A/N: Hey, it's an update!
Yeah... sorry. I had a ton of stuff to do these past weeks and I wasn't really sure about this chapter, too. Especially since it covers some really mundane preparations and explanations, so it came out kind of boring in my opinion. But I couldn't escape writing it because the story is entering a more complex phase (and panning out the things that will happen in the different places where the plan the guys at the hideout are planning will be developed took me some work too) and I wanted to explain some dynamics I'll be using in the next chapters so I don't have to repeat myself.
By the way this chapter hasn't been beta'd yet, so I might be updating it if my beta find any crass mistakes. Please bear with me :D
As always, thank you all so much for your reviews, they really give me life and strength to continue this (what with all the disheartening crap coming from Kishimoto in Naruto Gaiden too... his writing in that is so bad it's saddening). Please please PLEASE keep them coming and don't refrain from asking anything or pointing stuff out.
Ino called the others in the morning for an impromptu meeting.
"We're running out of supplies," she announced bluntly. "And if my calculations are correct, we're gonna need a whole lot of carbohydrate sources to feed Menma until Naruto and Sasuke's bodies are recovered," she added.
Tsunade and Juugo had set up the life-support system for the men's bodies in Naruto's room, with IV lines and catheters, and she had asked Bolt to relay to her the exact extent of the damage they had. The boy had easily pointed out the chakra circulation system between the two bodies, and told them that Menma's chakra had been able to partly revert the damage Naruto had caused to his brain to break their bond, but that with Sasuke's body was so overloaded with yin chakra and so depleted of yang it was practically unable to pull on Naruto's chakra and feed him his own, due to clogging on its chakra gates.
Tsunade had then begun to push Sasuke's excess chakra out of his body and into Naruto's, guided by the Uzumaki boy and helped by Juugo's nature energy, mimicking the process that worked in Menma's body. It had been a tricky procedure, and Sasuke's heart had failed three times during the process, but they had finally been able to clear his system enough so that Naruto's stronger chakra circulation system caught on and kept the chakra flowing between them.
At the same time, Menma had woken up on Salad's lap, his stomach growling loud enough to wake the dead. Salad and Juugo had brought all the food supplies they had in the farm with them, and she had gone to her bags to get the boy the two pounds of senbei Juugo had brought back from Konoha City, which he had demolished in under ten minutes, to fall asleep right afterwards.
"It would be necessary to get rice, flour and sugar and stuff like that, we can hunt and fish around here for meat and if we get some small traps we can even get some vegetables growing at the surface," Juugo said, and Inojin nodded.
"Bolt can look for bee hives so we can get some honey too, but Menma will need a lot of sugar, his brain is working for three now, he needs at least an entire pound of glucose a day just to keep it working," the boy stated, and raised an eyebrow at the startled looks the adults, with the exception of Ino and Tsunade, gave him. "What, just because I'm a kid I can't know this stuff? I'm Yamanaka, mom and grandma taught me to read with neurochemistry books," he said, and gave them a smug grin.
Shikamaru looked at Ino with a new respect in his eyes, and she gave him a look twice as smug as her son's. "If you weren't so in love with your own IQ level you'd have noticed what Chouji and I studied on the weekends," she said. "Unlike your family's jutsu, that relies only on your own chakra control, our abilities need us to be aware and understanding of how the body works in the most basic levels. The reason I go into Chouji's body when we use the Ino-Shika-Chou formation is because his mind is focused on keeping the transformation of his body from harming it. I'm there to keep his brain working in sync with what he needs to keep the body from overheating and breaking down."
Shikamaru sputtered. "Why the hell didn't you ever tell me that? I always thought you were there because Chouji was too weak to keep the transformation going for long, and that I needed to control the direction you were going because you couldn't see or something like that," he complained, and she shrugged.
"You Nara never bothered to ask us why it only worked like that," she explained.
Salad raised a hand. "How about Juugo and I go to get the supplies? Most people don't know him and can't detect nature energy anyway, and I can pass as a civilian better than anyone else. We brought some money, too, and if we really have to stay here for a long time we could get odd-jobs in the nearest small village disguised as father and daughter."
Salad scrunched her nose at the produce in the street market; this late in November only roots and pickled vegetables were actually decent to buy. She decided to get some tofu and buckwheat along with the carrots and turnips, and some miso for soup, before meeting with Juugo, who was currently checking the bars for information.
"Onii-san, do you have some oatmeal or rice flour?" she asked the vendor, who gave her a pained look.
"I'm so sorry, but no… the government tax-collectors have been taking our best produce since last week, because we haven't got enough money," he said. "You'll have to buy that on the kombini market, I'm sorry. We do have some rolled oats, though. And millet… it's good eating for porridges," he offered, and Salad accepted. "My father and I have left a farm and are looking for work… would you know anywhere we can find it?" she asked hopefully. "I can clean, cook, read and write, we're camping outside the village."
"Hmmmmm… can you bake? Noriko at the bakery just lost one of her workers, she doesn't pay much in money but she'll give you as much bread and other unsold goods as you want," the stall owner said, pointing the way to Salad after she enthusiastically nodded.
Salad noticed how poor and less developed the small village they were in was compared to Konoha City. There were basically two streets and a small square in the middle. No hospital, no tall buildings, no school, but there was a shiny kombini right beside the tiny rundown city hall. It was entirely empty of customers, though there were many kids who looked hungrily at the shiny candy and snacks in display.
'Well, no wonder, no way these poor people can pay those prices,' Salad thought, and realized how truly privileged her life back in Konoha had been. She had never had to eat less than the best foodstuffs, and she usually went to the kombini or the burger shop for a snack, as did all the other kids. She lowered her head, thinking again how unfair it seemed to her that the children of ninja, who were basically coddled by the state and did nothing really useful, had access to so much, while the children of the people who actually provided the food for everyone had so little.
She reached the small bakery and to her luck the owner was happy to hire her, especially after she told her she had baking experience. She would begin the next morning; the owner gave her a large basket full of yesterday's goods, for which she was extremely grateful, and through the day she was able to gather lots of information, including the fact that both the bakery and the Ichiraku ramen stall were served by the same wheat flour seller. Afterwards she met with Juugo, and they made their way out of the town to their "camp."
They reached the area, and Bolt, who had stayed there to take the groceries back to the hideout, asked how their day had gone.
"Jobs are hard to find, but the bar owner said he was in need of a big guy like me to deal with the rowdier customers," Juugo said. "Apparently the poorer people get, the more they drink to forget their troubles. The bar owner also said we can stay in a storage room behind it, it opens to a back alley so it's easy for you to meet us to get the supplies and information."
"I got a job at the bakery, the owner said she can't pay me much money but she can give me all the stuff that doesn't sell, look!" Salad stated proudly, showing the basket full of food. "This will definitely help Menma, there are some sweet pastries too," she showed him. "And all the well-to-do ladies shop there, so I'm sure to get information too," she said, beaming.
Bolt nodded at them. "Are you sure you can see without your glasses until we're able to get you better contacts?" he asked, and she nodded.
Bolt had bought some generic contact lenses for nearsightedness from a smuggler in Konoha City before leaving for the farm, and Salad was now wearing them after he had used his paints and tools to draw a different iris on them. Tsunade had also helped, not only measuring the exact prescription for Salad's eyesight but also finding chemicals around the underground compound and coming up with a dye to make Salad's hair ginger like Juugo's.
The girl was now unrecognizable, with longer ginger hair and brown eyes. That, and her civilian chakra levels made her perfect to pass incognito, along with Juugo, whose jutsu was based on nature energy and not chakra per se.
"As soon as I'm able to infiltrate Konoha City I'll have a better set of contacts done for you. Don't forget to use your eye drops," Bolt said as he sealed the supplies on a scroll and Juugo picked up the small tent and other camp items they had brought. "I'll meet you once a week so we can trade info and supplies. Keep your eyes open," he said, and left.
As soon as he was far enough, he teleported back to their base.
"Hey," he greeted. "Things worked damn well, Juugo and Salad are infiltrated. Is Shikamaru ready?"
"Almost," Inojin said. "Mom and Tsunade are finishing his face. He's pissed off, tho."
"Not our problem," Bolt said. "Everybody is sacrificing something."
After talking and comparing what each other knew about the power situation in Konoha Naruto and Sasuke had suddenly grown ridiculously tired, and slept under one of the trees. Now they were awake, and had walked around for a while. It was night in Menma's mind, now, and a large crescent moon with a sleeping cap slept in the sky, surrounded by five-pointed stars.
"This place gives me the creeps," Sasuke muttered, moving a vine out of the way.
"Compared to what, that craptastic sewer in my mind? I think it's actually nice," Naruto said from behind him. "Bolt and Hima used to draw scenes like this when they were little. It's how kids see the world… I mean, normal kids," he amended.
"Hn. Normal kids don't suck people out of their bodies and trap them into their minds," Sasuke retorted, turning right. "I think I see a light," he said, and they moved towards it.
After some time they reached a tall tree, which large roots formed a circle, a few tiny fireflies resting sparsely around it.
In the middle, piled on top of a bed of soft crayon-drawn clovers, slept the nine baby beasts and Menma.
They were sprawled around and on top of each other, softly purring, snoring, squeaking, or, in Saiken's case, blowing bubbles. Menma was sprawled on top of Shukaku, hugging Choumei with one arm and holding on one of Kurama's hands with the other hand, Matatabi sprawled on his back on top of him, with a paw pushing the boy's chin up.
Naruto quietly sat on top of one of the roots farther away from the scene.
"You know, when I picked him up the only thing I could think was that he was like me. I was seen and treated as a monster too, the only difference was that what made people think I was one was a demon inside me, instead of just having one less eye," he said, almost whispering, and touched the whisker-like marks on his own face.
Sasuke sat next to him, watching the sleeping mound of baby beasts and boy warily for a while, and then sighed. "I was using condoms to avoid another child after Salad was born," he said. "Sakura tampered with them and got pregnant, but I thought that if this new child at least didn't have Salad's bad eyesight… and then he was born like that, and I felt like the butt joke of the world, the last Uchiha who couldn't even make a normal heir, who couldn't even rebuild the clan because his genes were defective." He shook his head. "And then you came and took away even my right to do away with my mistake," he said, looking at the boy with a hurt look.
"But he's not a mistake," Naruto said, pulling Sasuke to face him. "He's not. Look at him. He's one month old, his father and mother tried to kill him, he almost died in my care, he had to grow up in the blink of an eye to survive, and instead of going insane with anger and grief he gave us room in his own mind so we could sort out our differences without asking anything in return. And that's not the first time he does it too, when we escaped Konoha he made me leave his side and go take care of Bolt alone so me and my own son could grieve and bond together, also for nothing. He broke his own mind so the beasts could keep their own selves, Sasuke. That boy has done nothing but good, and he doesn't even think he's doing anything special, he just doesn't like seeing other people suffer."
"You were like that," Sasuke said, and Naruto chuckled darkly.
"No, I wasn't. I never did anything expecting absolutely nothing in return. I always wanted recognition. I always knew that when I talked to people I was doing something 'special' and touching their hearts, and to be brutally honest I did it expecting retribution. I… I can understand that some of that isn't really my fault because I was lashing out at the way the village saw me when I was a kid, but most of it is, and it's not even due to the anger that I carried inside me. I dealt with that anger way back when I was training to deal with Kurama. It's because I thought that unless people sucked up to me, unless I seemed to be better than everyone else, no one would love me. I thought that because, deep down, I didn't.
"You know, when I first heard that you had left, I almost didn't go after you," Naruto continued, hugging his knees. "At first, I thought that you had abandoned me because you thought I was too weak to help you get strong enough to face Itachi. And that hurt like hell, because I was working my ass off to become strong in order to be Hokage, if you thought I wasn't able to help you beat Itachi, how the hell would I ever become Hokage? The Hokage has to be the strongest amongst the ninja; he can't be someone whom Itachi could beat, for crying out loud. And damn, if you thought I was too weak after seeing me beat Gaara, maybe it's because I was."
Sasuke stared at him. Naruto had never said anything about this before.
"And then when Tsunade told us to go attempt to bring you back, even so I thought that if we had a chance it was because there were so many of us in that team, enough to compensate for my weakness. But then… then Sakura said that if there was anyone that could make you come back, it was me, and she begged me to bring you back, and I had no option. I had to promise her I would bring you back for her, otherwise I would be admitting to my weakness. And by promising that to her I knew I was screwing myself over, because I knew you wouldn't come back just for my pretty blue eyes," he continued, shaking his head, "and I would have to prove to you in a fight that I was stronger than Orochimaru. That I could give you more power, could help you get stronger than Orochimaru could. Either do that or die trying, because all that you and everyone else including me respected was power. So you see… in the end, we were even more alike than you ever thought."
Naruto gave Sasuke a sad smile. "But he," he whispered, pointing at Menma, "isn't. He isn't like me, or like you. He hasn't lived long enough or experienced enough to become jaded like us. And he likes himself. Do you know how I know that?" Sasuke looked at him, and shook his head.
"Look at him. Even though he shares his body, his brain, with all the beasts, he stayed separate. He'd rather break his soul and give each of them a little piece of it for them to be themselves together with him than lose who he was and become someone else. The fact that we can see them as separate entities proves it. I once was almost absorbed by Kurama, and I know for sure that if Menma didn't like to be himself like I didn't like to be myself back then, there would be no Menma for us to see here… just like there almost was no Naruto to see in my mind back then, because I really began unraveling. If it wasn't for my father's chakra flaring up and rebuilding the seal there would be no more me.
"What the beasts did was similar to what Kurama attempted that time, except they were all supposed to unravel together so that a different person would emerge in the end of the process, just like the original ten tails. Menma's sense of self was so strong that it couldn't be broken by him becoming the Juubi. He and the beasts are one, except where Menma doesn't want them to be," Naruto gave Sasuke a sad, hopeful look. "And that's why I think you should at least try to get to know him. He's your son; you made him, and even though he isn't you, he has part of you in him, just like Salad has. They exist because you made them, and that makes them precious. Please… please don't wait until you lose them to see that. It happened to me. I had a son and a daughter too, but Himawari was killed, and even while she was alive, because of that damn jutsu and everything I lost contact with her. I missed so much of her life, and I can never make up for it because she's gone. It hurts worse than anything else, you know. And that is why, this time, I am not forgiving Hiashi," he said in a hurt voice, and wiped his face with the back of a hand.
Sasuke looked sideways at him, and opened his mouth, but was interrupted by a sudden double shout.
"BEE!" Menma and Gyuuki screamed at the same time, jumping up, and disappeared. Naruto and Sasuke immediately felt violently drowsy, and groaned as they felt sleep take over them.