A Bewitching Dance

by Haerrlekin

As Naruto lay dying at the bottom of that chasm, his heart roared in rebellion; his blood sang in turn. The chrysalis flowers, and a beautiful monster spins its web. Alive(?) Kushina/NaruHina/DARK themes

36. To Be Alive

Heya.

Lookie here, we didn't have to wait another month for the next chapter! It's a whole Christmas miracle! I'm hoping I can keep something close to this pace, but classes will be starting up again shortly so I can't promise anything.

In any case, things are going to start moving a bit more quickly from this point onwards. Expect a lot of moving pieces, and for some chapters especially to have a lot of diverging perspectives in order to set up some specific story beats I have in mind. These are necessary; I just hope they don't become insufferable.

Anyways, back to it:

---

The gift of knowledge was as much a privilege as it was a burden. Privilege, in the sense that its truth could enrich the lives of its witnesses; burden still, because truth rarely came without price.

To know is to learn.

To learn is to suffer.

To suffer is to grow.

To grow, ultimately, is to be alive.

Alive… Yes, she was alive.

She did not know fully when she had come into being. She did not know when her first true thought had manifested- bubbled up into her chords to twist and shape what would become her first words.

But of course, she knew at least what those words had been.

"MoMMy."

Later still, she learned their meaning. And to know their meaning was to know their purpose. To know their purpose was to know their bond.

Kumoko. That was her. Her… Name, because all things had names, like Mommy's mommy had taught her. Names were an absolute- a constant truth.

Good names. Bad names. Names inherited; names given; names earned, whether by oneself or by others.

Mommy. They had a name too- many names, she had learned. Kumoko had learned many names, listening to Mommy.

Naruto, Kushina, Hinata, Tayuya, Kurenai, Tsunade- there were a lot of names.

But she had a good memory. Mommy's mommy- Kushina often praised her for that. She called her smart; smart, like intelligent.

Clever.

Bright.

Witty.

She knew many words- was learning more, still. And though it was difficult often to say those words as she knew them, she learned well in the way she knew best: Through practice.

Mommy called it mimicry.

But the more she learned, the more she wanted to learn. Kushina played with her often, sating her interest with games or new words; if not through her, Kumoko would watch quietly through Mommy's eyes, and learn from her as well.

But she wanted more.

"MoRe," she croaked one day, as Kushina read to her.

Kushina blinked, pausing from the book she'd buried her nose into to look up at Kumoko. "More?" Her head tilted with curiosity, and Kumoko did the same, tilting her large head in approximation.

"MOre," Kumoko tried again. "MoRe?" It was hard to make words without hearing them first. She could never get them right; they always grated on her throat, the first few times. "KnOW… More?"

"Oh!" Kushina was good at listening. The smile she gave Kumoko told her she had been understood. "You want to go explore?"

Of course she did. Their home was large; Kushina told her that this place all belonged to Mommy; and Mommy had once said that she could explore all she wanted, so long as she let Kushina lead the way.

Kumoko glanced around.

Where had they not gone before? A glimmer of light seized her interest, and she let that feeling guide her.

"More," She repeated intentionally, pointing with one of her claws. Kushina followed her gesture, her beatific smile faltering as she chased the direction in question.

"That's-" Kushina's smile dipped into a frown, staring into the smoldering heat- the rays of the sun seeming to carve a deliberate path for them to follow. "That's a scary place, Kumoko."

Scary? Kumoko understood 'scary'. Scary was 'fear'. She had rarely felt it, but she remembered well her first days, thrashing and gnawing and biting and hurting. Fear was good; it kept you alive.

But to be alive was to grow.

To grow was to suffer.

To suffer is to learn.

To learn is to know.

She wanted to know.

Mommy suffered a lot. Mommy grew a lot. Mommy knew a lot…

She wanted to be like Mommy, she decided.

"More," Kumoko repeated again, her croak feather light this time. "No?"

Kushina licked her lips, seeming to think twice, before- "Tch! Moutziaaki… Q'orre a ma'amot y tsaagot'e/Unbelievable… Abandon a steady gut and make trouble."

Kumoko did not fully understand, but she knew at least that Kushina was unhappy with her. "No?"

Kushina tilted her head, as if listening to something.

"Show her. If you don't, she'll just go on her own."

"... Alright, we'll go," She decided. "But you stay with me at all times. Don't stray too far okay, love?"

She nodded. "DoN'T sTray too Far… Okay, LOve."

---

"So how're you settling in?" Tazuna asked them, nearly the first thing that morning when they had come to visit him.

Naruto only smiled, casting a glance back toward his remaining ensemble. Sasuke seemed no worse for wear; he knew his friend had been an early bird for much of his life. Anko as well- and though that should have been more surprising, Naruto could only suppose that a ninja of her caliber had simply learnt that habit by necessity.

The rest though-

"I'm sure we'll manage," Naruto cheerfully decided over their symphony of groans. He sat himself neatly at his hosts' table, right beside the young Inari, who had not stopped gaping at him since his arrival. Hinata collapsed into a seat beside him, stopping only to exchange the pleasantries that their hosts were due.

"Erm- thank you for having us." She bowed her head, waiting only long enough to drink in the motherly smile of the pretty woman who had plated her a meal.

"It's my pleasure, dear," The woman tried, barely withholding a laugh at Hinata's yearning. "Eat your fill; we have plenty. I'm Tsunami, by the way."

Hinata nodded so fiercely that her bangs flipped with the motion. "H-Hinata, ma'am."

Then she buried herself into her plate, an appetite nurtured over the last day's travel finally sated with a home-cooked meal.

"Holy-" Tazuna muttered to himself, watching the girl annihilate her plate . Sasuke similarly stared, blinking rapidly with shock. "W-where does it all go?" Sure enough, by the time the rest of their people had even begun to touch their meals, her plate was staggeringly clean. Hinata's scarlet blush at the attention went redder by the second, and with a laugh, Naruto wordlessly slid her his own plate after an obligatory sample. His girlfriend paused only long enough to look at him hesitantly, and his indulgent wink set her off on that one too.

"We had a long trip," Naruto told his hosts, conversationally. From his mind's eye, he could sense a hitch in Sai's chakra- confusion, flicking between Hinata and himself. The boy's eyes narrowed, something distinctly contemplative in his thoughts.

"I can fix you another plate," Tsunami offered, and Naruto nodded with another rumble of amusement.

"Please."

There was a tiny lull, and that seemed the opening that Inari had been waiting for to finally voice his thoughts.

"So are you a girl now?"

Tazuna snickered, but Tsunami seemed aghast.

"Inari!" She chided him, and the boy ducked his head. "That's not at all polite to ask somebody!"

"I'm not offended," Naruto assured her with a snicker of his own. "I get enough crap about it from these clowns as it is." For emphasis, he gestured loosely, lazy flicks of his hand pointing out Sasuke, Tayuya, and Anko each- the latter of which seemed to be doing everything in her power not to laugh, herself. Stealing a glance Sai's way, Naruto noted the way the pale-skinned boy subtly leaned forward, as if hoping to know his secrets as well. Looking to Inari, he smiled. "Probably not, no."

"Then why do you look like one?"

Why? "Cuz I like feeling pretty."

The table was quiet as Inari processed that. Sai in particular seemed disappointed with that answer, and Naruto fought not to laugh at him. "Oh…" Inari uttered, seeming to think it over. Then he nodded, seeming satisfied. "Like when mom puts on makeup but doesn't go anywhere." His mother flushed, pointedly refusing to look up from the newest plate of food that she served to Naruto. "That makes sense!" Just as quickly, another question evoked itself. "So why do you have four arms, then?"

"So I can hug my girlfriend twice as good, ya know?" Now, Sai appeared almost frustrated. His stare narrowed over Hinata, who refused to look up- a hot blush bleeding into her cheeks.

Inari nodded again, seeming to read the room well enough to lock the flustered Hinata in his sights. "She's really pretty," He decided with a smile. Then to Naruto- "You're really smart, bro."

"So are you," Naruto told him with a laugh. Their exchange fizzled after that, Naruto taking the moment to enjoy some of what Tsunami had served him.

"So- uh…" Tazuna tried, when it became clear that Naruto and Inari would not speak any further. "About Gatō's goons."

"We'll start taking care of them today." The sooner they were dealt with, the sooner Naruto could start focusing on more important things. "Do you have numbers?"

Tazuna blinked. "Numbers?"

"How many people are we looking at? How many bases do they have?" Another thought. "Any hostages we need to recover?"

"O-oh. Er-" Their host scratched his head, seeming contemplative. "I'm sure someone made a list or something; we turned it over to our Daimyo to request that he fund a mission, back before you reached out."

"But you don't have it now?"

"Uh…" Tazuna shrugged. "Sorry?"

Right. No luck there, then. "Hinata." She perked up, her blushing face smoothing over in an instant. "Take Kidomaru-" Another thought. "-And Sai. Find them for me, please."

Hinata blinked twice, then nodded. "Of course…" She stood, and the latter two matched her, Kidomaru groaning as he did so.

"Right, already assigning me side-quests, I see."

Sai raised his arm, and Naruto withheld a snicker at the realization that Danzo's liaison was seeming to mime the very same salute mock-salute that Anko had jokingly given him. "What shall we do with them, once they are found?"

What, indeed? Naruto understood just fine what Sai was really asking him.

"For now, you can just observe. When you're done, report back to me; I'll decide, then."

---

While Hinata, Kidomaru, and Sai were doing reconnaissance for him, Naruto planned to handle a few things of his own.

The safehouse would need to be fixed up- cleaned and furnished, at least with a few necessities. The stipend he'd brought along would cover basic amenities like food, but for the rest- well, he had some advantages of his own.

"Now's as good a time as any to teach you a thing or two about our chains," Naruto told Tayuya, once he had found a moment alone for the two of them. He had sent Anko and Sasuke on a supply run; Sakon and Ukon had disappeared as soon as they were able.

"We'll need to address those two soon," Kushina grumbled. Their chakra sensitivity kept a bead on them from a distance, and the transformed clone that he had planted on them- all of them, in fact, absolutely ensured that he would not lose track of the pair.

For now, he was just grateful to have the two of them out of his hair.

He understood their frustration. Really, it was hard not to. As far as those guys were concerned, they had not asked for any of the hardship that had been placed onto them. From defecting with Tayuya to now taking the fight to Orochimaru- a man who they had left to get away from in the first place. He understood.

He just seriously hoped for all of their sakes that they didn't do anything foolish.

Tayuya's prod of his ribs dislodged him from his thoughts, the redhead staring up at him with something close to exasperation.

"Don't just start there and then gaze off into space, dumbass."

"Don't distract me from my thoughts while I'm trying to figure out how to teach you, dumbass." The two shared a grin, and Tayuya let him lead her by the arm to their first point of interest: A withered couch slumped before the pair, the open patches within its dusty, faded exterior revealing much of the damage that lay deeper within.

"First thing we gotta understand about these things-" Naruto emphasized his words by upturning a palm, letting a thin link of chain surface up from his flesh. "Is there really ain't much difference between this and our bodies. Flesh, blood, bone- all of it is functionally the same to us."

Tayuya frowned, squinting her stare into the palm of his hand. "Er- I don't mean to alarm you, bud, but I'm pretty sure I've never grown metal out of my damn body."

He scoffed. "Because you never knew that you could." His index finger closed around the link, and with a heave, it pulled free- links upon links chasing the first until a hefty length of chain extended from flesh. "I guess an easier way to look at it might be that there ain't much difference between our chakra and our bodies and minds."

That, Tayuya could understand. Chakra was a ninja's lifeblood; it was as essential to their bodies as blood and oxygen. Without enough to sustain themselves, people could and had died from exhaustion. "So chains are just chakra, then."

"Yepperino! They're chakra conduits, made for chakra, by chakra!" Cheerfully, Naruto clenched his fist around the end in his hand, and snapped it free; twisting his fingers, he let it fall, and Tayuya watched with interest as the loose chain slinked along the floor, coiling its way up the body of the furniture. A twist of her cousin's fingers, and the length of chain began to expand and reshape itself; in just moments, the wear and tear had mended, transformed chain laying itself over the entire couch and twisting until the whole thing seemed brand new. "To form our chains is one thing; to change their properties after they've been deployed is a whole different beast."

And granting them permanence was another monster entirely.

"But both are important to realizing the true ceiling of these things." Now, he frowned, thoughtfully. "You're going to have a bit of a learning curve, 'cuz you're starting late. But that just means I get to teach you from scratch, I guess." And really, he had no idea how he was going to manage that... But he was good at improvising, he supposed. "We'll practice by fixing this place up a bit. I'll teach you how I do it, and I guess we can try to reverse-engineer it together to find your own method."

Tayuya frowned, following him to the next project- the ruins of a coffee table. "Er- didn't you start late?" She wasn't the sort to dance around a topic, but she supposed talking about this was a little different. "I mean- you haven't told me all the details, but I've heard you and Princess talk around it enough to know you were a late bloomer too- er, before you got hurt…" She shrugged, lamely. "So what's the difference between us? How come you can do this shit as easy as breathing, but I can't even see the link between chain and body?"

"The curse-mark." Really, everything seemed to call back to that damn thing. "I told you before, the curse-mark integrates its information into you- changes you down to a biological level to be the best possible host for Orochimaru. My best guess is that it must have 'overrode' key aspects of our biology within you. I was a late bloomer because I never had a guide; you're a late bloomer because Orochimaru took you out back and sawed your damn stem off." Naruto shrugged right back.

"And so I'm stuck doing this shit on hard mode because Orochimaru can't keep it in his pants. Great."

"Just until I figure out a fix," Naruto tried to assure her. Really, he already had a few ideas in mind. "I could- well, I could try to-" His words trailed off, the blonde seeming unsure with himself. "Actually, maybe not."

Tayuya blinked. "What? Tell me."

"Nah. Too risky."

"Tell meee!" Her hands closed around either of his shoulders. "Tell me or I'll lick you!" She shook him with all she had until he pushed her away, his vision swimming.

"Alright fine! Fuck!" Scrunching his eyes shut, he took a moment to regain himself. "I suppose I could try to 'update' you, so-to-speak. I'd have to plant a modified copy with my- er, we'd just have to hope it takes hold." If so, he could use it to overwrite the damaged or unrefined parts of her seal.

"Hope what takes hold?" Tayuya palmed her hips and scowled. "You keep talking around the subject. You told me you were gonna be straight with me once Orochimaru's stain was off my neck, right? Well lookie here!" Tayuya arched her neck sideways, proudly showing off her wonderfully unblemished flesh. "I'm clean, so it's time to pay up, Twink-Machine!"

… He would have preferred to wait a little longer. But he supposed she was right that she deserved to know; it was literally a part of her.

"Tell her," Kushina urged. "It's her birthright. She deserves to know just as much as you do."

More importantly, it was more safe for her that way. The seal was baked into them down to their cells. Thus, there was a high likelihood that the seal could mend itself over time as well, now that the curse-mark was out of the picture. If Tayuya started experiencing memories or impressions without some explanation to inform her, there was always a possibility that she could let something slip before he ran damage control. With someone like Sai around especially-

No, this wasn't at all like with Hinata; Tayuya would likely figure it out eventually, with or without his help. In this case, it was more dangerous not to tell her.

"Listen close, and I don't want to hear any snide shit from you this time, alright?" Tayuya straightened up immediately, sensing the seriousness in his tone. "You are not to share this information with anyone. Not Sakon, not Ukon, not Kidomaru. Nobody."

"S-sure?" Now, Tayuya seemed unsure.

"That's not good enough!" He barked, and she averted her gaze. "Look at me." She did, and he took a breath, closing the distance to cup her face with both hands. "Tayuya, I'm dead serious. If you tell anybody about this thing, I'll kill them; them, and anyone I even think they could have told-" She paled, and Naruto knew now that she understood. "I haven't even told Hinata. Do you understand now how big a deal this is?"

Naruto didn't make threats; Tayuya knew that. Threats carried a certain uncertainty to them.

Naruto also didn't keep secrets from Hinata; Tayuya especially knew that.

"I won't tell a soul." And she knew that was the truth- that she'd take it to her grave, if only because he had asked. "No one. Never. Now tell me."

He'd do her one better. A trio of clones popped into place, set on completing their work in their stead.

He'd teach her about their chains at a different time, then.

Knowing the safehouse would be handled, he instead focused on the company in his hands, letting his chakra flow until its touch suffused his hands, simply awaiting his call.

"I'll show you."

Tayuya blinked, and suddenly the world was changed. The air around them was crisp, the fresh brine of salt and sea breathing into her senses. Rays of sunlight cast downward, their heat scorching scalding hot over her hair.

"The hell?" The crash of the first wave snapped her to attention, the redhead jumping just a little at the sound. Another wave crashed, this one creeping that much further until the first wash of seafoam wrapped its playful reach over her foot. Then it sank back just as quickly, and Tayuya followed its retreat with the faintest throb of longing.

Like something she had never known, but missed all the same.

"I never get tired of this place." Naruto's voice tickled her ear, and she whipped around again, her heart pounding in her ears.

"Fuck, man. You scared me!"

"My bad," He allowed indulgently, his typical smile wrapped taut across his lips. She knew him well enough by now though to know he was unhappy.

"A-are you uh… Are you pissed with me?" She tried, her tone just the slightest bit nervous.

She supposed she had pressured him a bit with all of this, huh?

"Not with you," He promised, and she believed him; a weight unknotted from her chest as he took her hand with his own. "Come. I have some things I want to show you."

"Sure…" Tayuya followed, intertwining her fingers with his own after a moment to let him lead her along. "So- uh… What is this place anyways?"

"Hm…" He supposed there were a handful of explanations that could do. One felt much more true than the rest, though. Tasting that truth once more, he nodded. "I guess you could call this place my- uh... Innate domain?"

At least, that was what Katsuyu had called what Orochimaru had dragged him into- that bleak hellscape of flesh and viscera- "It's a place that represents me, if that makes sense?"

It didn't. Tayuya understood well the intrinsics of yin-release and the makings of the mind and spirit- the essences of a person. Her work as Orochimaru's premier genjutsu specialist had demanded such expertise. Even still- "I ain't ever seen something like this."

She had felt the pull of his own chakra, drawing her in; she had trusted its coaxing implicitly, and let it lead her here. She had thought he would show her an illusion, or something similar. "This feels- are you sure it's fine for me to be here?"

"I trust you," Naruto told her with a smile, and in just a moment, she found one of her own taking shape. "Besides… This place ain't exactly unprotected." Naruto did not elaborate, and she decided that she did not want to know.

Their walk took them across a faintly paved dirt road, its paths spanning outward in half-a-dozen different directions. Naruto kept them straight, but she could not resist the interest that chased after the myriad paths they left behind.

Pointing at one of the paths- "What's that one?"

Naruto smiled. "A school- if you go a bit further, that is. They used to teach our dances at the centermost academy."

"They?"

"The Uzumaki, duh."

The Uzumaki? What did he- "Oh…"

"Yu-huh…"

"Oh!" And all at once, she understood where they were.

Naruto kept them straight until their path hit a fork with three prongs. "Over there-" He pointed right. "Is our shrine- where they used to teach rituals."

She blinked. "Rituals- what, like bleeding a goat or something?"

Naruto's laugh was rough, but fond. "Not quite like that. Though, I guess I can't say it's never been done." A shrug. "Rituals- the kind that we use to streamline the use of chakra. Hand-signs are but one example." Turning to her, Tayuya saw something almost apprehensive in his smile now. "I'll teach you about them, some time. They're fun."

"Yeah!" Her grip tightened around his hand, vibrating down to the bone with that promise. "So- so where are we going then?"

"The library."

For a moment, she thought he was simply joking. But Naruto pulled at her arm more insistently now. "I've got something to show you there. After that, I want you to meet some people."

Some… People? "Don't tell me you've got people in your head… Like- like actual, honest-to-god people?"

Was her cousin schizophrenic?

"You'll love them."

---

Sai understood their commander's logic in assigning them to scout out the enemy. Hinata Hyuga possessed the byakugan; her clan's vaunted telescopic vision, combined with its ability to see through solid objects and surfaces made her an invaluable weapon for a scouting party. Adding to this the fact that she had allegedly served as part of a tracking and reconnaissance unit, prior to serving under Naruto Uzumaki-

Yes, she was a logical choice. What's more, she seemed the sensible sort- noticeably moreso than the rest, at least. Hinata Hyuga was quiet, stoic, and remarkably focused. Clearly, she was their leader's right hand, and Sai could understand why. In spite of her apparent rank as a mere genin, she seemed everything one could ask for in a shinobi tool.

He told her as much, hoping to earn her favor; she seemed to have a great deal of pull with their leader, after all.

That was about the point that Hinata Hyuga stopped making sense.

"I'm sure you'd think so," She told him, a strained smile at her lips.

She had not spoken directly to him again after that, and as the minutes passed into hours, Sai began to understand that he might have offended her with his words.

"That's the third house we've got marked." Kidomaru's announcement was little more than a whisper as Sai, who had been diligently taking notes in accordance to their combined observations.

Three fairly large buildings- each large enough to have been warehouses of some kind in their past lives. Each of the safehouses seemed to carry a portion of the men- roughly twenty or so, each. A few hostages, kept in the lower levels as insurance against the people of Wave.

It was all painfully standard.

"Hinata-san, is that it?"

Hinata Hyuga was silent for a moment, seeming to visibly contemplate their work. The bulging veins that indicated the activation of her byakugan receded after another long moment. "That's all of them."

"You don't want to scan the map a little more? We could do another round if you aren't certain."

"I'm certain," She assured Kidomaru. "My vision can cover most of the village just fine."

His eyebrows shot up, and even Sai could not cover his own shock.

"Er- do all of your clan- can all of you guys see that far?" The spider-like boy's question made Hinata pause and think for a moment.

Neji had once bragged that his byakugan had a minimum fifty meters' worth of omnidirectional range. Hanabi's eyes at her age could manage substantially less- somewhere in the ten-to-twenty meter range. Impressive for her age- surely more than Neji had possessed at that time.

The range of Hinata's own byakugan had always been far superior to Neji's; while he had her beat for much of their lives in sheer detail, range had always been on her side- even during the worst of times. But her perception and range both had increased substantially since her dreaded fight with her father. She couldn't be sure if the influence of Orochimaru's mark had permanently changed her in some way, or if she had simply learned the depths of just how much she had limited herself, previously. Regardless-

"N-no… I suppose I can see a bit farther than my cousin."

Sensing that she would not elaborate further, Kidomaru could only sigh. "Er- well in that case, I guess we oughta link back up with the rest of the party- update their minimaps, huh?

Hinata nodded, forcing a smile to encourage his suggestion. "Sure." She forced herself to lead the way. Naruto had put her in charge, and she understood well what that meant.

She was a far cry from that little girl who would hide in her jacket any time her team looked to her for input… Or at least, that was what she tried to tell herself.

As they moved, Sai upped his pace until he was nearly shoulder to shoulder with her.

"I would like to apologize," He began, politely. He took special care to warm his tone to an image close to that of their commander; he supposed that given her apparent affinity to him, Hinata Hyuga of all people would appreciate it most.

Instead, she immediately stiffened. "Apologize?"

"For calling you the commander's tool, earlier," Sai elaborated. "I meant to pay you a compliment, not to offend."

Frankly, he still was not certain why she had been offended. But at the very least, he understood that an apology was expected when one offended another.

Hinata blinked slowly, tasting his apology- perhaps searching it for authenticity; Sai felt that he was being reasonably authentic. She seemed to decide so as well, because after a moment, she simply nodded.

"Thank you for your apology."

"You're welcome," He trilled back, warmly. This time, she frowned.

"Please stop doing that."

Her tone was polite, but Sai could sense immediately that he was on thin ice yet again. Something- not quite a threat, but something unpleasant festered beneath her own facade, such that a thin bead of sweat pooled at the back of his neck.

"May I ask-" He tried, carefully. "What is it that I have done?"

She searched him again, her pale eyes tearing into his expression and this time finding him terribly wanting. "You… Won't gain our favor with some cheap mimicry of Naruto-kun."

Cheap?

Sai blinked rapidly, processing her accusation. Something hot swallowed up his belly for a moment, and though he could not quite name it, he decided then and there that it was unpleasant.

"I am simply trying to get to know my comrades," He tried, letting a thin veneer of cool clad his intonation. "If I have offended you in some way, please educate me so that I can correct myself."

She stared at him again, and this time, her gaze softened, a touch.

"I'm sure you'd think so," Hinata Hyuga told him again, that very same humorless smile touching her lips again. He was sure that he was being judged, somehow. "Alright, I'll educate you." She seemed to think for a moment, then- "Your failing is that you are trying to use mimicry of Naruto-kun's mannerisms to 'cheat' relationships that he has spent time and effort nurturing- the nuances of which are completely lost on you." She shook her head. "You insulted Tayuya's-san's chest, not understanding that she hates when other people comment on her body; it makes her uncomfortable, and when she is uncomfortable, her patience thins… You would not know this, because you do not know her."

"I see…" Sai frowned as he considered her rebuke. "But when Naruto Uzumaki does it, is he not still commenting on her body?"

"Perhaps to an outsider," Hinata allowed. "For him, there is no ulterior meaning behind those words. Naruto-kun does not call Tayuya-san flat to insult or shame her, or even truly to draw attention to her body. For him, it is simply a vehicle for him to invite her to trade barbs with him. That is how they bond; that is but one way that he shows her that he loves her."

"By trading insults?" He was still lost, but he truly was trying to understand. How did 'trading barbs' exercise itself as a show of love? What was love, then, that it should be communicated in such a roundabout fashion? "Is it meant to be therapeutic, perhaps?" Were they simply venting anger?

"It's even simpler than that." Hinata shrugged. "They just like playing with each other."

Playing? Simpler? Sai found himself no less confused than before Hinata Hyuga had explained to him.

"As for me," Now, Hinata stopped, and Sai did so too; Kidomaru paused a good deal behind them, having deliberately made himself scarce. 'Bold Hinata' reared her head, finding Sai squarely in her sights. "Naruto-kun is my boyfriend; my best friend; my part-" She paused, her face flushing scarlet for a moment before that surge of emotion was tucked neatly behind her walls. "My partner… It may not matter much to you, but I understand the nuances behind all of those different smiles you're faking. Not only that- the way he walks, the way that he talks; the way that he sings and dances and-" A sigh. "For him, all of those little details have meaning. They are as integral to his identity as his name. You can't just walk like him or talk like him or smile like him and pretend like any of that somehow entitles you to the love we have for him."

Then she began to walk again, setting a pace that did not invite him to speak to her again. Sai watched her go in a daze, remembering to follow again only after Kidomaru had awkwardly passed him.

Play? Love? Partners?

He shook his head.

Hinata Hyuga was just as confusing and nonsensical as the rest of them were.

He supposed she simply hid it a bit better.

---

"This isn't a library."

"Yes it is."

"No the fuck it ain't!" Tayuya's rebuttal lacked her usual fire; it was difficult to manifest it all, faced with the sight before her. "This is fucking ridiculous, is what it is!"

Her unblinking stare could not capture nearly enough of the sight before her to amend her puzzlement.

Rich, marble floors spanned outward, paving a path toward the titan before her. Sectioned neatly in columns, dozens upon dozens of pillars rose, their lengths spiraling up to such heights that her neck hurt to crane. Engraved into each spire, dense thickets of script crept their ways upward, following the entire length in a language that felt familiar, yet unknowable. As they reached their peak, the pillars twisted among each other, their serpentine coils converging at the ceiling into some impossible geometric shape that made her eyes burn and her stomach twist.

"T-there ain't a single book in here," She tried. "This ain't a library."

"You're being obtuse," Naruto grumbled, pulling her forward. "Books can be burned or damaged- written over too. The purpose of a library is to preserve information."

"Alright, I'll bite. How the hell does this-" What the hell did she even call this? "-This place preserve information?"

He drew her to one of the pillars, running a finger over its surface. At his touch, the scripts that layered it began to burn, their scarlet glow washing over his hand.

"Each of the pillars carries information," Naruto explained. "Raw, condensed information. The structures here organize and streamline the delivery of that information to the recipients… In a way, you could consider it the prototype to our seals."

"Seals?" Tayuya finally yielded to a loud groan. "Look- it ain't like you to be cryptic. Can't you just explain shit to me without all the detours?"

It wasn't like she wasn't interested, but the anxiety was starting to kill her a little!

"Fine." Naruto pulled away from the pillar to face her, the exasperation creased into his brow betraying his fake-smile. "Embedded in every Uzumaki, down to the cellular level, is a self-propagating seal that collects, organizes, and passes down information passed down by our long-deceased people."

She blinked. "Er- huh?"

"Huh?" Naruto mocked her, rolling his eyes. "You still want the short version?"

"Er-"

Point taken.

"Long version, please," She muttered, her voice small.

"Everything I'm going to be talking about is relevant to my explanation, so pay close attention and quit freaking sassing me." She nodded, so Naruto turned again, once again prodding at the pillar. Calling upon his memories- their memories, he told their tale:

"When the Uzumaki first settled in the place that would become Uzushiogakure, it was already being settled by other people. You know them as the Kaguya."

"Wait- like Kimmimaro?"

"Orochimaru's guy?" She nodded, so he nodded right back. "Yeah, like him…"

Well she knew that historically, Uzushiogakure had belonged to the Uzumaki. "So- what, the Uzumaki just fucked them up and yoinked their shit, then?"

She couldn't wait to throw that in that asshole's face if they ever saw each other again!

Naruto shook his head. "Yes and no- er, at least not in the way that you're thinking… We immigrated to Uzu to avoid the conflicts that had dominated the continents during the Warring era; the Senju and the Uchiha clans were content to kill each other, and other lesser mercenary clans were being eaten up as collateral as they kept escalating; there are a lot of old clans that are now extinct or close, purely because they happened to be in the same vicinity as those guys while they were swinging their dicks at each other."

Tayuya winced. "Right…"

"Now for us, we could get away with neutrality for a while, but after long enough, it was either pick a side, join the fight as a third party, or disappear."

She frowned. "So we ran the hell away, huh?"

"Again, yes and no." The red-glowing script began to pull, writhing together to reach for Naruto's hand. "The Uzumaki had fighters, but our people as a whole weren't hard-boiled killer mercs like the Senju and Uchiha were; we were just a bunch of dumbfuck craftsmen with big ideas and a penchant for pushing our luck." He shrugged. "Other clans used our services: Weapons, armor; we were particularly skilled with the art of rituals, some of which we would eventually refine and reclassify into what we call sealing today."

Wait… "So sealing is rituals?"

"More or less, yes." He pulled free again, and when he did, a tiny red spherical object came free with him, its shape settling at the tips of his fingers. "Here."

Hosting her here in his innate domain, he suspected that he might be able to share at least this much with her.

She was already reaching for it, but then she paused. "T-this ain't gonna give me a brain aneurysm or some shit, is it?"

Naruto only smiled.

"Oh fuck you, man." Nevertheless, she took it, and she understood.

She was a young man, pouring over dusty old tomes until his nose burned from their irritants. Then she was a woman, well into her thirties; rich, colorful tattoos adorned her person, flexing with her activity as she etched her work into the arm of a visitor. Then she was the visitor, biting her- his tongue while his artist inked his flesh for the first of what would become many times; she- he would marry that woman someday. Then she was her children, etching others while her- their parents watched with pride.

The whirl of information accelerated until it was less words or images and more impressions, amassed and compiled into something close to resembling consistency. Her sinuses burned, the fires of bile surging up such that she had to clench her jaw and cover it twice to suppress the urge to wretch.

"Rituals-" Naruto breathed over her visions. "-Are the art of sacrifice, exchange, and process. The actions that we take- all of it is integral to how we create, mold, and use chakra. Sealing takes this principle and refines it into artistry; it creates an- er, I guess you could call it an outline that helps impress upon our chakra how it should create an effect. There are many ways that it can do this: sometimes we use math to measure and calculate the distributions of chakra; sometimes we use science to observe universal constants or produce chemical responses… Some people get it into their heads that sealing is some kind of reality warping bullshit or whatever." He laughed, derisively. "In reality, all it really is, is using the process of language and artistry to refine the use of chakra with the means available to us…" He shrugged. "That's the gist of it, ya know?"

"Y-yeah…" Tayuya's dry croak betrayed her own awe. The rend of a migraine was gestating in her skull. "I- I get it."

Kinda. Sorta.

It was like speed-reading a dozen books. She was sure that, with enough time or help, the sage might make some semblance of sense. Right now though- "Please don't give me any more of those things."

Because damn if her head didn't feel like it was splitting apart. She wiped a bit of mucus from her nose; she closed her bloodshot eyes away from the light and tried to remember how to stand.

She failed.

"My bad." Naruto's smile tugged downward just a bit, a faint impression of concern reaching for her. "I thought you could handle it better."

To her credit, she seemed less harrowed than he had been, his first time using resonance; he supposed he'd attribute it to her substantially more refined yin-chakra, compared to where he'd started.

He bent down to meet her at eye level, brushing sweat-laden hair from her eyes and offering his hand again "Do you need a moment?"

"I'm- I'm good," She gasped, taking it and letting him pull her up; she leaned against him, eyes clenching to withhold her swimming vision. "Keep talking," Her disoriented slur came naturally with her heavy tongue. "We did rituals, or whatever?"

Now, his smile was fully indulgent. "Yeah. Other clans commissioned us for all kinds of things. The Senju were savants with jutsu-creation; they were so good at it that they could crank those fuckers out faster than the Uchiha could copy them! They paid us to craft rituals to optimize them; many of the hand-sign strings that the Senjus' more prominent techniques use were developed by us." A breath. "The Uchiha paid us to craft them weapons, armor, and tools. We had our strengths, of course, and warriors of our own as well… We couldn't have negotiated or kept half of the freedoms we had if we didn't. But the important thing to understand is that culturally, we were primarily artists and craftsmen who at the time had no business or interest in joining a war between rival clans- least of all one as long as bloody as what the freaking Senju and Uchiha were fighting. We were content to provide, so long as they paid us and let us stay in our lane. But we were indiscriminate in that sense. What did we care if any of those guys killed each other, so long as they let us do our thing in peace?"

A deeper, more contemplative frown had shored itself on Tayuya, now. "So we left the mainland and- what, stumbled into the Kaguya?"

"More or less." Naruto shrugged. "The Kaguya were a tribe of fucking backwater savages." Mito's sneer pierced the veil for a split second and he blinked, pushing her back down and smoothing over with an awkward smile. "My bad…"

"Er-" Tayuya blinked. "Never thought you'd be the bigot of the family."

Naruto frowned, a spike of shame casting its haze for a moment. "It's- er, it's complicated."

Because really, he didn't have an issue with them at all.

At least, he didn't think he did…

It wasn't fair to brush an entire people with those kinds of colors, he told himself.

Mito sang for her brother- until she felt the exact moment that Kenji Uzumaki's body had cooled with the touch of death. When the last gasp of his heart had puttered to its end, only then did the first of her tears begin its fall.

She couldn't even hold him.

"H-hey, are you-"

"I'm alright," Naruto assured her, forcing himself to focus again. "Calling them that was wrong," He admitted with a shake of his head. "Let's put it like this. We didn't get along with the Kaguya- for reasons you'll understand very shortly."

Tayuya nodded. "Sure."

A breath, then Naruto continued. "Both of our clans were fairly small- at least compared to supergiants like the Senju and Uchiha; more importantly, the land was plentiful. We should have been more than able to coexist with one another."

In a perfect world, their people might have become friends. The Kaguya were a remote warrior clan, eager for the thrill of combat, and yet savvy, capable, and more than smart enough at least to choose their battles wisely. The Uzumaki could have provided for them their knowledge and crafts, and their people could have thrived together. In just a few generations, the two clans combined might have become giants rivaling the Uchiha and Senju both.

Naruto scowled. "But they were suspicious, hostile- and simply put, unwilling."

He wished he could say that his people had been fully justified in their response, but the truth was always a lot messier than one might like to admit.

Far, far too messy.

"The alternative was to leave again- head back to where tensions had reached a peak and clans were getting sucked into the Senju and Uchihas' bullshit left and right. We ignored their warnings- stole our own piece of the pie so-to-speak." A heavy breath. "From there, tensions exploded. Before long, we were at each others' necks just like the Uchiha and the Senju were."

"Wait, but I thought you said we weren't fighters?" Tayuya pursed her lips in thought. It was hard not to have heard about the Kaguya clan's phenomenal fighting prowess. "I get that we had warriors, but how does a handful of fighters compete with a whole warrior clan?"

"Well obviously, we cheated!" Naruto admitted with a laugh.

Tayuya blanched. "What the hell is obvious about that!?"

He ignored her question for a moment. "The Kaguya had more fighters, but we Uzumaki built our entire culture around solving problems and trying our damn luck." He remembered one of the very first things his mother had ever told him: "Simply put, we're damned crazy." He knew she would ask him to explain further, so he spared her the effort. "It all comes down again to this library, and how we pass down information. Knowledge, memories, and experiences were embedded into these spires, such that anyone bearing our blood could simply come and take it for themselves. It gets real easy to train up fighters when you can just cram years or even decades' worth of combat experience into their heads and have them figure it out over a few weeks or months."

"O-oh…" Yep, that sounded like cheating to her.

Naruto sighed. "But that came with its own problems."

"Like what?"

"Namely the fact that our people were fighting, killing, and dying pointless deaths over some lump of fucking land when we didn't even need or want all of it to begin with. Imagine you spend your life dreaming of becoming a dancer, and realize one day you're soaked up to your knees in the blood of dozens."

Tayuya paled. "O-oh…"

"Imagine you fancy yourself a scholar… You excel at school and get accepted into one of our top academies for the study of rituals. Now imagine the day you realize that your rituals are being used to do genocide. You learn that a cluster you put together to automate farming is now being used to produce fucking chemical weapons to smoke Kaguya out of their homes- so you can dome their families with arrows while they move to flee." He choked down a shuddering breath, seeming a bit pale, himself. "I could go on, but you get the point. The Uzumaki hated the Kaguya because they made us sink to that level. We fancied ourselves some kind of 'enlightened' people, far above the need for petty war and bloodshed- so much so that we looked down on the rest of the world for participating in it, themselves… But they showed us we were just as capable of violence and cruelty as anyone else in the world. They showed us the thrill of battle, and we fucking loved it."

That was the tough thing about war. It showed its participants who they really were.

"In order to combat the mortality rate, we dumped all of our research into this thing." Naruto pointed again to the spires. "What if we could remove the need to visit, and instead made it so that every child from birth had access to the library? What if we expanded its function so that every generation would further build the foundations of our strength and expertise for our children to grow from? Not just knowledge, but chakra, and the body, itself. Ya know- 'stand on the shoulders of giants', and all… You get enough giants, and your kids can reach the damn stars, ya know?"

"So the result then," Tayuya started, slowly, remembering his earlier explanation. "Is this 'seal' thingy that you keep alluding to, huh?"

"Mhm…" Naruto led her away now, out the front door and back to the dirt path. "The Legacy seal is the result of all of that research. It is the ultimate pinnacle of our clan's expertise- the greatest sword and shield of our people; nothing else comes close."

The way he spoke about it, it seemed almost divine… Again, Tayuya craned her head back, after the fleeing library. "What's so special about it, compared to that?"

Because damn, if this thing wasn't already impressive as hell!

Naruto measured his words twice before he answered. "Most seals' effects are limited by their 'dimensions'. Two-dimensional seals, like we typically see work by providing simple instructions through which chakra follows for its effects. When you combine a bunch of these 'instructions' together, you get a three-dimensional 'cluster' or 'matrix'. Think of it like a bigger, more complex seal made up of a bunch of smaller, less complex seals."

She could see where this was going. "So what happens when you combine a bunch of those cluster-thingies, then?"

"You get a conglomerate: a seal that works in the 'fourth-dimension'; these bypass the typical limits of things like time, space, and other difficult to conceptualize ideas by essentially rooting them in more digestible 'approximations', then combining them afterwards to better capture our understanding of them."

"Er-"

She didn't understand a damn thing he'd just said to her.

"They make big thing smaller so we can understand, then we change smaller things, which changes big thing when we make them big again."

"Oh!" She understood now! "They change the simplified structures that make up higher-dimensional concepts so that we can change them with our more limited scope! Why didn't you just say that?" Tayuya's grin made his eye twitch.

"You suck." Jumping back into his lesson, he explained further. "The pillars I showed you are probably the peak of what we could accomplish with simple clusters. The information, however vast, is isolated; information needed to be manually fed to the library, and collected just the same. If anything ever happened to the library, we were fucked. So we evolved past the need for it by developing a seal that bent the limits of time or distance. We embedded it into every one of ourselves, and as generations passed it down further, it evolved alongside us."

"Evolved, huh?" A transcendent seal that seemingly bypassed known human limits; one that could evolve over time… It all sounded like a damn headache- especially if just that one mote he'd given her was any indicator. "So you just constantly have all of this shit playing in your head, twenty-four seven?"

"Sort of," Naruto allowed with a pained grin. "Most of the time, it's all just a bunch of white noise in the back of my mind. Over time, you barely even notice it. But the seal is designed to respond to a need, more than anything. It intuits those needs and provides for those needs.

"Sure." She nodded. "And how does this all tie back to the Kaguya?"

"We developed the legacy seal as we know it out of necessity- in order to combat the fact that our already small clan was dying in droves trying to combat them. That, and the increasing risk that our enemies might raid our homes, see the giant freaking building with the giant freaking spires, and smash them all." He jutted his thumb in the direction they had come from, and Tayuya had to agree. Even from a good deal down the trail now, she could still make out the towering building; it was damn conspicuous. "So I guess you could say we owe it to them that we managed to 'evolve', so-to-speak. Before then, we already had the 'bones' of it in place, but our feud with them forced us to accelerate our understanding of seals, chakra, and combat by many generations." A shrug. "But the end result is that we turned them into an endangered species; we slaughtered them and drove them off the island, right into the heart of the Uchiha and Senjus' conflicts. Of those who survived all of that, they resorted to inbreeding in vain to keep their culture and bloodline alive. As of today, they have died out near-entirely.

"Damn…" She took a moment, breathing some color back into her face. "So we essentially wiped them all out, huh?"

"Yep…"

He wished he could say they had it coming, but the objective truth was that it was never so simple. If you asked a Kaguya for their side, he was damn sure the Uzumaki were the villains of their story. The read-headed devils, who had raided their islands, slaughtered their people, and booted them into an active war to be picked clean.

When you put it like that, maybe they were the villains. Yeah, he wasn't so sure he could blame them- even if Mito's instincts screamed otherwise. He knew her bias; he wasn't sure he could blame her for that either.

It just was. There were no heroes in war.

"After that, our people became especially isolationist. We'd had a taste of blood and now we knew just how easily that side of us could be brought out." It was their greatest shame, if one were to ask him. "We became much more selective about who we did business with, and we refused outsiders sanctuary on our territory, full stop. We had come into our own and had become a fully independent Hidden Village; we no longer needed to rely on the protection or aid of other clans- not when we had a whole island's worth of resources to suit our needs and a rapidly developing society. We closed ourselves off- rejected the rest of the ninja world, and we developed a bit of a reputation for it," Naruto admitted with a laugh. "Er- not a very good one. We refused to call ourselves ninja; refused to adopt or even respect traditional ninja values. I imagine the rest of the world fucking hated us!"

That was fine though. He was pretty used to being hated.

"But…" That didn't make sense to her. "But we were allied with Konoha, weren't we?"

"Sure." Now, Naruto seemed bitter. "Hashirama came to us, looking to make us part of Konoha. He didn't demand that we open our borders; instead, he requested only that we send them a representative, someone whose voice would represent the Uzumaki within the heart of Konoha…"

He knew from Mito's memories what the man had expected. Konoha's First Hokage had anticipated that a representative of Uzu in Konoha would eventually lead to the mixing of bloodlines, allowing the Leaf to benefit from their peculiar strength. That, and that over time, a strong relationship between the two villages would raise trust between their people.

He had been right.

"Mito Uzumaki married Hashirama Senju, and in doing so, our legacy was brought to their village. As time went on, Uzu fully opened trade with Konoha, freely providing for them many of the boons that the village uses today; Mito even opened a school for rituals that has since closed... The Uzumaki mask temple was created on the outskirts of Konoha as a place of worship, and a secret weapon in the event of necessity. We lent our support to Konoha and in time came to consider them family."

And he knew well how that had turned out.

"But that's enough history for now," Naruto told her, a strained smile taking hold once more. "That's the Legacy Seal- your birthright."

Tayuya scowled. "My birthright that I can't even have."

Her birthright, which had been stolen from her by Orochimaru and his bullshit.

"We'll fix it," Naruto promised her easily.

He couldn't wait, really. To share with her their peoples' songs and dances; to talk to her about everything and nothing in their native tongue.

"Just hold on for a little longer, alright?"

She nodded. "Yeah… Okay."

"For now, I've got some people for you to meet, remember?"

---

"Tsunade-sama, Kurenai Yuhi is here to see you," Shizune's tentative announcement washed over her Hokage, rousing the Slug-Sannin from a nap.

Ah, right… She should have known she would be hearing from that woman soon.

Tsunade was tempted- genuinely, to tell her assistant to send the woman away; it wasn't personal, but damn if her timing wasn't terrible.

But reaching her senses across the door, she could feel her Jonin's turmoil as sensitively as her own, and try as she might-

Ugh! "Send her in."

Shizune nodded and started for the door. "I'll make you tea."

And this was why Shizune was her favorite. Or was Naruto her favorite? Well Naruto wasn't here making her tea, so she supposed he was disqualified for the time being.

Kurenai Yuhi breached the threshold into her office, anxiety rife in her chakra- even if her physical posture betrayed nothing.

"Lady Hokage, I have a request-"

"Shhhhhh," Tsunade interrupted her with an overt shushing motion. Kurenai's jaw snapped shut, the younger woman pursing her lips but holding her tongue nonetheless at her leader's rude gesture. "I'll have you know you've just woken me up from my very scarce power nap." Guilt flashed in her Jonin's chakra, and Tsunade leeched just the slightest petty pleasure from that. "I ain't hearing a damn thing until Shizune comes with my tea."

As if on cue, her assistant swooped in, a cup for both of them. "I took the liberty of preparing you a cup as well, Kurenai-san."

Kurenai blinked, a faint blush asserting its place. "Oh! T-thank you."

Tsunade stole the moment to down the entire thing, healing over the scald that layered the back of her throat as it passed. She scrunched her eyes and pressured her temples to ward away the steady mount of stress in her skull. "Right… What did you want?"

"A-ah, yes…" Kurenai blinked between Shizune and herself, seeming to puff herself out with all of the authority that her station ought to demand. "I learned today that you sent Hinata and Naruto out of the village, ma'am."

Kurenai was smart, and she paid attention; clearly, she could infer what the kids had been sent for. There was a clear lead to her words, though Kurenai at least had the wherewithal to keep her tone appropriately respectful.

If only for that reason, Tsunade bothered to humor the woman. "I wasn't aware that I needed your permission, Kurenai-san?"

Her scarlet eyes widened. "Er- no! No, no, no- no, T-Tsunade-sama; I didn't mean to-"

Tsunade laughed. "I'm just messing with you." She smoothed that moment over with a slight quirk of her lips- something close but not fully approaching a true smile. "The circumstances surrounding that decision were not such that I had time to discuss it properly with you."

It was not quite an apology, but it was the best that Tsunade cared to give.

"Er- yes, I can respect that, Tsunade-sama. It's not-" Kurenai huffed. "I didn't mean to presume that you owed me an explanation, ma'am."

Kurenai understood well, given her position, just how quickly decisions often needed to be made. It was not her place, Jonin or otherwise, to question the leadership of her Hokage. Even still-

"Then what are you here for, then?" Tsunade's query broke through her thoughts, and again, Kurenai mastered herself.

"Please send me to support them."

Tsunade had expected a request like this. "Nah."

"I-" Kurenai forced her jaw shut before she said something she'd regret. "Please reconsider."

"Sure." She made a show of thinking it over, then- "Nah."

Now, Kurenai seemed exasperated. "Tsunade-sama please-"

"Hush now, and listen," Tsunade cut into her request, gently. "I have no doubts about your capabilities."

If she had had any concerns, Kurenai Yuhi had well and truly exceeded her expectations, subduing the out of control Sound refugees in the condition she was in.

"But in the state you're currently in, you would only be a liability to the team."

"That's-" Again, Kurenai held her tongue, eyes darting downward so as to avoid glaring at Tsunade. "I can recover on the move. Surely, their team could use a genjutsu specialist- even if only for support?"

"They have Tayuya, and Naruto's no slouch himself; I'm sure they'll manage." Still, Kurenai seemed unmoved; Tsunade sighed. Well, she didn't want to bring this up, but- "More importantly, Naruto specifically requested that you be left out."

Now, Kurenai's eyes shot up, something akin to betrayal laden within them. "Why would he request something like that!?"

"Because he understood that you would come to me to make this request, obviously." Tsunade leaned back, clasping her hands in her lap. "And he understood that you would make this decision out of emotion."

Damn right, she was emotional! "My kids are running light into the lion's den. You can't expect me to just be okay with that!? I understand the necessity, but at least let me watch over them!"

"Kurenai-sensei's strong as shit. You put her feet to the fire, and there's seriously no telling what she's capable of, believe it!"

That kid really had a penchant for being right about people. "... I'll cut you a deal," Tsunade spoke slowly, clear enunciation ensuring that nothing about her words could be misunderstood. "And this is the only one you'll get, so I hope it's enough." Kurenai nodded, and Tsunade leaned forward. "Shizune has informed me that you have begun physical therapy with her; show me that you have recovered- at least to the same capabilities you possessed before Katabami, and I will deploy your team to convene with Naruto's in Snow. If you can't manage even that much though, you have no business butting in." Her intonation carried a ruthless edge, such that Kurenai could not even dream that she would reconsider further.

"... Convene in snow, huh?" Kurenai's frown stayed for a moment longer. "When will that be?"

"A little over a month." Her perfectly manicured nail tapped several times against her table's surface, leaving an ugly indent into its surface. "Clock's ticking."

… A time-table like that was utterly unrealistic. Kurenai's injuries would keep her out of commission for several months at least, moving at the average pace; that was even considering her own background and Shizune's expertise.

It would take a miracle.

"Who cares that you've got setbacks… When you want something- really want something more than anybody else, that's when the sky's the limit."

Kurenai's frown slowly twisted into a wild sort of grin, so foreign to herself that Tsunade blinked rapidly in response.

"A month, huh? I can do that."

Because come hell or high water, she was going to keep fighting.

---

Silence came abundant, these days.

Once, the faintest buzz of activity remained constant to his ears, distant impressions of the outside world filtering in from a realm that it no longer belonged to. It was not unlike one of those human radio things, which that hag Mito had often listened to in her later years.

It wasn't much, but it was enough for one to keep themselves up-to-date.

Enough at least for its stay to be tolerable.

But since that boy had meddled with the gaps in the seal, the Kyuubi found that not a sound made its way in from the surface. Now, the only impressions that he received was the vast echo that bounced back from his own lonely breaths.

Or from the occasional ripple of water when it scarcely shifted.

These days, he could almost envision the mocking tongues of Mito and Kushina both lashing his hide with their derisive sneers and putrid lies, and they were almost preferable, compared to the alternative.

God, he hated them. Both of them. Them- them, more than any other loathsome human.

"I'm sorry," Mito's pitiful tone was nails on a chalkboard. "If I release you, you'll simply be recaptured. I simply cannot afford to see you turned against my people."

Just say what you truly mean.

I am afraid of your power. I will keep you locked away for as long as I am able, so that you cannot cause me trouble.

He would have rathered if she simply spoke the truth.

Humans always did that. Their hearts rarely matched the meaning of the words. Fear, greed, and malice- they hid it all behind pretty words and hollow sentiments. But their hearts always spelled their intent with frightening clarity.

"From today onward, watching over you is my responsibility; I hope that we can get along."

Kushina's shy announcement had only steeped it further in resentment. He knew her nature more intimately than she knew herself!

I do not know why I am holding you captive, but I will continue to do so because that is what I was groomed to do. Please just stay quiet.

Disgusting. To get along- with such loathsome, dishonest creatures.

"Fat chance," He grumbled to himself, if only to hear himself speak- to ensure that that too had not been taken- stolen from him.

Humans had stolen much from him- Mito and Kushina even more than most. And he could tolerate that. He could tolerate much!

He could tolerate being attacked. His flesh always grew back.

He could tolerate being stolen from. Material items were worthless, in the grand scheme.

But one thing that he absolutely could not tolerate was being lied to! To lie was to insult; to lie was to betray!

… But there had been one singular truth that she had spoken- the only one she had ever told him, to his memory:

"If you ever touch my baby boy like that again, I will gut you like a fucking fish and string you up to hang…"

And in that, if nothing else, her heart had spoken true. It was the first and only time that Kushina had spoken, and he had cared to listen.

It had been the only time in her whole pitiful life that she had had some measure of his respect.

How amusing, that all it had taken was her untimely death to see that woman become more tolerable.

"HeLLo," A small croak pulled the fox from his thoughts. His massive eyes peeled awake, twin, slitted orbs of scarlet staring silently at the peculiar thing before him.

It was small- well, comparatively so. Much larger than the humans the Kyuubi so loathed, and yet so small that his one paw might crush it, still. It stood on six dark, segmented limbs, hooked and thorned and adorned with glittering rose-gold scales that bent partly under its weight.

Its body, standing atop those limbs, was an off-white, bearing the faintest dash of pink; it was this thick-furred thing, slightly rounded and juvenile; at its back, its fur coiled outward, dyeing a deep burgundy color and blooming wild like the petals of a flower. Its front bore large, front-claws, laden with that same fur, which partly hid a pair each of large, scythe-like claws.

The Kyuubi narrowed its gaze, staring into the face of the tiny creature, raising a furred brow at its large, 'smiling' beak. Two large orbs, bordered atop and to either side with smaller, beady eyes. Higher still, twin tufts of fur stood halfway at attention atop its head, almost akin to 'ears'; inexplicably, they perked in tandem with the Kyuubi's interested hum, the tiny creature tilting its head with further interest.

"HEllO?" It spoke again, its feeble croak carrying more confidently- this time bearing with it the faintest impression of a question.

"How did you get in here?" The Kyuubi murmured, curiously. He inched that little bit closer, interest warring with fury.

Its smell reeked of them. Mito, Kushina.

But most of all, of another: of Kushina's spawn- the very one who had left it with nothing.

The creature tilted its head again, then glanced backwards before staring up at it again. "DoOr."

… There were no doors, but its tiny heart spoke with simple truth.

"Tell me your name."

Because names meant a lot- told a lot. Names held power in ways that humans had long forgotten.

It blinked, measuring its words many times over. "KUmoKO," It spoke, its tone shifting to carry the impression of that boy's voice. "KuMoko?" One more time, it tried, its voice smoothening with each effort, until this time it carried a feminine pitch that was fully unique. "Kumoko…" Then she stepped forward a bit, craning her head with a question of her own. "TeLL mE yOUr NAme?"

He recognized his own inflection well, and the Kyuubi nearly laughed. "I suppose your creators would refer to me as the Kyuubi no Kitsune- The Nine-Tailed Fox…"

'Kumoko' blinked, her smiling beak shifting to something more inquisitive. "TEll Me YouR Name?"

The Kyuubi blinked, slowly rising onto his haunches. "I told you-"

"Your name." She uttered again, and this time, her croak carried that same unique pitch, laden with some flawless confidence. "Everyone… HAs a… Name." She stepped forward again, this time just barely out of reach of his claws. "Tell me your name."

It was losing interest in this creature. "Come closer."

"Everyone has a name. Tell me your name?"

Her position was a straight shot for its claws. "... Come closer, if you want to know."

Kumoko blinked, then smiled again, some naive sentiment filling those great big eyes of hers. "CoME CLoser…? Okay."

She lurched forward. One step, then another; each carried a certain hesitance, basic survival instinct warring with earnest, foolish interest.

"Kumoko!" A familiar voice made the arachnid creature turn, and the Kyuubi's blood boiled. They had taken from him for many years. It was only fair that he took from them, right back.

How would she respond?

His claw speared forward, intent on skewering the tiny creature through the middle. He could barely hear Kushina's cursing rush as she moved to intercept it, but it was far too late.

But then the Kyuubi's claw caught only air, his naive visitor jumping just out of reach without looking at the Kyuubi. She glanced back just a moment after, disappointment rife in those big eyes of hers.

"No?"

Then an ocean of chain flew past her, careening past the bars with a scream of metal. The Kyuubi roared as her weapon stabbed into him, punching into its body and coiling over the exit points. They jerked the fox flush against the bars, the Kyuubi hissing and spitting as Kushina advanced, death in her stare.

"Sza bjiir!/Troublesome rat!" She railed, the rattle of her weapon denoting her fury. "Q'orre tzatzi y Kami da! Aat iox'omaa-y'otte /Abandon peace with god! Eat your own dishonorable heart!"

"I'll eat your heart if you don't watch your mouth, harlot!" The Kyuubi roared right back. His massive fist banged against the bars of its cage in defiance. "Call me 'rat' again! I'll tear your tongue out of your mouth!"

"Did you think I was playing?" Kushina hissed, her advance soaking the sewer's water into the hem of her dress with each stomp. "Do you think I can't hurt you? Do you think I won't!?"

He couldn't help it. The Kyuubi laughed through the pain, clutching her chains and ripping them free with the 'squelch' of tumbling meat. Flesh and organs spilled with their removal, splashing out beyond even the range of the cage, but he paid them no mind as his body rapidly reconstituted itself to seem no worse for wear. "Idiot girl, there is nothing more that you can do to me that you and your ilk have not already done. Though, at least you're honest about it now!"

There was something so delicious about her cruel, unfettered truth. It was far, far preferable to her patronizing, pitiable little lies.

"Now you're just as ugly on the outside as you are within!"

Kushina's sneer was lovely as she moved past the red-stained Kumoko, whom the woman's assault had caught in the splash zone. The rattled spider nervously cleaned herself, licking away the gore that covered her as the much smaller redhead moved forward until she was now well within range. "You want to see ugly, huh? Oh, I'll show you ugly!" Her chains surged again, their broken links pulling together to form another tangle of metal. This one, the Kyuubi knew would hurt worse than the last.

But he had no fear of his jailors. He had already won.

"Do your worst, harlot."

Kushina's teeth bared, their build sharpening into a deadly grin reminiscent of its own. "Let's see how long it takes you to come back from ground meat!"

"Cut that shit out," Another voice dispersed the tension in an instant. The Kyuubi blinked, disregarding Kushina to stare beyond- beyond the blood-soaked Kumoko still, to observe an unfamiliar pair.

Another redhead- her features not similar to Kushina's, yet not fully dissimilar to the partly-blonde. She stood near-paralyzed, staring up at the fox's overwhelming silhouette and clutching the other's sleeve with a death-grip. Shukaku's eye was unmistakable in that other human's gaze as it advanced, gently extricating themself from the former to approach the fox; it did not take long for the Kyuubi to put two-and-two together.

"Ah, my youngest jailor finally comes to pay me a visit," The Kyuubi chuckled, his muzzle pulling back into a hateful grin. "Finally remembered that I existed, hm?"

"Nah, you're quite hard to forget," Naruto Uzumaki offered back with a shameless smile. "Though, I suppose I would if I could."

The Kyuubi blinked.

Looking to his mother, Naruto's disappointment was transparent. "You know better."

"It attacked Kumoko!" Kushina hissed, her fury utterly unapologetic.

"I saw." Looking up to the fox, Naruto's smile was merciless. "Grow the fuck up."

The Kyuubi blinked again, this one slower than the last. Then its eyes gleamed with bloodlust. "Grow up, you say? That's all you have to say to me, after you left me to rot in hell, hm?"

"You were being a dick." Naruto shrugged. "What- you want me to apologize for not wanting to deal with your angry ass?"

Again, it was that brutal, unflinching honesty that startled the fox from its rage.

"I'll be back to yell at you properly when we don't have company," Naruto promised, turning on his heel without any further acknowledgement of his prisoner. "Kumoko dear, let's go."

"LeTS gO," Kumoko agreed, following her creator. "GoOdBye," She called back hesitantly, an awkward wave of her clawed limb aimed for the Kyuubi.

Despite itself, it nearly found itself waving back.

---

It was only a snap of Naruto's fingers for their scene to change. The moment the giant murder fox had left their sights, replaced again with waves and beach-sand-

"Darling heart, you promised to stay close to me!" The pretty redheaded woman chided the… Spider? She buried her face into the massive, fluffy body of the thing, her energy seeming to war between two tall samples of relief and worry. "You promised!"

"Sorry…" It spoke back, and Tayuya inexplicably found herself believing the thing. "StAY CLoSE. Sorry."

"She probably got lost," Naruto offered up, unprompted; the older woman glanced his way with interest. To the Spider, he smiled, stepping forth, himself, to brush her glimmering coat. "You're not hurt, are you, Kumoko?"

"No?" 'Kumoko' muttered, seeming only half-sure. She seemed to inspect herself more thoroughly, then nodded. No!"

"Then no harm done." He shrugged. Now looking again at the older redhead, he frowned. "You're in trouble though."

"If this is about the fox-"

"It is, and I don't want to hear it," Naruto told her firmly. "You weren't protecting Kumoko, you were letting off steam. In doing so, you covered her in a fucking blood shower and exposed her to cruelty. Now I ain't going to pretend like it doesn't have it coming, but one thing we're not about to do is pretend that torturing the fox isn't still a shitty thing to do."

She bowed her head, biting down the urge for excuses. "Right, right…"

She supposed they could talk more about it, later.

Shelving that moment for now, she finally gave her attention to Tayuya; her frown flipped, a lovely grin forming in its stead. "Hello!" She paced forward, rounding Naruto with surprising speed to offer her hand to the girl. "You're Tayuya, right? I'm Kushina- Naruto's mother."

… Mother?

Tayuya blanched, glancing between the woman- 'Kushina' and a smiling Naruto. Another glance between them confirmed the similarities in their grins, and she finally locked back onto Kushina with a question.

"Ain't you supposed to be dead?"

Kushina laughed. "Oh, I'm very dead; dead as a doornail."

"But I'm speaking to you." Tayuya blinked. "Wait, am I dead?" She scowled, glaring Naruto's way. "Motherfucker, did you kill me!?"

He did not directly answer that question. "Say hello to my magic ghost mom!"

"... Hi, magic ghost mom?"

"Hi!" Kushina's grin could not have been wider; the woman seemed utterly giddy, and frankly, it was starting to freak Tayuya out, just how alike their smiles were. "Naruto talks about you constantly, ya know!"

"Er- does he?" Tayuya blushed, flitting her gaze to track Naruto instead. His encouraging nods were not at all helping her fluster. Searching for a distraction, she zeroed in on the spider. "A-and who's this?"

"Kumoko," The spider trilled, inching forward by a step; then another, hunching down until their eyes could meet. Her beak-like fixture arched into something like a smile, and Tayuya started with the realization that her smile was also just as familiar.

"Kumoko is my- er…" Naruto trailed off, now appearing embarrassed, himself.

"Mommy," Kumoko offered, helpfully.

"Er- yeah… Very good, Kumoko." Naruto sighed, then smiled, raising his arms 'helplessly'. "I guess I'm her mommy."

He was expecting Tayuya's response. It didn't stop his eye from twitching when she froze, then swiftly fell over and began to wheeze.

"Of course you'd be a teen mom, ya fucking skank!" She howled, doubling over with laughter.

Naruto withheld a groan, cutting a glance toward a giggling Kushina; she could only give him a helpless shrug.

Leaning down to haul the girl up again- "I ain't gonna waterboard you with another lengthy explanation," Naruto told her with a strained grin. "The long and short of it is that I've got my magic ghost mom here in my domain. You're able to see and interact with her because you're also in my domain." He shrugged. "Kumoko- I made her by chance after I got done beating the piss out of Shukaku." Then his smile turned proud. "She's very smart."

"VeRY smART," Kumoko croaked back, proudly.

Tayuya wasn't quite sure she was satisfied with just that as an explanation. But one look at the clearly exasperated Naruto told her that was the best she was going to get.

"Alright, but why tell me then?" She asked him through another dying wave of snickers.

"Well I already hosted you in my personal domain and revealed to you our dead clan's S-class turbo secret; I figured I might as well make it a full set and get you fully up to speed." Then he scowled. "Besides, Orochimaru knows about Kumoko, 'cuz of that stunt he pulled at the hospital."

Kumoko frowned. "SoRRy mommy?"

"Don't be sorry, love. You did wonderful."

"DOn'T bE sorry, LoVE. DiD WONderFUL."

"Very good, Kumoko." Refocusing onto his guest, the blonde simply shook his head. "At the rate things have been going, you were going to find out about her sooner or later. I'd rather it be on our own terms, is all." A breath, and his expression became deathly serious. "I trust you to keep it a secret, but I really can't stress enough how important it is that this stays between us."

Tayuya wasn't stupid; she could read between the lines.

"If people find out about this seal thingy, they'll dive in our asses with a fucking shovel, trying to take it for themselves; if they find out about magic ghost mom or spider baby, you'll have people hunting you down to either revive their dead grandmas or home-grow them some friendly baby kaiju. Yeah, I get it, dude." She gestured as if zipping her mouth shut. "I'll take it to my grave."

And he knew that she would. If even a piece of her seal remained alive, he knew doubly so that it would do everything it could to ensure that she did.

"I'll be bringing you in here from time to time to teach you some stuff that I can't get away with out there," Naruto promised. Now that he knew she could handle the information load- even if only in small doses, he supposed it was only right.

---

He had kept Tayuya there for a bit longer, mostly because Kumoko and his mother both couldn't seem to get enough of the new company. Finally though, after he had promised to bring her again and Tayuya had earnestly promised to come again, he was able to break the link.

They came awake to a pristine building. The wear and tear which had littered even the inner layers of the building had been smoothed over and decorated anew with a fresh sheen. Proper furnishings spanned throughout now:

Two couches, large and plush, and angled across from one another; between them, a long, rectangular table filled the space. Looking beyond them, Naruto raised an eyebrow at a makeshift dining area, sectioned off with new walls and dominated by a hefty dining table; nearly a dozen hard-backed dining chairs surrounded the thing. Sectioned even further apart, his clones had seemingly repurposed a room to become something reminiscent of a proper kitchen. As their memories filtered in with their dispersal, he took stock of the rest of the space, which spanned beyond what he could immediately see.

"Hot damn," Tayuya voiced his own thoughts, the girl leaning around him to stare down a lengthy hallway, where multiple lightly furnished bedrooms had been improvised. "What the hell are you being a ninja for? Just start flipping houses or some shit, man."

"Well I'd been hoping to do all of this with you, he groused, palming her shoulder to nudge her out of his way. "It all ties into my chains and how I use them as raw material to 'create' other objects."

Since he had thought to begin using his chains as clothing, the rest had simply developed as a natural byproduct of his experimentation. "So long as I know what I'm transforming them into and what their make-up should be, I can turn these things into just about anything."

The sound of the entrance parting made both Uzumaki perk up, and Naruto raised a brow at the sullen trio that stepped inside.

Hinata seemed to be in a poor mood, though she seemed to perk up a little upon seeing him; she moved to him in a rush, to which he met her halfway. Following her in, Kidomaru and Sai both seemed somewhat cowed. Both of them did a double-take though as they took in the renovations.

"Geeze… You did all of this while we were out?" Kidomaru marveled, hesitantly stepping further inside. He palmed the shoulder of one of the couches, looking back to Naruto with a silent question. "Is it-"

"Go for it." At Naruto's smiling encouragement, he vaulted over, relief breathing into his body with its embrace. Now looking to Hinata, his smile widened, Naruto palming either arm and letting her link them in embrace. "How was your adventure?"

"Sir-" Sai's polite mimicry of Anko's mannerisms disturbed their moment; he presented his work- several pages, consisting of hand-drawn maps, notes, and diagrams.

If nothing else, Sai was a professional, through and through.

"We took the liberty of casing each location, as per our sub-commander's orders." He let Naruto take them, finishing his work with Anko Mitarashi's customary salute.

"Thank you, Sai." Gesturing to the hall, Naruto dismissed him. "Please pick out a room for yourself while I look these over."

Another salute, and he finally left them to each other. Once he was out of sight, Hinata was once again the center of Naruto's focus.

"What's wrong?" He murmured into her hair, peeling back enough to catch her eyes. The way hers flicked over to follow where Sai had disappeared into, a grimace overtook his jaw. "That bad, huh?"

"It's okay," She muttered back. Her placating smile faltered though in the face of his steady stare, a grimace of her own breaching the mask after a moment. "He's just-" She shrugged. "Er- a lot."

His smile returned, this one amused, though no less understanding. "Perhaps I'll talk to him soon." Pulling further away, a strain of seriousness took over his countenance, his evident eye pouring over what Sai had handed him. "Your thoughts?" He waved the diagrams for emphasis.

Hinata was halfway through a shrug, before his stare made it clear to her that she was now speaking to her commanding officer.

"Erm-" A breath cooled her head, and she let it fuel her sense of professionalism. "They don't seem very organized." His smile encouraged her to continue, so- "We watched them for most of the day, and t-they seemed to run messages back and forth on foot. They're led by just one person- he had a really big sword, and his people seemed afraid of him."

"... Big sword, huh?" He supposed he had been meaning to pay them a visit, anyhow.

"Yes…" They didn't seem to have any particularly notable schemes underway- simply a bunch of goons squatting in a few warehouses that they had muscled their ways into.

For a bunch of civilians, she could see the concern. For them, they'd be finished in an afternoon. She told him as much, and Naruto nodded.

"Tomorrow morning, then."

---

It wasn't much later still, when Sasuke and Anko returned from their supply run.

"Zabuza's sword is gone," Sasuke told him when they were both alone in the kitchen. "I wanted to take a look, but when I got there-"

Naruto nodded. "Hinata told me the leader of these schmucks was swinging around a giant-ass sword. Think they're connected?"

"If they are, I'm going to seriously hurt them," Sasuke growled.

Naruto paused. "I didn't think it'd be you who'd be getting so heated, between the two of us?"

On second thought though, it made sense. Sasuke had lost a lot of people; he had sat through countless funerals and watched countless bodies be buried.

More than that, Sasuke had helped to bury Zabuza and Haku with his own hands…

It was easy to forget, sometimes, that for all that his friend liked to play stoic, he truly was a sensitive sort of person, at his core. Even if he didn't show it, Naruto knew that their mission to wave had left an impact on him as well. Because even if he hadn't known Haku; even if he had never gotten to see Zabuza's change of heart.

They had still been people to him.

"We'll get it back," Naruto assured him, and the two shared a nod.

Because he felt the same, really.

Looking to change the subject- "Thanks for grabbing supplies by the way. I wasn't looking forward to eating rations tonight!"

Sasuke nodded slowly, seeming surprised but willing to follow the divergence. "We just grabbed a little bit of everything," Sasuke had told Naruto while he disassembled some fish for a simple stew. His friend's countenance was as cool as ever, but Naruto could sense his nerves. "I could pop back out if you need something else-"

"This is perfect, thanks bud." Naruto reassured him, a spell of warmth in his timbre. "Trash these for me, will ya?" Sliding over the scraps, he continued his work with a hum, heating a pot with some oil as Sasuke cleaned up for him. "What's on your mind?"

Sasuke paused. "What makes you think something's wrong?"

"Well for starters, I never said I thought something was wrong; I just asked you what you're thinking about," Naruto rebutted with a chuckle, throwing in some onion and garlic; another thought, and he began dicing a tomato.

Sasuke flushed, and Naruto nearly laughed at the way his friend eyed the fruit in his hand.

"And secondly, your chakra's been bubbling through the roof since we left home." He turned to regard his teammate, a knowing smile at his lips. "You worried, scaredy cat?"

"Piss off," Sasuke grumbled, now seeming to find everything interesting except the blonde in front of him. "You did all of this, yourself? Seriously?"

"The house?" Naruto shrugged. "I figured since you guys were out here doing important work for me, I may as well give you something nice to return to." Then his smile softened. "Just say what you mean, Sasuke. I won't tease you."

Frowning, Sasuke could only shrug. "It wasn't long ago that you were the one chasing after me…" Naruto raised a brow, and he carried on with an awkward sigh. "Between the exams, and Itachi- feels like I blinked and now the gap between us is so big I can't even gauge it."

"Now, Naruto's smile quirked downward as well. "And that bothers you."

Looking away, Sasuke shrugged again, now seeming embarrassed. "I feel like a jerk over it… But yeah."

He didn't blame him. Sasuke had surely spent his entire life chasing after his brother's shadow, fighting tooth and nail to be the best; his ambition hinged on it. To have worked so hard, only to be outpaced so thoroughly by Naruto, who had once been so far below him-

Naruto knew better than most how hard Sasuke worked. Talented as his friend was, it was his drive and work ethic, more than anything else, which stood out.

"I ain't gonna patronize you by telling you you're strong enough already." Naruto's grin returned, the blonde nudging Sasuke gently with an elbow. "You could do to hit the gym a bit more, ya know?"

Sasuke scowled. "I thought you said you weren't going to tease me?"

"Er- right… My bad." Turning back to the fish he'd set aside, he dumped it all into a pot and followed it with some water. "You want me to give it to you straight? No bullshit?" Sasuke nodded, and Naruto sighed. "I have full faith in your strength. But as you are now, yeah… You're pretty damn behind now. Those new eyes of yours are going to be doing a ton of the heavy lifting- at least until we catch you up."

He could feel the way the Uchiha's ego bruised, and it was honestly a fight not to rush to console him. But he knew that would frustrate him even more.

"I can't say with certainty that you're going to catch up, or whatever." Because truth be told, Naruto knew well that he was growing damn fast. It had been hard to catch, at first. He knew he was stronger, but it hadn't been until he'd been promoted that he had really considered its depth. Now more than ever, with the powers he possessed, and with his mind and instincts melded so neatly with his mother's, not even he really knew where his limits ended.

Not only that, though: Between the clones he'd left to work further on his chains, his personal work with his dances, and now wind-style and yin-release training with Tayuya, it was only inevitable that he was getting stronger by the day.

He measured his words carefully, with all of that in mind. "But we're comrades. More than that, we're friends, right?" Sasuke seemed confused, so Naruto explained. "My strength is your strength; your strength is mine. It might be frustrating that you ain't as strong as I am, but I think your mistake to begin with is comparing yourself to me as a measuring stick, and not as an extension of yourself."

"... An extension of myself?" Frowning, Sasuke seemed to mull over that. "And what if I don't have you around, huh?"

"Well I never said to settle," Naruto chided him with a laugh. "I ain't the sort who likes to let other people fight my battles for me, and I know for sure that you feel the same about that." Now his smile was all teeth. "I couldn't respect you if you just hid behind me the whole time, but it's because I know you better than that, that I do respect you, ya know? By all means, compete with me; I love that shit! But at the end of it all- well, just do the best that you can do, and I'll do the best that I can do. And wherever we both end up at the end- well, we're there together, yeah?"

A nod. "I guess that makes sense." Then Sasuke frowned. "Though I think I would have felt a lot better immediately if you just offered to train with me…"

Naruto blinked rapidly. "Oh! Was that what you were fishing for? Dumbass, why didn't you just say that then- yes, I'll train with you!"

Goddamn drama queen couldn't ever just say he wanted to hang out.

Filling a bowl with stew, Naruto shoved the thing into his hands. "Take this and go eat, and try not to trip over your damn clown shoes on the way out!"

"Asshole," Sasuke grumbled, taking the bowl to leave. He stopped just at the threshold of the kitchen, clutching the food he'd been offered with both hands. "Er- thanks."

"Anytime."

---

That night, he returned; the Kyuubi sensed the boy's arrival before he actually spoke.

"Heya," His lackadaisical greeting made the beast scoff, the fox raising its head from its nap to glare down the hall; hateful pools of magma seized purchase with Shukaku's eye once more, the former narrowing with revulsion. "What? I'm just keeping my promise!"

"You perverted my brother." The Kyuubi's accusation was among the first of its words. "You leeched his chakra to empower yourself; that, and to create that abomination that disturbed my sleep, earlier."

"Cry about it, pissbaby," Naruto taunted back, unapologetically. "If you must know, your…" He paused. "Wait, your brother?"

… Actually, in hindsight, that actually made perfect sense.

"You know what- I'm just going to gloss over that one. Your brother tried to kill me twice. He lost, twice." Naruto shrugged, as if that alone justified himself. "I ain't asking for yours or his forgiveness. That's just how it is." Then he frowned. "And you oughta watch your tongue when speaking of Kumoko, ya know."

The fox rose further, balancing its head with one of its massive paws. "Or what, hm? Will you chain me down again? Rip and tear my flesh, like that wretch that spawned you?"

It had no fear of such things. Damage of that scale was barely worth an afterthought. All it did was prove their ugliness all the more. Every lash; every tear; every lie- it would inevitably pay them all back tenfold. Now more than ever, it was only a matter of time…

Naruto's frown deepened. "I don't agree with the way that she treated you."

A sneer was halfway across the beast's face, when it stopped, tilting its head with interest. "Why not?" It leaned forward, one of its massive, bloodshot eyes staring him down through one of its bars. "I tried to kill your spawn. 'An eye for an eye', hm?"

"Maybe to you." Naruto shrugged, seeming only partly interested now. He pulled forward, himself, observing the bars of the cage with the lead of his attention. They were as strong as ever, though he could tell that the fox had been trying them. "I don't like the way you treated Kumoko either, to be honest." He stared up at the Kyuubi, simply shaking his head in disappointment. "She's innocent; she was genuinely just trying to get to know you."

There was the slightest hitch in its response. "And?" Its muzzle pulled back, its teeth clenching into a frightening jeer. "Why would you expect me to care about that?"

Again, Naruto shrugged. "You're pretty careful with your words, I've noticed." With that non-answer, a snide grin painted his lips, crude amusement making its entrance. "You should care because Kumoko didn't know how much of a dickhead you are. If anyone was going to get you out of here, it would have been her."

And that gave the fox pause. "Why… Would you tell me that?"

"Because it doesn't matter anymore. You blew that chance by showing her what you're really about. You attacked the back of what amounts to an infant- still learning the nature of the world; what's more, you did it, just to stick it to my mom and I. And you did that, because you're a bitter, lonely piece of shit who saw your first chance to do harm and couldn't even pretend carry yourself with some fucking dignity." He scoffed, the lash of his tongue ruthless. "I don't agree with what she did to you. But don't think for a second that you don't deserve what you got."

And for the first time since they had spoken, the Kyuubi averted his gaze, fury burning fiercely within them. And you think yourself better? You come down here after so long- what, to lecture me about being 'deserving'? Tell me, brat: What do you deserve, after what you and your ilk have done to me? Nearly a century stolen from me, locked away like some curse; my siblings, chained and caged, and exploited! Handed off as slaves! How should I treat you, with how your putrid species has treated my kin?"

A delicate brow rose, a spark of amusement igniting his warden's heart. "After what I've done to you, hm? What exactly did I do? Lock you up tighter? Refuse to humor you and your bullshit? What- after you tried to devour me? After I realized you're a damn liability? Someone who means me harm?" Now, a real laugh turned loose, such that Naruto nearly doubled over, derisive humor flying high until it filled the whole of the fox's domain. "Get real, man!"

"You laugh?" It leapt to its feet, vitriol toppling over itself in the shape of a roar that scattered the water at their feet; its mere pressure nearly bowled Naruto over. Its massive, unfathomable chakra peeled away from it like a miasma, straining against the bars which worked feverishly to suppress it. Tendrils of its power clawed their way forward, reaching desperately to engulf Naruto, who despite it all had not ever ceased in his humor; their influence topped just short of his position. "Do you find me amusing, you evil little beast!?"

"Abso-fucking-lutely!" Naruto snapped right back, his lips peeling back to show a sharp-toothed grin of his own. He advanced one step after another, and the Kyuubi's chakra began to retreat. "You're a fucking child, ya know! What the fuck does it matter what I deserve? I'm living my best life while you're stuck rotting in this cesspit- and you know what? This!?-" He threw his arm out, and the Kyuubi could not help but follow his gesture, its angry visage twisting further at the painful reminder. "Is on you. Not because of whatever bullshit landed you here in the first place, but 'cuz I was Kumoko, back then! I would've helped you in a heartbeat if you'd humbled yourself, shown an ounce of fucking kindness, and just asked."

Its rage slipped through its fingers, an unmistakable stupor taking its place as one singular truth made itself known.

Not one lie had passed his lips.

"What?"

"What?" Naruto's mocking tongue lashed again. "Instead, you took advantage of me at my lowest; you couldn't see anything else but the people who took from you, so you lumped me in with their same bullshit and you tried to take from me! You took advantage of Kumoko's innocence, and you still have the nerve to pretend like you're the only loser here- like I wasn't as much a victim as you were when they sealed you in me without my consent! Like I wasn't a victim when you let me fall and I splattered all over that damn hole! You may not have owed me shit, but you sure as fuck showed me who you were then, right, Mr. Victim? Look me in the eye, you dumbshit!" It reluctantly did, and he snarled. "You deserve this now because you're a fucking prick! Now I sure as shit ain't perfect, I know that much; but you won't hear me making some dumbfuck excuses for myself- I promise you that! The only reason you're still here in this fucking cage is because you're a piece-of-shit hypocrite!"

Then he turned on his heel. "And the next time you raise your hand against my baby girl, I'll flip this whole bitch into fucking solitary; we'll see then if I can forget that you exist, asshole!"

---

The life of a ninja was an unglamorous one. Many would convince themselves of some pretense of glory- some fallacy of nationalism or what have you.

But that line of thinking, in of itself, simply misunderstood the true purpose of the ninja system.

Ninja were servants of their village. Tools to be used until they had served their purpose, then set down in favor of another.

She scoffed. "Wrong."

"Ma'am?" Her guard's one eye followed her, cautiously; his posture screamed wariness, as if unsure whether to press her or flee for cover.

She ignored him.

Ninjas were mercenaries. Their loyalty, just like the loyalty of any other being, was bought.

Bought with favors.

Bought with love.

Bought with fear.

Ninja, just like any other being on this planet, had goals; desires and dreams, which motivated them. Why else would one go to war- fight, kill, and die, except for their own sakes?

After all, nobody worked for free; everything was give and take.

If there was any one thing that war had taught her, it was that. People would not fight and bleed solely for the sake of simple nationalism; you could argue left and right for days-to-weeks on that matter, but the simple, inarguable reality was that people did not fight and kill except for their own benefit.

She was no different. In a perfectly imperfect world, she might have deluded herself as a simple nationalist; she might have woken up a nationalist, ate as a nationalist, fought, and killed, and died as a nationalist. And her leader would have watched her fight and bleed and die a nationalist without so much as batting an eye or remembering her name.

Yeah, she knew, without a doubt, that if her circumstances had been just a little different, it might have been her on the other side of that war, and it might be her own body among the pyre outside, this evening.

Instead she sat, the victor, in the ruins of an old office, surrounded by rubble.

Doing paperwork.

… Honestly, she wondered if that pyre still had room in it, after all.

"Tell me of the operation," she ordered, when the silence had begun to affect her. She kept her eyes down, pretending to focus on the documents that she had read and read again, and felt no closer to understanding than he had been, the first time. "How is he faring?"

"It was a complete success, ma'am," her underling assured her with a stiff back. "With his recovery completed, he deployed just last evening."

She stopped, then frowned. "So soon?"

"Er-" Now, he frowned as well, seemed more wary than ever. "It was you who deployed him?"

Oh… She blinked, rubbing away at bruising under her eyes. "Is that so?"

Now that he mentioned it, she supposed she remembered doing that.

Things were pretty hectic these days; she couldn't remember getting a proper night of sleep in the last month or so. Between the business inside their walls, and the terrors that laid beyond it…

An entire city, leveled in an evening…

She shook that thought loose and let it fall to the wayside. "I suppose that sounds like something I'd have done."

"Y-yes… I believe you mentioned a personal request from Wave Country's Daimyo… Y-you do remember, right, ma'am?"

Her lips pursed. "What are you trying to imply?"

He froze, and she knew she had caught him in the act.

It's only natural that you would start to forget things, in your old age.

"I- I assure you, Mizukage-sama-" He began to wave his arms in front of him as if to ward her off. "I did not mean to imply anything, I swea-"

"Ao?" Her sweet tone cut into his excuses, and she just loved the way he choked on them.

"Y-yes, ma'am?"

"Shut up, 'fore I kill ya, 'kay?"

"Y-yes, ma'am…"

---

That's the chapter. I'm a bit pressed for time if I want to have this out when I planned, and I don't want to drag anything out.

I have some thoughts about how this played out. Some things I liked; some things I loved. Some things I kinda... Didn't like, but couldn't figure out how to do differently? Namely the Nine-Tails. I have a specific direction that I'm going with him- somewhere that I hope actually ends up being very interesting and unique, but I suspect that the road there might be a bit rocky. I'll really need to lock in for those segments moving forward.

I'm really excited to be working on this arc; I've been excited for it for the last year or so, and I'm REALLY hoping it turns out as great as I'm imagining it to be.

But I'll save my rambling for another time. Let me know your thoughts! Good and bad! I can really use the feedback, and maybe even some advice from some fellow writers, while I chart my way forward...

Okay, bubai!