A Bewitching Dance

by Haerrlekin

When Naruto opened his eyes, he saw a beautiful, red-haired woman with violet eyes and a warm smile. Oh, and a white void, but that was besides the point! In which Naruto fails to summon Gamabunta and goes splat in the chasm; Jiraiya did a whoopsie, Kurama is a jerk, and Hinata brings good vibes. Who knew that crippling, life-threatening injuries could feel so good?

31. Your Biggest Fan

Heya,

This chapter wasn't really meant to take so long... I'm realizing I've been saying that a lot, now.

Life has a tendency of kicking you in the teeth, so I apologize for the constant delays; just try to be patient with me, y'all.

But there's neither here nor there.

Anyways, let's not waste any more time! Chapter start!

---

Dragging footfalls jerked Hinata into awareness. Pain nipped her heels, its teeth cutting into her in layers- tiny, needling fingers, carving their designs along her tendons- shards of glass pushing through her corneas and digging blindly, in slow motion.

She was going to be sick.

Hinata jerked, eyes stinging as her gut heaved and twisted, as if to wring itself empty; however, she had nothing left to lose, save for a dry, high-pitched wheeze.

Ouchies…

"Darling, I love you dearly… But if you vomit on me, I will spike you down this cliffside," A voice grumbled from beneath her. Familiarity surged in her heart; Hinata blinked twice, enduring the hooks of pain grinding against the back of her eyes, and her vision cleared a bit; spots of curly black hair faded into her awareness. Her sensei's usual gorgeous locks were a wreck, matted down with blood, sweat, and mud alike.

But Kurenai-sensei was unmistakable.

She was on her mentor's back, the older woman hauling her along in a hunched limp, just swifter than a snail's pace.

"Kurenai-sensei…" Hinata muttered, her voice a feather's graze; she almost hadn't dared to hope. That boy, Ranmaru, was nowhere to be seen. She could only guess that Orochimaru had taken him. But her sensei-

Something agonizing unknotted from her heart.

Thank god, she was alive.

"I'm so glad," She whimpered, a painful heave jolting in her chest. Tears followed through, the smaller girl's shoulders shaking with stress. "Thank god."

"Thank me," Her sensei groused, a kiss of humor still lingering in spite of it all. "God isn't the one hauling you through the mud." Then she smiled. "We're gonna be okay, Hinata."

Were they really? Pale eyes drifted downward, seeking purchase in the capstone of their evening.

"Your arm-" Hinata couldn't even finish that thought. Her eyes wouldn't tear away from the bloodied, twisted clump of meat that had been made of her sensei's dominant arm.

"'Tis but a scratch."

"I don't- I don't know if that's gonna heal, sensei," Hinata wheezed. "I'm so- I'm sorry."

Kurenai paused for a moment, her own smile wobbling. Then she snorted. "Eh, I hated that arm anyways. Never could draw a perfect circle."

"Kurenai-sensei-"

"Besides, Jonin like me get top of the line ninja insurance; It covers dismemberments, pregnancies, the common cold, and all other ninja-related incidents."

Well it was good to know at least, that she wasn't the only one who was sounding more and more like her boyfriend, these days. Finally reading the room, Hinata simply ducked her head down, resting her cheek on her mentor's shoulder.

"Thank you, Kurenai-sensei…"

"Now you're getting it…"

"Erm- t-there was a boy," Hinata tried to tell her, but Kurenai only shook her head.

"There's nothing we can do about that now, Hinata… All we can do is salvage what we still have."

Her student had nothing more to say, in response to that. So Kurenai considered their talk over, now focusing solely on descending down to the bottom of the pit on her own wilting strength; now, the rain had packed up the surrounding mud so much that it sucked her down to her ankles. She sneered in disgust, dragging herself forward through the slop towards her remaining two students- both of which seemed to only just be beginning to shake off some paralysis.

She could guess the context.

"Hinata! Kurenai-sensei!" Kiba howled, scrambling to his hands and knees to drag himself their way. Akamaru near-swam through the mud to reach his master halfway, whining and licking at his face. Kiba gently pushed past the dog, fear and fury fighting for supremacy on his face; he had only just reached Kurenai and Hinata when his hoarse scream began to rise, his sights set solely on his Hyuga comrade.

"Have you lost your damn mind!?" He howled, clamoring through the mud and rounding his sensei to glare directly at the girl. "We're supposed to be a team, and you left us like fodder in the bottom of a fucking pit! What if that guy decided to kill you anyways- fuck, what if we fell wrong and drowned in the mud, you dumb motherfucker-"

"Stop it, Kiba," Shino interrupted as his friend's vitriol bubbled up beyond his comfort. He gripped the boy's shoulder, a hardened gaze of his own tracing its path from Kiba to Hinata. "While I am hardly pleased with the means by which Hinata handled the situation, I cannot in good conscience discredit the fact that we are all alive for a reason."

"But-" Kiba looked distraught, his eyes beginning to water. His shoulders shook under Shino's palm, and not knowing what else to do for the dog-boy, Shino pulled them together, embracing him. "Fuck!" He whined. To Hinata, he added- "The least you could do is apologize!"

Hinata was slow to respond, her own hooded eyes barely seeing either of them as consciousness slipped away from her. "I can't…" She shook her head and sighed. "If I'd let you fight, he'd have killed us all."

Kurenai jumped to the girl's defense. "She's right. That young man was stronger than even myself." Kiba tinted a sickly shade once he stopped to really take in his sensei's own condition, and Kurenai chuckled a bit bitterly.

Even if she had made it past him, she wouldn't delude herself into thinking she could take Orochimaru. "Hinata saved all of our lives."

"But-" Hinata muttered on, hardly hearing her sensei's defense. "I am sorry for running off… I won't… Do it…"

The rest of her promise went incomplete, and Kurenai let out a tentative chuckle as her student faded into a twitching sleep.

"Hinata!?" Kiba yelped, but Kurenai only shook her head.

"She'll live, Kiba. She bit the kunai for us all, so let her rest, alright?"

"R-right… Right…" He patted Shino's own shoulder then, and nodded. "Er- thanks, bud."

They would be alright… Just one foot ahead of the other.

Kurenai had been through worse- well, actually, this was probably a new low. She'd never lost a limb before…

But- how had he said it? Right, tragedy builds character, and all…'

It was nearly midnight when Team Eight managed to haul themselves into Sanshō's shop, all leaning on each other.

The bell rang, and within moments, the little old lady was bustling down, same as when they had first met her; she gasped, taking in the sorry state they had come in.

"Oh god!" She gasped, hastening forth with surprising energy. "You're a mess! What happened!?"

"We slapped the shit out of Raiga and his goons, then got jumped at the tail end of it all- that's what happened," Kiba boasted right back with a laugh that died as quickly as it began. "F-fuck, my ribs."

"I apologize for the mess," Shino uttered, politely. "Why? Because mud and bloodstains typically aren't common deliveries to polite company…"

"Don't worry about that!" Sanshō chided him. She shuffled in place for a moment, perhaps wanting to help, but not quite knowing how.

Sensing her desire though, Kurenai smiled. "Do you think we could use your bath? And perhaps a meal, if you wouldn't mind…"

Sanshō was quick to deliver, promising them clean clothes and a meal without delay, and it was some time after that saw all of Team Eight seated once again like they had just the evening prior.

Kurenai had done her best with her ruined arm, aided in some part by Sanshō's own motherly fussing. Bound from head-to-toe, and with her arm secured with a makeshift sling, she simply had to accept that it was the best she was going to get with the thing.

Kiba and Shino's own injuries were mostly superficial; some scrapes and bruises, but nothing truly to be concerned over. Frankly, they had been wounded more in scraps with each other than they had, fighting Raiga's men.

Then there was Hinata. She had not risen again from her unconscious state, but her frequent twitches and shuddering breaths spoke clearly of the pain she must have been in. Kurenai chanced to graze her knuckles against her student's pallid skin, smiling softly at the brief sigh of comfort from the girl. Her knuckles traced across the writhing, molten red marks twisting across her flesh, which had refused to settle or recede.

"The curse mark," She breathed, equal parts awe and horror rising for the occasion.

Kiba and Shino both latched onto that name; it was Shino who spoke first. "You know this thing?"

She half-nodded, a shrug from her good arm following in twain. "I know of it… Kakashi's student, Sasuke Uchiha- he was also marked with one of these some time ago."

Then they remembered.

They hadn't been there for it, but Kiba remembered clearly what Shikamaru had told him. How Sasuke had risen as if from the dead, coated in a sickly purple chakra, and aggression to match.

"I swear to god, Kiba. He snapped one of those Sound guys' arms in half like cheap plywood, and he was smiling like a loon while he did it… If you see that inky-stuff start covering his skin, I'm begging you guys to forfeit on the spot."

Not like he would have wanted to fight Sasuke anyways, back then. The guy always fought like his life was on the line; he just remembered being glad to have gotten an easy mark in Naruto.

Well, that thought hadn't aged well…

He shook his head, a frown dominating his features. "So what do we do, then? Is she just gonna wake up and start kicking us around?"

Because Kiba really didn't wanna fight Hinata either. He still remembered how she'd broken his nose on an accident that he still wasn't quite sure truly was an accident.

If he were being fully honest with himself, Hinata had been acting differently for some time now- since she left with that Jiraiya guy and Naruto. From the moment she'd come back, she'd been different; more sure of herself, but also far less patient than before, seemingly. Really thinking about it, they hadn't really been able to joke together since then; there just seemed a distance between Hinata and the rest of the team. Where once they had been a unit, and close friends too- now, she felt almost like a stranger.

Her episode with Raiga was simply icing on the cake; her disabling them to run off with that weird albino guy was the cherry on top. He was trying not to judge her too much, but it was hard…

And now, she had the same mark that, according to Shikamaru, had turned Sasuke into a raving, bloodthirsty lunatic…

He wasn't keen to swap hands with 'murder-hobo' Hinata, if she woke up and chose violence.

"I doubt it'll come to that." Kurenai shook her head, her confidence in the girl stalwart. "But we need to get home ASAP. I'm not sure how it works, but I don't like it one bit."

Kakashi had claimed to have sealed the mark, when asked about it by his colleagues; the way he'd worded it, he seemed to have thought that the danger had passed.

If that were the case, surely he had the means to neutralize this thing before it got out of control? Naruto too- she remembered his apparent knack for sealing. Either one of them ought to know what to do!

Sanshō placed a plate of curry before each of them, including one for Hinata.

"It's my special curry of life! Oughta pick you up right as rain," She promised, a sweet, crooked smile for the conscious trio. "You make sure that sweetheart over there eats too, okay?"

Kurenai smiled. "Thank you very much." Then to her team- "You heard the woman. I don't wanna see a speck left on those plates," She warned. And neither Kiba nor Shino were brave enough to test her, both diving into the meal with some hesitance.

"It's good!" They both remarked as one, right before they both began choking on it in sync.

---

Tens of books and documents-alike littered his desk, piled up to his chest and spread out among his work-table and the second one he'd laid beside for the extra holding space. Stress-stained eyes slow-blinked through yet another document- this one, one of forty-something that he'd had to muscle through within the last two days, covered the specifics of contract seals.

They were tricky; each contract seal was unique, and got their power, ironically, through the clarity and specificity with which they were outlined. Through exchange -often goods and/or services-, contract seals were given their power.

"I can't stand these things," Kushina grumbled, fixing a pair of reading glasses she had donned. Kumoko mimicked the redhead, using her oversized front limbs to adjust a comically small set of her own that Kushina had fashioned for her. "If I wanted to be a ninja attorney, I would have gone to ninja law school!"

"It's just like a legal contract," Naruto explained to Tayuya, prying away his goggles; the newer, stiffer band snapped away, unwinding into their respective lenses so that they could split away from one another. Naruto fumbled with the two lenses for a moment, stacking them together and letting them snap firmly onto the choker at his neck.

A soft 'plink' saw a scalding hot mug placed at the corner of his desk. It smelled sweet.

"Thanks," He muttered, warmly. He tipped the whole thing back in one go.

Hot chocolate. He could have used something with caffeine, but he wasn't going to complain about an unasked favor.

Where was he?

"Legal contract?" Tayuya asked, now seeming curious. Honestly, he doubted she cared very much, but talking it out often helped, and she at least pretended well.

"Yeah." Naruto nodded. "You give something, you get something. What a contract seal does is use the caster's chakra to enforce this exchange. So long as the conditions are met on one end, they demand to be upheld on the other. The more lopsided the exchange is, the stronger or weaker the seal's bindings become."

Now, Tayuya seemed confused, so he struggled through an example.

"So let's say I make a contract seal, and in it, I say: You need to make me hot-chocolate every morning, for as long as you live here," Naruto fumbled through it, raising the empty mug and shaking it for emphasis. "So long as you live in my home and enjoy the comforts that come with it, you are quite literally compelled to make me hot chocolate, because that's what the contract says."

Tayuya frowned. "So I sleep in your bed and eat your food, and you can just mind-fuck me into being some scandalous hot-chocolate-serving lady-servant?"

Naruto glared at her, halfheartedly. "Shut up." But then a snicker bubbled up, met and shared with one of her own. "Technically, you could resist the call, but it becomes increasingly difficult, depending both on the strength of the caster, and on how much the contract is in your favor. Even stuff like a verbal agreement on your part can drastically flip the contract in my favor. Thus, the burden on me, the creator of the seal, increases or decreases depending on that favor." A thought. "Let's say the contract instead says that you have to cook, clean, and tend to me in whatever way I wish, so long as you have sanctuary in my home."

"So an actual servant…"

"Because the conditions of that contract now favor me far more heavily than they do you, the contract becomes a lot easier to break or circumvent on your end; I now need to exert considerably more effort to compel you to obey its conditions."

Thinking it over, she decided that she understood. "So whomever the contract favors less has an easier time breaking it, in short."

"Yeah." There was more to it, like open-ended contracts, or contracts that only involved a single entity. Hell, there were even temporary or permanent contracts, made purely with oneself... But none of that was important for the purposes of his explanation.

Now, Naruto pointed her way, and on reflex, she tilted her head, giving the boy a clear look at her curse-mark. "Your mark is built on that principle. The curse-mark gives you a ton of boons- I mean a ton of boons."

A major increase to stats across the board, a massive, secondary pool of chakra, physical alterations to aid in combat, pain suppression, limited regeneration and massively improved physical stamina- honestly, the list went on.

Frankly, the thing would be well worth the sacrifice, if not for its connection to someone as deranged and vile as Orochimaru.

"In exchange, your body naturally resists any means of removal, even going so far as to kill you before allowing it to be removed. The more you use it, the more the seal's hold tightens, because you are in essence giving weight to the idea that you need the mark for your survival. By using it, you are making the contract binding the mark to you appear more lopsided in your favor.

Which was honestly what had taken him so long to figure it out. If he really wanted to break the things with no regard for the host, he could have just brute-forced them with his hellfire and burned them away. Or at the very least, burned out Orochimaru's influence from them. For the likes of Tayuya, Kidomaru, and Sakon and Ukon, that was a dangerous venture; with how tightly bound the marks were to them, he wasn't exactly confident that he could comfortably amputate the seal from them- certainly not without severe risk.

Anko, on the other hand-

"Fuck…" Tayuya hissed, seeming to come to a similar conclusion. "That hot Snake-lady didn't use it much at all, right? Neither did your broody Uchiha side-piece-"

"Shut up."

Tayuya carried on, unfettered. "-So you can probably pop that sucker off like a pimple… But I used it a ton when I was under him- all of us did… I guess it ain't coming off for us after all, huh?"

"Nah, it's coming off," Naruto reassured her, reaching out to thumb her cheek. Then he raised his palm, showing off his glove; it looked a bit different than the plain, silk-black that he usually wore. This one, though colored similarly, wore a thick, burgundy circle of kanji that spanned out from the palm. The space inside the circle was suspiciously empty, like a void waiting to be filled. "I promised you, didn't I?"

"Y-yeah," Tayuya nodded dumbly at the clear show of affection.

Back in the day, Orochimaru had often done something similar. Though, it was weird to notice the differences in such a gesture; where her once-master had been concerned, such kindness came conditionally- whenever she amused him or satisfied one of his many whims…

But for the life of her, she couldn't recall Naruto asking her for a single thing.

"Y-ya know, it's fine for you to rely on me too," Tayuya babbled blindly, all of a sudden. Naruto blinked twice, tilting his head to regard her curiously. "It's just- I mean, you're working hard to help me out… I know I ain't worth shit- er, with seals or whatever; I can't cook worth a damn and I bet my hot chocolate sucks ass too…"

"Actually, it's pretty alright, believe it."

"Er- thanks… But I guess what I'm trying to say is-" She looked away, wringing her hands and sighing. "-Look, I just ain't trying to just bum off you, ya know?"

Naruto smiled, his bruised eyes crinkling with warmth. "I am relying on you, ya know." Once again, he raised the mug she had given him. "You're a life-saver, believe it."

… Orochimaru who?

"Er- I'll uh… I'll get you some more," She hastily excused herself, snatching her cousin's mug and rushing back toward the kitchenette before her blush could betray her. "You want those marshmallow thingies?"

She'd been utterly fascinated with the things when he'd taken her grocery shopping the morning prior. He'd even let her buy two whole bags without complaint!

"I fucking love marshmallows," Naruto cheered her on with a chuckle, turning back to his work. "Enough of those things to send a homeless Rain-orphan or twenty into diabetic shock, thanks."

"Make sure to brush your teeth, after," Kushina urged him. "And drink that slowly this time, so Kumoko and I can enjoy it too!"

Right, their senses were linked…

Will do.

He was most of the way through the next mug of the stuff when his window was forcibly unhinged, yanking itself open from outside. Naruto and Tayuya both glanced up at the intruder, the former raising an eyebrow as Sakura yelped; she tipped backward with a cry as a trap triggered: her body went stiff, refusing to meet her commands to respond to a spring-loaded kunai that came hurtling for her head; it stopped mere inches from a clean puncture, some faint pink liquid dribbling from the tip. Sakura's hands snapped up to clutch her heaving chest as her extremities returned to her.

"I have a door for a reason, ya know!" Naruto rolled his eyes, snapping his fingers and compelling the throwing knife to retreat; it flew into his hand, where he stowed it on the table.

Sakura scowled at him. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack!?"

Naruto waved off Sakura's indignation, turning back to his work. "It ain't even locked; you coulda just walked in."

"Not now!" Sakura hissed, some urgency in her tone that made him glance back at her.

"You found Sasuke?"

Sakura shook her head rapidly. "Team Eight just got back and-" She fumbled for a moment, and that was all he needed to know something was wrong.

Naruto jumped up from his seat, striding over the piles of material to approach her. "What. Happened?"

"I- I don't know yet, but they- um- hospital."

Nothing more needed to be said; Naruto was already gone.

---

Shizune hated being the one to bring bad news. Seeing the way a patient's hope died when she had to disappoint them was one of the things she hated most about her job, even if she never truly wanted to stop being a healer.

Ninja especially- you often saw them enough that you grew to know them a bit more than the average one-and-done civilian patient.

As she glanced up from her chart, outlining her initial impressions of Kurenai's wounds, she knew from the jump that she would be giving the woman bad news.

"We won't be able to save your arm," She concluded with a sigh.

Maybe if she had gotten to them sooner, they could have reattached the limb before the nerve endings had completely died. But as it was-

"I'm sorry."

And like clockwork, Kurenai's face fell. "Well that's… Not great." She didn't seem overly surprised though.

Kurenai had always been a realist.

Beside her, joining her diagnosis at her own request, Asuma Sarutobi's face was stone. Kurenai thumbed his cheek, trying to cheer the man, but to no avail. Sighing, herself, she could only accept the situation for what it was.

"It is what it is."

"We'll have to amputate it, to keep it from getting any worse."

"Sure."

Not wanting to leave it at that, Shizune fumbled on. "Our technology is getting better; I'm sure we ought to be able to fix you with a workable prosthetic- at least to cover your basic needs."

"I'm fine, Shizune-san," Kurenai assured her with a smile. It was this small thing, but conveyed her strength all the same. "You don't need to comfort me; I'll make it work."

That was a good thing about working with ninja, at least… They were made of sterner stuff than the average civilian.

"Now, when should I be able to return to work?"

Shizune fidgeted, but it was Asuma who spoke up first. "Hold on…" Looking at Kurenai with a deep frown, he shook his head. "Kurenai, you just suffered a grievous injury. The last thing you should be worrying about is returning to work!"

Kurenai rolled her eyes. "Well, yes. I'm sure I'll need to change how I operate if I want to be effective without my dominant arm."

"That's not what I-" Asuma stammered over himself, not really making sense to her, and her thoughts drifted.

She wasn't exactly versed in one-handed seals; she'd need to that, near-entirely from scratch. Then there was the fact that she had never truly learned to be ambidextrous. She could perform basic tasks just fine with her other arm, but the short of it was that there would be a steep curve toward recovery. "The sooner I get started though, the sooner I can get back to the level I was at, prior."

Shizune brightened a bit, absorbing a bit of her patient's optimism. "Well I have some good news, then! Tsunade-sama has actually put me in charge of organizing our rehab-program!"

Kurenai nodded, a her smile building. "How long?"

"No more than a year," Shizune promised. Seeing Kurenai's face fall a bit, she rushed to reassure her. "That's at the high end! Usually for untrained civilians; even low-level ninja have been shown to enjoy considerably better progress. For someone of your caliber, I'm sure a few months- maybe four-to-five- is all it oughta take to get you back to full fighting form!"

A few months was still quite some time…

But she'd deal. Forcing another smile, Kurenai nodded. "A few months, then. No problem."

"Hold on!" Asuma insisted, now raising his voice. Kurenai and Shizune both startled, eyeing the increasingly flustered man. "Kurenai, very soon you'll be pushing thirty."

"Yes, thanks for the most-gratifying reminder, Asuma-"

"My point is that you've done more than enough! Most ninja don't ever get to our age!"

"... I'm still not seeing your point," Kurenai huffed, a bit petulantly. She knew what he was implying, but she wanted to hear him say it.

Asuma fumbled over his words, trying to convey his feelings to her. Sensing the moment, Shizune quietly excused herself from the room.

"W-well, it's-" He shrugged. "Haven't you considered- erm, settling down? Maybe having kids?"

Kurenai's scarlet eyes searched her boyfriend, sensing his concern. "I have…"

He perked up, a smile finding its way on his bearded face. "T-then-" He began to search his vest-pocket, and she thought she knew what was coming.

"Let me finish," Kurenai insisted, and he froze at the firmness of her tongue. "I have considered settling down… But I can't do that yet."

Where once, he had smiled, now a scowl began to spread, equal parts disappointment and embarrassment at her clear rejection. "Why not!?"

"... Because my students need me to be strong for them now, more than ever." Kurenai shook her head, eyeing the bandaged, ruined limb that had been taken from her far before its time. Wanting to lighten the mood a little, she added- "And I still haven't forgotten the way Itachi Uchiha handled me. You think I'm fine retiring before I've gotten back at that twerp?"

Asuma didn't seem to care for her humor. "So you- you're not going to retire- what, for some petty grudge!?" Asuma tried hard not to yell, but he could not fight the wave of judgment that poured out through gritted teeth.

Kurenai only sighed. "Right, just ignore the first thing that I said…" But then she fixed him with another stare, this one far more intense than the last. "Call it what you want, but my decision is final."

This loss was but a reminder for her.

She wasn't strong enough- not even close to strong enough to protect her students- let alone rear them to where they needed to be. If someone as vile as Orochimaru had Hinata in his sights-

She'd die before she let that man touch her again. And there was no damn way she was retiring and leaving her team high and dry- not without one hell of a fight.

This mission had only confirmed for her: Her kids were incredible; in just a few short years, they'd be the elites of the village, more than capable of taking care of themselves.

But they weren't there yet. They still needed her…

And maybe it was petty of her, not to want to settle down because she'd lost a fight. Maybe she was taking what she had for granted.

But she wanted more for herself, as well.

"Oh for the love of- fine!" Asuma roared, jumping away from her; disgust twisted plainly onto his face now, and Kurenai flinched, seeing such a vile look turned her way. "You want to kill yourself trying to play like some kind of super woman, go for it! See how that pans out!"

He turned on his heel, barging for the door in a rush. It slammed open at his touch, and Asuma nearly slammed right into the boy on the other side of it. Looking at the pretty-faced blonde, his anger only mounted at the intrusion, the Jonin's fingers clenching with an urge to hit something.

"Heya," Naruto tried to smile, but it crumbled as Asuma barged past him without a word, the older man rolling his aching arm as he did so. "Er- nice seeing ya?"

He looked from the retreating man, back into the room to observe the forlorn Kurenai that Asuma had left behind.

"Sorry about him," Kurenai tried, seeming at a loss.

"Er- don't worry about it?" Clearly, the two of them had gotten into some kind of spat. "S-sorry if I came at a bad time…" Nonetheless, Naruto invited himself in.

"I'm surprised you're here instead of seeing Hinata," Kurenai led, a raised eyebrow joining that remark.

Naruto's smile twisted downward, a dark expression taking its place. "Yeah, I tried, but they ain't letting me see her."

Kurenai's confusion lasted only a moment before disdain set in.

Sentiment for Naruto Uzumaki was rising by the day, within the village. Even aside from his efforts during the invasion, the work he had put in after to aid the reconstruction effort had not gone unnoticed.

But that didn't mean he didn't still have his own fair share of detractors.

"I'm surprised that you listened…"

Naruto's frown only deepened. "It ain't gonna help my case to just show my ass whenever I don't get my way." He shrugged. "Well, for now… I figured I could see you first and head back later. So uh- are you alrigh-"

"Her arm," Kushina's observation cut in, and his question died on his lips, their shared chakra sensitivity clearly spelling out for him just what kind of state that his girlfriend's sensei was in. His eyes trailed down to her dead limb; not a drop of chakra flowed through her bandaged arm. "Guess not, huh?"

"Not even a little," Kurenai hiccupped, her good hand rising to ward off the build-up of tears. "I'll live, though…"

"Well of course you'll live," Naruto assured her, as if unconcerned with the thought. "You're strong as shit; it ain't a question of if you'll live." Then he frowned, crossing the distance and taking a seat before her. "But just 'cuz you'll live, doesn't mean you ain't hurting now."

It was the way he said it, as if he understood perfectly what she was feeling at that moment; as if he was simply reassuring her that it was alright not to be okay- that was what finally dropped her guard. Her tears spilled over, her knuckles working even more aggressively to catch their fall.

"Y-yeah, I guess I'm really fucking hurting, huh?" She hissed to herself, a somber chuckle fueling her.

"Heh, language," Naruto chuckled right back, parroting her usual chide.

"I just lost my arm… I think I get at least one complimentary curse word."

"I give ya two-and-a-half. Spend them wisely." The two of them laughed, but it lasted only a split moment before dying off. They idled for a moment longer, Naruto glancing at the door for half-a-second before awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck- wanting to ask, but not knowing if he should.

"It's alright, you can ask," Kurenai assured him, sensing his worry. Not giving him a chance to even do so, she shrugged. "Asuma isn't happy that I still want to be a ninja."

Naruto blinked, slowly. "So he left you?"

That just seemed backwards, to him. Now more than ever, Kurenai should have needed his presence.

"He'll be back," Kurenai insisted, though now that she'd said it, she found that she really wasn't so sure. "Or maybe not, actually…" She liked Asuma- hell, loved him... But she couldn't put him before her kids. Even still, she couldn't blame him for being upset. "He wants to settle down; I want to keep fighting." She let out a painful-sounding hiccup. "Maybe he's right." Gesturing to her ruined arm, a wet, bitter laugh left her. "Maybe this is all that I'm capable of."

Naruto wanted to argue, but he could sense in her that she had more that needed to get off her chest.

His patience paid off; unprompted, Kurenai spoke again. "When I was a kid, I had all these dreams; I wanted to be a remarkable kunoichi on par with Lady Tsunade- to live up to her legend." She smiled, forlornly. "I had this vision in my head of becoming the world's greatest genjutsu mistress- of revolutionizing the field and becoming a legend in my own right." Then she sighed. "As you get older though, dreams like that get harder to hold onto." Jostling her ruined arm, she choked down the urge to sob once more. "You see all the setbacks that push your dreams farther and farther away."

Then she thought of Itachi Uchiha. How effortlessly he had dismantled her pride; how he had demolished her in her greatest field, which she had slaved away in for much of her life. Several years her junior, too, and he had treated her like a mere child…

"And you see other people- those far more gifted than you'll ever be, climb the summit like it's nothing… It's hard to keep dreaming when life keeps slapping you in the face."

Naruto nodded, slowly. "I guess it can seem that way."

"It is," Kurenai insisted, but now Naruto only shook his head.

"Dreams don't exist to be easy, Kurenai-sensei. The strong don't dream of becoming strong; the rich don't dream of being wealthy." Standing from his chair, he closed the distance, taking her good hand. "You dream because you want for something, and that dream spurs you to overcome struggle… Who gives a shit if other people have it easier? Who cares that you've got setbacks?" Now, he grinned, wide and toothy, and so fully brimming with thrill that she felt contagious. "Ya know, I failed the academy three times before I got my head on straight; I couldn't make a single, regular-ass clone…" He frowned for a moment, but it didn't last long. "Some of it was 'cuz I didn't have a lot of help; a lot of it was that I was just a lazy shit… But it was those failures that really put into perspective for me- I wasn't trying nearly hard enough. I was letting myself give up, just wishing for a miracle while banging my head against a wall over and over instead of changing my approach. 'Cuz I was hopeless." A thought. "But it also taught me how much more I had to give, I think. And then I realized something."

Captivated, Kurenai prompted him further. "What did you realize?"

"That the circumstances that surround you only play one part to what you do or who you become. When you want something- really want something more than anybody else, that's when the sky's the limit." He squeezed her hand, then let her go. "And sometimes you gotta fall a few times to really see the full summit that's above you. And when you see it, you dig your nails and climb like you'll die if you ever fall again!"

Kurenai tasted his words with a mixed heart.

It was almost disgustingly optimistic. But for all that the bitterness in her would have liked to write it off as, she knew from his eyes that the person before her was far from naive. "And what happens when you've reached it, then?" Kurenai asked him, curiosity overtaking her.

Oh that was easy.

"You find the next summit to climb and you scale that too. There's always something bigger; that's what makes the climb so fun!"

---

"Let us see her already," Naruto insisted to the nurse in front of him. Behind him, Tayuya's own scowl perfectly mirrored his feelings at the moment; he was sure that it was only his own presence that had the redhead acting so calm. She and Sakura had caught up to him on his second round to Hinata's room, and he had to admit that he felt a little bad about leaving them in the dust.

"Treat them to a bowl of ramen, if you really feel so bad."

Maybe he would… After they dealt with this bitch.

Ahead of them all, the nurse stood right in front of him, barring their way to the patient on the other side.

"Not happening," She sneered, eyeing him up and down with open disgust. "Lady Fifth may let you go around flaunting your privilege elsewhere in the village-"

"Oh that's rich," Kushina laughed. "Hear that, X'omaa? You finally have privilege now!"

"But this is a hospital, and I will not let you just go around flaunting our rules! Only those who have been cleared by the patient's assigned doctor are allowed visitation!"

Of course, she was neglecting to mention that he had applied for visitation already and been succinctly denied. He had even tried to be charitable, obeying that denial and going to visit Kurenai first, only to be denied again. Now though, he had no intentions of being denied any longer.

Kurenai's recanting of the events that had taken place had only spurred his urgency even more.

Orochimaru had been there. What's more, that snake had touched her, marked her, like she was his to do that to!

How the hell had that guy known to be there for them?

"Listen, ma'am, she needs me, right now!"

"Hmph! Doubtful."

Her dismissal had his fingers twitching, urging him to cross the distance and pluck her smirking jaw right off.

"Deep breaths, love."

Right… Naruto obeyed his mother's advice, cooling his head, if only for the moment.

But frankly, his patience was at the ground floor right about now.

"You guys let Hiashi in," Naruto accused her with a sneer. He could feel the man's presence on the other side, joined by an anxiously lingering Hanabi.

"Lord Hiashi is her father, and has implicit rights to see his daughter. You on the other hand-"

The door behind the woman jerked open, causing her to stumble back. She collided squarely into the broad chest of a man. The nurse glanced up at the source of interference, confused; however, her expression froze, paleness creeping into her face as the Hyuga's patriarch glared down at her, the faintest smirch of disgust curled in his lip.

"My daughter's condition seems quite severe," He began, one of his large hands gripping her shoulder and inching her out to arm's length. "Do not make a scene; she needs her rest."

"Y-yes, Lord Hiashi." The nurse bowed deeply, a bridge of sweat pooling at her nose. "My apologies."

Naruto barely withheld the urge to scoff.

Kiss ass.

"What she needs-" Naruto barged in immediately. "- is for that mark to get sealed before it does irreparable damage to her!" Scowling at the nurse, he bit out. "If my girlfriend's condition worsens because you wanted to make an ass out of yourself, I'm going to fuck you up, then I'm going to have your job; do you understand me!?"

Cowed first by Hiashi's presence, and now by threat, the nurse merely bowed her head.

"Now get the fuck out of my sight before I put you through that window!"

Wordlessly, she fled, extricating herself from the scene with haste.

... He was going to fill her pillow with spiders.

"Later, love. Save it for later."

Right...

He put her out of his mind in the next breath, returning his focus to the overbearing sight of Hiashi with a preparatory sigh.

"Are you going to be difficult, too?"

He sure hoped not- for both of their sakes.

Hiashi said nothing, only stepping back and clearing the path for the blonde.

"Please help my daughter."

"Now this is a twist!" Kushina put a voice to her son's thoughts. "Hiashi? Saying please!? We oughta buy a lottery ticket."

Naruto only nodded his head, stifling a laugh as he entered; Tayuya and Sakura followed closely behind, the latter shuddering as she crossed paths with the white-eyed man.

"P-pardon the intrusion," she uttered, meekly.

Tayuya elbowed him once inside, a jeering grin needling her cousin. "And you didn't even have to put anybody through a wall!"

Well he wouldn't hold his breath. He still wanted to see Kiba and Shino after this. He hadn't forgotten that the two of them had come to visit him in the hospital. Even if they weren't exactly buddies, he still wanted to return the favor.

Inside, he could see Hinata. She was very much out of consciousness, bedridden with the hospital's thin sheets drawn up to her chest. Seated beside her, hands wringing with anxiety, was Hanabi; her head snapped to him as Hiashi let the door click shut behind them, and her eyes lit up just a bit, on seeing him.

"Leper-san!" Immediately, she was out of her seat, impacting his torso with embrace.

Huh… He didn't think she'd ever hugged him before. He must have been growing on her!

When the girl pulled back, her frown had returned, worry teeming in her eyes. Jutting her head in the direction of the bed's occupant, she babbled on- "It's Hinata! She won't wake up!"

"I've got it, small one." Naruto smiled for her, his eyes clenching near-entirely shut with warmth, because she was growing on him too.

Hiashi broke the moment with a cough. "I wasn't aware that you were so familiar with my youngest."

There was some leading demand to that question that Naruto wasn't quite inclined to humor. "Funny you should say that- I found her in the mail!"

"... Pardon?"

"Don't make enemies you don't need, X'omaa. He helped you out and let you in; the least you could do is be courteous."

… Fair enough.

"Er- We've hung out a few times," Naruto explained with a shrug. "Hinata brings us together for lunch."

Hanabi looked towards her father, some nervousness stiffening her posture under Hiashi's stare. But he only nodded.

"I see…"

Well that was that, then.

Patting Hanabi's head, he rounded Hinata's bed, briefly stroking her cheek. Her skin was cold- nearly blue at the cheeks. She warmed marginally under his touch, a few embers of his own heat soothing her discomfort.

"Kurenai-sensei said Orochimaru bit her up like he pays her bills," Naruto began, absently- mostly for himself, than anything.

"Gross."

Already, he could see the signs of that mark littering her flesh, even before removing the cover; its taint dominated much of the left half of her face, the jagged pattern of lilies and their stems circling around her eye, donning her cheek, and creeping down beyond where he could see.

Why was it still active?

Prying the comforter away, he muttered an unheard apology for his girlfriend as her quivering intensified, her frigid temperature dipping even further.

"Tayuya, get me a hot rag- I mean scalding hot."

"Hotter than Aunt Tits- got it." Tayuya paid no heed to Sakura's gasp, nor the two scandalized Hyuga; she rushed for the bathroom, hunting through storage cabinets and whatever else and finding what he asked for. Running the hot water, she groaned. "This probably ain't hot enough."

"Give it here." Taking the thing, his secondary arms took a 'tiger' seal, and it took only a moment before the rag began to steam. "She's running cold, 'cuz her body's chemical balance is being thrown all over the place from all the drugs the seal is pumping her with.

"Drugs?" Hiashi's face darkened. "What drugs?"

"You want an itemized list?" Naruto snarked. Hiashi scowled, and Kushina's reminder came again; sighing, Naruto rushed for damage control. "There's honestly too many for me to try breaking down right now; it's bad," He tried to explain for the man. Placing the rag on her forehead, he breathed a sigh of relief nearly in sync with Hinata as her body warmed a bit.

Finally able to focus on what lay below, he winced. Her body was covered entirely by Orochimaru's influence. It ran down to her shoulder, then spread beyond like a disease; nearly every inch of her body had been marred by the writhing, molten red ink.

"Still hasn't settled…" Naruto breathed, relief ballooning.

Just how quickly had Kurenai traveled with her team, to get Hinata back to the village before the mark had locked in?

Just how much time had he let that dumbfuck nurse steal from him, trying to be courteous?

Either way, he couldn't thank Team Eight enough. Did Kurenai like flowers? Maybe Kiba would appreciate some dog treats- actually he'd probably take offense. Oh, Shino also liked sweets, right? He'd bake him a cake!

"Cake sounds good... Now focus."

Right. Thoughts for later…

"Erm- Leper-san?" Hanabi asked nervously, and it was only because it was the young girl who asked that he spared her a glance. "Is she going to be okay?"

Honestly? "Yeah," Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, and galvanized by that confidence, Hanabi seemed to calm a bit as well.

But he needed to work fast.

"Alright, no more questions. I'm on a strict timetable to get this thing under control before it settles!" Naruto tuned the rest of the world out, looking into the mark at his girlfriend's neck just above a set of fang-shaped scars at her throat.

"This one is far more complex than the rest." Kushina's diagnosis matched his own, and he really hated to be right, right about then.

"Orochimaru surely knew we were working on breaking his marks. He's gone and gotten ahead of us, anticipating what methods we'd use to break Anko's and designing this mark to counter them."

Damnit.

"I can't remove it," Naruto groaned. "Not yet, at least."

Hiashi scowled, but it was Hanabi who spoke her mind. "What's going to happen to her?"

"That remains to be seen," Naruto wasn't exactly happy with his response either. "But there's good news. Because Kurenai-sensei's quicker than Choji at a buffet-"

Wait, was that rude?

"Er- since she got her back so soon, I should be able to seal it- at least until I can get it off."

"An evil containment seal honestly isn't a terrible idea." Kushina's suggestion was leading, as if she were curious as to what he would say.

Naruto could certainly see the merit in the suggestion. He suspected that Kakashi had used a similar seal on Sasuke's mark, based on the few glances he had been able to get at his friend's neck.

But he didn't like it.

An evil containment seal was a form of contract seal, with its ability to suppress the influence of its target on the condition that said influence was not sought out. The more the mark was used, whether intentionally or otherwise, the more an evil containment seal would weaken, eventually being broken entirely.

Normally, this would be fine. He trusted Hinata not to make use of such a thing, if given a choice not to.

Except the choice may very well have been out of her hands, huh? Unlike all the marks that had come before it, this mark seemed to be locked into a state of activation, forcibly flooding her with its effects at all times. Such a thing normally ought to be impossible; the contract seal that anchored all of the prior marks used the implication of 'consent' to cement their positions- at least until the marks could gain a foothold.

"Somehow, Orochimaru has gone and bypassed this element with her…"

According to Kurenai, Hinata had gone to him willingly, in order to protect her team…

"Could he have arranged a contract between them without her knowing? Sparing her teammates in exchange for her 'accepting' the mark? If she went to him by her own volition- Orochimaru may have stretched the interpretation of that as the 'consent' that he needed to essentially raise the 'floor' of the mark's influence."

It was inspired work, and he desperately wanted to rip that bastard apart for it.

But all of this meant that an evil containment seal was a bad call. At least so long as that rancid chakra was freely pumping through her body…

No, he had a better idea.

Plucking that idea from his own thoughts, Kushina whistled. "Now that's ambitious!"

He couldn't do anything about its activation. But he could at least hamstring the information flow.

He'd use a vector-point seal to redirect the mark's influence back onto itself, and away from her brain and the rest of her extremities. Then, a simple churning seal, typically used to automatically mix baking ingredients- he'd tear it down, salvaging the formula for 'mix' and refining it with an amplifier to strengthen its interpretation to 'swirl'. Clip the end-point and invert it in on itself. Then, he'd take the very same remote trigger that he had once used to subjugate Shukaku. He duplicated it, fixing both to either open and end-points and setting them to activate the other before drawing them together with 'swirl'; he bound them, using a primarily yin-based alignment to target the information flow behind the mark's influence. With the vector point drawing the mark's influence into itself, and his improvised matrix funneling it into a continuous loop, his work should, in essence, set the commands directing the curse mark into an empty, repeating sequence with no end-point, stalling its ability to input or output information, and using its own chakra flow as the fuel source.

"And by doing that, you knee-cap Orochimaru's ability to draw or deliver information. Nice!" Kushina clapped loudly, her pride mirrored by the 'clack' Kumiko's own gigantic claws.

Of course, he couldn't simply lock the mark away- not while it was set in a state of forced activation. Hinata's body was willingly drawing from it, or at least, was being fooled into doing so. If he wanted to lock it down properly, he would need to root out the contract seal that Orochimaru had used to force activation and void it.

For now though-

"Beat this, shithead," Naruto growled under his breath, pressing two fingers to her neck and weaving his chakra.

"Hold on, something's wrong," Kushina mumbled as their counter-seal began to build. He felt it too, the sensitivity of their mind's eye blaring in alert as something in Hinata's mark roused. "Shit! Naruto, it's a trap-" Her voice faded from his consciousness before she could tell him any more, like layers of static muffling a radio. Their bond strained as his mind was jerked, dragged by the curse-mark away from the present.

---

A blink, and Naruto came to on unfamiliar grounds. The hospital was gone, its pristine white walls broken down to give way to an expansive, darkened space. Try as he might, his eyes could not make out much beyond his immediate range, and for the life of him, he could not discern if it were merely his delirium or simply the nature of whatever space he had been dragged to.

His footing shifted, startling the blonde. His attention snapped downwards, and he grimaced at the visceral, pinkened mass of veiny flesh that rumbled beneath him. Its heat radiated uncomfortably, almost scorchingly so- even in spite of his own resistance.

"The fuck is this?" He whispered, some mixture of macabre interest and straight horror creeping up his spine. It swelled in his throat, a lump that he could not swallow, as he once again glanced beyond in search for some familiarity.

"Sloppy," A rumbling, insidious hiss made him jump; it came from all around, its taunt spurring him to sweep around blindly. His sensory jutsu flared in search of its source, but its chakra spanned all around him. The sound of 'sloshing' flesh had him spinning once more, a bead of sweat breaking free from him and 'plopping' into the foothold below as its writhe intensified. Just a few meters off, it began to swell and deform, twisting together like a blooming flower bud before finally splitting in a spray of slime. From the mess, a familiar set of eyes stared him down.

He couldn't forget them if he tried. Orochimaru's dissecting gaze had haunted his nightmares for many weeks, following the second exam.

The way he had tormented his team; the way he had effortlessly handled Naruto, even whilst under the influence of the Kyuubi. Hell, he still hadn't forgotten the sensation of being swallowed alive and nearly digested by one of the man's snake summons.

"I really fucking hate you," Naruto hissed outloud, a groan of dismay filling the space after.

"Now that hurts," Orochimaru's familiar croon brought with it the creep of ice up his spine, the Snake Sannin separating himself from the viscera with a smile that bordered on pleasant. "And here I went through such an effort, just to schedule a friendly check-in between the two of us."

Frankly, Naruto would have rathered the guy to check himself into a meat grinder.

He didn't exactly fancy his chances against Orochimaru. He needed to figure out what he had done, fast, and find a way to reverse it!

The seal that had captured him had borne resemblances to a disposable summoning contract- same as the kind that had been used in the second part of the Chunin exams... But such a thing could not have separated him from Kushina; their minds were intertwined. If anything, it was more likely that Orochimaru had spirited away his consciousness, forcibly severing or at least weakening that bond.

"Welcome, by the way," Orochimaru's arms raised, spanning out as if to demonstrate the area. "They say the heart takes many forms, but I never would have guessed that mine might appear so-" The slightest hint of a grimace took hold of the man for a moment. "Gauche, I suppose…"

The heart, huh?

So this was likely some representation of the snake's innate domain- like the mindscape that he shared with Kushina; or even the separate space that he shared with the Kyuubi. He knew from experience that the 'master' of that domain held the reins, as it pertained to the manipulation of that space.

Which meant he was at an especially huge disadvantage…

Perhaps a genjutsu, driving a wedge between his body and mind, like Itachi had done to him. Except that had not interfered with his connection to his mother.

No, it was more likely that he had been drawn away from his body entirely…

Or maybe it was both; was it possible to summon somebody's consciousness without also taking their body?

"This is Itachi's genjutsu," Naruto decided out loud. Orochimaru raised an eyebrow at his analysis, the makings of a smile beginning to take form. "You ripped his whole flow- wedged the link between mind and body, then modified a traditional summoning matrix with a yin-release targeter to isolate and rip the uprooted mind from the whole."

"Oh, you are sharp!" Orochimaru cheered, both hands clapping together without scorn or mockery. "Just the tiniest hint from yours truly, and you've already got a working theory, hm? Though, you're missing a step, I'm afraid."

Naruto thought it over again.

"Trying to summon me away in full would have been goofy as fuck. You'd be bone dry like a single mom leaves the milk-man before you even got me out the village." After all, the summoning jutsu was rooted in yet another contract seal; it worked by sacrificing chakra proportional to the target being summoned, in order to pull them over a distance. Certain factors could increase or reduce this cost dramatically, such as the target's consent, compatibility between the summoner and the summoned target, and even the actual distance being traveled. Considering his own chakra, familiarity with seals, animosity with Orochimaru, the minimum distance between them, and even the barriers that surrounded Konoha- even somebody of Orochimaru's caliber would have had a hard time trying to simply summon him via brute force. "So you changed the conditions of the contract seal rooted in the summoning."

The list of parameters that he could have reasonably changed to account for all of that were fairly limited. The trapped seal had to have been payloaded just before activation; he and Kushina both had studied the seal thoroughly to account for traps, which meant Orochimaru had somehow used the open information channel from the activated curse-mark as a bridge to transport the seal. Thus, preparation could not have been a factor. Not only that, the speed of activation had been abnormally high, otherwise his and Kushina's chakra sensitivity would have been able to respond more than quick enough to neutralize the seal as soon as it manifested. So if anything, that was another condition that would work against the cost of Orochimaru's ploy.

It was likely that he had cut out the physical component specifically to account for the burden of his summoning, but even then, his gut was telling him it wasn't enough; Naruto had a good idea of his enemy's chakra, after feeling it in Tanzaku.

So there was really only one thing it could be. "I'm betting you're on a time limit." His senses spanned out to confirm his theory; the barrier was already beginning to wither, albeit slowly. "You issued a temporary summons, then trapped me in a barrier to delay the backlash; a contract woven into the barrier guarantees that it will fall, with or without my interference. Which means it's only a matter of time before the binding keeping me here unravels and I'm sent back."

Now, Orochimaru's grin seemed to nearly split his face. The stray pool of drool at his lips made his skin crawl as the Snake Sannin stared him down, hungrily.

"Remarkable," He breathed, his eyes dilating until the slits of his eyes had expanded to completely overtake his iris. He lurched forward, one sizable step cutting some of the distance between them, and Naruto reacted in a half-panic, his fingers snapping up to form a seal in response.

"Back. Off!" The Uzumaki's chakra spiked, roaring to the surface in a torrent and spilling out beyond. It twisted to surround him, tinting with a deep purple flame and sparking with golden currents. The rattle of chain began to sound, vibrating beneath his flesh before melting away from him to coil with hostile poise.

He could potentially speed up the barrier's failure by attacking either the anchor, or more directly, the barrier's structure...

Doable, but foolhardy, given his opponent in question.

However, the burden of maintaining the barrier would eventually start to wear on even someone of Orochimaru's caliber, as he continued to push the conditions of his contract! As he continued to weather that burden, he would weaken. That would be his opportunity for counter attack!

For now, he just needed to last.

"Oh don't be so dramatic," Orochimaru huffed, righting himself and waving the boy's threat as if it were a mere tantrum. "If I truly wished to harm you, I would hardly have wasted so much time exchanging pleasantries, my dear."

Naruto's stomach turned with the man's affectionate speech.

Then Orochimaru sighed. "But you are right; I am working on a strict time table… I simply wished to speak to you."

Naruto dared not to let his guard down. "We've got nothing to speak about, and I'm not your dear… I've seen what you do to them."

The man across from him paused for a moment, the faintest twitch to his eye before his smile returned. "Oh, I disagree." Orochimaru's hands clasped behind his back and he began to pace. It was only a moment before Naruto realized that he recognized the gesture.

It was the exact same thing Hiruzen had always done before beginning a lecture.

"You and I, I'm beginning to understand that we have a great deal in common, Naruto-kun."

A snicker cut into his explanation, before Naruto's laughter rose to fill the space. "What the fuck!? 'You and I- we're not so different'," He mocked him, cheeks reddening with equal parts scorn and humor. "Spare me the bullshit!"

"Oh, don't be like that," Orochimaru went on, still all smiles as if he hadn't been interrupted at all. "You can deny it if you wish, but surely it isn't so ridiculous? We both are outcasts who stand head and shoulders above our so-called peers." He laughed, though Naruto really wasn't seeing the joke. "We both are spurred by ambition- nay, hunger; hunger for power; hunger for acknowledgment… And it is that very hunger that allowed us to be manipulated- tools for our dear Hiruzen-sensei and his 'Will of Fire'."

Naruto raised a brow. "Pardon?"

Something bitter found the snake's face, and just this once, Naruto did not doubt its honesty. "You were groomed to be the Hokage's pet jinchuriki- to protect and serve the very village that scorned you; surely you don't need me to spell that out for you any further." A sardonic chuckle rumbled in his throat. "In that regard, you and I are the same. I-too was the Hokage's weapon, once upon a time. I did the messy jobs your dearest Third would dare not even mention. Spying, torture, seduction… Murder." He smiled, this wide, performative thing that felt far too familiar for the boy's tastes. "And I smiled through it all because that's what he raised me- made me to do. But see, the things I did- they only became a problem to that old fool when he and the rest of his friends at the top stopped getting to reap their benefits."

The blonde swallowed, a grin of his own that now felt far too fake, twisting into place. "Ya know, I ain't the sort who cares to let the other guy monologue," he huffed, gesturing hurriedly with his hand. "What are you trying to say?"

"Hmm," Orochimaru hummed, almost mockingly. "Consider this. You wished to become Hokage, yes? Once upon a time, I wished for the same. Is it not odd that the very same future was bound to our tiny, impressionable little hearts? And yet- you know as surely as the sun falls and rises that neither of us were ever truly in the running. The Hokage needs to be beloved; clean. And we are both very, very messy, my dear."

Naruto's smile wobbled a bit.

"Oh, oh! But there's so much more, isn't there!? We both keep our cards so, so very close to our chests; why, even your dear Hinata- you're keeping secrets from her, aren't you?" His smile was sickening, and Naruto piqued at the man's humor. His grin slipped like oil off a pan, lips curling back to expose growing, gnashing jaws; the metal beneath his flesh shuddered, its ring rising to a hellish screech. A series of loud cracks, then the whisker-like marks on his face stretched and twisted at the jaw, flesh hardening and unwinding like a mask of mandibles to expose rows upon rows of jagged teeth, within. His visible eye widened, four sickeningly vibrant pupils enlarging and crowding together, the snake-like adversary locked squarely in their sights.

"You're gonna keep her name out of your mouth, you understand me?" He took one step forward now, clawed fingers flexing for a fight he knew damn well he wouldn't win.

"Ah, that's it! That, right there! Show me the beautiful monster beneath that pretty little mask of yours!" Orochimaru cooed.

That word... Naruto's heart stuttered at that word.

Monster, huh? So that's what he wanted?

All at once, Orochimaru's interest in him made all the sense in the world.

Orochimaru prattled on as if he hadn't even noticed his reaction. "Oh, and I haven't missed your fascination with chakra! I've been watching closely, from the moment you made a scene at the finals and made a fool of that young Hyuga boy. My dear Kabuto saw the way you handled the One Tails as well. Never in my life have I heard such a tale: a mere child your age, so ambitious- so intrepid, as to turn a Tailed Beast's own chakra against it! " He took a shuddering breath, his chest heaving with some perverse fascination.

Despite himself, Naruto took a wary step back, his earlier fury retreating in the face of such deranged interest.

"My dear child, you are resourceful, unlike few others I've ever seen. Why, even if I did mean you harm, I'm not so sure you couldn't find some way to weasel out of my grasp." He laughed loudly, even going so far as to clap, yet again. Then the man sighed, wistfully. "You and Anko seem to be getting along too. How is she, by the way?"

Naruto startled at the sudden change in subject. "Er- s-she hates you."

Orochimaru frowned for just a moment before he was all smiles again, throwing his arms up in a 'what can you do' gesture. "A shame!"

He really just couldn't get a read on this guy, and he was getting damn sick of playing his game.

But the barrier locking him in was beginning to wither away. Already, he could feel the cracks- some semblance of awareness beyond this space trickling into his senses. Almost as soon as he'd noticed it, he noticed something else- fast approaching. At the same time, the unseeable distance beyond seemed to close in on them, rapidly!

He cooled his head, his hammering heart stilling as if by command. His physical changes reigned themselves in, protruding pieces folding inward and smoothing over once more. A deep breath, then he stood up straight and made a show of dusting himself off. "Get to the point," the blonde urged the man. "Or do you just love hearing yourself speak that much?"

"A bit of both," The snake admitted, a bit sheepishly. "But my point is simply that our similarities have caught my attention. I'm of the mind that such kinship ought to be celebrated! Or… At the very least, studied." He smiled, again, this time bordering on some kind of earnestness. "Is it not strange that all of my lost pets seem to have found themselves under your hand? I see that Tayuya is quite happy, living with you."

He could only guess that Orochimaru was using the mark's forced activation to peruse Hinata's own thoughts and memories. That, or pilfering information from Anko's own curse-mark- possibly both.

"Anko-too seems happier in your presence than I can remember, in all the time since we became… Estranged."

"You ever consider that maybe your 'pets'-" Naruto spat the word. "-Have become estranged from you because you ain't shit as a master? They left you because you suck!"

"Perhaps you're right," Orochimaru allowed that critique with surprising ease. "And see- it's because of this that a conundrum has been on the focus of my mind, for some time now…" Now, his smile crumbled away, something odious taking front and center. "For all that we are similar, it is the differences that fascinate me more than anything else; what is it about you that piques my interest, so? What is it that keeps drawing my children to you, in place of me? What is it that I supposedly lack? That is a query, which I'm hoping you will help me find an answer to…"

Naruto's own frown deepened. "Yeah, no… Go fuck yourself."

"Ha! I had a feeling you would say that!" Orochimaru laughed, clutching his chest as if wounded. Then his eyes sharpened, a real threat seeming to fit perfectly across his face for the first time since they had encountered one another. "But in this case, I'm afraid I very much must insist."

His bone-like fingers rose, forming a one-handed seal. Naruto tensed as his captor's chakra flared, a mad grin slithering in place.

"How will you handle her, I wonder? Show me who you really are!"

Suddenly, the space around them snapped taut, then some cracks began to form. Orochimaru blinked, glancing at the chinks in his space with some curiosity.

"Now that's odd, I could have sworn I had more time left."

Then the inky expanse beyond shattered apart; a massive, eight-limbed shape crashed down between them with an impact that shook both of their footings.

"Oh?" Orochimaru's shock was mirrored for only a moment by Naruto as the shape solidified.

Kumoko?

Her massive form reared up, and a bone-chilling screech filled the air, rattling the two human-occupants down to their bones. Orochimaru clutched his ears and winced. Then, his interest peaked..

"Now this is a surprise!" He announced, ducking underneath a scythe-like swipe from the spider's massive front claws.

"Alright, time to go!" Kushina's sudden demand brought new comfort as her volume snapped back into Naruto's head. "Say goodbye to Snake-man!"

"Good-bye Snake-man!" Naruto laughed, leaping atop Kumoko's head. His fingers danced with speed, and Orochimaru's eyes widened, the Sannin being forced to backpedal with some haste as nearly a dozen beads of violet flame careened after him. They corralled the man between themselves, swelling and detonating into explosive balls of immolating heat.

"Tally-ho!" Naruto cheered as Kumoko's massive body tensed; she leapt with force, her giant bulk managing to ricochet off the descending fragments of Orochimaru's crumbling barrier in a bid for escape.

Orochimaru leapt from the smoke and embers unscathed, save for the faintest singe on his sleeve. He waved it off without concern, righting himself easily and watching them go with amusement. Then, shaking his head and grinning, he turned away from them. "I'll be seeing you then, my boy… Don't have too much fun without me."

Honestly, it would seem the two of them were even more similar than he'd thought!

---

Naruto jerked back into awareness, eyes blearing with the pain of the lights above. His legs wobbled as he rose from his slump at the bedside, the cold kiss of a metal railing lingering on his cheek.

He scrunched his eyes shut, hissing with discomfort as the light made its second assault.

"What a dick," He muttered under his breath, a sneer marring his pretty features as he gripped that railing for support. The fuzz of his surroundings ebbed with each breath, and on the third, he came aware to the tiny arms wrapped around his forearm; on the fifth, he could swear he heard shouting.

"Leper-san! Naruto-san! Wake up!" Hanabi's voice startled him back to the present. A sixth breath, and his vision cleared; Naruto shuddered as the light came for a third round, blotting out that discomfort to heed the small girl who seemed to be desperately holding him upright. "Please wake up!"

"Naruto! Up!" Sakura's voice followed, jarring him in sync.

"I'm up, I'm up," He tried to reassure the girls. The railing warped under his grip as he wrenched himself to steadier feet. He stumbled once, lurching over Hinata's barren bedside.

… Where had she gone?

"Yeeeeah, about that…" Kushina shifted, awkwardly. Her thoughts fell open to him, but there were too many missing pieces, her own awareness hurt by his lack-thereof.

Hinata's sheets lay shredded on the other side, pitched like a tent just tall enough that he could see it from his position; the railing on that side of her bed was gone entirely; a scan of the room found it again, embedded fully into the wall.

"Hinata?" He blinked, slowly.

"That's what I'm trying to tell you!" Hanabi shouted again, urgently. "She and father are fighting!

"Oh…"

---

That's the chapter. Have fun with a cliffhanger, fuckers!

BWAHAHAHAHA!

No, but in all seriousness, this had to be a two-parter. The second half of this chapter was getting so long it was getting hard to edit, and at the rate I was going I doubt I'd have been done by this week-possibly even the next.

Bear with me while I get all of this sorted. Hopefully the next chap shouldn't take too long for me to put out, but don't hold your breath, since I've also been trying to make time to update the other story too. For those of you who have been eagerly awaiting that for like- two months? Sorry for the wait, but know I've got y'all on my mind.

For those of you who will surely be eager for the next chapter of ABD, know I'm hard at work with this as well, but I've got some irl projects I'm stuck handling as well; lend me your patience… And your energy, please.

That said, I haven't forgotten that I owe you all an omake from the last chapter. I planned to drop two-in-one this time around, but I had so much fun writing them I went and did three.

---

Omake 1: Pen Pals

Returning back to Sand had come with equal parts familiarity and despondency. Back home on his preferred turf, Gaara found he could not really complain; even Shukaku often rested easier, surrounded on all sides by its domain. Though, its fight with Naruto Uzumaki had quelled the beast's chaotic moods far more effectively than he could have ever dreamed.

Since then, it had not so much as peeped- not to berate him; not to egg him on against the locals; not even so much as a muttered death threat or twenty.

Though, it was a bit difficult to appreciate the new peace. Even the first few weeks of constant sleep, while good for his mental state, had done little to alleviate the new problem which had risen in the ashes of Shukaku's mood swings.

Boredom… God, he was bored!

"Well what do you normally do?" Kankuro asked him, forearm deep in a sink-full of dishes.

Dinner between the three of them had become a new thing to look forward to. Kankuro was a surprisingly good cook, as Gaara had learned.

"I watch the moon," Gaara told him, blandly.

"Okay-" It was still day, so Kankuro supposed that was not yet on the table. "What else?"

Gaara shrugged.

"Ah… Right…"

You need a hobby," Temari piped up from across from him. She barely looked up, nose-deep in a book.

"A hobby?" Gaara knew the word, but not its significance. "Is that something people normally do?"

"Yeah!" Temari nodded, but it was Kankuro who spoke up. "Maybe I'll show you to my work bench; you can help me fix Karasu!"

Was menial labor entertaining? Frankly, that didn't sound very appealing to him, though Gaara was not going to complain.

Seemingly sensing his disinterest though, Temari cut in. "You could try writing?"

His penmanship was actually quite good. It was one of the things his uncle Yashamaru had often praised him for. "But what would I write?"

Kankuro shrugged. "A letter?" A thought. "You seemed pretty taken with that Uzumaki guy, yeah?"

For the first day or two of their return, that boy had been all Gaara had spoken of. He hadn't even known the two of them had gotten along so well.

Though, maybe the bar was really just that low.

Gaara considered it. "It wouldn't be an inconvenience?"

Temari scoffed. "If he doesn't wanna respond then he just won't respond. Send him a letter," She insisted.

"... Okay."

---

"Oi, this was in the mail." Tayuya tossed an envelope into Naruto's hands without any fanfare. In the same motion, she dove atop the couch with him, haphazardly tossing her legs across his lap.

"Thanks." The letter's binding slit apart easily, nearly a dozen neatly folded sheets spilling out from its opening and into his open palm.

A letter? He didn't think he'd ever gotten one- or at least, not one unrelated to his job.

"Who's it from?"

"Gaara… The Late-Kazekage's son." Naruto answered Tayuya's question absently, fumbling the many sheets over in his hands.

Naruto Uzumaki,

I am writing you a letter because I am bored and Temari says I need a hobby. I am not sure what I am supposed to write about, so Kankuro made me a list of things to discuss with you; I hope that is acceptable…

"Oh that's neat." Naruto smiled, reading on. Tayuya adjusted herself, peering over his shoulder to read alongside him.

But I lost the list, so I will instead explain to you the different compositions of sand, and their uses in specific values in architecture. Namely sand-castles.

"Er- less neat," Tayuya snickered.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about." Naruto huffed, his smile growing wider. "I love sand castles."

---

Omake 2: Bad Tea

Tayuya had never once considered any kind of domestic life to be in her cards; Orochimaru trained her to fight and kill- and little else, now that she was really thinking it over. What's more, her old master had traveled often- hardly a recipe for any sort of settling.

But if anybody asked her, she was thinking she was getting pretty damned good at it!

"Oh this is terrible," Naruto cheered over some tea that she had plated for him.

Fuck… Maybe not, actually.

"W-well shit, my bad…" She huffed, shaking her head and moving to reclaim the cup. "I'll remake it."

"Nah I want to drink it," Naruto's smile was all sugar and honey as he went another round at the cup.

"Wha- but you just said it sucks!?"

"And it does," Naruto agreed, far too pleasantly for her tastes. "But you made it for me, so I want it."

"Quit being dumb, man! It's just some shitty tea; I'll remake it!"

"Nah. Dumb is my default setting…" As if to emphasize, he tipped the whole thing back, swallowing her scalding hot failure in one final go. "I wouldn't mind another cup, though."

God, he was stubborn!

"Ugh! Look, you-" She sighed. "You really don't gotta drink this shit just to make me feel better, ya know…" Tayuya really didn't mean to sulk so much. "I'm a big girl; I can handle rejection."

Slowly, the boy's smile withered; his pretty features shifted, a frown rising to mar him in its stead. "I don't want to reject you." Then he stood, brushing himself off and closing the distance in a stride; his fingers curled around a stray lock of red, tucking it behind her burning ears. "I had enough of being rejected in my life." He shrugged, this lame, awkward gesture that communicated far more than she ever could have expected from him. "So I'll drink a hundred cups of your shitty tea with a smile on my face, 'cuz that's what you deserve." Then, that grin of his was back with a vengeance- this warm, brilliant thing that reminded her that this was her home now. "And I deserve a bitchin' cup of tea to offset the concentrated flavor of ass you just put on my tongue. So make sure you practice well for me, alright?"

"Oh fuck you, man!" She turned on her heel and huffed; despite herself though, a grin of her own had stitched to her heart. "I'll make you the best damn tea you ever had, asshole."

"That's the spirit!"

---

Omake 3: Housemates

Tayuya couldn't say she disliked the dynamic that she and Naruto had found together, lingering in his home. He didn't mind the noise of her flute, even encouraging her to play while they loitered inside. And when she wasn't playing, she helped him out as he poured over his notes.

God, there were so many notes! They covered nearly every inch of the apartment, often clipped into bunches and pinned at some point or another all across the walls and ceilings.

"This shit oughta be chalk on prison walls," Tayuya grumbled, snatching a fallen sheet and moving to replace it.

"Blue, C-three, please," Naruto instructed her without looking.

Tayuya scanned the walls accordingly.

He had worked out a system fairly early on.

Notes were first color coded based on their primary subject matter; of those within said code, they were then further categorized with letter grades of importance.

A letter grade of C denoted an average level of significance.

From there, they were categorized numerically, with the number in question denoting their alignment within that grade, relative to a clock's wheel.

"Blue, C, three-o-clock…" Tayuya muttered to herself, finding the space in question and pinning it. "There. Good?"

"Very good," Naruto smiled for her, yet again without looking up.

Or maybe he was. She couldn't quite tell with the sheen on those goggles of his. He'd replaced the band again, this time settling for a more rigid frame that honestly didn't look half bad. He'd even added a second set of lenses, which flared out from the primary set.

"They can change the angle of whatever I'm looking at," She had remembered him telling her. "Next, I wanna see if I can expand the spectrum of color, and maybe get some X-rays on these things!"

She didn't know what he needed half of that stuff for, but she sure as heck wasn't going to be the one to stop him!

"Don't you want to go outside or something?" She hinted, glancing after the fading light that poured through the window. "Er- ya know- for some fresh air?"

"If you want to go out, just say you want to go out," His matter-of-fact demand gave her pause.

Well shit, was it really that easy?

"U-um… I want to go out."

"Where to?"

"Er-" Tayuya fumbled.

Now that she thought about it, she didn't really know any places other than Ichiraku- oh, and that sweet barbecue joint he'd taken her to as well.

"I know a place," Naruto assured her in the next breath, his smile unfettered. Raising the bundle of pages in his hands- "Just let me find a place for this one."

Just a few minutes, and they were walking side-by-side through the streets. The light had dimmed down to a few stray beams, the majority of Konoha's people wrapping up their days in turn.

Maybe it was simply her old job as Orochimaru's guard- hell, maybe she'd just shifted her focus of those instincts onto Naruto, instead. Either way, she'd always had a knack for reading people; it was because of that, that she could see the peoples' discomfort as clear as day. The way they shifted at the sight of him; drew back at his approach; the way their eyes found anything but the two of them as she observed them… It wasn't everybody; maybe two of three- sometimes half, depending on which block they turned onto.

But the peoples' disdain for Naruto was a bit hard to ignore.

"Why do they always look at you like you've finger banged their grandmas or something?"

Naruto blinked twice, then looked at her incredulously. "Who the hell starts a conversation like that?"

"I was socialized by a sociopath in a third-world village, man. Cut me a break," She groaned. "And don't dodge the question. Is it 'cuz you're hot?"

Naruto snickered, returning fire just as quickly. "Worse, it's because I'm sexy."

"And modest too."

He answered her barb with a shrug. "Turns out people are afraid of the weirdo with the giant evil fox-monster in their gut… Who would've thunk it, eh?" Another shrug, this one carrying some mood she didn't think she'd ever seen in him.

Simple resignation.

"... So they're bitch-made, then," she decided, after a moment.

Because Naruto was many things. He was abrasive, smug as hell, and even a bit combative.

But fuck, if he didn't treat her like gold.

"So where to, Sir Twinkles, Lord of Twinks?"

Naruto simply stared at her for a split moment. Then, he smiled and shook his head, casting his shock away in that motion. "You ever had ninja hot-pot?"

"Er- no?"

"It's like regular hot-pot, but for ninjas."

… That didn't answer her question.

---

That's it for now. I hope you enjoyed them, because they come with one final announcement.

Moving forward, all Omakes are canon to this fic. The only exception being God-Slayer Tonton.

I intend to use these moments as fun little character building moments that might not always have room within the immediate narrative. At no point should they ever replace the need for actual consistency within the plot. They simply exist to help me indulge a bit in character writing while giving further context to existing ideas- usually in relation to specific character relationships.

Let me know your thoughts; let me know which one was your favorite.

And make sure to share your thoughts on the newest chapter too! I read all reviews, and I try to respond to as many of them as I can; I really appreciate a lot of the constructive criticism I've gotten from some of y'all. It's one of my favorite parts of the process.

Okay, bye!