A/N: So much for that plan of action, huh? No excuse besides off-site activity keeping me busy and general lethargy thinking this over. I can hardly believe how successful the story still is after over a year(and with four months between updates, no less!). If the update schedule had played out as intended, we should have been in the thirties by now... but I think aiming for that kind of a pace might have dulled the characterizations and plot to a worse degree.
So thank you, all of you, for continuing to wait it out and read this story. It honestly brings joy to me when I log in and see the results in the stats page. I hope the chapter is worth the wait!
It was nearly the middle of the afternoon when the second-oldest still living Uchiha set foot within his abandoned home village once more. The border guards hadn't even looked at him twice as he stepped through, their eyes glazing right over beneath the mind-crushingly-dull three days playing out within their heads, and his henged form looked the same as any other ANBU returning from duty- and one particular ANBU, of them all.
If necessary, he could have used one of the passwords the Hokage had given him at the time of the massacre that was preserved for spies returning from abroad, but he preferred not to alert Danzo and the Council of his arrival.
However... he paused as a dewdrop of fluid ran down his cheek, and raised a hand just in time to catch the second as it spilled free of the lid. He stared for a moment before swiping them away and grimacing.
The tole of Tsukuyomi's usage carries ever forward, slow and unrelenting, he thought grimly. A years time, and bloody tears flow in the wake of activation. He pushed the matter away as the first houses began to enter his line of sight, but it was there in the back, recalling the hidden text beneath the Uchiha grounds and the explanation of the Mangekyo's prowess and resultant costs.
He felt his feet slow again as a raven-haired youth appeared from the forest beside the farthest house, and beside him a bowl-cut-headed child in garish green shirt and shorts. In their hands a pair of tanto rested, and they charged one another with a respectable degree of skill, entering a flurry of lunges, parrying, twists, and in general superb athleticism.
It was obvious that one of them was better than the other, but only because of an intimate familiarity with the way the body dodged and weaved, having helped lend the subtle variances on the basics that were clearly improved upon over the last twelve months in his absence.
Threads of barely visible chakra whipped through the air and wrapped tautly about the other boys dominate hand, and with a jerk that pulled him forward and out of the guarded position, the free tanto slashed and came to a halt with roughly an inch of red dotting the tip where it had grazed the neck that far.
Itachi only realized he had stopped to watch when the respective Jounin, Hatake Kakashi and Might Guy, dropped down out of the trees ahead to comment on the sparring session with the academy students. His heart throbbed tightly and painfully loudly in his ears at the sound of his brothers voice in response as it distantly carried down to him, and the look upon his face- calm, pleased, satisfied, happy.
Move. He ordered himself heavily and shoved the emotions rising to the surface to the same place at the back of his mind as he had the thoughts on his weeping Tsukuyomi, and he masked his expression back into one of neutrality as he detoured around the four figures ahead.
He had much more to discuss with the Hokage after he was done gutting Orochimaru's servant for answers, including how and why his brother had become able to develop genuine pleasure once more after the way they parted last.
Naruto ran a hand across his eyes tiredly. Sai. He thought warily, knowing that this, however it had happened, was not something he could handle lightly. The problem was, Sakura was still on the ropes thanks to Ino's bickering, Kiba was avoiding him, he couldn't talk to Old man Sarutobi due to their last argumentative discussion, and he was avoiding Sasuke and Lee ever since the other had finally drawn out the Sharingan- which meant yesterday, really.
He had caught the inquisitive and, beneath that, fearful look that spread over the Uchiha's face when the other boy had looked upon his chakra coils. He didn't want to stir up that wasps nest until he was well and truly sure of things between them.
Naruto had so many loose ends and ideas on how to patch them that the addition of Sai of all things into the mix stopped him dead in his tracks, because of all the things he could have predicted happening, the arrival of the other boy seven years ahead of schedule had no rhyme or reason for occurring.
Without Danzo to shape the ROOT here in Konoha, and with Orochimaru dead, did his destiny ultimately alter to accommodate the changes? He thought slowly, and not for the first time that afternoon.
And if so, is it possible to establish the kind of connection needed to bring him out of the shell Danzo has already set into place? Thinking about it without having a solid idea in place wasn't helping.
He grimaced, and pushed off of the window ledge looking out over the streets and villagers below, rolling on impact with the ground in his usual manner before hopping back up. There's no choice for it. Whatever Sai's future now holds, I can't try to alter it any further without a basis to start from... and that requires figuring out how he showed up now.
Kicking off at a steady clip, Naruto set off for the one location he was sure to get some degree of answers- the ROOT base beneath the Hokage Monument. And if I can't make a decision after that... his thoughts trailed off uncertainly, then I'll have to swallow my emotions and leave it in Old man Sarutobi's hands.
When he opened his eyes, the Kazekage felt a steady throb of pain zigzagging back and forth along his jugular. His blood spilled slowly but steadily out of the trench between his fingers and from the gash left behind by the kunai resting on the floor beside his head, and he gasped down a breath heavily as the full realization of what had just happened occurred to him.
Kiri... he thought through the haze of the genjutsu assault still plaguing his minds eye, and his expression hardened after a slow and tense moment.
His fingers pushed through the required hand-seals as a strip of thick gold dust wrapped around the wound in his throat, staunching any further bleed for the moment and allowing him to struggle up to his feet.
He stepped away from Yura's unconscious body and stumbled to the great ball of sand that contained his son, and he paused only a hesitant fraction to confirm it was solid and unharmed before shoving past it and back into his quarters.
His vision pitched to darkness around the edges and his next step faltered, but the thought that this was how his final moments would be spent sent a surge of fury coursing through his veins to replace the missing blood, and a rush of adrenaline coursed forward to push him on.
He swept his hands around himself as his legs gave out and he collapsed to one knee, and a moment later various objects began to come together around his body.
The handwriting on the scroll beside him was sloppy and almost illiterate, but his message was clear in its intentions, carved as it was in his signature technique, and almost before it had even finished the Binding Cloth began to emerge from his desk and rush quickly toward his wound by the same.
He sank down to one hand as the other finished forcing his gold dust to his will, vision gone, breath choked, before he was bound from head to toe in the cloth and the last motion, a sealing tag, settled atop it.
Then his consciousness flickered away, essentially paused upon deaths own doorstep, a mummified near-corpse and a desperate message requesting the elder Chiyo's aide and the usage of her Mystical Palm Technique, once his children or surviving soldiers found them.
A knock on the Hokage's door preceded his secretary's voice. "Hokage-sama, you have a visitor," she called through. "Jounin Shirakumo, sir." She amended after another moment.
Sarutobi dropped his pen to the stack of paperwork before him and looked up. "Understood. Come in." He accepted
The door slid open and shut again as a man he knew did not exist stepped through, and approached his desk. At a few gestures the windows were blocked off and the sound-proofing seals activated- he had learned from the 'precautions' of Danzo Shimura.
The shinobi wearing the Shirakumo disguise inclined his head and allowed flickers of his appearance to fade away- namely his eyes, and the scratched out forehead protector above them, and then the henge was firmly back into position once more.
"Hokage-sama," Itachi greeted quietly and with his usual respective tone. Sarutobi's lips turned upward in a pained smile.
"We may talk openly, Itachi-san. Much has transgressed since you performed your last mission within the village, and the ROOT no longer have the means to listen in." He stated.
The Uchiha glanced around them once, a precursory verification of what he had already noted and wondered about on the way up the tower, and noted that the Adamantine Staff was also missing from its usual position behind the desk.
Confirming their was no surveillance equipment available, he released the frontal-aspect of his henge while keeping his back, and the effect therein, to the doorway.
"What is your report?" Sarutobi asked without showing the concern and the degree of thoughts swirling around his head, only the greater age-lines and the slight hitch on each breath betraying the stress accumulating within him.
Itachi recognized that and decided to forgo any thoughts about his brother and the state of the village since he had relinquished his position in it. "The Akatsuki have eliminated Hanzo of the Salamander, and taken root within Amegakure as our base of operations. The last of Hanzo's supporters, comrades, friends, and family that are available have been eradicated, thus erasing his existence as a figure and reducing it to a threat of what-may-be, per the orders."
"For a time the Sannin Orochimaru was a part of our group- and is no more. He has betrayed the Akatsuki and become declared the next target of eradication, as given to myself and my partner, Kisame Hoshigaki of Kirigakure. To that end we have spread throughout Fire Country and found only decrepit ruins and months-old-traces of his presence."
"The last location we sought in was Sunagakure-" and here Itachi paused, noting that for the second time, his news seemed to be adding up to the distress visible in his leaders eyes and in the set of his face. Is there truth to the report on the Kazekage's desk? He asked silently.
After a moment, the Hokage nodded and the look in his eyes seemed to turn toward further weariness, but he masked it behind the brim of his hat as he cast his gaze down to the papers before him.
"-and in the process confirmed that, whether Orochimaru has been there or not, it has been no less than several weeks prior. The border seemed to have been assaulted prior to our arrival, and the Kazekage was not present at his office when we finished subduing his Jounin. We were forced to finish him off upon arrival given the usage of the jinchuriki of that village against us." Itachi told him, and fell silent again.
"Is that all?" Sarutobi asked softly.
"It is possible the Kazekage was still alive at the time of our departing and for some hours afterward- he managed to place a binding jutsu around my partners form that was still active long after exiting Suna, and upon our split at the edge of the Land of Fire." He added.
The Hokage visibly sighed. "Thank you, Itachi. Your news does little to improve the weight of recent events, but it is better to bear them than be ignorant of what is happening so near," he said honestly. "But I assume you came here for more than that. There was no warning of your arrival at the gates."
Itachi inclined his head again. "I did not wish to give Danzo Shimura warning, Hokage-sama, for reasons we are both well aware of." He answered.
"... Yes. As I mentioned prior, there is no more reason to fear the ROOT or, in particular Danzo. I am afraid to say that he has rebelled, after a failure to claim Naruto Uzumaki for a servant. The Kyuubi's chakra manifested long enough to defend his life and alert us to the hidden base, and in doing so rather well declared the presence of the ROOT to almost all of Konoha." Sarutobi explained.
"He was right to flee rather than stand and risk the one-way trial I would have put him and his twisted personnel through, but that is neither here no there. I have heard a report that he attempted to spread into Suna and was promptly defeated, and reduced to a prisoner besides."
Itachi raised a hand, and the older shinobi fell silent.
"That is fortunate news, Hokage-sama. He is dead, if that was his fate before our arrival, for the cells contained only a single rent and crushed form surrounded in fresh blood. There was little else of value to be found within the Kazekage's domain," he amended his earlier report.
Sarutobi exhaled. "Very well. Then it is all the more likely that our village no longer has to fear the ROOT's existence." He carried on, "I must ask now if there is anything else you have to say, or wonder about, regarding Konoha?"
Sasuke's image flashed in his mind, but the more pressing matter of his hunt for Orochimaru took precidence, and he asked, "Do you know of Yakushi Kabuto?"
"Ah," Sarutobi reclined in his seat for the first time since they had begun talking. "Kabuto-san, the spy of two of the Akatsuki." He stated.
"It has been some time since he was apprehended by... Jiraiya, and turned over to our head of interrogation. It is possible he is still alive within the cells." His voice paused, and pressed on rather harder, over the name of his former student.
"... No matter. It will be impossible to carry on until Orochimaru shows himself once more." He said, and knelt to the ground as he had once done a year ago at the time of the massacre. He would have to return to Amegakure with the news of Yakushi Kabuto's loss, but there was one last place he was determined to check upon before that in order to satisfy Pein's orders, regarding his prior mission at any rate.
His brother's image appeared at the back of his mind a few moments later, but he pushed it down again; it was no longer his business to interfere in what Sasuke did with his life, and if the younger Uchiha gathered the resources to grow stronger and yet somehow attain joy to replace the sorrow... that was something he could overlook.
Their family name might yet regain some degree of honor without Sasuke consuming himself in the process, thirsting for strength in order to catch up. "Hokage-sama," he said in a tone of quiet conclusion, and then stood up.
He was almost to the door when the older shinobi decided to give him something to think about.
"Your brother's life is better than it ever was at the estate, Itachi," Sarutobi told him softly, having already expected something regarding the younger Uchiha to crop up during their meeting and not wishing to let the Itachi go without some idea of the changes invoked in Sasuke.
The lines around Itachi's eyes lessened for a moment, unseen, and he nodded in appreciation before resuming his henge in full and exiting.
It took him a bit of time to get through the training grounds and trace his path through the forest, trying to match up the months-old memory of his kyuubinapping by Yamato and the arrival at the base of the Hokage Monument.
The illusion-passage was still there, and he stumbled through it after a short time of running his hands along the solid stone. "Ow." He stated needlessly after rubbing his nose gingerly, and looking ahead some ways.
He was surprised to see some of the ANBU were already looking around the place, though the fact that the giant hole top-side had been patched up a while ago meant they had to have gotten used to exploring it and neutralizing any traps left in place.
He honestly wasn't sure what he hoped to find here, but as the only remaining clue to Sai's arrival short of flat out asking the boy himself and possibly alienating him at this point, Naruto was willing to do a little scouting and see if there might be something useful.
"What are you doing here, brat?" Ibiki called out from one of the tunnels, having just emerged with a short notepad and pen.
Naruto shrugged harmlessly.
Ibiki frowned and pointed with the end of the pen back toward the entrance and exit of the area. "Scram, Namikaze. ANBU security-business-only in this place." He ordered, giving him a firm stare.
For a moment Naruto held his ground, as would be expected from him up until recent months, and then he reluctantly stepped out.
Ibiki muttered to himself afterward, "We have got to start posting a permanent watch on that kid, Fourth's son or no. I've already had one show up from no where, and I don't need to have another vanish back there!"
"Four bowls of Ramen, Teuchi-san," the blond jinchuriki requested several minutes later. He was no further ahead in figuring out what to do with Sai, but ignoring the boy and hoping he settled into Konoha somehow wasn't available as an option.
The man smiled brightly. "I was wondering when I'd see you again, Naruto!" He said pleasantly, scooping a bowl of already prepped and steaming ramen together and setting it down before his number one customer.
He was surprised to see the ryo for the meal was already on the table by the time he turned to serve it.
Naruto never pays up front. In fact, he rarely pays at all! Frowning, he held on to the first bowl reluctantly. "Anything wrong, Naruto?" He asked.
The jinchuriki shrugged noncommittally, then decided to speak his mind regarding another subject. "Sakura-chan's already given up on our friendship, after a couple of days. I know the main reasons why, but I don't know how to change it. Kiba, too."
Teuchi silently breathed a sigh of relief and set the bowl down. "Well, what did you have in mind?" He asked.
Naruto paused to start in on the first bowl and give the subject some thought. Ino's going to be a problem no matter what, but if I don't allow Sakura to resolve this on her own end and try to force the matter, she might just end up despising me for it as much as she did the first time around at this age.
But if she thinks I'm not going to stop helping her with taijutsu, she's pretty well mistaken. In fact, I might be able to teach Kiba a thing or two he doesn't know at this point. Huh.
Swallowing thickly, he pushed the last mouthful in and set the forward, where it was picked up and filled again within moments. "I've got an idea. It might work and it might not, and I guess it depends on how I tackle the matter." He answered the older man's question before starting in on the next bowl.
She knows how skilled I am, and Kiba's mom isn't available all of the time, so she'll have to catch on that ignoring me is only going to be detrimental to her progress- plus, what happened to her words to change my outlook? Too grim, huh?
He shook his head lightly. Grim doesn't begin to describe it, Sakura. Madara's out there, and the worlds events are going to spiral into war all too soon. I've got to get you guys up to speed before... well before the Chuunin Exams.
Before he knew it the second bowl was empty, and he blinked in surprise, having eaten mostly by rote. "Ah, thanks," he said as the third bowl was filled.
"So you have an plan of action then, Naruto?" Teuchi asked. The boy nodded.
"I'll have to get started on it tomorrow, but... then again, maybe today's as good as ever." He said, catching familiar voices a way off before he could even touch the steaming ramen. He slid back from the seat and looked out to see that Sai was being shown around the village by Shikamaru and Chouji, and the Nara was obviously unhappy about being dragged along.
Sai blinked and nodded and mostly kept his arms tucked close to his sides, staying just out of range of Chouji's welcoming-arm as he pointed various shops out, particularly those of food.
"Hey, Chouji! Sai, Shikamaru!" Naruto interrupted as they were about to pass the restaurant. Chouji paused and turned toward Ramen Ichiraku, noticing the blond haired boy standing there, and swallowed the lump in his throat due primarily from Ino's cattiness and general whining where her friendship with Sakura was concerned of late.
"And that's Ramen Ichiraku." He said after a moment.
Shikamaru sighed wearily and stepped over to the nearest seat, dropping down on it lazily and happy for the opportunity to stop walking. Choiji watched as his back-up and support abandoned him and swallowed again.
Sai stared at Naruto. "Ever had ramen?" He asked. Sai blinked.
"What is ramen?"
Naruto grimaced weakly and reached behind himself to grab the third bowl and offered it out to the future-ROOT member.
Seeing that they were effectively halted, the Akimichi accepted the inevitable and approached, herding Sai forward when he seemed hesitant to approach.
Slowly the other boy picked up the offered chopsticks sticking out of the bowl and drew a few noodles with them, eying the meal like a snapping eel. "What now?" He asked weakly, unable to take his gaze away.
"Er... you eat it?" Naruto offered. Sai managed a pained expression at the thought, and slowly lowered the noodles back into the bowl.
"I am full, thank you." He rejected the offer with one of his false-smiles in place. Reluctantly the jinchuriki accepted the denial for what it was and added it to the list of things about Sai he would have to try and change in the time ahead.
End Chapter Twenty-three.