Whisper Group

by Foy the Snooze Button

Looking to him in servitude and following him in their multitudes, they found sanity. Building homes and raising families around him, there was order. They lived, warred and died for him. They were his tools, of course they knew, but he was their helper. He asked for loyalty and they gave him devotion; to the bitter end, his people marched with him into chaos. ROOT!Naruto

4. Chapter 4

Mẹgba, amonukẉu mi!

How was your Christmas?

COLOSSAL shout out to Ishimaru Taiki, Imheretolive08, Tyrese, BJJF691, LeviDragon, guest110, puzahx2, The ultimate deity and jakharaayush501. You're all amazing people :)

I'm having so much fun writing this story and I'm really glad to hear that you, my wonder readers, enjoy reading. Thanks for sticking with me, I appreciate every single one of you!

Note: the Third War started in the last chapter when Iwa attacked Konoha but it didn't just jump and spread all over the world. The war was at first only between Konoha and Iwa, then their allies got pulled in, and so on and so forth. As of the start of this chapter, the War is happening but hasn't yet taken over the world but it is raging without mercy. Also, and I think I mentioned this in the first chapter, some canon characters will be OOC (ranging from a slight change in their personalities to them being severely out-of-character) and I won't be abiding by canon timelines, but at this point, you already knew that :D

Another thing to note (and recall) is that there is no actual Hidden Chill (at least not in this story). Hidden Chill is the mocking name other nations/villages (particularly the big, easily recognizable nations/villages) call the massive chunk of territory annexed by Kumo long before the First Shinobi War. Chill is not part of Lightning country, just Kumo (this part is kinda important). Officially, Hidden Chill has no name.

This chapter starts off after a short time skip.

I feel at this point it's customary for me to give a WARNING ahead of this chapter; there were be plenty of graphic violence, depictions of human suffering, blood and gore, endangering the lives of children, implied genocide (especially at the end part of the chapter), and last is the complete and utter disregard for the wellbeing of another. I don't want to trigger anyone.

This is a long chapter.

Ya ready?

Enjoy.

CHAPTER 4

Three Years Later

A shift of power was creeping across the continent, so subtle and unassuming that not many people took notice until it was too late.

Some historians would say that it all started one year ago, when the Third Shinobi War was raging its way up from Fire and Earth countries to the central and northern areas of the continent, dragging late-formed alliances together in support of each other and increasing the simmering hate among newly made enemies.

Kumo sold off a large quarter of its Hidden Chill territory to a faceless buyer, defending the grand trade of the frozen, barren land for the hefty price of eighty million ryu, by saying that Hidden Chill was costing Kumo too more money to maintain than it could possibly ever return; taking into consideration the scientific research done on that icy plain to study the animal and plant life as well as the terrible weather phenomenon unique to Chill. Forty million was paid upfront and five million would be wired to Kumo's account in the Lightning country Central Bank every year until the payment was done.

This sale happened when the Third War was simmering over the continent, about to burst completely in all its destructive might, and the wealthy, affluent and semi-industrial Hidden Lightning was gathering as much funds as it could to support its defences.

The deal that sold off a quarter of Hidden Chill, the larger quarter at the northernmost corner of the cold landscape that bordered the Endless Sea and included an unnamed peninsula, several small but habitably sized islands and whatever plant/animal life already existing within, couldn't have come at a better time; Kumo wanted to bolster itself in anticipation of the war and it didn't need the added stress of overstretching their ninjas over an unproductive chunk of land as well as Kumo itself.

Doing so during the First and Second Wars crippled Kumo's attempts at effective retaliation.

Cee, the Yondaime Raikage, was beaming throughout the deal.

It was the largest scale purchase of land in human history, and the buyer was so far unknown except for one name.

Naruto.

That isolated quarter of Kumo became a sovereign, land independent from any other nation, and any act of aggression by a nation or Hidden Village was deemed an international offence, as written in the binding documents declaring the purchased land its own territory- not country-. This document was made irrevocable together by the Kumo Council Seal of Imperial Assent and the Raikage's Seal, making it binding for also Kumo's many allies and dependants.

This assumption that the quiet and forceful change of power from the venerably brighter side of the world to the detestable criminal underworld started from the Chill Acquisition is not entirely correct.

It actually began two years and eight months ago, when fewer and fewer street children wondered about Kumo and Snow, and less and less unhoused people from those two shinobi settlements looked to their respective Leaders for aid.

It baffled the Military Police of Kumo and Snow, enough to cause them to be wary of nefarious deeds occurring. The Raikage and Snow Daimyo, from their respective territories and utterly unaware of their joint orders, called for an investigation to see if their enemies were abducting their citizens.

But that wasn't the case.

The street children were merely being cleaned up and sent to civilian schools, sponsored by an unspoken of benefactor who also catered for their poor families, and the formerly homeless men and women that used to curl up in the dirtiest corners of society were provided decent accommodations, even-handed feeding and reasonable jobs of varying specializations-from garbage collectors to house helps-, all from the very same benefactor

They spoke of this person with so much gratitude and veneration, praising him for what he had done for them and releasing their boundless thankfulness from the bottom of their souls to whoever wanted to listen.

Although…

Providing a name or description was out of the question.

They clammed up and spoke nothing of their helper's identity.

Intimidation and interrogation did nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

The only things the interrogators were able to catch was that the benefactor was male and that he was followed closely by his most precious angel.

Some called her His Guardian Angel, and they loved her almost as much as their generous helper.

This loyalty wasn't unfounded; the unidentified patron lifted those people out a terrible situation when their Leaders did nothing.

It got to the extent that the Raikage and the Snow Daimyo dusted their hands clean of this annoyance, calling their ninjas back to handle other pressing matters; they weren't causing any trouble, rather helping make their nations better by taking up these menial odd jobs. And this "saviour" that refused to show his face and reveal where it was he got the riches to support hundreds of needy at a time was also none of their business.

What was the harm?

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

06:22AM

Copper Pot Gang Temporary Hideout

Kumo

Feet raced down the second floor corridor, making audible thuds but hinting at the apparent light weight of the person given their small stature and fleeting pace.

The person hefted a duffle bag under each arm, looking far too large for them to carry on their own nonetheless doing so easily. Their sneakers padded the wooden floor, turning a corner and ducking away from the sound of angered screaming following at their heels, gnashing their teeth when a door at the end of the hallway banged open and a reedy looking man in a baggy shirt and tight jeans bellowed for the rest of the gang that he had found the little thief.

"She's here! She's here!"

The runner, now identified as a girl, hiked the stolen bags higher up her shoulders and curled her arms tighter around them, exhaling through grit teeth and swiftly skipping onto the wall of the tight hallway, pushing off that surface, landing on the other wall while maintaining her speed till her foot bound off that wall and bashed into the man's thin face, utilizing the added weight of her duffle bags to bring him down and using his temple as a suitable purchase to leap on ahead, leaving behind the swirly eyed gang member.

Copper Pot Gang's temporary hideout was nothing more than a termite-ridden flat slated to be demolished, as they were a bunch of low level thugs for hire and could only rack in money from selling Copper Pot, a highly addictive and highly sought after drug among Kumo's less fortunate.

Naruto hated Copper Pot.

He hated them with a burning passion, the gang and the drug.

Today was the final straw.

He was going to use them as an example to other drug dealers in Kumo.

The girl skidded around another corner and tore past a staircase leading down, favouring a closed window instead.

Approaching the window, her neon pink eyes caught her reflection. Her clothes were mostly dark; donning a dark blue shirt and black tracksuit pants with sneakers of the same dark shade, and over her head was a black ski mask.

She leaped forward, leading with a brazen right foot and bracing for impact.

Crash!

Unknowing onlookers outside turned to the sound of glass shattering and stumbled back when a short, childish figure landed heavily on their feet, heaving two bags and barrelling down the worn streets of Kumo's low-income district. The entrance of the hideout broke open seconds after she regained her balance and a wave of roaring gangsters flocked in her wake, waving crowbars and baseball bats, cursing up a vicious storm.

"Move it!" the thief shouted, shoving through the shocked crowd. She vaulted over a café table, startling the early breakfast of the couple seated there, dashed over a melon cart, kicked over a trashcan that summarily tripped a pair of gang members too close for comfort, dipped to her left and wiggled through the open front door of an unassuming Laundromat, of which the door closed after her with a deceptively jovial jingle.

The Copper Port Gang, not realizing that they were now at the edge of Kumo's Redlight district, snickered at the girl's foolishness, taking their time to approach the Laundromat. A few even separated to cover the back exit while some stayed at the front, surrounding the small business in their rugged numbers.

Five of them shouldered the door, expecting a barricaded resistance but messily tumbling in, much to the laughing amusement of their comrades.

"Shuh thuh fuck app! All a yah!" One of the fallen yelled, an elderly looking man with dangerous tattoos streaming down his face, neck and upper chest, which were clearly visible as he was only in a pair of pants and sandals, wielding a chipped war hammer in his right hand. "Keep watch. Dun leh her escape."

"Right back at yah, old man!" A faceless gang member called back, hiding his chortle and leaning a crowbar on his shoulder. "Now get a move on; Boss'll be back soon and none of us want him to know we let some kid sneak in and steal our cash."

A grizzled man slapped the last speaker upside the head, grumbling. "Quit stating the obvious."

Bystanders jerked at the brazen show of might from the gang, in broad daylight for that matter, wondering if they were going to get another midday execution today.

The Copper Pot Gang entered the Laundromat and were met with a surprisingly serene business; the place wasn't doing exceptionally well but at the same time it wasn't particularly struggling, having the wall to the left lined with freshly cleaned washing machines and dryers, the baby blue tiles scrubbed clean but still showing signs of several years of frequent use, and the eggshell coloured ceiling bore some cracks here and there, though nothing to threaten that the roof would soon fall in. Three long benches and two couches were on the other side of the room, opposite the washing machines and dryers, and they had some old, overused magazines laid on top of the other on the seat of one of the couches.

At the end of the main room of Laundromat was a curved desk.

Sitting there and looking at the gang members with furrowed brows was a boy with pale yellow hair, no older than thirteen and wearing a thick-rimmed rectangular glasses that were too reflective to clearly show the colour of his eyes. He was in a simple forest green shirt and black pants with unassertive running shoe on his feet. He paused his reading of a popular kid's magazine and slowly set it down, clearing his throat and leaning his elbows on the desk, scratching his bandaged neck with his pointer finger and gracing the newcomers with a slight smile.

He motioned to the washing machines, nonverbally telling them to feel free to use them.

The five gang members looked at each other, confused, until the oldest of them, the man with the war hammer, marched up to the desk and looked down at the child with a menacing glare.

"Whure'z she?"

The blonde boy had the audacity to raise a bewildered eyebrow, turning his head left and right, and lifting his shoulders in a small, unmindful shrug.

"Start talkin' or we start breakin' yor machines."

The boy blinked and screwed his lips to the side in the universal expression of distaste.

He slowly brought his hands up, as if in surrender, and then rolled his wrist so his palms faced upwards and his shoulders lifted in another shrug-

And then there was darkness.

The sunlight streaming in from the windows on either side of the front entrance were blacked out, bathing the building in inescapable darkness.

"Sunova bitch-it's a trap!"

A hurried mishmash of sounds ensued; the disastrously panicked shuffling of feet, pained curses, wet, bloody coughs and dry wheezing, alongside the distinct noise of bones snapping and the finality of blades sliding clean across a soft, fleshy surface, without difficulty or resistance.

Shing-shin-shi-shi-shin-shi-shin-shin-shhhhing!

Slobbering gurgling sounds permeated the pitch blackness, and the blinds over the windows flew off.

Blood sloshed on the formerly blue tiles, leaking from the four mangled, shredded corpses littering the floor. The fifth person, the old man with the war hammer, stammered in absolute horror at the swiftness of what happened, stumbling back and slipping over the dead body of one of his subordinates that had his gut sliced wide open, shamelessly falling to his behind and losing hold of his oversized weapon.

He shuffled back from the blonde boy, hands still raised in a shrug and presently wearing a lilting half-smile from behind the desk.

The old gangster bumped into what felt like a solid wall.

He shuddered at who it was at his back.

Turning his neck to the left, spying the reflection of the washing machines, his heart gave a massive lurch.

It was the pink eyed girl in the ski mask.

No blade in hand but dripping utter blood and gore.

The calves of her tracksuit pants were soaked in blood, as did her shirt and ski mask bear spatters of red liquid. The girl's bright eyes swirled and the old man's jaw dropped, horrified at the endless pools of madness churning within those young orbs.

Lio's lips stretched into a manic grin, as clear as the sun was bright from underneath that mouthless ski mask, and her hands came down, one on his chin and the other at the back of his head, and she jerked violently, twisting the old man's neck with a stomach-turning snap.

A fate more fortunate than his Copper Pot comrades.

The old man's dead body slumped to the side.

Thump.

Naruto dropped his hands, placing an elbow on the desk and assessing the carnage. He could vaguely hear the scuffle happening outside the Laundromat, the surprised huffing of the other Copper Pots' as his other followers subdued them to the best of their ability. The blonde shook his head when Lio looked to him to go and assist them, telling her to stand down.

He wanted them to handle this themselves.

Lio plodded to Naruto, pulling off her ski mask and lowering her head respectfully. The pale eyed boy smiled gently and removed a handkerchief from his pocket, pushing off the desk and subsequently scrubbing her cheek of blood, much to her feeble protests and his voiceless laughter.

"Nuu…stop." The person the little murderer allowed clean her face playfully tapped her nose when he was done, and action that had her wrinkle her nose in recognizable irritation. "I can do it myself, sir."

"Yes, you can, but right now I'm helping." He gestured, tucking his handkerchief away into his pocket. "Any who, you have to be in school and I don't like that you're covered in blood."

"I'll wash it off in the shower." She responded, speaking in a snappy yet soft tone that carried no venom. It was reminiscent to a gentle wind blowing through a calm meadow, and Naruto wasn't going to lie that talking to Lio soothed him. Something he didn't like was that she had forced herself into his current lifestyle, the darker aspects, that is; Naruto was all for her being his voice when he wanted to communicate to his followers and she could follow him wherever he went to her hearts content, but it weighed on the former COREs non-existent conscience whenever he witnessed her bloodthirsty rampages. She was still trying to prove her worth to him, and he knew it. Lio tilted her head to the side, flushing a little at his wordless scrutiny of her face. "Sir? Is there something wrong?"

He didn't reply for a few seconds, before he smiled widely. "Go and get ready for school; I can round up things around here." He shushed her by swiftly tugging her ski mask back down her face. "Remember, you're the one that wanted me to send you to school." She quietened down at the reminder, sulking with pouted lips. "And I agreed. You can make lots of friends over there and -." He poked her with a teeming smile. "There's no downside to showing off how smart you are. Win-win."

It really wasn't that long ago that Lio mustered up the courage to demand Naruto send her to school, to supplement the training he was already giving her.

She pitched it to him with a well-worded speech, a vision board and ended by telling him that it would be illogical if he didn't see reason to let her attend civilian school during the better part of the day while he took over her combat training for the rest of the time.

He warned her of the toll it might take on her body.

She swore that she could take it.

Naruto conceded and organized for her to be sent to Kumo's Civilian Academy, as she didn't want to enrol in the Shinobi Academy and risk being made into a Kumo Kunoichi. Besides, her Master's training far surpassed anything any Kumo sensei could teach her.

Her Master's business was important to her as well, and with this movement to eradicate Copper Pot from Kumo was the third phase of the blonde's complex plan, the first being to gain the loyalty of who were considered the society's underbelly by showing them the attention and recognition their Leaders didn't provide, and the second was steadily desensitizing his new followers into their Master's gruesome ambitions.

Naruto was building an army after all and who better to occupy this growing multitude than the destitute searching for purpose in their lives.

The young blonde could be accused of emotional and physical manipulation but he was far from caring.

Lio was Naruto's exception to this move to take over the criminal underworld, though she kept forcing herself to walk in his wake, and the boy didn't want to admit that he wasn't much of a fan of her eagerness to disregard her health and safety for his sake.

The Konoha runaway passed the ten year old girl, scratching the top of his head and wondering how he was going to organize his followers to clean up this red stained mess, and also how he was going to apologize to the nice family that borrowed him the Laundromat for the morning. He jolted a little as a small weight ran into his back, wrapping her arms around his middle, inadvertently trapping his left arm to her side in her embrace as she dug her face into his back, leaving his right arm free and hovering at his side.

He looked over his shoulder at Lio, an eyebrow raised in a question that didn't need to be signed.

"I don't want to go to school today." She mumbled into his back, lacing her fingers at his front. The boy's glasses tipped down the bridge of his nose and his pale lavender eyes blinked. "M-My tummy hurts."

Naruto's temple creased.

"Can I skip today? Please?"

He used his right pointer finger to tap her laced fingers right below his chest, letting the weight of his silence bear down on her so she could tell him what really was wrong.

"Honest, sir."

The boy sighed from his nose, manoeuvring around so that he could toss his right arm over her shoulder, freeing his left hand to sign alongside the limited free range of his right hand . "I can't force you to go if you don't want to." Lio hunched her shoulders up at Naruto's casual side hug, finding her eyes drooping in guilt at her lie. She blinked her neon pink eyes up again when he tugged her ski mask off her head, pushing it not so neatly into a pants pocket, shining a wide grin to the quiet little girl and rubbing her bald head with his right hand, enjoying the tiny prickly hairs sprouting on her head. "When you're ready to let me know why you really don't want to go, I'm all ears."

"…Ok." She mumbled, acknowledging that her first statement wasn't entirely true.

"You know I won't judge…right?"

"Yeah…I know." He rubbed her head again, chuckling at the deepening hue of her expression and how she tightened her hold of his torso. "Later, sir."

The thirteen year old boy pursed his lips and sighed again. "I'll send a message to your class teacher. Don't worry about it."

Of course, he wouldn't appear in public or to anyone outside of his followership with his real appearance, taking up his One from Chill appearance in most of his dealings. The reason his followers knew him to be a remarkably literate thirteen year old boy was yet another tactic on Naruto's part; bestowing a secret to them fostered their devotion, making it that he trusted them with his true face instead of continuing to hide his image.

One would think that a faceless, ageless man that helped enrol children into school, found decent and liveable housing for the formerly homeless, as well as acquired manageable employment for others would be even a little bit suspicious but Naruto need only wave a few ryu notes for those suspicious people to forget what it was they were thinking.

Being the Patron of fifty two parentless children that used to scrap dumpsters for their daily meals and thirty six other children with poor parents, who essentially did the same thing and were street kids from as far as they could remember, meant that Naruto's One from Chill persona had to make frequent appearances at the Civilian Academy for any little matter, whether those children got into fights or were scoring exceptionally bad in class; the faceless Mister One went straight to the Director's Office or to the children's class teacher to smooth over the matter. The same went for those that did exceptionally well in class and were being referred to jump one or more classes.

These appearances were low-key, attracting little to no outside attention and also visibly assuring the children under Naruto's patronage didn't feel neglected.

More street children and homeless were flocking to Mister One for help.

Naruto would have felt the pressure if he wasn't so pleased.

He unlatched her fingers from his front and was about to roll open a storage scroll suck in as much of these dismembered corpses as he could, intending to scrub the floor of blood after that, but Lio stopped him.

"Let me do that, sir. I don't want you to dirty your hands."

The blonde scoffed at that.

Lio smirked cheerfully, taking the scroll from her Master and walking into the bloody mess, proceeding to seal the body parts as best as she could and wearing a sunnier expression than before.

Just then, the entrance to the Laundromat opened and a man in a ratty ski mask stood there, bowing his torso forward with a hand to his chest and the other neatly bent at his back. The boy with the byakugan noticed splotches of dirt and scuff marks on his tattered brown cloak, panting raggedly in spite of his outward composure. Naruto didn't need to activate his byakugan to catch the raw redness of the man's knuckles.

"Boss." He called while in his reverent bow. The young blonde nodded his head for him to go on. "They've been handled, boss. And we let some escape, just like you wanted."

The Copper Pot that escaped would get the message to their boss that Whisper Group was coming for him.

One of the kids in Naruto's sponsorship came up with the name.

Most of the children and the families Naruto was watching over had a good idea of what was expected of them, and they willingly dove deeper to prove their faithfulness. Naruto saved them from their damnable fates and went further, turning their entire lives around for the better and giving them a brighter future than they could ever dream of.

The former CORE didn't lie to them that everything he did was from the goodness of his heart.

He didn't word that he wanted their loyalty but they gave it to him in spades.

In a way, they at least appreciated that his kindness had some sort of catch. And that he didn't only throw money at their problems but also listened to them in their time of need; some problems can't be solved by a wad of cash, after all.

The man at the door, for example, was an ex-Kumo chunin that had failed to capture a bloodline holder from Konoha, and was unfortunate enough to be the only survivor of his chunin team. The Fourth Raikage wanted to brush it under the rug and forget about the incident but his Council made sure the surviving chunin was ruined beyond repair, seizing his bank account, properties and entitlements such as the health insurance provided to all ninjas of Kumo, forcing the man out of his home and into severe debt to cater for his sickly ex-wife and their only son.

Naruto came as a ray of light that dazzled this broken chunin, raising his situation in steady stages; first finding the man a good one room apartment room that had most amenities ready for use, such as a stove, clean water running from taps, a heater and a radio, among others. Then the blonde boy paid for the chunin's ex-wife's hospital bills straight from his pocket and arranged for their son to be sent to school with everything he would need to learn. At first, the former chunin didn't want to accept the boy's help, until Naruto proposed he work for his new entitlements-ex's hospital bills, kid's school fees and appropriate housing-, starting his work as one of Naruto's eyes on the ground, reporting back anything of potential worth. On the side and whenever he was ordered by his boss, the chunin could work among Naruto's soldiers. Just like now.

The young boss graced the chunin with a pleased smile. "That's good. Well done." The caped chunin bowed again, accepting his boss's appreciation gratefully. "Witnesses?"

"They're cooperating, boss. Nobody'll say nothing."

"Wonderful."

The man eyed the red painted scene inside the once pristine Laundromat, briefly watching Lio as she stepped softly on the bloody floor to gather errant body parts and seal them into the scroll. "I can…send for the clean-up squad, if you want, boss. Miss Lio doesn't have to bother herself with this."

The blonde boy gave the girl the chance to reply, which she did by picking up a floppy arm and pushing it into the scroll. "Aren't they busy cleaning up the mess outside?"

"It's not nearly as…striking…outside." He couldn't help curl his lips, both in disgust at the scene and in fear at the child so casually picking up body parts.

"Fine then. Thank you, Yuji." She straightened up and tossed the scroll to the man, turning to her Master after she did so.

The chunin named Yuji dipped his head in a nod and left to call the clean-up squad, who were just about done disposing the last dead gang member into a garbage bag.

"What are we doing next, sir?"

"Next?" she nodded. "Next, you're going to bath and change your clothes."

Lio self-consciously looked to the pocket where Naruto was keeping her ski mask, and this made the young boss quirk an eyebrow, humming to himself when she was unable to hold herself from covering her mostly hairless head. "Alright. After that, what's the plan?"

He was unmoving for a moment, studying her as she hiked up her shoulders and slinked to his side, away from his rapt white eyes. His gaze trailed with her without turning his neck, peering to his side with gradually rising curiosity when she gripped his elbow in her hands and hid in his shadow. Her shy motions weren't unusual, it was how she didn't want him to look at her that got him worried. "Well…I was going to visit some shops, the ones that are ready to pay me "appreciation money."" He air quoted.

Those shops were mostly small retail businesses and craftsmen stores that benefited from Naruto's kindness, and now wanted to begin paying their saviour to continue to look kindly on them. This had been going on for a while and made up twenty percent of where Naruto got his money, which in turn would be set aside to complete the payment of the Chill Acquisition.

Speaking of the Chill Acquisition. "Then I was thinking of finding some missing ninjas and cash in on their bounties but now that you don't feel like going to school today, we're going to do something extra tedious and super boring." He felt her groan run far down into the bare depths of her soul, and that pleased him so very much. She tucked herself further into his side, clinging to his arm and making him pause for a bit longer, pursing his lips. Every so often, she glanced around to look at his hands signing the words he couldn't express. "Constructions being done in Chill; we're seeing how far along our people are, give them whatever it is they want to build the new base and help out however we can."

She grunted sourly, mumbling between petulantly pouted lips. "Would have preferred hunting missing ninjas. Just saying."

"Some other people can take care of that. Don't even worry about it." Hunting and bagging low to high priority missing ninjas made up a good fifty percent of Naruto's wealth; he at first did that alone with Lio, until he was able to recruit ex-ninjas to his side and got them to hunt missing ninjas for him, raking in the profits to the last ryu and submitting it back to their boss. There were an outstanding number of dissatisfied or wrong ex-ninjas in Naruto's employ and benefitting from the boy's benevolence, and the extents they would go to serve their young patron was still yet to be reached. "Spending some time in Chill, breathing in that cool, fresh air, would do you a lot of good."

Given, yes, the "cool, fresh air" the ex-CORE spoke of were infrequent, semi-predictable snowy blizzards that roared and bellowed furiously at those idiotic enough to think they can brave the whiteout.

Lio was seriously contemplating changing her mind.

She hated Chill duty, something her Master shared a stark opposite opinion about, for he was always eager to venture into Chill and even spend weeks at a time in the minus zero temperature land he legally acquired from the Raikage.

Chill was their longest lasting hideout from ROOT after all, it held a certain significance to her Master.

Lio's body was special in many ways, so she could more or less endure the frigid coldness of that landscape, though her Master was mostly human and therefore had to suffer normal bodily limitations of being human, albeit super suppressed and mainly managed due to his CORE training by heating his core temperature and cycling his chakra around his body to sustain feeling of his fingers and toes.

The little girl didn't like watching her Master forcing himself to endure such suffering, especially when he had to look after a clingy, snot-nosed kid like herself.

Admittedly, she was still a clingy, snot-nosed kid, maybe even more than three years ago.

"I want work to be mostly done before the war rolls over Kumo."

"I get it. You already gave me this lecture; when construction work is finished in Chill, our home would be half ready."

Naruto had big plans for Chill.

For all of Chill, not just his sizeable quarter of the snowy land.

Unimaginable, ambitiously big plans.

He was fine with the steady pace things were going, though he would have gone further if he had Wood release, like his brother Ten. Albeit, wooden houses would be torn to shreds in that weather, mystical, chakra absorbing wood or not. So maybe it was a good thing he didn't have his brother's bloodline.

Lio was perfectly content supporting her Master, learning from him and protecting him; it was the role she chose and seeing her mentor push further into accomplishing his dreams made her happy.

The boy rubbed her head with a wide grin, one so bright it lit up her whole world, and the girl couldn't help but smile back.

"Now," he removed her from his elbow, good-naturedly screwing up his nose. "Go and shower. You stink."

She rolled her eyes. "Shut up."

By the time Lio left for their quaint little apartment in the heart of Kumo's Redlight district, Naruto supervised the clean-up crew as they wiped away the girl's psychotic mess and also penned down a letter to Lio's class teacher that she wouldn't be able to come to school for that week.

Her grades were at the top of the class and her general composure in Kumo's Civilian Academy was honestly better than Naruto hoped, seeing as she hadn't had a mental breakdown and obliterated the whole school.

Might as well give her a week-long break.

When he was done, Naruto wrote a letter to Kakashi.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

11:12AM

At its stillest, the winds of Chill blew at about fifteen to nineteen kilometres per hour.

Not fast enough to raise blizzards but more than enough to kick around snow and lash about teeth rattling high winds that howled mutely; Naruto called it Still Wind, and this period normally lasted at least eleven hours at a time either during the day or night. On some lucky occasions, Still Wind could last the whole day or the entire week.

A pack of twelve snow wolves dashed over the desolate land, stubbornly pushing ahead with bared teeth and exhaling heavily from their snouts. Tethered to them and being dragged behind them was a wood and metal sled, on which Naruto and Lio stayed on. The pair were wearing thick winter clothes; white and grey camo parkas with the fluffy hoods tossed over their heads, thick goggles and scarves tied over their lower faces, flapping in the wind as they travelled at near break neck speed over the snow. Their black pants weren't as thick but their brown, bear skin boots compensated for that well enough. It didn't need to be said that they wore gloves, or mittens in Lio's case, and Naruto's gloved hands gripped the reins, pulling a little to the side and steering his wolves back on course to the construction site in his quarter of Hidden Chill.

It was familiarity of the frigid wind and the winding path ahead that guided him forward; any other person uninvolved with Whisper Group would find it completely impossible traversing Naruto's icy plains.

The boy stood at the front of the sled, squinting his eyes ahead of the fast-paced ride, and his friend sat down to the side with her back to the front of the sled, lifting her goggles to her temple and furrowing her brows up at her blonde teacher.

Naruto's attention was on the path ahead, and also on his wolves.

These snow wolves were a reclusive specie of wolves that resided in Hidden Chill-born and bred-, making them specially raised to be able to survive the frigid weather of this landscape with their thick, white fur coats that smoothed down sleekly for when they ran, aligning them with the wind for when they were forced to push against an oncoming gale on their way to their destination, and yet very soft to the touch, fluffy and light. They had beady black eyes and deadly sharp teeth, capable of tearing into and feasting on cold-hardened flesh if necessary for their survival, else they usually ate fresh meat or fish. Their muscles were outstandingly powerful, quite literally evolved to fight against the wind, and in order to support the rising temperature brought about by their pelts, they could regulate their heart rates to both increase their core temperatures and also allow them to sustain a long, hard run through their frozen world.

The teamwork and pack mentality of the snow wolves was nothing to scoff at, and gaining their trust enough to be willingly tethered to a sled controlled by a human- of all creatures-was a feat upon itself.

They were very proud, intelligent animals and incredibly secretive too. Naruto found himself in the confidence of Chill's largest pack of snow wolves by visiting every so often and presenting freshly killed boars, trout and wild berries for a whole year until he was finally allowed into their cave to pet their wolf cubs. Those assortment of kills offered to the wolves were basically exotic dishes, as boars, trout and berries weren't native to Chill. As it was the biggest pack that bestowed Naruto their protection, the smaller packs fell in line.

In this icy land, Snow wolves stood at the top of the food chain alongside polar bears and snow foxes, but that was a triangular rivalry to be explained at another time.

Naruto was working on befriending a den of foxes that lived in his territory. The smell of wolf was problematic but the former CORE Operative was making some progress, and that was good because snow foxes were much more durable than their counterparts in warmer territories.

Witnessing those multi-tailed animals hunting down their prey was something magnificent to behold.

It was amazing how three predators that shared a vicious hatred of each other could reside together in Naruto's territory, except polar bears mostly didn't populate Naruto's quarter of Chill, though some wondered here and there.

Naruto blinked his eyes and pulled his wolves to the right, following a laid out lane of rippling orange lights that lit up several yards before his arrival to guide him on the last stretch of the journey. Instinctively, the wolves began slowing down, snapping their teeth in anticipation of their arrival.

The boy wrapped the reins tighter around his hands and steadily drew it back, putting effort into this to keep his wolves calm and composed. They neared a tall gate made from hardened iron that had been frozen to its centre, so it took a silvery blue tint. On both sides of the massive gate were white walls made of a neat assembly of brick, cement and steel, running miles and miles as far as the eye could see, curving and touching the sea but encompassing also the islands under the blonde's ownership. Naruto's land didn't start with these walls but rather thousands of yards ahead and around it, though the purpose of the walls was to provide close protection and coverage to the large scale work being done inside. The land outside the wall had its own use.

On cue, Lio riffled through her pockets and took out a walkie talkie, pressing down on a bright red button and muttered into it.

"Open the gates."

There was a short static rattle, then a curt, "Yes, boss. On it."

The middle of the silvery-blue gates clicked and snapped, creaking open for a little while until four adults in their own winter clothing rushed out, pushing on the gate for it to swing open wider.

They waved and saluted as Naruto's sled rushed by, and the pale eyed boy waved back. When he and Lio were finally in, the ninjas charged to protect the builders closed the gate, ensuring the several locks banged shut and the protective seals remained operational.

Naruto whistled, pulling left as he did so, and the wolves took a hard left, going around a makeshift roundabout and pulling up to the gatekeepers building. He unwound the reins from his hands and Lio hopped out of the sled, marching to the wolves and letting them out of their tethers one at a time, accepting their jovially appreciative licks with a humming laugh.

By the time she was done, the wolves' dog piled her, making her laugh unabashedly as they swarmed her in their barking frenzy.

The boy got down and nodded to the ninjas that jogged up to him, stopping to fall on one knee and bring their fists to their hearts in their bow.

"Boss!"

This group of some twenty or so ex-shinobi were dressed in different sets of warm clothes, mainly coloured white, ash or blue so as to match the landscape. Naruto pushed back his hoodie and brought his goggles to casually hang from his neck, but the scarf around his mouth stayed; he rubbed his gloved hands and used his hands to pat the shoulders of one of the ninjas kneeling before him, politely telling them to get up.

The person Naruto touched got up, mirrored by his comrades, and bowed profusely as he shifted back a respectful half-step. "Welcome, sir. How was the trip?"

"Refreshing. I've always liked how clearer my thoughts are here." He surveyed the condition of his people, smiling kindly to them and signing to the ninja at the end of the row. "Hope your managing ok in this cold."

The one he was looking at, a teen wearing a hunter ninja mask that pleaded for his boss to send him for guard duty in Chill, bobbed his head, motioning back. "This cold is nothing." Naruto snorted at the older teen's scoff. The deaf boy continued, admitting. "Everyone is so nice. Chill duty is way better than hunting missing ninjas."

"Let's see if you'll think the same when winter comes by."

The boy's eyes bugged out, making exaggerated hand gestures to emphasize his shock. "Wait. This isn't winter?!"

Instead of answering, Naruto sent the boy a wide smirk.

Dread filled the teen.

Naruto had, in every sense, picked him up from the gutter and gave him a new life; the boy had been a shooting star among Snow's ninja ranks, rising from genin to chunin when he was fourteen, then from chunin to special jounin by the time he was fifteen, until his career was set ablaze by the end of a certain mission, where a comrade set off a bomb close to his face. The result was parts of his face getting seared off, severely scarred skin tissue of his upper body and the loss of his hearing.

He was deemed a lost cause, given only the bare minimum treatment and erased from Snow's records as a shinobi. Being an orphan made it far easier to disregard his existence.

Turned out that the one that had blown up the bomb was a relative of the Snow Daimyo's Royal Advisor, and whether or not it was accidental or not was up for debate.

Tadao Usagi was one of Naruto's highest ranked and most skilled follower.

"Sir!" Lio called, heaving for air over the fray of white fur and wagging tails. This mass of soft fur and harmless nipping was overwhelming her. A hand reached out of the skirmish and grasped at nothing. " Ouf! So much fluff. Ack!" They were mobbing her for treats the little girl just didn't have. "Help me! Sir, help!"

Naruto did so, turning to his student and curling his lips into a shrill whistling.

The wolves all paused, lifting their heads in unison and flicking their ears to the familiar sound. Their black eyes snapped to Naruto and the boy bent down, beckoning for them to come with one hand held open and the other reaching into his coat.

And they did.

All twelve of those tough beasts.

The boy grunted with a grin as the first three slammed into him, lapping at his face, while the rest came around his sides and back, pawing at him and nibbling on his winter jacket. The white creatures barked and yapped, clambering their master for their reward amid the chuckling enjoyment of the boy's people. He laughed with a stuttering breath, withdrawing a handful of jerky from somewhere in his jacket and standing up over the wolves, holding his hand above his head and whistling again, this one more drawn out and lower in pitch.

Even at five foot two, a relatively average height for a thirteen year old boy, the snow wolves still reached his chin as they collectively sat down around him, wagging their tails and letting their tongues loll free as they panted. He clicked his tongue audibly and whistled, tossing jerky to each wolf. The animals caught it in their teeth and bent down, beginning to properly gnaw on the meat; it was tough enough to exercise their strong teeth and jaws while also tasty for the effort to be well worth it in the end.

The boy pat the head of one of the wolves and she growled, harmless but somewhat annoyed at being disturbed while she was working down her jerky. He smiled with his eyes closed, not at all intimidated by the chilling sound of an irritated snow wolf, which made some of the boy's loyal ninjas' cautiously reach for their weapons, even though they knew better.

Their boss forbade any hostility to the wolves, and the same went for the wolves to his people.

Very soon, the same conditions would encompass the snow foxes as well, if all went well.

Done with running his fingers through the astonishingly soft fur coat of his wolf, the boy got up with a grunt, turning his eyes towards the unmissable giant tarp some yards from them, rising dozens of stories high and nailed into the earth by a complex looking peg. There were hundreds more tents like this, smaller and larger, dotted around the interior of the wall in a well-planned and arranged manner, according to the plan Naruto crafted with his builders and engineers. Noticeable roads, paths and landmarks were marked down by paved curbs, black tar and a simple yet complex drainage system against floods from the ocean.

Snow and wind beat against the tall tents, making an eerie flapping noise sound beneath the recognizable clamour of hammers clashing against metal, wood being sawed and yell words called above the din, coordinating the building effort.

Naruto could already see his dream home take a more definite shape; houses, apartment buildings, restaurants and diners, a grand hospital paired with a fully stocked pharmacy, food supermarkets and clothing stores, parks, recreational centres, indoor and outdoor combat arenas, orphanages and retirement homes, smithies for weapon makers as well as household uses, woodwork building for carpenters and other artisans, an electricity company that distributed power coming from strong wind turbines and managing the storage of emergency power in every building on the unlikely occasion the turbines collectively became faulty, water distributing pipelines were already embedded in the ground and running clean water into houses, day cares, kindergartens and higher specialty schools that would be split between teaching his soldiers and his civilians.

Farms of all kinds and all manner of natural resources caked beneath the earth, waiting to be discovered.

Then, right in the middle of this sprawling society, serving as the beating heart and vital nerve centre, was the administrative building.

This place might actually be a training ground for an army but it was also the hopeful home to the hundreds in Naruto's care, which was why those involved in the building and designing of the place were beneficiaries of Naruto's that truly wanted to build the grand home their Master promised.

Construction didn't start one year ago, when Naruto formally acquired the rights to his quarter of Chill.

No.

It began two and a half years ago.

One would ask how someone could sustain such a widespread construction effort in such a deadly part of the world.

Where was all this money coming from and how did Naruto manage to maintain the secrecy of the construction work being done?

For the latter, it was the same as entrusting his true identity to his people; no one affiliated with Whisper Group told a soul to outsiders. The members of the progressively expanding gang purchased building supplies in bulk and transported it into the frozen land using a private route shielded from wondering eyes.

In the case of the former, the work initially got off the ground using the fifty million ryu Naruto extorted from Gato, using that hefty sum of money to also bring people out of poverty and send children to school, until the boy branched out to other income streams when it became evident that doing so was crucial to his ambitions; fifty percent of the funds were the bounties of B to S rank wanted shinobi, twenty percent was appreciation money from his people, twenty percent were millions of ryu in cash stolen from big gangs from as close as Kumo to as far as Waterfall country, and the last ten percent came from the ransoms of high profile rival gang members or their bounties if those gangs refused to pay up.

Of course, a certain amount of the money was being saved away, invested back into his people's businesses and invested into real estate, particularly housing in Snow. Accountants in his patronage rigorously tended to his accounts and properties.

Naruto's eyes didn't just look at the present but also to the future.

Right now, many of the residential houses were completed and loaded with the basic essentials-water, lighting and heating systems-, ready for people to move in any moment from now. Roads winding inside the wall, Sentry Posts stationed outside, carefully hidden in the snow, and the last dozen wind turbines meant to be the main source of electricity were being driven into the ground, supporting the first forty eight turbines already whirling in the wind; solar energy or hydroelectric dams would have been an option if not for the nature of the environment, and Naruto didn't want to risk using diesel generators in this kind of cold.

He whistled, idly scratching the top of the head of the female wolf he was formerly petting, finished with her treat and trying to weasel more from the blonde boy. Two other wolves licked his other hand for remnants of jerky on his glove, while the others ran around their master or skipped into the growing hideout. Lio went ahead and handed the Head Guard some scrolls, containing food supplies and extra blankets; there were excess building materials on ground, so Naruto didn't need to bring any more.

The Head Contractor jogged up to him, his assistant scampering at his back with rolls of numbered blueprints hugged to her chest.

"Chief! Hello!" He called, skidding to a stop and dipping his head in a bow. No matter how many times Naruto came by, the contractor always rushed to him with the same sincere greeting.

The boy waved. "Hey there."

Getting right down to business, the man provided Naruto with a binder and a pen. The blonde flipped it open, not minding when Lio peered around him to get a look at the document. "We've concluded construction of seventy three houses. These are all the houses we've finished, hooked up to electricity and hot water." He gingerly indicted the spots on the map inside the binder, drawing a circle with his finger also on some twenty areas. "The signal towers are having a…difficult time transmitting because of this terrain." He picked his words carefully, wincing when his boss furrowed his brow. "A few more months and we'll figure out a way to maintain a signal at long distances. The engineers are fully committed."

At the moment, the signal towers couldn't transmit signals further than five miles outside the walls. The young boss trusted his engineers to come up with something; they did so in nailing the wind turbines into the ground in such a way as to withstand being torn out of the earth by the high winds and also supply electricity, so Naruto didn't think his belief in their capabilities were misplaced.

"Back to the completed houses; what's left are the seals." He recited the seals needed off the top of his head. " Fingerprint-Alarm Lock seals for the doors and windows, Barrier seals for the doors, windows and walls , and a Windbreaker seal for the wind." Windbreaker seals were similar to Barrier seals except that while the latter protected against physical/human threats, the former formed a bubble of chakra that made it so that errant gusts of wind didn't find its way into weak spots of the house, preventing the building from being ripped out of the ground. There was a much larger version tattooed to the interior of the walls. The guard ninjas went back to their posts. "Aside from that, all other construction work is coming along nicely."

Naruto snapped the book shut and Lio collected it from him, freeing his hands to sign and for the pink eyed girl to interpret for him, as the contractor and his assistant didn't know sign language.

"Let me worry about seals, Arata. I've got a…friend?" Naruto's first follower twisted her face, questioning that last sign. The blonde repeated it. "Friend…-ish?" Lio snorted, whispering to Naruto. "You don't have any friends, Master. Except maybe me, I guess, but that's up for debate."

Not offended, he looked at his friend with a twinkle in his pale white eyes, and Lio's eyes widened as her jaw dropped in realization.

"You can't be serious. Him? Really?" her doubt was palpable and she expressed it perfectly in her airy voice, speaking in a near hiss under her breath and barely able to keep the mania from turning in her neon pink eyes. "The husband of the woman that took my wings? Him?"

Naruto's answer was facing her, flicking his fingers to his eyes for her to look into his eyes.

The mounting madness swirling violently in her orbs dimmed somewhat at that, realizing herself that she almost lost it in the worst possible place. White and pink lights flashed and popped off her covered head, blinking also off her body not so subtly at her dampening ire, resembling a fiercely crackling explosive tag seconds from detonation.

Although her composed face gave nothing away, her tormented pink eyes ignited with utter insanity.

He placed his hands on her cheeks, giving her a slight half-smile and an apologetic look, tugging her beanie down over her ears, cooling her mind and heart in a way he alone could; it pained him that his angel lost her wings but ache was quadrupled for Lio.

She lost a part of her body and a chunk of her soul, almost literally.

She blamed her weakness on that day.

She also hated Kushina for it.

Oh, Lio hated Kushina.

Those wings didn't just fizzle out of existence once they were hacked off her back.

They were sealed and taken away.

Minato wasn't at fault, and there was a very good chance the overly familiar man didn't like what his wife had done to Naruto's friend once he inevitably got wind of it, nonetheless he was guilty by association in Lio's burning pink eyes.

With all his responsibilities and commitments, Naruto didn't have that much time for himself to brush up on his sealwork; revising and practising new fuinjutsu in order to increase his level of proficiency was reduced to a few meagre hours per week. It was unfortunate because, with the theft of Hidden Star's Fuinjutsu research back when he burned the village to the ground, and the passage of three years since then, he should be at level eight by now. Naruto was only able to rise from level four to level six; highly difficult seals like the Windbreaker seal and Fingerprint seal were not out of his specialization, but he couldn't shrink them down to manageable, household sizes, unlike the massive protection and safety seals he pasted on the interior of the walls that functioned to cover the entire region.

He needed Minato's help.

Heaven knows what would happen if Kushina showed up with him.

Naruto only hoped sighting the Namikaze wouldn't trigger Lio into a violent reaction.

"Sorry?" the contractor reintroduced himself, confused at what was happening. Naruto waved for him to not worry, breaking eye contact. "Well…if it's not too much trouble finding us a good seal master, please do."

The boy jabbed his elbow into the bald girl's side, gesturing and she spoke, still very unsure of her Master's plan. "Are there any more seals you need?"

"I'll ask around and write them down for you, boss. Thank you."

"Wonderful." Lio gave the man his binder. Looking to Naruto, she said as his hands moved and his lips mouthed soundless words. "I'd like to see some of the houses."

The boy visited one of the completed houses first, gripping the door knob and turning to the left, pushing the door open and easing himself in. The low hum and ebb of the heaters greeted him, as did the lights overhead flicker on, casting a nice warmth about the house. He looked to the contractor if he should take off his boots and the man eagerly ushered his boss inside, perishing the thought of his boss walking in his socks when he certainly didn't have to.

It was a basic living space for a family of up to six members; a simple parlour and living room demarcated from the other by a paper wall, however the walls of inside the house were painted a warm cream colour. The kitchen was furnished with a sink, cabinets and a storeroom, and the bedrooms, four in number, were on both sides of a long hallway coming down from the livingroom. There were front and backyards covered in thick snow though showing a clear, cobblestone footpath to and from the front door, as well as picket fences separating houses from that of their identical neighbours. None of the houses were furnished yet with chairs, tables or beds, only cleaned of dust, painted and provided the all needed essentials like water, light and heating, but that would be solved in the coming weeks when more houses were completed.

The blonde boss enjoyed the sight of all the completed houses arranged in neat rows on the brand new street. He would assign a name to the district later and have addresses provided for each house in due time.

Naruto's builders adopted Iwa's building method; it was renowned for being fast, so as to cater for Iwa's bubbling population, cheap in such a way that the housing was simplistic and not flashy, durable to stand the test of time and importantly of all, the finished product was appealing to the eyes. The thing was that, this method could only be used for simple homes that didn't exceed one storey tall.

Still, it was serving Iwa's infrequently spiking population needs and many nations replicated its success in their territories with varied amounts of success.

Adapted to the harsh, snowy terrain and significantly improving upon Iwa's method of construction, Naruto's people evolved it to include multi-story apartments, stores, restaurant spaces and shopping complexes, not just one storey residential buildings. There were no back roads taken during construction and no cheap materials were used at all, as that would make the building too dangerous to occupy. Any house that was built was made to exceed the demand, meaning Naruto wanted there to be an excess of homes suited for its occupants instead of a dire need for more; more than a few families under the boy's followership had some ten or more children with many more extended relatives vying for the blonde's kindness, and a simple three bedroom house wasn't going to be enough for those special cases.

Next, Naruto was given a walkthrough of a one storey house.

The crowd that surrounded him grew.

Builders, engineers and unspecialized volunteers that helped around sites, vying to get a glimpse of their benefactor, speaking in warbling tones of excitement and joy on seeing the impressed look on their voiceless master's face when he looked at the organisation of the streets.

The boy walked ahead of them, with some crowding his sides and back but no one blocking his view of the path ahead.

Naruto's wolves bound forward and Lio attached herself to his side, gripping his arm in both hands.

The two storey house was located on the left side of a wide cul-de-sac among eleven other one storey houses. The streets were layered with a very thin sheet of snow that could easily be melted or shovelled to the side; Naruto could already imagine the snowball fights that would be ignited by the kids of that street, the impromptu football matches once the adults cleared the road of ice and snow, and parents watching over their children as they rode their bikes for the first time.

There were ways to make Chill more liveable, so much so that farming crops, herding animals and fishing weren't in the least bit farfetched.

If Kumo had made the tiniest effort, Chill would have long ago been a paradise.

Too bad for them, Naruto's Whisper Group would succeed in spades.

Suddenly, the boss's wrist tingled and he ground to a halt.

The people congregating around him stopped also, surprised when their boss screwed his face in bewilderment and wondering why.

The seal on Naruto's wrist was a Code Alarm seal and similar seals were drawn on two trusted followers that permanently resided in Kumo and Snow country. They were forbidden from using this seal at all unless it was an emergency on a scale that would endanger Naruto's beneficiaries.

The seal buzzed in irregular intervals and Naruto's eyebrows shot up as his eyes enlarged at the message.

Attack. Explosions. Academy. Kumo. Many dead.

The messenger didn't need to say which of the two Academies was under attack.

Civilian Academy.

Naruto ran for full tilt the gate, lowering his head and speeding with his arms flying behind him. He licked his lips and whistled, a short and sharp trilling sound that told his wolves that he wasn't playing around. It sent the wolves into a hurried frenzy, detecting their master's haste and panic. In his rush, Lio's nearly lost hold of his arm, getting her feet under her and running also. The snow white animals bound beside him, passing him in their hard stride, the one at the back swerved before the blonde and the boy hopped on, gripping the wolf's collar and pointing to another wolf close by for Lio to scramble onto.

The girl snapped her eyes to him and he glanced at her, just barely for her to comprehend what was happening.

"Open the gates!"

Her own hands clenched her wolf's collar, gnashing her teeth with a curse.

If only she had her wings.

If only she went to school today.

She flicked her neon pink eyes to her master.

A corner of Naruto's lips wavered down and his byakugan were narrowed in concentration.

The speed they made back to Kumo was double of what they used to push into Chill with their sled.

Except for the noise of heated exhales from the pack of snow wolves, the low wail of wind passing their ears of a brewing snow storm in the coming hours and the fleeting crunch of snow underfoot, there was complete silence all round.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Twenty minutes later

Kumogakure Civilian Academy

CORE Operatives Ninety-Nine and Ten were incredibly close. The Wood release using boy was among Nine-Nine's many siblings that he got along with very well; like his bookish, dorky baby sister One, the effeminate Two-Hundred, twin sisters Ninety-Eight and Four-Hundred-and-Fifteen, the chic pretty girl Eighty-Eight, the lazy Uchiha One-Hundred-and-Ninety-Nine, the shy samurai Fifty, the crippled Magnet release user Nine, and a whole slew of others.

Naruto had four hundred and ninety nine siblings, of which ninety nine survived the Graduation Ceremony along with him; the mute blonde was bound to have a couple dozen that he was exceptionally casual with, and who in turn goofed around with him.

There was a game Nine-Nine and Ten liked playing when they were younger.

They would wrestle until either one got the other into a submission hold, forcing the other to choose between losing functionality of that limb for the next few hours, falling unconscious or admitting defeat.

Broken arms, dislocated shoulders, bruised ribs, black eyes and of course unconsciousness due to strangulation was a common ending when the two boys went all out.

It was a rough, violent game, yes, but theirs was a violent upbringing.

CORE didn't raise kids; it broke down humans, disassembling living, breathing beings as if they were wooden puppets, hollowed them out bit by bit of useless components, and remade them as monsters.

Monsters .

It was odd how that was the first thing Naruto thought of when he saw the leaf.

The leaf was lush green, as if freshly plucked from a tree, rounded with a pointed tip. It was so out-of-place in all this destruction.

Wearing his own ski mask and carrying a crying little boy in his arms, the blonde boss's shaded eyes followed the leaf as it danced across the caved in corridor of the Civilian Academy's west, sliding over the upturned concrete floors and skipping across the tumbled down metal lockers. The older boy took off his oxygen mask and held it over the kid's mouth, blocking out the rancid smoke and dust polluting the air for the child to gulp in as much precious air he needed, though Naruto didn't move for five seconds, wholly distracted by the strange leaf.

Naruto's jaw clenched.

His heart sank.

No.

'Kami, don't let this be him. ' Naruto uttered in his mind. 'Please don't let this be him.'

The boy under Naruto's care reached up and gripped the young blonde's wrists, tears leaking from his eyes.

"M-My s-sister." He whispered in raspy breaths, pleading to his Master. "Sh-She…sh-sh-"

Boom!

Another bomb went off.

The thirteen year old managed a small, reassuring smile, not allowing himself to be shaken by the new explosion off in the near distance so as not to jar the child any more than he already was. He held his breath, securing his oxygen mask to his ward's face and closing his eyes, wordlessly telling the injured seven year old to do so as well. When the boy did so, he grunted, clambering up a slanted slab of wall and leaping out into the light just as Kumo ninjas ambled in to put out the fire, as well as help evacuate children.

A little too late though, because Naruto's people in Kumo saved students and civilian teachers, whether they were admirers of their Master or not.

Lio was elsewhere, locating and containing the bombs that hadn't yet gone off in the Academy.

Outside the west wing of the Academy was utter mayhem.

Medics knelt over the injured, flashing lights into their eyes for a response or performing CPR. The wounded that were awake, mostly older kids and teachers, sat on the ground, dazed and confused in their dusty school uniforms, staring listlessly at the crumbling Academy wing.

Any teacher that had their wits about them tried to coordinate the shell shocked children away from the rancorous confusion.

Sirens wailed over the cries of younger children and ninjas trooped head first into the thickest of the flames, blocking their nose and mouth with the crook of their elbows to ward off the dust, squinting and bellowing as loud as they possibly could in search of any survivors.

Naruto landed close to a Kumo medic and gently laid the crying boy on the ground. The medic, a dark skinned, white haired lady that seemed to be in her late twenties and having a jounin vest over her torso, snapped her eyes up to the ski mask wearing boy but diverted her attention down to the child that was left in her able care.

The former CORE's eyes caught another green leaf fluttering gaily in the turmoil, landing on the back of the hand of an unmoving person, lying there on the ground and covered head to toe in a blanket.

Dead.

Naruto swore once again.

'Kami, don't let it be him.'

He jumped forward and vanished in a blur of speed.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

He found him at Warehouse X, a forgotten ROOT bunker at the outskirts of Kumo that was deemed compromised sometime during the Second War when allies of the Raikage raided a different bunker five miles away from Warehouse X.

Now it was gathering dust, rusting and decaying in its remote location underneath the hermitage of a long since dead monk.

The mute boy took off his circular sunglasses, folding them and tucking them into a front pocket. He yanked open the trapdoor inside the hermitage, studying the frothing darkness inside for a moment, before marching down the hollow emptiness of the earthen walled staircase leading straight down to the bunker. He didn't have much time to change his clothes since coming back to Kumo from Chill, only able to take off his parka, gloves and change his boots in favour of ninja sandals; his scarf was still wound around his mouthless ski mask and his goggles dangled from his neck. The boy removed his ski mask, rolling it neatly and pushing that into the back pocket of his unassuming black pants, running his fingers through his hair and confirming that his bandages were tightly bound on his hands.

The trapdoor snapped shut on its own, washing infinite blackness over the expressionless teen.

He stopped at the bottom of the stairs, tipping his head back to examine the ceiling.

Tzz-Tzzt.

Fluorescent lights stuttered on, blinking from age but stubborn to work in spite of the years unused.

Naruto proceeded and his footsteps scarcely made a sound, halting once more at the simple steel door at the end of the corridor.

The Leaf village's symbol was proudly etched on the metal.

The former CORE ninja found a flickering frown cross over his face, setting the palm of his left hand on the centre of the carving and furrowing his brow, concentrating.

Click…click…snap!

The aging seal acknowledged his chakra, sensing some ghostly sliver of Danzo laced through and through Naruto's being.

Even without the Tracker seal and the Suicide seal, Danzo would never leave the boy alone.

Never.

The iron door opened with a great yawn, groaning deeper when the boy pushed it wider for him to slide into, and subsequently snapping shut once the blonde was inside. The room inside wasn't anything impressive; as large as an average residential livingroom with weapons of every kind hanging on the walls, as forgotten as the bunker. Two other doors were on the left and right walls, ominously shut.

At the centre of the room were two chairs facing each other, and the chair pointed at Naruto's entry point was occupied by a boy about his age, dressed completely in form fitting black shinobi clothes, black ninja sandals that bore straps halfway up his calf and grey forearm guards, and a grey, unranked flak jacket.

CORE didn't have any ranks.

He had a red Konoha ANBU tattoo on his left shoulder, an indication that he was moonlighting as one of the Third Hokage's black operatives and also working as a spy for his Master, Danzo.

The boy had deep brown, short and spikey hair, and large black irises that were ghoulish enough to intimidate the emotionless upper brass of ROOT, having a unique hitaite that resembled an incomplete helmet over his head and an eggshell coloured mask clipped to the right side of his belt. Instead of a customary tanto, a sword was strapped to his back, as well as the traditional kunai and shuriken pouch, combined into one single pouch, was wrapped to his right thigh.

CORE Operative Ten had a pair of headphones over his ears, leaning back in his chair with his legs stretched forward, ankles crossed and eyes closed. In his pale hands was a cheap music player and his thumb kept tapping for the next song.

His face was screwed up in irritation.

He didn't seem to like the song he was listening to.

Naruto eased himself onto the chair across from Ten, getting the Wood release holder's attention with a jolt that would have been surprised if the other boy wasn't expecting his brother to come down and meet him.

"This Killer Bee guy is horrible. His music is anyway. He's so bad, he tried to rhyme beat with cool, like a crazy person. Meanwhile the actual beat itself is so trashy it sounds like he sampled a garbage collector farting on a piano." Ten wasn't done, pausing the song and basically ripping the headphones off his head, like he feared Kirabi's music would manifest itself physically if he listened for any longer. "Dude's lyrics are so bad, he-"

"I get it." Naruto cut in, rigorously screwing a cap on his emotions. He signed. "His music is an…acquired taste."

"So…" Ten drew out, a wiggling smile playing on his lips, excited to be seeing his brother after three long, vacant years. "Have you acquired the taste for Bee's music?"

"Heck no. Bee's songs are so bad that if you listen carefully you can hear his producer weeping in the background."

"See?!" The brown haired boy exclaimed, glad to be on the same page as his mute brother, happy that they were picking up where they left off. "I have no idea how this guy had fans." He reluctantly changed the subject to the matter at hand, and his expressions softened to convey his sincerity. "I didn't want to hurt those people; your people, I'm guessing, but that was the only way I could draw you out." He gestured to a stone-faced Naruto with his hands, half-smiling regretfully. "And look! It worked!"

Nine-Nine had questions, and he asked them. "…How did you know where to find me?"

"Honestly?" Ten's hands flopped to his lap and he shrugged. "I didn't. I kinda just hoped you were in Chill, somewhere, and that you somehow had important business going on in Kumo. And since it's virtually impossible to search through Chill-no matter how many people Master sends-I took a huge risk." Since Hidden Star, ROOTs second blind spot, was battered for the next few decades, what was left was Hidden Chill. Danzo had his hands full with mobilizing his CORE to tug at several strings to tip the war in Konoha's favour, and since the war hawk feared Nine-Nine would use the fray to sneak in for the kill, he also kept a good number of his CORE around him at all times. Ten sealed away his headphone and music player, saying. "One said it won't work. Ha!" he snorted, getting some sort of hilarity at the chaos he brought to Naruto's plans. "Wish I could see her face now."

The blonde tilted his head to the side, stating in no unclear gestures. "You're alone."

"You too." Ten hummed, crossing his arms.

"Was it your idea to bomb the school?"

Ten curled back, revolted and truly offended. "Of course not. I'm not some…some…some…psychopath!"

Danzo gave the order and Ten obeyed.

That didn't make him a psychopath.

It didn't!

Naruto's unmoving silence displayed his doubt, but who was he to judge?

Everyone in CORE was insane in their own creative way.

How they managed it was another thing entirely.

Back in Kumo, Lio found another clay bomb in the east wing of the school and carefully encased it in a humming white-pink sphere that manifested out of thin air, rising from her cupped hands. Six more clay bombs hovered about her, coated in the same ethereal light as the one that rose from the little girl's hands, defused and contained in chakra spheres strong enough to withstand them exploding. Lio flinched, looking up when the ceiling groaned downwards.

She ducked out of sight when some of Kumo's own came around to evacuate more students.

"Lucky for you, I'm not here for your friend. Master is curious though." Ten scratched his chin, thinking. "Can my trees even restrain her? I'm not sure."

Lio's chakra was too light for it to be earthly.

Zero density.

Zero mass.

Weightless.

Yet somehow, it was packed with a lot of power, more so than any known Sage Art.

That was how Kushina Uzumaki described the chakra of the pink eyed girl, explaining why exactly she was unable to snag a sample during their extended fray inside the crater or when he chains bound the girl in a cocoon.

Something the Uzumaki princess didn't disclose about the failed mission were the otherworldly wings in her possession.

Naruto snapped his, moving his hands and soundlessly mouthing. "Worry about capturing me first."

"Right. Yeah. Do I even need to ask though? Your run-ins with Kakashi, Kushina and Yoshino make it pretty clear how badly you want to keep making Master sad."

Naruto's right eye twitched.

"Stop being dumb and come back home. We all miss you, Nine-Nine." He begged his voiceless brother to listen to reason. "You know One cries herself to sleep because of you. Two's gotten even worse since you left, thinks he's subbing for you till you come back. C'mon, bro, let's go home."

"…Do you know how this is going to end?"

Ten's shoulders drooped, disappointed. "Tell me, how do you think this is going to end?"

"I'm going to choke you out."

"That so?" Ten laughed. " You're going to choke me out? Seriously?"

Naruto's eyes turned up in a false, lipless smile. "You make it sound like it haven't done it before. I remember almost snapping your neck. Four times."

Suddenly, Ten didn't feel the humour in his brother's previous statement any longer.

A terrible chill ran through him at the soulless stare fixed on him from his brother.

Those four times, Ten made the unfortunate mistake of hurting Kakashi's feelings, right in front of Naruto.

Kakashi wasn't in any way involved this time, but Whisper Group's Boss wasn't in the best mood given the events occurring in Kumo thanks to Brother Ten.

The ninja sent to apprehend the runaway decided to act first.

Naruto's chair warbled with life and enveloped the mute blonde in tree branches, only for the snake-like wooden limbs to harmlessly pass through the seated boy and instead wrap around itself.

It was a fluid, seamless trick.

Ten hissed under his breath, sitting back in his chair and mumbling to what seemed to be an empty room, for Naruto essentially cancelled his presence altogether. " Illusionary clone. Neat trick, bro; barely saw it happen. You're Body Substitution and Illusionary clone are better, if that's even possible."

Not for a single second did Ten think Brother Ninety-Nine was slacking off on improving his skills, both mind and body. Being made mute from a sparring injury that wasn't at all properly treated, getting permanently scarred on his hands and feet due to constantly being made to practise an illegal chakra control technique, and enduring hellishly unspeakable on-field damages didn't stop Nine-Nine from elevating his skillset, what could possibly stop the blonde from bettering his abilities?

Ten wasn't so idle these last few years either.

No.

Ten had been busy.

"Have you gotten faster?" The real Naruto casually strolled out from behind the Wood release using teen, as if oozing out of the CORE boy's shadow. He placed his hands on Ten's shoulders and looked down on his brother as the large-eyed boy tipped his head back to beam widely up to him. He thrummed, pressing his last question harder. " Hm?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, closing his fingers tighter on his brother's shoulders.

His unspoken response echoed soundlessly within the confines of the underground bunker.

What do you think?

"Want to see something even cooler?"

Nine-Nine didn't deem the other boy a reply.

Ten clapped his hands together, flaring his chakra and forcing the mute blonde to leap away a handful of yards away, turning his head around and gnashing his teeth at the transformation happening all around them.

The bunker shuddered and quaked down to its very crumbling core, reacting accordingly to the Wood release holder's uttered jutsu.

"Wood release: Fuinjutsu: Temple Seal of the First Hokage!"

An unknown force pushed the bunker from beneath, shooting it out of the earth and wrecking the hermitage as it burst up. The concrete ceiling, walls and floors fell back as the bunker was lifted up by a mighty tree, replaced by wood that expanded far and wide, opening the space further by vaulting the ceiling to what looked like ten miles high. There was a mountainous wood carving of a six armed lady at the end of the room, where Naruto was facing; all six of her eyes were closed shut and a gentle smile turned her lips up.

Ten had his back to her, hunched forward and hands now threaded in a Snake hand seal.

The new, spacious area had no doors and now windows, though somehow illuminated by sunlight.

Outside, a great tree with a wide base and evergreen leaves easily hefted the building in its branches, impossibly towering over the terrain.

In Kumo, Lio became agitated.

Frantic.

Panicked.

She couldn't sense her Master anymore.

Inside the sealed temple, Ten separated his fingers from the seal.

"What did you say about choking me out?"

Naruto surveyed the arena, idly rolling his shoulders, opening and closing his hands to get more blood flowing to his fingers. "That I'm going to snap your neck. Have you already forgotten?"

" Tch." Ten grit, willing the bottom pair of eyes of the wooden lady to snap open, the arena creaked and swayed.

'Byakugan!' Naruto called in his head, roving his all-seeing eyes about in search of the effect of the wooden lady opening on pair of her three sets of eyes. He discovered that his vision out of the arena was obscured by nature chakra, thickening the protective shell enshrouding the entire tree from staggering impacts from within and also attacks from outside. Naruto pursed his lips and tapped his chin. 'Huh…'

"You're awfully calm for walking into my trap." His brother intoned almost mockingly.

"If this was a trap, I should be suffocating for air, restrained by your trippy bloodline, or getting my chakra sapped from my reserves." The blonde shrugged. "Did you mess up the jutsu or something?"

"You want to get caught that badly? I knew some part of you regret making our family unhappy."

"What makes you think I don't have a back-up plan?"

Ten stilled once more at that, before he chuckled. "Bull. Crap."

"Oh yeah?"

"Your connection with the outside world is essentially cancelled." Ten stated incredulously. "No one can sense you and these walls are unbreakable. I'm really sure that friend of yours can't find you, not to talk of crack in here to save you. The First Hokage used this same jutsu to house the One Tails for a whole year; what chance do you have in escaping?" Naruto's answer was a mysterious smile, keeping his hands at his side and tilting his head to the other side. Ten scoffed exaggeratedly, waving his hands for them to put this ridiculous argument aside. "I want us to play a game. Our game."

"You want us to wrestle?"

"I want us to fight."

The ex-CORE ninja rolled his wrists and two kunai revolved into his hands. He curled his fingers around their handles, holding them in a reverse grip as his arms remained laxly at his sides.

Ten spoke the words Naruto couldn't voice. "You were already under the impression that we'd fight." The Wood release user sighed, tired of his brother's stubbornness. "Y'know, we can postpone our game for when you get back and Master forgives you. I can wait."

Naruto tossed one of his kunai, catching the loop at the butt of the blade with his pointer finger and deftly spinning the weapon, while the thumb of his other hand scratched at the hand of the other knife, impatient.

" Tch. Whatever."

The wooden lady opened another pair of eyes.

A dark grin wiggled up Naruto's face, tapping his two blades together once.

Clink.

It echoed in the palpable silence of the arena.

The two chakra-laced smoke bombs he snuck into Ten's shinobi vest went off, popping and bursting in rapid succession of the other, exuding noxious white smoke that filled Ten's lungs and clouded his senses.

The CORE ninja never saw or heard Konoha's lost son creep up on him.

It was over before it could actually start.

Authors note

And done.

Ten, by the way, is Tenzo/Yamato. But you probably already knew that.

What you think of this chapter?

What do you think of the story so far?

Leave a review of your thoughts and opinions, would you so kindly. Please and please stay safe, wherever you are in the world. These are trying times, nevertheless there are also hopeful days ahead; be smart, have fun and enjoy yourselves responsibly.

I know it's a bit too early to say this and I'm getting ahead of myself but…HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!

XD

I'll see you when I see you.

Foy.