I'm sure that some of you thought hell must have frozen over when I didn't update last week, but...stuff happens. Things need to be done. All of that other jazz.

And then some more jazz, because jazz is cool.

Let's get this trainwreck moving, guys.

Her body was wracked with pain. Every muscle was sore, every bone bruised or broken, her mind overtaxed, her stomach empty for the third day in a row. She wasn't having fun...but, of course, she wasn't supposed to be having fun. This was her training, as dictated by her father: to become strong, first you must be weak and rise above it.

"A great part of the Haruno family's power is their ability to separate the energies that create chakra." Sozetsu said as his daughter looked on. "Some like myself, or your great-grandfather Shin, are better able to do this than others. You're likely to have to work for the whole month exclusively on this...but that's your problem, not mine. You're a smart girl, with great chakra control. Work smarter, not harder."

She's trying, has been trying. Every time she gets close, though, her father will hit her with his sword and break her concentration. "Focus harder." He says. "If you were truly dedicating yourself to splitting the energies of the mind and body, you wouldn't have lost control." He's broken three of her ribs, her left femur, and each of the fingers in her right hand. Her jaw is cracked, and her skull has a hairline fracture.

If he really wanted her to focus, she thinks, maybe he shouldn't have put her through this much pain...but, of course, that would defeat the purpose of the exercise. The enemy wouldn't wait for you to call upon your chakra and unleash your technique, they'd cut you down; that was the point. It was easier and faster to draw upon one half of the energy, rather than all of it, and unleash the power of the Haruno line.

The spirit half of chakra, on its own, could work in ways similar to medical chakra or even the Jyuken techniques of the Hyuga clan. It worked by seeping into the opponent's chakra system, where she could then control the flow of the chakra or blood, effectively becoming a truly fearsome and undetectable poison. Sozetsu had brought fame to the Haruno family with it, since it could not be seen by anyone except those who had a chakra-viewing dojutsu or a Haruno.

The physical half of chakra was altogether the same in purpose, though it had a separate use. It acted as a paralytic toxin or as extreme weights, almost allowing the feeling of multiplied gravity. It took a reddish-brown color, like a dark mud-clay, and was just as fearsome to behold as the spiritual energy.

Needless to say, she'd been exhausting herself in the attempt to complete her goal...but she cannot fail. Not now. She won't let herself, because that would mean falling behind Kitsune and Sasuke even more than she already has. It would mean letting Ino beat her at her game of clan techniques and who was better. It would mean losing to the formerly gentle-hearted Hinata, who'd turned herself into a cold-hearted bitch with a sense of timing that was scarily in sync with Naruto's total transformation to Kitsune.

If there's one thing that Sakura could never stand, and wouldn't ever be able to, it was losing. She would not lose. She would not fail. She would overcome, conquer, and stand tall beside her teammates. While she was sure that Sasuke would no doubt be Kitsune's right hand, as her worldview forced her to think, she had determined to be Sasuke's left; standing behind and between them and acting as their peacekeeper, their comrade and friend, a teammate that could be relied upon...it was childish, certainly, but would serve to drive her further.

After another two days, she managed to fully split the energies...which meant that she would be ready to enter the next phase of her training: combat application. Her father would attack her, and she would need to keep the energies split and raging inside of her body; half would be filled with spiritual energy, and the other half would be filled with physical energy.

A shadow in black, unseen by any, flitted away to its next destination. It left behind a single weapon, a calling card of sorts; three spires that ended in points, the middle one longer than the others, that formed their own sort of guard over the handle...A sword-breaker, blade-of-choice for the poor and those who couldn't effectively fight against katanas or similar swords. More formally, it was known as a sai.

A sai, stabbing into the visible roots of a giant tree, with the kanji for "Nine" engraved into the pommel.

Sakura would never see it; she wasn't meant to. Even if she did, she wouldn't be able to grasp the symbolism. She was smart, incredibly so, but that intelligence was only broad, rather than deep...much to the regret of some of those around her. That was a different story, though, for a different time and place. The message was for Sozetsu, who would understand what he was meant to know. His leader's secret soldier was on the move again, seeking to pierce the dividing line between the powerful shadows and the gilded light that flourished because of them. The last time that the sai had been seen was eleven years ago, before the sealing, as a warning that betrayal was imminent. That it would reappear now meant only one thing: Kitsune was alive and kicking, back in the flesh and itching for bloody steel in his hands.

The thought, once reached, would prove to be strangely comforting.

Sasuke had turned Kakashi down. While the scarecrow was powerful, with a similar fighting style to the Uchiha clan's martial combat, Sasuke didn't need him. Not for his techniques, as powerful as they were; those were crutches that could not be used, and the way to become strong was to do it yourself. To that end, he couldn't use the man for help in training his Sharingan either...he would do as all the great Uchiha did, from his brother back to Uchiha Madara and the fighters of the Warring Clans era of shinobi life. He could not turn to Hatake, or to Kitsune. His family was long dead, leaving only their scrolls and weapons behind. There was only one person who could help him become as strong as he needed to be, who might give him the strength to surpass Itachi, and she was possibly the one person who frightened him more than Kitsune or Itachi.

The ancestral Uchiha spirit was ancient beyond reckoning, and she did not take kindly to intrusion; that much had been impressed upon Sasuke at a very young age, when he'd watched an unfortunate policeman cower in fear after she proved to be irritable towards his approaching her. He couldn't remember if she'd killed the man or not, though he doubted it...he was likely to remember something like that.

In any case, he knew that he should never normally disturb her. He hadn't even seen her in more than twelve years, much less thought about her; that had changed in the days before the Chunin Exams began, though, when he woke one day to find her standing over his bed. She wanted him for something, which was bad enough, but the truly terrifying thing was that he wasn't sure of what it was that she might want. It clearly wasn't to kill him, thankfully enough, or she'd have eliminated him a long time ago.

She needed him alive, which is a sincere blessing in and of itself, but that didn't mean that he wasn't nervous. She could just dispose of him when she finished, or his death might be part of what she was doing...but he would move on. Knocking on her door was one of the most difficult things he'd ever done; she was on the opposite side of the deserted Uchiha district from his home, and the streets still seemed as though they were painted in the blood of the dead or the dying.

She had invited him in with open arms, however; she'd known he would come. A certain fox, unknown to Sasuke, had told her of such things...and she was prone to listen to her children, as well as their descendants. That was why she stayed with the Uchiha, after all; Kurama's children were the nearest and dearest to her heart, just as their ancestor had been before the death of his father. The only two that she cared for more were Naruto and his wife, Matatabi's girl, something Nii.

"You have come seeking power."

"Yes, mistress."

The title meant little to her. "You won't get it."

She turned around, going to head into a different room, but heard a thud as Sasuke fell to his knees. Her head craned to look at him, and she almost lets her jaw drop from the shock of seeing an Uchiha beg.

"Please, my lady. Whatever your price, I will pay it."

"Anything?"

"Anything."

She turned back around, commanding him to rise, and he complied without complaint. She faced him, maroon eyes coldly distant, and Sasuke knew that something was wrong.

"Then perhaps you might gain the power of the ancients, your ancestors. It is a blood magic, and I am the last one left who can perform it. Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"The only way to gain this power is to die."

Her hand is through his ribcage before he can respond, their bloods mixing within his body, and the Uchiha couldn't even manage a grunt as his world faded to black. His "sleep" was not dreamless; he saw fire and lightning, death and decay, the rise and fall of centuries before and after the days he lived. He saw violence and bloodshed, an era of gods and demons who had replaced and usurped the shinobi of old, terrorizing humanity. Two young people, a male and a female, stood against them. The boy had brown hair and eyes, with tattoos running up and down his upper body...the girl had silver hair and blood-red eyes, much like Kitsune's, and she was of some unearthly grace. Alone they stood, hopeless, all but defeated, until shadow blanketed the sky and the voice of the Dark Lord preceded his arrival.

Sasuke woke with no small amount of confusion. "What was that?"

"A vision. Or, if you don't believe in prophecy, a dream...that will come true. Naruto-chan had the same one, I believe...death and destruction and so on, but the power I gave to him was different. He is another of my descendants, so I see fit to help him as well." She explained, if vaguely.

Sasuke didn't respond, which was a wise choice; he was preoccupied with the stone in his chest. Red, and pulsing like a second heart, he'd never seen anything like it. It was no ruby, no red mutation of any well-known stone...he had no idea what it was, but it was sinking into his chest with no trouble at all. Right to where his heart should have been, it sank, and only then did he realize the terrible truth: the stone was keeping him alive.

"You sought power, Uchiha Sasuke, and I gave it freely. You claimed that you would do anything for the power which I offered...and you died for it. That stone is your heart, and is indestructible save for a few rare things that you're not likely to run across. That stone is your power, your life, and your dedication to your cause. Uchiha Sasuke was a boy who could not gain my power, because a Dead Man's power is only available to the dead. I am the last of them, ancient warriors from a time long before even the Rikudo Sennin...but no longer. Just as the blood of the Six Paths flows in you and I, so do you have control over that self-same blood. You are no longer a boy, nor a man, but a Dead Man."

A pair of three-tomoe Sharingan blazed back at her.

Two men, both clothed in black, sat hunched over a table. On it was a map of Konoha, defenses and roads and structures and all, that they studied despite knowing it like the backs of their hands.

"The Raikage is bringing a paltry force, and the Mizukage's not much more generous. Perhaps a thousand from both of them, total. The Kazekage and his people are our enemies, save for the Ichibi Jinchuriki and his siblings, and with them will come Orochimaru's Otogakure force of ten or twelve thousand. Combine that with Suna's thirty thousand, and any renegades that they manage to pick up along the way, and we're looking at somewhere around forty thousand at best and forty-five thousand at worst."

"Will Kumo and Kiri be bringing Jinchuriki?"

"At least one of them, which manages to alleviate the problem somewhat."

"Konoha has fifty thousands on its own, as well, but not all of them fight for us or with us. Your job is to hit the top-" The man tapped the Hokage residence, and both understood the significance of it. "-while I clean up the bottom. We'll meet somewhere in the middle, with our different thousands of soldiers..."

"Yes. The problem is, that 'fifty thousand' score includes droves of Genin. There are only about twenty-five thousand fighting ninja in the village, not including the Ne forces...but those will only jump us by what, five thousand? They still outnumber us by a third, or half-again, our numbers."

"You're looking too hard at the numbers. Yes, they outnumber us. Yes, that's bad. No, it's not the end. Plenty of battles have been won with inferior numbers, like the battle of the Iron Peaks..."

"You're right, but I can't help thinking about it. Numbers may not win a battle, or a war, but both of us know that they certainly help."

The man sitting toward the bar's fireplace stood, collected the map, and walked out; his compatriot wasn't too long to follow, staying long enough to pay for their drinks and leave a generous tip for the waitress. That was just what a chivalrous man did, wasn't it? All of his friend's books seemed to say so. He walked away, letting down his hood as he did, though a black mesh covered his hair and neck. Red eyes gleamed behind a black mask, with a feral smile hidden behind the porcelain...the night was his time, the time of iron and evil, and he would make sure to use it as such.

Believe it.