AN: Hello all. Here is chapter 15. It has not been beta-ed but I thought it was time I gave you all something. When my beta finishes, an updated version of chapter 15 will be uploaded. Until then, enjoy.

"How is he?"

This voice was a whisper, a monotone drawl in the baritone registry. Naruto knew of it. He knew the person it belonged to.

"Roughed up. Badly. And he has one hell of a fever."

That voice was clearer, higher-pitched, but full, round, yet trembling at the edges. Not the voice of a woman but not the voice of a girl anymore. It was also a familiar voice.

"How so?" The man with the monotone asked again.

He had something to do with an animal. A big cat, if his memory served Naruto right. Lynx? Nah. Panther maybe?

No, that was not it either. Why was his mind so fuzzy? It was annoying. And the constant, uncontrollable shivers running up and down his body were annoying too.

"I'll need him awake for a complete check-up but I can guarantee he won't ever shout again." The teenager answered.

Naruto frowned. He knew her also. Pug? No. Chihuahua? The boy bit down a snort but wasn't entirely successful. He instantly stopped and whimpered a bit when his throat caught fire. That was not it but he was close. Willing his brain to supply him with an answer, Naruto kept coming short and frowned, dissatisfied. Why was everything so foggy? Why was his entire body pulsing with pain? What had even happened to him?

Someone shushed him and he felt something cold being placed on his forehead. The sensation relaxed him immediately.

"What I fear most is brain damage but I can't assess completely while he's asleep."

"What did your iryojutsu tell you?"

"He definitely suffered from anoxia, for how long exactly I can't say. His brain has been damaged and even if it was somehow repaired, the consequences could be anything."

"Given his healing factor, what can we expect?"

"Honestly sergeant, I can't say for sure. He could be paralyzed, amnesiac to various degree, he could be incapable of speech, he could be extremely violent or constantly terrified… Anything."

There was a sigh. "What about Cat?"

"She had a mild concussion. The bastard hit hard apparently but it was nothing I could not fix. She just needs her rest."

"Alright." There was a shuffle of cloth against cloth, an exhausted groan, and stretched limbs before the man spoke again. "What a mess."

"Nothing you need to blame yourself for sergeant."

There was a marked silence, a hesitation, a waver in the baritone. "No." The man eventually acknowledged. "Still, for things to go FUBAR like that… And we are still not out of the fire."

Deciding he was safe among voices he knew and considering he felt like he had obviously been trampled by some kind of very heavy animal, Naruto drifted back into sleep. He was certain they wouldn't deprive him of his rest.

As soon as the voices were out of his reach, the blond found himself in a narrow expense of nowhere. His breath hitched when in front of him shimmered the dead corpses of all four ninja and kunoichi he had killed. Naruto glared at the apparitions who glared in return.

"Go away!"

Only silence and reproachful looks answered him. The blond stared down the four ghosts. They would not leave him alone, even when he was unconscious! Sending a smouldering glare their way, the blond attempted the best he could to scare them away.

To no avail, as after five minutes of absolute silence save for Naruto huffing and doing his best to be intimidating, the ghosts were still there. Unmoving. Quiet. Dead.

Accusatory.

Naruto felt his cool slip away from his control, anger tugging on his emotional leash. "Fuck! Off! I followed my orders! It was a mission. It was fair! I won the fight 'ttebayo!" Stabbing his pointer finger at each of the apparition, the blond took the most threatening tone he was capable of. "Now leave me alone, or else!"

The apparition kept staring in silence, their eyes the only way to express their fury.

The blond huffed and turned his back to them but they were facing him. Unnerved, Naruto took a step back, only for the ghosts to follow him. The blond closed his eyes and frowned, his face deforming in a hard grimace.

Even under his eyelids, the four pairs of eyes were still glaring. The blond flailed and opened his own blue orbs with a muted shout of fear. What were those? Why were they here? For him to feel guilty? Naruto could feel anger and trepidation both welling in his chest. Were they here to take their revenge?

Suddenly, the apparitions floated forwards, slowly but purposefully moving toward him. Naruto felt his head shake "no" and took several steps back. To no avail, as the distance between him and the ghosts kept steadily decreasing.

"No, no, no, no, get away from me, get away from me!" The boy screamed, panic mounting inside him, gripping at his throat, tripping his heart, weakening his legs.

Naruto felt himself miss a step. In a flash, the apparitions were on him as he fell slowly, as if out of time. Ghastly nails clawed at his flesh, he could sense their teeth tearing him apart while his gaze was held captive by their dead, unseeing eyes. The lone kunoichi pressed a hand against his mouth and Naruto felt himself start to suffocate.

He knew the feeling now. He had experienced it. Blood gushed from his throat, reddening his tattered shirt and invading his lungs. Inexorably, Naruto drowned once again. With a gurgled cry of despair, the boy pushed the dead woman away from him.

"Naruto! Calm down! It's me, Dog!"

Someone was calling out to him while someone else was screaming bloody murder right into his ears. It took a few seconds for Naruto to realize he was the one deafening himself.

"Breath! Yes, that's it, breath!"

Following the voice, the blond greedily inhaled oxygen, his throat burning and irritating him, the sensation sending him into a coughing fit. Everything felt incredibly dry. His lips were cracked and painful, his throat parched, and he was quite certain his entire body lacked water.

As if reading his thoughts, the mysterious person next to him rose a gourd to his mouth and the boy lost no time drinking his fill. After a second, he moaned in discontent: whoever was making him drink had carefully tipped the gourd so that only a trickle of water could flow down his thirsty canal.

"Slow down, you're gonna hurt yourself."

Naruto grumbled something and water dripped on his chin. After a while, the content of the gourd exhausted, the boy allowed himself to lay back.

"Where?" He rasped out, his tongue heavy as lead, his throat still painful and his voice muted, barely more than a whisper. He had screamed himself sore, apparently.

"In a safe place, Naruto. An ANBU cache, to be exact, in Rice Country."

The boy groaned in discontent. He still had not left this hellhole?

"Dog?" He asked in his shaky voice, his left hand searching the darkness around him, his right strangely unresponsive.

"Yes, I'm here." The teenage ANBU answered while taking the boy's hand into her own. Her voice seemed to sooth Naruto's worries as he breathed out slowly.

"What… Happened?"

There was a fleeting instant, a hesitation hanging heavy in the air before Dog answered. "What do you remember?"

For a minute, Naruto searched his foggy brain for answers. What he could find was neither satisfying nor reassuring. Eventually, the blond paled, his face turning white as snow.

"I… I attacked you." The boy said in a slow, slurred murmur, mortified.

Dog sighed. "Err… Not really? You took a swipe at me, true, but then you froze immediately after."

Silence fell, heavy as lead, on the two operatives. After minutes of an uncomfortable, uneasy stand-off, Dog spoke again.

"Was that… You know…"

Naruto felt like all the water he had just drank had evaporated. "Kyuubi?" He asked in a broken, high pitched, whisper. "Yeah."

Silence settled between the two ANBU, just as pregnant and uncomfortable as the last one had been. It was Dog who broke it again.

"It's alright you now?" She said, barely louder than a whisper herself this time. She gave Naruto's hand, which she was still holding, a light squeeze. "It's not like you asked for it to be there."

The blond could suddenly taste ashes on his tongue as more flashes from the fight came back to him.

"I asked… For it." Naruto answered, his diction still akin to a drunk's, slipping his hand out of Dog's grip, bitterness and tears straining his voice. "I was weak... Cat was in danger. I asked for... Power."

Naruto closed his eyes, which had slowly become accustomed to the darkness, refusing to see Dog as she would doubtlessly renounce him now. After all, he had failed. He had been weak a first time, allowing Cat to fall captive to the enemy. He had been weak a second time, accepting the poisoned gift of the Kyuubi and endangering his team as a whole.

As the words of Dragon came to his mind, Naruto cried bitterly. Love, he had surrendered his chance to by falling prey to power. Maybe people were right to call him a demon. He should have let himself die. He was sure Dog and Tiger had not needed him to rescue Cat. The thought made him open his eyes.

"Cat!" he gurgled, his throat constricted by fear. "Cat, where is she!" He asked in his raspy whisper.

"Cat is fine, Naruto. Tiger and she are escorting the civilians we saved back to Fire Country with the other team," answered Dog in a sigh. "It is not a matter of concern for you right now, Naruto. What matters is you. How do you feel?

The genuine concern lacing Dog's question startled Naruto, who searched the operator with his gaze. Next to him, diluted in the darkness, was the shape of the ANBU.

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not. Naruto, please. Teammates are also here for that."

Blue eyes widened in surprise.

"Teammates?" Naruto asked hesitantly, slowly. "You don't… You don't…" Naruto flailed panicking before his voice cracked again. "Hate me?"

Dog was apparently stunned silent as she did not answer before several seconds. "What? No! Why would I?"

"'Cause… I used its power. I put you all in danger."

"You told me yourself, you did it to save Cat. And I saw it in your eyes, Naruto. When I called for you, I saw you stop the beast. I saw you stop it cold when I called your name. I saw you come back when Tiger did… His thing. You beat it back!" Dog retorted lowly yet in a firm voice that brokered no discussion.

"But… But the danger…"

"It was impressive and scary," interrupted Dog. "Very scary, I won't lie. And… And I was afraid of you and when Tiger told me I'd have to stay here with you, I argued about it."

Naruto felt a pang of pain tear through his heart but before he could sag down on himself, Dog continued.

"Then I thought about it Naruto. It was scary yes. The scariest shit I've ever seen even. But I can't hold it against you, you know why?"

The blond, slowly, picked up his lowered eyes and looked back at Dog, who was offering him, unmasked, a large, feral grin. His raspy voice broke again, this time from something different.

"N-No?"

"'Cause I would have done the exact same thing." She proclaimed, her voice as hard and resolute as steel. "So thanks for saving Cat." The teenage girl added in a more subdued, but much warmer, tone.

Naruto could not really hear Dog. He could only marvel at the warmth her two eyes held. He silently thanked the Flame and cried his relief. He barely noticed the warm embrace he fell asleep into.

As his companions, their gathered genin, and himself neared the monumental doors of the Shine of the Great Mother, Kakashi could not help but stand a little straighter, his one eye shifting from his orange little book to observe and admire the gigantic structure.

The doors had stood through time, thousand of years if legends were true and certainly a few centuries if one was sceptical, and the jonin had no choice but to admit they were impressive. The walls they were granting access to had been destroyed and rebuilt numerous time but the two gigantic panels of wood, iron, and bronze had weathered all.

It was said they were nigh indestructible. Kakashi was not sure about that but they were certainly as beautiful as he remembered them. He had been here already, some twenty years ago. Through the grief that was crushing him at the time, he could not help but notice the doors.

Kakashi sighed. Now was not the time to dwell on the past. He had to be as sharp and ready as he was capable to be. He would not let himself be a puppy for the hawk to mercilessly slaughter. He had to be a wolf today. A savage, astute one.

As they passed the entrance, the Hatake discreetly smiled at the astonished look all genin wore for all to see on their face. The doors were a work of art, fifteen meters high for four meters wide, and as thick as an adult's arm. On them were frescoes, restored regularly, depicting the life of the Great Mother.

How she had descended from the sun to cultivate the Tree of Origin to nurture the desertic land. How greed pushed humans to fight for the lush earth she had created. How she ate the sole fruit of the Tree to restore peace. How she fell in love with a human and birthed his two sons. How her husband betrayed her, jealous of her powers, and murdered the Tree to drink its sap. How her two sons, having inherited her might, put their own father down.

It was a tale about the origin of their world and the origin of chakra itself. A grandiose epic that the monks and priestesses of the shrine kept alive.

Not that Kakashi believed any of it but it made for a nice bedtime story. One his mother loved to tell him. The jonin frowned minutely. He did not want to think about that. He had to be strong, focused. He threw a glance at his genin. Choji had stopped eating for once, too taken by the sight to keep to his habits, Ino was star-eyed and bouncing in a very excited manner, and even Shikamaru could not maintain his blazé expression.

"Impressive, heh, my little genin?" Kakashi asked with mirth.

Ino whirled around to face him. "That doesn't cut it Lazy-sensei!" The blonde Yamanaka answered with enthusiasm, giving him the surname she had come up with for him. "I had heard of it but to see it for real is so cool! Neh, could we stop for a while to observe them once the mission is over?"

Kakashi eye-smiled but was cut by Shikamaru. "Troublesome. We're not on a vacation Ino, we don't have time to gawk at… Doors." The Nara answered out loud before muttering something about them being impressive and troublesome.

"Tch, don't be a killjoy Lazy-kun, I'm talking an hour or so. You just want to go back to watching cloud, well looking at art might joggle your brain a bit. Might make you less lazy." Ino retorted, pointing a menacing finger at the pineapple-haired clan heir.

The boy paled comically and shook his head. "More reason not to do it then. And Choji will be short on chips if we delay too long, neh Choji? …Choji?"

But Choji was too absorbed with the masterpiece to give any of his attention to either his chips, Shikamaru, or anything else. Eyes wide, mouth slightly agape, the Akimichi was looking everywhere, wishing he had some eyes that could remember everything, or better yet, one of those fancy "camera" thingies. Seeing as he did not, he was doing his best to consign as much as possible to memory.

The entrance eventually passed through, the rather large group of Konoha-nin, four jonin and three teams of genin, found themselves in a dedal of countless shrines of all size. The largest road starting from the door led up an apparently endless set of stairs, with torii keeping vigil at a regular interval, to the main temple.

"So, what exactly are we doing sensei?" A brunette girl dressed in an unusual qipao asked, chipper, to Might Gai, her jonin instructor. Tenten, if Kakashi remembered right, and he always did, was a year older then his own charges.

Gai, a lean giant clad in the most singular green spandex to ever grace Earth, answered in his usual -some would say overly enthusiastic- voice. "Well Tenten, this mission's specific objective is unfortunately not for you to know! I regret to say that you and your youthful teammates and comrades won't accompany us. Fear not though! I'm certain my colleagues and I will find youthful exercises to keep you all occupied!"

The girl and one of her teammate, a Hyuuga boy named Neji, paled slightly at the claim, only for their third teammate, a boy bearing a startling resemblance to Gai himself -haircut and bushy brows included-, to enthusiastically proclaim his willingness to engage in youthful training.

Or something like that. Honestly, Kakashi could not listen too closely, for fear of his hype ending burnt and lost in the "Flames of Youth". To each their philosophy, or rather, to each their way of coping.

The "Flames of Youth" were probably healthier than his own obsessions but the Hatake did not have the strength to be bothered. He had never been a bag of sunshine, to begin with.

The white-haired, cyclopean jonin sighed. He often wondered what his sensei would say if he could see him like that. No doubt his wife would plant her foot as far up his bottom as she could; she had been a strong believer of shock therapy. Kakashi shook his head. It was the reason he did not like coming to the Shrine. It made him terribly melancholic. Even more than the Stone of the Fallen in Konoha, if such a thing was even possible.

Having left their genin with strict instructions to train, and in the case of Gai's replica to not destroy anything, the four jonin walked up the stairs path and, after a good fifteen minutes of a leisurely walk, reached an especially large building. One by one, they jostled the little bell and threw a ryo down the well below it, announcing their entrance and asking for the benediction of whoever, or whatever, was keeping watch over this particular shrine.

A show of politeness more than faith. Shinobi rarely believed in anything else than themselves and their village. The only deity they respected was the Feuding Brothers.

They waited another minute until a priest appeared at the shrine's entrance, gasped, turned heels only to return another minute later with the abbot, an elderly man dressed in rich garments.

"Welcome, Konoha-nin. What brings you here, to the Great Mother's abode?"

"We are here to see a friend of ours who retired here. He grew weary of the strife and sought peace in the Great Mother's embrace."

The abbot's eyes suddenly steeled and the man nodded once before he motioned for the ninja to follow him and for the younger priest to disappear and forget about what he had seen and heard.

The four shinobi were led through various parts of the complex to a small house hidden in the back of an inner garden. At one point, Kakashi felt the abbot unmistakably pulse chakra but before he could analyze what had been done, they were standing in front of the house. The abbot knocked and a small aperture was promptly opened in the door before the panel itself was unlocked, revealing a young, straight-laced young man dressed as a servant.

"Good day to you, Ute. Shimura-san has visitors."

Ute eyed the four shinobi and nodded. "Shinobi-sama, please follow me. I'll warn Shimura-sama of your presence here."

Kakashi swallowed and shook himself like a wet dog. That was it. In a few moments, they would meet the Warhawk of Konoha. No mistake would be forgiven.

The Hatake was honestly happy about the fact that Ibiki and Gai were going first.

After another day of rest, Naruto had been carefully scrutinized by Dog, his body, reflexes, motor skills and whatnot each tested and marked.

The good news was that he could still think normally and solve basic riddles. His memory was apparently intact and he was still in control of all important muscles and sphincters.

His first attempt to stand up, however, had been disastrous, as had been his second and third. After much efforts, he had identified a constant ringing in his left ear and a slight feeling of vertigo as soon as he was not laying down. He had to add to that the fact his right hand was nearly unresponsive. He could only open it or form a fist, nothing else. The dexterity loss was nearly complete. To top it all off, his speech was slurred. He had to talk slowly and carefully for the words to come outright.

Also, now he had a raspy voice due to damaged vocal cords.

"Brain damage," had summarized Dog tersely but with sympathy in her voice. The brain was still a mysterious organ everyone knew was fragile and hence, it was studied with extreme caution. The medic, as talented as she was, was not knowledgeable enough about it to say if it was something Naruto could heal from or not, or even if it was the extent of it all.

If it was, Naruto could assuredly say he was lucky, given the fact that he could have ended as an unresponsive vegetable at worst.

Over the course of a week, the boy learned to cope with his various handicap, mulling over them and trying to come with positive things. The vertigo had been complicated to fight against and getting accustomed to but Naruto had gritted his teeth and forced himself to walk. After five days, his step had morphed into a rolling gait, like that of a sailor and the uneasiness had left. The blond reasoned that the sensation of unbalance could become a marker for genjutsu. If the vertigo disappeared, it meant he was possibly trapped in one, as there was no way an enemy would know to adapt a genjutsu to this particular deficiency of his.

The slurred speech, well, he just had to become less hyper, a process that had already begun thanks to Tiger's repeated beatings.

Losing dexterity in his right sucked big time though. There was nothing positive about that. Goodbye carefully drilled hand signs, goodbye neat shurikenjutsu tricks, goodbye all his progress with his chokuto. He would have to relearn everything until motor control came back to him, if it ever did, and find a way around for ninjutsu. Thinking about it had been mildly discouraging before Naruto slapped himself in the face with his good hand. If he had to master free form chakra manipulation, he would. It was not a lame hand that would keep him from becoming a ninja!

The constant exercise distracted him from his ghosts during the hours he spent awake but the revenants kept haunting his dreams, turning them into nightmares. On the third night, after he screamed himself sore in terror, Dog, as his doctor, encouraged him to talk.

Naruto did on the fifth morning, after another nightmarish episode. The teenage girl immediately assured him the ghosts were nothing but figments of his own imagination and recommended him to see a specialist once they were back in Konoha.

Battle fatigue was not a laughing matter, certainly not a shameful affliction, and an entire branch of the Yamanaka served the village as psychiatrists for this very reason, their mind jutsu especially useful to uproot many mental ailments.

Today was the seventh day since Naruto's awakening, eighth since Tiger and Cat had left Dog and him alone to resume the escort of the captured civilians back to Fire Country. And the blond was going stir crazy if he were to be totally honest. His newly found disability and the ghosts did not help but it was mainly the inaction driving him mad. The waiting.

Dog and he were confined in a minuscule shack lost somewhere in a patch of wood, camouflaged in the undergrowth, with barely enough place for them given the massive -and massively outdated- communication device kept inside.

Radiotelegraphy had made considerable progress since this outpost had been abandoned and regular incursion in Lightning Country made sure Konoha was not too far behind technologically speaking.

They could not risk going out to hunt, they could not risk making a fire, they could not risk walking around. After their stunt and given the fact one enemy had survived the encounter, there was a high chance those Oto-nin, whoever they obeyed, would swarm every possible square inch this side of the frontier searching for the ninja who had intruded in their territory and interrupted their business. It was apparent they were the new boss of Rice Country.

Something Naruto had not known beforehand and had constituted a bad surprised. The blond had thought long and hard about the fight -not that he could do much else- and realized one of Tiger's lesson had been enforced. Knowledge was crucial to ninja. During his month working at the mission desk, he had never had to study a mission request for Rice Country and he had lacked intelligence. His entire team had lacked intelligence. The land of Rice was not supposed to host a ninja village.

The blond knew border sweep in Rice would soon become the new craze in ANBU.

His wandering thoughts had carried him further and Naruto had analyzed, with great displeasure, his disastrous fights.

His first two victims ever had been ambushed and he did not want to think about it. His first real combat had been the man with the scissor-like weapon. It had been quick, merciless, and he had nearly lost his head first and then his hand. But it had been his win. It had been the enemy who crumbled in a bloody heap on the ground, lifeless.

Then the kunoichi had returned from chasing La and had made Naruto understand the saying "there's always a bigger fish".

He had been powerless, his defence failing, his body giving in, and worst of all, his fighting spirit extinguished. The one and only conclusion he could reach had imposed itself pretty quickly to his mind.

He had to get better.

It was this problem precisely that he was pondering. Despite Tiger's absence, Naruto refused to allow himself to think simply. His sensei had taught him how to analyze things in-depth, how to see what was underneath a problem.

What did it mean to get better?

Naruto could get stronger, he could get faster, he could become sturdier. However, if he accepted the existence of the "bigger fish" as an axiom, there would come a fight when it would be useless. There would come a fight much like the one he had barely survived, where his opponent would possess the superior strength, speed, and sturdiness.

The solution was simple. Obvious. Already known, unconsciously, and well practised. Eight years old him had not outrun the chunin chasing him after his pranks at first. The reason he laid traps for them was that, before his twelfth year, he had been nowhere near fast enough to escape his pursuers. He had fought them the only way he could: cunningly and intelligently.

That had been his way to negate the advantage of the many enraged chunin after him. That had to become his way to negate the advantage of anyone stronger, faster, sturdier. Because this time, his life was at stake. And the life of his teammates also.

The reflexion had been fruitful, the resolution was taken promptly, and it had left him without much to think about for the remainder of his wait. Hence him slowly but steadily going crazy.

"I'm so done." The blond said, his diction changed to a slight drawl to erase his handicap.

"You said that already," answered Dog, her tone heavy with lassitude. "A few minutes ago I think. That was the hundred and twenty-first time."

"I'm never coming to Rice, ever again."

Dog sighed. "Yup, I know."

"When is Tiger coming back?" The blond wailed in a whisper, crocodile tears running down his cheeks, his arms flailing around him.

"He said a week and a half. Still three more days. Maybe." The teenage girl answered distractedly.

"Maybe? I won't survive for three days!" Naruto murmured furiously in his drawled speech.

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Dog asked, resigned to repeat a conversation they already had numerous times. She was not happy to be stuck in a cramped shack, with only the barest necessities to keep clean, on a diet of ration bars, especially with an over-excited boy who was barely recovering from brain trauma. She hungered for a hot meal, she smelled like a dump, her companion smelled even worse somehow, and he was pestering her about something she only had a vague idea about.

And she knew she would have to punch people back in HQ who would doubtlessly utter some nonsensical sexual jokes about the entire situation. She was tired just thinking about it.

It was a relief the blond boy was completely clueless because that would have been the nail in her coffin.

She distractedly heard Naruto groan and sit down. She was growing restless too if she were honest but at least she did not have to endure the brutal changes the boy had to adapt to. He had already won against his vertigo and his speech impediment and she knew he was anxious to work around his right-hand disability. But he could not, not without them risking getting found out.

"I really can't do anything?"

Dog inhaled deeply, a calming, centering breath. The blond had made undeniable progress in the past two and a half months, and she had to remind herself he was a twelve years old boy who had barely graduated from the Academy.

With four kills under the belt and a resurrection, which was more than any kid out of the Academy since less than three months could pretend to, ever and legends included, but a kid nonetheless. An excitable, energetic kid, whose tendencies had been amplified in the worst possible time. She had to find something, or despite all the control he had over himself, he would end up making a mistake.

Dog suddenly clapped in her hands. "Alright, lesson time!" She exclaimed with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

Naruto stopped in his tracks -he was pacing- and looked at the teenage girl. "What?"

"Lesson time. You're going stir crazy, we'll occupy your mind if we cannot occupy your body."

The blond gazed at her for a solid thirty seconds. "You will teach me?"

"Yeah, combat medicine. Now sit down and open your ears."

Naruto obeyed the command, a look of incomprehension on his face -he hadn't been wearing his mask for a while now, with Dog's express permission as medic-, and stared at the ANBU. "You know I still suck massive Flames at chakra controls, right?"

Dog waved her hand in the air, dismissing the remark. "Combat surgery is not all about jutsu. In fact, it's mainly not about jutsu. There are a number of reflexes to have when an ally is wounded that could save him long enough for a qualified iryonin to actually heal his wound. Surgery done in the field is rare."

"Ah?" The blond intelligently said.

"Tsunade-sama was the kunoichi who devised Konoha's combat medicine doctrine."

"You mean the iryonin rules?" Naruto asked, vaguely remembering having read something about it during one of his day spent in the ANBU library.

"No. The iryonin creed only concerns actual iryonin. I'm talking about the protocol devised to increase survival chance."

Seeing Naruto giving her a blank look, Dog shook her head. She knew, intellectually, that it was not, for some reason, taught in the Academy. She did not, intellectually, understand why. "I forget that you're a newbie sometimes."

The blond shot her a dirty glare and crossed his arms. The ANBU noticed and raised her hands in surrender. That had definitely come out wrong.

"Sorry, shouldn't have said that. My bad, moving on."

The boy frowned and shook his head suddenly, interrupting his teacher. "No, you know what, actually let's talk about it. Can't have bad blood between you and me, so we need to clear that up. With due respect, what's your problem with me, Dog, honest?" He asked in his new drawl, his face a picture of seriousness.

The teenage girl frowned under her own mask. Her first thought was to dismiss the question, pure and simple, but she knew they had to clear the air. She had been a proper teacher to the blond for the past month, she had seen to it that he grew into a proper ninja and potential teammate, they even shared a dose of complicity, as far as she could tell. She had swept their initial interaction under the rug. Dog sighed.

"Look, I really did not mean anything by that. When we first met, I was rude for petty reasons that aren't worth mentioning. I apologize for that. I had my up way too far up my own ass."

Naruto snorted but nodded, waiting for the girl to continue.

"You progress quickly. Hell, you're close to chunin level honestly, so when you don't know some stuff I consider obvious, it's… Yeah. Weird. And I have to remind myself that you are a newbie."

The blond huffed. "Well, I'm pretty sure there is a nicer way to say it."

This time, it was Dog's turn to snort. "I'm not really paid to be nice to you. What's wrong with newbie anyway?"

"Newbie sounds like I'm incapable of anything! And teammates should be nice to each other for free, you venal woman."

"Oy, I'm not venal! And how do you know what-"

"I read stuff. You know I had a B plus in literature right, or didn't you look at my file?"

Dog choked on her saliva in surprise and coughed several times to recover. Even from behind her mask, Naruto could feel her incredulous look. "You. You had a B plus in literature?"

The blond eye-rolled. "My hobby is fuinjutsu! It's literally about literature! People need to stop thinking I'm retarded. I was bad at math okay?! Everyone has a weakness." Naruto finished, pouting.

Dog laughed and rose a fisted hand. "A weakness? 'Cause I remember disastrous results not only in math but in physic, chemistry, and geography also," said the ANBU, raising one finger for each subject.

The blond glared before a strangely triumphant look dawned on his face. "Ah! So you did read my file!"

The girl waved a dismissive hand. "Yeah, yeah, I did. Look, when they stuck us with you, I was mad. I had to work my ass off to enter ANBU and suddenly a kid fresh out the Academy is invited? What kind of horseshit is that? So I was an asshole until Tiger set me straight. I regret that. Are we good?"

Naruto gave her a strange look for five silent seconds before he scratched the back of his head bashfully. "What? Yeah yeah, we are good of course! I mean, I reacted like a brat because I thought you were like those teachers at the Academy but it's no excuse. You taught me properly in the end so we're good. I just thought… You keep calling me newb whenever you teach me and…" The blond mumbled something Dog could not hear.

"What?"

Again, the boy mumbled something broken that the girl could not properly make out.

"Oy, you gotta speak louder newbie!"

"It makes me feel stupid okay?!"

Silence encased the two, who simply stared at each other for a full minute.

"What?"

"I was called dead-last in the Academy each time I screwed up and I screwed up a lot!" Naruto spoke in a quick, almost frenzied way, his words tumbling out of his mouth too quickly to be properly pronounced. "Now you're calling me a newb and it makes me feel stupid. You think I don't know that it's horseshit how I got into ANBU? Before we got stuck into this mess, I kept asking myself if I deserved it or not! Do I deserve my headband? Do I deserve my invitation in ANBU? Do I deserve three teachers rather than one? I've been treated like nothing for all my life and I just wanted to be normal but suddenly I've got all… All this! And each time you call me newb, it just hammers home that maybe I don't deserve it!" The blond hurled in a harsh whisper, his throat burning and his breath short.

Dog just looked at the boy, flabbergasted, as he found his breath back. "Well, shit." She eventually uttered, too shocked for much else.

The blond sighed. "Err, sorry, I-"

"No, no. Now I feel even more like an ass. Why didn't you say anything?"

Naruto looked down and scratched the back of his scalp again. "'Cause it's whiny, 'ttebayo." He mumbled, sounding dejected.

Dog inhaled sharply, trying to stifle a sudden bout of laughter. Breathing in in a more controlled manner, she eyed the boy. "It kinda is." She admitted after a second, mirth evident in her voice.

Naruto's shoulders slumped.

"Hey, remember what I said when you woke up… Nearly a week ago now?"

The blond looked back up and gazed searchingly at Dog's mask. "You… Thanked me for saving Cat's life?"

"Yep. You killed four hostile ninja in your second mission ever, including one jonin, returned from death, got several injuries and combat stress out of it, but above all, you helped save a teammate." Dog took a deep breath. "As far as I'm concerned, if that doesn't make you deserving of what you have, I don't know what will."

Naruto's face brightened with each of the teenage girl's words and when she finished, his smile was almost too bright to be looked at directly.

"Thanks, Dog," said the blond softly.

"You're still a newbie though."

"Oy! We had something here!"

"When they called you dead-last, did you let that discourage you?" The ANBU interrupted.

"Well… No, but-"

"Well, then, you know what you have left to do then, don't you?"

Naruto frowned for a second before his smile returned. "Work my ass off until you can't call me that anymore."

"Yup. Now, you still interested in that lesson in combat medicine?"

"I'm all ears!" The boy assured with a smile.

Kakashi eyed the report Ibiki had handed out to him. Of course, Danzo knew nothing, had heard nothing, had seen no one, and was a perfectly happy retired shinobi cultivating rather impressive pumpkins.

And Kakashi Hatake was actually the Tsuchikage. Funny.

Considering it was Danzo Shimura they were talking about, the first part of the report could be automatically assumed to be inaccurate. The "happily retired shinobi" was nothing but an act. As for the pumpkins, the Hatake would bet they were poisonous. Or something like that.

Because Danzo Shimura was not the kind of shinobi to ever truly retire in the first place, even under forced circumstances, and it meant he was someone to be wary of. The man had been a teammate of Hiruzen Sarutobi before the man had taken the Hokage hat. He was one of the oldest branches from the Konoha tree still alive. And he was a traitor that the Hokage had seen fit to spare despite an attempt at murdering him, in consideration of Danzo's service to Konoha and Fire Country.

The Fire Daimyo himself had spoken a word in favour of the decrepit, one-eyed, one-armed, old man. He was that dangerous. He had held that much weight.

While carefully controlled isolation had reduced his reach and power to mere shadows of what they had been, the man was still very much a cross between a rattlesnake and a hawk.

"So?" The Hatake asked his three jonin comrades, eyeing Gai in particular.

They were seated around a round table in one of the guest houses of the shrine, their students busy with helping the priests cleaning the shrine.

The green-clad taijutsu master shook his head. "He is unreadable. The amount of control he has over his body language is impressive. Even Hokage-sama isn't as good."

"So we need my Sharingan. Even then, we won't be able to get much from him. Only yes and no."

"It should be enough to set us up on a trail." Ibiki Morino, a majorly gruff individual head of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation section, answered.

"Aoba, I'll need you to disguise me. If Shimura identifies me, he could be capable of countering my eye." Kakashi said, turning to a tall, lean, dark-haired jonin whose eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses.

"Is that even possible?" The man asked, sceptical about the existence of anything capable of trumping the Sharingan in plain view.

"I do not know but if someone ever came up with something, it's Shimura. Better not take any risk."

"But can't you use your Sharingan to do that?"

"I'd need to look at him in the eye and he is good enough to immediately work against it."

Aoba nodded. "Alright. Who will you be?"

Kakashi hummed for a second, scratching his chin in thoughts. "I need to be plain but not too much. If I'm too plain, Danzo will suspect something. I cannot be a Yamanaka, that's too obvious… Nor an Inuzuka. They make good oinin but poor interrogators."

"How about a Kurama?" Ibiki suggested.

"Yep, that works. I'll be Hito Kurama, tokujo, twenty-seven, member of T&I, born the twenty-six of may-"

"February. We are too close to May. And you are born on the twelfth actually." Ibiki corrected.

"Alright fair enough. So born on the twelfth of February, from…"

"Zaku and Kimichi Kurama." Gai offered.

"Good. I'm a career tokujo and I ended in T&I because my little talent with genjutsu helps me break our prisoners open. I have a weak constitution so like many of my clan, I have poor taijutsu abilities."

"No wife, no kid?" Ibiki asked in a chastising tone.

"Yes, of course, sorry Ibiki. A lovely wife for seven years, of course. Her name's Maki, a civilian born ninja, same age, and a wonderful… Son? Damn, I didn't do that in a while. Yeah, a son called Taiga, seven already, born in September, and a little girl Hina, four, born in May. Our honeymoon was in Tea Country."

"Not too much excess possible due to your body so you compensate a bit with sweets. You also have a low chakra capacity, obviously. And… That's about it. It should hold," said Ibiki, approvingly this time. "You need something else Aoba?"

"No, I have it."

"Good. Tomorrow, it'll be your turn."

Today was the twelfth day since Naruto's awakening and it was also the boy's turn to make sure the batteries of the radiotelegraph were charged. The blond was energetically turning a crank connected to a dynamo mechanism when the reception table started to crack with static before beeping along a coded sequence.

The blond excitedly abandoned his task and shook Dog awake before sitting in front of the reception post.

"Wah, whazat? What's happening?" The ANBU girl muttered groggily, still captive in the net of sleep.

"They are sending a message!" Naruto shout-whispered in answer. "Wait…" The blond motioned for silence and closed his eyes, listening with rapt attention to the song made by the beeping sounds.

After a few seconds, the boy suddenly opened his eyes and smiled in Dog's general direction. "Tiger is coming to fetch us, with a whole platoon to boot. We are going home! They'll be here in two days."

Dog groaned in relief. Just two more days in this hole and they would be through. She could cry of joy. Thanks the Flames they were done. Never again in Rice Country, not until ANBU upgraded their safe houses.

Safehouse, more like a safe dump, yeah. The only thing that worried her was the possible opposition from the Oto-nin. Naruto and she had been safe, hidden in their shack, and Dog had not sensed any hostile coming even close to their location but that did not mean the countryside and the frontier was not patrolled by ninja.

It was a bet really. They could have tried to exfiltrate by themselves. A group of two is nigh undetectable but if it is, itis slaughtered. An entire platoon, on the other hand, attracts more attention but can fight its way in and out. Tiger had estimated that coming back full steam with fourteen ANBU was the safest choice.

Now they just had to pass two days without murdering each other. Easier said than done but they had already twelve days of experience under the belt: two more days would not break them.

"You know how to send an acknowledgement?"

"Yes, yes. I'm on it."

"Good."

Soon, Dog could hear the rhythmic tapping of the lever encoding their response over the faint buzzing of the emission machinery. It was lucky Naruto was a chakra tank with enough energy to power the device by himself. After a week feeding on rations, Dog was feeling a bit faint.

The two days passed without incident. Dog kept teaching Naruto a variety of first aid and emergency procedures and began grilling him on his knowledge of anatomy. The blond, on his time alone, continued to try on recovering as much feeling and control over his right hand as he possibly could, without success.

As it seemed his right hand would be useless to him for a long while, maybe forever, the blond did not neglect to play with his functional left, twirling kunai, juggling shuriken, and playing around with his chokuto.

It was maybe five in the morning, barely dawn, when Naruto's senses blared, forcing him awake. He knew there were people at the fringe of his awareness. They were on guard, ready, and travelling fast. As it was Dog's turn to keep watch, he saw the ANBU was already preparing herself.

"Dog." The boy whispered.

"Yes."

"Someone is approaching."

"What? How do you…" Dog did not finish her sentence and inclined her head, straining her hearing. After two long minutes of silence, she suddenly took a whiff of the ambient. "How did you know we had incoming?"

Naruto sent her a weird glance. "I… I don't know? I felt them."

"You felt them? Wait… You're a sensor and you didn't tell us!" Dog whispered harshly, glaring at the boy behind her mask.

"A sensor!? I don't know!" Naruto retorted at the same volume. "I'm not sure how I felt them. I can't-"

The signal for "absolute silence" interrupted the blond. Putting his excellent ears to the test, the boy listened, trying to pick up the arrival of whoever was coming toward them. Allies, he hoped. Otherwise, he would sell his hide at a high price.

Seconds trickled down that felt like hours until the distinct cry of a Fire Country pheasant rung in both operatives' ears. Naruto smiled and relaxed, slowly storing the kunai he had unconsciously drawn into its pouch. Still wary of a possible ambush, the ANBU and the initiate exited their shack and hid before Dog mimicked the bird again, whistling two times.

"Dog? Maru?"

Naruto didn't know if he was going to smile or cry right now. His grin was actually so wide it was hurting him and his throat was strangely tight.

"Tiger?" He muttered, his voice shuddering with relief.

Naruto was so going to cash in on his grandfather's debt. There would be so much ramen, it would be glorious.

Just as Aoba and Kakashi entered the office where Danzo Shimura would receive them, the Hatake heard a crow cry three times. He knew the genjutsu masking his real identity was now in place. With a nonchalant motion, the jonin adjusted his slanted hitai-ite, setting it straight and revealing a peculiar eye, with a red iris and a small, black pupil surrounded by three slowly spinning tomoe.

His gift and his burden alike. As soon as the light hit it, the implanted Sharingan started draining the Hatake's chakra and Kakashi felt his vision dissociate.

The world did not slow down. Rather, it multiplied itself in a canvas of nearly infinite possibilities which kept collapsing under their own probabilistic weigh. Kakashi forced down a reflexive twitch and intently focused a small part of his chakra to his brain to help the zone in charge of his vision process the alien information.

When his friend had gifted him his very eye, it had been impossible to graft more than the orb and the optical nerve. As such, Kakashi's brain was literally not encoded to understand what the Sharingan saw. It had taken countless hours of training before the Hatake had been able to start holding his promise.

To see the world for Obito had been a tiring ordeal.

Slowly, Kakashi focused his entire attention on the old man sitting across the table as he took his own seat next to Aoba. The fleeting possibilities vanished from his view and he concentrated further.

It was imperceptible but he could see it. The wisps of chakra slowly trickling, naturally, from the elder's tenketsu. Yet the man's mystical energy was not what interested him. The jonin fixed his eye on Shimura's throat and searched a second for the frail pulsation of his beating heart.

Looking at Danzo in the eye was too unreliable. Nobody, not even a ninja, could control the reflex contraction of their pupil and it was a surefire way to tell if someone was lying. But there was an easy trick to throw it off.

Winking.

It would not do to go back home without answered because their target had simply closed their eyelids at the right time.

So monitoring the heartbeat it was. Danzo Shimura was an old, lean man, with still firm skin, and his jugular had been easy to find. The problem was that for a ninja, controlling their heartbeat was easy. Controlling it entirely, though, was not possible. Some emotions would reflexively cause a jump, an anomaly, a sign. Something Kakashi's Sharingan would catch on.

The Hatake tugged lightly on the length of ninja wire that linked his right pinkie with Aoba's left, signifying that he was ready.

"Thank you for receiving us, Shimura-san." Aoba said politely.

"It is nothing but my duty to receive Konoha shinobi." The old man answered, his voice expressing nothing. With his only arm, he stacked the papers he was working on and put them aside.

Kakashi wondered for a second if it would not be easier to have a look at whatever the old crook was working on. He was supposed to be a retired shinobi, by the Flame! How could a retired shinobi have so much business going on on his table?

"Good. I will not insult your intelligence and pretend it is not an interrogation, Shimura-san. We have uncovered some disturbing operation in Konoha and it has been linked to a certain S-rank encoding key. A key that belonged to you."

Kakashi smiled as Danzo's heart missed a beat. It would work. The Hatake tugged at the wire that linked him to Aoba, his gaze intently fixated on their objective.

"Do you recognize the existence of this seal?" Aoba questioned, his voice carefully neutral as he produced a jade pendant sculpted in a specific geometry, akin to that of a key, with numbers carved on the surface.

It was an S-rank special mission order key.

"Yes." The Shimura answered after blankly observing the item for a few seconds.

The Hatake tugged twice on his link. The Shimura had decided to begin with honesty. No doubt he would then try to weave a complex lie. That was how the best of them were crafted: with a bit of truth at the heart.

"Did you use this seal recently?"

"No."

Kakashi internally frowned. The question was too large and Danzo could interpret it however he wanted. The Hatake tugged twice.

"Did you ever use it before your judgement? If so, when was the last time you used it?"

"I did, to encode mission orders for the fourth ANBU company. The last time I used it dates back to a few years, long before I was sent here."

Kakashi imperceptibly frowned as he tugged twice again. Danzo did not lie and the consequences were worrying. The fourth had been deactivated after the man's treason and its members scanned for their loyalty. Many were found guilty of being faithful followers of Danzo, rather than the Will of Fire and the Hokage, and had been dealt with.

Had some element of the Root escaped scrutiny? If Danzo had encoded the orders long in advance and entrusted them to one of his element, the missions could then have been activated at any time by the agent.

"What was the last order you encoded with it?"

"It is the reason I find myself here."

Kakashi tugged twice.

"I see. Of those missions you encoded, were some to take place in Konoha proper?"

"Yes."

Two tugs.

"Of those mission specific to Konoha, did you order anything that should have impacted the civilians?"

"No. Everything was a matter of internal security."

Two tugs.

"Did you order anything that impacted the clans?"

"Again, no. For the same reason."

One tug.

Aoba cleared his throat. "Did you order anything that could have impacted Konoha's forces?"

"I'd have no interest doing that."

Two tugs.

"Answer the question please."

"No, I would never."

One tug. Kakashi smiled minutely. They had him.

AN: And cut. As this chapter has not been beta-read, I encourage you to leave a review. Not only will it satiate my never-ending hunger but it'll also give me raw feedback.

On an unrelated matter, I should not have published chapters 13 and 14 so close to each other. It gives the feeling I have some sort of planing but it is not the case. I write as it comes and sometimes it takes me longer.

AN2: You know, I was thinking the other day: what if Koharu or Homura had adopted Naruto. They don't hate him, they know what he is, they are respected advisors of the Hokage, they are not related to any powerful clan... They are the perfect candidates! Do any of you know of a (good) fanfiction where one of the two advisors raise Naruto? I think I'll write something once this is over.

AN3: I'd like to start a challenge of a sort. Would you all give me ideas for Toad specific jutsu? The Toads were always under-exploited and I plan on making good use of them. I've already three "original" moves in my bag, in addition to what was shown in the manga, but I'd be interested in what you can come up with. (Don't answer poison.)

See you all next time.