Disclaimer:

A few things that, for sure, I own

Are my wardrobe, laptop and mobile phone.

Although I wish that these were mine,

To say that they are is a punishable crime.

Yeah, I got bored so you get your disclaimer in a (rubbish) little poem. Lucky you!

Sasuke sent the patented Uchiha Glare in the direction of the sword-wielding brunet who had somehow managed to shut up the orange dobe and beat his clones, all without any discernible effort. It is generally difficult to look menacing when the menacer is twelve years old, covered in earth, twigs and leaf litter and is pinned on the ground, but the menacee could feel the chill sent in his direction. He was, however, used to much worse in the heat of battle and therefore ignored it, moving his attention over to the white-haired adult, all the while exerting the minimal strain required to keep the strange orange-clothed boy motionless. He briefly made eye contact with Saphira and nodded, needing no words to ask her to discover all she could from the one-eyed man's mind.

The masked man did not have a chance as Saphira ripped through the natural shields in his mind. Her nature meant that she took no trouble in being gentle to save him from any pain caused by her search although she drew no visible winces, a rarity when she searched someone who had attacked her Rider. Eragon found it hard to feel a great measure of compassion for the man, mainly due to the fact that he and the boy had attacked first and had to know the dangers; there were few in these parts with his angled features, all but one were elves and they all were with the Varden. Besides, if they had burst out so soon after his defeat of the orange boy, they had to have seen his speed and strength. It was, he decided, a pleasant change fighting a foe that merely dissolved into smoke once hit rather than showering him with blood although, he frowned as his thoughts took a more unpleasant turn, the boy had much power to be able to make these tangible clones of himself. Under the laws of magic, doing so more than once should have killed him through overexertion. And why had they attacked? They did not wear the uniform of the Empire, nor did they make any mention of 'blasted rebels'. It was, he eventually decided, a puzzle.

Saphira finished with her interrogation and re-opened up her mental walls before communicating what she had learned with Eragon. None of the strange intruders could use magic as they knew it and therefore could not attack their open minds from a distance although they had some disturbing techniques; she had gleaned some knowledge of a killing method known as a 'chidori', but had not lingered long enough to know how it worked. Another thing she had learned was that these people had their names the wrong way around; family name before personal name. That was another thing too. They had a name passed down the family instead of taking their father's or mother's name after their own. It was… strange.

"So," a voice broke the silence, "Hatake Kakashi is your name? And you are Uzumaki Naruto with the Last Loyal Uchiha," catching said boy's irritation-filled glance towards him, Eragon shrugged. "That is how he thinks of you. Aim the glare at your teacher if you dislike it." Turning back to the white-haired man, he continued to talk. "I believe you should call over the rest of your group. We mean no harm to you if you intend no further injury to us."

Is this a good plan, little one? Think carefully; these people would have no hindrance towards killing you in your sleep should they decide to do so. They could be a danger.

But I know you wouldn't let them do that to me, Saphira, he replied playfully.

If they do kill you, do not come crying to me, she replied with an unusual lack of sympathy and reared her head back so she could gaze into the sky, her attention caught by the large flock of birds suddenly taking off in another part of the forest. They seem alarmed. Could it be the others that he attempted to hide from me? Or could we have been found by the Empire?

Keep them pinned. I shall communicate with Nasuada. The Rider then proceeded to dig a small bowl in the soft earth and fill it with water before muttering the words that would allow him to communicate with his leader, Nasuada.

"Eragon." Her voice was clipped and he could see stress-lines on her dark face. "What news do you have?"

He then proceeded to give her a full run-down of what had happened with these people, ending with the disturbing findings of Saphira's search. "Should I bring them back to camp?" he waited for the order.

"Yes. I would like to meet with these shinobi," she rolled the unfamiliar word around her mouth as ever, getting the flavour of it and giving it a full analysis before allowing it to fly freely into the air. "They may prove to be valuable allies, if what you say of their fighting skills is correct."

He nodded and ended the spell, looking across the small break in the otherwise crowded forest, to meet the single eye of the only adult in the small group he had encountered. He stared back, his one visible eye crinkled into an upside down crescent, the only sign of the smile that had to be under his mask. The young Rider raised a single eyebrow – a trick he had learned with much practice in front of mirrors – when he saw the contortion the man was using to enable him to meet the level gaze of the teen standing in front of him.

"Saphira,"He quietly and softly called her name, needing to say no more for her comprehension. The scintillating blue mass that was the other half of his being reluctantly let the two go while Eragon released the hyperactive blond from his mental shackles. The blond scowled at him in a way that would have been unnerving had he not been so small, cute and orange. "I have spoken to my leader a-"

"She has expressed interest in our strength being used against your enemies." The white-haired man butted in.

"So you managed to eavesdrop while I was conversing, despite the fact that I had my back to you and you could not have heard me – us – from where you were. How, I wonder?"

"I could tell you," he started, brushing the leaf litter and dust off his green jacket, "but then I'd have to kill you." The kunai held in his hand had been flipped out of his pouch too quickly for human eyes to follow and was held in a ready position to show this boy that he would hold no regret in following up on his threat, only to put it away with a smile as he held his hands out to show that he was holding no weapons. Eragon put Brisingr back in its sheath and returned his hands to his sides before striding over to Saphira and settling between her forelegs so he could search for their group while protected by the fierce dragoness.

There! He found the unusual minds of the ones he was searching for, including two that had unusually strong natural barriers about 'YOUTH!' and 'HARD WORK!'. He lingered only long enough to establish where they were before returning his mind to himself, carefully missing the consciousness of the girl he had earlier discovered could enter others' minds

"Follow me. You will not move more than you must, if you disagree I shall have to put your arms into disuse, shinobi, whether it is necessary to merely tie them or to go… further." He allowed the threat to tail off in order to let their, most likely, over-active imaginations fill in the blanks more effectively than he could. The threatened ones, however, looked decidedly unimpressed and met his eyes with flat stares.

"Was that supposed to intimidate us?" Sasuke demanded. "Because if it was, you are not trying hard enough."

"Yeah!" the blond idiot burst in, "You didn't even pull out a kunai or anything. The teme's more threatening than you are!"

Said teme swivelled his head around to meet Naruto's excited blue eyes. "Hn," he grunted, in a way that Naruto interpreted as 'Thank you Naruto, I'm touched."

At this, Saphira carefully showed every single one of her needle-sharp, ivory fangs, curling her azure lips in a snarl and a low rumble sounded low in her chest. Her sapphire eyes met the eyes of each of the others in turn, silently promising a painful death to each and every one of them should they do something she disliked. Even the famed Copy-nin whimpered as she puffed smoke into his face, emitting more killer intent than he had ever been on the receiving end of before.

Any complaints? She asked them.

"H-how did she get into m-my head?"

Eragon turned to face Sasuke. "This is why I felt no need to make more concrete threats. After all, who would go against an overgrown lizard," this was said affectionately, scratching her behind one of her ears, "With a mouthful of teeth bigger and sharper than swords and the ability to release a ball of flame cooking them where they stand?"

Who indeed? Saphira replied to him wryly.

"Will you come quietly and talk with my leader? I assure you that we bear you no ill will, and I dislike conflict with possible allies and, in fact, all those who bear no allegiance to the Empire." Saphira, stop scaring them. We need them to be able to talk coherently with Nasuada.

They are stronger than you think, little one. Stronger, in fact, than most round-ears.

Neji had seen all of this with his Byakugan and was marvelling to himself of this stranger's strength. He was fast, powerful and seemed to have something like the Yamanaka bloodline, only infinitely more potent. Not to mention his bond with this 'overgrown lizard' who could, it would appear, also make mind-to-mind contact effortlessly. Two beings this powerful… It could only be fate.

He waited to make sure they had left for that Nasuada person before he took his hand from Sakura's mouth. Motioning for her to stay put, he took to the trees and started to round up the others, secretly wondering if he could 'lose' Lee and Gai-sensei without it looking suspicious before resigning himself to the prospect of the horrific green spandex in exchange for safety in numbers. He had heard the man's assurance that he didn't want to hurt them, but distrusted him after years of being trodden on by those in a position of power over him. He first found Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji and sent them off to back up Sakura at their campsite. Knowing the Nara genius, he would return and find it to be one of the most secure places possible with the ingenious traps the lazy genin would think up after sufficient badgering from the screeching Ino.

Meawhile, Kakashi had been talking to Lady Nasuada in the most ingratiating manner he could without actually kneeling on the floor in front of her. She was, after all, holding his cute students at swordpoint and had some strange-looking bodyguards that were bowing their horned heads at him in a very threatening manner. And that wasn't even glancing at the short people and the few that looked eerily similar to the teen by whom they had been apprehended in the first place.

"Why do you hesitate to show your face?" the dark-skinned woman in front of him demanded.

And that was another thing; he'd spent his entire life hiding behind the mask that half-covered his face and most of it with half of what was left visible covered by his hitai-ate, putting up with curious civilians, genin, chunin and even jounin trying to look under them both had left him wary of anyone who attempted to strip away the thin layer of fabric that hid his features from the world.

"I prefer not to show my face for reasons of my own," he replied, in an attempt to throw her mind off track. Why did this have to happen? He felt an overwhelming urge to reach behind him and pull out his trusty Icha Icha to just make it all go away.

"Kakashi-sensei's probably just really ugly under there and doesn't want the ladies to find out!" the little ball of sunshine grinned at her, his natural charm disarming the frosty face presented to them.

His favourite knuckle-headed genin to the rescue with a brilliantly timed distraction! Kakashi silently thanked any deity that was out there looking out for him then returned his attention to the military leader in front of him.

"Very well. Eragon, I believe it would be prudent to do a full scan to ensure they are not spies for the Empire."

He inclined his head and slowly walked towards the first recipient of the in-depth search, the blond boy. Eragon closed his eyes and extended his consciousness to overlap with Naruto's, slipping gently into his head, meeting some severe resistance on the way in and having to call on Saphira's superior strength to enter.

He was standing mid-calf deep in water, a dim light illuminating what little he could see. This boy had a mind-scape? That in itself was a great rarity and was an indicator of great mental strength. He could remember Oromis going over the subject briefly when he had been asked to explain something the boy had not understood on a scroll he had been given. The mind-scape was a reflection of the person's sense of self, but that had been all; his teacher had refused to elaborate further on it, preferring instead to instruct him on something more relevant to his studies.

The young Rider started to move forwards, towards the eerie glow that, he felt, emitted from the centre of the boy's consciousness. He could hear water trickling down the walls, dripping down from the ceiling and sloshing around him every time he lifted a foot. It felt thicker than water should be, it felt sticky and resisted slightly when he tried to remove a foot from it and he had to press down harder than would be expected to get the surface to break and to allow his boot to pass through the barrier.

He came to a fork in the small underground river. Right? Or left? He asked himself. The light was split equally between the two branches. His eyes picked up ripples in the water coming from the right branch. Odds were that the boy had gone right to the centre of his being whereas he, an outsider, had been left on the outskirts and forced to make his way in. Right it was, then.

He got closer to where he assumed the representation of the boy to be, darting nervous glances around him. Something about this place unsettled him.

"What're you doing here?" the representation of the boy was, in his mind, smaller, younger, frightened and more vulnerable than would be expected. "Get away!" he started to push Eragon away from the cage he caught sight of.

"What is behind those bars?" he asked.

A paw swiped towards him, claws gleaming in the light. Using his super-human speed, he evaded it and moved the boy to safety.

"What was that?" he demanded.

"Even my teammates don't know. I mean, I'm pretty sure Kakashi-sensei knows, but…"

"But what?"

The boy ignored him, continuing his train of thought. "Mizuki-teme knew. And he hated me for it. If I tell anyone, they're gonna hate me for it as well. Just being ignored was bad enough. If they knew…"

"Knew what?" Eragon was getting impatient, wanting to know what secret could have caused the child in front of him to be ostracised by his peers so badly that the bouncy, smiley, brash boy was, in reality, nothing but a mask for the sensitive and uncertain child in front of him.

"You've seen it already. There's no difference made if I tell you." He took a deep breath, mentally steeling himself to tell this man his secret. "I'm the container for the Kyuubi, the nine-tailed demon fox."

AN - If you were wondering why Eragon didn't notice Neji and Sakura while doing his mind-scan-thingy, we all have unobservant moments. Like when you're trying to find a set of keys and, after tearing the house upside down for an hour or so, find them hanging perfectly innocently on the hook. And remember; Eragon's never seen a sewer like that before. And I'm sorry if any of you thought Sasuke was Gai in the last chapter!

I've been agonising over this for several days now, worrying about whether it's alright. I must say that I am tempted to hold this to review ransom but, considering how much I dislike it when I read something really good (or in my case, not terrible) and the author has said 'no more until I get ten reviews', I decided against it. Still, the more reviews I get, the more inspired I am to write.

So:

Review!