I don't own Naruto, but it means a lot to me.

A rustle of leaves, and the sound of…desperate gasps?

"Ah, shit." Naruto let loose a low hiss through his teeth. He funneled more water from the canteen and promptly spat it out at his feet.

"It's like sprinting a 10k every time."

With a 'fllt' and other sounds Jiraiya could have done without, he took another swig and pushed a small stream of water through his teeth and onto a nearby rock. Naruto offered his master a questioning glance.

"Does it get less…" he paused, finding the right word. "…awful? Like, even a little?"

Jiraiya considered the remark with snort. "I don't remember the Forth or the Second complaining so much." He countered, eyes glued to the town below. "You just aren't doing it right."

"Doing it right?" Naruto's chest swelled and he took two steps forward with all his height. "What do you mean doing it right? I thought I was doing just fine!"

Jiraiya snorted, an up and down glance to his preening apprentice.

"Kid, you're doing that jutsu like someone trying to carve the Hokage's monument with a stick of dynamite. Overwhelming force and non-existent finest. It's a miracle you can do it at all."

Defiance was, of course, the first emotion that sprang to Naruto's mind.

"I don't see anybody else here doing it!" Naruto grumbled, chest puffed and ego bruised.

Jiraiya didn't immediately answer, but the small grimace that crossed his mind gave Naruto a moment's pause.

"Wait." He continued, slower and deliberate. "I don't get it. Why don't I see anyone else doing this jutsu?

Just because this was the first time the blond was considering the question didn't mean it wasn't a good question. The Hirashin no Jutsu was, without question, one of the most widely known (and feared) jutsu on the planet. With all of its power, if a genin could learn it in a month, why wasn't every chunin worth their salt slaving day and night to try and master the technique?

Jiraiya leaned back, but his shoulders looked heavy. The sage made a low clicking noise in his cheek. "Performing the Hirashin is more than just knowing the seals and channeling chakra."

Naruto squinted, a calculating look across his features.

"I don't get it."

Jiraiya let himself sigh, moving his vision from the horizon and back to his pupil.

"Before any shinobi can do a jutsu, there's two things that have to happen. The first, most obvious, is that they have to know the technique and have the chakra to perform it. Signs or patterns, stances, the works - and then you have to have the juice. If they don't have the raw ingredients, the jutsu's never going to happen."

"So I just know the technique and have the chakra?" Naruto floated. The face the blond wore while trying to piece things together was like a child attempting to learn an instrument. Hesitant, more afraid of bad notes than bad practice. "That's it?"

Jiraiya snorted, letting a smirk cross the left side of his cheek so that his student could see his humor at the comment.

"When you say it like that, yeah. But let's take a step back from the privilege tower and talk about how much of a jackpot you hit. The Hirashin no Jutsu is one of the most complex sealing configuration ever written. There are, maybe, four or five sealing systems more complex than this jutsu, and even fewer people on earth who know how to draw it properly."

Jiraiya nudged the kunai in Naruto's hand, drawing his eyes to the lattice of ink and seal wrapped around the handle.

"The fact that I taught you how to draw that has almost doubled the number of people alive who know how to draw it for combat." Jiraiya continued, pulling the blade from Naruto's hand and tracing a finger along the writings outer edges.

"Even Sarutobi doesn't know the variant I decided to share with you. On top of that, the seal is too complex to copy on short notice. The ink degrades over time, and understanding the symbols before they faded would be all but impossible. It'd be like writing a whole book, a masterpiece word for word after hearing it whispered in a crowded bar."

Naruto wasn't really sure how to respond to such information, the implication of his fortune or the reminder that the squiggles he had painstakingly learned to copy in the past month were really generational talent in seal form. Like solving the world's hardest test by memorizing the answer, beforehand.

He let out a soft 'Oh'. Jiraiya laughed.

"Understatement of the century, kid." Jiraiya flipped the kunai into his hand, the metal tai-prong slapping against his palm as he extended the handle to the blond.

"I'll teach you the seal and what they mean in time, but you would be wise to not forget that you're wielding something you don't even come close to understanding, right now."

Naruto didn't have an answer for that, but he took the hilt as both their eyes wandered back onto the stadium in the distance. There was a buzz of crowd noise in the air, but the wind from atop the monument kept it to a low murmur.

"What's the other thing?" Naruto called out, eyes narrowed in almost painful focus. Jiraiya blinked.

"What?"

"You said every jutsu requires two things." For effect, he held out his fingers and counted — just to be sure.

"One's knowing the technique, but you didn't say what the other thing was."

"Oh." It was Jiraiya's turn to fall quiet. "Right."

There was a pause, the sound of the wind passing in between, before Jiraiya found his answer.

"Some jutsu..." His words started, but his voice seemed to linger. Dragging its feet and hoping something else would pop up and end the conversation sooner than his next sentence would. "Some jutsu need more than just knowing the technique in order to perform. Some jutsu require need the user to be compatible with he jutsu, too."

"Compatible?" Naruto turned the word over on his tongue as he spoke. "Like the jutsu won't work if you're not the right fit, even if you know all the steps?"

Jiraiya gave a simple nod.

"Pretty much."

Another pause.

"How'd you know I'd be compatible?"

Jiraiya clicked his tongue, again and rolled his thumb across his knuckles. He laughed, a single and hollow breath as his eyes met only the dirt. "Just had a hunch."

If Naruto wanted more, he was left wanting. The wind picked up, but the line of discussion drifted away on the northern gusts. Jiraiya wasn't sure if his pupil was reading the room or just picking a new topic, but he welcomed the subject change.

"So…what the heck are we doing up here?" Naruto asked, waiving a vague hand over the sprawling city below. "Why did you take us to the top of the monument? I wanted to watch the fights!"

"Vantage point." Jiraiya replied. "We're watching."

Naruto's eyes narrowed.

"Advantage over what?"

Jiraiya made a small, pained noise like a dying animal.

"Kid." He pleaded. "I don't want you to take this personally, but you and I are about to be spending a lot of time together."

"I want you to ask questions and learn, but I'm begging you. From the bottom of my heart if you do nothing else, I want you to think before every single thing you say. Not just let it roll on off your tongue and out into the air. Every word, every sentence. Give it a good hard think before you speak. I want good questions, only."

The words left his mouth, but as his ears listened to himself a scowl etched across his own face. That was harsh, and his temper wasn't fair to the kid. Annoying? Yes. Deserving of ridicule? Maybe, but not right now.

"Ah, kid." He offered, shifting on his heels. "I'm a little distracted and that was too…"

The sage stopped, trailing off as he realized he was talking to air. Naruto's eyes were on the stadium and his face a concerted scowl. Unmoving and unclenching save for frantic blue eyes that scoured the horizon.

"What are we watching for?"

The focus in the boy's voice was palpable. Jiraiya blinked. He blinked again. Naruto was still looking. Eyes squinted, staring into the sun without so much as a hand raised to help him see, but the boy was trying to hard the effort was palpable.

Bending to one knee, the sage appraised his pupil with what felt like suspicion.

"We're looking…" He began, recording each twitch in the blond's focus. "For anything that looks odd. Suspicious. Something out of place."

"You mean sketchy?" The blond asked. "Like that dude on the roof?"

In an instant, the binoculars were back in Jiraiya's hands.

"ANBU?" The sage whispered, "Exposed."

"Yeah." Naruto grumbled, squinting his eyes further and trying to make up for the fact that all these people just kind of looked like dots but that one dot looked weird. "Shouldn't they be like...hidden?"

Jiraiya shoved the binoculars back into the boys hands, Naruto bobbling the optics as he tried to pull the stadium back into view.

"Tell me." Jiraiya squatted, leaning into a crossed-leg stance as his hands clasped in his center. "What color masks are they wearing?"

Naruto strained against the glass, bopping his vision between the four figures now looming above the stadium roof. "White masks." He answered, adding to the description. "Maybe some, like, markings or face paint on them, too?"

"And what are they wearing?"

"Black." Naruto waved a hand down his own body, accentuating the full color palette of the mystery dots. "Head to toe except for the white masks."

Naruto turned, a strange and cool sensation tripping at the corner of his senses. The breeze was gone, noise and birds and sounds of the forrest quieting, a silence stretching as it swirled around Jiraiya's energy. Were those...dark lines forming under Jiraiya's eyes? Naruto leaned in closer to see if something was forming or if it was just his imagination or...

"Get down!" Jiraiya snapped, body shooting backwards and bringing Naruto slammed into the dirt beneath him. Naruto had time to gasp, but the rest of his alarm was frozen as the sound of distant explosions ripped through the silence.

The horizon shimmered, a rolling curtain of air and wind popping seconds later as it crashed across the monuments head with winds whipping. Jiraiya's body held Naruto pinned for the blasts, but was up and back on the ridge the moment the shockwaves subsided. Scrambling behind him, Naruto's mouth fell slacked as his eyes mirrored the roiling smoke.

"Fire!" Naruto observed, words jumping to only what his eyes could process. "Someone's exploding the tournament!"

Another explosion, Jiraiya's lips stretched to an unmovable line.

"Someone's attacking the city." He corrected, a litany of fires and distant screams popping like fireworks in the night sky. Naruto loved when fireworks exploded. Something in the way the distant pops of flame looked in the city made his stomach lurch.

"Somethings wrong." Jiraiya whispered as the sound of explosions gave way to burning and fear. Naruto balked, eyeing between the explosions and his teacher as the smoke roiled into the sky like little pillars of chaos.

"No shit!" He exclaimed. "Someone's attacking Konoha!"

"That's not what I mean..." Jiraiya muttered, more to himself than to his student. The explosions were there but there was something more. Something that touched against his skin and whispered on the trees. "There's something else. Something building something..."

The air clicked, and a screech exploded through the entire city. It wasn't an explosion, there wasn't force or fire or smoke, but Naruto felt his blood run cold as an invisible pressure exploded inside his veins. He felt like he was suffocating, being buried by a weight of something pressing down on his lungs until they popped. Just pure and distilled fear. Naruto had to stop his hands from trembling as a shifting figure appeared on the horizon west of the stadium.

"What...what is that?" Naruto stammered, hands flashing for his kunai with a white knuckled grip. Jiraiya's gaze hardened to a line as he channeled the churning in his chest.

"A demon." Jiraiya rose, rolling his back and shoulders as his eyes fixed on the source. "Or, at least one trying to rip out of his host."

"Rip out of his..." Even amidst the wave of pressure, the breath in Naruto's lungs seemed to evaporate.

"That kid..." Naruto's voice was a whisper. "That kid from Sand was a..."

"The Ichibi, I imagine." Jiraiya confirmed. "And it looks like the seal is ripping at the seams. That's not pure demonic chakra, but it's closer than anyone needs to be getting."

"But I thought..." Naruto's mind reeled. The events of the past month reframed under the lenses of barely averted natural disasters. "Then that was why during the exam...all the weirdness. All the looks..."

The realization that crossed Naruto's mind tasted like spit and hindsight. Like the pieces of a puzzle that hadn't just been laid out, but had been nearly put together for weeks and he still hadn't seen the full picture. For a moment, he wondered about what other things he had missed when he -

Naruto's heart pounded.

"Sasuke!" He exclaimed, hiraishin kunai flashing into his hands. "He doesn't know and he's fighting him! I've got to help!"

In a blink, Naruto's arm reeled back and prepared to chunk the kunai in the direction of the battlefield. His arm surged with wild and uncontrolled chakra as he leaned forward, but was frozen with a smack as Jiraiya's hand clasped the blond's bicep mid throw.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jiraiya hissed, narrowed eyes and clenched teeth.

"Going to save that idiot!" Naruto shot back in reply, as though it was the most obvious answer in the world. "He's fighting and he doesn't know that he's fighting a Jinchūriki!"

"Let you go?" Jiraiya repeated, as though it was the most idiotic answer in the world. "Let you go to do what? Sprint blindly into battle against a deranged Jinchūriki while an invasion begins from an unknown force?"

Jiraiya's grip on Naruto's arm tightened, and he physically lifted his student off the ground.

"If you want to do something that could get you and your friends killed, you just came up with a great plan." Jiraiya's grip was iron. Naruto twisted himself with grunts of defiance. "Or, if you want to remember what I've been telling you all month and calm down, we can do something that can actually be helpful."

Naruto squirmed, fury and panic writhing through his nerves like lightning. Jiraiya's grip was stronger. Seconds passed, and the blond's hand loosened, kunai clattering to the stone below. His eyes, however, remained sharp as any blade.

"I have to save them." he growled. He wasn't pulling against his teacher's grip but the flare in the blond's teeth looked looked like fangs.

"I will save them."

Jiraiya released, and Naruto leapt back, rolling his shoulder. The boy rounded on his teacher expecting some kind of smirk or mockery, but the Sannin's gaze caught him off guard.

Most of the time, the paint on Jiraiya's face looked like a Kabuki character. When Naruto had first asked, the pervert had insisted it was war paint. Naruto had fallen over himself laughing.

As the sannin stood amidst the rising pillars of smoke and flame, Naruto had a different opinion. It looked a lot like war paint, now.

He swallowed.

"What should we do?"

"Save everyone." Jiraiya's answer was immediate. Naruto felt the words rattle his bones. A spark flaring like a matchstick. "That's what we're going to do. And we're going to accomplish that by planning our moves and striking when the moment is right."

Jiraiya took a step, bending low to grab the dropped kunai and extended it handle-first to his student.

"I need you to trust me, and do everything I tell you to." Jiraiya said, his voice lowered. "I know how you've been with your team and with Kakashi, but you're with me now. You're my student, and when we're on a mission you do everything I say, when I say, and how I say.

The blond hesitated, panic and worry and hope battling in a storm across his features. Jiraiya's frame seemed to tower, white hair blowing in the wind enough to block the horizon from view.

"You do that, Naruto." the sage's voice dropped, but to Naruto it seemed to boom through his ears. "You do that and we save everyone."

Naruto's hand hovered, twitching just short of accepting the blade. A kindle to a flame.

"You promise?"

Jiraiya's eyes didn't waver as he shook his head.

"We're ninja, kid." He replied. "We don't promise things. We don't wish or hope or pray."

Jiraiya pushed the blade forward, forcing the blond's fingers to grip the handle, a vice.

"We plan. We execute. We don't fail. So long as there are those to protect, we will protect them. No prayers. No promises. It's how things are going to be."

A flame into a wildfire.

Naruto's knuckles flushed white as they gripped so tightly around the hirashin kunai.

"What do you want me to do?"

Jiraiya almost smiled, but the sound of an explosion cut it into a stern but pleased nod.

"School starts now. Phase one of any fight is intelligence. It's the key to every battle and fighting without it is like fighting alone."

Jiraiya's hand swept into the distance, the sound of cracking trees and fire jutsu erupting from south of the arena.

"We need to understand what we're up against." He said, crouching to the ground on a knee and encouraging Naruto to stand beside him. "Tell me everything you know about the kid."

Naruto's eyes crinkled as he followed his teacher's gaze to the rising plume of smoke in the distance.

"Sasuke?"

"No, no." Jiraiya snapped, shaking his head. "The Jinchūriki."

It was that word. The way it hit the air, like putting a searing iron to supple skin. Naruto's gaze darkened, and his eyes wandered back to the source of the pressure.

"Gaara." He said. "His name's Gaara. He's from the hidden sand village."

"How does he fight?"

"He's got this sand and it just...moves." Naruto answered, scrunching his face as he searched for the way to describe the ability. "He doesn't jump or use hand signs or anything. He fought bushy brows kid and put him in the hospital..."

Naruto swallowed. "...and I don't think he moved a muscle."

"A bloodline." Jiraiya concluded. "Or something from the beast. Either way, unique to him."

"Whatever it is, it's powerful. It took down people in the forest like it was nothing." Naruto added. The forrest of death was a scary enough endeavor, but Naruto could still hear the distant screams and rumble of sand that whispered through the trees. He shivered.

Shaking off the memory or the forest, Naruto pushed memory of the preliminaries to his mind. "I think he thinks it's basically invincible. When bushy brows actually managed to almost hit him, he looked really freaked out."

Jiraiya tilted his head.

"Freaked out?

"Yeah." Naruto nodded. "Like eyes went real crazy and his teammates got super upset. It was...weird."

If this information was valuable to Jiraiya, the sage didn't say. He just made a soft 'hmm' to himself and turned to the battlefield for a moment.

"Did you ever talk to him?"

Naruto shook his head.

"Not really. He talked to Sasuke, but we didn't really speak."

"Damn." Jiraiya cursed. "I wish we understood his mental state."

"He's lonely." Naruto answered, but his voice sounded it was coming from another room, another place. "He's got two siblings, a brother and a sister, but I don't they like him. Well, not like - I think they're just afraid of him."

Jiraiya's eyes shifted, but he said nothing. Naruto continued.

"Yeah...yeah, no." he said. "I think they care about him, they're just scared. They didn't look at him like other people look at him. Like people look at me..."

There was another explosion in the distance, but that didn't create the sinking feeling in Jiraiya's chest.

"I thought you said you didn't talk to him?"

Naruto turned, and met his teacher's gaze with a long, even glance.

"I just know."

Something rumbled in Jiraiya's gut and he felt his fingers clench into a fist. He exhaled, and his hand released.

"If he's letting the beast out, that's a problem." Jiraiya said after some pause. "He's not going to recognize anyone - friends, foe, or family. I find it hard to believe his siblings would knowingly want that, if they're as you say."

A second explosion, loud and on the far side of the city. A pillar of smoke erupted, and the screech of a monstrous creature could be heard. The explosion was enough to rattle Naruto from his thoughts, and the boy found his knees shaking as he witnessed the destruction from on high.

"It's a two pronged attack." Jiraiya's voice was almost foreign how 'business' it was. Such an abrupt change from the usual humor that filled his lungs. "Let the beast run wild as an invading army storms the gates."

He cursed and spit, a deep anger seeping into his blood and fists.

"The finals were just a distraction." Jiraiya's voice was distant like the pillars of smoke. Ashy, too. Naruto's eyes swap ed between his mentor and his village and he wouldn't tell which looked more broken.

"Okay." Jiraiya said, inhaling deeply and shifting down to one knee. "If it's a two pronged attack, we meet with a two pronged counter."

Naruto nodded, crouching as his teacher sketched an outline of the city into the dirt at their feet.

"The Jinchūriki..."

"Gaara."

Jiraiya swallowed, but nodded.

"Right. Gaara." He continued. "If his seal is cracking, he's the most immediate threat to the village. Neutralizing him is critical."

Naruto nodded in understanding as Jiraiya reached behind him and pulled out a single piece of paper. A dull, tanned sheet etched with webs and spirals of ink that glimmered in the sun. As Naruto accepted the paper, his hands tingled as a numbness wrapped his digits.

"What's this?" He asked.

"It's a five point chakra sealing matrix." Jiraiya explained. "We need to get that seal planted somewhere on Gaara's body - arm, stomach, leg - doesn't matter as long as the whole seal sticks."

"What's it going to do?"

"Fifth degree chakra block." Jiraiya stated, hesitating at the concerted furrow of Naruto's brow. He clarified. "It's going to block all his chakra - bijuu or otherwise."

Naruto blinked, and the paper felt like it weighed a lot more than the parchment in his hand.

"And you just...have this on you?" He questioned. Jiraiya gave a small smirk.

"The Ichibi isn't the Jinchūriki I was worried about using it on, but yes - A ninja is always prepared." He answered. Naruto swallowed. The paper felt a lot heavier.

"So I come with you and help you put it on him?" Naruto asked. Jiraiya shook his head.

"I'm giving you this paper because you're going to put it on him."

"Me?" Naruto squeaked, sounding every bit the teenager he was. "What do you mean I'm going to do it? You just said Gaara was the biggest threat!"

"I said most immediate threat. Not biggest threat." Jiraiya's eyes seemed to harden, a dark shadow stalking the air. "Rogue Jinchūriki don't mastermind invasions. Someone is here and commanding this force. You'll be handling Gaara, and I'll be ending this at the source."

Naruto opened his mouth, but the right word had dried.

"I'll be..." He stammered. "Handling? You're not?"

"Naruto." Jiraiya's voice cut the stammering, but the tremble down Naruto's fingers rattled the paper like the wind. "You wanted to learn to be a real shinobi, and this is where it starts. I'm trusting you to get this done."

Naruto throat was sand. It felt suffocating. Jiraiya's hand reached out and clasped against his shoulders. A light squeeze, and the blond felt air and strength rush back into his lungs. He nodded.

"Understood."

"Good." The sage shifted, rummaging through his pouch. Long and thin, a scroll etched in red emerged. It had an intricate red seal, lattice wrapped along the length with green handles.

"If you get in trouble - and I mean life or death - you throw this seal on the ground and be sure it cracks."

"What is it?" Naruto puzzled, eyes pouring across the object with a reverence. It felt out of place, ceremonial. Like something to be protected at all cost not thrown to the ground in a battle. "I've never seen something like this."

Jiraiya snorted.

"Yeah, well. I should hope not." His answer was half cocky, half sure. "I'm not like any seal master you've ever seen."

Were the situation not so dire, Jiraiya was sure the blond would have some kind of retort or general sass. Naruto only nodded, fingers clenching the seal with a renewed tightness.

"So how do I get over there?" Naruto said as he turned his attention back to a fresh explosion, just outside the stadium. A wall of sand twenty meters tall materialized out of thin air, collapsing into the forrest with a distant rumble. Next to him, Jiraiya's hands began moving in a blur of signs.

"You leave that to me." The sage answered. "And just don't forget that I offered you this option to begin with."

"Huh?"

Naruto didn't even have time to be confused. A puff of smoke, a crash, and the mesa they sat on was shadowed in darkness. Naruto's knees wobbled, his unbalance turning into downright panic as a colossal webbed hand reached out from an explosion of smoke and wrapped itself around his body.

"Hey! What the -" Naruto squeaked, but Jiraiya's voice cut through his protest.

"Bunta!" He bellowed. "Two thirty, 3,600 meters out. Get him to that far clearing - he'll land on his own."

"Right." Came a booming voice.

"What?" Naruto squeaked, a mouse wrapped in an elephant's trunk. "What the-"

But there was no answer for the blond. With a grunt and a slight windup, the giant webbed hand of Gamabunta, chief toad, flashed forward.

A small blond meteor hurtled to the distant battlefield.

"Who's the kid, Jiraiya?" Gamabunta chuckled as Naruto's scream flittered out into the background noise. The toad sage said nothing, striding up his summons arm and coming to a perched stance above the creature's brow.

"Long story." he replied. "I'll tell you after. Cliff notes version is he's my new student."

The massive toad gave what amounted to a raised eyebrow.

"New student?" Bunta appraised. "Is he as good as the old one?"

Jiraiya pondered how to answer that question for a moment, but the grin on his face toothy as he responded.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." He chided. "But we're off to a good start."

Gamabunta took in the reply with a small chuckle before settling back. In one motion, the blade on its back slipped from its sheath into the creature's webbed hands, the folded steel glistening in an otherworldly glow in the sunlight.

"Ready?"

Jiraiya gave a nod, sinking into a seated squat. His hands clasped, and a low hum began to shimmer around his person. His features shimmered and shifted as he fell still.

"Let's move."

Once the battle was over, blades sheathed and wounds tended, Naruto resolved that he was going to murder Jiraiya.

Heaving and woozy, the blond shoved his body into a standing position from where he had tumbled twenty meters into a wooded clearing.

One little known fact about the Hirashin no Jutsu was the "conservation of momentum". Well, that part wasn't little know, but Naruto still wasn't really sure what the hell it was all about and people probably didn't know it applied to the Hirashin.

"So imagine you're moving, yeah?" Jiraiya coached. Naruto nodded, that vacant and distant nod that made the hermit question himself and his purpose and everything.

"So you're moving fast." He continued, a little slower. "And you use the Hirashin. Where does all your speed go?"

Naruto blinked.

"Go?" He asked. Jiraiya's hands came to his face, and he arced one palm left across the sky. Maybe gestures would work.

"You're going like this." He insisted, resisting the urge to feel insane. "And then you jump." For dramatic effect, Jiraiya shimmered his fingers and moved his palm to a new spot above his head. "And you wind up at your kunai in the air. Which way will you go?"

It was like watching a river push against the walls of a damn. Jiraiya knew there was thought there - the kid had asked no fewer than three pertinent, albeit grammatically incorrect - questions today! But watching that thought come out was taking more of his patience than he realized he had available. Maybe he had been living on his own for too long.

"You would go..." Jiraiya held his breath.

"Down?"

"Other than down."

Another pause. A long one.

"You'd go..." Naruto began, and Jiraiya let his fool's heart soar. The blond tentatively inched his hand in the same direction Jiraiya's had waived.

"...to the left?"

Jiraiya knew he picked a good apprentice.

The blond gave a low roll of his shoulder with a hiss, yanking a patch of briar thorns from across his chest. Naruto had averted his downward momentum by directing a well timed kunai to a less 'splat-like' trajectory, but that momentum had been conserved.

For twenty meters. Sideways.

He'd disappeared from the sky only to flash into the undergrowth. Through two bushes, three medium saplings, at least a dozen moderate rocks. His plummet turned a slingshot, culminating in the dull thud against a now cracked and scarred oak tree. He could already feel the bruise pooling against his skin.

"Asshole." He cursed to himself, giving a sympathetic glance to a nearby branch hanging on by mere fibers. "Sorry, plants."

The forest was quiet in response, the usual chirps and buzz of wildlife run off by the occasional explosive boom that seemed to ripple around the areas. He couldn't see any sign of commotion beyond his own entry trail, but wisps of smoke that cut through the foliage painted a path south. He tried to steady his breathing from the jump, but his nerves were too electric to give any kind of relief. With far more stealth than he entered with, Naruto bolted down the trail of smoke and embers.

He tried to keep his pace measured, cautious. He didn't know what kind of fight awaited, but slapping a sealing tag on a bijuu felt like something easier with the element of surprise. He couldn't avoid the twist in his gut that ground at his mind every time he thought of Sasuke and Sakura.

Naruto swallowed and doubled his pace.

The forest faded into the background as the smell of smoke and fire grew. Trees - if they could still be called that - looked like broken splinters strewn about in an absolute hurricane of destruction. Lifting his feet, Naruto's head tilted.

"Sand?" Naruto whispered, millions of grains shifting and sliding beneath his sandals. "What in the..."

The tree line broke into a clearing like a war zone. Tree and rock and sand flotsam and jetsam in the whirlpool. A maelstrom of destruction. The surrounding area smoldered and cracked like an alien world.

Naruto didn't really notice that all of that, though. His eyes were transfixed to the kaiju monstrosity at the eye of the storm.

At least 30m tall and half as thick - a shifting wall of sand and claws and malice. The creature was hunched yet hulking, its limbs collapsing and reforming in an audible flood of sand.

"What the fuck." Naruto whispered while the creature leaned back , letting loose a crippling howl.

"Yeeeessss!" It boomed, which was wild to Naruto because this thing could talk?! Building sized monsters were horrifying enough without an appreciable grasp of language.

"FreeFreeFree I'm free!" It howled in voice Naruto could only internalize as a sociopathic landslide. The titan raccoon raised both arms and let loose a belly full of air and animosity with an animalistic screech.

"Gonna crush gonna kill gonna crush gonna kill!"

"Great." Naruto grit as he shuffled for balance against a nearby tree limb as wind and sand whipped and swirled around the creature. "Giant monsters who can also speak and are absolutely out-of-their-mind insane."

With a soft click, Naruto removed the five-point seal and rubbed his thumb in circles along the outer markings.

"Now, how in the hell do I get this onto Gaara if I can't even see him..." He asked, the sound of the storm so oppressive he couldn't hear his own thoughts unless he made them audible. Another roar from the creature, and Naruto had to curse and drop into a lower limb, an errant blast of air and sand obliterating his pervious perch. Being this close to the cyclone was like being next to a blender. He could feel parts of his jacket beginning to flake off against the abrasion, little specs of orange flittering off to join the rest of the tornado.

The creature howled. Three compressed beams of air ripped a crater through forest and into the nearby bedrock.

"Shit." Naruto cried, fleeing another hiding spot from collateral damage. "Where the hell is Gaara?"

The name left his lips, a new current of air rocketed through the canopy. Naruto flipped, body twisting against the force as he hit hard into an oak's upper boughs.

That's not Gaara. His mind reeled. That blast came from behind the -

Two cyclones, slicing and carving a path through the foliage, sent him hurtling to the forest floor. Naruto's hands flew into old habits, five kage bushin bursting to life. Without a word, they scatter against the wind and behind separate trees.

"Who the hell is firing those?" All five yell in unison like a chorus of confused and angry orange blobs. "I'm not trying to fight you!"

One of the clones gave a pained yelp, dissolving into smoke as a trio of razor sharp blades impaled a nearby sapling. The blades slice clean through bark, wood, and bark again, enough force to punch holes clear through the clone.

"What the hell kind of ninja are you?" A voice called back as the rattle of wood and blades fought against the sandstorm. "I mean, who the hell yells you're not trying to fight?"

Naruto's brow furrowed, a memory of an almost street brawl playing across his mind in the same voice.

"Puppet guy?" Four clones call back. There's no response from the puppet, but a new scythe of compressed wind puffed another hidden clone out of existence by obliterating the tree it had hid behind.

"Kankuro, be silent." A feminine voice called, tone as dry as the sand surrounding them. "Just kill him and we can get back to finding Baki."

The duo resume, twisting and winding as Naruto(s) dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and dodged. The blond threw no counter attack, but the sand duo danced with a practiced precision. Against the howling maelstrom, the sound of puppet blades and fan gusts sound muffled - their destruction dwarfed by the walking cataclysm. The blood gushing from Naruto's hand and chest, however, proved the attacks pack their own punch.

"Wait!" He called out amidst frantic dodging. "Wait, can we talk? I'm seriously not here to fight you!"

The blond - Temari, was it? - lingered on a nearby tree long enough for Naruto to see the scowl that crossed her features.

"Do you always talk this much?" She shot back. Naruto tried to twist and answer, but was forced to dodge the surging heat from a puppet flame-thrower. Kankuro launched himself behind his puppet, following the blond as he darted to a lower branch.

"I think he does." The puppeteer added. "He had a full monologue prepared for that Hyuuga kid."

Naruto hit the ground with a smack, and he was concerned his teeth were less attached to his gums than before.

"Will you just!" the blond growled, summoning a clone and whipping it full speed into the puppet following him. The clone burst apart as the puppet turned into a shredder, but Naruto was able to leap away covered by the smoke.

"Hey! I'm trying to help, here!"

"Help?" Kankuro shot back, incredulous. "Help what? We're invading you, you moron."

"I'm trying to help my friends!" Naruto's panted against the exertion, but he swallowed and pushed on. "And also maybe to help Gaara."

"Hold, Kankuro." Temari's voice cut through the forrest with the same intensity as her wind attacks, and the dull roar of sandstorm filled their ears. Her battle fan was large and opened and pointed at the tree Naruto was peeking out behind, but it wasn't moving.

That was as close to a start as he could have hoped for.

With his hands raised in his best attempt at a calming gesture, Naruto stepped out from his hiding place and faced the girl. Kankuro (and his creepy-ass puppet, Naruto noted) followed behind his sister, his face a mix of warpaint and concern.

"What do you mean, help Gaara." Temari demanded, eyes narrowing and grip tight on her fan. "You mean to stop him?"

Naruto gulped, nodding. "Yeah. He's out of control and he's going to hurt everyone and himself."

There was something, concern?, that flashed across Temari's eyes, but it was buried as fast as it had appeared. Her grip tightened around he fan as her feet slid into their next dance.

"You cannot stop Gaara." She informed him, cold and calm and angry at things Naruto didn't understand.

"No one can stop Gaara. Not even if they wanted to."

Naruto's next breath was like a weight, but his hand slowly unclenched to reveal the exposed seal, flittering in the breeze like a banner.

"What if..." He said. "What if I told you I could stop whatever's happening to his seal."

"Seal?" Kankuro's eyes flashed, and an explosion of wires and knives erupted through the clearing as mechanical and wooden arms encircled the blond.

"How the fuck does a punk like you know about Gaara's seal?" He seethed. Naruto tried not to flinch as he felt a kunai press against the bottom part of his jaw. Up close, Kankuro's warpaint was dark and uneven, like ancient blood slicing across ancient warriors. It would have been more intimidating than Jiraiya's were it not for the red and hot panic swimming through Kankuro's eyes.

Naruto tried that thing he'd been doing a lot, lately, and took a moment to breathe and think before he responded.

"That doesn't really matter." He could feel something wet on the kunai against his throat - probably poison - as it sung against his skin.

"But what does matter is that I want to fix the seal and get Gaara the help he needs and I can't do it fighting you two at the same time."

The blond's answer hung in the air against the sandstorm, and he could feel Kankuro's deliberation. The knife didn't recede, but Kankuro's head tilted with a mixture of frustration and desperation.

"Temari?"

The kunochi shifted, leaping from her perch and landing only feet from the standoff. Her eyes narrowed as sharp as the kunai against Naruto's throat.

"Why." She demanded, another step towards the blond. "Give us one reason to believe a genin, an enemy ninja, would have the intent, much less the ability, to save Gaara."

Naruto breathed out and felt a rush of relief he wasn't punctured.

"I think we both have an interest in the homicidal sand monster not running wild through the village." He countered.

"I saw Suna shinobi caught in those wind blasts it's giving off and I bet your master plan doesn't involve exploding your own ninja."

Temari didn't respond. Naruto continued.

"And as for Gaara..." He continued, waving his hand as it slowly inched towards the seams of his jacket. Slow and metered, Naruto lifted his shirt.

Dirt and cuts and rapidly healing bruises littered the blond's torso, but the inky black swirl of the Kyuubi's seal was as dark as ever. A void tattoo, twisting and spiraling into the Uzumaki's abyss.

Temari's eyes widened, white and full while a strangled and horrified noise evaporated from Kankuro's throat. Almost independent of thought, they shuffle backwards. Away.

"I think..." Naruto finished, lowering his shirt. "...he and I might have a lot more in common than you might think."

"You..." Kankuro muttered, as much to himself as everyone around him. "You're...we didn't know Konoha had..."

As he pulled his shirt back down and felt the wonderful feeling of not being held at knife point, the blond gave a shrug.

"I mean, it's not like it's a really fun topic of conversation."

Kankuro searched for words or rebuttals, but his voice felt like the sandstorm had taken even his thought. Helpless, he turned to Temari. The kunochi didn't speak, didn't even move - her eyes remained glued to Naruto's own and the now hidden seal.

"Which one?" She swallowed. Naruto tried to soften his posture, but there was a weight that wouldn't leave his eyes.

"Does it really matter?"

Outside them, the sandstorm raged. The Ichibi unleashed could be heard cackling, its laughter matching the snap of trees and earth and bone as it rampaged through the surrounding forest. Temari caught a glimpse of a single, very corporal tail of sand slam into the earth, dust and forrest launched into the sky.

When she turned back to Naruto, there were tears welling in her eyes.

"He's our brother." She said, every inch of warrior in her body fighting for courage. "Our job was to be soldiers. To fight and die for the safety and love of Suna."

Temari pointed, her voice drenched with anger and betrayal so thick it felt like poison on her brother's blades. The eyes of her father, pit viper and hateful during the exams, echoed through her mind.

"We didn't ask to body guard our younger brother so that he could become someone else's monster."

Naruto lowered his hand, still holding the five point seal but extending an open palm to the kunochi.

"Then let's make a deal - you two help me get this seal on Gaara. We do that, then you guys go your own way and I go mine. No more killing or fighting or anything."

Temari's eyes lingered on Naruto, deciphering a million different explanations or possible reasons this one, stupid punk would be making unsanctioned negotiations to ensure a non-lethal stop to Gaara's destruction. Every inch of her training, Baki's hours of teaching and combat and war screamed that this was a trap and she should gut him like a fish right where he stood.

Temari surged forward, clasping the blond's hand in her own.

"Lie to us." She whispered, hot and heavy and hate-filled because she's wasn't sure if hate or hope was more scary. "And I bury you under all the sand in Sunagakure."

There were words in Naruto's head, almost refluxes. It's a promise. The promise of a lifetime. My ninja creed.

Jiraiya's eyes filled his memory. A burning fire.

"We follow the plan." He said. "We follow the plan and we save everyone."

Temari leaned back, and Kankuro lowered his strings and knives.

"So, kid." Kankuro offered. "You got a plan? And a name? I don't remember it from the last time."

Naruto snorted, but gave a slow nod.

"It's Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto." He answered, turning back towards the clearing. "And yeah, I've got a plan."

"Orochimaru."

The third Hokage's chest rattled, like trying to breathe through six feet of mud. Blood and pain thudded, dull drums in his mind, and he could feel the stinging ache fissure down his bones. While his body had gone old and frail, his wayward student had lost nothing. Orochimaru's attacks were always pointed and powerful, precise and destructive. Hiruzen coughed, and a splattering of blood and dirt and tissue erupted.

He didn't remember his student's strikes being filled with this much distilled hate.

"You don't look well, master." The Kazekage-revealed-traitor hissed. Gold eyes and pale features stared back. Malice and loathing filled the space.

"This job might be the death of you."

Three punches and a sweep. Parry, block, parry, shit. Orochimaru's knee made contact with the Hokage's forearm, and a blinding pain shot up the limb. Hiruzen leaped, non-injured hand flying through seals as a torrent of mud erupted from his mouth. Orochimaru swerved, avoiding the flood and tossing a flurry of kunai in response.

"Why?" Hiruzen barked, drawing his own kunai and deflecting the assault. "Attacking Konoha? Attacking your home?"

A flash of fury glimmered in his pupil's eyes and the next kick sent shockwaves through the surrounding area as it made contact. The sannin's breathing quickened, and a blade shimmered into existence.

"Home?" The snake roared. Hiruzen could dodge four of seven swipes, his armor claiming another two. The final, unclaimed and unblocked, caught the inside of his thigh, ripping open in a mist of blood and pain. "Home, he says?"

"Come now, sensei." He taunted between swipes. "Even you're not fool enough to think I there's love list between the Leaf and I."

Another flurry, blurred strikes and parries. Orochimaru hissed as a reverse elbow crunches into his gut, the snake slamming into the earth with a thunderous crack.

Hiruzen was old - not dead. The Kage heaved as a non-pulsed Orochimaru rose in the crater, idly swiping at a bloody lip.

"My my." Orochimaru hummed, brushing the rubble and roofing from his shoulder as he strode back into range. "More spryness? Or just an old man's dying gasps?" Hiruzen's scowl only depended as he set into a low stance.

"If attacking me alone is your entire plan," the Kage growled, "Then it seems your arrogance has only grown in time."

Orochimaru snarled, a wicked and sliding tongue arcing across his teeth.

"I admit, there was a part of me that hoped for the chance to just cut your throat and bleed you dry with my own hands when I woke this morning."

Painted lips stretched into a grin that sucked life from the air. The sannin made a pose, a hand raised in mockery.

"Fighting for glory is for fools and samurai. Ninja fight dirty, don't they, sensei? Using any tool at their disposal to achieve mission success."

The words were dark and hollow and it made the Hokage's bones ache. Orochimaru wore a Cheshire grin, fingers tracing around his blade with a languid relish.

"And you thought I didn't pay attention to your lessons."

There was a spike, a sudden thrust as the sannin's katana embedded itself into the first. The snake's now free hands blurred. Seal after seal, an avalanche of chakra exploding from his body in visible shimmers. Three final signs, and a hand slammed into the ground.

"Edo Tensei."

The roof quaked as the ground beneath Orochimaru's hand seemed to shimmer and melt. A single coffin rose from the seals as chakra scorched and simmered in the air.

"I hope you'll forgive me, master." Orochimaru's voice called out like rolling thunder

"I had planned for this battle to be a reunion for you, but after the excitement today, I just couldn't pass on a poetic ending."

The coffin creaked and shuddered, splitters of wood buckling beneath the flood of chakra in the air. Etched into the wood, the number "4" reflected in the horror of Hiruzen's eyes. Orochimaru only grinned.

"There may be new blood on the field, but I wonder how the original yellow flash will take to his successor?"

A long time coming, huh? As an update, this story will be moving in the future over to Ao3. I really don't like the changes to the FF site, so I'm giving something new a try after almost a decade and a half on this site. Feels weird, but life moves on!

Catch me on Ao3 as Silly_Walk with the same story name for this and my new projects.

- Free Drinks