A Billion Tons of Light

"No."

Just like that. No.

"No?"

Tsunade sat behind the large wooden desk, staring across it furiously. Her fingers practically gouged furrows into the varnish of the polished countertop. This was not good. "How can you deny me this one, simple little thing?" This was a simple request. Very simple. In fact, it was stupid even to ask. "It's just for a few days, until we can locate the person."

"No. You have Delphi for that."

She could feel her teeth clench involuntarily. The snake-like man was serious, quiet, and very, very to the point. Pale skin, snake-slit eyes, long black hair trimmed and cut perfectly. A business suit. This was Orochimaru, the leader of the one and only chemical refinery and recycling plant in the city. And one of the richest people in the city. With such wealth comes paranoia, apparently, as he'd been the only person independent of the Regent to train and hire bodyguards and fighters.

"I just need four, perhaps five men, that's all," she bit off each word carefully, "What could you possibly need them for? And it's just a search party! Don't our days together in the Guard mean anything? This a request of a friend to a friend." Hardly, but whatever needed to be done. The Uzumaki House was practically screaming down her ear for their heir, and she had no intention in jumping into the politics of the Houses.

"No. And I hardly think you should be groveling to me, Tsunade. Jiraiya would probably frown upon it, wherever his soul may be." The statement was bland, pitiless, and condescending.

That nearly pushed the Head doctor over the edge. "That's a low blow, Orochimaru," she snarled. "Jiraiya was a man who was not above humiliating himself before an old friend for a favor of importance." Her dead husband's legacy had left it's mark on the Royal Guard as it's ranking officer. Orochimaru had once admired that. Now, he was virtually dancing on the man's grave.

The business man just sneered. "Why don't you go back to your pretty brain in the cellars of the city? If you need a search party, then obviously, the brain had a bit of a hiccup." He waved her away. "I'm busy, Doctor. I assume you know the way out?"

A hand gripped his shirt, and he calmly looked down at the fisted fingers squeezing the expensive fabric. "You'll wrinkle me, Tsunade," he said finally, following the arm up to her face and the accompanying fist by her ear. "And violence is hardly what we're about here in Konoha. I suggest you let go."

She'd lost. She knew it before Delphi muttered warnings in her ears. And she knew it before the guard placed a hand on her shoulder, pulling her off. So she let herself be tugged out, glowering at the once friend.

"A pleasure seeing you again, Tsunade."

She'd known it as soon as that smile split those pale, thin lips.

---

"Gah!"

That laughter again. Ringing laughter. It was always on the edge of his conscious mind. But it was gone before he sat up in the bed, wiping sweat from his forehead. Naruto ran a hand over his face, brushing the blonde hair from his eyes. That dream. There was a dream. He couldn't remember it, but it was definitely there. He grunted in frustration, before glancing around the room. "Wha-oh...Yeah." White walls, blue shag carpet, a small door leading to an adjoining bathroom, and another leading into the hall. The guest bedroom. Sakura's guest bedroom.

As he kicked off the sheets, he sat on the edge of the bed, his toes wiggling in the thick carpet, frowning softly and rubbing his suddenly burning stomach. The mark. It took him a second to realize why he was here.

"Good mornin', Blondie. Whoo, check out the wicked tattoo on your stomach." Sakura leaned against the open bedroom door.

With a soft 'eep', Naruto drew the covers around his body. Luckily, he had boxers on, but he wasn't used to girls randomly walking into his room. "Would you knock!" he shouted, hurling a throw pillow towards her.

She caught it, winked, then pointed at some clothes she'd just thrown on the bed. "C'mon. We gotta get going if you want to get there soon."

"Where?" His mind was still fuzzy from that almost-remembered dream. But the more he was awake, it slipped like sand through his fingers. He ground his palm into his forehead, grunting.

"You know where," she said, winking, pointing at the floor beneath her feet. "The meeting? Shinobi? Eh?"

"I thought I said no," grumbled Naruto, trying to throw on his pants and keep decent in front the girl. Struggling, he slipped into them, before throwing her a cursory glance. "I didn't, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything. You were tired, you were grumpy, and you were off-put by Ino's flirtatious behavior, ne?"

"No," he said again, pulling on his black shirt. "I really should go back to...well, I need to get back home, really. My parents'll worry about me." He tried a smile, but wiped it away. He didn't want to go back. But he didn't want to get mixed up with a bunch a teens who probably took acid-trips wherever it was they hid out, talking loudly about shinobis and chakra. "I really appreciate you putting me up and all, though."

Without warning, her hand swooped in on his ear and pinched it, making him stand on his tiptoes, shirt hanging around his neck, wincing comically. "All righty. Now that I have your attention, and because you'll repay my favor of letting you sleep here while taking the heat for bringing home random strangers, you'll be taking a trip to at least see the place. Then, you'll make your decision, all right?"

"Ah! Ow! Leggo! Leggo! Fine!" Naruto pulled back, nursing his ear. It wasn't really the pain that was bothering him. It was the indignity. "I need this thing, you know!" he growled, pointing at his ear.

"Then get dressed, get downstairs, get fed, and get in gear."

She stalked from the room, smirked, and closed the door.

He quickly complied.

---

Breakfast was a quick affair, if anything could be said of it. He barely had time to grab a plate of toast before she pushed him forcefully into a car, revved the electric engine, and sped off into the city. They drove in silence, not much to say between them. They were following the Wall, as it was simply known, separating them from who knows what. That was were the Regent himself made his residence, deep in the thick and long wall surrounding their city-state. A dark and shadowy figure, his existence and attributes had long spiraled into mythology and legend, but he made his presence known through laws passed along into the little world, and, indirectly, the people felt his touch through the Royal Guard. He was never seen, never directly heard from. The reason was probably safety, but Delphi made that considerably easier. In the end, it was just paranoia. It was a dynasty in every true sense.

Naruto slumped against the window of the car, before finally skittering his eyes over to Sakura. She stared right back, raising a brow. He nearly jumped where he stood, but decided that would be far from the dignified and mature air he'd been trying to project.

"You never said your last name, Blondie."

He blinked. "Huh?"

"Your last name? And you never told me where you came from. What's with all the secrets?" Her hands played on the steering wheel, her attention shifting from him to the road, and back. "Seriously, you need to chill. Be more transparent. You won't make friends easy that way."

"How do you know I don't all ready have friends?" He was grumpy, and he decided to flaunt it. Maybe she'd leave him alone with all the questions.

"Well, for one, you're way too closed off." They hit a bump, and she jostled slightly in the chair. "And you're too uncomfortable. I've seen shy, and I've seen hostile, but you just don't seem to have much contact with people at all." She talked as if she'd pegged him, and Naruto didn't like it. "But, you know, that'll change eventually. You just need to relax a bit."

Naruto bit his tongue to keep from growling at her. Who did she think she was? "You don't know me," he grunted, turning away to stare at the large forest they were approaching.

"I'm trying to, but that's my point," she said frowning, blowing hair from her eyes. "I'm being friendly, and you're returning it with a good ol' 'No thanks'." She winced suddenly, then turned towards him. "Wait...did--did something happen in your childhood?" Even though he was turned, she could see his jaw clench. "I don't want to be insensitive or any-"

"Shut up." They entered into the forest, the trees casting their green, shadowy light down, dappling their car in fuzzy splotches of sunlight. This one was far bigger than the one outside of the mansion, but still not enormous. There was only so much room in the city-state, and only so many resources. This was probably a protected wood, kept safe from lumbering fingers. They drove a fair distance down the dusty road, before she pulled off the side, and jumped out.

Naruto glanced around. Nothing there. "What are you doing? There's nothing here?"

Sakura tossed him a small device, identical to the one she was clipping onto her hair, and pressed a button. "Put that on your clothing or something, and press down. It's a mini EMP emitter. It screws up Delphi's sensors for a little while."

"Why are we hiding from Delphi?"

"Cause she can't know where we're going." She turned into the forest, and onto what looked like a deer trail. Naruto followed her dutifully. The trees slowly began to thicken, and the path became increasingly harder to follow. Without warning, they stumbled out of the underbrush and into a clearing. An empty clearing. Nothing there. No sign of life at all. Nonetheless, Sakura stopped dead in the clearing and grinned, spreading her hands like a ballerina who'd just finished perfectly. "Voila!"

Naruto stared at her nonplussed, then he just looked agitated. "Sakura, c'mon. This isn't a joke, is it?"

Winking at him coquettishly, she reached into her mouth, grabbed a molar...and yanked it out with little resistance.

"Holy crap!" Nausea swept through his gut. "Is that your...your tooth?"

"Nope." She held out the molar towards him, rolling it between her fingers to show him the bottom. There, between the roots, there was a small indented button. "It's false. You ever seen a garage door opener? Same thing." She pressed the button with a paperclip she'd withdrawn from nowhere, and replaced the tooth with a soft click as the ground began to rumble.

Slowly, like a cavernous black mouth, the earth began to lift, roots and clumps of earth falling softly onto a stone stairway leading into the belly of the world. "You ready, Blondie? Cause I'm about to blow more than your mind."

As he stared down into the world beneath his own, he felt a breeze come whipping from underground and ruffle his hair, beckoning him into its cool embrace. A billion tons of lights twinkling in the depth, like jewels catching the light. Something ancient in him stirred, growled in recognition, and constricted his heart in glowing claws. He passed his hand over his stomach, then looked up to Sakura.

"Yeah."

The earth swallowed them both.

---ooo---

This was originally a much longer chapter, complete with Tsunade learning more about Naruto and such, but I decided to cut it off and leave you with a cliffhanger. Just for the fun of it.

Anyway, today's song. A Billion Tons of Light by Vega4. Excellent song. Utterly excellent. Look it up!

I made a few refrences to other things in this chappie, but I'm too lazy to point them out to you. Figure it out yourself.

-Raz