Pre-word: I'm kind of trying a bit of a shorter chapter this time, both to close the gap between updates and because this chapter just didn't need as much considering the amount of content covered.

Part of me just wants to jump right to Takigakure and get the main plot moving on again, but I think there's a lot of smaller moments and things I need to establish first. So while this chapter may be short, there's a lot I wanted to pack into it. So I hope the content is worth the wait.


Heart Under Shadow

Tree Walking


Naruto gave a bestial roar as he charged the nearest tree to him.

Just as it looked like he was going to run smack into it, he planted his feet on the side of the tree and his horizontal charge was suddenly turned vertical. He ran halfway up the tree, continuing his battle shout the whole way.

Just as he was nearing the top, the bark beneath his feet snapped and he felt the chakra control below his feet slip away, breaking his anchor to the tree. He grit his teeth, slashing with the short sword in hand. There was a flash of white that left a shallow gouge in the tree- marking his position.

With that, he fell. Performing a quick backflip, he attempted to land on his feet. It was mostly successful but the shock from the landing travelled up his spine and a second later the clone burst into a cloud of smoke.

Two other loud pops quickly followed and three sets of memories along with their experiences flooded back into the real Naruto who sat cross-legged in front of a campfire. He grimaced, nearly choking on his hot soup that he had just been guzzling down. "Damn it," He cursed, not understanding what was going wrong. Placing down the bowl of soup, he raised his arms into the practiced clone seal, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Three more clones popped into existence, joining the other three that had managed proper landings to once again set up to practice tree walking for him. As they continued to do that, he returned once more to his food, determined to eat it while it was still hot.

Itachi's crow sat perched on his shoulder, letting out hungry squeaks as if asking him to feed it. During the day, the crow had flown in the sky, completely out of sight to any of them, even out of the range of Kaguya's Byakugan. Yet it always returned to them by night.

"I honestly don't know what part to be more surprised about at this point." Kakuze mumbled, having paused his operation momentarily in silence as Naruto went about the routine as Kaguya had instructed him. "To think that the kid who turned the once mighty village of Konoha into a mini celestial rock… doesn't even know how to walk on trees. Just goes to show, raw power sometimes is really all it takes. Not even money could buy that."

"Focus would be appreciated." Kaguya snapped, drawing Kakuzu to look back down at her. She had peeled the eye-socket atop her head back, revealing the gaping hole for Kakuzu to see. In his hand was the Copy-ninja's former Sharingan eye. Well, the true owner would have been the Uchiha whom Kakashi had received it from, but very few people outside of Konoha knew who that was.

"Yea, yeah." Kakuzu hesitated for another moment, but a deal was a deal- and he was nothing if not a man of his word. To think the body of Madara had been the true genuine article was beyond his expectations. For now, he simply had one of his masks guarding the location Kaguya had hidden it, but in exchange for the location of that body he was now about to perform the surgery necessary to plant the Sharingan into her third eye socket.

Well, he called it a surgery but it would be more accurate to say it was as simple as popping it in and using his sutures to establish a chakra connection that would fuse the eye with her. The actual process would only take not more than a couple seconds.

As he began to do just that, Kaguya couldn't help but ask. "What is the other thing that thou find so surprising?"

"Huh? Oh-" Kakuzu almost forgot what he had been talking about himself. "Using Shadow Clones to train. Certainly, it's fairly common knowledge that they can be used to gather intelligence and pass it on without the host even entering danger, but to cut down on the time it requires to learn- that kind of thinking isn't just outside-the-box, it's beyond comprehension."

Kaguya snorted, clearly quite pleased with herself and her master. "Indeed, such a method might be impossible for those lacking the chakra capacity to create a steady stream of clones, such as our Aruji. Our only regret is that he is relegated to simply six clones at a time. If not for the… Uzugan-" She still wasn't a fan of the new name they had given Naruto's Rinnegan eyes. "Then he could cut years of training down into hours."

"..." Kakuzu didn't dare say it aloud, for fear of risking Kaguya's sudden wrath, but he was secretly glad that Naruto was incapable of such a feat. Had he been… contract or not, Kakuzu would have had no choice but to kill him. Otherwise, Naruto would have become a force too powerful for this world.

Instead he quietly finished his work and Kaguya took his silence as a consequence of focus- rather than the dark thoughts he was truly having. A couple moments later- "That should do it." Kakuzu leaned back on the wooden log he and Kaguya shared.

Her third eye blinked several times, the lid atop of her forehead blinking sideways as opposed to more standard eyes. The tomoe of the red Sharingan spun around, Kaguya adjusting to her new sense of vision. "This shall do nicely." She hummed in satisfaction, rising from the log and walking around the campfire to stand beside her master; The shadow beneath their feet constantly flickering in the only source of light.

"This is a good chance to test our new capabilities too." She looked purposely into the darkness of the surrounding forest. Neither Naruto nor Kakuzu could see what it was she had done, but there was a sudden scream of pain and the distinct sound of squenching. Something or several somethings fell to the forest floor with wet and audible slaps.

There was a commotion from within the forest and suddenly three more figures clad completely in black leapt from the darkness of the forest and out into the light. Naruto, Kaguya, nor Kakuzu seemed surprised by their sudden appearance.

It was exactly as the former Takigakure Shinobi had told them already, but they had made a mistake of standing out in the previous village and it would seem some surviving members of Konoha's ANBU had managed to locate them. "Leave this to us." Kaguya instructed just as Naruto had raised his right arm to pull one of them in. His clones stood idle off to the side, ready for action at any moment.

Kaguya followed all three of the ANBU simultaneously. Their movements were well coordinated, but they seemed hesitant to push any kind of offensive. Not only did they not know Kaguya's abilities, but they still weren't entirely sure of the situation. Of course, they had no way of knowing it had been Naruto that had been the one to destroy the village.

Their only purpose in coming here would have been to retrieve a valuable asset, the Jinchuriki weapon, which would be an important piece in mounting any kind of defense against an all but inevitable future invasion. At first glance, it would seem he had been captured by the Nukenin and well-known bounty hunter, but after observing the campfire situation for some time, it was clear that wasn't the case. Unfortunately for them, they took too much time in trying to understand the helplessly complicated gathering and that had cost them.

"What an interesting ability…" Kaguya mumbled to herself, using the new Jutsu once more, this time in the light of the campfire for all to see. The world itself seemed to warp as a portal into another dimension was forcefully torn open. This portal was opened right at the center of an Anbu's chest cavity.

With the sickening sound of flesh and bones being sucked through a straw, the torso of the man was pulled in. He gave a strangled cry, his head and limbs making loud pops as they were left behind in the real world. Those limbs fell to the campsite below, a rain of blood following behind them. Kaguya spread her arms, standing under the bloody shower and allowing herself to be doused in her victims innards with a warped smile on her face.

"Mangekyo Sharingan…" Kakuzu mumbled, not paying any attention to the detestable sight other than to take note of how the shape of the Sharingan had changed.

The three tomoe had turned into a three-pronged pinwheel. Having been Itachi's partner for several years now, he was of course aware of the Mangekyo Sharingan and some of their powers. However, this was completely unlike what Itachi's Mangekyo had been. In both shape and ability.

Not to mention, he had been under the impression that Hatake Kakashi had never developed the Sharingan this far. Either Kaguya had just awoken it, or Kakashi had kept it a secret this whole time. Neither option would be particularly surprising.

"We would have liked to meet the Uchiha that gave young Hatake this eye." Kaguya's voice trembled, but not out of any kind of fear. No, it would be far more accurate to say she was the most elated she had felt in a long time. "To think a mere mortal had access to the other dimensions."

With this, maybe it was possible? As far as Kaguya could tell, this Mangekyo could only currently open a portal to one dimension and it appeared to be a fairly limited space. However, with her knowledge and the eventual return of her power it might be possible she could reestablish connections to her lost worlds.

Such possibilities were thoughts for the future, however. Her immediate focus was on the two other men that sought her master harm. And while they had been hesitant to attack before, the sight of an ally being shredded to pieces quickly spurred them into an offensive.

Shuriken rained down upon Kaguya but she didn't so much as bother moving, having no need to dodge such a basic attack. Her long braided hair flung around as if having a life of its own, wrapping around Kaguya in a protective shield. The shuriken sunk into her hair, causing it no damage.

In the same movement that she defended herself she also attacked, using her new ability once again. This time, however, she aimed only for the legs. The torturous scream from the man wasn't cut short like the last two. He was flung helplessly into the trunk of a nearby tree he had been previously attempting to land on. Without his legs to stick the landing he merely bounced off with a loud thunk and tumbled to the forest floor just outside their little camp.

The fourth and final member of the ANBU landed on the branch of a nearby tree and seemed to hesitate for a split moment. Did he continue the fight or cut his losses here and run? That was surely the mental battle he just had with himself. And over the sound of his comrade's screams, he leapt back to disappear into the darkness of the forest.

"Is it really fine to let him leave like that?" Kakuzu wondered aloud, having not made any effort to chase after him personally either.

"We do not care." Kaguya merely shrugged, appearing truly unconcerned about one enemy. "If anything, allowing the vermin to report to their superiors might be more beneficial to us. They are either more likely to stay away from us now that they've gotten information or will come at us in greater numbers, thus allowing us to more efficiently purge them from my garden."

"...You damn witch." Kakuzu couldn't decide whether to be impressed or horrified. He decided one thing for sure: Those stories she told about being over a thousand years old seemed far more believable the longer he spent with her.

"It has been a long time since we have been referred to as such, it is almost nostalgic." Kaguya, still drenched in blood from her previous kill, smiled wickedly at Kakuzu. Shivers ran up his spine, despite the fact he no longer possessed one and was just being held together by animate wires.

"What are we going to do with this guy?" Naruto asked. Two of his clones had already collected the legless ANBU and were dragging him over to unceremoniously dump him in front of Kaguya. He had managed to stifle his cries, but his ragged breathing and blood pooling beneath him suggested he wasn't much longer for this world.

Kakuzu couldn't help but notice how completely unaffected the young blond was to all the gore and death he had just witnessed. It would seem that whatever he had witnessed in Konoha had truly already made him numb to such graphic displays of violence. While this wasn't odd amongst those in this profession, it was certainly a rarity among those so young.

Then again, Kakuzu remembered thinking the same thing about Itachi and he had been the one to bet on Naruto's future. So it certainly fit the bill that someone Itachi saw potential in would have been cut from the same cloth.

"We have questions for him, while he is still able to talk and thus somewhat of a use to us." Kaguya reached forward, pulling the mask from his face to reveal a young man with orangish-brown hair. She tilted his head up, forcing him to gaze into her new Sharingan and immediately snaring him in a Genjutsu. "Now speak… who sent thou after us?"

"...The Godaime Hokage: Shimura Danzo-sama." The man answered her question, voice dull and lifeless. Despite the fact that he shouldn't have been capable of talking considering the excruciating pain he must have been in. That was because he was no longer capable of feeling that pain, Kaguya having transported his mind to a distant world with her Genjutsu.

"That bastard lived after all…" Naruto growled. This was an unfortunate complication for Kaguya. She had determined herself to set him on the right path, but she couldn't just convince him to not go after Danzo. The one person who could really be blamed for all of Naruto's pain until now.

"What are the Hokage's plans and what kind of forces has he managed to gather?" Pushing that aside for now, Kaguya hurried to gather as much information as she could from the man while he still drew breath.

"At his side, Danzo has gathered a dozen of his most loyal followers. We had all been sent out to search for Sasuke and Hinata, so hadn't been in the village when it fell. Our primary mission is gathering what Konoha Shinobi remain… and eliminating those who don't come peacefully." So that was how it was.

Kaguya couldn't say she was surprised, but to know Danzo would rather have his own forces eliminated rather than risk them seeking a chance at survival in another nation's borders. He wasn't just prideful, he was vain in the deepest sense of the word.

"And when he has his forces, what then?" Kaguya asked. However, there was only silence. It would appear this man truly didn't know what Danzo's plans were. She suspected only the man himself knew. Although she doubted it would be good. Humans were most dangerous when pushed into a corner and who knew what kind of havoc he was capable of wreaking after surviving such a cataclysmic event.

So she changed her line of questioning. "Is he or anyone aware of what happened to the village?" She asked.

"No." The man answered simply, not even bothering to give any of his own opinions. This meant Danzo hadn't told them so much as about Itachi and his revenge, let alone Naruto. So it stood to reason even he wasn't aware that her master had been the one responsible. Although that much was obvious considering the size of the force that had come after them. If they truly knew of Naruto's power, they wouldn't have approached at all or come at them with everything they had.

This was at least some kind of good news. Danzo had his hands too full to come after them as it was. Of course, he still falsely believed Naruto to be the Kyubi Jinchuriki, and such a weapon couldn't be easily overlooked, but even Danzo had to realize after his remaining henchman reported this slaughter to him that he lacked the resources to immediately come after them.

That meant they had time to prepare.

"Are any other known Konoha Shinobi enroute to Takigakure?" She asked, but again there was no response. This time because the light in the man's eyes had gone out. She let his lifeless corpse fall to her feet and pointed a finger gun at him before pausing just long enough to look at Kakuzu. "We do not suppose he has a bounty thou wish to collect?"

"Nah, dust him." Kakuzu snapped his book shut. He had been checking just now for that very information but the man's face didn't appear and Kakuzu had no memory of him as someone worth renown, so he was just a nobody.

The moment the words left Kakuzu's mouth and Kaguya had already fired a little bullet of dust into the man's body, disintegrating him on the spot. Her body was now awash in a soft glow, the blood from the previous battle that stained her clothes and skin being cleansed away as if by magic.

Silence settled over their little camp, both Kaguya and Kakuzu having turned to look at Naruto as they waited for his reaction. The blond in question seemed oblivious at first for several nonchalant seconds, before realizing they were both eyeballing him. "What?" He asked, as if it was any kind of question about what might be on their minds.

"Thou are not going to push to go after Shimura Danzo?" Kaguya didn't even think she had to ask such an obvious question. However, she was completely surprised by the sour look on her master's face as he wrinkled his nose, frowning as if tasting something bitter.

"You're the one who said it, right?" Naruto shrugged as if to say it wasn't his business. "He doesn't have long to live either way. Honestly, I don't want to see the guy and will be happy just to know he gets what's coming to him. I don't really care if I'm the one to do it or not." What Naruto didn't say was that he already felt like he had gotten all the revenge he needed.

Certainly, Danzo was the face he could place to all his troubles growing up. But the rest of the village had been just as complicit as far as he was concerned. By wiping out the village, he had already gotten his revenge on Danzo and if the old bastard lived a little longer to suffer the consequences of that; well then maybe he would come to understand a little of the pain he had caused Naruto before he passed.

This was the twisted conclusion that Naruto had perhaps naively come to.

"I'm somewhat impressed." Kakuzu wasn't someone that handed out compliments easily. "Here I was, prepared to tell you that your contract was only good for getting to Takigakure, but it would seem I don't even need to waste the breath." He of course ignored the fact that he went to the trouble of having said it anyways.

"Yes… it is certainly mature of thou." Kaguya agreed, albeit wearily. That wasn't to say she wasn't satisfied with this outcome. It would have been complicated if Naruto had wanted to go after the Hokage on someone misguided mission of revenge.

While he certainly could use Chibaku Tensei again, Danzo had already survived such a technique once. So it wasn't unimaginable that he could do it again. And Kaguya didn't wish to see her garden world torn up just for the murder of a single man.

Yet at the same time, the emotionless and rational way in which Naruto had come to this conclusion was so incompletely like himself, that she couldn't help but be concerned. It was as if the greater effects of what he had done were already starting to take hold and he was cutting himself off from his humanity like she feared he would.

It hadn't been a dramatic shift, but something subtle and which she hadn't noticed despite having been keeping a close eye on his mental health over the past couple days. The concern must have been showing on her face- which was troubling in a whole other kind of way- because Naruto suddenly waved his hand at her as if to dissuade the thoughts she was just now having.

"Don't get me wrong, I want the bastard to die a good miserable death and if I get my crack at him, you bet I ain't gonna hold back." He paused, just long enough that both Kaguya and Kakuzu were going to prompt him to finish the thought. "Thing is, I'm sick and tired of thinking about Konoha. I just wanna get to Takigakure and find out what the deal with their Jinchuriki is."

And there was the true heart of the matter. Naruto wasn't really concerned anymore about anything other than getting to the one that was just like him. Or at the very least, used to be.

Kaguya supposed she should be happy with this development. It meant that Naruto wasn't yet as far gone as she had just previously been fretting over. Yet at the same time, there was something heavy and hot burning at the bottom of her stomach.

She searched her memories, trying to recall what this feeling could possibly be. Yet there was no need for such a thing, because she knew right away what it was. It was just such an impossibility that she immediately dismissed it.

After all, there was no way.

Kaguya couldn't possibly accept that she was envious of some human.


Chapter End


Post-word: Despite the brevity of this chapter, I do feel it's established quite a few things.

As for where I'm going with all those things, even I can't say, haha. I've got several ideas, of course, but I'm still picking what's going to be best and most importantly the most fun for me to write. So I guess we'll find out how that goes from here together.

I actually rewrote the second half of this chapter a couple times, trying to get it right. At first I wanted Naruto to press the point about going after Danzo for revenge, but no matter how I wrote it, the interaction didn't feel right. I guess Naruto as a character just kinda feels... over(?) everything that happened, for lack of a better word. So while Danzo is alive, he's not really a priority for the characters or me at the moment. He'll just kinda be doing his shady stuff in the background for the time being.

Thanks as always for sticking with me and I'll see y'all around next time.