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Inoue

With the ink only barely dry on the sheaves of fresh decrypts clutched tightly in his calloused hand Pradesh rapped crisply on the lacquered wood of his master's stateroom door then entered at once, knowing how anxiously she awaited his report.

Within, Lady Chinami Inoue, councilor of Kirigakure sat with eyes closed, enshrouded in a sea-blue coat of deepest blue embroidered with dense arabesques as she reclined in a chair with her slipper-covered feet resting atop her desk. "So, how are we doing?" she inquired mildly in the essence of restraint. Though her words were softly-spoken they cut the stillness of the dimly lit room.

The swarthy jonin's lips pressed into a tight seam. So much was happening all at once it was hard to know just where to begin. And though he'd been trained to keep his emotions subdued lest they cloud the judgment or slow the reflexes it was more than a little difficult to maintain anything like complete detachment. "The Mizukage's dead," he made himself announce. That bit of news seemed like a reasonable place to start. "Our agent's slow-acting toxin finally took him down. In the end it was just like you said – between his paranoia and the psychoactive effects of the poison he was too scared to even try to get help." The mist-shinobi proceeded to the next bulletin, stating with a measured cadence in his growling baritone: "Tsujita and his co-conspirators were spotted and then engaged by an ANBU assassination squad in what turned out to be a messy and public fight that destroyed much of the Piazza del Carne' and even some of the surrounding blocks.

"The casualty rate in Kirigakure is about thirty-five hundred and climbing, approximating estimates. Of course, everyone thinks that it's one of the Tsujita's plagues that's causing it AND that killed Lord Oku. The whole place is in chaos."

Inoue offered a single, sharp nod. "A difficult and painful birth," the silver-haired woman allowed. "Go on."

"The council of Daimyo are sending troops to enforce the quarantine. They're all worried about the 'plague' getting loose and are willing to do whatever's necessary to make sure it doesn't."

"Of course," muttered the kunoichi with a sad sort of grin, her tone acknowledging her chief of security's inflections - a nuanced reminder of the true source of the Mist Village's affliction.

"As of right now," continued Pradesh, the battle-scarred man's eyes, one white and one black, scanning the report, "we have two full mist-shinobi regiments assembled from forces stationed outside Kirigakure ready to secure Wave Country. They should make port just after sundown.

"Under the circumstances, the Council of Daimyo, led by your allies, of course, have appointed you interim Mizukage until the emergency is concluded." His expression rose, acknowledging the development. However his master's plan unfolded in the end, this was a historical moment. "Congratulations, Lady Inoue."

"Thank you, Pradesh." The old woman's eyes opened as if from a refreshing nap but there was no hint of celebration in them. The clan matriarch withdrew her feet from the top of her desk then set them carefully on the floor. Sitting up, she offered more cheerily: "So far, so good. Better than expected, I think." The elder kunoichi pressed her hands together in something like a jutsu seal then pressed her forefingers against her thin lips. "Any word of my 'dear colleague', Kissohamaru?"

Pradesh shook his head. "There's been no sign of him since the outbreak. It's almost sure he's left the city but apparently he's still in some sort of contact with the provisional administration. Mei Terumi's taken charge, doing what she can to follow both your orders and his."

Inoue flashed a mercurial smile. "Ha!" she piped with genuine delight. "I knew that girl had ambition despite her secret. And I suppose I should have figured that the old bastard wouldn't let himself get caught inside Kirigakure with all-hell breaking loose." Her cloudy-sky eyes flickered. "My, it would be nice, convenient to say the least, if he went home to hole-up. Speaking of which -?"

The ninja nodded and followed up per the new Mizukage's queue. "The Fire-tongues have already destroyed Lord Nikai's Enclave," Pradesh informed her, taking a moment to reconfirm with the decrypt. "Hirai Castle is next. By tomorrow morning it'll be nothing but a smoking memory."

Breath seeped from the old woman. "The end of an era," she noted with a passing, professorial air. "Still: a necessary sacrifice. The Mist Village can hardly move forward with Lord Hirai and his clan like an anchor around our necks." The woman mulled a thought over for a moment. "I'll send him a messenger osprey just in case – a nice communique inquiring after his health, indicating my shock and surprise at all that's happened and asking him for guidance. I suppose that would only be proper were the circumstances what they seemed."

The mist-ninja's dark, battle-scarred and bristled face pinched slightly as he thought to add back some of the details he'd glossed over. "I don't know what you'll make of this, my lady, but it sure seems strange – these intelligence reports we just got say that Lord Tsujita was confirmed killed but the three with him all got away: an unidentified bodyguard, a jinchuuriki who took on pretty-much every ninja in the place and," his lips wriggled with skepticism, "I don't know how else to say this but: Haku."

"Haku?" Lady Inoue startled mildly. "You mean pale little Haku Haku? Zabuza's disciple, the ice-user?" Her grey brows knitted. "That can't be right. The ANBU killed him over a year ago. It was confirmed. It's so unlike our ninja-hunters to make a mistake like that." Inoue thought for a moment then gave an acceptant shrug. "Hmm, I guess it makes sense though that if that boy was still alive that he might have found his way to The Enclave and the company of his fellow blood-gifted brethren.

"I can't say I have a clue about the jinchuuriki. Does that report say anything more about him?"

Pradesh shook his head.

The woman reclined once more. "I wonder if he was host to the turtle or the slug," she remarked. "I always thought it was so strange. We committed so many resources to sealing those two of the tailed-beasts, all in the name of keeping up with the Hidden Cloud Village, only to have them vanish like farts in the wind one after the other." Inoue shook her head dismissively. "Ah, well, as wrinkles in plans go, those are all pretty minor."

"Oh, this too," Pradesh added, wanting to impart one last point before the woman made any final conclusions. "The late Lord Oku's enforcer, Krishenay Rahaman's, apparently lost his mind. Ever since his master, the Mizukage died he's been on a killing spree, ninja and civilians alike, and no one in Kirigakure's been able to stop him."

Inoue looked up. "That one was always a puzzle. I never did know where the Fourth dug him up but I figured it was ok as long as his reassuring presence kept Oku this side of sanity."

"Do you think he'll be a problem?"

"Not for us," the old kunoichi answered with a shake of her head. "No," she considered, "someone like Rahaman is like a fire, they all are. They all burn out eventually on their own no matter how hot they burn or how brightly they blaze. And then too, Mei Terumi is quite capable of dealing with anyone who needs to be dealt with, even a monster like him." The new Mizukage hummed to herself as she mused. "She has the kekkei-genkai, you know, a rare orchid indeed with not just one but two cross-elemental masteries – lava and mist; although she and her clan have gone to some lengths to keep it quiet for obvious reasons. And even if this Rahaman character does prove to be a nuisance, we can always sic the ship's Nephilim Guard on him." Inoue looked past her stateroom walls of wood-paneled steel toward the chessboard figures who manned their sentry posts in silent vigil around the Sophae's decks, saying with a tremor in her voice: "They've all given up so much to gain the power they have. I doubt truly that there is any force in existence that can stand before them."


Tsunade

The Fifth Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves sat in her customary booth at Inakaya, still as a statue, staring down with her chin braced between thumb and forefinger. At her right and left elbows sat stacks of untouched and unread paperwork, before her - a tray of equally ignored food and a rapidly-cooling carafe of rice wine.

Shizune, stationed across from her mistress, sat stiffly and stared with her shoulders squared. Not even the report at the Hokage's fingers, raising alarm over a perplexing spike in the number of villagers falling sick from sudden but random illnesses, had stirred her interest. For maybe the first time in her life the dark-haired young medical ninja wished Tsunade would just have a drink.

"Worried about Naruto?" she ventured hesitantly to break the stifling silence.

Moments crept by. Shizune had started to wonder if she'd missed her mark, her master simply hadn't heard or was, perhaps, ignoring her until: "He's really something, that kid," muttered Tsunade. "I'll bet he didn't even think twice about going."

"Are you mad at him?" the adjutant followed.

The Hokage shook her head just slightly. "I was," she clarified then rested both arms flat on the table. "But you know, no one was ever allowed to tell Naruto about the Nine-Tailed Fox and, as far as I know, no one ever did. No one ever explained to him what a complete disaster it would be if he got killed…or worse - captured by a rival village." She paused then added wistfully, "And I know he thought he was doing a good thing."

Shizune forced a smile and offered in her best, hopeful-sounding voice: "Maybe Shikamaru will bring him back. He's awfully smart," she piped maybe a little too encouragingly. "If anyone can figure out a way, he can."

Her master's expression softened, acknowledging her confidant's effort. "Thank you, Shizune," Tsunade offered in earnest. "I haven't been Hokage long but…long enough to have lost my ability to be so optimistic. No, as much as I'd like not to, all I can think about is how the Mist Village will harness the power of the Kyuubi no Yoko and use it against us." The sandy-haired woman snorted with fatalistic humor and gave her student a confiding look. "Danzo'll have shit-fit. As much as he would love to be proved right and lord it over us how much smarter and wiser he is than us naïve little children – that we should've kept Naruto under lock and key and raised him as-as," she stuttered, "as some kind of glorified attack-dog or something. As much as that man would love to gloat…he'll have a shit-fit. And what could I say to him: 'Why yes, Councilor, I did in fact let probably our most powerful weapon walk out of here and into the hands of Kirigakure.'" At last Tsunade took a drink, downing a shot in one effortless gulp, then wiped her lips with the back of her arm as she poured another. "Stupid kid."

Shizune caught the note of sadness in the ninja lord's voice and the true touchstone of her concern that remained, even in the shadow of all she'd said, a personal matter much more so than a strategic one. The girl blinked as she smiled with sad sympathy.

"A year ago Haku was his enemy who'd tried to kill him," said Tsunade. "Now they're the best of friends and Naruto' s running off to help him and to try to save a Village that would destroy us in a heartbeat given the chance." The woman looked up with a flash of intensity in her amber eyes, the jewel resting between them an unblinking third. "Doesn't that seem hopelessly stupid to you?"

Shizune shrugged, unsure if her lady really wanted an answer.

Thankfully, Tsunade herself spared her from guessing. "That's what I thought…and yet there is a part of me I thought I'd outgrown that understands it, especially knowing Naruto like I do." The Hokage took another drink, this one long and slow. "He's just a kid," she began again bleakly. "Heaven and Earth, I hate to think what the Mist Village will do to him."


Mei

The detailed map of Kirigakure that covered the planning table under the statuesque kunoichi's luminous emerald gaze might almost convince that all was well. The riots had quieted. The granaries, storehouses, cisterns and armories were all secure and there'd been no further attacks. But as the saying went, 'the map is not the territory'.

People were still dying all over the city, dying in droves and an armada was coming soon to enforce a panicked Water Country's quarantine. Heaven and Earth knew what lengths they'd go to toward that end.

In the wake of Lord Oku's death, Water Country's daimyo had appointed the junior councilor, Lady Chinami Inoue as the provisional Mizukage; in itself a puzzling choice considering Lord Hirai's standing and seniority. At the news, two thoughts warred in Mei's head: that there was much going on behind the scenes that she was ignorant of; and that they should have chosen her instead. That last one was quickly chased away. The woman had often dreamed about what she would do if she were Mizukage: the changes she'd institute, the policies she'd pursue, but this was hardly the time to consider lofty personal aspirations. Given the stigma Kirigakure still held against those who held the kekkei-genkai, not to mention her clan's general reclusiveness and lack of connections it was probably better to not even think about such things.

If she could help her village see one more dawn it would be enough.

"Miss Terumi?"

The woman looked up into Captain Ao and Aya Sakamoto's serious faces, more solemn now by far even than when they'd reported their combined inability to locate the fugitive Haku – the unlikely lynchpin to who all Kirigakure's troubles seemed bound. She steeled herself for more bad news. "Yes, what is it?"

Ao, uncharacteristically, seemed reluctant to say at first before he reported: "It's Rahaman. He's moving."

"What?" The kunoichi grimaced and straightened. "Where?"

The one-eyed jonin reached toward the map and slid the blood-red marker from a rectangle depicting one of Kirigakure's hastily-assembled branch clinics, the scene of the 108 Demon's latest depredation, out into the street.

Mei frowned. Her customary stoicism, veiled in the form of a playful, almost flirty casualness, had worn thin. "Any idea where he's going?" But her eyes were just as keen as anyone's' to spot the most likely destination. She stared for a moment then went slack. "The main hospital."

"Your orders, ma'am?" asked Ao, just like she knew he would.

The simple question throbbed in her head. Mei nodded then rose. "Start clearing the building and evacuate everybody between it and them." She turned then and headed for the back room where many of her personal effects were stored for the duration of the emergency, shucking her armored jacket and fatigues casually and carelessly as she went.

Ao and Aya stared after the woman in puzzlement as she disrobed, revealing at last the smooth, sculpted alabaster shoulders of an angel veiled only by her cascade of lush, auburn hair as she disappeared through the doorway.

"So…what are you going to do?" Ao called out to her.

"Face them," the unseen jonin's melodious voice answered back amidst the sounds of her rummaging.

Aya gasped at the idea. "But…Miss Terumi!" chirped the younger kunoichi. "You can't! You can't possibly be thinking about fighting the 108 Demons!"

Mei returned through the doorway adorned in a sleek, long-sleeved sapphire dress, bare at the shoulders and much more form fitting than her uniform had been. With a simple change of clothes, the woman had gone from striking…to stunning, a vision of incomparable beauty. "I'm going to. I have to at least try to slow them down," she stated plainly, headed for the door but explained with a sultry smile in answer to her two subordinates' expressions, "and if I'm going to be in the fight of my life I figure I should go wearing something I like.

"Ao," said Mei without looking back, all playfulness gone from her tone, "if I don't come back, you're in charge."


Kiba

In the dimness of his steerage-class dormitory, Kiba Inuzuka popped wide awake. He found himself hot, cramped, stiff and uncomfortable though none of that was unexpected. The bunk on which he rested was nothing more than a plywood shelf barely wider than the span of his thirteen-year old shoulders; the thin pad atop it only seemed to make it even harder. All around him, stacked up like so much firewood, his fellow passengers slept in various states of tortured and sometimes inebriated unconsciousness expressed in the form of groans, rattling snores, tossings, turnings, incoherent mutterings and every sort of noxious emission the stink of which thickened the air.

But that's not why I'm awake, the ninja realized with concern, his tongue teasing the sharp, white point of an incisor. So why am I?

Dawn light slanted through the vessel's narrow portholes, yellow circles moving slowly across the opposite wall.

Kiba's hunting, wolfish eyes widened as he rose. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed his traveling pack and hopped down. Akamaru, alerted by his master's silent but still unmistakable footfalls, appeared from the recesses beneath the lowest berth and padded after him. Quickly and quietly the two found Sakura, Chouji and Shikamaru's sleeping shelves, roused them then headed up the steel stairway into the morning air.

"What is it?" whispered Shikamaru who yawned and rubbed his eyes as they emerged on deck to which Kiba answered: "We're turning around."

"What? Why?" Shikamaru protested briefly then, when Kiba jumped up to the roof of the bridge-house, jumped after him.

Falling alongside the genin with his back to the wind, the view off the starboard side answered the question: ahead in the distance, silhouetted in stark black against the glow of the rising sun – a line of warships.

"Shit," grumbled Shikamaru, all drowsiness gone as he drew from his pouches a pair of field glasses. "It's Water Country's Navy and they're shutting down the sea-lane. A blockade?" he asked himself in a puzzled tone. "Why would they blockade their own ninja village?"

Kiba shrugged, the expression on his fang-tattooed face sour and serious. "Don't know. But we're not getting through that way," the young ninja growled then leaped back down to where Sakura and Chouji awaited. Shikamaru quickly joined them, informing them on what he'd seen as Kiba stalked about, pacing back and forth like a caged animal, before the genin marched to the railing and stared hard across the waves at a promontory waiting some miles distant along the cloud and haze-shrouded horizon. His wild eyes narrowed as they focused.

"Come on!" he snapped toward the others and pointed towards shore as Akamaru barked then jumped to his customary perch atop Kiba's brown-haired head, "that island's not THAT far. We can make it on foot easy."

With that, the boy hopped up to the top rail and sprang out high over the water. Landing in a crouch, the undulant blue bowing under the force of his chakra, Kiba broke immediately into a run – speeding away like an antelope across a prairie of rolling, white-capped waves.

Thus abandoned, their mouths hanging wide open in surprise, the remaining three stared after their fellow leaf-ninja for a moment, exchanged alarmed looks then hurriedly jumped the railing and scrambled after him.


Haku


On the day I die,

when I'm being carried toward the grave,

don't weep.

Don't say, He's gone! He's gone.

Death has nothing to do with going away.

The sun sets and the moon sets,

but they're not gone.

Death is a coming together.

The tomb looks like a prison,

but it is really release into union.

The human seed goes down in the ground

like a bucket into the well where Joseph is.

It grows and comes up full

of some unimagined beauty.

Your mouth closes here

and immediately opens

with a shout of joy there.

The Day I Die - Jelaluddin Rumi


A flash of blinding white. Then there he was again - a leaf racing along on a river of light and shadow.

Nothing to fear, not really.

He'd been here before.

Death was neither the end nor as irrevocable as he'd always believed. Dozens of voices told him so though their inflections were not necessarily reassuring.

First moments like birth, crashing his senses, only this time with scores of other peoples' thoughts, other shinobis' thoughts, feelings and reactions all equal to and indistinguishable from his own rampaging through his mind. Through him, a mob of desperate souls clamored reflexively for another taste of life, to run again free in the empire of the senses; Haku's own energies, paltry, scant and confused, were sent to flight, crowded out, buried and gone forever under an avalanche of clashing chakras and more formidable wills but, emerging from that chaos, came allies.

A grandmother named Yukiko and a great uncle named Bishamon were in here too and they were not so easily pushed aside, neither were they about to stand by while the last of their clan's scion fell. Together they were able to enforce a realm of relative calm around their kindred until the fledgling had regained his composure enough to stand. Though Haku and they regarded each other in that fathomless instant of recognition they shared with mutual horror (Haku for his gentle heart and they for their callous, warlike ones) there was admiration, obligation and even a begrudging sort of love. Though they had never known each other before they surely did now to the most intimate and personal extremes. In a moment more they knew all the others together with them just as well but, unlike all the rest, these three were family and that was a difference that could not be ignored.

Haku awoke then with a garbled cry that rattled off walls of the stone sanctum where Lord Hirai had left him, though the sound was swallowed here and there by the thunder of crashing waves. The young ninja found himself sitting up. His grey eyes swiveled slowly across the chamber. Every sight, sound, smell and sensation blossomed forth with a confusing cascade of sixty-six impressions, recollections and observations that filled his mind to painful overflowing.

The young ninja's jaw hinged open as his eyes pinched shut. Involuntarily, his trembling hands reached to his long-haired head as if to help keep together all its new contents and inhabitants. If not for the intervention of his relatives who'd buttressed his existence, he would surely have been overwhelmed, trampled under like a newborn before a stampede. Quietly he thanked them though he didn't need to. Their thoughts were his.

All at once Haku knew the names and faces of nearly every relative he'd ever had in an ancient lineage that reached back way before the dawn of the Hidden Villages. He knew too the lengths his ancestors had gone to to gain the powers of their kekkei-genkai – allowing themselves to comingle with the dragon spirits of the air and sea in often horrifying unions, yielding offspring that were sometimes less than human…and sometimes more.

This new association with a legion of ninja spirits had acquainted him with a vastly more terrible truth, that his Aramata clan and all the others but for the poor and wild Kaguyas had known of the coming cataclysm that had destroyed them. They'd all known all along of the Mist Village's treachery and of the Fire-tongue Fleet and had allowed themselves to be consumed, allowed themselves to bear responsibility for the civil wars so that Kirigakure could move on and know a time of peace for however long or short it lasted.

All at once he knew what he was about to face in Krishenay Rahaman and the 108 Demons. They were no longer a wild pack of preternatural monsters, horrifying enough in their own right. They had merged to form a single, unified creature many times more powerful than the sum total of their individual selves. Midori Hirai, the first Mizukage, who'd vanquished the 108 Demons decades before, was here with him along with all her powers and yet this was a much more difficult and dangerous enemy. The tactics she'd employed would be of little use now.

Haku now knew from her how powerful the Hirai Clan's jutsu she'd developed had made him. The understandings of all these great ninja that inhabited him built on one another to form a knowledge of how the energies of the world worked – a knowledge backed by a reservoir of supernatural chakra rivaling Naruto's. The Candlelight Gate Jutsu had created a rift carefully balanced between the positive and negative energies of the universe within which its laws could be superseded and its powers directed by the influence of Haku's will and the subtle applications of his chakra. At the same time, he'd never been more fragile. Like a surfer atop a great wave, he did not own this power but was only able to harness it for a time as long as he kept his balance.

Lord Hirai knew this which was why he would not fear granting him this power. In this state, the ninja-lord could bring him to an end with a single de-stabling thought using his Dao magic.

The multitude of lifetimes, memories and experiences, reminded Haku, confirming without a doubt, of the danger Naruto was in. Being powerful, having inside him the Kyuubi-no-Yoko, made his friend valuable – far too valuable for Lord Hirai to simply leave alone. But the former Demon's Apprentice hadn't needed his disembodied companions to tell him that.

Frowning, Haku stumbled to his feet, demanded quiet from his guests as he gathered himself, then went through the exercises of the Eight-Section Brocade Master Zabuza had taught him what seemed like a lifetime ago. The slow, therapeutic movements of the form helped to unite the teenager's body with his new minds and settle the flow of his multiple chakras. The memories, uniquely his own, from when he was a half-starved eight-year old struggling to learn it helped him map the precincts of what was his and what was theirs. When complete, Haku stood still for a few minutes to assure himself then put his newfound powers to a little test.


In Castle Hirai's training hall, Lord Hirai strolled, observing his clan's youngest members as they practiced their martial arts, making corrections and offering little words of support or rebuke when warranted. The man old stiffened as the bells hung strategically in the upper corners of the dojo's soaring, beamed ceiling all began to chime. Wary, he turned around, smiled then bowed deeply.

"Lord Aramata," he greeted with an attitude appropriate to receiving potentates. "You're looking well. I'm pleased you survived."

All the young shinobi and shinobi-in-training, little six to nine year old boys and girls many with similar features to their grand patriarch, looked back and forth with some anxiety between their elder and the young newcomer whose chakra presence almost made the walls bow.

"Don't be alarmed, children," Lord Hirai soothed. "In fact, I'm greatly pleased that this gentleman has come to pay us a visit so that I can introduce you all to our young master, Lord Haku Aramata – a great shinobi from a legendary shinobi clan." The silver-haired patriarch looked around at his young charges. "Our clan has had its differences certainly, as you may recall from your lessons, with him and his sensei, Zabuza Momochi in the recent past but those days are behind us. With this in mind we must be grateful to him and his clan for their service, past AND present, to the preservation of our village." The councilor of Kirigakure bowed again and, this time, his dojo full of young heirs followed suit.

The visitor, cognizant of his tender audience, softened his expression and returned the courtesy. "Councilor Hirai," Haku began, "a word with you if I may?"

"Well of course!"

With that the two drew apart from the curious children who at least made attempts at the appearance of returning to their training.

"I intend to defeat the 108 Demons just as I said. But you should know that Naruto is my friend. If he comes to harm," intoned Haku, "I will devote the rest of my life to making sure you regret it."

The old man's grin was genial enough but his words were hard: "All the wisdom you now possess and yet you ignore it to visit me with this absurd apparition and make pointless, juvenile threats. I can't say I'm all that surprised, but you know as well as I do what's at stake," he announced and looked off abstractedly toward the racks of practice weapons, scrolls of zen calligraphy, painted likenesses and cracked photographs of ninja masters from his clan's long history. "Defeat the 108 Demons and your little yellow-headed friend will still be here, safe and sound when you return. Fail," he went on to explain, "and I will bargain with what chips I may."

Haku's expression steeled into an intense frown. "Naruto's life is not to be…to be traded away like some -."

"Stop!" barked the centenarian ninja-lord in naked annoyance, eyes glaring down coldly from a stern, imperious face. "Stop this insufferable melodramatic nonsense. Despite how your maudlin sensibilities inform you, the jinchurriki's life is no more or less valuable than anyone else's. He is a piece in play and I will use him in whatever way I can to achieve the most agreeable outcome. The fate of the entire Mist Village hangs in the balance so if I need to exchange one more jinchuuriki to preserve it then that is exactly what I will do. You of all people know the sacrifices generation after generation of ninja have made to preserve their village; to preserve your master's village, to preserve your family's village. If you fall, if your Naruto falls, then so be it. You'll hardly be the first and you won't be the last. Have I made my point?"

Haku gave him a sullen, intractable grimace but remained chastened and silent.

"Good. Now then," Lord Hirai concluded gravely, "that jutsu won't last long, so don't you have some demons to kill?"

With that, the old man sneered and the apparition of Haku vanished, exorcised by the old shinobi's will.


Once that part of himself returned to him, Haku grinned grimly and looked up. "Was I convincing?" he asked his cohabitants out of habit. Speech was quite unnecessary. "I assumed he'll be less on guard if I reacted the way he expected me to."

Yukiko Aramata answered that he was and expressed a grandmother's pleasure that her grandchild and heir turned out to be clever if a little misguided. The Hirai souls embedded with him had rather different ideas but, for the common good, kept them quiet.

Haku took some solace in that – an affirmation from the hereafter that they had confidence enough in him to let him take the lead. In any event, time was wasting and Councilor Hirai had been right in saying that he had things to do and with countless lives at stake. Meanwhile, as far as Naruto was concerned, he'd just have to hope that his contingency plan worked…however tenuous it was.

Gathering himself for the battle to come, the former Demon's Apprentice drew a breath, took a step and appeared that instant in Kirigakure.


Hideo

Under the sweeping, tile-clad overhangs of Castle Hirai's loftiest pagoda sat a featureless chamber, empty but for a plain and primitive sarcophagus evocative of civilizations long dead. Every few inches, no more than a hand's width apart, a grid-work of chalk lines all bright red crisscrossed it's smooth, wooden face.

Diffuse amber light glowed over it, not from windows, but panels of translucent stone. From the beams above dozens and dozens of bells hung: some thick-walled and sturdy while others were delicate, even dainty. One of them began to shiver slightly as a tiny spot on the concrete floor directly beneath it darkened. The spot grew wider, sprouting beads of water then suddenly gushed into a stream, rising up to take human form. The bells began to chime, just a few at first then in scores. Under the unseen force of their music, the water-man retreated, chased away by the magic-laden sound so that by the time the tower's sentinels arrived, the chamber was as still, dry and empty as it had been before.


Having reconstituted himself deep below the murky waters of one of Castle Hirai's seepage pits, Hideo opened his eyes. To feel true frustration was something he was no longer capable of and yet still the vestiges of it bubbled up from somewhere deep within his resuscitated flesh.

'I'm sorry to prevail on you like this, especially since you've already saved my life once,' Haku's final words before he'd vanished with Lord Hirai drifted like a dream through Hideo's mind, intangible but potent none the less. 'But if you owe me any loyalty, please, PLEASE…get Naruto out of here. Take him back to Konoha. Whatever it takes. Whatever you have to do. Please.'

Hideo remembered how the young ninja's grey eyes fixed him, burning with a desperation greater, probably, than if he'd been begging for his own life. Hideo, for his part, had spared a glance toward the somewhat dumb-looking blond kid under discussion and failed to see anything in that blue-eyed countenance that might account for such a depth of feeling.

'Of course, Lord Aramata,' he'd answered anyway though he was still unsure why. The jutsu Lord Nikai had used to create him, to force life back into his decades dead and drowned corpse, made it almost impossible to tell which impulses and reactions were his and his alone and those that were merely an extension of his master's will.

So far, the difference hadn't mattered to him as long as he could be a part of Nikai's plans for revenge against Kirigakure no Sato and the ninjas who'd destroyed his village. So few of his life's passions and preoccupations had survived his resurrection undiluted (so to speak). What did it say about humanity that vengeance remained the only desire that remained potent beyond the grave?

And yet, with his master absent, without the clarity of his commands the revenant was struck by a sort of listlessness.

Hideo frowned. Introspection like this never was his strong suit even in life.

Back to the matter at hand - this Naruto had been secured with greater care than he'd assumed but that was no reason to fret. Rarely is anything ever put into storage that the owner doesn't at least intend to unearth again at some point. He would simply have to pick the right time to secure the young leaf-ninja's freedom and thereby keep faith with Lord Aramata. One great advantage about being dead – there was no need to hurry. After all he had forever to wait.


Sakura

Still quite a ways from the dreary and mist-shrouded shoreline, Sakura's chakra gave out. Her racing footfalls, speeding so surely over the waves for so long, suddenly caught and she went with a gasp, plunging headlong into the cold brine. Recovering quickly enough, the girl floated for moment to gather her wits and bobbed up and down in the water before setting into a smooth, calm, freestyle swim, all the while keeping an eye out for her teammates who were struggling too.

The young ninja had kind of assumed her strength and training would be enough to get her to land but as she continued on, making so little progress despite her efforts, losing sight at times of her destination and her companions as the waves pitched and loomed, dark against a leaden sky, frustration settled in. She forced herself to rest and float, treading water for a time to let her burning arms recover before setting out yet again.

When at last, still far from shore, the sea dipped as she rested and she felt the wondrous sensation of a silty bottom under her toes, it was if all of Heaven and Earth had come to her rescue. For a few minutes more, Sakura half swam, half bounce-walked until finally she had a sense of a ground beneath her and she could stand and kind of catch her breath.

"Sakura!" Chouji's distant voice called to her.

The girl brushed salty ribbons of pink hair from her face and looked through the undulating waves and wisps of cloudlike veil to her stocky teammate, some dozens of feet away with Shikamaru dozens more past him. Kiba, who'd had a head start, was far ahead. The waves breaking against his lean waist gave her hope that reaching solid ground really wasn't as desperate a goal as she'd feared.

Slogging ashore at last, battered by the surf the whole way, a grateful and exhausted Sakura dropped to her hands and knees and coughed the stubborn sea-snot from her nose and mouth. Chouji, his arm draped woefully around Shikamaru's neck, broke away from his friend, collapsed and lay down flat on his back among the rocks; his barrel chest and expansive tummy heaving like bellows for breath.

Kiba, though weary, stood and looked appraisingly over the rocky landscape in which they'd found themselves like an explorer taking his first glimpse of a new world while Akamaru yapped once then shook his white fur dry.

"Kiba!" ranted an equally-bedraggled and waterlogged Shikamaru whose always perfect top-knot had come completely undone. "What the hell-," he stumbled slightly as he adjusted his stride to avoid stepping on a scuttling crab, "What the hell was that for, just jumping into the ocean and running off?"

Sakura staggered to her feet and joined their team leader, nodding crisply, echoing the sentiment.

"We had to," Kiba explained unrepentantly. "The ship was turning around, taking us to who knows where. That point was the closest to Kirigakure we were gonna get."

The chunin seemed taken aback a bit by the unexpected soundness of the argument but was still far from satisfied. Un-mollified, he crossed his arms. "You might've warned us."

Kiba grinned, one fang showing, tattooed crescents crinkling around his eyes. "Sorry about that. But if I'd waited then we'd have been ever further out when we started!"

Shikamaru's face fell, the wind gone from the sails of his anger for now, and Sakura couldn't tell if he was ready to move on or continue the argument. The kunoichi decided to make the decision for him. Expressing a peeved, deliberately girlish sigh, the pink-haired ninja turned to their team-leader. "So what's our plan, Shikamaru?"

The ninja looked up at her blankly at first then frowned. "There's not really a plan anymore. We were supposed to sail around Kirigakure and rendezvous with a cell of Yotsu Triad smugglers on the mainland."

"The Yotsus?" Sakura couldn't hide her shock. "THAT gang of criminals? What for?"

"Because they know how to get people and things into and out of almost anywhere, including the Hidden Mist Village."

"Oh," muttered the kunoichi as she quickly reappraised things. "And now we're -."

"Way not where we're supposed to be; that's right."

Kiba turned back toward them. "Come on guys, don't be so grumpy! We're ninja; we'll just have to do what we do best," he proclaimed with a big thumb's up, "display," he smiled wide, wolfish eyes lighting up like a magician's, "adaptability!"

Chouji, as soggy and limp as an overused dish-sponge, slouched up beside Shikamaru, groaning, "He means we're gonna be making it up as we go, doesn't he?"

Shikamaru frowned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is troublesome." There was really no other way to put it.


Shikamaru

Exhausted from their unplanned flight from the ship that had brought them from Wave Country, the chunin thought it best to find shelter and rest awhile. There were a number of advantages to that, including that it would give him some time to come up with a new strategy. Since the original depended on them reaching the mainland far to the east of the island where Kirigakure lay and they were more or less marooned on an island just southwest, there didn't seem like much chance of salvaging anything of that. Still he had to examine all possibilities.

Expressing a quiet sigh, Shikamaru looked around at his teammates who sat in a circle, all much dryer now after a good toweling off and a change of clothes; the wet ones hanging like so many soggy banners from a sagging, makeshift clothesline in what was the last of the evening light. Sakura and Chouji's spirits had recovered and the two exchanged good-natured banter while Kiba (shockingly) sat quietly on a stone, bent forward, staring at nothing. Still, the young ninja broke from his reverie readily enough and smiled when Chouji offered him a packet of food pills and even some of his sacredly-held potato chips – still miraculously salty and crispy thanks to the power of catastrophe-resistant containers.

Shikamaru hated the idea of going into their supply of rations this early in the mission but there was nothing for it. All-in-all it was probably a better idea to eat and rest tonight then set out afresh tomorrow morning. At least the weather was good – misty but not rainy. Ideally there would be a campfire too to help things along but they were all experienced-enough shinobi that knew better than to build one this close to the Mist Village.

"Shikamaru," Sakura inquired delicately as she broke from the group to consult him, "any ideas about how we're going to get Naruto back?"

The black-haired leaf-ninja frowned. "No good ones," he admitted. "We can follow the islands north and around to the mainland to pick up with the original plan but that's going to take a lot of time. Along the way we can look for other possibilities but it's kind of a long shot."

"What kind of possibilities?"

"Well," Shikamaru explained, "it's a long-held tradition for the houses of ninja clans to have secret passages - escape tunnels they can use in case of trouble. We might get lucky and find one."

"I see, and then follow it into Kirigakure." She raised a pale, pink eyebrow, and gave him a teasing, capricious smile. "So does the Nara clan have something like that – an escape route from Konoha?"

Shikamaru bit his lip and looked off awkwardly then quickly transitioned: "Our best bet is still with the smugglers."

Sakura flashed a victorious smirk but otherwise let him get away with it. "Why's that?"

"Because their ways inside generally stay open with help from people on the inside." The group's leader stirred the ground with his foot then turned to Sakura with a serious expression on his face. "Regardless of what we do to try and find Naruto it's imperative that we avoid detection. This close to the Mist Village, we're really going to have to put our ninja skills to the test – move fast, leave no trace, remain unseen and completely quiet."

No sooner had Shikamaru said that then Kiba sucked in a breath that bowed his chest, canted his face toward the grey heavens and let loose with a spine-chilling, lupine howl. As the ninja's hollow, haunting cry rang through the air, Shikamaru, Sakura and Chouji all stared, temporarily hypnotized with disbelief and fascination that any human being could even be capable of producing a sound like that.

When at last Kiba ceased, he wiped his lips, took a thirsty swallow from his canteen, then harkened as his notes returned to him faintly in echo.

Shikamaru blinked. "Uh," he began, "what was that all about?"

"Yeah, Kiba, that was kinda scary," croaked Chouji in his raspy voice. "Like…right out of a horror movie or something!"

Kiba raised an eyebrow. "You guys never had the urge to howl at the moon?"

The chunin blanked for a moment, not sure if his teammate was serious or not. "No, no…can't say I have." He consulted the heavens then continued drily: "Plus, it's still before sunset and completely overcast."

A hush fell over the group and Kiba's face widened with a clever smile as the darkening distances inland responded to his howl with a chorus of its own – the pitchy voices of wolves rising one after the other in an eerie arrhythmic song.

"You don't know what you're missing," the genin advanced. "It'll make you feel better. Besides," Kiba pointed out, "you can't watch clouds at night. When it is night, I mean."


Sometime later, as they sat and waited well past sunset, Shikamaru, Sakura and Kiba all looked up sharply as Chouji, who'd drawn first watch, bolted from the dark forest and took shelter behind the chunin.

"We're SURROUNDED!" he reported in a quaking voice at which Shikamaru grimaced and reached forward to raise the shield on their lantern. If a fight was at hand, at least there'd be plenty of shadows to harness for his Nara clan jutsus.

The ninja looked toward the tree-line keenly and gasped at all the pairs of golden, feral eyes that glowed right back at him before turning away from the light and vanishing.

"Hold on," urged Kiba who stood up, gesturing for calm, and gave forth with a series of growls and bays.

Everyone's' eyes widened nervously nonetheless as the wolves stepped from the darkness in apparent, though still tenuous, deference to their Inuzuka master who produced for them a t-shirt – cream colored with the red emblem of Fire Country emblazoned on the chest – then tossed it down for their inspection.

Kiba stood with arms crossed as, in twos and threes, the wolves nuzzled and sniffed until the entire pack had had its turn.

"Wait," Sakura noticed, "is that Naruto's shirt?"

"Where'd you get that?" added Chouji.

Kiba canted an eyebrow. "He left it when he slept over the other night. Yeah, we did each other's hair and played Parcheesi…what DIFFERENCE does it make how I got it; you're missing the point!"

"Ok, ok, I get it," Shikamaru interrupted smoothly, having taken his seat again. "And that's pretty smart if you can get those wolves to track down Naruto by scent. But there're dozens of islands in Water Country, what makes you think he could be anywhere around here?"

The genin's expression conceded the point even before his words did. "I don't know," he muttered. "It's just a feeling."

"A feeling?"

Kiba nodded.

"So we're out here in the middle of the woods in Water Country," Shikamaru summarized; his sarcasm biting, "close to Kirigakure and its legions of psychopathic mist-ninja…but you've got a feeling."

"Hey, If you got a better idea, Shikamaru -."

"I HAD more than an idea, I had a plan."

"Which went all to shit when we ran into that blockade!" snarled Kiba with a scowl as he drew up to his stone-faced leader. "If we'd done it your way we'd be on our way BACK to Wave Country!"

"Which would be better than where we are now!"

"Cool off, kids," Sakura broke in, "now's not the time."

Shikamaru grimaced at first then had to acknowledge the effectiveness of the kunoichi's chastening remark. Kiba too seemed to take it in the spirit intended and backed off, turned sharply and paced away, leaving the chunin to sulk at first then consider what might happen next.


Sakura

The faint glow of a shielded lantern with low cut-off angle was not nearly the same as that of crackling, reassuring campfire but it would have to do. With Akamaru curled into a comfortable white crescent at his feet, Kiba sat on his folded-up coat and looked up at Sakura's approach.

"Hey, Kiba," she offered, "you ok?"

The teenager nodded with a disarming smile. "Sure," he answered as the kunoichi sat beside him. "Why wouldn't I be? Oh, uh, sorry about all this: jumping ship and all. Maybe I really should've given you a little more warning."

Sakura cocked her head. "That's ok, you were doing what you thought was right and maybe you were. The longer we take, the less chance we'll have finding Naruto."

"And Haku," Kiba pointed out. "Hey, you're not all worried just 'cause me and Shikamaru had a fight, are you?"

"No, that's pretty typical, I guess, but you have been acting a little strange since we started out."

"Strange how?"

She shrugged. "Maybe…a little more intense than usual."

"Well sure," the genin admitted with an affirmative grunt. "We got to get Naruto back, right? I mean, we'd look pretty stupid losing both Naruto AND Sas-." He bit his lip with a mortified look. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said it like that. I shouldn't have said it at all."

Forcing aside the unintended reminder of her former teammate and her first love, Sakura tried to sound nonchalant: "It's alright. I'm not made of glass, y'know."

Kiba managed a faint grin.

"Do you think we can do it? Actually find them?"

"Sure we can." The wolfish ninja advanced, brow narrowing. "We will."

"But they've gone to Kirigakure, I mean – Kirigakure: the Village Hidden in the Mist. How can you be so sure?"

"Come on, Sakura. We all know Naruto's crazy but Haku's not. He'd have a pretty good idea of what he was up against and wouldn't have gone in without some kind of plan. Think about it: Haku knows the place, he's plenty smart, and quiet, well trained AND he's got that kekkei-genkai. If he had a rank he'd be a chunin for sure, wouldn't he?" The teenager leaned toward her. "I've seen him fight. He's not just going to stumble around like some idiot and get caught…and he won't let Naruto get caught either."

The girl blinked then canted her head. "You -," Sakura paused and began again, struck by her teammate's assessment. "Maybe you're right." She smiled cheerily. "I've been so worried that something will happen to them that I never thought about what if they're perfectly fine. Can you imagine," said the pink-haired kunoichi with a giggle, "what if we go through all this trouble, show up and they don't need rescuing at all!"

They shared a laugh. "Well…don't get carried away," advised Kiba. "There's a good chance we're in for some seriously crazy shit." When he turned to her, the look in his eyes could only be described as shamanic. "The not knowing's kind of exciting, huh?"


Shikamaru

In the sharply focused circle of vision magnified many times by his field glasses, Shikamaru watched the soldiers disembark and organize themselves into formations along the rugged shoreline. The leaf-ninja could hear the drums and horns of the Water Country Signal Corps from here. The longer he watched, the gloomier he became.

At length, he repacked the binoculars and sped back to camp where, thankfully, everyone was already awake and nearly packed up.

"We gotta go, guys, and fast," he announced. I don't know what's going on in Kirigakure but the Water Country Daimyo sent everybody – pikemen, archers, cavalry, they were unloading siege equipment when I left and…" It was at that point that the black-haired chunin noticed the enormous wolf Kiba was talking to – a shaggy creature with a hulking back, long, whiskered snout and broad, cloverleaf paws. "Well?"

A kneeling Kiba patted the beast, scratched behind its scarred felt-like triangle of an ear then looked up with a widening, told-you-so smile.

"You're kidding?" said Shikamaru, nonplussed.

The genin shrugged, mirthfully capricious. Even Akamaru seemed to share the expression, tongue hanging out as he panted easily.

"Seriously?"

"I'm sorry," said Kiba with affected confusion, "who's a better tracker than me?"

The taller leaf-ninja froze. This was a HUGE development, nearly miraculous, but he'd have to eat some serious crow first. "No one," he made himself answer. "Especially not Shino."

"Alright then," Kiba whole-heartedly agreed, letting his team-leader off the hook. "Yup, I got him; I got Naruto! He was here, right here, on this island. The scent's not even that old." The ninja rose proudly and tapped a nostril. "All we need to do now is follow my nose, find Naruto, find Haku, beat up anyone who gets in the way then it's back to Konoha to get a medal from the Hokage."

Akamaru barked happily then raced around, returning to his partner who rewarded him with an affectionate pat on the head and scratch under the chin.