Chapter 31: Cracks

A/N: Please check out my stories; The Living Wind and Fallen Heroes. They're both better written than most of this story and I would greatly appreaciate constructive criticism. Don't forget to review if you liked this chapter. The part about Naruto was hard to write hopefully it reads well.

Now here we go:

The afternoon sun was falling and families with younger children, inspite of the cries from the battle outside the village's walls, were turning out their lights and getting ready for the night.

"Come on Sasuke the coast is clear." Karin called using her chakra sensing abilities to locate Konoha ninja and avoid detection.

Sasuke followed her silently rubbing his sore wrists. He hadn't been surpised when the door to his cell opened but he had been surprised when it was Karin who untied him and helped navigate them out of the prison. Sasuke had responded to his rescuer's actions not with gratitude but with skepticism. His skepticism was noticed and Karin explained she had been aided by one of the Akatsuki's spies given to Kabuto to aid his attack on Konoha. Kabuto had generously allowed her to acquire the assistance of this spy who worked under Ibiki as a guard.

Karin was displeased that not only was Sasuke not talking to her but that he doubted her skills as a ninja. "Are you feeling alright?" She asked desperately trying not to sound overly concerned.

"I'm fine."

The simple brusque reply said everything. It was Sasuke's way of telling you to shut up and that it didn't matter if he was okay or not. Karin felt the words like a cool blade and flinched at the sting. He was so cool. So calm and reserved; logical and efficient. She longed for him so much that his every rebuttal of her attempts to get close to him wounded her. But like a beaten dog she returned to him finding shelter in his confidence and a handsomeness enough to subdue her hunger.

"This way-" Karin called, stopping her tongue when she realized someone was making their way towards them at a breakneck pace. "Shit, Sasuke, we have to hide."

Her words did not reach Sasuke before they were discovered. Karin had not anticipated being approached so quickly and cursed herself for her stupidity. However, her curses transformed into laughter when she realized who had discovered her. Sasuke on the other hand was not so delighted.

"Naruto." Sasuke adressed the body that stopped on the rooftop in front of them.

Suigetsu was in a hurry. He planned to assasinate as many important Konoha officials as he could during the skirmish between Konoha and Sound forces because many bodyguards had been instructed to join the battle leaving important targets helpless. Inspite of this hurry he stopped after coming across Karin and Sasuke. For while Suigetsu needed to accomplish his mission he knew that Karin had probably not informed Sasuke that he was the temporary possesor of Naruto's body and because of this Suigetsu had a golden opportunity to play Sasuke for a fool. Suigetu's reason for wanting to scare his team's leader wasn't because disliked Sasuke- in fact the opposite was true he rather admired Sasuke- but sometimes Suigetsu got frustrated with Sasuke's complete arogance. For this reason Suigetsu could not help but take the oppertunity to remind Sasuke of his humility.

"Well, well, well Sasuke, what are you doing out of your cell?" Suigetsu asked doing his best to imitate Naruto. "Surely you haven't come out because you want to die?"

For a moment Sasuke took a step back and reached for his sword subtly expressing his worry but then he relaxed and shook his head. Karin on the other hand stopped her laughter overcome by the fear that the person before them was in fact Naruto.

Sasuke replied with a smile to Suigetsu's bait, "You're not Naruto."

A confident smirk fell from Naruto's face and was replaced by a frown of contempt. "Sometimes you really piss me off Sasuke." Suigetsu ignored Sasuke's response and continued with his mission trying to shake off his embarrasment. To think that such a golden opportunity had come to nothing was difficult for Suigetsu to shrug off but he had no choice. The task at hand would require his full concentration.

Suigetsu attempted to replace his momentary loathing for Sasuke with gratitude for what Sasuke had just told him in dismissing his portrayal of Naruto- If you don't act like Naruto you'll be caught quickly. The thought hardened Suigetsu's resolve and he tried to analyze Naruto's character from the one time he had met him.

Meanwhile Karin was not so clear as to what had just happened. "Sasuke how did you-?"

Sasuke cut her off, "Naruto would never say that. Was that by any chance Suigestu?"

Karin's eyes widened in her stupor. "You could tell that easily? Suigetsu didn't say anying that would have given him away."

"Yes he did. Naruto has a very unique personality, he doesn't behave like most people." Here Sasuke's tone became stern, "Why is Suigetsu impersonating Naruto?"

"Its a long story Sasuke and we don't really have time."

"We have time."

***

Minato did not hear the moans of the dying nor did he hear the muffled voices of his anbu captains reporting casualties and notable information on the enemy to Jiraiya. For Minato the world was silent. His eyes probed with intensity the area where Naruto should have returned from after dealing with Kabuto. The warrior in him was gone, replaced by the loving and worrying father.

The Hokage was not aware that Naruto had returned to the village from the side as to avoid the battle nor was the Hokage aware that Naruto's body was under the control of an enemy. And because the hokage did not have access to this knowledge he was forced to wait in agitation for his son's return.

Below him Anbu were cornering and killing those who still resisted. The few Sound ninja that had given up were being taken into custody however it was not quite so simple. Ibiki was overseeing those taken prisoner and while only a small percentage of the Sound force had surrendered the amount of surendering ninja could not be accomodated in the Konoha ninja prison that was already being overcrowded. To this effect Ibiki was making the tough decisions that Minato as Hokage never could. Some of the surrendering were taken to the prison but most were being moved to an execution ground to be killed.

Minato had attempted to ignore the scene but at the moment the disgust he felt in overlooking the prisoners was a much gentler feeling in comparison to the sickening worry his son was causing him. Inspite of his disgust Minato could not help but admire Ibiki's calm confidence in judging which prisoner's held valuable information and which ones were simply dangerous.

For a split second Ibiki caught Minato's gaze and nodded respectfully, noticing that for once the Hokage was not looking at him with the sad eyes of someone who had watched a crime and had refused to intervene but with pride. While the acknowledgement of the Hokage would cause many ninja even the most senior ninja to blush in delight, Ibiki was not among them, he was however relieved that the man he pledged his loyalty to and entrusted to run the village understood that he was carrying out his job efficiently and quickly.

Minato felt a hand press reassuringly against his shoulder and he turned his head slightly to see the only man who could comfort him.

"Naruto will be fine Minato. He's better than you were at his age, you know that right?" Jiraiya asked watching the last sound ninja struggle valiantly against three Anbu of the special ops division.

"Still he's my son and he's engaging an adversary who is as strong as Kakashi and twice as clever." Minato paused, feeling the weight the words he was about to utter. "Do you think it would be alright if I went to look for him?"

Jiraiya's face paled considerably. "Your aware that the council has requested your presence? Of course it's not alright for you to go look for him. You would basically be stating to the Council that your son is more important to you than the village. Even if he is the vessel for the Kyuubi you personally can not go after him. Besides your still weak from fighting and the attempt on your life... I on the other hand."

Minato turned around sharply and gripped Jiraiya's arms. "Would you sensei?"

Jiraiya smiled. "Ten minutes ago you ordered me to call you Hokage-sama and now I'm sensei?"

The deep rosy blush that filled Minato's cheeks made it impossible for Jiraiya to say no. "If I may could you send Asuma with me? I wouldn't mind the support."

Minato nodded vigorously. "Of course I'll dispatch someone right away. You know Naruto has been under a lot of stress lately I'm worried it could affect him in battle."

"Yeah I know what you mean Minato. Naruto is still just a kid sometimes even I forget that."

***

"Don't you see, Brat? What is so hard to understand about all this?" The Kyuubi barked, obviously frustrated.

Naruto had been quiet along time. He was sitting cross legged, thinking, not ten yards from the cage that housed the Kyuubi. "Why didn't he tell me?"

"Why didn't he ever tell me?" Naruto had been asking the same question over and over barely audible. "Was he embarrased of me?"

Logic escaped Naruto as he fretfully questioned why it had taken until he was sixteen for him to learn that he was the vessel of the greatest of the tailed beasts, the Kyuubi. Had Naruto been thinking rationally he could have come up with a dozen reasons for why is father would spare him from such a terrible knowledge at a young age but Naruto was not thinking rationally and every reason that Naruto came up with was cruel and untrue.

The Kyuubi saw Naruto's confusion and with it a chance for escape. A once in a lifetime oppertunity to be free from the wretched human forever and all he had to do was push Naruto a little further down the path of the irrational. The greatest of the tailed beasts had phrased everything in his explanation to Naruto in such a way that Naruto could not help but become emotional. Kyuubi had done this because emotion was the key to escape.

"How can you not understand Naruto? Your father has kept you in the dark all these years because you are not like him. Think about it. Didn't he say he could never have worked in ANBU? He doesn't trust people like you. He doesn't trust you because he can see your true nature, he can see that you are cruel and violent. He has attempted to keep you from becoming a monster but he knows everything you did in ANBU. He has the names of all the people you killed all the ways you killed them even the names of people you weren't ordered to kill."

Ever since coming back from his stay in the ANBU Naruto had been working out how to deal with his emotions. While it was a part of a ninja's job to keep their personal life from their work life the two were often intertwined. Naruto's personal life and life as a ninja were more entwined than other those of other kid's his own age because his only parent was the Hokage who was always on the job making living a normal life impossible.

It had only been a month since Naruto had come out of ANBU and during that month he had worked to adapt back into the life of a regular ninja who saw friends and lived with his family. Yet a month wasn't enough to for someone like Naruto to completely come to terms with his emotions and relations with his family. Living in seclusion for two years with four other people whom you share no personal information had effected Naruto more than he showed. He had cracked once, but that time his father had been their to seal that crack shut.

The emotional sensitivity that is necessary to forge human relationships was what Naruto had worked for the past month to gain back. The same emotional sensitivity was now what stopped his reason. This emotional sensitivity had allowed the crack to expand to deepen and now the Kyuubi had opened it wide.

Fear, despair, doubt poured out of the wound leaving Naruto vulnerable.

This was the chance the Kyuubi had been waiting for.