Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Maybe if I close my eyes and wish really hard… nothing will happen. Damn it!

It never ceases to amaze me just how people keep coming up with new, more messed up ways to kill each other.

I am also aware that this is incredible hypocritical of me to say. One of my favorite people in the world makes dangerous ninja tools for shits and giggles, and I've come up with a few deadly, deadly moves just out of variations of stuff I thought looked cool. It's not like we haven't and won't continue to contribute to this whole thing.

I'm just saying, sometimes a lot of this stuff doesn't make sense. Coming up with a move to kill someone faster and cleaner with less effort actually has a purpose, as morbid as it is. It's the things that seem to be done just to make others suffer for suffering's sake that I've got a problem with.

Like crucifixion. Who's the sick fuck who came up with that? Or drawing and quartering? Why? Geez. That's just to name a few. I'm not going to get started on some of the gross stuff I've seen done to people in actual full-speed fights.

I mean, if you're going to put that much effort behind prolonging someone's agony, there's probably something way more important you can be doing with your time other than watching somebody slowly die.

I'm just not one for making someone suffer. If I'm fighting you, and I want you to pay, I'll just beat your ass until I feel better about myself, which usually happens when you can't get up and keep fighting anymore. Clearly, I was never one for interrogation. No wonder Anko used to call me a wuss.

Uzumaki Naruto – 'End of Clan War Era Memoirs'

Chapter 20: On Your Guard

Between the steadily growing pain ravaging his body and the rebreather he kept on his face to protect the people around him, sleep was very hard to come by for Naruto. Despite his best efforts to convince his friends otherwise, they had convinced him to spend most of his time in bed to save his strength until he got better.

It irked him, because he wanted to do all that he could before his body wouldn't let him any longer.

The door to his inn room opened up to allow Tenten inside. She greeted him with a smile that didn't reach her brown eyes as she came closer to him to check on how he was doing today, "How are you feeling today, tough guy?" She asked, sitting down at the edge of the bed with a cup of water in her hand.

Naruto let out a sigh as he sat up and winced at the pain that came from an action that simple, "I feel like I got my ass kicked. But no one's even touched me."

He was trying to hide just how bad it was, but Tenten could see exactly what he was talking about. If anything, he was downplaying it, "God, I wish we had a real medic. I can't tell how bad off you are," She said, before holding up the cup of water and a handful of tablets, "Alright. Time for the magic feel-good pills. Can you hold the glass, or do you want me to do it?"

"I don't want you to do it," Naruto said. He reached for the glass and took it out of Tenten's hand, but his grip was so weak that it slipped from his grasp. Fortunately, Tenten had seen it coming and caught it before it could drop and spill," …Give me the stuff," He said as he begrudgingly worked the rebreather off of his face and held his breath.

"It's not a big deal if you need help," Tenten said, letting Naruto drop the pills into his mouth before helping him drink, "We're friends. I want to help you."

Naruto swallowed the bitter medicine and made a disgusted face before putting his rebreather back on, "It's not that. Remember, if I breathe on you, you could catch what I've got. That's the whole reason I'm wearing this thing, to filter out the nasty crap inside of me," He said, flicking the apparatus on his face, "I don't even want painkillers right now."

"Why?"

"If I get used to them now, won't they work less over time? I kind of want to save 'em for when I really need 'em."

Tenten gave Naruto a dull look as if to question his intelligence and/or sanity, "Naruto, you can't sleep now. I'd say that's needing them."

"Fine. Whatever, Dr. Feelgood," Naruto groused, lying back in his bed, pouting up to the ceiling, "So what's going on out there?"

Tenten smiled and leaned over, happy to have a more positive topic to talk about, "Well, the Hyuuga Clan sent some good people to gauge this area's ability to hold a ninja settlement," The Byakugan was incredibly useful in several regards when it came to that, "It's pretty exciting actually, to see them make up mock plans and everything."

"Aww, man," Naruto's eyes reflected a true sense of stir crazy, only enhanced further by a desire to be a part of his father's dream moving forward, "I wish I could see."

"I'll make sure you get a look, don't worry," Tenten said, patting him on the thigh consolingly before her smile slightly broke, "Yeah, it's just that you can tell that they're getting a little antsy too. That's not good. Between the attack they had to deal with on the way here, and Minato-sama leaving with Kakashi-sensei and your mom, there's no one here that they would accept as being in charge. You would almost be good enough, but you're down and out for the time being. We don't want them to know that you're sick with the bioweapon."

Because Naruto was leverage on Minato's side of things. He already knew. It was yet another reason that he had to survive. They were in a precarious enough position politically as it was. Without the 'threat' of jinchuuriki-Naruto hanging over the head of their potential enemies, bad things would happen.

"You know, I could get up and go around for a little while," Naruto offered, "Make the rounds. That sort of thing."

Tenten took a moment to think about it before deciding that it couldn't hurt. Naruto was still in good spirits, so he couldn't have been that unhealthy, "Alright, let's see if you can stand up," Throwing one of his arms over her shoulder, Tenten moved slowly so as not to cause him undue harm as they tried to test how stable Naruto would be on his feet.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto managed to pull himself out of bed with Tenten's help. His nerves screamed at him that movement on that level was a bad idea. Perhaps him being bedridden had been for the best after all? "This sucks!"

The weapon-user felt for her friend. Naruto was the embodiment of activity, movement, health, and vitality. Watching him struggle to remain upright even with her help made her sick inside. She wanted to give him a gigantic hug and tell him everything was going to be okay, mostly for her own sake mentally, but that was too touchy-feely for her tastes.

Also, hugging him would probably hurt him like hell.

After taking a moment to get steady on his feet, Naruto slowly distanced himself from Tenten to stand entirely under his own power. He felt like an infant learning how to stand up and walk for the first time again, only instead of a lack of motor skills, his problem was how much it hurt to just move. He was still able to though, which was a good thing.

"See? Told you," Naruto said, trying to show some bravado, despite his circumstances, "Until I start randomly bleeding from my pores and pus comes out of my eyes, I'm not a dead man walking yet."

Tenten gave a polite golf clap, "Also, ew. Can you not remind me of the last symptoms? Thinking of seeing you like that makes me want to-."

"-Cry?"

"More like throw up," She responded before pausing as a thought came to her. It took that much effort just to get Naruto to stand up and walk on his own, so by that line of thought, "…Can you dress yourself?"

From the look on Naruto's face, he hadn't thought about it either, "God, I hope so. Or else I'm gonna have to ask you to do something really awkward."

XxX

(Kaze no Kuni)

Kushina was an island girl. She was born on the gorgeous island nation of Uzu no Kuni. She enjoyed the sea, the sand, warm climates, all of that. She had spent most of her life surrounded by these things and had a legitimate fondness for them.

None of that was to be found in the desert except for the sand. Too much sand. Everywhere. Including in her shoes. And relentless, oppressive heat. Dry heat. She could feel the damage it was doing to her skin already, and she was none too pleased about it.

There was relief in sight however, as the towering skyscrapers that comprised Sora-ku to outsiders came into view. It was an imposing sight for people used to only smaller villages with buildings that didn't get much higher than five stories.

"Okay," Kushina said, weary from the heat of the sun beating down on her, "I know I was perfectly willing to come out here, but I'm cashing in on my right to bitch about this place."

"What's the matter?" Minato asked. Kushina had been rather irritable and jumpy from the moment the trip started, but that was more because they were on a quest to find someone that could help save their son's life.

Kushina turned a travel-weary gaze onto her husband. Unlike the biome she was currently suffering in, there was no heat behind it, "Other than the fact that I'm a ginger girl in the middle of the fuck-mothering desert?"

"You're not a ginger. You're just redheaded. Nagato is a ginger," Minato pointed out, "You have too much color in your skin," It was fair, but it wasn't pale.

Kushina shook her head, "Do you have any idea how hard it was just to get this skin tone on purpose without burning the hell out of myself every time I tried?" All of that trial and error, mixed with multiple sunburns over the course of her early life. Just thinking about it made her skin hurt. Of course, that could have also been the sunburn she was probably developing at that moment, "This is not from birth, honey. I had to earn it."

"Like how an angel earns its wings?" Kakashi chimed in from where he was bringing up the rear of their travel formation.

Kushina was not amused by the elite ninja's smart remarks at the moment, "Shut up, Kakashi," She said, "It's too hot to banter with you. I'll just bury you headfirst in the sand if you keep it up."

Kakashi snorted in amusement at Kushina's discomfort, "You lived on an island for most of your life. How is the heat such a big problem?" He asked.

Kushina glared in his direction for getting any kind of joy from her current circumstance, "It's not the heat, it's the sun. And unlike here, Uzu no Kuni has these things called water and shade. Between the trees and the way our genius ginger-ass ancestors set the layout of the village, there was a lot of both."

Fortunately, as time passed, a dark blot in the distance started getting larger and larger the closer they moved to it. Kushina let out a sigh of relief when she realized that she wasn't delirious enough for it to be a mirage. They were almost to the city.

From that point time passed quickly until they were finally walking amid the towering buildings that kept the sun from beating down on its inhabitants the farther they went in.

The second they got well within the city limits, Kushina had Minato create a marker somewhere so that she would never have to walk the desert again to get there. Not as long as she was with him at least. She didn't see herself heading back into Kaze no Kuni by herself for much of anything in the foreseeable future.

With a destination in sight, the trek to Sora-ku was much more tolerable for Kushina, whose mood had improved considerably once they were covered from the bright, harsh daylight by the shadows of the city.

It felt at least ten degrees cooler, and Kushina basked in the lower temperature, shutting her eyes and bathing in shadow as though it were sunlight to a shut-in, "God, this is so much better. Another hour out in that, and I would have been a two-legged lobster."

Minato chuckled at his wife's relief at being out of the heat. Some people just weren't built for some climates, apparently, "Apparently, Sora-ku was built with the tallest buildings around the outskirts so that the farther into the city you go, the cooler things get. There's always a measure of shade, you see."

Being a previous world traveler made Minato rather textbook knowledgeable about many places, whether he had been to them before or not.

"You're such a nerd, hon," Kushina said with a laugh as they walked through Sora-ku, "I guess living in this hellhole called a desert would give you all kinds of ways to cheat and beat the heat," "Let's find this person we're after and jolt on back to Naruto before I snap out of it and realize I have heat stroke."

Now she was definitely exaggerating, and Minato called her on it, "Do you really hate the desert that much?" He asked, only to get a deadpan look in return, "Apparently, yes. Okay, let's get to work. Kakashi, who is this person and how do we find them?"

Kakashi scratched his chin underneath his mask as he looked around and took in the sights of the big city. It was certainly the largest he had ever been to, "I've never come here either, you know. But she is well known," He explained, "My best guess is that we ask around, for starters. It shouldn't take too terribly long."

Kushina grinned as she sidled up to Kakashi, who leveled her with a suspicious look due to her close proximity, "You seem a lot more upbeat about this than you were back when we were back with the kids," She pointed out.

Kakashi's single visible eyebrow rose in interest, "What do you mean?"

"You seemed really uncomfortable when you were talking about medics that you knew," The First Lady of Namikaze Minato's village movement said, "Did you do something to this one that would make her want your head, or what?"

Kushina's attempt to needle Kakashi didn't result in the desired playful banter she'd been after. Instead, Kakashi visibly winced and put some distance between himself and the others, "Not to this one. It just… brings up bad memories whenever I think of medic-nin," He said cryptically before beginning to ingratiate with the crowd as he went his own separate way from Minato and Kushina, "I'll go ahead and start asking around. In a place like this, information is easy to come by. Even if her whereabouts were a secret, they wouldn't be a well-kept one."

They lost sight of him before they lost the sound of his voice as it too eventually melded with the crowd noise. Kushina suddenly felt bad, as though she'd pushed something she shouldn't have. But she'd had no idea that Kakashi would be touchy about the subject. Kakashi wasn't touchy about anything.

"What was with that? Even for him, that was pretty flighty," Kushina mumbled."

Minato stared in the direction that Kakashi had gone for several seconds before paying the redhead at his side attention once more, "How much do you know about Kakashi before he started working with me?" He asked.

That was a good question. Kushina trusted Kakashi. She knew how to get in touch with him even when she'd been isolated on Uzu no Kuni. She trusted him with the safety of her firstborn child at a time when she couldn't even trust her own clan with it. She'd worked toward the same goal he too had been working toward for years, but in the end, the answer was still disappointingly obvious.

"All of nothing," She said with a loose shrug, "I just know that he'd march himself off a cliff if you told him to, and if Jiraiya wasn't around he'd be right there in the old perv's spot in the pecking order."

Which was right below Minato, all things considered. And Jiraiya was only there because of his strength and ability, his seniority in the ninja world, and his place as the man who taught Minato how to be a shinobi in the first place. Kakashi's place had been earned with deeds that he'd performed since he'd met Minato as a young teenager.

Thinking of those days made Minato remember just how much of a hard case the masked scarecrow of a man used to be, "Kakashi's had a pretty checkered past. Believe it or not, he used to be worse than he is now when it came to people. He was raised from day one to be a complete mercenary, and that's how he lived, even years after his father died. Believe it or not, he's much better now than he was when we met."

The Kakashi of now was sarcastic, unpleasant, eerie in his ability to convey tranquil anger, and didn't seem to care about much. Least of all the majority of the people around him at any given moment, "What in the hell was he like when you met?"

Now that was something that Minato didn't want to think about. He'd take the Kakashi of today in a heartbeat over the thirteen year-old Kakashi he'd first come across, "Imagine a Kakashi about Naruto's age," Kushina shut her eyes and nodded as she did what he'd asked. Aww, little Kakashi was adorable in her mind. Minato quickly killed that image, "…Now imagine him covered in the blood of the countless battles you know he'd fought by the time you looked at him, with the deadest look you've ever seen in the eyes of someone who's still alive… and one of those eyes isn't his."

Kushina shivered at the detailed verbal demonstration that her husband had given. But that only gave way to another question. One that she could have sworn had been asked hundreds of times by the kids, but had never been answered, "Minato," She said slowly, "How did Kakashi get his Sharingan?"

And that was one question that Minato wouldn't budge on, even to his beloved wife that he shared any and everything with, "It's not my place to say. All I can tell you is that it has a lot to do with why he's sensitive about the whole medic-nin topic."

The couple left it at that and returned their attention to the pressing mission of finding the person who could help them cure their son of what ailed him.

XxX

(With Naruto – Yu no Kuni)

Tenten kept a close, watchful eye on Naruto as they walked around the village. Naruto still hadn't been able to go out and get his bearings since they had arrived, and it was a very small place to begin with. For that reason, she figured it would be fine for him to get a bit of exercise.

Keeping Naruto cooped up for any considerable period of time while he could still move about was an awful idea for the sanity of those around him.

Naruto stood up straight and to a faraway observer, his gait would have seemed normal. However, Tenten was close to him and could see him wince every so often as he tried to keep his method of walking as normal as possible, "How are you holding up?"

"I'm good," Naruto replied quickly, and entirely unconvincingly.

"Are you sure?" Tenten said skeptically.

Naruto let out a huff upon being pressed, the sound distorted through his rebreather, "I don't friggin' know. Of course I think I'm good. I'll always think I'm good until I fall out in the street," He told her honestly.

At first, Tenten didn't know how to respond. It took a moment for her to jump to the next obvious question, "Well, are you close to that happening?"

"No."

"Good."

The two friends left it at that. Now that he was up getting himself around again, it would have taken a considerable effort to get Naruto to stop. If he had the strength to feign passable health, he had the strength to make any argument to get him to go back to bed very unpleasant. He was stubborn like that.

"I was expecting to see a lot more Hyuugas around here," Naruto said, "I thought a bunch of 'em came in with Hinata and Neji."

"They're land-scouting," Tenten informed him.

Naruto stopped and turned to Tenten with a strange look in his eye, "They're already picking where they want for their grounds?" He asked in disbelief, "We haven't even gotten this place set up to agree to have us yet!"

"First come, first serve, I guess" Tenten said with a shrug, not seeing what the big deal was, "Hopefully, your dad can put his foot down so they don't take an unnecessarily huge chunk of land. I just hope they realize, they're probably not getting a big-ass castle like they have in Hi no Kuni."

She had missed just what the major issue was. The problem wasn't that the Hyuugas wanted a slab of turf for their people. The problem was if they were doing something about it right then and there. If they were just talking about it, and having a look, that was fine. If they were clearing land and leveling out space, things would become difficult.

Even if the people of the village had no problem with it, that wasn't the issue. They were in the realm of a feudal lord. None of them had the freedom to make any stakes of land. The fact that they were scoping out a village to establish their own military state would be seen as a threat or a challenge without first receiving the permission of the daimyo of the country. Minato had yet to do that. He had only come out there to check things over for the time being before heading off to find a way to speak with the daimyo if it was all to his liking.

While the Hyuugas were correct in that they would eventually be needed to help get things going building-wise sooner rather than later, they were jumping the gun. When it was time to pay the tribute tax, the imperial collectors would find what was going on in a heartbeat. From there, violence would ensue.

It had happened on smaller scales before when previous mistakes had been made.

"Tenten, are they cutting stuff down yet?" The answer to his question came from the sound of falling trees coming from not too far outside of the tiny village they stood at the edge of, "Shit-shit-shit!" Even if his body howled at him to stop moving so suddenly, Naruto forced himself to race over to where land was beginning to be cleared, hoping that they hadn't done too much in the time he'd been down and out.

Fortunately it seemed like they had started the day before, after Minato had left, because there weren't too many downed trees when he stumbled upon the group set to work. He was quick to try and put a stop to that before things went south.

Waving his arms to get attention, all Hyuuga Clan members who had their Byakugan active saw Naruto coming before he'd even seen them. Work halted as the son of the man trying to bring together as many clans as possible rushed to the middle of the would-be clearing to address them, "Hey, you guys have gotta stop! We can't start doing this yet!"

"Our people came here to begin setting this village initiative into motion," One of the older Hyuuga Clan members currently working said to Naruto in a calm, cool voice. The fact that most of them spoke like Neji was a little jarring, since he was the only Hyuuga male that Naruto was used to having extended conversations with, "Our clan head Hiashi-sama was promised a new place with fresh business, and grounds that could rival the stronghold that we left to come here."

Basically, it was time for them to take the chunk that they wanted while the getting was good. They were the first clan supporting Minato's ideals to show up in any kind of considerable numbers. They were doing what was best for their own interest, seeing to their own wants and needs first. There wasn't really anyone else around who could make them slow down or stop.

"I'm not saying you won't get it. I'm saying just wait a bit," Naruto said, tapping his foot on the ground impatiently, "I don't want to fight off imperial soldiers just because you guys can't deal with living off of the land for a bit."

Tenten covered her mouth and whispered over to Naruto, "Says the guy posted up in the town's inn."

"Not fucking helping right now," He hissed back in return.

"Why are you wearing that over your nose and mouth?" One of the Hyuugas finally asked, most of them having wondered why Naruto had taken to wearing such a thing randomly.

Naruto gave a dull look over to the person that had taken that serious moment to question his choice of accessories, "Because if I take it off, I'll kill all of you," He drawled bluntly, eliciting an elbow from Tenten that hurt more than usual, "Ow! What? I will."

The truth was the truth. He didn't have any problems misleading others, just so long as he wasn't asked to lie directly. He was no good at it.

Murmuring went up between the amassed Hyuuga Clan members after Naruto's statement, "Naruto of the Nine-Tails is so dangerous he has to wear a rebreather to filter the air from his own lungs, lest it kill enemies and allies alike."

Tenten glared at Naruto, trying to will him with her eyes to keep this from being blown any further out of proportion. It didn't quite work, "Um… that's not… wrong?" He said.

"How powerful can a jinchuuriki get?"

"Is this true? I've never seen him in battle."

"There's a reason for that. He has the power of a biju inside of him. I wouldn't doubt it."

Tenten's jaw fell at what she was hearing, "Oh my God, you've got to be kidding me," Once again, another misinterpretation of something about Naruto had led to another wild exaggeration, "This seriously can't be getting tacked onto those stupid urban legends. It can't," It was almost too stupid for Tenten to allow to happen. But if it got them to stop without anyone's feathers being ruffled, there wasn't much she could say about it.

At that moment, the entire clearing was covered in a thick plume of smoke that came from seemingly nowhere before a load croak sounded out in the air.

With Byakugans active, the Hyuuga Clan members weren't surprised by the sudden entrance, nor were Naruto and Tenten. They had seen this before. Even though they could hardly see each other, they knew when they looked at each other that they were both rolling their eyes. With a few hand-seals, Naruto managed to blow the smoke away before the person responsible for it had everything in position to deliver his intro.

Jiraiya was caught while unsealing one of the banners he had brought to hang up around him and the large toad he'd summoned to create the smoke. Upon realizing his predicament, Jiraiya turned to Naruto, his face quickly turning red.

"Brat!" Jiraiya snapped, quickly throwing the banner at Naruto now that it was useless to him, "What the hell!? You messed up my entrance!"

Naruto was glad to see Jiraiya, the man who had a serious hand in training him and teaching him how to survive in battle,

Even so, the man had a series of eccentricities that were too overbearing for Naruto to deal with sometimes. The two grated on each other's nerves easily.

Naruto ducked out of the way of flying banner and pointed defiantly at the toad summoning ninja, "They knew it was you already! We all knew it was you!"

Jiraiya stomped right up to Naruto, who followed suit and met him halfway, the two going nose-to-nose, "That's not the point! It's not to show people who I am! It's a trademark! When Jiraiya arrives, the people expect-," It was then in close proximity that he noticed Naruto's rebreather, which was becoming a theme, "Why the hell is that on your face?" Naruto pulled Jiraiya in closer and told him the reason why in confidence. Jiraiya's face quickly went grim at the sensitive information, "Ugh. No wonder Minato asked me to come instead of just leaving you lot here."

"Why are you here, Jiraiya-sama?" Tenten asked, actually respecting the man's strength and authority.

"I'm here to make sure you all don't burn down this village and everything in it before your father gets back," A wry smile came to the older man's face as he gestured to the Hyuuga Clan attempting to clear land, "It seems I made it here just in time."

Naruto glared half-heartedly, "I had it under control."

Certainly, it hadn't been the smoothest way to get things to go his way, but this time it just so happened to work.

Jiraiya reached out and ruffled Naruto's hair before his hand was swatted away, "Nice try, but you're not exactly a diplomat," Moving past Naruto, he cleared his throat before raising his voice, "Alright, let's break this up! The kid's right! You can't just start building, even if you're just staking a claim and laying the groundwork for later."

"Is there a certain plan for this area that we weren't informed of when we arrived here, Jiraiya-sama?"

"No, that's not the problem," Jiraiya explained, "This isn't free land to be taken at will. It's not like we've talked about this to any daimyos yet. If word gets back that we're making land claims, there'll be serious trouble."

XxX

(Hi no Kuni – Fire Daimyo's Court)

Knuckles white with anger, the Fire Daimyo clutched tightly at the maps and images that had been given to him by the guest of his court, "Why are you even giving me this information?"

The location of a village in a very rural part of neighboring Yu no Kuni was housing aspects of the potentially dangerous outfit gathered by Namikaze Minato. It hadn't been long ago that he had been warned of this rogue element, and now it was manifesting itself within borders of lands that he influenced.

Danzo stood before the daimyo, who sat behind a curtain as he listened to the mysterious old man, "As I told you before, it is in all of our best interests if this never comes to pass."

This time, no trickery or risks needed to be taken to get an audience with the ruler of Hi no Kuni. He had left a strong enough impression and given him and his advisors enough to think about after their first startling meeting, they had reached out to him for his council.

Shinobi were the best suited to find solutions to shinobi problems. At least, that was the idea.

"A warning will not be enough," Danzo told the Fire Daimyo, "In the end, the only solution I've ever seen be effective against my ilk is force."

This was not the solution that the Fire Daimyo wanted to hear, "I will not send my standing army into the meat grinder that is a battle with the Yellow Flash," He said sternly. Though not because of his apprehension to battle. It was just a rational course of action, "The man is a known army-killer."

Danzo shook his head, "You don't need your army. All you need are the Guardian Ninja."

The massive room had been quiet before, but the silence became eerie after Danzo's proposal. No matter how long it dragged on, there was no chance of Danzo taking his words back. Eventually, the Fire Daimyo had to address the matter, "How do you know about them?"

A shrewd smile came to Danzo's face, "My lord, they're a poorly kept secret, and you know it."

The Fire Daimyo's fake surprise quickly fell, his attempted veil of deceit being rendered worthless, "True. But then again, most people don't have the courage to speak about them aloud."

The Guardian Ninja were a group of powerful shinobi, somehow swayed into the service of the Fire Daimyo. However it was done, they all served in secrecy. Though not really. The word around the court was that no one was supposed to know that they existed. Most civilians in Hi no Kuni didn't. All nobles did. But even they didn't know anything about them beyond that.

Not their names. Not their abilities. Not what they looked like. Nothing that could help a potential dissenter prepare for the eventual clandestine attack that would come his way once the Fire Daimyo learned of the danger that you represented. That mystery, coupled with just enough information to make your mind run wild, and the rarity of anyone finding enough evidence to credit them for doing just about anything that they became associated with in regards to their feats inspired fear.

It was all according to the Fire Daimyo's own preference to keep things in check.

Fear was the emotion that led to the easiest obedience from those with lesser power.

The Guardian Ninja were a tool primarily used to maintain order. They worked on their own freelance missions, but came when they were summoned by the Fire Daimyo, which was rare. Danzo wanted them front and center to take out the people he had identified as an enemy. And now that he had convinced the Fire Daimyo that they were a future enemy to him as well, it was just a matter of getting him to set them in action.

Danzo smiled disarmingly, all the more effective with his frail, injured appearance, "I'm just an old man, Daimyo-sama. I've lived long enough and survived so many things that I shouldn't have that death only seems like the door to the next stage of existence. If my death for knowing about the Guardian Ninja is the price I have to pay to warn someone who can do something about this accursed gathering of shinobi clans, so be it. You are that person. Call for the Guardians."

"And turn a country that pays tribute to me into a warzone?" The Fire Daimyo said skeptically. He was aware of the might of the man who led this movement, "I will not sit here and pretend that a fight against forces led by the Yellow Flash can end in anything else than outright bloodshed."

It seemed that Danzo had the proper response to everything. He was not set back by the Fire Daimyo's distaste for taking on Namikaze Minato directly. Danzo wouldn't have done such a foolish thing either. It was why he was working so hard to enlist another formidable force to do it instead,

"The Yellow Flash is away from the main group, along with two others of his inner circle," The bandaged old shinobi said, "There are children and out-of-shape veterans stationed in this place. Blood will have to be shed, but not much of yours. As I have shown you, the village leader is a traitor for agreeing to, so anything that happens to that part of your country should only be seen as a warning to the rest of your domain."

Danzo's words were convincing. A mix of flattery in regards to the military might that his mark potentially commanded, and confidence in his judgment to move in order to protect his power in Hi no Kuni and abroad. Threats against the daimyo's standing were to be snuffed out by a leader who had the means to do so and to replace what would physically be lost in the process.

Homes could be rebuilt, crops could be regrown, and areas could be resettled if destruction was truly that complete. In the end, it could be argued that in regards to the Fire Daimyo's complete control of the country, an attack would be the economical choice.

"Break the back of this entire farce of an idea," Danzo said to drive home his point, "No one will ever question Hi no Kuni's might or standing, and no other mercenary outfit will ever attempt a power grab of this sort again under your reign, be it Senju, Uchiha, or otherwise."

XxX

(One Day Later – Sora-ku)

It had taken a day of tracking down information, but in the end, it hadn't been as difficult to locate the person Kakashi promised they could find in the city.

Kushina stepped out of the way, giving a wide berth to a pair of local kids who ran past her laughing. Not that she didn't love children, but they were in the part of town that statistically figured there was a better chance than not that one of those kids was a pickpocket.

"Why is this place so out of the way?" She asked, walking with Minato and Kakashi through the alley that the latter had led them to, "I can understand wanting secrecy

"This lady isn't exactly a people person," Kakashi explained, maneuvering past the people in their way as he led on, "She's been around for a long time, and apparently seen enough to the point where she doesn't have a lot of faith in the future of the shinobi world."

Minato smiled brightly at the thought that he and this medic shared some common ground, "Well that's at least one thing we have similar thoughts on. That's good," Kakashi turned around and shook his head silently, "No?"

Kakashi hated to debunk the man's hopes that things would be simple, but it was better that he went in mentally prepared, "Minato-sama, you are severely underestimating just how jaded this woman is. Just from word of mouth, well let's just say I don't expect an easy time of it. Here we are."

They had come to a section of alley cordoned off by thick sections of curtains. They could see nothing beyond them, and they didn't seem to serve a purpose. Other places in the city, mostly around the outskirts, used them to block whatever blowing sand and heat-creating sunlight their position in the city didn't keep from reaching plaguing them.

Their application in this alley was not as practical, but there was an intimidating aspect to them.

Minato wished he could see past them to what lay beyond, but that was likely one of the points to them being there, "I'll go alone," He declared. Before he could step forward, Kushina grabbed his forearm to stall his progress.

"Why?" She asked, brow furrowed. They had come there together. She had expected them to go together the entire way.

"If I wind up in a trap, it's better if there are people outside instead of all of us getting stuck together," Minato said as he started to head down, "Besides, we're asking for help here. It would probably go smoother if it was one-on-one. It would make it seem like the request it is instead of a veiled threat."

It was just another reason not to invite Kushina along, unfortunately enough. She was a very emotional woman, and their son was involved. If things didn't go smoothly, she would be quick to turn things into chaos.

"Just so you know, I have no problems with making this a veiled threat," Kushina called after him, only proving that point.

"I know," Minato answered back, his voice getting more distant, "If it was you, it wouldn't even be veiled."

"Eh, it's the thought that counts," He heard Kushina say to him before he began to focus on what was ahead of him instead.

Minto moved past layer after layer of curtains, taking great care that this wasn't some sort of ambush. Eventually, he came to a door on the other side and took a breath before opening it and stepping inside. The darkened parlor he stepped into was covered wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling in combat puppets.

Even if they weren't moving, those things were creepy.

"They're not operational," An old man's voice called out to him, directing Minato's attention to the far end of the hall, "You don't have to worry. My sister and I make these puppets as something more of a hobby nowadays. We don't build them for other shinobi any longer."

Minato got closer and saw an old man with thick, long eyebrows and heavy-lidded eyelids, making it seem as though they were closed. He wore a turban and loose-fitting robes that many desert-dwelling folks chose to dress in.

"Hello, my name is Namikaze Minato," Minato introduced himself, bowing respectfully to the elderly man, "I don't want to impose on you for too long. I've come to speak with the medic known as Chiyo."

"Ah, you're that man," The old shinobi said, apparently recognizing Minato's name, "Very well then. Come with me," Minato followed him deeper into the dingy building, eventually coming to a pond set up in the middle in an outdoor courtyard, "Sister, we have a visitor," he said, as he then left them alone.

Minato took a moment to take in the splendor of the modest little hideaway and then turned his attention to the old woman sitting at the other side of the pond. She had grey hair held in a bun and wore desert robes similar to the old man who had greeted him, as well as a brown headband. Her eyes were closed peacefully as a fishing rod rested in her grasp.

Smiling amicably, Minato walked over to her side and bowed, introducing himself similarly as to how he did to the old man, only to get no response. After a few seconds still in his bow, he used the closer proximity to scrutinize the old woman and found no signs of life coming from her. No color in her face, nor any sign of breathing.

Was she… faking being dead, just to get out of speaking with him?

Instead of jumping to conclusions, losing his temper, or trying to force the issue any, Minato simply sat down next to her at the side of the pond and waited patiently. Minutes dragged on, with Minato never saying anything. He just took the opportunity to enjoy the tranquility. Very rarely did he get the chance to simply sit and rest. There was always something that needed to be done, something to ponder about the future.

After quite some time of just absorbing the atmosphere of the courtyard, he spoke to the nonresponsive Chiyo, "You know, if you really were to have died here, I couldn't think of few better places to pass on," He said, somewhat playing along with her faux-death ruse, "I like this place."

It took close to a minute, but Chiyo did eventually respond to him, "I do too. That's why my brother and I have it to ourselves," She said, opening her eyes and looking Minato's way as she began to move around, "I don't know why Ebizo let you in, but you're here now, and it doesn't look like you're leaving until you say what you need to say. So what do you want?"

Minato took a deep breath before he began to explain his circumstances, "I'm sure you're aware of the Uchiha Clan bioweapon?"

Chiyo snorted in an undignified manner, "Disgusting piece of work. Hard to believe human hands created such a thing."

"We've come across formula for the antidote, only we don't know where to find the materials, or what most of them even are," Minato continued, reaching into his clothes and pulling out a copy of the formula that he had taken down from Tenten, "That's why I came to you. A lot of what's on this list is apparently rare, and we don't have any high-level medic-nin with us that could help."

Chiyo took a long, hard look at Minato, an impassive look in her eyes as she scrutinized the man before her, "And why should I help you?"

"Having someone willing to make an antidote that's unaffiliated with any clan wouldn't just help me. It would help countless people caught up in the battles between the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan," Minato offered with a smile, "You would save lives," No reaction from the wizened old woman, "And of course, I would be willing to compensate you more than fairly. For something like this, money isn't an-."

Chiyo cut him off before he could attempt to appeal to her wallet, "It's not an issue of money, kiddo," She said, "I don't need money. As a matter of fact, there's nothing in particular you have that I want."

Minato narrowed his eyes. Chiyo wasn't going to do anything for him. She wasn't beating around the bush, but she was being evasive on saying 'no' directly, "You won't help."

He didn't have to be an expert at reading between the lines to tell that much.

A silence fell between the two of them as Chiyo turned her attention to the fishing rod in her hands. Minato's mood had dropped significantly since he'd come into the building. The optimism he'd brought with his party to Sora-ku was slowly slipping away, and the woman before him was the one responsible.

Yet he didn't leave. No matter how Chiyo tried to ignore his presence, he remained seated nearby. Until she gave him a definite 'no', he was not getting up and walking out of that place.

Eventually tiring of the tense silence, the resident medic was the first to speak the next time.

"I'm old," Chiyo said bluntly, "There used to be a time when I believed that one day, all of the killing would stop. I became a medic because I wanted to save as many lives as I could, so that we could all see that day. But no. Every day, shinobi come up with new, crueler ways to destroy each other. My medical expertise was twisted into coming up with better, stronger poisons to kill my enemies and the enemies of my family."

So she had been a Sand Nomad. Clearly not any longer, as settling down in any place was simply not what they did, especially a place as large as Sora-ku.

With a wry, meaningless smile, Chiyo continued, "Your words sound sweet. It's nice to think about, that your idea would make the world a better place, but as far as I can see, you'll have just come up with a more organized way for the little boys and little girls of this world to learn how to kill each other. I did."

Minato let out an entirely humorless laugh. He'd had aspects of his dream thrown in his face before, about how it was impossible to coordinate the respective clans to work together for the good of them all on a large-scale. About how his village would cannibalize itself before it even reached its second generation. But it was the first time that he was told that even if it all came together, it still wouldn't matter in the end.

"You're right. I may fail. And even if I succeed, a lot might not change," He was willing to admit after taking a long, hard look at the road ahead, and what might have awaited him at the end of it, "But it's better than sitting back, knowing that the way things are now, it's not sustainable. The Shinobi Sect will bleed itself out. We'll wipe ourselves from the face of the earth. I refuse to do nothing when I believe in my heart that this is the right thing to do. That it will make things better. But because you're jaded and broken, you won't help us?" His blue-eyed stare became icy cold. Chiyo swore she could feel a chill on her heart just from the imposing look she was receiving. It was impressive, "You'll let my son die because you've seen how ugly this world is and you don't believe in it anymore?"

"Ah yes, your son," Chiyo's wrinkled mouth pulled back in a smile, having finally come to the heart of the matter. This was the purpose Minato had come for, of course, "The main reason even half of these clans are listening to anything you have to say about banding together. Stand with us to make peace, or be annihilated by the son of the Yellow Flash: the youngster that wields the power of the strongest of the nine tailed beasts."

Minato was thoroughly offended. He knew the thought existed. Kushina and Naruto thought it sometimes, even if they didn't say it. He knew Tenten definitely did. He could see it in her eyes when she sent Naruto on certain missions. She was a good little soldier, but her loyalty to Naruto was built on time in the trenches. It was true friendship.

However, to hear it aloud from this judgmental old woman was simply more than he would bear, "I don't use Naruto as a threat against clans."

Never actively. It was always implied. Minato knew that Naruto wasn't dangerous. Kurama was locked up tight behind the incredible sealing handiwork of Kushina, and Naruto seemed to be on good terms with the fox regardless. It was everyone else with their preconceived notions that had turned Naruto into something modern day bedtimes stories were told about to scare young children.

Chiyo's elderly cackle would have made a lesser person's bones rattle at the sound, "Even worse then. Whether it's actively done or not, you've allowed this picture to be painted of 'Naruto of the Nine-Tails'. The abomination; the boy with the Kyuubi sealed inside of him. A human with all the power of a biju at his disposal," She said, clicking her tongue in disappointment, "You have your child positioned to be something akin to your secret weapon, only there's no real threat behind it. He's a wicked-looking blade with dull edges or a piece of imposing artillery with no ammunition. He's a set piece to your would-be regime."

Minato slammed his hands on the table and stood abruptly, "Don't call my boy by that title and use it so insultingly," He said, his quiet voice tranquilly holding back the anger he was feeling, "You don't get to call him that, speaking the way you are right now. You say his name. His real name. Uzumaki Naruto is a wonderful ninja."

The father was willing to bare his teeth for his son. How sweet. So Naruto wasn't a tool to be used, at least not by choice. But the cards one was dealt could only ever be the hand they had to use to play, "I'm sure he is. But the reputation of a man is not what you needed to make your outfit known. You needed more," Chiyo continued.

Minato let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair, staring up at the haze in the darkened parlor at the ceiling, "All I needed was my son. He's given the last five years of his life to stand at my side. He'd never met me until five years ago, and yet he was willing to fight and work for my dream. At least you're willing to refer to him as a human being."

Chiyo let out a hum at the bit of common ground finally found between the two, "I've never bought into the foolish notion that a jinchuuriki is anything more than a person. A person with extraordinary, unstable power at their disposal, but still just flesh and blood in the end."

Even if it came with a caveat, now that he had an opening in their discussion, Minato pounced all over it, "So you acknowledge that my boy is just that, a boy. Not a monster, not an abomination. He's a fourteen year-old boy with a future. I'm begging you."

"Fourteen," Chiyo said, trying out the word in her mouth, trying to find some sort of meaning in it beyond what it was meant to describe. She found none. It was a number to an age, nothing more, "Namikaze-san, children die all the time. Younger than your son. I've seen them. I see it almost every day," She spat bitterly, "And you want me to save him? Why should I? Saving his life will likely end dozens, if not hundreds more lives indirectly in the future."

This was nothing more than a conversation with a brick wall. Minato could find no way to convince her, no way to get through to her, "Other than the fact that I'm paying an arm and a leg, that I'm offering you a free service of your choice in the future?" He said sarcastically, "You can make more of it on your own. If not for Naruto, my son, realize that you would save so many others."

Playing on her sense of philanthropy now, was he? Very well then. It was time to shoot that notion down as well. Most of the goodwill for her fellow man that she'd had in the past withered and died a long time ago.

"If it became known that I had the cure, what would it have mattered in the end? People come to me to buy the cure to the Five Elements Virus, and then what? They or someone else will simply go on to create something even worse. This isn't the point. The point is that you have nothing. Nothing to inspire me to take any sort of action," Chiyo took a pause as a small smile came to her wrinkled lips, "Well, that's not entirely true. What I want from you is to see if you're really the kind of man you hold yourself up to be."

Minato worked his jaw around, as if trying to test any words that came to mind before they could fly out. Everything he thought of came with some sort of horrendous curse word attached to it.

"I want to see how much conviction you truly have. Will you stay the course, even knowing that you could realistically lose everything you love in the process? I want to see just what kind of legs your little movement has to stand on. Without the cloud of the jinchuuriki hanging over the heads of your allies, I wonder if they would still rally to your cause."

With that, Minato stood back up, smoothing out his clothes and turning to leave, as dignified as possible, "A simple 'no' would have sufficed," He said calmly as he strode away, "I could have used the time I wasted listening to you trying to think of another way to save my son. I only hope that if I ever reach your age, I won't be as bitter and regretful as you seem to be. Goodbye."

Before he could get away entirely, Chiyo's voice, now taunting to him despite the fact that it her tone did not lend to such thoughts, reached out to him, "When you lose your son the way I lost my son, my daughter-in-law and even my grandson, come back and say the same thing," She said earnestly, "If you can, and you make me believe you're the man you carry yourself as, the antidote will still be important to you, and I'll gather the materials to make it then. As many as you need."

He barely chose to listen. What they needed clearly wasn't here. By the second half of her declaration, he was halfway down the parlor and out of the door.

XxX

(With Naruto – Yu no Kuni)

Despite the fact that he was the spitting image of Minato, Naruto fought much more like Jiraiya or even Kushina. Application of force whenever available, first and foremost. Minato tried to give him some pointers on trying to fight like him, but Naruto lacked the finesse and speed to make it work for him.

It didn't help that Minato had been taught in a way that was counterproductive to Naruto's teaching. Minato's style had been adjusted to use as few hand-seals as necessary for more speed. Naruto used many hand-seals, because of his proficiency in fuuinjutsu as a little boy.

Fortunately, Jiraiya was a good drill instructor capable of nurturing a fighting method that suited Naruto while he had been whipping him into true shinobi shape.

While Naruto might not have lived up to the hearsay that existed about him as a jinchuuriki, he was getting closer to it every day.

Well, he had been, before he'd come down with the Five Elements Virus.

…Thinking about that was depressing enough to draw Naruto out of his technique training.

'Man,' He thought, looking at his own shaking hands as he stood alone by a massive rock, scarred and missing chunks from his constant attacks, 'It isn't really gonna end like this, is it?' Clenching his hands caused great pain, and he could feel his grip strength getting weaker and weaker, 'Kurama?'

"I don't know what to tell you," Kurama said to Naruto alone, "Whatever will be, will be."

'You're surprisingly Zen about this,' Naruto thought back in return, 'I thought you'd be raging right about now.'

"Maybe later," Kurama told the young jinchuuriki, with a calmness that Naruto hadn't expected, "Right now I've just been looking back on my life and… realizing how amazing it was. I really made the most of the whole terrifying, all-powerful chakra monster thing. Did you know that? I mean, I've seen clans rise and fall, razed budding nations to the ground, I even had my own pet human."

'You did? Who?'

"You, of course. Keep up," Kurama said, ignoring the angry vibes he got from Naruto immediately thereafter, "Now that might change, the realer this whole death thing becomes, but for the time being… eh. I don't care."

'Think you could get some of that calm to rub off on me?'

"It's not necessary. You just need something to do."

True enough. With nothing to occupy himself with, Naruto's thoughts of his own mortality were that much more prominent. His attention span wasn't large enough to preoccupy himself with the little things for long.

Darkness suddenly filled Naruto's vision as a hand covered his eyes playfully, "Guess who!"

Naruto grinned underneath his rebreather, as he could not only feel the hand, he could feel the fact that the ground was no longer beneath him. He only had one friend that he knew of who could fly, let alone fly and easily hold him up at the same time, "Hey, Fuu."

Instead of answering immediately, Fuu took a moment to remove her hand from Naruto's eyes to give him a proper hug from behind. The hug kind of hurt, because Fuu was very strong, and with his current circumstances he was rather sensitive. But he would take it regardless. It wasn't a big deal.

The nice thing about being friends with Fuu was that she was always happy to see him. She was happy to see just about anyone that considered her a friend, but she shared the similarity of being a jinchuuriki with Naruto, although her own status as such wasn't nearly as publicized. That gave them something easy to bond over right off the bat, even if she hadn't been absurdly pleasant to be around, which she was.

"You haven't come to see Fuu since you've come to the village," Fuu said, her voice taking on a tinge of disappointment, "Fuu's seen everyone but you. She had to come and find you."

Naruto did feel bad about it once she'd brought it up. He'd even seen Anko, yet hadn't seen Fuu, "Sorry. There's just a lot of…stuff going on right now. I don't think it'd be a lot of fun to be around me anyway," Especially with what was to start getting worse soon.

The green-haired girl frowned and set Naruto down on a sturdy limb high up in the trees of the forest, "Fuu is concerned."

Naruto stood and leaned against the trunk of the tree, looking of into the sky to avoid trying to make eye contact, "What are you freaked out about? Nothing's wrong."

"Don't say it's nothing! It's not nothing," Fuu exclaimed, stepping closer to Naruto, "You're sick. Really sick."

Naruto winced. He hadn't talked to her about it yet, so he figured she might not have known about it. Unfortunately, she did. Again, it wasn't fair that he hadn't spent any time with her yet to tell her himself, "Yeah. I'm guessing you would have heard about that."

"Fuu is afraid for you," The normally peppy girl said quietly, reaching out and taking his hands, "What if we can't find a way to get more antidotes made?"

Naruto shook his head, ridding himself of such a negative idea, "Don't think about that," He told her gently before speaking more resolutely, "I'm not dead yet. I'm still alive, I'm still up and moving around. I can still fight."

There wasn't any giving up now. His heart was still beating. As long as it did, there was still a chance that he would survive.

XxX

As nice as it was to spend time a peaceful little village, Anko was bored.

It wasn't a knock against the place, it was just that the bulk of her life had been spent fighting for that very life; doing dangerous things for the sake of money and to tickle her fancy. For the time being, the most exciting thing she had to look forward to were the local sweets.

"So is this what your life is like most of the time?" Anko asked, taking a bite of the dango she had ordered from the small establishment in town. She had managed to drag Hinata off for company due to the fact that her clan members had next to nothing to do after their plans to begin claiming land for their soon-to-be clan grounds had been postponed, "I mean, I know you go on missions some of the time, but you're an heir and everything. They probably have you shut up in an ivory tower most of the time, yeah?"

Hinata hadn't been familiar with the pushy woman before coming to Yu no Kuni to meet with Minato's contingent, but had very quickly gotten to know enough about Mitarashi Anko to wonder why she seemed to like her. They were nothing alike.

"Ah…" Hinata started to say unsurely, "Not so much," She was well-protected quite often, true, but she still did quite a lot of work while she could. She needed the experience in the field now, because she wouldn't be getting it once she was actually in-position as the Hyuuga Clan leader, "If I never did anything, my clansmen wouldn't respect me once I took over. The more missions I take successfully, the more faith they'll have in my ability to lead."

Anko worked the empty stick around in her mouth idly as she sat in the village square with Hinata, "Oh. That makes sense. Is it working?"

It was a difficult question to answer, and not just because it made her stop and take a good, hard look at herself and her progress, "Yes and no," Hinata said, "They understand that I have the best intentions in mind for all of them, and I do believe I have their support, but not their faith. They believe much more in my cousin. Neji-niisan is a much better shinobi than I am."

So it wasn't strictly a meritocracy, eh? That was rare to see in the Elemental Nations.

"So if he's your first cousin and he's that damn good, why isn't he in line to take over?" Anko asked, trying to sate her curiosity over what seemed to be a low self-esteem issue for the girl she was spending time with, "That'd be good enough for him to have a claim in most clans that operate through lineage," Either she saw how depressed Hinata seemed to get after she posed the question, or figured that any answer she gave would proceed to bore her, "On second thought, never you mind. I'm sure it's some complicated clan noise that would take way too long to explain."

Hinata was silently thankful. The Hyuuga Clan had a lot of respect from others for their abilities and the way they carried themselves in the outside world with an air of nobility in what could be a savage world, but the issue of their Main Family and Branch Family troubles was a sensitive subject for all of them.

Fortunately it was a gorgeous day outside. Watching the people of the village buzz around them and go about their day was something they could spend quite a bit of time doing before it got old.

Since she had come to village a number of days ago, Hinata had taken note of particular people that she saw in certain areas at particular times of the day. It was just part of her clan's way of being attentive to their surroundings.

This practice allowed her to pick out a face in the crowd that she had never seen before, something that immediately caught her attention.

A man in white and black garments one would expect on a monk blended with the populace better than he had any right to. Almost automatically, Hinata activated her Byakugan and recoiled at the sight that her enhanced vision granted her.

Anko squinted curiously at the sight of the man in the robes. He seemed starkly out of place in the small, out-of-the-way village that they were guests of, "A monk? Huh. Didn't know there was a monastery anywhere around here," She turned to Hinata to get her opinion, but stopped when she saw the stunned look on the girl's face and her mouth somewhat agape in shock, "What's the matter with you, sweets?"

"That's… that monk," She replied, trying to regain her more dignified manner of speaking.

"You know him?" Anko asked, wondering where on earth she would have come across someone of that nature. Her clan didn't strike her as particularly religious, "That's weird."

Hinata took a moment to regain her composure and deactivate her Byakugan. She had seen what she'd needed to, and it was an invasive doujutsu. She had enough respect for the people around her to only use it when needed, "No. It's his chakra. I think that man is dangerous."

Anko noticed two things that Hinata likely overlooked, overwhelmed by the apparent potency of his chakra. The strange sash with the kanji for Hi no Kuni on it was the first and most jarring, as it was something associated with what most people had only heard hearsay about.

The vaunted Guardian Ninja organization.

The second was the fact that he was looking right at the two of them, his dark eyes glaring sternly, brows fixed in a serious expression.

"You know… I think you might be right about that."

Everyone needed to get together, and quickly. If that sash was what Anko thought it was, there was no way this would be good for any of them.

XxX

While most of the outsider ninja contingent were quite bored by their current station in Yu no Kuni, Shino was quite enjoying himself. It was a country full of thick forests, and better yet, it was a place he had never been before. That meant plenty of insect specimens he had never received the opportunity to study before.

It was a shame that Naruto and Tenten couldn't appreciate his hobby, no matter how much the two of them to their credit tried to. But that was fine. It took all different kinds of people to make up the world, and they were still good friends regardless.

He wasn't getting the full satisfaction out of his chosen pastime that he normally would have though. This vacation would have been much more relaxing if Naruto hadn't been suffering through a debilitating illness. No matter what he did, his mind always went back to the moment that he and the others were caught in Uchiha Sasuke's distraction that allowed him to escape, and infected them all with the Five Elements Virus.

Shino's mind always went back to Naruto declining the antidote so that he and Hana could be cured. No matter what happened, even in death Naruto would have his full loyalty for that.

As he thought to himself, one of his kikaichu flew in front of him and buzzed around in a particular pattern. Shino's eyebrows rose behind his sunglasses at the message. He was not alone.

"Do you always spend time alone, this far away from other people?" A woman's voice called out to him at that moment, "That's so sad, and dangerous. Would you like me to keep you company?"

Shino rose up and turned around to face the stranger, pushing his sunglasses up on his face, "I am never alone. What do you want?"

He had been approached by a woman with long, flowing dark red hair. She wore a backless dark pink gi with unattached sleeves, light purple shorts that accentuated her attractive figure, and black high-heeled boots, "Not even going to ask my name?" She said with a seductive smile, bringing attention to the beauty mark underneath her lip, "Don't you want to get to know me?"

The insects inside of Shino buzzed angrily at the threat they could feel this woman potentially posed him, "No. Leave."

As she walked around, circling the area, the sway of her hips temporarily drew Shino's eyes to the sash at her waist, marked with the kanji for 'fire', "How odd. A boy more interested in playing with bugs than with girls," She taunted lightly, "Well, I guess it's up to me to teach you some very important things about women. After all, it's something every man should know before they die."

Well, trouble's afoot. Violent trouble. The kind of violent trouble that can only be solved by, you guessed it, more violence! Hooray for violence!

With this new danger at the doorstep of our collective heroes, how will all of this transpire?

Why do I keep resorting to Dragonball Z cliffhanger guy when I do these?

All these questions, and more, will be answered next time.

…Maybe.

…Possibly.

I don't know! What do you want from me? I do this shizz for the free!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed.

Kenchi out.