A/N: I'm so salty this chapter took a whole month.

Good news is I'm already 1k into the next chapter, so it SHOULD get done by next Monday without issue!

Also, my roommate totally misread Ibiki's name as Bikini and now I'm stuck picturing him in a bikini and if I HAVE TO LIVE WITH THIS MENTAL IMAGE SO DO YOU THANKS.

…one reader mentioned that they feel like the technical aspects of my writing are a little worse than before, even though they still think the plot's going great. As I was writing this chapter, I actually ended up wondering if maybe it's the pacing that might be the issue? Lately, with me writing the chapters over multiple weeks, I also started and stopped and started and stopped instead of writing them all in one sitting like I was doing before. I'm not entirely sure if that's what the reviewer meant, as honestly I find the review system for ff net really hard to navigate, but if anyone else feels like maybe my pacing's been suffering due to how the chapters are being written right now, let me know! I tried to have my roommate specifically check over my pacing on this chapter, but I still feel it's weak in places, and it just seems like the most likely culprit here.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Hope you all enjoy! Sorry again for the wait, and I hope you guys had a great holiday season, whatever you celebrate!

And, just to reiterate from my outtakes file… RIP MY GOAL OF FINISHING THIS BOOK BY THE END OF THE YEAR A MOMENT OF SILENCE PLEASE.

Naruto grimaces at the grimy stone walls, water lapping at his ankles. "This looks familiar…" he muses aloud, and his voice echoes oddly through the tunnels.

He squints, trying to peer into the shadows and figure out which direction to go, but the darkness is too thick.

"Guess I just pick one then, huh…" Naruto strokes at his chin, like Jiji sometimes does, then points with a flourish. "This way!"

There's no response except the unsettling echo, and he can't help but chuckle nervously as he edges down his chosen direction.

He walks what feels like forever, no sound but dripping water and his own sloshing footsteps, and he's just about ready to turn back and take the other path when suddenly the tunnel opens into a wide open space.

A glowing red eye cracks open from the shadows.

"Impudent whelp…"

Naruto gulps at the rumbling voice that shakes the walls and stirs the stagnant water into making small waves.

Suddenly, he remembers why this place looks familiar.

Natsu leaps forward, scraping his arms as he braces into a roll, and barely dodges the line of kunai that pepper the ground behind him. He spins as soon as he finds solid footing again, crossing his arms into a block. He side-steps as soon as the enemy shinobi's arm makes contact, kunai barely missing his face, and Natsu has had it with opponents being so. Much. Faster than him!

He lights fire down his arms as he tries to shift his block into a hold, but the enemy leaps back with a snarl and another spray of thrown kunai.

Natsu dodges again, then throws himself down to avoid a second shinobi as they lunge overhead. He rolls sharply to the side and pushes back to his feet with a snarl.

"Jiraiya was right then…" Sakura-chan muses, sounding shocked, and Natsu spares a moment to be confused as to why that surprises her before he has to dodge again.

He retaliates with a fiery kick, grinning savagely when it connects.

"You really are a great fighter… I could never-"

"Sa-kura-chan-!" Natsu groans, kicking out a scythe of flame that forces the enemy shinobi to leap in the air - he brings his hands to his mouth, only to cut himself off, coughing lightly as he leaps away from the shinobi he'd kicked before.

Stupid stupid- he doesn't bother to finish, cutting the thought off abruptly as the second shinobi lands and leaps forward again.

His hand twinges as he blocks, and on the other side of the wagon, he hears Sasuke shout.

He hesitates, disengaging for a moment and expecting that heavy weight of exhaustion from before he and Sakuni beat up that apparition.

Nothing happens though, so he grins savagely at the enemy shinobi, slamming his fist into an open palm.

"You guys gonna give me a real fight anytime soon?" he snarks, as fire sparks around his hands.

It's uncomfortably warm, but it's not burning yet.

His grin sharpens, and then Natsu decides he doesn't want to wait anymore and he leaps towards the shinobi, fire spreading to engulf his fists, flickering at his feet-

He thinks he hears one of them mutter 'kekkei genkai' under their breath, like it's a curse, and he'd correct them, really, except then a third shinobi shows up, making a sharp gesture, and Natsu's opponents pull back, leaping away.

"Oi! Don't run, we've barely gotten started!" he shouts, more than ready to chase after them-

A hand lands solidly on his shoulder and Natsu snaps his head around to get an eyeful of Jiraiya's chest.

"Naruto's still unconscious," the man says, and the urge to hunt those bastards down and beat their faces in doesn't quite disappear, but.

Natsu's got priorities, and making sure his team is safe is #1.

He spares a glance towards the trees the shinobi disappeared into, before turning to follow Naruto's scent.

Sasuke's spinning a senbon between his fingers that smells like Naruto's blood, his red eyes trained unerringly on the forest.

"By all rights, he should be dead." Sasuke says, nearly casual.

There's a faint undertone though, and he smells like anger, and something that might be fear too.

Natsu glances down, and it's Sakura who looks at the faint mark on Naruto's throat and remembers lessons on anatomy and exactly which points to hit to kill a person.

She agrees with Sasuke in a numb, horror-filled voice.

Naruto's still breathing though, and not even quickly or shallowly. He breathes like he's asleep, and he doesn't look much different either, barring the slight traces of blood on the collar of his jacket.

"They went after Naruto first, right?" Natsu asks Sasuke, "cause I heard him hit the ground before I had to dodge the kunai."

Sasuke glances over at him, then turns back towards the forest. "Yeah, I think so. I saw the flash of silver when I glanced back to check- make sure the dobe was watching his flank, and I'd already been moving before the other senbon got anywhere near me."

"So…" Natsu muses slowly, as Jiraiya walks over, "If they aimed for Naruto first, were they just lucky? Or did they know he was…" he trails off as Jiraiya shakes his head, gesturing to the civilians huddled on the wagon-front.

Sasuke's eyes narrow sharply as he turns back to look at Naruto. "Why wouldn't they just go for all of us at once though? That way no one would have any warning."

"Cause the last thing any sane shinobi wants is someone like the kid going on a rampage. Everyone knows, on a team like this, to hit people like him first. Better to give us warning, than to miss the strike on him and end up with a full berserker fury on their hands." Jiraiya says, eyes narrowed. "Though that doesn't explain how they knew."

"U-um… shinobi-san…" one of the civilians stutters, and Jiraiya looks up with a near-imperceptible sigh.

"Yeah, let's get you guys back to the village before anyone else comes crawling out of the trees, shall we?" He grins at them, and both the woman and child immediately relax a bit.

The man's shoulders tense further, but Jiraiya doesn't question it, scooping Naruto into his arms smoothly, so Natsu decides to leave it.

For now.

"Kid still hasn't woken up, huh?" Jiraiya asks, slipping back into the room they've rented at the local inn.

"Nope," Natsu says, mostly focused on a more mental argument with Sakura-chan as to whether he can use his magic to dry her hair.

She keeps insisting it'll damage the strands, but Natsu did it to his own all the time without issue so he's pretty sure she's just bein' a baby about it.

Sasuke sighs, and in the moment when Sakura-chan's attention shifts, Natsu brings his arms up, pressing the hair between his hands, and starts warming them with his magic. Fire licks out over his fingers occasionally because his control is shot and he grimaces, but nothing burns.

Sakura-chan doesn't realize until he tries to turn up the heat and the fire spreads to flicker down past his wrists.

She shrieks so loudly he reflexively jerks his hands away to cover his ears.

"Sakura-chaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

Sasuke rubs distractedly at his shoulder. It doesn't hurt, really. But sometimes it's like he's just aware of it, for no particular reason.

It pisses him off, and he forcibly jerks his hand away.

Natsu shouts, but when he glances over the idiot's still just having his one-sided argument with Sakura about their hair, so he scoffs and turns back toward the window.

Nothing's changed, in the second he took to glance away, but there's something wrong here. Jiraiya knows it, and Sasuke's pretty sure Natsu does too.

He realizes he's rubbing at his shoulder again, and glares at his reflection in the glass. The mark looks too much like the three tomoe of a sharingan, and he hates it. Orochimaru was aiming for him, and Sasuke can't help but wonder if the man has some sort of grudge against the Uchiha.

The curse-seal looks like a mockery, really.

He has the mad urge to just rip it off, as though it isn't painted invisibly over his whole body, through his entire chakra network.

Natsu laughs, and Sasuke resists the urge to strangle him.

A tired groan distracts him, and he turns just slightly to look at Naruto without looking away from the window.

Slitted purple eyes flicker open and shut. Sasuke activates his Sharingan nearly on impulse, but there's no active chakra being used, so he doesn't see anything that isn't already there. The colors of the dobe's eyes might be a little more vivid, but-

He just doesn't know.

Even Kakashi-sensei was only an interloper into his family's dojutsu and he doesn't have anyone to teach him true Uchiha techiques-, the centuries of consolidated knowledge passed through lines of the clan-

"Naruto! You're awake!" Natsu leaps toward the bed, the dobe letting out an animalistic yelp as they collide. "How're you feeling, are you okay? You don't look hurt but you didn't wake up for ages-"

"N-Natsu? Sasuke?"

Naruto glances hesitantly between them, not even trying to sit up, and Natsu tenses like he's getting ready to fight something.

Sasuke shifts his gaze back to the window, but doesn't completely turn his back to the dobe.

He just doesn't want to deal with Natsu's griping, is all.

"What's wrong?" Natsu asks, and the faint reflection in the mirror leans over, hair obscuring Naruto's face.

"I-I… someone attacked us right? And I left you guys alone, I didn't even help, I-"

"Tch. As if we need your help, dobe."

"We're just glad you're okay!" Natsu says loudly, bouncing as he sits back, still straddling Naruto. "We totally had it handled, so you'll just have to make it up to us next time! Maybe you can save Sasuke's butt-"

"You're the only one who could possibly need saving by that idiot." Sasuke scoffs in return, and Natsu sticks his tongue out in retaliation.

Childish, Sasuke wants to scoff, but Natsu's already turned back to Naruto. "You agree with me, right? Sasuke's totally the one who needs saving here."

The dobe looks panicked for a second, before he visibly decides to change the subject.

"I just spoke to the Kyuubi!" He blurts, and Sasuke finds himself paying closer attention without even thinking about it.

"Huh." Natsu slides off Naruto, dragging the blond into a sitting position. "What'd he say?"

Naruto glances around nervously, and Natsu waves casually, predicting the blond's questions seamlessly. "Jiraiya's downstairs eatin', Sasuke's got eyes on the window, and I haven't smelled anyone lurking up here since that creepy guy tried to pretend he was paying for the room next to ours like, two hours ago. Did he really say something that bad?"

"Someone tried to pretend to be our neighbor?" Sasuke asks, and then Natsu's waving him off.

"Yeah, when I was coming back from the baths, he tried to ask some questions but honestly Sakura-chan being ridiculous was a little more important, and he wasn't a shinobi so I just told him to scram. Jiraiya already knew, I think, since he didn't seem surprised when I mentioned running into someone on my way back… it's not really important though! C'mon, Naru! What happened with the demon? Is he big? Does he breathe fire? Can I fight him?"

"Ye-no- NO! N-Natsu!" Naruto stutters, and Natsu laughs.

"Heh! Don't worry! I wouldn't want you to give up your body for something like that! But you were moping too much! Is it really that bad?"

Naruto glances away, all but curling into himself.

"H-he mentioned… my mother."

Sasuke stares resolutely at the window, and catches his Sharingan swirling back to life, a glowing, spinning red that haunts his nightmares as often as his dreams. He closes his eyes, then opens them again when those memories try to surface. He turns sharply to face his teammates and not the eyes that could so easily be mistaken for-

He shakes away the thought, as Naruto hesitantly speaks again.

"The Kyuubi said… that he was sealed in my mom first. I don't- no one ever even told me- my own mom, a-and the Kyuubi broke out when I was born, he- he killed-! Jiji always said they died in the attack but not like that!"

Natsu reaches out immediately, catching Naruto as the dobe starts to cry, and-

Sasuke huffs a little, but he slides over and sits next to them.

Only because Natsu looked ready to drag him over.

He ignores the fact that Natsu hadn't even looked at him, too busy hugging the dobe.

Sasuke's not about to get involved in that, but if he settles himself back-to-back with Naruto, like the character in that stupid book the ANBU gave him to read, watching his teammate's back while he breaks down, well.

It's not like either of those two idiots know how to read.

No one's going to call him on it.

Jiraiya treads slowly up the stairs and back towards their room. The spy Natsu mentioned in passing was gone by the time Jiraiya looked into it, and if there's a piece of him that wonders whether Natsu's acting as a plant to pass information, well.

He's a spymaster.

He questions everyone, at least a little.

But there's no sign of the man anywhere, and the innkeeper knows nothing, and the bar patrons know nothing, and the merchant husband acts like he knows nothing which isn't quite the same but Jiraiya's going to need more time to work out the information than he's pretty sure he has.

He's never been all that good at torturing information out of targets.

That was always Orochimaru's role on their team, when they had intel-gathering missions.

Jiraiya knows that not everyone who's capable of torture is a bad person. Ibiki and Iniochi and the others in the T&I department are more than proof of that.

But, sometimes, he feels like maybe it should be.

The brats in the Academy always did say he wasn't cut out to be a shinobi.

Sometimes, with one of his teammates defected from the village and the other so traumatized she just ran away, Jiraiya wonders what being 'cut out to be a shinobi' even means. He's the one who's still here, after all.

It's with those maudlin thoughts swirling through his mind that he opens the door to their shared room, and freezes in the entrance.

His three temporary charges huddle together on Naruto's futon, Naruto and Natsu hugging each other while Sasuke leans against them, Sharingan-red eyes flickering from the door to the window and back again and-

Jiraiya wishes he could take a picture of this and send it to the Pure World.

He thinks maybe Kushina would forgive him, just a little, if she were able to see them like this.

He hopes she's watching, somehow.

Sasuke's elbow slides back, tapping Naruto, and the kid starts, jerking away from Natsu and hastily rubbing his eyes.

"I-I'm fine! Dattebayo!" He glances wildly around, before his eyes land on Jiraiya. "What're you doin' here? Natsu said you were gettin' food, but you don't have any!"

"I said he was eating! Sasuke 'n' I were gonna head down once he was here t'watch you, th'inkeeper doesn't let you take food into the rooms here…" Natsu grumbles, and Jiraiya beams.

"Glad to see you're up kiddo! I was about to start training these two without you!"

"What?!" Naruto explodes, launching to his feet, and-

Well shit, Jiraiya muses, because he may be an idiot but he knows genuine hurt when he sees it. He holds up his hands in surrender.

"Hey hey hey! Sheesh, it was a joke kid. Those two wouldn't leave your side if I promised them all the S-rank jutsu I know! No need to get snappy with me!"

The look on the Uchiha's face says he probably would ditch Naruto for Jiraiya's repertoire of S-rank jutsu, but Naruto's not looking at him and Fugaku's brat probably won't verbally disagree-

"Please. Even one S-rank technique is worth more than this dobe." he tilts his head back, both a gesture towards Naruto and a way to let him meet Jiraiya's eyes, Sharingan spinning slowly.

Kami-sama but Uchiha were always creepy.

"Teme!" Naruto snaps, spinning around to try and tackle the Uchiha. Jiraiya almost has to be impressed at how smoothly Naruto ends up tangled in his own blankets - Natsu had slipped off the futon in nearly the same instant Sasuke reached for them, tossing up the tail end as he did, and the Uchiha didn't even have to stand.

"Naaaaaaaaaaaaatsuuuuuuuu!" Naruto whines, kicking his feet ineffectually, and Natsu grins.

"What, not good enough to get me back?" he says mischievously, and it takes Jiraiya a second longer than it should to realize that those two brats have effectively ruined any reasonable excuse for Jiraiya to ask why Naruto was crying, as the blond starts swearing revenge on both of them with a vengeance.

He could ask anyway, ruin this happy mood as Natsu laughs and Sasuke cracks a grin while Naruto swears a litany of pranks against both of them while awkwardly attempting to untangle himself from his own blankets, but…

There will be other opportunities to ask.

There's no need for him to take away everyone's smiles with such a serious question right now.

He can be patient, after all.

For now, he grins.

"So, I suppose this means you all don't want to learn how to walk on water?" he asks, clapping his hands together as his smile widens.

The three of them freeze, before Natsu hastily grabs one end of the blanket and yanks, unravelling Naruto in a snap while Sasuke checks the straps on his kunai holster and throws Naruto's at his head.

The kid yelps, scrambling to catch it and tie it on, and in a moment Jiraiya has three children lined up in front of him like over-eager ducklings.

He swears he hears Natsu mutter something about boats under his breath. Never again, maybe?

"Let's go then!" Jiraiya says with a flourish, spinning to lead the way out just as Naruto's stomach grumbles.

"W-wait, what about food!"

"Dobe! Just eat a ration bar, I'm not losing training time because you couldn't wake up earlier!"

"It's not my fault-!"

"Here, you can have one of mine." there's a rustle, and the sound of something being tossed lightly, followed by a grumble half-muffled as Naruto starts eating.

"Teme…"

Jiraiya starts going through the traps he'll need to set once they're out of the village. They need to have a talk, after all, but… he supposes he might as well give them that training first.

Just to tire them out a bit so he doesn't have to deal with their yelling.

No other reason.

Behind him, the kids squabble and argue quietly, like they're trying to keep him from noticing.

He smiles.