A/N: ... I can not believe the reaction to that last chapter. I've been grinning like a loon since I checked the hit-count and such this morning! A very heart-felt Thank You to every one of you who subscribed, added to a C2, and favorited!
That of course extends to my reviewers too :D
You don't have to worry about a large group of people finding out about Naruto and the future, Ubernaut. As it stands only four shinobi are in on it and I intend to keep it that way for a while yet. As for Gaara... Danzo will have his work cut out for him.
You are correct deanine about the rushed nature. I could feel that too on my re-read, but I felt that showing the interrogation/torture of Yamato in order to gain the answers they needed would go over better if the user imagined it unfolding in their own way. I may edit the transition with a note of how long has passed since Yamato was captured and Naruto was dragged in, however.
Thanks cloystreng, Adventure Writer 28, and Yumetaka Kourui :)
Yeah, that's what has Sarutobi so worried at the moment Shinichi06. He just doesn't realize that he's just as much part of the problem now as Naruto is! Thank you :D
It took them some time to identify what type of jutsu it was that held Naruto paralyzed. Yamato was able to rule out taijutsu or a seal acting out like his own had earlier, and eventually the Sandaime realized it was a mind-technique after yet again reviewing the information available to them.
"Well, there's nothing for it. We can't unbind him without locating where the effect has taken root." Sarutobi stated tiredly.
"Naruto, I must ask that you continue to fight against the effects. It could be hours or it could be days before the technique wears off." he continued while looking the boy in the eyes. "For now you must rest. In the morning we will see what your condition is," he concluded.
Naruto grimaced as best he could at them.
A fair distance later that night and moonlight filtered down through the clouds around Suna as the nine man team plus Danzo himself entered the valley leading into the Hidden Village of Sand.
The guards ahead bore no importance to him. As they approached in their pale tan cloaks one of the guardsmen stepped forward and raised his left hand in a warning to halt.
A moment passed before he turned back toward the other two watching the entrance and gestured them closer to himself.
"What is it?" one asked gruffly, looking toward the stilled group.
"Search them. I don't trust my genjutsu resistance at close range," the first man answered.
The other two gave noises of annoyance but did as told.
"You will permit yourself to search and refusal of entrance if we so deem it," the gruff guardsman stated.
One of them stepped closed and nodded his head.
Together the guards stripped off his cloak and hood and surveyed the basic cloth wrapped about the upper and lower body like those of the other peasants around Sunagakure.
The battered headband declared the frail old man as one of Kusa's shinobi.
Tsking in distaste they gave him one final once-over before pushing him roughly forward and heading toward the others.
The old man kept his footing and reached down to recover his cloak, slowly drawing it around his neck and shoulders before dragging his way past the original guard and stopping at the edge of the valley.
One by one the others were stripped of their cloaks and confirmed to be just as bad off if not worse than the old man, all of varying ages between twenty and forty.
As before they were allowed to pass, despite the Kusa and intermixed Otogakure hand-bands they all wore. "Go to the nearest reserve until dawn. The owner will relocate you to somewhere useful," the third guard told the last of the lot.
A silent nod was his only answer and the guard shoved him a little harder than needed in response.
Once they were all free of the valley and at least a good distance within the borders of Suna, the frail old man approached the wall surrounding the village and rested against it tiredly.
No one saw his hand performing slow and deliberate seals.
No one noticed as five points burned to life at the edges of his fingertips and sank into the stone.
A short time later and no one saw the group of them sink down into the sand before the wall and vanish from sight, and when the morning came the guardsmen would have no memory of a group of outcasts wandering into the village near midnight.
The ROOT had found a new house within Suna, even if their true home still lay in Konoha.
A few hours after departing the Hokage's office, however, and despite his seeming eagerness to take in the Uchiha survivor, Kakashi wasn't entirely sure what to do with the silent and brooding child after the paperwork had been signed and processed.
What little he actually owned was relocated from his families grounds and delivered to the small and spartan outcrop of the Hakate dwelling on the far side of Konoha.
Sasuke didn't really seem very eager to get the whole process underway either. He just looked around himself as if in question.
At length he turned toward Kakashi and intoned ,"Where's the rest of your house?" earning a small laugh from the Jounin.
"This is it. One bedroom, a kitchenette, and bathroom," he responded, glancing around at his own simplistic house.
A bedroll was resting against one corner with a small safe beside it full of his Icha Icha Paradise series, a short-cropped magazine rack next to that with two or three other books and a small plaque hanging above the doorway through which they had just entered baring his fathers white tanto.
Sasuke frowned.
"No training equipment?" he asked after taking a quick look around the three rooms.
How could he become stronger without it? There were several devices back at his home- no, back at the site of the massacre, that his family had utilized.
"Ah. No, nothing that would be fit for a child to use. I mostly use the joint-grounds of the other Jounin when I need to do such." Kakashi answered.
Taking in the look the boy gave him drew out another chuckle and the Copycat Ninja added, "But I can acquire something for your age soon enough."
Sasuke sighed. "I need to get stronger now!" he stated firmly.
Kakashi cocked an eyebrow at him but the child's resolve held. With a sound of consideration the elder shinobi motioned for Sasuke to follow him back through the doorway.
After a few moments hesitation he did so.
"There are many exercises designed to exhaust and rebuild your body. Some are more physically demanding and draw out your endurance, while others are tailored to your chakra. Do you want to begin them separate or together, Sasuke?" the Jounin asked.
... I need everything to surpass him, the child thought. "Together," he said aloud.
Kakashi hid a sigh but nodded his head and looked off toward another house some distance away. You may be seeing Maito Gai sooner than expected, Sasuke, he thought, running through the list.
There really wasn't much fit for an eight year old- hell, these exercises shouldn't even have been used against most Chunin.
But if Sasuke wanted to get started, then he may as well adapt what his rival was using if in a milder tone.
"Very well. We'll start tonight and stop at midnight. The next session will begin at noon and last until four, then rest until eight to midnight again." Kakashi told him.
He did not turn to see if the Uchiha reacted unfavorably or otherwise to the schedule yet. "We'll begin with a fairly simple technique if you haven't already been taught it, Tree Climbing," he added.
Sasuke made a disgruntled noise and Kakashi turned toward him. "Without your hands," the Jounin stated.
As if to prove his point at the child's disbelieving look Kakashi walked up to the nearest tree and stepped right up it's side, turning around to look at the ground and the boy beneath him several feet away.
Sasuke looked back at him before slowly walking forward and pressing one foot to the trunk tentatively.
It didn't feel any different.
"You must channel your chakra into the soles of your shoes first." Kakashi explained when Sasuke glanced back up at him in question. Drawing one foot away he allowed his white chakra to shine through the boot and light up the child's face.
Sasuke turned away from it and concentrated.
He could feel his chakra moving around and rushing through his legs down to his feet, leaving a slightly burned sensation behind as he pushed enough in to make his feet glow like the shinobi above him had.
Uh-oh. Quickly realizing the mistake he had just made Kakashi dropped down and yanked Sasuke away just as the boy pressed his foot back to the bark- earning an explosion of wood that mostly scattered over the Jounin's backside.
Sasuke scowled up at him. "Look what happened!" he demanded. "If you didn't pull me away I could have climbed right up it!" he added.
Kakashi set the boy down. "No, no, that was my mistake. You would have been blown away with so much chakra flowing down to your feet- tell me, do your legs hurt from channeling your chakra through them?" he asked.
Sasuke grimaced.
"I'll take that for a yes. You should never send so much to any part of your body that it shines as I had demonstrated or becomes painful either. You're overloading the coils throughout your body when that happens," he explained.
The Uchiha heir pulled out of his grip and approached the tree again.
Taking a breath he pressed his foot against the bark and was knocked onto his back as the wood burst beneath it again.
Slightly numbed from the blow where fragments had hit him, the eight year old stared at the empty hole where his foot had pressed against the tree.
Behind him Kakashi sighed again. "Try to push only enough that you can feel the flow as a warmth. If it becomes overly hot again slow the flow down or you're using up too much and will become exhausted quickly," he instructed.
Sasuke pushed up to his feet a little slower than before and tried to do as told.
It was, he discovered, harder to do then when he had pushed at it a few minutes earlier.
What do you want now, boy? the Kyuubi's voice growled at him.
Naruto sighed and walked forward, turning around and placing his back and head against the cage just beneath the seal and sliding down it. "They can't figure out what's wrong with my body," he stated flatly.
The fox stared at his impudence for treating itself like a subdued pet, as though it couldn't rend the flesh from his bones at that range to the gate.
It growled at him and Naruto glanced over one shoulder. "Ah. So sorry your highness," he added in the same tone and rolled away a moment later as one of the fox's paws reached through the cage to slash at where his head had just rested.
"Look, the moment you vanished I couldn't keep up with Sage Mode any longer, and that jutsu Danzo used took full effect. I'm potentially screwed for days if it even wears off at all!" Naruto explained.
The Kyuubi growled at him.
"C'mon, if something happens to my body top-side we're both dead!" he pleaded.
It's nails flickered back and forth in further agitation before slamming against the cage sharply and making him jump.
Do something about this cage and I'll do something about your body. Otherwise... it trailed off darkly.
Naruto stared at it, silently asking what it would do.
Revealing it's multitude of teeth the Kyuubi finished it's thought.
Otherwise, I don't have to manifest the next time your life's in danger. Let your precious Sage Mode do the work for once.
Figures. Why did I even bother? Naruto thought.
Shaking his head he turned to walk away. "Forget it. Sandaime will work something out eventually," he called back.
The fox's eyes narrowed at being dismissed and it leveled further killing intent against his retreating backside.
You'll regret that soon enough, boy.
Panting, leg's raw and burning with exhaustion, Sasuke pushed to his feet yet again.
Kakashi had glanced at his watch several times and silently wished it to go faster to no avail as Midnight was in no hurry to come. The marks in the tree showed just how high the Uchiha heir had made it over the last hour and a half.
He no longer listened to Kakashi when the Jounin tried to get him to rest.
He would not fail such a simple exercise.
He would master this technique before sunrise, even if it killed him!
Ignoring the pain as he channeled chakra back through his legs to his feet Sasuke kicked off from a few feet away and ran at the battered bark of the tree.
His shoes partially sank into the surface yet again as he made it to the same point Kakashi had before the bark collapsed and he stumbled, falling to the ground.
Kakashi winced yet again as the boy hit shoulder first into the ground, though at least it had been weakened into a softer soil to allow him to soak up the damage easier.
Pushing his hitai-ate up and staring at Sasuke's chakra coils, he grimaced as they ignited under the strain and made the process all the harder and more painful.
If the child didn't stop and rest soon at the rate he was burning through his reserves, it seemed even more unlikely that he would reach the title of Chunin.
Get up! Get up and do it again! Sasuke berated himself in his brothers voice, picturing Itachi's image before him.
Hatred burned to the surface and he pushed up to his feet again, ignoring the slight sway and the agony it incited.
The protesting of his muscles meant nothing.
Glaring hard enough to set the tree alight Sasuke kicked off from the loose dirt and drove each foot against the tree sharply.
He was just slightly higher than Kakashi when he gave out again, and as before he rose to his feet after a few seconds, and again he pushed himself.
At last he fell and could rise no further, gasping through the pain and frustration of it all... and still seeing his brother's scowling image above, mocking him all the while.
"We must locate firstly who, and secondly where, the One Tails host is." Danzo ordered the nine men around him.
They no longer wore the white animal masks of the Konoha ANBU, for that would have been a dead give away if they were caught here.
Instead most of them had adapted their clothing and armoring to mirror the local Suna-nin. One or two was indeed dressed as a peasant would in order to blend in with the poor.
Whatever was said at each level of the people would be heard and relayed back to Danzo.
"The genjutsu seal placed over the entrance varies from that we had used in Konoha. The Hokage will likely see Tenzo spared once he is caught if for no reason than to try and unmask our operations in Konoha. Even should he be employed to try and follow us and by chance arrive in Suna, to see the hole that no one else does would be unforgivable," he explained.
"As such the key to the seal on each of you must be altered. Once that is done with your task will begin. It goes without saying that you should not bring any greater attention to our company then needed. Let us begin."
End Chapter Five.