AN: This chapter 20 was horrendously difficult for me.
I don't even know.
Naruto jolted awake, his eyes blinking urgently to dissipate the last remnants of sleep that still made them heavy. Reflexively, he directed his chakra through his coils, warming up his body before he sat in a lotus to absorb the memories of his clones.
He groaned slightly. There was new information and there was a new plan. Propping himself up on his feet, he dusted himself before he willed a shadow clone to appear. The replica simply shimmered its existence into reality and took his place on the couch. The original took a little pin he had hidden in messy hair and eyed it for a second. Delicately, as if afraid he was going to break it, he channelled wind chakra through the object, forming a sharp edge with which he proceeded to cut the ninja wire binding his right hand. Rolling up the wire for later use, he then picked the door's lock open.
A bout of anger fuelled stupidity had reminded him that the Substitution jutsu was not teleportation. Seething at the state Dog and Cat had been reduced to, he had attempted to escape using the same technique as his clones only to crash against the heavy door. The shock had jumbled his brain straight.
It had also kickstarted a series of thoughts about the Substitution jutsu. How come his clones, even though they were tangible, could apparently phase through matter? Could he maybe substitute himself with the door itself or would that cause a ruckus? What were the limits of the Substitution jutsu exactly?
The lock clicked in a satisfying way. Naruto opened the door ajar and strained his ears. He had a bit of time. Not losing any second, the boy stifled the flow of his chakra, shrunk his tenketsu, and draped himself in the Chameleon jutsu. His silhouette was slowly erased out of view and sensing capacity. Naruto slithered in the hallway his cell was in and delicately closed the door, locking it again.
Tiptoeing down the hall, he was met with the vision of the two sentries assigned to guard his corridor half asleep. He took a slow, deep, yet silent breath and held it as he moved past the two ninjas, careful in each of his movements to not knock into anything or rustle his clothes. Having eventually reached a safe distance away from the guardroom, the boy relaxed and bent down.
His clones had explored the maze carved in the Rock under the Bathhouse but it was the first time he was actually using those memories. Learning by shadow clones was not an exact science and information would tend to get lost if not worked on immediately. Naruto had done his best to work on a mind map in his cell but a chain of dark corridors made for a poor plan.
Until one of his clones got the secret of navigating the labyrinth: carved low on the wall, nigh undetectable because of the poor light, were lines of different pattern, each leading to a different part of the underground levels. The boy smiled when he found the wavy pattern he was looking for. First stop would be weapons.
Naruto had lost any precise notion when he finally arrived before his first objective. He had just spent maybe half an hour in the dark tunnels, at least he hoped so. Their time table wasn't large enough to allow for much delaying. Hence why the boy swore silently when he saw that the weapon cache he had chosen to pilfer was, for once, guarded.
"Fuck," he thought virulently. Of course, it was not going to be easy, he should have known better than to hope. Still invisible and undetected, he eyed the two men. He shuddered in trepidation at the thought of killing them. The strange sentiment of vindication that he found was welling inside him made it somehow worse.
They had messed up with him, with his team. They deserved it.
A traitorous part of his brain claimed their innocence in a whisper. Those two men weren't the one who had cut his teammates' fingers. Yubaba was the one responsible, the witch was the guilty party. The men under her followed her orders as it was their duty.
His duty was to his team and escaping meant they needed weapons. The two guards were the necessary victims of circumstances, like Muta.
Naruto grimaced at the thought.
He could knock them out. He was invisible silent and deadly yet he could also choose to be merciful. He knew where to pinch to instantly make a man unconscious. He felt a frozen caress slither down his back. He could not risk a fight, he did not know how strong the two guards were. Subduing one meant the other would be alerted, call for help, alarm the entire Bathhouse if Naruto wasn't quick enough to knock him out in turn.
The boy eyed his right hand with anger: he didn't have enough sensibility and control to force both men under at the same time. One he could save, the other he would need to kill with his pin. His glance shifted from his lame hand to the guards. So the one on the right was going to die because his lucky star had rolled the wrong dice for today while his comrade on the left would be allowed to live.
Naruto felt sick. They weren't like the Oto-nin of Rice Country. They hadn't abducted citizens of Fire Country for some nefarious goals. They were simply guarding a door he needed access to if he wanted to free his team. They were the others, the negligible party, those that could be sacrificed. To Naruto, their lives were worth less than his teammates'. His duty dictated as such and his own selfishness confirmed it.
In his heart, however, he could not ignore that those same lives he was contemplating to take were precious to someone else. Try as he might, he could not silence the part of him that begged him to offer the guards a fair fight at the least.
The boy closed his eyes and swallowed thickly before he opened them again and looked at the two guards intently. They were oblivious to his ghostly presence, exchanging a few words once in a while with an occasional chuckle. One was a young man barely out of his teen years, eyes shining mirthfully and a grin on his lips as he bantered with his companion, a mature, bearded man who wore an appeased smile.
The words of Cat came crashing on him and he suddenly hated nothing more than being there and doing that. He felt like he was going to drown when he was reminded of Tiger's words.
There was nothing but the family; nothing but the team.
Methodically, Naruto hardened his heart into steel and covered it with a layer of frost, ignoring the two men as they talked about the pie the youngest's girlfriend had baked yesterday, refusing the nonchalant joy that pervaded the limit of his mind, not seeing the sparkle in the older man's eyes.
Without a sound, he stalked forth and stilled his breath. Slowly, he moulded chakra in his hara, forcing the flow the sharpen into a cutting edge.
Using jutsu was actually possible for him while in his shrunken tenketsu state. He just had to use a monstrous load of chakra. That was the reason why the Shadow Clone jutsu had been almost easy for him to learn. So Naruto moulded and moulded until he felt like he would explode and channelled the unstable energy through three hand signs of his left hand. Strand of wild chakra erupted from his shrunken tenketsu and the Chameleon jutsu was distorted.
Naruto looked at the surprised faces of the two men with murder and self-loathing in his eyes.
The Fuuton: Wind Bullet flew out of his mouth and forward with the whizzing sound of a high speed rotating saw and faster than a hummingbird. The shell-shaped, whirling aggregate of wind chakra tore through the skull of the first guard who died before understanding his life was over.
Naruto was already on his comrade before he could register the sudden appearance of the boy who was already slowly disappearing again. He had the pin squeezed hard in his numb right hand as he plunged it into the man's eye, channelling the remnant of his wind chakra still howling in his coils through the innocent object, turning it into an invisible and vicious dagger. The second guard crumbled, his brain bisected.
The boy breathed deeply as he fought against the wave of nausea that threatened to submerge him. Hie eyes prickled and he blinked furiously. His face scrunched up at the smell of iron so thick he could taste it. He was covered in blood, the dissimulation technique slowly adjusting to it. Naruto fought tooth and nail against the dizziness, refusing to be weak.
Eyeing the two corpses dispassionately, he allowed the chakra to dissipate. When the two new ghosts manifested themselves in front of his eyes, he looked right back with dead eyes. "I'm sorry," he muttered in a monotone.
He truly was even if they did not care about it. However, they were the rest. He needed to save his teammates.
He crouched in the rapidly expanding pool of blood and picked the lock. The armoured door opened to reveal a treasure trove of various weapons, carefully stored under protective wraps and neatly arranged by type. Naruto lost no time and seized what was needed for his teammates and himself, strapping a kunai holster to his left thigh, a shuriken pouch in the small of his back, and a few extra in a third pack before sliding the belt holding a chokuto between his shoulder blades.
Willing two clones into existence, he departed as his replica transformed into the two dead guards before they dragged them inside and locked the door to the weapon cache.
Following another set of carved lines, Naruto took turns upon turns, meandering for another thirty minutes in the maze before he was met with the sight of his objective. In front of him was a guardroom keeping access to the hallway where Tiger and the Haimura trio were kept. He could walk past the enemies while invisible but could not rightfully open both Tiger's and the Haimura's cells without being detected.
He had to eliminate eight more ninjas by himself. That was by far the hardest part of the escape plan. He could probably take one or two down while invisible but the other six would then be on their guard and work their way around his camouflage technique. He had prepared a plan obviously but the last weeks had been a lesson on how plans tended to crash down when met with reality.
Naruto unsheathed his chokuto, gripping it in his right hand as he palmed three shurikens. With a massive flex of his chakra that immediately put the eight ninjas on guard, two shadow clones appeared beside him, blade drawn and steel stars in hand.
All three Narutos threw the shuriken which shimmered for a fraction of a second before they multiplied from nine to nine-hundreds. Steel started to ricochet in the narrow guardroom tearing sparks from the walls and blood from the enemies. Naruto and his replicas charged inside the room blade high and fed with so much wind chakra they were vibrating eerily.
Blood erupted as steel bit into tender flesh. Three Yugakure shinobi fell, dead before hitting the floor. Naruto opened his tenketsu, the camouflage jutsu dispelled by the brutal influx of chakra. The boy intercepted a kunai strike from a tall ninja. Using the reach of his chokuto to his advantage, the boy stepped forward, angling his wrist. The invisible edge of his wind chakra severed the hand of his enemy. The man cried out but before Naruto could kill him, he had to roll out of the way of a sword.
He eyed the new opponent who had already dispelled a shadow clone. Without the memory transfer, Naruto would have been nailed through the neck. The man was a better swordsman. Keeping the new menace at a distance with three kunai, the blond backed against a wall and sped through three one-handed hand signs.
A blast of wind lifted the nearest, unsuspecting Yugakure-nin off his feet and slammed him against the roof. The other instantly anchored themselves to the floor with chakra.
Naruto flickered right behind his Fuuton: Great Breakthrough and skewered one ninja, ignoring the swordsman completely. The man whirled around fast and lunged.
The boy jumped in a roll when the explosive tag he had left behind him in his body flicker detonated. All sound was instantly robbed from him as he was blown away, pieces of shrapnel embedding themselves in his left side. One flash of pain made his vision go white for a second before he felt something hot and viscous coating his clothes. The boy fought against the dizziness to straighten himself. he could not stay on the ground. His vision was swimming but he could see no one in front of him. He whirled around.
Pain exploded in his stomach as someone stabbed a kunai deep within his guts. The boy felt his grip on his sword fail. A distant part of his brain shuddered at the thought of what Cat would say to him. The blade in his abdomen started sliding up and the boy latched on the enemy's arm and wrist, keeping himself from being gutted completely.
His breath was ragged and he could feel his blood escaping him. He saw an elbow strike coming for his head. The blow would knock him out, his grip would falter, he'd die with his intestines spilling out.
Naruto pushed against the man and flickered, using all the chakra he could. The kunai pierced something and pain exploded in a blinding flash. The two intertwined bodies met something hard. Harder than the shinobi's body Naruto was pressed against. Something hot fell on his hair and the back of his neck.
The boy stumbled back. He had flattened the enemy against a wall with his Body Flicker, breaking everything there was to break, reducing the internal organs to mush, giving the man a concussion. The Yugakure-nin had vomited blood and bile on his hair before dying.
Naruto fell. He could not see anything. He could barely hear. He felt tired. He felt weak. Every inch of his body felt painful and heavy. He needed sleep. Whatever he had come here for, it could wait. Something slapped him across the face. Naruto blinked.
Above him was… Him. Other-him had his face marred with a frown. Naruto observed with fluttering eyes as his replica weaved through hand signs. Though muddled by exhaustion, his brain decoded the message automatically.
Hang on. I fetch Tiger.
Naruto felt drowsiness submerge him and his eyelids suddenly seemed to weigh tons. He closed his eyes, only to be slapped again.
No falling asleep.
A hand seized his hand and forced him to look down. Naruto felt his eyes widen in horror at the sight of his mangled stomach. Fear and panic slithered around him and threatened to blank everything out.
A third slap brought him back to reality.
Calm. Meditate.
The boy swallowed thickly -there were blood and bile in the back of his throat. Despite the fatigue, urgency kept him from falling asleep and surrendering to his death. He willed the pain away and plunged into the chaotic flow of his chakra, soothing the energy and directing it to the wound.
Tiger focused on the wound like he had rarely focused on something. Even his delicate rhododendrons could not hold his attention like the sight of his initiate dying. A replica had sliced the door to his cell open, freed him, and brought him in front of the cooling body of the original.
The sergeant had not been serious when he had suggested, so long ago already, the boy to try and see if he could survive being gutted, by the Flames! He had immediately sheathed his hands in healing chakra. He was nowhere near as good as Dog but the Mokuton offered a lot of advantages, no matter how downgraded his version was.
It took him half an hour to carefully tie everything back together, helped by the conscious efforts of the boy he was healing. With mild fascination, he observed the wound disappear in front of his eyes, the flesh regrowing, the viscera regenerating, everything stitching itself back together and into place in a symphony of hissing and bubbling blood until the boy's stomach appeared good as new. The Uzumaki bloodline did miracle with a little help.
Soon, there was only a pale, rather discreet scar left. Naruto's eyes fluttered open and a weak smile blossomed on his lips.
"Hey, sergeant. Happy to see you." The boy croaked. He felt like shit. He felt like he was covered in shit, actually.
Something licked his cheek and he angled his head to see La and his brothers. The Haimura trio was out.
"Hello, Maru." Tiger nodded before he eyes the guardroom they were in. "You made a mess."
The boy's eyes tightened and he looked away. "I did," he acknowledged in a dead tone. The man gave his shoulder a light squeeze and offered Naruto a small smile.
A true small that warmed his heart as it was the first time he was seeing Tiger smile; it was not one of his persona nor an act. His team leader was smiling at him.
"Let's go get the ladies." Tiger proposed in a monotone. The hounds answered with a yip of agreement.
Haku eyed the boy he was once again escorting to the sealing chamber. The blond was chatting mindlessly about stuff. Really Haku could not say for certain what was the subject of their discussion but there was no doubt they were discussing. The green-haired boy would have found it pleasant if his instincts were not screaming at him that something was wrong.
No one liked being a prisoner but the blond had never protested. He was treated fairly, was kept well-nourished, and sent back to his cell only at night but still. He had made no attempt to escape, no word of defiance had passed his lips save for the rather obvious and successful attempt at sowing discord among the men of the Bathhouse.
The tension had spiked and relaxed once the spy the blond had predicted was caught trying to sneak their way to his cell, kunai in hand. Haku had intercepted the man himself, someone he had recruited more than three years ago, a guy he could have sworn was loyal.
In addition to the slight to Haku's honour as a shinobi, it had a few frustrating days to break him, confirming the traitor was not simply bought or threatened but indeed loyal to their enemies. It was worrying as it meant Otogakure had been operating in Yugakure for a long time.
Now, however, they had an objective, as the spy had revealed the identity of his contact. Haku was already preparing a squad of ninja he trusted absolutely to go and capture the man. They would unravel the network lackey per lackey, unearth Oto's activities and destroy them.
They had threatened the Bathhouse and it was unacceptable. They were not the last ninja of Yugakure just for posturing and Haku was going to make sure to show them just that.
The teenaged boy returned his attention to his prisoner. Now that the spy had spilt his guts, there was no real need to keep him working at the slow pace they were going at. However, if they changed anything, it would doubtlessly alert the blond something was up. He had not acted up yet but there was no need to give him a reason to.
The group eventually arrived at the Veil chamber and Haku watched as Naruto switched in fuinjutsu mode. It was always a fascinating sight to behold, how their babbling captive would suddenly get a focused light in his eyes as he went to work on the intricate array of seals. The boy was passionate and agreeable and Haku felt it was a great shame he was going to die as soon as his work was done.
He squashed the feeling. He was part of a team of Konoha ninja; while they weren't declared enemies, they certainly weren't allies. It just felt like such a waste for the situation to have turned like this. Haku understood, however, that owning Konoha some favour was not something Yubaba wanted.
He dearly hoped they would not go to war for an Uzumaki who knew his way around seals. Considering he had been sent in the field probably not but the ways of the greater Villages were often impenetrable. The Bathhouse could stand its ground in Yugakure and defend its turf but if Konoha really wanted it, Haku knew they would die a painful death before realizing it was even happening. He was afraid his mistress was overestimating her position.
He had found a home in the Bathhouse and he was going to protect it.
Like his oath needed him to.
The two ANBU operatives and the ninken navigated the maze as quickly as they could, threading the darkness with the help of Naruto's knowledge and the ninken's keen nose, avoiding the few hostiles as they went higher and higher in the Rock's carved innards. Soon, light made itself more present and they reached the lower habitation levels, where they themselves had been lodging a week and a half ago.
Naruto lost no time and opened an empty room where Tiger and he showered, washing away the grime and gore they -and the boy in particular- were covered with. As they were clothing themselves back, Tiger motioned toward Naruto's clothes.
They were torn, drenched red, and smelling foul. "We can't go like this."
The boy lowered his eyes and, upon constating the state he was in, racked his brain for a solution. A smile quickly found a way to his lips. "I know what we're going to do."
Tiger only raised one of his eyebrows in a questioning fashion. Naruto moved toward the one drawer standing in the room and opened the doors, revealing some simple yukata made of cotton.
"We're going to take a bath of course." He said, his smile growing larger.
It took Tiger less than a second to consider the idea. The Bathhouse was always full of people. With one subtle transformation, two uninteresting faces would be drowned by the number of clients. There was one problem though: they could not carry any large weapons.
"We will need to abandon our chokuto." He ùused aloud before deciding it would not matter much. Kunai and shuriken were just as deadly. "Alright, you know how to don a yukata?"
Naruto fidgeted a bit and shook his head no.
"Well, let's get you dressed then."
Tiger helped the boy don the bathrobe before he draped himself in his own. The sergeant looked at the trio of dogs.
"We need you small, guys."
The hounds yipped in acknowledgement and, in a triple puff of smoke, transformed into three innocent and harmless looking puppies. Naruto snickered and the one he knew to be Hai growled at him.
"Peace. We go in. Maru, stay on alert for your clone's memories."
Five minutes later, one inconspicuous man dressed in a blue cotton yukata walked down the hallway, followed by an unremarkable boy dressed the same, himself followed by a trio of trotting puppies. A father and his son here to enjoy the famous Bathhouse of Yugakure. Their wooden getta were hitting the floor at a leisurely pace as the father was discussing -low enough so as to not disturb anyone- the good harvest of tea they would undoubtedly make with his son.
Naruto and Tiger reached the emerged part of the Bathhouse soon after and the boy could not help but fill his lungs with a deep breath of fresh air. It was made heavy by the smoke of pipes, the smell of food, and the scent of various perfumes but it was undoubtedly many times better than the stifling atmosphere of the dungeon. Naruto had to block a groan at the sudden influx of natural light.
The father and son pair went through the babbling crowd, the little dogs on their trail, inevitably bumping and brushing against several clients in the process, and made their way to a lounge area and fell on a comfortable couch.
"Well," said the father after a momentary pause, "I think I'll go relax in the bath". I warn Dog.
Naruto nodded. "I think I'll have a drink before I join you, father." The boy answered in a respectful tone. Dog in upper bath with rich clients. I warn Cat. Meeting point?
"Alright but do not abuse the sake or you'll get sick,' chastised the father to whom the boy answered with an obedient nod. Here, half an hour.
"Of course, father." Acknowledged.
Tiger rose with a grunt and stretched before he wandered off to one of the many bathing areas the gigantic building housed. A minute after, Naruto imitated his "father", only going toward the one bar he knew Cat worked in. The disguised Haimura followed the boy with happy yips.
It took him two minutes to find the woman. He had to suppress a smile when he saw her. She was easy to spot with her peculiar purple hair and feline-like grace. It took Naruto another one to ready himself for the role he envisioned. He did not have to do much: Cat was wearing a rather risqué attire and it took a good amount of willpower of concentration to not just stare. He felt something stir in his guts.
His freshly healed wound was acting up. Definitely.
Playing the part of a rather impressionable young man wanting to look tougher than he was, he waved Cat. The kunoichi turned waitress eyed the boy with disinterest. Her eyebrow cocked up when she saw the trio of little dogs.
"What will it be, young master?"
"A bottle of sake, c-cutie."
The smile Cat sent him froze hell over. Naruto swallowed thickly but gave the woman a smile as cheeky as he could manage. The waitress snorted lightly but bowed. "Immediately, young master."
She was back a minute after with a bottle of sake and a cup, which she disposed on the table. Cat was ready to take her leave when the young boy took hold of her wrist.
"Wait, won't you drink some sake with me?" He asked with more courage in his voice than he obviously had in him.
The captured kunoichi was ready to yank her hand away from the brash youth when she felt his finger caress the palm of her hand, tracing the kanji for "fire". Her eyes widened minutely and she glanced at the boy intently. Her eyes shifted to the trio of dogs and widened in apparent recognition before they settled back on the boy with a mute question.
She saw unmistakable blue eyes wink at her behind the blush before they turned back to brown, as she felt her palm vibrate with the tremor of a tapped message. We get out. Stay alert.
Cat smiled demurely. "If it can please young master, it would be an honour."
Waitresses in Yubaba's establishment were encouraged to favour customers who looked like they were ready to spend money, earning a generous cut proportional to the amount of ryo they had made the clients spill. Everything was fair game, even sex if the girl felt like it.
How? The woman snuggled close to the disguised Naruto, caressing his hand with a message of her own.
"Pour me a drink, alright?" The boy demanded, allowing a daring hand to lay on Cat's thigh. Diversion. You'll know.
"Of course, young master." Acknowledged. Don't push it.
Naruto could not help it and blushed furiously. For cover. He signed, doing his best to repress his embarrassment. He was surprised when Cat emitted a sound, in-between a snort and a giggle. The boy glared at his teammate. Not fun. The woman took the cup of sake from his hand and rose it to Naruto's lips, a devious smile on her face.
The boy gulped. Damned wound.
Naruto-clone inhaled the content of his plate. He was in a small room close to the sealing site, still surrounded by ninjas and watched by Haku. The replica did not really understand why they were bothering still with the slow pace they were imposing. He knew he had been dangled as bait, he knew they had captured someone, so why weren't they asking to work faster.
Did they think they could lull his vigilance to sleep, maybe?
"So, Haku-san, how did you end here?" Naruto-clone asked, eyeing his principal guard.
The older boy looked at the blond. "Here?"
The blond gestured around him. "You know, working for Yubaba."
"Yubaba-sama." Haku corrected automatically.
"Huh huh," denied the clone with a shake of his head. "Not for me, no."
The green-haired boy frowned and sighed. They had had this discussion already. He did not blame his prisoner. He was here against his will and forced into a job under the threat of having his comrades killed. "Why does that interest you?"
The blond shrugged. "I'm mainly making conversation. I'm a bit curious though. Was it a choice? A debt?"
Haku's eyes tightened slightly. "It's my home."
Naruto-clone smiled good-naturedly. "So a refuge."
The passing expression of surprise he saw flashing on Haku's face changed Naruto's smile into a grin. "Ninjas are trained to read people. One good way to avoid being read is to actually be honest, at least a little."
Haku cocked an eyebrow. "So you're truly a seal-obsessed, ramen-addicted chatterbox?"
"Sure," said the boy while shrugging. "It's not like it says a lot about me as a ninja so it's all good."
"We know you're an Uzumaki," remarked Haku. "That means extensive chakra levels and a possible ninjutsu specialist."
"Yep but it's not me who clued you in. You don't know my actual proficiency, what my favoured element is, and so on…"
"You don't deny you're a ninjutsu specialist." The green-haired boy pointed.
"Why would I? If you're wrong, it disinforms you even more, if you're right, you don't have much anyway."
"Alright. What can you deduce from me being here?" Haku asked with an easy smile.
Naruto-clone chewed for a few seconds on his lunch before swallowing his mouthful. "Well, I'd say you took refuge here, fleeing something or someone, as your reluctance to give a straight answer could indicate. The men obey you despite your appearance. You're masquerading as a teenager or you're very talented, either way, you're quite powerful. You're somehow a key part of the Bathhouse defence, valued enough that your failure to keep the veil intact did not result in your death. I'd say you're genuine though. Yubaba did something for you and you appreciate her for that, enough to pledge allegiance."
Haku eyed the blond boy impassively as Naruto scratched the back of his scalp.
"See, even being completely blank betray you and confirm parts of what I just say. If I was wrong, you'd be scoffing, making faces, something. Problem is, I can't say what was right and what was wrong."
Haku reclined against his chair and let a sigh escape him. "Is that a game to you?"
Naruto scratched the back of his head again and chuckled. "Hehe, it's the only way for me to do things right, -ttebayo. I was kinda bad at school 'cause it was all so serious and dry and boring. If I can see something like a game, I do much better."
"Can I try it then?"
Naruto shrugged and offered Haku a smile. "Sure." He said, finishing his dish and leaning back into his seat.
Haku smiled. "You're the most well-mannered prisoner I've ever seen. Which mean you've given up on escaping, you're waiting on back-up, or you've already an escape plan you believe solid enough for it to work."
Naruto grinned and shook his head up and down. "Yup, yup."
"Given how cheerful you are, I'd say it's one of the last two."
The blond boy shrugged.
"You value your teammate a lot, hence why you accepted to work for us when Yubaba-sama threatened them. They are also the reason why you won't get out of here without all of them."
Naruto nodded.
"You think of yourself as clever. Cleverer than all of us. So clever that you did not think I could play the game too. So clever that you did not think we could prepare a trap of our own." Haku's smile turned frosty just as Naruto's congealed. "I wonder if the two ladies working in the Bathhouse right now are truly your teammates?"
Naruto-clone paled for a second.
"You think me stupid," continued Haku, "but I know full well your purplette teammate was seducing one of my captains. I might have fed him false intel."
Naruto now had a big frown marring his features. "That'd be embarrassing. Just as embarrassing if I had transformed the Veil in a giant detonator array, don't you think?"
Haku stilled and cocked an eyebrow prudently. Behind them, all seven of his men were stopped frozen. "How would that work?"
"Well, see, the Veil is fine already. I fixed it at the end of last week. Now, -and it's hypothetical alright?- what if I had modified it so that, the second you connect to it, it sets off a few hundred high powered explosive tags I disseminated in the Bathhouse in addition to liquefying your brain?"
Haku snorted. "And how would you have even done that? You've been under watch twenty-four seven."
"What if -hypothetically, of course- I wasn't? You don't know much about my ninjutsu after all, right? You don't know much about my capacities as a ninja. So, hypothetically, where would that leave us?"
"A stand-off."
Naruto nodded, arms crossed in front of his chest, eyes closed in a picture of certitude. "Yup, yup. How do you propose we get out of it?"
"You're bluffing anyway. Your teammates would die."
"I think two-third of the Bathhouse would die actually. I don't have my demolition brevet so it's a rough estimation. I made sure Yubaba's grandson's death would be especially painful. Lots of smoke, fire, and so on."
Haku's eyes tightened again. "You Konoha ninjas have no honour. You'd threaten a babe?"
Naruto sighed and lowered his gaze. "We thought the Bathhouse was neutral ground. We were minding our own business and suddenly we're assaulted, you take us, and you throw us in behind bars, forcing me to solve your problems as you threaten my comrades. Who is speaking of honour?"
That silenced Haku, reminding him of those same words he had spoken to his mistress. The boy sighed. "Your business is Otogakure, correct?"
Naruto shrugged. "Can we play our cards frankly now? I'm kinda new at this and it tires me real quick."
Haku nodded curtly.
"I have no idea why you played hardball but you don't threaten Konoha ninjas without consequences," Naruto explained frankly. "We could have negotiated this long ago and the atmosphere would have been way more relaxed."
"We needed a seal-master for the Veil."
The blond's eyebrow rose in his hairline. "And you didn't ask… Because… Huh?"
"Yubaba-sama felt like she had nothing to negotiate with and did not want to be indebted to Konoha."
Naruto could understand that. Having relied mainly on himself for most of his life, owning something to someone was not a notion he was very comfortable with. He was fine feeling indebted to the Sarutobi clan or to the Ichiraku little family but it was precisely because they were just that: family.
The blond boy racked his brain for a minute before his eyes widened. "Why didn't we think of it?" Naruto slapped himself flush in the face. "We didn't have headbands. We weren't Konoha ninjas, not officially. Yubaba could have paid me as a private contractor."
Haku eyed the boy dumbly for a minute before he, too, slapped himself in the face. How had Yubaba-sama not seen that two weeks ago? Had she been that obsessed that she hadn't considered the obvious? Haku sighed. He respected the old lady immensely, it did not mean she was incapable of doing mistakes. It was when the true reason hit and soured his mood.
Yubaba-sama absolutely did not want the secret of the Veil to get out. The blond was slated for death. Yubaba-sama did not make mistakes like that.
"Did I nearly vaporize a few hundred people because we had a misunderstanding?" Naruto asked, his voice perfectly neutral, his question interrupting Haku's line of thoughts.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. As much as I'd like for it to be a solution, I don't know if Yubaba-sama would accept." Haku stalled, one hand raised in front of him in a stopping gesture. How was he going to trick the blond into thinking they would accept? If he had trapped the whole Bathhouse, they had to negotiate anyway. He eyed the blond boy carefully.
Naruto returned Haku's glance. Something was grating at the limits of his mind, an uneasy feeling that made him queasy. It should have been the perfect solution and suddenly it was not. The older boy was too cautious. Naruto was missing something. He started playing and discarding various possibilities.
It dawned on him. The Veil was Yubaba's secret defence. They would not take the risk of him revealing it to the world. Naruto kept his face carefully neutral. He had to find Cat and Dog, the real ones, and get out of here. He knew just how to do that.
"So, hum. How about I deactivate the trap on the Veil and that's a bonus to help you convince Yubaba we don't need to fight? I mean, I fix the sealing array and we coordinate our efforts for Oto. Sounds good, no?"
Haku eyed him for a full minute before he nodded and smiled. A perfect smile, one the moved the corner of the boy's eyes just enough to look genuine. "Let's do that. Now?"
Naruto nodded. "I'm full."
Haku rose from his seat and Naruto followed him and soon, seven guards were surrounding them. They travelled through a few corridors before they were back in front of the armoured door of the sealing chamber. The reinforced panels were quickly opened and Haku followed Naruto as the blond boy positioned himself in front of the synchronization seal, the one that allowed a sensor to merge his consciousness with the Veil.
Dog and Naruto had discovered in Rice Country that the boy had sensory abilities. While he had not trained extensively with them, the ANBU initiate had been given pointers. Naruto-clone took a deep breath. He would have a few seconds top before his trap would fry his own brain and dispel him.
He hoped it would be enough. Kneeling, the boy pressed his right hand against the seal as his left sped through three hand seals.
Haku and his guards were blasted off their feet by a violent, howling gale. Before they could regain their bearing, the blond boy was already synced with the array, having by-passed the detonation order, and focused on a mental image of his teammate, willing for their presence to be revealed to him.
The clone suddenly dispelled, killed by the brain-frying trap the original had implemented.
Naruto's eyes widened suddenly at the sudden inrush of memories. He nearly choked on the tea he was sipping. Beside him, Tiger noticed the tenseness of his subordinate. The two men were in a little, private basin of hot water, one of the higher-end booths people could rent in the Bathhouse.
"What is it?"
Naruto took a deep breath and centred himself. "We have been played. The women we contacted are plants. We have maybe a few minutes before we are attacked."
Tiger hummed. "Any idea where our teammates are?"
Naruto grimaced. "Deep down. We need to go back inside the Rock. Also, they are not going after the Oto spy today. It was a bait since the beginning. I don't get it."
"They pushed us to overconfidence and trapped us. Powerful psychological method to break all will to escape."
Tiger explained before he swore in a tone Naruto would call good-natured if the situation was not so incredibly spinning out of control. Plans did not resist reality. The boy's eyes hardened. It did not matter. He had two teammates who were waiting to be freed.
There was nothing but the family.
Both men rose from the water and dried themselves before hurrying to the changing room, a simple towel around their waist. Both rolled backwards when a hail of kunai greeted them.
"Katon Fuuton combination," ordered Tiger tersely.
Naruto's eyes widened at the order. When enemies started pouring in the bath his hesitation was forgotten. His chakra pulsed once and he sped through hand signs. He was almost too late. The Katon: Great Fireball of his sergeant already blooming like a deadly flower, evaporating the already hot water of the onsen.
The rush of wind chakra impacted the fire jutsu in its core, the energies merging to create something more than the sum of their physical properties. Naruto and Tiger let themselves sink under the water as hell was suddenly unchained above the surface. Muffled by the water, the could still hear the screams of humans being calcined to their bones.
Most of the water instantly boiled and Tiger had to create a protective layer of suiton chakra around them. Twenty seconds later, they emerged to a sight of complete waste.
Their attack had torn through everything, leaving nothing but ashes in its path. The charred remains of their assailants were smoking, exhaling a disgusting smell of burnt flesh. Naruto counted three corpses. A fourth man was still alive in the back of the eviscerated changing room, half of his body cooked to a crisp.
Naruto had to exert the entirety of his willpower to resist the urge to retch at the smell.
"Our clothes are ruined now. A shame" deadpanned Tiger next to him. Naruto eyed the hole they had pierced through the wall. A rumour of panic could already be heard. He saw two customers on the ground, cradling whatever injuries the explosion had caused. There were pieces of wood and shrapnel strewn in the hall. "Operation Blast is a go."
Naruto's eyes widened in horror. "Sergeant, if I detonate, we'll kill half the people here. They are innocent!" The blond protested immediately. Operation Blast was supposed to be a bluff, a mean of forceful negotiation, a massive hostage situation in case anything turned sour. The dispositive was never supposed to be used. He had never dreamed he would ever detonate the countless explosive tags his clones had hidden through the massive building. They were supposed to use his Mayhem traps: firework, a few low powered explosive tags, more fear than real damage.
"This will give us the necessary distraction to save our comrades," Tiger retorted with a cold, determined voice. He turned toward the boy and pinned him with hard, fiery eyes. "There is nothing but the village and the family, Maru."
Naruto recoiled, shaking his head, horror nestling in his chest. He had justified killing the enemy ninjas in the same way. Their objective was actively going against his, they threatened his teammates, it was fair. They were shinobi, their life was forfeit since the beginning.
He could not slaughter a crowd of civilians entirely unrelated to their business.
"Maru." The cutting tone of his officer brought Naruto back to the present. Time seemed to crystalized in one terrible second. The boy felt his heart simultaneously tear and go cold at the man's next words.
"This is an order."
"Please," he pleaded in a whisper. "Taicho, please." Men, women, children, enjoying the Bathhouse, who had no idea of the silent conflict that was taking place right now, who had nothing to do with anything.
"There is no time for arguing. Detonate. The. Charges."
The world buzzed and blurred for Naruto, reducing itself to the eyes of his captain and his order echoing in his ears. It was an order. He did not have any choice. A pit opened in his stomach, bottomless and dark. He was not making the choice, he was following a command, he did not want it, he could not avoid it.
It was that or he would endanger Dog and Cat. He would doom members of his family, people precious to him. He would be outed from ANBU, never given his proper mask, condemned for insubordination, shamed for abandoning his comrades. Never accepted. Fear gripped his heart. Never accepted.
Us and Them.
Naruto folded his left hand in the tiger seal and focused on the minute traces of his chakra dispersed in the Bathhouse. At the tip of his fingers, within the coiled tenketsu of his good hand, so much was hanging that it felt impossibly heavy to move them. His teammates. The rest.
"They are here! Get them!" Someone screamed. One of Yubaba's henchmen surmised the blond.
His throat felt dry and he knew there were tears streaming down his cheeks but it felt so distant, so unreal. He was just obeying an order, he did not have the choice, he was not making a decision, he was not slaughtering civilians for his benefit.
A raw, animalistic roar of fright and fury tore through his throat as his chakra flared. Suddenly, it was like the blond had summoned Hell on Earth.
AN: I was tempted to call this chapter "pain in the ass" because that is exactly what it was. I kept rewriting, discarding, erasing. I think this is as close to where I want it to be as I'll ever get.
It was planned since the beginning that this mission would spiral out in a mess. The problem is, I think failure is way harder to write than success.
Leave a review? I'm famished.