Upside Down Hourglass

by nooneheretowrite

What if, after the Fourth Shinobi War and Naruto's battles with Sasuke and Madara, something restarted his life and they all went back, only, they never remembered what happened? He lives a different life, with parents he doesn't remember being without. AU semi-time travel.

9. Blue Moon Rising Part III

AN: Kind of a little off schedule, but I still got it updated kind of a week later…barely! YES! Also, this chapter is a bit more disturbing than previous ones in terms of concept, so this is the fair warning! There are also a lot of parallels in this chapter to the original, which I assure you were intentional for a reason. (Wink wink.)

The next updates will start being every other week towards Mondays unless I randomly decide to update early. This is because of my update schedule and the fact that I am getting ready to post another multi-chapter fic called "The Eye of the Storm". This fic will be updated the weeks that I do not update that one, or sometimes if you're lucky, both will be updated in the same week.

For some shameless advertisement, here is the description of my upcoming fic, which is Naruto by the way: The Kyuubi was never resealed after Mito Uzumaki died and had not been seen in decades. The Third Shinobi War never ended and the Third Hokage sacrificed his life for it, resulting in Minato becoming the Hokage in the middle of war. In the midst of it all, Naruto and his peers grow up and enemies are at the doorstep. AU.

Now, on with it and happy reading!

Chapter Six:
Blue Moon Rising

"Does the past define us, or is our future what truly shapes us? We are here for a purpose, and that purpose lies within our present."

---

Part III: Cursed Howling

Now, one could say that the Tsukino Clan was almost as great as the founding clans of the Land of Fire, but the fact is that they were not.

They had the unfortunate luck that they lived in the Land of Rice Paddies, a small country with a small fry daimyo that was just barely able to unify the warring clans after years of fighting and turmoil. But, if there was any powerful shinobi clans in such an irrelevant nation, it would be the Tsukino Clan. At least they did not act through stupidity by attacking the Village Hidden in the Mist like the Kaguya Clan did.

Unlike most of their enemies, they had a bloodline limit, and a strangely unique one at that.

They were skilled shinobi with the only weaknesses that included that they were small compared to the more powerful clans and arguably did not have the resources to thrive as well.

But even so, even a great lesser clan like the Tsukino had their stories. They even had their conspiracies. So it was no surprise that some members wanted to be better, wanted to feel unlimited like the others from powerful hidden villages.

The people of Saga that the Tsukino protected were talkers, of course. On one hand they spoke well of their shinobi protectors. They were grateful to them, but some of them were wary. Some of them knew.

The wife of Jin from Trader Jin's was one of those people. This was because she was good friends with one of the clan. Her friend had whispered to her about the lady at the meat pie restaurant. She heard about how this woman had lost her husband years ago in a battle with another clan. This woman was fine, they said, until she met up with a mysterious man.

They whispered with each other about how the Tsukino suspected that this man was a rogue ninja from a shinobi village, and how powerful he must have been. They talked about how the woman from the restaurant knew that this man was recruiting followers and that he had offered up power in return for loyalty…a power so terribly wonderful that it could bring back her dead husband.

The woman had supposedly questioned if he could really bring back the dead, but in the end, they said that this woman took up the offer greedily, still consumed with her grief, and that she had not been the same since. She was strange, they murmured, odd. She was happy and seemed normal on the surface, but to those who really knew her, it would not matter that she ran such a well-known restaurant.

Before, the place had been a family business with her husband after all.

Who really knew?

But then again, the wife at Trader Jin's claimed that these were only whispers.

ooo

The fox was trapped and growling in its cage as usual. All nine tails were swishing behind it like they were swatting away flies. But somehow, the scene was different. Instead of the all-out malice its eyes held previously, something was changed about the way it looked at Naruto as the boy stared right back up at him.

"I know you," Naruto murmured to the great being.

"Yes you do," replied the fox with a pounding tone. "As you should."

"What do you want now?" asked the blond with crinkle in his brow.

One of the Kyuubi's paws rested atop the golden water amidst the sewage-like surroundings. It tilted its head like it was contemplating something. "I know you are not afraid of me. I have known it for a long time," the voice boomed outwardly, "but that does not change the fact that you are my container and I am the contained. So I will warn you once again," and the gigantic chakra construct bored red eyes into Naruto's azure ones.

"You must get out of this loop (1). The longer you remain here, the further back you will return in your real timeline once you leave. I do not know the way; you must figure out the answer for yourself. I was able to slow it down when you were sucked in, but it won't hold on forever. I can tell you that it is impossible to change—"

"—ruto! Naruto! Get up!"

The genin in question opened his eyes in confusion. He saw the frantic look of his Kakashi-nii-san, his sensei. The odd dream still lingered on in his mind, but he did not know what it meant. However, something strange tingled in his gut, like his body knew what the cryptic message about a loop meant, but his thoughts could not quite catch up. But he did not have any more time to think.

"What?" Naruto let out sleepily.

Kakashi shook his head. "I need you to wake Sasuke and Sakura," then the jounin gave him a serious look, "We have a problem."

At that notion, Naruto was on his feet in an instant. The ingrained reflexes within his muscles were giving him that telltale adrenaline rush. His eyes became super focused and his vision grew sharper, so he briefly acknowledged his teacher when he sprinted off to his task.

The Namikaze turned to his sleeping comrade and quickly shook him awake. At the concentrated look in his eye, Sasuke too recognized a serious situation when he saw one. Luckily, they both were already in their shinobi attire, as any good ninja should be on a mission, and only needed to pick up some of their supplies.

The boys went to the next half of the hotel room and slid the door open only to find that Sakura had awoken to the noise. The trio nodded at each other and Naruto led them out to follow their teacher into the hotel hallway.

"I'm a shadow clone," the Kakashi that they had trailed to the entrance of the Ueda brothers' room said. He instructed Naruto to make another clone to guard Ichiro who was still fast asleep, and for Sakura and Sasuke to remain behind to assist it.

Sasuke would not stand for this, however. He started to protest.

"No," the silver-haired Hatake commanded. "You and Sakura will stay here to balance out the teams as well as possible. You know as well as I do that both Naruto and I are the only ones here that can perform any kind of fuuinjutsu. I will need his help."

"'Need his help'? Why? What's going on?" the Uchiha demanded, "And where's Jiro?"

"That's our problem," Kakashi explained calmly. "I went to follow him out because he wandered off on his own. I tried to bring him back, but then I noticed something strange about him. It's like he's in a trance. He doesn't respond to anything and keeps walking to some unknown destination. But that's not the only oddity," and his single dark visible eye sharpened, "His mouth is slightly open and there is a seal on his tongue that I have never seen before. I think he is being controlled."

Sakura gasped, a hand flying to cover her mouth. "But…how could something like that happen?!"

"I don't know," the man added, "I will lead Naruto to the main Kakashi and they will try to break the seal." He gestured to the trio and briefly looked them all in the eye. It felt like they were being scrutinized. "There is a chance that this mission is going to go over your heads. If that is the case I want you, the client, and the four servants to get out of here and head in the direction of Mie, no questions asked. Naruto and my counterpart will be right behind you and hopefully we will have called for reinforcements via one of the transport message tubes that the Hokage gave me. We will rendezvous about five kilometers from Saga on the Oda main road. We'll figure it out from there."

"But how will we know if the mission is too much?" asked the girl on the team.

"If Naruto's clone pops, you'll know," was the reply from the teacher, "and then I want you to get out of here. Got it?"

The trio nodded in response, though Sasuke still looked like he wanted to contest the order. He did not only because it was the best course of action and it would not do to make stupid moves in a potentially dangerous situation. Otherwise, things would turn out to be a disaster.

Kakashi handed Sasuke one of the messenger tubes that he had in his weapons pouch. "Use this if you need to give a message to the Hokage," he said seriously, "There's a paper inside. Write on it and put it back inside the tube. Use your chakra to activate it and the message should transport directly to the Tower using a space-time seal. Keep it short though. The tube is limited to the length of messages it can teleport."

With that communicated, Team Seven split ways.

Ichiro was being watched by Sasuke, Sakura, and the Naruto shadow clone as he slept. The real Naruto followed the doppelganger Kakashi to the outside of the hotel.

They silently tip-toed down the stairs without a sound and disappeared out the first floor lobby window and the wind whispered across their forms.

The clone led Naruto to the back of the building they had just exited. They pressed their backs up against the wall, their shadows drowned out by the strange white brightness of the full moon. It glowed like no other with an odd orange-like ring. It was at that very moment that Naruto realized that the nighttime sky was hazy and…hadn't there already been a full moon that month?

The thought was chased out of his head as soon as the Kakashi-look-alike moved his hand to gesture to follow him to a path that winded to the edge of the wall of Saga. When he saw this a sinking feeling rested in his gut, like a stone that had dropped to the bottom of a nameless ocean; they were leaving the village.

Without much trouble at all, the two Konoha shinobi were able to slip out through a small door on the barrier. This greatly confused Naruto. It should not have been that easy. It was almost as if the Tsukino Clan was conveniently not watching the wall at that very moment.

So, what the heck was going on?

They continued into the forest at the base of the hill the village laid on. The night seemed more gloomy than usual and the further down they walked, it only got worse. That is, until the Kakashi clone guided Naruto to hide behind a particular bush. The older man nodded at Naruto and they skillfully hid. It was quiet for a moment, then there came the soft sound of footsteps.

In the moonlight, a dark figure emerged. Its feet made a soft plunk-plunk noise, and the tension in Naruto's arteries began to rise, like his heart was preparing itself for a coronary.

The figure finally was fully lit and appeared behind a copse of trees. It turned out to be a young, bulky man with dark hair and...

"Jiro," whispered the clone beside the boy. "Don't move," he added with a look towards the blond.

Just as the teacher mentioned before, the younger Ueda brother was walking in a daze. His eyes were completely blank and his jaw was basically lolling open. His arms were swinging lazily at his side in a strange rhythmic motion that seemed more like two pendulums than a pair of limbs. Perhaps the oddest phenomenon with the whole scenario was that he walked as if he was about to fall and stumble, and he did not stop; he stayed in the same pace.

Seconds later a swish was heard and the real Kakashi suddenly made an appearance on the other side of Naruto. The man made a signal and nodded and the clone puffed away.

As if he had always been there, the teacher calmly asked, "Do you see the seal?"

Naruto bobbed his head to mean 'yes.'

"What can you tell me about it?" questioned Kakashi.

The Namikaze shrugged. His eyes were focused on the task before him, but his fingers fumbled with his weapons pouch. "Not much. I'm only a beginner. Mom started teaching me just two years ago."

Nevertheless, the man leaned forward and gestured to continue anyway.

Naruto's lips pursed. "I can tell you that it's a complicated piece of crap. It's not like anything I've seen before," then he scratched his head and whispered, "but it's strange. The way the seal is put on makes it look like someone put it there indirectly, like they made the poor guy paint it on himself or…" His blue eyes lit up and Kakashi immediately knew that the boy was on to something.

"What?" the jounin furthered with an intense gaze and with urgency. Their target was slowly drifting away. "What is it?"

"They spiked his drink with liquid fuuijutsu," replied the student. "I know it doesn't make any sense, but mom always says that you can see how a seal was made if you look at the form, and that weird thing is shaped like a water-based seal. It's the only thing I got."

Kakashi's eyes intensified at the realization. "So to destroy it we probably need to counter it with another liquid…"

Naruto groaned and placed his hands on his head. "You gotta be kidding me. We have to make a zombie drink something. Just our night."

It turned out that the situation was more dubious than they originally thought. Not knowing how to counter a seal neither male had ever laid eyes on before, they needed to examine it closely. Immediately, both shinobi noticed the problem at hand. They looked at each other quickly, and in an unspoken agreement they stalked Jiro, specialized wire in hand.

Kakashi had the lead and they crouched in the forest, waiting for the right moment. Finally, he prepped the wire in his palms, gesturing to his team member to prepare for a possible struggle, and the duo saw Jiro walk out into a clearing at the base of Saga's hill.

The trees were more spread out from the thinning forest. The path became clearer and less dusty. The nighttime wind rustled the grass towards the middle, making an ominous ripple in the center of the circular glade. And there was Jiro, right in the ripple, like a statue. He had suddenly stopped moving, but Naruto and Kakashi did not think anything of it.

As a single unit, the duo surged forward. The Ueda did not see what was coming, not that he was particularly paying attention to his surroundings. Then he tipped over without a sound, which was bizarre enough, and there was absolutely no struggle. Kakashi had no trouble wrapping up their client in wire, though the teenager was still very much awake. Naruto observed, puzzled, as he opened up Jiro's mouth a little further to study the mysterious seal.

As soon as he saw it at a closer proximity, he gasped and his eyes widened in horror. "Kakashi-sensei…this seal…it's…"

A growling noise reverberated in the air. The two shinobi stopped all movement right away, frozen in their respective tasks.

The debris from leaves and fallen branches on the ground sounded like they were being crunched under foot, but the sound was different. It did not have the same weight to it, like something else was pushing the earth. When Naruto finally mustered enough courage to look up from the oval-shaped tongue seal, he moved his head up with wide eyes.

There before them was a pack of enormous dogs, at least six or seven of them in all. They were so large that they would be taller than Kakashi standing if they went up on two legs; it was almost wholly abnormal. Their fur stood on end, as if in anticipation for something, and they were pitch black. Their eyes glowed yellow in the evening and their canines stuck out of their maws, razor sharp like knives.

Paws scraped at the grass and the growls heightened in frequency. In the midst of it all, Jiro remained ominously still and his eyes remained blank as he breathed in his trance.

Another movement stirred in the background and behind the animal pack were humanoid creatures. There were four of them, snarling just like the dogs. But there was something far more unnatural about them.

"We need to get out of here," Kakashi-sensei whispered urgently. His hand was slowly inching towards one of his kunai.

The creatures behind the pack stalked closer as if on edge, waiting for something. The four strangest ones were crouching, triangular ears pointed atop their head and dark gray fur lining the backs of their hands and human-like hair flaring in the wind. It was then that Naruto noticed that they looked like they were half human. They were not on all fours, they were on two legs and leaning forward as if they were about to walk on their hands too. They had scraps of clothing strapped onto them haphazardly with numerous rips and tears.

These were no ordinary animals.

"On the count of three," the jounin spoke quietly, "You and I pick up our client and head back to where we came from."

Naruto agreed silently as soon as it was said.

"One," came the whispered word. Both shinobi were now perfectly propped on their haunches. Naruto's fingers were surprisingly steady as he held onto one of Jiro's limp arms. He was still reeling from the reveal of the seal. It was devastating. How could someone even think to use a seal from that? Was that not stealing? No, it was worse. This mean that someone out there knew information that they should not.

"Two."

They were gradually standing now, their charge carefully bound and in hand. Their strange onlookers growled deeper.

"Three!" And they turned and sprinted off into the woods, fast like a flash of light.

Their legs pumped and Naruto's muscles burned as he huffed for air. A few seconds passed and they thought they had successfully avoided being overrun by vicious animals, but in less than a moment the hard pounding of paws alerted them to the fact that their enemy was indeed chasing them.

Both Leaf ninja struggled to heave along the client, and Naruto desperately wished that the guy was drunk again because at least he would be stumbling along instead of being simply dead weight. How he had wished that Jiro had drunk a tankard full of sake rather than…this.

And then, as he followed his teacher around the trunk of a tree, a thought occurred to him and it felt like a light bulb had just lit up inside his brain.

"The diner!" Naruto exclaimed.

"What? Naruto, just keep going!" replied Kakashi loudly.

"Someone spiked his drink at the diner!"

Kakashi clearly shot him a look that somehow gave the boy the impression that that moment was definitely not the time to be discussing something like that. Then, they rounded another trunk, skidding a bit as the beasts nipped at their heels in haste.

Naruto dragged Jiro's unresponsive body by the arm as Kakashi was forced to drop the legs in favor of putting up a mud wall in defense with an earth element technique. "Earth Style: Mud Wall!" bellowed the jounin and with one spurt from the ground it rumbled and was produced fully. Upon the wall were protruding faces of various collared dogs, one of which appeared distinctly like an enraged bulldog.

Picking up on his own instincts, Naruto barely waited for his teacher to catch up as he held up their enemies for all but a handful of seconds. Shuriken flashed outward and Kakashi threw them with true aim at the heads of the pack, some of which jumped away with a twirl.

The man ushered his student forward and they were off again at full pace.

An explosion resounded behind the sprinting ninja and rocks and numerous other artifacts sprinkled their hair. The external force pushed them onto their haunches and when Naruto glanced back, the artificial wall had soundly disintegrated.

"Shit!" the blond shouted when at least two of the hybrid wolf-humans leapt from behind the curtain of smoke. The sound of the others following them was not that distant. "What the hell! How did they do that so fast?!"

It turned out that the few precious seconds that it took for the Leaf shinobi to get up from their knees was detrimental to a successful escape. The animals were unnaturally fast; it was terrifying. It was as if one could blink and in the duration of time it took to blink, the hybrid beasts would already be right in front of your face and drooling for a bite. Unfortunately, that is almost exactly what occurred next.

Naruto yelled when one of their claws was centimeters from scratching off his nose. He pushed himself backward, leaving Jiro's body prone and spread-eagled on top of a pile of dried up leaves in the process, and flipped reflexively until he was at least a few meters away from his attacker.

Huffing, he prepped his hands in the shape of the ram seal and was about to call out the Kage Bunshin Technique when Kakashi unexpectedly appeared before him, holding an arm out as if to halt him from what he was about to do.

For a moment, everything was still. Even the sound of growling canines did not disturb the silence, but then someone started clapping and Naruto finally realized that his teacher had heard something before he did.

When the noise began, the remaining dogs and the humanoid creatures began inching toward Jiro. With a horrifying drop in his gut, Naruto precipitously knew that they were after their client. However, that was not the most startling realization after all.

"How adorable," a woman's voice chimed darkly. As soon as he heard it, the Namikaze decided that he was unquestionably done with everything that had happened already that evening. As if things could get any weirder than it had already gotten. Fate was wholly against him though. "Are you trying to disturb my hunt?" she continued. Neither Naruto nor Kakashi could see her face yet.

The soft and ominous click-clack of her shoes hit the forest floor and the full moon gradually enveloped a familiar form in light. And then came out a beautiful woman with long flowing hair and a kind-looking face, a face that did not suit her demeanor at all. The dark locks of her hair billowed in the warm summer breeze, and her full lips curled into a smirk.

Chiya Tsukino finally showed herself.

The circular crest of the Tsukino Clan was sewed onto the sleeve of her plain purple kimono and it shone like a beacon in the shadows. "That's my meat that you were trying to take away," she said eerily as she brushed invisible dust off her front, "It's awfully rude to steal, you know."

"Steal?" Naruto shot out incredulously. "You can't steal a human being!"

Instead of outright answering the retort, the woman had opted to remain silent and she continued to smile. She made a slight gesture with one of her hands and a humanoid wolf went to bite the back of the clothes of Jiro, a movement that immediately caught Kakashi's attention.

"This man happens to be our client," the jounin stated seriously. His black eyes were shining in concentration.

Chiya flashed the two a glare that could kill with one look. "This man happens to be my prey," she replied harshly. "Now I suggest that you do not interfere with my hunt again or I will have to personally detain you, regardless of your misplaced affiliations," she said with a swift glimpse at their Leaf headbands.

Naruto snarled and he stood up to his full height behind his teacher's still outstretched arm. "Shut up!" he snapped angrily, an infuriated fuel beginning to pump through his system. "How the hell is this guy your prey?! He's an innocent civilian and a client to the Hidden Leaf! Leave him alone and find something else to hunt! We'll be off your back in no time, lady!"

"Naruto," Kakashi warned, and for the moment that placated the genin and he shut his mouth, still visibly fuming as he clenched his fists.

The two shinobi were expecting a heated response, a lashing out, an attack. They were expecting the dogs and the weird creatures to come running after them again with their claws and sharp teeth. Perhaps they thought that a paper bomb would come out at any moment and that they would have to avoid a multitude of weapons, but nothing like what actually happened. Instead of what they thought would most likely ensue, they were met with barely muffled laughter. Painful laughter. Sad laughter. Crazy, insane laughter.

Neither male knew what to feel at that moment. The laughs were like wind chimes, high and wistful, but they were also depressing, like the hums were missing something. Then, to counteract the normality of it all, the laughs also sounded like grating on glass—inherently evil.

"I don't forget my customers at Full Moon Diner," The woman informed between chuckles, "so I remember you two. You came for lunch in the afternoon, asking me to serve you our most famous dish," she grinned and the hairs on Naruto's neck stuck up, "Of course I gave it to you.

"But the customers I never, ever forget, are the bane of this village's existence," she shrugged her shoulders almost gracefully, like a princess might. "They come to my place and act all self-important, and then they order alcohol, hoping to get drunk…you see, one of those drunkard bastards made a mess of my restaurant one night and I was so upset…my husband and I worked so hard to keep the place going and even after he died…well…" Her expression hardened. "It doesn't matter. I decided from that day on, I could continue my husband's legacy…create a better meat pie than the one that was known throughout the entire continent, and who better to use than the useless scum in existence? Who better to use than the people that this village would be better without anyway?"

Dread sank itself onto the Leaf shinobi's shoulders and Naruto knew that this woman was the one that put the sealing spell in Jiro's sake that afternoon. There was no mistaking it. The evidence was all there. She was practically confessing to it!

But he did not like where this was going and he did not think he was prepared for it.

"Every famous dish has a secret ingredient…" Chiya added with a crazed chortle.

Naruto saw as Kakashi's free hand tightly gripped onto a kunai, saw how Jiro still had that clueless and dumb blank façade on his face. He could feel the stares from the yellowed eyes of the vicious dogs around him and the trees seemed to sway toward him, one by one, a silent symphony with a black conductor of night.

And then, "…Mine happens to be human flesh."

The bond's eyes widened in horror and he started to gag. No, he was not ready for something like that after all. He clutched his middle on instinct for support and he wanted so desperately to throw up with forced dry heaves. His stomach churned disapprovingly. Nothing happened, of course, but nothing stopped the alarming terror that wrapped him from the inside out as he realized that he and his entire team had eaten…had eaten…

He saw how even Kakashi's hand was shaking slightly. The jounin was nonetheless as perturbed as he was. Damn it, he could not let either Sasuke or Sakura know about this.

He wanted to claw out his insides.

"Pop your clone," Kakashi gasped out. His eyebrows were knit together and Naruto could see that he was attempting to hide his emotions and was having more trouble than usual. Under the circumstances, it seemed understandable. But he did not want to understand.

"W—what?" Naruto replied shakily.

"You heard me. Do it!" came the uttered command.

The genin pulled himself together as best as he could, trying to shake out the horrible thoughts from this head, and he signaled the ram sign with his hands again. In quick succession, there was a pump of blue chakra through his arms and he felt the release of his shadow clone in the hotel. The animals bared their teeth in response to the actions and then Kakashi was bursting forward with incredible speed, his arm coming back in preparation for an attack.

"Chidori!"bellowed he, and his silver hair whipped around whist being reflected in the white of the moonlight.

Lighting flashed in zigzags, alternating from cerulean to white to green in milliseconds. The Hatake was headed toward the form of Chiya and he would have eliminated her too, if it wasn't for one of the human hybrids that leapt in front of her.

The man-wolf appeared suddenly and Kakashi accidentally pierced through him instead. Blood spurted out like a crimson rainfall and the creature gurgled as his heart was blasted out of his chest and fried. What was left of the organ flew onto the ground behind the woman he was protecting and part of its destroyed ventricles pulsed one last time before it stilled, covered in dirt. The beast landed with a squelch a meter from Chiya with a gaping hole in his chest. Somehow, the fur and claws sunk into his skin and a normal man in Tsukino ninja attire was revealed. His eyes were wide open.

These opponents were fast.

Kakashi was heavily breathing and the hand that he just used to try and finish off the woman was trembling, as if he remembered a similar event occurring before. But as soon as Naruto thought his sensei was going to lose it, the hand dropped again and Kakashi was back into his normal business mode.

Sometimes, the boy forgot that he used to be an ANBU.

The laughing started again, but this time it was much, much louder. And not a trace of it sounded in the least bit sad.

"This is one thing you should know about the Tsukino Clan," they heard Chiya state matter-of-factly. "We're shape-shifters. We have a bloodline that allows us to transform parts of our bodies into a wolf creature's. But," and at this her face was split into a wide smile, "it is only on the night of a full moon that we can transform fully."

A rip sounded and a tear made itself known on the fabric of the woman's clothing. Her back began to arch high up and her muscles widened. Her chest stuck out further and bulked up too. Fur sprouted up behind her arms and head and her already long mane flared out in anticipation.

"And," she said in a voice that started to sound more guttural than normal.

Her hands popped out of their sockets and her finders spread out. Her nails extended into claws and her eyes turned large and yellow-red. Something swarmed from beneath her robes and a strange set of tomoe swam on her furry skin to sit behind her neck, glowing flat in an orange color. Was it a seal…?

"And," she went on in her two-toned voice, "tonight happens to be a blue moon; the second full moon this month!"

Now before them stood another wolf-like monster. She was more feminine than the others because of the length of her hair and her slightly shorter height, but that did not take away from her terrifying nature. Her fur was gray like the others of the Tsukino Clan, but her eyes and that odd marking on her neck made her all the more intimidating.

Naruto knew that she would be the most dangerous. He did not have to be a ninja to know that.

"Get out of here!" yelled Kakashi. "Head to the rendezvous point!"

The Namikaze was at a loss. Was he just asked to leave his teacher behind?

He was shoved back by a powerful arm, an arm he noticed was attached to the teacher in question. The dogs were more than growling now; they were jumping and leaping at them. The remaining two wolf-creatures lunged at the body of Jiro and quickly heaved him onto their shoulders. Eyes and claws flashed and teeth were bared.

It was then that the singing started and the eerie tenor reverberated in the air like a chill that would not go away. Their opponent was stalking them as a true predator would.

"Here you are, here you are,
I really hope you die,
I'll murder you like all the others,
And cook you in a pie.

There you are, there you are,
I'll skin you with a knife,
Don't worry, it's okay,
I'm just going to take your life."

Their eyes were huge. Chiya was singing to them like a madwomen. They hid together for moments, hearing her footsteps crush the earth. Each step felt like a lifeline was being cut repeatedly and Naruto felt a fear that was so foreign to him, it even overshadowed the things he was afraid of before. It was with stark realization that the tune being sung was the very same one that was played at Full Moon Diner by the woman strumming the koto instrument.

The thought did not help matters at all.

The branches they were behind were brushed aside and shredded like confetti and Kakashi called out a technique that produced earth spikes and pulled Naruto with him. That did not seem to faze her, even as they ran through the trees to find Jiro.

"Don't be scared, don't be scared,
I'll always be right here,
Don't run away; don't do it,
My dogs can smell your fear.

Here you are, here you are,
This song is almost done,
I'm really sad but it's alright,
In the end you couldn't run."

Laughter sliced the winds and pointed objects that looked suspiciously like claws zoomed at them and they barely dodged as many came spinning and lodged into the barks of trees. A yellowish substance oozed from their tips and Naruto shuddered as he leapt away behind his teacher, noting that they were lucky to avoid that poison.

"It's goodbye, it's goodbye,
I served you in a pie,
You tasted very good inside it,
And all you did was die."

Their client was suddenly being dragged away more rapidly than previously and Kakashi took after them in hot pursuit and Chiya's laugher rang when she ordered them to make sure that they were not followed anymore, her song ending as she stared at Jiro's body with delight in her expression. The markings on her neck were flaring violently.

Naruto tried to go after them just as he had before, but a few steps in and Kakashi was already pinning him against yet another tree, a wild look in his eyes even as they avoided being found for those few seconds.

"Listen to me, Naruto!" the jounin spoke piercingly and sternly to his student, "This isn't an ordinary mission!" He angrily pointed a finger towards where Jiro had retreated. "We need to split up!"

"But—"

"This isn't the time!" he lashed out swiftly. "You are a genin. This mission is already way over your head! Plus, you know exactly what you hold inside you," he made a pointed glare towards Naruto's stomach and the boy cringed, "Not to mention the political backlash it would cause if we lost you on a job that was supposed to be a C-rank! You have to know who you are, Naruto," and at this Kakashi made sure to let the message sink in as he really stared into his pupil's eyes, "No matter what—even if you do want to make a name for yourself—you are still the Hokage's son. Getting you out of here is now part of my duty."

Naruto shook his head passionately. "But Jiro and the seal!"

"I'll take care of it!" was the hasty reply and Kakashi pushed his message tube into Naruto's hand. He explained that since Naruto was already going to run in the other direction, he should call for reinforcements just in case. "Make sure to keep it short! And there's one more piece of paper in there if you need it. Just get out of here and meet with the others."

Before they separated, Naruto remembered his shock at the seal on Jiro's tongue. He needed to relay the information right away, so he looked his teacher in the eye seriously beforehand.

"It's an Uzumaki seal!" hissed the boy, "That means someone from Konoha must have made it! I don't know how, but you've got to let me look at it when you bring him to us!"

They nodded at each other and they sprinted off in opposite directions. Naruto barely had to keep any adversaries off his trail because most of them were trying to fight off Kakashi, but the handful that came after him were luckily the small fry and not actual members of the Tsukino Clan and he was very grateful that he did not hear Chiya coming after him. They were just the dogs that were barking after him, but he spun around and flung paper bombs at them nevertheless.

The smoke belted into existence and the explosion must have killed them. That was what he thought until one came at him that clearly survived.

Naruto kicked upward as soon as it got near to him and hit it in its rib cage. The animal whined in pain and a crack signified broken bones. He kneed the animal in the head and right when the limb made contact, the vicious dog was knocked out and still.

He ran through the trees until he was fully out of the forest and about a kilometer away from the hill of Saga. It was then that he decided to take a quick moment to write out a message to the Hokage Tower and send his sensei the needed reinforcements.

He whipped out the tube and a single piece of paper from inside it and the two inch long pencil and wrote: Reinforcements. Around Saga hill. Rice Paddies.

Then, he pumped his chakra around the tube after he rolled up the paper and stuck it inside, and with a flash the thing had disappeared in reaction to the seal within it, hopefully in the clutches of his father back home or someone else that could help them.

Determination filled his being and he was off yet again to the main road at Oda.

ooo

Being a ninja meant that it took no time at all to reach the distance Naruto was told and to end at the crossroads of their rendezvous point. Minutes later, Sasuke, Sakura, Ichiro, and the servants made themselves known and a wave of relief washed over the blond. His friends were there with him and everyone was safe just as planned.

Ichiro was surprisingly awake and was shaking down to his core. The servants were not so much better. How they got there as fast as they did and especially with pajama-clad civilian cargo, Naruto would never know. Though he suspected that it had something to do with the downright panic that exuded from all of them. He should not have been surprised. After all, the adrenaline rush still flowed like water rapids through his veins.

"Where's Kakashi-sensei?" heaved Sakura as she placed her hands upon her knees and breathed heavily. Sweat was trickling down her brow and she looked worried.

Luckily Sasuke did not look anywhere near as tired as she did.

"And where's my brother?!" bellowed Ichiro as an added plus.

Naruto sighed and glanced over at his best friend. Understanding spread through them as always. "We need to wait for them here," he replied without really answering the question. "They'll come for us and we need to be ready when they do, ya know. Just relax and we'll…" He looked over to his teammates and he noted that both of them, including Sakura, knew what he meant. "…we'll do our job."

"WHAT?! What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" roared Ichiro to Naruto. The boy did not even flinch. "You're supposed to be protecting us!"

"Mr. Ueda!" Sakura reprimanded, but the boys paid it no heed.

Naruto lifted his gaze to the fuming Ueda brother before him. "We are protecting you," he said icily. "But in case you haven't noticed, our sensei and your brother have been attacked."

The merchant's son stomped in front of Naruto's face and flung his arms out angrily. "Then why aren't you there?!"

"I was there! But I was needed here! So shut up and don't move and we'll figure this out!" ranted the Namikaze back.

There was a flash of black and Naruto found that Sasuke's back was towards him. The Uchiha was standing in between both fighting males with a stern expression upon his face. His dark eyes were serious and cold and he had crossed his arms across his chest disapprovingly. He looked first to Naruto and then to Ichiro. The others were in the background staring at them with anxiety.

"Enough arguing," remarked Sasuke. "It won't get us anywhere." And that was that. A silence befell the group and they turned away and ignored each other for the most part.

The civilians sat around in a circle not too far away from Team Seven as the members of said team sat nearest to the wooden sign marked with Oda Road.

"What's going on?" asked Sasuke and Sakura turned anxious green eyes upon their team member.

Naruto told them everything he could. He said that Jiro was targeted by the woman at the Tsukino Clan restaurant and that she was undoubtedly insane and should be put out of it for all eternity. He mentioned how the dogs attacked he and Kakashi and how the Tsukino were shape-shifting lycanthropes that could change fully in the light of the full moon. He briefly saw Sakura and was reminded of the book she was reading before they set off on their mission about how a blue moon was rare and represented betrayal.

He shuddered at how correct that symbolism was.

Chiya Tsukino needed to go down, and he told them such. But when he was asked exactly why Jiro was taken, the blond hesitated and for good reason. He had already agreed to himself that he would not tell his teammates about the special ingredients in the pies that all of them ate. He unconsciously gripped the fabric over his stomach and scowled.

"I don't think you should know," replied Naruto when Sasuke started to prod him for information. Sakura only grew more worried at his resistance.

"And why not?" questioned the raven-haired genin. "It's part of the mission, isn't it? We should know."

The jinchuuriki closed his eyes and bowed his head. Thoughts of the pies and the song and the ominous music of the koto floated in and out of his head. Kakashi's face and his warning popped up and he fingered the sleeves of his jacket, his facial expression solemn.

It's better to know the truth first than it is to hide it, he thought to himself. He remembered how it was to figure out that he contained the Kyuubi within him after years of thinking he was simply a normal human being. A quick flash of another dream-like notion hit him, and he thought about how it could have been worse to find out if he had been older because it would make less sense as to why people held it off as he would have had more time to think that he was simply ordinary.

He made the decision. "The pie," Naruto uttered slowly. "Chiya wants to use Jiro as…" He bit his lip in anticipation. He did not dare to look up to see their reactions. "…ingredients." When he heard the telltale horrified gasps, he hoped that Ichiro had not heard as well.

He heard Sakura retch particularly loud and she coughed and he did not want to see it. The hand on his stomach clenched tighter and he felt bile rise to his throat, but for the sake of the mission, he was able to keep it down. Sasuke was not doing much better and he knew it.

"O—okay," gulped the Uchiha. "So that means that we…"

"Yeah," sighed Naruto resignedly, "We did." He looked up with a fire in his eyes right after. "But we won't do it again and we won't let her do it again."

The trio tried to contain themselves and they were so concentrated that they did not notice how the civilians in their caravan were already fast asleep yet again. Naruto was keeping one eye on them, though. They were their responsibility until Kakashi came back with Jiro; that was when they could finally rest.

"We already called for reinforcements."

"That's g—ood," stuttered Sakura. Her face was pale and her hands were trembling.

Naruto looked downward and wanted to change the subject. Without a second thought, he explained his findings on the seal on Jiro's tongue and how he should be testing something out while they waited, so he unsealed a bowl from his sealing scroll pack, watching how it clinked on the ground metallically. The other two watched as he took his leftover water from his canteen and poured it into the container.

He let out a breath. He let them know that he did not really know what he was doing and that he was acting on a hunch, but it was all that they got so far. He had never created a seal that could be activated through a liquid before. But he knew it was possible. Seals were very malleable, as his mother and father did not fail to tell him over and over again. Almost anything could be possible with them if you were creative enough. Plus, his mom had taken him to the Uzumaki Shrine just outside Konoha before to show him the long lost family heirlooms and all the hidden away scrolls of seals and sealing techniques that were all unique to the Uzumaki Clan before they were wiped out in a Great War decades previously.

There was one thing that really distinguished any kind of seal from the Uzumaki designed ones, and that was the Uzumaki swirl symbol. Every single seal created by the clan had that somewhere on the seal design and none of the others did, mainly because all designs from the clan were specifically geared around the stability of the swirl. It represented power in sealing and made the seal have the ability to last longer with less chakra. In fact, the seal that his father had used to place the fox inside him had the same swirl because it was made by his mother's family.

However, each seal was so unique by that particular symbol because only an Uzumaki or those specifically trained by an Uzumaki could make a scheme with it. If you were not taught properly, just one mess up with coming up with a seal and the incorporation of the traditional swirl could literally backfire on you. So this was why Jiro's seal had to be an Uzumaki one, and most likely from the shrine because no place else had any more information on the clan, not even their original Hidden Village of Uzushio. It was carefully guarded by the Hidden Leaf.

The evidence made Naruto come to the conclusion that the person who got the design must have stolen it from Konoha. There was no other explanation. There were few Uzumakis around anymore, and none of them would be willing to teach a non-clan member their ways unless they married them, which was the case with his dad, or if they trusted them so much that they were willing to die for them.

Naruto's teammates watched as he opened a ragged-looking leather bound journal. Its pages were covered in numerous notes consisting of seals and ideas for seals, and their ingenuity probably stemmed from Naruto being a prankster. Sakura knew that Naruto was talented in seals, but she was surprised when she saw just how into it he got. Sasuke nodded in approval, as he knew very well that if there was one that that his best friend had a natural talent with, and with the help of Kushina, it was seal work. It was the one thing that Naruto never really had prominent problems with because everything else he learned by doing it with his body.

Sasuke thought that it was probably a family thing.

The blond took out an inkpot and wet the powdered ink inside it with water. Then he dipped a brush that was apparently in his weapons pouch and painted a sketch of something onto a blank page. Naruto let them know that that was what he could remember of Jiro's seal. The drawing was messy and was missing a lot of details, but it got the skeleton down from the oval shape to the swirl on one of its ends.

Naruto felt the night pounding down on him. The pressure was building up from his middle. If he did not have something right by the time Kakashi-nii came back with their client, they would be in trouble.

He thought of the basic ways to reverse an Uzumaki seal and went for that. "You think I should put the water symbol here?" he asked Sakura and she nodded in agreement when he pointed to an area on the paper that was near to the right of the oval. "Gottcha."

He scribbled a swirl that he knew would turn counterclockwise instead of clockwise in hopes that he could reverse the effects of the mind control. He bit his lip again and Sasuke and Sakura watched as he ripped the sheet of paper from the notebook and placed it on top of the metal bowl.

Naruto formed a series of hand seals, hoping against hope that it would be the correct set, and then he touched his fingers onto the piece of paper. Seconds passed and the drawing glowed blue. The ink started to fade and seemed to sink from the paper into the water below it until it dissolved in a miniature whirlpool. The liquid turned black for a moment and then turned clear once again.

Naruto sighed in relief. Maybe he did something right. But he wouldn't know until he got Jiro to drink it.

He took the bowl and carefully poured all of it back into his canteen for storage, noting to himself to not drink from it or let anyone else drink from it either.

The group huddled together afterwards, worried and scared. The energy that was fueling their actions had faded off with the time that they waited and waited, so they focused on guarding over Ichiro and his family's servant core. None of them could sleep, so they did not bother announcing shifts.

For a while they took to the quiet and the fighting that Naruto had just exited not too long ago fled from his memory at least for that long.

In fact, if they did not already feel so sick at the revelations of that evening, one could call that night peaceful. Too bad it wasn't.

Naruto felt like he was in a daze for a while. The night was finally lulling him to sleep. He rocked back and forth and did not notice when Sasuke stood up stiffly, an uneasy look in his eyes.

"Kakashi-sensei!" called the Uchiha. Naruto and Sakura perked up at the words.

Running the road was the lone figure of Kakashi. He was stumbling down the grass with a lump over his shoulder that could be none other than Jiro himself. He was huffing and looked disheveled. His headband was up and his bad eye was closed. The team knew then that their teacher had been forced to use his implanted Sharingan. That was most certainly not a good sign.

In seconds he was in front of them and he carefully propped up Jiro's unresponsive body against the Oda Road marker.

"The reinforcements we called for arrived and they're holding them back for now," breathed Kakashi. There were scratches all over his uniform. It seemed like it was a one-sided battle. "But we need to run," he commanded, "now. Let's get to Mie as soon as possible."

"What? Why?" wondered Naruto.

"Remember the weird seals on Chiya's neck?" the Hatake inquired breathlessly. The blond nodded. "All of them have it, and it's no ordinary seal. It makes the user ten times more powerful and with a bloodline limit like that…If I'm right, we need to report this to the Hokage, and that means that you were right about someone stealing the Uzumaki seal because most likely someone did.

"And that someone is dangerous. Only a ninja that's kage-level could take him on and hope to defeat him."

Sasuke crinkled his eyebrows together hurriedly. "Who is it?!"

Kakashi stared at his team earnestly. "Orochimaru is interfering in Rice Paddies."

"Write the message, Naruto!" he gestured wildly and the teacher turned to wake the civilians nearby. Sakura and Sasuke quickly got Naruto's permission to make Jiro drink the liquid seal after some fast paced instructions from the blond and he handed over his canteen.

Everything was happening so fast. He did not have to think as he wrote a quick note to the Hokage Tower for the second time that night on the last piece of paper: Orochimaru has followers in Rice Paddies. He flexed his chakra while the message vanished and he knew that this would alarm the Fourth to no end. There would be no stop to the investigations. The traitor Sanin had not been seen nor heard from since before Minato had taken the hat and the Leaf had failed to capture him.

They needed to end the mission right then, otherwise there would be trouble. They were in over their heads.

The hair on the back of his arms stood on end when there was howling in the distance. It seemed like the reinforcements were not holding them off for long.

"Damn it!" shouted Kakashi. "Let's go! Is Jiro awake yet?!" At the question, Sakura sent him a thumb's up. In the back, Jiro stirred a bit and looked utterly confused and terrified as he leaned on the signpost. It seemed that the counter seal worked after all. At least they had that much luck on their side.

Thundering footsteps could be heard suddenly and the group quickly got ready to be on the move again. The genin created a formation around their clients and Jiro was being held up by one of the servants. Both brothers did not look like they were faring well, but it could not be helped. Naruto and his teammates held up their kunai, but Sakura was shaking like a leaf.

She didn't have time to be scared. She had to suppress it. He wished he could tell her that, but by then it was already too late.

If at all possible, more of the humanoid creatures were coming in a hoard from the direction of Saga. Luckily, the normal dogs were gone. It looked like he and Kakashi had defeated them all. However, the hybrids that were left behind were glowing and overflowing with chakra. Naruto could feel it even if they were about half a kilometer away. The orange light from their neck seals burned in the black of night and the team and those they were protecting braced themselves. Kakashi stood tall in front of all of them, prepared to defend.

Then, they could heard yelling and war calls. Clashes later and they realized that the Leaf reinforcements had followed the animal-humans all the way to their spot, though Chiya and her brethren were hell bent of killing Jiro.

Asuma Sarutobi appeared out of thin air beside Kakashi, a grim look settled upon him. "You were lucky I had a team out on a completed A-rank mission nearby, otherwise you guys would be dead meat." None of Team Seven laughed at the bearded jounin's dark humor. "It's me and three other chuunin out here, but with the looks of things, we might need all the manpower we've got. A chuunin could easily defeat one of those crazy bastards, but ten? You've got to be kidding me. These things are having their powers enhanced by that traitor's Heaven Seal."

The words "Heaven Seal" brought a wave of fresh dream-like thoughts onto Naruto. Had he seen it before? For a moment he was watching a dark-haired Uchiha laugh insanely and wings were spreading out from his back that looked like purpling hands and the sclera in his eyes was black and the irises were yellow and there was water and a waterfall and…

"What the hell?" Naruto asked out loud. Sasuke stared at him questioningly, but no one else paid it heed.

He shook his head in order to make the weird visions go away.

In no time, the Tsukino Clan hybrids that chased them from the village were so close that they could feel their fighting breaths. With Asuma and Kakashi being the only two jounin with them, they relied on them to make the most movements. The genin were to mainly watch over the clients who were trembling in fright by then. The three chuunin were still clashing with the lycanthropes and one of them spun and sliced one across its chest. Blood spouted out, but it turned out that it was only a graze. The chuunin rolled over when the creature stomped at the spot he was at before.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Sage!" bellowed Sasuke when one of the wolf-things got too close. The fire surged out from his lips in tiny balls and burned the grass tips to charred remains and the creature was momentarily deterred from attempting to attack the circle of genin with their clients in the middle.

"Damn it!" Sasuke hissed. "They're too fast! I can barely see them dodge!"

"I know! We had the same problem before!" boomed Naruto as a reply. "They move like they're possessed!"

"Shit, this is really bad."

The genin moved closer to their clients and Naruto felt Ichiro and Jiro quaking in their clothes. Ichiro was practically biting his nails. And with the civilians totally defenseless with a mere trio of genin around to keep them safe, they really could not go anywhere. All they could really do was keep close and hope for the best, but the best looked like choosing from being clawed out by crazed she-wolf number one, or being gnawed on by psychotic man-wolf number two.

No one really liked their choices.

Asuma and Kakashi were the perfect tag-team. While Asuma was particularly skilled in using chakra blades, Kakashi was skilling in scaring the opponent with his copying and usage of ninjutsu. The two twirled around each other in a perpetual dance, avoiding attacks and creating openings.

The Sarutobi lunged at Chiya who was snarling and baring her fangs. Wind chakra engulfed his blades as he got closer in hopes of making her back into their trap. The edges became sharper, and Kakashi came up behind the woman.

Ox—Rabbit—Monkey—and Kakashi's lighting came to life in a more concentrated form than what Naruto witnessed from before. The crackles of electricity were bluer and he charged forward without the woman knowing. Steps away from her, he called out the technique, "Raikiri!" and the element pierced through the air with multiple wisps.

They heard a scream.

Out of the light came an unharmed Chiya Tsukino. The jutsu did not touch her at all. Instead, the ground on which she stood was completely obliterated.

It was impossible. She could not have had the time to dodge that quickly. Everyone who watched knew it. The two jounin should have had the upper hand!

But, something wasn't right.

In the dust cloud, there was an orange glow. It was stronger and more vibrant this time. Around the group there was a similar phenomenon occurring at the same moment. Even though the enemy forces were cut in to half of what they started out as when they came down from Saga, it did not make sense that there was so much malevolent chakra permeating the night; it felt oppressive.

Sakura fell to her knees and the civilians all but collapsed. Naruto was used to being around such power; he was the jinchuuriki after all, but Sasuke was not doing much better than the girl on the team was at the moment.

When the smoke fully cleared, they could see the forms of all five remaining shape shifters and realized that all of them were trembling. But Naruto of all people knew that this kind of trembling was not the kind that meant fear. This kind meant power of an unbelievable kind. He had felt it before himself.

The earth seemed to rumble and all around genin, jounin, and chuunin, the lycanthropes grinned with their pointed teeth, as if they could not quite contain their humor. Chiya especially led the goings-on. Naruto felt a shudder run down his spine as she turned to their group specifically.

"You little brats thought you could get away with my prey," her voice sneered at them in its abnormal double tone. "But you thought wrong…and I'm going to prove it to you." She raised her claws which seemed sharper than before. Black markings swam across her fur, but she was acting as if the event was normal. Her irises were glowing yellow now and the sclera behind them was pitch black.

If anyone had to guess, this was a monstrous transformation.

She pointed her claws towards the genin and Naruto's eyes widened. "No," he whispered, but it was too late.

Her nails shot out like bullets and the projectiles spun in the winds madly. They were headed straight toward them, and Naruto only did what he could.

"Multi Shadow Clone!" the blond belted and at least fifty copies of himself puffed into existence. They popped rapidly when the nails hit them, blocking them from the real Naruto and the others nearest to him. But one was headed straight for Jiro and Naruto knew that the woman still recalled her quest to hunt for meat for her next dish. The clones could not get to the middle of the circle in time so the boy himself jumped in front of the teenager, hoping to brush it away with his kunai knife.

He grunted as he slashed it aside and parts of the group fell on top of one another. He winced when he realized that he could not block it all the way. The bullet-like weapon grazed the back of his throwing hand.

Naruto had collapsed on top of Jiro who was shouting and Sasuke had leapt in front of them to defend with his jutsu. He heard another fire technique being summoned up with a blast of chakra and the heat of it brushed against their skin until he heard another thud that meant the attack may have been somewhat successful. The outrageous laughter made him think otherwise.

The Namikaze's stomach dropped when the edges of the small wound on his hand started to turn green in a matter of seconds. He had forgotten that they were poisoned.

"Crap!" Naruto gasped out. The scratch was starting to sting. If he did not treat it soon, then he would eventually start to feel dizzy. Who knew how much time he had left? If he didn't hurry, he could very well die.

"You're poisoned!" he briefly heard Sakura shout and Sasuke started to panic, but Naruto thought quickly. He healed at a relatively fast rate anyway. He could get it out without much of a problem. It was reckless of him to do so of course, but it would get rid of the injury in the short term.

So, he stuck the kunai in his hand into the wound and dug into it, much to the horror of his teammates. He flicked out the blood and the bit of flesh that was affected and he quickly unraveled a swath of bandages from his pouch with his teeth as he rolled it round the afflicted area.

For that time, he thought about how he felt a sense of déjà vu. Had something like this happened before? The memory was fleeting and involved some sort of mission with brothers that worked for hire and a drunk man that may or may have not built some bridge at some unknown place. The thought itched at the back of his mind, but he wanted to stop thinking about it, so he forced himself to do so. It must have been from some weird dream or something.

"When you find yourself surrounded by dirt, it's time to stop digging," Chiya's voice rang out. Right, they were still in the middle of a battle.

Naruto looked up and instead of just Sasuke and Sakura surrounding the perimeter to defend, the jounin had deftly backed up against them as well, completely aware that right now they were kind of disoriented. The three chuunin were working on fighting off two of the Tsukino and the group that the genin and jounin were in was currently enclosed by three of them, including the leader.

They tiptoed around them, snarls on their maws. Kakashi and Asuma kept their guard up. The genin and civilians could not do much at that moment and Naruto wished he knew more offensive sealing like his mother did, and how he longed to be a master of his father's Flying Thunder God Technique. However, right now they were not sure what was going to happen. All they could do was wait. They were trapped in a rock and a hard place.

When Chiya's already wide grin grew, he knew they were in trouble.

"Secret Technique," the Tsukino ninja yelled, "Tsukikage Sankaku!" (2)

If at all possible, the jounin and genin pressed closer together to the civilians, trying to protect their clients from damage and willing to take it on themselves. Unfortunately, the chuunin were still rather busy at the moment to realize that their team captain was probably in deep trouble.

A white light in the shape of a triangle appeared and at each point was a Tsukino ninja. It rapidly shrunk until the triangle was like a gigantic ethereal rope around them, squeezing them further together. Luckily for the clients, they barely felt anything at all, but the Leaf nin did. And boy was it painful. The edges of the shape burned and sizzled into their forearms. Sakura screamed and Naruto tried to use his kunai to slice through it or push it off of him but nothing was cutting through it.

The others struggled and wiggled and he saw that the teachers were trying to come up with a counter strategy that would not hurt the nearby bystanders, especially those trapped behind them. It was no simple task.

But then an idea zoomed inside Naruto's head. The triangle cut into his jacket sleeve and it threatened to get even closer.

"Don't move!" ordered Asuma. The man thought that maybe struggling was causing it to come closer.

Naruto forced his arm into his weapons pouch with a lot of effort even though a fairly sizable cut through his sleeve was the effect. Blood oozed out but he knew he did not have time to think of that. Everyone was getting cut. If only he could get this right, damn it!

Something metal looped around the finger in his pouch. He felt a little further on the handle to check if it was the correct one, and when he felt the familiar course paper against his fingertips, he smirked quietly to himself. He did not want to let the enemy know what he was doing. It was best if it came out as a surprise, even if his teammates were also unaware.

Discreetly, he took the finger looped around the handle and jabbed the three-pronged kunai away from himself even though his limbs were greatly restricted at the moment.

The weapon only flew about a foot away from the triangular constraints and from where the entire trapped group was forced to stand, but it was all he needed. For a millisecond one of the enemies glanced at the stuck kunai, confusion and then sudden recognition alit on his face, but by then it was too late.

Concentrate on the destination rather than the seal on the handle, the blond told himself.

Then there was a yellow flash.

He did not make it all the way to the kunai, only halfway there just like when he was practicing with his dad on the training grounds not too long ago. A part of him was frustrated with himself that he could not get it right at such a crucial situation, but the other part of him was leaping for joy. For all intents and purposes, just getting six inches out of the triangle trap was enough. He had teleported out of it and he was free to attack.

Naruto sprinted forward, much to the surprise of everyone in the clearing, and he lunged at the man that had spotted the kunai before, opting for a more brawler-like collision. The lycanthrope was so caught off guard that he did not have time to get out of the way just as Naruto slammed into him full force.

The Tsukino lost his concentration and the triangle broke apart like glass. Naruto smashed his elbow into the guy's neck, hoping to crush the windpipe, but all he got as a result was a minor bought of coughing.

They struggled for a bit and Naruto elbowed him again the neck and clasped his knees around the torso. The boy made quick hand signs, remembering one of the few trap seals his mother had taught him so far. "Uzumaki Style: Binding Seal!" he boomed and out from his hands came a black snake-like rope with the original Uzumaki swirls embedded into it. As the man clutched at his neck, so did the ropes, and so Naruto leapt off in haste.

"How does it feel like to be trapped in now, bastard?!" he fumed, then turned away to the rest of the battle after he stooped down to yank his father's kunai out the ground.

Sakura was now running away from the fight with the civilians and was directing them down the road in a direction that Naruto guessed was towards Mie. His best friend was crouched before the cowering group with a fierce look in his eye and then he turned to run after them as well. As soon as Naruto saw them, he went to follow.

Meters away from catching up, he skidded backwards when a plain chuunin with short cropped brown hair and a Tsukino enemy clashed right before him. Knives clang and he put up his own tri-pronged one to deflect any incoming blows.

It turned out that that was not needed. The chuunin performed an effortless backflip and sprung to his feet until he ducked the creature's clawed hand. He used his momentum to jump forward, twist his body skillfully, and he landed in a one-armed handstand while he balanced on the enemy's free shoulder. He turned in the air again until he used his legs to kick at the back of his opponent, who lurched forward in anticipation.

The luck ended there, however. The Tsukino aimed his claws at the chuunin and Naruto knew what was about to happen.

"Chuunin-san!" warned Naruto to the fellow Leaf ninja who caught the signal, and he whipped out a paper bomb that was attached to a kunai and threw it at the enemy solar plexus. Before it hit, it was swatted away and into the ground further away where it exploded and sizzled into nonexistence.

But the guy was thankfully distracted enough for the chuunin to do something. He did a few hand signs and shouted, "Earth Style: Mud Swamp!" The ground beneath the lycanthrope crumbled away until it was wet and he sank there to his knees.

Suddenly, ninja wire shot out from nowhere and past Naruto's ear. Attached to it was a shuriken which was leading the wire around the body of the trapped adversary. When it made its way around the man, electricity coursed through the metal wire and shocked him. The man was disoriented moments later, but his guttural protesting noises signified that it would not be for long at all.

When Naruto and the chuunin turned to see who had done this, Naruto was not surprised to see Sasuke panting with his arm outstretched and Sakura and the rest of the troop long gone.

"Thanks, Sasuke!" marveled the blond. He received a nod in response.

The chuunin walked closer to them, a commanding aura surround his body. "We need a plan to take this one out," the man informed earnestly, "Before it only took one of us chuunin to defeat one, but either we're getting much slower, or they're getting faster and more resilient. It's like their skin is made of diamond or they keep regenerating. Either way, this guy isn't going to stay incapacitated for long."

Sasuke was quick to agree. "Right I noticed it too. It has something to do with those seals."

"They're like chakra steroids," added Naruto. The group sighed in resignation when the thought was deemed as absolutely true. It was more than lucky that they had two jouin with them.

The chuunin stared at the recovering enemy with concentration. He tapped his chin and then glimpsed back at his genin counterparts. "These guys are fast, but they're big targets…" he trailed off.

Naruto and Sasuke glanced at each other and smirked at an idea that they were sure to have come up with at the same exact time as soon as the chuunin hinted at it. They immediately explained that that meant they probably needed a grand and powerful attack. Sasuke had two affinities thanks to his Uchiha genes, so that meant that he was a fire specialist. On the other hand, Naruto had the affinity for wind and his dad managed to teach him one simple wind style technique after he finally finished wind training, but one push from the air would be all that was needed.

The chuunin agreed that he would execute a genjutsu to distract their foe for a while and he performed the hand signs as soon as the Tsukino snapped out of his stupor and struggled to break from his earthen constraints.

"Magen: Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu!" (3)

Naruto could not see the effects of the jutsu, but he knew that the guy would be seeing something weird with his surroundings if he noticed it. They did not have that kind of time though. He gestured to the Uchiha.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball!" exclaimed Sasuke.

Tiger—Ox—Dog—Rabbit—Snake—and Naruto made his signs, shouting, "Wind Release: Daitoppa!" A great gale of win billowed after his friend's fire. The fireball which was already so large grew in size after being fed so much oxygen by the wind pulsing behind it. The techniques combined and clashed against one another, working in perfect harmony as the genjutsu kept the man distracted.

There was a great flash of light and explosions and they knew they finally hit their target this time. They covered their faces with their arms and huffed behind the heat, waiting for the end result.

The lycanthrope had burned to normal size and his mouth was wide open and his arms flung backward. He legs were still partially stuck in the mud, but what really surprised them was that even though he very well should have been dead considering that he was hit directly with a blow that enormous, and the fact that most of his canine features were seemingly gone, he was still breathing. His skin was pink and steaming and he was still breathing.

They were in shock, but they kept their guard up. The man twitched and they thought that he was going to attack them, but then he started twitching violently. The black markings on his neck snaked up around his body like a glorified noose.

He started choking as soon as the seal turned from orange to red to purple and glowed so brightly it hurt. The man spit out a mixture of blood and saliva and his chest caved in on itself and his eyes rolled back into their sockets, white and blank. All his muscles started to spasm and the seal appeared to have been squeezing him all the tighter until he could not move or breathe anymore.

In that moment, the man choked and died, collapsing on his knees with his head forever looking up into the moon. His arms dropped limply to the sides and he stayed there as if begging to be saved, but nothing could be done.

One thing was for certain: they did not kill the man. The seal did. The seal malfunctioned. It rejected him.

"That was…" Sasuke started.

"We need to check on the others," said the chuunin instead.

They got up and sprinted up the hill and the two chuunin left were soundly knocked out by some unknown force. One of them had a tanto loosely gripped in his hand and covered in red. A look at them and they were grateful that they were only unconscious. The Tsukino Naruto had trapped in a seal was unconscious as well. It seemed that he could not break out, and that meant that two of the last five were definitely taken care of.

But when they really looked, the chuunin had taken out two of the others as well. The body of an enemy was decapitated and his head was nowhere to be found, which the other was pinned up against a tree with what looked like Asuma's wind chakra blades. It was not clear whether that particular foe was still alive and kicking.

However, the jounin were left in a furious battle with the last Tsukino standing, and that was Chiya. If at all possible, she stood taller than before. Her fur was blacker and the seal seemed to have caused her to grow horns on her head. Her growling made her appear more animal than human. There was no reasoning with her anymore.

Unfortunately, she noticed the group that had come to back Kakashi and Asuma up. She lunged at them at lightning speed. No one saw her coming. All three of the new arrivals were kncocked backwards and they grunted at the impact.

If they thought she was fast before, that was nothing. Naruto literally could not see her move. It was like she was using the Hiraishin. It was like she was teleporting instead of stepping or running.

They were in huge trouble.

"Naruto! Sasuke!" called Kakashi worriedly. Asuma came up from behind. In a second, they too were knocked backward by the unseen force of Chiya Tsukino. In response, Kakashi opened his Sharingan eye fully, hoping to copy her movements.

But she was not interested in them; she was interested in the children on the other side. Kakashi flashed after her, seeing her move.

"I told you not to interfere!" the woman screeched. "I TOLD YOU! NOW LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE MADE ME DO!" And she stomped forward and swiped her legs outward until the genin and chuunin who were just getting up were pushed back against the road again.

"NO!" yelled the Hatake. "Chidori!"And lighting came to life. He went to slice her, but she dodged and he only was able injure one of her arms. She screamed louder and the seal burned red.

The genin got up along with the chuunin. Kakashi's hand was still pulsing with electricity and Asuma readied a stance.

Chiya started to laugh her trademark laugh again. But this time, there was no more talking, she prepped herself and Kakashi was about to see what she was doing, but he had already used his eye too long. He tipped a bit to the side and shut it after wincing. Asuma looked concernedly to his friend. But now, without a Sharingan eye that could be properly used, they might as well have been dead.

Chiya left her preparation and started running and running until she was all but a blur around them in an enclosed circle. The jounin were trapped outside and they could not do much at the moment. Naruto knew that his teacher felt useless and frustrated at the moment. He would too if that were him waiting on the outside and being forced to watch.

A jab came and Naruto yelped in pain as he slammed into the chuunin who luckily caught him. Another jab and the chuunin fell as he clutched Naruto. Nice purpling bruises started to form on their torsos.

Another blur and Sasuke flew into the two others as well.

Sasuke tried to throw another ninja wire to no avail. He was met with another hit and he clutched his arm with a grimace.

Naruto started to make hand seals and was knocked back yet again. They even caught a glimpse of how Asuma tried a wind technique that was easily blown away. It was like they were trapped in a vortex of never ending energy and it was invisible.

It all seemed so fruitless. They did not know what to do. What could they do?

"Screw this!" bellowed Naruto and he swiftly made ten clone pop into action. All of them popped at once, but Sasuke gasped out loud.

"Naruto," he informed hurriedly, "She slowed down—ARGH!" Another invisible punch sent a pain into his shoulder.

"What?" asked the Namikaze.

"Just keep doing that! UGH!" Another hit.

And so Naruto kept attempting make clones and they kept puffing away. He did not understand where this was going or why Sasuke kept informing him the she was somehow slowing down every time she popped that many clones? He guessed it made sense that someone would naturally slow down when they wanted to beat the shit out of someone, but he could not really see the difference.

A distant memory… (Or was it a memory?), hit him like a ton of bricks. Something to do with mirrors and a young boy with a bloodline limit and how he was too fast for them…then it was gone like a light bulb that flicked off before bedtime.

He pulled his fingers in a ram seal and his arms were pulsing with painful contusions. Ten more copies of himself popped.

"There!" Sasuke exclaimed and for some reason the boy went for it. He dived for a particular spot in the circular vortex and…stopped it?

"I got you!" the raven smiled with huffs. Chiya was pinned with a chocked expression on her face. "You can't hit us anymore! I figured you out! You slow down when you hit us by a lot! I can see it!"

"Wha…?" the woman angrily breathed. "That's impossible! Even then you shouldn't be able to see it!" Then, Naruto heard her voice quake, which was a first in all the time she had been beating them senseless. "Y—your eyes! An Uchiha!"

"What are you—" and Sasuke grunted as he was shoved off and he rolled to his side. His face said he was confused. But when Naruto was able to pull himself together and see what had happened, he too was in shock.

His best friend's irises which were normally pitch black were red. Bright red. A single tomoe shape was near the pupil in each eye. It was then that Naruto knew that Sasuke had made his full initiation into the Uchiha Clan. He had only seen eyes like those on other Uchihas, including Sasuke's parents and brother when they went on police patrols around the village.

He grinned and offered up a hand. The raven took it. "The Sharingan!" Naruto beamed, despite the situation.

"What?" huffed his companion.

"You awakened it!" After that, the expression on Sasuke's face changed from one of confusion to one of wonder. They quickly turned to see Chiya who was trembling in anger and fury, more so than before. Her fangs were coming out and visibly growing. The seal turned purple as opposed to the red from before.

Of course, they should have known. The best way to counter a bloodline limit was with another bloodline limit.

Sasuke put on a braver face, as if he was more ready for her than he ever was, which was most likely true.

She opened her mouth and roared. Kakashi and Asuma appeared next to them and so did the chuunin. The moon encircled her head like a halo, the fur on her skin glowing bright. Her eyes were wild and possessed. She crouched and was about to pounce like a true predator wolf.

Then, the same thing from before happened.

She had used too much power and for too long. The strange seal on her neck rejected her. It clasped tightly around her neck, choking her, straining her, making her eyeballs bulge out. Tears leaked out and ran down her cheeks in sad trails. She started to sob as she clawed at her neck and blood tricked from the claw marks and the inside of her lips.

"W—why?" she cried and Naruto almost felt bad for her. The light of the moon shone on her wet cheeks. "I just wanted to keep him alive! I w—wanted to make our pies the best! To keep his memory! I th—thought you would help me, Orochimaru-sama!" At the sound of such a name the Leaf shinobi all tensed.

"I just wanted you to bring him back to me! W—why? W—why? I l—loved him…ack!" And then she stopped struggling for air. The hands on her neck dropped lifelessly and she sank to her knees and then the rest of her came after in a soft thud. The nails and hair retracted back into their rightful place as if they had never been there in the first place. A single lock of hair fell gracefully on her face.

Chiya was beautiful again with her heart-shaped face and that single mole under her eye. Her dark eyes were still shiny with tears and they kept coming down her nose even as her head hit the ground. Her lips parted ever so slightly, pink and full, lips that anyone would admit were gentle, lips not meant for shouting profanities or curses at innocent people.

And Naruto knew deep in his heart that Chiya must have been a good person before.

The blue moon lit up the road.

Kakashi asked Asuma to send a short message to the Hokage to report to the Rice Paddies Daimyo that Saga Village was corrupt.

The stars twinkled in the nighttime sky, but none of them stopped to admire their work nor the people that were forced to lose their lives that night. They turned their backs on them, leaving everything behind, vowing to understand why a traitorous ninja like Orochimaru would want to destroy the lives of the desperate people he encroached upon.

There was mournful howling in the distance.

ooo

Their return trek to Mie was a quick one, mostly because of theirs and the clients' hasty desire to return home. Asuma and his team split away from Team Seven in order to report their own original mission success and about the botched kidnapping during the length of a C-rank mission.

Mr. Ueda paid Team Seven a hefty price, including a huge tip when Ichiro and Jiro went on their knees and begged him to do so, surprising the man who only laughed it off. The two brothers apologized profusely for their behavior and thanked them one-hundred times over with a lot of bowing and nervous hilarity. It only got worse when they figured out that Sasuke was an Uchiha and that Naruto was the Fourth's son.

The two boys were so embarrassed when Kakashi seriously revealed that information. They both thought that the man was not one to talk about such things so needlessly, but it was later explained to them by Sakura that she thought that their teacher was actually very pissed that Ichiro was blaming them for that mess before they went and saved Jiro, especially when his young students could have lost their lives too. He wanted payback in the form of retribution.

They took two more days to return to Konoha, tired and healing. Naruto's injuries were all but gone by then, though.

Sasuke passed his brother on the way to the Tower after checking into the village and notified him that he had awakened his Sharingan. When Itachi asked, "Wait. But you were only on a C-rank mission, right?" then he and the team bolted off faster without a word. They knew that Itachi was already overprotective enough.

The poor guy was probably so suspicious that it would give him a brotherly heart attack.

Kakashi opened the door to the Hokage's office within minutes and the three genin stood behind him at attention. "Team Seven, reporting from a successful C-rank mission, Hokage-sensei."

Naruto and Sasuke snickered at the nickname.

It was then that Naruto felt a pulsing, flaming, annoyance behind his father's desk. Dread sat on his shoulders like a heavy raincoat. The back of the high chair was to them, but it soon swiveled around to reveal a fuming Kushina.

"You think that this is funny, 'ttebane?!"

Naruto sank into himself. His father flashed suddenly in front of his desk and reprimanded his wife for taking a Hokage's place while he had gone to the bathroom and tried to placate her when she rounded on him as well.

"Our families are going to kill us, right?" the blond asked tearfully to Sasuke and they sighed together as a team in a uniform motion.

For some reason, the thought of having a family to yell at him for something like being worried about him for a mission-gone-wrong—at all—hit Naruto hard in the heart.

Coming up next…

Chapter Seven: Face Fall

Was there something more to that C-rank than they originally thought? Was it more than just Orochimaru that manipulated the strings? Naruto meets someone that triggers some strange memories and Minato uncovers something unsettling…

Answers to questions that you might have been wanting to ask…

(1) Ta-da! Now you are starting to get clues onto how this story is both AU and time travel. The loop is what Naruto is stuck in and he must get out of it otherwise it will be detrimental to where he originally came from. More will be explained later. Also, I promise that I had no idea that a mathematical concept such as the Mӧbius Strip existed before I came up with this. It is a pure coincidence, but it's awesome that I came up with a time loop before I knew about it.

(2) Tsukikage Sankaku literally means "moon shadow triangle." The san connotes the number three for the three sides of a triangle. Tsuki is moon and kage is shadow.

(3) Magen: Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu literally means "Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique." I think this one was used by Kotetsu before, but don't take my word for it. I suppose it doesn't really matter. It's a C-rank jutsu, if you wanted to know.