New Wind Nation: Alliance

by Kyogre

AU. Hidden Sand genin Naruto has gained a good friend in Gaara, but now he and the entire village are facing a new crisis. It's a race to convince their leader to abandon his plans of an invasion, or they just might find themselves on the brink of a new war. (Sequel to New Wind Nation.)

5. Lair of the Snake 4

/~/~

Title: New Wind Nation: Alliance

Chapter 5: Lair of the Snake ~ Awakening Power (part 4)

Notes: I miss Gaara :(

/~/~

/~/~

"Finally! Took you guys long enough," Naruto declared.

Sasuke shot him a nasty glare. He and Kakashi had been forced to leave their borrowed boat a ways from the island, to keep it from getting smashed on the rocks along the cliffs, but walking on the water and then running up the cliffside had taxed Sasuke's chakra reserves and still shaky control of the technique.

"At least we didn't drown and have to be rescued by a civilian," Sasuke snapped, "you loser."

"You didn't have to go through a whirlpool either," Naruto shot back. "Because I took it down!"

"You only knew to do that because we figured out what was causing it."

"I would've tried that myself, eventually," Naruto insisted. "Besides, Isaribi said it was your team leader who figured everything out."

Kakashi's eye widened a little as the boys' attention turned to him for a moment. He had been lost in thought, staring at Naruto, but he covered his slip well and projected the air of a mild smile at the genin. "Now, now," he said, "don't fight. We all did our part. That's how teams work."

"Right," Sasuke quickly cut in, not interested in another teamwork talk.

Even though Sasuke didn't have a team, Kakashi was very fond of them, and of the entire concept in general, so Sasuke had been forced on many a collaboration mission with other teams. That would have been fine, since it was generally better than having to do D-ranks alone, but the only two passing genin teams of his year both had one of his fangirls among the members, and being forced into close proximity with them was trying at best.

"And speaking of teams," Sasuke continued, "where's yours?"

"Beats me," Naruto shrugged. "I've only got the one teammate on this mission, and he went off somewhere. I'm stuck doing all the work."

Sasuke could sympathize with that. Kakashi had spent most of the mission being useless too. Maybe it was a jonin thing. "What's your mission objective?" Sasuke asked instead.

"I can't tell you," Naruto said honestly. "But it's for the future of the village. I have to do it no matter what."

Sasuke huffed, thinking that Naruto was exaggerating, but Kakashi's eye narrowed thoughtfully.

"So, what's your name?" Sasuke asked finally, crossing his arms and turning away as he refused to feel embarrassed about having taken to so long to find out.

"I'm Naruto!" the other genin answered easily, grinning. "Nice to meet you!"

'It's him after all,' Kakashi thought. 'So that's where you went, Kushina...'

/~/~

Kakashi didn't bother to look up when Sasuke walked into the room with another stack of reports, instead simply continuing to quickly scan through the papers in front of him.

There was a lot to go through, and he couldn't shake the feeling that there wasn't much time. Some instinct, which he had learned to trust, urging to him to hurry and to stay on alert, though the hideout appeared entirely deserted. He had already sent one of his dogs as a messenger to Hidden Leaf, and now he was determined to make it through as much of what Orochimaru had left behind as he could.

Unfortunately, he had to do it alone - because the kids wouldn't be able to make much sense of the reports, and because this wasn't something he wanted them to be looking at in the first place. Sasuke had clearly guessed the second reason and only grudgingly agreed to let his teacher handle everything, but Naruto had given in easily, only asking to be informed if there were any clues about Orochimaru's more recent whereabouts.

'Why is he looking for Orochimaru?' Kakashi couldn't help but wonder. 'Why is Hidden Sand looking for him? And why would they entrust it to a genin?'

It was… bittersweet to see his teacher's son again, after almost twelve years. That was how long it had been since Kushina left Hidden Leaf for parts unknown, taking with her their newborn, now orphaned child. Kakashi barely remembered anything regarding the events around her departure, too caught up in his own grief.

Some days he wondered if she would have stayed if he, Jiraiya and the others had provided more support, but everyone had been heavily hit at the time. There had been so much to do, and the pain of losing the Fourth Hokage was just too raw. It had been easier to just throw themselves into reconstruction and not think about what the man had left behind.

By the time anyone remembered to wonder how she was doing, Kushina had already left. It wasn't a surprise. Minato had been just the last in a long string of painful losses for her - thinking back on it, Kushina had lost every close friend she had to the war, including her jonin sensei and her genin team. Kakashi had always wondered where she went and what happened to her, though he suspected Jiraiya had kept at least some tabs on his student's wife and son.

But to go to Hidden Sand of all places? To have her son become a Sand-nin? Had she really come to distrust Hidden Leaf that much? Well, if she had decided to have Naruto become a shinobi, then a major village would be the best choice, and Hidden Leaf aside, Sand was the obvious way, but...

"Did you find out anything?" Sasuke asked, pulling Kakashi out of his thoughts.

The jonin hummed noncommittally, thinking how much to reveal to his student. In the end, he decided to explain. If he pursued his chosen path as a hunter-nin, Sasuke would have to get used to these sorts of things.

"Orochimaru, before he left the village, was researching alterations to the body," Kakashi explained. "In particular, so-called Cursed Seals, which would mutate and reshape the user's form into a more powerful one, with special abilities. This lab was used for research to further develop those seals."

"And by research, you mean kidnapping locals and turning them into monsters," Sasuke said flatly. He had seen the results of those experiments floating in the abandoned tanks.

"More or less," Kakashi said. "This is definitely Orochimaru's work. One of these seals was found on a traitor who tried to steal the Forbidden Scroll. But it was more complete than any of the examples here. He could transform and then shift back…"

Unlike Isaribi. The poor girl was stuck in a perpetually half-transformed state, which had led to the villagers shunning her.

But even though this was Orochimaru's work, something about it didn't add up. This, even in the form that traitor Mizuki had it, was still not the final version. This was not the Cursed Seal that Orochimaru had put on Anko. There was still some component missing.

'He must have continued his research at another hideout,' Kakashi guessed. 'Well, obviously this wasn't the only one he had…'

"Where are the other two?" Kakashi asked, glancing around Sasuke as if expecting Naruto and Isaribi to follow him in with their own stacks of reports.

"They're still looking around," Sasuke replied without much interest. Truthfully, he and Naruto had quickly gotten into an argument about where to start gathering up the evidence, how to progress through the hideout, who should lead, what to touch and what to leave, and so on. It hadn't taken long for both of them to get frustrated and storm off on their own, with Isaribi hurrying after Naruto with an apologetic glance at Sasuke.

Kakashi shook his head, easily guessing what had happened. "I want you three to stick together," he said. "Don't go off on your own."

"Do you think there are other traps?" Sasuke guessed, his gaze sharpening.

The only answer he received was a distracted smile.

/~/~

"Are you sure you're okay? You don't have to come. You can stay with that scarecrow guy, or go back to Mother Island," Naruto offered, glancing worriedly at Isaribi.

But the girl only shook her head and smiled without humor. "I have to see this through," she said. "For years, I was so afraid of this place, of ending up back here… It's good to know that it's truly over." Looking around at the mutated forms floating in glass tanks, she said, "I suppose in a way I was lucky. At least I'm still alive, and still myself. Everything else, this…" she ran a hand along her scales, "it doesn't matter. Right?"

"Right," Naruto agreed, beaming.

"And it's not all bad," Isaribi continued, half trying to convince herself. "I mean, it's pretty useful, in its own way. I can swim really well now, better than any of the other fishermen. I can reach the best oysters and clams, and I don't even need a boat to go between the islands…"

"...But you wish you could change back, right?" Naruto said, sympathetically. Biting her lip, Isaribi nodded. Naruto hummed thoughtfully. "That guy, Orochimaru, is supposed to be really smart," he said, crossing his arms. "So a normal doctor wouldn't be able to do anything about his stuff. But… I've been thinking. There's one person who might be able to help."

Her eyes widening in equal parts hope and doubt, Isaribi turned to stare at him.

"This person," Naruto said, pulling out the Bingo Book he had taken from Kankuro and holding it open to a certain page. "She's Orochimaru's old teammate. They fought together for a long time, so she'll probably know the most about him. And she's the greatest medic-nin in the Hidden Villages."

"Tsunade…?" Isaribi read out, her eyes darting over the entry. The Slug Princess, one of the Sannin.

"Yeah. She helped my mom a lot in the past," Naruto said. Of course, even Tsunade's skills could only buy Kushina a few more years, but that in itself had been almost a miracle. "I don't know for sure where she is now, but it might be worth a shot…"

Isaribi stared at the image on the page, conflicted. Leave the Land of the Sea and go searching for this woman? This place, as much as she hated it sometimes, was all Isaribi had ever known. There was a certain security in it. Could she really leave it?

And this woman, Tsunade, was a ninja. Finding her wouldn't be easy. Isaribi knew nothing of looking for someone, or traveling, or living on the road. It was impossible. She couldn't do it. She...

She didn't want to keep living like this, Isaribi thought, looking down at her hands, one human, the other mutated and covered in scales. Hadn't she always thought that, if there was even the slightest chance of returning to her normal form, she'd take it? That she's do anything to become human again? Why was she hesitating now?

"...I'll do it," Isaribi said quietly. "I'll try it."

"Old lady Tsunade is from Leaf, so maybe those guys can tell you more about where to find her," Naruto offered, grinning. "At the very least, you can go to Land of Fire together…"

"Hmm? What's this?" Kakashi asked, as he and Sasuke made their way over to Naruto and Isaribi.

"Why are you guys here? We haven't found anything," Naruto said, as their group reunited.

Kakashi held a hand his chin, as if thinking about it. His lax posture gave away nothing of his increasing agitation. Truthfully, he couldn't explain it, but he couldn't shake a feeling of unease, and he didn't want any of the kids out of his sight.

"That's fine. I think I've got a good idea of what went on here," Kakashi said with apparent indifference.

"Did you find any leads?" Naruto asked, leaving in attentively.

Kakashi smiled and said brightly, "Not even one." As Naruto slumped in defeat, he added, "It's only natural. After all, it's been ten years since Orochimaru used this hideout. And it looks like he got everything he wanted from here. There's no reason for him to return…"

/~/~

Above them, on Demon Island's surface, two figures in pale tunics and violet ropes flickered into sight. The slighter one knelt for a moment, placing his hand against the rocky ground and concentrating. Rising, he nodded to himself.

"Do it," Kimimaro ordered his companion.

The thickset shinobi that had been respectfully hanging back lumbered forward and clapped his hands together. But instead of releasing a surge of wind, like Naruto's techniques, he slammed his palms against the earth.

The ground trembled, a shockwave ripping outward and down through the soil and rock.

Even Kakashi had only a split second of warning before the stone around them cracked and the tunnel began to collapse. Fortunately, that split second was enough for him to flip through the four hand seal of a jutsu he had copied long ago.

"Doton: Doryuheki!" he called out, his voice all but lost in the rumbling of the collapsing tunnel.

He didn't have much of an earth affinity, but what Kakashi had was enough to make a thick wall of stone shoot up around and over their small group, engulfing them in darkness and hopefully protecting them from the rockfall.

It was over in seconds, leaving the jonin with only the ringing in his ears and his own harsh breathing. He had probably over exerted himself, but his chakra control had slipped as he barely held back panic. Seeing those boulders coming down onto his team - or at least, his student, his teacher's son and a girl who shouldn't have even been there in the first place - was all too much like that terrible mission to Kannabi Bridge.

"Is everyone alright?" he called out, trying to take stock of the situation.

"Fine," Sasuke snapped, from somewhere in the darkness, on Kakashi's left.

"Y-yeah," Naruto replied a moment later. "I'm okay. Isaribi?"

"I… I think so," Isaribi said faintly.

"Can all of you move your arms and legs?" Kakashi asked patiently but firmly. There was no point in asking them if they were injured. Between the shock and adrenaline, they probably wouldn't even notice if they were bleeding. Just as long as they weren't trapped under the rubble, that would be good enough.

Three affirmatives made his internally sigh in relief.

"Okay, then make your way toward my voice," Kakashi continued. "I'm going to use a jutsu to turn some of the stone to sand and tunnel to the surface. You have to follow me out. Can you do that?"

A few moments of scrambling in the dark and muffled curses later, two small hands patted against him. "I've got Isaribi with me too," Naruto said, from Kakashi's right. Sasuke just grunted.

"Then let's go," Kakashi said. "Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu."

It took some control not to let the Hiding Like a Mole technique burrow him into the ground, but to work on the ceiling instead, as Kakashi straightened - in the small space, he had barely risen to a half-crouch before his head and shoulders hit the rock wall above.

"You go first, then Isaribi," Sasuke hissed, as the sand from Kakashi's jutsu rained down on them. "I'll go last and help push her up."

Wiggling their way straight up through a narrow tunnel was a fairly basic skill for any shinobi, even those that never used earth style ninjutsu. Isaribi had to wonder how they did it - without Sasuke pushing her up, she wouldn't have managed, and she had to hold her breath as it was, which she was only able to do for so long thanks to her unique physiology.

Above them, Kakashi moved amazingly quickly, easily leaving the kids behind, but he paused just below the surface. The collapse, he knew, hadn't been a natural one. Someone had caused it intentionally, and if they were still there - he couldn't get a good read with all the rubble and chaos - Kakashi didn't want to burst out in the middle, while the children were still vulnerable in the tunnel.

"You all make it?" he called down quietly once the sounds of their scrambling were close enough.

"Yeah, we're here," Naruto replied.

"Good. Now, here's what we're going to do," Kakashi said, keeping his tone calm and even. He expected that Sasuke had already caught on and was likely glaring, but for the civilian girl at least he had to act like everything was under control. "I'm going to open up the way to the surface. Get out as quickly as you can and head for the water. Don't look back. I'm going to cover you."

"But-"

"Sasuke, that's an order," Kakashi said firmly.

He just hoped it wasn't Orochimaru himself. Against one of the Sannin, Kakashi doubted he'd be able to buy them even two minutes.

"Ready? On three," he said when Sasuke didn't protest again. "One… Two… Three!"

/~/~

Kimimaro and Jirobo had been surveying the ruins of the hideout, in search of survivors, when the rocks in one spot cracked and broke open to release two Leaf-nin, one Sand-nin and one former experiment. Kimimaro reacted instantly, attacking whoever had dared to infiltrate Orochimaru's facilities, but Kakashi had already bared his Sharingan and retaliated with a roundhouse kick that forced Kimimaro back for a few precious moments.

"Go, go!" Kakashi yelled over his shoulder.

The kids scrambled out of the hole quickly enough, Naruto helping pull up Isaribi, Sasuke hopping out immediately afterwards. But instead of running as they should have, Sasuke and Naruto exchanged a single, momentary glance, nodded in sync and turned to face the enemy.

"Isaribi-chan, run!" Naruto yelled over his shoulder. As the girl bit her lip but obeyed, he clapped his hands together. "Reppusho!"

Naruto had been aiming to push Kimimaro back, but his timing was unintentionally fortunate. The instance before Naruto's gale burst out, Kimimaro fired his own range attack - his fingertip bones shooting out like ten bullets. Naruto's Gale Palm deflected them, sending the small bones skittering among the rubble.

Kakashi took note of them, even as he glared over his shoulder at the two boys. "I told you to run," he said sharply.

"I don't have to listen to you!" Naruto snapped back. "And I have things to ask these two!"

"You're the one who's always going on about not leaving teammates behind," Sasuke added.

At the same time, Kimimaro and Jirobo also exchanged a quick look full of meaning. Kimimaro had caught sight of the emblem on the back of Sasuke's shirt, and their priorities had shifted accordingly. 'So that's the Uchiha boy Orochimaru-sama is considering as a new body,' Kimimaro thought. 'I will judge if he is worthy of such an honor.'

"First, Yanagi no Mai," he intoned quietly, slipping into a combat stance. Several sharp bones burst through his skin, and he darted toward Kakashi.

Kakashi ducked around Kimimaro's elegant swings, backing away in hopes of drawing his opponent away from the boys. However, that was Kimimaro's intention all along. A rock wall burst between the two, created by Jirobo, leaving Kimimaro on the same side as Naruto and Sasuke, and Kakashi on the other.

Even caught by the surprise, it would have taken Kakashi only a few seconds to break through, but the ground under his feet slid sideways, an entire plate moving away quickly and taking the jonin with it. Several more walls slid up between Kakashi and the others, and Jirobo finally landed heavily atop the last one.

"Sharingan Kakashi. I will be your opponent," the heavy set man declared, folding his arms.

On the other side, Naruto and Sasuke had their own opponent to worry about. Kimimaro had flipped acrobatically away from Jirobo's earth barricade, landing neatly to face the two boys.

He was probably planning to say something - "Show me what you can do," or the like - but Naruto beat him to it.

"Where's Orochimaru?" the Sand-nin demanded.

Kimimaro's eyes narrowed, instantly irritated. His hand snapped out, sending five more Finger Drilling Bullets toward Naruto, though the boy was able to dodge them just barely. "Do not speak Orochimaru-sama's name so casually, you trash," he ordered.

"Then you're one of his subordinates," Sasuke judged. "Were you sent here to get rid of the evidence?" When Kimimaro's expression tightened fractionally, Sasuke smirked. "Well, it doesn't matter. I'm sure the T&I department back home would love to have a talk with you. I'll let you have the honor of being the first missing-nin I bring down."

"Hey, hey! No way! He's not going to Hidden Leaf! Him and his info are going to be for Hidden Sand!" Naruto protested.

The two of them exchanged a quick glare, then nodded.

"We'll just have to questions him in the field," Sasuke said.

"Sounds good to me! I only have one question anyway," Naruto agreed.

"Haven't you ever heard," came a cool voice from behind them, "not to cut the meat before you've killed the boar?"

They hadn't even seen Kimimaro move, and they had no chance to react before he attacked. His Dance of the Willow, like its namesake, was elegant and impossible to predict. Kimimaro's bone blades slashed Naruto several times, across the back, the shoulders and the side, before Kimimaro kicked him away.

With Naruto out of the way, Kimimaro turned his attention to Sasuke. The Leaf genin didn't fare much better, for all that his taijutsu was far superior to Naruto's. Kimimaro simply outclassed him by several orders. Soon, Sasuke's shirt and shorts were sporting several long but shallow cuts, all oozing blood but not enough to put him danger.

'He's just toying with me,' Sasuke thought angrily, backing away in an attempt to put distance between them. Against a close range specialist, his only chance would be...

"Is this the extent of your ability?" Kimimaro asked blandly. He watched Sasuke's attempts to maneuver without interest. "The fabled Uchiha clan is not so impressive, it seems."

Sasuke snarled. Forgetting all thoughts of strategy, he charged his opponent, a kunai gleaming in his hand.

"Karamatsu no Mai," Kimimaro intoned. He slipped past Sasuke's slash, catching hold of his forearm. And in the same moment, curving bones sprang out of Kimimaro's arm and were driven into Sasuke's flesh, both injuring and trapping him.

Snorting quietly, Kimimaro twisted around and flung Sasuke away - a move calculated to all but shred his arm. Sasuke winced, rolling to his feet and cradling his injured limb, but still glaring.

"If this is all you have… You are of no use to Orochimaru-sama. Just die here, Uchiha Sasuke," Kimimaro said. "Tsubaki no Mai."

A narrow bone sword slipped out from under his skin and into his hand. There was only a moment of warning as Kimimaro slid into his next stance, before he attacked, stabbing chaotically. The first stab Sasuke managed to evade, the second tore through his sleeve, the third grazed his cheek.

The next dozen, striking faster than the eye could follow, hit across Sasuke's body. Kimimaro seemed everywhere at once, moving fast enough to leave after images. Sasuke ducked and backpedalled, managing to sidestep a few strikes.

And then… then, he started to see. He could see where Kimimaro was, he could see the jabs of his sword, which had been impossibly fast before.

At first, Sasuke thought his opponent had slowed down, but that wasn't it. No, this was...

'Sharingan,' Kimimaro thought, relentlessly continuing his assault. 'So that's the Uchiha bloodline. He's managed to awaken it.'

Sasuke dodged the next three strikes, but he had no time for elation or to even truly appreciate what had occurred. His wounds were beginning to catch up to him, and even as he could read Kimimaro's movements better and better, he was also slowing down.

"Kaze no Yaiba!"

Kimimaro pulled back on his next thrust, just fast enough to avoid Naruto's jutsu. The long Wind Blade still managed to catch his bone sword, shattering it. Naruto tried to turn the angle of his cut, sweeping his two-fingered gesture toward Kimimaro, but the jutsu, an A-rank, was a bit too advanced for him. As Naruto lost control of the Wind Blade, it dispersed harmlessly.

But that was enough of a distraction to allow Sasuke to fall back and regroup. 'Even with the Sharingan, I can't match him in hand to hand,' Sasuke thought, too desperate to feel bitter about his weakness. 'But if Naruto is a Futon user, then...'

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled, catching the other genin's eyes for an instance. His hands were already forming a seal. "Katon: Gakokyu no Jutsu!"

Naruto understood his intention perfectly. "Futon: Reppusho!" he yelled, clapping his hands together.

As always, a wind style jutsu combining with a fire style jutsu made the latter grown exponentially stronger. The fireball became a wall of flame that loomed over Kimimaro before coming down and engulfing him completely.

"Alright!" Naruto cheered, though he was breathing heavily. "Although, he won't be able to tell us anything if he got incinerated…"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he stared into the resulting smoke clouds. From his own experience fighting Kakashi, he knew that an opponent of jonin rank wouldn't be defeated so easily. Still, as long as they could at least injure him seriously, enough to slow him down, their chances would improve.

But as the smoke cleared, the genin could only stare in wide-eyed shock.

Kimimaro was not entirely unaffected. His tunic was badly scorched, one side entirely burnt off, his white hair was grey with soot, and his pale skin was reddened in patches from the heat. But the damage appeared superficial, not enough to even slow him down much.

He looked up with a glare that pinned the two genin in place through its sheer killing intent. A tattoo that seemed to glow like fire began to crawl across his face.

"Very well then," Kimimaro said lowly. "Let's take this to the next level…"

However, that promise was an empty one.

The earth wall that had separated the battlefield in two cracked, then burst apart, stopping Kimimaro's attack before it could even begin. Jirobo's form flew out of the dust cloud, hitting the ground heavily between the genin and Kimimaro. He too had begun to undergo a transformation, half his skin taking on a dark hue and one's sclera now black.

Kakashi followed him out through the hall in the stone wall a moment later, the lightning-natured chakra around his hand dissipating.

He looked ready to continue the battle, but Kimimaro only studied the jonin for a moment before straightening. "Jirobo, we're withdrawing," he ordered. "This is enough."

"What?! Like I'll let you!" Naruto shouted, already reaching for a handful of shuriken to let fly.

Kimimaro flickered out of the way, reappearing next to Jirobo and pulling his comrade to his feet. Before any of the other three shinobi could attack again, Orochimaru's subordinates disappeared once more, fleeing quickly.

Sasuke and Naruto both moved to follow them, but Kakashi threw up a restraining hand. "Stop," he ordered. "Don't pursue them."

"That's my only lead!" Naruto yelled, snapping a glare at the jonin. "And you're not my superior!"

"Naruto!" Kakashi called out, but the Sand genin had already taken off.

"We should go too," Sasuke said tensely, glaring at Kakashi.

"Absolutely not," his teacher refused sharply. "You're feeling fine now, but you're going to collapse as soon as the adrenaline wears off. Not to mention that Orochimaru isn't someone we would stand a chance against. We need to report this. The mission just went up in priority… and in rank."

Staring down Sasuke's mutinous gaze, Kakashi sighed and glanced the way Naruto had gone. 'He should be alright,' he assured himself. 'He won't be able to follow them anyway...'

/~/~

In truth, Naruto had lost sight of Kimimaro and Jirobo before he had even gone three steps. All he could do was continue to rush toward the edge of the island and hope that he would spot them once he reached the sea.

"Naruto!"

He backpedalled sharply as someone called out his name. It was Isaribi, standing near the cliffs. She had also made her way to the sea, planning to - hoping to - find some help. As a civilian, no matter what powers she might have been given, she knew she'd only get in the way in a battle.

Isaribi hadn't needed to go any further. Someone else had been moving in the opposite direction.

"Isaribi!" Naruto exclaimed. "And you! Kaze! Where've you been?! Argh, nevermind! Did you see the way they went? I've finally got a real lead!"

"Calm down," Kaze ordered. He hadn't missed when Kakashi and Sasuke traveled to Demon Island, or the sudden collapse of the hideout, and he had been on his way to the battle when Kimimaro and Jirobo chose to flee instead. "We won't lose them," he said calmly. "I have a trace on them."

It had been a simple thing to move some of the Gold Dust he had left with Naruto onto Kimimaro during their battle. He wasn't a Kage for nothing, after all.

His words settled Naruto a little, and the genin acknowledged with a nod. "Isaribi-chan, are you going to be okay?" he asked instead, turning to the girl. "We have to go after those guys…"

Isaribi smiled. "Yeah, I'll be fine," she said. "Thank you for everything, Naruto. I don't know exactly why you came here or what you're looking for, but I wish good luck."

It was true. She would be alright now. Whether she found that medic Tsunade, whether or not Tsunade could return her to the way she had been, Isaribi wouldn't give up. She'd find a way to live and be happy.

Naruto grinned back, before turning back to Kaze. "Let's go," he said, his expression becoming serious once more. "We shouldn't let them get far ahead of us."

"Can you make it?" Kaze asked, trying to gauge the boy's wounds and chakra level.

He received a fierce scowl in reply. "The future of our village is on the line," Naruto said sharply. "I'll find a way!"

/~/~

Q&A:

What does Naruto wear? Naruto wears pretty simple clothes, black three-quarter pants and an orange t-shirt with a red spiral on the back. On top, he has a short cloak, like the one Gaara wore as a kid or like Nawaki's, but without the decorative stuff on the bottom.

/~/~