Four Letter Words

Story Thus Far- The ANBU team has dicovered the bodies of Shingo and Gurio. They are on to Naruto's trail and have re-evaluted their danger level of their mission. Naruto meanwhile meets a nice man who teaches him a few things, and starts hearing a voice. Iruka wakes up in the hospital to find he has injuries that would cripple a normal ninja for life. Throughout all this a single jounin gets dangerously close to the demon vessel.

Chapter Four: Luck

Naruto could sleep through almost anything. This had been proven on the multiple occasions when drunks would try to break into his apartment. Despite all the hassle Naruto was proving to be in the early morning, Shidou was not to be discouraged. Yelling had not worked, nor had shaking or the smell of burning wood under the boy's nose. The woodcutter decided it was time to activate plan C.

He grabbed the blonde's ankles and dragged the still sleeping boy over to the stream, which had gone down quite a bit during the night. As usual Shidou had woken before the sunrise with only embers to guide him. He dunked Naruto headfirst into the cold water. "Ahhh! Stupid old man! What was that for?!"

Many birds screeched in protest at the sudden shout and flapped off. A few miles away a single jounin cracked an eye open and grinned.

Rai's team woke quickly and ate. They had stopped an hour after the sun had set the night before, and would have gone farther if Yuukou hadn't admitted she feared leaving the trail. Dog mask watched his remaining team members with a careful eye. The night of rest did them good, they were ANBU but they got tired just as much as any other ninja. Traveling hard for two days normally wouldn't have been a problem. Are we getting soft without wars? Is that reason we could be so easily defeated? Most of my team wasn't in the war with the stone... and those that were had only been genin at the time.

"Kanna-san? There's enough light to see the trail now. We can continue when you're ready." Frog mask stated from an overhanging branch.

"Yeah. Let's go. Yuukou?" The woman jumped up and returned to her previous leading position.

The group of five had been tree hopping quickly for about an hour when Yuukou raised her arm. Frog and bird slinked away into the trees to check for traps and the like while the captain approached his tracker. "What is it?"

The goat masked ANBU brushed her hand across the tree branch the two were perched on. "Another has found the trail and is following it. They came from the east, in what I am assuming was an arc. Juding by the faint smudges on the moss, it's a single person. Either chunin or jounin."

"This does not effect our mission. If they have already found and taken the demon it makes it easier for us. If not...we will just pass them up."

"So we continue?"

"Right." Frog mask joined up with them as they headed deeper into the forest. "Kanna-san, Yuukou-san, I'm getting a bad feeling about this."

"Not scared of a twelve year old are you?" The woman joked as she flipped over a large obstacle.

"Not that, but, I don't know how to describe it."

Rai pursed his lips. Sometimes I hate being the leader. "I know how you feel. But we have to take it down. We are ANBU, the Hokage is counting on us."

Iruka blinked his eyes, and the expected-but-not-believed darkness greeted him. Naruto, I hope you're safe. He took several deep breaths and waited for the pain to subside. He could have taken the painkillers, but they would dull his mind as well and Iruka didn't want that. I can't let this beat me. I have to...adapt. Find a way around this.

The chunin grunted as he sat up; his back felt like it was on fire. He delicately brushed his fingertips around the bed and found the end table. There was a small picture of water and a glass which he filled after spilling a little onto the floor. "Dammit, if only I could see. Everything else is possible but, damn you Mizuki. I hope you are rotting in hell." He bit out angrily after chugging the water.

A nurse poked her head in. "Do you need anything Iruka-sensei?" She sighed at the sight of the spilt water and stepped in with a towel. "If you need something just press the button located near the pillow. It's fairly big so you shouldn't have trouble finding it." The woman knelt down and started mopping up the clear liquid.

Iruka turned his head in the direction of the voice. He was barely catching it, it sounded like someone was talking through a mouth full of cotton balls. "Excuse me?"

"I said, oh," The woman just caught sight of the clipboard attached to the end of his bed. "Sorry." She opened the window and twisted her dripping towel. Water squeezed out of the cloth and smacked an unsuspecting doctor below. She giggled and sat on the bed. "Iruka-sensei, there's a button you can press for assistance by your pillow." Her voice rose to accommodate her near-deaf patient.

"Oh. Okay." He sounded so depressed the nurses loving heart just couldn't take it. Why do they have to be brought down in the prime of life! He was a teacher! A teacher! By all rights he never should have been in a combat situation. She wrapped her arms around the blind man in a hug.

"You know, they say when one sense leaves the others increase to make up for it. It's not much I know but, you can always try, right?" She said hopefully with her arms still locked around Iruka.

Iruka was frozen. When the nurse hugged him he was thankful for her care, but then flashes of light bombarded his supposed ruined eyes. His mouth opened in shock and pain yet no sound came out. Slowly, as if he was watching everything through a heat sensitive lens vague outlines of shapes took form. Directly in font of him he could see a blue human like blur cock her head to the side.

"Iruka-sensei, are you okay? Do you need me to go get some morphine?" She asked concerned.

Then it was gone. Iruka slumped as she let go and headed for the door. What was that? He racked his brain for any ideas, and for some reason thought about the Hyuuga that graduated this year and Naruto. Was I, was I seeing chakra? Is that possible without a byakugan? But using the white eyes takes concentration. It doesn't just randomly activate like a sharingan. Iruka put his hands together in the ram seal to help focus his energy. Lets try this theory out, shall we?

Chakra flow increased as Iruka started to sweat. He was still in recovery and actively trying an unknown jutsu was an idiotic thing to do. This is something Naruto would do. Iruka laughed at himself trying to ignore the pain shooting through his system. The nurse paused at the door and looked back at the chunin who was starting to scare her. "Iruka?"

The chunin concentrated. What was I thinking when she hugged me? I was worrying about Naruto, like always. But there had to be something else. Hope? No, relief. She said other senses increase, my ability to sense chakra increased! That's it! Iruka grinned and turned to the nurse shaking in the doorway. "Hey, it's okay."

He could see her, faintly. Blue energy radiated off of her and bounced off the floor and walls, making them visible as well. Iruka swiveled his head around and saw the even fainter light of the flower sitting in a vase. He smiled and fell back, letting his chakra dissipate before he burned out. Now I have a way to see, but to really be useful I need practice.

"Miss?" He asked tiredly.

"Y-yes, Iruka-sensei?"

"Could you find me a leaf?"

"I suppose."

"Thanks." Iruka smiled happily. He wasn't a Hyuuga, no way he'd ever be able to gentle fist someone, but his new skill was enough. If only it didn't take so much energy to pull off. Back to the basics, I'll need to fine tune my control and increase my capacity tons if I hope to be an effective ninja again. But it is possible.

"So this is it, old man?" Naruto said through a mouthful of roasted fish. He was pointing at a dot on the stained yellow map Shidou had given him.

"I'm thirty-seven, I'm not old. And yes, that's the closest village not in fire country. The town of Takara." Shidou blushed and murmured something Naruto was having trouble making out.

"What was that?"

"Itsamajorbrotheltown. Just be careful, and don't accept candy from strangers or follow anyone into dark alleys. You should be fine if you don't stick around too long." The woodsman grinned and ruffled the short boy's hair. "Now just head straight north, you'll get to a big valley. Go past it for a few miles till you hit the road, the map can direct you after that."

Naruto jumped up and wrapped his arms around Shidou's neck. His hair tickled the man's nose causing Shidou's face to scrunch up. The blonde disengaged seconds before he sneezed. "Just get little boy!" Shidou mocked as he rubbed his nose.

"I'm not little!" Naruto yelled and spun around. He jumped up onto a low hanging branch and waved good-bye to his friend. "Bye Shidou-san!" Loaded down with a days supply of roasted fish and new canteen of water the small boy forged his tree born path. Shidou watched him until is orange clad form became too distant to make out in the dim morning light.

"Have a good life, Naruto-kun." The man sighed and picked up his axes. I never found that tree. He crossed the significantly lower stream back to his small cabin, listening to the peaceful notes of birdsong.

Aoba dropped to the ground and surveyed the premises. A large patch of slick grass was visible by the bubbling creak, and the remains of a fire still smoked. The jounin tilted his tinted glasses down and frowned. "Two trails leading away, one in the trees the other on the ground. It appears the demon has found an accomplice. What to do?" Aoba asked himself.

He kicked at the ashes of the cook fire and found tiny thin bones. Further searching concluded there had been two of them camping here, and the jounin scowled. I can't believe that demon found help. I better locate this other person and see if they know any useful information.

The jounin charged off following the well worn path on the forest floor. Birds screeched at his sudden passage, and bugs whirled angrily when the human disturbed their homes. He wasn't staying on the path, the hunter preferred to run alongside it so he could see if anyone was walking toward him on it. This caused many of the creatures who expected the men to not stray from the dirt road to protest. Some squirrels bombed the jounin with nuts and small twigs, ants and other stinging insects swarmed. Aoba started to suspect something when the sparrows and crows started diving at him. "What the hell!"

I don't have time for this! Blasted crazy animals! Aoba brought his hands together and began running through seals. He raised his head to face a group of bees and birds, "Katon: Gokaikyu no jutsu!" A quick stream of fire flowed from his mouth and incinerated the creatures. All chattering and squeaks stopped leaving only the soft thumping of the jounin's feet against the ground.

Five cooked bird bodies hit the dirt behind the jounin followed by a rain of still burning insects. The animals did not like the human invading their territory, but they couldn't do anything about it. He was one ofthose humans. Yuck. Up on one of the thinner branches a squirrel turned to her mate for the season, "Ne, Suki. What what?"

The bushytailed rodent rapidly scratched behind an ear and squeaked out, "Thump thump!"

She bobbed her head up and down, then leaped to a neighboring tree. The female squirrel ran through the trees like a madwoman, squeaking out orders to everyone who would listen. Slowly the stunned creatures of the forest tore their eyes away from the crispy bodies on the ground. They gathered around the tree Suki the squirrel sat in primping his tail. "Ne! What what, persons bad bad bad."

Gathered animals chorused in agreement. Many hares thumped their back feet against the wood creating a deep drum beat. It had an odd affect of making the normally hyper and happy animals solemn. A blue jay chirped for the floor, and was given it. "No reeeegaurd for uuus! No reeeegaurd. Not liiiike otheeers! Striiiike back!" The little bird hopped around. Many of the animals sang agreement.

"Ne! Bad bad! Forget? Fire fire!" The squirrel shook a claw at his nemesis. Squirrels and birds normally had hostile relations, with the birds winning most conflicts. Suki didn't want the birds thinking they could be arrogant, it was five of their own that got toasted.

"O, right. Whot, something should be done. But Whot? We con't do much ogonist humons who spit fire!" One of the younger hares called from below.

"Callcallcallcallcallcallcallcallcall." Came a group of termites. Each different colony of insects could have its members speak at the same time, and frankly it scarred the crap out of the other animals. They shrieked and jumped away only to come back after calming down.

A sparrow hopped down and stared at the several hundred termites curiously. "Whyyy do youu care? Who wouuuld weee call?"

"Treestreestreestrees. Manmanmancutstreesforforforus. Callcallcallcallcall." The insects thrummed.

"Ogoin, who con we coll on?" A brown hare asked as it's ears flicked in irritation.

Suki chattered nonsense words for several minutes in annoyance before he calmed down enough to be understandable. "Others others! Thump!" He was pointed south, in the direction of the human settlement known as Konoha. Several animals gasped in shock.

"That's a human colony! It's dangerous!" Cried an opossum in dismay.

The female squirrel beamed the nay-sayer in the head with a nut. "Thump thump knowers! Thump! Learn learn! Back back back!"

A large shadow swept across the small creatures gathered and sent shivers down the spines of those that saw it. They would have broken for cover under normal circumstances, but this meeting was not normal. With a crunch sharp talons sunk into the rough bark. "I for one, thinks it's a great idea." Whispered the newly arrived falcon. His voice was deep and put the small mammals on edge.

Out of the shadows a lithe form slipped in between the hares. "I second that." A thin red fox growled. Her lips were pulled back showing two rows of sharp white teeth. "I never liked the humans in that burrow."

"Your people ore going to help?" Asked a bewildered bunny.

The falcon laughed. "Of course, I've got a niece stuck in there... lets get planning."

As the talks (or thumps if you were a squirrel) continued the smaller mammals paid no heed to the removal of the bird bodies by two other foxes. Such was the food chain. Some wild deer showed up along with boar and a bear. Suki smiled at his mate, things were going much better than he had thought they would.

Shidou sipped some lemonade in his kitchen, happily thinking about the brief but entertaining time he had with the blonde boy. Maybe I should go into town this month? Jani has always been partial to me, and though she's plain looking I'm sure she'd love the chance to practice her healing arts on the animals. Grandmother used to do that when no one would test out her potions. The brown haired man reminisced about the old days when his family was whole. He had been brought up to respect certain things, animals and Sunday morning were two of them. Shidou scowled when someone banged on his cabin door.

He stomped across the room and jerked open the door. "What! Do you have any idea what time it is!" He yelled at the man standing on his porch. Shidou glared menacingly, but didn't do a very good job. Crap. It's a ninja.

"I'm from Konoha, Mr..." the ninja trailed off. Shidou never stopped glaring; he didn't know why anyone would be wearing sunglass-goggle things at seven a.m. in a forest. He thought they looked even stupider on the man than Naruto's orange jumpsuit did on him.

"Shidou. Get the hell off my property." He growled. One hand inched toward the throwing axe beside the doorframe.

Aoba stiffened and whispered in a threatening tone. "Shidou-san, I know you were harboring a small boy. Blonde. Where is he?" The jounin let just a little killing intent flare at his words.

Shidou shrugged of the intimidation technique with little difficulty. His old man had a much more effective way of scaring people. He would split apples down the middle barehanded, it wasn't too difficult to imagine the fruit as your head. "I don't know what you are talking about."

"I don't know what game you think you're playing wood cutter, but that boy is a dangerous demon and thief. It would be in your best interests to comply."

Shidou took a swig of his lemonade. "Suppose, just suppose I knew where this kid was. What would you do with him?"

Aoba lowered a hand down to his leg pouch. "We would hunt the demon down, and kill him. Where. Is. He."

Lemonade shot out of Shidou's glass as he flipped it at the jounin. Aoba cursed and wiped at the stinging drink with one hand while slashing up with the other. "If he's a demon then I'm a death god." Shidou spat as he jumped back to avoid the kunai.

The woodsman plucked his throwing axes from their places by the door and rolled back. The jounin stumbled in the small cabin trying to blink away the citrus liquid and fight at the same time. Shidou knocked a kunai from the air and chopped down. He missed and hit his small table, breaking it in two. Books and plates crashed to the wood flooring, shattering pottery and scattering papers. Aoba finally wiped the irritating lemonade away and sent a punch at the man protecting the demon vessel. He's in league with the nine-tails, traitor to fire country!

Shidou hooked his axe around the jounin's elbow and jerked, he learned much from street fights. Aoba's arm flew back towards it's owner. The jounin dipped to avoid an axe to the head and kicked out. Shidou felt his breath rush out as his knees connected with the floor. He rolled and barely missed the kunai heading for his throat.

Shidou was no idiot; he knew the only thing keeping him alive was that the close quarters of his cabin restricted the ninja's movement. He rolled along the ground, tossing one of his axes as he did so. It spun through the air and managed to clip Aoba's arm. Damn he's fast. Shidou scrambled to get up and out of the way. He was too close to the door! When did that ninja get him over here!

Aoba flipped a short stool into the air with his foot and kicked at the woodsman with some chakra. The chair plowed into Shidou and knocked him out into the yard. He coughed up some blood and stood shakily. I don't blame the kid for running.

The two exchanged blows for a minute, Shidou was clearly getting his butt handed to him. The jounin was playing with him. The combatants wandered out into the surrounding trees, none of them noticed the way squirrels and birds avidly watched the exchanged. "Tell me where the brat went." Aoba ordered as he held a kunai to Shidou's throat.

"No." Shidou spun faster than Aoba expected, the woodsman intentionally cut his own throat. It was a shallow cut luckily, and he brought his remaining axe to bear on the ninja. It connected with a crack. Crack? That sounds like I hit wood.

The woodsman cursed every ninja to ever live as he saw his perfect shot get nullified by the substitution technique. His axe would have cut Aoba in two, but instead struck a log and buried itself in the wood. Aoba hit the man in the back of the head and he crumpled. "Stupid man." Aoba murmured and leaped away. I can't believe I wasted so much time.

"Diiiid youuu seeee that?" A little robin chirped at it's companion. The two song birds were perched in the lower branches of a tree, staring at the unconscious human.

"Yeeeees!" The other relied. "Poof! Heeee made a wood apeeear to take the hiiiit!"

"Reeeport! Reeeeport! Weee neeeeed to reeeport thiiiis!"

Up in Hokage tower an old man rubbed his temples. He was getting too old for this, fighting he could do but politics and paperwork were a pain the ass. Something was coming soon, he felt it. There would be a great disruption in the balance of...something. Call it the force, call it balance of power, but the third Hokage felt a great warning ripple through his being. "What is going on out there?" He asked his window.

"Hokage-sama?"

Sarutobi turned to the ANBU waiting behind him. "Did Rai's team return already? Where's the boy?"

"No." The Hokage winced at the bitterness in the shinobi's voice. "I was sent back to report the findings of two dead chunin. Captain Rai and the others are following the culprits trail. Suspected to be the demon container."

"Naruto took out two chunin?" The old man asked with a healthy dose of disbelief.

"It's what Rai thinks."

"Thank you. Dismissed." Naruto, how could you kill them? What drove you to do it? Saruobi felt his eyes drift back to the collection of files on the disbanded organization. Will you force my hand Naruto, or is it not you but the fox that's making me feel uneasy? Is your seal weakening?

Naruto jumped down from the last tree before the valley and gasped. A waterfall thundered as it fell into a large basin lake. Two larger than life statues of ninja stood facing each other on opposite side of said water fall. Naruto took in the sight and let happiness fill him up. It was one of the most amazing places he had ever seen. The water sparkled beautifully in the afternoon sun and Naruto was tempted to slip off his clothes and dive from one of the statues.

The blonde reached into his carrying harness and slipped out the rolled up map Shidou let him have. He traced the border of fire country with his finger before resting at what he assumed was his spot. "Valley of the End, huh. End of what?"

"Isn't it obvious?" An angry voice answered over the roaring of the waterfall.

"Shit!" Naruto turned to face the unknown voice, kunai in hand. "Who the heck are you!" Ninja, why don't they leave me alone?

"I'm Aoba Yamashiro. Jounin. Now be a good little demon vessel and hand over the scroll. Come back to Konoha with me, I'm sure they won't punish you too much being a minor and all." Aoba crossed his arms and watched Naruto fidget. He finally caught up to the brat and could do what he wanted. Get the scroll, lure him into a false sense of security, and then kill it. Simple. Clean. Effective.

Naruto crouched low, unconsciously raising the kunai in font of him. He steadied the scroll with one hand never taking his gaze from the jounin. "No. I can't give you the scroll, and I am not going back without Iruka-sensei's okay."

"Pah. Iruka is as good as dead. Blew himself up. Now hand it over."

Naruto froze. Iruka-sensei...dead? But...but...no...nonononono! The blonde started screaming. "No! You're lying to me! Just like you always have! All of you just lie to me! Shut up and go!" Naruto twirled the blade in his fingers as tossed it blindly.

"If that's the way you want it." Aoba scowled. I guess that means plan B. Beat the little piece of crap to a bloody pulp. He ran forward sending quick kicks and punches at the demon vessel. Naruto tried to dodge, but the jounin was much faster than the two chunin had been. He felt every single blow as they connected.

Naruto was tossed backwards by the onslaught and started coughing up blood. He held his side and felt his ribs, if they weren't broken then they were cracked. Aoba tossed several shurinken with accuracy that left many others green with envy. The spinning stars sliced right through the straps holding the Scroll of Seals to Naruto's back and sent it hurtling off the cliff. "Now that that's out of the way," he grinned and started forming handseals. "Katon: Gokaikyu no Jutsu!"

Hot flames shot of the jounin's mouth. Naruto watched them come closer as if in slow motion, sore and aching when he heard a familiar voice whisper in his ear, "Move!" Naruto stepped back. His heel caught on a small pebble causing him to loose balance and fall over the ledge and into the valley. He plummeted quickly and the fire attack didn't even singe his hair. His blue eyes scanned the area, and he noticed his scroll had landed up on the bank barely missing the lake.

Aoba cursed and looked over into the valley. The boy hit the water with a loud smack and disappeared. He jumped down onto the water, waiting for it to surface for air.

Naruto curled into a ball and let himself sink. The voice was still with him. "Boy. You have to move. You will drown here if you don't move." Seeing no reaction from the huddled child the voice tried another tactic. "Are you going to break your promise?" The boy twitched. "That man is going to take the scroll if you don't stop him. Do you want to break your promise to Iruka?"

"No!" Naruto shouted and bubbles spilled out his mouth. He pumped his arms to get to the surface. I'm not going to break my promise! Never ever! I'm not going to lose to this, this liar! Iruka-sensei is not dead!

Naruto's blonde head broke the surface, took a breath, and immediately dived again. He had to avoid the rain of fireballs coming at him. He kicked his legs hard toward the bank, a feeling of unfairness settling on him. Why does he get to walk on the bloody water! I'll show him. I'm going to, to, to. "Kill him." Supplied the voice helpfully.

Aoba tracked the shadow to the shallower waters. He clapped his hands together and smiled as he target scrambled up on the bank. "You should feel honored boy. I'm going to use a jutsu I haven't perfected yet. Suiton: Syryuudan no Jutsu!"

Water rose up and shifted into a vaguely serpent like guise. "I admit it isn't perfect but it more than enough for a drop out demon." Aoba held two kunai at the ready as he watched his semi-dragon charge the recovering boy. He doubted Naruto would survive but it was better to be safe than sorry.

The water construct quickly over powered the orange clad boy, and Aoba congratulated himself a little too early. He jumped to the bank to check the body as protocol stated, but didn't find it. The Scroll of Seals sat in the demons place. Aoba raised an eyebrow. Kawarimi eh? Now where is he? Aoba did a three sixty and took an involuntary step back. Over fifty Naruto's stood breathing hard, each an identical copy of the other. I must not have heard him perform it over the combined sounds of the waterfall and my dragon. "You think you can beat me with illusions? Idiot."

One of the Naruto's grinned madly and Aoba swore he saw a pair of fangs in the kids mouth, but that wasn't important. At the first Naruto's signal half the clones charged forward. Aoba stood in place. "I told you brat, you can't beat me wi-" Aoba's rant was cut off as his head snapped to the side from one of the clones kicks. THE HELL? HE CAN DO SHADOW CLONES!!

To his credit Aoba did remarkably well against such large numbers, he spun and jumped like a madman. Every time he got a solid hit the clone popped away. Aoba had nearly cleared the field when he saw something to give him pause. Before him was the hottest woman he ever saw. Twin ponytails and sparkling blue eyes...eyes he could get lost in. Then the sudden pressure on his arms and legs drew him back to reality.

On each limb two Naruto clones had latched on. "Don't stare at Nee-chan pervert!" One of them criticized. Aoba couldn't move. The formerly angelic looking woman walked over, clouds covering all the important bits.

"You can't make me break my promises." Her voice was filled with so much loathing and hatred Aoba knew it was the end. He didn't even know who she was, but this angel of death was going to kill him. She cocked her fist back and punched the jounin in the stomach. He flew back into the water taking the eight Naruto clones with him.

Aoba struggled against his captors, but they bit and clawed at the jounin in retaliation. He managed to hit one hard enough to dispel it, but another from the surface dived in and took it's place. The shadow clones dragged him to the bottom, existing however long they could and immediately being replaced.

Up on the bank the naked and female Naruto was sweating in exertion. Her fingers were held in a cross shape as she stood. Every few seconds she yelled, "Kage bushin no Jutsu!" Two explosions of smoke would then reveal two shadow clones that would jump into the lake to replace one exterminated by the jounin or that had run out of air. Naruto glared at the surface of the water.

She had received word by mental thoughts the jounin had died, but she wasn't taking chances. "Kage bushin no Jutsu!" Another pair of male clones dived in. Naruto might have wondered why they didn't appear in her female form like herself, but she didn't. She concentrated on her goal. Four more groups went down before the blonde woman let herself collapse.

Twelve clones swam up and to the bank. They flipped off their jackets and wrung them out. "Nee-chan?" One asked Naruto and offered a cooked fish. Female Naruto thanked the clone and lay back on the sand. She was wiped and didn't even have the energy to change back or dismiss her 'brothers'. They seemed to wander for a bit before heading off to scout the perimeter.

"You did good." The barely there voice said.

Naruto watched the body of the jounin float up. "Are you my conscience?"

"...yes." The voice hesitated at first but then sounded smug.

"Okay. That's good."

The clone appointed clone watcher sat next to his creator. "Nee-chan, do you want his forehead protector?"

Naruto thought about it. I took Shingo's and Gurio's...might as well take them all. "Yeah."

He stood up and followed the floating corpse. Clone Naruto hopped along some boulders with the real Naruto watching his progress. She hadn't know they could be so independent. It was cool. "That is because we are special." The voice whispered.

Shadow Naruto knelt down where Aoba's body stopped and untied his forehead protector. He grabbed a senbon out of the man's pouch and started carving into the metal. "His name was Aoba, right Nee-chan?"

"Uh-huh." Naruto decide to rest for a few minutes before tackling the climb up. She would even stay in girl form, because it had a longer reach, and let her clones remain till they ran out of chakra. They deserved it. "Conscience, what's that red light around my ribs?"

"It's nothing. Ignore it."

"If you say so...Shidou-san said you gave good advice."

END.