Author's note: Another chapter here. You're lucky I've had it prewritten or the review response would have put me into serious creative depression and you'd have to wait a long time for another update. I hope this chapter is more to your liking.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Nothing's changed in that regard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Kumogakure~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The journey to Kumo was mostly uneventful. They travelled through Fire Country to Hot Springs Country, where they took a ship to Water Country, another ship to another part of Water Country, before boarding yet another ship to Lightning Country. They changed their appearances in every port to make tracking them impossible. At first Naruto was excited about the prospect of sailing for the first time in his life, but the novelty had quickly worn off. All the sea travel was boring, considering they had to maintain their disguise as civilians constantly, except for that one time a storm came and nearly sank the ship, but they arrived at their destination safely. Then followed the long walk through the mountains towards where the Village Hidden in the Clouds was. Naruto supposed that under another circumstances he'd enjoy this trip, but now he couldn't truly appreciate the scenic beauty of the landscape when he expected a Cloud ninja to jump out from behind every rock.

As they came closer to Kumogakure, the ninja patrols on the roads increased. It took all Naruto's self-control not to jump every time he caught the sight of a flak-jacket. But that would have blown his disguise, because the persona he was currently using, a young peasant girl, shouldn't be able to see them at all.

They stopped for the night in a roadside inn a few hours travel from their destination. They didn't exchange any words, in case somebody was listening, Jiraiya just gave Naruto a nod. They have both gone over what should be done now many times before. They knew by heart what final preparations to infiltrate Kumogakure they had to do. Naruto didn't have to do anything; his disguise had been determined good enough and his travel pass also capable of holding out even under a close inspection. Jiraiya had it harder. He was too well-known to risk just walking towards the main gate, no matter how carefully he concealed his appearance. But he wasn't Konoha's spymaster for nothing and he knew several tricks for how to get into places he wasn't supposed to be in and the guards were expecting him to try. A minute later the tall man was gone and there was only a tiny toad on the floor, no bigger than a fingernail. Naruto found it fascinating how somebody as huge as Jiraiya could hide in something so minuscule. A part of him wanted to learn the technique too. A bigger part of him was scared that somebody saw them, somebody felt the chakra used for it and that Kumo ninja were going to barge through the door any moment now, no matter how much had Jiraiya assured him that the technique was undetectable.

When nothing happened for ten minutes, Naruto's racing heart finally slowed down to normal rate. He still wasn't calm, but at least he wasn't so nervous even a civilian would notice anymore. He could embark on the last part on his journey. He picked up the tiny toad, hid it in his sleeve and walked out of the inn.

He felt very exposed without Jiraiya's reassuring presence at his back. The Kumo patrols in the area intensified as he came within sight of the Hidden Village. He kept expecting a kunai in his back any moment and it took all his self-control not to show it on his face. He almost sighed in relief when he reached Kumo's gates. Though it meant that the hardest part of the infiltration was right before him, the waiting was over and that made him feel much better.

Though the waiting wasn't quite over just yet. There was a queue in front of the gates and Naruto had to wait before his turn came. He quickly scanned the situation and realized that there were two lines – one for pedestrians and the other for merchants with carts full of their wares. He stood in the pedestrian line and waited. It was a form of torture, but he endured.

Just as it was almost his turn, he got a bit of a lucky break. One supply cart was just declared clear by the guards and waved inside. Naruto made an exaggerated stretching motion and 'accidentally' brushed his hand on the cart. He felt a movement within his sleeve, as the toad carrying Jiraiya recognized the opportunity and jumped onto the cart. It immediately disappeared under a roll of cloth, so nobody saw it. Then the cart passed the gates. One-half of infiltration successful. Now only he had to pass through.

It turned out that he had worried for nothing. His travelling pass, either forged or stolen, he didn't know, was good enough to fool the guards. A young girl didn't seem like a threat to them either, though one of the chuunin manning the gate decided to bodily search him with a perverted leer. Naruto cringed, but endured. His transformation was solid and he had no weapons or any other contraband they might find suspicious. Then a Kumo kunoichi shouted at the man searching him to stop perving, because there were still a lot of people to check, and Naruto was released. He didn't bother to hide his sigh of relief; it was expected of a civilian in his situation. He thanked the woman for saving him and walked on.

Sneaking into a hidden village during wartime really should have been harder. Not that it had been easy, but the fact that they had gotten in at all proved that Kumo's security just wasn't enough. But that worked in their favor. Well, Kumo was going to up their security soon, but it was going to be too late for them. Ah, stop the idle thoughts, it was time to concentrate on the mission. He was still in very hostile territory and the slightest mistake could cause his death or capture. He had to stay on guard. With that thought Naruto finally entered Kumogakure.

Once he walked through the gate, he could finally see the Village hidden in the Clouds in its full glory. And glorious it was. Naruto had to marvel at the difference between it and his home. While Konoha had a warm, homey feeling, Kumo had majestic beauty. Everything was grand here, or at least looked that way. The high, steep mountains surrounding it, the tall buildings resembling beehives, and the Raikage tower, seemingly built upside down on the side of the tallest mountain around. It was breathtaking. 'And we're supposed to...' For a moment, Naruto felt a pang in his heart. Could he really do what he was supposed to? He knew it was for the good of Konoha, at least Jiraiya had said so, but...

"Takes your breath away, doesn't it?" a man's voice interrupted his thoughts. Naruto jumped despite the good humor he heard in the voice. Had he been discovered already? He turned to see a middle-aged Kumo chuunin standing next to him.

"First time in the village?" The Cloud ninja asked. Naruto nodded. He didn't quite trust his voice yet. He wasn't being dragged off to the cells yet, so everything was probably still alright, but the effects of the scare were still lingering. "We get this reaction a lot," the Kumo chuunin chuckled. "Well, enjoy your stay here." Then he slapped Naruto on the back merrily and sent him on his way.

The boy walked away in a daze. The Kumo shinobi had actually been nice to him. And he was going to... He didn't want to finish the thought. It was bad enough that he would have to do it soon. Did he really have to? The lives of countless Konoha shinobi depended on it. He had to do it otherwise many would die. Tenzo, Hana and Hotaru might die if he failed here. They could die even if he succeeded, a small voice pointed out. Naruto wished he could tell it to shut up, but he couldn't deny that it was right. He still didn't want to do it, but he had to. He had his orders and he was going to trust his superiors to know what they were doing. Well, he was going to hope they knew it.

'Back to the mission before someone notices me standing here and finds me suspicious,' Naruto thought. He resumed walking down the street, looking for a good place to start. He tried not to think about all the people in the streets, going about their business and looking just like the people in Konoha. It was harder than he had thought and he quickly realized that he couldn't quite do it. He just repeated to himself that he had to and tried not to think about it much. He wondered how long his resolve would last. A part of him wanted to begin the operation immediately, but he had to wait for Jiraiya's signal. All this would have no purpose if the Toad Sage didn't manage his part of the job. Naruto had no idea how long it was going to take him, but he estimated it would be hours. He had to find a place to wait.

He walked through the streets, taking in the sights. The buildings here were different, the fashions were different, but the people weren't. If he closed his eyes, he could think he was in Konoha. And he was supposed to... Could he really do it? It was for Konoha, but suddenly the argument lost weight. He felt he was going to be sick and he hadn't even done anything yet.

His feet carried him to a local park. There he sat on an unoccupied bench and stared. He could see two children of perhaps four or five years playing in a sandbox, their mothers sitting nearby and exchanging gossip, one of them knitting, the other rocking a baby. It was one of the most peaceful sights he had ever seen. And he was supposed to destroy it. Suddenly he felt like the worst trash. He looked away. 'Just the ninja,' Jiraiya had said. But even that didn't make it any better. He could see a genin team, the lot of them probably not even ten years old yet, picking litter on the far side of the park. He remembered doing a similar mission back when he was still a genin. 'Just the high-level ninja,' he decided. Then he saw two teenage chuunin, a boy and a girl, the boy inviting her on a date and the girl playing hard to get, but the subtle blush on her cheeks suggested that she was going to give in soon. Naruto almost felt sick.

"Are you alright?" The boy nearly had a heart attack when the voice spoke right next to him. He thought he had been found out, but it was just a grandmotherly woman with a concerned look on her face. "Young girls shouldn't look so morose. What has you so down?"

Naruto fed her a tale about problems with her boyfriend. It sounded completely ridiculous and he was sure he couldn't keep it straight, but the woman just nodded sagely and offered advice to deal with his made-up problem. Naruto got so enthralled in it that he almost forgot the real reason he was here.

Then an explosion sounded in the distance and a cloud of smoke rose above the village. 'Jiraiya!' Naruto thought. Now the Gama Sennin did his part, it was Naruto's turn. He had to provide the distraction. The mission was on and there was no longer any space for hesitation. He jumped from the bench and knocked out the lady that had been talking to him. A quick handseal and the park was filled with Kage Bunshin. They wasted no time and attacked the closest ninja they could find. As the clones ran into the surrounding streets and the park slowly emptied, Naruto created another batch to replace them. Then he found a place shielded from view and quickly summoned a small toad. It wasn't any good for fighting, but it was going to get him out of here once the Kumo ninja put together an organized defense. Then there was nothing left to do other than creating more clones and sending them to fight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Streets of Kumo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This sucks," Nukui complained loudly as he and his teammates carried heavy bags of groceries towards their client's house. "Why are we stuck doing D-ranks when everybody left for war?"

"We are just genin," Yuu reminded him.

"We've been genin for over a year now," Nukui pointed out. "Others our age are already at the frontlines and we're stuck here. Everybody's gathering experience and fame and we're being errand boys and nannies. It's so unfair."

"It might be because of our stellar mission performance," Ai suggested sarcastically.

"Oh, come on, we didn't fail that many missions," Nukui whined.

"But we failed them quite spectacularly," the kunoichi reminded him.

"That was bad luck," Nukui stated. "Otherwise we'd be already chuunin."

"I wouldn't be so sure about you," Yuu muttered.

"But it's the truth," Nukui stated. "How are we supposed to get a promotion if we don't get anywhere near the action?"

"You know, a lot of people would be happy they didn't have to be in the thick of the action," Yuu pointed out.

"They're cowards. Dammit, I want to see some battle!" Almost as soon as Nukui finished his exclamation, the street was suddenly swarmed by dozens of identical young girls. Before the three genin could blink in surprise, they attacked the ninja around them.

"You just had to say it," Ai muttered.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Kumogakure~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naruto created another wave of clones to replace the one that was currently being destroyed. Kumo shinobi had finally gotten over their shock and mounted an organized defense. Now a line of jounin was pushing through his doppelgangers. No matter how many more he created, the clones just weren't powerful enough to stand against the elite of Kumogakure. It was time to get out of here.

He raised his arm to give the sign to the Toad accompanying him. But before it could do anything, Naruto startled as the memories of clones being dispelled hit him. He almost missed the warning. So many clones were popping at once that he didn't have the mental capacity to make sense of all their memories. But so many nearly identical memories stood out a bit.

Naruto turned around and tried to dodge, but there was no way he could make it. Some big shape encased in lightning flashed next to him, continuing on its way without paying any further attention to him.

It was only when Naruto started falling to the ground that he realized he had been wounded. It had happened so fast the pain didn't even register until he hit the ground. But then it struck with a vengeance, as if trying to make up for the lost time. The boy could just stare at the hole in his side. 'I'm going to die here,' he thought when he realized just how big chunk of his body was missing. And there was too much pain to think of much else.

But something in him refused to just lie and die. There was a voice growling, snarling. Naruto listened to it. He couldn't think of anything else. He couldn't think of anything. There was just too much pain and he couldn't breathe. His right arm moved on its own, reaching into the stream of his blood. Then there was red heat. Everything still hurt, but he felt detached now, as if it was somebody else's pain. He stood up. The wound in his side wasn't bothering him as much now, it was already closing. He wanted to rip somebody apart, but that was nobody nearby aside from his clones.

Then the lightning-encased shape appeared in front of him again. He now recognized it as a man. The man was charging at him so fast. Naruto raised his arms and tails in defense, but he could see that he was too slow. And then the scene suddenly disappeared. There was a flash of colors, some voices calling, beings around him "Rip them apart!" then there was a shock of pain and then nothing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Kumo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The devastation all around them was terrible. Though Ai had seen worse, this time the destruction happened to Kumogakure. It was something that was hard to wrap her mind around. How could it have happened? Kumo was supposed to be secure. So how? If she was superstitious, she'd think that Nukui had called it, but she wasn't. She knew that they were at war and that an enemy attack might happen, but for the Hidden Cloud Village itself to be invaded without any warning, that was unexpected and unbelievable. How could this have happened? She had no idea. But she was just a genin and not a very good one to boot. It was up to the village leadership to figure out how did it happen and prevent it from happening again. The thought that this might happen again sent cold shivers down her spine. If this tragedy repeated... She didn't want to even finish the thought.

"It looks like they're gone now," she said to the huddled, scared bunch of civilians she had been protecting. The moment she had seen the army of clones appear and the first chuunin to be cut down, she realized they stood no chance. Call her a coward, but she wanted to live. Yet she didn't want to completely abandon her duty to the people of Kumo. So she helped some civilians frozen with shock to get into a nearby house and stood at guard over them, prepared to protect them if need be. Fortunately they weren't attacked. The enemy was concentrating on ninja. Mostly.

Nukui, the hothead that he was, just had to charge in head on, not even waiting for his teammates to support him. He didn't even get within striking distance. He was hit by a Fuuton jutsu strong enough to pick him off his feet and slam him into a nearby wall. The genin slumped down motionlessly. Ai had no idea whether he was alive or not. She was pretty sure that some of the civilians caught in the same blast were dead or at least seriously wounded.

Seeing that, Yuu, who had been at first determined to do his duty as a Kumo ninja despite his fear, decided that staying to fight would be suicide and joined Ai in protecting the civilians. This way they were both out of harm's way and they could still claim they had fulfilled their duty. So they were cowards, but at least they were living cowards. Ai personally preferred that over dead heroes.

"It seems so," Yuu agreed. The street was quiet expect the sound of somebody crying and flames crackling. She couldn't see the source of either sound.

"Do you think it's safe to come out now?" she asked.

"I think so," Yuu answered. He carefully moved towards the exit. He checked the outside without leaving the cover. The street was empty except for the occasional body. "All clear," he said and stepped out. Ai followed him. Now she got a really good look on just how much damage the invasion had caused. Even on a street as small as this one a house had collapsed and another was burning. And there were bodies. Mostly ninja that had tried to stop the attack, but also civilians who had the bad luck to be out when it started.

Behind her Ai could hear footsteps as the civilians braved to come out too. There was a desperate wail as one woman recognized her husband among the casualties. That reminded the kunoichi of her hot-blooded teammate. So where was Nukui? If she remembered correctly, he had been flung into that wall over there.

Stepping over debris carefully she headed to where she had last seen her teammate. It took her a while but she eventually found him under some fallen boards. There was blood on him.

"Nukui," she said, but he didn't answer. For a moment she feared he was dead and her heart nearly stopped. Then she noticed his chest rising and falling. So at least he was still breathing. But just how serious his condition was? She was no medic and the first aid classes from her Academy days were mostly forgotten now.

She touched Nukui's head carefully. Her fingers found a bump quickly. Nukui groaned. His eyelids fluttered and then opened.

"You're alright!" she exclaimed.

"Ai?" Nukui asked a bit confused. "What's going on?"

"You don't remember?" the kunoichi inquired. Her dark-skinned teammate looked thoughtful for a while. Then his face twisted in a snarl as he remembered.

"Those bastards! I'm going to..." he tried to sit up too fast and sunk back to the ground with a pained moan.

"Be careful, you're wounded," Ai scolded him.

"How bad is it?" Nukui wanted to know.

"Uh... I don't know," the girl admitted.

"Where are those..." he couldn't come up with a swearword bad enough. His teammate understood him anyway.

"They're gone," she answered. "I hope," she added after a short pause.

"I can't just lie here." He tried to sit up again. He succeeded only after Ai helped him. Then he finally got a clear view of the disaster zone. His face hardened as he observed the smoking buildings, mutilated corpses and people looking for their loved ones. And people who had already found them and now were sobbing over their remains. On the other end of the street Yuu was helping two civilian men get a presumably still living body from under the rubble, but considering how big the heap was the person underneath probably wouldn't survive long. Nukui's fists curled so tight they bled.

"I'm going to kill him." He didn't have to clarify who he meant. "I'm going to kill him dead for what he did." Ai just nodded. She felt the same. Even though she knew that they stood no chance she was willing to do everything in her power to make the monster responsible for all this suffering pay. No matter how long it took. And she knew that everybody in Kumo was silently swearing the same.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Myoubokuzan~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jiraiya sighed in relief when his feet landed on the familiar ground of Mount Myoubokuzan. Legendary ninja he might be, but attacking a whole hidden village with just two people was pushing it even for him. Good thing that the Toads were willing to get them out. He had managed to destroy two of the assigned targets before Kumo shinobi formed an organized defense. Then staying became too dangerous. But now they were out of there and safe once again. Mission successful. Now they just had to wait to see if the Raikage learned his lesson and would recall more troops to strengthen Kumo's garrison. Oh, and pray he wouldn't figure out who did it.

"I can't!" a panicked voice cut into his thoughts. He whirled around. Just what was going on?

"But he's bleeding out!" another, equally panicked voice shouted. 'Who is?' Jiraiya wondered. He suddenly had a very bad feeling about this.

"I know!" the first voice exclaimed with a hint of despair. Both the voices sounded familiar to Jiraiya. Now with cold dread welling in the pit of his stomach he raced towards their source. He reached it within seconds and there he saw exactly what he had feared: Naruto lay on the ground unmoving, a pool of blood spreading around him. There was a residue of Kyuubi's chakra in the air, but it was quickly disappearing. The child looked so small and broken that Jiraiya's heart almost stopped.

"Look what you did!" Shima, one of the toads fretting over Naruto, accused Jiraiya. He barely heard it.

"Tsunade," he said. "He needs to get to Tsunade." Tsunade was a great medic. She would be able to save Naruto, right?

"Yes, let's get him to Konoha." Fukasaku was the first of the Toads to calm down and think rationally. There was a flurry of activity and then Naruto's body disappeared, taken away by the summons. Jiraiya just stood there numbly. He got a glimpse of how serious the wound was and he doubted that even Tsunade would be able to save him. But Naruto had to be alright. He just had to. The alternative was unthinkable. He remembered that not so long ago he had repeated the same mantra. Back then he had thought that if he gave Naruto the Toad contract, he'd be safe. The Toads would save him if something happened. And yet now, after he did so, Naruto was in even more danger and just because of the contract. Without it Naruto wouldn't have been chosen for the mission. In fact, there would probably be no such mission at all. And Konoha would be in trouble because Kumo's forces were pushing into Fire Country... They did what they had to, but was it worth it?

His thought process was interrupted by a hit on his head. He looked around, rubbing the now sore spot on his cranium. "Ow," he complained to Fukasaku, who now stood on his shoulder, his dreaded stick in his hand.

"Don't try to look innocent," the Sage Toad scolded him, looking sterner than Jiraiya had ever seen him. And Fukasaku had looked plenty stern during his Sage training. Jiraiya said nothing. He knew from experience that it would bring him only more pain. "This is all your fault." Jiraiya's eyes found Shima, who was often on his side when Fukasaku was too harsh with him, but this time her eyes were just as hard as her husband's.

"I didn't..." Jiraiya started but Fukasaku silenced him with a hit on the head. A hard hit. The Sannin hissed in pain.

"You did," the Sage Toad stated. "You put Naruto in danger."

"How could you do that to poor little Naru-chan?" Shima accused.

"It was an order," Jiraiya answered.

"And since when do you care about them?" Fukasaku questioned.

"It was for the good of Konoha." After seeing the extent of Naruto's wounds it sounded lame even to him.

"And just why should we care?" Shima spat. "You put Naru-chan in danger and you abused our contract to do so." She could always make Jiraiya feel like a little boy caught doing something bad. Something really, really bad. Now she turned up the ability to the max.

"We're ninja of Konoha," Jiraiya pointed out.

"No," Fukasaku shook his head, "you are. We don't have any contract with the village. We're only loyal to our summoners and our only bond with Konoha is through them."

"I..." Jiraiya realized he didn't know what to say.

Then with a loud thud Gamabunta landed next to them. "What was it I've heard?" the Toad Boss demanded. "Minato's little tadpole was hurt?" Three grim stares were his reply. "Jiraiya, what happened? Why didn't you look after him?"

"He endangered him!" Shima spoke first. "And Naru-chan is badly hurt now. Pray he survives."

"That bad?" Gamabunta questioned. "I've never met the tadpole, but Gamakichi likes him. And he is Minato's little one. And now some hare-brained scheme of yours got him hurt?" Having the full attention of a pissed off great battle toad focused on him was a very uncomfortable feeling for Jiraiya. It was all he could do not to run away. "I never liked you much but this is a new low even for you."

"Sorry," Jiraiya said lamely. The assembled Toads were utterly unimpressed.

"Don't even think of doing something like that again," Gamabunta continued. "I won't allow Minato's tadpole to be treated like a weapon again. He deserves better. Minato deserves better. He was a much better man than you. Jiraiya, the Toads won't allow such treatment of our summoners. We won't cooperate in something like this again. So don't ever come up with a scheme that requires getting Naruto out of danger through reverse summons. It isn't something that should be used easily. If you do, there will be... repercussions." The tone of the last word left the white-haired man in no doubt just how serious the consequences would be.

"Remember this, Jiraiya," Fukasaku spoke. "A summoning contract requires trust on both sides. What you just did..." the Sage Toad shook his head. "We can't forget all the good times, but if you go on like this, the bad times might outweigh them. If that happens..." Fukasaku didn't finish. He didn't have to. Jiraiya understood what he was threatening and why it was too terrible to say aloud. Breach of contract was a deadly serious business for summoned creatures and canceling a contract was hardly ever done.

"It won't happen again," he said with conviction. "I swear. I'll make sure of it." It occurred to him that he was promising something he had no means to fulfill. The three toads watched him unblinkingly.

"It better not," Gamabunta was the first one to speak. "Now get lost and don't bother me again. And pray Naruto survives this."

And that's it for today.

Next time: Naruto's hospital time