I don't own Naruto, but it means a lot to me.
Sopping wet, Naruto gave a pitiful moan.
"Ma, Shizune?" He whined, sounding like a child and kneading his fingers into the phantom pain inside his shoulders. "Is she always like that?"
Shizune smiled with a patience beyond her years and a carefree hum. Her hand dipped, simple black brush pooling in a small jar of ink she'd pulled from her pack. With a delicate arc, traced along her canvas while the boy continued airing his grievances with a slowly drying pout.
"Not always." she said, giving the boy a consoling glance. "Lady Tsunade is a truly kind woman. I think you and her have much in common, to tell the truth."
Naruto grumbled, eye narrowed in obvious doubt. "Yeah sure. A real nice lady."
"She is." Shizune corrected, tapping excess ink from her brush. "Lady Tsunade is the greatest medical ninja in history, but the true reason I've followed her for all these years is that she's one of the most kind people I've ever met."
"Good doctor, maybe." Naruto crossed his arms huffing. "But I say she's a crabby old Lady who likes talking smack."
Were Tsunade here, a half-drunk liquor bottle would be flying at the boy's head. He was fortunate Shizune wasn't prone to the same kinetic reactions.
"I think your interaction was…unique." Shizune offered, hand swooping as the calligraphy began to take shape before her. It was a soothing hobby — for her and others. That's why she did it while they talked. Long swooping strokes, clean and unbroken. No rush. No pressure.
"The topic you discussed is one that is…complicated for her."
Naruto squinted, trying to piece together his understanding with puzzle pieces that looked like they didn't even come from the same box.
"Talking about the Hokage?" He questioned. "How is that complicated? Did she want to be the Hokage, or something?"
There was a moment where Shizune's eyes lost focus, hand stopped mid-stroke and a little more ink than was needed dripped onto the canvas. It was gone before Naruto could wonder why it had happened.
"Not for herself, I don't think." Shizune answered, cool and composed in a moment. "But seeing as her grandfather was the Shodai Hokage, she knows more about the position than most."
"The Shodai?" Reverence mixed with awe in a childlike wonder. The honor almost sounded strange against the boy's rougher accent and it brought the tug of a smile to Shizune's lips.
"The Senju name isn't just for show."
This was cool. So cool. Naruto was here and meeting a freaking relative of the Shodai! A bitchy and temperamental relative, but still - direct blood! The Hokage that started it all, master of the Forrest and founder of the Land of Fire! The one person who…who…
Naruto frowned, scraping at his cheek and caught up by something that didn't fit.
"Wait." He asked, trying to untangle knots in his mind like a cat batting at string." If she knows all about the Hokage and how they're the hero of the village, why is she fighting me over it?"
This time, Shizune picked her brush up from the canvas and set it aside, her hand feeling less steady than she needed.
"Lady Tsunade…" Shizune tried to find words that fit but only found herself short of breath and feeling tired. "Is closer to the Hokage position than almost anyone alive."
"But why does she act like that? She's definitely not giving the title the respect for what the Hokage does!"
"Because she can see both sides of being the Hokage"
Naruto's head tilted, confused.
"Both sides?" he asked, and Shizune chewed the inside of her cheek.
"When you talk about being Hokage, you say that it's about protecting the village." She replied, voice dancing into an explanation that she definitely hadn't been prepared to unpack. Talking about other's journeys never sat right in her stomach. "That's right, but it's only half what being the Hokage means. The core of being the Hokage is not just protection, but sacrifice. It's not enough to defend the village, to truly be the Hokage you must be willing to give up yourself to defend the village. Complete and total surrender. It's a willingness to sacrifice that makes the position what it is."
Naruto breathed out, the air in his chest heavier and making his breathing labored.
"And she…She's seen people sacrifice themselves as the Hokage?"
Shizune's nod was solemn. It was out of place under the sunny skies.
"I'm afraid the answer is even deeper. While Lady Tsunade has lost family, direct connections to the Hokage's chair, there is no rule that says you need to be Hokage to live the calling of the Hokage." Shizune pushed the words out slowly, a careful reflection. "Lady Tsunade knows that better than most anyone I know."
She paused, long enough to watch the boy's blue eyes crinkle.
"In fact, Naruto-kun, I think you might be one of the few people who know this part as well as her."
Naruto's lips made an 'oh', but nothing came out. He could feel Shizune's eyes on him, watching like he was a balloon filled with so much water he could pop at any moment. His back slumped, shoulders heavy and sinking with the weight tied to his chest.
"I don't…" he tried, because he had to say something. "I don't get what you mean."
Shizune's gaze returned to her artwork. It didn't make him feel better, but it was nice to feel less watched.
"Lord Jiraiya told me of your battles. Of your…" This conversation was always going to be a challenge. Even after thinking all night she wasn't sure there existed a professional way to broach the topic. Was there an acceptable segue to say 'the time you were strangled by the resurrected corpse of your secret father'? She'd been a medic for fifteen years - there was no guidebook for that.
"Oh." Naruto whispered, closing his hands around his knees and pulling. Blue eyes clouded and staring a thousand kilometers into the distance. He didn't need her to continue.
"That."
Shizune watched him from the corner of her eye, her brown eyes calm but kind.
"I can only imagine how hard all of this must been for you." She said, voice as even as her brushstrokes. "It's so much to take in."
Naruto nodded, a hollow movement more reflex than choice. He croaked a response while his hands wrapped around his knees and pulled.
"Yeah. It's been…yeah."
The answer hung in the air with a growing silence that Shizune did nothing to break. They sat, breathing slow and steady while the sound of metered brush strokes evened out the edges.
"Can you tell me, Naruto-kun." Shizune broke the silence but her voice was barely a whisper. "How are you feeling right now?"
Naruto considered the question with sullen eyes, opening and closing his palms and brushing his thumb along his knuckles.
"Overwhelmed." Was the first word. "Tired." Was the second.
Shizune nodded, listening and waiting for a beat to be sure he'd finished his thoughts.
"I think." Shizune offered. "That feeling overwhelmed is a perfectly reasonable feeling to everything you've been through."
Naruto scratched at his throat from the outside even though it was inside that was itchy.
"It's like…I have so many new things. New jutsu, a new teacher." His voice crackled. "I know who my parents are."
Naruto looked to Shizune, and the dark haired woman stopped her work to give him her full attention.
"And it makes me happy."
Shizune smiled, warm and genuine.
"It is good that these new things bring you happiness, Naruto-kun. That is a great feeling to have."
Naruto opened his hands and flexed, looking at his fingers as though they weren't his. Shizune tilted her head as she watched, sensing more.
"But?" She prodded. Naruto's mouth stretched into a thin line and his fingers balled around his thumb.
"I just feel…everything's changing." He said. "Really fast."
Shizune nodded
"Is the change bad?"
"No." He said, because that was true. The change wasn't bad. He'd spent his whole life growing increasingly worried he didn't even have parents and now he had names. He'd seen his fathers face! Being attacked not withstanding, the change was many things but it certainly wasn't bad. Even still, something inside his gut was tied to an anchor and pulling him down with every breath.
"But sometimes I'm scared all this change means I have to lose the things I already have."
Ah. There it was. Shizune picked up her brush, continuing her art but the lines were thinner, more precise.
"You mean your teammates?"
The boy nodded.
"I didn't even see Kakashi-sensei or Sasuke after the chunnin exams. I don't even know if they're okay. And Sakura-chan was there and we talked but we just…"
Naruto made a face, moving his hands in a frustrated, back and forth motion between his chest and Shizune. It wasn't working, and he gave up with a defeated slump.
"It was weird." He whispered. "I don't want the change to make it weird."
Shizune's watched the boy's body curl in on himself, a ball of self-conscious doubt. She reached a hand to his shoulder, steady and reassuring. The boy flinched, and Shizune had a dark wonder of how often he had been touched by a hand offering support. She buried the thought in her mind and held firm.
"I'm sorry to say that we rarely get the luxury to pick whether or not a change makes something weird. But just because a change is strange doesn't mean a change is bad." Shizune counseled, keeping her brush stead and watching for every reaction that crossed his blue eyes.
"Things aren't meant to stay the same, forever. You are growing up, learning about yourself and your family and your strengths and your weaknesses - this is healthy change. I'd bet more than anything your teammates are changing, too. On their own journey and their own changes."
"Yeah," Naruto added, shifting but not leaving the warmth of Shizune's hand. "...but now things have been changing for like, a month and I already feel like I'm losing them!"
"It's true." she nodded in response. "Change can sometimes be a force that brings people apart. But it can also be something that brings people together. We cannot control how our lives will change, but we can always steer the choices we make to bring the change we want to see."
Naruto furrowed his brow.
"Steer?"
"Of course."
"But…" he moved his hands, vaguely. "How?"
"Impossible to say. Every change is unique and every change will need its own set of choices. That being said, I think asking others how the feel is always a good place to start.
"So what — I need to ask Sasuke and Sakura if they want to change with me?" Naruto held out a hand, miming a conversation to the distance. "Hey guys, things are picking up, so get off your asses and start changing with me!"
"Is it such a bad thing," Shizune countered, picking up her brush and giving a pleased appraisal of her work. "To invite the people we care about to change and grow alongside us?"
Naruto ducked his head, taking the words in and pushing them across his mind on repeat. Shizune's eyes lingered on where Tsunade and Jiraiya had walked down the river, her face unreadable.
"No…" the boy said. "No, that doesn't sound bad."
Shizune smiled. "I think you should take things one step at a time. Get home and talk to people. There is no rush to this. You can go at your own pace." She leaned, an elbow pushing into the contemplating blond and almost toppling the boy over. Naruto looked back with scandal in his eyes but Shizune wore only a content smirk.
"But maybe not at your own volume. You are quite loud when you want to be, Naruto-kun."
For the first time in what felt like years, Naruto could feel a tug at the corners of his lips that he wasn't forcing there. A smirk. A smile. Laughter. Not forced, not fake. He pushed back at Shizune, a flush across his face as he crossed his arms and pouted. Shizune laughed, and they just let the sound lull away and settled into the resulting silence. Naruto felt good, lighter, and he looked down at the woman's drawing with an easy and open gaze.
"What are you doing, by the way?" He asked. "Drawing those symbols?"
"Calligraphy." Shizune replied, re-wetting her brush and making a long and curved arc that cut across the symbols. Just ink and canvas, line strokes across a white page and "It's a hobby I picked up years ago. I find it calming."
Naruto blinked, not overly familiar with the concept of calming hobbies.
"Calming?"
Shizune hummed a "mhmm" in affirmative. Naruto kept watching, eyes following her brush with the same ebb and flow as she bounced between well and canvas. It was just lines, just black ink on white canvas but there was just something about the way the lines looked that clicked inside his head. Delicate but powerful, bending yet firm.
"Can you draw…any design?" he questioned.
Shizune paused, considering the comment with a tilt of her head. "I suppose. I'm by no means an expert, but I think I can manage."
Another stoke, easy and smooth.
"Could you teach me?"
"You want to…" She replied slowly. Her voice wasn't doubtful or mocking, just surprised. "To learn calligraphy?"
"Well…" Naruto's fingers rolled across a metal knife tucked inside his pocket.
"I don't know if it's calligraphy."
That day ended well for the apprentices. Their teachers were not as fortunate.
Shizune had escorted the boy back from the river - wet and complaining about his aching side and about an old woman that hit like a landslide. In other words, Naruto was fine. They sat and ate and started to talk, as promised. Naruto did most of the talking, but Shizune didn't mind. Jiraiya had also made to follow them back to where breakfast was slightly charring in the pan, but a single glance from Tsunade nixed that idea.
Now, her eyes said with that kind of desperate that he'd only seen when they were behind enemy lines and covered in blood.
They needed to talk right now.
And so they did.
They left their apprentices to their meal and disappeared across town in a blur. Jiraiya talked about Konoha. About Orochimaru's invasion and the fight that cost the snake his arms and their teacher his motor function. He talked about the kid, about yellow flashes and rogue Jinchūriki rampaging through the Forrest her grandfather had loved more than life itself.
They talked about Edo Tensei. About soulless aberrations that wore the skin of anyone you knew and loved but danced like mindless corpse puppets to their summoner's strings. Of faces in your memory that cracked and shifted because they weren't supposed to be here and your heart couldn't be happy because evil tied them to this plane and it would be even more evil to keep them here.
Jiraiya had talked, and it was hard.
Tsunade had listened, and it was much, much harder.
His voice faltered, mid-way through remembering how he had watched his own student grab his only son by the throat and start to squeeze. How he'd watched hollow and crumbling eyes stare through his soul and grab the child he'd left behind with the order to kill and how…
Tsunade turned, her face blank and her hands ghosting at her pockets by her side.
"That's enough." She had said, and Jiraiya couldn't argue. She'd walked off without a word, lips a thin, quaking line and a growing heat dripping from her eyes. Jiraiya stood like a statue, watching her retreat back to the town and out of sight. He'd read this part of the story before — this exact scene. He hated it every time.
The next morning, Shizune had arrived without her master.
"Is she coming?" Jiraiya asked, forcing the hopefulness out of his voice. Shizune shook her head, slow and soft.
"Not today." She answered, and Jiraiya understood. Naruto didn't get it, but the sage sent him back to the river to train until he could finally stand on his own. Shizune and Naruto had talked, and Jiraiya was happy enough with that.
The next day, Tsunade arrived beside her student in time to see Naruto wobbling but still standing on his own two feet as the river churned beneath him.
"Brat." She had called. Naruto's eyes narrowed - clearly not thrilled at being insulted but also not willing to risk being smacked into next week.
"Old lady." he answered, letting the annoyed look he received be his counterattack. The two stared off, an unspoken battle for blond dominance, then Tsunade stepped out onto the stream and extended an unexpected hand forward. Naruto eyed it with suspicion and more than a little concern she was planning to throw him into orbit if he accepted.
"I'm sorry." She said, and Naruto boggled. Shizune and Jiraiya hid their shock better, but they weren't far behind.
"I…you didn't deserve that."
Naruto blinked, processing the words with a slow and steady nod. He extended his own hand, small but fierce as it slipped into the woman's grip.
"It's okay." He said, and Tsunade looked square into his eyes and felt just how much he meant it. She remembered when she was that young and forgiveness this easy. That time felt like ages ago and it made her bones feel old.
"Let's try this again." She restarted, finding her voice and using it before she lost it. "I'm Senju Tsunade, Slug Sannin. Medic, and teammate to your oaf of a teacher."
The blond smiled, whiskers stretching into a long, fox-like grin. Beside them, Jiraiya blinked and wondered why he was catching strays.
"Uzumaki Naruto." the boy replied. "Genin from Team 7. Now studying under the old pervert…"
Naruto paused, digging inside his chest and pushing one more through his voice.
"Son of the Fourth Hokage."
Tsunade smirked, a tight but gripping squeeze pulsing through her hands. Not enough to hurt, but just enough to give the boy a start.
"Nice to meet you, hot shot."
Their hands release, and Tsunade turns her gaze toward her teammate.
"You're leaving end of the week, right?"
Jiraiya nodded.
"Sarutobi is stable and I have to finish contacting our allies with reports." He answered. "We'll leave for Konoha as soon as my agents report back."
Naruto blinked, until now unaware that the man who had been working him like a farm animal was, in fact, doing actual mission work. He kept forgetting between the lewd writing and general tom-foolery that Jiraiya was an elite ninja unlike the world had ever seen. Tsunade was less surprised, giving a resolute nod.
"Good." She answered. "We'll be coming with you."
Naruto jumped, fist pumping and hyped at the success. Shizune wore a soft smile but it was more proud than she'd been in years. Jiraiya smiled, both happy he could and happy he meant it.
The good news was that Shizune thought that Tsunade and Naruto were bonding - just as Jiraiya had hoped when he'd brought the kid along.
That was good!
The bad news was their idea of bonding was engaging in blond-on-blond violence that usually developed into barely restrained brawls every opportunity they got.
If Tsunade and Naruto had anything in common, it was a propensity for escalating what should have been a peaceful, non-violent activity. Each seemed not just unwilling, but functionally incapable of going ten minutes without pressing every button inside each other's control boards. Over breakfast, over dinner, there was no limit in their ability to pick a fight with one another. Thursday morning by the lake was no different. It had taken three days, but Naruto was finally able to stand on the river as Jiraiya hurled rocks in his direction with varying intent. Jiraiya had been pleased, and Naruto whooped in celebration. Tsunade, however, was unimpressed.
"You'll never teach him real balance if all you throw as distractions are pebbles." She had claimed, marching up to the shoreline and expressing with her eyes exactly how mediocre she found the achievement.
"Pebbles?" Naruto balked. "Those rocks were as big as my head!"
"Spare me the melodrama, kid. Your head is way bigger than any rock."
"What did you just say, you old bag?"
"Old bag? I'll show you old, you brat!"
There was a crack, a full crag of rock breaking from a nearby stone. Naruto paled.
"Who…hey…wait are you crazy? That's a whole ass boulder, you psycho Granny!"
"Granny? I said don't call me that!"
"Ahhh!"
KerSPLASH.
It was like having children. Two petulant children where one child was actually a child and the other was just over 50 but it didn't matter because Jiraiya couldn't pick a favorite child because he hated them both. The latest war continued for another ten minutes until Naruto ran out of sass and Tsunade ran out of boulders. Naruto crawled back to shore, hands on his knees panting while soaking wet. Tsunade inspected her nails, making sure they hadn't chipped in the course of educating the children.
Simultaneously, both turned to Jiraiya.
"When's lunch?"
The Toad Sage physically growled, turning his back and marching back to Shizune because he should have never left the only other normal person to be with these two idiots. Tsunade's eyes narrowed, watching her teammate's tantrum with an unimpressed sway of her hands.
"Tsk. He's so dramatic."
"Tell me about it!"
They did that for two more days. Mornings and evenings spent training the boy or taking him through therapy, the nights spent by a fire talking and arguing but catching up like it hadn't been ten years since they were last civil. By the end of each day, Naruto was sometimes so tired he would pass out, asleep on the grass and snoring softly while Shizune ran idle fingers through his hair.
"Is it time, Jiraiya?" Tsunade had asked, leaning back and listening to the evening wind and Naruto's quiet snores. The sage nodded.
"My last scout comes back in tomorrow at dusk." The sage replied while pushing a a kunai between the cracks under his nails. "Orochimaru will be waiting for you, but I think he's camped to the south. My contacts will give us the update and we'll leave from the north gate under disguise."
Tsunade nodded. She'd been worried about that. Orochimaru would be murderous (was he ever not?), but the Edo Tensei's tell-tale cracks that haunted the faces in her dreams made her decision before she even had to. To think that monster had, even for a moment, considered bringing back nothing more than soulless puppets to parade in front of her. To think that she had been just a breath away from saying yes. She had to remind her guilt who the real monster was.
Tsunade's fist clenched, something like bile aching its way up her stomach and rolling in her gut. The feeling was broken by a blond hand that flopped over, resting against the corner of her knee. Naruto rolled, fidgeting into a ball and subconsciously moving towards the warmth of the blond Sannin. Her breath was short and quick, a hiss in, but evaporated as a content smile washed across the boy's face. Tsunade swallowed something she didn't understand, her eyes tracking to the gentle rise and fall of Naruto's jacket.
"He won't be happy." She said. Jiraiya chewed back his first reply, holding his tongue and keeping his gaze on the stars above.
"No, he won't." He agreed, like it wasn't the understatement of the century. He turned his head, watching Tsunade with heavy eyes.
"But we can take him together."
It was a question, not a statement. Are we together? Are we a team? Are you on Konoha's team? Truthfully, Tsunade didn't know. Her feelings felt like mud, shifting and sopping beneath tension and tears and history. One week, and she could feel the last ten years like an ache behind her mind. She was trying to stand but she had been sinking for so long couldn't tell where the solid ground was anymore.
Naruto's hand brushed against her leg and without a thought her fingers sifted through the wild tufts of blond hair, soft and even strokes as the boy dreamed in the grass.
"Yeah." She bet, praying insider her heart that for once in her miserable life her luck would turn.
"Together."
He was dreaming.
The boy groaned and rolled, pretending he didn't just hear his name and he was still dreaming. He was having such a nice dream. A dream where he didn't have to wake up and could just be tired and…
The shove repeated. Hard.
Naruto's eyes flashed and his body jolted upright, eyes racing. He opened his mouth to yell, but found a hand clamped over his lips and sealing the noise. Jiraiya's eyes were narrowed, pointed, and his gaze killed the scream that had been building in the blond's throat. Jiraiya looked like he was wearing war paint, again.
Removing his hand, the sage held a single finger to his lips in the dim light from the hallway. Jiraiya showed Naruto his palm, a hastily scrawled message inked into the lines of his skin.
Silent. Leave. Now.
Naruto traced from the writing to his master twice before registering the message. Realization hit, and Jiraiya gave a short but grave nod. Naruto swallowed but slid off his covers and rose behind Jiraiya. The boy packed in silence while the toad sage peered around their hotel door, casing the corners and eyes tracing every beam of light and shadow in their path. It didn't take Naruto long, the final item a stack of loose papers he crammed into the inner pocket of his jacket. Jiraiya raised a single eyebrow, but asked no questions.
He faced his student, a wordless signal.
Ready?
Naruto nodded in response, hoping it looked more brave than he felt.
Ready.
Of all the parts of being a ninja that gave Naruto struggle, stealth was not one of them. His footsteps were soft as shadows, and Jiraiya found no need to slow down as the duo pushed from their hotel and crept along the outskirts of the town. The boy was silent, which was even more impressive given his bleach blond hair and neon color scheme. They marched for half an hour, leaving the town and creeping along riverbank without a word between them. Naruto didn't ask questions, anymore. Not when it was a mission.
Jiraiya said what to do. Naruto followed.
They would save everyone.
Another twenty minutes, and the sun crackled against the horizon. Darkness held control of the sky, but there was light enough to where crouching without real cover offered no protection. Jiraiya held up a hand, and the duo finally stopped. Naruto watched his teacher, holding for instruction, as Jiraiya brought his hands to his throat and inhaled. The sages cheeks puffed, swelling in size.
Rrriiiibbbit.
Naruto wasn't sure which was more strange - hearing Jiraiya making frog noises into the waking trees or the fact that it was absolutely spot on. The sound echoed, bouncing along the nearby treeline and running away in the fields at their back. It echoed and dimmed, and the silence that followed was deafening.
Then, a reply.
C-Caw. C-caw!
From the nearby trees, a bird's cry crested through the dawn break. The Forrest shimmered, and Naruto rubbed at his eyes as the trees because hadn't they looked smaller just a minute ago? He looked to Jiraiya, who didn't seem to notice, so Naruto pushed down his worry. In fact, Jiraiya's face was now smiling. Naruto blinked at the shift. Jiraiya exhaled for the first time in an hour, rolling his back upright and gripping hand to the blond's shoulders.
"Good, student." He commended, speaking for the first time. "You can relax, now."
Naruto fidgeted under the praise, his voice a hushed whisper.
"Can you explain what the hell is going on?"
Jiraiya moved to answer, but the reply was stopped as Shizune and Tsunade leapt from the nearby tree line and approached.
"Your people were right." Tsunade called out, storming up with a frown. "Damage in one of the bars in town. Black cloaks and red clouds."
Naruto blinked. Jiraiya cursed.
"Sometimes," the sage replied. "Even I don't like hearing that I'm right."
"Black cloaks?" Naruto asked, ping ponging between the conversation and wondering where he was missing a whole mountain of context.
"Mercenaries." Tsunade replied, voice low and precise. "And people we do not want to meet."
"And Orochimaru?"
"Our clones should be reaching the southern gate, soon." Tsunade cracked her knuckles, pivoting in the ground while her eyes scanned the clearing. "Knowing his proclivity for being nosy when he's not wanted, he's already following them. I imagine he'll track them there to get his answer. I don't think it will fool him for a second, but we should be long gone with any luck."
Jiraiya frowned. He hated luck.
"We need to get moving." He ordered. "Dodging him is one thing. Dodging the others is…"
Naruto blinked. Jiraiya was…talking? He was sure of it. Words and commands - their next move and what they should be on the lookout for. But every time he spoke, Jiraiya's voice just kind of faded into the black. The sound from before, a screech of some birds whipped through the Forrest and pressed into his mind.
C-Caw. C-caw!
"Gah." Naruto groaned, moving close to Jiraiya to hear and digging a finger into his ear. The ringing was growing - like someone grabbed the level to the sound and was tilting the speaker to max. Jiraiya was still talking, lips still moving and saying something but all he could hear was the damn call of birds.
"Ugh, Sensei." He hissed. Jiraiya kept speaking - could he hear him? Was he saying something, still? The sound was distracting. Painful. Something was scratching inside his ear and gnawing and a mild panic crossed his mind that something had crawled in while he was sleeping. He shivered at the thought, digging his hand deeper and reaching to his master's jacket to get his attention.
"Hey. Jiraiya!" He yelled. Was he yelling? He was trying to whisper but he couldn't hear anymore. Couldn't tell over that damn ringing that was making him want to lay down and just fill his ears with mud.
"I think something's wrong!" He screamed. "I can't—"
"NARUTO! GET DOWN!"
Boom.
The ground erupted. Fire and wind surged in a tornado that swept the entire clearing. Naruto flailed, yanked off his feet like a weightless toy and tossed nearly a dozen meters away. His body hit the ground with a crunch, wheezing as he rolled to a stop while a wall of heat flushed over his body. The sound of birds was gone, replaced by the high pitched ringing the explosion left behind.
"Wha—" Naruto's voice scrapped through his throat, coughing up dirt and ash and he really needed the world to stop spinning so he could see. This wasn't the clearing. There was no Forrest, no tree line or rice field. Naruto could see the Northern gate in the distance, the same one that had disappeared over the horizon thirty minutes ago. That he had explicitly watched disappear.
"What the —" Fear creeping down his spine like falling paint. Naruto turned his head, searching for his master and finally finding Jiraiya standing almost ten meters behind where he thought he had been. Tsunade and Shizune too, both crouched and in defensive positions as they stared furiously behind the blond's back. Naruto turned, eyes widening as two figured in tall dark cloaks with little red clouds materialized from thin air.
"Impressive as always, Jiraiya of the Sannin." The shorter man of the duo called. He had black hair and even blacker eyes and looked so terribly familiar. "Breaking my genjutsu for yourself is one thing, but blowing up your student to free their mind is befitting your reputation."
There was a flourish of leaves, and Jiraiya materialized next to Naruto looking like fury. He bent, grabbing Naruto by the collar and threw him behind him without so much as a grunt. Naruto skidded, skipping over the ground as he was thrown back and collected into Shizune's open arms.
"Are you alright, Naruto-kun?" She asked, voice coated with panic. Naruto nodded, a daze still clouding his mind as he tried to stabilize his own feet. He could see burns, singed fabric and skin, licking at Shizune's left arm and wondered what the hell was going on.
"Yeah." His eyes watched as the two cloaked figures stepped further from the Forrest - Tsunade and Jiraiya taking the space between them. "I'm fine but what the hell just…"
"Genjutsu." Shizune answered, voice sharp and dark. "Cast on all of us. Must have been as we left the gate. Lord Jiraiya broke it but…"
"Tsunade, Shizune." Jiraiya interrupt, his voice iron as he commanded back. "Protect Naruto from the other. Itachi is mine. Whatever you do - do not look into his eyes."
"I…Itachi?" Naruto whispered, eyes going wide and red clouds filling his view as he disobeyed the direct order and met the onyx gaze of the cloaked man. The resemblance was uncanny. Eyes of coal with dark and heavy bags underneath their gaze. The gaze was unfeeling, empty and cold and just the look sent a chill that echoed in Naruto's soul.
"…Uchiha?" He whispered, losing breath and the words.
"Naruto Uzumaki." There was something in the way Itachi said his name, like a surgeon overlooking a body while calculating where to make the initial incision. Cold and distant, calculating and concluded. Naruto could barely breathe around the tightness growing in his lungs.
"I trust," the killer said, because that's what Naruto's mind screamed. Killer. Killer. Killer. Killer. "That you have been watching after my baby brother."
Baby Brother.
Sasuke.
The baby brother who was Naruto's best friend.
The baby brother left all alone and crying around the bloodied and brutalized bodies of what was left of the Uchiha clan. All because of the man standing right in front of him.
The baby brother who had sworn his life to see the man before him dead for his crimes.
"Shizune! His eyes!"
No sooner had Jiraiya barked the order, Shizune's hands flashed over the blonds face and his vision went dark. A nanosecond later, Naruto would have been able to see swirl of tomoe as the blood red of the sharingan flared into existence.
"Hooo lucky break, kid." a voice, Itachi's partner, rattled in Naruto's head. If Itachi had been a surgeon, cold and precise, the new voice was that of a butcher.
"But calling me the other one?" He balked, a mocking annoyance crossing his tone. "That's pretty disrespectful, Jiraiya the Gallant. I do have a name, after all. It's Hoshigaki Kisame."
Jiraiya dipped his head, sliding in his stance and planting his feet into the earth. His hands flowed, a balanced push as he pointed a closed fist in the duo's direction.
"I know who you are, Monster under the Hidden Mist." Naruto didn't like how that nickname sounded. Kisame replied with a wicked grin.
"Well, now. That's a compliment from the likes of you. Not every day you get to fight a living legend." Kisame cracked his neck, relishing as the pops rolled out. "Even if you are past your prime. And Tsunade of the Sannin, too? Getting the band back together, after all?"
Kisame turned, a knowing smirk crossing his jagged lips.
"Good thing we didn't believe that little snake, eh, Itachi?"
Tsunade's eyes widened, only one snake fitting that bill and the fear of this becoming a three way fight burning in her mind.
"Where is Orochimaru?" She ordered. Kisame laughed, a dark and ominous noise, but it was Itachi that spoke.
"It is not important." He said, dismissing a Sannin with the same effort one shoos a fly. "His information proved a liability."
Something inside Jiriaiya twisted like a stone plummeted inside his chest. His breath came in slow, shallow heaves and his spine snapped stuff.
"What did you do to him?"
"You should worry less about your old teammate." Kisame advised with a languid ease. "And more about what we're going to do to you."
"Stay away from them!" Naruto yelled, his eyes still restrained by Shizune's hands but blood pounding inside his veins. He couldn't hear his own voice over the roar of his pulse and the numb ringing sound that still beat in his ears, but he thrashed against Shizune's hold trying to adopt a fighting stance. He wobbled as he released, moving his vision to only watch the blue faced man. Itachi's presence loomed, a specter in the corner of his vision.
"Well, well." The tall man ambled forward, body relaxed and a calm that almost felt like excitement. His skin was blue and his teeth looked like razors. His sword was reminded him of Zabuza, and a wet chill shot down Naruto's spine. "Looks like we've got a lively one on the hook."
The man swung the club-blade like one would swing a stick of bamboo, leveling it straight through Tsunade and Shizune's wall and pointing it at Naruto's feet.
"We can still use him if I shave off his legs, right Itachi-san?" He drawled, his eyes beaded and black and they looked like pits. "A washed up Sannin and apprentice might give me a sweat. Gotta make sure he can't run away during the fun."
Tsunade snarled, a sheen of cool, green chakra whisping around her body and centering around her fists.
"Washed up, huh?" she called, taking a step forward and creating a small crater where her foot landed. "Why don't you come and say that to my face, shark boy."
Tsunade didn't sound scared, which was good, because Naruto was practically frozen. His mind screamed, a roaring siren in his stomach to flee. Get the hell away from here and fast. He tried to be brave, tried to force the quiver in his legs to stop, but something was different. He'd stared down Gaara, a rampaging demon of rage and malice. Orochimaru and the Edo Tensei were like staring into the eyes of hatred itself.
But this was different.
There was something in these two, something dark and hungry and raw. Kisame's presence exploded, Naruto feeling a wave of chakra and killing intent flood the area and fill his lungs and mind. It was like he was drowning. Like as he tried to swim and come up and stop wading against the water, an even darker presence he couldn't even see watched him from the dark.
His hand moved to his side, gripping the Hirashin kunai until his knuckles were white. Kisame hefted his sword, if it could be called that, and took a turn pointing the serrated tip forward.
"Appetizer, entree, desert." He called out, moving from Shizune to Tsunade before landing back on Naruto. "How about we cut the chit chat and get this show on the —"
Jiraiya was avalanche. A surge of movement and white that slammed into Itachi before Naruto could even hear the thunderous boom from the movement. The Uchiha's body…melted? Flesh peeled and turned black and Naruto watched through wide eyes as a the man's body peeled off into a murder or swarming crows. Jiraiya turned back, eyes meeting Tsuande's for a desperate moment. There were far more words conveyed than Naruto could follow, but Tsuande clearly didn't miss a single one from the way she moved in unison. Their hands blurred, slamming to the ground as a colossal wall of earth erupted from the ground. It soared nearly fifteen meters high before arcing back over, enclosing them in a fractal dome. Kisame looked up, giving a low whistle as the walls close them in and Jiraiya and Itachi out.
"Putting a lot of faith in your teammate. You sure it's wise to fight an Uchiha alone?" the Shark shifted, hefting his massive blade behind his head and eyes looking wild.
"You sure it's wise to fight me alone?"
Tsunade didn't answer with words, opting instead to raise her foot high into the air and bring an axe kick down. The earth fissured, an explosion of rock and rubble that arced towards the swordsman and obliterated the ground beneath his feet. His massive sword swung, a lazy guard that parried crumbling rock to the side.
Kisame licked his teeth clearly pleased with Tsunade's choice.
"Suit yourself."
Growth! Explosions! A really fun fight!
This was a fun chapter to write, and I wish I had someone like Shizune when I was Naruto's age. Our heroes are finally conquering some personal demons, and now they've got to team up against an actual demon. Next chapter will be the brawl: Three vs 1, locked in the Shark Cage, but it will also be the end of this arc. I'm excited to play out see it all play out! I just wrapped up the writing the next chapter, now in the polishing and proof-reading stage. Hoping to come out with it sometime in November.
As always, let me know what you think in the reviews - I may not respond often but I can assure you I read every single one. Thank you all for reading!
Side note - this is my first story over 50k words and I'm really proud of that. A toast to you guys for being willing to read all this!
- Silly / FreeDrinks