Heya,

Chapter 6 is here and by god was it challenging to write. I'll save most of the talk for the post-chapter analysis, but before we get into it there are a couple of things I'd like to address:

After having reread the previous chapter and gotten some feedback, I think a general consensus seems to have been reached that Gaara kind've got ho'ed in his fight with Team Eight + Shikamaru. I kind've saw that opinion coming, since no matter how it played out, it's still THE part 1 Gaara losing to a bunch of side characters, essentially. I've also kind've come away from the chapter feeling that way, after having sat on it for a while.

That said, I still ultimately liked the outcome; I enjoyed getting to give different characters a spotlight, even if it didn't go as perfectly as I would've liked. For those of you who feel that Gaara got done a bit of a disservice, that's my bad. Still, it's far from being the last we'll see of him and I hope you'll all come to like what is done with him. Gaara is one of my favorite characters, and I'm looking forward to getting to take another look at him.

Moving on from that though, I promised we'd be seeing Naruto's awakening this chapter and that kind've put me in a rut for a few days, as I'd already spoiled what could've been a fun surprise. This left me wanting to find a new kind of spin that I could put on things that still left moments feeling exciting, throughout. I'm still not one-hundred percent happy with the chapter. But as of writing this, it's been a good couple of days since my last chapter and I feel that keeping a consistent schedule is arguably just as important as putting out quality work. Thus, I ended up having to compromise on a few things.

Let me know how you guys feel about it; if the consensus is big enough I may revisit it when I find the time.

In any case, please enjoy the chapter, and enjoy my post-chapter analysis after, if any of you enjoy watching me ramble...


Pain.

It was a sensation that Gaara had grown unaccustomed to. Deep and insidious, crawling through his veins like a thousand angry fire ants; gnawing, scratching, stinging pain burrowing into his skin and laying eggs like maggots, born to infest his very flesh.

Gaara huddled inward, scratching furiously against his own skin, digging at himself; he pulled himself apart, trying to reach the agony within, but it was always just out of reach -always digging deeper than before to avoid his fight for relief.

A spasm wracked his body, and Gaara saw a hundred -no, thousands of ghostly centipedes burst from all around; the walls, the ceiling, even the dingy old toilet was home to the swarm of death that threatened him once more. They set upon him like hell personified, coiling around him; through him. They squeezed at his throat until he could do little more than choke on their onslaught. All at once, Gaara lost control; his body seized as the infernal apparitions gouged into his body, coiling around his lungs and squeezing every ounce of oxygen directly from the source; they cooked his insides to a blackened crisp with mind shattering heat.

He tried to scream; so desperately he wanted to scream, to beg someone, anyone, to help him, to show him mercy just this once in his life.

Then it was gone, leaving him a twitching, groaning mess in a dingy old cell, covered superfluously in his own urine.

Gaara sobbed. He was too weak to move; the most he could do was crane his neck ever-so-slightly, turning his attention to the duo of Chūnin who watched over him from beyond his bars. Both ninjas stared dispassionately at the boy, sympathy being the furthest from their minds. Their eyes told him all he needed to know. They hated him

"You deserve this", their eyes accused.

Did he? Did anyone deserve this kind of pain? Gaara's mind snapped back to that accursed hospital.

"I was going to kill him…" Yes, he had gone to the hospital to kill the green one; Rock Lee, he remembered. Mother had changed his mind though; she had compelled Gaara to visit the orange one, instead.

Naruto Uzumaki. The one who was like himself.

Yes, he had gone to kill the boy. To put him down and actualize his existence. He had gone to end Naruto Uzumaki's life before he could emerge; before he could become a threat to both himself and Mother.

"You failed…" Mother's accusation made Gaara flinch.

Naruto Uzumaki's friends had delayed him. Tiny, insignificant mice as they were, they had stalled him from his mission. He had taken too long, and Naruto Uzumaki had punished him for his attempt.

Gaara spasmed again, and he grit his teeth to keep his voice in. Against his efforts, his maw was pried open by the agony within, and a piteous whine escaped Gaara's lips.

Not just him though. Mother too. She'd been awfully quiet since then, rarely speaking except to chastise him for his weakness; she blamed him for their current predicament.

Cuffed in a cell and weak as a newborn kitten. Tormented by the memory of a boy who had torn him asunder, eerily similar to how Gaara had often treated his own victims.

Was this his karma?

"It's your fault!" Mother hissed. Normally her rage made him cower. But now, Gaara had something far scarier in his mind. "You should have just let me do it! This would not have happened if you'd just give me control!"

But mother was wrong… She had ordered Gaara to go kill Naruto Uzumaki, and he had. She ordered Gaara to kill the boy's guards, and he did. She demanded that he rip his friends apart, crush them to a delectable pile of twitching gore and feed her their blood.

He had tried, but that was where the first hitch had begun in their -no, her plan. Those mice were clever, and they had outsmarted him. Individually, they were weak -insignificant! Even together, they were little more than ants. But even ants could be clever, and Gaara had grown far too used to his sand's protection; his fight against Rock Lee should have taught him differently, but he had been remiss to change his ways. His complacency had allowed them to stall him -to wound him, even!

So he had done what he was always remiss to do; he had surrendered control to mother.

And mother lost.

"It's your fault!" Mother repeated. "You did not give me full control. You're still resisting me! Had I been at full power, I'd have crushed that insect, easily!"

Perhaps... But if he hadn't been there at all, he wouldn't have needed to surrender control. Gaara wouldn't have earned Naruto Uzumaki's ire, and been punished by the Leaf ninja. He wouldn't be in this cell, wracked with such agony.

Mother was wrong.

"Wrong!? You idiot boy, you need me! I am the source of your power!" Mother raged from within. His head ached, but it was little more than a drop in the bucket, compared to everything else. "It was me who protected you when you were too weak to do it, yourself! Me! I am the only person who has ever been on your side, don't you see!? How do you expect to get your revenge on that monster if you won't let me help you?"

Revenge?

Did Gaara want revenge?

The rattle of chains made him cower, and pain wracked his form, yet again.

No.

He wanted to be as far away from that monster as humanly possible. For the first time in his life, he blocked Mother's rageful shrieks out of his focus.

Gaara hoped he never had to see Naruto Uzumaki ever again.


Never before had Hinata enjoyed the simple pleasure of visiting a friend's house; father was quite strict when it came to details such as where and when she was allowed to go; who she was allowed to interact with, even. It was suffocating.

Thankfully, the man had little authority when it came to what business she conducted in the company of her team. Where their three-man cell was involved, Kurenai-sensei had the final say. The woman had shown up with Kiba and Shino in tow, requesting her presence for "an important team function"; just a half-hour later, Hinata found herself sitting in warm couch, lounging between her two teammates and surrounded by well over half-a-dozen dogs while Kurenai-sensei ran errands, elsewhere.

Hinata rather loved that woman.

"How're your fingers?" Kiba's question floated easily, even among the cacophony of ninja hound pups -he was just naturally loud, like that. In response, Hinata lifted the still-tender digits from her task, flexing them in demonstration.

"F-fine… I'm thankful t-that the medics were able to mend them." Well, mostly. The head medic in charge of her healing, Mirai-san, had told her that her fingers would be stiff over the next couple of days. She had seemingly neglected to tell the Hyuga heiress about the extreme soreness, but Hinata supposed that was meant as a given. "Um- h-how're your ribs?"

"Kiba let out a chuckle. "Eh, I've had worse. You should see mom when she gets her hands on a slipper. Now there's a real demon." His laugh became a light groan as a small puppy springboarded off his chest. "Still, that asshole really was something else. I hope they're really laying into him, down in the jail."

A moment passed, then Kiba frowned, looking over to an eerily silent Shino. "What about you, buddy? You holding up okay?"

"No," Shino bit out. "Why? Because my hive is in ruins." Shino slumped, adding, "It will take weeks or even months to restore myself to full fighting condition… Pulling myself out of the tournament is a disappointing resolution to our team's participation in the finals; unfortunately, I had no other such recourse."

A somber mood overtook the trio. Hinata and Kiba could not fully understand the importance of a hive to an Aburame. But they understood that their friend was upset.

"If I ever see that Sand jackass again I'm gonna break my foot off in his ass." Kiba huffed, capturing an excitable little puppy and cuddling it against himself.

"I-I heard from Kurenai-sensei that he was expelled from the tournament. So technically it means you b-beat one of the strongest competitors, Shino-kun?" Hinata offered the boy a tentative smile.

"It was a team effort, Hinata-san…" Shino sighed then, before a tiny grin cracked across his face. "Still, I appreciate you guys' words of comfort. Why? Because we did 'kick his ass', as Kiba would say."

"Damn right!" Kiba cheered, and Akamaru howled in sync, joined by the many puppies they were watching over.

"Please don't rile up the puppies, Kiba!" Kiba's sister, Hana Inuzuka groaned as she entered the room, holding a tray of sandwiches. "No! Down, you little runts! Leave their sandwiches alone or so help me!" She fruitlessly battled back the excited puppies as she tried to set the tray down.

Hinata and Kiba both moved to assist the young woman, earning her thanks. "Eat up, you guys! "Thanks again for keeping these little twerps busy for us. We would've hired some poor brats for a D-rank mission, but you two showing up really saved us the hassle."

"Hey, what about me?" Kiba whined from around a sandwich. "I'm helping too!"

"You live here, twerp. Your participation is expected." Hana rolled her eyes. "Besides, I made you guys snacks, didn't I? You do realize I could be doing something far more lucrative with my time right? Like -oh, I don't know, attending my shift at the hospital?

"Oh piss off with that," Kiba snorted. "Don't act like you didn't call out to get out of cleaning duty, you damn sneak." He whined as Hana snatched his half-eaten snack out of his hands, practically balling the entire thing up and cramming it in her mouth. "My sandwich! You monster!"

Swallowing, Hana gave the boy the finger. "Maybe if you'd spent less time talking shit, you could've finished it before I decided to do that." She then slapped Kiba's hand as he began to reach for Hinata's sandwich. "You leave that poor girl's food alone or I swear to god I'll wax your eyebrows!"

Hinata shared a smile with Hana, who then finally caught the girl's busy hands.

"Ooh, whatcha working on?" Hana threw herself across her brother's lap to get a good look at it, heedless of her Kiba's loudly proclaimed annoyance.

"Oh, um- n-nothing much, Hana-san. I'm j-just-"

"She's sewing a jacket for her boyfriend," Kiba interrupted. He grinned at Hinata as her eye twitched.

"He's not my b-boyfriend." Hinata tried to ignore the redness in her cheeks at her teammate's accusation, instead anxiously regarding Hana, whose grin had grown to match her brother's.

"Boyfriend in progress, then." Kiba snickered alongside his sister.

"I don't know, kiddo," Hana prodded at Hinata's cheeks, trying to get the girl to crack. "That certainly looks like something a girlfriend would do for her boyfriend."

Hinata didn't dignify the girl with a response. Partly out of spite, but also because she didn't think she could speak without becoming a stuttering mess. Instead, she turned her full focus back to her working hands.

Naruto's jacket was quite frankly beyond saving. She'd certainly tried; however, she hadn't had much success in doing any more than turning it into a patchy, ugly mess. Hinata had needed to get additional fabric regardless, seeing as Naruto was sure to have grown substantially. With her byakugan, she'd been able to eyeball his general measurements; Hinata opted to overshoot a bit, knowing her crush could likely grow into it, if she was a bit off.

Regardless, that meant that the best route was to create something mostly from scratch. Of course, skills like sewing and tailoring were included in both shinobi and kunoichi training, alike. After all, a large portion of ninja activity involved infiltration or information gathering and one couldn't exactly blend in if they lacked basic civilian skills. Still, those courses had mostly just covered the basics. Thus, this was a rather large undertaking for her; there was a big difference between adjusting some fabric or weaving a layer of mesh into some clothes, and putting together a ninja-grade article of clothing from the ground up.

Hinata had simply chosen to do a bit of both, salvaging what she could from Naruto's old jacket and filling in the many blanks.

Still, it was hardly an easy task.

"So what exactly are you trying to make?" Hana had properly seated herself, now fully taking a grumbling Kiba's place. The boy had instead taken to actively playing with the puppies, alongside a flagging Akamaru. "Mom taught us both how to sew since we were little and I've made some stuff in the past, if you need a more experienced eye."

"Oh, well-" Hinata struggled to describe it. "I-I want to make something c-comfortable. Um- something that he can't just get any-anywhere else, I s-suppose?"

"What about a poncho?"

Hinata blinked, slowly turning to give Hana her full attention. "Pardon?"

"Well, yeah. You want something comfortable, right? Make him a light one, so he can move around comfortably in it." Hana grinned at the younger girl. "Give it tons of pockets! Ninjas love pockets!"

"I can confirm," Shino interjected. "Why? Because I am both a ninja, and a pocket enthusiast."

"Yeah, pockets are dope," Kiba threw into the mix. He was now holding a tiny puppy by the sides, flying around and making airplane noises. Hinata had never known the boy could be tender.

What was she- oh yes, a poncho. It wasn't a bad idea. Not at all. Hinata had never seen Naruto wearing a poncho, or even anything similar to one; he tended to favor street wear. But Hinata supposed she could at least try to make him something stylish.

And orange. Naruto loved the color orange.

"A poncho, then." Hinata turned the cloth over in her hands. She'd need to start over a bit, but that was fine. "With lots of pockets."

"He's gonna love it." Hana grinned at Hinata, then stood up. "Good luck!"

Hinata certainly hoped so.


"That's the last node, in place." Kushina was happy to finally take a seat, joined swiftly by her son. They'd been at work for a few hours, now.

Funny thing about seals: Making them was easy, once you knew what you were doing, that is.

Tuning an already existing seal to include functions outside of its original parameters? Not so much; certainly not when seemingly Minato couldn't make something straightforward or cohesive to save his damn life.

Seriously, a simple kill-switch function to lock down the Kyuubi's chakra full-stop if it exceeded Naruto's natural capacity would have done just fine to keep their son safe from the beast's influence overwhelming his body. There was no need at all to fuse it to a two-stage evocation trigger that would summon her husband to do what the seal could be programmed to do, by itself. It was wasteful, and even a bit dim.

Kushina supposed that Minato hadn't exactly had an abundance of time to weave everything together in a fully cohesive way; memories of a gaping hole in both of their torsos came to mind. Still, would it have killed the man to have at least made his echo reachable without the need for a perfectly preventable tragedy? She'd hoped her son would get to meet the man before his exams.

She sighed. "I suppose it's better this way. Keep him around in case of a rainy day, eh?"

Naruto shrugged. "It makes no difference to me. I've got you here; that's enough."

Kushina frowned. "I would've thought you'd have been heartbroken at not getting to see your dad."

"Nah. It is what it is." Naruto stuck his tongue out in thought, his fingers dancing away at coils upon coils of molten calligraphy, all floating around him. "I'm still pissed at him for leaving so many gaps in this freaking seal, honestly. We wouldn't have had a very wholesome reunion."

Ah. "I think he planned for you to eventually master the Kyuubi's chakra, ya know."

"What a dumb fucking idea." Naruto rolled his eyes. "Sorry, I'm not mad at you, ya know. It's just- he honestly did more harm than good for me, here. Having the seal so loose meant my chakra was always going to be in a losing battle trying to keep the Kyuubi contained. The amount of erosion we found in the power reversal algorithm is sign enough that this seal was designed to fail eventually, mom. What if the Kyuubi just, oh- I don't know, waited me out? This thing would've crumbled around me by the time I hit twenty three, tops. Even if I never actively used its chakra, I'd have ended up fucked."

"Language," Kushina chided, weakly. It was a fair point, after all. The more they looked over the seal, the more flaws they found in the design. Minato was anything but sloppy. The cracks were intentional; they had to be. Still, "Maybe he expected that you'd end up befriending it before it became an issue?"

"Weird hunch to bet my life on." Naruto snarled. "So either dad's a dumbass, or he's a fraud of a seal master. I'm honestly not sure which I prefer."

"Hey, I worked on that seal too. Your father and I share the blame, love."

"You worked on the Evil Containment seal, which by the way, works perfectly! Your job was to contain the fox, dad's was to keep it secured for a long time to come. Funny how only the former seems to have been done properly. As it is, the seal is only half finished!" Naruto stomped his foot, sending a splash of water which stained the hem of Kushina's dress. "Sorry. It's just- I feel like he set me up to fail! Why else would the seal be riddled with so many fucking holes!?"

"Maybe the Kyuubi-"

"The Kyuubi could not have done this, mom! The holes were made from the outside, and they're over a decade old! So either Minato Namikaze is the biggest fucking fraud of a seal master ever, or-" Naruto suddenly froze. "Or I'm the dumbass for not suspecting a third party was involved."

… Yeah, that was certainly a possibility.

Kushina's nostrils flared. "You think a third party tried to pry the seal open." It wasn't a question.

Naruto snarled. "It's that, or dad fucked me over. Which do you think is more likely?"

Minato would never have left their son so exposed. He was a dork and a goofball, and sometimes even a bit ignorant. But Minato was a genius and a loving father-to-be. There really was only one option.

"It would have had to be someone who could slip by the Third's protection," Kushina began to spitball.

"Or the Third, himself," Naruto rebutted.

"And actively put the village in danger by risking the release of the fox? The Third is many things but he's no idiot, Naruto. Even if he could contain it again later, the Kyuubi's re-release would demolish his reputation, especially because he has been so vocal in your defense in the past. It has to be someone who would actively gain from the Kyuubi going loose. Someone who could benefit from either the destruction of the village or the deplatforming of the Third. So either a foreign village or-" Kushina froze for several seconds. Then she paled. "Danzo."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "The old man's advisor?" He'd met the man once or twice. A real creep, that one. "What does he have to do with this?"

"Naruto, Danzo is dangerous. Like a super, turbo, ultra, mega dangerous with a capital 'D'. I don't care what you have to do, you stay away from that man at all costs, do you understand me?" Kushina's voice brooked no room for argument, and so Naruto simply nodded, dumbly. "You need to understand, X'omaa; there are few people in this world as resourceful and absolutely lacking in empathy as Danzo Shimura. If there's even the tiniest chance that he could be involved in this, you need to make certain that he never catches you alone, alright?"

"Y-yeah. Understood."

Kushina let out a shaky breath, trying to steady herself. The thought of that man getting his sleazy, wrinkled hands on her baby boy…

Deep breaths, Kushina.

"Let's change the subject," Naruto thankfully interjected, palming his mother's back. He stood, helping Kushina to her feet. "When should I be good to wake up?"

"You already are." Kushina chuckled at her son's incredulous expression. "You have been since this morning."

"And you didn't think to tell me, woman!?"

"That's mom to you, you little goblin! I didn't tell you because we were a little preoccupied with turning this deathtrap of a seal into something half-functional."

Naruto raised a finger as if to argue, before simply acknowledging his point with a frown. "So we wrap things up over here, then I'm out of here."

"Just help stitch up the power reversal with an emergency redirect. If the Kyuubi ever gets out of hand we can always vent the excess chakra into an external purifier, away from its reach." Kushina smiled with pride as Naruto nodded, confidently.

"Simple enough. I'll draft a four point vent. If one ever gets overwhelmed it'll just seal the 'valve' and allocate to the next. We'll need to fit the siphoning matrix with an up-to-date breaker; the current one isn't worth a damn thing, as is."

Kushina patted her son's cheek. "Get us started on that. In the meantime I'll check your work with the two trigrams overlay, then I'll join you."

Their tasks assigned, Kushina watched her son trudge off, his steadily lengthening hair swaying in sync with his step.

Turning her attention from the boy, Kushina closed her eyes and took a breath, before willing herself away from their sanctuary. The two tetragram overlay was designed to fill up some of the open space previously let to allow the Kyuubi's chakra to slip through. Minato's choice of an eight tetragram seal had been chosen to limit the beast's ability to reach Naruto with its chakra...

Note the 'limit' and not 'stop'.

Of course, while the power redirection function had been designed to catch whatever chakra that slipped through the many protections and turn it against the fox, it could still be overwhelmed, given enough time and dedication. The limited flow allowed by the eight tetragrams seal had still ultimately allowed the Kyuubi to steadily erode major components of the seal by essentially frying the already faulty breaker. With the breaker weakened to such a point, it meant that the Kyuubi could now force chakra past the max capacity that the seal could otherwise handle, which was exactly how the blasted thing had been able to influence Naruto with its chakra in the past.

Naruto's two tetragram overlay was designed as yet another barrier to impair the Kyuubi's progress. It used the Ichibi's chakra as a 'sponge' of sorts to not only tighten the cracks through which the fox's chakra could potentially slip through, but also to absorb and slow any excess as it did so. In order to do this, the overlay needed to be 'hooked' directly to Minato's eight tetragram lock...

Which meant she would have to go see the fox, itself, if she wanted to check on it.

Wonderful.

"How sweet of you to make time to visit your humble prisoner."

Opening her eyes with a sigh, Kushina found herself facing the bared teeth of the Nine Tailed Fox.

"Heya, foxy. You're looking well, ya know!"

"Don't patronize me, you insufferable little harlot!" The Kyuubi snarled at her. "Do not think I have not noticed your cute little additions to my domain, down here. How you managed to steal the chakra of my weakling brother, I know not, but do not think for a second that that fool's pitiful chakra will serve you any better in containing me!"

"I resent being called a harlot, ya know." Kushina rolled her eyes, approaching the seal without fear. "And for what it's worth, the One Tails' chakra is just a means to an end. You'll love what else your warden and I are cooking up, down in the lab."

The Kyuubi's claws brutally slammed against the walls of its cage, attempting to skewer her, to no avail. "Look, even if you could reach me, it wouldn't actually matter. I'm just an echo of the original; if you slice me up I'll just reform on the spot."

"An echo, you say? More like a parasite, feeding on that poor boy's chakra. Tell me, what kind of mother are you, so proudly stealing from your own child?"

"Kiss my ass and suck my toe, in whichever order you prefer. You've got no room to talk, bucko; don't think for a second that I forgot how I found you violating my child with your gross, mean fox-demon juice. Absolutely reprehensible!" Kushina palmed her hips and leaned forward, grinning at the titanic beast. "Did your mother never teach you any manners?"

"I am an entity of pure chakra, you fool. I have no mother."

Kushina rolled her eyes. "Your dad, then. Now shut up and let me focus. "I didn't come here because I craved your immaculate conversational ability." She sighed with pride as she looked over the new additions, courtesy of her son. Two new bars had been added to the Kyuubi's cage, the others adjusting their position to make room for them. The new fixtures certainly stood out among the fully dark gray bars; these new bars were nearly twice as thick, and closer to a copper-like shade, inscribed with molten red seals.

"Well, my son is certainly quite the artist, I'd say!" Indeed, Kushina was proud to say that she could find no immediate flaws in their design. Oh, she might need to look deeper at a later date. For now though, they would hold phenomenally.

"They look hideous."

"Your mom looks hideous." Kushina childishly stuck out her tongue at the massive entity.

"I already told you-"

"Your dad then," Kushina interrupted. "I don't care. But while we've got each other, I've got a warning I've been meaning to pass on to you, buddy." Abruptly, from Kushina's back sprouted eight chains, each supporting her weight against the ground as they elevated her to eye level with the Kyuubi. "You gave me quite the scare when I found you hurting my boy, and you seem to be working under the impression that you're off the hook for that. Let me dissuade you from that little oopsie and make something very clear."

The room began to rattle as more chains sprouted from her back. Eight became eight dozen as the writhing, ghostly appendages snapped forward, slithering into the cage before violently wrapping around the now hissing and spitting fox to drag it flush against the bars. "We Uzumaki have no need for your power or your cooperation. I tried to work with you in my time and you spat a big, fat, torso-shaped hole in my face; you robbed me of the joys of parenthood; you robbed my son of his right to a loving, happy family."

Yeah, Kushina had long-since decided that friendship with the fox was well and truly off the table. "Needless to say, I have no illusions that we will ever get along, which means I no longer care to treat you with any sort of courtesy."

Kushina's purple eyes pinned the loudly thrashing Kyuubi underneath her stare. "Understand that every moment that you remain here with your dignity intact is a blessing that we allow you to have; a privilege, which I quite frankly don't think you deserve, but has been given, nonetheless. But make no mistake, fox…" Kushina snarled as her chakra flared, a vein threatened to bulge in her hand as she gripped the bars separating the Kyuubi from herself. If you ever touch my baby boy like that again, I will gut you like a fucking fish and string you up to hang. Are we clear?"

The Kyuubi yelped as it was tossed away from her, deeper within the confines of its cage. It landed on its neck and skidded for a moment, flailing its limbs in shock before scrambling to its feet and roaring at her, its pride wounded by its treatment.

The Kyuubi tried to summon forth its chakra to punish Kushina for daring to take it so lightly. But it found that only a pittance could come to its aid before being sucked away greedily, courtesy of the two new bars adorning its cage.

"Graaaaah!" The Kyuubi roared like the demon it claimed to be. The sound shook the entire room, rattling the bars of its cage and scattering sewer water like the beginnings of a hurricane. The water droplets violently pelted Kushina, but she paid them no heed. "That valor of yours only holds, so long as these bars remain, girl! Do not forget to whom you speak!"

"Like I give a damn." Kushina disregarded the furious Kyuubi, once more turning her attention to the two bars. Satisfied, she smirked at the fox. "Just remember my warning, Bjiir. You won't get another one."

Her piece said, Kushina walked away from the Kyuubi, leaving it to rage all by its lonesome.


Naruto's cocoon was more active than ever, these days. Jiraiya had insisted on being by the boy's side, ever since that freaky Sand kid had found his way into Naruto's room.

Really, of the few times he left the kid all by his lonesome, something wacky had to go and happen.

Jiraiya sighed. Wacky was a bit of an understatement… He was sure that the Hokage hadn't been at all enthused to explain to the families of the now deceased guards that they'd been killed protecting the boy. He sorely hoped that Hiruzen had just full-stop thrown that little sand twerp under the bus. Honestly, the insanity of the kid, to just waltz into a freaking foreign village's hospital and start killing people; had he truly just expected to get away with that?

Either the kid was well and truly insane, or Sand's standards really were just at an all time low…

Maybe a bit of both, if recent reports were to be at all believed.

The word around the block was that his old teammate Orochimaru had been in talks with the Kazekage for some months now. The 'what' of their discussions had yet to be fully unveiled, but Jiraiya knew in his bones that anything that Orochimaru had any skin in was sure to be bad.

The relationship between the Sand and Leaf villages had been somewhat strained for several years now. It had started when the Wind Daimyo had begun outsourcing an increasing amount of ninja-grade missions to the Leaf village. The reasons for that particular choice weren't fully known, but Jiraiya suspected it had something to do with a disagreement between the Lord and the Sand village's Kazekage, Rasa. In this case, the 'why' wasn't quite as pressing to figure out. The simple fact was: Sand had reason to be bitter towards the Leaf village. After all, the outsourcing of so many missions was sure to leave a dent in Sand's coffers, and Rasa had always been quite the petty man. Jiraiya certainly didn't doubt the man's ability to act against the Leaf village, regardless of Sand and Leaf's status as allies. Add Orochimaru to the mix, and you had a reasonable suspicion of foul play.

Of course, this alone wouldn't have been enough to act on. But the Sand village had then rather boldly sent along their acting jinchuriki, a boy who looked one misspoken word away from unleashing the beast on the locals.

No, even that was an understatement.

Jiraiya was the Leaf's premier spymaster for a goddamn reason. He'd done his research; Gaara was one freak of nature. The Kazekage's son he may have been, the long history of repeated assassination attempts on the boy, courtesy of his own father, told Jiraiya that even the Kazekage held little authority over the boy. For him to have sent the One Tails' vessel to Konoha, it could only mean one of two things:

Option one: Rasa hoped that sending Gaara to the leaf would serve to mellow him out, potentially making him easier to control. This theory fell pretty short when one came to understand that, given the Sand's history with jinchurikis, the kid was crazy as shit by design.

Which only really left room for option two: Gaara was an armed bomb just waiting to go off, and the Sand intended to set him off soon. For what reason? Well, Jiraiya had about one guess and it wasn't good.

Jiraiya groaned. Why was it so hard for people to just not want to kill each other? He much rathered spending his day perving on the ladies' hotsprings than slinking around trying to suss out the intentions of a mad, foreign kage.

The smart call was to head down to Gaara's cell, rip the Tailed Beast from his body, and seal it somewhere else where the Sand couldn't reach. Smart, but inhumane as all hell… Taking his tailed beast would most assuredly result in Gaara's death. Now, Gaara may have been a manic, murderous little shit, but he was still a kid, younger even than Naruto, himself.

Nah, Jiraiya had enough child blood on his hands to last a lifetime. That option was off the table, as far as he was concerned. He hoped for the man's soul that Hiruzen felt the same.

Reinforcing the boy's seal would've been an option, but the seal having the structural integrity of wet bread was no accident; it was a feature, not a flaw, developed by the worst kinds of people. Really, Jiraiya wanted to meet whatever jackass had placed that seal on the kid and tear their head from their shoulders. No wonder the kid was so screwed up in the head. The Ichibi's jinchurikis had historically been afflicted with terrible insomnia, likely the result of having the monster so close to their actual consciousness; who knew what crazed ravings that Gaara kid had to endure...

Imagining Minato's boy in that kind of state, it made Jiraiya sick to his stomach.

In any case, keeping him secured until it was time to wash their hands with the boy was their only option, unless Jiraiya wanted to go through the process of breaking down and rebuilding a seal designed to hold a damned Tailed Beast. Even if he had it in him to try, he hardly had the time to do so. The old man Hokage needed him to keep snooping to make sure that nothing crazy happened. Plus, as it so happened, the tournament was just one full day away.

The best time for a surprise attack would be then, while security was centralized onto keeping the venue secure. Jiraiya would need to be on guard to ensure that neither the Sand, nor his old friend Orochimaru decided to act a fool, then.

"Gaaahh!" Jiraiya exclaimed. Leaning back in his chair, he fully palmed his face, trying to block out the light of the above-hanging bulbs. Spotting Naruto's steadily rocking cocoon, he whined. "You know kid, this is going to sound ignorant as hell, but I really envy you, right about now. The 'just hanging loose' thing, n-not the 'my sensei pushed me off the cliff' thing. Hehe, sorry again for that; big whoops."

The chains rattled threateningly, but made no move against him. That was good… That was progress. When Jiraiya had first brought Naruto to the hospital, he'd had to dodge the blasted things, just about every second of his visits.

Not that he blamed the kid. He was probably just acting on instinct, trying to ward off anything he perceived as a threat. Nah, Jiraiya had it coming.

It didn't mean it didn't hurt.

"I really am sorry, kid." Jiraiya slumped. The guilt was just as strong -stronger even-, as it'd been when he found the poor boy lying broken in a pool of his own blood. "I know you'll probably never forgive me, and I mean- that's fine- that's fair. I just-ugh, I just want you to know it was an accident. And I know- I know it doesn't make it okay, Naruto. I'm not making excuses, I swear. I just don't want you to ever think that I'd hurt you on purpose… I never want you to feel like I'm not on your side, kid."

The chains stopped, all of a sudden. They'd suddenly gone so still that Jiraiya wondered if he'd just been hallucinating their movement, this entire time. Then, just as he began to doubt his own sanity, they all broke into one ceaseless cacophony as they rapidly unfurled from the walls.

Jiraiya watched, wide-eyed as the chains ripped themselves from every single surface, all coiling inwards onto one central point. The rapidly beating cocoon had begun to do so with such intensity that Jiraiya could feel the rhythmic 'badump' in his very bones. Suddenly, a shrill screech began to emit from the mass as the hundreds of chains ground together, so loud that Jiraiya had to cover his ears to endure it!

Then, from the giant, beating mass, a split erupted at the top before quickly traveling down, right down the middle. A human hand parted the split, tensing against the weight of the cocoon as it slowly pried the split further apart. Jiraiya caught a glowing, purple eye staring at him from within.

"If you're really on my side, then you can start by getting me a warm meal and some clothes… I'm fucking freezing, ya know."

"Kid?" The old man had said he would recover, but Jiraiya found himself needing confirmation, all the same.

"You deaf, you old pervert? If I catch a cold, it's on your ass." Another arm forced its way out from the cocoon, the two limbs working in tandem to thoroughly split the mass of chains and finally provide freedom. A sigh emitted from within. "Yeah, it's me. Er- you think you could stop staring at me and at least help me out, here? This is getting kind've awkward."

All at once, Jiraiya snapped into action. Within just a moment, he'd crossed the space between them, helping the boy to pry his cocoon open. Goddamn was it tough! "I thought this was made from your chains. Can't you just -I don't know, slurp them back into you, or something?"

The lone purple eye visibly rolled. "If it were that easy, I wouldn't be relying on your goofy ass to get out." Naruto huffed. "Hold on, a moment. Shadow Clone jutsu." The faintest of 'poofs' emitted from within, and suddenly several sets of hands were working to pry the barrier open. "My chains are made of chakra, yeah. But chakra is comprised of both physical and spiritual energy, meaning my chains retain a partially physical form; they need to, in order for me to interact with things, using them. Normally they're floating somewhere between a physical and spiritual state, moving more or less on either side of the spectrum as needed."

Several sizable cracks formed in the cocoon, and Jiraiya now spotted several glowing purple eyes peering at him from within. "In order to help me heal, they must have opted to take a fully physical form in order to persist, for maximum protection. Think of it like glue, I guess. When it's wet, it's easy to spread around, wipe off, or whatever else you gotta do." With a simultaneous grunt of effort, the many Narutos within finally breached the cocoon from within, causing the mass to begin to fall apart. "Once it's allowed to harden though, now you've got a bunch of dry glue to deal with." He huffed, as the cocoon split fully open and his clones dispersed, allowing Jiraiya to finally see the lone boy within.

Naruto was taller, and significantly so, at that. Just at a glance, Jiraiya estimated at least four-to-five inches of height, added onto him. He was wider too, though only slightly. His build was lean like that of a swimmer, though the rather severe muscle definition on his figure certainly gave the toad Sannin pause.

His hair was longer, too. Much, much longer. Hell, it nearly reached the kid's hips! The blonde in his hair was lighter, persisting to about the shoulder-length range; after that point it began bleeding steadily into a light pink, then a deep burgundy as it got closer to the ends. In terms of texture, his hair looked thicker, compared to before; much closer to his mother's texture, than his father's. The burgundy ends of his hair spiked out at seemingly random places, ultimately curling a bit at the very ends. A long, wide fringe covered one of his eyes, leaving only a lone amethyst colored eye to glare annoyedly at him. Jiraiya spotted a pale pink, diamond-shaped pupil, surrounded with little pink dots of the same shade, bordering each side. The boy's eyelashes were a light blonde, mirroring the blonde in his hair

His eyes panned down to Naruto's cheeks and Jiraiya noted that the whisker marks on his face had thinned a bit, lengthening as if stretched out. They had taken on a pale red coloration, contrasting heavily with the rest of his skin, which had taken a tone closer to his mother's.

"Quit ogling me, you old pervert. You're gonna make me blush." Naruto stepped out of the mass of 'glue', as he'd so aptly called it, and Jiraiya finally registered in full that the kid was naked. "For the record by the way, you're a dick and I still don't like you… But I-um... I accept your apology, I guess."

Jiraiya suspected that he was far from being forgiven, if the persistent glare the kid was giving him was any indicator. Still, he'd take what he could get. "Let's get you some clothes, then."


"Please stop staring at me. I just can't, right now..."

The doctor assigned to Naruto's care had given him a clean bill of health, leaving Jiraiya to drag the irritated, but surprisingly cooperative boy straight toward Hiruzen's office.

His choice of clothing had clearly taken on a more provocative turn; the young man sported a shoulderless black button-down vest with part of the midriff cut off, leaving his abs exposed. His top was matched by black denim pants, the cuffs of which had been split and folded, flaring out about an inch or so past his knees.

Naruto wore dull, red shinobi-grade boots. They reached up to about half his shins and were split lengthwise, down the middle, leaving them to also be flared out a bit and folded at the cuffs. Stylish, sure. But judging by Naruto's mirrored glance down at the fit, he too didn't seem exactly pleased by it.

Come to think of it, Hiruzen could swear he'd seen that look somewhere before.

"Yo pervy sage, you do realize I'm thirteen, right? I strongly question dressing me up after one of the characters in your smut stories."

"They're not smut," Jiraiya chastised. "They are romance novels; novels, kid! And I'll have you know you look absolutely dashing. All the ladies are gonna love you!"

"I take what I said earlier back. I think I hate you, after all."

Honestly, would it have killed the old toad to have at least given him a bit of orange to work with?

Unforgivable.

As the Third Hokage continued to look him up and down, Naruto simply sighed and rolled his eyes, clearly making no effort to hide how he felt about either of their treatment of him, thus far.

"I'm simply surprised to see you in such a state, is all." Hiruzen took a long puff of his pipe, taking in the boy's features. "You look well. Taller... Bigger, even."

Indeed he had, and by quite a bit, if the old Hokage's memory served him right. Before his fall, Naruto had been on the shorter end, compared to his classmates. Now, Hiruzen suspected he'd find himself a bit taller than even young Shino Aburame, who had previously stood as the tallest among their graduating class at a respectable five feet, three-inches.

Still, the young Genin's height was hardly the most important detail that Hiruzen wanted to address, now that he had the boy awake and in front of him. But how to broach that particular topic? Now, that was the question…

"How do you like your odds against young Neji Hyuga, then?" He knew that Naruto likely wouldn't get much of a chance to train, what with him having so little time to prepare.

Naruto simply chuckled in response to the question, as if indulging in an inside joke. Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at the boy, and after a moment, he shrugged. "I think I'll manage. Why, you looking to bet on me?"

"I'll have you know that as Hokage, it would be quite improper of me to place bets against my own ninja, Naruto." Hiruzen offered a small smile from around his pipe. "Though I certainly hope the two of you will manage to put on an impressive show for our guests."

A grin spread across Naruto's lips, wide and full of teeth. Hiruzen noted with slight alarm that they were all rather pointed. "Treat me like a zoo animal, why don'tcha?" Naruto chuckled. "Just have the ref ready to scrape that jackass off the arena floor, ya know."

"You seem confident." Hiruzen leveled a stern look on Naruto, who barely even acknowledged it.

Screw it then, he'd just go for it. "Did you experience anything noteworthy while you were out?"

Naruto snorted. "What you mean to ask is whether or not I met the Kyuubi." The two glared at each other, Naruto still grinning against Hiruzen's stoicism.

"Well, did you?"

"Oh absolutely. It's quite the sensitive sort, ya know." Throwing himself down into a chair, Naruto leaned back in it until he was just short of tipping over. "Poor thing told me its whole life story. Did you know it was bullied in primary school? Hell of a glow up, if you ask me."

"I'm being serious Naruto, and I'd ask that you do the same." Hiruzen glowered at the boy. Clearly, his fall had done little to dull his humor, for better or for worse. "You have been out for the better part of a month; anything could have happened to you during that time. I need to know-"

"If I'm a flight risk." Naruto's smile had gone even wider, with him abruptly righting his seat and crossing his leg. "You want to know if I've been influenced by the fox."

"... Yes."

"Well why didn't you just say so? You know I hate bullshitting, old man." Naruto rolled his eyes, catching an uncomfortable Jiraiya in the corner of his vision. Clearly, the man didn't exactly fancy watching this kind of talk play out. "But that's not really a question that can be answered with any kind of certainty, ya know." The Hokage offered him an inquisitive look, to which Naruto simply shrugged. "Even if I tell you that I'm not; even if I tell you exactly what I experienced in the time between my little tumble and now… There can be no guarantee that I'm telling you the truth." Again, Naruto shrugged. "The best I can do for you is to tell you that the seal is more secure than it's ever been, but that I'll try to kill anyone who tries to fuck around with it."

The growing tension in the room suddenly hit its peak as Naruto's declaration hit both men.

"Why?" Hiruzen's question was simple. "I get the sense that you are of your right mind, Naruto; I want to believe that I can continue to trust your judgment. So explain that answer of yours to me, why would you not want anyone to look at your seal?"

What was he hiding?

"Oh that's simple." Naruto leaned forward, lone purple eye enchanting in its brilliance. "Because recent events have taught me that I can't trust anybody but myself, with my own safety."

Jiraiya winced. "Ouch."

"Don't take it so personally, man. You're only part of the problem, in this case." Naruto offered Jiraiya an expression that he hoped was reassuring. Judging by the guy's expression, he doubted he'd succeeded.

Intrigued, the old Hokage finally leaned back again as he sensed the tension dying down. "If not Jiraiya, then what else has piqued your concern?"

Naruto closed his eyes, clearly deep in thought. The old man was patient; he'd wait as long as he needed to get a straight answer out of Naruto.

No, Naruto knew from experience that Hiruzen Sarutobi would simply keep digging until he got the answers he wanted. Attempting to deflect him with half truths would just serve to put the old Hokage's intuition on high alert; getting caught trying to lie would kill whatever trust they had between them

The key phrase here was 'getting caught'.

But how to lie in such a way that two legendary ninja, decades his senior both in age and experience, wouldn't just catch him red-handed over?

"Under no circumstances should you tell anyone of my existence, X'omaa. And do not breathe a word about the Legacy Seal." Kushina's warnings had been clear, and Naruto had no intentions of straying from his mother's advice.

So what to do, then?

Distract them with their emotions.

'Fine then, time to switch gears.'

"Well you, for starters..." Naruto trailed off rather deliberately, cracking one eye open to catch the Third's slight surprise. "Can I really trust you, gramps?" Leaning forward, he doubled down. "Like, truly? Can I truly trust that you have my best interests at heart?"

"That's a rather cruel joke, Naruto." Hiruzen masked his hurt well, but Naruto could feel the man's pain in his very bones. It was one of the few boons he had that'd serve him against the Hokage in this bout of wits.

"The Uzumakis' ability to sense chakra is so potent that we can even sense the exact flow of a person's emotions. Among the clan, there were even a rare few who were so accurate with it that they could even use it to predict and read one's thoughts -yes, their thoughts, through their chakra alone!"

Naruto would need every advantage to leave this conversation with his secrets intact.

Sorry, old man.

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Naruto met Hiruzen's confused expression with a toxic glare. "You've let me down far more than Jiraiya ever has. How can I be sure that I'm safe in your hands?" He sighed. "Look, it's not as if I'm unsympathetic to your situation. You're the Hokage; I can't imagine how stressful your job has to be. But we're not going to pretend that your record is even close to passable when it comes to raising me, providing for me, or really anything that involves any sort of guardianship, mentorship, or what-have-you. As far as all of that goes, you kind've suck.

Hiruzen's expression hardened, but he did not disagree. "I suppose I've made my mistakes in my lifetime, but you know I've always had your best interests in mind-"

"I don't," Naruto interjected. "Well, I'd like to. But I don't, and well-yeah, that's kind've the problem. As much as I'd like to be, I can't quite pretend to be naive enough to just trust you blindly. Hell, I know you feel the same, otherwise you wouldn't be pressing me for answers right now."

Hiruzen's chakra roiled with turmoil. He knew that Naruto spoke the truth; as much as they both wanted to trust the other, things weren't quite so simple.

Not anymore.

Naruto offered a disarming smile to his Hokage, this time taking care not to show teeth. "Of course, it's not just a 'you' problem either. This whole village has historically given me reason to distrust them." Naruto felt a surge of alarm in the Hokage, so he sighed. "I mean, they don't have reason to trust me either, so it's not like I can hate them too terribly about it." He shrugged. "But let's all be honest here and accept that the only person this village hates more than me is Oroch-fucking-maru, and he's a menace in his own right... Not a very high bar, wouldn't you say?"

It was a dangerous game that Naruto was playing. The approach was simple enough. Make the old man feel guilty enough not to ask too many difficult-to-answer questions... Preying on the third's feelings for him made Naruto feel all kinds of gross, but it wasn't as though there were many other options. After all, he wasn't at all lying here; it wasn't like he could just trust the man, full-stop.

No, his own fondness for Hiruzen aside, the old man had failed him enough times in his life that Naruto knew he could not entirely rely on him to do right by him. Appearing transparent about his feelings would go a long way to keeping that bridge up between them, sure. But the old man was far from earning his full confidence, and Naruto had no intentions of divulging any secrets to either of the men in this room, any time soon.

But trust was a two-way street. No amount of guilt was going to stop Hiruzen from doing his job, which meant Naruto had to provide for him solid reasons to trust him, while also guilting him into keeping his nose out of the finer details. Which meant Naruto would have to trust him with something to get his guard down...

So what to trust them with, then?

"I don't want you to think I don't appreciate the things you have done for me; I'm not ungrateful -at least, I don't think I am?" Naruto looked down and frowned. "Let me back up a bit with a compromise. The main reason I'm especially hesitant to trust right now is because I suspect some really questionable stuff had been done to my seal up to this point."

Jiraiya and Hiruzen both nearly jumped out of their seats with alarm, and Naruto ate it up, taking care not to let anything show on his face.

"Explain!" Hiruzen demanded, completely forgetting any illusion of decorum. "What did you find?"

Naruto coolly raised an eyebrow as the God of Shinobi loomed over him. It took a lot to keep himself from folding, then and there. "Sit the hell down you old fart. You're gonna break a hip and give us both a heart attack. I'll tell you what I know." Hiruzen did so, glaring at Naruto for the jab. Naruto ignored it in favor of continuing.

"Let's get straight to the point then," Hiruzen began. "What reasons do you have to suspect foul play, with your seal?"

Easy enough. "It's been tampered with in the past. While performing maintenance I found dozens of holes in it, made from the outside." Naruto fixed the man with a severe look. "Holes in the seal that the Kyuubi was happy to try exploiting, mind you."

"And what is the condition of those holes, now?" The news was alarming, but Hiruzen took the boy's lackadaisical attitude with some optimism. "Moreover, what qualifications do you think you have to perform a diagnostic on a seal made by the Fourth Hokage?"

He was clearly fishing for information. Well, Naruto would give him more than he knew what to do with.

"Dealt with, mostly." Time for some half truths. "It's partly why I took so long to wake up, you see. I was stuck keeping the Kyuubi from finding any leeway to make a pest of itself, before I could focus entirely on fixing myself." Naruto groaned, not needing to pretend at all to make his exhaustion known. "The jackass tried to use its chakra to swallow me up -to devour me and take my body. I'm betting that whoever was mucking about with the seal prior likely planned for that to happen, though the why is still in question."

Rolling his eyes, he added, "As for your other question, I strongly question the intelligence of asking an Uzumaki about their qualifications in sealing." Now time for a curveball, before the old man could finish putting two-and-two together. "Speaking of which, it would've really helped me out to have known my father was the Fourth Hokage, Hiruzen." Naruto snarled, indulging in the moment that both Jiraiya and Hiruzen went pale.

It lasted only a second before Hiruzen composed himself. "Ah, so you know then." Naruto didn't bother to respond to the Hokage's statement. There was no point.

"Wait," Jiraiya interjected. "How did you find out? Did the Kyuubi tell you?"

The young Genin snorted. "Not likely. The fox and I aren't nearly on good enough terms for it to just divulge anything that could help me. No, my parents left an echo of their chakra behind in case I ever needed it." It was the truth, after all, even if he had not yet met one of the pair. Naruto slumped in his chair and sucked his teeth. "I'd say being on the verge of being completely destroyed from the inside qualifies as a pretty big 'need'. And before you ask, pervy sage, yeah that's completely your fault."

Jiraiya slumped, his shame laid bare for all to see.

"Even with their help, I wouldn't have made it out in one piece if I hadn't been able to awaken my adamantine chains, which brings me to my next gripe." Naruto once again glared at the now completely silently anxious Hiruzen.

They both knew what was coming.

"You nearly doomed this entire fucking village by never telling me about my parents. Imagine my surprise when I learned from mom that the entire reason that the Uzumaki clan has historically sealed the Kyuubi is because our chains can manipulate other peoples' chakra. By never helping me learn to use them, you left me a sitting duck for the fox and put this entire village in peril. Tell me, when exactly was I supposed to learn any of these extremely crucial pieces of information?"

"You were meant to learn of your parentage once you became a Chūnin, Naruto." Hiruzen did not so much as flinch under Naruto's accusations, instead returning his glare with equal measure. Naruto knew better. He could feel the anxiousness in his chakra. "I needed to be certain that you were responsible enough to be trusted with that information."

What a load of- "Fuck you," Naruto snapped. Jiraiya gaped, and the Hokage finally flinched, taken aback by the vitriol in his tone. Honestly, it had simply slipped out. But Naruto had no intention of taking it back.

Ah well, in for a penny…

"We're not just talking about me knowing because I wanted to know. I'm not just pissed because my precious feelies were hurt! Let's take my emotions completely off the table for a moment and look at the situation objectively: You kept valuable information from me and in doing so fucked me over at every turn. I desperately need you to understand that we're talking about information that was directly integral to my fucking survival, not even just as a shinobi, but as the active host of the Kyuubi! Let me reiterate, in case you didn't quite get it the first time, that by not telling me, you put me and the entire village in danger."

Hiruzen's chakra tanked, rapidly plummeting alongside his mental state. "I… I was trying to protect you."

"And you did a poor fucking job of it!" He couldn't take it anymore. All thoughts of strategy flew out of his head as Naruto tore out of his seat, causing it to tumble onto its side. Jiraiya jumped, ready to interpose himself between Naruto and Hiruzen, but Naruto paid him no mind in favor of pacing back and forth. "You left me an ignorant mess of a kid, not even remotely prepared for an essential duty which was forced on me to begin with!"

Naruto growled. It was deep and guttural, and as the telltale rattling of chains joined it, Naruto realized that several of his rose-gold chains had burst from his lower back, writhing about like massive, metal centipedes. Both men in the room watched the chains, warily. "There's no manual to this shit, old man! I needed support; I needed guidance! Any kind of actual help and up to this point, you have provided the bare fucking minimum!"

By now, he was near-hyperventilating as the month's stress finally caught up to him, in full. Every bad thing that had happened to him under Hiruzen's watch... It all came blaring to the forefront of his mind like the rush of a train. Naruto felt his sinuses start to burn as a migraine came pounding. "Fuck! I nearly died countless times directly under your watch! Disregard Jiraiya pushing me; disregard that I barely had enough food to fucking live; disregard the fact that this entire village treats me like a shit stain under their shoe! Disregard all of that for a moment and acknowledge that under your nose, someone who I still can't even identify was able to meddle with the seal; acknowledge that I had to learn I even had the Kyuubi in my gut from Mizuki of all people; acknowledge that Orochi-fucking-maru managed to slip into the village and with his one fucking brain cell figured that putting an odd-numbered seal on my even-numbered seal designed to hold to HOLD THE FUCKING KYUUBI was such a cute and quirky little trick! Do you even realize how catastrophic that would've been to everyone involved?"

Huffing and puffing, Naruto stamped forward and slammed his palms onto the table. It crumpled to rubble under his uncontainable rage. He hadn't even meant to break it. "How the hell can you even look me in the eyes right now and try to justify yourself with that pile of shit!? 'I was trying to protect you'", Naruto mocked. One of his chains lashed out, the head of it whipping around and punting his chair; it beamed into the wall at terrifying speed, where it shattered into a pile of rubble. "Get the fuck out of here with that weak-ass excuse! You promised my mom that you'd protect me, and so far, you have absolutely failed me as a mentor and as a guardian! I can't trust you because your word isn't worth a fucking cent to me!" Naruto could feel his mother's presence within, trying to cool him down. It only worked marginally. His pacing resumed, trying to burn off some excess energy before he lost his head and tried to strike the old man in front of him.

"Graaaah!" There was no need to fake the tears that flowed as Naruto whipped around, glaring Hiruzen in the eye like a man, possessed. He loved this man like his own father. But as he laid his feelings bare for the man, Naruto realized he resented him, just as much. "Don't you dare fucking mock my pain again with that 'I was trying to protect you' load of crap! You haven't protected me from shit!"

A moment of silence passed in the room, one panting for breath from his tirade and the other two stunned silent.

Then, Hiruzen looked down, ashamed. "I'm sorry, Naruto…"

Three words... It wasn't much, but it was the honesty with which they were said that meant the world to the boy. Naruto rubbed at his eyes, forcing down a long, deep breath between hiccups. It wasn't easy, mastering his rage. There was so much more he wanted to say, but the point had already been made. "Yeah, I know… It's fine- well, no. It's not fine. But I get it; I-I just I-I think I really had to get that out, I think… Sorry about your chair." Looking down at the ruined desk, he blushed, somewhat ashamed. "A-and um- and your desk. I-uh, I didn't mean to, ya know..."

He wasn't, not really. But it was the proper thing to say, he supposed.

"Don't worry about it… I understand that you don't trust me anymore. I get it, Naruto. But I do have your best interests at heart. Even if you don't believe me now, that's alright... I will back up my words with action." Hiruzen closed his eyes, smoking deeply from his pipe. He'd seen enough of the boy in front of him to know that Naruto had changed. He was smarter, and angrier too.

Or maybe he'd always been this angry, and Hiruzen had simply been blind to it.

Regardless, he knew he'd need to tread carefully so as to avoid alienating him.

Clearly, Naruto had not shared with him the full story of what had happened to him; frankly, the Hokage doubted he'd get any further answers out of him without resorting to drastic measures. It was a dangerous game, simply trusting anybody at their word, when it came to the world of shinobi. At the same time, he knew that getting the young Genin to trust him would be a pipe dream if he could not first bring himself to extend that trust, himself.

Standing, the Hokage made his decision. He would simply have to trust his Genin; he'd keep an eye on him for sure. But his gut was telling him he'd just have to take a leap of faith, here.

"Fine then. We can talk more about this at a later date, when you feel more comfortable speaking to me. But you will be henceforth placed under Jiraiya's watch until I can be one-hundred percent certain that you are not a danger to yourself or others."

Hiruzen had not missed the fact that he had only gotten to ask the boy one full question. Whatever gripes Naruto had with Jiraiya would simply need to be tolerated; after all, even in spite of his most recent screw up, Jiraiya was one of the few people that Hiruzen trusted with Naruto's safety. "I want you to understand that my station demands that I be this thorough, Naruto. I trust your intentions, but I cannot simply ignore the possibility of a potential threat to this village, no matter how small."

"Quit acting so somber, old man." Naruto plastered a serene expression onto his face that Hiruzen didn't buy it for a second. "I'm not dumb or naive enough to have expected anything else." Naruto yawned, and Hiruzen did believe that. "Was there anything else? I haven't gotten to check on my friends yet, and I'd like to do that before I go night-night."

"What, was a month-long nap not enough for you?" Naruto didn't miss the way that Jiraiya chuckled at his own joke.

"Sorry, while you spent your month perving on girls a third your age, I spent my month giving the Nine Tails a swirly in a public toilet. Bullying is tough work, you see; truly an underappreciated profession." Naruto resisted the urge to sneer at Jiraiya as he allowed the man to lead him out of the Third's office. He still didn't very much like the guy, but if he was going to be stuck with him for the time being, he knew it'd be best to stay on his good side.

"Anyone in particular you want to see first?"

Naruto rolled his eyes at the toad sage's leading question. "I want to find Hinata. I'm hungry as hell and If my memory serves me right, I'm pretty sure she owes me a bowl of Ichiraku ramen..." Suddenly he blinked, then began to chuckle. Nevermind, I think she found me first." He pointed past the man and Jiraiya followed his finger, his eyes being led down the hall. Just then, an out of breath Hinata cleared the stairs, looking absolutely frazzled. Her byakugan eyes locked squarely onto a chuckling Naruto, an orange poncho clutched to her chest.

"Come here!" Naruto extended his arms, wishing for nothing more than to hug the girl in front of him.

Hinata fainted.


And that's the chapter! A lot of feelings here but not a lot of physical action! Don't worry, that's right around the corner, as the Chūnin exams are just around the corner! I hope you all liked what I was able to do with everyone, here.

Speaking of which, it's about time for some analysis!

First thing's first, I'm a bit mixed when it comes to how I handled Naruto's talk with Hiruzen. I wanted them to feel sort of like estranged family, where the love is there but it's muddled down by a lot of other stuff. But that's kind've hard because most of the negative feelings would be on the onus of Naruto to lay out. I hope I did well of laying out his grievances without feeling like he was just completely playing the blame game. It's fine for him to be a bit immature (preferable, even) when giving Hiruzen a hard time; after all, as icky as it may be, his intentions here are at least partly to manipulate the guy. However, I wanted that to kinda feel like it came secondary as actual legitimate grievances came out and kind've sucker punched both Hiruzen and Naruto. Like, imagine you go to someone to explain one minor issue that you have with them, only to suddenly realize you have a lot more eating at you than you realized!

My biggest gripe with this chapter (and something that I might want to revisit in the near future) is that the pacing felt kind've off for me, near the end. I think part of that comes from the fact that the chapter was getting kind've long and I realized that if I didn't break this up more, we were gonna be stuck with a 20k+ word chapter; not ideal!

Ultimately, this isn't quite my proudest chapter, but I think I'm happy enough that it serves its purpose as set up

I'll see you guys in a couple of days, where we'll finally start getting into the meat of the Chūnin exams arc