DISCLAIMER: No matter how much I want it, I still do not own Naruto. Sadly, I also do not receive any fame or fortune from it. :(

Thank you to my beta, Cookiemonster77! You're as awesome as always.

Chapter Fourteen:

The True Nature of a Shinobi

Times are looking grim these days

Holding on to everything

It's hard to draw the line

I'm hiding in this empty space

Tortured by my memories of what I've left behind

~Korn~

As they left the spa the following morning, Jiraiya noted again that they spoke not one word to each other and seemed to be avoiding eye contact. It was as though a deep chasm was growing between the three and growing deeper and wider every day.

Every night they clung to each other and every day they stayed as far apart as possible. The Sannin didn't know what to do. Their bond between each other appeared to be dissolving before his very eyes.

Although they were aware of their surroundings and alert; Sai rarely spoke at all, Sasuke was sullen, and Naruto was hyper-alert and suspicious of everything around him. Jiraiya grew more depressed with each mile they journeyed. He mentally gave a small sigh of relief when they found a nice place to set up camp.

Wanting the boys to find a way to mend their rift, he instructed, "You boys stay together and set up the perimeter while I get everything ready here."

Birds were singing their songs of autumn joy, many flowers were still blooming, the sky was a clear beautiful blue, the grass was green, and the sun was shining. If they could have forgotten the tragic deaths at Waterfall and their role in it, it would have been a wonderful day.

Still not speaking to one another, they set out in manji formation. After a few minutes, Naruto flung out his arm and wordlessly ordered them to halt. He sniffed the air and pointed to the east. The other two nodded and spread out. They came across another camp with about fifteen men milling about.

The armed men all carried a sense of desperation about them that even the boys could feel. Naruto entered their camp boldly and presented himself. Although he, Sai and Sasuke were all genin and wore their hitai-ates proudly, they were still young boys. Innocent, harmless looking boys…

The bandits mistakenly thought he was a civilian like them.

Two years of travel and training had his clothes thin and badly worn. In truth, he looked like a homeless waif. One of the men asked, "Do you want to join our camp?"

"What kind of camp is it?" he asked.

"We are simple men just trying to get by in the world."

"Yeah, so what do you do?"

"We rob caravans that pass through here."

Naruto stared at the pathetic rag-tag group and spat out, "You are bandits."

"No, as I said before, we are simple men just trying to get by in the world."

"A thief is a thief, no matter how you try to justify it," said the boy. He made a sign behind his back calling the other two forward. He turned and looked at them.

What Sasuke saw, even in Naruto's normally humorous, open face, was nothing – nothing at all. His eyes were flat with their doom. In Naruto's eyes, it had already happened. These men were outlaws. That was all. In Naruto's eyes Sasuke saw that they would die for their thievery as a boar dies in a trapper's pit. That and nothing else… Nothing at all…

They were a ninja's eyes…and Sasuke and Sai's were as equally blank.

Sasuke approached behind Naruto and said without any emotion at all, "This filth needs to be eliminated before they can harm someone."

"Sai?" asked Naruto.

With an almost imperceptible nod of his head, the boys flew into action is if facing a group of 'S' class ninja. Sai quickly cast a jutsu that formed a ring around the group of men. Quickly before they could escape, the ring dropped down into a pit, ten feet deep.

The men's pleas for mercy went unheeded as Naruto's hands flew through seals. A shadow clone appeared next to him. Together they cast an air and water jutsu. The torrent of water spewed from his mouth aided by the gale force winds. It filled the pit in seconds, causing the men to struggle to stay afloat. Sasuke moved forward and focused his chakra; about to do something terrible… something horrific. With a white hot glow, lightning chirped, crackled and sparked from his fingertips.

A hand grabbed his and thrust it away before he could murder the simple bandits. "What were you going to do?" Jiraiya asked, aghast at their actions.

Sasuke replied emotionlessly, "They might have become a threat."

"They could have hurt someone," said Naruto tonelessly.

"Mercy is a weakness," added Sai.

These were not the boys he had traveled with, trained, and loved. These were the boys he had left Waterfall with; angry, hurt, and destroyed little boys. His frustration with them finally hit its peak. He pointed at the men and said, "They look like starving, desperate men. There is nothing dangerous or threatening about them. There has been a drought in these lands recently. They were probably down and out farmers."

Naruto's face turned white, Sai cast his eyes downward and Sasuke, trying to justify his guilt, angrily yelled, "What else should we have done?"

"First of all, we are shinobi of Konoha. Our duty is to complete missions tasked by the Hokage. If they were simple thieves, we would not kill them. We would turn them into the proper authorities. This was not our mission."

"Neither was Waterfall!" replied the Uchiha hotly.

"That was different," replied Jiraiya calmly.

"How so?" asked Sai.

"There was a clear threat and they were not simple civilian bandits. And also, Takigakure is our ally." The Sannin's expression turned fierce. He harshly asked, "What is your duty Sasuke?"

He gave the Sannin a sullen glare, refusing to answer.

Jiraiya put his hands on the boy's shoulders and gave him a hard shake. He asked again, louder and firmer; "What is your duty Sasuke?"

"Our duty is to protect the Land of Fire and its inhabitants," he said in a near whisper, unable to meet the Sage's eyes. "A duty we were unable to accomplish…" was what unspoken, but there all the same.

"And?" thundered Jiraiya.

Naruto couldn't take it anymore; he had to come to his friend's defense. Blind fury made his voice shake and crack as he shouted, "Leave him alone! He hasn't done anything wrong. It's my fault. I attacked first."

"It's not your fault," said Sasuke, moving closer and putting his hand on his shoulder, "I accept the consequences for my actions. I am to blame."

"As am I," agreed Sai.

"No," said Jiraiya, "Naruto is right; it is all his fault."

"Don't say that," yelled Sasuke. He yanked a kunai from his pouch and wildly slashed out in anger and bereavement. "It's not true. It's not his fault. It's my fault!"

"Like Waterfall…?" asked Jiraiya sagely while swatting away the weapon as if it were just a harmless toy.

"That was my fault!" wailed Naruto.

"That was my fault," said Sasuke guiltily.

"That was my fault," stated Sai.

The three stared at each other in surprise then began to argue.

"No, Sai wanted us to stay and protect the villagers and I said we should go join Jiraiya Sensei's fight. I let Suien go."

"No, I didn't make us stay because I wanted to join the fight too. I was the one who let Suien go."

"You both are wrong. I was the one who made stupid jokes to get Sai to join the fight, and I was the one that let Suien go."

"It was all my fault," they said in unison.

"Are you three done with all this now? None of you has been talking to each other because you all feel guilty. I want you all to listen to me and I mean really listen – it's nobody's fault. The only thing we can do is learn from it." He pointed to the men shaking fearfully in the pit, "This is not learning."

Naruto shouted furiously, "We have learned. If we had only done that in the first place, then all those deaths at Waterfall would never have happened. If we hadn't given mercy… That's the true nature of a shinobi - to be merciless and to kill." Tears began to stream from his face. "Fū…our friend Fū would still be alive. The rest of the villagers would still be alive."

"All of you sit down. I'm going to tell you something very important." He was silent for a minute before he too sat down in front of them and began to speak. "When people get hurt, they learn to hate… when people hurt others, they become hated and racked with guilt. But knowing that pain allows people to be kind. Pain allows people to grow… and how you grow is up to you."

They had forgotten that Jiraiya was the Great Toad Sage and a master spy. Throughout their travels, he was a father, a brother, a teacher, a friend, a fool, a perverted skirt chaser, but now they remembered that he was also one of the greatest shinobi in Konoha's history. He had killed before too, but he was not a killer. He was one of the legendary Sannin; a man who desired peace between nations. He was Jiraiya.

He continued, "Do some people deserve to die? Without a doubt; there is too much darkness in some people, corruption that can never be cleansed in three lifetimes of rehabilitation. Evil is very real boys, it walks the land with a swagger. On the other hand, do some people deserve clemency? Yes. You've got to know when the time to show no mercy is and when to stay your hand. That...is the true nature of a shinobi."

The boys gripped hands impulsively and as quickly as that breach that had opened between them, now closed.

"Well, how are we supposed to know when to do what?" asked Naruto.

"Use your heart and then your head; be able to determine a real threat from a false one. And know that you may make the wrong decision once in a while. You are ninja now and it's your job to look underneath."

~~O~~

Naruto, Sai and Sasuke stayed up late that night, talking for the first time. The cathartic release felt so freeing. They knew that they would never be the same, but it only made them stronger. "We truly are brothers now," said the Uchiha. "We share the same bonds."

Naruto nodded his head in seriousness. "I call for an oath."

A call for an oath was sacred to them. It was a tradition started when they had all became friends at five years old.

Sasuke spit on the back of his hand and held it out. Sai slapped his palm on, spat on the top of it, and Naruto completed the contact. "And so we swear," they said together.

"It's going to be midnight pretty soon. I have an idea," said Naruto as he pulled out a kunai and held it over the fire.

"What are you doing?" asked Sai.

"I'm sterilizing it. Like, um, you know… purifying it." It got so hot; he had to pull it out of the fire and blow on his fingers. "We should become brothers in blood."

Sai looked at the kunai and then at Naruto's face. "Blood brothers: a male who has sworn to treat another as his brother, often in a ceremony in which their blood is mingled. I agree."

Naruto tried to find the words to express how solemn and important the ceremony should be. "We'll swear an oath and have some words to say. We should say something like three into one, in loyalty."

Sasuke gazed at the other two; his best friends…his brothers. He nodded in agreement. "That sounds good. Write it down Sai."

Sai dug in his pack and pulled out a blank scroll and his precious ink. He held it up for their inspection and said, "This should make it more official." He carefully wrote down all the ideas they agreed upon while Sasuke added more wood to the fire until it blazed brightly. Seconds before midnight, they stood, three boys who stood at the brink of adulthood with faces lit by fire and starlight.

Naruto took the kunai and sliced his palms. "Brothers in blood…" he said.

"Brothers in blood…" agreed Sasuke, taking the kunai and slicing his own palms.

Sai cut his palms and handed the kunai back. "Brothers in blood…"

They each grasped each others hands and pressed their palms together. Naruto said, "I promise to never again abandon my brothers….," he looked at Sai.

Sai promised, "To be brothers until we die…," he looked at Sasuke.

"To be brothers in the afterlife as well…" vowed Sasuke.

Together, the said, "We are three into one and one into three, brothers in spirit and in mind, brothers for all eternity.

As they stood, clouds shivered over the full moon, misted over the bright stars. Their mixed blood dripped and fell onto the burnt ground. They each squeezed tight for a second before releasing their hands. Naruto saw that his hand had stopped bleeding already, but not the other two. Sasuke held his bleeding palm to Sai and asked, "Do you mind?"

As Sai's palms glowed green with healing chakra, Naruto spoke up, "Hey, you know this means we now have two dads, three moms, and one big brother."

Sai inspected Sasuke's healed hand before adding without looking up, "And soon, one new little brother or sister."

Naruto sighed, "Yeah, I sure miss Konoha, but a little sister would be kinda cool. What do you want it to be Sai?"

He thought for a moment then responded, "A little brother would be acceptable. Girls are strange. I do not understand them at all."

"Nobody understands girls, Aho. That's what would be cool about a sister…she could explain herself to us."

"Tch," scoffed Sasuke arrogantly, "By the time she is old enough explain the mystery of girls we will have figured it out by ourselves."

"I don't know about that," said Sai doubtfully, "My father said that women are a mystery to him most of the time. He said they speak a different language, but I never heard my mother speak it. Possibly they only speak it to other women."

"Yeah," agreed Naruto, "My dad says when a woman asks you "what"; she's not asking you to repeat what you said, she asking you it to change it. That doesn't make sense to me at all. So what about you, Sasuke? What do you want it to be?" asked Naruto.

"I don't care. Babies are annoying." He had a sudden remembrance of the book that had been sent in their care package and gave a little shudder.

Sai saw it and asked, "What is the matter?"

"You don't think that really true about that mucus plug thing do you?" he answered with a hot blush.

The other two easily recalled the book, "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and cringed. The burning of said book was one thing they all heartily agreed upon without any hesitation…whatsoever…

"…Or the fact that they fart worse than my dad does after he goes out drinking with his friends!" interrupted Naruto with a hoot, "Cause I gotta tell you, I can't imagine anything being worse than that. I mean I have to air out the house for like, three days!"

"Worse than the uncontrollable drooling at night, burping during the day, and losing control of their bladders the rest of the time?" asked Sai. "I must say, I found that a bit disturbing. Why would any woman willingly agree to any of that?"

"Beats me. Women are weird," agreed Naruto.

"No offense," said Sasuke, "but there are some things you can never unsee and those pictures in that book still give me nightmares. Sometimes I truly dislike them for sending us that book."

The other two nodded and silently stared into the fire, all of them thinking of home and how much they missed it…regardless of the image of a puking, drooling, farting, burping, urine soaked mother-to-be they would soon see.

Soon…

Jiraiya lay in his tent with a happy smile and heaved a great sigh of relief. He had to smother a laugh. While they may be considered adults, they were definitely still children. Still, it was good to see them talking.

It was a start.

AN:

Well, I have to say, I hate huge Author's notes, but there are some things I wanted to explain. First of all, I just had to put Jiraiya's quote in here... It's one of my favorites from the whole series.

"When people get hurt, they learn to hate… when people hurt others, they become hated and racked with guilt. But knowing that pain allows people to be kind. Pain allows people to grow… and how you grow is up to you."

I know there are many of you who are getting frustrated because they have not arrived in Konoha yet, but when I thought up this sequel - this chapter was the scene I pictured. The previous chapters were playing up to this incident. In Naruto, the bad guys are usually defeated, but not always killed. It made me think...why wouldn't the bad guy just come back later - and with friends?

Naruto, Sai, and Sasuke are shinobi... warriors... killers... Like Kakashi said in Broken - he was two men; the shinobi and the man. How would Naruto learn that lesson? So...How did I do on this arc? Next chapter, team 7 will arrive back home (Konoha Arc).

Again I want to thank everyone who has favorited/followed/commented on my story.