When Naruto's alias was called, everyone who had been helping him with his puppets in the forest held their breaths. Naruto figured that deep down, most of them still expected him to quit. To be honest, it would be the best move in this situation—his lungs and heart still ached from the bits of supressed chakra that managed to escape when he wasn't paying attention, and he'd used his broken fingers so much that every twitch was agony. He knew no ninja would fault him for resigning in his weakened state.

But Naruto wasn't like other ninjas. He was an emissary of the Akatsuki, if not a full fledged member quite yet. Even someone like him had been trained in almost every situation, and since many missions were dangerous he'd been trained how to fight with no chakra, backed into a sticky situation. His mind and body could still remember exactly how it had worked.


"Naruto, you're growing overconfident in your use of jutsus," Itachi had said, watching as Naruto went through six jutsus in no time flat then laughed happily. "You're too focused on offense and you defense is suffering."

"Itachiiii," Naruto whined, running up to his favourite Akatsuki member and grabbing the front of his cloak, tugging it and glaring at the man who'd saved him. "I'm not overconfident, you guys beat me every day! Besides a few easy missions, I haven't won a single fight!"

Itachi narrowed his eyes, but Naruto was older now and he wasn't going to do every little thing Itachi wanted. When it came to training, anyway. He was strong now, and who needed defense if their offense was so strong that no one could get through it? He just needed to keep strengthening his offense, and eventually he'd be able to beat even Itachi!

But Itachi disappeared in a flutter of crows, and suddenly Naruto felt a kunai at the back of his neck. He groaned, not wanting to train in any more taijutsu—it wasn't as cool or flashy as the impressive array of jutsus the Akatsuki members could teach him. Especially Obito—erm, Tobi, who was uh… Madara to Itachi (it was confusing)—who knew almost as many moves as Kakashi Hatake, the man that had supposedly memorized a thousand.

"How are you going to counter?" Itachi asked from behind him, and Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Substitute a Shadow Clone and get the fuck outta—"

There was a sharp pain on his head as Itachi karate-chopped him. Naruto fell to his knees, clutching his head as tears formed in his eyes, and he shot a hateful look at Itachi over his shoulder.

"Naruto," Itachi sighed.

"Okay, okay, I know I'm not supposed to curse! But Hidan—"

"—is someone you're not supposed to be hanging out with," Itachi finished sternly. "I understand he's strong, but I don't want you getting caught up with his god Jashin."

"But Jashin's cool," Naruto muttered under his breath, earning him another chop from Itachi in precisely the same location as last time. He yelped, clutching his head and rolling from side to side; the first one hadn't hurt too much, but getting hit in the same spot was harsh! It wasn't his fault that Hidan had the most to teach him about cursing, gods, and women. That was just stuff a young guy quickly approaching teen years and puberty needed to know.

Itachi sighed again and crouched until he was eye-level with Naruto. Naruto stopped carrying on and eyed the Uchiha warily, wondering if he should expect a surprise attack or not. Itachi usually didn't surprise attack him, but the other members of the Akatsuki all did at least once a week. Each! They said he needed to stay on his toes, and man, was he ready for anything now.

"I'm sorry it's boring," Itachi said, reaching out to poke Naruto in the forehead with two fingers. Naruto could feel a flush of shame creeping up his neck from acting childish, but Itachi smiled warmly instead of looking disappointed. "I keep forgetting you're only ten. You're the same age as my brother, but you've matured so much in the past in two years that I find myself treating you like an adult more and more."

"Your brother… Sasuke?" Naruto asked excitedly, wondering if he'd get another Sasuke story. It had taken a year for Itachi to talk about his family, but when he finally opened up all he talked about was Sasuke. How amazing his younger brother was, and how bright his future looked. Naruto had been jealous at first, but now he loved hearing about the youngest Uchiha. Sasuke sounded so cool, and though Naruto didn't want to associate with Konoha again, he thought maybe he'd like to be friends with Sasuke someday.

"Stop changing the subject," Itachi chuckled, and Naruto felt warm from his toes to the tips of his hair. He loved making Itachi laugh; it seemed like it made the whole world get a little brighter.

"Now, what I'm going to show you today may not seem like much, but it's what separates a strong shinobi from the rest. What have I always told you makes a difference between two opponents? Something that a weaker ninja can use to defeat someone who's far, far above them?"

Argh, Naruto fucking hated pop quizzes! Even when he knew the answer.

"Experience," he said, earning another gentle smile from Itachi.

"Exactly. The problem with you is that we don't have many missions you can join us on yet, because Pain doesn't want you doing anything dangerous until you're ready to start collecting the other jinchuurikis. For most people as young as you, it's impossible to gain experience. Luckily for you, you're in a unique situation where you're surrounded by strong ninjas who all have different fighting styles."

"So… I'm going to fight you all?" Naruto asked, wondering where this was going.

"In a way. The experience I want you to have now is one that doesn't involve chakra or ninjutsu—it involves making your body memorize the unique feel of a fight. What I want is to build your fighting instinct, so your body is dodging attacks and countering before your mind even has time to catch up. You think too much when using ninjutsu, so this entire training exercise is going to be pure taijutsu, teaching your body how to recognize sounds, disturbances in the air, and exact distances an enemy has jumped based on how heavy their footstep is. Things like that."

Naruto rolled this around in his mind, picturing how awesome he would look if people were whipping kunai at him and he was dodging with a cool expression, turning his nose up at them as they gaped in amazement at his skills. On second thought, maybe Itachi's training wasn't so boring after all.

"Okay, what do I have to do?" Naruto asked, beginning to get excited.

Itachi held up two strips of cloth, beckoning for Naruto to come over to him. Naruto was a little shocked when Itachi wrapped one of them around his hands, binding them so tight he wouldn't be able to make a single hand sign. He was even more shocked when Itachi wrapped the second one around his eyes, and all vision was completely blocked.

"Uh… Itachi? You don't seriously think I can fight you blindfolded with my hands tied like this do you? It's fu—I mean, it's insane!"

"I told you, you can't use jutsus," Itachi answered, but he sounded like he was in a completely different place from where he'd been. Naruto spun, trying to pinpoint where the voice was coming from.

"And you're too fast to let you use your sight at this point. To develop battle instinct, you'll need to use your other senses, the ones you don't normally think of using. I don't want you to think hard about what you're doing; I want you to let your body take over."

"I-I'll try!" Naruto squeaked out, spinning around and around to try to pinpoint where Itachi was. There was a soft sound of a shoe scraping sand, a small whoosh of air, and then he felt a hand touch the side of his neck.

"You're dead," Itachi said from beside him. Naruto kicked out to the side with all his might, but Itachi was already gone. Shit. This would take a long, long time to learn—longer than any jutsus, probably even longer than it had taken to master a puppet. He sparred with Itachi for a good hour, 'dying' a hundred times over, until he was panting and confused and unsure what sounds were natural.

"I think I've done enough for today," Itachi said, and Naruto waited for him to come and remove the blindfold and the cloth binding his hands. But nothing happened.

"Aren't you going to untie me?" Naruto yelled, shaking his hands in the air. He heard a laugh right in his ear.

"Why? I was just the first trainer. You still have to get through the rest of the Akatsuki."

"W-wh-what?"

"Every day, from now until you get it, you'll have to fight us all. This is something you need to know, Naruto. In fact, this experience and instinct may be the most important thing you ever learn. But don't worry—we won't use any jutsus either."

It took Naruto five months before he could beat each member of the Akatsuki. But that was the easy part. Itachi had said they wouldn't use jutsus, and they didn't… for the first five months. The next five, though, that was when things got really interesting.


"Sasuke," Naruto said now, turning to face his friend—er, rival. Sasuke's eyes glittered dangerously, a war between concern and eagerness. Man, he really did look like Itachi, and he was just as cool (or maybe even cooler) than Naruto had imagined. Already awakening the Sharingan, learning fire style, and copying techniques? Maybe someday he actually could catch up to Naruto.

"You—" Sasuke began, then looked Naruto in the eye and shook his head. Naruto's smile grew wide. "Don't die on me, moron. I still want to fight you."

"That's a given," Naruto laughed, then held his arms out straight. "Can you do something for me? I need you to unwrap my hands."

"Don't tell me you're going to try—"

"No. No chakra," Naruto said firmly. "Use the wraps to tie my hands behind my back and a blindfold over my eyes."

"…You've totally lost it."

"Hurry up!" Naruto hissed, feeling the weight of everyone's gaze on him. His opponent, the guy who had been bitching at him about Hira and Hikami, was starting to look really annoyed. Naruto's skin was crawling and he could feel sweat beading on his brow underneath his Kaze puppet; keeping people waiting made him nervous, after Sasori had drilled 'BE EARLY OR ON TIME' into his psyche.

Sasuke made an unintelligible sound under his breath, shaking his head. But he did as Naruto asked, unquestioning.

"I could fucking kiss you. Now, let me put on a show for you!"

Naruto backed up until he felt the cold steel of the balcony on his back, then he back flipped over it and landed in a crouch. The faint sound of his boots hitting the floor made the hairs on the back of his neck rise up, and all of a sudden he could see… everything. Neji Hyuuga shifting on the balcony, muttering to Lee and Tenten about how 'Kaze had no chakra.' Sasuke's breath picking up slightly as he waited for the fight, getting pumped. The creak of the proctor's lungs as he drew in a laboured breath. The soft tread of paws scrabbling against a jacket.

Naruto shut everything but his opponent out, rising and trotting to stand a few metres away.

"Is this some sort of joke?" he heard Kiba Inuzuka snarl, and he couldn't help a smirk from crossing his face. This boy was a Leaf ninja, and he seemed like the kind to sneer at weaklings and make fun of people who were different. Naruto had a slight respect for Kiba's female teammate, but none at all for this guy. Because of Kiba, Naruto had gotten so worked up he'd cursed at Gaara. He'd never in his life cursed at a friend like that; he hated hurting his loved ones.

"The only joke here is you," Naruto growled, his excitement slowly turning into the slow, sizzling anger that never left his gut. Fucking Leaf genin. Fucking Konoha. He could hear Zetsu whispering to him, promising things that made his skin prickle. Konoha would get its due, if he could hold back long enough.

"Uhh… I guess, if that's how you choose to fight, I can't stop you," Hayate said, coughing moderately into his palm. "So, begin."

Kiba leapt immediately, thinking it would be a quick and easy battle just because Naruto had given him such a huge handicap. The amount of pressure in that footstep meant Kiba would be…

Naruto moved left just slightly and felt the wind of Kiba's fingers scrape by his ear. Kiba landed, then there was a loud scrape, and Naruto dodged right as Kiba spun and threw himself on the opposite side. Now Kiba's feet were moving, but he was immediately in front of Naruto, throwing punch after punch. Naruto dodged each one with ease, sensing the disturbance in front of him almost before it happened. Kiba was nothing compared to the Akatsuki members.

"Dammit!" Kiba yelled, and Naruto had to hold back a sigh. Giving away your position like that? Really? He lashed out quick as he could with one foot, grinning at the satisfying feeling of soft flesh giving way beneath his kick. His kick could move mountains, or so he liked to claim. Kiba cried out in pain, then went flying. Naruto heard him land ten metres away, sliding until he dug his hands into the floor to stop himself.

Naruto could've been on him in a second, breaking delicate vertebrae with a satisfying crunch, but he was curious to see whether the Leaf shinobi had anything else up his sleeve. And, yeah, he wanted to show off in front of Sasuke.

Kiba leapt up again, then there was a rustling sound as he took something out of his tool belt. Naruto waited patiently, and figured it must've been a food pill as he heard the sound of chewing. Two mouths—so the dog was going to be part of the next act too?

"Take this! Fang over fang!" Kiba yelled, and Naruto cocked his head to one side, listening to the sound of air being swirled around two figures. Then the figures began to come at him at an advanced pace, way quicker than Kiba had been before. There was no difference in weight, so Naruto couldn't even tell which one was human and which one was dog. Oh well, they were both Leaf scum.

They attacked at once, both of them coming from either side to try to catch him in the middle. He bounced lightly on his toes, testing the feel of the floor, then sprung up over their heads and heard the sound of the two of them meeting in the middle. It was a harsh sound, all claws and fangs—Naruto decided at that moment that he'd rather not test out how much damage a move like that could do, particularly now that his fingers were beginning to throb.

Unfortunately, now that he was in the air the two had him right where they wanted him; he didn't have any leverage to propel himself off of so he could move in the air, while the two of them had each other. He'd have to take damage this time. He uttered an oath under his breath, then waited as the two came to clash with him. It seemed to take forever; enough time for him to easily catch one of them under the chin with a kick and flip over to wrap his legs around the throat of the other one. Stupid, stupid, stupid, he'd have to take this fall hard now.

He was completely prepared for a head landing, but lucky for him, his body had other plans. Instead of smashing headfirst into the ground to take one of his opponents down, he released his opponent's neck and instead pressed his knees into his opponent's chest. The fall was particularly harsh, but for Naruto the landing was softened a whole lot by his opponent's ribs and vital organs. The second he felt them crunch in an unpleasant, horribly damaging way, he dug his toes into the ground and used them to flip himself over so he could come down hard feet-first onto his other opponent's head.

That made a rather satisfying thud too, then popped until he was standing atop a little puppy. He didn't really like hurting puppies, so he quickly moved off of its head. Then he casually made his way over to where Kiba lay wheezing on the ground. Ha, the kid wouldn't be getting up for a long, long time. In fact, Naruto would make sure he never got up again.

"S-sto—" Kiba tried to wheeze out, but Naruto shut him up with a swift kick to the side of the head. Then he set his shoe against Kiba's throat, unable to stop a laugh from falling from his lips.

"Fucking dogs, thinking they can outfox the fox," Naruto snarled, putting more pressure on Kiba's throat. He could feel the pulse of blood even through his puppet's foot. Crushing this little leaf would be so easy. All he had to do was stand up, really.

He was considering doing just that when suddenly something cut through his awareness and he leapt to the side, rolling to come up facing the place the kunai had come from. Someone was confident in their abilities—a few more inches and the kunai could've killed Kiba, but the person throwing it hadn't even seemed to consider that a possibility.

"Sorry I'm late," a familiar voice said, and Naruto felt his lips curling. Kakashi Hatake. The one who had destroyed Obito's entire world, who had killed Rin Nohara despite swearing to protect her. The most despicable type of person Naruto could imagine.

"Calm down, runt. Your chakra is beginning to leak out," a voice deep within Naruto said, and a second later he felt a wave of nausea as his lungs grew tight and his heart palpitated painfully. He coughed, wincing at the wet sound of blood hitting the ground, and forced his chakra away.

"I guess I win this one," Naruto ground out as cold shivers started running up and down his body. This was bad. If Kakashi decided to fight him here and now, he doubted he'd be able to do much.

"I've been trying to tell you that for the past five minutes!" Hayate said, but Naruto was completely focused on Kakashi's presence as the man strode out onto the battlefield. Every step was filled with purpose and confidence, and Naruto was beginning to get nervous. As Kakashi grew closer, Naruto stumbled back and ended up falling into the hole in the ground Sakura had made.

He couldn't die here, not after everything the Akatsuki members had done to train him for his mission. He needed to survive, needed to keep moving forward until he could do something worth the years they'd given him. They needed his life, and he couldn't give it to Kakashi the way Rin had. For Sasuke, the most precious person of Itachi, he'd give it up, but not to prove himself in a fight like this!

"K-Kurama," Naruto gasped out, and he could feel the ever-lurking fox perk up. If he had to rip the seal off, he would. Kurama had assured him that no matter what happened, he'd aid the Akatsuki in any way he could. He'd aid Zetsu in any way he could. Naruto didn't really trust him, but if it came down to it, letting Kurama survive was more important than Naruto's life. Obito and Zetsu needed all the Tailed Beasts.

"Kakashi!" he heard Sasuke call out faintly, but Naruto blocked it out to focus only on the sounds of what Kakashi was doing. Closer, closer… was he going to lunge at the last second? Naruto pressed his lips together, and let a small portion of chakra leak out. It burned through his system, and more blood bubbled up to his lips, but he figured if he could one defensive kick in…

Kakashi didn't lunge—Naruto heard him crouch down.

"If you… kill me…" Naruto warned in between heavy breaths.

But Kakashi didn't kill him. Instead, the hand that been reaching out grasped Naruto's blindfold and pulled it down, revealing the masked man watching Naruto with one wary eye. Naruto didn't move a muscle; he watched Kakashi just as warily. Then the man reached behind Naruto to undo the wrap binding his hands together.

"I'm not going to kill you," Kakashi murmured under his breath so only Naruto could hear. "I just need to know how you know about her—about Rin."

"Rin is…" Naruto whispered, but then his lungs felt like they were on fire, and the fire consumed him until everything went black.