Hey, sorry it's taken awhile for the update. Things have been really crazy.


People cry, people moan

Look for a dry place to call home

Try to find some place to rest their bones

While the angels and devils try to make them their own…

-Lake of Fire, The Meat Puppets.


Naruto

Naruto awoke, or thought he did, shivering from the rush of cold wind in a world of fathomless black; the scraps of his slashed and blood-soaked uniform flapped against his skin. Though the boy could see and hear nothing, the sense of dizzying motion filled him.

Am I…am I dreaming? he wondered dazedly amidst his confusion.

The last thing the genin remembered with any clarity was Kirigakure. An ambush. A fight. He'd struggled with that fierce, tattooed swordswoman as he'd tried to stop her from killing Haku but all those turbulent memories seemed like they were only half his – a jigsaw puzzle forced together from borrowed, mismatched pieces.

The pain - he certainly remembered that. The source had come from within: his supernatural tenant, the Nine-Tailed Fox, seized with rage, had tried desperately to sunder the spells that imprisoned it then tear its way out from inside him, clawing through the ninja's flesh, slashing and gnashing its teeth in some sort of perverse, demonic rebirth.

Mortified, the blond grimaced, cradled his arms protectively around his tummy and gulped at the residual sensation. The Kyuubi had never done anything like that before.

Just then, the quality of the surrounding darkness shifted and took on a spectral, ambient glow at which Naruto's cerulean eyes widened with a premonition of arrival which came much more suddenly than he'd anticipated. The teenager's gasp shattered the silence as he hit hard then went sprawling.

When the motion of his tumbling body finally ceased, the battered young shinobi blinked, lay there on what felt distinctly like a bed of stone then looked up toward a faint light that resolved after a moment into the tapestry of a strange, oppressive sky lit with the last dim vestiges of day.

A burning tingle of fresh scrapes reminded Naruto that, despite all the unknowns compassing him, he was still alive. Grunting and gritting his teeth, the boy pushed his way to his feet then took stock of his injuries which, thankfully, didn't seem that severe. Even Yashako's cruel broadsword strokes were healed to the point that they no longer bled.

Stupid Fox, the blond grumbled then added a bitter, begrudging concession toward the spectacular healing abilities his occupant granted but again rested a hand on his stomach. At least you're good for something.

Before the teenager could fully get his bearings Naruto startled as he became aware of something close by in the darkness, lingering as if it'd been there beside him the whole time – a horrid chakra unlike anything the jinchuuriki had ever felt before. Even the Kyuubi's energy, sinister and hateful though it was, was still essentially life but this…this felt more like its denial, it's antithesis.

As the thin line of the suns last glimmer vanished under the distant horizon, the young ninja whirled to face a towering monster of a man whose inhuman expression and lifeless eyes, portals to oblivion, filled him with inexpressible dread.

It's…it's HIM, thought an astonished Naruto who realized at once that it was the mist-shinobi Haku had told him about: the Mizukage's emissary, Krishenay Rahaman. It could be none other.

The genin's lip quivered a moment before he was able to master a sick, instinctive fear so profound that he might have blacked out had he not be warned about the giant's vile nature.

"Alright, you!" Naruto railed shrilly through his rebelling senses. "What's this all about? Just where are we and why'd you bring me here?"

An uncomfortable, tepid wind stirred through the young ninja's thicket of yellow hair while Krishenay, standing there unmoved by the ninja's challenge, a darker silloughette against a backdrop of darkening sky, seemed intent to keep his silence forever.

Naruto's jaw tensed. "Well!"

At length his captor spoke. "Given our nature," a rumbling, inhuman voice answered, ignoring the shinobi's question, "the last thing we ever would have expected was to be favored by providence and yet here you are – the most powerful supernatural force in existence…helpless and imprisoned before us within a fragile shell."

Waves of Rahaman's nauseating chakra washed over Naruto and he couldn't help but falter. There'd been others like this before who the genin had felt truly powerless: Zabuza Momochi the first time they'd met then Orochimaru not too long after that; Itachi Uchiha, who'd appeared in his life like a black angel, and Kissame Hoshigaki, a true denizen of nightmares. Every time Naruto had thought he'd made some progress toward the limits of what a shinobi could become along came someone else, a traveller from an even farther, more impenetrable frontier who'd let him know that for all his hard work and tireless, burning dedication that he'd hardly even explored the edges of the territory.

Despite Naruto's brash nature, as he stood before this monster without equal, the boy struggled, frozen by an overpowering sense of awe and terror. Strangely, the one realization amidst all this that buoyed him was that this new nemesis couldn't possibly be human.

"Death has come to Kirigakure," the titan, unasked, informed him, "delivered not by any enemy or even by cruel, capricious fate but by its own warring hands. It is astonishing to behold and has spurred us, after years of discord, at last to consensus."

Naruto cocked a golden eyebrow as curiosity got the better of his dread. "Ok…just who is this 'us'," he began, "and what are you talking about?"

"The dawn of a new equilibrium," the looming shinobi's voice illuminated. "It will begin soon enough with the Fourth Mizukage's death and continue with yours. Without him, without Lord Oku, we will be free at last of the spells that have imprisoned then enslaved us for so long. By consuming you we shall share the life energy of the Kyuubi no Yoko that resides within you." Krishenay leveled at the boy a frightful, penetrating look. "Even shared by one-hundred and eight greedy mouths the total remains undeminished. That power combined with our own will make us unchallengeable. We shall be free to explore our common passions and feed on your kind as in the days before the First Mizukage. It is fitting, then, that his village, the Village Hidden in the Mist, born out of their fear of us shall, in their death throws, be the first to satisfy our hunger."

The blond ninja stared, not knowing quite what he could or should say to something like that.

"Do not be overly concerned," Rahaman continued with a sickening attempt at a grin, in answer to Naruto's querulous look. "We have learned from our defeat at the ninja-lord's hands, and now appreciate the values of moderation and self-discipline. We have learned also that people are, by their nature, selfish and fearful. It is clear to us now that as long as we spread our depredations equally among your tribes, take care that their losses are manageable and reward those who submit, humanity is unlikely to band together against us again.

"After a time," he went on with surprising clarity, "we will become accepted as part of the way of things. We mean to coexist with mankind as other predators coexist with their prey throughout the natural world."

Naruto, whose face screwed with disbelief more and more as the monster masquerading as a man went on, finally balled his fists and barked: "Are you serious? That's the craziest bunch of crap I've ever heard! What, are you saying you're just going to run around eating people or something? You think you're going to eat ME?" The teenager glared, bolstered by vast reserves of recalcitrance.

"The world will have no choice, and neither will you," offered Rahaman in something like a helpful tone but every nuance of emotion or humanity seemed wrong, like play-acting, and only infuriated. "The first lord of the Mist Village only barely survived us, and we're many times stronger now than we were then."

Naruto scowled, fuming, but still his insides knotted at the idea that his abductor might not be wrong. One thing he'd started to learn over his brief career was that the ninja world was rife with weirdoes and maniacs but that their chaotic mental states never seemed to prevent them from mastering (or harboring) inexplicable powers.

"We shall withdraw now to let you ponder your fate, remarkable child. Even now, here, in the well of our presence and having shared our wisdom," the massive mist-ninja gestured in a clunky, unnatural way, "so far from help you retain hope but it won't last. Hunger, exposure, loneliness all will take their toll. In time, you will come to appreciate this and when at last you yield, inevitably, to how helpless you truly are then we shall conclude our business. You won't resist us then; you won't be able to. More to the point," he intoned cruelly in a way that did come across as genuine, "you won't wish to."


The Fire-Tongue Fleet

Commander Okun looked ahead through the laminated glass at the vast expanse of dark sea illuminated only by the subdued running lights of his flotilla, then down at the neat row of accordion canvas canopies that stood like so many tent houses on the foredeck of his unnamed flagship. Ahead and far off the starboard bow the stony profile of an island made itself known by the black absence of the stars it obscured.

"We're almost in position, Sir," his navigator's voice hissed in a telltale accent from behind him.

The mist-ninja glanced at his lieutenant and once again noted the woman's slit smile and black, wide set eyes before accepting how unlikely it was that she might be mistaken.

"Signal all stop. We'll weigh anchor here, refine our position at first light then begin the attack."

In just a few hours all those canvas canopies crowning the decks of his armada would fold back, revealing what most people would take for a bunch of pipe-organs set on their sides and fastened to rotating mounts. A moment later when those instruments began to play it would not be music but a thousand fin-tailed cylinders shooting skyward in a burst of shrieking, chemical glory. A few seconds of flight later and the simple forces of gravity and inertia would bring to the unsuspecting target cataclysms undreamt of.

The science of rocketry was, of course, ages old and still used throughout the world for celebrations and spectacles…but NEVER for weapons. This was a distinction explicitly stated and strictly enforced by the treaty between the Elemental Nations.

The commander chuckled mirthlessly. If the rockets aboard his ships were in themselves prohibited as 'forbidden weapons' then the warheads inside them, volatile substances born through the unholy unions of old science and even older ninja alchemy, certainly were. The discovery of either in the hands of any kiri-ninja meant war and was part of the reason why these ships and their crews had been 'sanitized' – bearing no identification, no hitai-ate, family photographs or anything of the sort. The names of all these mariners and marines who manned the vessels of the Fire-Tongue Fleet would not be found in any 'bingo book' or even in the archives of the Mizukage.

While the commander's obedient crew went about making all the necessary preparations, Okun mused on his place in the unwritten history of Water Country known only to those privileged enough to be granted access to the most perplexing of all tales – the truth.

In the end, he decided it didn't matter. History was nothing more than a continuing present anyway. Despite what some professors might say from their halls of dust, books and illusions, there was no such thing as social evolution. There have always been and would always be leaders giving orders like the ones he'd been given just like there'd always be well-trained men like him who would carry them out. Only when that stupid-simple order broke down did history and the truth, for that one brief chapter, mirror each other only to diverge again much faster than anyone would think.

"And it's messy," Okun concluded quietly to himself, wrinkling his nose with an uneasy edge of distaste. "Damn messy."


Naruto

To his surprise, Naruto found himself no longer in some unknown landscape being confronted by the insane, inhuman and disturbingly-powerful emissary of the Mizukage but in a murky corridor instead. Overall, it seemed like barely an improvement. The masonry walls, cold and grey, were lined up above with leaking pipes and pulsing ductwork. Just how the boy had arrived he wasn't exactly sure but on the bright side, his favorite outfit of vivid orange and brilliant blue had miraculously returned to him.

Wait, I know this place. I'm…I'm here; inside myself again, the leaf-ninja marveled as he began to recognize the strange analog the Kyuubi created upon occasion within his consciousness; a place where they could meet face to face.

The blond frowned then heaved a sigh, a wince crossing the expressive features of his face. How come he has to go and make it so creepy? he grumbled. As if I look like THIS on the inside.

Following the usual path, Naruto arrived at last at the center of the labyrinth – a final chamber where all the ducts and pipes and conduits lead. Black water pooled ankle deep on the floor.

There behind a towering gate of stout, solid-looking bars held shut by a single, bright rectangle of paper, the talisman none other than the Leaf Village's Fourth Hokage had crafted, the spectral, lupine visage of the Kyuubi no Yoko lurked with eyes of molten iron and teeth of ivory scimitars.

"You must release me," it got right to the point, growling with ancient malice. The rumbling, basal tones of it's demand came reverberating off the walls in rolling waves.

Naruto startled a little at the demon's directness but quickly recovered. "What?" he countered sourly then waved his hand in a curt, dismissive sweep. "No way; forget about it."

The fiery eyes of the Nine-Tails narrowed. "If you don't then we both die, Naruto. That…abomination that took us are the 108 Gakidou, whatever name they go by now, demons that terrorized the islands of the Land of Water since long before it was a country. They have," its fearsome expression wriggled with disgust, "comingled inside that shell that was once a man, uniting their energies as well as their bodies." The Fox riveted Naruto with a look. "In case it's still unclear to you they mean to consume us, adding our chakras to theirs."

The young leaf-ninja paused in thought. The monster himself had told him as much. "Yeah, well," he allowed awkwardly, a little discomfited by the whole situation. For so many years Naruto had been alone, feared or ignored. He would have done, and indeed HAD done, anything for a little attention. This, however, was not the kind he'd had in mind.

"If I have to, I can just use your power to stop him…it, um, them…just I did all those other times."

"Idiot!" the Nine-Tails spat in a furnace-hot gust. "Fighting THEM with my power shackled like this is useless, and they've made it clear that they're going to wait for you to weaken. Tied as I am to your miserable flesh when you weaken I become vulnerable. You are my conduit as well as my container, my bridge to the physical world as long as I am imprisoned inside you.

"Individually," continued the Kyuubi, "those demons were no more than nuisances but together as a pack, pooling their essences as they have, they are formidable. And if they devour me then nothing in this world can stop them."

Naruto's uncertain expression evolved into a more thoughtful frown. The Fox's argument made sense, a lot of sense, but he wasn't about to start taking its advice. If the boy had come to know one thing about his tenant from their involuntary association, it was that it could not be trusted.

"Don't you get it yet, whelp!" the monster roared. "Those worthless rodents, those insects among demon-kind, are going to EAT us and you can't stop them. If you don't care about that then think about what they said. They will be free to feed on humanity wherever and whenever they please. Surely your soft heart will not allow that!

"Now, stop wasting time," the Demon-Fox demanded finally, its nightmarish face looming large against the bars of its prison, all eyes and teeth, "and set…me…FREE."

The boy, chastened a little by his tenant's frank explanation, stood in the dank, dark chamber; the pulse of pipes and ductwork echoed his heartbeat.

"No," his high, gravelly voice answered, not angrily, after a time. "I heard what you said and I believe it. But I know better than to just rip down that seal that the Fourth Hokage must've gone through a whole lot of trouble to put up."

"FOOL!" thundered the Kyuubi who lashed at the bars; the labyrinth shook from its rage but -.

"Shut up!" Naruto roared back. "I'll find a way out of this; I WILL! Without your help and meanwhile YOU can stay right there out of trouble."

With that the teenager turned in the bubbling, ankle-deep water and strode away with the demon's wrathful voice pounding in his ears: "Do you think you can beat them, Naruto! Do you! Do you think that one-hundred and eight monsters that roamed the earth since the dawn of humanity can be brought to heel by your pitiful jutsu and tiny, little-boy's fists? Do you imagine you can negotiate with them? Nothing exists, nothing is real to them but their appetites! You've doomed us! You've doomed us BOTH!"


Gennosuke

The lavender-haired boy popped awake out of a troubled sleep, gasped in shock, sat bolt upright in bed then screamed: "RUN!"

"Run," he repeated breathlessly to himself with an overpowering sense of purpose, his haunted, reddish eyes roving wildly as he threw off his covers and rushed to the slatted, sliding door.

Seconds later, Gennosuke, still in colorful pajamas, flung open the door to Sakiko's room, fumbled through the darkness to her bedside and shook the older girl awake.

Of course, surprising a Kaguya like this wasn't the smartest thing to do, considering the nature of their clan's kekkei-genkai, but in his haste the possibility of getting skewered through the giblets with bone lances hadn't even crossed the ten-year old's mind.

"Sakiko!" he implored loudly. "Wake up, we got to get out of here; we got to GO."

Dazedly, the girl slowly came to her senses and tossed back stray ribbons of her long, white hair from in front of her surprised face. "Go…what?" she mumbled through the strands that stubbornly remained then shoved Gennosuke's spidery fingers off her shoulders. "Gennosuke? Wh-what TIME is it? What do you think you're doing in MY room; and what are you talking about?"

With a determination that surprised even him, the Serizawa scion persisted and fixed her with a desperate look. "We got to GO, Sakiko, we got to go NOW!"

The girl, increasingly flustered, frowned and narrowed her gaze. "Have you lost your mind?"

Just then the door to the adjoining room slid aside and Sakiko's brother, Tensai, towering, glowering serious and pale as any specter from gothic fantasy, appeared at the threshold.

Still undeterred, Gennosuke turned towards him and squared his narrow shoulders. "We have to GO!"

Tensai vanished into the darkness of his room. After a moment he returned with his few worldly possessions wrapped up in a bed-sheet slung over one shoulder.

From her bed, his little sister goggled. "Tensai?" she gasped, "what…what in world are you doing?"

The elder Kaguya shrugged. "Who am I to question another's madness," he intoned then left without another word.

Gennosuke, himself puzzled, looked back and forth between the two, gave the white-haired girl a final, imploring look then scrambled after Tensai.

Sakiko, all alone now, nonplussed and as wide awake as she'd ever been this late at night stared out her wide-open door, hissed in frustration then flung aside her covers, put on slippers, threw a blanket on over her night-shirt and went stalking after them.


A half an hour later found almost the entire enclave's population upon the rock and root-strewn paths that twisted up to the island's barren high-ground. The assembly, propelled thus far by a sense of urgency and herd mentality, finally tired enough to start to wonder what was behind this inexplicable mass-exodus in the middle of the night.

Lord Tohma Nikai, clearly vexed and perplexed, with his shaggy locks of ashen hair looking even more untamed than normal and wearing a bathrobe and sandals, pushed his way to the front, stopped and bellowed in a commanding voice: "HEY! What is all this? What's going on?"

"Lord Nikai," one of his following answered. "Don't YOU know?"

A long, chaotic moment followed where the tribes of Water Country's expatriate clans looked at each other stupidly then around at random until Gennosuke Serizawa with face downcast tugged at his sensei's terrycloth sleeve.

The ninja patriarch looked down at the boy then away at first before he got the message.

"YOU, Gennosuke?" he asked in a bewildered tone, one grey eyebrow raised. "You brought everyone out here? But why?"

The boy turned away shyly, knowing how it would sound. "I…I had a dream," he tried to state firmly.

Tohma frowned but then, after a moment of thought, asked carefully: "What kind of dream?"

Gennosuke really didn't know how to answer or put into words what he had experienced. "It was real," he explained, gulping at the memory. "The enclave was on fire."

Overhearing this exchange, the people around them groaned in exasperation while their leader attempted to keep an open mind.

Tohma knelt so that he was at eye level with his young pupil then offered sympathetically: "I'm the last person to doubt the possible importance of your visions, but Gennosuke, are you sure this wasn't just a nightmare – something created in your own mind?"

Surrounded by dubious, slightly-pissed off and askance looks, the Serizawa child's voice trailed doubtfully. "I…I'm pretty sure."

Disgruntled mutterings rose then passed through the assembly like a ripple in a pond as the villagers, annoyed at finding themselves out of doors in the middle of the night for no good reason, cursed quietly then started to head back.

"I was -," Gennosuke started to say then fell quiet, feeling ashamed at his overreaction and betrayed by his supposed 'blood-gift' but at same time, could not let go of his vision.

Pale Tensai, meanwhile, stood at his shoulder, towering over the boy as still as a statue. Though the Kaguya hadn't said or done a thing, Gennosuke felt encouraged somehow by the ninja's continued presence.

Gennosuke's rust-colored eyes reluctantly but anxiously sought Sakiko and he couldn't help but cringe in advance of the reaction he expected and probably had coming.

But the white-haired girl, looking back and forth, clearly torn between staying and following the rest back to the comforts of home, hearth and a warm bed, reluctantly chose to remain.

The skinny child swallowed hard, moved by the siblings' gesture of solidarity despite how unworthy he was of it.

All three looked at their leader then who looked blankly back.

"Hold on, everyone, hold on," Tohma beckoned after the crowd at last. "I know you're all tired but we're already out here so a few more minutes won't hurt."

A number of the barely tolerant looks his unwelcome words drew let the ninja-patriarch know, in no uncertain terms, that he was about to spend a lot of the goodwill he'd built up over their years in exile. Still, the enclave's weary, grumbling citizens ceased their plodding migration if only to indulge him.

Time passed. People waited: some patiently, most not until the complaints and protests of the latter rose to a pitch and then the same momentum that had drawn everyone out into the middle of the scrub forest in the dead of night started to pull them inexorably back.

Dawn began to break – a faint trickle of orange leaking in at the seam where the sky met the sea in the distance.

"Don't," Gennosuke squeaked, "don't go." But the half-hearted plea only drew a handful of bleary-eyed, barely-tolerant looks.

"I'm sorry," said Tohma who laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I can only imagine how difficult it must be to try and discern the difference between a dream and a true vision." He smiled self-consciously. "Not sharing your bloodline, I'm afraid I haven't been much help to you."

The boy grit his teeth to keep himself from tears and hammered a fist into his palm. "But I was so sure."

The Nikai patriarch gave Gennosuke a kind look and moved to say something instructive, something wise and comforting but never got past the first syllable.

The world flashed as pale dawn erupted suddenly into bright, broad daylight. An overture of percussive thuds followed like the beating of drums; and stares rose toward the direction of the enclave where fountains of burning wreckage trailed through the early morning sky like shooting stars. Beneath them blazed a blindingly-bright, white fire - a fire that raged against the drab colors of the forest with an eerie, intense, caged-animal-hunger.

As the last survivors of Water Country's blood-gifted clans gaped in horror and disbelief, more explosions flowered, one after another in a hellish spectacle loud as thunder and brighter than a thousand suns.


Naruto

Naruto awoke this time to the sounds of a gentle surf. His fluttering eyelashes kicked grains of coarse sand. Pushing himself up, the genin found himself upon a lonely stretch of beach marooned in the predawn gloom.

"Where -?" he mumbled tiredly and rubbed his head, having not slept particularly well.

His recollections of the bizarre conversations with not one but two demons (and possibly 109 if what he'd been told was true) the previous night seemed distant and surreal, like nothing more than a surpassingly strange dream.

"NOW where am I?"

The landscape yielded few clues: before him, a quiet sea stretched out into the dolorous black; above, a dark but gradually-lightening sky encumbered by leaden mantles of cloud; behind, a thin ribbon of sand which climbed up to a disconcertingly bleak shelf of weathered rock that was all but flat on top.

The disoriented boy winced, looked around, ran a hand through his yellow hair then searched through the ruins of his mist-ninja's uniform for anything like food but was quickly and thoroughly disappointed. Peeling what was left of the grey, bloodstained ruins of his armored vest and fatigue shirt from his fully-regenerated and now uninjured body, Naruto left them in a pile then began to walk along the strange shoreline figuring that he was bound to come across something or someone sooner or later.

The movement gradually helped clear the ninja's mind and got his blood flowing again after an uncomfortable night spent out in the open. As he walked though, hands in pockets, the chaotic events of the previous day slowly returned to him.

So…did we win or lose or what? he asked himself.

With all that had happened, it was so hard to tell now. The mission certainly hadn't gone as planned.

This is all messed up. But those mist-ninjas killed Lord Tsujita so that means Kirigakure should be safe now, right?

The proposition melted away the more Naruto thought about it.

That Ramahan-108 Demons guy sure didn't think so. The teenager's brow knitted. He…it…they seemed to think that the whole place was right on the brink…or that HE'S going to go kill everyone in the Mist Village even if they're not! Seems to me like HE'S the real threat.

The boy scratched his head then glanced around anxiously as he walked along the water's edge. Something about this place troubled him. It didn't smell right, didn't FEEL right.

And I, Naruto considered, worrying his lip with concern, I turned into the Nine-Tailed Fox didn't I…or something like it just like I did fighting Sasuke…or worse. Now I don't even know where I am, and Haku -.

The thought of his friend's unknown fate made him stop.

Haku.

No, the young ninja reconsidered as he shook his head furiously then began walking again, he might look all girly and pretty and delicate and stuff but that guy's WAY tougher than he looks. There's no WAY he didn't find a way out somehow.


On into the lingering morning hours, still with no sunrise, Naruto wandered up that stretch of shore, finding nothing and no one, wondering just where in hell those 108 Gakidou had taken him while trying harder and harder to ignore his rumbling stomach.

At last Naruto spotted something emerging from the distance - a dark shape laying on the beach.

"Huh?" he brayed then squinted as he tried to focus harder. "No way!"

Distrusting his eyes, Naruto broke into a run. His chakra-assisted strides took him flying over the sand; the waves and bleak landscape flashing past. In moments the genin staggered slowly to a stop then looked down. There at his booted feet sat the same pile of ruined clothes he'd left just a few hours ago and with his own footsteps in the sand leading away.

I came full-circle; I'm on an island, he realized.

Naruto blinked then rubbed his whisker-marked cheek.

That one bit of information had wrapped the entire rest of his world around it and brought Krishenay Rahaman's inscrutable verses into clearer focus.

He WAS on an island - a very small and lonely island likely in the middle of a vast ocean. There was no food here, no fresh water and not a single living thing. He was marooned far from help with no one knowing where he was…and with no way off.

This little island was the 108 Gakidou's pantry, and Naruto: its only morsel.


Inari

The Wave Country boy's jaw was still tender when he woke up despite having iced it all the previous day and downing a vial of anti-inflammatory before bedtime. Even so, Inari still couldn't help but laugh a little – so much trouble over a little misunderstanding!

In hindsight, he felt really sort of flattered to have been thought of as an 'enemy ninja' capable of penetrating the Village Hidden in the Leaves then abducting and replacing one of its shinobi with no one being the wiser. He was really making progress!

The boy rolled over in Naruto's borrowed bed and drowsed under the covers with a smile blooming on his bruised face.

I'm just lucky I didn't lose any teeth.

Yesterday had been his very first 'ninja-battle', if you could call it that, and although it hadn't gone anything like the way he'd ever thought it would, he and Chuuya had acquitted themselves well enough and ended up making some pretty good friends in Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon.

Living here in the Leaf Village is gonna be a LOT easier with them helping us, Inari thought, especially if Naruto and Haku are gonna be awhile.

A satisfying sense of accomplishment filled him.

Yup. Making friends – there's nothing better! he summed up neatly to himself then slowly emerged from the warmth and comfort of his blankets to meet the challenges of the coming day.

Setting bare toes on the wooden floor of Naruto's apartment, the black-haired boy stretched his lean arms then cast a mischievous look over at Chuuya who lay still as a stone atop a makeshift palette of the blond leaf-ninja's clothes and towels.

Inari grinned at finally being the first to rise.

"Hey, Chuuya," he crowed with a giggle and marched up to the sleeping figure. "Time to get up!"

His partner stirred not an inch.

"Come on, you slug," Inari again cajoled then nudged the boy playfully with his foot, "wakey-wakey, eggs and -." He stopped.

Again – no reaction.

"Chuuya?" the boy rasped worriedly then knelt and looked into his partner's slack face, half-expecting a tell-tale smirk but didn't find one.

The morning silence seemed to turn cold and solid, imprisoning the Wave Country boy in its amber.

"QUIT IT, Chuuya," Inari barked harshly then poked his teammate hard in the chest, "it's not funny."

When the boy still didn't react, Inari froze, his breath racing as he tried to remember some of the basic first aid Haku had taught him, but the harder he tried the more distant his sensei's lessons became. Frantically, he checked Chuuya's breathing but didn't feel it then listened for a heartbeat but couldn't hear one.

Inari gulped, chest constricting, eyes darting wildly. "No," he cried shrilly as a different kind of fear overtook him, "oh, no!"

For long moments, the boy paced helter-skelter across Naruto's room, lurching one way then another until an idea at last took hold.

"Hold on, Chuuya, I…I'll go get help!" the ten-year old explained in a panic as he fought to throw on his white turtleneck and teal overalls over his underclothes then grabbed his floppy hat, hopping around and tripping over himself the whole time. "I'll be back in a minute, just a minute, ok?"

Inari wheeled toward the door, misjudged it and slammed his shoulder hard against the jamb. "OW!" he yelped, staggering back, wincing and grabbing his arm. "Hold on, ok?"

With a touch more caution, the ten-year old weaved his way out of the room, fled the aerie apartment then bolted down the stairs to the Leaf Village streets below.


Aya

After delivering the sample contagion Haku had brought to the lab technicians, Aya had hardly a moment to spare wondering if she'd done the right thing before the Mist Village's hospital was suddenly swarmed with incoming patients.

"Monsters," is what some of the battered shinobi were saying, "enemy ninja."

The Mist Village…is under attack? The girl felt sick herself at the thought which only worsened at the idea that maybe she had unwittingly played a part in this but her sensei had always told her not to jump to conclusions. Besides, with so many wounded being dropped at her doorstep, now was hardly the time.

Burying her doubts, the kunoichi set to work, focusing her efforts on helping her medical team sort out the most gravely wounded among them. Hours passed in a blur as Aya rushed from patient to patient, pausing only when tremors shook the building, then again as she passed a cot occupied by a chunin who'd been pierced with senbon.

It doesn't mean anything, she told herself. Lots of ninjas use them.

The young woman broke away from a hurried conference with a pair of her colleagues only to be brought up short by a white-masked figure. Deeply preoccupied, Aya moved automatically to go around him but the stranger sidestepped to intercept her.

The medical-ninja looked up into the shadowed eye-sockets of the ANBU's zodiac mask, the kind of mask she herself had worn as a member of Toru Yamashite's pack.

"Please come with us," said the shinobi in polite but commanding tones as Aya became aware of the man's partner immediately behind her.

That's it, she realized in a moment of strange, calm clarity. I'm dead.

One part of her mind was already formulating what she might say in her defense in the unlikely event that she be granted the opportunity to do so when the other ANBU added: "Bring your gear."

The kunoichi deduced in that moment that these two were not here because she'd aided Haku.

"We're a little busy here," she pointed out as she tested the theory. "Can't you see?"

"It's the Mizukage," the ANBU answered, "something's wrong."

Aya's mouth dropped open then she rushed to retrieve her field medical kit. Sweat beaded on her brow.

Haku, the young woman couldn't help but think. There was no way this was all just coincidence. What have you done!


Naruto

A day passed; an entire day without light. The promised sun never did rise, not really. A pale, reddish glow swelled at the world's edge then clawed its way across a section of the sky having never once peeked through the billows of adamant gray. That had been it.

After a forced surge of energy, Naruto vowed to scour this speck of an island for anything useful…or anything period, but after several fruitless hours spent combing the beach then every inhospitable inch of the barren interior even the dauntless blond was forced to concede that it had all been a waste of time.

The shirtless boy plopped down on the shoreline, hungrier than ever, close to the very spot where he'd first awakened then hung his head. He almost couldn't bear the sight of the callous, lifeless ocean here - home to neither fish, weed, algae nor any other living thing.

Damn it, the young ninja cursed sullenly to himself then dug his fingers into the sterile sand, clutched a handful then cast it aside. There's just no way outta here!

The ocean taunted him and again Naruto thought about walking out atop it using his jutsu…but then, which direction should he go? And how long would his chakra last before he'd have to swim for it? And what if a storm came along?

The optimism that always carried him through the worst of situations fell before the observation that the odds weren't very good.

Naruto had gone through all the jutsu in his repertoire but none seemed like they would help. He'd even thought about building a raft out of shadow-clones but eventually abandoned the idea as being problematic if not completely stupid.

There was Boss Toad, he considered, but didn't think he'd be able to summon him with just his chakra and wasn't sure Gamabunta or any of the others would be able to help even if he could. And after his last conversation with the Nine-Tailed Fox, Naruto didn't know if he could count on the Kyuubi's help at all, shared fate or not.

I'm really stuck here.

Naruto had been trying to avoid the thought. It seemed so final…so helpless and whiny and yet every turn seemed to lead him right back to that one conclusion but what else was there? There was nothing to DO, no one to FIGHT!

The teenager growled. He wanted to HIT something, scream…something! Left with nothing else he crossed his arms and pouted, eyes narrowed to slits.

Stupid Rahaman…stupid demons, he simmered. When he/they/it or whatever DO decide to come for me there might not be anything left!

Flopping flat on his back, Naruto looked up and glared at the swirling, alien clouds of wherever it was the 108 Gakidou had transported him to.

Shikamaru's always doing this back home, he remembered then grimaced; a pained, disgusted frown crossing his whisker-marked face. How useless…doing nothing! That guy's always so serious about it too.

Naruto flipped to one side in the sand and rested his head forlornly on an outstretched arm. He swore he could feel himself getting skinnier.

'I AM doing something,' the inscrutable, black-haired shinobi always countered whenever Naruto tried to break him away.

He never understood that.

Heaving a sigh, the blond turned back and cast his sapphire eyes again skyward.

"Doing nothing is doing something," muttered Naruto half-heartedly.

It sounded like what Haku called a koan which was like a truism only with one part contradicting the other. That was supposed to make it DEEP and, like, mystical with meaning or something.

Fine, Naruto thought and, despite hunger pangs, took it up as a challenge. He crossed his arms and scowled. I'll just lay here and watch the freakin' clouds.


Sakura

"Excuse me, Miss Haruno?"

Ino and Sakura both looked toward the orderly. Tsunade had assigned her students to help out the hospital staff basically as a way to learn through observation and practice as well as study.

"Yes?" the pink-haired girl answered, deeply curious from his tone. "What is it?"

The young man shifted in his off-color scrubs. "There's this crazy little kid downstairs who wants to see you real bad."

"A kid?"

The orderly nodded having, evidently, rightly expected that a more thorough explanation would be required. "He was running around downstairs all worked up and balling his eyes out about something and he wouldn't cool down until I told him I'd go and get you."

Sakura turned to her friend. "Uh, Ino," she prevailed sweetly, "would you cover for me?"

"Sure, I guess," granted Ino who gave her a sly look. "But you owe me, right, 'billboard-brow'?"

The kunoichi mugged a grin and let the remark slide this time, only because the blond was doing her a favor.


Sakura wound her way down to the admissions lobby where she froze in disbelief. But there he was: Inari, that little black-haired kid from Wave Country, Tazuna the bridge-builder's grandson, sitting on a chair in the waiting room, slumped over with a woeful expression on his face, hat wadded up in his hands.

As the boy's eyes lifted he jumped to his feet and ran straight up to her.

"Sakura!" he greeted in a desperate voice, his cheeks flushed, dark eyes welling.

"Inari?" the mystified kunoichi replied and couldn't help but notice the ugly, swollen bruise on his jaw. "What - what are you doing here; how did you -?"

"You GOTTA come with me. I need your help!"

The girl's emerald eyes widened. "Inari, you shouldn't even -."

"Please!" the little boy cried, cutting her off. "My friend needs help. He's sick or something. Please, I-I think he's gonna DIE!"

Sakura glanced around as if someone or something nearby maybe might be able to make any of this make sense. Finding nothing, the pink-haired ninja sighed in resignation and took the boy's hand.

"I guess we'd better get going then," she concluded. What else could she do?


By the time the two reached the door to Naruto's apartment only her promise to help some poor, sick, Wave Country child named 'Chuuya' kept her anger from exploding with volcanic fury as the girl tried her best to digest the wild revelations Inari had hit her with one after another non-stop along the way.

"So you're telling me that Naruto left the village like a week ago and put you and your little friend up to making everyone think he's still here?"

The black-haired boy nodded guiltily. "I'm really, really, really sorry, Sakura. I didn't want to trick you, but Naruto said he'd get in trouble."

"You're damn right he's in trouble!" snapped Sakura who tensed her jaw then continued, shaking her head and muttering to herself: "When I see Naruto again I'm gonna hit him so hard he'll never forget." Turning toward the meek, anxious and cringing ten-year old, she raised a tightly-balled fist and assured him direly: "I'm gonna beat the crazy out of him. I swear that yellow-headed idiot's done some stuff before, but THIS…and how the hell did YOU learn ninjutsu anyway?"

Inari waited until they were inside, glanced up at her, away then back again. "Don't be too mad, Sakura…please?" the black-haired boy begged. "He had a good reason."

"Uh-huh," replied the kunoichi, unconvinced as the two made their way through the apartment to Naruto's bedroom where they were greeted by the stomach-turning stench of souring upchuck. "Well, I guess that means Chuuya's alive after all."

Inari hunched and pinched his nose shut with both hands. "AGH! GROSS!"

Even Sakura, slightly accustomed to such bodily excrescences, had to wince.

"Clean that up, Inari, please," she directed the boy to get him occupied and out of the way, then moved to the pale and prostrate ten-year old laying there covered in blankets on a mound of Naruto's clothes.

Hoisting the unconscious boy up, blankets and all, and transferring him to the bed, the apprentice medical-ninja went through a standard protocol of checking his vital signs, chakra level and flow while Inari scraped most of the vomit up in a dustpan then paced out of the room to dispose of it with the vessel held at arm's length.

Sakura frowned, crossed her palms, then laid them on the motionless boy's tummy, using jutsu to add a little of her chakra to his. She then raised her hands over her patient, tracking the energy as it flowed through his system.

"Inari," she queried, having noted the boy's return, "how long's he been sick?"

"Just since this morning when he didn't get up," Inari piped softly, looking up from where he knelt on his hands and knees, dutifully scrubbing away at a spot on the floor, then added in response to her doubtful look, "honest."

The pink-haired girl turned back and steepled her hands with concern.

"Is he gonna be ok?"

Sakura frowned. "He's very sick, Inari. I thought at first that it might be something like a bad flu or food-poisoning, but it's nothing like that."

"Can you fix him?"

Sakura's face remained frozen in thought for a time before she finally declared: "I've got to get him to the hospital."

"NO!" squealed Inari in a panic. "You can't! Please Sakura, no one can -."

"HEY!" the kunoichi shouted back then silenced him with a ferocious, green-eyed glare. "You and your friend's mission is OVER, Inari. You never should have snuck in here in the first place. Naruto just taking off on his own has GOT to be the stupidest thing he's ever done, and getting you kids involved makes it even worse!"

The Wave Country boy's expression quivered. "Please, Sakura," he prevailed in heart-wrenching desperation. "Naruto had a really, really good reason, I swear! And we promised him we'd take care of his place and no one would find out and he should be back any minute now. Please, isn't there any other way?"

Sakura gave an exasperated, emotional flinch before she gathered herself then set forth in cool explanation: "Inari, I know you and Naruto mean well; I know that. But this is serious!" The girl gestured at Chuuya. "Your friend is very sick and I don't know how to help him."

Inari's eyes wandered desperately before again searching out Sakura's. "Please, Sakura," he began, "I…I don't want anything to happen to Chuuya but I don't want Naruto to get in trouble just 'cause of us. And I know Chuuya doesn't either. And you're, well, you're Naruto's partner; you're his friend too. You don't really want him to get in trouble either do you?"

The girl's eyes widened, fell then looked away.

All-in-all her sensei, Lady Tsunade, was a pretty good sport when it came down to it, owing probably to her own 'colorful' background and interests. But what Naruto had done went way past anything that she, or any Hokage, could just overlook or let go with a talking-to or slap on the wrist. Technically, her partner was guilty of desertion at the very least no matter what his intentions, and that WAS serious.

"Please?" the boy persisted.

Sakura returned with a determined stare and vowed to lay down the law but as she looked into the little boy's dark eyes and hopeful, innocent face, she saw Naruto's face too and her resolve wavered.

"I will try ONE thing," she found herself saying despite every wiser inclination. "If it doesn't work then we take Chuuya right to the hospital, come clean about everything and I don't want to hear one more word about it."

The reprieved boy's eyes lit with relief and he nodded eagerly which only made his reluctant savior feel like that much more the fool.

Thanks, Naruto, thought Sakura who bit her lip worriedly. Now I'M about to do the stupidest thing I've ever done.


Thanks for reading!

-Jono'