In Which:

Naruto and Sasuke talk – Orochimaru receives a report – Naruto trains his new team –There is a death in the ranks of Sound.

He was sitting on the edge of the outermost wall of Sound, staring at the dawn. He had been sitting in the same spot, never moving, for almost three hours now, just thinking. Naruto wasn't sure that he'd truly understood what it would mean, leaving his village behind. It was strange, living in Sound instead of Konoha. There was no Kiba to fight with, no Tsunade-baa-chan to annoy, no Old Man Ichiraku to tell his stories to.

And he liked it. Oh, he missed Iruka-sensei, and Tsunade, and Kakashi-sensei, and all the others, but…

But in Sound, there were no villagers who pointed and whispered and refused to give him decent food. No one to belittle him. Here, he had his team, and Himoto and Ikko, and little Hiro, and even Kabuto and Orochimaru. Here, people knew he was a jinchurikki, had seen him use the furball's chakra, and it didn't matter. If anything, they treated him better now that they knew!

Naruto sighed, and laid his head on hid knees, staring out at the rising sun. It was so much nicer, living in Sound. He wasn't sure he could leave, now.

Sound was beginning to feel like it could be home.

"Naruto."

The blond lifted his head, unsurprised at having his thoughts interrupted. Sasuke had been watching him for a while, it was about time he announced his presence.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? The sunrise?"

His teammate grunted, not really answering, and sat down beside him. For a few minutes, they looked out over the forest and fields bathed in the light of the rising sun.

"Have you thought this through?"

Sasuke jumped slightly, and turned to look at his blond friend. "What?"

"Have you thought this through, Sasuke? You've got two and a half years before Orochimaru takes over your body. Is that really what you want? Because, Sasuke, it won't be you that kills Itachi."

Sasuke visibly jerked, eyes narrowing, but Naruto continued to speak, staring out over the wall.

"It won't be you that fights him. It'll be Orochimaru wearing your face. And there's no guarantee he'll win, you know. Itachi has beaten him before."

Finally, the blond turned away from the view to look his friend directly in the eyes. "We, Sakura and I, followed you to Sound because we care about you. We want you to have the chance to be happy. And we'll still follow you, whatever other choices you make."

Sasuke nodded slowly.

"But Sasuke, we're a team. We expect the same thing from you. If Sakura decides she wants to take over Mist, we expect you to be there with us, okay? We're a team, so we stay together. No matter what."

Sasuke was silent for a long, tense moment. Then a tiny smile flickered across his face.

"Fine. I can live with that." He sighed, seeing the expectant expression on Naruto's face. "Give me some time to think about the rest of it."

"Sure, We've got almost three years, after all."

"Orochimaru-sama, a new report has just come in. It contains some information I think you will find…enlightening."

Orochimaru set the papers in front of him aside, and fixed Kabuto with a penetrating stare. "Enlightening in what way?"

Kabuto smiled grimly. "It has to do with your former associates, the Akatsuki. It seems that two of their number have been significantly weakened. Not only that, but the pair," Kabuto glanced at the report in his hand, "Hidan and Kakuzu, are not known to be the most powerful members. In addition, Hidan is a relatively new addition to the Akatsuki."

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed slightly. "And you say they have been weakened? How, exactly? I know Kakuzu, and I have heard of Hidan, it would not be an easy task to injure either one."

Kabuto set the report down on the desk in front of the Otokage. "Apparently, their encounter with one of the jinchurikki they were to capture did not go well. Both are suffering from severe burn damage, more Kakuzu than the other one. Hidan has lost the use of one of his arms, and his usual weapon, a three bladed scythe, has been severely damaged."

Orochimaru frowned, staring down at the report. "Hmmm…"

Naruto let out a much-exaggerated sigh as he stretched and stood. The wall had been strangely comfortable, and serious stuff aside; he had enjoyed just talking with Sasuke again. Still, the sun was high, so…

"Time to get things started!"

Sasuke cracked open one eye, peering down at the blond from his position on the wall. He sighed and sat up reluctantly. "What do you mean, dobe?"

"The mission, of course! We've gotta get you guys all ready! You go collect Ikko and Sakura; they're both at the hospital. I'll find Green-chan and we'll all meet back at training ground three."

Sasuke frowned. "Yes, I noticed that the mission outline mentioned training. What, exactly, are you going to teach us?"

"You'll see!"

True to form, it took Sasuke all of three minutes to locate the two ninjas. Sakura had been in the cafeteria, talking to Kabuto, and Ikko had been hovering near the administrative desk, waiting for a medical report on one of the injured jonins. It hadn't taken him long to draw the two away, they had responded immediately and eagerly to the mention of Naruto and the tantalizing possibility that the blond would show them some of his mysterious techniques.

They arrived at the clearing that was training ground three at nearly the same time as Naruto and Himoto, and the blond soon had them all lined up with their backs to the surrounding trees.

"Right!" Naruto exclaimed, grinning widely at them. "For this mission, we're all going to need different stuff! Sasuke and Himoto are going to steal the documents we need, so I'm going to show you two my stealth technique!"

Sasuke's head came up, eyes narrowed at the possibilities that presented, and Himoto grinned. Ikko, on the other hand, looked rather disappointed and Sakura just shook her head. Completely ignoring their reactions, Naruto continued. "Ikko's gonna be backup incase any of us screw up, so I'm showing him two of my own jutsus! Be honored, Ikko, you will be the first person other than me to learn them!"

Ikko looked much more satisfied now, while Sasuke leveled a jealous glare at him. Sakura and Himoto exchanged a glance, and then rolled their eyes in perfect unison. "And last but not least, Sakura-chan! I'm gonna show you my water-finger-exercise-thingy, and you're gonna combine it with chakra strings!"

Sakura's head came up, and she frowned. How would Naruto's water exercise combined with chakra strings be useful?

Naruto beamed at his team, he couldn't help it. Him, a teacher! Who'd of thought? "Let's get you started! Stealth people, south corner with me!"

Sasuke and Himoto followed the hyper blond to one corner of the training ground. He bounced on his heels for a moment, grinning at them. "Okay! Stealth. The first thing I need you to do is find some scraps of clothing, the older the better, and get lots of them. Dig through the trash if you have to, but bring lots! You've got ten minutes to find enough scrap cloth to cover both of you twice over. Go!"

Himoto looked at Sasuke. Sasuke looked at Himoto. In near unison, they both shrugged and leaped off towards the village. Naruto didn't watch them go, instead he dragged Ikko into the eastern corner of the training ground, and handed him a bag fill of different balls: balloons, rubber balls, beach balls, glass balls, anything and everything.

"Okay! You're going to learn a modified version of my pinhead Rasengan! See, we need to be on reasonably good terms with Konoha, and killing their people isn't really going to do that. So! I modified my modified Rasengan so that it only used chakra, no wind. Then I changed the way it spins so that the blow doesn't affect the target's body. It messes up their chakra system something fierce!"

"You hit a person with this technique anywhere, and it'll take about a minute before they're completely unable to use chakra! Um…I'll teach you how to fix them too. But it's really cool! See, the impact creates a knot in their chakra coils, and so the body automatically sends more chakra to that location, knotting up more chakra, and it continues until the whole system is a mess!"

Ikko's eyebrows had slowly been climbing his forehead all through the explanation, and by the time Naruto wound down, they had disappeared into his hair. Thoroughly impressed with the results of Naruto's technique, he listened attentively as the blond explained first the steps for learning the normal Rasengan, then the steps for this modified version.

Naruto left Ikko with the many balls and a command to tell him when he had completed the first step, and went to Sakura. Instead of a quick explanation and some basic exercise like he had given Ikko, Naruto leaned in close and began whispering his idea into her ear. Within moments, Sakura was wide-eyed and nodding vigorously.

Ikko watched with curiosity, wondering what had the normally composed girl so excited, but soon returned to his task.

Sakura was sent off to the nearest body of water with clear directions as to how the exercise worked and a command to grab someone she trusted to spot mistakes, Before Naruto turned to face Sasuke and Himoto, their arms full of cloth.

He grinned at them. "Right, here's what you do…"

Sakura sighed softly, walking at a fast pace towards the lake on the west side of Sound, and turned to Kabuto, who was walking beside her. "Hey…Thanks, Kabuto-san. For helping with the exercise Naruto set me, and everything. Um…but don't you have something to do? I mean, at the hospital or with Orochimaru-sama?"

Beside her, the silver-haired man frowned. "Today is my day off at the hospital, so no worries there, Sakura-san. As for Orochimaru-sama…I don't know. He just gave me a day off, just out of nowhere. He's been is a very strange mood since this morning."

Reaching the edge of the small lake, Sakura frowned back. "Well, is there any reason for it? I mean, was a spy caught, or one of his jonins killed or something?"

Watching the girl water-walk out onto the water, Kabuto wracked his memory. "Yes, actually. A report came in that two of his old associates have been weakened. After he read the report, he seemed strangely pensive."

Slowly levering herself up on one finger, arm trembling slightly from the strain of holding up her weight as well as channeling the chakra to keep herself above water, Sakura asked absentmindedly, "Old associates?"

Kabuto nodded. "Yes, Hidan and Kakuzu of the Akatsuki"

Sakura's concentration broke, and she plunged headfirst into the water. Spluttering, she surfaced to stare incredulously at Kabuto.

"You're kidding!"

"You…" Orochimaru choked on the rest of the sentence, coughing up blood against the hard-packed earth beneath his cheek. A low chuckle was the response.

"I can't believe you fell for such obvious bait, oh Otokage. Old age has clearly slowed you down."

The snake summoner could make no response, unable to speak through the blood. Still, he desperately tried to lever himself up, scrabbling for a hold even as his arms gave out on him. A heavy boot impacted against his broken ribs, and Orochimaru went flying, hitting a tree trunk with a sickening crunch and collapsing. He couldn't move, couldn't persuade his body to obey him through the pain.

Orochimaru was dying, and he knew it.

He didn't have the chakra to switch bodies, barely had the energy to pry his eyelids open and watch the pair in Akatsuki cloaks approach his broken body. He was a fool twice over, for believing any one person, even a jinchurikki, could weaken Kakuzu and his new partner, and then for coming alone to gloat and to deliver the deathblow to two members of the organization he had betrayed.

He allowed his eyes to slip shut for one agonizing moment, concentrating, and shakily brought his left hand to clasp the pendant around his neck.

"Oi, what's he holding?"

Orochimaru heard the words as if he was underwater, distorting their meaning. He felt a flash of bitter triumph as he pressed the very last of the chakra into the communication pendant, alerting every Soundnin of his imminent death, forcing the information through the connection.

I am dying, this is where I fell, this is who killed me, avenge my death…

Orochimaru slowly opened his eyes, looking up at his former partner and the newest member of the Akatsuki standing over him. He managed through the blood and pain and the creeping cold that was his death, to flash the two a viscous grin.

They would die, his people, his ninja, would see to that.

A small victory, a petty victory, but it was enough to bring him satisfaction as the Otokage Orochimaru, Snake Summoner and one of the Legendary Sannin, died.

In unison, every ninja in Sound raised his or her head. The words of their leader echoed through their minds, and as one, they dropped what they were doing and headed to the central command building.

The villagers were left standing in the streets, confused, as every single ninja dropped everything and ran. Naruto and his team were no different, moving swiftly through the village. They arrived to find absolute chaos. Everyone had something to say right now, and no one was willing to wait to speak. The ninja shouted at one another, trying to make themselves heard and only adding to the din.

Sakura, Ikko, and Himoto all tried vainly to calm the crowd that was quickly becoming a mob, with little success. Naruto stared out over the chaotic mass of people, and sighed quietly.

"Quiet."

The word was spoken softly, and for a moment it seemed lost in the noise of the crowd. But slowly, like ripples on a pond, the people surrounding Naruto stopped speaking and their silence spread like a ripple across still water. Soon, all was silent.

"Orochimaru is dead. We all know it. We know who did it, and where, and how."

Naruto's soft words rang sharply in the silence, and something in the diminutive blonde's voice arrested the attention of everyone in the room.

"We will ensure the safety of the civilians of Sound, get them into the emergency tunnels. We will collect data on all members of the Akatsuki."

This caused an angry murmur to go through the crown. They wanted blood, violence, a hunt. They wanted something tangible to fight. They wanted the killers dead! Naruto's eyes narrowed, and the blond summoned up all the killer intent that the Kyuubi had ever brought to bear against him, and slammed it into the crowed.

"We will collect data on all members of the Akatsuki. Then…

"Then we isolate them. Hunt them down. Execute them."

Every eye was on the blond. He felt more than saw Sakura and Sasuke move to stand behind him as he stared from the doorway at the ninjas of Sound.

"We will eradicate the Akatsuki. Then, and only then, will a new Otokage be chose."

…yeah. So, between exams, family reunions, and sleeping in 'till 12 pretty much every day, this chapter took a lot longer than expected to write.

Still not sure I like the end bit. Might rewrite it at some point. Meh, whatever, just tell me what you think! -Heliotropic