A/N: Welp, here it is! The start of what we will affectionately call the Chunin Exam arc, even though Team 7 has missed almost all of the actual exam parts lol. With a couple cameos from characters that people have been asking to see for a while now, pending proper introductions!

One much sooner than the other.

Sorry as always for the delay, my brain only wanted to write original ficlets lately, so I didn't get this chapter out as soon as I wanted to... Hopefully it'll be willing to cooperate for just a bit longer!

As always, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy!

Being carried sucks. It was bad enough when Kakashi-sensei grabbed him before, just because he'd leaned on the man for a minute! Not even! It was just nice having his scent again, and maybe he was a little dizzy since the adrenaline from Jiraiya's arrival faded but there was no need!

...except then sensei picked him up again, rushing out of Ryokan with Natsu stuck piggy-back, a pack bouncing beneath the genin, holding what supplies were still intact from their room. Natsu managed to escape with an intact qipao, and Naruto's ramen cups had miraculously survived the pillaging. He tries not to feel too guilty about Sakura-chan's missing spice box, likely stolen by the shinobi who'd broken in.

Jiraiya's small pack was too booby-trapped to be searched, the man saying something about how traps can be rigged to explode after being moved a certain distance, and that the shinobi likely decided not to steal it wholesale just in case.

Natsu slumps against Kakashi's shoulder, desperate to distract himself from the utter misery of his position. At least I'm not with Jiraiya, he muses, catching sight of the sannin running ahead of them with both Naruto and Sasuke in his arms.

All he has to deal with is a pack.

...and being carried.

It's a long trip to Konoha, dragging out at a snail's pace as Natsu can't even burn off any energy, stuck being carried the whole way because even with deadweight Kakashi-sensei is faster than him.

Natsu grumbles into the man's vest a bit. Even in his own body, Natsu's pretty sure he wouldn't be fast enough to catch up which just makes it worse.

Kakashi-sensei chuckles. "I'm pretty sure I already mentioned it, Natsu-chan. Shinobi use chakra to enhance physical attributes. Maintaining a speed like this is as much about how much chakra a shinobi has as it is about muscle strength. And stamina, and chakra control, and mental state-"

"Wha-? What's mental state got to do with it?" Natsu sits up a little, trying to look at Kakashi.

"Concentration…?" Sakura-chan questions, just as Kakashi-sensei answers.

"Well, mostly your ability to focus. Enhanced running like this requires precise chakra control, sustained over long distances, meaning that if your concentration wavers at all, well. Best case scenario, you'll just get tired. Worst-case, you can really hurt yourself, by over-flooding your legs with chakra and damaging the pathways there. I've heard a tale or two of someone literally blowing out a tenketsu point as well, though I've never seen it happen."

"Huh. So, 's it a bit different from tree-hopping then?"

"Why don't you tell me?"

Natsu scowls, propping his chin on Kakashi's head, then quickly moving away when he nearly bites his own tongue with the jonin's pace.

"...not a thinker," Natsu grumbles, face buried back in Kakashi's vest as he slumps a bit.

"I think you're smarter than you give yourself credit for. Go on - don't as Sakura-chan either, just figure it out. You've already tree-hopped before, so it shouldn't be hard to tell the difference. You're good at sensing, after all, aren't you?"

Natsu scrunches his nose, thinking. "Only if I can feel the chakra," he mutters absently, as he gets the sensation of Sakura-chan physically putting her hands over her mouth.

"Go ahead then," Kakashi-sensei offers, and Natsu startles a bit, "my family's chakra is very dense. It has a number of uses in combat, but the greatest is that it's hard for other people to manipulate it. You won't be able to shake my control without actually putting some effort in."

Natsu hesitates, then slowly adjusts his grip so that one hand rests closer to sensei's naval than his heart.

And then, pulling up a thin sheen of chakra, he feels.

Kakashi-sensei doesn't even try to stop him, though Natsu can tell, instantly, that the man could if he wanted.

The chakra's everywhere, and it's overwhelming. Natsu can't read anything from it, it's just a storm of thick, heavy energy pulsing to a beat he can't understand - and then Sakura-chan gasps in realization, and it flows through them, the understanding-

The chakra is thick, heavy, a little sparky even, but more than that, it really is everywhere.

"Pretty sure blowing out a tenketsu point is the least sort of harm you could cause yourself!" Sakura-chan shrieks, almost horrified, and Natsu almost has to agree.

Maintaining a speed like this, over such long distances… he can feel the chakra travelling through the legs, strengthening them, loosening the muscles and keeping anything from locking up or giving out-

Strengthening the lungs, the heart, even select points in the head, hearing and sight carefully enhanced to keep up with the speed so they're not running blind-

There's chakra leaking out too, not much, and he has no idea what for until Sakura-chan mutters about wind resistance, and how shinobi are trained to run bent with arms behind to minimize it, and she never understood why except maybe to present a smaller target because wind resistance doesn't affect speed enough for it to matter and it really felt like charging with her head and neck being the easiest targets wasn't smart at all-

But they are moving fast enough for it to matter, fast enough that Kakashi-sensei is leaking a delicate thread of chakra to protect both them and himself from wind that would be almost cutting otherwise, nevermind the harm small debris like twigs could cause-

He pulls his chakra back slowly, slumping over Kakashi again. "Your explanations suck," he grouses, "you made me think it was all in your legs-!"

Kakashi-sensei laughs. "Maa, it practically is though."

"Is not-!" Natsu and Sakura shout simultaneously, and Kakashi chuckles.

Natsu wonders how upset Naruto would be if he strangled the man. Just a bit.

His stomach growls.

Sensei hands him a ration bar absently.

Natsu should probably rinse off the wrapping, considering how much blood went spraying around earlier, but…

Meh.

It probably won't kill him.

They were in pockets so it's fine, probably.

He chews lazily, head resting uncomfortably on Kakashi's shoulder.

He could almost fall asleep to that, the rhythmic pulse of sensei's chakra, the sound of his heart beating beneath that pulse…

He drifts.

"Natsu."

"Hnngh…"

"Natsu."

"F've more m'nutes…."

"Natsu I will drag you up."

"Wha- Sak'ni…?"

Inner sighs, hands on hips.

"No, I'm your mother- who else would I be?"

A little harsh maybe, and Sakuni really shouldn't be taking out her temper like this, but.

It's not really like Natsu remembers enough for the digs to hurt anyway.

No.

No.

She needs to hold it together. Just a little longer.

"Sheesh, someone's snappy." Natsu teases, sitting up and smiling at her. Sakuni wishes she had the energy to tease back.

"Were you able to speak with Jiraiya-san?"

Natsu doesn't quite sulk, but she gets the feeling it's a near thing. "Straight to business huh? Yeah, I did. We're taking the express route back to Konoha, and we'll speak to Inoichi-san and give it a shot ASAP. Why? Something wrong? I didn't think it was a rush - well, more than like, the average level of rush. Ish. Something like that. You know what I mean."

Sakuni can't help the sigh of relief.

And the rising feeling of dread.

"How soon til we get there?"

Natsu shrugs casually. "Tomorrow at the latest, though I think they're hoping to get there under the cover of nightfall. But it took us days to get out that far, I dunno, even if they're using chakra to go faster, can we really cover all that distance in one? Like, Kakashi-sensei doesn't have the biggest chakra reserves right? So..."

Sakuni would love to think about that, but- but if they're arriving tonight then she can't-

There's something that has to be said, before they try to remove the seal.

For something as delicate as this, Natsu can't be distracted.

Which means he has to know.

Now.

"Oi. Natsu, there's- there's something you need to know. Before we do what we planned to remove the seal. Um, about- about the guy in your mindscape."

Natsu tilts his head, curious. "Yeah? What about 'm? I've never heard anyone in my head like Sakura-chan could hear you, so…"

Sakuni can't help but shift her weight a little. "You're… not going to like it. You're going- going to be mad. At him. Probably."

Natsu stands up slowly, glancing between her and the path to his own Heart. He hesitates a moment, then steps away from her.

"If you're that worried, you can stay here then? I'll go see who it is for myself. You can keep an eye on the shade-thing or something."

Sakuni shouldn't but- she nods, backing away as Natsu turns and walks down the bloody path without hesitation.

He's not the kind of person to hurt someone just for delivering bad news but-

Sakuni shudders.

With that thing involved, she doesn't want to take chances that anyone's emotions could be… compromised.

The shriek of pure fury that erupts a few minutes later, she thinks, neatly proves her logic. She trembles, as the temperature even in the Bridge begins to climb.

Hopefully they won't break anything just yet.

She's only barely holding on as it is.

Natsu wakes up pissed. Snappy and snarly and hurt, somehow, and Naruto's not even sure how that happened while he was sleeping, but- but it's impossible to miss.

Natsu went to sleep and woke up hurting, hurting so much he couldn't keep it in and keeps getting mad and-

It's not like he tried to hurt anyone, just snarled at Kakashi-sensei a lot when the man wouldn't put him down and let him move, but still.

Naruto's… never really seen Natsu angry before. It's new, uncharted territory, and even if Natsu's not really violent with it like Sakura-chan could be, it's still a bit unsettling, especially when everything was normal before.

"Well someone woke up on the wrong side of bed," Jiraiya teases, Natsu only growling in response.

"Careful there - I've already got one student growing claws, I don't need two." Kakashi-sensei's voice is light, but there's something sharp underneath it, and Naruto's gaze snaps to Natsu's hands almost without thought.

There's not really claws, that he can see, but- but something about them looks weird.

Natsu mutters an apology as he flexes out his fingers, and it almost looks like there are scales peeking out from between the bandages.

Naruto glances over at Sasuke, but his teammate doesn't do anything, just staring out into the forest and ignoring him.

Like he has the entire trip.

He paid attention a little when Kakashi-sensei and Natsu talked about the running technique, but-

Well, normally Naruto would needle Sasuke a bit, get him riled up and talking, but he can't really do that with Jiraiya carrying them both. He's stuck within strangling-range, and he's not sure he likes his chances.

It's a long, boring run to Konoha. Naruto falls asleep himself at one point, blearily crawling back to consciousness when Sasuke jabs him in the leg and hisses at him.

A moment later, he's set on his feet, stumbling a little as he shakes the last of the sleep off himself.

"Did we make it?" he mumbles, rubbing his eyes a bit and blinking around.

"Shh," Ero-sennin waves a hand at him, and Naruto bites back the rest of his questions as the man knocks on a door. Blond hair pokes out, and Naruto recognizes the guy a little from when he spoke to Team 7 before, back when Natsu first showed up.

"Jiraiya-san-? You're not supposed to be back yet-"

"It's urgent. We need to borrow a T&I room, one of yours. I'll explain once it's secure."

The man sharpens. Every ounce of 'casual' vanishes, replaced by the hard lines of a shinobi, even in his sleeping yukata.

"Papa-?" a voice, broken by a yawn, "who's at the door?"

"Duty calls, I'm afraid. Tell your mother I'll be out for the rest of the night, and will likely miss breakfast."

"What-! But you were supposed to train with me more, the exam's only a few days away-!"

The door shuts, the voices instantly cut off, and Jiraiya settles back with them, shaking his head when Naruto opens his mouth.

Naruto scowls, waiting -a bit impatiently- until the guy, Ino's dad, he's pretty sure now, comes back out. He takes quick stock of them, eyes narrowing slightly at the sight of Kakashi-sensei, but Jiraiya shakes his head.

"Once we're secure, he's going to deliver our report to Sensei - we want as few people in the room as possible. If you have a coworker who can stick with Naruto for a bit as well, we can't have anyone knowing we're back until after we're done here."

Inoichi nods, and Naruto bites hard to avoid saying anything.

He resolves to yell at them as soon as they're in that T&I place, but-

But-

It's so cold, is Naruto's first thought, as they slip through the non-descript door and into a plain, boring hallway.

There's nothing special whatsoever, but it's freezing.

And then there's another door, and then a locked door, and then there's stairs, and another door at the bottom-

As soon as Yamanaka-san opens the door, there's a scream.

Naruto jumps, trying to leap back and tripping over the steps, plowing into Sasuke who grunts as he takes his weight-

Ino's dad grumbles. "My apologies. Anko-san forgot to close her door again." he mutters a curse, striding forward quickly and snapping something out that gets an immediate apology, and then the sound disappears.

And suddenly it's another normal, boring hallway, except for the blood on the floor.

Sasuke's stiff behind him, and-

"Where… are we?" Naruto murmurs.

"Hellhole, probably."

Naruto jumps a bit at Natsu's sudden answer, and when he glances up there's a sharp glare etched into Sakura-chan's face. Somehow, he seems even angrier than before, and Naruto didn't even think that was possible.

Ino's dad sighs. "It's a necessary job, and a very secure place for what I'm beginning to suspect is your plan to fix your little… issue."

"Necessary my ass you damned-"

"Natsu."

Kakashi-sensei's hand comes down, gently resting on Natsu's still-dark hair, not quite crusted with blood anymore but not back to its normal, soft pink either. "We've got more important things to worry about right now than Inoichi-san's day job, such that it is. You can argue with him later."

Natsu snarls again, stalking forwards with a sharpness that feels almost predatory, and Naruto's a little confused but-

He's not stupid.

Logically he knows, even from the Academy, that T&I is the department that interrogates prisoners and stuff. And with people trying to invade Konoha they probably have lots of prisoners they're trying to get info from.

Jiji probably knows something's up, at least.

He just-

That scream was-

It's one thing to know, and another to know, really, so Naruto sticks close to Jiraiya as Inoichi leads them through deceptively normal hallways until they reach another room.

The room's scary, when Inoichi opens the door. Scary and cold and devoid of comfort, a large bed that barely looks like a bed with all the- the handcuffs and leather straps and stuff, a wall covered little cups and holders that have blood spattered around them and Naruto tries very hard not to think about what gets put into those cups and things because-

Natsu stalks past him, still predatory and angry, spinning around to sit sharply on the edge of the bed, arms crossed as he stares at Inoichi. Sasuke joins him a moment later, and then Kakashi-sensei rests a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Come on. I know where the breakroom is, Inoichi-san already signalled to have someone meet us there."

Naruto doesn't want to leave, not with Natsu so angry and Sasuke still so stiff, not in a room where people have probably been tortured, not even if Jiraiya's watching them-

Sensei pulls him away though, gently tugging him back until they're gone and the door shuts heavily behind them and-

Naruto trembles, then.

Kakashi-sensei sighs.

"The first visit to T&I is always the worst. I may have hid it better, but even I was freaked out, the first time. It's okay. Inoichi won't hurt them - you're lucky that your first visit gets to be under such good circumstances. If you want to be Hokage one day, you'll probably have more unpleasant visits later."

"What-? Why?" Naruto twists to look up at Kakashi-sensei, confused. "Why were you here? And why would I ever-?"

Kakashi-sensei sighs. "Well, for me, I got separated from my team back during the war. I didn't get captured, but I was away for long enough that policy kicked in - I was required to be checked out by T&I to make sure I hadn't had my mind tampered with or anything. There's a lot of policies for that. During war, if you're absent for more than forty minutes while on or near the frontlines, you have to be checked out by T&I. Outside of wartime, if you're unexpectedly absent from your team for over three hours in neutral territory, or an hour in another village's territory, it's mandatory check-up time. If your team leader thinks you're behaving suspiciously after any amount of absent time, it's a mandatory checkup. If you're known to have been captured by foreign shinobi for any amount of time, even as little as five minutes, it's a mandatory check-up. If you get drugged at any point during a mission and it wasn't on purpose, check-up. Even if it was on purpose sometimes they'll give you a check-up anyway, just to be safe. The higher-level missions you go on, the more likely you are to hit one of those scenarios. So I'm sure you'll come here sometime in the future for much less pleasant stays, if you keep shooting for Hokage."

Naruto shudders a little. "Are checkups… bad?"

Kakashi-sensei shrugs, holding another plain, boring door open for him. It leads to… another plain, boring room with a metal table bolted into the floor, and no chairs to sit on.

Then Kakashi-sensei passes him and opens a secret door, and finally they move to a normal-looking room, that isn't boring at all, with squishy chairs and a fridge and- "Is that a stove?" he asks, squinting, and Kakashi-sensei chuckles.

"You still have your cup-ramen on you? I won't stop you if you want-"

"YES-!" Naruto all but screams, darting forward and digging around until he finds a good pot for boiling.

"Didn't you say some guy was s'posed to be here?" he asks while staring intensely at the pot, looking for the slightest hint of bubbling.

"I'm sure he'll show up shortly. But, to answer your question… hm… I guess it really depends on who's doing your checkups. And also what rank you are. There's different policies after all, especially if you go into something as secure as ANBU, or have a leadership position on a team or in general. A plant of any level can cause serious harm to a village, but it's also true that invasive exams can damage a shinobi in the long run, so they try not to perform the truly invasive tests unless you were either on a very particular mission or have a position of high authority and access within the village. A genin like yourself would likely just get mind-walked by someone like Inoichi-san. Although, admittedly, for you I'm not sure what they'd do. The Kyuubi could well just eat the mind-walker after all… maa, I'm sure they'd think of something. Otherwise though, there's a few other useful tricks they have, like special seals designed to dissect chakra in order to make sure there's no tampering - those were invented by Jiraiya-san, back when he was trying to remove Orochimaru's first curse-seal. It didn't work, obviously, but I hear T&I has found a lot of good uses for it to harmlessly check for tampering in peoples' chakra networks. There's a few other tests I can't tell you about, as they're performed when shinobi are asleep to prevent anyone from tampering with them, but that's about it. Konoha does try not to torture her own men after all."

Another wall opens just as Naruto pours his boiling water carefully into the ramen cup, a guy he's never seen before stepping through.

Naruto finishes pouring before squinting up at the wall. "How many secret doors do you have?" he asks, and the new guy cracks a grin.

"As many as we want. I'm Takahiro - I'll be babysitting while your sensei goes to report to admin. I hear you guys have had quite a trip."

"And I'm sure you know all about clearance levels - the details are for Inoichi-sama and the director only, so don't go interrogating my brat. Naruto, just ignore him if he gets too pushy. T&I is staffed mostly by the curious so he'll try to get anything and everything out of you just because he can."

"Wha-" Naruto protests around a mouthful of noodles, but Kakashi-sensei's already gone.

He stares suspiciously at the new guy.

"Is your name really Takahiro?" he asks, and the man grins.

"It's the only name you need to know. No need to be so suspicious! We're all Konoha shinobi here, I'm not going to hurt you or anything! I just know how boring it is, sitting around, while you're team's stuck with the Yamanaka. They're no fun if you ask me, and it's so awful waiting on results. So there's nothing wrong with chatting to pass the time is there?" He smiles, and- and it's not slimy at all, but it feels like it should be, so Naruto turns away and slurps his noodles louder.

Maybe he'll just keep making ramen, if he's constantly eating, the man can't trick him into saying something!

That's right, 'ttebayo! He's not saying anything!