This chapter was brought to you by Team Outback (Kakarot Son and Razamataz22).

…

"Looks like you found something interesting."

"Wha-" Sakura turned her head in shock. Anko was standing by the door with a grin, a few metres away from her. "I'm sorry, I-I…"

"Be glad that it was I who found you and not Ibiki," said Anko with a slight shake of her head. "While he would probably bite your head off, I can see that you just accidentally stumbled upon a few interesting pieces of paper while you were organising them for me."

Sakura frowned, knowing that wasn't what had happened, but nodded her head nonetheless. "Right."

"You don't have to be scared shitless, kid," said Anko as she moved closer to the desk. "We both know what you were reading moments ago. I'm open to any questions, torture suggestions, y'know."

"Wait, so the Chunin is still alive?" asked Sakura, her eyes widening in realisation when Anko nodded. Ibiki had told her that he had died, but he seemed to be in the captivity of Konoha's interrogation department. "Why?"

Anko whistled. "That's dark, kid. I thought you'd want to talk to him or something before wanting his head."

"You know what I meant," glared Sakura. "Why did Ibiki-sensei say that he died during the invasion?"

"Who knows?" Anko shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe he didn't want you to know."

"And why wouldn't he want me to know that? Does this mean that the guy's in trouble, or that we're going to get some compensation for getting kicked out of the exams early?" asked Sakura as she massaged her temples. She had so many questions for and relating to the guy, and now she finally had the opportunity to get answers.

"You wish," laughed Anko. "You're not owed any compensation for anything, complaining about having to wait another six months is pitiful, really. That said, I have no idea what Ibiki's motives were, and as for whether or not our little prisoner is in trouble… well, that depends on how the interrogation goes."

"Wait, you've not even interrogated him yet? How long's he been sitting in that cell for?"

"Not long. I don't exactly know what your qualms with the guy are, but I can tell you that he's a coward - a deserter of war," Anko said in almost exaggerated disgust.

"That was in his file, but it also mentioned that he failed us unfairly," Sakura said firmly. While she was aware that Anko had no real sway in what would happen to the man, she still wanted to get it out of her chest. "What's going to happen to him?"

"I don't know, but tell me, do you want to find out?" asked Anko as she raised a finger to her chin thoughtfully.

"Yeah, obviously! He had no right to do what he did to Naruto and the rest of us," said an agitated Sakura. She could have even been promoted to the rank of Chunin had the chance not been taken from her - while her physical skills probably hadn't been up to scratch at the time, her brains definitely had, and after a month of training she could very easily see herself impressing the Hokage.

Anko grinned once more. "Well then, welcome to the Torture and Interrogation department!"

…

"Katon: Gokakyu!" exclaimed Sasuke as he expelled a large flaming ball of heat from his mouth and directed it towards the mass of clones Naruto had summoned.

They had been fighting for a while now - definitely hours considering that the sun had long since set - and Sasuke was beginning to realise just how much chakra Naruto had. Even though it was a mere spar, he had easily thrown away hundreds of clones just because he could. Sasuke had seen that before, though; it was nothing new. The thing that had him concerned was the fact that the boy didn't look like he was going to let up in the slightest.

They were both exhausted and though they both had chakra to spare - himself more or less because he was more conservative with his use of it - Sasuke could see that the fight was coming to a close. It was something akin to a stalemate: Naruto constantly kept trying to overwhelm him with raw numbers alone, but his Sharingan would help him dispatch the majority of the clones before they got close. Occasionally he got a hit or two in, but they were both fairly torn and battered. Aside from his little bout from Haku and the events at Suna, it was easily the longest fight Sasuke had ever been in.

His fireball turned a small plethora of clones into wisps of smoke, but as usual the actual Naruto was nowhere near the point of impact. He ducked a flying kick from a noisy clone that came at him from behind before bringing up a kunai to dispel it in mid-air and burying his fist into another nearby duplicate.

"C'mon, teme, I thought you were stronger than that," taunted no small number of the clones at once. Sasuke ignored it. He had gotten used to their irritating collective voice in the past few hours, and he had to give Naruto props for it. Had he been any lesser of a ninja, the annoyance would have irked him to the point that his performance in their fight would have been impacted.

"Oiroke no Ju-" A shuriken to the chest cut off another clone before it got that move off. With two drooling perverts spectating, Sasuke wasn't eager to see how that particular scenario would play out. He also couldn't help but feel frustrated that the dobe thought that a spar as big as this one a time to play games.

"Aww, teme, what's wrong - are you scared of girls?" another clone teased but it was silenced by a swift blow to the head. However, another clone took advantage of the opening that Sasuke's attack presented and planted a firm fist into the Uchiha's gut, causing him to gasp for air as the attack winded him. It didn't follow through, though, probably aware that Sasuke could still dispel it. It was interesting to note that more and more of Naruto's clones were following the mantra of 'live to fight another five minutes' as opposed to rushing in blindly. It made a slightly noticeable difference as it meant that there were more clones on the battlefield at any one given point.

Sasuke paused, his eyes focussing on a specific Naruto amongst the various clones that shielded him. With his Sharingan, Sasuke could easily tell that by its mannerisms that it was different from the others and while the other clones were still rather reckless in their behaviour - after all, if anything went wrong they would just disappear in a puff of smoke - this one seemed to be slightly more conservative in its behaviour. After a few more moments of carefully watching the clone, there was no mistaking it: it was the real Naruto.

With a barely concealed grin, Sasuke turned his gaze towards a nearby clone - not so far away that he would lose track of the real Naruto, but not so close that he would suspect anything - before running through a few hand seals. Even though it was one of his newest Jutsu, it was rapidly becoming one of his favourite. Despite how prideful he still felt about having mastered the Great Fireball, the Jutsu he was about the perform was of his own affinity, and thus packed a much larger bang.

"Raiton: Mahi Yubi!" Electricity crackled around Sasuke's fingertips dangerously as he ran towards his dummy clone like a tiger hunting down his prey. Numerous clones tried to throw themselves in the way of the attack, but Sasuke sidestepped them as though there were turtles trying to charge at him. Soon after he was face to face with his dummy clone, and from the edges of his vision he could see the real Naruto breathe the smallest sigh of relief. Sasuke was unable to prevent his lecherous grin from completely breaking out as he spun on his heel and pounced on the real Naruto, thrusting both frizzling palms forward as they made contact with the blond boy's chest.

A blood-curdling scream of pain that was almost like music to Sasuke's ears after hours of fighting rang out as the boy collapsed, a hole having been burned straight through his jacket and t-shirt. Sasuke's victory was very short-lived, however, as every single clone in his vicinity jumped on top of him, now intent on beating him to a pulp. A few made solid contact with some of his vitals, and one punch turned his nose into a bloody mangled mess before he managed to get a Substitution Jutsu off and escape the madness.

Breathing heavily, he crossed his arms across his chest as he looked towards the mass of blonds. After a few moments, they sorted themselves out and separated, but Sasuke could not help but rub his eyes in disbelief as he saw the figure of the real Naruto rise once more. He knew that the Jinchuuriki was powerful and a royal pain to take down, but this was a little bit much. That had been a direct hit to the chest with a decent bit of chakra pumped into his attack. The Uchiha was a little relieved and was able to remind himself that his teammate was not actually an unstoppable juggernaut when he picked up on the fact that Naruto was panting heavily, even wheezing slightly perhaps.

"Halt," a cloaked figure said as it dropped into the fray between himself and the mass of Narutos. "Uzumaki, your presence is required immediately."

"What?" the blonde said, stepping past his clones as he scratched his head in confusion. "Me?"

"Yes, please follow me," responded the figure who looked as though he resembled an ANBU. There was something just slightly off about it that Sasuke couldn't quite pinpoint, however.

"You should go with him," said Jiraiya as he and Kakashi shunshinned to the ANBU-like man. "Although, I would like to know what business he has with you?"

"Uzumaki is needed by a few of the village's elders. I do not know much more about the situation," the man responded in a cool manner. "Unfortunately, I was also instructed to allow Uzumaki no company."

"Hmm," Jiraiya scratched the stubble forming on his chin. "I see. Well, don't let us get in the way then."

"Wait, why can't you just tell us what you want?" asked Naruto, never one to appreciate being left in the dark. "I'm sure Hokage-jiji trusts all of us enough to know."

"It is not the Hokage who has requested your presence," stated the ANBU before gesturing for the blond to follow him. "Please follow me."

"Alright, alright," said Naruto as he dispelled the mass of clones before taking one last look at Kakashi and Jiraiya, making it clear that he didn't quite understand their judgement.

"Just do what you're told and stay out of trouble," said Kakashi with a slight nod to the blond. "Besides, I'm sure your little spar would have gone on for a while longer yet."

"Alright then, lead the way," said Naruto, disappearing into the treetops as he felt the ANBU-lookalike.

"Did you notice the little seal on his tongue?" asked Kakashi lazily as Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Danzo," said Jiraiya with no small amount of distaste audible in his voice. "I wonder what he wants with Naruto..."

"Wait, shouldn't we maybe follow Naruto to make sure that he's alright?" questioned Sasuke, now aware that he wasn't the only one who had been rubbed the wrong way by the ANBU-like man.

"Way ahead of ya, kid," snorted Jiraiya as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I put a homing seal on Naruto, so if the brat doesn't show up in the next hour or two, we'll go check it out. It's no use trying to stop Naruto from meeting him anyway, Danzo is far too slippery."

…

As soon as they were out of earshot from the others, the mysterious man disappeared in a blur of raw speed, and the next moment Naruto had a blindfold tied firmly across his eyes.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" exclaimed Naruto as he quickly brought his hands together in the ram seal, prepared to summon a massive army of clones.

"Stay calm. I do not mean to harm you," said the man in an almost robotic, predetermined tone. "The location that Danzo-sama wants to meet you at is a secret."

"Bullshit," said Naruto in disbelief. "I'm not going anywhere with a blindfold on my head. Either you take off this stupid blindfold or you tell your boss to go shove it."

"If necessary, I will subdue you in order to deliver you to Danzo-sama," said the man as though Naruto's words didn't bother him in the slightest.

"Pfft, you couldn't take me on," bragged Naruto, still on a power trip from his fight with Sasuke. "I took out like half a hidden village all by myself."

The ANBU didn't respond, and when Naruto took that as his cue to remove his blindfold, the blond found a firm fist planted into his gut. Had Naruto not been fighting for the last four hours or so, chances were that he could have bounced back almost immediately. In the condition he was in, however, he fell to his knees, exhaustion having seeped in with the attack to his stomach. Without any time to recover, he was grabbed by the shoulders before the person with the ANBU mask - Naruto was starting to believe that he wasn't a proper ANBU - leaped away, carrying Naruto as he did so.

While Naruto had had a rough idea of where he was earlier, that sensation didn't last for long as he was dragged left, then right, vertically upwards and then down again, all in an attempt to disorientate him. It worked perfectly to the point that Naruto soon didn't even know which way the Hokage Monument was.

"Let me go," he protested, his voice petering from aggressive to normal once he realised that more insolence would probably result in the process being repeated. He just wouldn't be able to take this ANBU-wannabe in his current state.

"Do not resist or I will restrain you myself," said the masked man calmly. "I assure you that you will be completely safe if you simply do as you are told."

"How long am I going to have to wear this stupid blindfold?" asked Naruto, allowing the ANBU's hand to guide him along to their destination.

"I cannot answer that," responded the faux ANBU. "Do not attempt to pester me further about the topic."

"Aww, but I want to know where we're going," whined Naruto over-dramatically. "What if it's this super cool training dojo or something? How am I ever going to get back there?"

"Enough," growled the ANBU, finally seeming to grow irate with the boy's antics. "Silence yourself or I shall seal your tongue until I deliver you to Danzo-sama."

Moments passed - in his boredom, Naruto couldn't tell if they were minutes or hours - and soon Naruto felt the ANBU pull the blindfold off his eyes.

"We have arrived," said the fake ANBU monotonously before disappearing in a blur.

Naruto rubbed his eyes, disoriented as he attempted to gauge his surroundings, but didn't have to wait long to discover the person who had asked him here standing right before him.

"Welcome."

…

Sakura walked through the oil lamp lit streets of Konoha, surprised about how long she had spent within the depths of the T&I department. Anko had thought it necessary to welcome the latest member of the interrogation squad with a bottle of sake, something which Sakura had initially refused.

This of course didn't turn out the way that she had hoped.

After some 'persuasion' from Anko, Sakura found herself partaking in her first taste of alcohol. Of course, while she had merely wanted a taste, some more persuasion had ended up with Sakura sharing half a bottle of the potent liquor with her new teacher. So what would have normally been a nice easy walk back home was now hindered by the fact her feet didn't quite work the way that she wanted to, and she was tilting from side to side, eccentrically banging into random items from time to time.

Pausing for a moment, Sakura rubbed at her eyes as she found herself staring at two nearly identical images walking towards her, and she couldn't help but feel that her vision had doubled in this particular moment. Several seconds passed as she merely watched the two humanesque features walk forward and eventually past her, one passing on her left while the other passed on the right, signalling that it was in fact two different people.

Not wanting to offend anyone in her drunken stupor, Sakura opted not to say anything about the way these two people were dressed, but she did giggle thinking about what Ino would say about two people wearing black cloaks with red clouds.

…

"Who are you?" asked Naruto sceptically as he tried to make eye contact with the bandaged old man in front of him.

"My name is not important," said Danzo. "However, my next words are. Your friends, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino, I believe, entered a little wager with me, and interestingly enough, involving you."

"What kind of wager?" questioned Naruto as his eyes narrowed slightly. The person in front of him was undoubtedly the Danzo character the ANBU-like guy had spoken about earlier which made him keep his guard up. He couldn't see either Kiba or Shino, but it was possible that they were in another part of the compound.

"Hinata Hyuuga. Hokage-sama ordered me to take her under my guidance for a week or so. Your friends believe that you can undo the results of my training," Danzo said as neutrally as possible, aware that the blond would not like what he was hearing once he understood the words being spoken.

"Results of your training? How can I undo the fact that you taught her a cool Jutsu or two?" Naruto asked as he scratched the back of his head in confusion. This old man wasn't making any sense.

"I will explain further if you agree to follow me," replied Danzo as he spun around and tapped the ground now behind him with his cane. "I should warn you that, should you choose to follow me, there will be no backing out."

"Of course I'll follow you," Naruto said without hesitation. He didn't know Shino all that well but the guy had put up a decent fight in the few spars they'd had. Kiba had been a close friend in the academy and Hinata was a really nice girl.

"Very well," said Danzo as he led the boy down another passage. The blond followed the aged man wordlessly for a few minutes, fighting off the itch to question him further, before the cripple came to a halt outside a door. For the life of him, Naruto could not tell the difference between this door and the twenty other mundane ones that he had passed on the way, but he wasn't the man in charge of the compound after all.

"So where are my friends?" asked Naruto looking around to see if he had missed an important detail out.

"Behind this door is the Hyuga girl. The other two are not permitted to intervene with her until you have either succeeded or failed," explained Danzo. "As I am a generous man I will give you ten minutes to attempt to undo what I have done."

"You haven't even told me what you have done yet!" exclaimed Naruto, wondering what the elderly man had done with Hinata.

"You may not be aware as you were away at the time, but during the invasion Hinata slipped into her cursed seal state and struck out not only at the invaders but also at Konoha shinobi," stated Danzo without a hint of emotion in his voice. "The Hokage thus saw her as a liability provided that she could not gain control of her emotions, hence why she has been handed over to me for her problems to be rectified."

Naruto's breathing intensified and his eyes became sharp as he looked up at the war veteran.

"Those eyes," said Danzo as he looked at the Genin by his side. "It seems as if you're not emotionally controlled enough either, and I expect you will be caught on your first infiltration mission."

"I don't care about that!" shouted Naruto aggressively, not caring about showing any respect for the man before him.

"Very well then," said Danzo as he opened the door revealing a darkened room illuminated dimly only by a solitary candle. "You have ten minutes."

Naruto didn't say anything as he walked into the room, slamming the door shut behind him with several things quickly racing through his mind. Taking everything that Danzo had said, Naruto had to assume that the man hadn't been lying, and thus he had been ordered by the Hokage in order to do what he had done. He also wasn't dense enough to believe that there wouldn't be some form of punishment for striking out at an ally outside of a sparring match. Theoretically, this was Hinata's punishment, but by the way Danzo had worded his sentences, Naruto could tell this wasn't merely a slap on the wrist, this was something that would have long term results if he failed.

Looking around the room Naruto steeled himself for whatever he found. There was very little in the room, and he could imagine that if he was stuck in here for an extended period of time he would likely go crazy. Countless nerve endings stood on end when he found Hinata standing upright in a corner of the room, her head bowed as droplets of water dripped from her hair and landed on the concrete floor without so much as a sound. That wasn't what made Naruto nervous, however, but more the fact that Hinata had been deprived of any clothing and was thus standing before him completely in the nude.

"Hinata…" whispered Naruto as he stepped forward cautiously. A faint glimmer inside of him had hoped that Hinata would have reacted to him just being there, but it seems as if Danzo had not been joking about controlling Hinata's emotions. In a cold desolate space Hinata was only given the smallest amount of warmth while her body remained saturated from a previous experiment. The fact that she didn't even make an attempt to warm herself by getting close to the flame meant that she was afraid of any future punishment that would await her if she made an attempt to disobey the orders given to her.

Naruto walked forward slowly, his footsteps echoing within the small confines as he closed the distance between himself and the first girl that he had kissed. It was clear, though, that the Hinata before him was not the same one that had fainted when their lips had touched, as if she was a shell of her former self.

"Oi, Hinata," said Naruto as he stopped barely a few steps away from where Hinata stood.

His words drew no response. The blond took a deep breath to try and calm the feeling of eeriness that was slowly overcoming him before trying again. "Hey, Hinata, are you alright?"

Once again, the girl's pink lips did not show the slightest hint of movement. In fact, she didn't even make eye contact with him or give any indication that she had heard him. He tried to keep his gaze level with her eyes, but that was easier said than done given that there were fresh scars littering her body. With a complexion as pale as hers, they stuck out so much that they might as well have been glowing bright green.

Naruto looked around nervously. Where were Kiba and Shino? Did they know how to help their teammate, or were they currently being put through the same process that Hinata had been forced to go through?

Her lilac eyes looked so chillingly bright in the dark room that she almost looked scary. She hadn't even blinked once since he had arrived, and he was willing to wager that she hadn't been bursting with movement moments beforehand either. If he didn't know any better, he would have said that it was not Hinata standing before him but a life-sized mannequin.

It occurred to Naruto that it was possible she was under some kind of Genjutsu, but given that he had absolutely no knowledge in the field, he hoped that wasn't true. He moved closer towards her and almost embraced the girl, hoping that a good old-fashioned hug would help break her out of her trance, before he suddenly remembered that she wasn't wearing any clothes. He couldn't exactly make contact with her in good conscience.

"Five minutes left, Naruto," said the voice of the cryptic old man, from outside the room.

Naruto's frown returned with a vengeance. What had they done to his friend? She had always been quiet and timid, but now she was completely unresponsive, her eyes screamed of a dull lifelessness that Naruto had never before seen, but at the same time were clearly holding back pain.

The blond's eyes turned towards the girl's neck, more specifically her cursed seal, as he attempted to analyse it. He still didn't know much about seals, but the fact that the seal was merely three dots and had not spread across her bodies in the form of several blacklines reassured him a little.

'You may not be aware as you were away at the time, but during the invasion Hinata slipped into her cursed seal state and struck out not only at the invaders but also at Konoha shinobi.'

The words Danzo had spoken only minutes prior rang through Naruto's ears as he tried to think of something - an idea, a solution, anything at all. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not come up with anything. This wasn't some kind of combat situation that he could end in a unique way. He couldn't use his spontaneous battle smarts to win this time.

"Hinata, you've got to listen to me," said Naruto, his voice dripping with determination. "I don't know what that bastard has done to you, but you've got to snap out of it."

She didn't even so much as stir.

"Think of everyone you know and how much it would hurt them to see you like this," he continued. "Think about Shino and Kiba and how much they care about you! Think about your sister or that douchebag Neji, your family, your teammates, what would they say if they saw you like this!"

Naruto knew that he was getting desperate now, his decibel range had increased, and he flailed his arms to the side as he spoke, but he needed to do anything that he could in order to get Hinata to react. His words became panicky in nature as he tried everything that he could think of to no avail. Knowing that every second counted, however, left him with little to no time to relax as he attempted to say anything, anything at all that could get the slightest reaction out of her. It was all for naught. No matter how loud Naruto shouted, no matter how desperately he tried to get her to look his way, she didn't so much as flinch.

"One minute remaining," stated Danzo's cold voice from outside the room. Had Naruto been in this situation months ago, his actions would have only increased in volume and mass, but for this single moment he fell silent.

Every option he had thought of had failed, but he was suddenly reminded of something he had heard, and while he had though Jiraiya had been spouting gibberish at the time, he could now see how it could potentially work. The perverted Sannin had asked Naruto for some advice on phrasing a paragraph for his next novel - during the teenager's training no less - and Naruto had straight away accused Jiraiya of being nothing more than a pervert. Jiraiya, however, went on to tell Naruto that sometimes, in order to truly get a girl to open up to someone, they had to speak truly from the heart. This of course was quickly followed up by a comment about the size of a woman's breasts, which was when Naruto zoned out again. What he had remembered, however, he had to put into action now.

"Hinata," he said softly as he reached forward, taking her hand in his own, interlacing his fingers with hers. "This isn't the girl I care about, this isn't the soft-spoken girl who would sit silently in the back of class, doing those nervous reactions whenever you had to think too hard or couldn't come up with an answer. You may not have realised that I noticed, but I could see it every time I looked at you, and it made me smile. I want you to smile again, I want to see you push yourself through every training session with a smile on your face, knowing that after everything, your friends will always be there for you. I'll always be there for you."

"Your time is up," said Danzo as he opened the door and stepped into the room. "Step away from the girl. You have failed."

Naruto's head dropped at these words as tears threatened to swell within his eyes, but as he tried to remove his hand from Hinata's he found that he could not, the Hyuga's grip having locked with his.

"Naruto-kun."

Lifting his head, Naruto quickly found himself bewildered as Hinata lunged forward, crashing her lips to his, her naked body pressing against his with enough force to nearly knock him off of his feet.

…

"It's been a while, don't you think, sensei?" asked Sasuke as he glanced at the two older men who were ogling one of Kakashi's books. He had settled for working on his chakra control after learning from Kakashi that he could not hope to open the Hachimon Gates without a decent amount, lest he risk destroying his chakra pathways.

"Hmm, it's almost been an hour," said Jiraiya as he looked at the moon high up in the sky, several clouds painting pictures upon the landscape. "What do you say, Kakashi, should we check on the brat?"

"Knowing him, I wouldn't be too surprised if he's gotten himself into some kind of trouble," said Kakashi as he stifled a yawn. "He's probably pissed off Danzo or something by now, so it's probably best that we get him out of there before Danzo tries to demolish him."

"Who is this Danzo guy that you've been talking about? He sounds important but I've never even heard of him," said Sasuke with a slight frown.

"He's the guy who pulls all the strings," said Kakashi casually as the three of them took off, his one visible eye looking towards Jiraiya to see the older shinobi's reaction. As was to be expected for a shinobi of his calibre, Jiraiya didn't have any evident response.

"Isn't that the Hokage? Or the Daimyo?" asked Sasuke, the only other people in notable places of power he could recollect being his own father and the head of the Hyuuga Clan.

"They're important, and it's true that they're in charge of a lot more than Danzo ever will be, but likewise, Danzo is in such a position that he holds a unique amount of power that is unattainable by both the Hokage and the Daimyo. He is the one who protects Konoha by any means necessary. We're ninja and the Hokage is not just some old man, but imagine the worst decisions Hokage-sama has to deal with and multiply them by ten. That is what Danzo would probably be dealing with on a daily basis," said Kakashi as Sasuke avidly sucked the information in.

"Pfft, you're overplaying the old geezer's role. Back when Konoha had real problems like the war or tensions with Kumo, he played a useful role as he did what the Hokage could not be seen doing, but in these times of peace he's no more useful than a blunt kunai," said Jiraiya with a chuckle as he lead the two younger ninja.

"A blunt kunai can be pretty dangerous if you give the owner enough reason to sharpen it, though," Sasuke pointed out. This Danzo guy sounded pretty powerful but definitely not like the kind of person you wanted to trifle with. "So what do you think he wanted with Naruto?"

"Well, who knows?" sighed Jiraiya exasperatedly. He had never been a big fan of the old crippled warhawk. "He could've wanted anything from Naruto's head to the Kyuubi within him or to just have a good old friendly chat."

"Why'd you let him go by himself to someone so dangerous, then?" asked Sasuke, confused. As much as he favoured dramatic entries, it seemed a little reckless.

"I'm sure that if Danzo tried to kill Naruto, even he wouldn't be able to stop him from making a lot of noise," said Kakashi lamely, his voice coated with sarcasm.

"That, and the little seal I slapped on Naruto lets me know if his pulse suddenly disappears," said Jiraiya.

"Isn't it, you know, a little late by then?" said Kakashi in a deadpan voice.

"Well, yo-" Jiraiya suddenly cut himself off as he quickly came to a stop, signalling for Kakashi and Sasuke to do the same. The look on the Sannin's face immediately told Sasuke that something was very wrong.

As the young Uchiha began to question just what exactly could get a member of the Sanin worried, his now-Sharingan eyes immediately identified two people wearing identical outfits standing in a clearing ahead of them.

"What the…" muttered Sasuke as he took in the blood-red clouds which adorned the long black coats.

The sound of a twig suddenly snapping behind him caught Sasuke's attention and he spun around to face the source. However, nothing in the world at that moment could have prepared him to find two swirling Sharingan looking right back at him.

…

Katon: Gokakyu = Fire Release: Grand Fireball

Oiroke no Jutsu = Sexy Technique

Raiton: Mahi Yubi = Lightning Release: Paralysis Fingers

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