A.N: As a precaution, all of the earliest chapters have received a notice per the new warning segway in chapter one. I realize they are dark and intimidating themes, but I wanted to make sure I cover my bases here. If you made it this far into the story, I thank you for your time.

===Chapter 6===

Steam vented from my lips, the warm tea evaporating into a near paste in the crisp morning air. As wasted as I am, the powertrip from the leaf, to the land of hot springs, and back again had been hell. I am pretty sure I have a few patches of my lungs that are part zombie three weeks later.

Flashback

The warehouse was caught in the sharp glow or red and white flames. Glowing blue embers bounced off my coat as the sliding door showered the concrete.

"Who the hell is this guy?"

A young man in a clean suit scapered back as I approached in a shower of hellfire. Well, fire in a jar anyway. The room was chaotic as a number of recruits tried to gauge the situation.

There were a lot of new faces, But I was quick to pick out my mark. A heavy set man, who receded cautiously amidst others. He never forgot about me, and his face the picture of loathing, "What are you doing here again? You bastard."

"It can't have been that long. Look, I concede that there are people who could make good use of this stuff, but I warned you what would happen if you kept taking the backdoor into their lives. You know more about the lives led by those clients than any pro, and you've skill with the leverage to help those bad off make the case they need." I clapped my soles to the stone, "Yet your content being the sewage, fleecing them like garden variety runoff."

With an arm poised in his direction, the smaller man leapt like a terrorized rat, "This is your new lapdog?"

The mass of muscle and meat pumped an arm in challenge, "You know, I entertained the idea that vigilantes, like yourself, might just show up someday. Funny, you're the only one so far, and you're foolish enough to come at me the same way twice." He thrust both arms, "See what happens when you take on a crew that's tailor made to bleed a shinobi. Get ready men, in case he decides to pull something, you know he will regret."

I cast my coat off, "Funny. I thought I proved to you before, I don't need brawn to squeeze the life out of your operation. How much will it be this time, before the crows start pecking at the hemorrhage, or you drop the subject like a beaten dog? Perhaps you made some friends above who can swoop down and take a crack at me." My arm blossomed with fire, causing the more stir crazy recruits to hesitate about making a valor strike, "But you made one mistake. I won't ever be the same hammer of god a second take."

The flames drifted from my torso, I took a moment to assess the little person, before turning. The flames rising from my arm licked at the rafters.

There was a hitch behind me and I frowned at the predictable line, "You lot, don't let him get away! There's weeks of full time guard detail, if that bastard stays in town!"

The collective flinched. No human, no matter how barbaric, enjoys maintaining warlike shifts. Against a shinobi the likes of which they'd just seen, the fresher the threat was neutralized the better. The group charged forward in a set of formations that had me concerned. Against chunin or lower, I was creating a monster. A jonin, a nightmare.

I'm not a jonin. With arms outstretched, the veins in my arms pronounce as color drained like the victim of an eldritch horror. Behind the sight lines of the dealer, a convincing structure form, lancing and weaving together from the crates gathered. Turning to face them, my eyes, a sharp blue half white, were black and bottomless. A white corona, the only sign that the pupil ended and the iris began. "Wraith art: Blood mist vendetta!"

Bone white blades cleaved into the room, obscuring the walls and casting nasty shadows into the rafters. The web of white paste crawling over the wall caught the attention of every person within. Green seams throbbing along those veins.

"Reanimation of wood release." The veins detonated into swaths of foliage. Splitting the rafters and shattering glass as the roof and walls were consumed in a medley of vines and fused roots. The crates behind them rattling and popping look like the gargle of some hideous creature keening.

The charge halted, I turned to go. I had more work to do than babysit this overanxious chemlab. This time, I planned to leave him with a few suggestions, on top of the wreckage.

End flashback

Fortunately I was right about the guard detail. He had two specialists at every warehouse and laboratory, and once I made myself an alternative entrance, I could obliterate the…

An irritatingly familiar twinge leapt across my side and blasted my ribcage. An anxiety attack, bolstered by the exertion. The river venom, topped by a malignant amount of sage and elemental releases. I bottomed out the contents, and lobbed the container into a precariously full bin. To top it off, a severe overextension of water affinity. I might as well be chugging hero water had I kept that up.

Thankfully, I had some time. The preparations for the delegation to arrive were underway, but it was still a month long journey for a diplomatic caravan. Granted, these would be for a ninja village, so they could probably half that time if they traveled light.

Either way, I had no intention of letting the next crisis escape from the territory of the leaf village.

Shlick, clap.

It was the third time he let his feet get ahead of him. The concrete steps of the apartment, and likewise, the exterior platforms could become a deathtrap. It was becoming a matter of life and death, that he solidified the habit of pausing at each threshold, lest he wake up in the hospital or worse.

Frost glazed a fair amount of the village proper, and in places where the first snow had melted, sheets of similar traction would appear the next morning. It didn't put a damper on his mood, but it was starting to affect his attitude in regard to field sport. This winter tallied two concussions, and of the people he knew, that was too many. It was his reddening palms that kept him wary of the situation for the morning trip.

The war between his conviction, his grounds and his unbridled enthusiasm was fought to a stalemate. His practice of justice, and a stoicism in the face of adversity were the two main approaches presently. It was tricky to get 'methodic in the extremes' into that roster. He was excited at the very real prospect of his first snow day.

By mid day though, much of this evidence of winter would be cooked off. The normally mild season fighting to maintain face in the anomalous weather, and any progress towards the fabled banks reset.

Thankfully, and unlike the summer, being under the weather didn't prevent Naruto from reaching out to his friends. Overprotective parents were even more cautious than he was, and a safe area to get some air ranked just enough above him on their list of cons.

Traffic was dense, and in addition to the tough weather, even Naruto found himself facing premature limits. That said, once he got enough of a breather, he was quick to find his way into yet another game. A section of road being used for it's slickened ice drew his attention like a candy store.

(POV shuffle) In his excitement he bumped into someone passing through the intersection. He mumbled and looked up to find a cloaked man rubbing their brow, "Erm, sorry mister." He was making his way even as he spoke his apology.

The sensation crawled along my skin like rancid lake water being robbed of its dam. For a split second my migraine kicked up a notch, but then the head of blond hair popped into my field of view, "By the forth, that kid?"

A glance down one street was in order before the shadows overhead caught the sunlight, 'I guess I'm not the only one who thinks so.' Following the depletion of my water affinity, I was banking on the jump of my fire affinity that coincided with replenishing the other. It would be an interesting transition for sure.

Half an hour later, and a length of a carefully frequented route, I paused. A strange sensation creeping over my five, a daunting form of manipulation, and an energy that held a dead ringer for the boy, 'No wonder they had such tabs on him."

Naruto's shout of jubilance morphed into a groan of warning. The small hump of congealed ice that buffered the slick from the rest of the road gave out and, having overdone it in his glee he had too much momentum, and the traction of the muddied side road promised little bleed off between him and the pedestrians ahead.

Feeling himself toppled through the track of mud, Naruto spread his arms and twisted, hoping against hope that he would stop short of swamping someone. He jumped, soaring through the air before his heels caught on the lip of asphalt, sending a stunning reverberation through his spine as he righted.

Outwardly, it was quite the display. He'd performed essentially a backflip from lying down. To the pedestrians, it was a precarious fluke, and a poor excuse for showboating. To the children behind, It was a borderline heroic stunt.

Caked in dirt and fraught with confusion, Naruto saw something moving in his periphery that no one else did. It wasn't just what he saw either, and the tufts were hardly visible, but in that moment, he'd felt the support of limbs and his flailing legs were in no position to account for. Mud hung in the air around his knees and ankles, casting shadows over his shoulders, and bending the light beneath around him like a writhing halo. All of that receded into him, and it felt like he was cut immediately to a third of his size. He stumbled back and into the approaching reception of the mixed ages. After the initial hype burned down, one kid around twice his age asked how he did it.

His reaction was all over the place, and he said as much. He sank and spun, and landed in a good spot. Slowly the theatrical reenactments of the younger kids washed cleaned his spirits of the portion of doubt, and the encouragement of the elder kids got him in the 'best i can do' mindset. 'Freakishly cool' was a fair and fond term for the near disaster. Hopefully it didn't surprise him again.

It was distressingly hard to recreate. The sensation that he used to magically lift himself off the ground was fresh in his mind, but the chaos of the moment spurred was lost. Barely knowing what he was even trying to do, Naruto groaned, rejecting his defeat. Those tails of light over his shoulder, panning back around him. It had been like a flower had broken his fall, but he'd closed his eyes the moment before he could see it.

What did it look like to everyone else there? Did he really just flip, or had it been as difficult for anyone else to see. He'd flopped around his room like a fish, somersaulted until his shoulders were sore, and came very close to dowsing himself with a vase from one of his old guardians.

The acrobatics came to a sudden end with that err. And with the remainder of his idea falling flat, he dropped back against a stack of towels.

Lazily, he reached out for the folds of light that existed in his memory. The crawling feeling as it came to brace against the…

His focus wavered as the light from the window behind him wavered in the distance. The creeping sensation down his arm, but the sensation of holding himself to the asphalt. It was the sensation of a different limb entirely. He thought it was just his legs, but now he focuses on bringing that alien sensation out around his whole body.

His vision blurred, and for a moment he tried to capture the sensation of bracing against the table beside him before landing to all fours. The sensation rolled behind him, retreating swiftly before he rose to his full height.

He didn't see it that time, but that feeling, he felt it move as a part of him, and felt from it what he wanted, and what he was able to do. It still felt like an alien appendage, one that didn't fit in his self image, but it was there. Maybe, if it was the same feeling, he could get used to it. Would it be any use other than when he flopped out of control?

He caught himself shifting his stance, and recoiled at the vase that was sitting atop the very same table. Alien experience or not, this was not the space where he wanted to mess around.

The next day was early for his next grocery run, but it seemed as good a reason as any to mill about the village and find places to try out his new sensation. He tried bringing it out when he ran, but discerning whether it worked if or how it affected him took more focus than he could do on top of running. He settled for a couple wind sprints before moving on. He found a place with stone walls of various heights and tired jumping between them. Part of it was to satisfy a curiosity and entertain the motions, but he almost lost his footing when he felt the distinct sensation of that third limb retreating.

So he could, he'd bring it out while moving, and barely even notice. Would someone else see it, or could… He resolved to find a place with lighting at an angle to wait and see. As one of his last stops before making his way to the market, Naruto tried using the sensation of reaching out with it again. Spreading his arms overhead, he focused on the shifting feeling until he noticed there was a sky bridge where he was looking.

Until this point, he had no idea whether the alien limb could hold his weight, and he worried about the idea that it could touch objects at all. Finding a railing just barely within his reach he pressed the sensation of reaching out, and tried to bring it toward the bars. At first nothing happened, but then the cold metal began to sink into his palms. After a few precarious moments of shifting his weight, he managed to lift his body until he was hanging from the bar.

He wasn't familiar with holding his own weight, but he was confident his feet weren't the ones doing it, brushing the sides like that. Spreading them further he focused on swinging around and managed to straddle the bar. Not a pleasant perch, but it proved to him he could move using those features. He hopped down and managed to right himself immediately. The sudden twisting motion receding into his back.

How long had he been able to do this? When did it start, why was he able to do something like this? The sensation was so strange, and he certainly hadn't expected something like that to come up when he was tagging along. The idea of a bunch of ghost limbs springing up behind a group playing tag… it would certainly make walking down a busy street a hassle.

Three boys flanking him, trying to deliver punches from all sides… huh. He was beginning to wonder if this was something he should be keeping secret. Gradually his mind drifted over to the last major strange thing to happen. Maybe he should be more careful around other people, but at least the old man should know. It shouldn't be that much worse, and if all it boiled down to was keeping his peers safe for a few months, it would just be another chapter added to his life.