Tsunade needed a fucking drink, or maybe ten.
She wasn't entirely sold on Jiraiya's plan when he initially explained it; it felt a little convoluted for what they were trying to accomplish, but she went along with it, nonetheless. Jiraiya would set up a meeting involving the heads of all of the village's major clans, his current advisory council (who was literally just herself at the moment), and their sensei's advisory council, including Danzo.
On the surface, it was simply a meeting to go over the current state of affairs within the walls of Konoha in the aftermath of the invasion and the Uchiha's defection. In actuality, it was a ploy to get Shibi Aburame an opportunity to discreetly place several kikaichu onto Danzo. All but one of them were female and would remain on the man as long as they could, while the one that was to be recalled would become familiar with Danzo's chakra signature and report back to the hive. This was done in the event that the female kikaichu on Danzo's person were killed and he had to be tracked the harder way, which, according to Shibi, occurred very soon after they were planted.
Fortunately for Danzo, he wasn't being followed after the meeting, so his suspicion was marginally tempered. Unfortunately for him, ROOT's primary base and the series of tunnels that connected the various safe houses in and around the village were within Shibi's range, so Danzo could be tracked down at any time. That time was spent hunting down and marking those safe houses while quietly gathering the ANBU and the most reliable jonin in the village for the next phase of the plan: actually storming the bitch.
So, with dozens of squads of ANBU raiding those safe houses and storming the tunnels connected to them and a swarm of Shibi's kikaichu leading them towards Danzo's location, Jiraiya, Tsunade, ANBU Team Ro, and an overkill collection of powerful jonin rolled up on Danzo and ROOT in their headquarters directly. It went about as well as any surprise raid with an overwhelming level of force would ordinarily go, at least until some peculiar things happened when they finally encountered Danzo.
Now, Tsunade had been around for quite a while, even if she didn't like to admit it. In all her years of being an elite combat medic on the frontlines, she had witnessed a lot of death. It just came with the profession, and it was how the world they inhabited functioned, for better or for worse. She had seen enough people die to confidently say that when people died, they tended to stay down. It was a basic fact of life; people died when they were killed.
So, why the fuck was it that she had encountered two people who were able to buck that trend in the span of a single month? She watched Orochimaru die; Naruto stabbed him in the head and Jiraiya burned his monstrous corpse to ash, but he was apparently still running around and kidnapping Uchiha. Then, fucking Danzo Shimura, the wrinkly prick, came back from being ground to pulp by a Giant Rasengan. He literally fucking came back. The bastard's corpse warped away, and then he was back in one piece like absolutely nothing happened. The same song and dance happened when she caved his chest in with a punch, lobbed his head off with a chakra scalpel, and paralyzed him for Jiraiya to douse him in oil and set him ablaze.
Each time, he just kept fucking reappearing. It was goddamn maddening.
What was even more maddening, though, was the little, purple, Aburame prick trying to poison her with his nano-bugs or whatever the fuck he was going on about. A little-known fact about Tsunade was that her natural affinity was to lightning, so becoming a walking bug zapper wasn't a difficult feat, neither was turning the little shit into a red mist and purging the venom from her system. However, that one moment of distraction in conjunction with a swarm of ink tigers and a surprise appearance from the fucking Baku was just enough to give Danzo the brief window he needed to escape.
So, in summary, while most of ROOT was killed having refused to surrender, Danzo fled, likely with who knows how many survivors aiding his retreat. A massive manhunt was launched with teams ordered to scour every inch of the nation for him, but nothing had been turned up thus far. He had effectively vanished like a leaf in the wind, which was probably something he had planned for in the first place.
That led Tsunade to her current position of kicking down the door to the nearest bar in town and glaring at the bartender until he got to producing bottles of sake posthaste. A whole week of planning and an entire afternoon down the drain simply because Danzo went to the Orochimaru School of Cheating Death. It figured that nothing could ever be easy in her fucking life.
She sighed and downed the alcohol in her saucer,idly wondering what Naruto was up to.
"Are we there yet?"
"Tayuya, I fucking swear…"
"I've never gotten to do that before!"
"Probably because the rest of the Sound Four would've put their feet up your ass if you had."
"Pft, they fucking wish."
Trudging through the snow blanketing the mountainous terrain near the northern border of Shimo no Kuni, the Uzumaki Trio continued on their trek through the buffer nations separating Konoha and Kumo's spheres of influence. They had fortunately not encountered any Kumo-nin on their trek, but Karin was on high alert for any lingering chakra signatures, nonetheless. She had briefly felt one, but it remained stationary as they traveled, as if whoever it was had been watching them. Then, before she could inform Naruto about it, it seemingly vanished into the ground, and she could no longer pinpoint it.
She relayed it to Naruto anyway, as the feel of the chakra somewhat unnerved her. It wasn't entirely human, at least she didn't think it was. It felt more plant-like than anything; she couldn't really make heads or tails of it. That description made Naruto tense, but he maintained their steady pace and just told them to remain on their toes.
Once they finally crossed the border of Shimo into Kaminari, they proceeded into a valley that offered a bit of respite between the snowy peaks of Shimo and the approaching mountain range that housed Kumo. This valley played host to a few satellite villages that were often patrolled by Kumo-nin, so it wasn't terribly surprising when Karin picked up on another chakra signature. What was surprising, though, was how massive this one was.
"Naruto," Karin alerted, and he nodded.
"What are you feeling?" he questioned.
"Really big chakra pool due north," Karin responded, and her face scrunched in focus. "Just one signature. Their chakra feels staticky and fiery at the same time; possibly two affinities."
Naruto nodded again, having a decent guess as to who it might've been. "Anything unique about them?"
Karin hummed. "Their chakra also feels… feline? I don't really know how to describe it except that it's sorta similar to yours, just smaller by several magnitudes."
Naruto smirked. "Perfect, just who I wanted to see. She's alone, right?"
"As far as I can tell, yeah."
"Good. Let me know when we get close."
As the three pressed on through the decreasingly sparse cover of trees, Karin signaled to Naruto that they were approaching the signature, and he nodded, signaling them to stop. Once doing so, a light, red miasma overtook him, and he briefly flared Kurama's chakra. Once back to normal, he turned to the two redheads.
"Tayuya, cast a genjutsu over the entire area," he began, and she flipped through a quick series of hand seals. "Keep it to one layer over the general area, but triple-layer it atop yourself and Karin to stay out of sight."
Before he dropped out of the tree, he turned back to Karin with a smile. "Foxes are canines, by the way. Kurama was really insistent that I point that out."
Seconds after landing on the ground, Naruto whipped a kunai out of his sleeve and deflected one that sliced through the air on a direct course for his head, and as he expected, a woman flickered right behind him with another kunai to his throat.
"What the hell are you doing in Kumo territory, Naruto?" Yugito demanded. "You know what Lord Raikage will do when he hears of this."
"Looking for you, actually," he calmly replied, his hard gaze flickering to where he remembered Karin and Tayuya's location to be in order to keep them in position.
"Why?" she cautiously asked, not lowering the kunai.
"Because you're a target," he shrugged.
Yugito scoffed. "I'm a jinchuriki. I'm always a target."
"Yeah, but this is diff-" he began before pausing in consideration. "Actually, no, I suppose it isn't. You're being targeted for being a jinchuriki here, too."
"By who?" she hazarded.
"You ever heard of Tsuki no Me?"
"Vaguely. Who are they?"
"A terrorist organization seeking world domination."
"What exactly makes them different from Akatsuki in that regard?"
"Let's not do this, Yugito."
"You're a foreign invader in hostile territory," she hissed, bringing the kunai closer to Naruto's throat. "You're neither in a position to be making demands, nor in a position to not be forthcoming."
"And here I thought we were friends," Naruto mock pouted.
"Irrelevant," she shrugged. "Lord Raikage isn't particularly a fan of yours."
"The Raikage hates me because Bee uses me as an excuse to go on vacation whenever our paths cross."
"You also snuck into the village to pal around with him."
"And Ay almost took both of our heads off with a Double Lariat. You'd think that would make us square."
"Well, think again," she sighed, finally lowering the kunai. "Who is Tsuki no Me, and why am I risking my Kage's wrath to hear you out?"
"Because Tsuki no Me is trying to collect the biju," Naruto answered, inwardly thankful that Yugito finally dropped the hostile façade.
"Sorta like Akatsuki did?" Yugito pointed out with a quirked eyebrow, circling back to the earlier question.
"No, not jinchuriki," Naruto corrected, taking the jab in stride. "I mean the biju themselves."
That took Yugito aback. Collecting the actual biju would mean removing them from their hosts, and that would result in the deaths of the jinchuriki…
"You see the problem, then," Naruto observed, judging from Yugito's expression that she followed the same line of thought. "That wouldn't exactly be ideal."
"I suppose not," Yugito replied. "That would put Tsuki no Me in direct conflict with Akatsuki."
"I mean, naturally, but that's not why it's an issue. I'm not entirely sure what they plan to do with the biju after they have them all, but it can't possibly be good for anyone on the planet."
"I see," Yugito hummed. "This is something that could have been sent in a missive to Lord Raikage from Ame's leader. Why come in person?"
"Because I didn't come here specifically to share that," Naruto shrugged. "You're welcome to pass that information along to the Raikage if you want, just so long as Bee is made aware of it first. I know you and Bee can take care of yourselves, but better safe than sorry."
Yugito nodded. "If that wasn't the reason, why are you here?"
Naruto remained silent for a moment, trying to determine the best way to ask his next question. "…What is Ay's current stance on Akatsuki and Ame?"
Yugito did not reply to that, but Naruto could see the apprehension in her gaze before it was ruthlessly suppressed to keep her expression impassive.
"Not good?" he sighed.
"…He doesn't particularly like the situation," she carefully explained, "but he doesn't necessarily dislike it, either."
"Does he know of our pact with Kiri?"
"Yes, and that gives him pause. Officially, Kumo is on neutral terms with Kiri. We didn't step in during their civil war because it was an internal matter."
"No, no, I get it," Naruto assured her while raising his hands placatingly. "Refugees with kekkei genkai fleeing into Kumo territory is good for business."
"Anyway," Yugito growled, though not refuting the point, "Akatsuki's connection to Ame makes Ame powerful, more than any other minor village. An alignment with one of the Five Great Nations that goes beyond what's typical for a minor village makes Ame exceptionally powerful, potentially powerful enough to make uncomfortable waves."
Naruto nodded; he was well aware of that much.
"There's currently a Suna-sized void on the international stage," Yugito continued, "one that Ame, with the backing of Kiri and Akatsuki, could potentially rise up and fill, effectively inserting itself among the major villages on that international stage."
"And that upsets the dynamic that's been in place for generations," Naruto surmised.
"It would if Suna regained their strength and returned to reclaim their spot," Yugito sighed. "As it stands right now, they don't even have a Kazekage, and their nation is hemorrhaging money because of their daimyo. However, if they do manage to get it together, they'll come back for their spot. When that happens, lines in the sand will be drawn, sides will be taken, and the ensuing mess will not be pretty. Lord Raikage is… watching, I guess. He's watching how things unfold before he makes a decision one way or the other. So long as Akatsuki doesn't intrude on Kumo's interests, I don't envision there being an issue."
Naruto slowly nodded, processing all of the information he had just been given. It wasn't necessarily bad news, but it didn't put his mind at ease much, either. There was something else that he needed to ascertain, though.
"What's Kumo's relationship with Iwa like at the moment?" Naruto posed, and Yugito frowned.
"I answered your question because you passed on valuable information about Tsuki no Me, but you're asking for quite a bit right now," she rebuked.
Naruto nodded and steepled his fingers, opting to take another tact. "Since Konoha is still standing, would it be fair to assume that there isn't a current military connection between Iwa and Kumo?"
Yugito glared at him, then she huffed in agitation. "It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that, but I'd hedge my bets. As Akatsuki has been displaying, geopolitics is very fluid and very temperamental."
Naruto groaned. Her response told him quite a bit and nothing at all at the same time. She was too good at this; he idly wondered if Ay was prepping her to succeed him later down the line? Questions for later.
"Well, thank you for the information, regardless," Naruto sighed. "I'll be out of your hair shortly."
"You seem rather confident that I'd just let you leave here on your own power," Yugito observed with a narrowed glare. "Again, you're a foreign invader in hostile territory. I'm duty-bound to bring you in."
"I mean, you could try," Naruto shrugged. "You wouldn't win, but you could certainly try."
"Is that a challenge?" Yugito damn near purred with a threatening smile, her nails growing into sharp claws with faint, sapphire embers wafting off of them.
"Maybe another time," Naruto declined, causing Yugito to huff and retract her claws. "We really do have to get going."
Yugito blinked in confusion. "We?"
Naruto quirked an eyebrow at her. "You think I'm dumb enough to come all the way here alone for a simple conversation? Who do you think is maintaining the genjutsu?"
"Genjutsu?" Yugito tried to feign ignorance, but Naruto was having none of it.
"Dude, you found me and still didn't dispel the entire illusion cast over the area, only dispelling it on yourself. That's how I knew that you were aware of the illusion at all. You chose to keep it up to avoid any potential prying eyes and ears on our conversation, which is why you were so comfortable being as candid as you were in the first place."
"Oh, fuck off," Yugito looked away in irritation at having been read like a book. "Get out of here before a patrol comes around and spots you."
Naruto snorted and waved goodbye, signaling for Tayuya to drop the extra layers of genjutsu over them. Once she did, Yugito was surprised to see the two redheads in similar Akatsuki garbs sitting in a nearby tree with kunai at the ready in case things went south, but just as soon as they were there, they flickered away alongside their blonde companion.
The three darted back the way they came, and while Karin and Tayuya were mentally preparing for the trek back through the snowy mountains, Naruto's mind was abuzz. He hadn't learned as much from Yugito as he hoped, but he still came away with valuable intel to send back to Pain. Kumo wasn't going to be an immediate hurdle to cross, but they had the potential to be a hurdle, nonetheless. They had to navigate this carefully to achieve the ultimate goal of world peace, despite the current hostilities from the Tsuchikage.
In any event, launching the first strike against Iwa likely wouldn't be received well by Kumo. Retaliation was a different story, however, but it was still unknown where they would rest on such an issue. As it stood, Kiri and Konoha were allies with Akatsuki (tentatively in Konoha's case), Iwa was an enemy, and Kumo was an unknown. Suna was also an unknown, but whereas Kumo was a wildcard, Suna could possibly be influenced. If Suna was to ever rise back to prominence, it would be best if they did so as allies to Akatsuki.
Since it was on the way to Uzushiogakure's ruins, once they were out of Kumo territory, Naruto would take the two to Yugakure so that they could have a break at a hot spring while Naruto prepared the message to send back to Ame. Things were certainly going to be eventful in the coming years, for better or for worse.
Tenten wasn't sure what to expect when Guy-sensei informed them that they were called to the Hokage's office. She hadn't been there since being reprimanded for leaving the village without permission during the Uchiha debacle, which really just amounted to being confined to the village for the foreseeable future. It sucked given that it meant she wouldn't be able to take anything above a D-rank mission, but she definitely felt she got off light considering a clan heir literally died and a prodigy was crippled. Perhaps she could ask about what went into deciding her punishment, but she also really didn't want to push her luck.
Lee was excitedly pushing Neji's wheelchair (against Neji's wishes, of course) down the hall towards the office; seeing Lee on his feet and moving so freely after his surgery was bittersweet given the circumstances, but it brought a smile to her face, nonetheless. It was a long shot, but if Lee could rehab and potentially return to active duty sooner rather than later, maybe Neji could do the same? Lady Tsunade had to feel confident that restoring Neji's ability to walk on his own power was possible after Lee's successful surgery, right?? If Lee could recover, then Neji-
She was yanked out of her anxious spiral by her sensei's hand on her shoulder, and she turned to see him gazing down at her with the purest of concern and understanding.
"I know you're worried about Neji," Guy said in a surprisingly subdued tone. "We all are. However, you shouldn't blame yourself for his condition, Tenten."
…She really fucking hated how keen her sensei actually was under all of the youthful eccentricity. He always knew what was eating them at any given moment. She was also glad that her two teammates had gained a decent distance away from them, the faint, disgruntled ramblings of genin and chunin working in the office indicating that Lee had probably obliterated a stack of paperwork in his excitement.
"How can I not blame myself when it's my fault?" Tenten asked, doing her level best to keep her voice from wobbling. "If I hadn't convinced him to go, if I hadn't let him fight alone, if I had just been less useless-"
"Then many more people would have died," Guy interrupted, answering her questions for her and drawing nothing but pure surprise from her. "Neji sacrificed himself so that his comrades could continue on and survive. Neji's flames of youth burn brighter than the sun, even in spite of his current condition. Yours, too, as you did the very same thing for Sakura. Neji's decisions were his own, as were yours, but at the end of the day, you both did your very best to recover a lost comrade, and there is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of with that."
"I…" she began, but she couldn't refute anything he had said. "I guess so…"
Might Guy patted her on the head and guided her towards the office of the Hokage. Waiting for them at the door was a beaming Lee and an exhausted Neji. Upon being allowed inside, they were welcomed to the sight of Jiraiya in Hokage regalia begrudgingly doing paperwork with a small, green toad by his side. The toad in question had white hair styled in a mohawk, eyebrows bushier than Lee's, and goatee; he also appeared to be intermittently whacking Lord Jiraiya over the head with a stick.
"You're not getting any younger, Jiraiya-boy," the toad reminded. "If you're going to be cooped up behind a desk for the foreseeable future, you really should look into finding another suitable apprentice."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Jiraiya sighed. "I'm already looking into it. Speaking of…"
Jiraiya turned his attention to Team Guy. "Thanks for coming. I'm gonna cut to the chase: from this moment on, Team Guy as you all know it will no longer exist."
As expected, the reactions were instantaneous.
"What?!" Tenten exclaimed in surprise and indignation.
"Please, say it is not so!" Lee exclaimed in the first instance of genuine heartbreak Tenten had ever seen from him.
Even when he was told his shinobi career was effectively over, his indomitable optimism remained every step of the way (albeit much more forced than normal). His brief but visceral response to Jiraiya's declaration only fueled her anger even further, so she took a breath.
"With all due respect, Lord Hokage," Tenten began in the calmest tone she could muster, "you can't just split us up out of nowhere like this. We don't even-"
"Lee, Tenten," Might Guy commanded with a serious tone, immediately silencing them and earning their full attention. "Hear him out."
"As I was saying," Jiraiya continued, "given Neji's current condition, Team Guy obviously can't function as a standard four-man cell with three genin and a jonin-sensei. So, I'll fix that."
As Jiraiya reached down to open a drawer in his desk, Tenten finally noticed Neji's silence in her periphery. It wasn't particularly out of the ordinary for him to not speak up in situations like these, but the fact that she hadn't noticed his expression change a single time was odd. As much as he didn't want to admit it, she knew that he very much saw the team as a family, so the prospect of them being split up should have at least rankled him in some way.
"Heads up," Jiraiya called out, tossing something to Tenten and drawing her out of her thoughts.
She didn't get a good glimpse of what was thrown until the bulky object was finally in her grasp-
'Is this a fucking chunin vest?!?!'
"From this moment on, Team Guy will continue as a three-man squad consisting of a jonin, chunin, and genin," Jiraiya explained to the positively floored genin-now-chunin.
Tenten was at a complete loss for words. The green flak jacket didn't even feel real in her hands. Lee was not any better, as his jaw had briefly taken up residence on the floor beside Tenten's before his excitement bloomed, but a swift Gentle Fist strike from Neji prevented Lee from bouncing around his friend.
"What??" she was finally able to croak.
"You're being promoted," Jiraiya repeated, amusement ghosting over his face.
"…What??"
"I believe he's saying that you have achieved a promotion to chunin, Tenten," Neji reiterated for her.
Completely ignoring the deadpan snark from her teammate, she gazed at the flak jacket in her hands for a little while longer. "But… why?"
"You know, I didn't question Sensei when he tossed me my initial promotion even though I didn't deserve it," Jiraiya snorted. "To answer your question, we were able to learn quite a lot from examining the corpse of the boy you fought, particularly in regard to what Orochimaru's cursed seals actually do and how they function. Anko sends her thanks, by the way."
Tenten was still dumbstruck, but she was gaining a tighter grip on herself as the situation set in. She was being promoted, which was unbelievable, but also completely and utterly unexpected given the fact that she was literally being punished for leaving the village without permission on an unauthorized search and rescue mission. It just didn't feel right.
"That's it?" she carefully inquired. "No second exam run or anything?"
"Consider it a field promotion," Jiraiya shrugged. "It just makes what I have planned easier. Pa?"
The small toad nodded and hopped from Jiraiya's desk onto Tenten's shoulder, and it took everything in her to not freak out. The elder toad silently inspected her for the most unnerving 10 seconds of her life; he didn't say a word, merely piercing and ruthlessly evaluated her soul with his beady, golden gaze.
The toad hummed and nodded, turning back to Jiraiya. "Her hair could be spikier, but she'll do."
"Fantastic," the Toad Sage nodded as the elder toad returned to the desk.
The bun-haired girl was more than taken aback. She had apparently passed whatever evaluation had just been conducted by the summons that she could only assume had some level of authority over even Lord Jiraiya, so the pair now had her undivided attention.
"Alright, Tenten, here's the deal," Jiraiya began. "You will still train and do missions with your team, and I'll probably assign you other tasks to take care of as a chunin, but you'll be spending the rest of your time personally training under me."
Tenten's eyes went wide. "Wait, does that mean…"
Jiraiya grinned, and one bite of his thumb later, a plume of smoke enveloped the room, dissipating to reveal their Hokage posing dramatically on top of a large toad. "Congratulations, you are now the slightly less unofficial apprentice of Jiraiya the Gallant!"
The room was silent. Fukasaku stood on Jiraiya's shoulder with an expression of pure exhaustion, and the toad Jiraiya was standing on didn't appear to be too pleased to have a destroyed desk under him. The elder toad was milliseconds away from beating Jiraiya over the head with his cane again, but he was interrupted by an ecstatic shout from Lee.
"SUCH YOUTH POURING FROM OUR GODAIME!! Guy-sensei, I must bolster the flames of my youth to be even half as comparable as Lord Jiraiya's! And if I cannot do that, then I will run 2000 laps around the village on my hands!"
"Atta boy, Lee! Let the flames of your youth illuminate Konoha!"
"Guy-sensei!"
"Lee!"
Meanwhile, Tenten turned to Neji, completely ignoring the inexplicable sunset and crashing waves that appeared in the office. When he met her gaze, a wave of uncertainty overtook her. Between her promotion, the new dynamic of their team, and finally being offered apprenticeship (she thinks? It was difficult to say for certain), the whole thing made her feel like they were effectively leaving Neji behind, and that made her sick.
However, Neji didn't even need to activate his Byakugan to see right through her. She could tell that he already knew exactly what was racing through her mind and was subliminally telling her to cut it the fuck out. No matter how much she kicked herself for what ultimately happened to him, he refused to place any blame on her. He always assured her that if they were to redo the entire situation, he wouldn't change a thing about it. So, when he nodded for her to take the opportunity, her decision was made.
She turned back to Jiraiya (who was now nursing a bump on his noggin courtesy of Fukasaku's cane). "I accept."
"Great," Jiraiya smiled, quickly brushing off the whack he had just received. "Do you have Orochimaru's Kusanagi on you?"
Tenten nodded, a little taken aback by the question, and she retrieved the scroll containing it from her pouch. Unsealing it, the Kusanagi of legend rested in her hands, and Fukasaku hopped over to inspect it.
"Indeed," the elder toad hummed with a nod. "Just as sentient as I remember it to be."
"You know about the sword?" Tenten questioned.
"I've been around the block, whippersnapper," Fukasaku chuckled. "I've encountered my fair share of enchanted weaponry in my day. I still wonder where the Totsuka Blade wandered off to, but that's not important. Do you know how to use it?"
Tenten made a so-so motion with her hand, and Fukasaku shrugged. "Eh, Bunta-boy, Hiro-boy, or Ken-boy can teach you. You'll have to be tested before you can sign the contract, though."
Tenten began to sweat. The only summons she had ever really encountered were Guy-sensei's Turtles, and he never explained to them what he had to do in order to be accepted as a summoner, but she had always heard that these tests were absurdly rigorous.
"…What kind of test?"
The loud crashing of the volatile ocean behind the Uzumaki trio serenaded them as they stood before the ruins of what could have been their homeland in another reality. Tayuya didn't really know what to feel or if she should have been feeling anything. Until about a month prior, she didn't have any family and barely had a home, and to say she was content with that would be a bit misleading, but she had certainly grown to accept it. That was no longer the case, and standing on the shores of the long-annihilated bastion of Uzumaki blood made it all real for her.
Turning to her left, she inspected Karin's face to possibly get an idea about what she should have been feeling, but the other redhead was simply taking it all in. Clearly, Karin didn't know what to feel, either. Looking to her next best option, she frowned. Naruto's expression was completely unreadable; she'd make a mental note about that.
"So…" Tayuya decided to break the silence. "These are the ruins, huh?"
"Mhm," Naruto confirmed.
"…I don't really know what I was expecting," Tayuya admitted.
"More bodies," Karin added, and upon receiving a weird look from Tayuya, she shrugged. "If the village was sieged, the corpses of the fallen should be a little more prevalent than they are, unless their bodies were destroyed by the invaders."
"That's more than likely the case," Naruto supplied. "And even for those that weren't, the amount of moisture in the air would speed up decomposition. What would generally take 5 or so years to skeletonize would be shortened even further, and they've been here since the Second War."
"So, we're not gonna find any bodies to loot?"Tayuya hazarded, not entirely sure what their purpose was for being there in the first place.
"Not above ground, at least," Naruto shrugged. "I doubt a village for the clan that was feared for their savagery and proclivity to fuinjutsu wouldn't have underground tunnels to explore. I'd wager that they've all been boobytrapped or sealed away to prevent any non-Uzumaki from looting them since their destruction."
"Wait, we're actually looting??" Tayuya pressed, completely surprised that her flippant guess was actually accurate.
"Sorta. We're gonna poke around and see if anything survived that hasn't already been taken by explorers or other villages scavenging for spoils. I figured the best place to start for anything that might help your individual training in the 'Uzumaki arts' would be here."
"Bitchin'."
"I don't detect any areas with lingering chakra that would indicate traps that haven't been triggered yet," Karin spoke up, but after a moment, her face scrunched in confusion. "That's strange…"
"What is it?" Naruto inquired.
"My Mind's Eye is being blocked by something deeper in the ruins…"
"A person?"
"No, I don't sense a chakra presence," she shook her head. "I don't sense anything there. I would normally be able to at least feel out the area if it was empty, even if it was just an average barrier, but I literally can't sense anything from that spot."
"Lead the way," Naruto motioned, and the three ventured into the ruins of the largest island of the archipelago.
Karin led the two through the mess of annihilated homes, shops, stalls, and a myriad of other buildings that the three couldn't really identify. Bones were scattered about here and there with old, rusted headbands laying nearby. There was the occasional Kiri ANBU mask, but it was impossible to tell if Kiri-nin were present for the clan's final hour or if it was just a trophy that an Uzumaki held on to until his death.
"Here it is," Karin informed as the three approached the tallest building they had encountered so far. "I can't sense anything coming from inside."
Naruto hummed, inspecting the tower closely. It was in somewhat better condition than the other buildings (in that it wasn't completely leveled or totally inhospitable). He noted a torn banner that once proudly displayed the Uzumaki crest lying on the ground nearby, and the design of the building vaguely reminded him of the Mizukage Tower in Kiri; could this have been the tower of Uzushio's leader? That would potentially explain if there was a seal or even a set of seals acting as an iron curtain to Karin's senses.
Naruto produced a shadow clone and sent him into the tower to scout. Within minutes, he cringed as the memories of the clone returned to him.
"What happened?" Karin asked.
"They really must be protecting something down there," Naruto muttered, creating a few more clones to send inside. "I think I found the tunnels."
At that, the other two curiously watched on as the clones ventured inside. It didn't take long for the original Naruto to cringe again, and Tayuya's curiosity got the better of her.
"The hell's your problem?" she asked in the only way she knew how.
"The traps are pretty brutal," Naruto responded, not delving any deeper.
"How do you kno-" Tayuya began to question but was cut off by an explosion from within the building.
"Shadow clones transfer their memories when they dispel," Naruto answered the unfinished question. "Whatever is down there, they really wanted to keep it away from outsiders. I'm curious as to why they didn't just destroy it."
"Too much sentimental value, maybe?" Karin suggested.
"How much sentimental value could be worth secrets falling into enemy hands?" Tayuya countered.
"The traps have been deactivated, so let's find out," Naruto said and headed into the ruins of the tower with the two girls following behind him.
As expected, most of the interior was in complete disrepair, but there was nothing of particular interest for them until they reached the secret panel in the wall revealing the tunnel that the clones had killed themselves infiltrating. One journey down a flight of spiraling stairs later, and they had arrived to a large room, and it was anything but empty.
"Holy shit…" Tayuya breathed out, looking around the various scrolls, artifacts, and tools that filled the room. In particular, her gaze landed in a set of instruments in the corner of the room.
"Holy shit is right," Naruto muttered, wandering toward the large shelf of scrolls. "I think we've found a vault."
"They went to a lot of trouble to hide all of this stuff," Karin noted.
"Perhaps it was left for any Uzumaki to potentially find if they ever returned home," Naruto suggested.
"There were a lot of hoops to jump through if that was the case," Karin replied with a dubious expression.
Tayuya, meanwhile, had been drawn to a table holding a flute, a set of kagura suzu, a shamisen, a hand drum, and… was this a fucking slide whistle?
Shaking that off, she saw that beside the table was a large konghou harp, and she stepped over to inspect it further; it was nearly as tall as her. She really couldn't help herself, and before she knew it, she was standing before it and channeling her chakra into her fingers.
Mere moments after Naruto heard a few notes played behind him, the entire room began to melt away, and his legs went limp. It was as if reality itself had liquified, and he was sinking into the sludge that was once existence. Then, the world snapped back into place, and he was back on solid ground, though struggling to stay upright on wobbly legs.
'Thanks, Kurama.'
"Hn."
He turned an annoyed glare back to an openly grinning Tayuya, and then it shifted to the snickering Karin beside him. At least she had the decency to try to hide her mirth, futile as it was. Sighing, Naruto wondered if Utakata was having a similarly irritating time with his student.
From within a bubble hovering over the trees, Utakata watched his student's progress with a satisfied smile. A gargantuan wave crashed through the trees of the swamp with Hotaru surfing atop it, struggling to maintain her balance with the dregs of chakra she had remaining after expending so much. She was making fantastic progress with both increasing her reserves and empowering her water jutsu in the jinchuriki's opinion. At this rate, they would be able to move on to finer control over water jutsu sooner than planned.
"I miss Katsuyu."
The unprompted admission from his tenant startled Utakata. 'What?'
"I need my slug mommy to dominate me."
Oh. They were doing this again. Splendid.
'Please, get ahold of yourself, Saiken,' Utakata groaned, truly not wanting to deal with his biju crying himself to sleep over a past flame once again.
"You are right. I'm sorry, Utakata. I'm 'down bad,' as the kids would say."
'…I've never heard that phrase before in my life, Saiken.'
"You humans are so strange."
"What did you find?" Naruto asked as he and Karin came over to check out the haul.
"A bunch of instruments," Tayuya answered with a smirk, looking over the craftsmanship of the bamboo flute. "Just my style, too. It's not iron, but it'll do for now."
Naruto filed the bit about iron away for a later day, and he got a closer look at the instruments on display. "I'm not really musically inclined. I'm assuming these can all be used to cast auditory genjutsu?"
"For the most part," Tayuya replied. "You already know what the harp can do, and I'm assuming the shamisen can accomplish similar things, just with more mobility. The kagura suzu can cast genjutsu using the bells; there were a few people in Oto who did something similar, but only one of them was all that good at it."
"How about the drum?" Karin asked, picking up the small hand drum.
Tayuya shrugged. "Could be genjutsu, could just be vibration-based ninjutsu. Sakon used to do something similar with his voice to cause bone resonance. Probably just depends on how you're using it."
"Maybe this is where Orochimaru got the idea from," Naruto hummed. "I wouldn't put it past him to research auditory genjutsu and create an entire catalogue of sound-based ninjutsu and genjutsu from it."
"Seems up the weird fuck's alley," Tayuya agreed with another shrug.
"I wonder what significance all of these things had to be locked away in a vault," Karin muttered while inspecting the strange slide whistle. It was giving off a malevolent aura that she didn't really want to disturb.
"Well, we've got nothing but time on our hands for now," Naruto said. "Let's keep looking around and then seal everything up into scrolls when we're all satisfied."
Jiraiya, now with a new desk, was trudging through the newest mountain of paperwork that resulted from the almost successful purge of Danzo's forces when he heard a knock at the door. Sighing in relief at the welcome distraction, he called for them to enter as he laid back in his seat. He was surprised when Kakashi entered the office; no one had really seen him much since Sasuke's defection, which Jiraiya could understand. He took the news of the deaths of the Ame orphans hard, and Minato's death was even harder on him.
Then, he remembered that Minato also had teammates that were very much dead, as well. Jiraiya couldn't fight the defeated sigh that escaped him. Death seemed to follow everyone in this damn village.
"Kakashi," Jiraiya greeted, quickly leaving his brief funk to greet his grand-student and most loyal reader. "What can I do for you?"
"I'm taking my student out of the village on a training trip," he simply said.
Jiraiya blinked. Kakashi wasn't asking for permission, not that Jiraiya wouldn't have granted it regardless. It seemed like the Copy Ninja wanted to do everything in his power to ensure that his last remaining genin lived a full life, and he could respect that. Still, though, she was on house arrest for a reason.
"You do know that she's still not off the hook for her stunt, right?" Jiraiya questioned. "Many in the Akimichi Clan hold her responsible for the death of their clan heir even if Choza himself doesn't."
"I do, and with all due respect, I don't really care," Kakashi eye-smiled.
"…Fair," Jiraiya shrugged. "I don't have much of an issue with it. I've read her file, and her skills would probably lend her to being a great genjutsu-specialist or even a medic, but Tsunade isn't keen on taking any students right now. If you can promise to turn her into a respectable kunoichi in, say, two years' time, then have at it."
"Wonderful," Kakashi remarked, and a sheepish smile developed under his mask. "That was much easier than I expected.
"…You've already left the village with her, and I'm speaking to a clone, aren't I?" Jiraiya deadpanned.
"Yep."
Jiraiya unleashed a long-suffering sigh. "Do her parents know, at least?"
"Mhm. I informed them shortly before we left. I may have forged your signature from a signed copy of Icha Icha Paradise."
"Nothing I didn't do when Sensei was wearing the hat," Jiraiya shrugged in acceptance, then he gave Kakashi a long look. "Be honest; you're hoping to run into Naruto out there, aren't you?"
Kakashi was silent, and Jiraiya knew he hit the nail on the head.
"…He should be in the village," Kakashi finally lamented. "In his home."
"He's got a new home now, and he's well-protected," Jiraiya pointed out. "Not really like he needs it at this point."
"I know, it's just hard to accept," Kakashi sighed. "I should've done more for him. I should've done anything at all."
"You're swimming in enough guilt as it is; don't take this burden on, too," Jiraiya stopped him mid-sulk. "Hindsight is always 20/20. Naruto is probably much more capable right now than he could've possibly been if he stayed in Konoha. He's found a family of his own, he's not a danger to the village, and he's happy. Let's not take that away from him. He deserves at least that much."
Kakashi sighed again. "You're right."
"Always am," he cheekily responded. "Two years, then I want her back here for an evaluation."
"As you commend, Lord Hokage," Kakashi saluted before dispelling.
Jiraiya groaned in agitation. "Fuckin' hate that formal shit."
Omake: Gaara Talks to Shukaku (Attempt #5)
Gaara hadn't known true sleep for as long as he'd been alive; prolonged slumber for any length of time was just an easy means for his demon to rampage, and he no longer had the luxury of having his father around to subdue and pacify the demon if that ever happened, so it was entirely up to himself to keep Shukaku at bay.
He could continue doing what he had been doing and just sleeping as little as necessary to remain on the safe side, but he knew that his sanity was already hanging by a thread even after turning his life around, and violent insomnia was only going to snip that thread. So, he thought up another way to keep the demon inside of him without sacrificing sleep for any longer.
He'd talk to it directly.
Now, he had technically already been doing that whenever Shukaku would scream bloody murder in his head and demand for blood and viscera while masquerading as his mother, he just spoke to it aloud instead of face to face.
However, ever since Gaara made the decision to find meaning in his existence without indiscriminate violence, Shukaku had not been speaking to him. Whenever he felt around within himself for the demon's presence, it almost felt like he was receiving the cold shoulder. That continued each night Gaara attempted to speak to Shukaku directly within the seal. The Ichibi would rebuff his efforts (often with profanity) and turn away from him until he left the seal.
Gaara would not be deterred, however. He would come to an accord with his demon like the others like him had seemingly done. He would be strong like them.
So, that's what he found himself doing on this calm, unusually warm night in the desert. Gaara sat cross-legged on his bed and meditated, quickly popping into the seal like he had done four times prior. He wandered through the dark expanse toward the chained biju, and Shukaku growled the minute he sensed the boy's presence.
"Shukaku-"
"Get the fuck out of here."
Gaara was rendered silent at the harsh dismissal, but he remained firm. "I've come again to speak with you. I truly believe that we can come to an accord."
Shukaku balked and sneered at him. "I liked you better when you had a backbone. You used to slaughter and give me the blood of the weak. You used to be powerful. You used to be cool. Your existence used to mean something."
"I'm finding meaning in other ways," Gaara responded. "There are more productive avenues to discover my worth."
Gaara reached his hand out to the massive tanuki. "I want you to join me in this endeavor; there are others like us that didn't have to kill indiscriminately to prove their worth, so perhaps we can find our worth together."
Shukaku almost choked on the mocking laugh that blasted out of his throat. "Worth?? You are a worthless, bitch ass ningen. Your life is literally as valuable as a summer ant. I'm just gonna stomp you, and you're gonna keep coming back. I'm gonna seal up all my cracks, and you're gonna keep coming back. Why? Because you keep smelling the syrup, you worthless, bitch ass ningen."
Gaara sighed. This wasn't the first time Shukaku had gone on a rant similar to this, though this one seemed to lack the others' mention of oxygen and ozone layers. At least the demon didn't insist that Gaara commit suicide-
"Your life is nothing. You serve zero purpose. You should kill your-"
And with that, Gaara left the mindscape, as it appeared that he spoke too soon. Not allowing himself to feel down after another failed attempt, Gaara left his room and walked down the hall, traversing the Kazekage's Mansion until he was in the main hall.
Meanwhile, Temari had been sitting in the main hall and toiling in bureaucratic nonsense for what must have been hours by that point. When she made her intentions of becoming Kazekage known to Baki, he wasted no time in throwing her in front of Suna's council to declare her bid for the hat (because that lazy fuck would've been given the job otherwise). So, the old crones had been giving her a thorough crash course in the administrative side of running a hidden village, and since they wanted a Kazekage ASAP, they were cramming years' worth of study into the span of a few months.
It was fortunate that she was already pretty versed in the political end of things by virtue of being the daughter of a Kage, but it was still hell on Earth. The things she did for her dumbass brothers…
Speaking of, Gaara entered the room at that very moment, and he was surprised to find Temari already there buried in books, scrolls, and paperwork. Temari gave him a tired wave before returning to her work; she was used to him not sleeping, so seeing him up and about at such a late hour wasn't out of the ordinary.
What was out of the ordinary, however, were the noises she heard coming from the other end of the room. Looking up from her scroll, she found her brother playing the grand piano that had been collecting dust in their home since their mother died. She blinked, gazing at him curiously as his fingers hit the keys and created an admittedly beautiful melody. The most confusing part was that it sounded like a a professional pianist was playing a piece for her, as if Gaara had been doing this his entire life as well as a past one.
"Um, whatcha doin'?" Temari asked the only thing she could think of at the absurd display.
"Playing the piano," Gaara answered matter-of-factly, continuing on with his piece.
Temari blinked again, and she had to remind herself that she was speaking to Gaara and not Kankuro. If Gaara even knew what sarcasm was, he probably never cared enough to explore it.
"…I see that," Temari continued. "I didn't know you played."
"I don't," Gaara shrugged, continuing on with his masterful keystrokes to compliment his unflinchingly stoic demeanor.
Temari had absolutely no reply to that, neither did she have the energy for this shit.
I'm 99% certain that "keystrokes" is used exclusively in reference to computer keyboards and not pianos, but fuck it, we ball.
I had more difficulty with this chapter than I'm comfortable admitting. When you have a bunch of ideas for the future of a story planned out, oftentimes it's hard to just focus on actually getting there... or something like that. Idk, I'm just glad this is out. Didn't want to keep away for too long.
Fuck Kevin Durant, we're smoking that Phoenix Suns pack all offseason.
Thanks for reading.
