--ooo--

Pain

Here beneath the ground, breath, life, time, seemed frozen. The dull glow of chakra-laced sands, the fiery breath of the geothermal heat, the cold dampness that conflicts with that fire, and the dancing shadows blended into a heavy atmosphere laced with the smell of sickly-sweet smell of decomposing corpses. Nine figures stood at their own form of attention, watching their Leader with scrutinizing stares. Pale lights flickered in the collective eyes, if there were eyes. Finally, the Leader spoke, almost too softly to be heard, almost too loudly for the cavern. "The Key has slipped through our grasp. I say...we recruit some help." The widened Rinnegan eyes lowered ever so slightly to stare at a singular member. "Zetsu?"

A bi-colored face raised, mismatched eyes immobile between the jaws of the massive Venus Fly-trap. Then, he was gone.

The Leader slowly lifted a small quantum chip in his fingers. "What do we want?"

"Freedom," came the hushed, collective breath of the now eight members.

"How shall we get what we want?"

"By all means necessary," came the voices once more.

White ringed eyes closed, then nodded, the six studs in the Leader's nose glinting in the pale, red light. His hand closed over the chip, and turned away. "Let's go, Konan."

Steady clink of silverware, the soft grating of metal against ceramic, hushed conversations and laughter, soft violin music pervaded the atmosphere of the restaurant, a picture of subtle opulence and overpriced dishes that include roasted snails. Tsunade patted her lips softly on the white, linen napkin and frowned slightly at the information scrolling on her hand monitor. "Hm."

"Hm? That's such an odd way to greet someone."

She started, fork falling from her fingers and onto the plate with a sharp 'clink'. "Oh, um, I didn't know I was greeting someone." She smiled smugly at Kakashi as he sat slowly in the chair opposite to her. "Well, obviously, you have something to report, or you wouldn't be bothering me as I eat."

Kakashi waved her off in his usual, airy way. "Something to report? Well, aside from the lack of anything going on, I'd say I'm reporting how too quiet it is." His visible eye creased as he smiled behind his mask. "And besides, it's really sad that you're eating all alone. Thought I'd give you some company."

The City's Mediator snorted softly, waving away the information on her hand, before picking up the fork again. "I can't believe they let you into the restaurant dressed like that." She pointed the utensil at his fighting uniform, and he rolled his eye.

"Eh, you flash a little badge, and they'd let you get away with murder."

"That's not a comforting thought, Scarecrow."

"Take it as you will."

He paused, as if thinking, and she took the opportunity to chew on some salmon. When he kept his silence, however, she sighed and squinted at him. "You have a hunch?" she asked sarcastically.

"Not...a hunch, per se. More like a gut feeling."

"You're probably just hungry. Order something."

He rolled his eye, and hailed a waitress, who smiled and bowed to him. Ordering something quickly, he turned back to Tsunade. But before he could say anything, the waitress piped up in a quiet, but unabashed voice. "Excuse me, but are you Lady Tsunade? The Mediator?"

That caught the blonde's attention. She looked up from her plate, and nodded, eyebrows arched. "Yes, that's me. What can I do for you?"

Smiling, the waitress pulled an origami flower from her hair and set it down beside Tsunade's plate. "I'm a great admirer of yours, ma'am. Please accept this gift." She bowed, smiled softly, then backed away, still bowing.

"Huh..." Tsunade reached for the flower, but Kakashi's hand grabbed her wrist.

"Wait! That thing's charged with chakra," he hissed, reaching for it. The moment his fingers brushed it, it burst into small flame, incinerating swiftly. People started in their seats at the sudden noise, and the musicians stopped.

The paper was gone in seconds. In its place sat small quantum chip, blue plastic unmarred by the flame. Slowly, Tsunade picked it up, and eyed it. "Wha-?" Her hand monitor suddenly flickered, projecting a small hologram.

Night had long fallen on the city. Along each principal road, trees had been planted to add a touch of greenery to the otherwise glass and concrete world. In front of one specific building, two ancient behemoths towered over the street and cast shadows over the asphalt. These two trees swayed slightly in a breezeless night.

"I realize this is inopportune for you, Mediator. Flaming paper roses and viral holographics do not a nice evening make. But as you enjoy your dinner, your world is about to change drastically." The figure in the hologram made no attempt to disguise himself. The ringed eyes stared out from the fair face. A shock of orange hair was highlighted by an odd green-reddish light. "We require something that has eluded us. You will help us. Now, you wonder why I should have the audacity to ask such a thing? Well, you have no choice, really."

The ancient trees crackled slightly, and seemed to grow a little longer. With a sudden ferocity, they lurched towards the building, their trunks bending without breaking. Their roots crawled from beneath the pavement and began to wind themselves around the base of the skyscraper, piercing the foundation. Trunks began to twist and wind like living, wooden worms, bursting into through the front doors and slithering over marble, wrapping around columns. Their roots sprang in and out of the floor, puncturing and showering the empty lobby with chunks of stone and motar. Like spears, the crown of the trees pierced into the second and third floors, taking time to wrap around structural pylons, snapping them like balsa wood.

"At this moment, something peculiar is happening on First and Crossway Boulevard. Something pivotal. And something that no doubt will draw your attention." Tsunade was distracted from the hologram as guests began to look out the restaurant's windows, out over the city's rooftops. She stared with them incredulously as two trees, now entangled with one of the city's biggest high-rises, began to constrict, crushing the building as if two hands were crushing a grape. Glass burst and showered down in little explosions.

"By now, you've probably realized which building this is. Considering the importance of this building, and the considerable secrecy that it entails, I believe you also realize that we are not petty criminals or mindless terrorists. We have a great deal of information, and are ready and willing to use it."

Somewhere, from right next to her ear, Delphi screamed. She shrieked in pain, her voice convulsing digitally and quavering like a broken telephone signal. Clasping a hand to her ear, Tsunade winced.

The roots dug deep, deep, deep into the building's foundation, through or around steel doors with the famous pressure so often exhibited when an oak raises a section of sidewalk. Far below the earth, those roots burst into a cavernous room, cutting through structure after structure. Panels burst, revealing grey tissue matter inside the room's walls. Delphi. Blood dribbled as wooden stakes were driven through exposed tissue. Computers erupted as saplings grew rapidly through them.

The voice in her ear slowly faded into a whimper as Delphi began to shut down, her subsystem's alarms slowly dying away. "Ts-Ts-Tsunad-de...H-help." A hiss of static, then, nothing.

It came down. All of it. Like Goliath killed by David's stone, it toppled in on itself, swallowed itself, and came to rest with deafening noise and grumbling kilo-tons of dust clouds.

Tsunade's fingernails scratched across the glass, her ears bleeding from Delphi's anguished howls. "No. That's not...possible."

"We realize that you have a backup copy of Delphi's mind, but we'll leave that alone for now. My suggestion is to move it. Maybe we won't find out where you put it." Sarcastic as the remark was, the inflection was wrong and flat. "Our demands are in no way simple, and in no way enlightening. We want our freedom. For that, we require the Key. Give it to us. It's in your best interest to do so. Otherwise, these little incidents will occur far more often." The hologram cut out, but it went unnoticed.

"I think...our situation has just become critical, Tsunade." Kakashi stared out at the ruined building incredulously.

Tsunade stood silent, hands pressed against the glass. Spiderweb cracks spread out over the window as she applied furious pressure. She just stared out at the world fraying at its edges.

First, there was nothing.

Then, black.

Finally, red. Naruto groaned, screwing his eyes up and avoiding the light, trying to bury deeper into sheets. His world rustled and hugged him warmly. Sighing dreamily, he buried his head into his pillow, breathing deeply through his nose. "Mmm...hm?" Pulling his head clear of the bed, he looked down at the pillow. "This...ain't mine," he grumbled. Sitting up swiftly, he glanced around with bleary eyes. It was a weapons room, from the looks up it. "Where...?" Throwing his legs over the edge of the bed, he hissed, grasping his side. Pulling up the nightshirt he was wearing, he examined the bandage on his ribs. Rubbing it gingerly, he stood up, and found his clothes. His shirt and jacket were mended, exactly where the gash was.

Grunting in bewilderment, he pulled them on, yanked on his pants, and shoved his feet into shoes that felt as if they were full of sand. "Sand?... Gaara! Ngh..." Clenching his teeth, he gripped his head as pain lanced through. Glancing around, he saw the door, and moved towards it, rubbing at his temples as the pain subsided. Apparently recognizing him, it opened with a soft click. The room beyond was obviously a girl's room, and the hallway beyond that made it very clear that he where exactly he was. This was the Hyuuga House, the House's seal engraved on the walls and doors. The pine floors creaked subtly beneath his feet, and windows faced into an open courtyard, sunlight flooding the hall in patches of warm yellow.

He didn't acknowledge the kick until it caught him in the chest, lifted him off his feet, and slid him across the polished floorboards into a wall. "Oh, this oughta be good," murmured a young-ish voice as a long, thin hand placed a kitchen knife against his Adam's apple.

Naruto followed the hand up the arm, along the line of the slim neck, and to the youngish face. It looked exactly like Hinata's except with longer hair...and a rather unwelcoming hard frown. Blue eyes met pale pearl ones, with furrowed black eyebrows. "Uhhhh...Yo?"

Pursing her lips, the girl looked back and forth for a moment, before smirking unkindly. "Shut it. I wanna know why you're sneaking out of my sister's room. I also wanna know how you got in." The smirk vanished swiftly as a new idea dawned on her. "Are you sleeping with my sister or something? Or are you one of the terrorists that killed Delphi?"

That last inquiry caught him by surprise. "What?" he croaked. "What happened to Delphi? I didn't even know she could be killed."

"I don't wanna hear your lies." She intoned a command to her hand monitor, and it flickered twice. "My father'll deal with you."

"And...who's your father, exactly?"

This time, he got the benefit of an arrogant grin. "Hiashi Hyuuga. Head of the Hyuuga House."

Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. "Oh...Well, this sucks."

It smelled warm. Warm and green. The inner courtyard was fully open to the air, the birds, the trees. A quiet spring had given rise to a natural, clear water pond in the middle of the courtyard, where a massive oak had grown, it's crown higher than the third story of the House. Simple and unpainted, a gazebo stood beneath the tree, covered in ivy and flowering bougainvillea. It was here Naruto was dragged, rather forcefully, by Hinata's yet unnamed sister, and pushed towards the wooden structure's doorless entrance.

"Come in." A man sat on a pillow before a low table, sipping softly at a porcelain cup. He certainly was Lord of the House. Long hair spilled over his shoulders and down his chest, fine silken clothes, and no hand monitor. Apparently, he was above having his body tech-altered. However, a small, sleek communicator sat by his hand, as well as a long sword. "I hear you've been sleeping with my daughter."

"Uh, not...actually?" Naruto considered his escape routes, but several guards had come from nowhere to stand around to watch him. The girl moved forward and sat at the table with her father. She eyed a pillow across from her father, as if to tell him to sit down. Sighing and rubbing his head furiously, Naruto sat.

"Who are you?"

"Um, that's...really complicated?"

Hiashi eyed him coolly over his cup. "If we are going to talk about my daughter and various dealings you might possibly have had with her, you are going to tell me your name."

"Uhhhh, well, first, I didn't sleep with your daughter, so, um, I guess that means I don't have to tell you my name, right?" The sword point nicked his throat, drawing a thin trail of blood. "But since we're all friends here," Naruto stammered swiftly and nervously, staring down the sword blade at the man before him, "I guess there's no problem. I'm Naru...kun." The sword pressed a little deeper. "Fine! Naruto Uzumaki."

Hiashi withdrew the blade and set it down, before resuming his tea-drinking. After a minute or two, he glared at the blonde. "So, what's the Uzumaki Heir doing in my House? And furthermore, how'd did he get in without my knowledge?"

"You're...not surprised about the whole Heir thing?"

"It's bad form to be surprised. Aside of that, your parents have all ready divulged information on you." Sip. "It seems, also, that a certain entity has taken up residence in you. The only unknown variable seems to be you...in...my...House." The last few words were hissed angrily.

Naruto fidgeted. "Soooo, what're you going to do? Turn me over to my House?"

"That would be against my interests. No, it would be far better to keep you here, possibly in a cell, and a secret." The glare intensified. "But since you've had relations with my daughter, that changes the matter."

"I didn't sleep with Hinata, all right? I'm not lying."

"Oh, come now. There's no use in denying it. You were caught sneaking out of my daughter's room in rumpled clothes, unwashed, and sleepy." The cup came down with a sharp clank. "As a Lord caring for an Heir, and most importantly, as a father caring for a daughter, this situation is absolutely unwelcome and incredibly problematic."

Naruto groaned, and buried his face in his hands. "For th' love of—Hinata!"

At that moment, the Heir rounded the corner and froze.

"Hinata, tell your dad I didn't have sex with you!"

She promptly passed out.

It was all a guard could do to catch her from cracking her skull on a gazebo column. From behind Naruto's turn back, he heard Hiashi sip at his cup again. "Troublesome child."

Naruto tried to catch some of the muffled conversation between Hiashi and Hinata from the next room. Hanabi, Hinata's previously forceful sister, sat patiently outside of the door, either ignoring the conversation to watch his every move, or listening to the conversation and watching his every move. Several guards hemmed him in as he sat on the floor, against the wall. He couldn't even get closer to the translucent privacy screen to listen. A door opened on the side of the room, and Neji walked in. His eyes briefly widened at the sight of Naruto, before his cold demeanor hardened and he walked past Hanabi and into the room.

Naruto caught a brief glimpse of Hiashi and Hinata sitting directly across from each other, arguing softly, both scowling. Then the screen folded closed. Neji's voice started up, and then there was a three-way conversation.

From what he could figure, he assumed Hinata was lying about the Shinobi and both of their involvement, and Neji...well, he was a wildcard, but doubtless he'd protect the Shinobi's secrecy. It continued for another hour, long after Naruto had lost interest and had begun to fiddle with his hand monitor, bored out of his wits.

Finally, the privacy screen dissipated, and Hiashi came to stand before him. Hinata and Neji both avoided his eyes. "Well, Uzumaki, it seems I was mistaken on a point or two. I am incredibly relieved to hear you have not spoiled my daughter's...integrity and innocence."

Hinata turned a furious shade of red, but didn't look up. Neji actually let slip a microscopic simper, the arrogant jerk.

"And Hinata and Neji, both of whom seem to know you, say that you are a runaway seek asylum from your parents and their abusive, totalitarian regime. While I frown upon desertion of House and family, this works wonderfully for my House." Hiashi shifted slightly. "I have chosen to give you this asylum. But you must also understand that you are now a political prisoner as well."

"What? You can't just keep me here against my will. That's...inhumane."

"I resent the term inhumane, and I'm sure you'll find your accommodations and freedom about the House everything but inhumane." The House Lord cleared his throat and glanced at Hinata. "I...understand you are a good friend of Hinata's, and even Neji has advocated for you, so, I will leave you in her care. She is competent enough not to be taken advantage of..." He let that hang in the air for a moment. Naruto just rolled his eyes. "And trust, no, fervently hope, that we don't have to have another one of these little...chats." Then, he abruptly turned on his heel and walked out stiffly. With him went Hanabi and the guards, leaving Naruto to stare angrily after him.

"He can't do that. I'm a friggen' human being, not a bargaining chip, or whatever he intends to use me for." A strong hand suddenly gripped his shirt and hoisted him up against the wall. "Yo, hey, let go!"

Neji sneered into his face, all but grinding his teeth in ill-concealed anger. "It is not your place to speak against the Lord of our House, you worthless refuse." The Hyuuga shook the blonde a little. "Know that I only advocated for you to preserve the Shinobi. If I ever have a chance, I'll dispatch of you and your worrisome habit of getting in the way and mucking things up."

"Let him go, Neji," Hinata said softly, still not meeting Naruto's eyes. "It's not his fault he's here, it's mine."

Silently, Naruto clasped Neji's wrist and twisted hard. There was a harsh crackling as wrist bones ground against each other painfully. The older boy released his shirt and stepped back, cursing softly. Glaring at him, then at Hinata, he hissed, "Both of you are so worthless. Nothing but burdens."

"Listen, ya li'l butt-wipe, I suggest you be a little nicer to your cousin. You can talk to me how you want, but she's family."

"She's not family I acknowledge. Heir or not, she's useless."

Naruto cracked his knuckles, and fell into a stance. "D'ya wanna fight over it?"

"Stop!" cried Hinata. They both looked at her. "Just...stop, all right?"

Neji all but spit at her, before turning around and leaving as swiftly as he'd come an hour before.

Hinata sighed, biting her lip. Her shoes were suddenly very interesting

"Why didn't you stand up to him?" Naruto straightened his clothes, glaring after Neji with a scowl. "You shoulda told him exactly what you can do."

"No, I know what I can do, and it's isn't much." She continued to stare at the ground. "Neji's good at stuff, and...I'm not."

"That's a load of bullcrap," growled Naruto. "Look at me!" He clapped a hand on her shoulder. She looked up, startled. "Don't ever, ever let others tell you what you are. You tell yourself who you are, and then be it." He smirked. "'sides, if I remember correctly, I do believe I noticed you thrashing on Gaara a bit."

She blushed furiously. "You were awake for that?"

His face scrunched up, then shrugged. "Sorta? I could still hear a few things. Y'know, fading in and out." Slowly, he grinned, then laughed, letting his hand drop. "Anyway, I think I'm ready to join you guys."

Still blushing, she smiled slightly. "R-really? What changed your mind?"

"Well," Naruto sighed, rubbing his neck and staring at the ceiling. "I think, Gaara made me acutely aware of what sort of danger Konoha is dealing with now. I want to stop that." Finally, he let his eyes find hers. "And...freedom is becoming more and more appealing. I wanna know what's beyond the Wall."

Slowly, Hinata's smile widened, and she nodded resolutely. "All right, I'll show you how to get around without getting caught. But, um, first, let's go get that gash on your side treated with some actual medicine." She motioned for the door.

"This thing? It barely hurts," he laughed, slapping the wound under his clothes. Pain flared suddenly, and he winced. "All right, fine, let's get a look at it." He laughed and moved out the door

Hinata inhaled sharply as phantom pain cut into her ribs as well. She cleared her throat and moved after him, forcing a smile.

They left the room, Bound following Binder.

End Part I

All right, this is the end of part one, obviously. I didn't really expect this too be this long, but, yeah. You guys might have questions because of the disjointed way I write stories (this is, quite frankly, just a first draft). But let's see if I can't shed some light on a thing or two.

Hand Monitors: These are a sort of bio-electrical quantum imaging tech that's essentially 'tattooed' under the skin. It provides a wireless link through Delphi's subsystems to all inhabitants who own one. If you don't like them, you can get a communicator, which is basically a souped up cell phone.

The Bijuu's Convo during the fight: This...has very little to do with this story, but if I ever write a sequel, it'd be the central theme. The Mother and the Siblings are...well, that's a secret. ;) But it's pivotal as to why Bijuu exist at all, why there are Bijuu within the Wall, and what's required to get out. This is also the link between the Nine-Tails and why he can be (at least physically) attracted to a human.

Guns and other Tech: I could make this a super complicated, over technical fic. I could. I have the ideas, anyway, but, for the sake of brevity, these wonderous techs are not included. If you want, you can imagine a Ghost in a Shell world, if you will. Also, guns are not gonna be much talked about here either, because, well, they're not talked about in the manga, so, period. I'm trying to capture some of the essense of the original Naruto-verse.

Pain: All right, this is a song by Jimmy Eat World, and is very chapter specific. But if you follow the manga at all, you'll realize exactly why this is relevant. The song itself, well, is kinda innapropriate to the beginning of this chappie, but, whatever.

Anyway, I hope you guys have enjoyed this. And for those who review, I appreciate the gesture. If the story's good, say so, if it's bad, say it louder than you say the good stuff. :D Anyway, Part II starts soon. It'll be a time-skip, in accordance to the manga.

Ciao,

-Raz