Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter Five: Last of His Kind

"The Mizukage sent us an invitation to Kiri?" Kaji asked in a tone that did little to conceal his skepticism. "Seriously?"

"I was just as surprised as you are when I read the letter this morning," Kenjiro informed his son.

"This doesn't make any sense," Yahiko said with a puzzled frown on his face.

Konan nodded in agreement. "The timing is off. If Mizukage-sama really wanted to discuss the possibility of reopening trade routes, he would have sent us an invitation two years ago, in the aftermath of our secession from Konoha."

"I agree," Kenjiro said. "Regardless, this is too good an opportunity to pass up."

"Opportunity to do what, Kenjiro-sama?" Nagato asked.

"To infiltrate Kiri and gather as much information about its inner workings as we can." The old man smirked as he saw the looks of surprise on the four young shinobi's faces. "Which is why I'm assigning this mission to you. Kaji, you'll be reinstated to active duty–"

"But, Father–"

Kenjiro held up a hand to forestall his son's protests. "Your reassignment will be temporary. I need you to lead this mission, son."

"Why?" Kaji asked. "Do you want to see if the Mizukage will try to capture the current heir of the Uzumaki clan?"

"If I believed that Yagura would attempt such a thing, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now," Kenjiro stated firmly. "I want you to lead this mission because you're my best diplomat." The old man chuckled as his son stared at him dubiously. "You may not believe it, but it's true. When was the last time you failed a negotiation?"

"That doesn't make me skilled at diplomacy, Father," Kaji said with a sullen expression that made him look like he was once again six years old and on the wrong side of one of Kaito's pranks.

Kenjiro had to suppress a smile at the mental image. "Furthermore," the old man continued, choosing to ignore his son's grumbling, "if this really turns out to be some sort of trap, I trust you to get both yourself and the rest of your team out of Kiri alive and unharmed."

"But–" Kaji looked down and sighed in defeat. "I understand. When do we leave?"

"You and Konan will leave for Kiri as soon as the rest of your team is ready."

"Uh… Aren't we going with them, Kenjiro-sama?" Yahiko asked, pointing at himself and Nagato.

"I have a different assignment for the two of you." Kenjiro held out a scroll to the orange-haired jounin. "Akio's squad has gone missing."

"Akio…" Yahiko mumbled as he unrolled the scroll and skimmed through it. "Why is that name ringing a bell?"

"Isn't Hisa a part of his team?" Kaji asked.

Yahiko looked up from the scroll; his eyes were wide with shock.

"She is," Kenjiro confirmed. "They were supposed to report from Takigakure three days ago. The last message they sent was from Shimo, informing us that they had encountered no complications in their mission thus far. It could be just a false alarm," the old man said with more optimism than he was feeling. "Nevertheless, I want the two of you to investigate."

"What if they were attacked?" Nagato asked quietly.

Kenjiro understood what the Rinnegan bearer was truly asking. "If they were attacked, then I expect you and Yahiko to show the perpetrators what happens to those who harm any shinobi of Uzushio."

The two young men nodded grimly.

"Karin will keep staying with us for now," the old man continued, looking at his son. "I'll make sure that she and Naruto are kept too busy to dwell on her mother's absence any more than they normally would."

"Naruto will appreciate the extra training," Kaji said with a forced smile. "He'll find several ways to rope her into helping him."

"I'm counting on that," Kenjiro admitted, feeling ashamed that he had to use his grandson's eagerness for learning for such a purpose.

Hopefully, Yahiko and Nagato would send a message in a few days, informing him that they had found the missing squad loitering in the hot springs of Yugakure and he would never have to tell young Karin that she was an orphan now. But he didn't truly believe they would. There were rumors about shinobi gathering in the Land of Rice Paddies and a new Hidden Village being formed, although nobody knew who was behind all this or even with whom their allegiance lay.

And Akio's squad had been scheduled to pass straight through the contested land.

-XOXO-

Naruto concentrated on the flow of his chakra, doing his best to ignore the world around. The seven-year-old boy pictured inside his mind the shape of the chains he was trying to create: silvery and deceptively feeble, but stronger than any metal. Taking a deep breath, he molded his chakra, trying to give shape to the image.

Slowly, a silvery chain materialized seemingly out of thin air.

Naruto opened his eyes and looked at it critically. It was less than a meter long and seemed ready to be blown apart by a mild breeze. It was a far cry from what his uncle could so effortlessly create.

The blond boy gave the chakra construct a dark look before letting it fade into nothing. He looked at the girl practicing across from him; Karin had already managed to create a chain, which was looking perfect.

"Karin?"

The red-haired girl didn't respond.

"Karin-nee-chan?"

One of the girl's eyebrows twitched, but she still didn't answer him.

"Karin-neeeee–"

The bespectacled girl opened her eyes and fixed him with a terrifying look. "WHAT, Naruto?"

The blond boy flinched and reconsidered the wisdom of his idea. If there was one thing he'd learned in his two years in Uzushio, it was that you should never ever piss off an Uzumaki girl. "I was just wondering if you could help me with something..."

Karin narrowed her eyes even further. "And you couldn't wait a few minutes before asking for my help?"

"...No?" As soon as the word left his mouth, Naruto knew he had done a terrible mistake. He looked in fear at the fuming girl, wondering whether he should run away while he still could.

Grumbling under her breath about the stupidity of boys –especially of a certain blond one – Karin let the chain she had created disappear. "What do you want?"

"I still can't get it right." Naruto concentrated and formed his pathetic excuse for a chain once again. "See?"

"Yeah, it's terrible."

Naruto frowned at her cheerful tone.

"Did you try picturing it like Kaji-san taught us?"

"Of course I did," Naruto huffed indignantly. "I'm not stupid. But it still isn't working."

"Maybe you aren't concentrating enough on the image, then." Karin hummed thoughtfully. "Or maybe you need to focus your chakra better. Are you doing the chakra control exercises we've been taught?"

"Yeah, but I'm not making any progress."

"Well," the red-haired girl said with an encouraging smile, "just keep trying and you'll get it eventually!"

"Everyone keeps telling me that, but what if–" Naruto caught himself before he could give voice to his doubts.

"What if…?" Karin asked after a few moments of awkward silence.

"Nothing," the blond boy said with a smile he tried to make as bright as possible in order to throw her off track.

Unfortunately, Karin knew him better than that. "What's really bothering you, Naruto? Come on, you can tell me," she added when he didn't answer her question.

"What if I don't get it?" Naruto looked at his clenched fists. 'Everyone expects me to be great, like my mom and dad, but what if I'm not?'

Karin sighed and shook her head. "Stop worrying so much, you dummy. You're doing great."

"Wha–Why'd you call me that?" Naruto yelled, hurt by the girl's criticism.

"Because you can't see that you haven't broken so much as a sweat even though you've spent twice as much chakra as I did to create a chain!" Karin yelled back, stunning the blond boy into silence.

Naruto blinked at her and noticed that she was right. He was breathing evenly and wasn't feeling the least bit tired. In contrast, Karin seemed winded and there were visible beads of sweat on her face.

"You'll get it, Naruto," Karin added with a warm smile. "I know you will."

He smiled back at her, sincerely this time. "We both will."

After all, he wasn't one to give up just because something seemed impossible.

-XOXO-

Tobi was surveying the scene in front of him with a mixture of contempt and cold fury on his face. It was a shame that this finely nuanced expression was hidden behind the mask he was constantly wearing.

His glare intensified as he turned his gaze to the man standing next to the grotesque display.

"Such cold looks you're giving me today, Madara." Orochimaru smiled innocently, like a snake about to devour a helpless rabbit. "I'm beginning to think you're planning to kill me."

Tobi scoffed, but did nothing else to dispute the snake's claim. He would have gotten rid of the former Sannin a long time ago if the man wasn't so useful.

"I thought you would be pleased to see my new prisoners." Orochimaru's creepy smile widened as he looked at the four people he had recently captured.

Two of them were already dead; Tobi didn't know whether they had been killed during the ambush or they had succumbed during one of the snake's twisted experiments. He considered them the lucky ones. The other two, a brown-haired man in his mid-forties and a red-haired woman in her early thirties were unconscious but still very much alive, despite their wounds. They were both hooked up in a wide assortments of strange machines whose purpose the rogue Uchiha neither knew nor wanted to find out. Orochimaru's experiments were depraved even by his standards.

"Should I be?" Tobi countered. "You ruined a plan that had been years in the making in order to get your hands on two unimportant jounin."

"I assure you, Madara, that they are far from 'unimportant'. Besides, even with Kisame and Yagura-kun helping you, you still wouldn't have been able to defeat Nagato-kun before his friends joined the fight to aid him."

Tobi narrowed his eye; how had the snake found out about his plan? No-one in the Akatsuki but Kisame, who was both fiercely loyal to him and extremely distrustful of Orochimaru, knew about Tobi's intention to use the vessel of the Three-Tailed Turtle to kill Nagato. He had spent almost two years laying the trap for the Rinnegan thief, carefully manipulating Yagura into feigning interest in an alliance with the Whirlpool, only to watch everything go up in flames after the snake's ill-timed attack. A course of action which was in no way consistent with Orochimaru's usual MO, now that Tobi thought about it, since it left the snake exposed to retaliation from the Uzumaki clan.

And how did the snake know about Tobi's hold over the Mizukage in the first place?

"But I can help you acquire those marvelous eyes of his." The way the snake was talking about the Rinnegan surprised the rogue Uchiha. From a normal person, the tone could be considered almost reverential.

"How?" The masked leader of the Akatsuki nodded towards the two unfortunate test subjects. "With these two?"

"Of course. Allow me to introduce them to you, Madara. This one is Takashio Akio, one of the foremost genjutsu specialists of Uzushio. His mind holds information about the Whirlpool's defense network, in addition to all those delightful secret genjutsu of his clan."

That managed to pique Tobi's interest. "He knows how to bypass the barriers around the island?"

"Perhaps, but he's proving to be quite stubborn, despite my best efforts. It will be a pleasure to break a mind as finely-honed as his." The snake turned his attention to the woman. "And this one is Uzumaki Hisa. She possesses the unique ability to heal someone simply by infusing them with her chakra. She has no need for medical ninjutsu or even hand seals; just her life-giving Uzumaki chakra. Tsunade spent years trying to replicate this skill but, alas, she failed."

Beneath his mask, Tobi raised an intrigued eyebrow; perhaps he had been too hasty to condemn the snake. The woman's healing abilities sounded remarkably similar to those that had been granted to him by the prosthetics made from the First Hokage's DNA.

"But you believe you can succeed."

"I don't have Tsunade-hime's moral inhibitions," Orochimaru rather unnecessarily reminded him.

Tobi studied the woman's face closely. She was about a decade older than him but looked much younger than that, thanks to her Uzumaki heritage. With her long red hair and fair skin, she reminded him of Kushina. He had spent most of his genin days arguing with her over unimportant matters, but he still remembered her fondly. Her and Minato-sensei... He might have failed when it really mattered, but he didn't have to die. If he had just taken the baby away and stayed out of the fray, as Tobi had intended him to do, he would still be the Hokage.

He pointed at the brown-haired man. "Break him first. I need to know if there's a way inside the Whirlpool. I don't care about the methods you'll use; just get it done," he ordered the snake.

He had gone too far to allow himself to be stopped by foolish sentimentalities. Without Nagato's Rinnegan, the Eye of the Moon would never become a reality. All his struggles, all these deaths would be meaningless. He would never see her again.

"As you wish, Madara."

Tobi used his Kamui to leave the snake to his devices. He didn't want to be here when former Sannin started his next twisted experiment. He would return in a couple of days to check on the snake's progress; he knew better than to blindly trust someone as treacherous as Orochimaru.

The last thing Tobi saw before the room faded away was a cascade of red hair.

-XOXO-

The sound of voices coming from the other side of the heavy, bolted door barring his prison startled the boy out of his trance-like state. He wasn't exactly sleeping, but he wasn't fully awake either. He just... was.

Before long, he heard a key turning and the door was pushed open by someone. The boy didn't know who that was; all the saw before he had to cover his eyes in order to protect them from the light of the corridor outside was the silhouette of another person. It must have been one of his minders.

Was it time to eat already? He didn't think so, but he could be mistaken. The only measure of time he had down here was the interim between meals.

The man –the boy could tell it was a man from his heavy footsteps – approached his cage and unlocked the door.

"Get up, Kimimaro," the man said, opening the door wide for him. "It's time for you to prove yourself. Do well, and we might consider letting you stay out."

The boy stood up and walked up to the man somewhat awkwardly. It had been a long time since he had been allowed to get out of his cage. When he reached the dim –but still too bright for his eyes – light cast by the torches in the corridor, the man took a couple of steps back. The sight of the boy's white hair, pale skin from years of living in the darkness of this cell, and dull, emotionless eyes, was unnerving. And that was before one took into account the boy's almost uncanny aptitude for the Kaguya clan's kekkei genkai.

"Who do you want me to fight?" the boy asked, his voice raspy from being unused for so long. There was no other reason they would let him out.

"Kill, not fight." The man turned around and walked outside the cell; the boy followed him closely, not wanting to give him an excuse to leave him behind. "Anyone you come across and is affiliated with Kiri. It's time we reminded them why the Kaguya are to be feared."

The boy nodded in agreement, even though he didn't care about why he was asked to kill people he had never met before. As long as that got him out of his prison, he was willing to do anything.

-XOXO-

Kaji closed the door of the sitting room that had been offered to the delegation from Uzushio by the Mizukage, marched across it, and collapsed on a chair.

"Please tell me you have all the information Father asked you to find and we are free to leave this place," he almost begged the blue-haired woman sitting behind the only desk in the room. "I don't think I can take much more of the Mizukage's 'hospitality'."

It had been nearly two weeks since the delegation from Uzushio had arrived in Kiri, and they had been 'encouraged' to spend most of that time in the luxurious hotel the Mizukage had provided for them. Naturally, by the end of the first week the shinobi of the Whirlpool had reached the end of their patience. If Konan hadn't been able to sneak in and out of the hotel with relative ease, Kaji would have considered this mission a complete and utter failure.

"I think I do," Konan said without looking up from the scroll she was reading.

Kaji frowned at her. "But?"

The blue-haired woman lifted her gaze. "But there's one more lead I'd like to pursue before we leave Kiri."

"Of course there is," Kaji mumbled under his breath.

"There are several contradictory reports about the Mist's state of affairs," Konan continued, not paying any mind to his grumbling. "I can't tell if everything is running as smoothly as our chaperons are telling us it is or if they're on the verge of a civil war. Then, there are the rumors about Kiri's new training regime..."

Kaji had heard the rumors, too; they all had. "You think there's any truth behind them?"

"I hope not," Konan replied, "but Kiri is almost as secretive as Ame. We've never had much information out of the Land of Water."

"So you do think they're true." Children killing children in order to graduate from the Academy and become shinobi. The mere thought of it was enough to make Kaji's stomach churn. What kind of sick individual could think of a system like that and call it 'progress'?

"I believe that there are more detailed records about Kiri's inner workings in the ANBU headquarters, but getting inside has proven to be something of a problem."

The dark-haired man blinked at her, wondering briefly if her prolonged contact with first Yahiko and then Naruto had finally taught her the appeal of practical jokes. "You do know that if you're caught inside the headquarters of Kiri's ANBU it'll mean war, right?"

"I am aware of it, yes," Konan said calmly, without any change in her serene expression.

'Looks like she's dead serious about this.' Kaji shook his head in disbelief; since when was she the reckless one and he the voice of reason? "What exactly are you hoping to find in there that we can't get from another, less dangerous place in Kiri?"

"Information on Yagura. There's something very odd about him, Kaji. It's like..." Konan paused and frowned slightly as she tried to find a way to explain what was troubling her. "...It's like he's two different people. First, he invites a delegation from Uzushio here to discuss the possibility of reopening trade routes. Then, the moment we arrive he has us confined to this hotel and refuses to speak with any of us."

That was something that had been bothering Kaji as well for the duration of their stay in Kiri. If Yagura had no intention to negotiate with the shinobi of Uzushio, then why had he contacted Kenjiro?

"His behavior is indeed odd." The dark-haired man sighed and rubbed his forehead; it seemed that they had little choice if they wanted to get to the bottom of this. "So, what do you need me to do? Create a distraction for you or sneak inside myself?"

"Both, actually." Konan rolled up the scroll she had been reading and placed in on top of the pile she had created on her desk. "Distracting the ANBU on patrol will require both our skills. And I'll need your help to bypass any traps they might have set up to protect their archives."

"Alright," Kaji said. "Hopefully, we won't offend our host by getting ourselves caught red-handed."

"Hopefully," Konan agreed with the hint of a smirk.

-XOXO-

Kimimaro examined the two people who had just walked past him, careful not to draw their attention.

The black-haired man and the blue-haired woman weren't wearing a hitai-ate with the crest of Kirigakure and their dark clothes didn't have any distinctive markings on them. Nevertheless, they were shinobi. He could tell from the way they were keeping to the shadows, their almost inaudible footsteps, and the sword strapped across the man's back. And unlike the masked man with the huge sword and the young boy he had encountered earlier, these two were heading deeper into Kiri, not away from it.

That made them his targets.

Kimimaro tightened his grip on the bone he had created in place of a kunai. The man would have to die first; the boy didn't want to give him a chance to use that sword. A hit at the back of his neck should be enough. Then, it would be the woman's turn.

He left his hiding place and started running towards the two ninja as quietly as he could. He focused his chakra and lunged at the black-haired man, raising his weapon to strike–

– Only to be slammed against the wall to the side hard enough to drive the air out of his lungs. Struggling to regain his breath, he discovered that he was wrapped tightly by silvery chains that seemed to be coming out of the man's body. More than a dozen shuriken made out of paper, for some reason he couldn't fathom, were a couple of centimeters away from his face, frozen in place.

"A boy?" The blue-haired woman asked, disbelief evident in her voice.

The man set Kimimaro on the ground again and loosened the chains a bit, though not enough for the boy to wiggle his way out of them. "What do you think you're doing, kid?"

Kimimaro didn't answer.

The black-haired man frowned, although he didn't tighten the restraints again. "Why did you attack us?"

Kimimaro remained silent.

The sounds of weapons clashing came from somewhere nearby, along with battle cries. 'The other Kaguya.' If he called out to them, then they'd surely come to help him. …And then they'd lock him away in that cage again for failing to kill even one shinobi of Kiri.

Kimimaro kept his mouth firmly shut.

"We can't stay here," the blue-haired woman said, looking worriedly towards the sounds of battle. "If they catch us outside the hotel..."

"I know," the man replied, following her gaze. "We have to go back."

"What about him?" The woman asked, pointing towards Kimimaro.

The man looked between the chained-up boy and the direction the clanging of metal was coming from; judging by the noise, the battle seemed to be getting closer. "He's coming with us; he's seen our faces. Besides, I want to know who sent him after us."

"As do I," the woman said.

The silvery chains unwrapped themselves from Kimimaro and retreated into the man's body. Before the boy could think about running, however, the woman raised her hand and several small pieces of paper covered his wrists, binding his hands together.

"I'll keep an eye out for pursuers," the woman said before dissolving into small square pieces of paper, much to Kimimaro's surprise.

"Come on," the black-haired man said, grabbing the boy's shoulder and urging him to move. "You can still run, can't you?"

Kimimaro, still trying to understand how a person could turn into hundreds of pieces of paper, closed his mouth and nodded.

He didn't look back as they left the battle behind them.

-XOXO-

Kimimaro cautiously accepted the cup the woman was holding out to him. It was filled with something that looked like brownish water but smelled like flowers. He wondered if he should take a sip out of the strange liquid, but the way the cup was burning his hands made him decide against it. He shifted his grip on it to make holding it tolerable.

The cup's warmth against his hands helped him relax enough to start noticing details about the room he was in. The couch he was sitting on was infinitely more comfortable than the dirt floor of his cell, and he could spend hours examining the flowers in the numerous vases scattered around the room and the paintings hanging on the walls.

Was that how normal people lived?

"Now then," the black-haired man began as he sat on one of the chairs, "how about we start with introductions?"

Kimimaro stopped staring around the opulent room he had found himself in and looked between the man and the woman; both of them were looking at him expectantly.

"Fine," the man sighed, "I'll start. My name is Uzumaki Kaji. This," he nodded towards the blue-haired woman, "is Konan. And you are...?"

Kimimaro looked between them once again. "I'm Kimimaro of the Kaguya clan."

"Finally," Kaji mumbled under his breath, before frowning in confusion. "Kaguya... Correct me if I'm wrong, Kimimaro, but I thought that people with kekkei genkai were avoiding Kiri."

Kimimaro shrugged; he really didn't know anything about that.

"Why did you attack us, Kimimaro?" One of Kaji's eyebrows twitched as the boy remained silent, but he didn't raise his voice or make any threatening gestures. "Were you acting under orders from the Mizukage?"

"No."

"Then who ordered you to attack us?"

"I wasn't ordered to attack you."

Kaji's eyebrow twitched again. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"

Kimimaro blinked in surprise. "Doing what on purpose?"

"Were you ordered to attack someone else, Kimimaro?" Konan asked, examining him through slightly narrowed eyes.

Kimimaro nodded. "Anyone I came across that was affiliated with Kiri."

"Why?" Konan and Kaji asked at the same time.

"I was told that it was time for the Kaguya clan to be feared again," Kimimaro said, repeating what his minder had told him.

The two adults exchanged a puzzled look with each other.

"Have the Kaguya turned against the Hidden Mist?" Kaji asked.

"That would explain the battle we heard earlier," Konan replied. "But they can't be foolish enough to believe they can kill everyone in Kiri by themselves."

"You're assuming that those bloodthirsty idiots actually thought about this before they charged in with their weapons drawn," Kaji scoffed. "No offense," he added, looking at Kimimaro.

The white-haired boy shrugged again; he wasn't offended. Now that he had seen how large Kiri was compared to the Kaguya clan's compound, he was beginning to agree with Kaji. His clansmen hadn't thought beyond the 'kill everyone you meet' part.

Someone knocked on the door, startling the two adults and the child.

"Enter."

"Kaji-sama, the–" The red-haired man who had just walked into the room paused for a moment as his eyes fell on Kimimaro, but quickly composed himself. "The battle is over."

"What happened?"

"The shinobi of the Mist won, sir. The attackers are all..." The man glanced at the white-haired boy again, before averting his eyes.

"I see." Kaji stood up. "Daichi, gather the others and tell them to pack up their belongings and be ready to leave in twenty minutes."

"If we leave without first offering an excuse for our hasty departure, along with our most heartfelt condolences for those who were wounded or killed during this unfortunate incident, the Mizukage will take offense," Konan warned the black-haired man.

"If we wait that long, we might have to fight an army of Kiri shinobi on our way out," Kaji countered. "I'm not willing to take that chance. We leave now."

"Understood, sir. I'll go tell the others," Daichi said and left the room again.

Konan didn't say anything; she simply nodded and walked towards a pile of scrolls on the desk. She took a scroll out of her belt holster, unrolled it on the desk's surface, and started placing the other scrolls over the markings drawn on unfurled one. She formed a hand seal, making the smaller ones placed on the black markings vanish with a puff of smoke. She unrolled it further and repeated the process.

Kaji turned his attention back to the boy. "Kimimaro, could you wait here while I pack my belongings? I won't take long."

The boy wouldn't mind spending hours studying everything inside the room in greater detail. Unfortunately, he had more pressing concerns than that at the moment. "What are you going to do with me?"

Kimimaro didn't want to ever go back to the Kaguya clan's compound. If that was Kaji's intention, then he needed to know right now, while there was still time to run away from his captors.

"Do you have any relatives left, Kimimaro?" Kaji asked instead of answering the boy's question. "Anyone at all?"

Kimimaro shook his head; every Kaguya had joined the attack on Kiri.

"Then there's nothing for you here. Besides," the black-haired man added solemnly, "I get the feeling that you wouldn't want to return to your clan anyway."

"No," Kimimaro admitted.

"I thought so. It's your eyes," Kaji explained as Kimimaro stared at him quizzically. "They remind me of a boy I met two years ago." The black-haired man shook his head slightly. "Anyway, you're welcome to come with us to Uzushio and, if you want, to stay there. If you don't want to stay, that's fine too. I can arrange passage for you to another village – somewhere you won't be killed just for being born with a kekkei genkai."

Kimimaro blinked and stared at Kaji for a long time; no-one had ever given him a choice before. "You're not afraid of the Shikotsumyaku?"

"Why would I be?" Kaji asked lightly. "It's just a kekkei genkai. Granted, it's a bit more... unsettling than most, but that's no reason to be terrified by it. You won't try to kill me with it again, will you?"

"I won't." It was a promise Kimimaro intended to keep.

"Good to know," Kaji said with a crooked grin. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go pack my bags. We have about fifteen minutes left before we have to start running back to our ship."

Kimimaro nodded in agreement. He liked the 'we' and 'our'. They made him feel like he belonged with these people, despite having just met them and even attempted to kill two of them.

A couple of minutes after Kaji left the room, Konan rolled up her scroll; it was the only one still remaining on the desk. With a small nod to Kimimaro, she left the room as well.

Finding himself alone, Kimimaro stood up from the couch and walked towards one of the vases to examine the white flowers it held.

-XOXO-

Kakashi scanned his surroundings once again, even though he had already made sure that there was no-one around. When one was dealing with someone as... tenacious… as Shimura Danzou, it paid to be overly cautious. The alternative was being dead.

Reassured that he was alone, he removed the little wooden box that had been buried in this spot more than two years ago, carefully closed the hole he had dug, and once again covered the patch of dirt with a medium-sized rock that was entirely indistinguishable from the ones around it.

Knowing that carrying the box all the way back to his apartment would be about as prudent as running around Konoha with the Uzumaki crest painted on his clothes, Kakashi sat on the ground and examined his find. It would have been a rather unremarkable box if not for the intricate seal on its lid.

'And he has the nerve to call me paranoid,' the young man scoffed inwardly as he disarmed the trap.

He opened the lid and saw a piece of paper and, underneath it, a small velvet pouch.

Kakashi, the letter begun,

There is little time before we have to leave Konoha, so I'll be brief.

Father and I thank you. For everything. If not for you, then we wouldn't have gotten this far so soon –or without bloodshed.

Inside the box is something we both wish you to have. I know what you'll say: you don't want anything in return for your help. Nevertheless, I truly hope you'll accept this small token of our gratitude.

Curious, Kakashi removed the pouch from inside the box and opened it. He stared at the pendant resting on his palm for a long time before gasping in wonder as his mind finally processed what his eye was seeing.

Seeing as you weren't in Uzushio in order to properly attune it to you, Father and I had to improvise based on my memory of your chakra signature, but I think we managed to get the seals right.

Kakashi stared again at the pale green crystal he was holding in his palm. Chakra crystals were extremely rare outside the Whirlpool. Giving one to Senju Hashirama had been a sign of respect from the leaders of Uzushiogakure to the Shodai Hokage after the alliance between the two villages had been sealed. Giving one such crystal to him was…

The young man shook his head, equal parts bewildered and awed by this unexpected gift. Until a few minutes ago, he had dismissed Jiraiya's claims that the Uzumaki would listen to him as wistful thinking – at best.

Anyway, I should wrap this up. Nagato tells me that he senses Father and the others coming back here. Hopefully, no-one will be foolish enough to try to prevent us from leaving.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I hope it will be a long time before we see each other again – and when we do, that it won't be on the opposite sides of a battlefield.

Take care, my friend.

Kakashi smiled upon reading Kaji's words, although his expression quickly turned somber as he looked at the pendant again.

There was no way he could go around wearing this openly around his neck. No amount of fast-talking or evasive answers could explain how Hatake Kakashi, a talented but otherwise unremarkable shinobi of Konoha, had come to possess such a rare and precious gem. To his knowledge, the only person outside Uzushio who owned a pendant like that was Senju Tsunade. And even she, who was considered to be the best medical ninja alive and was related by blood to the Uzumaki clan, hadn't been offered one of her own; she had inherited hers from her grandfather, the First Hokage. So he couldn't possibly accept it.

But turning it down was just as unthinkable. Monetary value aside – not that he would ever even consider selling it – this pendant was priceless. Truly, Kaji and Kenjiro couldn't have offered him a more valuable gift.

'Perhaps if I wear it under my shirt… Or maybe I could hide it in my apartment.'

No, the apartment was a no-go. He was away from it too much; Danzou's people could sift through it any time he was away on a mission. Keeping it on him at all times, however… Somehow, he doubted that 'seeing Hatake Kakashi shirtless' was among the old war-hawk's top priorities. Unless he blundered and showed the pendant to someone, it would be safe with him.

Kakashi lowered his mask and place the pendant around his neck. With the mask back in place, there was no danger of it slipping out of his collar.

Satisfied with the solution to his current quandary, he burned the letter and the small box with a quick burst of flame; his relative inexperience with changing chakra nature to fire made the task more difficult than it should have been. He then made his way to his apartment back in Konoha, deep in thought.

'I have to remember to thank them for the gift.' Hopefully, that would make up for the favor he had to ask of them.

-XOXO-

Itachi landed lightly on the clearing he and Shisui often met when they had something to discuss that they didn't want anyone else to know. This was a place they were free to act their age, instead of the prodigious heir of the Uchiha clan and the unrivalled master of the illusionary arts, respectively.

This was also the place they had formed their plan to betray their clan in order to spare the Hidden Leaf from a civil war.

The thirteen-year-old boy froze at the sight of his friend sprawled on the ground. Shisui's limbs were bent in a way that seemed unnatural, as if someone had tossed him down and he hadn't attempted to move since then. His face was turned towards the river. And his chest wasn't moving.

Cautiously, Itachi approached his friend.

He clenched his hands into fists and fought back a wave of nausea as he finally saw Shisui's face. It was contorted in a grimace of pain, with tears of blood running down his cheeks and empty holes where his eyes should have been.

Itachi knelt next to his best friend and placed his hand on the other boy's throat, searching for a pulse he knew he wasn't going to find.

He withdrew his hand a few moments later. Shisui's body was still warm. If only he had gotten here earlier…

The young boy hung his head in anguish. He pressed his lips together to muffle his sobs, but made no attempt to wipe the tears off his face. It would be futile, anyway; he couldn't stop them. He hadn't cried like this in years, not since he had seen a battlefield for the first time.

A strange, burning sensation made his eyes sting, but he pushed it out of his mind.

Shisui was like a brother to him. His jovial personality and easy smiles made him something of an oddity among the dour Uchiha, especially compared to Itachi himself, but the two boys had somehow become the best of friends. Perhaps it was because both of them had been singled out from a young age and pushed to excel in a clan where mediocrity was tantamount to failure. Or perhaps it was because each boy had seen something of himself in the other: the desire to protect their village, even if that meant going against the wishes of their clan.

There was no other way now. With Shisui… gone… there was no way to resolve this peacefully. Itachi had no means of making the Uchiha elders see reason and abandon their foolish plan before their pride and arrogance plunged Konoha in a civil war. He had seen what battlefields looked like; he was never going to allow Konoha to become one. The elders had to die. Even his father. Even his mother.

No, especially his father. He was the one who had incited the others.

The burning sensation intensified, but Itachi ignored it.

Without Shisui, he would have to do this alone. There was no-one else he could – or would – ask for help. He had to do this alone. There was no other way.

But maybe… Maybe he could bargain with the Hokage. Konoha was facing threats from everywhere around them. The Uchiha were needed; that much was undeniable. He knew that he would not be allowed to spare the adults who had already activated the Sharingan. But maybe he could bargain for the lives of the children – for his brother's life. No matter what happened, Itachi would never harm his little brother.

Itachi opened his eyes. Unseen to him, his Sharingan didn't have the three tomoe pattern anymore. A black shape resembling a three-pronged shuriken extended over the red iris.

-XOXO-

"Did you encounter any other complications on your way back, Kaji?"

"Just the handful of shinobi the Mizukage had posted to guard our ship, Father. We left them bound on the pier, alive but in a lot of pain."

Kenjiro raised a perplexed eyebrow; his son wasn't prone to such acts of unnecessary violence. "This sounds a little excessive, son."

"They called Kimimaro a 'freak', so I didn't feel like going easy on them," Kaji explained with a nonchalant shrug.

The old man nodded in understanding and lightly tapped the surface of his desk with his fingertips as he studied the pale-skinned boy in question.

The wisest course of action would be to send Kimimaro back to the Hidden Mist, along with reassurances that the Uzumaki clan had not kidnapped the boy in order to acquire one of the Land of Water's oldest and most feared bloodline limits. Were it any other Hidden Village, Kenjiro would have seriously considered it, despite the boy's obvious reluctance to return to his homeland. Taking recent events into account, however, the old man didn't believe that Kimimaro was likely to survive long in the Mist.

'To hell with diplomacy.' He wasn't about the send a boy barely older than his grandson to be executed.

"Konan, could you please escort Kimimaro to the marketplace?" Kenjiro asked the young woman. Ideally, he would have his son or Kaede handle this, but their housekeeper had taken a short leave of absence and he needed to talk to Kaji in private. "Tell the shopkeepers that I will take care of the expenses."

"Of course, Kenjiro-sama," Konan replied with a polite bow of her head; Kenjiro noticed that the corners of her mouth were lifted in a small smile.

"What expenses?" Kimimaro asked.

"Those necessary in order to replenish your wardrobe," Kenjiro explained. "I assume that you don't have anything that belongs to you other than the clothes on your back."

Kimimaro shook his head slowly, staring at the old man as if he were trying to work out a particularly difficult puzzle.

"Since my son was the one who brought you here," Kenjiro said with a sidelong glance to Kaji, "you'll be staying with us."

There were no orphanages in Uzushio. Parentless children were either taken in by their relatives or placed as wards to one of the four great clans if they didn't have any living family members. The practice was a remnant from the era of Warring Clans, one of the few that had not yet been abolished in Uzushio, even though most other villages had abandoned it decades ago out of practical reasons. Then again, the Whirlpool was a relatively small village and most families here were wealthy enough to support a few more children.

"Konan will introduce you to my grandson, Naruto, and Karin, a girl that will also be living with us from now on."

"She will?" Kaji asked, sharing a look with Konan. "Then…."

"I'm afraid so," Kenjiro said solemnly.

"Let's go, Kimimaro; we have a lot to do." Konan said, placing a hand on the white-haired boy's shoulder; her thoughtfulness had always impressed Kenjiro.

The boy nodded and followed her obediently outside the Uzumaki clan Head's office.

"How did they die?" Kaji asked as soon as Konan closed the door behind her.

"Nagato and Yahiko found the remains of a battle. They were attacked by someone – or something."

"What do you mean 'something', Father?"

Kenjiro retrieved the two jounin's report from one of his desk's drawers. "Whoever attacked Akio's squad didn't trouble himself with covering his tracks. Yahiko thinks that some of them look like they were made by a giant snake's coils."

"A snake…." Kaji's eyes narrowed. "Orochimaru?"

"That was my first impression as well," the old man said. "Except that it's too overt for him. Orochimaru prefers to work from the shadows."

"Then who else could it be?"

"I don't know," Kenjiro admitted reluctantly. "But I'm not dismissing that traitor of a Sannin so easily. He's audacious enough to believe he can get away with kidnapping and–"

"Kidnapping?"

"There were no bodies – or graves – at the scene," Kenjiro informed his son. "Just wreckage from the battle and a lot of blood."

"I see…" Kaji glanced at the report resting on the old man's desk. "When will you tell Karin?"

"As soon as Nagato and Yahiko return."

Kaji didn't argue; he just nodded his agreement with the decision. He seemed to be no more eager than Kenjiro to share the news with the poor girl.

"There's something else I wanted to talk with you about, son." Kenjiro removed a small scroll from one of his shirt's pockets and held it out. "This came for you a couple of weeks ago. The dog carrying it – Pakkun, I believe – was reluctant to part with it until I pointed out to him that a spy would be more likely to steal it from him than me."

It occurred to the old man the message's timing couldn't have been more fortunate. This way, both he and his son had something to distract themselves from their previous conversation. Assuming, of course, that Kakashi's message wasn't bearing more grim news.

"What was that idiot thinking, sending that thing here with one of his dogs?" Kaji asked irritably as he took the offered scroll. "Does he want to get arrested and executed?"

"I wouldn't presume to know Kakashi's intentions," Kenjiro said, earning himself an unamused scowl from his son. "But pugs are common enough that a smallish one with no collar or other evidence of ownership can pass unnoticed. Provided he keeps his mouth shut."

Something that had proven an almost impossible task, much to the red-haired Uzumaki's consternation. The little dog was always eager to share some of his stories with Naruto and Karin.

Kaji shook his head, muttering something about idiots; Kenjiro was willing to give his son the benefit of the doubt and assume he was grumbling about Kakashi. He then opened the scroll and started reading the message.

"How is Kakashi?" Kenjiro asked after a few minutes; more than enough time for his son to carefully process the contents of the letter.

"He say he's fine," Kaji replied with his brow slightly furrowed in concern. "He also says that Jiraiya-sama figured out that he was the one who helped us."

Kenjiro sat straighter in his chair. "Does Kakashi need our help to get out of Konoha?"

"No, that won't be necessary. Apparently, Jiraiya-sama has no intention of telling anyone else. He just wants Kakashi to arrange a meeting between him and you." Kaji lifted his eyes from the letter and smirked. "The Hokage has made his move, just as you said he would, Father." The young man's smirk faded. "Although Kakashi's involvement complicates matters."

"Indeed." The old man drummed his fingers on his desk, trying to organize his thoughts. "I wasn't expecting Sarutobi to send Jiraiya. I thought he would ask Tsunade to negotiate with us; why else would he have put up with her belligerent behavior these past two years?"

"I don't know, Father." Kaji rolled up the scroll and studied it for a few moments. "What should I reply?"

"Hmm?" Kenjiro fingers stopped moving; his son's question drew his thoughts back to more practical matters instead of trying to deduce the reasons behind Sarutobi's choice of ambassador. "Oh. Tell Kakashi that Jiraiya is welcome in the Whirlpool."

"Are you planning to kill him?"

"Of course not," Kenjiro said indignantly. "No harm will come to him for as long as he's in possession of the key to Naruto's seal. Provided he didn't lie about that too, of course."

"What if he tries to take Naruto back to the Leaf?"

"Then neither the key nor the respect Minato had for him will be enough to save him."

Kaji nodded grimly; his eyes were cold, determined. Then, his expression softened. "I'd better go write my reply. Then I have to figure out a way to send it to Konoha…"

"Just ask Pakkun to carry it back."

Kaji froze with the small scroll held centimeters away from one of his coat pockets. "Kakashi's dog is still here?"

"Yes." Kenjiro chuckled at his son's dumbfounded expression. "He refused to leave until he got a reply. He's probably talking Naruto and Karin's ears off right now."

"I have to go find that dog," Kaji muttered under his breath. "If you'll excuse me, Father."

"Of course," Kenjiro said with a small nod.

Kaji left the office with the haste of a man who has just been informed that his house is on fire.

Kenjiro chuckled again, although his mirth quickly evaporated as his eyes fell on Nagato and Yahiko's report. So many things had happened in the span of just a few weeks.

The world seemed to be moving faster recently – far too fast for an old man like him. 'Perhaps it's time for me to retire.'

-XOXO-

Uchiha Mikoto didn't scream as her husband was cut down by their eldest son. She didn't flinch as his body fell on the floor next to her. She didn't turn around to look at the boy whose shaking hands were holding the sword that had killed Fugaku.

She kept her composure, staring straight ahead but not really seeing anything. Her full focus was on the sound of her son's ragged breaths.

"Finish this, Itachi," she urged her son.

"…Mother…"

She felt her heart break at the word; when was the last time she had heard Itachi cry? "Don't hesitate. This is the path you've chosen. You must see it through to the end."

"You don't have to die, Mother."

Mikoto remained silent; she wasn't going to beg for her life, not when it might mean death for both her sons.

"You didn't agree with Father's plan."

"But I didn't speak against it."

"Neither did I."

"You acted against it. I didn't." Even if she lived to be a thousand years old, Mikoto would never be able to forgive herself for remaining the dutiful wife when she should have stood up to her husband.

In a way, her death would be her punishment for letting down her family and her clan.

"You can act now," Itachi almost pleaded. "You can take Father's place as the head of the Uchiha clan and fix his mistakes."

"I possess the Sharingan, my son. The elders would never let me live."

Itachi's silence was more than enough of an answer.

Steeling herself, she went on. "Promise me you'll take care of Sasuke."

"You don't have to–"

"He's blameless in all this."

"I can save you!"

Itachi's vehement protestation gave her pause; she didn't remember ever hearing him so agitated before. "How?"

Mikoto heard her son taking a deep breath, as if to steady himself. "I will have to wound you. When the ANBU come to investigate, they will take you to the hospital."

"Unless the wound is life-threatening, the elders will know you spared me, my son."

Itachi took another deep, shuddering breath. "Tsunade-sama can heal you. She's the best medical ninja alive. She will heal you, Mother."

Mikoto didn't respond. If she was taken to the hospital in time, if Tsunade was the one trying to heal her, and if the elders didn't arrange for her to suffer 'complications' due to her wounds while she was recovering, then she would live – and they wouldn't be able to accuse Itachi of reneging on his task. Her son's plan was a desperate one, relying on chance rather than the careful, calculated reasoning that defined Itachi's every action.

It showed just how much her son wanted her to live.

"Will Sasuke be safe?"

"Yes. They will not harm him, Mother. I made sure of that."

Mikoto didn't ask what kind of deal Itachi had made with the elders; his assurance was all she needed.

"No matter what happens, Itachi, I want you to know that I'm proud of you."

"…Thank you, Mother." Mikoto pretended not to hear the tears in his voice.

She heard the sound of the sword as it was raised again, poised to strike at her. She felt the pain as it struck her, but she didn't cry out, biting her lips to prevent any sound from escaping her.

'I will see you again, my son.'

-XOXO-

Naruto knocked on the frame of the study's door.

"Come in," his uncle called in a slightly unfocused way that let the boy know he was busy with something.

"Am I bothering you, Uncle?"

"No, no." Kaji beckoned him closer and pointed to one of the chairs in front of the desk. "I was about to start looking for you, actually."

Naruto's mind went racing as he sat on the offered chair; he hadn't pulled any pranks recently, had he? "Am I in trouble?"

"Not as far as I know," his uncle said. "I just wanted to ask your opinion on something. I received a letter recently from a friend in Konoha–"

"The one who helped you two years ago? Pakkun's master?" Naruto had been wondering about the strange little dog who had appeared in his home a couple of weeks ago; he had never seen another one like him before.

"Yes." His uncle gave him a stern look that clearly said 'listen to me for a moment without interrupting'. "As I was saying," Kaji continued, "I received a letter and, long story short, your godfather wants to meet you, kid."

Naruto blinked. "My godfather?"

"Jiraiya of the Sannin," his uncle explained. "Kushina and Minato named you after the hero of one of his books. The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi. Remind me to lend it to you someday; I think you'll like it."

Naruto grinned; it was good to know that his parents thought he'd grow up to be an utterly gutsy shinobi. His grin faded, however, when he fully processed what his uncle had just told him.

His godfather was alive. And he had waited until now to meet him. "Did he know about me?"

"He did." Kaji looked at him warily. "It was his account of… of the night you were born that convinced Father not to head to the Leaf after your parents died."

Naruto clenched his fists and glared at the desk.

So his godfather was no good after all. He was just like the Hokage. He knew about Naruto's family, yet had done nothing.

No, that wasn't true. He had done much to keep him away from his family. He had condemned the boy to a miserable life in the Leaf, just like the Hokage had. They had probably been working together all along. And unlike the old man, he hadn't even had the decency to at least try to make things better. He had been absent all his life and waited until Naruto was safe and happy in the Whirlpool before asking to meet.

Naruto took a deep breath; then, another. He slowly unclenched his fists and tried to look at the matter from another perspective, like his grandfather had taught him.

His godfather's guilt wasn't in question – it was beyond certain.

'But Uncle wouldn't have asked me for my opinion if he thought this Jiraiya guy was untrustworthy; he would have just told him to get lost.' The more Naruto thought about it, the more certain he became.

Then, it hit him. The reason this conversation was happening in the first place. 'The letter from Uncle's friend.'

"Is Jiraiya like your friend, Uncle?" Naruto didn't know the name of the man who had helped his family get him out of Konoha; his uncle said that it was best if he didn't know it until he was old enough to not accidentally reveal it to anyone. "Was he forced to obey orders and stay away from me?"

"I'll be honest with you, kid," his uncle said, visibly relaxing in his chair. "I don't know. Two years ago, Father and I were more interested in getting you out of Konoha than in looking for more like-minded individuals among their ranks."

"But you think it's possible," Naruto insisted.

"Minato thought of Jiraiya-sama like a father and I've seen enough to know that the feeling was mutual," Kaji replied. "So, yes, it's possible."

"Should I…" Naruto began. "If my dad thought so highly of him, then I should talk to him, shouldn't I?"

"It's up to you, kid."

"I'll talk to him," the blond said with a decisive nod. "And if I don't like him, then I'll…" At this point, his confidence evaporated. He had heard about the Sannin; he wouldn't be able to do anything against one of them.

"If you don't like him, then you won't have to see him again." Kaji grinned. "One of the benefits of living on an island."

Naruto grinned back; it was nice to know that he wouldn't have to put up with his godfather if he turned out to be unpleasant.

"I'm glad we got this out of the way," his uncle said. "Now, was there something you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Uh-huh," Naruto nodded; he had almost forgotten why he'd come here. "Can I show Kimimaro around the village?"

"Of course you can. Just remember that the inside of the Noh Mask Hall is off-limits."

Naruto's shoulders dropped; so much for seeing the masks up close again.

Kaji chuckled and shook his head. "Got you, didn't I?"

"How did you know?"

"I'm just that good," his uncle said with a crooked grin. "You kids have fun. Oh, and if you happen to see Pakkun, send him to me."

"We will." Naruto stood up and waved at the dark-haired man. "See you later, Uncle!"

He pushed the news about his godfather to the back of his mind; he would deal with it later. Right now he had a whole village to explore.

But first, he had to find Kimimaro.

-XOXO-

Somehow, Kimimaro found himself in the sitting room once again.

He wasn't sure how that had happened. He had turned left after passing the library; he shouldn't have ended up back where he started.

The white-haired boy shook his head, annoyed by both this house's numerous rooms and his inability to navigate them. All he wanted was a glass of milk – and maybe a couple of the biscuits he and Konan had bought yesterday. Kaji had told him he could take as many as he wanted, but he didn't dare try the limits of the black-haired man's tolerance.

Kimimaro was trying to determine the best way to reach his destination when his eyes fell on the ink painting hanging on the wall between two of the room's windows. He had noticed it the first time he had passed through here but, occupied as he was with his search, he hadn't given it more than a passing glance. It was a beautiful drawing of a small village built by the sea – Uzushio, the boy realized. The skyline was the same, but the buildings were old, almost archaic, and much, much fewer than what he had seen from the ship. 'This drawing must ancient.'

His curiosity piqued, Kimimaro stepped closer to the ink drawing to examine the pictures on top of the small cabinet underneath it.

The first one was of two people he didn't recognize; a man with long red hair and a beautiful woman with black hair and green eyes. Both were very young and dressed in fancy – and extremely outdated, even to Kimimaro's scant knowledge of fashion – clothes.

The second pictured featured the same black-haired woman, although she was a few years older than before. She was surrounded by four children, none older than Kimimaro was right now. Three of them had red hair, like the man in the first picture, while the youngest, who didn't seem to be more than a year old and was held tightly in the woman's arms, had hair as dark as hers. All five of them were smiling brightly at the one who was taking the picture.

Kimimaro finally realized what he was looking at: family photographs.

The third picture was of five grinning teenagers – or, more accurately, of four teenagers and a pre-teen boy. The boy on the far left had short-cropped red hair and green eyes that reminded Kimimaro of the black-haired woman from before; he was wearing a wide grin that somehow managed to stretch from ear to ear. Next to him was a boy that looked like an older version of Naruto, only with even more messy hair and an unmarked face. In the middle, next to the blond boy, was the girl with the long red hair; she had the same face-splitting smile on her face as her brother. Standing next to her was the other red-haired boy, the oldest of the four siblings; with their identical dark blue eyes and long hair, the resemblance between brother and sister was striking. And on his other side was the black-haired boy – Kaji, Kimimaro realized with a start.

The white-haired boy turned his eyes to the fourth photograph. This one was much more recent than the others. Kaji and Kenjiro were just as he knew them – although both of them were smiling brightly, an expression the white-haired boy had yet to see on either of their faces. They were standing on either side of a slightly younger Naruto, who was wearing a face-splitting grin that immediately reminded him of the two red-haired teens. Two girls with red hair were also standing next to the blond; he recognized Karin, but didn't know who the dark-eyed one was. And featured prominently in front of Naruto was a cake with six candles.

Kimimaro examined Naruto's smiling face carefully. Then, he studied the blond teenager's face again.

If not for the markings on Naruto's cheeks, the resemblance between the two boys would be uncanny. The same spiky blond hair, the same blue eyes…

…No, the eyes were not the same. The color was identical, but the shape was different. So was the shape of their face, Kimimaro noticed after looking between the pictures of the two boys a few times.

"That's my dad."

Kimimaro jumped in surprise and quickly turned around to face the one who had just spoken.

"I noticed you were looking at the photos, so…" Naruto trailed off and shrugged. "People say we look a lot alike."

Kimimaro nodded; only a fool would deny the resemblance between the two boys. "Who are the others?"

Naruto moved closer to the cabinet. "That's my mom," he said, pointing at the red-haired girl, "uncle Kenshin," the boy whose long red hair was caught in a ponytail, "uncle Kaito," the one with the short red hair, "and uncle Kaji."

"I haven't seen them around." Except for Kaji, that is.

"They're dead," Naruto said simply. "Uncle Kenshin and uncle Kaito died nine years ago and my parents were killed shortly after I was born."

That bit of information caught Kimimaro by surprise. He would never have imagined that this cheerful boy was an orphan. Not knowing how he should respond to Naruto's statement, he went back to looking at the photographs.

"Anyway," Naruto said, fidgeting awkwardly, "I was wondering if you'd like to see the village. I can show you around."

"I can walk freely?" Kimimaro blurted out before he could stop himself. Of course he would never be allowed to–

"Sure." Naruto flashed him a bright grin. "It wouldn't be much of a tour otherwise, right?"

Still stunned, Kimimaro nodded dumbly. Then, realizing that he wasn't making sense, he shook his head.

"We can start at the central square," Naruto said. "Then we can go to the Harbor, the shrine outside the village…"

Kimimaro watched silently as Naruto continued naming the places they could visit, seemingly oblivious to the white-haired boy's shock.

-XOXO-

"What is this place?" Kimimaro asked quietly.

"The Noh Mask Hall," Naruto answered just as quietly, not wanting to disturb the peace around the temple.

The building was very old, having been built decades ago in the outskirts of the then newly-founded Uzushio, an area which was now near the heart of the village. Despite this, the extensive garden surrounding it gave visitors the feeling that they were trespassing on a sacred place.

"It's an old temple that was renovated about a year ago," the blond boy explained. "It houses the masks that Grandfather removed from the temple in the Land of Fire."

Belatedly, Naruto remembered that Kimimaro didn't know anything about the events that had changed his life. 'I'll tell him about it another time,' he thought as he saw the white-haired boy's usually blank expression turn into one of mild curiosity.

"They're the most awesome work of the Uzumaki clan's seal masters," Naruto continued, trying to draw the older boy into a conversation. He didn't mind silence as much as he used to back when he lived in Konoha, but something about Kimimaro's was unnerving him. It reminded him too much of how he used act around people. "Each mask has different properties. Some can turn the wearer invisible to even the most powerful sensory-type ninja; others can change the wearer's appearance completely. And some," the blond added dramatically, "can give the wearer power even over the kami."

Kimimaro took a small step forward, as if to enter the building, before stopping and looking at Naruto. "Can I see them?"

"No. The temple is strictly off-limits," Naruto added hastily when he saw the white-haired boy's dejected look. "Very few people are allowed inside."

"If people aren't supposed to go inside the temple, then why is it in the middle of the village?"

Kimimaro's question gave Naruto pause. He hadn't thought about that.

"I don't know," the blond admitted sheepishly. "Maybe we can ask Uncle later."

The older boy nodded. "How do the masks work?"

"Well… You have to wear them, first."

Naruto raised an eyebrow when he saw the corner of Kimimaro's mouth twitch a little. 'Was that a frown or a grin?'

"Then you have to channel your chakra into the seal. Somehow."

"Somehow?" Kimimaro echoed.

"Neither Grandfather nor Uncle will tell me," Naruto said sullenly. "They say that I'm not old enough to know yet."

"You're old enough to fight."

Naruto shook his head. "Academy students don't fight. Even genin rarely take part in battles unless it's absolutely necessary."

Kimimaro stared at him for a long time, as if he had just said something outrageous, like: 'the sky is green'.

"You'll enroll in the Academy, too, right?" Naruto asked, trying to change the subject; his uncle had told him how he had first met Kimimaro. "Do you think we might be in the same class? You're older than me, but Uncle says you've had little training as a ninja."

"I don't know," Kimimaro said, still having that dumbstruck look on his face.

"You'll probably be on the same class with Karin and Honoka," Naruto continued in a valiant effort to keep the conversation going. "Have you met them yet?"

"I've met Karin."

Naruto walked away from the temple's entrance, motioning for the older boy to join him. "Come on!"

"Where are we going?" Kimimaro asked, falling in step next to the blond.

"To the marketplace."

"Why?"

"Because Karin said that she and Honoka were going to be there."

"So…?" Kimimaro asked slowly.

"So you can meet Honoka," Naruto replied in a mild 'duh' tone.

"…I see."

Naruto didn't comment on the fact that the white-haired boy still had that look of open-mouthed astonishment on his face, like he'd taken way too many hits on the head during training. He knew from personal experience that it would take some time for Kimimaro to adjust to life in the Whirlpool.

-XOXO-

Sasuke stared at the unfamiliar ceiling for a long time, trying to chase away the remnants of the nightmare he had seen. All those people… His parents… And Itachi's eyes…

He shook his head and covered his eyes with the palm of his left hand to block out the light, only to wince as his upper arm stung.

Sasuke touched the bandages tied around his arm with the fingertips of his right hand.

Fighting back the almost overwhelming urge to scream in denial, he threw the blanket off him and got on his feet, ignoring both the stinging in his arm and the sudden wave of nausea that came over him. They couldn't be dead. It was just a nightmare. They were back home waiting for him. All he had to do was go and find them.

He hadn't taken more than a few steps down the hallway when a woman's stern voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Where do you think you're going?" The woman, a young blonde with her hair tied in two low ponytails, dismissed the nurse she had been talking to and stared at him reproachfully with her arms folded over her chest. "You're still recovering. Go back to your room."

"I'm going home," Sasuke stated, refusing to be intimidated by her. "I need to see my parents."

The woman let her hands drop and her expression became somber, turning Sasuke's blood to ice. "Come with me."

Sasuke followed her numbly as she led him through the hospital's nondescript corridors to a different room.

He felt relief flooding him when he saw the patient inside that room. "Mom."

The steady, almost hypnotic beeping of a heart rate monitor answered him. His mother's chest rose and fell in time with the ventilator as the machine pumped air into her lungs through the tubes on her nose and mouth. 'She's so pale,' the boy noticed. Uchiha Mikoto's skin had always been fair, but her current pallor was unnatural.

"Is she alright?" Sasuke asked, panic overtaking his momentary relief.

"She's lost a lot of blood," the blonde replied evasively. "But her condition is stable now. She should make a full recovery, in time."

"What about my father? Is he here, too?"

"There was nothing I could do for him. I'm sorry, Sasuke."

Sasuke clenched his fists as he remembered the sight of Itachi standing over their parents' unmoving bodies. 'Why did you do this, brother?'

"Where is Itachi?" he asked, voice trembling from grief – and rage. His brother would pay for this.

"The ANBU are pursuing him."

But Itachi was an ANBU himself, and he was the best. They wouldn't find him unless he let them find him.

The blonde studied him for a moment. "I suppose that telling you to return to your room would be futile, wouldn't it?"

Sasuke, still lost in his thoughts, didn't answer her.

His father was dead, and his mother had almost joined him. Itachi couldn't get away with this; he wouldn't get away with this.

"I'll let you stay with your mother," the blonde said, "but you have to promise me to take it easy. Don't do anything that will aggravate your wounds."

'My wounds?' he thought bitterly. "It's just a scratch."

Sasuke walked towards the only chair in the room. Taking care not to strain his injured arm, he lifted it a few centimeters above the floor and carried to his mother's bedside, acutely aware of the blonde's eyes following his every move.

"I'm not talking about your shoulder," the blonde said quietly. "Try to get some sleep, Sasuke. I'll check up on the two of you later."

After a few moments, Sasuke heard the soft click of the door closing and the clacking of the blonde woman's heels as she was walking away.

-XOXO-

"That ugly frown doesn't become you, Tsunade."

"Jiraiya," Tsunade growled, feeling her frown deepen with each syllable. "Don't you have something to do besides bothering me?"

"You wound me, Tsunade-hime." The white-haired pest entered her office through the window, ignoring her numerous warnings to use the door.

"I'm considering it." Tsunade rubbed her forehead; she wasn't in the mood to deal with him. "What do you want?"

"I was just passing by and thought I'd check up on your latest patients." As if a switch had been flipped, Jiraiya's juvenile demeanor faded away, revealing the serious, no-nonsense Sannin. "How is Mikoto?"

"Bad," Tsunade said bluntly. "A couple of centimeters to the right and her spinal cord would have been severed. Even so, she's lost a lot of blood; had she been brought to me a few minutes later…"

"She was lucky." Jiraiya shook his head. "No, I'm not sure 'lucky' is the right word here. What about Itachi?"

"Gone without a trace." Tsunade hadn't had the heart to reveal that to Sasuke.

This was why she had quit the shinobi life so many years ago: so she wouldn't have to deal with psychotic murderers and senseless violence. So what if she was one of the few people who could make a difference? Hadn't she sacrificed enough already? She had earned a quiet, uneventful life.

"Why did I let you drag me back here?"

"'Drag you'?" Jiraiya repeated, puzzled. "I didn't drag you anywhere, Tsunade. You agreed to return, remember?"

"I was drunk!"

"How is that my fault?" Jiraiya protested. "No-one should be drunk at nine in the morning!"

"And you lied to me!"

"Hold on, I have never–"

"You didn't tell me what was really going on here!"

"But you already knew," Jiraiya said with the air of a man who knew he was missing something important. "You told me about the Uzumaki seceding before I could tell you anything about it."

"But I didn't know that they were right!" Tsunade yelled, smashing her fist on her desk and filling the air with splinters.

Jiraiya stood absolutely still, watching her warily. "Tsunade?"

"I never thought…" She paused and tried to collect herself. "I thought that the old fox had simply overreacted when he found out that he had been lied to and his grandson was still alive. But this…" Tsunade clenched and unclenched her fist, fighting back the urge to vent her rage at the rest of the furniture. "My grandmother was always treated with the utmost respect, Jiraiya. It's hard to believe that the same people who revered her would treat a child so horribly."

"If that's how you feel," he asked after a few moments of uneasy silence, "then why are you still here?"

"My entire family died defending this village," Tsunade replied bitterly. "Where else would I be?"

She could go to the Whirlpool; they would welcome her with open arms if she did. But if a war between Konoha and Uzushio really was coming… No matter the circumstances, she could never bring herself to fight against her homeland. And she couldn't go back to drinking and gambling her way around the Land of Fire, either. She knew that her presence in the Leaf was one of the main reasons the other Kage were still playing nice; nobody wanted to face the wrath of the Slug Princess.

Not even the Hokage.

"Help me, then," he implored her for the umpteenth time. "The only way to prevent the war Danzou is raving about is to reform the alliance."

"You're wasting your time, Jiraiya," Tsunade said flatly. "I've told you before: it's impossible."

"Maybe not," Jiraiya said cryptically. "I didn't come here just to ask after Mikoto's health. I received a message from Kenjiro-sama, inviting me to Uzushio."

That piece of information caught Tsunade by surprise, but she quickly shook it off. "So what? You'll never be able to talk him into it."

"Why do you have to be so negative?" the white-haired man grumbled. "He might be amenable to–"

"I'd never agree to reform the alliance," Tsunade interjected, shutting him up before he could built up momentum. "If this had been done to Nawaki, I'd have beaten the bastards responsible into a pulp and turned their village to rubble. Frankly," she added, "what surprises me is that Kenjiro-sama hasn't tried to kill the Hokage yet."

Yet being the operative word.

"Kaji, then. Maybe the son would be more willing to–" Jiraiya trailed off as Tsunade shook her head. "Well, then who? There must be an Uzumaki willing to listen to reason!"

"I doubt it," Tsunade said in the same matter-of-fact tone.

Jiraiya set his jaw in an all-too-familiar expression. "Nevertheless, I have to try."

Tsunade opened her mouth in a futile attempt to set him straight, but closed it before she could utter a word. Instead, she studied him thoughtfully. It was a one-in-a-million chance, but maybe – just maybe – he could actually succeed. At the very least, he was the only person whose involvement couldn't make things worse than they already were.

"I would expect nothing else from you," she said with a small smile.

"The Great Jiraiya never gives up in the face of adversity!" her fool of a former teammate boasted with a huge grin on his face.

Tsunade rolled her eyes in exasperation; would he ever grow up? "I know I haven't said it before, Jiraiya, but… Despite everything that's happened, I'm glad you got Naruto out of here."

Even as the words left her lips, Tsunade was certain that both her grandmother and her grandfather would agree with her. The First Hokage had created this village to protect children from the horrors of war; he would have been appalled to see a child treated as a pawn in the power struggle between the elemental nations. As for her grandmother… Sarutobi and his advisors should be grateful that she had been dead for more than two decades; even the Nidaime had been wary of facing Uzumaki Mito's wrath.

Jiraiya's smile froze, making her realize her mistake; both of them had been carefully avoiding the subject of his treason these past two years. She should have known better than to bring this up now.

"It was the right thing to do," he said quietly. "But I'm sure you have more important things to do than chat with me," he added in an overly jovial tone that failed to put her at ease. "I'll let you get back to your work."

He stood up, waved goodbye at her and, rather hastily, started walking towards the window.

"Use the door!" Tsunade yelled at the now empty windowsill. "And be careful," she added under her breath.

There was no telling how Danzou would react when he found out about Jiraiya's upcoming visit to the Whirlpool.

Author's notes:

I'm sorry I took so long between updates; 'hectic' wouldn't even begin to describe the past few months for me. Thankfully, I'm done with all my pressing obligations and should have plenty of free time now.

Again, let me assure you that I have no plans to abandon either of my stories.

-X-

Kimimaro: I always thought he was a tragically wasted character. There was never any chance for him to get a happy ending.

He was introduced when he was already terminally ill as Orochimaru's second most powerful henchman who took 'undying loyalty' way too literally. His motives were as sympathetic as Haku's but his illness, along with Naruto, Lee, and Gaara's preoccupation with getting past him in order to reach Sasuke in time, resulted in him dying without ever realizing that the man he had dedicated his life to viewed him as nothing more than a pawn.

Thankfully (in my opinion, at least), this time things happened a little differently and Orochimaru never had a chance to get his hands on him.

-X-

Tobi's plan: Tobi knows that he can't defeat Nagato in a one-on-one fight. Therefore, he manipulated the Fourth Mizukage into inviting a delegation from Uzushio in Kiri, knowing that Nagato, an extremely powerful shinobi and Kaji's friend, would be among them. Then, Tobi, Yagura, and Kisame would kill Nagato. (A jinchuuriki, a man wielding a sword that devours chakra, and an Uchiha with the Mangekyou Sharingan would have been able to defeat even someone as powerful as Nagato.)

It's amusing to think that Tobi's evil plan of capturing Nagato was ruined by Orochimaru's evil plan to capture Karin's mother, a kunoichi with a unique gift of healing.

Did Orochimaru do it on purpose? Yes. Why? Who knows…

-X-

Tsunade: There were at least two sake bottles on the table when Jiraiya tried to convince her to return to Konoha. An empty one, which she threw at him, and a half-full one, which he took away from her. (I put the total number of bottles on the table at four.) And, from what we've seen in canon, Tsunade is either a lightweight drinker (she was puking her guts out after downing a couple of bottles of sake when she and Jiraiya were talking about his imminent departure for the Hidden Rain) or she drinks way too much. Personally, I think it's a bit of both.

So, yes, she was a little drunk. She wasn't smashed, just in the sort of happy drunken haze when skinny-dipping in a pool of flesh-eating piranha seems like a good idea.

And now that she knows exactly what was going on in Konoha, she can't leave because it would go against her conscience.

Thank you for reading! Please, review and share your thoughts.