The grass rustled to his left, the warmth of the new arrival a welcomed presence in the arid snow covered wasteland that he found himself in. The fighting between frostbite and his healing factor waged a bitter war against each other. His fingers, numb one minute, rosy and warm the next, twitched unceasingly at his side.

He felt Joru advance toward a dead, frost covered tree a pace away in front of him.

He had lost weight over the past few months, now possibly only weighing 50 kilos or so. It was a strange look for him. From a distance he could easily be mistaken for a child.

Naruto surveyed the field in front of them.

It was barren.

The wind raced through the white laden plains, howling its discontent with the drab, frigid environment. Clouds of snow were lifted from their rest to swirl and dance in the air, speeding toward a cliffside to farr off to his right.

In the middle of it all was a man, trudging his way at a snail's pace through the hellscape before him. He was covered from head to toe in thick furs, the only thing that could ward off the horrible chill.

Naruto turned to Joru, signaling to move forward. Carefully.

With a quick application of Joru's hiding in plain site jutsu, they marched their way toward the lonely traveler.

Naruto was careful to not make any unwanted noises. Moving at crawl while applying chakra to his feet so as to not generate the signature crunch of snow under foot. He needed to make sure the target was who they were actually looking for.

"Hello Joru. Naruto" the man shouted. His deep voice pierced the winds howl, bellowing in protest against its unceasing siege on the world. "I did not expect to see the two of you so far from your warzone."

Well it was definitely him.

Whether that was a good thing was yet to be made clear.

"Hey Sumihiro. How have you been ?"

"Oh I've seen better days, life on the run is far from the most pleasant of lifestyles you know?" his voice, while gruff, was cheery. "What can I do for the two of you? And Joru, drop the fucking jutsu, its giving me a headache trying to focus on you both."

Sumihiro was walking to them now, the knee deep snow showing as much resistance to his advance as long grass would to a a bull bison. Naruto could make out more details on his face from this distance.

His right eye was covered by a plain black patch. He had a nasty looking scar running across the length of his forehead, puckered and red from the cold. A chunk was missing from his right ear, only the bottom half of the thing still attached to his head.

"You've grown a beard. Looks good on you." Joru piped in. his voice fluttered and broke.

"I've asked you once now, don't make me ask again."

The world stopped. The suffocating wind retreated into an abyss that threatened to swallow him whole and erase him. He tried to look at his hands, but he couldn't draw his eyes away from the still ever so calm looking Shinobi before him. It was a terrible lie, no one would believe it for a second.

Sumihiro was never a man you could describe as calm.

"We've defected from the leaf." Naruto managed to grit out. "We left about a month or so ago."

And like it had never eased its presence for even a second.

The wind roared.

"So you two defected huh? good, you may join me at my camp." with that the giant of a man turned on his heel and started making his way to a ridgeline in the distance. "this way lads. hurry on, I'd hate to lose you to the snow."


They had made camp in a hollow along the cliff's edge. It wasn't quite large enough to call a cave, but it protected them from the elements enough to allow for a small cooking fire along with a set of lean-to shelters.

A stew of some sort, courtesy of Sumihiro, was boiling away atop the flame. Having been sustaining himself in the cold off of ration bars for the last week, it smelled absolutely delicious. Almost better than ramen.

Almost.

Sitting beside Sumihiro was a smaller figure, dressed in full samurai plate. They had been in the hollow, waiting at attention for them when they had arrived. Whoever the person was, they were the silent type, having not said a single word to any of them. Only greeting their group with a single nod.

"you defected."

It was said as more of a statement than a question.

"We did." Naruto said. He looked down at his hands. The faint tinge of red was still yet to abate. "The massacres."

"I was wondering how you would snap. Never imagined it would be this clean."

"It's only clean for the moment, they haven't sent anyone after me yet."

"Ah true i suppose. Not that they will for quite some time. It will only draw attention to the fact that they've lost their Jinchuuriki." Sumihiro laughed. "That, and you two make quite the evasive and deadly little duo to chase after."

"I suppose so, though I'd feel a lot safer if we had others." Naruto trailed off slowly, staring intently into the larger man's eyes.

A faint smile graced his face, it looked out of place on the scarred and overall disheveled man.

"Aye, I can understand that. I find myself to be of a similar disposition." he said.

Naruto's shoulders sagged as he felt the tension that had been weighing on him for the last month abruptly vanish.

"Who's your friend?" Joru asked almost too nonchalantly.

"This is Kuroi. She's a Ronin that owes me a life debt."

The short woman made no sign of acknowledgement to the fact that she was being discussed among the group. She just continued to stir the stew in impassive silence.

"A life debt huh? I'm sure you have a lot of fun getting her to work that off." Joru said, his voice slimy on the word work. "She's such a slight thing in comparison to you, you big brute. How do you manage not to break her?"

She continued to stir the stew. Joru's fun would not be sated so easily it would seem.

"HAHAHA you're right on that one old friend, she was damn near catatonic the first few times. Though I am very confident that she's learned to enjoy the experience quite thoroughly by now." Sumihiro's face was split in two by his grin. Growing even larger at the little nod that Kuroi gave in assent.

Leaning back against the cliff wall naruto sighed.

This was comfortable. They were safe here for the time being. People would attack him and Joru, even knowing who they were and what they could do. Sumihiro on the other hand.

No one would attack the man that had killed a kage without at least giving it a second thought.


"So you're thinking of going to see Orochimaru are yah?"

Joru and Kuroi had gone to sleep leaving the two of them to take first watch.

The fire was still blazing away, fueled by the endless supply of wood that Sumihiro had sealed away in one of the many scrolls he always kept on his person. Its warmth was welcome after the weeks they had spent in the cold.

"He has answers that I need."

"You're gonna have to give me more than that son. Otherwise our little squad will be splitting up for a second time very, very soon."

Naruto inhaled deeply through his nostrils, the chill air mixed with the smoke and ash, burning its way into him, revitalizing him just a bit more.

"The worlds gone to shit, and my entire purpose was to prevent that kind of thing from happening, you know." Naruto's breath hitched. " I was supposed to be a deterrent, a tool to prevent unnecessary bloodshed."

Naruto grabbed tightly at his pants, his knuckles white with the force of his grip.

"And here I am causing more of it, murdering women and children. I've destroyed more families than I ever imagined I would. I need to find a new purpose. The one I had ended in failure." Naruto whispered, his eyes never leaving his lap. "That starts with finding out who I really am. It starts with Orochimaru."

"And he has all these answers does he?"

"That's what I've been told. If not, this will have been an incredible waste of time."

Sumihiro glanced down at the coals. The firelight danced in his eyes. There was something in them that he couldn't quite place. Something that the light of the fire was bringing out of the shadow, baring it to the world at large.

"Ignoring the fact that the information that you've been given could very well be a lie. What makes you think you could get the man to tell you anything?"

Naruto felt his stomach drop at the question.

"Nothing really, i just hope he'll do it out of the kindness of his heart." he gave a little smirk, knowing how ridiculous what he was suggesting was.

"BAHAHAHA, that's some solid planning you got there, havent changed a bit have you? "

"I think ive changed quite a lot actually, a completely new man."

Sumihiro got to his feet with a groan, his joints cracking in the process. He briefly brushed some of the dust and soot from his clothes before heading toward Kuroi's tent. It looked like their watch had come to an end for the night.

The large man looked over his shoulder, his face stern, shadows strune across his grimace in the now distant light of the fire.

"I want to warn you kid. We're shinobi, we destroy families. Nothing short of leaving the life behind is going to change that."


The wind was like daggers skinning him beneath his clothes. They had started heading to the east through iron country shortly after joining together. It would only be a couple more days till they entered into Rice country. The protections granted to them from the diplomatic situation that Iron had would be lost the moment they crossed the border.

The damned snow had slowed their jounrey to a crawl. The miles had dragged on slowly and he felt stiff in his many layers. The only one of their group not rugged from head to toe was kuroi, the short, stoic woman was still clad in only her armour and the light hiori adorned atop of it.

The fuck kind of power move was that. He was here freezing his nuts off and she was just tanking the elements like it was nothing.

He looked through the haze of buffeting snow to his left and made out the withered form of Joru. he was looking even thinner today, just skin and bone. They would need to break soon, else the Yamanaka collapse and slow them down even more.

"You alright Joru?" Sumihiro called out over the scream of the wind.

"I'm alright, just need to get out of this god damned wind." his voice was thin, barely audible over the white noise, before continuing more quietly "Just need to get out of the cold."

"If you say so, cause we've got strangers up ahead. Look lively everybody." Sumihiro shouted.

Off on the horizon, barely even pin pricks on the white canvas, were two approaching bodies. They were only walking at what seemed to be a leisurely pace, not the bum rush of an enemy in the field, though that could always be a deception.

As they closed in on their group, Naruto gasped in realisation of who it was.

"Orochimaru, what a pleasant surprise. What brings you to our little slice of hell?" Sumihiro shouted over to the man. there was a terseness to his voice. A suggestion to something violent.

The yellow eyes of the sannin trained themselves on Naruto. A sickly sensation rested in the pit of his stomach like stones had found their way inside of him. This ethereally pale, thin man had found a keen interest in him it would seem.

"A little birdy told me that someone was looking for me and i thought that they could use an escort." Orochimaru said, his voice slimmier than Joru's on the best of days. He licked his lips, eyes never leaving Naruto's. "Lest something untoward were to happen to them on their journey."

"So you knew we were being followed as well. You certainly have a keen awareness of our situation." Sumihiro left the question unasked.

"That i do. Now shall we abscond? Your tail will not be deterred for long."

Naruto jerked his head over his shoulder.

Standing on the ridgeline that they had left behind some time ago, were three figures standing atop of it. He couldnt make out any detail through the haze other than a bright glow coming from the one on the far left illuminating the other two.

Whoever they were, they were motionless. He didnt know how, but he knew they were staring at him and him alone.


"THIS is Rice country, land of prosperity and good will. No man goes hungry or is left wanting here. They need not steal or beg in this land of great wonders. No. For our people are looked after and taken care." Orichimaru's eccentric companion broadcasted to the group as they crossed over the border. He had been boisterously proclaiming to them about how perfect his country was for their entire two day journey.

It was getting insufferable.

"Did you know that not a single crime is committed her…"

"Shut the fuck up before i gut you, you little prick." Sumihiro shouted at the odd lanky man.

Naruto had seen his breaking point coming from a mile away. He had been like this in the early days of their squad, before they had formed a camaraderie of sorts. Joru and Kanjiro had been quite the pair to have around during those times. They would never shut up, even for a moment, constantly at each other's throats. Kanjiro was a prude of the utmost standing, and Joru's proclivities really got on his nerves.

So Sumihiro would beat them senseless. In the beginning there was not a single day that had passed, sans those days they were needed for combat, that the two had not been smacked bloody.

It was probably why Joru had been so quiet for the most part.

"Now now, Sumhiro. You wouldn't want to offend my hospitality by threatening one of my subordinates would you?" Orochimaru's tone was light and jovial, not an ounce of the underlying threat evident in his voice.

"I don't care for your threats, you jumped up kage wanna be. He's annoying me, and if he continues to do so, ill follow through on my threat. Consequences be damned." Sumhiro replied.

Dryly.

"Hehehe you're exactly as everybody has described you as. It's very refreshing."

"Where is your village anyway, snake?" Sumihiro finished with a sigh. "I grow tired of the endless walking.i want nothing more than to shit in a god damned toilet, shower, fuck my woman and sleep."

Orochimaru, despite what he claimed, looked irked at the attitude and blatant disrespect that the burly man was throwing at him. His gait was more jilted and a frown had settled into a frown.

Only for an instant though, before he resumed his nonchalant demeanor. If Naruto had not been so wary of the man, he wouldn't have caught it, as fleeting as it was.

"There is no village."

what ?

"What do you mean there is no village?" Naruto chimed in. how on earth do you have the rest of the shinobi world believe that there is a coalition of shinobi in a country when none existed.

"I mean there is none, little fox." the sannin drawled. He was looking at him again.

He fucking hated when he looked at him.

"We sound ninja are scattered across the country. We have small underground bunkers, among other bases of operation, that we conduct our business out of." Orochimaru's eyes zeroed in on something across one of the rice fields that Naruto couldn't detect. "A new village formed after the third shinobi war would have never been allowed to operate if it was detected too early. Especially given our border situation. So in my wisdom I decided to not let them know until we were powerful enough to not be put down so easily."

Naruto and the others remained silent at the explanation.

There wasn't really a way that he could have done something like that so quickly after he had been driven out of the leaf village. No, an endeavor of this magnitude would have taken a decade or so longer than he had been gone for.

"Hahaha, and they say you left the village because you weren't selected for the dusty old hat." Sumihiro said, his mood brightened. That man did always love secrets. Too much some would say.

"No I did not leave because of the title, that would be petty. And while I am a petty man, I'm not that petty." the snake paused. "No, I left because I was driven out by the little foxes sensei. Nothing more, nothing less."

Now that raises the question of who. Danzo?

Or Hiruzen?

Naruto reached down to absentmindedly pluck a leaf from a strange plant at the edge of the road while in thought. It was mottled with purple blotched against the green.

"I wouldn't touch that, even with the healing factor it might kill you." Orochimaru called out to him, his hand mere inches from the strange plant.

With a jerk and a quick step backward, Naruto retreated from the apparently highly dangerous thing. Rejoining the others. He looked back at the snake sannin, gauging his demeanor.

It was dead serious.

The plant was not to be touched then.

"If a plant like this is so dangerous, how come more shinobi don't use it to coat their weapons?" Joru asked.

"The poison rapidly degrades once it is removed from the plant. There is only one blade that I know of that can contain and administer it." Orochimaru looked thoughtful for a moment. "Two. two blades that i know of."

"Anyway we're here."

Laid out before them, just a few metres off of the side of the road, was a small, barely hidden hatch amongst some foliage. The elements had not been kind to it, having grown rusty enough to make one worry about tetanus.

"After you, snake. I'd rather see the knife that stabs me."


"So you're parents then?"

The room they had adjourned to, was a quaint little thing. It didn't look any different than what you would expect to find in a normal civilian family's home, nothing like you would imagine a place that housed one of the most prolific killers the elemental nations had ever seen.

On their way in they had passed only a few of the denizens of the bunker.

Most had been warped in one way or another. Augmented was maybe a better word for it.

Extra limbs, skin that had been blackened artificially. There was one unfortunate soul that had an entire other body growing out of his torso. The most shocking part of that encounter was that both halves had been talking to one another.

"That's as good of a place to start I suppose." Naruto tried to contain the broiling anticipation that he could feel, begging to break free.

"Well there's not really much too it i suppose, your mother was an Uzumaki, thus your namesake. I don't know her first name though, for that you have my apologies." Orochimaru sipped at the cup of tea he had made for himself. "You're father on the other hand."

Orochimaru leaned in closer to him, his voice barely audible in the stoney silence of the room.

"Minato Namikaze"

"Who ?"

The Sannin looked at him like he had sprouted one of those poisonous plants from his forehead. Then his eyes narrowed to mere slits, the yellow piercing the shadows cast by the lamplight.

"You're honestly asking me who Minato Namikaze is?"

"I was never any good with history, so I don't even really know if the Uzumaki name is of any importance either. Other than the fact they were, or maybe still are, a clan not of the leaf." He had tried to keep the sheepishness from his voice, but he was honestly embarrassed. Orochimaru, one of the most important people to ever come out of the leaf village, was looking at him like he was some kind of idiot.

"The fourth hokage you idiot child."

He sucked in a gasp at the revelation.

"And the Uzumaki are most certainly of importance, they were individually one of the more powerful clans to have existed throughout history. Though not of the same level as the Uchiha or Senju." Orochimaru took another sip. "Though for the most part they're all gone now. But many secrets that may be lost to history lay within that blood of yours."

"So the fourth huh?"

He honestly didn't know what to think of that. On one hand, he was the son of the most powerful men to have come out of the last generation. On the other, his father had decided to stick a fucking war deterrant into his son shortly before abandoning him in death.

Guy was a prick.

"Fuck!" Naruto shouted, slamming his hands against the small table they were seated at. "I was hoping that there was a chance that at least one family member was alive. That way i could try and find them."

"No, you are most definitely alone." Orochimaru sighed. He didn't look very put out by delivering such heartbreaking news to someone. He looked almost bored. "I meant what i said though, the Uzumaki blood is important."

"Is this where you reveal that you had lured us all into some kind of trap in order to get your hands on the stuff, cause i will collapse this building on us."

"Nothing of the sort, just thought i'd give you a warning, it's probably what that woman you had encountered in the forest back at wave was after. And those people back on the ridgeline were definitely after it. You're the most well known living Uzumaki after all." A predatory grin stretched across the man's face. "Though I absolutely would love some if you're offering."

He felt like he was about to make a deal with the devil himself.

"What can you offer in return?"

without a second of thought, Orochimaru held up three sickly pale and thin fingers.

The grin had grown more sinister.

"I will teach you the hand signs for the summoning technique."

One finger went down.

The signs for the summoning jutsu were incredibly well guarded by those that knew it. Their hands were either concealed during use, or done at such speeds that anyone without a sharingan would not be able to interpret them.

"I will grant you access to my library. Within which is the other half of the scroll containing jutsu and chakra theory on the fell fire techniques."

Another finger.

"And the final gift, is a favor of your choosing."

He was now presented with a closed fist.

It must have been fucking important for the man to get a hold of some of his blood if he was willing to give that much for it.

Though.

"What good is knowing the handsigns for the summoning jutsu without having a contract with any of the animals?"

"Clever." Orochimaru looked unbelievably pleased. "If you do the jutsu correctly without a summoning contract, you will be reverse summoned to the home of whatever creature your soul is most aligned with."

The pale man looked wistful, as if caught in a memory from long ago. It was odd seeing him look so content.

So human.

"Though I must warn you. If you find yourself in the presence of a contractless summon, they will break you. They will rip and tear their way to the very core of who you are, to the very thing that makes you Naruto Uzumaki, and rebuild you in the image they see fit before forming a contract with you. You will go through hell and come out the otherside both more and lesser for it."

He may never be willing to do that just for a summoning contract.

But he would learn it either way. Could never have too many options you know.

"Any thoughts on what favor you would like to ask of me?"

Naruto felt his lips tug upwards into a very ugly smile.

"I heard a rumor." Naruto paused. "Overheard it eavesdropping actually, that you had, in your enormous repertoire of jutsu, a certain forbidden technique that some of those with weaker wills would consider, distasteful."

Orochimaru's smile was so much uglier and more ghastly than his own.


Naruto basked in the dim light of the library. It was no bigger than the tea room he and Orochimaru had had there conversation in a few days ago, it was however filled with more working knowledge on Jutsu and chakra theory than perhaps any other collection in the entirety of the elemental nations.

His days studying what lay within the small cove of knowledge had only been broken up by the regular withdrawals of blood and tissue samples the Sannin had required he donate. But it was worth every drop. The wonders he had discovered within would have been worth a thousand fold what he paid for them.

Books on chakra regulation and the systems within the body to fine tune one's control. Scrolls on how one would go about creating their own jutsu in an efficient and effective manner, none of the years of wastage from years of tweeks one would normally be required to go through. A small notebook, filled with scrawl in the margins, on how to attune your chakra nature to another element, essentially creating more affinities.

At the bottom left of one of the crammed bookshelves he found the other half of the fell fire scroll containing its more advanced techniques. It had apparently been designed to replicate some secret Uchiha fire technique. The sticky fire had served him very well up until this point, so in spite of it being a copy of an Uchiha jutsu, he would continue to master it.

Naruto pocketed the scroll.

He would read that later, he only had a limited amount of time with the library, this being his last day permitted into Orochimaru's sanctum of knowledge. His time would be better spent learning or copying the writings that he was not allowed to keep.

He spotted two books that for whatever reason struck his interest above the others.

The titles inside the plain covers read

'Elemental chakra transformation using Bijuu chakra. Technique and effect'

'Summoning. Limits, sacrifice and multiple contracts'

He would not be seeing any of his companions until the day was out.


"I hope you found my library to your satisfaction?" Orochimaru said. The slimy man had a satisfied look on his face. It looked like he had just successfully killed god or something.

"Yeah i hope you have, fox, I've been cooped up in this boring as fuck bunker for four days now. So if it wasn't worth it, I am going to beat you." Sumihiro seemed just as disgruntled as any other day they had spent around the Sannin.

"It was very satisfactory lord Orochimaru." Naruto bowed to the man. Turning to the left he looked at his broad and burly former teammate. "Ease up big chief. We leave tomorrow, so you won't have to worry about venom for much longer."

"LORD?" Joru all but screamed in shock. Fright?

Orochimaru ignored the other two, choosing to nibble at some kind of sweet biscuit before addressing him again.

"As have your kind donations Naruto. Very satisfying indeed." The pale man looked uncomfortable for a moment. "Before you go, however, I have been asked to mediate a meeting between you four and a guest of mine that arrived this afternoon."

"A meeting?" Joru asked. He was nervous, he seemed to be picking up on some kind of mental energy the rest of them were not privy to.

"Yes now if you would allow me."

Orochimaru stood, his back rigid and tense. His feet planted firmly apart as if to spring away at any moment, crawl into some hole and disappear forever at any sign of danger.

"You may enter Hanzo."