A/N: Firstly, my apologies for the month long break. I've had several different projects on hand including this one, and as I said in my profile pretty much none of them went anywhere from it. I finally got this chapter worked out more or less entirely today. It's shorter than preferred, but starting things off again.
Thanks for the reviews, Vaughn Tyler, tragicmat1, Lednacek, greywizard-dumblemort, TheBlueFoxtrot A Samba, beloveddaughteroftheking, Hanzo of the Salamander, and er.. EXpERieNCed? Kinda unsure about that review o.o, but still appreciated I think.
Lednacek: Haha, yes, true enough. Sarutobi's fairly concerned over all the changes cropping up and what might happen from it, and losing not one but two people he considered family hit him hard. Not to mention having two extra weeks to brood on the subject before Naruto showed up.
TheBlueFoxtrot A Samba: Nope, not his dimension any more. He's stuck in an alternative universe. As for Yamato, it's more a matter of losing his voicebox in the process of breaking Danzo's seal measures- I don't think even Sarutobi would go so far as to cut off his tongue just to gain information they'd gather from Naruto anyway more or less.
beloveddaughteroftheking: Aye, for now. Very well noticed on the origami.
Also, I usually don't do this but in case the idea has been missed(and I really can't tell that until the reviews say so since I'm seeing it from the inside point), Kakashi and Guy have been trying to get Sasuke and Lee ready for opening the Eight Gates, obviously starting off from the very first and going along over the years. That process has been in the works since about the point they started training together.
Naruto gulped at the intensity behind the Hokage's words. There was little doubt he meant what he said and was more than willing to follow through with it; this was the side of him that hadn't been shown in the old timeline, the rare shinobi side that had kept the older man alive and in office so long.
But I can't just undo all the interactions I've had so far. the jinchuriki thought after a few moments, and he set his shoulders and resolve. "I agree that I can't go changing things at the drop of a kunai any further, but it's still too late for me to just settle into position and try to follow my old memories." he argued quietly.
Sarutobi's eyebrows met in frustration but Naruto held up a hand in a placating gesture. "That doesn't mean I can't try to, but when something crops up that I think has to change, will you at least hear me out before saying no? Go over the pros and cons like when I first told you all this a couple of months back?" he asked.
Sarutobi remained silent as he considered the offer. He truly cared for the boy like his grandson, but he had raised three other nin in a similar manner long ago, and two of them were now dead due to Naruto's actions.
Before he could give a decision Naruto spoke again with a little more tension in his voice, features descending into a frown. "What you said about Danzo and Orochimaru, that they'd fall in their own time in the natural chain of events... it wouldn't have happened here." he stated slowly, thoughts coming together.
The Hokage arched an eyebrow and waited to hear where this was going. "Sasuke was supposed to leave the village after the Chunin Exam invasion and join Orochimaru, and after a few years kill him on the way to reaching Itachi. He would have taken down Danzo only a short time later. But I think I've changed things enough at the start that he wouldn't have felt the need to chase after Itachi so soon and wouldn't have left the village." Naruto said in between several breaths.
If I changed enough that Sasuke won't leave Konoha after the invasion than Orochimaru would have stayed alive for an unknown amount of years afterward, and without the threat posed by Sasuke succeeding the other shinobi so far Danzo wouldn't have gone in person to slay him. Kami! Is this why Jiraiya had to die just to kill Orochimaru? He had to alter his own fate to get a hold of the other mans? each thought ran together quickly and skipped ahead to the next point.
"If Sasuke wouldn't have faced the same events in the same way that would have taken him from the village than neither of them would have been killed later on at their respective times." he stated quietly.
Silence hung in the air after that for a time, with neither of them saying anything further though the Hokage's expression flickered around the edges from time to time and Naruto felt his weariness from the journey settling harder.
Finally Sarutobi sat back into his chair with a slowly released sigh. "The other members of the council have crossed the sensor seals. Go, before they have time to see you." the Hokage stated flatly. Naruto nodded tiredly and shunshined across the space to the cracked window and slipped outside, and not a moment too soon as the doors slid open to reveal Koharu and Homura.
Pasting a falsely cheerful expression to his face he waited to hear what the subject was now. As things turned out, not a pleasant one.
Once again Sasuke found himself in the hospital; though on his feet and standing beside the bed, this time. The one actually within it was Lee, and the other boy certainly looked deserving of the rest he was in.
The Uchiha still wasn't sure exactly what had happened and neither of their senseis' had a word to spare about it. One minute the two apprentices' were locked in combat as usual for the last two weeks, rushing from tree to tree in the pre-dawn gloom and seeking out weak-spots in the other shinobi's form, clashing once and again... and then Lee's movements grew slower, his expression changed to one of pain, and he literally fell right out of the leaves to land on his side ten feet down.
Sasuke's surprise at the reaction left him stumbling but able to recover and after a moment he dropped down to check. It was too difficult to see in the shade what was happening to Lee's face and hands, but Kakashi-sensei had no problem and actually shouted at him to back off.
Lee's sensei had arrived almost as quickly to the scene and knelt down to examine the younger shinobi with a critical eye, murmuring to himself for a few seconds before stiffening. Kakashi-sensei had likewise gone still before nodding his head and saying something that meant little sense for the time being, "It's not opening enough and it's not closing either, and his muscles can't stop altering with the change of flow."
After that Lee was scooped up and taken to the hospital in a very remarkable pace, officially ending their training sessions for the foreseeable future, and after an hour of low rambling and notes of pain escaping from his mouth Lee was sedated to calm him down.
Which brought things to the present. Sasuke stood by watching in silence as his eternal rival rested uncomfortably, still giving off the occasional spasm and twitch from one part of his body or another, but both of their senseis' still stood on the other side of the bed watching.
Kakashi leaned over to Guy after another few minutes of silence and wearily flicked his hitai-ate back over his sharingan. In a soft tone he gave a report on the situation as best he could read it. "Still not fully open, and he's burning through his reserves of energy quickly. If it doesn't sway one way or the other further in the next half an hour we're going to need to force it." he stated warily.
Guy didn't spare him a glance but remained watching his pupil with concern. "You may have been able to achieve it that way, but I've never met another gate user who did so and lived. Perhaps this truly was too soon for such hope of talent to bloom." he returned equally softly.
Kakashi grimaced. "For once we agree on something. Even if he took in chakra injections like Sasuke did he'd just burn through it too swiftly, and I doubt he could handle any more strain like this if we did get the gate active." he said.
Both men fell back into silence as they waited, while Sasuke finally questioned what was going on. Kakashi debated silently with himself of if it was worth answering so soon and finally gave a cop-out response.
"For now a technique Lee was building upon has collapsed. Its causing him internal damage and if it doesn't settle out soon, he may not survive. I have to stay here and keep an eye on the progress, and obviously Guy doesn't want to leave in case his student... takes a turn in either direction. It might be easier for you to go home and practice for a time, Sasuke, but your welcome to wait if you want to. I'm sure Lee would appreciate you standing by his side so far." he said slowly.
There's something going on here... the youngest Uchiha thought with a flat look on his face. "If you can't do something about it, what about the Hokage?" he asked in what seemed to be a logical manner.
Kakashi shrugged uncomfortably. "Of all the skills he has, this one is localized to a very few people." he answered aloud, though inwardly he wondered. Would he be able to help stabilize the process? If this comes down to trying to forcibly draw open the rest of the gate or at least shunting it closed he may know a seal that could help.
Lee groaned on the bed and his eyes flickered open, straining against the bedsheets with a low moan of pain. Guy's expression darkened and he looked helplessly on for the moment as Kakashi shoved the hitai-ate out of the way and rapidly ran his sharingan along the boys system.
"Go- seek him out quickly!" his sensei ordered the Uchiha sharply, leaning over to look closer. "Dammit, Guy, it's getting worse!" he added to the other man. Sasuke swallowed at the sudden decline and jump into action before rushing out the room and heading toward the Hokage's office.
Not ten feet away from the front doors and Naruto heard the rapid pace of footsteps running over the landscape. Automatically his eyes were drawn to the sight of a small black haired child and recognized him after a moment.
What the hell is Sasuke doing at that pace? he thought in confusion, too tired to really consider anything, but not seeing Lee anywhere in sight as he had on occasion noticed before left the jinchuriki curious. It wasn't like Sasuke to run so sloppily, most of his movements focused solely on gaining speed.
Uh-oh. seeing what was about to happen before it did, Naruto suppressed a note of tiredness to shunshin forward and wrap one hand up into Sasuke's shirt just as the boy tripped over an oft-unseen pothole in the walkway.
Falling in a tangle of limbs the Uchiha pushed his way out of Naruto's relaxed grip with a low snarl. "Get off, you idiot! Lee's in danger!" slipping out from underneath the other boy he processed those words and watched Sasuke rush off again toward the doors of the tower.
Concern etched itself on his face and Naruto wondered just what was going on, following the heavy footprints in the sand back in the direction his future team-mate had been coming from and noticing the hospital nearby very quickly despite his weariness. That, coupled with the others words and haste, cemented the fact that somebody's fate was about to get mucked about with.
A moment later and he summed up his thoughts on the situation with the following succinct two-word sentence. "Aw, shit."
The sand before him swirled to life and caught the kunai in mid air, then gathered underneath his feet to throw him aside and dodge the heavy gust of wind coming from his fathers assigned teacher. The jounin grunted in distaste and slipped to another vantage point to aim from, reluctantly following the orders he had to go through on.
Gaara waited patiently, his pale eyes tracking the next steel blade when it finally came at him with a soft whoosh of air backing it. Unlike the others this and the next series of them that came forward were slowly building in wind chakra, which in turn meant swifter timing had to be applied to dodge without being cut.
Even with the pool of sand in the closed off training ground to work with he couldn't really call up a shield like the monster inside of him kept trying to order, not without breaking a window and slowly trickling it in - and thereby forfeiting the match.
Every other week the training session was altered according to what his father considered of the jinchuriki's progress, and this time around he had to adjust to a far, far smaller force to utilize. As his father had said, "You won't always be surrounded by this desert, Gaara, and when that time comes you'll have to rely on something else or something limited to keep you alive."
His brief moment of recollection cost him a long but shallow wound - due in part to the sand armor he was wearing since the incident those months ago. Without it the damage probably would have been enough to cut through a number of arteries and left him bleeding out in pain.
Focusing back on the ugly looking shinobi as more wind-soaked kunai descended on his location Gaara rolled forward and brought up enough of a barrier to protect his exposed back for the time, waiting for the next whoosh to announce the coming assault.
Far and away in the hidden village of the Rain, Amegakure, the man revered as the shinobi god waited beneath the ever-present clouds. He had not personally attended Jiraiya-sans funeral, though Konan's viewing art had relayed the event within Mount Myoboku well enough.
The decision currently weighing down his mind rested on what to do about Orochimaru. The man had fled Akatsuki after trying to kill one of their newer members, Itachi Uchiha, and being sufficiently crushed for it.
That in and of itself did not matter to him, personally. It wasn't his choice to recruit the so-called Sannin, after all. No, what mattered were the secrets and wealth of knowledge the snake shinobi had stolen in the process.
And deep within, a small note of resentment ran that his old mentor Jiraiya had fallen to the traitor for nothing, bringing just one more moment of pain to him. Killing Orochimaru wouldn't prevent what he had taken away from them from being in danger of revelation, not after their insights into how many traps and what-ifs he could prepare.
But maybe it would bring a little satisfaction to Jiraiya's memory, and perhaps that alone was worth going to the effort. And the thought of who to assign for that mission came easily once the decision was actively chosen.
End Chapter 18.