Disclaimer: All your ninja are belong to Kishimoto

A/N: I know the wait was a little longer than usual this time, but the chapter is longer too - as many of your have been requesting. :P It's a trade off. Shorter chapters usually make for faster updates. XD Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter! I appreciate all of the comments and input! :)

Chapter 16: Making Headway:

"Orochimaru. Report." A full contingent of weirdly lit Akatsuki projections gathered in a lose circle around a partially constructed sculpture rising macabre from the rough stone floor. Even in its most basic shape, it was obvious the figure would be massive and entirely hideous when completed.

"My spy was unable to determine much about the Ichibi's Jinchuuriki or observe him in action. Suna's citizens are too fearful to speak of him openly, therefore, I have nothing concrete to add." The Snake Sannin hissed, his tone flat and vaguely uninterested.

Their Leader's figure flickered, and his eyes narrowed suspiciously. Orochimaru had been growing more and more distant from the group, branching out into his own projects far more than he liked, but certain…other…interested individuals approved of his movements against the Leaf so Pein had reluctantly allowed him to continue as long as his plans didn't run counter to their goals. Pein's patience only extended so far though, and Deidara had already been brought in to pick up his slack. He wasn't inclined to tolerate much more from the man. "Sasori – what can you tell us about Shukaku's previous vessels?"

The figure to Orochimaru's left, a hunched and deformed looking creature with a large scorpion's tail was quick to reply, "They were ineffective and didn't last long. I never had the chance to personally observe one, but they say that Shukaku's vessels do not sleep and live only to kill. They were also entirely insane."

"Very well. Both of you are to continue your observations." They nodded and Leader continued, "What of the rest of you? Any further news on the other Bijuu?" No one spoke.

Orochimaru sighed. These meetings were pointless and there were many other things he'd rather be doing with his time. His sharp eyes caught a slight movement from Leader's flickering apparition, his eyes canting to the side in a peculiar way, as if he were listening to someone else in the room with him back in Ame – perhaps even puppeting orders to them like one of Sasori's lifeless creations. How interesting. Was there another power behind that throne?

It wasn't the first time he'd noticed something off in the inner workings of this organization. Ever since they'd begun getting a bit too curious about his personal projects that were none of their concern, he'd been looking for such things…there was a lot about Akatsuki's motives Leader didn't see fit to share with mere underlings, and it didn't sit well with him. Orochimaru didn't like working towards other people's obscure goals, and he didn't like not being in on the secrets. He especially didn't like being unsure who else he was working with. He wanted to be the master, and the idea of having even one, let alone more than one person, thinking themselves above him, rubbed him entirely the wrong way.

"What of Kyuubi? Itachi, Orochimaru, you are from Konoha. Tell us again what you know and if you've heard anything further from any contacts you might have there. We must determine the Nine-Tails' state before we go forward in our plans. The construct's design will vary greatly for eight Bijuu as opposed to nine, and I will not settle for the lesser number if we can have all of them. The existence of one outside of the matrix could throw off the energies rendering the whole thing worthless, and we've been held up long enough by the uncertainty of the Demon King's fate." Pein's projection, standing in the central most position of the circle, continued the meeting.

The two former Konoha shinobi's flickering projections exchanged glances. Orochimaru had been trying to think of ways to acquire the Uchiha's magnificent bloodline ability, but he wasn't willing to make a move on the other Akatsuki's body until he was ready to leave the organization. He had a feeling it wouldn't garner him any points with his peers and there was no reason to make things more difficult on himself before it became necessary.

True, the Sharingan was the ultimate bloodline ability for someone with his aspirations, but he already had a decent vessel lined up for his next body jump; the Kaguya's abilities were definitely worth having, and with the rumors of a true Mokuton user as well…well, he didn't exactly have to rush and possibly make stupid mistakes in his haste. Careful planning now could save him a lot of trouble in the future, and Itachi had a little brother who was showing a great deal of promise.

It wouldn't do to take an inferior body. He liked to window-shop a bit so he wouldn't regret the purchase later. Having to wait three years for the next jump made good choices rather vital. If he played his cards right, he'd be able to casually set the remaining Uchiha against each other when the time became right, and then waltz in and claim his prize in the aftermath while the victor was still weak from the battle. It shouldn't be hard at all; Itachi had done over half the work for him.

"I think we must deal with the reality of the Kyuubi being gone, Leader-sama." The Uchiha muttered, when it became obvious his fellow former Konoha-nin was too absorbed in his own thoughts to answer. "The Fourth sealed it away, and it is presumed dead with its vessel. I do not believe we should continue to let it delay our movements."

"Assumptions are useless. I want facts. Find it."

"But—Un, if it's gone—" Deidara sounded confused. He exchanged a glance with Sasori who he'd been brought in to work with whenever Orochimaru managed to weasel out of his share of the work with whatever it was the snake-faced bastard did on the side.

There was that slight glance to the side again, Orochimaru noticed, before Pein cut Deidara off, "We have new reason to believe the greatest of the nine is not gone. Its energy has been sensed recently. I want its fate discovered. I'm upping this priority for all of you. It is likely not in Konoha anymore, but it IS alive."

Orochimaru carefully surveyed his peers for their reactions and noted that Itachi was the only one among them that didn't seem overly surprised by that revelation, but then again, the Uchiha had a unique link to the Kyuubi. Perhaps he was the one that had sensed it? It would explain Leader's odd phrasing, 'it has been sensed' rather than, 'I have sensed.' But no, that couldn't be right either – the Uchiha hadn't seemed to be aware that the container had survived, and he was rather naturally stoic which would also explain his non-reaction.

Maybe he was just being his usual emotionally dead self…or maybe he'd only been aware that some part of the demon still lived, but not known the extent? That didn't explain Leader's knowledge though; could there be another Uchiha alive? One more powerful than Itachi, and therefore with a greater connection to the demon? …This definitely brooked looking into…He'd set Kabuto on it. His future body needed to be the best, after all. If there were three of them, it would make it a bit more difficult to orchestrate finding out whose eyes were the best, but he was sure he was up to the challenge.

†

"Un - You wanted us to hang back, Leader-sama?" Deidara spoke up once all of the other Akatsuki members besides him and Sasori-danna had flickered out of existence in the darkened cave.

Pein nodded, his many ringed eyes narrowing as he surveyed the two men before him. "I have a secondary mission for you…one that you cannot reveal to Orochimaru under any circumstances…it is a bit of a side project, and one in which I feel his own interests would conflict with ours. While my patience with him is growing short, there is no reason to tip our hands to him while he may still be useful to the organization."

"You can count on us – Un!" The taller and slimmer of the figures affirmed with an enthusiastic nod.

Sasori remained silent, but his eyes remained firmly on Leader's figure, his attention and commitment to the organization unwavering despite the fact that his new part-time partner was anything but subtle and so green it was painful. He repressed a sigh. Why did he have to break in the new ones? He'd almost be a little sad to see Orochimaru go, actually – but at least he'd still have his spies to keep tabs on the snake-faced bastard. He didn't trust him, and hadn't since he'd caught the man looking over his favorite puppet a bit too closely the first time he'd had him out for maintenance in his presence. He'd been careful to keep his precious trophies to himself after that and immediately put his own agent into Orochimaru's ranks. No one touched the Sandaime Kazekage but himself.

"Excellent." Pein said, "There is a boy who may be of use to us. You have heard of the Shodaime of Konoha and his unique power over the tailed beasts?"

That caught Sasori's attention.

"His heir has inherited his kekkei genkai, though how well he is able to use it yet, is unknown. If he has the Bijuu controlling power of his ancestor, he would be invaluable to our organization. If you run across the boy, you are to attempt to determine his potential, SUBTLY – Deidara, that means, YOU – no explosions! - and determine if he is recruitment material."

"What if I—" Sasori started.

"No turning him into a puppet – his corpse might not retain the powers we're looking for that way. We don't know what exactly it is about Mokuton that affects the demons."

"But-"

"No."

Deidara and his mentor exchanged a glance that for once was kind of understanding…sometimes Leader-sama was no fun at all. He had no appreciation for either of their Arts.

Pein killed his own projection jutsu and allowed the rest of his consciousness to settle firmly back into Ame. "Are you sure it's wise to give Orochimaru such reign?" He frowned at the orange-masked man lounging casually at his side. Konan drifted off to pour all three of them tea. She had no idea why, but that communication jutsu always had the side effect of making the users of it thirsty.

"For now, yes." Madara's visible eye flashed. "He thinks he is a much larger snake than he really is. It's almost cute. He is certainly no threat to us, and it would be a mild annoyance were he to start working against the organization's goals. I won't tolerate him ruining the Senju, though. I haven't firmly decided where that boy will fit into our plans, and until we discover how his bloodlimit will fully manifest, it's pointless to make anything concrete. It's best to just put the Sannin off for now."

†

"Kankuro. Temari. Come." Gaara had patiently waited for his siblings to wake up and dress. He'd even decided to try taking their feelings into consideration, and had let them eat breakfast before making demands, but they'd woken up much later than they usually did and wondered around the shared living room between their suite and Gaara's in a daze half the morning. They acted like they didn't know if they were dreaming or actually awake every time he failed to threaten them for some perceived slight. It was exceedingly irritating, and now it was nearly time for lunch with nothing accomplished.

"Erm…Sure, Gaara." Kankuro reflexively agreed from years of asking 'how high?' when his little brother said to jump. "Uh, where are we going?" He slung his bandage-wrapped puppet over his shoulder and then straightened his black suit where the strap had pulled it up a bit. Temari looked curious too, but she wasn't about to argue either.

"We are feeding Naruto lunch. He likes ramen. You will show us where they serve it." Gaara wasn't a big restaurant goer. He seldom left the building that held their respective apartments, actually. What would the point have been? He decided it was past time he got to know his own way around the sorts of things other shinobi enjoyed if he were going to give this whole "humanity" thing another try.

Kankuro wasn't sure he wanted to eat with the scary shortie from last night and his 'maybe-reformed-but-who-really-knew?' homicidal little brother. The idea of it nearly burst his brain. You weren't supposed to calmly eat with people who could kill you with a thought, were you?

"Ramen…?" Temari blinked – being the much more practical and open of the older siblings. "I didn't know you liked ramen, Gaara." She nudged Kankuro with her elbow to remind him to stop gaping like an idiot, and opened the door after slipping on her sandals.

"Hn." The Jinchuuriki explained.

Well…that didn't really clear it up, but at least he was talking, and it wasn't a threat.

The boys echoed her movements, putting on their shoes and following her out the door. "Do you think they changed hotels, or just got a different room at the same one?" Kankuro tentatively asked, deciding to just go along with it for now, and pray it wasn't his day to meet the shinigami. He had to admit, Gaara had been weirdly….normal-ish, since getting beaten by Senju, but he wasn't sure if he trusted that yet. Surely someone couldn't make that kind of drastic turnaround in just one night – striking epiphany or not.

"He is at the same one." Gaara said in his usual monotone.

His siblings exchanged glances, "Okay…er, did you go check on him last night or something?" Temari fished for elaboration.

"No."

They continued to stare at him expectantly and he growled, causing his brother to flinch slightly. This whole thing might be more trouble than it was worth. Getting what he wanted was definitely less time consuming and irritating when he didn't stop himself from threatening to kill whoever was holding him up. "The old man he travels with told me they hadn't moved." The sand Jinchuuriki made himself continue when it became obvious they weren't going to come along until they had more details.

Temari sighed. She supposed that was the best they were going to get out of him, but she'd have liked to hear how he and Senju's sensei had met up and when it had happened. Probably best not to push their luck yet. "Right. Well, we'll pick him up first, and then show you to a decent ramen stand. You eat ramen sometimes, don't you Kankuro?"

"Yeah…I know a good place." The boy said, a bit bemused and settling into the idea of eating ramen with his homicidal little brother…if this worked out, and they all came out of it alive, he guessed they'd have a lot to thank Senju Naruto for in the future.

†

The walk across town from the building that housed their apartments was pretty quiet. Gaara was never one to talk much, and his siblings were a little leery of doing anything that might snap him back to his old self. The other pedestrians, as they always did, quieted down and cleared a path for the Jinchuuriki so as not to draw his attention to them. They were also careful not to look at him, though they could be seen making evil warding gestures after he'd gone by. Gaara ignored them from long practice, staring straight ahead and walking calmly as if they were beneath his notice. His usual glares were entirely absent.

Temari bit her lip, noticing their actions from an outsider's perspective for the first time. How lonely must that kind of life be for her brother, constantly getting nothing but negative attention? It was no wonder he lashed out. She had the sudden urge to hug him, but refrained. If he freaked out at the unexpected gesture, that wouldn't help his image with the rest of the village. She'd save the physical contact experiment for when they were under less public scrutiny.

Still, she really thought she could get to like this new Gaara, and Kankuro was extremely happy that his life hadn't been threatened for a whole morning. He was feeling better and better about this situation with each passing moment. The puppet user felt like he'd lived in constant fear since his father had taken in that bitch from Iwa, and Gaara had been made a genin and put on a team with them. He'd never had to interact with his little brother before Temari and him had been moved into Gaara's building from their old rooms in their father's tower.

This new attitude felt a little like a stay of execution. Sometimes Kankuro had thought it was just a matter of time before the kid snapped and killed them all. Now there was a chance he'd be the main thing that kept them all alive with all the strange crap happening in the village as their father continued to lose it and caused fractioning in the shinobi ranks.

Of course, with the way Gaara was treated, Kankuro wouldn't have even been able to blame him, really if he had snapped and killed them all. That was the hardest part. He didn't know how to be an older brother to the kid, but he was kind of looking forward to figuring it out now that his fear was slowly trickling away. Wasn't it an older brother's job to introduce the younger sibling to things like the wonders of girls?

Wow…that would be awkward.

Temari and Gaara both looked at their brother when he started snickering to himself. Gaara wondered why everyone thought he was the only crazy one in the family. It was patently obvious that it was genetic. His glance slid over to Temari who proceeded to bop the puppeteer over the head – well, at least genetic along the male line. She seemed relatively sane…not that he was a good judge of sanity.

It was kind of nice to see people act normally when he knew that they knew he was there. Usually he had to spy on others to get an idea of what normal, genuine human interaction looked like. He'd often felt like an observer of wild animals when he was younger, before the betrayal - like he had to stay hidden like a scientist studying rare animals to see 'the Human in their natural habitat'.

It was actually much more amusing than he thought it would be to have front row seats to his older sister whapping Kankuro repeatedly with her fan for being stupid in public. Shukaku insisted he was enjoying their suffering and should cause more, but he pushed the voice aside. 'Hmm…it seems my sense of humor runs towards the slap-stick. Who knew?' He thought bemusedly.

"We're here." He pointed out to his squabbling siblings in his normal monotone, his face as blank as ever.

Temari casually affixed her fan to her back again and stepped on Kankuro to get to the inn's door and open it for her littlest brother. "After you, Gaara-kun."

Kankuro made an "oof"ing sound when her foot hit his back and nonchalantly pulled himself to his feet, dusting off his black jumpsuit. He was relatively used to such treatment. Why were girls so violent?

Gaara blinked at being referred to with the 'kun' suffix. That hadn't happened to him in a very long time.

Both boys stepped into the lobby, followed by their sister, and made their way to the desk to ask after Naruto's new room.

†

Naruto had spent the morning coming to terms with what had happened with Gaara and the heated discussion he'd had with his godfather over it. He'd come to the conclusion that the old man had some good points, but that he also couldn't really put himself in Naruto's place in a situation like this – affected as he was by his own hurt and jaded by his past. He loved the man dearly as his only living male role model, but he wasn't blind to his faults – in some ways, he was just as tormented by his past as Kaa-san. Just because Orochimaru had betrayed his village and his teammates didn't mean all shinobi were willing or likely to do that.

Naruto knew that when you trusted someone you opened yourself up to hurt, but he didn't believe that was a good reason not to trust anyone, even if you WERE a ninja. That kind of lonely existence wouldn't be worth living, and he didn't think he could condone the shinobi lifestyle of necessary killings and violence if everyone who called themselves a ninja were just heartless and mindless killing machines, never considering their actions beyond their orders. He had a feeling that was what had Suna in trouble at the moment; if what Gaara had said about the Kazekage were true…he was going mad, if he wasn't already, but no one was saying anything or going against his orders just because he was the leader.

A leader was only good and entitled to that position while his or her decisions continued to improve or preserve the lives of those under them. Leaders who became irrational and failed to do their duty needed to be removed just like anyone else who couldn't do their job. Sanity was a pretty important part of making decisions that could affect the lives of everyone in a whole village, let alone a country.

The Senju couldn't be the kind of ninja that would continue to follow a ruler like that, and he knew his godfather wasn't either. He'd just been speaking in absolutes. Still, he got the message; he couldn't let his feelings stop him from his duty, and he knew his duty would be pretty ugly sometimes. That didn't mean he had to let the life kill his soul. He didn't think he could ever completely be someone else's tool, even if it meant fulfilling missions and following orders hurt him a little more inside than the average shinobi.

He promised himself right there that he'd take responsibility for everything he would ever do as a ninja. "Following orders" would never be his scapegoat, so he wouldn't have any regrets. He wouldn't let his feelings affect his duty, but he wouldn't let what he had to do completely close off his heart, either. He'd be utterly ruthless if he had to be and deal with his own feelings about it afterwards. A shinobi's duty was to his village, not himself.

He sighed and looked out the window at the hot desert day. After a morning of quiet contemplation like that, Naruto was more than ready for a distraction from his troubling thoughts, but the old pervert was still sleeping. Wordlessly he snuck up onto the bed and loomed over his godfather who failed to so much as mutter or stir.

Pbft, some elite shinobi, sleeping through someone getting that close to him. Where were the vaunted hair-trigger instincts? If the old man wanted to go on about the role of a ninja, he could at least act like one, himself. "Hey, Jiji. Wake up. I'm hungry."

No response.

"Ero-Sensei!" He poked him in the cheek. Still nothing.

Naruto commenced poking Jiraiya's sleeping face at precise two-second intervals. Now that he'd sufficiently dealt with his issues, he was quickly getting bored and the Sannin had stumbled in just before dawn smelling of booze and cheap perfume. He'd been so loud getting ready for bed that Naruto hadn't been able to go back to sleep, so he'd ordered breakfast from the downstairs kitchen before tackling the less literal of his internal demons.

It was almost lunchtime now, and he wanted to go out to get food. The room service here frankly sucked, but he wasn't about to head out on his own without letting his godfather know where he was going. Not after yesterday's fiasco.

Now if he could only wake the sennin up! What kind of ninja slept until noon, anyway? It was disgraceful! Even Kaa-san usually drug her ass out of bed by 10:00 every morning—not that he would be any different if he weren't so eager to train every day, but that wasn't the point!

He added a litany of "Pervert" after every poke. Jiraiya just mumbled and turned over.

"ARGH!!" Sometimes he really got irritated with the old man. He didn't really want to aggravate him after the argument they'd had last night, but he wasn't going to put up with his shit either.

A knock on the door drew him out of the elaborate prank he was just beginning to draw up to teach Jiraiya a lesson for sleeping through being poked a few hundred times. He leapt up and sprang to the door to look through the peephole, only to see the Sand Siblings arguing on the other side. From what he could hear of their conversation through the door, it seemed like Temari was trying to explain to Gaara why a person had to politely knock before barging in or obliterating an obstacle with the power of one's horrible bloodthirsty sand demon. Gaara remained expressionless, but Naruto thought he looked like he thought Temari was being a killjoy.

The Leaf Genin grinned and threw the lock so he could let the visitors inside. "Hey guys! I didn't expect you this early! Want to help me wake up the pervert? I haven't had lunch yet, and I'm going to smash something if I have to eat this inn's crappy food again!"

"I'm awake." A grumpy voice muttered from the huddle of sheets that was the Sannin. "Who could sleep with all the racket you're making?"

"I poked you 356 times before they knocked, Ero-jiji. You've got a nice bruise on your cheek if you don't believe me." Naruto snipped.

"Eh?" The old man raised a hand to feel his cheek and grinned sheepishly. It was a little sore. Knowing Naruto's penchant for tricks, he actually felt pretty lucky that was all he had if his student had gotten that bored waiting for him to crawl out of bed. He wondered if the restraint was due to any lingering feelings of confusion from their discussion. He'd have to pull the kid aside later and talk to him some more about it. He didn't like the idea of having any sort of rift between him and his godson. He had too few precious people left to let something like that fester, so he wanted to make sure the brat knew there were no hard feelings as long as he'd learned something from it and would at least think about things more. "Eh, heh…sorry about that. I had a hard night of information gathering, you know! I must have been pretty deeply asleep after all that work."

None of the kids looked like they were buying it.

"Well, er…I'll just get dressed and stuff then, and we can go grab breakfast."

"Lunch!" Naruto growled, pointing out the window at the angle of hot sunshine to emphasize his point.

"Er…right…Lunch then." Well, the kid didn't ACT like it was still bugging him. That was good; maybe the talk would be unnecessary. They were men after all, and men didn't need all that 'talk about your feelings' crap.

"Kankuro is feeding us ramen." Gaara announced.

"What?! I'm not treating you! I said I'd show you where a good stand was!" Kankuro protested.

Everyone pretended that they couldn't hear him over Naruto's exuberant cheers.

†

Lunch started out a bit roughly when the ramen chef looked utterly petrified to see Gaara among his newest batch of customers. Naruto looked ready to leap to his defense, but the redhead just held out a hand to keep him back and gave the man his usual blank stare before very politely asking for a menu.

The cook was so shocked to hear something other than death threats come out of his mouth that he automatically did as asked, mechanically taking their orders and beginning preparations before he even processed the situation further. After serving the first round of ramen bowls without so much as a violent eye twitch from the Jinchuuriki, he began to loosen up considerably.

It helped that Gaara seemed to take to ramen like Naruto had. Jiraiya wondered if it was a demon vessel thing. They were both on their fifth bowls. He had a feeling that if Tsunade were here she'd start ranting about starches, carbohydrates, and unnatural metabolisms. They were both sort of eating for two, after all.

"I like ramen very much." Gaara announced. It was the only thing he'd added to the conversations since they'd made their lunch selections.

Temari and Kankuro stared at him with gaping mouths. He almost seemed…enthusiastic!

The old ramen chef was definitely thrilled. He could see the new marketing campaign now, ramen so good it tames the savage demon! He'd be RICH!

Gaara and Naruto each accepted their sixth bowls and eagerly dug in. "We are eating ramen all the time." The sand Jinchuuriki informed his siblings.

"Er, but Gaara, that's not really healthy to eat the same thing all the time…and there's lots of other types of food you haven't tried yet." Temari tentatively tried arguing with him. He hadn't snapped back at them yet, so maybe this change was here to stay? She was definitely willing to give treating him like a normal person a fair chance.

He blinked, "I like ramen."

"You think ramen's good? Wait until you try ice cream!" Kankuro decided since Temari was still alive he'd give it a go too.

"Does ice cream taste like ramen?" The redhead's eyes narrowed at his siblings who looked a little frightened for a moment at the expression, but bravely rallied themselves.

"No…but you CAN get it in lots of other flavors. Even coffee flavored!" Temari said the magic word.

"…coffee?"

And so the four gennin drug Jiraiya off to the ice cream stand. This time Temari paid because Kankuro had blown way more than he was comfortable with on lunch. Gaara got a sundae as big at his head, and the ice cream parlor would be advertising 'frozen treats guaranteed to make even the surliest creatures happy!' for years to come.

It didn't hurt their business that they were open 24 hours because of the weird schedules people in the desert village tended to keep; though they did have to stock up on mocha chunky chocolate chip far more often than most other flavors from then on. Shukaku's Jinchuuriki often got ice cream cravings when normal people were sleeping.

†

When they finally made it back to the hotel room Gaara's head was practically spinning with all the new experiences. Once they'd been reassured by his behavior that he wasn't going to crush them on a whim, the proprietors of both food stalls had been extremely respectful to him, if a bit tentative. The ramen chef had even grinned and shook his hand when he left, telling him to come back any time! That probably had something to do with the eight servings he'd consumed, but still…It was surreal.

He'd given up on restaurants ages ago because it was extremely difficult to get good service when the staff kept wetting themselves, and Shukaku might have appreciated the taste of blood, but his jailer certainly didn't…besides, having to kill people like that got sand in the food. Eating by himself had been much preferable all around. It had the added bonus of not provoking his demon into grisly diatribes about what he should do to the other humans around him, which occasionally got graphic enough to churn even the homicidal Jinchuuriki's stomach.

"Okay, Gaki – take off the shirt and let's see this seal of yours." Jiraiya said after carefully locking the door behind them.

That was another thing he had to get used to. The old man seemed to have lumped him into the same category as Naruto after they'd left the ramen shop, at least verbally, because he'd started calling him the same derogatory nicknames. No one had ever dared to give him a nickname besides "monster" or "demon" before.

He carefully removed his gourd and slipped off his short-sleeved black tunic and the netted t-shirt he wore underneath it. He felt a bit self-conscious with Temari and Kankuro there, staring at him, but Naruto grinned and slapped him on the back in a friendly gesture he'd often seen others use with their comrades. For some reason, that made him feel better even though he barely registered the contact through his sand armor, which began to flake off annoyingly where the Senju had touched him.

Shukaku hummed happily in the back of his mind in the aftermath of the contact. He wasn't ever going to get used to that part. Naruto made his demon far more annoying than it was naturally inclined to be. He'd gotten used to the insane bloody ramblings after all these years and could easily ignore them now, but this was just CREEPY.

"Don't worry about Jiji! You get used to it after a while. He's always wanting to get a look at my seal too." The blond boy whispered to him behind his hand, too soft for his siblings to hear.

Gaara nodded and molded a little chakra into the seal to make it visible. He stared blankly ahead while the old man scrutinized him, occasionally making a full circuit study of his torso for some reason, and making 'hmm'ing sounds.

"Well?" Surprisingly, Temari's patience cracked before Naruto's. "Can you help him out or what?"

Jiraiya straightened up. "Nope! Not a thing I can do!" He grinned a little sheepishly.

"You spent all that time staring at him, only to tell us there's nothing you can do?" Naruto exclaimed.

"Well…it's really interesting! Total crap at holding back the demon, but well calculated crap…and hey! I think I finally figured out what's missing from that sealing sequence I've been working on for years! Your Mom's gonna be thrilled!" He proceeded to ignore them and whipped out his notebook and the small metal bits Naruto had become so accustomed to seeing him fiddle with on occasion for as long as he could remember.

Temari's eye began twitching erratically.

Gaara calmly put his shirts back on and re-shouldered his gourd. He hadn't expected anything else. The old man had warned him this was the most likely outcome, and he wasn't one to get his hopes up about anything.

"There's got to be something you can do." Naruto snatched the pencil out of his sensei's hand so he couldn't keep making notes.

Jiraiya frowned and pulled another one out of his jacket without even really looking up, "Nope. It's a two point seal – hardly good enough to hold Shukaku back at all. Unless I had the original diagram and notes, I wouldn't mess with it for anything because there's absolutely zero wiggle room. It's almost genius how it's got the exact right amount of power. Even a little less and the Ichibi would be the one in the driver's seat, and there's certainly not a speck of extra strength in it. Whoever did it knew what they were doing and had some spectacular chakra control." He sketched out a tiny row of symbols on one of the countless diagrams in his book and compared it to what he'd already inscribed on the trinket in his other hand.

Kankuro sighed and Temari placed a tentative hand on Gaara's shoulder. "We'll figure something out, Gaara-kun."

He nodded. "I will go see Chiyo-sama."

"S'good idea." Jiraiya mumbled. "She was most likely the mastermind behind that thing." He made some more notes.

Naruto sighed, "I'd really hoped Ero-jiji would be able to help you. I LOVE sleep. I can't imagine never getting to do it."

"It isn't hard. I do not know what it feels like, so I don't miss it." The other boy stated.

Temari and Kankuro exchanged sad glances.

Naruto wanted something to cheer everyone up and clear out the oppressive atmosphere. "Hey, if there's nothing we can do here, why don't we find someplace to spar? It'll be fun!"

Kankuro frowned. He didn't think he wanted to take on a kid who could take down Gaara with a needle. He just couldn't get over that. Temari looked kind of interested though. Her wind attacks made most weapons useless, after all.

"Okay. We can use Gaara's private training ground." The kunoichi grinned. It would be fun to wipe the floor with that little snot no matter how grateful she was to him for what he'd done for her little brother. He looked like the kind of sap to go easy on people during spars out of some stupid fear of hurting them, so despite a healthy respect for his skills, she wasn't scared.

"Yosh! Come on Ero-jiji – you can mess with your seal at the training ground." Naruto jumped up and started to drag the older man out of the room by the arm.

"Hey! I'm working here! I don't mess with you while you're trying to figure something out!" He whined.

"That's why you're such a shitty teacher!" Naruto retorted, "You're not supposed to make me just figure stuff out! Besides, you're the one that said I wasn't to wonder around without you!"

The Sand Siblings exchanged glances and Kankuro shrugged, "After you guys?" They followed the squabbling duo out the door.

†

Gaara, Jiraiya, and Kankuro sat on a stone bench away from the huge clouds of sand Temari was kicking up while trying to defend against Naruto's attacks. Kankuro kept craning his head to try and see what was going on, and Jiraiya kept fiddling with his bits of metal. As far as the puppet user could tell, it was only a matter of time before the younger kid wiped the desert with his bossy sister, and he definitely wanted to see that!

Gaara frowned and gestured casually with his hand, clearing the sand from the air that had been blocking their view. Temari eep-ed – the low visibility had been a huge advantage for her since her attacks weren't exactly precision based like her opponent's were. "Hey! Not fair, GAARA!"

Naruto laughed and sent a wave of senbon-bearing Kage Bunshin after her. His clones were just as good at dodging attacks as he was, but her jutsu had cutting area effects they couldn't always avoid. He kept making them as fast as she could dispel them, challenging himself to exactly keep up with her and no more, in order to drag it out. In light of that, the fight seemed pretty even until the kunoichi suddenly felt something wrap around her ankle and tug straight downwards. She instantly found herself neck deep in the sand with a grinning blond Jinchuuriki looming over her. "HA, how do you like my Doton: Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu – Mokuton-style!" He crowed.

Ivy slid out of the ground and looped loosely back around his waist, looking a little worse for wear at so much of her being away from his body in these conditions. His great grandfather's necklace really had helped with his control, but he hadn't exactly expected that to work, especially not here…He thought the new markings on his hand must mean his kekkei genkai had gotten another boost.

Temari growled and pulled herself out of the soft sand easily with a bit of chakra. "Best two out of three, Punk!" She peevishly shook the large bits of dust out of her loosely draped top. Kankuro practically rolled on the ground at seeing his sister taken down a notch.

"You're on!" Naruto grinned. He was technically at a huge disadvantage in this environment, especially since his offensive (i.e. non medical) repertoire was pretty much only a couple of offensive water and earth jutsu – his teachers had assumed he had an affinity for them after all – and neither element worked really well on shifting sand in the desert! With her wind's huge area effects, she was about the worst match-up he could ask for if he could only use normally thrown senbon. Distance fighters with excellent defense were a pain in the ass.

In these conditions, he had decided to take a page out of Gaara's book and stand back himself while sending in waves of attacking clones. He probably could have just overwhelmed her with massive numbers of Kage Bunshin, or waited her out since she didn't have near his stamina, but what fun would that be? This kind of challenge was just the sort he liked best! Ivy tightened in irritation around his waist and he grimaced a bit. Ivy wasn't as fond, but she could deal!

Deciding to take a different tactic this time around, Naruto leapt at Temari again with an energetic laugh. The kunoichi frantically took off trying to get some distance between them. The little bastard was way too fast! If he'd bothered to figure out the trick to sand walking, she'd never have gotten an attack off even that first time!

Kankuro eagerly cheered his sister on in the second, more prolonged match even though she kept cheating by floating around on her fan until a rain of senbon convinced her that wouldn't be a good idea if she wanted to keep her precious weapon intact.

Gaara quickly grew bored with inactivity. He thought about challenging Naruto again, but his sand was useless against the other boy's kekkei genkai in close range, and he didn't have any other shinobi skills worth mentioning. He never thought he'd need them. He glanced for a moment at his brother, but he didn't want to frighten his siblings by practicing with them, and they decidedly weren't a good challenge. He'd never really cared to hold back, even in training before, so he wasn't sure he trusted himself not to hurt them even if they were willing to give it a try.

"Bored?" The Sannin had put whatever strange project he'd been working on back into his jacket – probably afraid the flying sand would damage the delicate looking work.

"I am unused to simply watching a battle." Gaara murmured.

Jiraiya struck a thinking pose, and then grinned. His idea was a little sneaky, and maybe a little mean, but the old hag deserved it. With that stoic attitude and a will stubborn enough to survive the kind of hell his childhood had been, the Sannin was willing to bet Gaara would be a veritable pit-bull once you got an idea in his head. If that bitch, Chiyo was anything like he remembered her from the war, she could probably use the shaking up, and it would be good for Gaara too. No matter how scary he thought he was, there was no way she'd take his shit.

"Here, kid." He passed a basic book of sealing techniques he'd taken to carrying while he worked on his project, over to the redhead. "Read that if you want something else to do. You might learn something, and if the old hag has questions when you go ask her about your seal, you'll be able to answer them better."

"Hn…" Gaara frowned a little, but he had just been thinking that it would be a good idea to branch out his talents…He opened the book and immediately became absorbed in the ordered world of seal making.

"Heh, heh…" Jiraiya chuckled. That would teach the isolationist old bag to fuck with a kid's life. She'd have to personally deal with the consequences!

†

A/N: Well, a lot happened that chapter, and I know I skipped around a bit, but hopefully it wasn't too hard to follow. ;) I don't have much to say about this chapter except that writing the Akatsuki meeting was way harder than it should have been. XD I hope it wasn't too confusing.

Thanks again to everyone who read and reviewed last time! :) I enjoy hearing from all of you and answering your questions - at least as much as I can without giving away the plot. ;)

As always, there is art in the profile! :D