God DAMN this took too long to update. I ain't gonna say much, since I just wanna get this chapter up. Read, enjoy, and if you want, review please.

Disclaimer: That Shinra Tensei was so freaking AWESOME!


The hermit of earth

The three Shinobi emerged from the mouth of the cave the next day, the sunlight glaring down at them once more. Deidara looked up at the sky with a wry smile; it was starting to become unclear if he did anything innocently. He was the only one to be in that sort of mood, Naruto was filed with an awkward sense of anxiety and unease at what happened yesterday and also what lay ahead. Gaara however was the least optimistic; he hadn't spoken a word or so much as acknowledged the presence of anyone else.

They embraced the cool breeze, welcoming it over the scorching sun. The cave dove into one of the cliff faces not far from the village they had caused a great deal of trouble for just yesterday. From here, Naruto couldn't possibly have been able to tell that they had been there at all. The smoke plumes were gone and anything that had been destroyed had plummeted down into the depths. However, this was scarcely a concern; there was something foremost on Naruto's conscience right now.

"Hey, I gotta go in there for a minute." he said, looking over his shoulder at the pair behind him. There was an empty feeling that he needed to take care of, something important beyond measure. Gaara however wasn't listening; Deidara was the only one who heard him. The eldest of the three cast his eyes back, lightly looking over the place behind Naruto with his single visible eye.

"If you're looking for your sword, there's no need." he said, staring Naruto in the eye. He then raised his hand, gesturing to the wall of the valley they had been inhabiting for the night. "I saw one of those dogs of yours picking it up. I think they're somewhere up there or something. That's what you mean, yeah?"

Naruto blinked in surprise, before turning his eyes up. Though the top of the valley was impossible to make out for the intense sky, he had a pretty good feeling the dogs Deidara was referring to weren't up that high. Sure enough, about halfway down the sheer wall there was a rocky ledge that had some oddly shaped shadows upon them. Naruto raised his fingers to his lips and let out a sharp whistle, and as expected the forms shifted suddenly.

It was the arrival of those six dogs, their landings causing slight tremor to the ground, that caused Gaara to finally react. He looked up as Akira headed over to Naruto, the hilt of the Ekokaeten gripped in his mouth. The red haired boy winced slightly and grabbed the side of his head as something like a brief flicker came to mind, one of a dog pulling a blond haired boy in red out of the way.

"Hnn." he grunted, his furrowed brow showing obvious discomfort. Before either Deidara or Naruto could notice however, he calmed himself back to an almost flat expression, but even his best efforts couldn't hide his troubled look. Fortunately, Deidara didn't pay it any attention and Naruto seemed to be kind of preoccupied.

"You freaking idiot! Don't go using that chakra when we're in the middle of an important mission!"

"Sorry sorry!" Naruto thought, as he took the blade in hand and gave Eko and apologetic grin. Eko didn't seem to settle for that though, and continued to scold Naruto, call him an idiot and all sorts of things. Naruto however quickly grew tired of this, giving the blade a flat but expectant look. "Alright alright, don't get mad just cos I can't use you like that."

Though the blade continued to grumble to himself, Naruto had hit the nail right on the head with his remark. Soon the obscure peace was restored, and he was able to slip the blade onto his back without complaint.

Now that things were in place, Deidara turned and began to walk away. He headed in the opposite direction of the village, through the broad valley to the north of that place. Naruto and Gaara soon followed after him, while the dogs made for higher ground. "Alright listen up, I'll tell you what I've learned." Deidara said, keeping his attentions firmly to the road ahead. He walked with the quick, determined pace of someone with a destination they were keen to get to, showing more enthusiasm than either of the boys behind him. "The Gobi Jinchuriki's name is Han, and he's a bit of a hermit, so don't expect a big welcome even if you are like him. As you may have guessed, he lives outside the village. Just be careful not to get on his nerves, yeah?"

"Uh… sure." Naruto replied, not really sure of what else to say. He was willing to follow Deidara's lead on this one; it wasn't like he could do anything useful until they got there anyway. But he was glad to hear something at least, he really hadn't known what to expect from Fuu, or Yagura for that matter. "So uh… you know anything else?"

Deidara didn't answer right away; he seemed to be thinking about something beforehand. But when he did reply, he cast a glance over his shoulder, giving Naruto a surprisingly cool look. "Yeah." he said, his calm blue eye looking into Naruto's electric ones. After another moment's pause, he spoke in as relaxed a tone as the expression he wore. "Don't touch his workbench."

Naruto blinked in surprise, before frowning in confusion. That response wasn't exactly the kind of thing he'd been expecting, moreover he now felt less certain about the situation than he did before. However in spite of the growing level of curiosity inside of him, it wasn't him that posed the question he was thinking.

"You know this person then?" Gaara asked, speaking up for the first time since last night. He walked with his arms folded, a fixed look upon Deidara construing seriousness that the group was otherwise lacking. It was this seriousness that was necessary, but also a dampener to the mood. "Then why is it we went to the trouble of digging up information?"

"Because that's only technically true." Deidara replied, his voice becoming slightly more suitable to the situation from Gaara's tone. The red haired boy kept his attention locked on, while Naruto cocked his head and narrowed his eyes in clear confusion. "I don't think even his family could have figured that guy out. He's got some strange habits; you could call him a rather… inconsistent person… un."

"Inconsistent?" Naruto repeated, with a stupid look on his face that was anything but alien. He really had no idea what a person would have to be like to earn a description like that. How could one generally be inconsistent? "I don't get it, what's that supposed to mean?"

Deidara bowed his head and let out a faint chuckle from Naruto's obvious question. However, rather than offer a helpful explanation, he just gave the boy more confusion to work with. "I guess we'll see when we find him… hmf." he said, causing Naruto to scratch at his head. Gaara on the other hand wasn't reacting anything like that; he was simply taking in what Deidara said and filing it away.


Yagura let out a deep yawn as he walked into the kitchen area of the base. He'd slept in a little, though no one would have blamed him considering how much time he'd spent training with Fuu last night. He opened his still sleeping eyes as he stepped past the middle unit of the kitchen, to the place where Utakata was standing. "Hey." he said, raising his hand unnecessarily to his long time friend.

Utakata glanced at him, a small smile on his face. He jerked his head over to the window he'd been looking out of, gesturing for Yagura to come closer. Confused, Yagura did just that, leaning on the sill as he cast his eyes down below. "Dunno what you did, but looks like you've lit a fire." Utakata said, as he too returned his eyes to the girl down below.

Fuu was deep in training, standing in a forest of dummies made from the sticks she and Yagura had gathered yesterday. The many dolls that surrounded her would have been the equivalent of several Shinobi teams; there were at least twelve of the unmoving figures in sight. Fuu stood ready for combat, her arms raised and her legs apart. She looked over the surrounding dummies with a serious expression, allowing her overactive imagination to be of use for once.

Then, suddenly, she leapt into the air, heading straight for one of the fake Shinobi. She landed on its shoulders before giving a swift and tough kick to its head, made with the movement to leap back off of it. She somersaulted through the air while curled up into a ball, before slipping from her pouch a kunai. She landed on the ground and darted past the backs of two of the dummies, slashing across the place where their shoulder blades would have been. Then she leapt up into the trees, disappearing from view altogether.

"Wow…" Yagura muttered, his eyes wide with shock. He watched as Fuu returned to the field, and proceeded to attack the other dummies in a similar fashion of neck snapping, slashing and the likes. Yagura was astounded by her methods, they were beyond his expectations. "I can't believe it."

"Yeah." Utakata agreed, with an equally impressed look. He leant on the wall and folded his arms, staring with raised brows at the girl who was putting so much effort into her training. He too was amazed by the sight before him; this was something he had never before seen. "I'm surprised too… she's…"

"A complete idiot." they finished together. Fuu ran through the crowd with direct targets in mind, and attacked them either head on or in full view of the surrounding dummies. If that wasn't enough, her attacks had so many openings that both Yagura and Utakata were pretty sure they could hit her from here. It was this stunning fact that left them in awe, could it be that they had found someone even less discreet than Naruto?

"It's like climbing a mountain." Yagura muttered, as a large drop of sweat gathered at his temple. He winced as Fuu overestimated herself, resulting in her tripping up on one of the fallen dummies and hitting the ground with a painful thud. "You never know quite how big it is until you're looking at it with your own two eyes."

Utakata chuckled inwardly, feeling slightly sympathetic to his little friend beside him. He turned away from the horrific excuse for a fight and headed over to the central unit, to pour himself a drink of water. "That's a pretty grand comparison don't you think?" he asked, as he took out a large and heavy plastic bottle to fill the glass that waited for him. He looked to Yagura from the corner as he poured, wearing a small smirk accentuated with calm but sharp eyes. "Does that mean you aim to overcome her?"

Yagura's fixed stare of Fuu was severed with those words as he suddenly whipped around to look at Utakata incredulously. Though he still gripped onto the sill, this time he had a more trapped in the corner look about him, something that wasn't often seen on him. "What the hell are you asking?" he demanded, well aware of Utakata's double meanings. The most obvious had been what came to his mind, hence the other rare occurrence of embarrassment appearing upon him. "What do you think Fuu is to me?"

Utakata lowered the bottle and picked up his glass, leaning lightly on the countertop as he gave Yagura a casual look. "I wonder about that…" he muttered, smiling coolly as he took a sip of his drink. Once more the subconscious question was raised as to whether or not he was just teasing, or if he really did have a sadistic tendency. "Or if you flip it around, just what are you to Fuu-chan?"

"What?" Yagura asked, clearly jumping to conclusions. Unfortunately for him, those conclusions were exactly where Utakata wanted him to go; he was being toyed with like a cat with a spider. And the funny thing was that he knew very well this was the case. It was just like Utakata to do this sort of thing. "What are you implying?"

Utakata chuckled inwardly at just how flustered Yagura was getting right now. However he didn't really like being under an accusing stare, so he decided to put his games to an end. Placing his glass down, he gave Yagura an even more relaxed look than before, this one sincere. "Let me ask you, do you think Fuu-chan would have run off the way she did if it were me, or Naruto who said those things?" he asked, turning to face Yagura offhandedly. "Face it, if it was that case then she probably would have gotten mad, definitely if it was Naruto." he said, before another smile appeared on his face. "In case you haven't noticed; Fuu-chan seems to care very much about what you think of her."

Yagura's wide eyes lowered down as he gave a surprised frown to Utakata. His grip slackened and he seemed to faze out for a moment, caught seriously off guard by that announcement. "She does?" he asked, though this seemed to be rhetorical. After a moment of thinking he turned around and looked down at the girl in question, who had succeeded in already exhausting herself and was now taking a breather on her knees. Yagura's expression slowly slid into something more serious. "That's…"

Utakata watched Yagura closely, his eyes searching the back of the straw haired boy's head with a thoughtful look. He then closed his eyes, smirking to himself. Once he had drained the last of his drink, he turned around and made his way to the open door. "Just be gentle with her." he said, pausing at the doorway just long enough to say that. Then he disappeared into the hallway, leaving Yagura to his thoughts. The former Mizukage knew very well what Utakata was getting at, and for that reason his expression grew even more serious.

"Yeah…"


They had walked only about a quarter of a mile before coming to a stop, setting their sights on a strange place up ahead. There was an intersection of sorts in the valley, where the paths split off in two directions up ahead. However, rather than the twin paths, it was the interesting rock itself that had drawn the attention of Naruto, Deidara and Gaara. It consisted mostly of boulder for a good distance, before the plateau that was the intersection actually took place. The boulders however failed to reach anywhere near the top of the plateau, barely making it halfway even. It was at the top of these boulders that lay the place catching their interest; an opening to a cave that seemed to be releasing some sort of vapour or smoke.

"Yeah, that's gotta be the place." Deidara said, wearing the same odd smile he had before. He seemed almost nostalgic about it, even though he had apparently never been to this place before. With a wave of his hand, he gestured for Naruto and Gaara to follow him as he began to climb onto the boulders. "C'mon, we'll go in nice and friendly, yeah?"

Naruto and Gaara both silently complied, feelings of anticipation rising in their guts. That feeling never seemed to change; the wonder of just who would be lying in wait for them when they reached the end. They stepped onto the rough but steady boulders, taking high steps at some points and having to jump at other times. It was a pain, but Deidara knew better than them what to do here, so they were willing to go along with it.

"So this Han guy is in there?" Naruto asked, as he straightened up from landing on a particularly large rock. He found himself watching the cave warily, the vapour making him feel a little uneasy. The way it moved out in large but steady wisps made it almost seem like some beast inside was letting out hot and heavy breaths. He couldn't help but wonder what could create such a by product in those amounts.

Ahead of him, Deidara was also watching the vapour with great attention. He gave a slight nod of reply, before realising that probably wouldn't have been noticed. "Yeah, he's probably inside." he confirmed, as they reached the halfway mark. "He's not exactly a raving socialite. I doubt he leaves this place except for stocking up on the bare essentials and stuff… un."

Naruto glanced over at Gaara from hearing that. From the sounds of things, maybe this guy would be a little more familiar than he'd thought. However, considering how Gaara was, that wasn't necessarily a good thing at all. However, it did manage to make Naruto grin, even if it was an out of place one.

"How strong is he?" Gaara asked, once more speaking after another long silence. Unlike Naruto and Deidara, his attentions weren't fixed on the cave so much as the plateau in general. It was obvious that he was thinking of how things would go if they got in a fight; he would at least have plenty of rock to turn into sand.

This thought was hindered however as Deidara looked back at them with a rather uneasy expression. Both of the other boys were frowning at him, sensing the edgy atmosphere that was gathering around the eldest of the three. "Seriously… don't touch his workbench." he said, before turning his eyes back to the cave. Naruto and Gaara both glanced at each other; this definitely was going to be a tricky situation.

They reached the entrance to the cave, and were hit with a kind of heat that they hadn't experienced in a while; a humid kind that came with the dampness of the air. Quietly they stepped inside, the dogs behind taking positions on top of the plateau as their master disappeared. The dull gloom of the cave took them in, and their sweat no longer had any cooling effect.

They walked into the small cavern, light provided by small holes in the ceiling and walls that somehow caught the sun despite the distance between here and open air. As it was, narrow shafts of light came down from straight above so that even as they ventured deeper there was no trouble for sight. This was a fortunate thing, for not long after their entry to the cave, many interesting things caught their eyes.

Artwork of all sorts were lined across the walls, a mad menagerie of different creations and styles. There were paintings made of many different methods, some framed and others in the form of scrolls, each hanging on the stone walls of the cave. There were also sculptures of many shapes, sizes and materials. Stone statues and wooden works, marble models and bronze busts. The place seemed like a low maintenance gallery, bringing in artwork of whatever mould or make. Naruto and Gaara looked them over with unsurprising interest, while Deidara gave them a raised brow.

"Traditional stuff huh?" he mused aloud, a look half surprised and perhaps a little annoyed. It seemed that what he was seeing was unappealing to him, perhaps he wasn't fond of sculptures like these? "This doesn't fit him at all… guess this talk will be more interesting than I thought it would be."

Naruto, who hadn't noticed Deidara's words, continued to look at the sculptures with a slight feeling of awe. He doubted that anyone would be surprised to know, but his knowledge of artwork extended little past painting pretty pictures and other such things. But what he saw here was undeniable; the man who made these was obsessed. This became accentuated as the random statues of men and women changed, the men disappearing and the women becoming remarkably similar in appearance. One in particular made him stop in his tracks and step in for a closer look.

He wasn't quite sure what it was, it seemed like a painting, but instead of paint it was made of small flowers. It depicted a young girl, with dark flowing hair and lightly tanned skin. She was smiling peacefully with bright blue eyes, the strange, polished flowers making her shine. It was a peculiar sort of picture that had caught his eye, but soon he disregarded it as he saw Gaara and Deidara get ahead of him.

A strange hissing noise caught their ears, causing the three of them to suddenly look up. Something they had missed before, a long and thin metal pipe was attacked to the ceiling of the cave. It had blended in well, only the escape of some of the vapour that passed through it had made them aware of its presence. "Looks like he's getting into his work." Deidara muttered, before lowering his eyes to the tunnel, which curved off to the left not too far ahead. "We're nearly there… hm."

It seemed true enough, the quality of light was rising as they got further and further through the art filled cave. But not only that, there seemed to be a whirring sound of sorts that was steadily growing louder, like there was drilling being done or something like that. Naruto and Gaara both stared hard at the wall ahead, as if expecting the cave to provide the answers they were looking for. Though it was indirectly so, that was done to an extent as they came around the smooth curve that led them to the source of the noise.

The cave opened up into a slightly larger room, one that rounded off into a niche of a living space. To the left of the room there was what was essentially a cot of a bed, with a wooden crate lying just behind it. This room was also filled with statues made of different materials, all depicting the girl who had become the main focus of the strange gallery. And at the end of the room, there was a large steel workbench which the pipe connected to. It was this workbench that sat perhaps the strangest dressed person Naruto had met yet.

This person sat with his back to the tunnel, wearing strange red armour that covered his entire body. It was a ridged carapace-like material, shining and looking to be very hard. There was an odd item that sat on the man's hunched back, a machine of sorts that resembled a mushroom. Steam lightly rose from four holes in this object, rising into the air and evaporating. On top of his samurai-like armour he wore a black kimono with torn sleeves, something that seemed rather a redundant thing indeed. Even his head was obscured by that armour, shaped like a large sedge hat with hanging around the back of his head. The sight was almost too much to take in, who would dress like that in a place like this?

Naturally, the only one not shocked by the appearance of this person was Deidara. With little to no hesitation, he stepped forward and cast his eyes across the room, studying the statues and paintings that filled it on every side. With an artistic eye like his, he couldn't help but take not of the growing irregularities that had come with the work all around. Were the earlier pieces were well detailed, these ones were lacking. The eyes of the statues were lacking definition, and the paintings were the same. Each of the pieces made of that girl were missing the eyes. Yet, in spite of these missing factors, he couldn't help but sense something exuding from the art around him. The passion that came with them far exceeded the earlier work; even though they were sculptures they managed to excite him a little.

"It looks like there's been a certain something on your mind." he said, announcing his presence to the man at the bench. The armour adorning person stopped his work, lifting his head to listen to the voice. Deidara turned his attentions from the artwork to this person, a cool smile spreading across his face. "Something troubling you, Han-sensei?"