AN: "To own or not to own, that is the question." Hatlem, act III, scene 1, by Stillesapples . Proofreading by Lord Kyuubi. Praise His work. Enjoy the read.

Naruto twitched, his ears strained to pick up the barest of sound, his eyes reduced to thin lines in the hope it would focus his vision. The blond boy nervously rolled his shoulders and neck, trying to loosen the knot of stress that was locking them uncomfortably. An exercise in futility.

Escorting a gaggle of exhausted, malnourished civilians back to their rightful country, all the while avoiding curious eyes, was tiring.

The two ANBU teams had reunited quickly after the trash had been disposed of and they had herded the former prisoners toward Fire Country; a long walk had begun.

Naruto hated Rice Country. The absence of any sizeable trees was cruelly slowing their progression, as they couldn't afford to be seen, even by mere peasants. The ANBUs were not supposed to even be here, the civilians of Fire Country had been abducted, and there was no telling how much time it would take for hostile ninjas to discover some of their soldiers were missing.

Rice Country was so desperately flat, with nowhere to hide when escorting untrained people. The blond was quite certain their ragtag convoy had been spotted too many times already.

Naruto twitched again as something moved slightly beyond his field of view, just outside of his focus. The blond whirled around, kunai at the ready, before he frowned in annoyance, his teeth grinding in exasperation. It was the ghost again.

One more reason to hate Rice Country. He had never met any ghost in Konoha and that made the giant, backward rice-field even more despicable in the blond's opinion. Mumbling silently, the boy returned to his watch.

Dog looked at the youngest member of her team twitching and nervously looking around. He had been out of it since the ambush and his two subsequent kills, some four days ago. Dog knew first kills were more often than not hard to swallow and when they were not, it spoke of psychopathic tendencies nobody wanted to deal with.

Certainly, Tiger had taken five minutes to give the usual pick-me-up speech, about how they had done the right thing, how those men, by their actions, had been marked to die. The reality was that, beyond the mission parameters that put the ANBU teams in strict illegality, it was not that easy to slit a man's throat, no matter how guilty he was found to be.

Dog knew full well what Maru was going through. The fact that killing came with the job did not make it particularly easier to deal with it. It wasn't even a moral question; anyone living in a ninja village and raised as a ninja was desensitized to that quickly. The order of the village was both right and good. A death ordered by the village could not be anything bad, only right and good. Hence killing for the village was never bad, only right and good. Those were the ideals carefully cultivated by the Academy.

The problem was much more fundamental in aspect. There was a specific kind of horror to discover how easy it was to rob a man of his life. A disgusting high came with it, the feeling of pure, unadulterated, absolute power over so fickle yet so precious a thing. A temptation, sweet and sickly, to experience it again. A thirst that all ninja had to resist, for giving in would be a betrayal of their village. Only a formal order could unleash it.

Of course, there were also the eyes throwing reproachful glares and the voices mumbling curses. Killing up close was the worst because it was a sure-fire way to have the spiteful ghosts of your victims follow you relentlessly.

For people with heightened senses, it was worse. An Inuzuka could hear the heart of their enemy slowly flutter and stop and Naruto had proven that his hearing was at least on par with the members of Dog's clan.

It was reassuring, in a way, that the young initiate was reacting poorly. It meant he was a functional human. It was nonetheless worrying because they were on a mission, still deep within another country's borders, and possibly chased by ninja of unknown affiliation. Maru could not allow himself the luxury of being distracted yet despite Tiger's numerous reprimands, the boy was still letting his mind wander through uncharted and dangerous territory.

With a single push of her legs, Dog found herself next to the initiate and squeezed his shoulder. The boy started, but relaxed when he saw the dog mask looking at him.

Naruto could feel the worry and the sympathy soothing the frayed edges of his mind, the screams of the ghosts relented for a peaceful moment. Absentmindedly, the blond boy nuzzled the hand clasping his shoulder and allowed himself to doze off for a second, his tumultuous psyche appeased by the contact.

"Don't fall asleep Maru," chided Dog in a low voice.

Naruto grunted and mumbled something the other ANBU could not catch but nodded and stretched, a wave of regret welling violently within him when the dog-masked girl withdrew her gloved hand. It only took a second before the two ghosts came back. The blond boy winced behind his mask and swallowed a painful lump stuck in his throat.

He so wanted to scream at them to leave him alone but he knew Tiger would punish him for a stupid stunt like that. He was not sorry damn it! They were bad people who had just bought free citizens of the Land of Fire like they were slaves and Naruto and his team could not just allow that. The village could not allow that. Yet they had the gall to look at him with those heinous, accusing eyes.

Naruto shook his head and snarled behind his white and red mask. It was their fault for being weak. Their fault for being surprised. Their fault for falling prey to his blade. They had to deal with it and stop glaring at him!

"Maru!"

Naruto nearly fell from the three he was roosted in when the dry, monotonous whip of Tiger's voice hit him.

"Yes, Sensei." The initiate answered with a crisp salute, finding his balance again.

"You, Cat, and La are going to replace Lizard, Hawk, and Mu to guard our back. Get a move on."

"Yes sir."

A quick gesture dismissed Naruto and the boy darted to the end of the train of citizens who were making slow progress through Rice, trying their best to keep to the shadow of rare trees and the anonymity of unused trails. The blond joined with Cat and fell in line behind the older woman when she signaled for him to follow her. Accompanying them was La, one of the Inuzuka dogs.

In less than a minute, the three had sped away from the column of civilians. Naruto felt himself breathe easier. He felt so exposed, following this gaggle of tired men and women incapable of protecting themselves. They were ninja, predators. As ANBU, they were the apex, skulking in the shadows. They were absolutely not shepherds.

Cat signed a short order and the boy created two shadow clones while the older ANBU was content with simpler, earth replicas. The three teams, the originals keeping La with them, darted away from each other. They began establishing a perimeter around the rear of the convoy, keeping the reassuring cover of small copses of trees.

/LINE BREAK/

Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at one of his most brilliant jonin, undoubtedly the best mind of Konoha, as the man puzzled what his Hokage had just told him into a possible theory.

Shikaku Nara sighed and muttered something the Kage did not hear. "I cannot make sense of it." The jonin commander eventually said, his voice a lazy, stretched drawl. "It does not correspond to his profile."

"I reached the same conclusion."

The Nara rose a tired hand to his face and rubbed his eyes before he allowed the hand to fall, dragging across his visage. "There is something else, Hokage-sama. You know it already, but I cannot understand what you hope from me."

The older man sighed. "I mainly wanted to see if you were of the same opinion as me, Shikaku."

"Well, Danzo is somehow on the move. His isolation was not as complete as we hoped it was. Which could mean too many things as of now to formulate a theory without further leads. The big question is, is he moving alone or not? The sabotage at the Academy points nowhere, as it happened for a long time without being uncovered yet was nonetheless found to be clumsy in its execution."

"We should have discovered it, but we somehow did not," summarized the Hokage, lassitude clearly audible in his voice. "I'm wondering what it means."

"It could mean pretty much anything. If we choose to trust Danzo's established profile, then it was not self-serving and was aimed at the betterment of Konoha."

"Danzo can have a somewhat self-serving vision of the "betterment of Konoha", Shikaku," said the Hokage, reminiscing about something with a grimace.

"While your attempted assassination was a grave offence Hokage-sama, I'm not sure Danzo saw it like that." The Nara drawled. "I remember him being rather convinced of the rightfulness of his actions," the jonin stopped for a second, considering something, "and Inoichi is rather talented at establishing accurate psychological profiles of people." He added as an after-thought, his voice still the same slow drawl.

Hiruzen sighed again and started to prepare his pipe. A minute of contemplative silence followed, both men lost in their own trains of thought. The Hokage had no complaint when Shikaku lit a cigarette of his own just as he lit his pipe. Smoke soon rose in lazy volutes and clouds, covering the men's faces.

"It could be a warning." The older of the two men spoke again. "Our security was lax enough that a bunch of trusted chunin could be manipulated into sabotaging the Academy without anyone being the wiser, with at least one outsider element included in the lot. So, something general."

"Or it could be an attack, and the sabotaging was nothing but a diversion." Shikaku retorted.

"A diversion? But he wanted us to discover…" The Hokage interrupted himself. What good was a diversion if it was so sneaky it wasn't causing the intended trouble? Not for the first time this past month, Hiruzen could feel a raging headache mounting slowly.

"I think we have no choice but to establish Danzo's culpability in this affair, Hokage-sama. As long as there is a doubt about who is involved or not, we could be chasing ghosts, mistake the tree for the forest."

The Hokage gave the jonin a half-tired, half-amused smile. "Which would be rather ironic for Konoha, wouldn't it?"

Shikaku took a long drag from his cigarette. "I suppose so."

"Who would you send to him?"

"He is a sly fox. No less than Ibiki."

"The head of Interrogation himself? Won't that up his guard?"

"I do not believe for a second that his sojourn with the monks made Danzo any more tender than he was, Hokage-sama. The Warhawk always has his guard up."

The Hokage gave a weary, regretful smile. "He does, doesn't he? What about Ibiki's escort?"

"Perfectly loyal shinobi, sufficiently talented with genjutsu. Aoba, Kakashi, Gai."

"All high-level jonin? That's a little bit overkill. And all three of them are busy with their teams."

"The genin can go too. They do not need to be anywhere near Danzo."

"If Danzo is being helped by an accomplice, that would put them in danger."

"The monks are not completely incapable of defending themselves, and they might be genin but they are ninja first." Shikaku answered, his drawl taking a cold edge. "Blood is something they will doubtlessly come to see."

Hiruzen stared at the jonin commander, a mix of surprise and careful consideration shining dimly in his eyes, before he nodded. "You are right of course."

Shikaku sighed and his drawl was this time tainted by slight worry. "I do not rejoice in sending my son and two kids I consider as my nephew and niece in front of potential danger but unfortunately, they carry the symbol of Konoha on them and I cannot treat them as children anymore."

"This damned headband, am I right?" The Hokage muttered, a hint of bitterness may be discernible at the edge of his tone.

Shikaku shrugged. "It might give much but it takes greatly. From all of us."

"That it does. I think I agree with your suggestion, Shikaku. Aoba, Kakashi, Gai, along with their teams, will accompany Ibiki to pay a visit to my old friend. We need to get to the bottom of this affair."

The Nara nodded and sent a sharp glance at his Kage. "I'll keep a part of my mind on it, Hokage-sama."

"I thank you for that. Now go or I do believe you'll be late for your monthly drinking contest with Choza."

Shikaku smirked. "This time for sure…" The Nara mumbled, more for himself than anyone else.

"I doubt it but good luck nonetheless." The Hokage smiled and gestured to the commander that he was free to take his leave. It was fortunate the Nara's deer antlers were, among other uses, a fantastic hangover remedy, the jonin would doubtlessly need some in a few hours.

Hiruzen had to admit though, Shikaku had come a long way with alcohol tolerance. Chouza was just three times his weight and an Akimichi. Even Tsunade had difficulties winning against the clan head of the autumn road.

It had begun as an itch, a grating sensation at the outer edges of his mind, the extreme limits of his perception. The blond had resolutely ignored it, knowing it was nothing more than his two haunting ghosts. But the sensation had changed, taking little by little more and more place at the forefront of his mind. Something was coming, its chakra invading Naruto's senses.

Cat and he had been guarding the rear for two hours already, hopping from bushes to thickets to bushes, when the boy decided to speak to his senior. He could not smell, see, or hear anything yet he knew something was coming.

"Cat, I-"

The female ANBU silenced the boy with a sharp motion of her hand and gestured to stop and listen. Naruto immediately took a sharp breath and held it, focusing on his ears intently. The sun, tinted orange and purple, was setting down slowly westward. It painted the vast, open rice fields in the same colors. Birds were singing and once in a while, the splashing sound of a fish jumping out of water could be heard. At the edge of a copse of short, young trees, the two ANBUs waited.

A minute of stillness crawled past them, the sounds of the countryside muffling whatever Cat was searching for. La whirled and faced an apparently random direction and started growling just as Naruto's ears started twitching. Standing still, the blond faced the same direction as La, tension building up between his shoulder, the clear sensation of being observed making an itch appear at the back of his neck.

Four people, ninja, hundred meters or so. The masked initiate signed to his officer.

Suddenly, the pressure on Naruto's mind changed to a burning sensation and the boy, out of instinct more than a conscious decision, ducked into a roll.

A strange contraption, resembling a pair of scissors, split the air where his head had been just a second ago. The mysterious weapon was attached to the arm of a dark-haired man whose rigorous features were set into a frown. Cat's leg snapped around and the man was sent hurling away from the two ANBU, a sickening, crunching noise indicated cracked bones.

"By the authority of Otogakure and in the name of Rice Country, surrender!" A low voice thundered.

Naruto jumped on his feet and sided with his officer, allowing his peripheral vision to take in the new arrivals. There were four, including a woman, all wearing greyish combat fatigues and the same headband as the ninjas Naruto and his team had dispatched some four days ago. The one with the booming voice looked young, not much older than Naruto. He was towering above his teammates, was as large as an Akimichi, and had the weirdest hair: he was bald save for an orange mohawk and some hair on his temples. He was the apparent leader, despite a face that far from screamed "intelligence".

He did look stupidly mean; Naruto supposed.

"Oto… Gakure?" The blond mumbled, his gaze finding the note on the hostiles' headbands.

Naruto heard Cat curse and he caught her signing him something with the corner of his eyes.

"We weren't aware we found ourselves within the jurisdiction of a ninja village." Cat began, still signing her orders to the boy.

Naruto frowned at Cat's declaration; the operation they were currently conducting was entirely illegal, even if it was about saving abducted civilians, and it took another second to understand the woman was stalling for time.

"It does not interest me. Surrender now and relinquish control of the merchandise." The orange haired, fake Akimichi demanded, impatience clear in his voice.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible." Cat answered slowly, finishing her order on her last word.

"Then die!" The human boulder screamed, and he and his subordinates jumped into action just as Cat opened her right palm and brought it down in a single motion.

Smoke exploded around the ANBU when the pellet hidden in Cat's fingers crashed into the ground. The plan was a go.

Five Narutos exited the smoke in different directions, launching into a mad dash, all followed by a replica of La.

"Kagero, pursue!" The Otogakure leader barked at the lone woman of his team, who sprung at a speed worthy of a jonin.

The smoke was suddenly dissipated when hundreds of wires, thinner even than ninja-grade steel rope, circled around it and captured Naruto. The boy immediately glanced to his right; the fourth and last Oto-nin, a bald, one-eyed man, was keeping the cables taut. The blond grimaced. Two of his clones had already been dissipated by the woman and he had spiders crawling all over him.

Why spiders?

"Good job Jigum-"

The leader could not finish as Cat suddenly erupted from the ground just below the Oto-nin who was keeping Naruto immobilized, seizing his ankles and dragging him inside the earth faster than the man could swear.

In one fluid motion, the man found himself buried in the soil, his throat opened by Cat's kunai and spilling forth blood. Naruto could feel the wires relax around him and the spiders started to skitter around, as if headless, and he immediately escaped his binds, only to kawarimi away from another assault from the man with the scissor-like blade.

"You fucking killed Jigumo!" The dark-haired man screamed, weaving his weapon around madly.

Naruto sent the man a calculative look he knew would not be seen. He winced; two clones were once again dispelled. The woman was a jonin without a doubt and he would not hold his own against her, not alone. He noticed Cat engage the leader in a clang of steel, chokuto against kunai, without shifting his focus.

His awareness lessons with Tiger were currently awesomely paying off.

'Bruised sides on the right, if not broken. Breathing ragged but no blood; lung is undamaged. Left side guarded by weapon, blades look powerful, no use risking losing the chokuto,' Naruto analyzed at the speed of thought. 'One obvious weakness. Good.'

It did not mean he would overly target it, but the enemy would seek to guard it. Which meant he would lower his awareness somewhere else. His blood started to pump wildly, and the beating of his heart echoed in his ears. Naruto smiled.

"Let's dance."

With a single push of his legs, the boy appeared in front of the man who thrust at his head with deadly accuracy, forcing the masked blond to bend backward. Naruto's arm unfurled like a whip and a kunai hurled toward the man's front leg and sunk into the flesh. Not as deep as the blond had hoped.

The Oto-nin grunted and simply swept at him vertically with the blunt side of the blade. The boy sidestepped, leaning heavily on his right leg just as his left shot upward, impacting fragile thoracic bones with force despite his unbalance. The heavy blades missed his neck by an inch, crashing on the reinforced porcelain of his mask instead, rattling his skull, cracking the reinforced material. The satisfying snap of ribs breaking echoed, but Naruto lost no time confirming the effect of his assault, using the reactive force from his own blow to whirl on his hands back to a standing position.

"You little shit." The man coughed aggressively, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, his hand grasping his right side.

The boy did not answer, steadied himself with a deep breath, and grimaced when his last clone was wiped away by the woman. He needed to finish his fight fast. He took a second to ensure Cat was still busy with the leader and blinked away some of the burning sweat trickling in his eyes.

The boy took a shaky step and immediately jumped back to avoid his opponent's furious charge. The two articulated blades nearly snapped around his neck, violently cutting through the protective balaclava instead and ripping across his mask. Blood started to flow from a cut one blade had just opened on Naruto's head, soaking his shortened hair and the cloth of his headgear.

Naruto stumbled back and sped through hand-signs, firing three Air Bullets at the man before cracking a grey pellet and disappearing in a massive plume of smoke. The Oto-nin lost no time and jumped backward, dodging the hastily thrown jutsu, hurling a few kunai inside the ash-grey cloud.

Two ANBUs exited the cover, kunai drawn, as the smoke slowly dissipated behind them. Pressing the advantage of their number, the Narutos drove the man away, forcing him to recoil in front of their assault.

The Oto-nin did not notice the otherworldly shadow stalking nearby. The dull pain of his broken ribs, the constant pressure exerted by his two opponents, the slow-mounting frustration at being unable to touch them, the warping genjutsu; all of it distorted his senses or kept them busy. As a result, he was too busy to react when a kunai suddenly appeared and struck his throat. The gardening tool bit into the flesh, the edges severing and piercing everything vital it could find, digging inside the skull, scraping at the bone.

Naruto instantly replaced himself with one of his clones when the scissor blade snapped shut, exactly where his arm had been a moment ago, dispelling the replica. The man had had no idea his death was coming yet by sheer instinct, he had positioned his blade to cut Naruto's arm clean off.

By doing so, he had also offered the two clones a wide opening that the replicas had mercilessly exploited, if the two kunai respectively piercing the man's right lung and left kidney were any indication. The one clone left crouched and plunged another kunai in the man's temple, ending his suffering and his life.

Naruto felt a cold sweat trickle down his spine and merge with the lukewarm blood that was soaking his neck as he looked at his right arm, which he had just nearly lost. His stomach churned and his chakra fluctuated violently, causing the boy to lose his grasp on the dissimulation jutsu he had used to get to his opponent.

Mouth dry, the boy swallowed. In fact, if the deep scratch on his forearm guard was any indication, his substitution had come barely on time. The blond flexed his fingers as if to check they were still indeed attached to him before he turned to the fight of his leader with the enemy officer.

The Oto-nin was far from slow despite his massive frame and he had an extended reach but Cat's chokuto negated the last point and she was faster than the man anyway. He was already sporting numerous cuts on any parts of his body that was exposed.

Wordlessly, Naruto observed as Cat jumped back and moved her blade in a circular motion around her. Fascinated, the boy could only stare as hazy, ethereal images of Cat's chokuto shimmered in sight around the ANBU, like the phases of a growing moon.

In a flicker of motion, the woman moved and struck, blood spraying her blade as it bit under the enemy leader's left arm, searching deep in between his ribs, stabbing his heart to a halt. The illusions died slowly, like a waning moon, and the enormous man fell to his knees.

"Sensei," Naruto whispered urgently, "we need to move, there's-"

A pulse of chakra, vile and toxic silenced Naruto and forced him to recoil, burning the fringes of his mind and gripping at his heart, blinding him momentarily. Behind Cat, the Oto-nin was rising, skin covered by sickly, black markings that were rapidly expanding, turning the skin red around them. The blond screamed soundlessly but could only watch as Cat was violently elbowed on the back of her head, bringing her down in a single strike. The man should have been dying yet he was up and even faster than before.

Naruto was frozen in place when the man's mean, piercing little eyes looked at him. An enormous paw clutched Cat around her neck and the Oto-nin started to squeeze. For a second, the boy thought his heart had momentarily stopped before the enemy's threat rang in his ears.

"If you twitch, I'm breaking her neck."

Kakashi Hatake, the Copy-nin, the man with a thousand techniques, elite jonin of Konoha, slouched his tall, wiry frame a bit more in his seat. He was spreading himself as lazily and with as little dignity as he could in the booth he was currently occupying deep within the confines of "The Kurusai".

A quiet place he liked very much to visit when he needed a drink to recover from his usual bout of lateness.

The man absentmindedly swirled the lukewarm sake left in his cup, his lone right eye observing the liquid sway without really seeing it. With a sigh, the ninja combed a hand through his spiky, gravity-defying white hair, slightly displacing the slanted headband that was covering his left eye.

The alcohol was less attractive than usual. Actually, alcohol had ceased to bring him comfort long ago, but it was still a nasty habit of his to drink some, if only for the numbness it provided. The jonin searched his pouch he wore at all times for his favorite book but stopped.

Even his usual reading had lost its' luster as of late.

Kakashi was used to feeling down, he had been feeling down since the death of his sensei twelve years ago, but nowadays, he had reached a new low.

He knew why of course. When he had learned that his late sensei's child had survived the fateful night of his birth, Kakashi had sworn to himself he would protect the kid at all cost. Having been denied that by the Sandaime, the last Hatake had then made an oath that he would eventually become the boy's jonin-sensei. That had been mercilessly thwarted by circumstances. Being registered already as a potential sensei though, the high command had judged good to give him a team nonetheless.

The cyclops had thrown a very mild tantrum at the Hokage because he was an elite jonin and he could do that, but decisions had been made and it was too late to do anything about it anyway. Warm sake had been more soothing than ever then, even if it had rapidly lost its power over the course of the following two and a half months.

Now his sensei's son was in danger and Kakashi could do nothing about it. The white-haired ninja knew of course. Nothing was official and he had lost access to the special records a few years ago but he knew.

The boy walked with elegance, a grace he didn't possess in the Academy. Surrounded by an aura of danger, twitching, ready. Somebody had been training him and Kakashi had a very good idea who.

Thinking about it, maybe it was better that way. He had been the death of his two teammates, back during the Third Ninja War. He had been unable to prevent his sensei's demise during the Kyuubi incident. Maybe it was better for the boy to be away from him. Away from "Cursed-Kakashi".

But why this disappointment then? Why did it hurt to see the boy, to be unable to approach him, to know he had nothing to do with his life?

Kakashi sighed again and downed the rest of his sake through his facemask. His eye was drawn back to the piece of scroll unfurled on the table in front of him.

Mission orders.

He had to get himself and his team ready to approach the cave of a predator of the worst kind. For a second, he imagined his genin as mice, hunted by a monstrous hawk.

He snorted humorlessly. Good thing one of his nicknames was "Scarecrow". Maybe that would help a little.

"Kakashi, my friend!" A man thundered suddenly in the white-haired jonin's ear though he probably considered it a whisper, drawing him out of his daydream.

"Shut up!" A random drunk hurled at the man, who had not been quiet enough for the patron's taste.

The Copy-nin turned to face his giant mistake of a comrade Maito Gai. Wearing a green, full-body spandex that probably constituted a crime somewhere in the world and sporting a bowl haircut that should not have been allowed over two very bushy eyebrows, the dark-haired man towered above Kakashi, a radiant smile on his face.

The Hatake considered for a moment the one man he was inclined to call a friend. The man did not wait for Kakashi to invite him to sit himself in the same booth.

"So, my hip rival, did you get the mission orders?"

Kakashi sighed and leaned back in his seat. "Yes, Gai, yes. I received the mission orders."

The Hatake immediately silently swore to himself as the other, spandex-clad jonin gazed at him in utter seriousness, eyebrow raised, forehead creased, and all that jazz.

"Should I assume you are not the real Kakashi?"

The last Hatake winced imperceptibly. This routine was another thing he was getting tired of. "Mh, you said something Gai?"

The spandex-clad jonin smirked before fake tears streamed out of his eyes. "So hip and cool, my rival!" He boomed.

"Will. You. Shut up?!"

Gai waved at the irritated drunk apologetically and turned back to Kakashi, his features set into a mask of worries.

"Is everything alright, Kakashi?"

The Copy-nin threw a long, intense, one-eyed look at his fellow jonin. For a second, the white-haired ninja considered telling the man sitting beside him all that was weighing on his heart before he inaudibly scoffed and gave Gai an eye smile.

"Sure Gai. I'm alright."

The towering jonin furrowed his brow before he exhaled a long sigh. "If you say so, Kakashi." The man crossed his arms on his chest. "You know I'd be happy to-"

"Gai."

"Okay. Okay." The man sighed. "We see each other tomorrow then. What time do you want to depart?"

"An opportunity to push my kids a bit. Let's say eight."

"At eight. Very well, I'll inform my genin." Gai said, standing up and throwing a once-over glance at the Hatake. "You know, maybe talking with someone more responsive than a stone would help with whatever is eating you," offered the green-wearing jonin as a farewell.

Kakashi watched dispassionately as his comrade departed before his lone eye fell once again on his half-empty cup. Maybe he had to try something stronger than sake? Maybe he ought to try a shot of those famed Earth Country whisky? There was more alcohol in the amber colored liquor and with a bit of luck, it would help him forget the pain again rather than just dull it.

The Hatake lazily waved toward a waiter who approached him immediately. The advantages of being a well-paying regular, the jonin supposed.

"I'll have a glass of this Earth Country Old Malt that Juntei keeps bragging about."

"Sure sir, right away."

Not a minute later, the waiter was back with a large glass containing not even an inch of amber liquid and presented it to Kakashi. The Hatake sniffed the content and gave a self-satisfied smile.

That would do. That would do perfectly. In a single sip, the whisky disappeared behind the jonin's face mask, burning his throat, spreading fake warmth, numbing his awareness, and killing his brain. Delicious.

"Bring the whole bottle."

"R-right sir, back in a minute."

Naruto slowly rose his hands above his head and dropped the kunai he was still holding. The enemy commander gave him a satisfied smirk.

"Good. Now kneel, you piece of t-"

The Oto-nin screamed as a deadly precise Air Bullet pierced his wrist, nearly sawing it off, and dropped his hostage. Naruto sprung forward and meant to catch Cat's unconscious body when the memories of his one last clone -the one who had fired the Air Bullet from the side- brutally came back to him.

The blond suddenly had the feeling a fully loaded, speeding cart colliding into him. Pain exploded on the left side of his chest as he was blindsided by the returned female jonin.

Skidding away from the trees and into a rice paddy, the boy collected himself the best he could, as fast as he could. 'Alright, it hurts less than the training dummy,' he thought through the haze of pain.

The light padding of his armor had absorbed part of the shock and being repeatedly beaten during his training had made him resilient to pain. Overall, Naruto's brain sent him satisfied signs, though the pain still sucked.

Righting himself, the initiate barely had the time to raise his guard before he found himself at the receiving end of a furious haymaker of the enemy jonin. With a grunt and protesting bone, the blond absorbed the blow and fell in a balanced stance.

Just in time to defend as fast as he could against a rain of strikes that all promised death. Right, left, high, low, with her fists, her knee, her feet, and her elbows, the frail-looking woman assaulted him as if in a frenzy, quickly breaking his defense. A hook caught his jaw, a hammer strike crashed against his temple, an elbow struck his ear, a hand smashed into his windpipe, two fists planted themselves in his fragile left side, hitting his stomach and spleen mercilessly. The hail left him bloody, bruised, and barely conscious when he was finally kicked away like an insignificant puppy, some of his ribs giving up on him.

With a large splash of water, Naruto crashed in a paddy in a tangled heap.

"You killed Jigumo and Kamikiri. You'll pay with your life."

The blond could not hear the approaching woman. The world was whirling strangely around him. Everything was dark, his ears were whistling, and he felt like one giant bruise. His body felt weak and hurt so much, it felt like the strength had been robbed from it. The worse was the water that was getting in the way of his breathing. It tasted horrible and it kept precious air from reaching his suffocated lungs.

Claws of panic sunk in the blond's heart. He was drowning; he was drowning, and it was very unpleasant. Naruto flailed his arms, weakly at first, then with more and more strength as it became harder to keep awake.

"You ninja seem fond of cutting your enemy's throat, so you'll suffer the same fate."

The blond felt someone grab his shoulder and right his body out of the water. Air immediately entered his throat and he coughed desperately, trying his best to feed his lungs the oxygen they needed. Suddenly, he felt his mask ripped from his face, the ceramic breaking under powerful fingers. Weakly, the blue-eyed blond attempted to swat away at the hand that was removing his balaclava. By reflex more than conscious thoughts, Naruto seized a kunai and screamed when his fingers were crushed and broken by a grip of steel.

Finally, his balaclava was torn away, and the shiny metal flashed before his eyes before he felt the blade bite into his flesh. his cries of pain turned into a gurgled wheeze as the knife tore through his throat, severing his vocal cords, his windpipe, and his aorta.

With a splash, Naruto's body fell in the paddy again, blood escaping freely from a large gash across his throat and coloring the water red.

AN: Not so cliffy ending. You are all clever enough to know what's coming. Chapter 14 is already being worked on anyway, so I should not leave you hanging for long. I know the rise in tension will cause some of you to eye-roll hard. I would be happy to discuss it in PM.

If you find it weird that Kagero obeys Jirobo, it's simple: Jirobo was raised from A to Z by You-know-who, whereas Kagero is more of an indirect ally. Command goes to the loyal soldier rather than the most powerful in this case.

To address some concern I honestly find weird: Naruto's hair. Guys, relax, hair grow back. I know what I'm talking about, I have way too much of it. Also, remember that in my story, ANBU have not only a mask but a balaclava and a helmet. Having short hair is a matter of not drowning in your own sweat.

Skulls for the Skull Throne, milk for the khorne flakes, and reviews for the author!