Hey! Thanks for sticking with this so far and thanks for all follows/favourites/reviews. Just so you know, from this chapter forwards, anything in the Ancient Language that either I do not know or is more than one or two words (because I'm lazy like that), I will put in English, but underlined. Got it? Fab.

Disclaimer: what's the difference between Naruto's ownership and a bag of dismembered blondes*? I don't have Naruto's ownership hidden under my bed…

"Why have you been ostracised for something like that? When I put water in a bowl, the wood does not fall to the ground as a liquid. And what is a 'cube-ee'?" He reasoned, trying to console the boy in front of him, yet unfamiliar with the words that had been used. From what he understood, sealing was a method of putting one thing inside another but, for all he knew, he could have been drastically wrong.

"Twelve years ago, on the day I was born, the Yondaime sealed that fox into me, killing himself in the process. The villagers take their revenge on the fox for the rampage it went on when it destroyed half the village and for k-killing the most popular Hokage in Konoha's history. My idol."

Eragon felt his heart go out to this child, abused for something he could not help. "I do not hate you, nor do I distrust you for something that is clearly not your fault; how could you have killed a man or destroyed a village when you were but a newly born child? The villagers should praise you as a saviour, if the fox was as destructive as you claim. I shall not reveal your secret without your permission, I swear it." he ignored the confused glance sent by the blond in his direction, choosing instead to exit and return to reality.

He blinked and swayed gently, having to become re-accustomed to his physical body before he could speak.

"This boy means us no harm and, so far as he knows, neither do his companions. In fact, I believe they would make valuable allies for the Varden, if what I have seen is true." He ruffled the hair on Naruto's head, making it stick up even more than usual and smiles graced the faces of the two of them.

And the kid's done it again, Kakashi thought fondly. Naruto's ability to gather loyal friends and a large surrogate family around him was not well-known, not even in his home village. He had seen it in action first with the Hyuuga heiress's affections that the poor, oblivious boy had yet to notice and not long ago with Zabuza and Haku on their first C-rank. Even Iruka, who had tried to treat him like any other student, had ended up as some kind of surrogate father or older brother figure and had, after the teams had been decided, come to have a 'talk' with him about what would happen if Naruto was hurt in any way. Why that man had not gone past chunin, he did not know. In 'Mother Hen' mode, Umino Iruka had even an experienced jounin terrified and close to soiling his underwear.

"Well, if that's all settled up, I've got to see if Neji's paranoia has blown the situation out of all proportion yet. Sasuke, with me. Naruto, stay here."

Sasuke, ever a man of few words and fewer emotions, nodded.

"Awww, Kakashi-sensei, why does the teme get to come on the retrieval with you? I wanna come!"

"No, please stay here Naruto. I would like to learn more about your home and your life."

It felt terrible to see the boy's face light up at the fact that a stranger would willingly spend time with him and Eragon mentally wished ill luck on all those who had shunned the boy to the extent that the slightest show of affection had him shining with the greatest of joys.

Back at the little circle of tents that had been meant to contain all of the visitors from the other world, being held was, according to Neji's flair for the dramatic, a council of war. The intended seriousness of it was being set back by the sheer enthusiasm of the repeated cries coming from his embracing idiot teammate and sensei.

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Oh, Lee!"

"Oh, Gai-sensei!"

He groaned, barely resisting the urge to face-palm or to slam his head into a nearby tree; a Hyuuga could never be seen to do anything so undignified in public, and rarely did such a thing even in private. He looked around the little circle, mentally listing those who were actually listening.

The number was depressingly low. Shikamaru was lying down, gazing calmly at the clouds visible through the leaves above them, Ino and Sakura were hyperventilating over the possibility that their Sas-kay-kuuuun could have been badly injured - or worse, his pretty face could have been scratched! His hated Main House failure of a cousin was biting her lip and fiddling with her fingers in worry about that baka Naruto. The one person who was taking in every word he said was TenTen, his personal fangirl. Even the normally serious and focused Aburame was playing with his insects.

He could feel a headache coming on and no, it wasn't from paranoid over-use of his Bloodline.

Well, not only.

Speaking of said Bloodline, he activated it automatically as he heard faint noises in the undergrowth. Whoever was approaching clearly felt no need to conceal themselves, and were therefore very dangerous. Neji jumped to his feet, his hand moving of its own accord to his weapons pouch as he turned, changing his position to a defensive crouch, fingers ready to flick the cold metal at the attackers only to falter in surprise as he caught sight of the two Sharingan wielders.

"…So we've all been invited to stay and help in their war." Kakashi finished his – unusually full – explanation after convincing the suspicious genin that yes, it was the infamously late copy-nin and no, he was not being forced to do this and yes, Neji, he was sure about it all!

"Troublesome," Shikamaru quite accurately summed up the situation in one word, mentally blocking out the fangirls' squeals of relief that 'their' Sas-kay-kuuun was alright.

So, with much fuss, the tents were packed up and sealed away and the fire put out before they returned to the Varden's camp, jumping through the treetops. They arrived outside a sea of tents, resisting the urge to blink in the sudden sunlight after being in the shadowed forest for so long.

"Hey, Sakura-chaaaaan!"

And they were greeted by, in the pink-haired girl's opinion, the most annoying blond in Konoha, if not the whole Fire Country. Said blond was waving energetically at the small group as they jumped gracefully down from the trees and landed soundlessly in front of the dark-skinned leader of this 'Varden' Kakashi had briefed them about, supported and protected by a fairly large group of ruthless-looking soldiers of mixed races. They were well-disciplined; the only sign of the surprise they must have felt was a brief widening of the eyes and a few quick once-overs to look for inhuman traits, stopping at Sakura's bright hair and the Hyuuga cousins' pale and silvery eyes.

"Are those two… blind?"

The ninja – well, the comparatively untrained genin – swapped surprised glances. Everyone who'd had some form of decent education had heard of the Hyuuga Bloodline and associated benefits. The few who hadn't were un-noteworthy, never a likely threat and there was genuine confusion in their eyes – how could a blind person see to jump through the trees at such speed?

The Hyuuga clan was very well-known throughout the Elemental Countries – one of the classes in the various Ninja Academies included learning about the most dangerous and numerous Bloodlines of their own and of other countries, although the less impressive and rarer Bloodlines were often ignored in favour of flashier and more dangerous ones. Similarly, the smaller clans were looked at in less detail than those larger in population.

These people, however, did not look like civilians; they were carrying weapons with an ease that showed they had been training for a long time and had often used them in the heat of battle, and yet… they had failed to recognise the signs of one of the most famous (or infamous, depending upon the country) of the known Bloodlines. The genin looked to the two jounin sensei for instruction and guidance before Kakashi spoke up from where he had been leading the little group.

"They have the best awareness of their surroundings of all of us," he said, holding back a snigger about the not-so-inside joke. "Their eyes are a clan trait."

The slightly grubby man who was at the head of the group in front of them nodded before sweeping his gaze over to Sakura.

"… Pink. Her hair… is pink."

"I told you, Forehead, no-one'll take you seriously as a ninja if you have pink hair!" gloated Ino.

"Don't call me Forehead, Ino-pig!"

Meanwhile, away from this girly spat, a slightly different conversation was taking place between Kakashi and the NightHawk shift captain:

"Her hair is pink. So what?"

"Is… is that normal?"

"For her it is, yes." He cocked his head and a small but humourless smile played around his masked mouth; yes, she was an annoying fangirl, and yes, she may have bright pink hair, and yes, she may have been one of – if not the – most useless genin he had ever met, but she was, nonetheless, his genin and, although she had yet to do something more impressive than her near-perfect chakra control, he would not allow her to be 'picked on' about her hair colour – she was already sensitive enough about her looks thanks to her large forehead alone. "Any other questions?" he carried on without waiting for an answer. "No? Good. In that case, I shall begin my introductions."

"Nasuada-sama, I believe it would be a good idea to hold off on introductions until we have returned to your base of operations. I feel it would be redundant to repeat them and we should be in a more informal atmosphere, especially if my suspicions should prove to be correct."

The tent walls gave everything inside a red hue, the command centre being the only splash of colour if the camp was seen from above. Two of Nasuada's guards had stayed outside the entrance flap to prevent anyone from entering and the other four were inside, one on either side of their leader and two flanking the newcomers.

Behind them, they could see Naruto chatting animatedly with Eragon, hands waving in the air to emphasise a point and his teammates knew what phrase was coming next, judging by his face.

"And I'm gonna be Hokage, dattebayo!"

Hello again – as you can see, I am still alive and have finished those evil things known as exams! Have you figured out what the blondes ar- were? If you guessed Barbies, you were right! (I really hate those evil things – so unrealistic) Also, in case you had not noticed, I intend to exaggerate certain aspects of their personalities (eg; Gai and Lee are going to be more obsessed with YOUTH (and I feel I may be enjoying writing them a little too much), Shikamaru's going to be even more 'lazy but brilliant' than normal and I'm toying with the idea of making Sasuke a (not-so?) closet pyromaniac which I am convinced all Uchiha are, deep down.)

Flames will be used to toast marshmallows for my reviewers with extra for those who have followed/favourited this. Those who leave them will be mocked mercilessly. Have a nice day :-)

And a special shout out to my new favourite reviewer, Pie. Yes, your review made me laugh, yes it is more then slightly ironic. Thank you for sharing your sense of humour. No, really; thanks!