Haku

The moment, unique in its way even among the many harrowing ones Haku'd had over his fifteen years, seemed frozen in time – a theatrical tableau rendered in real life, or like some souvenir-store curio with its tiny figures suspended forever in a bubble of water-filled glass. Look! There're even snowflakes.

The young ninja stared not, as one might expect, upon the gleaming length of slick, razor-sharp Kirigakure steel poised at his neck or even on the wrathful, whorl-tattooed face of its owner. Instead, Haku's grey eyes remained locked on the hunched shape of his blond savior whose clawed fingers gripped hard into the swordswoman, Yashako's muscular forearm.

Naruto, he wanted to call out to his friend.

But it wasn't just Naruto anymore. Just like before, like from the first Battle at the Bridge, the Demon's Apprentice could feel the terrible energy of the Nine-Tailed Fox welling from the boy, bubbling like an embolism in reality's flesh.

Yashako's angry expression seethed. "Who are you?" she railed at the transformed Naruto whose snarling face, veiled behind rippling waves of sinister chakra, was now as much demon as human.

As if to answer, the possessed ninja yanked Yashako off her feet with such force that both swords flew from the jonin's grasp, swung her high through the air then brought her crashing down. The Icy forms Haku and Naruto had briefly sheltered behind exploded into fragments from the impact, the cobblestones beneath them cracking like glass. Without so much as a pause Naruto whirled and flung the kunoichi with divine strength, sending her sailing though the misty air far past the glorious fountains of the Mist Village's Piazza del Carne'.

An astonished Haku gawked at the sheer spectacle of the blond ninja's power…then grimaced. Though immensely grateful for the rescue he couldn't help but be troubled at this turn of events: their ambush at the hands of the Mist's ANBU, Lord Tsujita's death and, now, the Kyuubi's manifestation.

The teenager's instincts, honed by eight years tutelage under Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Hidden Mist, whispered that their perils were only just beginning.


Mist Ninjas – Part I

The shinobi's jaw went slack with shocked disbelief as his teammate, Yashako's contorted body shot overhead, and he turned to watch in time to see the kunoichi hit then bounce jerkily over the pavement.

In all the years Yamada had known her, NOTHING like this had ever happened before…nothing even close. Up until now, the jonin would have thought it quite impossible for anyone to beat the Legendary Swordswoman with such contemptuous ease. Yet there it was.

The man frowned. His light-colored but intense eyes darted back to his targets – the two surviving infiltrators. Since Yashako had smashed the tiny, blond one's fake ANBU mask, Yamada could see the bestial face of a fierce-looking boy standing there, glaring back, a grizzly 'X'- shaped wound slashed across his chest, the flayed scraps of his blood-soaked mist-ninja uniform flapping wide open. Where such a hideous mutilation would have left anyone else lying in agony, incapacitated as they bled to death, this one stood defiantly heedless of it, enshrouded by a coruscant halo of angry, otherworldly energy.

Yamada's jaw tightened. It made sense that any team sent to destroy Kirigakure no Sato would possess powers like this.

The mist-ninja put his hands together in a seal at which the waters flowing in the fountain beside him obediently rose to his will, coiling like vipers.

"It doesn't matter how strong your chakra is," the man hissed in grim anticipation, "my Arhat Sash Jutsu will slice right through you."

The ninja unleashed his spell but at the last moment, sensing something, pivoted to redirect the serpentine waters sharply to his right where they lashed to pieces the Tsujita Lord's bodyguard who was almost on top of him, having reappeared as if from the ether.

"Trying to sneak up on me, eh? Bad idea," Yamada commented snidely through the camouflage cloth that masked the lower regions of his face, noting as he thought back: "But didn't I kill you already?"

To the jonin's shock though, the man didn't fall. Instead, his bloodless, severed limbs and all the sections of his body pulled back together, leaving him seamed but whole once more.

"What the -."

The bodyguard flickered, reappearing right before Yamada who countered with equal speed.

The ninja's hands flew through a series of seals. "Water Prison Technique," he hissed and extended his palms.

The fountain's reservoir bubbled then leaped at the dead ninja lord's protector, incasing him in a watery sphere. Before Yamada could even grin in satisfaction though the liquid prison gave way, turning back into lifeless water, and splashed apart.

"My chakra! How did you -?" the ninja blurted in spite of himself while the bodyguard lunged, seizing the surprised shinobi by the forehead.

Taken by surprise, the jonin nevertheless counterattacked instinctively with a fluid, winding movement of his arm, snaring his assailant with a monofilament wire, then synched back hard.

The bodyguard's flesh and bones split as the razor-sharp, almost invisible strand bit though his arm and neck but without effect, not even to raise a grimace on the man's pitiless face.

Realizing his mistake, the last thought to pass through Yamada's mind before the bodyguard's hand snapped shut with the power of an industrial vice was how foolish it had been to use a weapon so similar in effect to a jutsu that had already proved useless.


Mist Ninjas – Part II

Koushiro was not the most sentimental ninja in Kirigakure no Sato, or one especially prone to panic. Yet the truly surreal sight of his teammate Yashako, one of the Seven Legendary Swordsmen, flung aside like a discarded wrapper while Yamada's brains and skull squished out through another enemy's fingers barely a moment later left him utterly at a loss.

A surge of pride begged the ninja to take revenge on these invaders, these blood-cursed enemies of the Mist Village, for himself but common sense stayed him. Failing, as he and his team had already, was unacceptable enough especially considering that they were ANBU elites. To fail AND allow these infiltrators to escape would be infinitely worse.

Pride got shoved to the back burner.

Shaking his head, the veteran muttered a viscous litany of curses, drew a flare tube then directed it skyward.


Haku

By now, Haku was almost past the point of disbelief. What had begun as a secret mission concluding, so he'd thought, with miraculous success was spiraling into catastrophe.

Yes, Naruto had defeated Yashako. And Hideo had risen, seemingly from the dead, to destroy her partner. But that didn't change the fact that they were in the middle of Kirigakure – a poor place to attract attention.

As if to prove Haku's point, an unseen ninja's distress flare shrieked suddenly from a rooftop beyond the canal, burning in blinding-bright, magnesium anger as it rocketed skyward. The young constable watched in knowing trepidation as it rose, sparkling against the gloom, until it reached its apex then settled into a maddeningly-slow, dandelion-seed descent.

It took only instants for reinforcements to appear: an army of mist-ninjas that gathered in a grey, silent plague over the Piazza del Carne's cobblestones and adjacent rooftops.

Frowning tensely under the daunting glare of what felt like a thousand vengeful stares while the air crackled with the quiet hisses of a thousand swords being unsheathed, the constable blew out a breath and tried to remember the last time he'd been in a spot as bad as this and, more to the point, what he'd done to extricate himself from it. During his eight years as Zabuza's disciple and even the year and a half or so that followed, there MUST have been something, right?

But as scores upon scores of shinobi poured down from the surrounding buildings and in from the Mist Village's web-work of streets, the first wave swarming to attack with swords and kunai brandished, nothing really came to mind.


Team Konohamaru

It was dark and stiflingly warm inside the painted refrigerator box of Team Konohamaru's 'blind' where Udon squinted though the screen, down a couple of buildings away at the door to Naruto's apartment with a renewed sense of mission.

Movement drew his attention.

Wiping his brow, the cadet took up his binoculars and focused hard at the young, raven-haired figure who'd just scrambled up the stairs and down the outdoor hallway to Naruto's door, noting the pale skin, crest of black hair and finally the unmistakable emblem of a white and red fan clear as day on back of the newcomer's high-collared, midnight-blue shirt.

Staring hard now, Udon watched in disbelief as the genin fumbled clumsily for keys with a look of wild panic on his face but even with such an uncharacteristic expression, there was no mistaking those unforgettable, ebon eyes.

Finally, the young ninja slotted the key home then scrambled inside, slamming the door behind him.

From inside his concealment, Udon lowered the binoculars slowly from his astonished face. He mopped his forehead and blinked. After a minute or so the boy wiped his perpetually dripping nose and was finally able to say what his mind was still in the process of grasping: "That…that was Sasuke Uchiha!"


Earlier that day, bathed in the glory of the morning light, Udon pushed up his glasses and rubbed bleary eyes as he approached the rooftop 'blind'. Covering his mouth as he yawned, the boy took a bracing breath then pried open the access panel.

"Konohamaru?" he mumbled in tired surprise at finding his friend and teammate already inside with arms folded and a sour look on his face. "You ok?" Udon offered then folded himself up and squatted in beside him.

The spiky-haired boy's eyes pinched shut in sheer frustration. "I was so SURE we'd find out what Naruto was up to by now."

Udon dabbed self-consciously at his leaking nose with a handkerchief, lamenting once again how he was the only kid in the world who carried one let alone NEEDED one.

"Well," he squeaked, "it's only been a couple of days. Maybe it's going to take a little more time. Maybe," he ventured VERY cautiously, "he isn't up to anything at all and he's just sick like he said he was."

"NO," Konohamaru insisted immediately with a vigorous, dismissive shake of his head. "He's up to something and keeping it from us. I just know it."

"Yeah, but HOW do you know?"

"I just DO," the ten-year old grunted, his eyes still fixed on Naruto's door as he raised his forefinger sagely. "A ninja's got to trust his instincts."

Udon rolled his eyes at his friend's presumption of superiority. Yes, Konohamaru was from the Sarutobi clan and his late grandpa had been the Third Hokage…AND his uncle was a big-shot jonin AND Ibisu-sensei was his special tutor. But he could still lay it on awfully thick sometimes for a kid who still got it wrong as often as right.

"I guess," grumbled Udon, "we'll just have to wait and see if anything -."

Konohamaru's eyes popped wide and he flailed for his teammate's arm. "LOOK!" he crowed, pointed and the two boys knocked heads as they fought for the binoculars. Konohamaru wrestled them away then tweaked the focus while Udon peeked past him.

Naruto's door, an unexpectedly mysterious portal, had opened just a little then shut again. A moment later, a strange, black-haired kid peeked out before stepping fully into view.

"Who's that?" Udon whispered.

"Dunno, never seen him before."

The kid, kind of a skinny, unremarkable-looking nine or ten year-old but wearing teal overalls over a long-sleeved white turtleneck, looked around anxiously then set a floppy white hat on his head before skipping off.

Konohamaru dropped his binoculars, frowned then turned to Udon and remarked critically: "Teal overalls?" The cadet shook his head. "Who wears TEAL overalls?"

Under his round glasses Udon blinked, determined not to stare at his leader's trademark super-long, blue scarf then gave a vague sort-of shrug.

Quick as a cat, Konohamaru unfolded himself and was out the door, aforementioned scarf trailing behind. "Stay here and watch if anything happens. I'm gonna go follow that kid." The gapped smile on the Sarutobi's face was fierce and satisfied. "See, I told ya'!" he crowed as he adjusted his goggles. "Something IS going on, and we're about to find out for sure!"


Haku

Naruto, possessed as he was by a force more terrible than anyone could imagine, seemed unimpressed as he waited for then met the mist-ninjas' assault and turned it back with a maelstrom of savage power and terrifying, supernatural speed.

Haku could only take cover, war exploding all around him, as his teenaged friend routed an army, littering the streets with groaning wounded, broken or abandoned weapons and shredded uniforms.

Kirigakure retreated, regrouped then countered immediately with jutsu: enormous creatures of water and chakra; rushing waves and vortexes; acidic mists and lethal vapors.

In the few spare moments that Haku dared to peek out from his ramshackle barricades of ice, he watched helplessly as his friend was battered by oceanic fury, crushed by monsters and all but slain in a dozen horrifying ways. But no matter the damage Naruto sustained or the suffering inflicted upon him, the tattered, yellow-haired boy rose up from the wreckage again and again, more powerful than before.

The first time, the fiery glow of the Nine-Tails' energy that surrounded him flared even brighter then sprouted an undulant, whipping tail. The second time: two tails, and the next, three.

At the dawn of the genin's four-tailed incarnation, Haku couldn't tell that it was still Naruto at all. The genin's chakra-distorted body couldn't even be seen anymore beneath a glaring, engulfing, fox-like shape. The Kyuubi itself was starting to take form!

Even Haku didn't dare approach.

With an ear-splitting roar the monster vomited a bolt of blinding light that sent swarms of ninjas scattering as it flashed overhead, melting what was left of the plaza's fine statuary and punching a hole clean through the middle stories of an already-ruined tenement building on its way into the distance.

Heaven and Earth! thought Haku aghast as he took stock of the staggering pace of the escalation and looked out in awe over the now cratered battleground – a broken landscape of cracked, pitted and flooded buildings - not wanting to think about what would happen if Naruto and his demonic inhabitant were pushed any further.

He'll destroy the city I came to save, he concluded grimly, IF Kirigakure's own shinobi don't beat him to it.

Thinking back to his fight with Naruto at the first battle at the bridge, then from the genin's own sketchy descriptions, Haku'd imagined he had some idea about the Kyuubi's nature and the depths of its powers…but he'd been wrong. Even as it was now, at a fraction of its true strength, the Nine-Tails loomed, almost hypnotic in its destructive majesty like storm clouds, a crashing tidal-wave or erupting volcano.

Haku's hand rose to his spellbound face. Just seeing it, it was impossible not to feel dwarfed – insignificant in its presence.

A volley of shuriken and kunai whistled past the constable's head, forcing him to redirect his attention to more immediate concerns as two full squads of mist-shinobi broke away to attack him.

Well, he acknowledged, at least my uniform bought me some time.

Haku sprang to meet them, entering battle and, with it, a marvelous state of Zen where the world moved slowly and all his adversaries' tiny, vulnerable targets seemed large as billboards for his senbon.

There were a lot of ways for a human being to reach this remarkable place: through meditation; sitting in postures or running long distances, but Haku only ever found this sort of transcendent clarity when in battle. It was a trait his ancestors had, doubtlessly, bred into his bloodline and was the only thing that seemed to explain how calm and fluid he could remain even in the face of the direst peril.

Even against the worst of the Kiri-ninjas' jutsu, Haku knew how he would survive - using the elemental powers of his kekkei-genkai to freeze their waters or blow away their mists. All he had to do was let his chakra flow, trust his instincts, his blood-gift and ignore the fact that even the tiniest slip meant annihilation.

Unexpected help arrived in the form of Hideo who simply appeared and joined in. Haku wasn't at all sure how Lord Tsujita's bodyguard had survived the ANBU's initial assault, but he wasn't in any position to question. He had his answers soon enough anyway as it became clear that Hideo harbored his own formidable powers. Though the bodyguard's movements were depressingly artless, the man possessed a titan's strength and seemed entirely beyond harm.

Still, despite how well things were going (considering the circumstances) there was no escaping the facts that they were still surrounded, vastly outnumbered, and it wasn't going to take the mist-ninja long to adjust their strategy. At present, they were getting in each others' way a lot of the time, being more used to coordination at the squad level than in brigade strength, but that wouldn't last.

Of course, Haku pondered, if they continue this foolish test of wills with the Nine-Tailed Fox until it's FULLY unleashed then there's no telling what could happen.

As one, the unending onslaught of mist-ninja withdrew to reset and to give their enemies a good look at the truly daunting array of the forces aligned against them.

Obligingly, Haku scanned the rooftops and along the edges of the Piazza. He'd never seen so many ninjas at one time in one place before which, with his experience, said a lot.

Frowning, the Demon's Apprentice glanced toward his quiet, unexpected partner, Hideo, who was diligently plucking the shuriken and kunai from his flesh. The young ninja noted at once that there was no blood, and that the bodyguard's countless wounds were already sealing up.

Finally, Haku looked back toward the other battlefront and the possessed Naruto: a creature of fire and shadows who crouched on all-fours, snarling, feral and furious with those four tails thrashing as he awaited Kirigakure's next attack.

In his present state, the black-haired teenager considered, he might even be looking forward to it.

Oh, Naruto, thought Haku in a biting, aching sorrow knowing that, in the beast's eyes, heart and world there were only enemies. Certainly, the Nine-Tailed Fox could and would destroy him without even a thought.

Seeing his normally enthusiastic and light-hearted friend reduced to this…this thing was beyond bearing. I'm so sorry for this. I should never, NEVER have brought you here.

Zabuza's student thought hard for some kind, any kind, of inspiration, any way that he could end this or, at least, save his partner if not himself.

We have to get out of here, fast! he grumbled inwardly and in mounting frustration. That's the only way!

But there was nothing about the possessed Naruto or the Nine-tailed Fox that seemed the least bit likely to accept the concepts of stealth, misdirection or retreat. He and IT were going to stay and fight until death…or until every one and every thing had been destroyed.

As bad as it was, the young constable's grey eyes rose then with even greater alarm as he felt something approach. Even through the wall of energies that swirled around them, chakra blazing from hundreds of angry mist-ninjas and even more fiercely from the Nine-Tailed Fox, Haku could feel this – a sinister power he'd hoped never to encounter again.

The constable's heart sank.

He hadn't thought it possible, but things really were about to get worse.


Inari

Inari stepped out onto the awaiting Leaf Village Streets with a gleeful smile broad and bright on his eager, young face. Finally, it was HIS turn to get out and see the place. Konoha's buildings, all so unselfconsciously ramshackle and wonderfully unapologetic with their architectural caprice, seemed to rise up with the aura of delicious mystery in the ten-year old's dark eyes like a storybook landscape. Even though it was still morning, Konoha thronged with people – all mysteries too, in their own ways.

"No wonder Chuuya took so long," Inari said to himself, high with notions of adventure. "This place is amazing!"

His own Land of Waves was quite a bit like the Leaf Village now but still harbored a dark side that made the boy, and anyone with any sense who lived there, a little wary. Though the Lady Magistrate Orimi Hirai, Haku and the rest of his mist-ninja constabulary had crushed out the worst of the criminal elements, Wave Country was still a port city and highly attractive to vagabonds, smugglers and criminals of every stripe.

That it was better by FAR than it had ever been under Gato was sure, but people did still get killed, robbed or go missing. Even with all that aside, there was no escaping the fact that the place was a protectorate of the neighboring Land of Water and controlled by mist-ninja. And although they were pretty well-behaved for now, no one with any memory could be completely sure that their guardians wouldn't revert back one day to the monsters history had shown they could be.

Freed from those uncertainties, the Wave Country boy felt completely at ease here; and almost like the Hidden Leaf Village was a second home from the glowing, sentimental way Naruto had gone on about the place.

Taking his partner's advice, Inari too visited Senju Park, wandered around the immaculate precincts of the noble Hyuuga Clan then the desolate and abandoned Uchiha District. He gazed up in wonder at the cliff-side monument to the four Hokages then went to check out the 'competition' at the Leaf Village's ninja academy.

They don't look so tough, the visitor surmised bluntly as he scrutinized the leaf-cadets through the chain-link that wrapped the grounds. But, he sighed as he had to admit, I guess, neither do I.

Tazuna's grandson was terribly proud of everything he'd learned under Haku-sensei and couldn't imagine anyone training harder under a better teacher.

But then too, Inari couldn't help but recall, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all trained really, really hard, even when they were on a mission…and KAKASHI was THEIR sensei.

The thought put the boy in his place. He'd come a long way, but still had a really, really long way to go.

I probably lucked out getting Haku-sensei to train me, the thought nagged at him. A lot of those kids come from big-time ninja clans. I don't know if I'd even make it in here!

Inari frowned at first but didn't remain subdued for long. There was just too much to see and he'd never been away from home before. So he continued his tour - looking through the glass at the Yamanaka Flower Shop, using some of his walking-around money to buy lunch at Ichiraku before heading further into the market district.

Strolling leisurely up and down the Leaf Village streets, Inari gawked like a tourist, his floppy-hatted head turning toward anyone and anything that caught his roving eyes until he slowed and blinked at a sight he thought especially odd - a length of deep-blue fabric that laid across the sidewalk in front of him, with the rest of it disappearing into an alleyway.

What the heck is THAT? he wondered.

As the Wave Country boy watched, the fabric slithered from sight like the trailing end of a spaghetti strand being sucked in. A grin rose over Inari's face. The boy raced to see what it was but when he reached the alleyway and peeked down it found nothing there but darkness and dumpsters.

"Huh. Weird," the boy muttered, walked on then stopped dead.

Coming up the street, not half a block away was Rock Lee still in his unmistakable, skin-tight green. Through a scattering of Konoha's citizens, the leaf-ninja's wide, round eyes caught sight of Inari and flickered with tentative recognition.

"CRAP!" the boy piped then ducked into the alley.

Shit-shit-shit, he cursed himself, quivering anxiously with his back pressed against the wall. This is bad so bad really really really really bad! Rock Lee knows me knows who I am where I'm from that I'm not supposed to be here GOD I'm so stupid, he KNOWS me, Sakura too and Kakashi what the hell was I THINKING just walking around?

He could just imagine what would happen if Rock Lee discovered him.

The genin was a good guy, kinda strange, kinda funny looking with those bushy black eyebrows and shiny, bowl-cut hair…but a good guy. Lee wouldn't hurt him at all but he'd certainly have some questions Inari didn't want to answer.

Furiously, the Wave Country boy's mind searched for a way out.

Oh, yeah! the idea hit him. Jutsu!

Putting his fingers together in a seal, the ten-year old summoned his chakra. When he strutted out from the alley, Inari was transformed.

"Lee," he greeted the leaf-ninja causualy then went on his way, though that dumbstruck look on the tall teenager's face wasn't quite what he'd expected.

Caught up in his own sense of cool as he looked back at the emerald ninja, Inari bumped shoulders with another genin and, although he was the one who stumbled, the boy offered his apologies.

"Oh! Sorry, 'didn't see you," Inari said then couldn't help but stare.

The young ninja he'd just run into was probably the stockiest person Inari had even seen, with a wide, round belly, round face and a bush of brown hair parted down the middle by his hitai-ate.

"Sorry?" the older, much larger boy parroted hotly, his pudgy, spiral-tattooed cheeks growing red. "SORRY?"

The disguised Inari backed away fearfully as the angry ninja advanced on him. As he watched, wide-eyed, the chubby ninja's trembling fists swelled at first then ballooned to the size of watermelons!

"You mean," he bellowed, "'cause I almost got KILLED trying to get you back?"

Inari half-ducked, half-fell out of the way just as the genin's wild, roundhouse punch arced over him, smashing a chunk out of the adjacent building's brick.

Oh, NO! This guy's CRAZY!

"Chouji! What the hell are you doing?" a cool, confident voice admonished sternly, at which Inari blinked, shook debris from his back then slowly came up from a crouch to look.

Standing now next to the fat one was another leaf-ninja, a taller, slimmer boy whose black hair was tied up in a flowery top-knot. But as soon as the genin laid eyes on Inari he startled, frowned then formed a chakra seal at which the shadows all around the Wave Country boy sprang to life and leaped at him in flagellant, inky tentacles!

Panic-stricken, Inari scurried out of their reach then fled for his life, like he'd never run before – cutting through alleys, darting around people, vaulting over trash cans and diving under produce carts. He'd been chased before, by bullies, a wild dog once and worse – by Chuuya after he'd gotten him really, really mad. But this time it was NINJAS who were FURIOUS at him for some reason and there was no telling what they'd do if they caught him!

Shadows licked at his ankles, clawed at him from the walls. And 'Chouji', though fat, was not at all slow and pounced tiger-like at the boy, trying his hardest to squash him with those giant, barrel fists!

Finally, with his legs and lungs burning, his heart pounding like a jackhammer in his chest, Inari threaded the needle with a deftness born of desperation through an especially crowded clot of bystanders who were far too surprised to get out of his pursuers' way.

Shrieks and shouts erupted; bodies flew like bowling pins as an out-of-control Chouji plowed into them.


Having lost the two leaf-ninjas in the confusion, Inari ran the most erratic and convoluted path possible back to Naruto's apartment just in case he hadn't (he remembered that tactic from some crime drama he'd read), dropped the keys like three times before finally opening the door and stumbling inside.

"Inari, is that YOU?" gasped Chuuya who looked up in surprise at his partner's disguised form and wild entrance.

Inari dropped his jutsu with a gush of dispersing chakra then fell back against the door, heaving for breath with sweat streaming down his young face.

Chuuya raced to his side, pudgy cheeks flushed with emotion. "What happened?"

"Chuuya! I messed up!" Inari stammered fretfully, almost in tears. "I really messed up! I went out there doing all the stuff you did but I ran into ROCK LEE, remember him, that green guy we met before, so I used my Transformation Jutsu thinking I could just bluff my way past him but then this big fat ninja attacked me!"

"A…a fat ninja?" Chuuya's face dropped to his own bulging tummy.

"NO, not like YOU," explained Inari heatedly then opened his arms as wide as they would go, "I mean he was ROUND!"

"What? Completely round?"

"Uh-huh! And then his friend sicced all these shadows on me. The shadows were actually chasing me and trying to grab me and stuff!"

"Wow…just…WOW!" Chuuya offered in amazement, flopped down then ventured: "Well maybe…maybe whoever that was you turned into pissed 'em off; owed 'em some money or something."

Inari stared at his teammate, went white then dropped his head into his hands. "Agh! I'm so STUPID!" he moaned. "Naruto SAID Sasuke left the village; why did I turn into Sasuke?"

Chuuya's face quivered as a maddening smile came over it.

"What?" barked Inari. "It's NOT funny!"

"Yeah, it kinda is."

"No it's NOT!"

"Uh-HUH!" Chuuya assured him, his dark eyes twinkling.

Inari gave him a hard, angry swat at which his heftier, heavier partner winced and fell back, hooting with laughter the whole way.

"Come ON, Inari," his teammate prevailed merrily. "It's cool that you GOT AWAY isn't it? I mean, you escaped from real live shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Leaves! That's freakin' AMAZING!"

The boy blinked then brightened. He hadn't thought about it like that.

"See?" Chuuya prodded then offered in a ridiculous accent, "you ah SUPAH NEEN-JA! I feah youh skills!"

Though still doubtful, Inari couldn't stay mad. His sweaty, exhausted face broke into a smile as he joined his partner and started laughing too.

Caught up in each other's infectious mirth, the two ninja-boys were still laughing like lunatics when a knock came at door.


Kyuubi

Naruto's half-demonic form glared through a roaring storm of red chakra at the herds of enemy prey who were bowed but unbeaten…for now. Primordial instincts backed by limitless, elemental power demanded that they attack rather than hold back; KILL rather than subdue. Though toying with the weak ones thrilled, their appetite was already whetted beyond bearing! That there was still so much left unbroken in this unnatural place built by men offended. Its very existence offended, goading the Nine-Tail's hellish energies toward further destruction.

His/its hungry, vulpine face rose as they scented something in the wind. The familiar and deeply loved intoxications of fear and blood were being spoiled by the foul essence of a loathsome chakra despised by the deeper memories of the Nine-Tailed Fox.

The hybrid Naruto/Nine-Tails growled their displeasure - a sound that rattled between ruined buildings and up to the cloud-laden sky. The first line of mist-ninja faltered and drew back a step, all but a bruised and battered Yashako who bullied her way to the front.

The half-demon's lips peeled with resentment at her still being alive but it was something else that drew their concern – and it was coming closer.

A chilling snarl gushed past their fang-filled mouth as the strange chakra continued its approach through the ranks of shinobi who scattered before it like so many startled grasshoppers.

Yashako turned to look, gaped with indignation then started shouting. She was shouting still as those ninjas standing in front who'd failed to withdraw quickly enough fell limply and lifelessly to the ground, revealing a giant of a man.

The Nine-Tails knew at once that this was no man, or anything like one.

"What the FUCK, Krisheney!" bellowed Yashako with flecks of foam spilling from her lips as she gestured at her fallen brethren. "HEY! These are our own guys!"

The monster ignored the jonin, staring instead at Naruto, through Naruto and the Kyuubi's staggering power, with eyes of black oblivion. Krisheney's frightening, mustachioed face, dark skinned and covered with pock marks, rippled with millipede movement as it smiled then erupted with a gush of thunderous, inhuman laughter.

At that moment, Naruto, suddenly himself once more, seized with a burning, unyielding surge of crippling electric pain that seared every particle of his being, but it was not from anything the horrific mist-ninja had done. The Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox had just flung itself with all the pent up fury it could summon against the walls of its prison, against the seal that held it captive inside him.

The Fox's chakra, raging like fire around Naruto in a rippling cloak that took on its multi-tailed shape, sputtered then went out as the complex powers of the seal reasserted itself in reaction. The young ninja toppled then convulsed on the pavement in agonies undreamt of, worse by orders of magnitude than any ever before visited upon him.

The Kyuubi, whatever its intent, and for all its vast power and transcendent rage had just crippled Naruto and crippled itself, leaving both defenseless as the cyclopean mist-ninja paced ponderously towards them over the cobblestones.


Inari

Chuuya and Inari froze dead. Their black-haired heads shot toward the door, eyes wide, mouths agape.

"Shit!" hissed Chuuya in a distressed whisper as he swung his fist through the air. "They must've followed you!"

Inari paled. "No," he muttered shrilly and shook his head, trying desperately to convince himself. "I lost 'em. I KNOW I lost 'em!"

The knock sounded again, louder this time.

"Whadowedo?" they babbled in synch before Chuuya took a deep breath then straightened as a militant scowl settled over his face.

"Alright…if it's a fight they want," he announced, "let's give 'em one! Anyone coming through that door's gonna EAT Cannon Fist!

"Chuuya," Inari cautioned and waved his hands, knowing very well that his partner's talk wasn't just bluster.

Over the months they'd trained together, he'd seen Chuuya graduate from punching through stacked boards, to bricks, to concrete blocks, to thick ice and even solid rock! After one particular demonstration where the youngest Tezuka brother left a sizable, bowl-shaped dent in thick, plate steel, an impressed Haku had admitted half-jestingly that he'd 'created a monster'.

"Chuuya, we can't fight those guys," Inari prevailed nevertheless. Tough as Chuuya was for a little kid, the bridge-builder's grandson really didn't think much of his teammate's chances against real shinobi. Either way, he sure didn't want anyone to get hurt!

"Please," he continued in a calming, begging tone, "let me try the Transformation Jutsu one more time."

The bigger boy's dark eyes narrowed with the innate, reflexive stubbornness his partner knew only too well. After a moment however, much to Inari's relief, he let out a breath then marched off to hide in the cabinet under the sink.

"Ok," Chuuya allowed before he shut the doors, "but I'll be watching and listening the whole time!"

Left alone in the room, Inari sighed and gathered himself then again entwined his fingers into a seal. "Transform," the ten-year old muttered worriedly as he spent the last of his reserves.

Turning toward the door as a poor, sick, pajama-and-nightcap-wearing Naruto, the boy got himself into character, carefully undid the latch then opened it, dreading the thought of who or what he might find waiting there.

"Sakura!" he piped in relieved, delighted surprise as the pretty, pink-haired kunoichi smiled a greeting at him.

That it was her and not some big-fat-angry-round ninja who wanted to smash him into bloody jambalaya while his creepy friend smothered him in shadows was enough to make Inari wobble and feel a little faint for real.

"Hi, Naruto," the girl offered with weary cheerfulness then followed the disguised Inari inside. "I wanted to stop by earlier and see how you were doing but Lady Tsunade's been keeping me SO busy and well, you know how it is."

Naruto bobbed his head giddily, obligingly, gratefully. "Sure, no problem."

The boy marveled at how much the kunoichi had changed, with the shorter hair and everything, yet how much she still seemed the same.

Long moments passed while Inari thought about dropping his jutsu. Sakura was a friend, a GOOD friend! He wanted desperately to say 'hi' and tell her about all the stuff that'd happened since the last time they met and catch up with what she'd been up to too just like friends should.

But, Tazuna's grandson reconsidered, that would mean having to tell her the whole story about Naruto and his mission to Kirigakure with Haku, and he couldn't be sure how she'd react to that!

Would she keep it a secret? the ten-year old asked himself. Would it be fair to even ask her to?

Sakura took a few languid steps then paused with a distracted, far-away look on her face.

"You're not going to believe this," she said at last, "but, just now, there was this HUGE mess at the markets a few blocks from here – a fight, then a long chase through the streets. You know who I heard started it," the pink-haired ninja turned toward him, giving her blond teammate a significant look, "Sasuke."

Naruto gulped. "Oh yeah?" he ventured weakly in his high, gravelly voice, not knowing what else to say.

"Well…no. I mean, it couldn't really have been Sasuke, right?" the girl offered reflectively. "Like he'd just…show up again like nothing happened."

Naruto blinked, spellbound by the barely-hidden sorrow in her voice and emerald eyes. "No, I-I guess not."

Almost immediately Sakura's mood shifted, but even the boy from Wave Country could tell it was forced.

"I just ran into Shikamaru who told me all about it. He thinks it was some stupid cadet playing around with the Transformation Jutsu," the kunoichi explained softly but playfully. "He's laughing about it now but Chouji's still kinda pissed!" She giggled then, fingers rising toward her chin. "Can you imagine – 'too cool, first in his class' Sasuke Uchiha running away from those two like a scalded dog?"

Naruto scowled slightly and crossed his arms. "Yeah," he answered in a deadpan, "that's just crazy, huh?"

Sakura gave a sympathetic look over 'Naruto's' disheveled pajamas and the weary features of his face.

"So how are you doing, Naruto?" she asked, clearly concerned. "I can't remember the last time you were sick. You're always so…healthy. I guess, way TOO healthy most of the time unless you did something stupid and put yourself in the hospital."

"Oh, I'm – I'm doing ok," rasped Naruto with a sheepish smile as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Sorry if I got you up. Come on," she commanded with a gesture, "let's get you back to bed. Can I get you anything?"

"No, no I'm good, thanks," the boy replied. "Well, just some water would be great. I'm really thirsty."

Making their way back to Naruto's room, Inari's eyes darted for anything incriminating or out of place but, to his relief and gratification, everything was as it should be. The 'incident' with Konohamaru, Udon and Moegi had taught Inari and Chuuya to be much more careful about picking up after themselves.

After Naruto was settled in his bed, Sakura brought him a glass of ice-water and tended to him.

"Hey, you've really got a fever going," she noted as she pressed her hand maternally yet professionally against his forehead, "and you're covered in sweat!" Sakura mulled it over then at once declared: "I'd better get you to the hospital."

"NO!" Naruto blurted and sat bolt upright, so forcefully and desperately that the pink-haired girl startled and shrank back.

"What do you mean 'no'?" she challenged, mystified. "Since when are you scared of the hospital? You practically LIVE there!"

Inari thought furiously, knowing he'd overreacted. But there was no way he'd be able to keep his disguise up all day and all night in the hospital, and wasn't sure at all how well he could fool a bunch of doctors, nurses and medical-ninja running tests and sticking needles in him and stuff.

"Uh, well," stammered Naruto as he wrung his hands, "it's just that, uh, that's just it – I'm sick of that place. Please, Sakura, just give me a couple of days. I KNOW I'll be better soon. I just need some rest, that's all."

Still a little bewildered, Sakura's expression melted before her blond patient's wide, blue-eyed plea. "Well…ok," the kunoichi relented. "But I'm gonna check back in a day or so and if you're not better I'm taking you straight to the hospital and I won't take 'no' for an answer."

"Thanks, Sakura! You're the BEST."

Sakura rendered him a tender, understanding look.

The moment made Inari feel wonderful and horrible at the same time, knowing that the heartfelt affection passing between them was, in part, rooted in the deception of his Transformation Jutsu.

"Honestly, Naruto, you are the strangest boy I've ever met," said the girl, bluntly breaking the mood. "You'd almost be sweet if you weren't so stupid most of the time."

Naruto grinned, Cheshire-cat like, at which Sakura gave him a teasing shove that left him flat in the bed, his head buried in pillow with a memory of the air rushing by. Heaven and Earth, she's strong!

Impressive as it was, all considerations of the pink-haired girl's amazing strength were lost as Sakura took his hand in hers and buoyed him with the gentlest smile.

"Take care of yourself," she offered in farewell, "ok?"


Haku

"Naruto!" cried the constable the moment his friend fell.

One moment, the four-tailed incarnation of the Kyuubi, a monster of blood, fire and darkness, raged unstoppably, and the next: snuffed out, cold and extinguished like a candle in a downpour.

No! How is it possible?

Haku swallowed hard then looked past where the genin lay, knowing, before he'd even laid eyes on him, who it was who'd come forth out of the crowd – Krishenay Rahaman, the Mizukage's emissary.

The young constable's eyes flickered as he tried to cope with the rush of memories and all the lingering fears he'd tried to bury about what sort of monster Lord Kouji Oku had let loose upon the world. For the year that had passed since Haku's encounter with the frightening ninja, he'd taken some comfort in the idea about how unlikely it was that they'd ever cross paths again.

But there he was, just as Haku remembered – those same veined and bulging arms, broad back and bull neck, the same dark face, and, worse of all, his chakra. It radiated malevolently, pulsing like a thousand throbbing heartbeats under the man's skin which still seemed to Haku to be nothing more than a too-thin mockery of a disguise draped over an atrocity too horrifying to be allowed to be seen.

Whatever Krishenay was, he…IT was a killer. It had snuffed out the jonin Toru Yamashite's life with barely a thought and now, now, had conquered the Nine-Tailed Fox just as easily.

There's no way YOU can defeat him, the thought tore at Haku as he watched the giant pace toward Naruto's tortured, twitching form, with hundreds of emboldened mist-shinobi advancing right behind.

Spurred by desperation, Haku's jaw tightened as he leaped toward Naruto, trying to reach him before Krishenay did, then stumbled from the impact as a pair of kunai sank into his shoulder blade. Fortunately his armored jacket had done its job, keeping the blades from penetrating too deeply. The former Demon's Apprentice grimaced and tried to surround himself in a protective wind but Hideo was already there at his back, a human shield taking the volleys of knives and shuriken that followed.

Stupid! the Demon's Apprentice thought, so stupid to let my guard slip.

Though he knew full well that Lord Tsujita's protector would not be harmed by mere weapons, Haku still felt a tug of obligation toward him. That didn't last long however as Hideo grabbed him by the collar and jerked him back.

"Let go!" the constable commanded, struggling fiercely, but the bodyguard's grip remained firm. More than that, the young ninja could feel the chakra leech from his body.

Haku thrashed again and, this time, a gust of biting wind ripped over Hideo's face, distracting him while the prisoner tore himself loose.

While the one-time Demon's Apprentice rushed to his fallen friend, the bodyguard shook off the effects then formed a chakra seal. Behind him, the dark waters of the canal running beneath the North Star Bridge began to swell.

Haku's footfalls, racing at first, slowed as he saw he wasn't going to make it then slouched to a defeated stall as Krishenay Rahaman knelt, seized Naruto by the tatters of his uniform and hoisted the yellow-haired boy's motionless form high.

Ranks of mist-shinobi flowed around the two toward Haku who could only stand there stupidly and watch as they came. Desolation flooded him. For the first time in a long, long while, he had no idea what to do – no idea at all.

The teenager's gray eyes rose then as the ninjas stopped their advance and stared over him while the light began to dim. Turning to see for himself, Haku's mouth fell open at the sight of the towering wall of water rising up behind Hideo.

Haku glanced back at the Mist Village's legions.

All kiri-ninja were, of course, used to water-based jutsu and new very well how to hold their breaths for amphibiously-long periods of time – those of them who couldn't breath water directly - but as the wall continued its skyward climb, over the rooftops then high over the city, even the strongest of them had to pause and look at each other uncertainly.

Haku turned his gaze back towards Hideo who dropped his raised arms sharply to his sides. Puppet-like before his jutsu, the oceanic monolith curled at the top, arced high over Haku's head, then came plunging down.


Hi, everyone and sorry about the late chapter. This one was really hard to wrap up and I'm still not totally satisfied with it, but at some point the show must goes on, right? Plus I'm having a lot of unfun personal crap to deal with.

In response to reviews, I'm not going to break curse words anymore. I was doing that, basically, out of paranoia that ff would delete my stories if they felt I went beyond their ratings guidelines but, seriously, my stuff is fairly tame PG / PG-13 tops. Oh, and thanks, "JH". It's nice to know someone's waiting on my updates :)

Thanks for reading!

-Jonohex