sakura knew exactly what he meant, and yet she could barely bring herself to vocalize it.

"War."

XxX

Naruto couldn't sleep that night. One of the downsides of having too much chakra, was that he almost never ran got tired enough to just drop down and lose himself to a few hours of sleep. Sakura, who unlike him had no problems once the adrenalin of the chase had died. Right now she was taking some well-deserved shut eye.

He had no idea what he gotten himself and by extension Sakura-chan into.

Naruto wasn't a stranger to power and powerful people. Being apprenticed by Jiraiya had opened his eyes to a world filled with monsters and boogeymen. To most shinobi, the applications of chakra were limited to enhancing their physical abilities and maybe a few E and D-ranked techniques. Most genin and even chunin did not bother with more advanced techniques because they did not have the reserves to sustain a prolonged ninjutsu battle.

Hell, most jounin did not bother with it. A kunai to the jugular was more reliable and efficient than a chakra intensive A-ranked technique.

While ANBU were trained to do a lot more with their reserves, most of their techniques were limited to concealment and other techniques complementing stealth and speed. What really made them dangerous was their ability to work together, and not just in terms of tactics, but also to perform ninja techniques in tandem with each other. Everyone coming together to create a whole which wasn't so much a sum as it was a multiple.

At least that's how Jiraiya explained it. He was sure there was more to it than that.

This is where the monsters came in after all.

Jiraiya was one. Sandaime in his prime had been one. The Fourth had probably been the greatest monster of them all. Hell, it is said they still tell stories of 'The Yellow Flash' to keep children from misbehaving in Iwa.

And yet it was one thing to be told stories about boogeymen and quite another to experience their might personally.

He had seen this feat replicated just once before in his life, and it still gave him nightmares. These were entities out there who defied imagination. Beings of such incredible power that they transcended humanity.

From what he had seen today, they may have come across someone from that tier and lived to tell the tale about it.

And yet, there was something here that did not seem right.

And he just couldn't put his finger on it.

XxX

Kabuto observed Kimimaro as he recovered. Floating in a recovery tank one wouldn't be inclined to believe that less than twenty four hours ago he had nearly died by almost having his organs liquified.

Thanks to the wonders of medicine, he would make a full recovery. It would be a pity to lose him... again, and indoctrination took such a long time.

The whole process was... cumbersome to say the least.

From what he could tell of the technique that put him in this state, it was pure chakra manipulation. Something almost unheard of. An A-ranked technique, if it was able to disintegrate Kabuto's defences while he had the second stage of his cursed seal activated.

It had been good to see Sakura and Sasuke once again. Sakura had come a long way since he had last seen her as a mere genin still struggling to find her feet. But the one who intrigued him more than anyone was the blonde kid, he knew nothing about. All the time spent in Konoha as a spy it galled and intrigued him in equal measure that someone like that had escaped his notice.

Anyone who could do what he did to Kimimaro would not have been able to fly under the radar.

Thankfully he had some idea of where to start looking. Something Kimimaro had said before being sedated had strangely resonated with him.

That could only mean one thing.

The boy had claimed Kimimaro should have been dead.

When in fact it was just the opposite.

The situation amused him to no end.

Danzo! You old fool.

His mind was already working through the scenarios that he could trigger with this bit of information. He was going to have so much fun with this.

"Have I ever told you, your laughter gives me the creeps."

"Guren," he acknowledged struggling to contain his chuckles, "to what do I owe your charming company?"

"You have a visitor," she said shortly ignoring his invitation for further banter.

"Who is it?"

"What do I look like, your secretary?" she scoffed before walking away effectively getting in the final word.

It seemed the blonde enigma would have to wait.

Kabuto discarded his lab coat for his dress robes more suitable for visitors. It was an insignificant gesture, and one he really didn't care about. But years of undercover work had ingrained in him the habit of switching roles seamlessly.

He was expected to play host, and the garb of a researcher would just not do.

He was greeted by the sight of the Kusagakure's leader pacing restlessly in the waiting room. The man was beginning to get on his nerves to be honest. He was almost beginning to regret the alliance.

"Kabuto," he said tersely.

"Kusakage-sama," Kabuto just managed to inject enough sarcasm in his voice to offend them man and yet not enough to elicit a reaction, "covert alliances tend to get exposed when one walks through the front door."

The man, to his credit refused to engage in favour of being direct.

"Where's Orochimaru?" the man demanded.

Kabuto stared the man down.

"I know you fancy your title Kusakage-sama, and I'm sure you have earned it," Kabuto said, "but fail to show the deference he is owed and there will be... consequences."

The standoff continued for a while as killing intent radiated from the village leader flooding the room and even forcing the guards in the rooms to their knees.

Kabuto had to say he was impressed, but he knew he held all the cards here.

Just as fast it had arrived the killing intent disappeared.

"I was hoping to see Orochimaru-sama," the man spat out venomously, "for a matter which requires his immediate attention."

"Orochimaru-sama is occupied with rather important matters," Kabuto said, "but I'm he will prioritize whatever concerns you have no matter how trivial."

"Well then tell your boss," he said, "we have a Code Red."

Kabuto considered that for a moment.

This might actually be a bigger problem than he had anticipated.

So that's that. A chaotic chapter if I do say so myself. Naruto has caught Kabuto's attention which definitely can't be a good thing and also the attention of someone who might be just as sinister. Was hoping to include the fate of Kakashi and Sasuke, but that will have to wait till the next chapter, which I assure you won't take as long.