A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY

ACT VI
~ RESOULUTIONS AND RUMORS ~

When Naruto awoke, semi-awoke at any rate, it was to the vaguely familiar ceiling of Sasuke's bedroom (she recognised her seven year-old crayon scribbles in the left hand corner).

Her head ached so much it was almost inhumane. What on earth had she been doing for it to ache this much? The last time it had ached this much was after her physical exam against a Sasuke-fan girl in the Academey; the girl had been so frustrated over being outdone she'd thrown an unavoidable rock at her head. Sasuke would probably have killed her if Ino hadn't held him back.

In her musings, it dawned on Naruto that Sasuke had been seeing her differently from the other girls for a lot longer than she had originally thought; she had assumed it was just friendly concern at the time but, now that she was remembering the incident it made mores sense if she thought of his action in a romantic-ish-sort-of sense.

'Wait, how can I remember that so easily? I couldn't even remember the date before!'

Naruto pondered this this thought with great concentration. No doubt her new migraine was linked to her sudden regain of memorization and reccolective abilities; it was the why that bothered her. She was missing something important, she was certain! She knew it was in her mind, she could feel it, but something kept pushing it down whenever she brushed over it. It was almost as if she was fighting to keep a secret from herself.

"I don't care! It won't change anything!" she yelled, hoping to get through to her subconscious wariness.

It seemed to work; images of black spiralling commas bleeding into red irises emblazoned themselves across her minds eye. The memory, coupled with a distant crash of thunder, stunned her into a state of full awareness. She sat up in the bed she was laying on, feeling the cold sweat trickling down the back of her neck and her hands shaking.

Why did she have the Sharingan?! Only those with the 'purest' blood of the Uchiha's possessed the Sharingan! She knew enough to know that what had occurred at the ramen stall had been a natural manifestation of the bloodline, so that ruled out a transplant like Kakashi's (it was the only explanation she could think of for his Sharingan).

That could only lead her to believe it was the result of some freaky experiment (unlikely, but possible) or…

Or the people she'd considered family had been her family all along. But if that was true, then why didn't Fugaku tell her? Why all the farce with the orphanage? And what about her mother and father? Had Kushina Uzumaki really been her mother? Or was it her father who had come from the Uchiha clan?

Why hadn't anyone told her the truth?!

A click from the doorway and a familiar voice announced Sasuke's presence in the room.

"You're awake… You feel any better?" he asked quietly, closing the door behind him without as much as a creak.
He made no move to move closer to her, instead standing awkwardly with his back slumped against the doorway.

"Just a headache is all…" she replied just as noiselessly.

She hadn't even begun to think about how Sasuke would fit into this messed up tangle of lies and secrets, which was obviously the scenario they found themselves in. Why else would Fugaku fail to mention that she was a freaking Uchiha? This was so messed up!

Just when she and Sasuke decide to take things a step beyond friendship (something that had been working out rather well thank you very much!), the gods all but blurt out she's closer to him than originally suspected. She had always wondered why his father had chosen to sponsor her, and now she had a pretty god idea why!

If she remembered the day at the cemetery, her instincts had told her it was a bad idea to start a relationship with Sasuke. She should have listened to them instead of ignoring them like she always did with Sasuke for once! They hadn't been dating (if it could be called that) for long but she didn't want to let go of something that had turned out to be a good thing.

But with the facts she knew out in the open...
How could they stay in a relationship if they were related?

'I don't care! It won't change anything!'

Naruto clenched her fist as her earlier resolution floated into the forefront of her thoughts. She was being a coward! She'd made her decision already hadn't she? Sasuke had always been there, offering support when it was required and putting up with her mischief with a half-smile when it was not.

That had been well before any of this… mess… had reared its ugly head. She had decided to chance a relationship despite her instincts claiming otherwise, and she wasn't going to back down from that! Screw biology! She'd developed a crush on him first, and things were going to stay that way stupid Sharingan be damned!

That was what she had decided, but it didn't erase the lingering sense of unease that surrounded the new spider's web she found herself entangled in.

Sasuke watched from the doorway anxiously. He had no idea what he was supposed to say in this situation; how could he? He'd never had a girlfriend suddenly reveal herself to be a relative before. He didn't blame Naruto for the situation in any way; the fainting thing hadn't just been from the sudden activation, she had been as genuinely shocked by the revelation as he had.

He had told his father and brother of the wobbly-counter incident, but edited it to include Naruto being knocked out instead of the actual events (he had forewarned Ino of this before parting ways, should she talk to either later on). For whatever reason, Naruto's inheritance was obviously a closely guarded secret and he didn't want to cause any unnecessary damage before knowing why.

His father knew what was going on - that much was easily guessed - and Itachi most probably had his own suspicions. Kakashi was obviously aware of the full story if his private discussions with his father were anything to go by (Naruto must have activated the Sharingan during the wave mission without his notice).

He was certain he would get no straight answers from any of them, more likely he and Naruto would have their memories completely erased of the incident and her Sharingan altogether.

He and Naruto; Sasuke had thought long and hard during the girls unconsciousness and come to the conclusion that he could handle the information if she could.

He loved her, plain and simple. His little crush had been more than a little crush for a long time, and this sudden revelation had brought it to his attention. So what if they were related? It was just another reason to do so; Naruto may not have the same level of feelings as he did yet (though that could be debated), but he'd be damned if he gave up without a fight.

"I told them you hit your head on the countertop when Ino jostled it..." he stated carefully.

Her head snapped around to face him, and he noted in the dim light that her eyes had reverted to their usual form - the normal iris and pupil combination she'd had before the wave mission. Her eyes fascinated him - there was so much determination in them.

Before he had been aware of the Kyuubi, he had never fully understood that determination. Now that he did, he was willing to do whatever he could to bash some sense in to the villagers' thick skulls. He'd felt that way before of course, but the reason for thir malice had simply heightened the feeling.

Now there was another level to that determination, and once again it captivated him.

"…Father hid this for a reason, and until we know what it is… I didn't want to take any risks."

He finished his explanation with a barely discernible note of concern. Lightning flashed its brightness trough out the room as the advancing storm finally reached the boundaries of the villages, and Sasuke saw fear flash across her face in that instant.

Any sense of discomfort was gone as he sat down on the edge of the bed. He had briefly considered hugging her, but that might be a bit too much for her to handle at the moment. While he knew he didn't care about the non-existent impact this would have on their relationship, he had no idea what she thought of the situation.

That being said, he found himself fairly taken aback when she crashed into his chest with near enough force to blast the air from his lungs. He could feel her shaking and wondered what was going through her mind; it was hard enough for him to accept that his relative was a family member, but for Naruto she would be coming to terms with the fact she had a family.

A real one, that consisted of people she had considered substitutes for her non-existent one. He couldn't begin to imagine how that felt.

There was another crash of thunder and Sasuke began to wonder if it was going to blowing a gale and squalling thunder every time a major event occurred in their lives. As he pondered this, Naruto's arms tentatively crawled around his back. He was stunned still for a brief second before crushing her body against his with some force.

"…I hate it Sasuke" she mumbled into his shirt. "Every time things seem to be going the way I want them to, something comes along to mess things up. First Kyuubi, now this! Why cant things just be simple for once?!"

Her voice did not waver in the slightest, but the patches of damp fabric on his chest told him she was crying whether she wanted to or not. He could hardly blame her for that though; Naruto acted tough, and he often thought of her as a separate species of human instead of a girl, but she did not deal with things she didn't understand well.

Change, or anything she couldn't fully understand, scared her. It wasn't often, and he had only seen two glimpses of it before now, but it was during times like these when her guard had fully dissipated that he realised that she was a girl. And like all girls (as far as he was aware of at any rate), she was far more vocal with her emotions.

This sudden change had opened up so many levels of incomprehension that she was all but lost. Who was she? Why did they lie to her? (And they had lied at least once) What was she supposed to do with this new information? What did this mean for their relationship? All valid questions he didn't doubt were flooding her thoughts.

"I'll help you get the answers you want Naruto; I want them too" he stated quietly, wrapping his arms tighter around her.

Pulling her closer to him. He was still unsure as to where she stood on the topic of where they stood, but he decided that didn't matter in the end. As long a she was happy, he could live with it. Probably.

"…you know... This doesn't change anything for me. You were my boyfriend before you were family…"

Sasuke said nothing as he buried his head amongst the blonde tangles on her shoulder, hiding his own tortuously leaky eyes, before a issuing a silent whisper of agreement over a crash of thunder.

"Me too, idiot"

For the rest of the week, team seven plunged into their training for the upcoming Chunin exams. Besides their usual training, Sasuke and Ino were almost ground into the dirt during family training sessions, whilst even Naruto was turned into a wheezing pile thanks to Kakashi's Spartan training methods.

While Ino was drilled on how to mind-rape enemy ninja, and Sasuke to serve them as cinders, Kakashi all but carved the basics of Illusions into the blonde girl. This was accompanied by lessons in the physical arts Naruto swore he had copied from his rival Gai (such was their intensity), and sessions on just how to use her shadow clones to her advantage.

Kakashi had sat her down and explained the two benefits of her solid doppelgangers. First was the ability to transfer information; while Naruto was not too bothered about the storing part (her now-fixed memory could do that by itself), she could see the possibilities this would have on her training.

The second was that the shadow clone seal could be added to, forming clones much the same as elemental ones or otherwise whilst still training information - something usual elemental clones and the like were incapable of. This had stumped Naruto, having only read about elemental clones for a few brief moments in the academy.

Kakashi had then given her an example of a lightning clone, and thrown a kunai into the clone. The bolts of electricity had scorched the landscape where it exploded. Kakashi explained that while the clone caused damage, he gained no information, and used at least a third of his chakra in making it.

Since Naruto's clones were a blank canvas, and she had vast reserves of chakra before ever coming close to that of the Kyuubi, the possibilities for her clones were only limited to her own imagination. Kakashi had to suppress a shudder when he saw the manically gleeful expression on her face when she picked up on this fact.

And so Naruto worked on her shadow clones.

Kakashi often wondered if he was pushing her too hard sometimes; several times he had been required to wake the girl up himself (he'd almost received a kunai in his face the first time he tried that). She was unusually exhausted considering her usual limits.

While Kakashi was correct that her exhaustion was due to her training for an extent, he was incorrect in thinking it was due to his sessions. While their guardians remained oblivious, Ino and Sasuke had been training her in chakra control (courtesy of Ino - Naruto did not complain, she was aware of her abysmal control compared to her team-mates), and in all things Red and Uchiha.

As Sasuke learned control and use over her his Sharingan, he all but pummelled the same teachings into Naruto. It had always been the best way to teach her - Naruto may have the memory that came with the red bloodline, but understanding what she memorised was another thing entirely.

Teaching her control of the Sharingan was essential; if the adults surrounding them were aware that they were aware of Naruto's lineage (sort-of: who her parents had been was still a mystery), and that they knew the adults knew more than they currently knew, things would get very messy very quickly.

Which was why Sasuke drilled Naruto twice as hard as his father had him; if she accidentally used it during the exams and someone was close enough to notice, the messiness would begin. Not to mention that leaving it untrained could severely mess up the user's eyesight.

Alongside this were the traditional fire techniques the Uchiha specialised in - Sasuke was fuming when her first fireball was twice the size of his usual ones. As soon as she had the technique as controlled as her clones, she began experimenting with her hand seals for the doppelgangers.

Naruto was not the only one who was given aid; in a reverse situation she was sending them to exhaustion and back via physical exercises and chakra expulsion techniques - she was all but forcing her two friends to increase their chakra and stamina reserves. It was three days before she was satisfied, and by this time Sasuke and Ino pitied any poor Genin team she was given in the future; Kakashi's Spartan training had been a bad influence on the girl.

They cheered up, however, when Naruto began showing them the hand seals for her tried and trusted shadow clones, as well as showing a trick she had picked up whilst fiddling with her hand seals. Their joy only lasted until almost half their new reserves were sucked dry upon creating two clones each.

Ino got her own back by hurling her mind manipulation techniques and illusions at the two young Sharingan did the same by training their physical skill and weaponry till they were all but spitting blood.

On the last day of their training, Kakashi received a small heart attack when he found no trolls waiting for him as usual.

'Where the hell are those two idiots?!' Ino yelled to herself, pulling on her blonde locks to vent her frustration.

She was standing in the exam room having easily moved past the illusion trap, but her two team-mates still hadn't arrived. She knew they had wanted to get in some extra practice with Naruto's Sharingan this morning, but still! They had to turn up for the exam if they actually wanted to pass!

Icha Icha Paradise was hanging in the balance here!

What on earth were they doing?! It wasn't just her that was panicking either; Shikamaru was actually pacing for once! Had this not been such a serious situation, she would have been laughing along with her brother and Choji. She still hadn't found out why her twin was on Shikamaru's team, but she could find out later.

Much as she hoped nothing bad had happened to Sakura, she had more important things to worry about.
Like two Uchihas who had picked up unsavoury habits from their teacher!

Ino had been contemplating possessing one of the instructors to stall for time when the door to the exam hall burst open, revealing two breathless Genin. Naruto seemed wheezed, but Ino knew that she was no-where near exhaustion. Not to mention the smug triumphant grin that decorated her scarred cheeks. A similar expression on Sasuke's face raised her eyebrow.

After receiving a lecture on time-keeping from Ibiki, the two rushed themselves to the two remaining seats at the front and back of the room respectively as the head of the interrogation department explained the exam. Ino felt like strangling her father's work-mate when he revealed the nature of the test; she and Sasuke may have picked up on the cheating aspect, but Naruto…

Despite Ino's worries, Naruto did pick up on the nature of the test eventually. Unfortunately this brought up a second problem for the blonde; how was she supposed to cheat? There was no way she could use her Sharingan like Sasuke could, if Ibiki saw it things would go downhill fairly quickly. Additionally, she had no techniques suitable for infiltration.

If she had studied the information required in the academy then it would be easy as 1, 2, 3. Since Chunin were well above academy students intellectually however, it was like learning to read all over again. How was she supposed to recall information she had never learned in the first place?

If Ino's mind transfer could be used this would have been so much simpler, unfortunately this had proven to be impossible. During a sparring session Ino had used said technique and emerged from her mind a gibbering terrified mess after an encounter with her lodger.

She could feel Sasuke watching as she tugged on her poor pigtails in frustration. Who the hell thought up such a twisted exam? The examiner? The old geezer? Was this a plot to keep her from the highly coveted Icha Icha Paradise? If it was, someone would receive severe injuries for their actions.

After going through several possible solutions involving her lunchbox, kunai, and superglue, Naruto decided to give the exam up as a bad job and laid her head on the desk waiting for the final question.

Glancing over her shoulder after what she deducted to be the most sadistic exam in existence, Naruto cackled at Ibiki's look of disgust upon sight of the small patch of drool on her blank paper.

Sasuke was seated in the middle of the forest of death on a mangled tree stump, pondering the unfathomable creatures otherwise known as female Homo sapiens.

Ino had somehow managed to mangle her skirt to shreds moving through some particularly thorny shrubbery and had insisted on changing into a spare pair of Naruto's shorts (which looked suspiciously like a pair of his own that had disappeared from his wardrobe several weeks ago). They were only three hours into this frickin' triple X nature walk for god's sake!

What Sasuke contemplated was the need for girls to travel in groups when such events or similar instances arose.

It completely baffled him; why did girls need another girl present when sorting their clothing? True, Naruto was not bothered with this sort of business, but Ino consistently dragged Naruto off for such events. As well as for such instances occurring to the brighter coloured blonde; Ino had all but built a barricade on the door when fixing Naruto's jacket during the wave mission.

Surely Ino could change clothes by herself? And why did she insist on running of to god knows where to do so? He wasn't going to look at anything. The mere though sent bad shivers down his spine (though if it were Naruto…). His objections were based around the stolen opportunity to make-out with Naruto again and the sheer idiocy of the action during their current state of affairs.

What if one of them was attacked by another team?

Good as they were, Sasuke doubted he would be able to fend off three ninja at once, let alone Naruto and Ino - though they would have a better chance than he would. Especially those creepy grass ninjas. What the hell was up with those creeps anyway? They heightened his strategy to stay in a group all the more!

Why did he have to put up with this? Hadn't that earlier incident with those crazy mist ninjas taught them going of by themselves was a bad idea? He'd made sure those mist ninjas had been well knocked out for that appalling attempt at impersonation. The man's speech habits had been far too polite; Naruto had laughed at him for his impersonator's inadequacies!

A rustle from the bushes sent a jolt of surprise down Sasuke's spine and a kunai involuntarily slipped from his hand towards the rustling shrubbery. There was an outraged squawk from the greenery and the two blondes emerged looking a little bedraggled. Ino looked set to kill and Naruto was equally discontent.

"What's the password?" he asked, holding another two kunai in front of him.

After the mist ninjas had been knocked out, they had set up a particular password for such events. Naruto and Ino both thought he was being paranoid with such an involved password but he didn't care. Besides, he was being vigilant - not paranoid.

Ino grumbled to herself, but prattled out the lengthy poem in time with Naruto.

"We thrive in the chaos of the enemy tide. Quiet ninja do not need dens to hide. Our only concern is to watch and wait until the enemy lowers the gate" they chorused.

Sasuke took another glance at the two of them before hurling the two sharp knives towards his supposed team-mates.
"What the hell are you smoking duck-butt?!" Naruto yelled indignantly, dodging the kunai being thrown in her direction.

"Ino didn't probe my mind like she normally would have and Naruto had a different password entirely; that poem is too easy for people to remember - which brings me to my question: who are you and where are my team-mates?!" he asked taking several steps away from the two impostors.

'Besides, Ino would have been having a bitch fit over her clothes, and Naruto doesn't use duck-butt unless she's flirting anymore. She didn't activate her Sharingan like she was supposed to either…'

He watched in horror as the two blondes smirked with cruel maliciousness, something which scared the creeps out of him, on their faces. Sasuke watched in horror as the illusion melted off their bodies instead of the normal dispel, revealing two identical black haired grass ninja. Sasuke told himself he did not whimper as the two ninja merged themselves together.

"Very good… I'd expect no less from an Uchiha. I think I'm going to like this one…" the man (though that was open to a lengthy discussion) spoke slitheringly.
"Oh crap…!"

'I told them it was a bad idea to split up!'

"Oh my god, gross! What the heck is this slimy stuff?! Gross! Gross! Gross! Gross! Gross!…"

Naruto was not sure how she and her best friend had landed themselves in their current predicament, but she did know that Sasuke was going to dripping with that annoying 'I-Told-You-So' aura when they finally reunited themselves with him.

Oh the joy…

"…gross! Gross! Gross!…

As far as she was aware, she and Ino had been devoured by a giant snake. This meant they had been eaten with intention of being digested for lunch. Naruto sure as hell didn't like the idea of being something's lunch; how demeaning would that be? Here she was, a fledgling ninja with boundless potential finished off before her time because the local wildlife was peckish.

How humiliating.

"…Gross! Gross! Gross!…"

Although she highly doubted giant snakes were part of Konoha's local wildlife. There was a summons contract for snakes of course, but that belonged to one of those big three or whoever they were. The really creepy one that looked liked he stalked boys - the paedophile-looking one.

What was his name?

"…Gross! Gross! Gross!…"

Forgetting his name, Naruto concentrated on thinking a way out of Mr. Snakey's stomach before they were digested by the sticky stuff. Fire techniques were a no-no; if toad oil was flammable it stood to reason that snaked digestive juices could be flammable too - it wasn't worth the risk.

"…Gross! Gross! Gross!…"

All those shadow clones earlier when they were trying to kill Mr. Snakey before he swallowed them had tired her out - she had the chakra, but the memories received from them had worn her out. Those scales had been impossible to penetrate from the outside too, so no clones either.

What did that leave her with?

"…Gross! Gross! Gro-"

"Ino, for the love of all that is freaking holy, stop wasting our oxygen and shut up!"
"But this slimy stuff is gross!"
"If you don't stop screeching and do something were going to end up digested!"

That made her stop. Not for long, granted, but when she spoke again it was with less panic and in a more serious nature.
"What do you want me to do? Can't you just torch our way out? I'm not exactly a heavy hitter…"

Naruto gave her a maniacal grin.
"Use the mind-transfer on Mr. Snakey, and make him spit us back up!"

Ino stared.
"You want me to make a giant snake take up bulimia?" she asked in a stunned voice.

"More or less - this digestive stuff might be flammable if the frog summons are anything to go by, and the scales are too tough for my clones to burst…" Naruto stated, trying to remove the uncertain look in her friend's eyes.

"But we'll be covered in snake vomit!" Ino protested.
"Ino, were already covered in corrosive digestive juices, what harm is a little vomit going to do?" Naruto asked exasperatedly, trying to stop herself from sinking further towards the bubbling pool of stomach acids.

"…fair point, just promise to torch the thing when we get out" Ino growled, making the familiar hand sign.
"…did you read my mind again?"

Sasuke hurried through the tree's and bushes with as much speed as he could muster. He had told them splitting up was a bad idea! Now he had a creepy paedophile with an overly long tongue stalking him! God-knows what had happened to Naruto and Ino, but he suspected they weren't faring any better than he was.

Then again, this… (he wasn't sure if it could be called a man but the term would serve as well as any other) this man had tried to bite him twice already. If he hadn't spent the week dodging Naruto's Sharingan enhanced attacks, he would never have been able to doge them at all. On the other hand, all the dodging and running had made a serious dent in his stamina - he was feeling the effects of it combined with that of chakra use.

He pushed through some particularly thorny undergrowth to a large clearing, surrounded by thick vegetation and trees on all sides. He immediately scaled one of the giant trees to gain a better view, and thus be relatively prepared for the creepy Pedo man when he arrived. A loud howling scream penetrated the vegetation from a different location and Sasuke prayed that Ino and Naruto were the ones causing it rather than on the receiving end.

The animalistic howling was very distracting, and he very nearly didn't notice the pale man sneaking up behind him from the tree branch itself. Thankfully, he turned quick enough to dodge the kunai that had been descending towards him. Moving quickly of the branch, he cursed his failing senses - he was exhausted from the running and unsure as to how much longer he could keep ahead of the Pedo-freak.

Where were Naruto and Ino when he needed them? Just one of their joint attacks would blow the creep to Iwagakure! Unfortunately, their joint attacks usually required the aid of his two other team-members to be of any use. To make matter ever-so much more enjoyable, exhaustion chose that moment to finally creep up on him, and his footing fell from beneath him.

The journey to the branch below was an unpleasant one - braches and leaves whipping ad tearing at his skin - and the surprise waiting for him was even less enjoyable. Two elongated fangs struck out and sunk into his neck, releasing a toxin into his bloodstream. The effect was immediate, and distsgusting waves of pain wracked his skeleton as the toxin burned his blood and bit into his bone with a vengeance.

"Your brother escaped me Sasuke; lets see if you can do the same..." the creep hissed, freakishly long tongue flicking his neck and sealing the wound.

His skin was twisting in even more agony than the near full body seizure coursing through him, and he could feel something marring his skin, something of disgusting maliciousness.

"Sasuke!" a familiar voice yelled.

He couldn't remember whose it was, but he knew it to be one of his team mates. Even his slowly darkening vision could make out a blonde colour - though there was no way to be sure if it belonged to Ino or Naruto. As he was pulled into a standing position he could make out something orange furiously and animalistic clawing at his creepy attacker.

"Naruto, stop! Don't use that!" Ino yelled beside him, looking torn between her two team-mates.

The last thing Sasuke heard before the dark claimed him was a roar of fury, and Ino screaming at their team-mate to stop.

When Sasuke awoke, the first thing he was aware of was that some sort of crazy struggle for mental control had taken place during his unconsciousness (which, incidentally, he had won and locked in the back of his mind with strong chains, thank you very much Mr. creepy paedophile). The second thing he was aware of was Ino and her brother's team trying to fend of a bunch of malicious looking sound ninjas. Thirdly, Naruto was twitching and writhing on the ground next to him, snarling to herself in some animalistic language.

Sasuke took that to mean that large amounts of shit had hit an exceptionally quickly whirling fan.

"Ino what the hell happened?!" he yelled fling a kunai towards the man creeping up behind her. His kunai were blown away by a blast of compressed air, but he needn't have worried. Ino's twin was already in position to send the man into oblivion with a technique of his own.

"Yamanaka secret technique: Oblivion!" two voices yelled out.

As Ino and Inoro focused their attack on the man, the remaining two were quickly restrained by Choji and Shikamaru. Sasuke was non too pleased with watching events unfold, but just throwing that one kunai had sent waves of pain throughout his body from the bite mark on his shoulder. In spite of his frustrations he could see why the Ino-shika-cho trio was a set unit every year; teamwork was not the word for it. It was like watching a living organism flicking with deadly vines.

Ino's extra practice had been paying off.

"Shit, this is becoming a problem, were leaving!" the leader, a man who wore what looked like half a bear skin, yelled to his only standing companion.

A girl, with black hair longer than, but no-where near as well cared for as Ino's, picked up her unconscious team-mate with one arm and they dashed off into the forest.

"Aright, will someone please tell me what the hell happened while I was out?!" Sasuke snapped, seeing no more enemies to be run off.

Ino jerked her head towards him and Sasuke noted she was wearing that pair of Naruto's blue shorts (he knew those were his!) instead of her skirt, and had stitched her arm warmers into longer, additional sleeves on her purple shirt. Her hair was flying out of control given the lack of tie - he had assumed this had occurred during the fight.

His concerns over her wardrobe were by no means completely complementary (though it did look better than her previous outfit in his opinion), but majorly noting the greater practicality. He was proved correct when Ino dashed towards him with grater ease than she would have with the skirt, but he was more worried over the frantic look Ino was directing towards him.

"You're awake! Thank god! You started yelling and this ugly purple chakra was oozing out of your neck! It was almost as bad as…" only her eyes drifted towards Naruto's twitching form whilst her mouth spoke some other gabble for the benefit of those surrounding them.

"I was so glad when it stopped, but then you had a fever and nothing I did was enough to bring it back down!" she wailed, throwing aside his dislike of excessive human contact and squashing him anyway.

Sasuke waited several moments longer than usual before wrestling himself free form her monstrous grip. Ino was near stunned she had held on for the few seconds she had - hugs of that length were usually limited to Naruto and close family, technically only close family if Naruto's Sharingan was anything to go by.

"I'm fine, just tell me what happened!" he instructed in a calm tone.

Ino knew better than to ignore Sasuke when he used the calm voice; she instantly launched into an explanation of events since their separation. First was a rather vivid description of vomiting themselves from a snake's stomach, then an explanation of what had happened with the creepy paedophilic-ninja.

The creep, apparently known as Orochimaru, had just given him the hickey of doom (in Ino's words) when they finally caught up. Naruto had been rather pissed of with the creep, and not hesitated to draw on the power of the deranged fur-ball to exact her revenge. Orochimaru had seemed amused by this, and placed something Ino called a five pronged seal (Sasuke had no clue what that was) on Naruto.

The red chakra had been completely erased according to Ino, but Naruto hadn't let that stop her. Despite Ino's protests she had activated her Sharingan, and managed to stay even with the man's attacks for some time, as if she could predict his attacks.

"…She was doing fine until he saw her eyes Sasuke! After that, all he had to do was up his speed and put another five-prong on her!" Ino growled, frowning much more than necessary.

Sasuke had a sneaking suspicion she was hiding something back, but it was useless to try and trick it out of her.
Mind games were useless with Ino, given her family specialities.

"What's this five-pronged seal you keep talking about?" he asked, still in confusion over that part of her explanation.

"It's this really complex seal dad uses in his more complex mind-reading techniques, he's just started teaching it to me and I already hate it! It's going to take years to get the hang of! It uses element seals to disrupt and control the chakra network by inserting-"

"Okay, that's enough. I know jack shit about seals, but it sounds like anything from good, am I right?"
Ino nodded.

"Naruto probably won't be able to manipulate her chakra without considerable effort when she wakes up. I don't even want to think about what one of them did to the fur-ball seal, but the bastard put two of them on her!" she raged.

Sasuke noted Shikamaru and his team were seeing to an unconscious boy in a green jumpsuit, which probably explained why they weren't asking questions they didn't want to answer. Ino's glance towards her twin told Sasuke she was probably threatening him with blackmail via their telepathic link.

"I take it you dragged us here and got jumped by the sound creeps then?" he asked, gesturing to the new clearing he now found himself in.
"Pretty much…" Ino replied her thoughts elsewhere.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow but she ignored him. She was too busy worrying about what that creep had said after putting the second five-prong on her team-mate.

Ino watched in horror as a second five pronged seal was rammed on top of the previous one. Surely if this man knew what Naruto contained, and knew what one of those seals could do, he would realise how disastrous placing a second one on her could be?!

She was about to voice her objections (it was the most she could do at the moment given Sasuke's dead-to-the-world status), when the man hissed something to Naruto neither blonde expected.

"My, my, my! It seems I was wrong about those rumours; you're living proof aren't you? Mikoto was quite the brazen lady, cheating on Fugaku like that wasn't she…?" he hissed in the blonde girl's ear as she slipped into unconsciousness, before throwing her towards one of the trees.

Seeing Naruto was in need more than Sasuke, Ino quickly moved to catch her friend before she hit the trunk.

"Where the hell do you get by talking about Mrs U. like that? What rumours? What the hell does all that have to do with Naruto?!" she yelled at the man, forcing her chakra into the thinnest probing tentacles she could.

She pushed her chakra into his mind, his consciousness, searching his chakra consciousness for anything she could. He stated slightly, giving her a curious oily gaze, before smirking that horrible smirk of his.

'You're rather talented with those mind techniques aren't you, little Yamanaka?'

Ino gasped, face paling in horror as his own thoughts invaded her mind through her own chakra. Hastily erecting the barrier she had been taught, she struggled to wrench her chakra from his possession with unsatisfactory results.

'What an interesting little bunch you are… Since you've amused me, I'll play along. Use your clan's influence mind-reader; the nurses at the hospital are easily swayed…'

Ino barley registered his information; she could feel malevolency in his thoughts that terrified her. This man was as evil as the fox that was caged in the blonde girl she was clinging to. She wanted his thoughts out of her head!

'Of course, this information is not free… If you think you've come away from me unscathed, think again Yamanaka!'

The snake-like voice hissed in the manner of cruel laughter before blasting her thoughts back towards her. Ino placed one hand on the ground, keeping her form collapsing herself as she recovered from the sudden impact of her own chakra.

By the time she had picked up her state of mind, the snake wielder was gone.

Ino's attention was not on Naruto, whop was slowly beginning to wake up (much to both her and Sasuke's relief), but on those words Orochimaru had hissed into her mind.

Ino didn't know what the snake man had done to her, but she decided she would leave that to her father. She had already informed him via their telepathic link, and she was certain he had informed the appropriate people of the crazy Sannin's presence too (though she had insisted he let her team finish the exam if the could).

What concerned her was what the man had told her about Mikoto Uchiha.

From what she had heard, it was as if he was saying she was Naruto's biological mother, not Kushina Uzumaki as she had previously thought. If that were to be the case, then it opened up yet another can of complicated worms Ino didn't think they would see the bottom of for a very long time.

Killer bee is going on my list of awesomeness! And depending on the filler-portrayal, Utakata may be joining him. I'm not too happy about the filler arc though; Why can't they just postpone it until there enough manga-material for the animators? They could fit in a couple of 12-24 episode seasons of other animes, and there would not be this problem with having rubbishy pointless filler arcs!

In case you havent noticed I despise filler arcs with a passion equal to the intensity of a volcano.

I'd say sun, but that level of animosity is reserved for english dubs. Uragh... Insert ear-hacking. I watched Shippuden in English up till Sakura's battle with Sasori, and I'm still feeling the effects of the headache it gave me. Naruto is so whiny in the English dub. And Sakura? Ugh. I think her english voice is half the reason for all the Sakura-haters. Sasuke sounds constipated, Gaara sounds like he ate sandpaper despite breathing issues, and well, Kakashi just sounds kinda doped up (he does in the japanese version too, but the good kind of doped up y'kow?).

In other news, I still can't find Kishimoto's stash (the meanie won't share, so I've resorted to trickery and subterfuge), and I was almost became a criminal (no joke) but thankfully I regained some of my brains. The Demon-Queen Version 2.0 thinks this is because of my stash, and that I should rid myself of it, but I just can't!

I was all 'It's my stash woman! You don't do that to your stash, you just don't!', but then I dropped the matter. I was distracted by the new God-Named technique even Mandarin runs from screaming. Old-bogus has some guts! He is growing on me, in a very starnge twisted way no one but myself would understand.

I don't know why, but I was just hit with a plot bunny for a Mandarin-OldBogus fic, and it is very scary and creepy and I think I'm going to puke. There is a limit to Mandarin's whore powers!

So yeah...

It's all good!
:D

Hope ya enjoyed the hell-sawn plot my imagination came up with.
Your thoughts are, as always, appreciated.

Nat.
xxx