Team 8: by S'TarKan...Author of 8 Stories

[Pandora Green]

Chapter 14
Naruto scowled as both teams gathered themselves after the battle. Everyone looked like they'd been beaten with a stick. A large, dirty stick. The dark marks on Sasuke's skin had faded away, but the boy still seemed a little… off… to Naruto.
Kiba groaned and rolled onto his side before vomiting. Naruto wrinkled his nose at the smell. Akamaru whined piteously as he circled his partner. Shino was only just beginning to sit up, and Sakura was clinging to the Uchiha like a terrified barnacle.
"Crap," Naruto muttered and went back to the cave, looking for his backpack. He pulled out his partially depleted first aid kit, wondering where all his spare kunai had gone. When he emerged from the cave, Shino was shakily climbing to his feet with Hinata's assistance.
They'd tended the worst of their wounds when Kiba, his equilibrium finally restored, looked around and frowned at the scroll the sound team had left behind. "That looks like an Earth scroll," he said as he slowly climbed to his feet and spat. "We got a Heaven scroll, so we could use this," he said carefully. "What about you guys?"
"Looks like you got lucky then," Naruto replied glibly. "Good thing, too, because I don't think your team could handle the Konohamaru Corps right now."
Kiba whirled around, instantly furious. Naruto noticed that nothing set off the Inuzuka faster than an insult to his 'pack'. "You want me to 'handle' your loser butt, Uzumaki?" the larger boy snarled.
"You'd have to catch me!" Naruto shot back with a cheeky grin and dived into the underbrush.
OoOoO
Hinata was more than a little perturbed with her teammate. Sure, it was nice that he was bouncing back so quickly from his ordeal, but this wasn't really the place or time for him to revert to his academy behavior. She wondered for a moment if he'd been struck on the head during either of the last two battles.
Shino-kun let out a quiet sigh as Kiba chased Naruto out of the clearing. She was tempted to activate her eyes to track them, but her head ached abominably, so she refrained since they were still within earshot.
Not that it was hard to do – they were making a lot of noise out there. Evidently a full-blown wrestling match had ensued.
"Can't you control him?" Shino and Sakura both said simultaneously. Both of them looked sharply at each other and Sasuke muttered something that sounded like "Idiots!" under his breath.
After a couple of minutes, a somewhat rumpled-looking Naruto was hurled back into the clearing. He shot to his feet as Kiba stalked toward him. The Inuzuka, however, was intercepted by a pink-haired kunoichi that had evidently had enough of his foolishness. She let him know this verbally and by grabbing his ear and yanking it hard enough to turn him around.
Akamaru whined in sympathy as he trotted along behind his humbled partner.
Naruto stuck his tongue out at Kiba, but refrained from further childishness when Hinata grasped his forearm. Shino didn't say or do anything, but his irritation was a palpable weight in the air.
However, the Aburame didn't make a habit of voicing his displeasure in front of others. It wasn't until Team Seven had made their goodbyes and left for the tower that he spoke.
"Your pupils are not dilated, and I do not recall our opponent utilizing any psychotropic chemical attacks, so I would appreciate an explanation of your behavior," Shino said, his frustration showing in how he bit off the words.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked. "The scrolls?"
"Yes. The scrolls," Shino replied. "I presume there is some reason you wanted Team Seven to think we had an Earth Scroll?"
"Yeah," Naruto replied. "If I didn't, they might not have taken the scroll those Sound jerks left. Sasuke is pretty proud – he wouldn't want to think we are doing them any favors."
Shino let out another microscopic sigh. If Hinata's hearing were any less acute, she wouldn't have caught it at all. "What I do not comprehend is why you are so adamant that they get the scroll, seeing as how we had equal need for it. I understand that Maito Gai wished that we would support comrades in need, but I think this goes beyond what he intended."
Naruto frowned for a moment, and Hinata realized that he hadn't even considered Gai-sensei's words in that context. "That isn't it at all," he said as he lowered his voice and glanced around. He gave Hinata a very direct look.
Despite her aching head, Hinata activated her blood limit and did a very quick scan of the area. No one was within her range, so she cautiously shook her head.
"Okay, I wanted them to get the scroll so they could get Sasuke to a medic-nin fast," Naruto whispered.
"He seemed all right when they left," Shino observed.
Naruto shook his head. "I don't think so. I broke the seal that freak put on me, but Sasuke… he did something else. It's still on him, and whatever it does it's nasty enough to scare my prisoner into helping me get rid of it."
"Your… prisoner?" Hinata asked in a shaky voice.
Naruto nodded. "While I was out, it paid me a visit, like inside my mind. I could see it, trapped behind the seal, and it was as big a jerk as I imagined it would be. But it could feel that thing on my arm and it said it would start to influence me the longer it was on me. It didn't want to be imprisoned any worse than it already was, so it helped me push the chakra to tear it off." Naruto paused. "I supposed it considered putting up with just me to be less of a pain. Anyway, the sooner they get him to the medics and the Hokage, the better. When Kiba followed me into the bushes, I grabbed him and used some clones to make noise. I told him to get his team to the tower and tell that Kakashi guy about the seal immediately."
"Why didn't you just tell them directly?" Hinata asked, puzzled.
Naruto shrugged. "Sasuke wouldn't believe 'dead last' if I told him the sky was blue. Sakura will always back him up too. And… I don't really want to talk too much about how I found out about the seal."
Shino nodded. "That was… impressive."
Naruto blinked.
"I agree with both your reasoning and your methodology. We are under less of a time constraint than our allies, whether they know it or not, and will have other opportunities to acquire an Earth scroll."
Hinata couldn't help but smile at the pleased blush that colored Naruto-kun's cheeks as they resumed their journey.
OoOoO
After that freaky grass weirdo, and the Hidden Sound assassination squad, running into a group of Hidden Mist genin with all of Team Eight awake and functional was… a bit of a relief.
Hinata tapped her pant leg with two fingers, signaling that she'd sensed a low-powered Genjutsu trying to affect them. Naruto counted ten steps before bringing his hands together and concentrating his chakra. "Naruto Majutsu: Chakra Pulse!" he murmured as he released a highly restrained surge.
This one only covered the immediate vicinity, rather than half of Konoha. No sense scaring the visitors.
The air seemed to waver, and a trio in light grey bodysuits and dark blue cloaks shimmered into view. Naruto had to squint to identify the village symbols on their hitai-ite, and realized that the air was growing hazy.
Naruto was fairly sure the haze was caused by moisture gathering in the air, but he wasn't prepared to take any chances. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he snarled as he formed the ram seal. There was an explosion of smoke and a dozen clones materialized between Team 8 and the Mizu-Genin team.
"Manabu!" the slightly taller one in the middle snapped. The one on the right, who wore dark glasses, brought his hands together for seals and four clones of him appeared in front of Naruto's clones and attacked.
The clone war was short and one-sided. However, when the enemy clones were hit, they dissipated into masses of frothy water with an unhealthy green tinge to it. When the liquid fell to the ground, it splashed everything in the immediate vicinity and proceeded to eat smoking holes in it. Taking out the four clones cost Naruto six of his, dispelled by the acidic spray.
While this was happening, the Mist ninja on the left drew Naruto's attention. The skinny boy's arms were moving under his cloak, but instead of forming seals, Naruto saw that his hands were digging into large containers strapped to each leg. His hands whipped forward, hurling four small green spheres at Naruto.
Naruto's shuriken were in the air before he even thought about it, and intercepted three of the spheres, causing them to burst open and spray more of the green gunk on his remaining clones. He didn't need the memories after they exploded to know that it was more of that caustic liquid. He ducked under the last sphere and it struck the ground in front of Shino and Hinata, spraying them with its acidic contents.
Naruto smirked as the two henged clones behind him exploded.
Three Hinatas charged out of the undergrowth at the grenade-thrower. He spun, throwing more of his acid spheres. The two left-most Hinatas kept running, and the spheres sailed harmlessly through the insubstantial bunshin. The real Hinata dived forward into a rolling somersault that Naruto, quite indignantly, remembered using on her when they sparred. She shot to her feet practically within the stunned Mizu-shinobi's cloak and folded him up with a Jyuuken strike to the abdomen that left him spasming on the ground.
The leader spun toward Hinata, a long staff that looked like it was made out of water forming in his hands. She side-stepped his first swing and the grass burned where the shimmering end of the staff touched it.
The dark-glasses guy made some more acid clones, but he only managed two this time, and the effort left him bent over and weaving. He let out a scream as a dark mass of insects fell out of the canopy and enveloped his head.
Naruto was already charging forward, but couldn't suppress a sympathetic shudder. He was really glad Shino never did that to him when they sparred.
The guy staggered, clawing at his face as the acid clones lost cohesion and splashed to the ground. Shino put him out of his misery by the simple expedient of dropping out of the trees on top of him, driving his knees into his back, and slamming him into the forest loam.
The distinctive sound of ribs breaking distracted the leader from his attempts to maim the dodging Hyuuga. Naruto's thrown kunai lodging in his shoulder was even more distracting, making him drop the acid staff.
Naruto's fist hammering into the side of his head just made him unconscious.
OoOoO
Naruto couldn't help smiling to himself as they tied up the unconscious shinobi. It was about damn time all that planning and training worked right. Of course, it probably helped that they were facing real genin for once.
If that freaky grass dude is really a genin, he'd give up ramen.
For life.
Even better, the only damage they'd taken was a couple of discolored spots on the sleeve of his jacket. Using the clones to soak up the initial attacks so they could figure them out worked like a charm, as did using the smoke as cover so Hinata and Shino could slip away and set up surprise attacks.
When Shino found an Earth scroll in the leader's belt pouch, Naruto wanted to cheer but he knew Shino would frown on making too much noise. He settled for lifting Hinata-chan up by the shoulders and spinning around twice as he did the official Konohamaru Corps victory dance.
He belatedly remembered she was still a little hurt when he saw how red her face grew around those awful bruises. "Ah, sorry Hinata-chan!" he hissed as he carefully set her back down. "I forgot," he explained as he looked down, shamefaced.
"A-ano, it's all right Naruto-kun," she said, though she sounded like she was having trouble catching her breath. Had she injured her ribs more than they knew? "I'm glad we have our second scroll too."
As they approached the tower to turn in their scrolls, Shino quietly brought up the possibility of other teams staking out the grounds near the tower to ambush weary competitors with both scrolls.
Naruto thought about this for a minute as they rested on a high tree branch. "As stealthy as we try to be, there's only so many ways to get to the tower, right?"
Shino nodded. "Given the time constraints and limited approach vectors, the situation is not an optimal one for covert movement."
Hinata looked a little distressed, but didn't say anything.
Then a thought struck Naruto. "We're going about this all wrong!" he declared as he brought his hands together. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he said aloud as he pushed almost all the chakra he had into the technique.
Objectively, he knew that he'd improved a lot since that night with Iruka and Mizuki, but he was still surprised at the throng of clones that covered every available bit of flat space he could see.
Shino's eyebrows were clearly visible above his glasses, but the way the left one was twitching indicated that he was less than pleased with Naruto's 'one tool for all jobs' attitude toward his favorite technique.
"All right!" Naruto shouted in a loud voice that had Hinata making frantic shushing gestures toward him. "You know what to do. Split into groups of three and henge!"
There was a staccato roar of pops. When the smoke cleared, a third of the clones looked like Shino and a third looked like a blushing Hinata.
"Now, staying with your groups, spread out and charge the tower! Last ones there have to buy the ramen!" Naruto announced. He turned to Hinata and Shino as the clones took off – which took a while. There were so many that they got in each other's way at first. "It's not like a recon mission," he said in a more normal tone of voice. "We don't have to conceal that we were here, we just have to make it impossible for anyone to pick us out before we reach the finish line."
Naruto looked at them expectantly. Shino's eyebrow had stopped twitching, but now they both stood stock still. "Let's get moving," he urged them. "I don't have the money to buy that much ramen."
OoOoO
By the time they reached the tower, Naruto was nursing one hell of a headache. Between the other teams, the traps that had been set, and the normal forest hazards, less than a third of the clones made it through. The problem was random bits of memory that Naruto was constantly bombarded with as his clones were dispelled in an amazing variety of ways.
His wince was particularly painful when he received the memories of the idiot that expired trying to give Sabaku no Gaara a noogie. He had no idea you could do that with sand, and it looked really painful. At least it was a clone of him and not Shino or Hinata that did it. He didn't want that weird kid focusing on anyone else if he could help it.
On the other hand, he chuckled when he learned of the one that died mooning Neji. But the way he'd gone after the Hinata-clone as well was a little disturbing. Maybe he could tell it really wasn't his cousin and resented the deception. Genius or not, he had no sense of humor whatsoever.
But in the end, what mattered was that his less than subtle ruse had worked. They made it into the tower without another scratch and he was pleasantly surprised when they used their scrolls as the sign suggested and Iruka-sensei appeared in a cloud of smoke.
"Hello!" he greeted them, "I knew you'd…" his face fell as he looked at them, his eyes lingering on Hinata's bruised face. "What happened to you out there? Are you all right?"
Shino twisted a little, finally allowing his discomfort to show as he pressed on his ribs. "We ran into some… unusually skilled… opposition. A visit with a medical professional after our debriefing may be prudent."
OoOoO
Since they'd reached the tower with almost a full day to go before the second exam ended, there was plenty of time for them to make their reports. Given all the high-level visitors attending the Chuunin Exam, they ended up just talking to Kurenai-sensei in a rather dusty meeting room in the basement of the tower.
Naruto was looking at Kurenai when Shino described the encounter with the grass freak, so he was treated to the sight of his jonin instructor going completely white.
"Are you absolutely sure that snake chasing Kiba was a summons?" she asked, interrupting Shino's monologue.
Shino adjusted his glasses. "It gave every appearance of being one," he answered. "Upon receiving a mortal injury, it dissipated in a manner not unlike one of Naruto's shadow clones."
She nodded slowly. "Unfortunately, I agree. Please continue."
Shino continued without interruption, though the subtle cues Naruto was picking up from his sensei suggested it was a near thing. Shino himself paused right after describing Hinata punching the freak in the back – Kurenai spun toward the girl in obvious surprise, and her proud smile had the Hyuuga girl blushing and looking down at her clasped hands.
When he was finished, Kurenai nodded and was silent for a moment, apparently thinking, before she spoke. "You three have done amazingly well, far better than I hoped. However, I want you to be very cautious from now on. There is something going on here that I do not understand. That man you fought was, as best I can tell, an S-Class missing-nin named Orochimaru. He was the genius student of the Hokage before he betrayed Konoha and should be considered extremely dangerous. Do not seek him out, but if you do see any sign of him, inform a jonin or ANBU at once!"
"Sensei, did Team 7 make it in okay?" Naruto asked in a sick voice. Had that nut case ambushed them again after they separated?
"Yes, they did," Kurenai assured him. "Now I understand why Kakashi left almost immediately with Sasuke. Are you sure the seal he put on you is completely gone, Naruto?"
Naruto nodded and pushed up the sleeve of his jacket to show her the scar. "Er… it said it was bad enough being trapped inside me without that messing around with my mind."
Kurenai frowned. "I don't even begin to understand how you can talk to that thing. I'm going to ask the Hokage if he can give me any more information on the seal, or a means to contact someone who can tell us more. I want you to be equally cautious when dealing with your… prisoner. Don't take anything it says at face value."
Naruto nodded soberly. There was little chance of him ever doing that, but he could hear the concern in his sensei's voice.
So, for once, Uzumaki Naruto decided to keep his mouth shut.
OoOoO
Sitting in an office elsewhere in the tower updating the list of remaining participants, Umino Iruka suddenly stiffened as all the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He didn't know what was causing it, but he instinctively knew that a massive violation of the natural order was occurring. He suspiciously peered around, even looking under his desk, but he couldn't find anything to explain that uneasy feeling.
Controlling his shudders of dread, the chuunin sat back down and double-checked the list again.
OoOoO
Naruto also didn't resist at all when Kurenai sent them to the infirmary to be checked out by the medic-nins. He wasn't so much concerned for himself though. Shino was still slightly stooped over, favoring his ribs. The deviance wasn't great, but it was apparent to anyone familiar with his normal ruler-straight posture. Hinata-chan was visibly worse off, and he had to struggle not to flinch every time he saw the massive bruises on her face from the battle with Orochimaru. He'd follow sensei's orders to avoid him in general, but if he had a chance to smack him one to cover their retreat, he'd definitely take it.
The medics mostly ignored him at first, which was fine by him. But Shino and Hinata were insistent, actually downright scary, about them attending to him as well.
The senior medic, with a frown of distaste, performed the seals for what appeared to be a diagnostic jutsu of some sort. His extended palm passed over Naruto's head and torso without comment, but paused over his forearm. Naruto didn't think his other injuries would even be detectable - the speed with which he healed was pretty unreal. With a sigh, he slid up his sleeve again.
"What happened there?" the medic-nin asked curiously, leaning forward and peering at the scar.
"Curse seal," Naruto said with a shrug. "I had to blow it up."
The medic-nin straightened up so fast he almost fell over backwards. "I-I see," he stammered. "I think you are fine to go now. All of you."
Naruto glanced over at his teammates. Shino was taking deeper breaths now, relief evident in his posture, and Hinata was bowing to a younger woman, and when she turned toward him her face was unmarked. "Thank you very much," he said politely, bowing to the surprised senior medic-nin.
OoOoO
With hours to go before the second exam officially ended, there was more than enough time to get cleaned up and take a short nap in the examinee's dormitory before Kurenai-sensei collected them.
The jonin led them to a large enclosed auditorium, where they joined the ranks of the teams that completed the second exam. Naruto was a little ashamed to admit he was surprised to see Team 10 among the victors, though he supposed Shikamaru would have found it more troublesome to put up with Ino's complaints if they failed. The latter was glaring at Sakura since Team 7 was lined up next to them and the pink-haired kunoichi was between her and Sasuke. Sasuke looked a little pale, but just as surly as ever, so that Kakashi guy must have fixed his seal.
Naruto wasn't surprised to see Team Gai there as well, but the only other Konoha team to pass the second exam was Kabuto's trio of older genin. Unfortunately, the Sand team was there as well. Naruto knew there wasn't much chance of that Gaara character not making it through, but he'd held out some faint hope that one of his teammates might have to drop out and thereby disqualify all three.
He suppressed a smirk when he felt the killing intent radiating from both Gaara and Neji. It was nice to know his skills at annoying people hadn't grown rusty since his academy days.
Still, that left only eighteen participants in the exam, fifteen of them from Konoha, which Naruto thought was pretty damn good. He couldn't help but smile a little as the Hokage addressed them from a raised platform, flanked by the teams' jonin sensei.
That smile disappeared soon enough though. After the Hokage congratulated them on passing the second round, he explained the reasons why they do a joint test and introduced the third examiner, a guy with a nasty cough named Gekkou Hayate. In between throat clearings, the sickly-looking guy told them there were more people left than could be run through the third examination. There would have to be a preliminary elimination round.
Most of the people around Naruto made comments about that, and few of them were favorable.
Both the preliminary round and the actual third exam would be one-on-one battles between the examinees. However, the teams were effectively dissolved until the end of the examination, so losing would not disqualify your team-mates. Naruto cautiously looked around at his fellow genin and frowned. His eyes were met with hard glares from more than a few. According to the examiner, only those who won the preliminary round and fought publicly in the finals would have a chance of being granted chuunin status.
Before they began, Hayate asked if anyone felt like they could no longer continue. To Naruto's surprise, Kabuto raised his hand, saying he was too injured to fight. Naruto didn't think he looked that beat up, but the examiner just nodded and the silver-haired genin exited through the door they entered by.
"All right, with seventeen of you, there will be eight matches," Hayate announced. "After eight matches, whoever the odd person is will have a bye and proceed directly to the finals. These matches are randomly selected, so you will all have an equal chance."
With that, the rest of them were directed to stairs that led up to a balcony that overlooked the arena floor. Most of their jonin sensei joined them up there and the genin assembled in little team-sized clumps.
"I can't believe all the rookies made it, and almost no one else did," Naruto muttered.
"That does seem to stretch the bounds of probability," Shino agreed. "I hope that no one takes it as a sign of collusion."
"Why the hell would we want to cheat?" Naruto demanded, his voice rising slightly. "If we aren't qualified to take chuunin-level missions, what's the point of making us chuunin?"
"Remember what the Hokage said: The exams often serve political purposes," Kurenai interjected, "and showcase the strengths of each village. If a village's shinobi look stronger to outsiders, they are more likely to be hired for missions. However, the Hokage doesn't countenance such tactics. Wars between hidden villages have started over less." The glare that accompanied her words spoke even louder and Naruto subsided.
The electronic bulletin board flashed, and announced the first randomly selected match, Adakou Yoroi versus Akimichi Chouji.
Kabuto's teammate was a large, muscular man with small dark glasses and a cloth covering the rest of his face. Unlike the friendly silver-haired genin, Yoroi was a fairly nasty-looking customer. The chubby boy didn't even come up to his opponent's shoulder. No sooner did Hayate call for them to begin than he swiped at Chouji with a glowing hand.
Chouji jumped back with a barely muffled screech, but the heel of the larger man's hand still brushed his shoulder. Chouji visibly wilted and stumbled backward on unsteady legs.
"You have no defense against my technique," Yoroi sneered as he stalked toward Chouji. The boy backed away, looking like he wanted to run for it.
Yoroi herded Chouji into a corner and took another swipe at him. Chouji dived to the side, barely avoiding the attack. He frantically scrambled to his feet, his eyes glued to his opponent.
"Would you stop delaying the inevitable?" Yoroi growled. "Or are you a coward as well as fat?"
The sudden silence was deafening – the only thing that marred it was the single word muttered by Shikamaru.
"s**t."
Chouji's face went red. "Did you call me… fat?"
Yoroi paused in his advance. Privately, Naruto didn't blame him. There was suddenly an overabundance of killing intent in the room, and it hadn't been there ten seconds ago.
"Yeah, I did," Yoroi snapped in a belligerent tone. "Do you think you can stop me?" he asked, making a 'come hither' gesture with his glowing hand. "I'll pull all the chakra out of your body faster than you can empty a bento box… fatass."
Naruto cringed.
Chouji's eyes seemed to fill with flames. "I'm going to crush you like a grape!" he screamed as he jumped backward. "Ninpou Baika no Jutsu!"
Naruto's mouth dropped open as Chouji's torso expanded to several times the normal size, becoming almost perfectly spherical. With a jerk, his arms, legs, and head retracted, only to be replaced by jets of blue chakra flames. Chouji began to spin in place, suspended by the jets of fire, until he touched down and began rolling forward with increasing speed.
The dumbfounded Yoroi stared at the Akimichi Meatball Tank bearing down on him. At the last second he jumped back to avoid it, but the spinning Chouji kept accelerating. Yoroi dodged aside at the last moment, but Chouji still managed to clip him, sending the older genin flying.
Naruto decided the spin must have made that hit even harder than it appeared, because Yoroi landed heavily on his side and lurched to his feet favoring his right leg.
Chouji didn't corner very sharply in his Meatball Tank form, so Yoroi had time to regain his bearings. By the time Chouji got turned around to make another pass, Yoroi had his chakra-draining technique ready. Again, he side-stepped at the last second, trailing his palm across Chouji's axis of rotation. The Meatball Tank wobbled as its rotation veered out of true, but Chouji got it back under control again and came around for another pass. However, the chakra drain seemed to have had an effect, because he wasn't spinning nearly as fast as before.
Yoroi tried to do the same trick again, but this time Chouji managed to veer into him as he dodged aside. Yoroi let out a startled scream as Chouji ground him down into the cement floor.  

[Pandora Green]

He slammed his palm directly against Chouji's mass and the snap of his fingers being bent backward and broken was sickening.
Yoroi was completely out of sight when Chouji's jutsu collapsed, leaving him tumbling forward to land in a moaning heap. When the dust cleared, the older genin's broken body was visible amidst the shards of concrete.
After looking at Chouji, who was slowly sitting up, holding his head, Hayate quickly declared him the winner of the first match and called for some medic-nins. Chouji stared at his opponent, eyes widening in horror, until his sensei appeared next to him and led him back up to the balcony, speaking softly the entire way.
After Yoroi had been carried off, the second match was announced. Tenten from Team Gai was pitted against the girl from Gaara's team, Temari. As soon as it was announced, Gai and Lee began cheering for her at the top of their lungs. Naruto and his team slowly edged away from the spandex-clad duo to preserve their hearing.
Naruto ended up near Shikamaru as Tenten began her first attack, which amazingly enough missed.
"This is going to be troublesome," Shikamaru murmured.
"Why do you say that?" Naruto asked in a low voice.
"It's already over," Shikamaru said and turned toward Chouji, who had just finished talking to his sensei, Asuma. The boy looked a little more settled, but he was still a little green around the edges.
"If Shikamaru says it's over, it's over," Chouji confirmed with a nod.
Naruto frowned and turned back to the fight. Tenten did some weird trick with a scroll that allowed her to throw a dozen weapons at a time, but Temari just blocked them all by swinging her fan. Despite its lack of success, Naruto was really glad she hadn't used that technique on him and Lee during her 'target practice' sessions.
Naruto glanced over at Shikamaru, but his expression didn't change. He turned toward Shino who appeared to be frowning. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to be picking up on, but two of the smarter people he knew didn't like this match, so he started to worry about Tenten.
Tenten raised the stakes with her next attack, using two scrolls at once to throw a simply ridiculous number of sharp objects at the Sand kunoichi. Unfortunately, it was no more effective – Temari just swung her fan and blew them all off course.
Then Tenten did something with chakra to lift the weapons up again and send them raining down on her foe… only this time she was caught in the blast of wind from Temari's fan and sent flying.
Naruto scowled. Tenten specialized in ranged attacks, but it was almost impossible for her to hit Temari because of her fan. This was almost the worst possible match-up for her. Was that what Shikamaru and Shino were annoyed about?
The fight ended when Temari finally attacked with her fan, creating a massive whirlwind that pulled Tenten into the air and knocked her unconscious with chakra-laced wind.
As Naruto watched Hayate declare Temari the winner, he realized something about the nature of the test. Random or not, these one-on-one fights could easily pit someone against an opponent that they didn't have the techniques or the tactics to fight. When they fought as a team, each member instinctively sought out opponents they could do well against. For example, someone trying to use Taijutsu to defend against a Hyuuga like Hinata was asking for a quick trip to the hospital. Likewise, someone without area effect attacks wouldn't fare well against Shino's bugs.
But shinobi didn't always fight in teams, and they didn't always have the luxury of picking their opponent. Forcing them to fight someone with skills that trumped their normal tactics made them learn to adapt on the fly – or learn to lose gracefully. Of course, in the field, on a real mission, you'd replace "losing" with "dying."
Such sobering thoughts made him all the more uneasy when the next match was announced: "Aburame Shino versus Inuzuka Kiba."
Naruto shook his head. He didn't need to worry so much about his teammate. Even if he won, Kiba wouldn't do anything that would permanently injure a former classmate. Loud and boastful he might be, but he wasn't cruel or vicious.
He grinned and patted his silent friend on the shoulder as he walked by. He knew from sparring with him that Shino didn't particularly like to lose.
When the boys faced each other in front of Hayate, Kiba nodded and smirked. "Don't think I'm going to go easy on you, because of what happened in the forest," he said, sticking his jaw out belligerently.
"Don't hold back on my account," Shino replied coolly as he adjusted his glasses.
As soon as Hayate signaled for them to begin, Kiba crouched down and brought his hands together to form seals. "Gijyuu Ninpou, Shikyaku no Jutsu!" he growled as he dropped onto all fours.
Naruto's eyes widened as Kiba's body was enveloped in a light haze of chakra and his fingernails grew into sharp claws.
Shino dropped into a combat stance with more weight balanced on his back leg. The shafts of his kamas shot out of his sleeves and into his waiting hands, but he did not immediately deploy the blades.
"Let's go!" Kiba shouted and charged forward in a blur of motion.
Shino's feet didn't move, but his torso twisted as his left arm shot forward. There was a loud clang and Kiba reeled backward, his forehead protector twisted halfway around his head.
"I thought you were faster than that," Shino observed in the same tone of voice he might use to discuss the weather. He spun the kama once in his hand before returning it to a guard position. With the blade still concealed inside, it looked more like a baton. A thick baton with a metal cap on each end.
Kiba snarled something that Naruto was just as glad they couldn't hear from up on the balcony. There were certain words and phrases that Kurenai-sensei had informed him were not appropriate for mixed company. Kiba pulled something out of his equipment pouch and threw it at Shino's feet.
Naruto's team mate was enveloped in thick clouds of black smoke. Kiba dived into the smoke cloud while Akamaru circled it warily. There were several dull thuds before Kiba stumbled backward out of the cloud, his hand pressed against his jaw.
When the smoke dissipated, Shino was still standing in the same spot, in the same stance. He didn't say a word, and that just seemed to further enrage his opponent.
Naruto frowned when Kiba pulled a pill out of his pouch and flipped it to Akamaru. The puppy gulped it down and then growled fiercely as its fur changed from white to reddish-brown. Kiba gulped down a pill as well, and then crouched down. Akamaru sprang onto his master's back as Kiba growled "Gijyuu Ninpou: Jyuujin Bunshin!"
There was a burst of smoke, and when it cleared Naruto now saw two feral-looking Kibas glaring at Shino. It was impossible to tell which one was Kiba and which one was really Akamaru.
"You know, Naruto makes a lot more than two clones when we free spar," Shino observed in a neutral voice.
That just seemed to enrage them further and they sprang at Shino, extending the short claws that had replaced their fingernails.
This time, Shino did move, pivoting smoothly to the side and out of reach of one of the Kibas. The other reached out to claw at the Aburame, but Shino brought his kama around with surprising speed and smacked him on the elbow with a loud crack.
The struck Kiba yelped and somersaulted forward. One of his trailing legs hooked toward Shino's head, forcing the Aburame to duck. The other one pivoted and leapt toward Shino. Shino spun away from the charge, but left a piece of his jacket sleeve behind.
Naruto was impressed by how well the beast clone coordinated with the original as they took turns springing at Shino. His team mate always managed to avoid or re-direct their attacks, but it was often a close thing.
Finally, when Shino was forced to jump backwards from a coordinated strike, one of the Kibas yelled "Gatsuuga!" and they both began to spin so fast that they were little more than spiraling grey blurs as they barreled into Shino, hurling him into the air as more rips appeared in his jacket.
Both Kibas landed in a crouch, balanced on their fingertips and the balls of their feet. Shino twisted as he fell and barely managed to land on his feet.
But he still had a firm grip on his weapons. There was a loud click as the blades folded out of the shafts and locked into place. Naruto didn't have to be able to see through the dark glasses to know his friend was getting serious.
Both Kibas launched themselves into the air with another cry of "Gatsuuga!" as their Double-Fang Technique sent them hurling down at the ground where Shino stood.
Naruto was dimly aware of his fingers digging into the railing.
There was a cloud of dust as both spirals slammed into the ground, totally obscuring the combatants. Naruto winced as one of Shino's kamas came flying out of the dust cloud, apparently torn from his grasp. It flipped end over end through the air until it clattered to the ground near the balcony. Naruto's eyes picked up the wet red stain running along the edge of the blade.
Kiba stumbled out of the cloud as the dust settled, coughing hard. Shino picked himself up off the floor of the arena, cradling one wrist against his chest, while still holding his remaining kama at the ready. Beyond him, Naruto could see another Kiba, sprawled on the ground with a jagged cut arcing up one sleeve of his jacket – which was now leaking blood fairly rapidly.
The wounded Kiba let out a whimper and with a pop turned back into an Akamaru with a bloody foreleg. The nin-dog edged away from Shino, carefully holding the wounded limb so it didn't touch the ground.
"You b*****d!" Kiba growled. "You hurt Akamaru!" He stalked toward the wounded Aburame, his face constricted with fury. But after the third step, he stumbled, and then fell to one knee. With a surprised expression, he toppled forward onto his face.
Hayate stared at Kiba, then looked over at Shino.
"His chakra has been exhausted," Shino explained. A line of kikai bugs exited Kiba's jacket and made their way toward their host. Another mass crawled out of Akamaru's fur as the small dog's rear legs folded up and it sat down. It slowly curled up on the floor, barely lifting its head enough to lick at the wound on its leg.
Hayate swallowed and then coughed. "Winner, Aburame Shino."
Medic-nins with a stretcher came out and rolled Kiba onto it. Another approached Shino, but the boy pointed toward the prostrate dog. With some reluctance, the medic picked up the dozing Akamaru and Shino followed him out the arena exit.
Naruto stared after his team mate as he made his way out of the arena, pausing only as the next match was announced. Naruto was wondering whether Shino was really all right and actually missed the announcement. He looked up as the door closed behind his friend and saw the names: "Nara Shikamaru versus Tsurugi Misumi".
Of course, the disgusted sigh coming from his classmate should have clued Naruto in that Shikamaru had been called. The Nara genin looked far less enthusiastic about the match than Chouji, let alone Ino. He didn't even start moving until his jounin-sensei, Asuma, put his hand on the annoyed-looking genin's shoulder.
The last of Kabuto's purple-clad teammates had clear glasses to go with his weird veil. However, his uniform tunic left his arms bare, covered only by a plain white short-sleeve shirt. That and the long gloves on his hands suggested he might be some variety of close-range fighter.
The older genin seemed a bit more eager to fight, and sneered at Shikamaru as he approached. "Don't think I'll take it easy on you because you're just a spoiled brat."
Shikamaru plodded up to his place in front of Hayate and then finally raised his eyes to look at his opponent. "I didn't think anyone could be as annoying as Ino," he drawled.
"Hey!" Ino shouted, shaking her fist. But no one really paid much attention. Their arguments at the academy were as predictable as the behavior of Sasuke's fan club.
"Once I get hold of you," the older genin warned, "this fight will be over. You should show more respect for your seniors!"
"Yeah, yeah," Shikamaru sighed, rolling his eyes. "Now you sound like my dad."
Hayate evidently decided to start the match before it started without him. "Begin!" he commanded.
Misumi instantly charged forward and launched a taijutsu combination that flowed into a grappling move. Naruto blinked and rubbed his eyes. "Flowed" was really the right word. The older genin's arms, and then his legs twisted around Shikamaru in a bizarre fashion, like they were made of rubber.
In an instant, he'd wrapped Shikamaru up, binding his legs in place and pinning his arms against his torso. "I can unhinge my joints and use chakra to control my body. I can strangle you or simply break your bones until you give up."
Naruto swallowed. That was a really, really creepy fighting style. Unless maybe you were fighting a girl… he swallowed again and blushed. No, it was still really creepy. How could such a weirdo like him and his chakra-sucking partner grow up in Konoha? At least Kabuto seemed somewhat normal.
"That's interesting," Shikamaru grunted. "And informative," he added as his neck muscles strained against the arm wrapped around them. "In return, I feel obliged to remind you of the last village council meeting."
Naruto frowned, as did the weirdo and damn near everyone else he could see.
"What about it?" Misumi asked, pausing but not loosening his grip at all.
"They cut funding to the hospital," Shikamaru replied in a bored tone.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Misumi demanded, getting angry again.
Shikamaru grunted as the man's limbs seemed to tighten even more. "Without that money, they haven't been able to stock up on some of the rarer anti-venins… like the Wind Country King Scorpion venom on the kunai I'm holding against your arm."
There was a loud snapping sound as Misumi sprang away from his prey, limbs flying out in all directions. He landed in an awkward crouch as his joints realigned. He glared at Shikamaru who spread empty hands before him. "You little liar!" he accused.
Shikamaru shrugged as his hand reached into his pouch. "I bluffed, but these are real," he said as he hurled a pair of shuriken at Misumi's head. There was a cracking sound as his neck stretched upward, making the shuriken miss completely.
"You missed, boy!" Misumi sneered, his voice sounding really strange now.
"I never intended to hit. Kagemane no Jutsu!" Shikamaru's shadow stretched out along the ground, merging with Misumi's shadow. As soon as contact was made, Misumi's body froze in place. Shikamaru moved his arms from a guard position to let them hang free at his sides. As he did this, Misumi's arms moved as well, perfectly mirroring the rookie's motions.
Then Shikamaru inhaled deeply and bent forward rapidly at the waist. The stringy genin folded almost perfectly in half, his head facing his knees. With his disjointed neck stretching out due to the speed of the movement, Misumi's forehead struck the ground with a loud crack, making Naruto wince.
No sooner did that happen then Shikamaru straightened and bent backwards in one motion. His back arched, the genin's palms struck the floor just like one of the flexibility exercises Iruka-sensei had drilled them on in the academy. The back of the dazed Misumi's head struck the floor with an even louder thump.
"Release," Shikamaru said, still bent backwards. The second his shadow detached from Misumi's the older genin collapsed in a boneless heap.
With a grunt, Shikamaru pushed off from the floor and straightened up, stretching as he did so. Naruto noted that the number one lazy b*****d from his class hadn't even moved from his starting point.
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at Hayate, cocking his head toward his unconscious opponent. Hayate blinked twice. "Winner, Nara Shikamaru," he announced with an embarrassed cough.
Everyone stared at Shikamaru as he slouched back toward the stairs leading to the observation deck. Even his own team was silent as he returned to his spot, leaning his elbows on the railing with a bored sigh.
"You were… actually good, Shika…" Ino said, eyes wide. She shook her head. "Not as cool as Sasuke-kun, but not bad at all."
"How troublesome," Shikamaru murmured. Chouji offered him a bag of chips, but Shikamaru just shook his head.
The medic-nins took a little while getting Misumi loaded onto a stretcher. It seemed to Naruto that they were a little reluctant to touch his stretchy neck, making it hard to keep his head on the stretcher, and not dragging on the ground. In the end, they finally managed to get him out of there and Hayate asked for the next match to be displayed.
Naruto felt a chill go down the back of his neck with the selection that was displayed: "Hyuuga Hinata versus Hyuuga Neji." He spun toward his team mate, who'd gone even paler than usual.
Her eyes were a little wide, but her mouth took on a determined line as he looked at her. Something prompted him to speak before she walked away. "You can do this, Hinata," he said in a low voice.
She paused, one foot lifted to take her first step. She gave him a single nod as her face took on an even more determined expression.
Naruto watched her march down the stairs to the arena floor, feeling like there was something he should be doing. But he didn't know what. He glanced over at Kurenai-sensei, and while she didn't say anything, he could read her expressions well enough to know that she wasn't pleased with this match-up either.
A voice from the opposite direction made Naruto jump. "This is most unfortunate."
He spun around, surprised to see Shino already rejoining them, his arm bound in a light sling. Naruto just nodded, remembering how Neji had gone after his kage bunshin that had been henged to look like Hinata.
While Hinata's posture could only be described as resolute as she marched to the center of the floor, Neji seemed almost unconcerned. Hinata dropped into a basic Jyuuken guard position when Hayate told them to begin, but Neji just stood there glaring at her.
"You can't win, you know," the older Hyuuga said in a matter-of-fact tone. "You have never defeated me in a sparring match; you don't have the physical or mental capacity to challenge me. If you surrender now, I will not be forced to harm a member of the main family and you can return to your career as a mediocre kunoichi."
It took a moment for Naruto to realize that the grinding sound was coming from his own molars.
Surprisingly, Hinata showed almost no reaction to his words, other than minutely drawing her eyebrows together. "I have worked too hard to get here, cousin, and I refuse to disappoint my sensei or my team."
Neji stared at her for a moment, and Naruto wondered if he was actually surprised by Hinata's words. She seemed nothing like the exhausted wreck he'd seen the morning after her family's 'special training.' The next instant the Hyuuga genius blurred into motion as he attacked.
Hinata smoothly blocked and countered and the two Jyuuken-users began an elaborate dance, punctuated with sharp bursts of chakra as they launched strikes designed to shred internal organs. Naruto's eyes could barely keep up with their movements, despite all the time he'd spent sparring with Hinata. This made him realize two things.
The first was that Jyuuken users are just as adept at fighting each other as those who practice other taijutsu styles, and in a peculiar way the moves almost seemed to interlock.
The second, more chilling realization, was that Neji was even faster than he thought. Hinata was holding her own, but Naruto feared she was just one mis-step away from disaster. He could feel the chakra bursts from where he stood, and they were nothing like the weaker spikes Hinata used when she sparred with him. Those blows would numb his arm for a short time, even shorter if he expended the chakra.
These blows were intended to maim, if not kill.
Still, Hinata held off her cousin's attacks, and her counterblows sometimes put him back on the defensive. Naruto wanted to cheer her on, but he was also afraid of distracting her at a fatal moment.
As he watched, something began to bother him. The chakra behind Hinata's Jyuuken strikes began to falter. It was almost like she was exhausting her reserves, but he knew from their sparring sessions that she had far more than she'd expended so far. He wondered if she was trying to lull Neji into getting overconfident, setting him up for a big hit.
Maybe Shino wasn't the sneakiest shinobi on Team Eight.
Finally, it happened. Hinata ducked under Neji's strike at her face, instead of blocking. Rather than making her eyeballs explode, the taller boy ended up with Hinata well inside his guard and her palm strike nailed him firmly in the stomach.
She jumped back as Neji grunted, still on guard.
But the older Hyuuga just looked at her. And then he smiled. "You've lost," he said.
Hinata frowned as her Byakugan seemed to release on its own and Naruto noticed her flexing her hand and rubbing at her forearm. At her cousin's words, she pushed up the sleeve of her jacket and Naruto saw that it was dotted with small chakra burns, corresponding with places he knew held tenketsu points. It wasn't like he hadn't flushed his own out often enough. "Damn," he muttered under his breath. For Neji to be capable of doing that, during a fight like that, was pretty impressive. It also explained why Hinata couldn't focus chakra down her arms anymore.
Hinata's eyes flickered towards the observation balcony, and for an instant she seemed to stare right into his eyes. Then she turned back to her cousin and her eyes hardened. The Byakugan was active again, but Naruto couldn't remember seeing her do the seals this time. Had she managed to do it without them?
"I am a shinobi of the leaf, Neji-nii-san," she said, "and a Hyuuga. I. Do. Not. Give. Up." With that, she jumped backward, throwing a brace of shuriken as she did so.
Neji dodged the barrage with a burst of speed that made Naruto even more anxious. "You've picked a bad time to discover your pride," he said in a cold voice as he closed in on Hinata.
Hinata evaded a strike to her chest by dropping to the ground and launching a leg sweep to knock Neji off his feet. Neji simply leapt backward, flipping to land on his feet and charge back in as a single movement.
Hinata somersaulted backward and clashed her wrists together in a motion she and Naruto had practiced many times. She spun, palms out, but as each arm moved toward Neji, she dropped her hand flat into a knife-hand and the weighted bracer flew off her wrist. Neji ducked backward, avoiding the first one, but the second struck him on the temple with stunning force.
The Hyuuga genius stumbled, backward, a cut opened at the corner of one eye, as Hinata released the weights on her legs and kicked them toward him as well. However, despite their practice, Naruto knew neither of them was as accurate flinging their leg weights, and Neji easily evaded both of them.
"I see you decided to resort to tricks to make up for your lack of skill," Neji sneered. "But it won't help. You were born a failure and you will die a failure, a blot on the honor of the main family."
Hinata didn't respond verbally, but just swallowed as she settled into a Goken stance. Naruto knew she wasn't nearly as proficient in the style she'd only recently learned with Gai-sensei, but with her arms like that… her Jyuuken was pretty much useless to her.
Neji's face began to lose its emotionless mask as he moved toward her, launching a series of blindingly fast attacks.
But with her weights off, Hinata moved so fast that she was little more than a blur, making several people gasp and Lee began to very quietly cheer her on. Naruto recognized several of her evasions as ones he'd worked out from sparring with her. "Go Hinata!" he roared, making everyone jump. "Kick his a**!"
Naruto felt a hand latch onto his shoulder and quickly muttered, "Sorry sensei."
Neji's expression grew even more frustrated as Hinata continued to dodge his Jyuuken strikes. She improvised quick off-axis attacks, making him guard his footing and distracting him from predicting her next dodge. Naruto began to hope she'd pull this off. She managed to connect a few times, but her margin of error was so thin…
Finally, it happened. Neji apparently allowed her to land a hammerfist strike to his ribs, not even trying to block but instead using that instant to land a Jyuuken strike that speared into the left side of her back, below the shoulderblade.
Neji stumbled back, clapping a hand to his side, where his rib was bruised, if not cracked. But Hinata fell to one knee and coughed, blood spattering the floor in front of where she knelt. She slowly toppled to one side, falling prone.
"So much for your tricks," Neji said in a dismissive tone as he turned away, and in that instant Naruto would gladly have ended his life.
"It looks like this match is over," Hayate said in a voice that sounded slightly regretful.
"N-no…" The voice was faint, but unmistakably came from where Hinata lay.
Neji spun back toward his cousin, his expression a mixture of frustration, annoyance, and something else that Naruto couldn't identify.
Hinata painfully struggled to her feet. "I'm not done with you yet," she said, her eyes fixed on her cousin.
What followed next was one of the most painful and frustrating experiences of Naruto's life. Hinata could barely hold her Goken stance as Neji strode over to her. His fist snapped out and slammed into her jaw, sending her crashing to the ground.
And she got up again.
Neji punched her in the stomach, folding her up as he knocked her off her feet. He didn't even bother to use Jyuuken anymore. The damage Hinata had taken rendered her barely able to stand, let alone defend herself.
But she kept getting up again.
"Why do you keep getting up?" Neji finally demanded. "Do you want to die? Do you think that will make you less of a failure?"
Hinata slowly raised her head, meeting Neji's glare.
"You were destined to be the Hyuuga failure from the day you were born," Neji snapped. "I've seen that with my eyes from the first day I saw you. You cursed your own powerlessness and blamed yourself. But we all knew the truth, and you haven't changed at all. That is your destiny, accept it and stop this foolishness."
"You're wrong, Neji-nii-san," Hinata said between shuddering breaths. She paused to cough up a little more blood. She wiped her mouth and cocked her head to one side, looking past her cousin. "I can see that you are hurting worse than I am. You hate yourself even more than you hate me."
Neji let out a strangled cry of rage as Hinata's eyes rolled back in her head and her legs began to buckle. Time seemed to stand still as Hayate yelled for him to stop. There was a sudden rush of air and Naruto dimly realized that Kurenai-sensei had launched herself off the balcony.
But his eyes were locked onto the slowly toppling form of his friend and teammate, falling even as sure death approached her. Naruto wasn't even aware of his fingers forming seals, but suddenly he was there – half deafened by a thunderous pop and gritting his teeth against the spike of pain that seemed to have been rammed through his chest.
Naruto stumbled backward, clutching his chest. Hayate seemed to have been caught flat-footed, but Kurenai-sensei, Kakashi, and Gai-sensei all had a hold of Hyuuga Neji, whose palm still glowed from the chakra spike that had struck Naruto. The so-called genius was bitterly protesting favoritism being shown to the main house, but Naruto ignored him.
Up on the balcony where Naruto had been standing, Hinata crumpled to the ground. Shino grabbed her, keeping her head from striking the balcony, but she was still unconscious. Bloody froth bubbled at the corner of her mouth. "Medics! Now!" Shino yelled in a loud voice that made everyone jump.
Naruto's chest hurt like hell, but he straightened up enough to limp over to the stairs, trailing behind the scrambling medics. He stopped when Kurenai grabbed his shoulder.
"Stay out of their way," she said in a quiet voice, her eyes glued on Shino as he supported Hinata's head and helped the medic-nins load her onto a stretcher.
Naruto nodded, slowly straightening and wiping the blood from his chin. He watched the medics carry the stretcher down off the balcony at a fast trot. The haste with which they moved chilled his blood. Her wounds were likely to be at least as serious as he had feared. As they passed him, he couldn't help but stare at his friend's face. Her skin had gone as pale as snow and the rise and fall of her chest was barely perceptible.
Naruto felt a sudden spike of killing intent from behind him, seemingly coinciding with Gai's voice. He spun around. Neji's face was a frozen mask of fury as he was remonstrated by his jounin-sensei, and suddenly Naruto wanted nothing more than to rip that b*****d's throat out with his teeth. The light in the arena seemed to take on a reddish tone as his fingernails dug into his palms, drawing blood. Naruto was dimly aware of startled glances coming from Kakashi as well as Gai, but it was Kurenai's words that sunk in.
"Calm down and we'll follow Hinata to the infirmary," she all but whispered in his ear.
Naruto spun on his heel and took off after the medic-nins, ignoring the blood dripping from his fists.
OoOoO
Shino watched the rest of his team leave. While he might have preferred to follow them, it would serve no logical purpose. Also, there were still several shinobi present in the room that possessed unknown capabilities. He could best serve his team by staying and making careful observations. He had qualified for the next round, and he had little doubt that Naruto would as well, so any information he might glean could prove vital.
But that didn't mean he had to like it.
Maito Gai had removed Hyuuga Neji from the room, which was fortunate. There were several individuals present that did not appreciate his actions, and candor required that he admit he was one of them. It would not do for them to begin the next set of matches before the preliminaries concluded, as he doubted that such eagerness would be appreciated by the examiners.
Glancing around, he noticed that both Rock Lee and Tenten were staring at him. Looking down, he realized that there was a fine spray of aspirated blood across the front of his jacket. Hinata's blood. He looked back up.
"What variety of flowers would be appropriate?" he asked in the calmest, most matter-of-fact tone of voice he could muster.
"What?" Tenten asked, rubbing a bruise on the side of her head that she'd sustained in her loss to Temari. To their credit, both of them appeared upset with the outcome of the last match, but Shino still had a point to make.
"For your team mate's funeral," he clarified.
Lee paled.
OoOoO
Naruto followed as long as he could, but suddenly the medics started shouting and carried Hinata's stretcher through a pair of swinging doors marked 'For Authorized Personnel Only'.
Kurenai-sensei grabbed his shoulder again, halting him in his tracks. "We'll only be in the way," she murmured before she turned to one of the attendants.
Naruto looked down, taking some deep breaths and resisting the urge to leap through the doors anyway. His palms ached a little, but despite the blood caked on his hands, they were unmarked and his chest felt like it was getting back to normal. He felt guilty as hell, like he let someone down, but he couldn't see what he should have done differently. Did telling Hinata to kick Neji's a** make her want to keep fighting long after she couldn't? Was it wrong for him to encourage her? Had his Kawarimi no Jutsu hurt her worse, or was it more important that Neji not hit her again?
Neji. Hyuuga Neji. Hinata's own cousin tried to kill her! Was he mad about something to do with their clan? What was that crap about the main family about anyway? How the hell could he blame her for that? It wasn't like she was in charge of their crappy family. Was he just taking it out on her because he could?
Naruto shook his head. He didn't really care why that creep had a vendetta against Hinata. What he did know was that he was going to beat that b*****d like a drum and make his hair bleed. No one hurt his friends, especially Hinata.
Naruto looked up, blinking. Where had that thought come from?
He felt a hand on his elbow and spun around. Kurenai-sensei didn't even blink, but began speaking as soon as she had his attention. "Naruto, I'm going to stay down here with Hinata, but I need you to go back to the auditorium."
Naruto shook his head, but she cut him off before he could speak.
"I know you want to stay here, but you still haven't had your preliminary match yet. If you stay down here you will be disqualified," she reminded him.
"That's not important," Naruto said in a stubborn tone.
"You won't get a chance to fight Neji if you don't advance," Kurenai reminded him. "He'll probably say you stayed down here to get disqualified because you were afraid to face him."
Naruto had to give his sensei credit. She was pretty good at putting the screws to people when she wanted to. He let out a sigh that sounded more like a growl.
Kurenai sighed as well. "All right, Naruto. What do you think Hinata will think if you stay down here because she was hurt?"
It didn't take much imagination to figure that out. "She'll think it was her fault I was disqualified," he said in a resigned tone.
"Right Naruto," Kurenai agreed, "and that's not something she needs to deal with while she's recovering. The nurse says they got her here just in time, and they do need to do some serious work before she regains consciousness. I know you and Shino will both want to be here when she wakes up, so beat whoever you have to fight quickly."
Naruto nodded. "Yes sensei!" he said loudly enough to draw a glare from the attendant before he ran back down the hallway.
OoOoO
Naruto entered the auditorium just in time to see both Ino and Sakura being helped off the floor. Both of them looked pretty shaky and he wondered who won. He made his way over to Shino as quickly as he could without drawing too much attention.
"She's in surgery now," Naruto said in response to the unspoken question. "Kurenai-sensei thinks she's going to be okay, but they got her there just in time and she'll be out a while."
Shino nodded and his posture seemed to loosen a little – though it might just have been Naruto's imagination. "You only missed one match," Shino said, nodding toward the two battered kunoichi. "Double knock-out," he added.
Naruto blinked. He wondered how the hell they managed that. But his attention was diverted by the display for the next match: "Uchiha Sasuke versus Uzumaki Naruto."
Naruto glanced over at Sasuke, who just smirked back at him. Naruto frowned. The genin was rolling the shoulder that he remembered the curse seal being on. Kurenai assured him it had been dealt with, but he wondered.
Naruto quickly knelt down next to Shino, adjusting his sandal. While he was bent over, he hit the releases on his arm and leg weights, leaving them in a pile next to his team mate. When he straightened up, Sasuke was leaving the stairs and Hayate was frowning at him, so Naruto just vaulted the railing.
Of course, without his weights, he went considerably farther than he expected and landed badly off balance. Sasuke just rolled his eyes while Hayate cleared his throat.
"Can't you do anything right, dead last?" Sasuke asked him in a superior tone as he slid back into an advanced taijutsu stance. Naruto ignored him, knowing the Uchiha just wanted him angry and off balance.
But that didn't help one bit when he heard his opponent's next words. "I hope you put up a better fight than your pathetic teammate."
Naruto looked up at Sasuke, his rage returning.
Sasuke smirked, evidently pleased that his barb had struck home.
"Begin!" Hayate commanded.
OoOoO
Shino winced as he witnessed the Uchiha's attempt at psychological warfare. While it was a valid tactic in many circumstances, this wasn't one he'd personally recommend.
When the examiner said "Begin!" there was a green blur of motion that ended in a loud crack.
Naruto was standing in the space formerly occupied by the Uchiha, fist extended. Shino noticed that his eyes were a much darker shade of blue than normal, almost a deep purple.
As for Sasuke, he was flying backwards, landing in a boneless heap three and a half meters behind his starting position. There was a large lump already forming on the side of his jaw as he bounced once before sliding to a halt. To Shino's untrained eye, it was quite apparent that the last Uchiha had sustained a broken jaw.
Gekkou Hayate stared at the clearly unconscious boy as the one who struck him turned and began marching toward the exit. Clearing his throat, he announced, "Winner, Uzumaki Naruto."
OoOoO
Naruto knew the way to the infirmary now, so he made much better time on his second trip. Kurenai-sensei was still waiting near the surgery unit, so he sat down beside her. She looked at the clock and frowned.
"I fought Sasuke," he said as he sat down.
She sighed, patted him awkwardly on the shoulder, and went back to staring at the clock.
After nearly twenty minutes, Naruto was about to climb the walls. His fidgeting grew noisier and noisier until Kurenai gave him a sharp look and he forcibly stilled himself. Looking away, he saw Shino leading Gai-sensei and a wobbly-looking Lee.
"The matches are concluded," Shino said with no preamble, "I will share my observations as needed. How is our comrade?"
"No word yet," Naruto answered with a frown.
An attendant approached Gai and over his protests Lee was led away for an x-ray. Naruto wondered why Sasuke hadn't been brought down here, or whether he'd be treated on the spot. Maybe he should have hit him harder.
A moment later, Gai returned and nodded to Kurenai. "Thank you for the information regarding that Sand genin. Lee had to fight him and even with the Celestial Gates open, he could not land a decisive blow. Without our extra endurance training I'm not sure he could have fought as long as he did."
"What happened to Lee?" Naruto asked.
"When the fires of Lee's Youth began to run out of fuel, this Sabaku no Gaara was able to catch him a glancing blow with his sand and hurl him against the wall." Gai reported in a distressed voice. Naruto realized that seeing Lee unable to win, despite all his hard work, was physically painful for his sensei. "I… I was forced to intervene before he was severely injured."
"I'm sure Lee knows you did the right thing," Kurenai assured him, looking a bit uncomfortable herself.
"Yes, but when he is recovered we will run a thousand laps around Konoha, backward, on our hands!" Gai assured her.
Shino nodded to Naruto. "With that match, Kankuro from the Sand was not required to fight. I will share my observations on the others as needed, but the matches for the next round in a month have already been selected. You will fight Hyuuga Neji."
Kurenai-sensei's eyes widened in surprise.
Naruto's disgruntlement over the Sand guy's luck dissipated as a beatific grin spread across his face.  

[Pandora Green]

Chapter 15
Hinata awoke in a haze of pain. Her chest ached so much it took an act of will just to inhale. The air she inhaled was redolent of medicinal smells. She almost choked on the cloying odors, but just imagining how much coughing would hurt made her throat relax.
She cracked open sleep-gummed eyes to see a hand wreathed in glowing blue-green chakra rest lightly on the blanket over her sternum. As the glow flared the pain eased, just a little. After a moment, she realized she was in a hospital.
Then she remembered the fight with Neji. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how determined she was, she still couldn't defeat her cousin.
She'd been so hopeful going into that fight. She'd trained so hard, learned so many new things. This was her chance to prove that she had changed, just a little. But in the end, her father was right. She was nothing but a stain on the main family. Better that she'd died and left no reminder of her legacy of failures.
For that matter, she was honestly surprised she'd survived. Her last memory was Neji charging at her in response to her final words. She'd already recognized the signs of internal injuries and known that her hard work had been for nothing, just like the rest of her meaningless life. But she'd wanted to leave her cousin with… something besides the bitterness that she could see was consuming him. It wasn't his fault she was a weakling born into his proper place within the clan.
Trying to remember was so hard, but she thought there might have been a familiar surge of chakra and a sense of… motion? Everything else was blackness.
Hinata tried to shift a little under the starchy hospital bedding, but a renewed surge of pain demonstrated the folly of that. She hadn't even managed to die with honor… after publicly demonstrating that the Hyuuga branch family was stronger than the main family. It didn't matter that Neji was a year older; her father's daughter should have prevailed. Instead, she had publicly humiliated him.
Hinata let her eyes fall closed and wished for the death she'd been denied.
OoOoO
Naruto didn't know which was worse, waiting at the hospital or waiting at home. He supposed he should be grateful that Kurenai-sensei made the decision for him. She sent him home under orders after three days of waiting for Hinata to wake up. He supposed he was getting a little ripe, but she'd also ordered him to stay out of the hospital until she sent for him.
He and Shino were excused from missions to prepare for the Chuunin exam finals. His teammate was planning to spend most of his time working with his parents in their specialties, but for once Naruto didn't really feel like training.
He'd become so used to practicing with Hinata that it felt... wrong… somehow to train without her.
Maybe it was a good thing that Gai wasn't really giving him any choice in the matter. He and Lee were waiting for him outside his apartment when he woke up the next morning.
For once, Gai wasn't his normal, completely over the top self. Instead, he somewhat somberly informed Naruto that Kurenai wished to be on hand when Hinata woke up. Naruto nodded when he heard that – she'd assured him that she or Iruka-sensei would be there for her. But then Gai went on to say that Naruto's warning about Sabaku no Gaara prevented Lee from being seriously injured during their match. Thus, they owed Naruto a debt of honor and would discharge this obligation by helping him fan the fires of his youth in preparation for the finals.
Naruto noticed that neither of them mentioned Neji. He wasn't about to bring up the b*****d either.
But if he thought early mornings with the Gai and Lee show were strenuous, adding noon and evening sparring sessions was downright insane. And even if he managed to tire Lee out, Gai would have him do cool-downs while he 'tested Naruto's power of youth' himself. The first time this happened, Naruto realized what a pachinko ball felt like.
But it did keep him from worrying about his teammate. Gai-sensei worked him so hard the rest of that first week that each night he fell asleep the instant his head hit the pillow.
OoOoO
Shino spun the kamas in his hands as he settled into a modified back stance. While the motions served no intrinsic purpose, they did demonstrate a degree of manual dexterity and expertise that could serve to intimidate potential foes. While normally it was better to conceal one's capabilities, there were circumstances in which overt demonstrations can achieve mission objectives without necessitating excessive violence.
Not that there weren't occasions in which violence was preferable. Not for the last time, he envied Naruto's opponent selection in the upcoming finals.
Irrational behavior was not something appreciated by any Aburame and Shino was no exception to this. When that behavior resulted in serious injury to his teammates, he found himself desiring a role in undertaking the appropriate corrective action.
While there was a slim probability that he would meet Neji in the finals, Naruto would first have to lose to the Hyuuga prodigy, something he did not wish to see happen. Aside from the implications for team morale, he did not think Naruto would let anything stop him short of death or incapacitating injury.
But if the worst happened, he would be ready. He cleared his mind and began the next kata, his blades a blur of motion.
OoOoO
The third Hokage set aside the scroll he was reading with a sigh. It was the third petition he'd received in a week concerning the results of the preliminary matches. Each was worded differently, but they all suggested, in various diplomatic terms, that he 'adjust' the results to address some 'obvious errors'.
Oddly enough, none of the apparent authors of these missives were shinobi – though he was certain at least one of them may have been prompted by one of the major clans. He noticed a certain turn of phrase, "uphold the honor of Konohagakure," that sounded a lot like Hyuuga Hiashi. But for the most part, shinobi took the rank examinations very seriously. Indeed, their own status was based upon fitness certified by these tests. Showing any sort of favoritism threw the whole system into question.
But to other residents of the village, the rank exams were political exercises. He himself explained that to the examinees a week ago. The performance of the genin reflected glory on their home village. Strong shinobi implied a strong village – which meant more and better contracts in the future. But the civilians also understood clan politics and prestige as well. In previous generations, the Uchiha Clan had helped carry Konoha to glory and prosperity. The loss of almost every member of that clan was a blow that was only dwarfed by the attack of the Kyuubi nearly a decade before that. The fact that Konoha still retained a surviving heir was some consolation, and it suited many peoples' sense of appropriateness that the sole remaining Uchiha showed signs of great skill and ability.
To such people, Uchiha Sasuke's elimination in the preliminary round was practically a blow to their personal aspirations. No matter that it was almost unheard of for a rookie genin to pass the Chuunin Exam – it was only due to their skill that he and his team were even allowed to enter. Such people, ignorant of why the examination must be rigorous, wished to see the rules bent for their favorite. That way, they could continue to boast of the invincible Uchiha genius that was the pride of their village.
The Sandaime shook his head ruefully. To the genin's credit, he didn't think Sasuke would accept any favors, even if they were offered. By all reports, Hatake Kakashi was training his team harder than ever after they were eliminated from the Chuunin Exam – and only Uchiha Sasuke had refrained from commenting on the grueling pace. Any appearance of coddling or favoritism now would only inflame his wounded pride. For that matter, this whole situation may have been a good thing for Team Seven's sensei as well. Yuuhi Kurenai was not given to excessive boasting, but he was sure she'd made at least a few pointed remarks to the colleague that seemed to exasperate her most.
It probably didn't help that the one who defeated the Uchiha prodigy was the village pariah. One of the more offensive messages he'd received argued that of course Naruto had to have drawn on the demon caged within him to beat the Uchiha. Thus it was only fair that he be disqualified and the victory awarded to Sasuke. Even putting aside the issue of how to explain such a decision to the genin without violating his own rule, the Hokage was offended that they thought Naruto could use the demon's chakra without anyone noticing. Kage aside, high-ranking ninja from more than one village had been watching the matches with considerable interest. Did that simpleton think no one had even considered the possibility?
Not for the first time, the Hokage wondered if it was such a good idea to let non-shinobi citizens have such a large say in the running of the village. Starting during his first term, and continued during the Fourth's reign, the civilians and village council were encouraged to take a more active role in managing Konoha than was typical in a hidden village.
These greater freedoms and political stakes had paid off in many ways. Konoha's economy was much more active and robust than usual for a ninja village. This went hand in hand with a steadily increasing population and higher quality of life. But at the same time, these newly empowered villagers had been given the power to ask inappropriate questions, the power to poke their noses into things that were really not their concern.
More than once he'd discussed the ramifications of what they were doing with his successor. But every time Sarutobi started to question the wisdom of their course, the blond-haired man who would sacrifice everything for Konoha stayed firm in his convictions. He'd reminisce about infiltration missions he'd taken to Iwakagure and how the common villagers lived in fear of their shinobi. They had no rights under the harsh laws of Stone and their lives reflected this. "The farther away we are from their path," he insisted, "the better off we are." Amazingly, the Iwa leadership still didn't understand why their villagers were only half as productive as those of their rival in the Land of Fire.
It was painful irony indeed that those villagers would use that freedom to persecute the Yondaime's legacy, but the old man supposed it was inevitable. Giving people freedom meant also giving them the freedom to behave foolishly. He shook his head wearily. At least he could accord this latest proposal with all the respect it deserved, he thought as he dropped it into a wastebasket.
OoOoO
The second time Hinata regained consciousness, the pain was much less than it had been before. She could now take shallow breaths without stabbing pains that seemed to go right through her. The skin of her face felt cool and her eyes were clear of secretions. Someone had recently wiped her face with a damp cloth. She willed her eyes to focus, trying to make out details in the dimly lit hospital room.
"Hinata?" a voice quietly spoke.
She shifted her eyes in the direction of the sound, making out a vague profile that looked like her sensei. This was getting a little frustrating. Her constant failures aside, Hinata was used to having fairly acute vision – it was a legacy of the Byakugan that almost no Hyuuga suffered from normal vision defects.
The figure took a step forward and she could see that it was, in fact, her sensei. "Don't try to use your eyes," she said in a somber voice. "Your bed is under a chakra suppressing seal. Some of your inner coils were damaged and the medic-nins don't want to risk a rupture before they are fully repaired."
Hinata let out a tiny sigh. The fact that such extreme measures had to be taken only underlined how badly she'd failed. "I'm sorry," she said in a very small voice.
Kurenai-sensei nodded. "I know, but it's not just me you need to apologize to."
Hinata swallowed. "Yes. I humiliated my father."
"And I don't think you are sorry for the correct reasons," her sensei continued.
Hinata fell silent, looking at her teacher and feeling even more stupid and useless.
"You fought well," Kurenai said. "I and the other jonin-sensei were impressed by the gains you have made. Gai claims you have the 'youthful potential of genius', whatever that means."
For a moment, Hinata allowed herself to believe her sensei, and the sick weight of guilt on her spirit seemed to lighten for a moment. But the memory of her father's face brought her back to reality. No matter how well others might think she had done, she had failed to live up to the standards of her clan.
Kurenai leaned forward a little more and Hinata noticed that her expression was one of stern disapproval. "I do, however, find myself questioning your judgment."
"S-sensei?" she asked, hating herself for the quaver in her voice.
"At the end of the fight," she clarified, "when you kept getting up again. You couldn't even defend yourself at that point. Did you actually believe you still had a chance to defeat your cousin?"
Hinata thought back to that time. She'd been in so much pain that the idea of launching an attack was ludicrous, really. But she couldn't bear the thought of failing again, failing in front of everyone, her teacher, her teammates. Naruto. Staying down meant adding to her legacy of failures. She would not stay down. Not again. She'd rather…
Staring off into the distance, she glanced back at Kurenai-sensei's face and slowly shook her head.
"Were you trying to die?" Kurenai asked in a voice that was little more than a whisper.
Hinata stared at her teacher, those words freezing her in place. She tried to shake her head, to deny them, but she couldn't. At the time, she honestly would rather have died than live with such a failure. Ending it all was preferable to what would happen afterward… proving her father correct, again… seeing the disappointment in everyone's faces, no matter how hard they tried to hide it.
Evidently Hinata's lack of response was answer enough, because Kurenai-sensei sighed and leaned back in her chair. "That's what I thought," she said after a moment. "Hinata, you need to listen to me and pay close attention. Right now I'm not sure I will ever be able to certify you to return to active duty."
Hinata felt like her stomach was encased in a block of ice. "A-are my injuries that bad?" she asked.
"It's not your physical injuries I'm concerned about," Kurenai clarified. "It's your state of mind. I can't have someone on my team that places no value on her own life."
Hinata could only stutter out "I-I'm s-sorry, sensei."
Kurenai just shrugged. "I suppose it's more my fault than yours. I should have realized this sooner. I just thought you actually cared about your teammates."
That accusation tore through Hinata's heart like a kunai. "S-sensei!" she gasped with just a touch of outrage. She might be a perpetual failure, but no one could say she didn't care for her teammates. No one should be able to… she… she cared for them more than her family, at times. More than anything, really.
Kurenai cocked her head and peered down at Hinata, making her feel like one of Shino's new acquisitions. "Did you ever consider the effect that your death would have on them?" she asked. "Naruto was so worried about you that he nearly forfeited his match because he didn't want to leave the infirmary. Shino is just as upset, in his own way, and I understand that he made a public death threat against your cousin."
Hinata froze as her mind tried to wrap itself around this new information. To be honest, she didn't think Naruto would react so strongly, but she still damned herself for her thoughtlessness. No matter that she wasn't thinking clearly during the fight, too much was going on, too much was at stake. She'd forgotten her team in her rush to prove herself… to her father. Hyuuga or not, that was inexcusable.
But Kurenai wasn't finished. "And now Naruto will face Neji in his first match of the finals, and I'm fairly sure he intends to kill him – no matter if it disqualifies him. Shino doesn't care so much about his foes as the chance that he might face Neji as well… to avenge you. These are the people you forgot about when you faced your cousin. These are the people that you thought wouldn't care if you got yourself killed."
Hinata felt something snap within her. Suddenly the bedclothes were too tight as she levered herself up on her elbows, ignoring the spasms of pain in her chest. "Why do they care?" she heard herself asking in a rasping growl that made her want to cough. "Why should anyone care if a failure like me dies? I'm useless! I'm worthless! I can't beat my cousin. I can't even beat my little sister! I never do anything right – it would be better if I was dead, or never even born, so they'd have someone useful in my place." Her rant dissolved in a flurry of coughing that left her curled on her side with a coppery taste flooding the back of her mouth.
She barely noticed a hand gripping her shoulder as the coughing subsided. "Who told you that you are worthless?" Kurenai asked in a softer voice.
Hinata tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come. She felt her face reddening. She was mortified by her outburst. What had possessed her to say such things, even if they were true? Kurenai-sensei would have no choice but to remove her from the team now. She would never get to see Naruto or Shino again.
As Hinata struggled to get her breathing under control again. Kurenai-sensei helped her sit up. Her sensei wiped a cloth across her lips that came away with a faint smear of pink. "Don't speak," Kurenai commanded her, "just nod. Did your father tell you these things?"
Hesitantly, Hinata nodded.
"That is no surprise to me. I find him to be a cruel and spiteful man," Kurenai said in an angry voice.
Hinata felt a surge of guilt because she didn't argue with her. Being the leader of the clan required him to be demanding at times, even harsh. But it was all for the good of the clan, wasn't it?
"You told me once that he has a very low opinion of Naruto," Kurenai continued. "Do you think he is correct in that hatred as well?"
Hinata shook her head, but frowned. Her father hardly knew Naruto, but he'd raised her from infancy. Surely he knew her better.
"I can see you are not convinced," Kurenai said with a sigh. "Who do you spend the most time with every day? You know the answer as well as I."
Hinata swallowed and nodded. Training with Naruto, hours each day, was something she'd only dreamed could happen when they attended the Konoha Ninja Academy. The thought of losing that if Kurenai-sensei removed her from the team was unthinkable.
"Good," Kurenai said. "Would Naruto agree with your father? And given how much time you spend with each other, who would you say has the more accurate estimation of your ability?"
Hinata froze in place, not even breathing for a moment. Unbidden, a memory of Naruto's words echoed through her mind, "Hinata, you rock!" She wanted to dismiss the question - she knew Naruto was nice to almost everyone. But was it possible that Naruto knew her better than her father? Maybe instead of being a constant failure, she did 'rock', even just a little?
Kurenai stood up. "I'll leave you to think on that, Hinata. I'll hold off on making any decisions regarding your status for now, but you should give serious thought to what we've talked about."
Hinata nodded slowly and lay back on the bed as her sensei faded into the shadows of the room. She barely heard the door open and close.
OoOoO
"How much better your life would have been," Kurenai whispered as she closed the door, "if your father had died, instead of your mother."
She took a deep breath as she made her way down the corridor. The medicinal smells that clung to hospitals the world over made her faintly nauseous. Her mind replayed the look on Hinata's face when she'd delivered her ultimatum and her stomach rebelled. Only the iron self-control of a jonin kept her face expressionless as she made her way to the bathrooms. Once the door was closed and she was sure she was alone, Kurenai bolted for one of the stalls and promptly emptied her stomach.
Wiping her mouth, she tried to forget the desolate look in her student's eyes, the raw, writhing emotion on the girl's face when she regurgitated her father's hateful words. Tears stung in red eyes that had spurned such things in years gone by.
Cruel necessities, no matter how needful, were still cruel.
OoOoO
Hyuuga Neji fell back into a ready stance, waiting for his teacher to attack. He had been informed, the day after the preliminary matches, that Hiashi-sama would be taking personal charge of his training in the month leading up to the finals. Gai-sensei accepted this with barely more than a nod. His jonin-instructor had been rather cool toward him since the match with his cousin. While highly skilled, Maito Gai did not understand how things worked within the Hyuuga clan, nor did he appear to care.
Neji was acutely aware of the unusual interest his uncle expressed in his development, leading to his inclusion in training normally only given to main family members. This led to some very discreet whispering among the Hyuuga elders, but Neji's growing prowess silenced any complaints. Being the top rookie of his year was an accomplishment, even for a Hyuuga. Not even his cousin in the main family had managed that.
Neji suppressed a twinge as Hiashi-sama lunged toward him. He spun into a picture-perfect Jyuuken block – nothing less would have sufficed. Thinking about the match with Hinata made him… uncomfortable. Aside from his lapse in composure at the end, it had suitably showcased his capabilities. A main family ninja once considered the heir to the clan had only landed one significant blow before she was defeated. He smoothly slid into a counterstrike his teacher avoided with ease. Neji's anger in response to her inappropriate words at the end of the match was far overshadowed by her own emotional displays. Her almost desperate desire to defeat him was inappropriate for a shinobi representing a clan that prided itself on having firm emotional control. The Uchiha insanity would not strike at the foremost of Konoha's shinobi clans.
Hiashi's last strike wasn't fully deflected and Neji felt the muscles in his forearm burn as a bruise formed. He neither knew nor cared why Hinata was so desperate to beat him, nor why she had kept getting up after her defeat was sealed along with her tenketsu. But he knew he had done nothing wrong. Her own father had commended him on his performance in the preliminary matches, and Neji knew he was less than pleased with hers. Not only had he not been to the hospital, but he forbade any other clan members from seeing her before she was released. Neji knew that some branch family members, especially women who had known her mother, privately expressed sympathy for the discarded heir. Of course, a true heir would scorn such expressions of useless sentiment.
Back on the attack, Neji began another combo, but hesitated slightly on the last blow, hoping his teacher's block would follow the normal timing. It almost worked, but all he ended up with was a bruised wrist as Hiashi turned the blow aside. That earned a slight nod from the clan leader – his was an acceptable variation on traditional forms, unlike all the tricks Hinata had used to try and beat him… something he knew Hiashi-sama was less than pleased to learn of.
Still, the reactions of his peers were somewhat disquieting. Lee, while little more than a parody of their jonin-instructor, was still competent within his limited range of capabilities. Moreover, Tenten was one of the more accomplished kunoichi of their generation. Their defeats in the preliminaries were due to unfortunate match-ups rather than lack of ability. Each faced an opponent that possessed skills that effectively neutralized their specialties. For that matter, it was Hinata's fate to meet a more competent Jyuuken user in her match.
But both of them had exhibited the same quiet disapproval as Gai-sensei, as if he had done something wrong or shameful. It was unfortunate that they did not seem to understand how things worked in the real world. If you fought someone stronger, you were destined to lose, and railing against the nature of things would only lead to worse injury. He learned that lesson the last time he saw his father alive. The only way to avoid this was to harden one's heart and become as strong as possible. Anything else was foolishness, and being a shinobi allowed no room for such things. If they could not come to understand this, then he would be forced to request a transfer once he became a chuunin.
It was interesting to note that Tenten, before shunning him along with the others, did see fit to warn him that Hinata's teammates were extremely angry about the injuries he'd inflicted during her defeat. Both would likely seek revenge when he faced them. Neji thanked her for the information, but didn't consider it very important. They would face him and, angry or not, they would be defeated.
It was their fate.
OoOoO
Naruto couldn't suppress a twinge of nervousness when Kurenai appeared at the end of his morning session with Gai and Lee. It took some effort not to rush through Gai's cool-down exercises and go see what Kurenai-sensei wanted, but he ground his teeth and stuck to the routine. Gai-sensei had lectured both him and Lee on the importance of both stretching and doing proper cool-downs, and making him repeat that lecture would only delay things more.
Finally, when they were dismissed, Naruto hustled over to see his jonin-sensei.
"I see you are still improving," she said in an approving tone that made Naruto's face heat up, just a little.
"I'm still trying to catch up to Lee," he said honestly. Despite his loss to Gaara in the preliminary match, Lee still dominated the beginnings of their sparring sessions, putting Naruto on the defensive until his greater stamina came into play. Considering that Sabaku no Gaara had done the same, according to Shino, Naruto worried, just a little.
"If that is the standard by which you choose to measure yourself, then I think you will continue to improve," Kurenai replied. "Gai-sensei's offer to train you this much is very generous. Make the most of this for now. I will concentrate on gathering as much information as possible on the opponents you and Shino will face in the finals, especially this Gaara person. Closer to the matches we will meet to work out what strategies and techniques will prove most effective."
It took a moment for Naruto to digest that. His sensei was being especially enigmatic today. Finally, he just nodded to acknowledge her words. He missed her team training sessions but she had a point. Plus it would be a little awkward since he and Shino might end up fighting each other at some point. Anyway, finding out how to beat Gaara would be worth it, let alone Neji.
"I thought you would want to know that Hinata is well enough to receive visitors today," his teacher announced, pulling him out of his reverie.
Naruto smiled with relief. "Can we go see her now?" he asked quickly.
Kurenai nodded and they began walking toward the center of town. On a sudden impulse, Naruto created a shadow clone and handed it some money. "A double order of miso ramen to go - meet us at the hospital," he ordered. As the clone sped off, he called after it. "It's for Hinata, so stay out of it!"
When he turned back to his sensei, she had a curious expression on her face. "You've certainly become rather… casual… with that technique," she observed.
Naruto shrugged. "It's useful sometimes. And the more I practice it, the better I seem to get with it. Besides, I know that hospital food sucks."
"I don't disapprove," Kurenai-sensei said, "I just don't think most jonin have considered uses for that technique outside of missions. And how do you know about hospital food?"
Naruto shrugged. "I was in there once when I was a kid. I think a brick fell on my head or something, I don't remember very well. The only thing I do remember clearly is wanting to get out of there because the food tasted awful."
Kurenai-sensei nodded thoughtfully and they were quiet until they reached the hospital. An annoyed-looking clone was waiting for them, holding a bag. "Konohamaru almost popped me and spilled this," the clone growled as it handed Naruto the food. "I told the brat that if he ruined Hinata-chan's food with one of his games, she'd let the missing-nins keep him next time."
Naruto made a face when the clone dispersed itself and he received the memories. "What a potty-mouth," he muttered. He hoped no one saw him chewing out the Hokage's grandson like that.
When he turned back, Kurenai-sensei had the oddest expression on her face.
OoOoO
Any worries about foul-mouthed clones disappeared from Naruto's mind when he saw his teammate lying on a hospital bed. He'd always thought of Hinata as strong – he wasn't kidding when he said she kicked butt as a ninja. But seeing her like this… she was so small. Had someone done a shrinking jutsu on her? Or did she just look bigger in his memories?
He supposed it was the latter, because he was also struck by how still she was. She appeared to be napping, with only the motion of her slow breaths keeping him from thinking the worst. A sudden spike of white-hot rage bloomed in the pit of his stomach. He was going to make Neji pay for hurting her.
He supposed he must have released a little of that 'killing intent' stuff Kurenai had explained to them about, because Hinata's eyes suddenly popped open. Embarrassed, he quickly stifled his anger. He didn't want to upset Hinata or make her feel worse.
"N-Naruto?" she asked in a thick voice as she sat up and rubbed at her eyes.
For an instant Naruto was struck by how cute she looked doing that, scrubbing at her eyes with the back of her hand like a little kid – nothing like the graceful kunoichi that sparred with him. He shook his head. She wouldn't appreciate him making fun of her either. "I brought ramen!" he announced after an awkward pause, holding up the bag. Hinata blinked. The nurses had eyed his burden rather dubiously as they exited the elevator, but Kurenai-sensei did that scowling-but-not-really-scowling thing and they didn't say anything.
Hinata gave him a tremulous smile as Naruto carefully placed the bag on her bed-side table and opened it. He carefully handed her the covered container and a pair of chopsticks. She straightened up a little more, smoothing the blankets, and then peered at the bag. "Aren't you going to have some?" she asked.
"Nah," Naruto said, "I'm not really hungry."
Hinata froze in place, staring at him.
"Er, I mean, that is," Naruto babbled quickly, "I'm going to get some later. I just got done sparring with Lee and I need to let my stomach settle. You know that lotus thing, right?"  

[Pandora Green]

Hinata nodded slowly and then cracked open the container. The reek of medicinal smells and disinfectants was swept away by the fragrant steam of hot ramen broth. Naruto considered this a vast improvement and his salivary glands agreed. Next time he was going to find a way to sneak in an order big enough for both of them to eat. Trying to distract himself from his annoying stomach, he glanced at the bag and noticed it wasn't completely empty.
"Hey," Naruto said as he pulled a folded piece of paper from the bag. "Ayame stuck a note in there. It says she hopes you get well soon. Isn't that-"
His words cut off when he looked back at Hinata and saw her lower lip trembling. Her head bent forward as her hands began to shake. Naruto rescued the ramen and put it back on the table as she sniffed loudly. "Hinata? What's wrong? Is it the-"
His words were cut off when Hinata let out a low cry and buried her face in her hands.
Naruto looked back at Kurenai-sensei for help, but the jonin was no longer standing in the doorway. The door itself was closed, and he considered going to get a nurse for help, but he didn't think Hinata would appreciate that. He remembered how Ayame took Hinata aside to help her get cleaned up. He needed to help her without embarrassing her worse. He had to. This was his friend.
It would really help if he'd known what to do. He gingerly sat on the edge of the bed and awkwardly patted her shoulder, but that seemed to have no effect. "Neh, Hinata, it's okay?" he asked, feeling like a complete idiot. Why didn't they cover this in the Academy? Most of the boys in his class ended up teamed with a girl, and girls cried, right? Why didn't Iruka-sensei tell us what to do when that happened? Maybe that psychologist guy was supposed to tell us that privately and he screwed me there too.
"Hinata, don't cry!" he finally said, surprising himself with the pleading tone that came out of his mouth. He really hated this. He hated seeing her upset, almost as much as seeing her hurt. Neji was going home from the finals in a damn body bag if he could manage it. No. He didn't need to be angry right now. That wouldn't help. He tried patting her back, but that didn't help either. She was shaking like leaf.
"I'm sorry," Hinata wailed. And suddenly her hands were fisted in the material of his jacket as she held onto him like she was drowning and he was a life preserver.
"For what?" Naruto asked, feeling stupid. He felt like he was only getting about half of this conversation. The patting wasn't working. That wasn't a surprise, since she wasn't Akamaru. I am an idiot, he thought. It wasn't working. What was wrong with his brain? Hinata was still crying. He gingerly settled his forearms across her shoulders in a kinda, sorta hug. Twisted around like this wasn't very physically comfortable… which was fine because it wasn't comfortable in any other way, either.
If anything, Hinata's crying got worse.
Naruto would have let go, possibly even gone to get a nurse. But now Hinata had somehow wrapped one of her arms around his back, exerting enough pressure to give Lee's turnip-planting jutsu a run for its money.
So instead he mostly just sat there, half twisted around, as the weeping sounds slowly abated. Hinata took a great, shuddering breath that suddenly exploded into a fit of coughing. She let go of his waist as she doubled over, but one hand was still holding onto his jacket, shaking as it held her up.
Naruto twisted around and grabbed a cloth from the table, holding it out for Hinata to grab. She held it up to her mouth as the coughs made her whole body spasm. When she brought the cloth away from her mouth, Naruto saw a flash of red and wanted to kill her cousin all over again.
But at least she was breathing easier now. Her voice was only a little rough when she quietly thanked him.
Naruto helped her lay back on the bed and fussed with the covers, trying to straighten them. "Do I need to get a nurse?" he asked in a worried tone.
"No," she answered in a small voice. "One of the Jyuuken strikes hit my lung and caused a rupture. It's healing, but there are blood clots loosening. The doctor says the treatments are softening them as well, but coughing them up naturally is the best way to expel them."
"Oh," Naruto said. That was really kind of gross. He wondered how Neji would like it if Naruto just pulled one of his lungs out through his nose. That would probably be even more disgusting though. Better think of something else before Hinata thought she was grossing him out. "I don't really understand what you have to be sorry for," he continued.
Hinata went very still and Naruto wanted to kick himself. "I was very selfish," she said after a moment. "I… when I fought Neji."
Naruto scowled. "Don't worry, Hinata, I'm going to beat him like a drum."
Hinata shook her head. "Kurenai-sensei is disappointed in me… I…"
"No way!" Naruto interrupted. "You were great! You fought so hard, everyone was impressed! I loved it when you nailed him with one of your weights! He looked like he swallowed his tongue when you did that!"
"But I still failed," Hinata said, looking down at her hands clasped in front of her. Naruto could see her knuckles whitening. "I was so ashamed of my failure… I think I kept getting up when I had no chance to beat him… because I would rather have been killed than lose again. I… I wasn't thinking about anyone but myself."
Naruto stared at his friend as his mouth slowly fell open.
"I wanted to let you know now… in case…," she swallowed. "In case Kurenai-sensei has me removed from the team."
"No!" Naruto snarled. Hinata flinched and her wide eyes snapped up to meet his. "I won't let her!"
"Naruto-kun!" Hinata gasped and in the pale red glow on the blankets he realized that the red chakra was beginning to show. It seemed to be appearing more and more often lately, usually when he thought about the preliminary matches.
Naruto took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. "I'll talk to Kurenai-sensei," he said after a moment. He was proud of the evenness of his tone. "I'll get Shino to help if I have to. No one wins an argument with him."
Hinata shook her head. "No, it's all right-"
"No, it's not all right," Naruto said, some heat creeping back into his voice. "You're part of our team, and we're not going to just give up on you. You belong with us. We'll make her see that."
With that, Naruto spun and marched out of the room. It was pretty rude, but he had to leave before he said something worse. How the hell could Kurenai-sensei say that to her?
He took no note of the nurses and doctors as he left the hospital, though he did notice more than a few people hurrying to get out of his way. He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised to see his sensei standing just outside the entrance.
"She told you," Kurenai said. It wasn't a question.
"Yeah, she did," Naruto spat. "Sensei, how could-"
Kurenai cut him off with a sharp gesture. "This is better discussed elsewhere. Meet me at our normal training area," she ordered, and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Naruto wouldn't have been surprised to learn that he'd set a new personal record for traversing the roofs of Konoha. It felt good, in a way, to exercise after what he'd just heard. Using his muscles as hard as he could gave vent to at least some of his more violent emotions.
Kurenai-sensei was standing in the middle of the clearing, so Naruto hurtled out of the trees to land next to her. She didn't even flinch, but began speaking even as he straightened up.
"You are upset about what you have learned," she began.
"Yes, Sensei," Naruto agreed. "How could you even think of threatening to remove her from the team?" he asked. The sheer injustice of it all made his hands shake. He wanted to hate his teacher for a moment, but she wouldn't just do something like that for no reason, would she?
"Would you rather see Hinata removed from the team or dead?" Kurenai asked flatly.
Naruto froze.
"It's a very serious question," Kurenai continued. "I wouldn't be free to discuss this if she hadn't already told you, but her behavior during the match gives me reason to be very concerned. Determination is all well and good, but such disregard for her own well-being is not acceptable."
"She just wanted to win," Naruto objected. "She wanted to do her best in the exam."
"She practically dared her cousin to kill her," Kurenai disagreed. "In a rank test. No lives were on the line. The village's safety was not at risk. But she considered her own survival unimportant."
Naruto stood there, his sensei's words striking him like clubs. Thinking back over her match, he remembered wishing she'd stay down as Neji continued to pummel her, until finally the older Hyuuga had appeared ready to end her life before Naruto's substitution technique yanked her out of the way.
He took a deep breath and looked up at the noonday sky. He thought back to a conversation he and Shino had shared in their tent during the border patrol mission. "This has something to do with her screwed up family, doesn't it?" he finally asked.
"I'm fairly certain it does," Kurenai confirmed.
Naruto made a face. He suddenly had a bad taste in his mouth. He spit on the grass.
"Do you really think she should be placed in life and death situations unless this is resolved?" she asked.
Naruto shook his head.
"What are you planning on doing?" Kurenai asked as he began striding away.
"I don't know yet," was his honest answer.
OoOoO
Naruto was a mess during his noon-time session with Gai-sensei, and Lee nearly knocked him unconscious during their first spar. Eventually, Gai ended it early. Naruto apologized to the taijutsu specialist, but Gai merely waved it off. "It is clear," he said in his booming voice, "that the fires of your youth need to be banked, Naruto. Come back tomorrow when your mind and spirit are as one and you have regained your youthful focus."
Naruto didn't know if Kurenai-sensei had said something to Gai-sensei or not, but he thought the green-clad jonin was awfully optimistic about his problem-solving abilities. At the moment, he didn't have a clue as to what he should do.
After a quick lunch, Naruto found himself sitting on top of the Hokage monument. He looked out over Konoha and thought about the situation. No matter how many times he tried, he just couldn't seem to wrap his head around the differences between how Hinata was and how she saw herself. She didn't really think she'd done that well in the preliminary match, but everyone who knew her was impressed by what they saw. Why was it so different?
Eventually, he decided to head back and just ask her. It wasn't like his blundering mouth could make things any worse than they were.
Naruto arrived back at the hospital just in time to see Shino walking out of the entrance. He immediately changed his plans and intercepted his teammate.
"You have spoken to Hinata," Shino said with no preamble.
Naruto nodded. "You?" he asked.
"She has apologized to me as well for her… thoughtlessness," Shino replied. Naruto didn't even need to look up to know the forehead over those dark glasses was furrowed.
"Remember what we talked about on the patrol mission?" Naruto asked him.
Shino nodded. "That appears to be the most likely origin of our present situation."
Naruto gritted his teeth. He knew better than most that Shino's emotionless voice was not an accurate gauge of his teammate's real feelings. "So what are we going to do about it?" he asked.
"Do?" Shino asked. "I am not sure this is a situation we are qualified to deal with."
"We can't do nothing!" Naruto protested.
"Our instructor will undertake the proper corrective action," Shino said. "There are professionals better equipped to deal with this situation than we are."
"They'd probably remove her from the team first!" Naruto hissed, struggling to keep his voice down. "That would kill her. Maybe for real."
Shino just looked at him for a long moment. Naruto had learned how to tell, glasses or not. "You are highly agitated about this," he said after a moment.
"This is Hinata," Naruto said. "She's our teammate. We need to look out for her. We need to fix this. Not some assholes like the guy that tried to screw me up."
Shino was silent for a long time. "I have observed," he finally said after a while, "that our teammate is highly affected by your words, including intonation as well as phraseology and context."
Naruto blinked.
"She listens very closely to what you say," Shino clarified. "You, more than anyone."
"More than Kurenai-sensei?" Naruto asked in stark disbelief. "Why?"
"More than anyone," Shino confirmed. "It would be inappropriate for me to speculate regarding issues in which I do not have first hand knowledge. But that is what I have observed. I believe that you would be best suited to interact with Hinata in an effort to satisfactorily resolve this situation."
"Damn," Naruto said. "I was hoping she'd listen to you better."
Shino went very still. "And why is that?" he asked.
"Because you're smarter than me," Naruto replied. "I'll probably just make things worse."
"I do not believe that raw intelligence is the most important factor in resolving interpersonal issues," Shino declared. "I theorize that if you simply ask questions and listen attentively you will experience a greater degree of success than you anticipate."
OoOoO
Hinata felt better after Shino left. He accepted her admission of selfishness without batting an eye – that she could see anyway – and stated that he too was impressed by her performance. Furthermore, he did not wish to see her removed from Team Eight either. He said her conduct and capabilities were well above average for their cohort, and the team social interactions had proven to be more enjoyable than he had considered possible. He concluded that removing a key component from the matrix was neither necessary nor desirable.
Hinata accepted his words as they were spoken. It wasn't like Shino to whitewash a situation just to be nice. He was too precise for that. But still, remembering the disappointment in Kurenai-sensei's voice seemed to sweep all that away. It was just the latest in a grand litany of failures.
She wondered if she'd even be admitted back into the clan if she was rejected as a ninja. Probably not.
She jumped a little when the door opened and Naruto walked in. She had to firmly clasp her hands to keep from pushing her fingertips together in her nervous habit. She was a little mortified when she remembered how she broke down in front of him earlier. At least she'd been able to maintain her composure around Shino.
Naruto was silent as he carefully pulled up a chair and sat down next to her bed. She wanted to open her mouth, to say something, to apologize, to do something. But no words would come. Instead, she found herself staring at his face. No matter that it was rude and unmannerly, something her father would abhor, she just couldn't help it. Naruto, always so enthusiastic about everything, looked very different with such a somber expression. For a moment, she pictured him in the Hokage's robes again and felt a chill go down her spine.
"There's a lot going on here that I don't understand," Naruto began, jolting Hinata out of her reverie. "I'm used to not knowing things. But now I can't accept that. I don't understand how you can see yourself so differently than everyone else sees you. I don't understand why you… " he paused and swallowed. "Why you seem to hate yourself. Something is not right."
Hinata looked down. She didn't need Naruto to tell her she was defective. An unpleasant voice in the back of her mind said that it was about time Naruto saw the truth of things. Now maybe she would stop wasting her time…
Motion caught her eye and she looked up to see Naruto leaning forward, peering intently at her. He cocked his head in a manner eerily reminiscent of their sensei. "And I do not think that something is you, Hyuuga Hinata," he said, imitating Kurenai-sensei when she wanted to make a point.
Hinata froze, her mouth half-way open, the protests dying on her tongue as bright blue eyes bored into hers.
"I was an orphan," Naruto said after a moment, leaning back in his chair. "I don't really know what it's like to have a family, but I always wanted one. I always wondered what it would be like to have parents or a brother or sister. Maybe I had some idealized image of family, because I knew I'd never have one. Shino's parents seem kind of neat. But now I'm starting to wonder if I might have been better off in some ways."
Naruto's words tore at Hinata. She knew how lonely he'd been at times in the past. She knew now that he was ostracized because of the seal he bore. "Naruto… I…"
"Tell me about the Hyuugas," Naruto said, his tone gentle but firm.
Hinata found she could deny him nothing. She began speaking.
OoOoO
Naruto left the hospital two hours later, his head spinning. He felt like he'd sat through one of Kurenai's mega-lectures, only less organized. He'd had a glance into the life of one of Konoha's most prestigious clans, but he didn't really like what he saw.
The factual details were interesting. He had no idea there were that many feast days recognized in the Land of Fire, many of which required some sort of formal dinner. He had no idea the Hyuuga compound was as large as it was, and that there were several buildings set farther back in the grounds for the branch family. Tea ceremonies sounded weird, but boring after you sat through your first one. Maybe Hinata was graceful enough to make it interesting to watch.
But it was the things that were missing that made him wonder. Shikamaru was always telling stories about his dad saying or doing something troublesome. Kiba always complained about his big sister trying to boss him around. But Hinata didn't really have any stories about her father or her sister. She had a few pleasant recollections of her mother that were faded with age, but those only highlighted the lack with respect to her still living family members. As far as he could tell, Hinata avoided them as much as possible, and none of them seemed to ever have a kind word for her.
But the real eye-opener came after Hinata had another coughing fit. As she wiped her mouth and drank a little water, Naruto muttered darkly about how he was going to kill Neji at the finals.
Hinata immediately began pleading with him not to, which puzzled Naruto. At first, he thought she was just being too nice. Then he thought she was just worried about him getting in trouble.
Then the truth came out and it stunk like an opened grave.
To get at the heart of it, Hinata had to go back all the way to when she was almost a baby. She vaguely remembered her uncle Hizashi, Neji's father, who acted very different than his twin brother. She remembered seeing her father hurt him once using the curse seal, and had to explain how the branch family members were branded with it on their foreheads to keep them under the control of the Hyuuga main family.
It took a moment for Naruto to digest this. More than a moment, actually. The branch family members were, in some ways, little better than slaves of the main family. He felt a twinge of sympathy for Neji that he ruthlessly extinguished.
Then Hinata told him about the kidnapping attempt that ended with her father killing the assailant – who turned out to be a diplomat from Kumokagure. Kumo demanded the life of the killer, but Hyuuga elders sent Hizashi in his brother's place, leaving Neji fatherless. Later, with his mother dead as well, Neji was informally adopted by his uncle and trained along with his daughters. But the boy was always cool toward those who controlled the seal placed on his forehead.
Neji turned out to be unusually talented, Hinata told him, which was painfully ironic given his birth into the branch family. The main family was supposed to be stronger and more skilled, but he quite obviously overshadowed Hinata even years ago when she was the heir.
He wondered as she spoke if this tension was related to other things as well. Maybe Hinata wasn't as skilled as Neji, but she was still pretty damn good at what she did. Why did they have to label her as a failure?
Naruto wondered if her father resented Hinata in some way related to that whole mess, blaming her for the loss of his brother. It was stupid, but he couldn't think of anything else. He was about to ask her when the nurse entered the room and coolly informed him that visiting hours were over.
Now he found himself walking aimlessly through the streets of Konoha, pondering a problem that he wasn't sure had a solution. He really needed to talk to someone, but he didn't feel right discussing what Hinata had told him. It was… private. Her telling him that stuff, it was really a measure of the trust she placed in him. She was hesitant enough telling him, Naruto was sure she'd be really embarrassed if someone else knew, and he didn't want to make her feel worse.
Naruto was thinking so hard that he didn't even notice Iruka calling out to him until the chuunin's hand fell on his shoulder. Startled, Naruto spun around, making Iruka stumble back. While he was well enough to help with the Chuunin Exam, Naruto's old instructor was still recovering from the serious injuries he'd sustained battling the missing-nin kidnappers. Without thinking, Naruto grabbed Iruka's wrist to steady him.
Iruka halted in mid-stumble, much to his apparent surprise. "That's quite a grip you have there, Naruto," he said in a pleased voice. He smiled. "Want some ramen? My treat?"
Naruto started to apologize, but then remembered that Gai-sensei had given him the rest of the day off. "Sure, Iruka-sensei!" Weighty problems or not, ramen was ramen.
It was a little early for the dinner rush, so they found Ichiraku's mostly unoccupied. "Eat all you want," Iruka said in a grand voice.
Naruto looked over at one of the first people to really believe in him. "Are you sure you're all right, Iruka-sensei?"
"I made a lot of money off of you at the preliminary matches," Iruka informed him with an uncharacteristically smug grin. "When your match with Sasuke was announced, I made as many bets as I could before it started, and most of the chuunin and jonin gave me ten to one odds. You should have seen their faces when you won!"
Naruto was a little annoyed that people had been so sure Sasuke would beat him, but for the most part he was happy for Iruka. People that believed in Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage, should profit from it… especially at the expense of those who didn't. "If I'd known you were making bets, I'd have asked you to place some for me," he said sourly. "Maybe gone a little slower so you'd have time to place more."
Iruka chuckled and reached over to muss Naruto's hair. That gesture still made Naruto swallow heavily, which was the reason why Iruka was the only one he'd let get away with it. "Don't worry, I had enough time to wager all my back wages from when I was in the hospital."
Naruto felt his face redden. It meant something that Iruka, who was ordinarily very practical with expenditures, was willing to bet that much on him.
"I wish I'd been able to get in on that action," Old Man Ichiraku said as he handed them a couple of menus.
"I imagine there will be a lot of wagering on the finals," Iruka said as they placed their orders.
"True," the old man said, "but now everyone knows not to underestimate Naruto here, so the odds won't be as good."
Naruto could almost feel his head beginning to swell at those words. Only the thought of Kurenai-sensei's probable reaction kept his ego firmly under control.
Those thoughts were quickly dispelled by Teuchi's next question. "Is this Neji character Naruto has to fight next the one who beat Hinata?"
Naruto was fairly proud of his self-control. Not a word left his lips. Not a muscle moved in his face. It was just a coincidence that his chopsticks chose that moment to explode into a cloud of splinters.
Iruka shot a quick glance at Naruto before answering. "Yes, he hurt her pretty badly," he said quickly.
"Oh," the old ramen cook said, looking back and forth between Naruto and Iruka as the broth began to simmer. "How is she doing?" he asked with an uneasy expression.
"Better," Naruto said flatly.
"Is she allowed to have visitors now?" Iruka asked, seeming eager to change the subject.
Naruto nodded. "She started today," he said.
"Good," Iruka said with a smile. "I'll have to drop in and see how she's doing."
"She'd like that," Naruto said. He didn't add that she probably wouldn't have any visits from her family.
The conversation lapsed into a semi-comfortable silence as the old man prepared their orders. The ramen was as good as ever, but somehow it didn't taste quite right to Naruto. After his first bowl, Naruto sat back on the stool and glanced over at Iruka, who also seemed kind of quiet. "Sensei?" he asked after a moment, "have you ever had students who had problems?" Naruto struggled with how to do this. He needed to keep things as vague as possible to avoid giving away Hinata's secrets, but if he made them too general his questions would become meaningless.
"All my students have problems," Iruka assured him with a grin.
Naruto had no doubt he was at the top of that particular list. "I mean problems… problems at home."
Iruka looked thoughtful. "You mean with a family member?"
Naruto shrugged. "Or maybe problems with their family in general. I never had one so I was just curious." The excuse at the end was probably unnecessary, but he wasn't taking any chances. Iruka didn't seem overly curious, so maybe it was working…
"That can be tough," Iruka said thoughtfully. "Usually, there really isn't anything we can do about the family, so I just try to make school as much of a haven as possible."
Naruto looked confused.
Iruka drank the last of his broth. "Sometimes if there is a lot of stress in the home, a student may find coming to class a welcome relief from that stress. If I think they don't really have anyone in their family they can talk to about their problems, I make sure they know that they can talk to me."
"Do they?" Naruto asked, genuinely curious. He thought about how Iruka always seemed to be the one who supervised when he was forced to clean up the results of one of his pranks. The odd question now and then just seemed a way to ease his boredom, but now Naruto had a feeling there was more to it. This looking underneath the underneath could be fun. When it didn't give him a headache.
"Sometimes," Iruka said philosophically. "There really isn't anything you can do to force the situation, you have to just let them know help is available and wait for them to ask for it."
"That kind of sucks," Naruto said, wrinkling his nose. Beating the crap out of Hinata's family sounded like a much better idea. The only problem was that he didn't think it would help.
"It does," Iruka said, turning toward him. "It's awkward and it's frustrating, and often you feel like an idiot wasting your time. But you keep trying because it's important."
"That's it?" Naruto asked. "You just make yourself available and hope they ask for help?" He needed something more active or he was likely to go nuts.
"Well," Iruka drawled, "you can try to make them feel as comfortable as possible. I always think, 'When in doubt, do the friendliest thing'. Sometimes little things mean more than you realize, and even little things can add up eventually."
Naruto was quiet for a while as he digested this. "Did you ever get the urge to go to their home and start knocking heads together?" he finally asked.
Iruka's sudden laughter startled them both. "Most of the time," he admitted after a moment. "Not that it would do any good."
OoOoO
The next morning, Naruto showed up for his morning session with Gai and Lee determined to make up for his pitiful performance the day before. Instead of waiting for Lee to tire out, Naruto did his best to fight him to a standstill from the very beginning. Even as he accumulated a new set of bruises, Naruto chided himself for getting lazy. He'd gotten so used to his normal strategy with Lee that he wasn't pushing himself as hard as he could.
It also helped to have a way to vent the previous day's frustrations.
Lee's grin got wider and wider as Naruto continued to go on the offensive, and his taijutsu combinations became more and more elaborate. After a while Lee was doing things Naruto had never seen before, forcing him to block and counter on pure instinct. He realized after a moment that this was surprisingly fun.
Right up until Lee broke a bone in his forearm.
Naruto was blocking a punch to the face that suddenly turned into an off-angle kick intended to remove his head. There was loud crack, accompanied by a jolt of pain that made Naruto's whole arm go numb for a moment.
Naruto stumbled back, clutching his forearm. It was hot to the touch, but the blinding pain was already leaking away. Lee looked horrified, so Naruto just gave him a tight grin. "Good one," he said after a moment, letting go of his arm and flexing the hand. The pain was little more than a dull ache now.
He stepped forward to resume sparring, but Gai-sensei was having none of that. He'd evidently heard the crack as well, and insisted that Naruto have his arm x-rayed immediately.
On the way to the hospital, the jonin explained the best way to counter Lee's move, even as he chastised his genin for 'letting the fires of his youth burn out of control'.
Lee looked so disconsolate that Naruto spoke without thinking. "That's okay. After all, I don't think Neji is going to take it easy on me."
Both of the spandex-clad shinobi looked distinctly uncomfortable and Naruto cursed his stupid mouth. They were silent the rest of the way to the emergency room.
The doctors were less than enthusiastic about treating Naruto, especially since he didn't seem to be in too much pain, but Gai was insistent. The x-rays revealed only a faint shadow on the ulna that looked to be a hairline fracture that had healed long before. The medic looked annoyed at Gai for wasting his time, but Gai just explained that Naruto had taken a heavy blow while fanning the fires of his youth, and fulfilling his youthful promise to Naruto's instructor meant making sure there was no serious damage. The doctor's eyes glazed over halfway through this explanation and he didn't even notice when Gai took the x-ray with him.
Naruto stared at the jonin as he and Lee followed him out of the hospital. Did he do that on purpose sometimes?
By the time they returned to the training area, it was almost time for the morning session to be over anyway. Gai had them do a couple of kata before beginning the cool-down exercises.
After he was dismissed, Naruto created some clones and then stopped by the Yamanaka flower shop to purchase a cluster of yellow chrysanthemum flowers. During his conversation with Hinata, he'd noticed that her room didn't seem to have a single card or decoration. While she'd only just been cleared for visitors, he knew her worthless family wouldn't be bothered to do anything to cheer her up.
He shook his head. No matter what his opinion was, he didn't need to be ranting about them to Hinata. She knew what he thought, and getting too angry would only upset her.
When he returned to the hospital, arriving through the visitor's entrance this time, Naruto marched straight to Hinata's room and knocked on the door. He didn't want to give the nurse that kicked him out yesterday time to come up with an excuse for why he couldn't see his friend. He could feel a couple of glares aimed in his direction, but just ignored them. If Hinata had to put up with all that crap from her family, what did he have to complain about?
"Yes? Come in." maybe it was his imagination, but her voice seemed to be a little stronger today. He shifted the flowers so he was holding them behind his back.
"Good morning, Hinata-chan!" Naruto announced brightly as he opened the door and walked in.
She was indeed looking less pale than the day before and she seemed to be moving a little easier as she sat up. Surely if her face was that pink, her circulation must be improving as well.
"N-Naruto-kun," she said, sounding surprised. That bothered Naruto, just a little bit.
With a flourish, Naruto pulled the flowers from behind his back and placed them on the table. "I thought this place could use a little color," he explained.
"They're b-beautiful," Hinata said in a choked voice.
"I'm glad you like them," Naruto replied as he walked over to the window and opened it. The clones standing on the wall outside climbed in with their burdens.
"Gai said that was a good book on Goken katas and combinations," Naruto explained. "And I got ramen for both of us this time. Kurenai-sensei still had your bag and I figured there was some stuff in there that you might want so she let me bring it."
It took a moment for Naruto to unpack the ramen. When he looked up, Hinata was staring at him, clutching her bag and with the book sitting in her lap. "What?" he asked.
Hinata shook her head for a moment. "Why are you doing all this?" she asked, an uncertain tone creeping into her voice like a thief in the night. Naruto hated that painful way she had of second-guessing herself. He vowed to do his best to kill it.
"I just wanted to have lunch with my best friend," he explained as he handed her a steaming bowl.  

[Pandora Green]

Chapter 16
On his way to the hospital, Naruto cursed sulphurously when a clone's memories suddenly surged into his mind. The clone had been cutting through the hot springs carrying a bag of carryout from the dango shop when it was dispersed. Hinata had hesitantly asked if they could try something besides ramen the previous day, causing Naruto to smack himself on the forehead. He tended to get into a routine with his improvised lunch arrangements and forgot that not everyone was as crazy as he was about his favorite food.
Of course, Hinata immediately thought he was upset at her instead of himself.
Naruto shook his head. It had taken the rest of his afternoon visit to convince her that he wasn't angry with her. This was complicated by a growing sense of rage he felt toward her so-called family. Now that he had a rough idea of what life was like in the Hyuuga Clan, it was easier for him to see how it had twisted his friend.
Now he was doubly angry. His clone had seen a white-haired old man crouched down in front of the fence that screened the women's bathing area. The creepy old pervert was emitting a high-pitched giggle that made Naruto's skin crawl, even in memory. Disgusted, the clone demanded to know what he was doing there.
No sooner had the words left the ersatz Naruto's mouth than there was a loud pop and the old pervert was now facing him, sitting on top of a massive orange toad. The toad's mouth cracked open and an enormously long tongue shot out and wrapped itself around the clone's waist.
"You keeping making so much noise, you're going to get me caught," the white-haired old man said in a dismissive tone. There was a glimpse of a horned forehead protector holding back the white mane. Ninja? Wearing wooden geta on his feet? "Why don't you cool off?" the strange shinobi asked and the disgustingly slimy tongue flexed and whipped the clone off its feet and into the aqueduct that fed into the bath house.
Unfortunately, the impact with the water was hard enough to disperse the clone. Its last memory was flinging the bag of dango away from the canal.
Naruto scowled and immediately summoned ten more clones. Without a word, they took off for the hot springs to reclaim the dango… and keep an eye out for a white-haired older man in olive robes and a red over-jacket.
When he was still two blocks from the hospital, his mood became even more disgusted. His clones didn't find anything near the hot springs, aside from a lot of angry looking women. Of course, one of them assumed the green-clad boys were there to peep as well, and they'd been attacked and dispersed before they could ask a single question.
Naruto saw a bakery right across the street from where he was standing, but he knew the owners hated him on sight. Even if they deigned to serve him, he didn't want Hinata eating anything they knew was being sold to 'the demon boy'. He sighed and ducked into an alley. One quick henge later, he looked like a blond version of Kiba, without the facial tattoos. He strode out of the alley and crossed the street toward the bakery. Ordinarily, he wouldn't want to support their stupid business in any way, but this was for Hinata.
OoOoO
Naruto was just leaving the hospital when one of the chuunin that assisted the Hokage caught up to him.
"Naruto-san, the Hokage would like to see you as soon as possible," the young man said in an oddly respectful tone.
Naruto frowned. It was almost time for his next session with Gai-sensei. Well, there wasn't anything he could do about it. He created another clone and instructed it to find Gai-sensei and tell him Naruto had been summoned to the Hokage's office.
Naruto turned back to the chuunin, who looked slightly disconcerted, and simply said "Let's go."
The chuunin set a brisk pace, but Naruto wished they could get there sooner. He had no idea what jii-san wanted, but the way this day had gone so far, it probably wasn't good.
At least Hinata had liked the sweet bean buns.
OoOoO
Sakura stared after Naruto and the chuunin as they hurried down the street. Ino had to elbow her twice to get her attention, which almost sparked an argument. The word "Ino-pig" was about to leave her lips when she caught herself. Rebuilding a relationship with her former best friend was more work than she'd imagined. It was a little disturbing how ingrained some of her more… aggressive… reactions had become. It was one thing to realize that you weren't a very nice person, but doing something about it was quite another.
Instead, she made an effort to smile at her old friend. Ino returned it, a little tentatively. "Was that Naruto?" the blond asked.
Sakura nodded. "I think so," she answered. Ino frowned. She seemed a little ambivalent where their former classmate was concerned. Not that Sakura had much room to talk.
Things had been simpler at the Academy. Uzumaki Naruto was the class clown and an incessant prankster. He was really irritating, but it was also… reassuring… in a way. You could always predict what he'd do in a given situation. It was always "ramen" this or "Hokage" that. He was… safe.
Sakura had seen another side of him during the exams. His advice to Lee was something that still stung in her memory, mostly because it was true. Then the terrifying fight against that Grass ninja, when Naruto's team jumped in without hesitation. Even worse was the attack by the Sound genin team, and the terrifying auras enveloping Naruto and Sasuke when they woke up.
However, the biggest shock of all was during the preliminary matches. She'd wanted to cringe when Sasuke had brought up Hinata's defeat. Even if it was a valid tactic, it dishonored someone that had fought to defend him when he was unconscious. But she hadn't even had time to make a face before Naruto had decisively ended the match. Where was the class clown now?
Sasuke refused to talk about the match, even after the bandage was removed from his jaw. But when a disappointed-looking Kakashi-sensei announced they were starting extra training sessions, Sasuke threw himself into the lessons with a disturbing intensity.
"I heard he goes to visit her every day," Ino said in a faint voice.
"Who?" Sakura asked, jolted out of her reverie.
"One of the ladies visiting the shop complained that she's seen him at the hospital every day this week," Ino clarified. "He must be visiting Hinata."
That was rather… nice, Sakura concluded. She wondered if Sasuke would visit her in the hospital if she had been injured. She shook her head after a moment's thought. No. No, he wouldn't. Not if he had the option of training.
Sakura made an effort to change the subject and turned to Ino, asking her if Chouji or Shikamaru were nervous about their upcoming matches.
Listening to her old friend rant about her teammates was a balm to uneasy nerves. It was good to have her back.
OoOoO
Yuuhi Kurenai had just finished summarizing her notes when the messenger from the Hokage arrived. She took the message from the young chuunin with a nod and opened it. It was a polite request for her to report to the Hokage's tower at her earliest convenience. On an impulse, she decided to take her notes with her. She had little doubt the Hidden Sand jinchuuriki would come up in their discussion and she might need to reference the reports she'd gathered. She knew the Sand jinchuuriki had been under close surveillance since she'd made her original report, but he or his jonin-sensei must have sensed the watchers. They'd done nothing suspicious, but they were still shinobi – the lack of suspicious activity was itself cause for concern.
Kurenai stretched her shoulders and twisted her back to loosen it up as she began walking to the center of the village. She'd been at this for days, but the safety of Naruto and Shino demanded no less.
It was unfortunate that she'd been forced to miss watching Gaara's fight with Rock Lee. From Maito Gai's description of the match, the Suna Genin had incredibly formidable defenses, even though he'd been unable to match Lee's speed for most of the battle. More disturbing were reports from Mitarashi Anko concerning the crushed bodies she'd discovered in the aptly-named Forest of Death. The cause of death was catastrophic blunt trauma, though the masses of sand filling the crushed victims' noses and throats would have killed them almost as quickly. Only remnants of the sand remained, but the ruptures and distention of the oral and nasal cavities suggested they had once been packed full of sand. All the evidence suggested this was the handiwork of Sabaku no Gaara.
The fact that the genin was a killer was not lost on Kurenai. While a few deaths were considered unavoidable in the constant skirmishing during the second exam, the fact remained that this Gaara person seemed to have no compunctions regarding the taking of human life. Moreover, given the defenses Gai described, it was more than likely that Gaara's victims had no way of even hurting the Sand genin. The overall psychological profile she'd managed to develop was just as grim.
The political implications of the Kazekage entering such a dangerous predator into Konoha's chuunin exam were just as ugly. However, that was the Hokage's job to evaluate. Hers was to get him the most accurate information possible.
OoOoO
Kurenai had just gone over her data on Gaara when Naruto arrived.
"Hokage-sama, Sensei," Naruto greeted them with a polite bow, before quietly sitting in the other chair. Kurenai raised an eyebrow, wondering if she was being set up for another prank. Then she noticed out of the corner of her eye the old man's expression of stark disbelief. Maybe the joke wasn't on her this time.
"Ah, Naruto," the Hokage said after a moment. "I read your sensei's report regarding the events that occurred during the second exam. You said that you actually… spoke to it?"
Naruto nodded soberly, and Kurenai was inwardly pleased that he was taking this seriously. "It didn't like the idea of someone placing another seal on me. He said it could have effects on my mind, and he didn't want his vessel being controlled by someone else. Also, the seal's chakra was interfering with both my chakra and the fox's chakra." Naruto paused, scratching his head. "He was really a jerk about it, but I think he was actually worried."
The Sandaime puffed on his pipe while he digested this. Kurenai was a little disconcerted at the idea of the Kyuubi being worried about anything. It was like hearing about a typhoon with hurt feelings. "And you were able to remove Orochimaru's seal by forcing your chakra into it?"
Naruto nodded. "Mine, but mostly the fox's chakra. It hurt, right up until the stupid thing exploded," her student explained, unconsciously clutching his right forearm. "It's sort of like when you get a really infected pimple, so you squeeze the skin around it until it pops. It hurts the worst right before it explodes all over-"
"Yes, thank you Naruto!" Kurenai said quickly. She'd had her share of blemishes when she was younger, and had no desire to be reminded of all the gory details. No matter how apt a metaphor it might be.
She glanced quickly toward the Hokage, but the old man was merely nodding thoughtfully. "As the seal has worked constantly since you were a baby, the steady flow of chakra no doubt enlarged your coils, reinforcing them. That's why the pressure didn't rupture them." He nodded. "Naruto, since then, have you noticed any changes with respect to the seal or… your prisoner?"
Naruto shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable. "Not really. Sometimes I feel the red chakra a little easier when I'm mad at something, but I think that started before the Chuunin Exam."
The Hokage nodded gravely. "That doesn't sound too bad, Naruto, provided you keep your temper under control. I know you didn't ask for this responsibility, but you need to make sure there are not any… accidents."
Kurenai knew the Hokage was definitely hinting about the upcoming finals, but hoped he didn't press the point. Hyuuga Neji's behavior during his match with Hinata was just short of criminal, and her student's desire to return the favor was not something she disagreed with. On the other hand, if Naruto did get out of hand… some might seek to use that. Still, better to not belabor the point, or else Naruto might think they were more interested in protecting the Hyuuga prodigy.
Fortunately, the Hokage was satisfied with Naruto's quick nod. "I've also asked a former student of mine to return to Konoha. With all the people looking for him, I actually expected him before now. Apparently he was delayed. In any event, Jiraiya is an expert on seals, and he helped the Fourth develop some of the techniques that went into the seal placed on you, Naruto. He is probably the person most qualified to make sure the seal hasn't been damaged in any way." Kurenai's eyebrows lifted when she realized who the Hokage was referring to.
There was a knock at the door, and one of the chuunin guards stuck his head inside. "Jiraiya-sama is here, Hokage-sama," he said in a quietly reverent tone. From what little Kurenai had heard about the Hokage's legendary students, known throughout the land as the Sannin, it was more than merited.
After a nod from the Hokage, the door opened all the way and a tall, broad-shouldered man strode into the room. He wore dull green robes over a mesh shirt that she could see glimpses of at the neck and wrists. On top of everything else he wore an oversized red vest with a yellow circle over each breast. Archaic wooden geta clacked on the floor, but his stride exhibited the steadiness that spoke of long experience wearing them.
The white hair suggested age, but his face was for the most part unlined. Kurenai estimated him to be in his fifties – a most dangerous age for shinobi. Without the energy of youth, some shinobi were content to slow down at that age, to take things easier. The more serious ones refused to concede anything to the passage of years, possibly even intensifying their training regimen. While maybe not as resilient as they once were, they stayed every bit as strong, and their accumulated experience made them far deadlier. Yuuhi Kurenai did not need to guess into which category this man had fallen. She almost unconsciously straightened her spine. This was obviously a man worthy of respect.
The fact that he was casually munching on a stick of dango only reinforced this impression. Not many would be comfortable acting so casual in the Hokage's office. Though she understood that Naruto was an exception to that rule…
As if on cue, she heard her genin erupt in sputters of outrage.
"You no-good b*****d thief!" Naruto shouted, jumping up from his chair.
"Naruto!" Kurenai snapped, too shocked at his reaction to do much more than gape.
"He's still eating the evidence!" Naruto snarled, pointing a finger in the man's face as he consumed the last of the sweet treat. "I bought that for Hinata-chan!" he added angrily, as if that made it even more contemptible. Kurenai frowned.
Jiriaiya cocked his head and peered at Kurenai through hooded eyes. "Isn't he a little young for a girlfriend?" he asked.
Naruto's shout of protest was ignored with a wave of the Sannin's hand. "I just kept it from going to waste," Jiraiya replied casually, picking at his teeth with the dango stick. "Your clone shouldn't have been so rude. Are you normally too lazy to run your own errands?" he asked curiously.
Naruto was red in the face, fists clenched, and emitting more than a small amount of killing intent. Kurenai was about to say something when she watched him visibly gather himself, opening his fists and closing his eyes until his complexion was back to normal. When he opened his eyes again, their normal blue tint seemed more like winter ice than summer skies.
"My clone just wanted to know why you were peeping into the women's baths," Naruto replied in an icy tone.
Kurenai spun toward Jiraiya, vaguely aware that there was now a kunai in her hand. "Is this true?" she asked in a deceptively mild voice. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Hokage massaging his forehead with a pained expression.
"Of course not!" Jiraiya blustered. "I was doing research!"
"Research on what?" Kurenai asked calmly.
"Er, spying techniques. That's part of my cover, you know. No one takes a drunken old lecher seriously, so I can gather a lot of information with no one noticing." By the end of his explanation, he was clearly on a roll, chest puffed out and chin up. "I'm willing to make any sacrifice necessary to serve Konoha, for I am Myouboku Mountain's Monk of the Toad Spirits, also known as the Toad Hermit!" With that he struck a dramatic pose that made Kurenai roll her eyes. This was the Hokage's expert?
"Jiraiya has sent back quite a bit of information," the Hokage said in a strained voice. It didn't escape Kurenai's attention that he hadn't commented on the rest of his former student's claims. "I expected you at least a week ago," the Hokage continued, directing his attention toward Jiraiya now. "What delayed you?"
"Well," Jiraiya began, grimacing as he stretched his neck until it cracked, "someone had the brilliant idea to send this kid out to the border with Earth Country. I heard a few rumors as I was coming back and decided to chase them down. A renegade faction in Iwakagure was putting out word they wanted to hire missing-nins for an assassination within Konoha. Normally, that would require a bank full of ryou, but since the target was only a genin, some of the more desperate mercenaries were getting interested."
The Hokage scowled fiercely. "This is getting completely out of hand," he said, "has something been done about them?"
Jiraiya nodded smugly. "I had a few words with some contacts I maintain in the Tsuchikage's office, and they leaked the information to the right people. Iwagakure doesn't want a war with Konoha, at least not this year."
Almost in spite of herself, Kurenai felt a bit of gratitude toward the Sannin. The last thing Naruto needed right now was more people that wanted him dead.
"That's good, as long as no hint of your involvement gets out," the Hokage said in a worried tone. "How reliable are these contacts of yours?"
"Very," Jiraiya answered, "they know I'm using them to some extent, but exposing this faction furthered their own interests as well. Besides, they are big fans of my work."
"Ah," the Hokage replied in a careful tone. "That's useful, I suppose."
"Fans?" Kurenai asked curiously as she slid the kunai back into its concealed sheath.
"Of my great literary works," Jiraiya responded in a grandiose manner.
"Hmph," Naruto grunted. "If it was written by you, it's probably a dirty book."
"Naruto!" Kurenai snapped. Disreputable or not, this Jiraiya had done them no small service. It wouldn't be prudent to alienate him.
On the other hand, as Jiraiya began to harangue Naruto about respecting his elders, Kurenai did notice an odd expression flicker across the Hokage's face. It was an odd mixture of guilt and amusement. "My apologies, Jiraiya-sama," she said in a formal tone. "My student is, as you can see, still upset. I am, however, fairly well read and I am curious to see if I may have read one of your books. What are their titles?"
"I'm about to publish Icha-Icha Paradise, volume seven!" Jiraiya announced proudly, ignoring the frantic waving of the Hokage's hands.
"The books with the… orange covers?" Kurenai asked, slipping the kunai back into her hand as the Hokage covered his eyes.
"Why yes," Jiraiya answered slyly. "I can get you an advance copy, if you like."
"Naruto," Kurenai said through slightly clenched teeth. "Would you mind waiting in the hallway for a moment?"
"No, Sensei," Naruto said quickly and scuttled out of the room. A distant portion of her mind wondered why he had gone so pale. Maybe he was even more disgusted than she was.
"Good idea," Jiraiya said with a leer that turned her stomach. "Some things shouldn't be discussed around brats, at least not until they are older."
Kurenai turned to glare at the older man. Sannin or not, she'd wondered about the source of Kakashi's disgusting books for a while now. "I'm not sure what conversational topics you are referring to, but there are things I do not want a boy of that age exposed to. Among them is my opinion of the garbage you write."
Jiraiya's mouth dropped open. He turned shocked eyes toward the Hokage, but out of the corner of her eye, Kurenai saw the old man looking down as he fiddled with his pipe.
"It's bad enough to even have those thoughts, to treat women as mere sex objects, but to publish them so others can revel in your perversity? Do you know how many times I've had to sit through jonin meetings and listen to Hatake Kakashi, an otherwise skilled shinobi of the Leaf, reading one of your books and giggling like an adolescent schoolgirl? Half of the people I deal with don't take me seriously as a jonin because of the sexist ideas that infest our society, and here you are spreading the infection."
Kurenai took a deep breath. This was an issue that had annoyed her for as long as she could remember, but this immature idiot was still a high ranking shinobi who could help her student. Stabbing him, while highly satisfying, would not be prudent. "Uzumaki Naruto," she said in a cold voice, "has put up with a lot of crap in his life, little of it deserved. This village hates him for incredibly stupid reasons, yet he has persevered and exceeded even my expectations. If you do anything to damage that, or corrupt him in any way, you will answer to me, and, Sannin or not, I will find a way to make you pay. Is that understood?"
Jiraiya's face went stony during her tirade, and Kurenai braced herself for an explosion of wounded male pride. Instead, he just cocked his head and cracked a lop-sided grin. "Little brat really got to you, didn't he?" he asked.
OoOoO
Things were a little calmer when Naruto was summoned back into the Hokage's office. While it was a relief to feel the tension was mostly gone, he was a little disappointed to find the old pervert unharmed.
He didn't even want to think of what Kurenai-sensei would do to him if she caught him peeking into the women's baths. He wasn't even sure she had realized that she was holding a kunai in her hand, but the fact that the hand in question had been at waist level had made quite an impression on him.
He was slightly self-conscious when the toad hermit told him to take off his jacket and t-shirt. If Kurenai-sensei and Hokage-sama weren't there, he might even have bolted. Who knew what kind of sick stuff the old pervert might be into?
It didn't help that this Jiraiya guy couldn't keep from making comments once he was naked from the waist up.
"Damn, don't they feed kids here anymore?" he asked with a smirk.
"It might help if he ate something besides ramen," Kurenai observed coolly. Naruto knew she was probably still irritated at this Jiraiya person, but now she was taking it out on him. Naruto's irritation spiked even higher when Jiraiya reached out and squeezed his bicep.
"Wiry, but he's still got some good muscle tone," the old man said speculatively.
"In addition to his normal missions and team training, he's been working with a taijutsu specialist," Kurenai observed. "Very few shinobi train as hard as he does." Naruto willed his cheeks not to redden. It still felt good to hear his sensei acknowledge all his hard work.
"That's good," Jiraiya replied with a nod. "But taijutsu is only part of being a shinobi."
"Taijutsu was an area that had been especially neglected by his instructors at the Academy," Kurenai shot back. "Improving that also improves the performance of his clones, which he is highly skilled with. I've also introduced them to basic jutsu of different types. However, given his situation, Naruto has experienced some unique challenges with respect to ninjutsu."
Naruto frowned. "Neh, sensei, I haven't blown up a tree in ages!" It wouldn't hurt to remind them that he was right here after all.
"Nonetheless, you almost did yourself serious injury with a very basic technique," Kurenai replied.
"Oh, I've got to hear this," Jiraiya said with a grin.
Naruto scowled as Kurenai explained his little mishap with the raiton jutsu. While she didn't go out of her way to make him sound stupid, the smiles and chuckles from Jiraiya and the Hokage were getting on his nerves.
But the old creep looked thoughtful when she explained how Naruto had to consciously withhold chakra to keep from overloading his jutsu. "Things may be farther along than I anticipated. Okay, brat, I want you to mold some chakra. Don't do anything with it, just mold it."
Naruto did as he was told, but he almost lost his focus when Jiraiya leaned forward to stare at his stomach. Naruto looked down and saw the elaborate eight-lobed seal had become visible around his navel.
"Keep it steady," Jiraiya ordered as his eyes narrowed.
After a while, the old pervert straightened up and told Naruto he could relax. "It looks like everything is intact. None of the elements appear to be breaking down, but it's advanced a little farther than I expected."
"Advanced?" Kurenai asked quickly.
"The seal was designed to let the Kyuubi's chakra leak out and slowly mix with Naruto's," Jiraiya explained. "Done gradually enough, this would allow his body to adjust and absorb the chakra into his own reserves. As he grew, the constant pressure enlarged his coils, even as they were reinforced to handle the extra load. Now from what I can see, these passages were designed to slowly expand as Naruto aged, to increase the rate at which he can access this chakra. Otherwise, the Kyuubi could have flooded him too quickly when he was younger, and either damaged his coils or tried to influence him."
Naruto gulped.
"The passages are dilated more than I expected to see at his age. On the other hand, from what I can see his coils are also better developed, so it's still under control. You'd need to get a Hyuuga or someone to seriously check out his coils, but I think the seal is adapting to Naruto's own development," the old man said with a grin. "That has to be my student's finest work," he added, the pride in his voice unmistakable.
"You taught the Fourth?" Naruto demanded. The Fourth Hokage, savior of Konoha, was taught by a pervert?
"I'll have Hinata do an evaluation when she's released from the hospital," Kurenai said, her expression unreadable.
"She's a Hyuuga?" Jiraiya asked. Then he winked at Naruto. "Not bad, kid."
"She's not my girlfriend," Naruto said quickly, remembering Jiraiya's earlier remark. "She's my teammate."
The Hokage cleared his throat. "Well, it's good to hear that we don't have anything to worry about," he said. "And it looks like Naruto will continue to grow stronger if he keeps this up. Though he may always have some issues with respect to having too much chakra."
Naruto shrugged, but an idea had taken root in the back of his mind. Time for some payback. "I think I already know all the jutsu I need. Taijutsu is much more useful anyway."
That earned him a sharp look from Kurenai, but the old hermit simply exploded. "Is that what you think, you little brat? I can show you things that will make your hair stand on end, permanently!"
"I think that's an excellent idea," the Hokage said quickly. "Given his reserves, Naruto could use some assistance learning more advanced jutsu than is normally taught to genin."
Jiraiya's eyes bulged in their sockets. "Hey! He already has a sensei!" he objected.
"Kurenai is a genjutsu specialist, an area in which I understand that Naruto's attributes mean he is especially challenged." The Hokage replied, lighting his pipe again.
"It requires a certain delicacy to the chakra manipulations, and his control is still not up to that level," Kurenai explained with an apologetic look toward Naruto. "He is, however, amazingly talented as dispelling genjutsu."
"Not to mention that Kurenai also has a third genin that Naruto could possibly fight in the finals," the Hokage added. "It would be somewhat awkward, if she were to spend significantly more time with one student than the other."
Naruto could smell a con job a mile away. "Don't worry about it," he said dismissively. "I'd rather spend more time with Gai-sensei if he'll let me. He's a really good teacher and I know I'll learn more useful things than I could with this pervert."
Jiraiya rounded on Naruto, his face the picture of outrage. "Is that what you think?" he demanded. "Put your clothes back on and follow me."
OoOoO
After Naruto followed Jiraiya out of the office, Kurenai turned to the Hokage. "That was very neat," she observed.
The old man chuckled. "Sannin or not, I've known him since he was a boy. Naruto did most of the work though. You've really done wonders with him."
Kurenai allowed herself a slight smile. "I can't take too much credit. He's always been exceedingly clever." But then she thought of Hinata and the smile bled off of her face. "I think he's going to need it though."
"Is there something you'd like to report?" the Hokage asked in a delicate tone.
"Officially?" Kurenai replied. "No. Unofficially, I think Naruto has had some things confirmed that I've been suspecting. It will be… challenging for him to deal with this knowledge, since the wrongdoer is far too politically connected to answer for his crimes. But that's just the way things are, isn't it? Better he learn that sooner than later." Her bitterness was unmistakable.
She felt a flash of guilt when the Hokage winced. "I can still open an inquiry," he offered, "but-"
"But with no new evidence, the outcome will be useless," Kurenai admitted. "Worse, some will see this as politically motivated and use that against you."
"And if they discover that you were the instigator of the investigation…" the Hokage added, letting his voice trail off.
Kurenai frowned. "Yes, that would be enough justification to demand she be transferred to another jonin. I think he'd do that just to spite both of us."
"If you can think of another way to address this, please let me know," Sarutobi added before taking a thoughtful puff on his pipe.
"I don't think there is," Kurenai said in a pained voice. "And that's the lesson Naruto has to learn from all this. But I don't think it's one he will accept."
OoOoO
By the time they quit later that evening, Naruto had to admit the old pervert knew his jutsu. He proved this by ordering Naruto to show him a technique he knew, and then had him stand back.
After Naruto demonstrated Doton: Wana, causing a training log to sink a couple of feet into the ground, the toad hermit made a series of seals and exclaimed "Doton: Yomi Numa!" Instantly, the ground fell away in front of the toad hermit, the hole filling with water. The so-called "Swamp of the Underworld" engulfed half the training ground, undermining trees, submerging equipment, and generally creating havoc.
Naruto found himself drooling. He'd never seen anything so… beautiful. He imagined using that on an unwary pursuit team chasing his friends and shivered.
"What were the seals for that one again?" he asked in a reverent tone.
OoOoO
In the end, they worked out a compromised schedule. Naruto continued working with Gai and Lee in the morning, had lunch with Hinata-chan at the hospital while she was still being treated, and then spent the afternoons and early evenings with the toad hermit.
Jiraiya preferred that division, since he said he 'wasn't a morning person'. Since Naruto always saw him heading off toward Konoha's red lantern district after their training sessions, he had a pretty good idea of why.
Naruto was a little hesitant to tell Gai-sensei that he wouldn't be working with them in the afternoons anymore, but the minute Jiraiya's name left his mouth, Gai was most enthusiastic about the change. Naruto could only assume Gai knew the toad hermit, or at least of his reputation, which made Naruto begin to wonder about the old man. Maybe he wasn't as flaky as he acted, sort of like Gai-sensei at the hospital.
In any event, he made the most of this more limited training time, fighting Rock Lee head on, rather than trying to always outlast him. It was mostly pretty painful, but he did cherish the few times he managed to knock his friend on his butt.
A couple of days into this new routine, Kurenai invited him and Shino over for dinner at her house. Naruto arrived at the small homestead, somewhat curious as to her purpose. He hoped it wasn't to talk about Hinata – the things she'd told him were said in confidence, and it wouldn't feel right to repeat them, even to Shino and Kurenai.
Shino was just walking up to the front door when Naruto arrived. Superficially, the Aburame genin looked the same as always. However, Gai had been coaching him and Lee on how to evaluate an opponent's body language. Shino's stride seemed tighter, more controlled, and his center of gravity never deviated as he walked. Naruto didn't doubt that Shino's mother had really been working on his weapon skills.
Shino acknowledged Naruto's wave with a barely perceptible nod before Naruto knocked on the door.
Their sensei opened the door and showed them into her home. Naruto muttered the traditional pleasantries that Hinata had drilled him on as they walked to the Aburame household, but Kurenai merely waved them off. He looked around curiously. The house was… comfortable… he supposed was the best word to describe it. The furniture was simple, but well-maintained, and everything was arranged in an orderly fashion. There were a few pictures on the walls, mostly of an older couple he guessed were her parents. The only picture of his sensei was in a faded group shot that he guessed was her old team, along with a burly man who had to be Kobaru-sensei.
Kurenai showed him and Shino into the dining room and gestured for them to sit down. Naruto was surprised to see the table piled with papers and scrolls. A few cardboard containers were piled haphazardly on a side table, but they did smell good.
"I picked up some take-out dinners from Moritake's," Kurenai explained as she passed them each a box and sat down. "I figured we could eat while I go over my findings."
Naruto carefully set aside his dinner and curiously opened the top folder on the pile in front of him. Inside was a stack of papers, topped with a picture of Hyuuga Neji.
OoOoO
"…and that pretty much sums up all the competitors in the Chuunin Examination finals, with two exceptions," Kurenai said as she concluded her presentation.
"Naruto and myself," Shino replied.
"Yes," Kurenai agreed. She was pleasantly surprised at how attentive her audience was. There was something to be said for mortal peril with respect to sharpening one's focus. "I assume the two of you know each other fairly well, so that would be wasted effort. Furthermore, these reports contain a fair amount of speculation and guesswork on my part, based on the available data."
"And you do not wish to inadvertently compromise anything either of us has told you in confidence," Shino added. Naruto nodded. No doubt his recent conversations with Hinata had made him especially sensitive to such concerns.
"That is correct," Kurenai confirmed.
Naruto shrugged. "I won't do anything to kill your bugs, Shino."
"It would be inappropriate for me to expect you to hold back, Naruto," Shino replied, straightening his dark glasses.
Naruto grinned. "You told me they can't really drain my chakra too well. They keep getting full and falling off."
"I can utilize them to consume flesh as well as chakra," Shino informed him. "The former, however is not usually necessary, and the utilization of anthropophagous techniques against nominal allies is contraindicated for a rank progression match."
Naruto made a face. "Are you trying to get the tent to yourself, next time we go camping?"
Kurenai cleared her throat very loudly. "I want both of you to do you best," she told them, "but I also do not want to see either of you inflicting permanent injuries on each other. Is that understood?"
Naruto nodded. "I'm saving all that for Neji," he declared with a wide grin.
Shino adjusted his glasses again. The repeated gesture betrayed his agitation to anyone who knew him well. Kurenai wondered if she should ask him how he felt about the match-ups for the final. He wasn't visibly distressed that Naruto would get to fight Neji first, but sometimes she wondered. After a moment, Shino spoke again, "If I am over-matched in one of my fights, I will endeavor to drain as much of their chakra before I am defeated. This should help you if you face them afterward."  

[Pandora Green]

Naruto scratched his head. "Thanks," he said after a moment. "If I, er, get into the same situation, I'll try to hit their legs if I can and slow them down for your bugs to catch."
Kurenai sighed. "I suppose no one can blame you two for that," she said. Then she began gathering up the notes she'd gone through. "Both of you take your copies home with you. I'd be very careful about letting anyone else see them, but you should make a point of memorizing all the pertinent details."
Shino had already organized his reports neatly into the file, but Naruto had let his papers spread out. He hurriedly began shuffling the papers back together. "Ah, sensei," he said after a moment as he got them all together, "I almost forgot I needed to ask you something."
"What is it Naruto?" Kurenai asked as she stood up and stretched. After little rest the last few nights, she would have no trouble sleeping tonight.
"The old pervert was showing me some new moves, and something called summoning technique," Naruto explained. "He said I could learn it, but first I had to sign a special contract." He shrugged. "You said I should be careful about signing any sort of contract and to talk to you before I did."
Kurenai nodded, even as she sighed. Technically, it would be advantageous for him not to bring this up in front of Shino, but he apparently wasn't capable of regarding his teammates as potential enemies. "I've heard of summoning contracts before," she admitted. "I understand they can be useful, but are very chakra-intensive. That's why they aren't really covered at the Academy. Normally only a jonin can use one effectively. Also, this is something you might want to think over. Normally, I understand that these contracts usually contain an exclusivity clause that would prevent you from signing a contract with a different type of animal in the future."
Naruto frowned and looked thoughtful.
"I presume that Jiraiya has the contract for toads?" Kurenai asked.
Naruto nodded, and they both jumped as Shino dropped his folder on the floor. Shino quickly bent over and began gathering his papers, shoving them haphazardly into the folder. When he straightened up, Kurenai thought she noticed a slight tremor in his hands. "Are you all right?" she asked.
Shino nodded. Then he turned to Naruto. "That would be a very formidable technique. That being the case, I will no doubt be forced to forfeit the match if we meet in the finals."
"Forfeit?" Naruto asked, clearly dismayed. "But why?"
"Toads are incredibly voracious insectivores," Shino explained, "capable of consuming a significant portion of their own body mass in a single night. If I attempted to use my kikai jutsu around them, I would stand to lose significant portions of my colonies in short order. Even if I were to defeat you, I would be effectively crippled in the process."
"Oh," Naruto said.
"However, you should not let that be your sole decision criterion," Shino concluded. "As this should remain between you and Kurenai-sensei, I will bid you both good evening."
With that, Shino left, and Kurenai wondered if it was her imagination or he was walking a little faster than usual. She shook her head and turned back to Naruto. "If you'd like some more information, I'll see what I can find at the library."
Naruto shook his head. "No way am I signing that scroll now," he declared.
Kurenai merely raised an eyebrow and awaited his explanation.
"The old pervert was showing off when he demonstrated the technique," Naruto began. "Some of those toads are really big. I wouldn't dare try using them when we're on a mission – one of them might eat Shino, just to get all his bugs."
Kurenai blinked. "I see," she said. That was definitely a novel reason not to learn a new jutsu. She only hoped Naruto didn't later regret his thoughtfulness.
OoOoO
The day of the Chuunin Examination Final Matches dawned bright and sunny. Naruto stood in a line with the other competitors as the Hokage made a speech from the Kage's elevated platform welcoming all the spectators.
Things had gone well the last couple of weeks. Though disappointed about the contract, Jiraiya had still shown him some cool jutsu. Gai and Lee had his taijutsu at a level he'd barely imagined being capable of.
Best of all, Hinata wasn't in the damn hospital anymore.
After three weeks of convalescence, she was released with a long list of exercises she needed to perform. Though the rupture was healed, these exercises were vital to ensure the pulmonary tissues healed without excessive scarring or loss of elasticity.
More importantly, since the injury was sustained in the course of her normal duties, Kurenai-sensei directed Hinata to stay at her home until she'd fully recovered. This allowed the jonin to supervise Hinata's rehabilitation and make sure she was fully recovered before returning to active duty. At least, that was the official explanation.
Naruto couldn't deny the palpable relief he felt when Hinata told him about Kurenai's offer, but the joy on his friend's face ignited a spark of anger as well. It wasn't right that she should feel this way, that she'd rather train forever and never see her family again.
Almost against his will, he felt his eyes cutting over toward Neji, standing beside him. The Hyuuga prodigy's face seemed almost inhumanly composed. Naruto knew he'd have to do something about that.
After the Hokage was finished, Hayate walked out in front of them, looking as sickly as ever. He coughed once before speaking. "All right, as most of you know, the rule for these matches is that there aren't really any rules. You fight until you are dead, knocked out, or surrender." Another cough. "But if I decide the match is over, it's over. Understood?" Naruto wondered if it was his imagination or Hayate's glare seemed to fix itself on Neji and Gaara more than the rest of them.
"Okay, the first match is Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Neji," Hayate continued. "I want the rest of you to go back to the waiting area until your matches are called."
The other six genin slowly filed off the field. Most of them were expressionless, but Shino and Naruto managed to share a quick nod before the Aburame boy left. The unspoken message was clear to Naruto. Kick Neji's a**.
OoOoO
Umino Iruka made his way gingerly through the stands as the competitors were gathered on the field. He had no desire to trip and bump into some visiting dignitary. An international incident would not look good on his next performance review at the Konoha Ninja Academy.
Normally, he would sit with the academy instructors or the other chuunin and jonin attending the finals. This year found him sitting in more rarefied areas, wearing a fine kimono purchased with some of his recent winnings. Sartorial finery wasn't really his thing, but it was necessary for him to fit in and get close to his targets.
It was odd to apply the things he taught to something that most definitely wasn't a mission.
Almost reflexively his fingers brushed across the heavy purse belted to his waist. He didn't normally carry this much money around and it made him a little nervous. Not only did it contain his winnings from the preliminary round, but Ichiraku Teuchi, Yuuhi Kurenai, and a couple of others had added their money to his. He'd even approached Maito Gai at the end of one of his training sessions. He made sure Naruto wasn't around before mentioning the betting, as he didn't want to put any more pressure on the boy, but he felt he owed Gai an opportunity to profit as well. Gai frowned, thinking for well over a minute, before he regretfully declined. While he appreciated the offer, it didn't feel right to be betting against one of his own students, no matter what had happened before. Iruka didn't press the issue, understanding the man's awkwardness. But that didn't stop Rock Lee from catching up with Iruka later that day and pressing on him a squirrel-shaped wallet stuffed with ryou.
Listening carefully, Iruka's sharp ears located the amused murmurs, the dismissive whispers that guided him to his targets. He glanced around as he took a seat, apparently chosen at random. The rich finery and ostentatiously displayed wealth indicated some were no doubt members of the village council. There were a few lined faces with white eyes that he assumed were Hyuuga elders. The two youngest-looking Hyuugas there were Hiashi and his daughter, Hanabi. The latter seemed to look right through Iruka, not recognizing him out of his uniform.
Perfect.
Smoothing down his kimono with a fussy gesture, Iruka said, in a highly accented voice. "Well, this match looks interesting. Would anyone care to place a wager or two on the outcome?"
OoOoO
Naruto turned to face his opponent, who gazed back with a slightly superior expression. "You look like you want to say something," Neji said in a cold voice.
Naruto leaned forward slightly and grinned. Kurenai-sensei told him once that his canine teeth were a little larger than normal, and displaying them to best effect could have an unsettling effect on others. "Only that I've been looking forward to this for a month," he snarled.
Neji didn't bat an eye. "Given our relative capacities, that is a foolish desire."
"Foolish or not," Naruto said, "I will defeat you." He tensed a little as Hayate said to start and he saw Neji's Byakugan activate.
"You may honestly believe you have a chance against me," Neji said. "But I will also see your face when you realize the truth of your situation."
"You're not the first person to think that," Naruto scoffed, "and I doubt you'll be the last. Wherever he is, your father must be very disappointed."
That last barb sailed right through Hyuuga Neji's icy composure. The veins around his eyes bulged so far Naruto wondered if they might pop. "For that, I will kill you," Neji snapped.
Naruto shrugged. "Hey, at least you have some memories of yours. And I don't take my grief out on someone who shares it. Fool." The last word was pure Shino speaking, but Naruto couldn't quite get the same contemptuous tone his teammate could.
"Are you two here to fight or talk?" Hayate interrupted, sounding annoyed.
"My apologies, Hayate-san," Naruto said lightly. "I just wanted Neji-kun to understand exactly why I'm going to beat him like a drum." With that, he formed the familiar ram seal and cried out "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
A dozen clones surrounded Neji and immediately began to charge at the Hyuuga. He spun and dodged, avoiding all the attacks and exploding clones left and right.
"His Jyuuken is pretty good, isn't it?" Naruto asked Hayate in a conversational tone.
Hayate just turned to stare at him.
Naruto frowned. Maybe he thought this was a distraction so he could cheat. Then Naruto remembered there were no rules anyway. He shrugged. "He's not as graceful as Hinata-chan, but his strikes have more power behind them." He sighed as the last of the clones was dispatched. "But Jyuuken isn't everything, is it?"
With that, Naruto sprang away from Hayate, hurling a brace of kunai. Neji dodged them with unerring precision, moving his body just enough to make them miss.
Neji responded with his own volley of kunai. Naruto dodged all but one of them.
That one he caught and threw back with a mocking smile.
Neji moved in, closing the distance. "At least you recognize your limitations," he said with a sneer. "Everyone is born with a certain degree of talent, and that does not change. Struggling against your fate is futile. You do not have the ability to defeat me, so you do well to keep your distance."
"Is that what the Hyuuga genius thinks?" Naruto snarled as he charged.
OoOoO
Hinata let out a gasp as she saw Naruto abruptly switch tactics. Kurenai-sensei wasn't sure she was up to watching the finals, but Hinata insisted she was fine. To prove the point, she even performed the prescribed daily breathing exercises three times yesterday to show she was fit. The idea of not watching Naruto fight was… was simply unacceptable.
However, watching the match was… surprisingly difficult for her. Of course, she wanted Naruto to win, but she also didn't want to see Neji killed. So much had been taken from her cousin… it didn't seem right that he lose everything else. But she couldn't ask Naruto to hold back either. Not when she didn't think Neji would hesitate to hurt her teammate.
In a way, it was a relief when Naruto insisted she explain about the Hyuuga clan. Not only did it give her a warm glow when he insisted there was nothing wrong with her, but it also allowed her to explain about Neji and his resentment of the main family. He'd lost his father to protect her father. Showing anger toward her father simply wasn't safe, not with the seal on Neji's forehead, waiting to be activated. So she was the logical target for his rage.
Kurenai, fortunately, hadn't heard her outburst. Sensei's attention was solely focused on the match, which shamed Hinata a little. She knew Kurenai was too disciplined to let random thoughts distract her from things. That was an example she should work harder to meet.
OoOoO
"You are just as foolish as I thought," Neji said as he ducked under Naruto's kick and countered with a palm-strike loaded with chakra. "Or are you anxious to meet your fate?"
Naruto executed a spinning block he perfected sparring with Hinata. His left palm slammed into Neji's forearm, well behind the chakra spike, turning the strike aside. "There is no fate but what we make," he replied with a tight grin. Continuing the motion, Naruto spun completely around and his right heel only missed Neji's ribs because the Hyuuga genius leapt backward. "I learned that one sparring with Hinata," Naruto informed him with a grin.
"You haven't seen the true power of Jyuuken, sparring with that weakling," Neji sneered.
Naruto's fragile rein on his temper cracked with an audible snap.
"She's not a weakling, a*****e!" Naruto screamed and charged. His fist grazed Neji's jaw right before a Jyuuken strike speared through his shoulder.
"Dammit," Naruto growled as he somersaulted backwards. Ignoring the burning agony in his shoulder, he straightened his back at the right moment to launch himself backwards into the air.
Neji's follow-up blow struck the uncaring ground, rather than Naruto's spine.
Naruto was done playing with this idiot. He hit the weight-release catches and arched his back. As his rotation slowed, Naruto abruptly bent at the waist, snapping his arms and legs together and launching the weights like missiles. The momentum they imparted sent his much-lighter body flying backward like it had been shot from a cannon. He stuck to the wall using chakra and looked down at the arena floor.
Only one of the chakra-enhanced masses struck the target, much to Naruto's disappointment. But that one was enough to send Neji rolling across the arena. The rest had cratered rather impressively into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust that had Hayate coughing again.
Neji climbed to his feet, not looking as battered as Naruto might have hoped. Of course, if he wasn't pretty damn good, he never would have beaten Hinata-chan. "More tricks?" the Hyuuga called out angrily. "Is that what you learned from my cousin?" he sneered. "Useless tricks like this?"
Naruto jumped down to the arena floor. "If it was useless, then how did you get knocked on your a**?" he asked. He bounced lightly on the balls of his feet. He hadn't taken his weights off in a long time. It felt good. Really good. Time to up the ante. "Here's some more tricks," he called out as he threw a wide spread of kunai, each one with an explosive tag attached.
Neji's eyes of course picked up the tags. Dodging multiple explosions would be damn near impossible. Instead, he raised his arms to shoulder level and began to spin. As he turned, chakra began to stream from his body, expanding outward even as it made him turn faster and faster.
Neither Hinata nor Kurenai knew for sure if Neji could perform the Hakkeshou Kaiten, or Heavenly Spin technique, an all-around defense against attacks. But if he didn't know it already, there was a good chance Hiashi might have taught him in the month of preparation. If nothing else, it would make a strong impression on the rest of the village, Kurenai had reasoned in her notes.
Looks like she was right, Naruto thought as he summoned a horde of clones. He sent them against Neji in fours and fives. They exploded as soon as they touched the sphere of spinning chakra that surrounded him, but the noise and puffs of smoke were definitely a distraction.
Naruto kneeled at the back of the crowd, gathering his chakra. "Doton: Yomi Numa!" he called out as he slapped his palm against the ground. He must have been a little over-excited, Naruto guessed, because the ground crumbled away even faster than he expected.
Most of the remaining clones charged forward as their footing disappeared. The pops as they exploded were almost deafening, but they served their purpose. Naruto watched with growing satisfaction as the Kaiten began to sink into the softening ground, slowly at first and then faster and faster as the Heavenly Spin sent mud flying in every direction and Hyuuga Neji's technique screwed himself into the ground.
By the time Neji realized what was happening and stopped, he was already ten feet down. Worse, no longer supported by his chakra emissions, the walls of liquefied mud that surrounded him collapsed. He was abruptly engulfed.
Naruto couldn't help but laugh, falling to one knee as he was overcome by the humor of what just happened. So he was caught completely off-guard when a Neji-shaped mass of mud erupted from the instant swamp and speared him between the eyes with a Jyuuken strike. The green-clad genin stiffened as his frontal lobes were shredded, destroying most of his higher brain functions.
Then he exploded into a cloud of vapor.
Neji spun around as a piece of debris disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Uzumaki Naruto standing in its place. Naruto's fist dug into Neji's stomach, blowing him backward off his feet. "Your eyes can see through genjutsu," Naruto told him as he stalked toward the Hyuuga prodigy, who was now covered in mud, struggling to his knees, missing both his forehead protector and his silly-a** hat. Neji glared as he clutched his stomach. "But I showed you what you expected to see. What use are those fancy eyes if you won't use them?" Naruto asked.
"I can see that you've come within range of my divination," Neji snapped, surging to his feet with greater speed than he'd shown a moment ago. "Divination Field: Sixty-Four Strikes!"
Naruto had glimpsed Hinata do something like this once, but she couldn't really explain it or even replicate it when they sparred. Now Naruto got a much better view of it than he really wanted. The Hyuuga's hands moved with blinding speed. "Two strikes!" and two sharp pains registered in Naruto's mind. "Four strikes!" and Naruto now felt four, all on his torso. "Eight strikes!" and he realized that Neji was hitting his tenketsu points with unerring precision. "Sixteen strikes!" It looked like he was trying to close all of them. "Thirty-two strikes!" the muddy shinobi shouted as his hands stabbed Naruto like knives, inflicting immense pain even as they deadened everything they touched. "Sixty-four strikes!" and Naruto flew backwards from the storm of chakra strikes, landing in a heap on the ground.
Neji settled back into a ready stance, ignoring the slowly-drying mud that dripped from his arms. "I have closed all the tenketsu on your body," he announced, "and thus your fate is sealed. This fight is over."
Naruto grunted and got his knees under him.
"Mortifying, isn't it?" Neji asked in a contemptuous tone. "You are on your knees before a power you cannot defeat, discovering just how truly powerless you really are. Your conviction that working hard will change things is only an illusion. Both for you and my cousin."
OoOoO
Up in the stands, the sudden quiet that had fallen after the fight's surprising conclusion made Neji's words audible to Hinata. She was already dismayed by the mastery of advanced Jyuuken technique Neji had demonstrated, and his cruel words only made her feel worse. Now Naruto would know the bitter sting of defeat. Would it change him? Would he blame her?
Just thinking those thoughts made something twist, deep in her stomach. This… this wasn't right.
She leaned forward, fingers digging into the flesh above her knees, willing Naruto to get up. To win.
OoOoO
"Is that what you think?" Naruto gasped out as he painfully climbed to his feet.
He was rewarded with the barest flicker of doubt within the white eyes of the Hyuuga genius. "Don't you realize this is futile?" Neji asked. "You're just going to get hurt worse if you continue."
"Do you think I can just walk away from this after what you did?" Naruto demanded.
"After what I did?" Neji shot back. "Do you know what they did to me?" Neji's normally restrained voice grew rough with uncontrolled emotion. He swiped the mud from his forehead. "This seal controls my fate, just as it did my father's. He died in place of the clan leader to keep the peace with Kumo."
"I know about that," Naruto replied, narrowing his eyes. "Hinata's father killed the man who kidnapped her, but is it her fault that happened? Maybe her father should have disabled him instead of killing him. Maybe it would have been better if we went to war with Kumo if they are going to do things like that. But the only thing Hinata has to do with your father or your seal is being born."
Naruto straightened and took a deep breath. "But you refuse to see the truth of that. So I'm going to have to beat it into you." He let out a harsh cry as he surged his chakra.
Uzumaki Naruto was used to re-opening his tenketsu. Doing that was a normal consequence of sparring with Hinata. But he'd never had to open all of them at once. In doing this, he discovered two things.
One, it hurt like hell. Normally, he was used to a small twinge in his chakra coils from the back pressure. This felt more like someone rammed a utility pole through them.
The second was that pushing out that much chakra all at once, when it was suddenly released by the points opening, was pretty noticeable. Hayate, who'd been edging closer, obviously wondering if he needed to stop the fight, was bowled over. Neji, who was standing a lot closer, went airborne.
Of course, the Hyuuga managed to control his descent, landing lightly on his feet. But when he turned to face Naruto, his expression was clearly shocked. "That's impossible," he whispered. Fortunately, Naruto could read lips.
"Just as impossible as fighting against fate," Naruto said as he closed in again, "Just as impossible as fighting a Jyuuken user hand to hand."
OoOoO
Iruka inhaled sharply as he watched Naruto do the impossible. No one could counter the effects of Jyuuken. Avoiding the attacks was the only possible defense. At least, up until now.
From the choked gasps and sputtering that erupted around him, he didn't think he was alone in that opinion.
"Is it-?" one man asked behind him.
"No, it's not. We'd be able to feel it," a voice answered.
"That's good," a third one said.
"No it's not," the second voice replied. "That brat has still trumped our greatest weapon. We can't let him live with that knowledge."
Iruka's head spun around so fast he was sure he'd pulled a muscle, but the voices had already cut off. Behind him, he saw a mix of council elders and older Hyuugas, some of whom were now glaring at him with a mixture of confusion and hostility.
"Neji has not been defeated," Hyuuga Hiashi said, drawing their attention away from the disguised chuunin. Iruka quickly turned back to the match.
OoOoO
Naruto was now intensely grateful for every sparring session with Hinata. It took everything he'd learned, everything they'd practiced to keep up with Hyuuga Neji.
But that was the point. He was keeping up.
The Hyuuga genius couldn't seem to hit him squarely, only managing glancing blows every now and then. Of course, the chakra enhancing those blows made them hurt like hell. But Naruto just gritted his teeth and bore it, and slowly the pain would fade.
Then Neji made a sweet little hesitating juke that drew Naruto's attention to the wrong side for a moment. In that instant, the feint turned into a full on Jyuuken strike aimed at Naruto's heart.
Desperate, Naruto copied one of Hinata's moves, and bent back sharply at the waist. The powerful Jyuuken strike passed over his now horizontal torso, the chakra spike making the skin of his face tingle.
In that instant of surprise as Neji realized his strike had missed, Naruto's hands shot up and clamped around Neji's wrist. His feet left the ground and an instant later slammed squarely into Neji's ribcage. As he heard the air rush out of the Hyuuga's lungs in a startled exhalation, Naruto wrenched at the arm he held with all his strength.
There was a sickening pop as he wrenched Neji's shoulder out of its socket.
Naruto let go almost immediately and rolled to his feet. Neji fell to his knees, his right arm twisted at an odd angle. With his good hand, he hurled a brace of shuriken at Naruto.
Naruto dodged all but one of the missiles, and used a kunai to deflect that one skyward.
OoOoO
Neji let out a groan as he pulled on his arm, and finally wrenched it back into the socket. The surge of pain almost made him pass out. He blinked and glared at Naruto, who suddenly disappeared, only to be replaced by a familiar-looking shuriken.
He looked left and right, slowly mustering the chakra to reactivate his Byakugan. He'd already expended much more of his reserves than he expected to, but nothing about this fight had gone as he expected.
He was distracted by motion below him. Why was his shadow growing? His instincts screamed at him to move, so he threw himself to the side as something green slammed into the ground where he'd been kneeling.
When the debris settled, there was a small crater, with Uzumaki Naruto on one knee at the bottom of it. His right fist was touching the ground, in the exact center of the crater.
He looked up and met Neji's eyes. For an instant, Naruto's eyes flashed purple as he exploded forward.
OoOoO
Naruto didn't let up for an instant as he pummeled Neji. His fist snapped the Hyuuga's head back, but Naruto was already dropping to the ground to do a foot-sweep. Neji's feet were knocked out from under him so hard he was horizontal in mid-air when a hammer-fist strike to his solar plexus slammed him to the ground and the air burst from his lungs.
Neji was gasping for breath as Naruto dragged him to his feet, a handful of Neji's grimy tunic in his left hand. His head lolled loosely on his neck.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hayate opening his mouth to stop the match. He drew back his right hand, the fingers curling into claws and red chakra surging around it like hungry flames. He ripped it across Neji's face as Hayate shouted for him to stop.
Blood flew across the dirt as Neji was slammed to the ground.
He didn't move.
The match was over.
Author's Note:
Thanks again to Runsamok and Bibliophile for vetting this in short order after the last chapter. It's amazing how the words fly when you finally figure out how to make all the pieces fit together.
And you can all thank Bibliophile for raising the issue of toads being insect-eaters. That Shino freak-out scene is for you, Joe!
Hmmm… I wish people would do a little digging before they rush to correct me. According to Wikipedia, it's WHITE chrysanthemums that are used for funerals (you even see some at the Sandaime's funeral in canon) – not yellow.
And for the people freaking out because of the events of this chapter: If all you wanted was a re-hash of canon, then why are you reading fanfiction? I was surprised by the number of reviews for the last chapter from people distressed that I'm not doing everything just like the original. Some plot elements will be changed by the AU divergence, some will not. But I do have a plan, and I think the majority of you will like it. There is method to my madness!
More AU questions: Hayate didn't die because the forewarned Hokage had ANBU watching the Sand team pretty carefully. No late night meetings with Baki for him to stumble into and get pwned.
Yes, that was a Terminator quote. It seemed appropriate.
As always, my blog has progress meters showing how far I am in the new chapters. And the blog site now has forums for updates, questions, and sneak previews of upcoming chapters. Check out my profile for a link.
And, now, as promised. The winner to Team 8 Omake Contest #2:
All the entries were quite good, and longer than I anticipated. Kudos to all who participated. (You can see all the entries on my forums.)
With no further ado, I present the winner, by tjchaos:
'Chouji against Yoroi. Damn. I hope Chouji does well, although it is amazing that he and the rest of the rookies got this far.' Iruka thought to himself as he followed the other four chuunin out of the auditorium. He paused to give one last glance back over his shoulder while standing in the doorway and watched Naruto climb the stairs for a second.
Only the three lead proctors, the Hokage and the genin teams' jounin instructors would remain in the auditorium with the genin that were fighting in this preliminary round. Iruka and the four proctors he was walking with would join the other junior proctors in a nearby ready room.
Iruka looked around the room and sighed as he entered; he was still a little wobbly at times from his injuries and was surprised to see as many people there. The crowd wasn't going to make his trek across the room any easier. There were easily two or three dozen ninja scattered around the room sitting at various tables and all were intently watching the television screens that were mounted at regular intervals around the room. His eyes widened slightly as he spotted a bar along a wall. That seemed to be a strange addition but then again to even have an addition elimination round at this stage of the chuunin exam was unusual.
There was even an odd bartender standing behind the bar cleaning a glass. Iruka looked at the white haired man as he stood there. Something about the man was oddly familiar but Iruka couldn't place him. If anything the man looked like he belonged more in some high class establishment with his dark vest and sharply tied bow tie. Iruka thought the bartenders white handlebars mustache was a little over the top and his glasses made the academy instructor a little uneasy. He couldn't quite figure out what the deal was with the glasses but he couldn't see the bartenders eyes behind the strange glasses despite the lenses not being dark. Of course the best available seat was at the bar. Iruka sighed again as he walked over and sat on one of the stools. At least he had an unobstructed view of one of the screens over the bar.
"Welcome, what would you like." The bartender said with a smile.
"You wouldn't happen to have any fruit juice would you?" Iruka replied.
"Sure, plenty of everything here. Although plain fruit juice is an odd choice with this crowd."
"I was recently released from the hospital, gotta hold off on any alcohol for a little while yet."
"Ah, that would explain it. Interesting exam this time around. Hard to believe so many Konoha rookies made it this far isn't it?" The tall man stated as he placed a glass full of fruit juice on the bar in front of Iruka and nodded to the already started fight on the screen.
"There were quite a number of exceptional students in the last class. A little odd having a bar and bartender here isn't it?" Iruka said as he took the glass, his eyes though never left the screen.
"Old Sarutobi asked me to be here, it was apparently obvious a few days ago that this round was going to happen and he wanted all of you guys to be served by the best." The strange man stated with a smile.
Iruka glanced around as he simply nodded to the bartender and noted there was some betting going on around the room. None of the bettors favored Chouji but at 3 to 1 odds there were several willing to wager a bit of cash on the young Akimichi.
"Doesn't look too good for the heavy set kid." The bartender muttered as the fight progressed.
Suddenly the sound from the televisions vanished. Iruka thought he heard a very faint 's**t' emanate from the various speakers but it was so low he could have been mistaken.
"I think the 'heavy set kid' as you called him just won the match." Iruka smiled at the bartenders puzzled look.
Sure enough, in a surprisingly short time Hayate was declaring Chouji the winner and called for the medic-nins.
The room was relatively quiet for the next round. There were some odd rumors going around concerning the genin team from Suna. Nobody seemed to actually know anything substantial about the young blond woman facing Tenten. None of them cared to place any bets against one of their own, at least not when facing a foreign ninja tied to those odd rumors going around.
As the two young women walked down to the lower floor the only conversation that seemed to really be going on around the room was how impressed everyone was with the camera crews. It wasn't easy coordinating a few hidden cameras to the television feed well enough to capture the action on the floor well. Granted they only had the one fight so far to judge but none of them had any complaints. That conversation died out when someone mentioned that they were pretty sure that blond Suna genin was sixteen and the younger chuunin were suddenly watching the screen a little more intently.
Iruka snorted slightly in amusement at the change in conversation he was hearing. His slight amusement quickly died off as he watched Tenten's first attacks brushed aside as though they were nothing. His eyes widened slightly at how quickly Tenten was defeated and there was plenty of muttering around the room at the end of the match to match his own surprise at the match.
The rooms attention switched to the television that always showed status board. It quickly the names of Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba and the room erupted in a flurry of betting. Everyone was betting evenly and Iruka placed a small bet on Shino. He mused to himself that just a few months ago he likely would have bet on Kiba but knowing their respective sensei and teammates, Iruka believed that Shino now held the advantage.
Kiba and Shino put up the best fight seen so far and some of the chuunin in the room were actually cheering for whichever genin they had bet on. Still the match was only a few minutes and Iruka was tempted to roll his eyes at the reactions a few of his fellow ninja displayed at the sight of the two streams of kikai that were moving from Kiba and Akamaru to Shino.
As the board displayed the next fight there wasn't any enthusiasm in betting on it. Apparently the Nara reputation for laziness was rather well known and dampened the betting. Iruka himself didn't bet and was curious to see if Shikamaru would actually fight or if he would simply go through a few motions and withdraw. It was hard to tell with Shikamaru, sometimes he couldn't be motivated to do anything but occasionally, if there wasn't much effort required, he would rise to the occasion well sort of anyway.
That fight was relatively quick as well. Iruka stared at the screen for a few moments and wondered how many other people noticed that Shikamaru hadn't even moved from his starting position. Iruka shook his head slightly and slowly at the rather stunning display of laziness, even though it was rather effective in this case.
Iruka felt as though a hand of ice suddenly grabbed his heart as he read the next two names. Neji against Hinata. There was simply no way this was going to go well. Once again the interest in betting died as the crowd of Konoha ninja grew silent and the all watched the various screens intently. Despite the Hyuuga reputation of being the best fighters in the village actually being able to watch one of the famous clan fight was rare. To be able to see two face off against each other was unprecedented. Factor in Neji's growing reputation as a 'genius' and the fact that virtually nothing similar was ever said about Hinata effectively killed any betting. Iruka glanced around at several Shinobi as they grumbled over the lack of any betting prospects for this fight. So far only the fight between Shino and Kiba had actually done anything to satisfy the urge to gamble that permeated the room.
The room grew quiet as they all listened to Neji basically taunt and insult Hinata. The young mans harsh words caused Iruka to grind his teeth together.
As the match really got started the entire room grew quiet as they all watched. Everyone was stricken by silence at the raw intensity of the two young ninja as they fought. It wasn't long before they all clearly heard Neji as he smiled and told Hinata that she had lost. Although to most everyone watching, it had looked like she was the only one to score any sort of decent hit with that palm strike to Neji's stomach just before he claimed she had lost.
Hinata's Byakugan faded and she pushed up her sleeve to reveal several small chakra burns dotting along her arm.
"Whoa." Shiranui Genma stated softly.
"What?" Kamizuki Izumo asked.
"Neji is correct, she's lost. He's shut off her ability to mold chakra. She can't use Jyuuken, ninjutsu or probably even genjutsu won't work for her now. Not that it's likely she knew any genjutsu that could fool Neji's Byakugan." Genma answered.
"But how, when? Hagene Kotetsu piped in.
"It appears that Neji is even more gifted than his reputation made him out to be. We just witnessed a rather impressive example of the Hyuuga Jyuuken. It seems that he managed to strike and close her tenketsu not only fast enough for us not to see it but judging by her reaction, possibly fast enough that Hinata didn't realize at first either."
"Whoa is right." Mozuku added.
The fight quickly resumed much to the surprise of many of the jounin and older chuunin in the room. It didn't make sense for the young woman to continue fighting at this point many of them thought.
The low muttering going on around the room died away as the fight became even more intense and far more brutal than before. The silence continued and it was surprisingly obvious that many of the people in the room were watching Neji with disapproval on their faces. Before long it was over and almost all of the previous looks of disapproval had turned to disgust.
"So, any idea what was with the little blond kid who pulled a kawarimi with that poor girl?" The bartender asked Iruka as the chuunin scowled.
"They're very good friends." Iruka said softly, he didn't think Naruto was going to take what happened to Hinata well at all.
The next fight was announced and this time the betting returned. Granted the previous enthusiasm was gone, the last match had left a sour taste in everyone's mouth. Iruka winced as he watched Ino and Sakura walk to the arena floor. This was likely to be a rougher fight than what most would assume by just looking at the girls. As the blond and pink haired girls fought the room began to liven up and the betting actually began to increase as the fight continued.
A few moments later the room grew quieter as the two unconscious girls were removed from the floor and the next match was announced. Nobody had bet that the fight would be a draw and the undertone of irritated muttering returned. Almost everyone was not only upset with the last stalemate but they were all disappointed over the lack of any betting prospects for this match, after all who in their right mind would bet on Naruto of all people in a fight against Uchiha Saske? Umino Iruka smiled.
"So what kind odds can I get for Naruto." Iruka stated calmly as he pulled a thick envelope out of his vest.
For a brief moment almost everyone froze as they all eyed the well packed bank envelope. That moment didn't last more than maybe a second before there was a mad rush to Iruka.
"I'll give you five to one!" Suzume Namida called out.
"I'll give you eight to one!" Tobitake Tonbo yelled out.
"Ten to one! I know the Uchiha clan well and there's no way that kid can beat a Uchiha, especially Sasuke." Funeno Daikoku called out as he smugly crossed his arms for a moment before quickly pulling out his own wallet.
"For five percent, I'll hold all the bets." The bartender said with a smile as more and more money appeared.
"I've got several weeks pay here and I'll put it all on Naruto." Iruka called out to the room as he put the envelope down onto the bar.
Iruka eyed the bartender with a hint of suspicion as the mans hands blurred and Iruka's money was suddenly organized into separate piles coupled with corresponding piles from each person betting against Naruto. The bartender had even managed to somehow tag each pile with the appropriate name of whoever put up their money against Iruka's.
"Pretty impressive." Iruka said to the white haired man as he nodded to the well organized bets.
"Lots of practice placing bets and making drinks under pressure." The man answered with a broad smile.
"So how come you didn't help out with any of the earlier betting?" Iruka asked as he watched more and more separate piles appear as the crowd flowed up to the bar and each person drifted back after placing their bet.
"All of that was too spread out and you're the only one betting on that kid. Trust me you need a bit of help if you really want to bet all of your money like this and actually find enough people who have the cash on them to make good on ten to one odds." The man continued as his hands maintained their blurred sorting action.
"Are you sure you really want to do this? I didn't think you suffered any serious head injuries when those missing nin grabbed Konohamaru." Genma asked as he sat down next to Iruka.
"Definitely. What about you, not betting on the Uchiha?" Iruka said with a rather large smile.
"Nope, I think I'll sit this one out. That blond kid is full of surprises and after the first exam I wouldn't bet against him, certainly not at the odds you're getting anyway. Whatever Kurenai is doing with his training has really changed him. The kid even managed to impress Ibiki for the first part of the exam. Heck I not sure I'd even want to face him now, it's down right unsettling how easily he generates shadow clones." Genma's voice dropped after his first sentence so only Iruka and the bartender actually heard him continue talking.
"Shadow clones? Isn't that a high level jutsu?" The bartender asked with sudden interest as he looked to a screen himself.
"Yeah, Naruto is quite gifted with them despite only being a genin. Genma here had a run in with a few henged clones of Narutos a few days ago.
The room erupted in laughter as Naruto leaped to the auditorium floor and nearly fell on his face. Iruka stole a glance to Genma and was surprised to see a rather calculating smile on the face of the special jounin.
"Maybe you'd like to place a bet of your own on the kid?" The bartender asked Genma.
"Nah, I'm good. This just might be Iruka's time to shine." Genma nodded to the screen and the senbon needle in his mouth twitched with his growing smile.
There were a couple of snippets of snide muttering as Sasuke taunted Naruto about Hinata. Iruka glanced around and was happy to see that despite those few remarks the majority of the room was frowning at Sasukes words.
Hayate's voice saying 'Begin' emanated from the televisions and the crowd erupted in cheering as they anticipated an easy victory for the Uchiha. The cheering stopped almost instantly as a shocked silence took hold of the room. Exclamations of disbelief began to pop up around the room and Iruka smiled broadly as Naruto gave a dark glare towards the unconscious Uchiha before he turned and began to walk towards the exit.
The room was in such a state of shock that most people in the room actually missed the beginning of the last match and no bets were placed. In short order everyone began watching the match intently though. The Suna genin was using some rather unusual jutsu that was like nothing any of them had ever seen before. There was also a lot of interest in seeing Gai's student that no ability to mold chakra fight and the young mans taijutsu skill impressed all of them greatly.
Everyone waited a bit after the match before leaving in order to show their respect to the Hokage as he explained the next stage of the exam.
"Five percent I believe you said?" Iruka asked with a smile as he began to gather all of his winnings and split off the bartenders take.
"That's correct." The man smiled himself as Iruka finished adding to the smaller pile for the bartender.
"Thanks for that, there was no way I would have been able to make all those bets without you."
"No problem. That was an interesting kid you were betting on."
"You don't know the half of it." Iruka said with a chuckle as he walked out of the room with a wave.  

[Pandora Green]

Chapter 17
Haruno Sakura felt her mouth drop open as she watched the medic-nins run out into the arena and carefully place the body of Hyuuga Neji onto a stretcher. She barely saw them carry the genin away. Instead, her eyes were fixed on the blood spattered on the ground.
"Damn, that was cold," Kiba murmured next to her, jolting her out of her shocked reverie.
"Hn," Sasuke grunted. Sakura turned towards her crush, but his eyes were intently fixed on Uzumaki Naruto. Their former classmate appeared to be getting chewed out by Gekko Hayate, the jonin referee.
Sakura turned to her sensei, who was sitting in the row behind them. He'd allowed them a break from training in order to watch the finals, for which she was very grateful. "I never thought Naruto could be so… brutal," she said after a moment, hoping Kakashi could explain what they'd just seen. He'd been better about doing that lately.
The last month had been very different from their earlier training. During the first team meeting since their elimination in the preliminaries, Kakashi-sensei had said he'd been very disappointed by their poor showing. Sasuke, who'd been silent since the medic-nins fixed his jaw, simply exploded, demanding that Kakashi train them. Kakashi-sensei had claimed that he was allowing them to develop their own skills, but if they couldn't be that responsible… What followed had been the most grueling work-out Team 7 had ever undertaken.
Since then, every team exercise had been like that. Kakashi-sensei had even started showing up for meetings on time—mostly—and his little orange books had been conspicuously absent.
Sakura jumped when Kiba made a disparaging noise. "I thought you were the brains of this team, Haruno," he said in a challenging tone. "You saw what that jerk did to Hinata."
Sakura turned back toward her teammate, since Kakashi-sensei hadn't even acknowledged her question. "You think he's still that angry about it?" she asked.
What she'd seen was… so far beyond what she expected from Naruto, it just didn't make sense to her.
"She's his partner," Kiba replied with a shrug.
Sakura felt her eyes bug out at her teammate's insinuation. "Hinata is a nice girl!" she snapped, slapping the back of Kiba's head. He'd let slip once that his sister did that to him, and it really irritated him. It was Sakura's best weapon for keeping the crude Inuzuka in line.
"Not like that," Kiba protested, blocking her second swat. "Who has the dirty mind now?" he asked with a smirk. "Look, she's his teammate, and they train together almost constantly. Akamaru and I run across their scents all the time, especially near the training grounds. How often do you see one without the other during the day? At least before her idiot cousin put her in the hospital."
Sakura frowned. "Why didn't you say so then?" she asked.
"I meant partner, like Akamaru," Kiba shot back. "If someone deliberately hurt him, I'd kill them." The puppy wrapped around his neck yipped and licked Kiba's cheek, making him blink.
"That's why Sasuke's strategy was flawed," Kakashi-sensei said in a contemplative tone. "Taunting him did provoke a reaction, but since he couldn't attack Neji, you took his place. Maybe you got off lightly." With that, Kakashi-sensei reached forward and mussed Sasuke's hair, which Sakura knew irritated him to no end.
But was that the only reason Sasuke-kun's scowl deepened?
OoOoO
Naruto scowled up at Hayate.
"Do you understand?" the jonin asked again. "One more late hit and I'll throw you out of here myself!"
"It wasn't a late hit," Naruto said, swallowing his anger. "You didn't say anything until after I hit him."
"You already had him beat," Hayate said in a lower voice. "That was unnecessary."
Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Just like before, right?"
Hayate turned and coughed. "You aren't making yourself any friends here, Uzumaki," he said, though his voice wasn't as angry.
Naruto could hear some angry shouts mixed in with the scattered cheers. If people hated him for beating the Hyuuga prodigy, he wasn't sure he cared what they thought. "People already hate me for stupid reasons. Nothing I do here today will change that," he replied, shrugging.
Hayate sighed before raising his voice. "Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!"
OoOoO
As the majority of the stadium erupted in applause, Umino Iruka turned toward his neighbors in the quietest section of the stands. "Well," he said in a cultured voice, "I suppose that does make it official, doesn't it?"
"It doesn't matter," one of the older Hyuugas snapped. "He must have cheated to defeat Neji. That brat could never do that on his own. Therefore, any wagers are void."
"I say!" Iruka protested in a mild tone, "Will you be asking the Hokage to intervene? Surely he will see justice done!" He glanced around to see if anyone reacted to that. Unfortunately, Hyuuga Hiashi had left the moment his nephew had been knocked out. Inwardly, he was pleased that they seemed to have forgotten his earlier slip.
"I have every confidence he will see things our way once this is all over," a fat man in a richly brocaded robe announced.
"Very well," Iruka conceded, "if that is the case, I will be sure to return your wagers immediately."
"Return?" the fat man asked.
"Well yes," Iruka said with a smile. "Our wagers are, after all, contingent on the official outcome of the match. At the current time, that outcome is a victory for this Uzumaki ruffian. While I wouldn't dream of doubting your word that justice will prevail for your young Neji, it would be a shocking scandal if those around us thought you were actually… reneging… on your wagers."
No sooner had the words left Iruka's lips than several of his companions began glancing around. A few of the workmen and minor merchants near them did seem rather curious as to their lack of reaction to the conclusion of a spectacular match. That was more than enough to fertilize the seed of paranoia he'd planted.
In short order, Iruka was folding a collection of bank notes, money orders, and what looked like the deed to some sort of shop. "Well, I am simply famished," he announced. "I think I will make my way to one of the food sellers before the next match begins. If this decision is reversed, you may of course contact me through the Hokage's visitor registry. I am staying with a distant cousin, one Umino Iruka."
With that, he made his way through the crowds as the next match was announced. He was a little worried that Naruto might have gone too far with Hyuuga Neji, but he accepted that if he had, it was with reason. He'd just shown people the folly of doubting Naruto – he wasn't about to start doing it himself. He just hoped Naruto would accept a really big bowl of ramen in lieu of some cheering.
OoOoO
Despite everything that had happened, Naruto was still surprised by the reaction of the spectators as he turned to retrieve his weights. He wasn't completely happy with how the match had gone, but he had won, after all. He just wasn't used to people clapping their hands and cheering. He couldn't remember the last time someone outside his circle of precious people had recognized his efforts.
But it felt really good.
Recognizing that warm glow, he finally did remember. Shino's parents. Mastering his emotions was hard, but he swallowed and reacted the way Hinata had shown him that night. He turned toward the Hokage's box and bowed deeply. Then he turned toward the center of the audience seating and repeated the gesture. The cheers grew even louder and Naruto found his hands were shaking a little as he pulled his chakra-enhanced weights from where they'd embedded themselves in the ground.
OoOoO
Kurenai felt her smile growing wider. She glanced over at Hinata, who appeared rooted in place. Naruto's gracious acknowledgement of the praise could only have one ultimate source, but she didn't think her subordinate recognized that.
The girl seemed somewhat disturbed by the brutal conclusion of the match, but she needed to recognize the necessity of what had just happened. She also needed to understand that she did have value, and that what happened to her at the preliminary matches had to have consequences.
Kurenai shook her head, even as her hands continued adding to the applause. That was a concern for another day. She wasn't as concerned about Shino's match, but something could still go wrong.
OoOoO
Naruto was still adjusting his wrist weights when he made his way back to the examinee's balcony.
"Did you fulfill all your stated objectives?" Shino asked, turning toward him.
Naruto nodded. "Pretty much."
"It was difficult to ascertain at long distance," Shino observed, "but the damage appeared extensive."
Naruto shrugged. "I did what I set out to do."
Shikamaru glanced back and forth between the two of them. "You're not up to something troublesome, are you?" he finally asked in a disgusted voice.
"We are establishing a precedent regarding acceptable behavior towards allies and team members," Shino announced. "To that end, we propose to demonstrate a willingness to use any and all means to obtain an equitable response, ranging from coercion, influence, and tactical intelligence, to, as needed, extreme levels of physical violence."
Shikamaru rolled his eyes and sighed.
"How would you feel if someone hurt Ino and put her in the hospital for three weeks?" Naruto demanded, frowning.
"Relieved," Shikamaru said, but then let out a grunt when Chouji elbowed him. "Okay, that would be troublesome too. But he's her cousin. Do you think the Hyuugas are going to like you messing around in their clan's politics?"
Naruto's eyes narrowed as he regarded the lazy Nara. Despite his demeanor, his classmate was smarter than he normally acted. He probably didn't want his teachers to expect more out of him.
"That is precisely the point," Shino replied. "If we are willing to do that to her cousin, a member of a powerful and highly respected clan with a superior blood-line, then what will we do to someone else?"
"Better if your teammate wasn't so weak she needed you two to protect her," the blond girl from Suna spat in a disgusted tone. Her expression suggested that she tasted something foul.
"She's not weak," Naruto snapped, clenching his fists. Even an echo of Neji's words still had the power to enrage him. "She's been told that all her life and it's nothing but bullshit!" He made himself relax when Shino put a hand on his shoulder. The gesture from his normally reserved teammate was like a bucket of cold water on his anger.
"It's not weakness that kept Hyuuga Hinata on her feet with a collapsed lung and lacerations of the left ventricle," Shino stated. "It's not weakness that made her keep getting up to fight an opponent that knew every move of her fighting style and whom she had no real expectation of defeating. I believe the appropriate descriptor is… determination."
Naruto was vaguely aware that Shikamaru and Chouji were openly staring at Shino. Maybe they didn't know how badly Hinata had been injured, or maybe it was the undertone of anger in the usually emotionless Aburame's voice. In any event, the coldly analytical burst of killing intent made the Suna girl take a step back even as the face-painted guy stepped forward.
"If you disrupt the matches, I will kill you all," Gaara said, speaking up for the first time.
While the red-headed boy was staring at Naruto when he spoke, the fear on their faces suggested that Gaara's words were directed more towards his teammates. In any event, the two of them pointedly turned their backs on the Konoha genin and joined their brother at the railing.
Naruto swallowed. According to the dossiers Kurenai had prepared, all three of the Suna genin were children of the Kazekage. They sure didn't act like siblings as far as he could tell. Not for the first time, he wondered how accurate Hinata's guesses about Gaara's upbringing were. Would he act like that if no one had ever accepted him? He shuddered. Then his attention was drawn toward the arena.
"The next match," Hayate announced, his voice as loud as the wheezy chuunin could probably manage, "will be Aburame Shino versus Akimichi Chouji."
Naruto turned and gave Shino a quick nod of encouragement. Shino nodded back and turned toward the stairs. Naruto stepped out of Chouji's way as the heavy-set boy followed Shino. Then he slowly walked up to join Shikamaru at the railing.
To be honest, Naruto wasn't as worried about this match as he might have been. While the Akimichi boy had hurt his preliminary match opponent worse than anyone else, it hadn't really been intentional. The older genin he'd crushed was still recovering and, from what Naruto had heard, Asuma had to talk Chouji out of dropping out of the exam in remorse. To Naruto, it seemed like he'd sort of been asking for it, taunting Chouji like that.
But Shino wasn't that stupid, and he never underestimated his opponent. But even if Chouji did surprise him, Naruto knew he wouldn't intentionally try to inflict lasting harm. The same couldn't be said of everyone that still remained, and he found himself watching Gaara again with his peripheral vision.
As the boys walked out onto the grounds, Naruto noticed Chouji was strapping some metallic bracers to his forearms. He knew from Kurenai-sensei's notes that some Akimichi, including Chouji's father, augmented their impressive physiques with heavier armor than most shinobi. Chouji hadn't started to do so before the exam, but watching Shino's match with Kiba evidently persuaded him to start.
Hayate appeared to speak quietly to both examinees for a moment. Naruto imagined it was more of the same "stop when I tell you to stop" stuff. Too bad he hadn't been so cautious in the preliminary matches.
Finally, Hayate signaled for them to start. To Naruto's surprise, Shino didn't immediately draw his kamas. Instead, he leaped back, putting some distance between himself and the Akimichi.
Chouji didn't waste any time, immediately using his Meatball Tank technique. It seemed to Naruto that he'd been practicing it, because his body morphed into a perfect sphere even faster than it did at the preliminary matches. Naruto frowned. It was also rolling noticeably faster than he remembered.
Thus began an extended game of tag, with Chouji chasing Shino around the arena. Shino threw a couple of kunai, but they merely bounced off the rolling juggernaut that their classmate had transformed into. Naruto frowned. He didn't think Shino's bugs could hold onto Chouji in this form either. If weapons bounced off as well, what could Shino do?
Naruto's grip on the railing tightened as it looked like Shino was getting maneuvered into a corner. Chouji turned a little tighter than Naruto thought he could, blocking Shino against a couple of small trees. Just as his teammate crouched to leap over them, Chouji put on an unexpected burst of speed and sideswiped him.
Naruto inhaled sharply.
There was a burst of splinters as Chouji ground the substitution log that took Shino's place into splinters before slamming into the arena wall. The impact made the whole stadium rumble and sent up a huge cloud of dust.
When the dust settled, Chouji was sprawled atop the small pile of rubble his technique had gouged out of the arena wall. Shino was calmly standing a short distance away, his hands in his jacket pockets.
The crowd had fallen silent, and with effort Naruto could just barely make out their words.
"That is a very impressive technique," Shino observed.
"Not impressive enough," Chouji groaned, rolling onto his knees to face his opponent.
"You were, however, able to sustain it much longer before running out of chakra," Shino said.
"That's true," Chouji agreed. But then he abruptly jerked to his feet and stepped forward. "But I'm not out of chakra! Baika no Jutsu!" he shouted, raising his right arm which ballooned out to a monstrous size. "Sorry Shino!" he said quickly as he smashed it down on the transfixed Aburame.
Naruto felt his heart skip a beat as the giant fist obliterated his friend, making a large crater in the ground.
Shikamaru grunted, sounding annoyed.
Then Naruto saw the cloud of kikai bugs settling on Chouji's arm, swarming up it even as it shrank back to normal size. Chouji swatted at them, but there were too many. A few flying bugs even settled in his hair. His motions became slower and slower as they drained his chakra, until he finally fell to his knees.
Shino stepped out from behind one of the trees.
Breathing heavily, Chouji managed to gasp out. "You- you got me. Call them off."
Shino didn't move, but the kikai bugs left Chouji's body as quickly as they'd boarded. Soon they were streaming back under his jacket to return to their nesting places – something which Naruto spent a lot of effort trying to not think about.
The crowd had fallen silent at the unexpected conclusion to the match, but the applause started up when Shino helped Chouji to his feet and Hayate belatedly declared him the victor. The cheers continued as the boys made their way off the field.
When they returned to the examinee's balcony, Naruto was amused to note that while Chouji was eating rapidly 'to restore his chakra reserves', Shino also held an unopened bag of chips in his hand.
OoOoO
Up in the stands, Aburame Misato leaned against her husband's shoulder. "He's such a good boy!" she cooed.
Shibi adjusted his glasses and then nodded. "The resolution of this match without unnecessary rancor speaks well regarding his maturity and emotional restraint. It is, however, probably for the best that he was not required to meet the Hyuuga we witnessed in the first match."
Misato shrugged. "It might be better for that thug, but I think it wouldn't hurt Shino at all. You Aburame men are so quiet - it's pretty striking when you get passionate about something. It's about time Shino had a few girls after him."
Shibi turned to stare at his wife, eyebrows clearly visible above his glasses.
"What?" she asked with an innocent expression. "It worked on me, didn't it?"
Shibi chose not to answer that question. The other Aburames sitting near them didn't react either. Many of them had heard of Shino's speech before the clan council and decided to attend the finals to see how he performed under a different variety of pressure.
But everyone in the clan was familiar with Misato's… eccentricities.
OoOoO
Kurenai let out a quiet sigh of relief when Shino won. Chouji had performed slightly better than expected, but Shino had allowed for that as well.
"That was kind of boring," she heard someone say behind her.
"Yeah," someone else agreed. "Not like that first one. That Uzumaki kid really kicked his a**!"
"Yeah, he was definitely out for blood," an older man's voice agreed darkly. "A real killer, that one."
Kurenai felt her lips compress and glanced over at Hinata. The girl had been visibly upset before, but now she was shocked to see Hinata standing up and turning to face the men behind her.
"Naruto-kun is no more a killer than any other shinobi," she said, her voice brimming with outrage. "Shino-kun and Chouji-san are classmates, and didn't really want to hurt each other. Neji was not like that, so Naruto couldn't be either!"
As soon as she finished, Hinata appeared to become aware of everyone around them staring at her. She blushed and abruptly sat down. Kurenai gave her genin an approving smile, even as she circulated chakra in her ears to pick up the whispers of those around them.
"Who was that?"
"I think she's a Hyuuga."
"Like that Neji guy?"
"Yeah, and I think she's teammates with the Uzumaki brat and the bug creep."
"I wouldn't call him a brat. My cousin says his team saved the Hokage's grandson when he was kidnapped."
"No kidding?"
Whether she heard them or not, Hinata's expression didn't change. It was set in determined lines Kurenai hadn't seen for weeks.
Yuuhi Kurenai smiled as a knot of tension began to loosen in her stomach.
OoOoO
The next match pitted Shikamaru against the Sand kunoichi, Temari, and it started off as one of the most boring fights Naruto had ever seen. The lazy genius didn't seem too pleased to be fighting a girl, but Naruto thought he'd be even less happy about getting his butt kicked by one. As it was, he took his own sweet time ambling down the stairs to the arena floor.
This unwillingness must have been apparent to Temari, because she began to look really annoyed. Hayate spoke to them briefly, but Naruto guessed that Shikamaru also must have said something because Temari suddenly looked murderous.
The Sand Kunoichi swung her fan at Shikamaru, making Hayate dive backwards to avoid being struck by the follow-through. The chakra-enhanced blast of wind threw up an enormous cloud of dust, but when it settled, there was no sign of her opponent.
A couple of minutes later, Naruto finally spotted his classmate. Shikamaru was skulking around the small glade of trees planted in the floor of the arena. Unlike the preliminary matches, the finals were held in an arena with more variable terrain. This made certain tactics possible, like the ones Shikamaru seemed to be intent on using.
Temari ground her teeth and stomped, but Naruto knew she wasn't stupid enough to run into the trees – Shikamaru's Kage Mane technique would grab her before she could do anything. Instead, she paced the area a good distance away from the grove, using her fan whenever she saw Shikamaru step out from behind a tree.
Fortunately for the lazy genius, Temari's wind attacks also threw up great clouds of dust from the dry ground, making it difficult for anyone to see where he went when he evaded her blasts. In short, the trees were taking an awful beating, with branches snapped off and strips of bark ripped from their trunks, but Shikamaru managed to avoid serious injury.
Temari began to press her attack, moving in closer. However, after one of her blasts, Naruto grinned to see a shadowy tendril emerge from the dust cloud, sliding along the ground toward Temari's feet. Unfortunately, the kunoichi saw it as well and leapt backwards just as Shikamaru's jutsu hit the limits of its reach. Temari contemptuously drew a line in the sand with her fan and thereafter refused to get closer, even for a moment. The barrage of wind attacks resumed with no further response from Shikamaru. If it wasn't for the occasional glimpse he saw, Naruto might have wondered if a stray hit had disabled him.
After almost half an hour of this, Naruto saw something fly up out of the treetops. It spun as it unfolded, revealing itself to be Shikamaru's jacket, turned into a parachute weighted down with a kunai. Shikamaru's shadow shot out again, much faster and thicker this time. It became thinner as it slowed down, but it reached much further than before. Naruto glanced up at the sun, and realized it was significantly lower in the sky now, extending the shadows of both Shikamaru and the arena walls.
Unfortunately, Temari glanced up as well, and saw the improvised parachute just as Shikamaru's tendril touched the parachute's shadow. Boosting itself off of the parachute, it arced toward Temari's feet, but she was already in motion. Leaping backward, Temari swung her fan, getting her whole body into the motion. The parachute was flung away by the stiff wind, foiling Shikamaru's attack even as the backdraft kicked up another cloud of dust.
But when the dust cleared, it revealed Temari standing in an unnatural posture. It took only a moment for Naruto to realize that she was aping Shikamaru's stoop-shouldered crouch. As the dust settled, he saw Shikamaru's shadow extending forward from his feet, angling off toward the holes Naruto's weights had left in the ground. The sun was at a sufficiently sharp angle to leave the bottom of them in shadow, and it looked like Shikamaru had used those shadows to boost his own shadow far enough to capture Temari.
The kunoichi's face was a mask of chagrin as she straightened up and marched toward Shikamaru, just as he walked toward her. The only difference between them was that she actually held a fan in her hands, while Shikamaru's hands grasped only empty air. When they were about ten feet apart, Shikamaru peered intently at her, cocking his head to the side.
It was odd seeing Temari do the same. The grimace on her face spoke volumes.
"I could make you beat yourself unconscious with your fan," Shikamaru said with a sigh, "but that would be far too troublesome. I give up."
Shikamaru released his shadow from Temari, turned, and ambled back toward the stairs. Naruto thought he could hear a cricket chirping somewhere.
OoOoO
Temari didn't even look at Hayate as he reluctantly declared her the winner. Her face a mask of embarrassed fury, she jumped on her fan and rode it directly up to the balcony.
Naruto glanced over at the Sand genin. Gaara's face was an emotionless mask, but Kankuro was barely suppressing a smirk. But as Temari landed, the massive killing intent she radiated seemed to make him change his mind about saying something.
Chouji side-stepped until Shino was between him and the Sand team. Naruto frowned for a moment, and then headed down the stairs at a quick trot. He didn't understand what was going on down there, but he didn't think Temari was in any mood to talk.
As he suspected, Shikamaru was less than a quarter of the way up the stairs when he met him, ambling along like he was in no particular hurry.
Shikamaru frowned when he saw Naruto. "Are they making you fight again? I didn't think your next match was for a while yet?"
"Why did you give up?" Naruto asked bluntly, taking care not to raise his voice.
Shikamaru sighed. "It's too troublesome, that's all."
Naruto shook his head. "No more troublesome than having to take the whole genin exam over again because you crapped out at the last moment."
Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. "When did you start thinking about something besides pranks and ramen?" he asked.
"Sensei expects more from me," Naruto answered. "And you still haven't answered my question."
Shikamaru sighed and slowly resumed his trudge up the stairs. "She was holding back."
"Temari?" Naruto asked.
"No, Amaterasu the Heavenly Empress," Shikamaru replied. "Who else would I be talking about besides Temari?"
"Sorry, geez," Naruto apologized, shrugging.
"Anyway," Shikamaru continued, "she wasn't attacking all out today, even when I came close to catching her earlier. She's conserving her strength for some reason, so I decided it might not be a good idea to squander all of mine."
"Maybe she was saving her chakra for her next match?" Naruto asked. He tried to remember who she'd be fighting next.
"I'm not quite that pathetic, Naruto," Shikamaru replied with a disgusted look. "And I did catch her in the end. I don't know if there is something going on, but if there is I will be ready."
Naruto frowned. "All right. You tell Chouji and I'll let Shino know."
OoOoO
Up in the stands, Sarutobi Asuma scowled. It was official now: both of Kurenai's students have advanced farther than his. He took a drag on his cigarette, knowing it would be the last one he would enjoy for the next couple of months. If Shikamaru had beaten both of her students in the finals, he could have claimed a victory, no matter that Chouji was defeated.
He sighed. Getting Kurenai to pose for that swimsuit calendar would have been a major coup. He would even have allowed her to choose a tasteful, conservative suit. The fact that he'd gotten her to do it would have made him the envy of Konohagakure – at least the male half.
He shook his head, annoyed at his lazy genius of a student. It didn't make sense. He'd told Shikamaru that if he forfeited he'd be paired with Ino for every group exercise until the end of the year. Usually, Asuma partnered up with the bossy blond himself to give the boys a break – something he knew Shikamaru appreciated. So why would…?
Asuma's frown deepened. He sat up in his seat and tugged on the sides of his vest to straighten it. This also gave his fingers the chance to loosen his trench knives in their scabbards. He glanced across several rows to where Kakashi was sitting and caught the jonin's eye.
Something might be up.
He glanced over to where Ino was sitting with her parents. She would be all right there. Too bad Gai hadn't returned to his seat yet.
OoOoO
For obvious reasons, the arena had a small but well-equipped infirmary. The nature of shinobi combat was such that immediately life-threatening wounds were always a possibility, so sending the injured across town to the hospital wasn't an option.
Two men, one garbed in flowing white, the other in stretchy green, confronted each other in the hallway outside the medical bay. It was fortunate that the room was chakra shielded to aid in performing delicate medical jutsu. For if the seals carved into the walls had not been there, the massive killing intent in the hall might have distracted the medics from their urgent work.
"They are still seeing to him," Maito Gai said in a quiet voice. "He's lost a lot of blood."
Hyuuga Hiashi's eyes narrowed marginally. "I'm sure you feel quite vindicated after he spurned your assistance this past month." The words were spoken in a calm tone, but the undercurrent of venom was unmistakable.
Gai shook his head. "No. It was his choice to make. As it will be his choice whether he learns the youthful lesson or not."
"Lesson?" Hiashi inquired in a polite, but cold voice. A minute vertical crease had appeared between his eyebrows.
"Neji has finally encountered a foe that all of his anger and his bitterness could not defeat," Gai declared. "If he takes the correct path and casts aside his past, he will finally be able to stoke the fires of his youth!"
With every word from Gai, the crease deepened until it began to resemble a drawn-together scar. "Enough!" Hiashi finally snapped. "No more of your drivel! Neji failed today, and has drawn shame to the Hyuuga name. He will make amends for this. And if he extracts any of your 'youthful lessons' from this utter failure, I'll activate his seal myself."
Hiashi spun toward a nurse who'd stepped out of the clinic to see what all the shouting was about. She froze in place, terrified at being subjected to such massive killing intent. "I am to be informed the moment Hyuuga Neji regains consciousness, is that clear?"
It took a moment for the hapless woman to find her voice again. "Y-yes, Hiashi-sama!" she finally stammered.
Hiashi spun on his heel and stalked off.
Gai quietly cleared his throat, jerking the woman out of her relieved reverie. "How is Neji doing?" he asked in a quiet voice.
OoOoO
By the time Naruto and Shikamaru made it back up the stairs, Shino and Chouji were openly staring at the Sand team.
"Hey, do I look stupid or something?" Kankuro demanded belligerently.
"What's wrong?" Naruto asked.
Shino turned towards him, but Naruto had a feeling his attention was still focused on the Suna shinobi. "Kankuro forfeited as soon as his match with Gaara was announced," he said.
Surprised, Naruto turned toward the face-painted ninja. But the boy just shrugged. "I know there's no way I can beat Gaara, so it's stupid to even try."
Remembering Shikamaru's observations, Naruto began to feel even more uneasy. "Yeah, but between this and getting a bye in the preliminaries, aren't you pretty much guaranteed not to be made a chuunin?" he asked with what he hoped looked like honest confusion.
Kankuro's hesitation was slight, but unmistakable. "I'm not in any real hurry to advance," he replied in a casual tone.
Naruto shook his head in puzzlement. "Whatever," he said and went to go stand by his teammate.
"Suna is up to something," Naruto murmured under his breath as soon as Shino's mass blocked any view they might have had of his lips.
"I concur," Shino replied.
After a quick consultation with the two Kage, Hayate returned to the arena floor. "The next match will be Uzumaki Naruto and Sabaku no Gaara."
OoOoO
Only iron control kept Kurenai's face from betraying any emotion. Despite her unease with this turn of events, she was forced to admit the Hokage probably had his reasons. Gaara had yet to face anyone, and Naruto had the most time to recover from his previous match. Moreover, given his stamina, she had little doubt that her genin was as ready as he would ever be. And if Gaara's aggressive behavior got out of control, he was probably the best equipped to survive it.
But that didn't mean she had to like it.
Glancing over at her subordinate, it wasn't hard to see the concern on Hinata's face. Given her confidence in Naruto's capabilities, it might have seemed a little out of place.
But it was also true that Hinata had encountered Sabaku no Gaara at a time when the bland demeanor shielding his bloodlust was wholly absent.
Kurenai felt her unease grow stronger by the second.
OoOoO
Iruka fought off a wave of worried nausea as he sat down in the seat Ichiraku Teuchi and his daughter Ayame had saved for him. His rich kimono drew a few odd looks from their neighbors, but he ignored them. A quick nod confirmed that the plan had worked, making Teuchi break out into a wide smile that Iruka did not share.
He should have expected Naruto would eventually face Gaara, but he'd hoped it would have been later. Perhaps after the disturbing boy had done something to get himself disqualified. He shook his head. Not that it was likely, given his parentage. But the few hints he'd picked up from Kurenai implied that he wasn't the only one concerned.
"Who's this red-headed kid he's fighting now?" Ayame asked, peering over at Iruka with clear concern.
"Dangerous," Iruka said.  

[Pandora Green]

OoOoO
The Third Hokage of Konohagakure straightened slightly in his seat, trying to find a posture that would ease the aching in his tired old bones. He glanced over at his fellow Kage, wondering what was going through the man's mind.
When Hayate appeared before them to consult on the second round of matches, the Kazekage had seemed unusually interested in seeing Naruto pitted against his son. Perhaps he felt that only another jinchuuriki could provide an adequate test for his prodigy. Perhaps he wished to make some subtle point regarding the relative strengths of the two allied villages.
Perhaps it was a waste of time to try and understand a man who could order an already bound demon be sealed within his youngest son.
"This should be a very… illuminating contest," the Kazekage murmured.
Sarutobi nodded, not trusting his voice.
OoOoO
Naruto grinned. He was going to make a point of being extra nice to Oji-san next time he talked to him. He'd much rather fight Gaara than Shino, and volunteering him to fight the Suna jinchuuriki was a vote of confidence in his abilities that he wouldn't forget any time soon. Not to mention him being the Kazekage's son…
While Gaara made his way toward the stairs, Naruto vaulted over the railing, landing near the entry arch in a deep crouch. Dusting himself off, he ignored the murmurs of the crowd as he made his way over to Hayate before Gaara even appeared.
He didn't think the weird kid would try anything on the stairs, but better not to take any chances.
"You ready for this?" Hayate murmured without moving his lips.
Naruto gave a short nod. The murmuring of the audience was quite audible. He didn't know if they were talking about his last match or wondering if he was about to get creamed. It didn't really matter though. For once, they weren't ignoring him. For once, everyone was looking at Uzumaki Naruto. It was an odd feeling, especially for a ninja. Was this how the old man felt every day? Was this part of being Hokage?
The crowds became louder as Gaara emerged from the archway. Naruto bounced lightly on the balls of his feet, trying to loosen up until Hayate gave him a sharp look.
In sharp contrast, Gaara stood there as if ignoring everything in the world – except Naruto. His dark-ringed eyes bored into Naruto's. "Will you validate my existence?" he asked in a dry whisper.
"Begin!" Hayate announced, but he was already in mid-air, leaping back and away from the two combatants.
Naruto didn't waste any time. He charged in, attacking as hard and as fast as he could manage. Sand flowed out of the calabash gourd on Gaara's back. It surged around him, blocking every attack, and then reached out to grab Naruto.
Naruto darted in and out, trying to get a feel for how fast the sand could move. After a couple of near misses, he leapt backward. Gaara hadn't even moved from the spot he started the fight in.
"Let's see how fast you are with wet sand!" Naruto taunted. "Suiton: Condensation!" he cried as he finished the seals, pumping as much chakra into the technique as he could manage without totally disrupting it.
A geyser of water roared out of the vortex that formed in front of Naruto's clasped hands. It shot toward Gaara, only to be blocked by the sand. Huge clots of wet sand flew in a spray around the Suna genin, but as he frowned, the sand shielding him compressed more and more until the water just sprayed off it to little effect.
Landing in a crouch, Naruto grinned. The spatters of wet sand were returning to Gaara, but nowhere near as quickly as they normally moved. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he called out, surrounding his enemy with clones. The clones scattered, throwing kunai and loose stones, dodging back as tendrils of sand lashed out at them.
Naruto circled around, dodging like crazy, even using Kawarimi no Jutsu to switch places with his clones to avoid pounding hammers of sand. Every time he got a clear shot, he blasted Gaara with another overloaded Suiton fire-hose. It was getting harder and harder to do as he leeched most of the free moisture from the air and ground of the arena. But it forced Gaara to tie up more and more of his sand into forming a sandstone shell around him to stop the blasts.
Finally, Gaara had completely surrounded himself with a sphere of compressed sand that seemed impervious to Naruto's attacks. Kunai glanced off, and any of his clones that wandered too close were impaled on spikes that grew out of the surface.
That's when Naruto dropped to the ground a good ten meters from his foe and used his trump card against ultimate defenses. "Doton: Yomi Numa!" he said as he stamped the ground. Funneling the chakra through his leg was good practice…
And it looked really cool as well.
As before, the ground dropped away in front of him, being converted into swampy mire as all the standing water from his Suiton attacks was pulled into the Swamp of the Underworld technique. Gaara's sphere immediately began to descend into the muck – sandstone, natural or not, was heavy.
As Naruto watched it drop into the mud, a much smaller sphere that looked eerily like an eye appeared on top of Gaara's refuge. It quickly looked left and right in a way that suggested startled panic. Naruto's grin widened. It looked like his guess had paid off.
Ultimate Defense or not, Gaara still needed to breathe.
The stone sphere split apart like an orange peel, wedge-shaped sections peeling back and elongating as they reached toward the edges of Naruto's swamp. Gaara was revealed, standing on the lower half of the stony sphere as it raised itself above the mire.
Naruto flashed forward, his weights left on the ground behind him.
Charging into Sabaku no Gaara's defenses at anything less than full speed was suicide, so he pushed himself to go as fast as possible. Lee had managed to avoid the sand for a while, even before opening his celestial gates, so Naruto thought the risk was worth it. He cleared half the width of his swamp in a single running leap.
Evidently the sand moved slower when compressed, because it didn't immediately grab his foot when he landed and punched Gaara full on in the face. The startled Sand shinobi didn't even try to block and Naruto wondered if he knew any taijutsu.
Still, Naruto's fist felt like he'd punched a tree as Gaara catapulted backward off of the platform. It must have been that stupid final layer of sand that had protected Gaara from Lee's attacks. Naruto leapt clear just as the sand reached for his feet. He'd angled the blow upwards to knock Gaara completely clear of the swamp, and the follow-up kick he'd landed in mid-air slammed Gaara to the ground well clear of the jutsu.
Wisps of sand were already detaching themselves from the remains of Gaara's calabash and reaching towards Naruto. When he landed he pivoted and ran past Gaara, hammerfisting the back of his opponent's head as he went. Gaara was catapulted off of his feet, landing even farther from the swamp.
Naruto wasn't sure if Gaara's control over his sand grew weaker with distance or not, but getting him farther away from the mass slowly pushing itself out of the swamp seemed like a good idea.
Gaara's remaining sand cushioned his landing, so Naruto gave him another fire-hose blast from Suiton: Condensation. This far away from his previous uses of the technique, it worked much better than the last few times he'd tried it, and Gaara was sent tumbling.
So far, his plan was working perfectly.
OoOoO
Kurenai couldn't help but raise her eyebrows at her student's aggressive tactics. Evidently, he was trying to deny Gaara any opportunity to collect himself and was wearing down his defenses by tying up his sand in various ways.
So far, it seemed to be working, but she wondered if Naruto had placed too great a reliance on the information she'd gathered.
OoOoO
"Wow, Naruto's really cleaning his clock," Teuchi said in a low voice. Ayame was biting her knuckle in an attempt to stifle her squeals.
Iruka nodded slowly, amazed by how much his one-time problem student had progressed. At the same time, he worried about what he'd overheard earlier. Naruto's enemies would never again assume he was no threat. He just hoped the boy was ready.
OoOoO
Naruto's knuckles were throbbing, but Gaara's armor of sand looked more like a jigsaw puzzle. He landed an uppercut under Gaara's jaw that sent a jolt of pain down the length of his forearm. Gaara, however, was lifted off his feet and landed in a heap.
Mindful of Hayate's wrath and the fact that this was the Kazekage's son, Naruto paused for a second before kicking him again. "Do you want to stop this, Gaara-san?" he asked.
Gaara ignored the question. Instead, he reached with trembling fingers toward his mouth, which was now bleeding freely from a split lip. Blotting the crimson with his fingertips, he pulled his hand back and stared at it. And then screamed.
A burst of golden-colored chakra sent Naruto stumbling backwards. Gaara's bloody hand morphed into a monstrous tan appendage far too big for the body it was attached to. It lashed out with shocking speed and sent Naruto flying backwards.
Gaara staggered to his feet, his arm slowly returning to normal. Naruto barely saw the shadow forming around him in time to leap clear before a tidal wave of sand engulfed him. He landed awkwardly, still dazed from the blow, and rolled to his feet in time to see Gaara's sand return to him.
OoOoO
Up in the stands, people began falling asleep as visions of falling feathers dulled their wits.
Kurenai felt the illusionary technique as soon as it began. It wasn't especially hard to resist, but what was surprising was how wide-spread it seemed to be. Someone with great skill had expended an enormous amount of chakra to envelop the entire stadium in a wide area sleep compulsion. The genjutsu was, in fact, so wide spread that she couldn't really home in on the source of the technique either.
With some pride, she noticed Hinata suppressing her own chakra to shed the effects with almost the same speed as her teacher.
OoOoO
Shino's colonies registered the presence of foreign chakra even as he noticed the motion in the stands as the spectators began keeling over. If his assumption was correct and this was a genjutsu effect, it did not seem to extend downward to the examinee balcony. He turned slightly to examine the Suna shinobi using his peripheral vision. Their body language proclaimed that they were tense and expectant, but not surprised by this turn of events.
He twitched his fingers to signal Shikamaru as he ordered both his colonies to attack the sand ninjas. If he was incorrect in his projections, he would deal with the consequences later.
Kikai bugs poured out from under his jacket, coating the floor as they surged toward the enemies of Konoha.
OoOoO
Sabaku no Gaara weaved unsteadily on his feet, clearly disoriented from the beating he'd just taken. However, he had reclaimed his sand and Naruto knew he was back to square one. His opponent's automatic defense wouldn't likely be affected by any dizziness.
Moreover, Naruto had no idea how he'd been knocked back like that. Well, he had an idea, but it was too awful to bear thinking about. If Gaara was as hateful and isolated as Hinata guessed, maybe he'd turned to his demon…?
Gaara wasn't even paying any attention to him at the moment. He just stood there, staring at the blood on his fingertips and whispering to himself. Naruto took a deep breath and brought his hands together for another Suiton jutsu.
Even as he was molding his chakra, his attention was diverted by a loud boom as a cloud of smoke enveloped the Kage's balcony. His stomach dropped, but he told himself not to worry. Oji-san wasn't weak; he could take care of himself.
As he turned back, Temari and Kankuro leapt down to land on either side of their brother and teammate. They looked like they wanted to steady him, but were afraid of getting too close.
"He… he hurt me…" Gaara said in a disjointed voice, showing Temari the blood on his fingertips. His eyebrows drew together. "He hurt me!" Gaara took an unsteady step towards Naruto.
"Gaara, wait!" Temari began, but was cut off when a Sand jonin wearing a veil across half of his face landed between them and Naruto. He looked vaguely familiar.
"Stop this immediately! The mission has started!" he said. He turned toward Naruto and his killing intent spiked.
In a flash, Hayate appeared next to Naruto. Gone was the harassed, sickly-looking referee, and in his place was a focused jonin. Naruto swallowed.
Gaara let out a strangled cry and fell to his knees, holding his head. The Sand jonin scowled and turned. "What's wrong with him?" he asked in a harsh voice.
Temari hovered over the red-haired genin with a worried expression. "He's dazed. He might have a concussion. The Armor of Sand protected him from a lot of the damage, but it used up most of his chakra. I don't think he can use it anymore."
"Idiot," spat the sand jonin, who Naruto now recognized from his briefing as Baki, the Sand team's jonin-sensei. "I told him to take this seriously. Gaara is the Sand's trump card. Get him out of here until he's had time to recover. Then you will resume the mission."
Kankuro gingerly helped Gaara to his feet, hauling an arm across his shoulders.
"What about you, sensei?" Temari asked.
"I will deal with these," he replied, turning back toward Naruto and Hayate.
"You think it will be that easy?" Hayate asked as another jonin, this one with a senbon needle in his mouth and cloth tied over his hair, landed next to him.
"Go!" Baki ordered, and they leapt out of there just as a pair of kunai thudded into the ground where they'd been standing. Shino and Shikamaru, kunai in their hands, started after them, but Baki turned toward them with murder in his eyes, and they hesitated. Behind them, Naruto could see a tired Chouji puffing toward them, clearly still low on chakra.
"So," the senbon-chewing jonin said with a lazy grin that never reached his eyes. "Is Orochimaru behind this little party?"
The sound of that name had Naruto baring his teeth. If sensei was right, he owed that freak the beating of his life. Then his eyes wandered up toward the stands. Everyone was lying down like they were asleep or dead. A few people were up, but all of them were fighting. Sensei…
"I don't know about that," Baki replied. "But none of you are leaving this arena alive."
"We'll handle this, Naruto," Hayate said, stepping between him and Baki. "I'm afraid the exam is over now. Right, Genma?"
The guy with the senbon smirked. "Just like old times. Hey, why don't you kids go report to your sensei? I think we're going to need everyone to dance today."
Naruto nodded with a grunt.
The jonin closed in on each other as the genin left.
OoOoO
Iruka ducked under a kunai as it embedded itself in the wall above him. He was able to recognize the genjutsu and disrupt it before it put him to sleep, but he couldn't remove it from Teuchi or his daughter, or any of the other spectators in their section. He wasn't carrying most of his equipment because of his infiltration mission – the Hyuugas might have sensed any weapons and been put on their guard.
But the sleeping bodyguard of a fairly prosperous-looking merchant had a short sword he was able to borrow, and he was putting it to good use against shinobi wearing Sound hitai-ite. He heard the explosion and saw the cloud of smoke where the Hokage had been sitting, but he couldn't really spare it any attention. There were enemies right here, threatening helpless civilians from his village. His elaborate kimono bore numerous tears from near misses, and his blade was stained with blood, but he was damned if he was going to abandon them.
Iruka dove forward into a roll as two more kunai flew toward him. One nicked his ear, but he ignored the pain as he closed in with a sound ninja that tried to use a substitution technique just an instant too late. The hilt in his hand jolted as he rammed the sword through the ninja's stomach, glancing off the spinal column.
OoOoO
Neither Naruto nor Shino wanted to risk getting trapped inside the stairwells. Ignoring their protests, Naruto grabbed Chouji while Shino grabbed the back of Shikamaru's mesh shirt and they ran up the arena wall to the stands.
Seeing all those people laid out and helpless made Naruto's stomach turn, but he concentrated on looking for motion. He saw Konoha, Suna, and Sound shinobi flash from point to point, accompanied by the clang of metal on metal. He tried to remember exactly where Kurenai-sensei was planning to sit when Shino gestured for them to follow him.
The four genin cut through three sections of seating. Naruto ignored the dead bodies, glad that most of them appeared to be wearing Hidden Sound insignia. But his stomach flip-flopped when he saw a young girl in civilian clothes with a kunai buried in her stomach, eyes opened in death. She'd never had a chance.
"Are you sure-" Naruto started to ask Shino, but stopped when he saw a shinobi wearing a grey jumpsuit with a mantle made of black and white camouflage material. The Oto-nin turned toward them, raising a kunai when a tree suddenly sprouted from the stands beside him. In an instant, the tree's limbs reached out and engulfed him, twisting his head around as he thrashed. There was a loud crack and the ninja stopped moving. The tree melted away to reveal Kurenai-sensei with her hands around the man's neck, which she quickly released.
As the dead ninja fell to the ground, Hinata stepped around her teacher, her Byakugan active. "That's the last one here, sensei," she reported in a quiet voice.
Naruto let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
"Team Eight is reporting for duty," Shino said, adjusting his glasses. "We appear to have been betrayed by both Sound and Sand. There was some sort of plan involving Sabaku no Gaara, but it has been derailed by Naruto's action. The Sand genin escaped with help from their jonin instructor, who is now fighting two Konoha jonin. We were instructed by them to report to you for further orders."
Kurenai nodded, and then glanced over at Shikamaru and Chouji.
"Yeah, us too," Shikamaru added. "Asuma should have known something was up when I forfeited. Have you seen him around?"
Kurenai shook her head and the lazy genin sighed.
Turning to Naruto, Kurenai look at him intently. "Naruto, how are your chakra reserves?"
Naruto took a deep breath. He didn't feel very tired, but he wasn't quite as fidgety as normal either. "Good enough, sensei."
Kurenai looked out across the stadium. "I don't think any of our forces will be affected, but this genjutsu is rendering a lot of people helpless and we can't evacuate them all." She turned back toward her genin. "Naruto, I want you to generate a chakra pulse to dispel this for everyone."
Naruto nodded and began focusing his chakra. "How far do you want me to push it?" he asked in a tight voice.
Kurenai frowned. "I can't tell from here how far this extends. Push it as far as you can."
Naruto closed his eyes to focus, trusting his team to protect him while he was concentrating. He brought his hands together as the pressure below his hara became almost unbearable. He opened his eyes just in time to see Hinata quickly shutting off her Byakugan, holding up a hand to shade her eyes against a bright blue glare.
"Naruto Majutsu," he growled, feeling his hair stir in an invisible wind, "Chakra Pulse!"
Naruto had spent every afternoon of the last three weeks working on ninjutsu with Jiraiya, the self-styled Toad Hermit of Konoha. In between cajoling the old pervert to show him new techniques, Naruto had also been engaging in elaborate exercises to develop his chakra control. It shouldn't have been a surprise to him that this might affect how he performed other techniques
But it was.
A shockwave pulsed out in all directions, as visible as a thick pane of glass that refracts the light. Shikamaru and Chouji grunted as it passed through them, while Shino actually winced. Kurenai and Hinata were standing a little further way, and while the jonin didn't react, Hinata did blush heavily.
But the most visible reactions were among the sleeping spectators, who immediately flinched and woke.
OoOoO
Umino Iruka was on his last legs. His clothing was torn to rags, he was covered with bruises, cuts, and scrapes, and the sword he'd appropriated had just been knocked out of his hand. The sound shinobi he'd fought, who was at least upper chuunin if not an actual jonin, wasn't looking that much better. But at least he was still armed.
Iruka flung a bloodied hunk of what used to be a 5000 ryou kimono at the Oto-nin's eyes, but he was too experienced to fall for such a trick. He slashed it out of the air without dropping his guard, cutting off Iruka's escape.
Iruka edged back into the corner, warily measuring his opponent's reach with his kunai. He was bracing himself for what would probably be a suicidal rush when a wave of pure chakra passed through him, making him dizzy for a split-second. It wasn't enough to distract his opponent, not long enough for him to do anything anyway, but for some reason Iruka felt like he was missing something.
The Sound ninja shook his head and stepped forward. "Whatever that was, it won't be enough," he said in a cocky voice that made Iruka wish for another weapon.
Then the Oto-nin stiffened, eyes widening even as he pitched forward on his face. A brace of throwing knives protruded from the back of his tunic. Iruka looked up to see the crowd stirring, civilians as well as some shame-faced chuunin and genin.
A large man stepped forward, and Iruka recognized him as the guard he'd borrowed the short sword from. He shook his head at Iruka as he kneeled down and wrenched the knives out of the Oto-nin's back with brutal economy. As the folds of his tunic parted, Iruka could see the edge of a hitai-ite. "I don't suppose you've seen a blade around here, about three hands long?" he asked in a gruff voice.
Iruka was too tired to be embarrassed.
OoOoO
Sakura was vastly relieved when she felt the genjutsu release its hold on those around her. She'd detected it as it was forming, and she and Sasuke had been able to break it. Kiba wasn't so fast and he and Akamaru had slumped down on the bench. Kakashi-sensei brusquely ordered them both to stay put and guard their teammate while he and Ino's jonin-sensei fought the Sound ninjas that suddenly emerged from the audience.
She'd been uncomfortably reminded of their unsuccessful mission to protect Tazuna the bridge-builder. Holding a kunai, watching others battle, but knowing if they turned on her she wouldn't last a moment. Something deep inside of her wanted to turn and run from the danger. But she also knew that both Sasuke and her sensei would never truly trust her if she broke now. She'd never be able to look Kiba in the eye if she left him to his fate. So she held her ground and waited for the inevitable.
Then a surge of chakra nearly sent her to her knees. There was something familiar about it, but she couldn't really place it. That odd sense of déjà vu was quickly forgotten as the people around her began to wake up – including Kiba and Akamaru.
Abruptly, the Sound ninja began to withdraw. It was clearly one thing to use superior numbers to face the few elite that resisted the genjutsu. But it was something else when all the chuunin and genin joined in as well.
Kakashi appeared in front of them as Kiba was standing up again, shaking his head. "Your mission is now to lead the spectators to the emergency shelters," he said with no preamble. "There are a lot of people here from outside the village who won't know where to go. Once you get them there, you will join the guard force until you are relieved. Is that clear?" Gone was the playful cajoling tone he'd used so often. In its place was the voice of an ANBU captain giving orders in an emergency.
Sasuke-kun looked rebellious, but didn't object. Sakura let out a sigh of relief.
OoOoO
Outside Konoha, teams of Sound shinobi were entering the last phases of a very elaborate summoning ritual. Such rituals were necessary to perform a summons that any one of them lacked the requisite chakra to perform.
Sitting in precisely delineated positions along and within the summoning circles, they had just unfurled their carefully-prepared scrolls when a wave of almost-solid chakra passed through the clearing.
The delicately chakra-infused summoning diagrams shattered like spun glass smashed with a sledgehammer. The carefully calibrated summoning, designed to call forth one of Manda's oldest offspring, was irrevocably fractured. Instead of summoning a senior envoy of the Snake Leader, it called forth thousands of his newest spawn. These newborn snakes were barely larger than a finger, too mindless to understand human speech, and extremely irritable after their first summoning. They were also horrifically poisonous.
Within forty seconds every mammal in the clearing was dead.
OoOoO
Naruto dropped to his knees, panting for breath. Kurenai could tell he'd put a lot of effort into that technique.
Kurenai looked around the wakening stadium. "I knew that would be useful some day," she said approvingly. Naruto gave her a tired grin.
"While we may have foiled this gambit," Shino said, "I think there is more to their plan than a simple attack."
Naruto frowned. "The Suna kunoichi, Temari, she said something about Gaara being too dizzy and exhausted to use 'it'. Whatever that means, their sensei got really angry when he heard that. He said Gaara was the Sand's trump card."
Kurenai frowned. This was still potentially dangerous. "Where are they now?"
"They got away," Naruto said with a frown. "Their sensei told them to go, and then stayed to block us."
Shino cleared his throat.
Naruto turned to Shino. "You tagged Gaara?"
"No," Shino replied. "My allies refused to go near him."
"Damn," Naruto growled, smacking his fist into his palm.
"I did, however, tag the other two members of his team when they were on the balcony," Shino clarified, straightening his shoulders and shoving his hands into his jacket pockets.
"Good work, Shino," Kurenai said. Finding them quickly without kikai pheromones would be impossible.
"I was merely being proactive based upon cues I received from Naruto," Shino replied evenly.
"You're still a sneaky b*****d," Naruto said with a weak laugh. "And you freaking rock."
"Very well," Kurenai said, thinking for a moment. "Naruto, your strategy against Gaara seemed fairly effective and it doesn't appear that he's recovered yet. You and Shino take Shikamaru and try to run them down before they can try anything else. Chouji, you seem a little tired so we will link up with Asuma and any other jonin we meet. Now that I know what to look for, if their genjutsu user tries to start this again, I should be able to locate them. Are there any questions?"
The genin shook their heads, Shikamaru perhaps a bit less than enthusiastically.
"Good. Stay alert and be careful out there," she said. "Now go."
The three boys quickly made their way to the exit. Even Asuma's laziest student showed some haste. Hinata started after them when Kurenai grabbed her shoulder. "Hinata, I don't think you are-"
"They might need my eyes, sensei," Hinata replied, turning toward her. "I will not get in their way or slow them down." The girl's face showed an implacable resolve that robbed Kurenai of any desire to stop her. She'd never seen the soft-spoken Hyuuga looking quite so fierce.
"Then hurry, Hinata," Kurenai ordered. "But be careful."  

[Pandora Green]

Chapter 18
Temari set as hard a pace as she could manage with Gaara as they tried to slip out of Konoha as quickly as possible. Just thinking about needing to slow down for Gaara had her suppressing hysterical laughter.
She'd never had what you could call a normal family life. Her father treated his children like his personal soldiers: lives to be expended furthering his ambitions. Just thinking about her mother's fate drove that point home. Neither of her brothers were anything close to normal, but it said a lot that she had a closer relationship to the one that wore more makeup than she did.
Her relationship with Gaara was normally built around fear. Fear of his anger. Fear of inciting his automatic defense to lash out. Fear of being hurt. Her first memory of him was that of a cute baby with strange eyes, but it wasn't until Gaara had killed her uncle that she really understood. The demon inside her brother ruled his existence. Only her loyalty as a Suna Kunoichi prevented her from actively hating her father for what he'd ordered Chiyo-sama to do to her brother - as well as to her mother.
But that fear had also brought with it a sense of confidence. Sabaku no Gaara was simply unstoppable. In every mission that her team had performed, he'd never even been scratched. As long as she and Kankuro stayed on Gaara's good side, they shared in that strength. With Gaara on their team, they were unbeatable.
Until Konoha.
The first sign came during the second exam, with the manhandling they'd received from a small horde of fearless clones that overran their ambush as they waited for unsuspecting genin near the tower. There were so many, and they came so fast that the blond one actually got his hands on Gaara before his sand lashed out and destroyed them all. She never thought she'd see anyone run their knuckles across his scalp like that. Even if he couldn't feel it through his Armor of Sand, the concept was simply ludicrous.
But it was more like a glimpse of things to come.
Her match had gone about as well as could be expected. She hadn't had to display any abilities someone couldn't guess from just seeing her battle-fan. Kankuro being the odd man out and not having to fight was just a stroke of luck.
Gaara's fight was actually the hardest. That weird kid in the green stretchy suit was incredibly fast, and for a while there Gaara hadn't been able to touch him. But eventually the kid had gotten winded and his sensei stopped the match before Gaara could kill him. That only made her brother angrier.
She hadn't paid too much attention to the kid whose clone had gone after Gaara outside. He did score the quickest victory in the preliminary matches. But at first, she'd just thought his opponent had been overrated or hurt. Now she wondered if her twinge of fear hadn't been caused by Gaara's lingering frustration.
She was almost looking forward to Gaara's first match in the finals, hoping a little bloodshed would calm him down before they needed to use his other half. It wasn't like it really mattered how many he killed – they'd just as likely die in the attack anyway. She was not going to question the Kazekage's decision to turn on Konoha, and calming Gaara down was something she considered a very good cause.
What she hadn't expected to see was her youngest brother getting beaten like an unwanted stepchild.
This Uzumaki kid had obviously done his homework during the preceding month. He'd handled that Hyuuga like he was nothing, and left him bleeding in the dirt. But she didn't expect to see someone ever fight Gaara so effectively. His attacks tied up most of Gaara's sand, making his automatic defense less and less effective. That swamp summoning jutsu had to have been jonin level, and, with all of the clones he had created, she wondered if he was a ringer inserted into the test to take Gaara out. Had Konoha ferreted out their treacherous alliance with Otogakure?
In any event, Uzumaki had really battered Gaara, right through the Armor of Sand, before her brother could reclaim most of his sand. He'd finally had to draw on Shukaku for a moment to even get some breathing room. Between that and maintaining his armor through that ferocious beating, Gaara's chakra reserves were depleted worse than she could ever remember.
Aside from the surprises in the arena, the changes within herself were no less striking. She found she couldn't watch the match with the dispassionate gaze of a professional kunoichi. This was her youngest brother being battered left and right. This was her mother's last child getting punched so hard he was launched backward off his feet. It didn't matter if his demon made him a psychotic killer when he became angry. Or bored. He was still her blood.
It was almost a relief when she felt the genjutsu start and the creepy bug guy tried to attack them. Watching helplessly galled her more than she wanted to admit. Leaping down into the arena before his bugs could catch her, she'd still been surprised to see Gaara so weak and disoriented. He had actually needed her help to stand up straight.
He needed her.
She tightened her grip around Gaara's shoulders as they leaped from a rooftop to the outer wall. Kankuro was on point, ready to unleash fully articulated hell on anyone that got in their way, but Konoha's defenders were concentrating on the people leaping into their village, not out.
She almost stumbled in surprise when Gaara's hand tightened for a moment on her shoulder. She could sense that his chakra reserves were replenishing moment by moment. Hopefully his head would clear as well. They still had a mission to perform, one vital to the success of the attack.
But with respect to Sabaku no Gaara, her fear of him was slowly being counterbalanced by fear for him.
OoOoO
Shino was on point, since they were following the scent trails of his bugs. Hinata was right behind him, using her Byakugan to warn of any ambushes. Shikamaru trailed behind her, grumbling at the pace they set, while Naruto brought up the rear, along with half a dozen clones running interference. Normally, he'd have made more, but Shino reminded him that they didn't want to gather too much attention from unknown hostile forces.
Not that it stopped him from dropping twenty or thirty clones every time a foreign shinobi even looked at them funny.
The extra clones were instructed not to follow them, but to instead, help Konoha's defenders. The scattered reports as they were dispelled painted an interesting picture. The Suna guys were tough as hell, but the more numerous Sound shinobi didn't seem to be quite as well-trained. Taijutsu training aside, he never expected thirty of his clones to be able to disable a jonin, even if they got extremely lucky. The first time it happened, he nearly stumbled when he received the memories. But he couldn't imagine them letting lower-ranked ninja operate alone. Well, even if they did act stupidly, including attacking Konoha like this, he'd still tell Kurenai-sensei about it. Her and Gai-sensei's efforts hadn't been wasted.
After the second set of clones had been dispatched to help out a team of chuunin, Shikamaru dropped back for a moment and began talking to the clone in the center of the shifting formation.
"Naruto, just how many times can you do that before you start running low on chakra?" the lazy genin asked. That clone and two others nearby turned their heads along with Naruto. His classmate's tone was thoughtful, but with an undercurrent of worry.
"I don't know," the clone replied. Naruto decided to let it do the talking, since it was the one Shikamaru addressed.
"You still can't gauge your own chakra?" Shikamaru asked in a disgusted voice.
Naruto frowned. His chakra control wasn't that bad.
A stray kunai nicked the clone, dispelling it. Receiving its memories, Naruto knew it was just as annoyed as he was by the implication. Turning, he saw another pitched battle between two sound ninjas and an ANBU with long purple hair and a cat mask.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he snarled and thirty clones appeared in his wake, immediately vectoring towards the melee. He turned toward Shikamaru, who was now looking over his shoulder at him. "No, it just didn't drain me enough to notice," he said sarcastically.
Shikamaru grunted something under his breath that Naruto didn't really want to hear and moved back up in the formation. When they left the stadium, Shino told him to be ready to immobilize any dangerous enemies and he'd acquiesced to that role with a shrug and a wave. Naruto figured he found this whole situation to be too troublesome for words.
OoOoo
Uzuki Yugao landed a solid kick right on the Sound ninja's forehead protector, dropping him like a rock. Spinning towards his partner, she brought her sword around in a wheel-cut that had him leaping backwards to avoid evisceration. Striding forward in a deep stance, she was just beginning her follow-up attack when the scrape of metal on stone warned her that the first ninja was only faking.
She was pivoting back toward the threat when a third ninja slammed into her, knocking her off her feet. Striking the roof knocked her ANBU mask slightly askew, so she only got a glimpse of the blond-haired enemy's face before he exploded into a cloud of smoke.
An instant later, the wedge of nearly solid sound waves that passed through the kage bunshin slammed into the roof just past her head, sending fragments of clay tiles flying through the air.
Yugao rolled to her feet, blade up in a defensive posture, but found both of her opponents fully occupied by over a dozen clones each. The green-clad genin were displaying some impressive Taijutsu skills, each one dodging like crazy to avoid being disrupted. At first glance she had no idea which one was the real one, but she'd take any help she could get.
Bringing up her blade for a lunge, she closed in on the one who'd been faking before. He evidently saw her coming out of the corner of his eye, because he spun to avoid the attack, raising the shiny metal devices on his wrists…
Only to have two of the clones kick the backs of his knees, pitching him forward to be neatly impaled on her blade. He dropped to his knees, vomiting blood, and slowly toppled backward off her sword.
The other Sound ninja was taking a beating from the clones, but managed to dispel six of them. He didn't see Yugao's leaping strike before it was too late.
Turning to the clones, she took a deep breath. "Thanks, but who are you?"
Most of the clones were warily scanning the rooftops around them, but one in the middle folded his arms and announced, in a deep growling voice, "We are legion!"
The two clones nearest to the speaker both turned to look at him. He shrugged. The one on the left smacked the back of his head and he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The one on the right just shook his head. "Sorry, ANBU-san. We're clones of Uzumaki Naruto. He assigned us to help you for as long as we last."
Yugao blinked. "You're all clones? Then where is he?"
"Chasing the Kazekage's children," the clone answered sourly.
OoOoO
The ANBU prowled around the edges of an elaborate chakra barrier that had been erected on top of one of the arena buildings. The Hokage and the man who'd been disguised as the Kazekage were both inside but they had no way through the deadly energy. The only success they'd experienced was when that odd wave of chakra had washed over the roof. The barrier had fluctuated for a moment, thinning out in some areas. A single hole large enough for a person had appeared, but only for a split second. Only one shinobi had been quick enough and near enough to exploit that weakness, one of Ibiki's chuunin wearing a proctor uniform.
Now the Hokage wasn't alone, but it wasn't enough. Especially since they could now see that his attacker was none other than Orochimaru, his former student. Some ANBU had already gone through the interior of the building, seeking to break through the roof from below. However, the barrier had reinforced the roof substrate with that same deadly energy, which had almost killed the first one to attempt a jutsu to breach it.
The ANBU stationed at the arena were left to prowl around the edge of the barrier like restless wolves, looking for any sign of weakness. The few enemies still within the arena were being dealt with by Konoha genin, chuunin, and a couple of jonin. To make things worse for the treacherous enemy, many visiting dignitaries had their own contingents of bodyguards. None of them were very happy about being put to sleep.
No, the Hokage's need was greater. He was fighting a deadly enemy and none of them could help. What use would a mere chuunin be in such a battle?
OoOoO
Things went fairly smoothly for Naruto and his friends until they entered the forest surrounding Konoha. They were barely past the walls before Hinata signaled they had pursuers. Shikamaru offered to hang back to delay them, but Naruto shook his head.
"Shino, can we afford a couple of minutes?" he asked.
Shino nodded. "We've been steadily gaining. They won't get out of my range that quickly."
After a quick whispered consultation, they dropped down to the forest floor, traveled a little further, and then took cover.
Naruto got a little worried when eight Oto-nins ran into the clearing, but Shikamaru managed to snag all of them with his shadow. It looked like Temari hadn't been the only one holding back earlier.
No sooner had they jerked to a halt than the kikai bugs Shino had spread in the branches above them descended like black ashes. Naruto smiled at the chagrined expressions he could see on what little of their faces was visible.
"Naruto! Above and right!" Hinata's voice snapped like a whip-crack. Her normal hesitancy and manners were nowhere to be found.
Naruto and his remaining clones were moving before what she'd said even registered. One of Shino's kamas deflected a thrown kunai right before it pierced Shikamaru's head, but a ninth Sound ninja was hurtling down out of the canopy behind it.
Two of Naruto's clones were dispelled in mid-air, not even slowing the man down. But they'd distracted him just enough for Naruto himself to get a clear shot. His leaping uppercut slammed into the underside of the man's jaw before his feet even touched the ground. His head snapped back as his momentum reversed itself.
Naruto channeled his body's rotation into a spinning back kick that drove his heel into the ribcage of the already-rising shinobi. There were multiple cracks as the man catapulted backward. His flight was stopped by the tree trunk he impacted with a dull thud. He crumpled to the ground and did not move.
Naruto landed in a deep crouch, his feet kicking up dust as he finished his spinning motion. He wondered what Lee would think of his version of Konoha Senpuu. One glance at his target and he was pretty sure he wouldn't be moving any time soon. Looking back at the rest of the enemy, he saw that Shikamaru hadn't flinched or released any of his victims. Each of them had kikai bugs crawling across their heads and shoulders, and none of them could even move as long as they were held by Shikamaru's Kagemane no Jutsu.
Within thirty seconds of the start of the ambush, they were trembling. At forty-five seconds their eyes rolled back in their heads and they slumped in place. Shikamaru released his Shadow Bind and they collapsed bonelessly to the forest floor.
"They won't be capable of movement today without medical assistance," Shino said as he recalled his bugs. "But they may hold information valuable to Konoha. We should resume our pursuit."
Shikamaru shook his head when Hinata offered him the small packet of pills and canteen she fished out of her bag. He sighed as they took to the trees again. "That was less troublesome than it should have been," he muttered. "But now they will expect us to do things like this all the time and that is even more troublesome."
Naruto snorted. It was nice to see someone keeping their perspective on things.
OoOoO
The Sandaime paused to catch his breath. The black uniform he wore under his formal robes seemed to fit a little looser every day, but at least the metal arm guards and kabuto protecting his head were still secure.
He'd been able to stop the resurrection of his successor, but Orochimaru had still successfully summoned the first and second Hokages. But just as he had been about to insert the tagged kunai that would bind them to his service, the entire barrier rang like a great bell, going from dark purple to blood red for an instant.
In a flash, a blur he barely recognized as Ibiki's newest apprentice managed to breach the barrier. More importantly, his senbon ripped through the prepared tags dangling from the kunai in Orochimaru's hands. Sarutobi's most disappointing student was momentarily caught off guard, but the rage visible on his face when he realized what had happened was gratifying.
Sarutobi launched the jutsu he'd been building up the chakra for as the boy leaped clear. A grand fireball forced the Snake Sannin to leap back as well, but the motionless bodies burned to ash.
The old man turned to look at his former student. The second greatest regret of the Sandaime's life was allowing Orochimaru to flee Konoha when his crimes were exposed. Some part of him still remembered the boy he had trained, but it died a little more every time rumors of new atrocities reached his ears. The murder and impersonation of the Kazekage was merely the latest, and now he threatened the village Sarutobi loved.
"Stay clear of this," he murmured to Haku. A strange boy, but one he was glad he'd taken a chance on.
"I will not allow you to be harmed, Hokage-sama," Haku whispered. "Your life will not end before mine." The air chilled around the chuunin as the moisture within the air crystallized.
The Hokage shook his head at the boy's stubbornness. Some had questioned the wisdom of allowing Kakashi's prisoner a place within the Leaf, but his mercy was being repaid a thousand-fold today. However, he would not allow another person to die for Orochimaru's ambitions. He hefted his battle staff, the alternate form of his summons, Enma the Monkey King, and prepared himself.
OoOoO
Temari called for Kankuro to stop when Gaara grabbed her shoulder again. Worried that he was concussed worse than she thought, she carefully landed them both in the nearest clearing.
"Are you all right?" she asked in an urgent whisper.
"Get… get away…" Gaara murmured.
"What?" she asked. She wondered if it was already starting.
"Get away!" Gaara screamed, roughly shoving her aside. She stumbled back, almost dropping her fan. Then she noticed the shadows landing on the tree limbs overhead, almost obscured by the greenery.
"Mother wants blood," Gaara rasped, holding his head.
Temari edged away from the clearing, following Kankuro. Their original plan was to get far away as soon as Gaara started to use… it. Now she was not as assured of Gaara's invincibility. She shook her head when Kankuro tugged on her sleeve.
OoOoO
Naruto frowned as he watched Gaara's brother and sister move away from him. Even if they were enemies, it bothered him that they seemed ready to abandon him. He thought again about Hinata's guesses as to why Sabaku no Gaara was so bloodthirsty and shivered a little. To be totally alone, with absolutely no one precious to him?
It was with mixed feelings that he saw the fan and puppet users halt at the edge of the clearing. It might make it harder for his team to deal with Gaara, but watching them simply abandon him would be disgusting as well.
"You have betrayed your village's alliance with Konoha," Shino said, interrupting Naruto's thoughts. "Our assignment is to place you under arrest if possible, or terminate you otherwise. Immediate surrender is your most logical option."
Gaara screamed again, and Naruto suddenly realized why Temari and Kankuro had moved away from their brother. The sand from his seemingly inexhaustible gourd began to flow out, covering his body in a tan-colored mass that looked disturbingly like flesh, complete with weird blue markings.
Already one arm was completely covered with sand, forming a huge misshapen claw way out of proportion to the rest of Gaara's body. But instead of being unbalanced, he shot forward with surprising speed, smashing through the trunk of the tree they were standing on.
All four of them scattered, but Naruto leapt down into the clearing. Taking down Gaara was his job. His team would make sure the others didn't interfere.
OoOoO
Hinata felt her stomach twist as the air seemed to swell with unnatural chakra and insatiable bloodlust. Gaara was in the midst of some monstrous transformation, and she wasn't sure there was any way they could stop it.
Of course, that didn't keep Naruto-kun from trying.
Her own hesitancy vanished when she saw the Suna kunoichi angling to take a shot at her teammate with her enormous fan. She wasn't really equipped up for a mission, but she was far from helpless. No Hyuuga was ever truly unarmed. Temari leapt aside right before Hinata landed on her, chakra flaring from her hands.
"You will not harm Naruto-kun!" Hinata snapped in a voice she barely recognized.
The older blond girl's lip curled in annoyance. "Do you really think you can stop me?"
Hinata stared at her with her Byakugan, taking in every detail, every nuance of her foe's appearance. She wasn't as good at reading people as she should be, but she was pretty sure Temari was anxious about something – even more than would be normal for combat circumstances.
She thought of her father's voice when he was quietly angry with someone, the forbidding but restrained tone. When she spoke, she tried her best to assume that voice.
"Naruto will stop Gaara and I will stop you."
It was a pathetic attempt, really, but it still made the older girl flinch a little.
OoOoO
Kankuro wasn't quite as quick to move in, but neither Shino nor Shikamaru thought he'd abandon his team.
A multi-limbed apparition of wood and cloth descended from the trees, angling toward Naruto's back… right up until Shikamaru's shadow reached out and captured it.
"How long can you restrain his proxy?" Shino asked in a whisper.
Shikamaru didn't answer directly, but twitched three of his fingers together as sweat began to bead on his forehead.
A mass of Shino's bugs descended onto the wooden puppet, intent on rendering it down to sawdust. However, no sooner did they reach it than a small door opened in the side of its chest and dark purple mist spewed out, killing them almost instantly.
OoOoO
"Damn that is one ugly technique," Naruto said as he dodged Gaara's misshapen claw. It slammed down into the forest loam, compressing it nearly a foot.
If anything, Gaara moved faster, despite all the extra flesh, and it was spreading out over his body as well. Particularly disturbing was the portion starting to cover his face. One eye had been covered with something sporting a monstrous diamond-shaped pupil. That eye had locked onto him with an alien hunger Naruto could feel in the pit of his stomach.
Naruto put his hands together and began creating clones as quickly as he could, even as he leapt backward from another swipe.
OoOoO
Growing old, the Sandaime reflected, is not an occupation for the weak.
He struggled to regain his breath and glanced around. The canted roof of the arena building looked like a war zone. Craters had been blasted into the tiles, and fragments of scorched clay ground under their feet like gritty ashes. The barrier, however, was still completely unmarked.
His former student had planned well, intending their confrontation to occur in such an enclosure meant no one could intervene, as well as limiting his options to disengage. However, that also meant that Orochimaru was similarly limited, even if his arrogance blinded him to that fact.
Haku flitted around the periphery, never missing an opportunity to attack or distract Orochimaru. As a near miss made their enemy turn toward the boy, Sarutobi began another technique.
Haku barely managed to dodge the summoned snakes that shot out of Orochimaru's sleeves. But the distraction was sufficient to let the Sandaime complete his technique without hurrying too much, and the blasted tiles surged upward into a wave that sped toward Orochimaru. Given a little extra time, Sarutobi could select his attacks with care, carefully managing his chakra reserves for maximum effect.
The fact that it seemed to infuriate Orochimaru suggested that rushing the old man had been part of his strategy. Foiling this tactic made his rage even more satisfying.
This Hokage had put up with enough nonsense.
Orochimaru started to counter the modified Doton jutsu, but hand seals are a little difficult to complete when you suddenly find senbon needles shooting toward your vital points. With a strangled cry, he threw himself to the side as the tiles exploded where he was standing. He fluidly rolled to his feet, holding his wrist. He yanked out the needle and shot a venomous glance at the Hokage.
"I see you still need a young boy to keep up with me," he snarled, his voice thick with insinuation. "I wonder what your lackeys think of you now?"
Whatever the years had stolen from the third Hokage's speed, young Haku more than made up for. The chuunin hadn't pressed the attack so far, more likely out of deference to his superior than any real fear, but Orochimaru seemed to find it increasingly difficult to complete the seals for his techniques. The confined nature of the conflict also limited his ability to complete a technique from cover.
But now, icy needles crystallized out of midair around the chuunin and shot toward the Sannin almost too fast to see. In a flash, he was riddled with senbon, falling to the ground with his breathing and heart stopped…
…only to dissolve into a mass of mud as the substitution technique expired.
Orochimaru emerged from a crater in the tiled roof behind them. With a growl of frustration he drew a straight-bladed sword from his own mouth and charged directly toward Haku. His speed was such that Sarutobi had to push himself to block the strike with his battle staff.
"That blade is poisoned," Enma growled, opening an eye between Sarutobi's hands. Orochimaru's swordsmanship was much better than Sarutobi remembered, but that was hardly surprising given the time that had passed.
The scowling Snake Sannin launched a combination of cuts that Sarutobi barely managed to block, though he was forced backward several steps. Haku circled warily, careful to stay out of the blade's reach. His hands blurred together in a series of seals, executed with speed that Sarutobi found surprising in someone so young.
With Enma helping, the Third blocked a wheel cut with enough force to stagger his foe, and then went on the offensive. Sarutobi ignored the chill in the air that made his facial skin tighten as his young ally formed a dome of ice mirrors around them.
A barrier within the barrier, and Orochimaru directly in the middle.
OoOoO
Naruto dodged another clumsy but terrifyingly fast lunge from Sabaku no Gaara as he distributed autonomous clones all around the clearing. They'd been useful against Orochimaru, so he hoped they'd work here as well.
Even as he prepared, more and more sand flowed over Gaara's body, further transforming him into something out of an expired milk nightmare. One great golden eye rolled crazily in the socket as the misshapen creature flailed around the clearing, smashing anything between it and Naruto. The blond couldn't help but stare as the monstrous form grew larger by the second.
For a moment, Naruto wondered if the missing-nins he'd killed had looked at him the same way.
He shook his head and leapt to the side as Hinata shouted a warning. There was enough danger here without distracting his friends by acting stupid. For a moment, he wondered how she knew which one was him. Then it hit him.
He was the only one making more clones. Idiot. The next batch all mimicked the seals the next time he did Kage Bunshin.
Gaara screamed his frustration in a voice loud enough to shake leaves from the trees. He swept his misshapen arm in a circle and the claw of sand detached, shooting out toward Hinata. The nearest clones were only beginning to react when she back-flipped out of the way, letting the sand smack harmlessly into the bole of a massive tree.
Naruto didn't even have to tell his clones to attack.
OoOoO
Hinata was growing increasingly frustrated with her opponent. Temari obviously had extensive training as a distance fighter, and used every bit of that training to maintain the distance between them. In a long-range fight, her Jyuuken was practically useless.
Of course, it wasn't all one-sided. Hinata's agility, honed by hours and hours of training, made it almost impossible for Temari to catch her with one of her wind blasts. Unlike her earlier battle with Tenten, now Temari was fighting in a heavily forested area and the Hyuuga always had cover available.
But Hinata was never so glad of her Hyuuga heritage when, right after shouting a warning to Naruto-kun, her eyes helped her track and avoid the sand Gaara had hurled at her. She swallowed heavily when she saw it smash the bark from the tree it struck.
"You kids are going to get killed if you stick around," Temari shouted at her. Hinata's ears weren't as well trained as her eyes, but, mixed in with the sincerity in the kunoichi's voice, she thought she detected undercurrents of fear and anxiety as well.
"I am a kunoichi of the Leaf," Hinata announced in a chilly formal tone. "My sensei has ordered my team to apprehend yours. We will succeed." She hoped the nearby clones were watching. She wouldn't let her team down again.
OoOoO
Shikamaru was mostly conserving his chakra. This was something he had a lot of practice doing. Sometimes he'd spend entire days just conserving his chakra.
But that didn't stop him from flicking out his shadow every so often to trip up that freaky puppet. After watching the damn thing spew out a cloud of poison gas, neither he nor Shino were eager to get too close to the thing. The Aburame was pretty adamant about shutting down the puppet master though.
He could have sworn the boy was looking to avenge his dead bugs, if the idea wasn't patently absurd.
Shino and the puppet were dancing around, leaping from branch to branch, in an exercise that looked far too troublesome for him to join. He knew without guessing that it was just a distraction while Shino's bugs closed in on the puppet master.
On the other hand, they'd also tipped their hand a little on the balcony. A wave of angry kikai bugs tended to make an impression on people. If Kankuro and Temari hadn't been obviously set to jump the instant that genjutsu swept the stadium, the bugs might have caught them before they cleared the railing and forestalled this whole troublesome mess.
Of course, watching Gaara continue to change out of the corner of his eye, Shikamaru wondered if chasing him out here might have been less of a pain than dealing with him back in Konoha.
Despite just missing them, Shino's attack had obviously given Kankuro some warning of what to expect. The puppet user seemed to be moving around a lot himself. Maybe he was keeping an eye out for more bugs.
Shikamaru ducked as the puppet suddenly whirled away from Shino and launched a spring-propelled spike right at his head.
"Maybe I'd better pay more attention," Shikamaru said with a grunt as he edged away from the melee, looking for any sign of the puppet master.
How troublesome.
OoOoO
Clones poured out of the trees, swarming toward the steadily growing monster that was Sabaku no Gaara. The body of the Kazekage's son wasn't really visible within the huge mass of sand that was already as tall as the Hokage's tower, but that didn't stop the whole thing from flailing around like a wild animal, knocking down trees in an ever-widening radius.
Even weirder were the high-pitched cries echoing from within the mass of sand. The occasional yips didn't sound even remotely human, more like a raccoon or…
A tanuki. The damn thing looked more and more like one of those odd little raccoon-dogs.
It was so weird it was almost funny. But that didn't stop it from obliterating the first row of clones to reach it. Naruto ignored the memories of incredible pressure as they expired and circled around behind the monstrosity.
Eight kunai with explosive tags made a neat circle as they embedded in the behemoth's back.
The massive explosion when they triggered made the still-expanding sand tanuki stumble forward, but the crater left in the creature's back was already filling in before Naruto's eyes.
A tail almost as large as his apartment building swept out and crushed the trunk of the tree where Naruto was perched. The surprised Genin was pitched forward, along with several tons of tree. Some hastily created clones were able to hurl him free of the falling debris…
Right into the grasp of the sand demon's left forepaw.
OoOoO
Hinata screamed when she saw Naruto caught and crushed within Gaara's paw. From the way the clones had acted to save that particular one, she knew it was the real Naruto.
Temari obviously wasn't a kunoichi to ignore golden opportunities, because her wind blast caught the distracted Hyuuga and slammed her into a tree trunk.
Stunned by what she'd seen as much as by the impact, Hinata struggled to her hands and knees as the Sand girl moved in to finish her off.
OoOoO
A large hunk of wood slammed into the puppet, knocking it off balance and giving Shikamaru time to jump clear.
Shino dropped down from above, one of his kama held in both hands, poised to swing down and do as much damage as possible to the wooden puppet while it was off balance.
A spike emerged from the puppet's back, shooting out to impale the Aburame. Shino's kama fell from his suddenly lax fingers and stuck in the tree limb with a muted thump.
OoOoO
Naruto barely had time to take a breath before the paw closed. As the chakra-controlled sand of Gaara's new body flowed around him, a flash of inspiration struck.
As the pressure mounted with frightening speed, he frantically concentrated chakra into the center of his coils.
Fox, if you don't want to die here today, you damn well better help!
Kyuubi no Kitsune seemed awfully well informed to Naruto. Too knowledgeable by far to not be at least peripherally aware of what was going on around his prison. The surge of red chakra that slammed through his coils only confirmed this.
For an instant, his veins felt like they were full of molten steel. Naruto couldn't help but scream as he released the technique, even if sand did start to pour into his mouth.
OoOoO
Temari pulled out a kunai as the stunned kunoichi crawled around a tree in a pathetic attempt to avoid her fate. She didn't relish killing, but orders were orders, and her brother…
She shook her head and stepped around the trunk. The Hyuuga girl was still on all fours. For someone her teammates had defended so fiercely as not being weak, she sure hadn't shown much strength. She shook her head and steeled herself for what she had to do.
And then she heard the… thing her brother had turned into let out a shrill scream as its left arm exploded.
Temari's eyes widened as sand rained down all across the forest. The defeated Hyuuga at her feet disappeared in a puff of vapor and Hyuuga Hinata came charging down the tree trunk, her left hand spearing out in a Jyuuken strike.  

[Pandora Green]

OoOoO
Kankuro grinned under his face paint. One down and one to go. His fingers twitched and one of Karasu's segmented arms looped out, reaching for his other victim.
Then the impaled genin on Karasu's back, who looked like a fitting trophy, exploded into a mass of bugs that immediately began burrowing into Kankuro's pride and joy.
"What the hell?" he murmured. His eyes glanced back toward the kama stuck in the tree limb. It was still there. Did Aburames just turn into bugs when they died?
"An effective tactic to reinforce the illusion of the kikai bunshin," a voice proclaimed just as a blinding pain erupted in the side of Kankuro's head. It took an instant before he realized he'd just been clubbed in the head.
The Suna genin crumpled forward, allowing himself to fall off the limb where he'd been concealed. A twitch of his fingers in free-fall was enough to summon the heavily damaged Karasu to catch him.
At the moment, he wasn't capable of finer manipulations, so he sagged to the ground to play for time. "How did you find me? Even if they can smell me, I moved every time I saw your damn bugs get close."
"You are correct in that my allies can track you by scent," the creepy b*****d said as he cautiously moved in. "However, the bugs within my body are more than capable of tracking that scent as well, and I can move somewhat faster when the situation calls for it."
The lazy b*****d that fought Temari landed next to the creepy one and handed him the kama.
"Loaning a weapon to your bunshin was smart," Kankuro admitted as his vision began to clear. Creepy or not, that b*****d hit harder than Temari at her time of the month. "When I saw it was solid, I thought I had you."
Kankuro blinked away the last of the double images. "Just like you think you have me," he said as he dropped the smoke bomb he'd palmed.
OoOoO
The Hokage ducked under a strike that would otherwise have decapitated him. He was starting to wonder if going hand to hand with his much younger student was such a good idea. He was off balance to parry Orochimaru's follow-up backhand cut, but a senbon needle forestalled the attack by protruding from the rogue ninja's elbow.
Haku was flashing from mirror to mirror faster than the eye could see, peppering Orochimaru with throwing needles every time he had a clear shot. It was a major distraction, and just enough to keep them on an even footing.
Even as Orochimaru yanked out the needle with a snarl, Sarutobi brought Enma's staff form around at knee level. The snake summoner, his attention momentarily on the supremely annoying chuunin, was an instant too slow dodging backward. With a crunch of bone, he was swept off his feet, sword flying into the air as he landed in a crumpled heap near the edge of the ice mirrors.
Sarutobi drew in a ragged breath as he looked around, wary for substitution techniques or other tricks. Orochimaru let out a low groan, but did nothing else.
Slowly the old man approached his former student.
OoOoO
Naruto spat out the sodden sand as he tumbled through the air. He hadn't expected that to work so well, but he guessed the way the sand wrapped around him magnified the effect of the pulse.
Opening his eyes to orient himself, he saw a flash of red atop the beige juggernaut. It was Gaara's hair. The upper half of his body was sticking out of the sand demon's forehead like some kind of reversed pimple. He looked to be dead or asleep, but he was pretty sure Gaara being dead would kill the demon too.
So why was he asleep?
The rapidly approaching ground jolted him out of his thoughts. He quickly formed another batch of clones, finally beginning to feel a little drained after the countless hordes he'd created – not to mention two full strength chakra pulses. He wondered briefly if this was how everyone else felt all of the time.
'Why does almost getting killed make me so thoughtful?' Naruto wondered as a clone grabbed the sleeve of his jacket and hurled him toward another clone.
"Gaara!" a voice screamed from below.
Naruto's head pivoted even as another clone caught him and hurled him toward the others waiting on a tree trunk. The blond Suna kunoichi ran out into the clearing, ignoring the sand still raining down from the explosion. She stopped and swung her fan behind her, blasting a wind attack back the way she'd come. However, the technique came out very weak – one of her arms didn't seem to be working right and an entire section of her fan had the paper torn out.
Then he saw Hinata emerge from the trees, rolling to the side to avoid the attack. She was sweating and breathing heavily, but her eyes were hard as diamonds. Naruto didn't think he'd ever been so proud to be her teammate.
Naruto shook his head to clear it as he landed on the side of a tree-trunk, hanging there by the chakra in his hands and feet. With them fighting this close to Gaara… he needed to end this quickly.
Naruto ran down the bole of the ancient tree, letting gravity accelerate him even more. He saw Shino and Shikamaru chasing a battered wooden puppet out of the corner of his eye, but their presence here only hardened his resolve.
The sand demon's wails were trailing off, only to be replaced by shrieks of rage. Behind him, Naruto heard Temari shouting as some of his peripheral clones were drawn into the running battle between her and Hinata. The memories he received as they were dispersed made his stomach hurt. The anguish on the girl's face bothered him, but it wouldn't stop him from killing her brother.
OoOoO
Sarutobi stared down at the man who'd once been his hope for the future of Konoha. But that was a long time ago, and now he'd become more of a nightmare.
"Are you going to gloat now, old man?" Orochimaru demanded with a sibilant rasp.
The bones protruding from his shattered legs were a sickening sight, but a relief as well. He wasn't sure how much longer he could have kept up with him. "I take no pleasure in this," Sarutobi murmured as he hefted his staff. His former student appeared to have also suffered spinal damage from his landing. His left arm was outstretched at his side, only the fingertips twitching. For a moment he considered just taking him prisoner, but he ruthlessly crushed the thought. As long as that genius brain was alive, Orochimaru would be a deadly threat. He raised his battle staff. At least he could give his greatest failure a quick end.
An eye popped open on the staff between his hands. "Look out behind you!" Enma shouted.
Sarutobi spun. Orochimaru's sword wrenched itself free of the tiles where it had landed and hurtled through the air at him. His eyes barely had time to see this before the view was blocked.
Haku was now standing between him and poisoned blade.
OoOoO
When Naruto reached the forest floor, he switched to horizontal travel without slowing. Once he was no longer flirting with free-fall, a quick thump to his weight releases sped him up until the greenery at the edges of his vision blurred.
He could feel his other chakra, still agitated from the chakra pulse, surging through his coils, seeking release. His fists trembled with a desire to punish Gaara, to beat him senseless for threatening his village, his friends.
The reddish tint sliding across his eyes, even as his sense of smell became even more acute, scared Naruto almost as badly as the monster in front of him. The demon inside him was something he could never escape. Gritting his teeth as he closed in on the screaming monster, he forced the red chakra down into his feet, away from his head.
Naruto could tell his prisoner didn't like that one bit, and the chakra surged even harder for a moment. But he had more important things to worry about, because he was now running up the side of the giant sand tanuki's ankle, using the extra chakra to maintain traction. The red chakra was actually helping, because he noticed that the sand seemed to absorb a lot more chakra than was normally required to maintain contact on a vertical surface.
He hoped he could move quickly enough to reach Gaara before the sand grabbed him. But as he ran up the demon's leg, he noticed that while the sand near him surged toward him, the stuff immediately around his feet stayed still.
Still, the sand farther away was reacting to his intrusion, rearing up and arcing forward to crush him like a bug. He poured on the speed as he climbed the bulging torso, past the arm that was still reforming even as it ponderously swung down at him.
Naruto changed direction with a sharpness only someone gluing themselves down with chakra could manage, angling toward the opposite shoulder. The whole world seemed to shudder as the demon's arm slammed into its own stomach, yards behind the charging genin.
Even as the demon yowled at ear-splitting volumes, Naruto saw the sand ahead of him rearing up like a wave. The sand tsunami crashed down across the monster's chest, but Naruto had changed directions again. He was breathing so hard he couldn't hear anything else, but he finally made it onto the demon's shoulder.
But the closer he came to the demon's head, the quicker it seemed to react. Sand began to spring up all around him in grasping tendrils, so he crouched down and leaped upward right before they smashed down on him.
Naruto's awkward and hasty jump got him clear of the trap, but now he was airborne and helpless. However, he was also very close to his objective. He arched his back as he carefully molded chakra. Slowly turning in the air, he got a very close look at a face several meters wide, complete with freaky diamond-pupiled eyes that were crossing trying to see him.
Then he was past them, drawing closer and closer to the forehead. Naruto completed the seals and then stuck out his arm and braced himself for impact.
"Raiton: Shokkingu Haji!"
OoOoO
Sarutobi was moving before what he saw fully registered. His left shoulder smashed into Haku's ribs, the unexpected blow shoving the young chuunin aside. But he was still in the way, and no time left to use his staff…
Moving with a precision he thought he'd lost a decade ago, the Sandaime Hokage brought his right arm up in a picture-perfect inside forearm block just as the sword reached him. Sparks flew from the metal bracer as the poisoned blade was diverted to the side. The metal was heavily scored, but the attack had missed.
"So noble, even to the end," a voice said behind him, dripping with scorn.
He spun to see Orochimaru standing behind him on two perfectly fine legs, swinging the sword he had just caught at the Hokage's head.
Fooled by a simple henge, he thought in disgust. With Enma in his left hand, there was no chance of bringing the staff around in time. He got his forearm up in time to block, but this time the blade bit into the damaged metal. He barely felt the cut as the blade pierced the sleeve of his uniform, but the burning agony as the poison seeped into his veins made him gasp.
"You're dead already, old man," Orochimaru sneered.
"No!" Haku snapped. The chuunin grabbed the Hokage's upper arm and the burning was replaced by numbness as the old man's entire arm was frozen solid. The ice encasing the bracer climbed up the sword and in a flash had enveloped Orochimaru's right hand. His left hand barely let go of the blade before it too was captured.
Out of the corner of his eye, Sarutobi could see the boy's face twisted into a rictus of hate. The ice around his arm advanced no further, but it moved steadily up Orochimaru's as he tried to pull free. Still, the Hokage's entire limb had been frozen solid, and the cold began to seep into the rest of his body, draining his flagging energy and making him very, very tired. "Haku?" he said.
The fury melted away from the boy's face. "I am sorry, Hokage-sama, but that is the only way I can think of to stop the poison," Haku said in a soft voice. "But the ice on him will advance until it stops his heart."
Orochimaru tugged harder, pulling both of them forward. Despite his frantic efforts, they were still joined together as the ice passed his elbow and moved toward his shoulder. "Let me go, you freak!" he hissed.
"For attacking my Hokage, you will die," Haku said, his soft voice as implacable as any Sarutobi could remember.
With a snarl of frustration, Orochimaru raised his free hand and smashed it down on his frozen forearm. It shattered into grisly chunks, as did the sword.
The snake summoner leapt back as the barrier suddenly flickered and died. Four shadowy figures leapt in from the corners as the ANBU just started moving. Haku moved to guard the Hokage, who was sinking to his knees and beginning to shake, but all four of them converged on Orochimaru. Sarutobi lost sight of them as the ANBU moved in.
He thought he saw them leap away with ANBU in pursuit, but his vision was getting cloudy. He blinked as one of the masked shinobi angrily demanded that Haku explain himself. "The arm was poisoned," the Hokage said in a shaky voice. "Orochimaru wouldn't use any venom that has an antidote." He coughed and shivered again. "It will have to come off."
The day seemed to be getting darker, but Sarutobi knew better. He hoped things were going better elsewhere in the village he loved.
OoOoO
If the situation wasn't so deadly, Naruto would have laughed out loud.
Sabaku no Gaara, demon container and terror of the sands, was now wide awake. To go with his wide eyes, his short red hair was now standing completely on end. It was even worse than Hinata's had been, that time they'd sparred.
Of course, Naruto had a clear view of this since one arm was wrapped tightly around Gaara's shoulders and the other was holding a kunai up to his right eyeball.
Despairing wails from the demon below them nearly shattered his eardrums, but they also told him that waking up Gaara had been a smart move. The mass of sand below them seemed to be softening, losing cohesion, even as it reared up to crush the green-clad genin. His legs were already enveloped.
"Don't even think about it!" Naruto snapped. "Unless you think you can kill me before I push this through your eye. No sand there to stop it."
It was a calculated risk. He wasn't sure that even the threat of instant death would deter the crazy jinchuuriki. But the sand stopped rising – for the moment at least. He could also feel the mass below them trembling as the demon let out a mournful sigh… at a deafening volume.
What he wasn't prepared for was Gaara's dark-ringed eyes to focus past the kunai and lock onto his own. "Why haven't you killed me?" he asked in an eerily calm voice. "My existence has no meaning."
The utterly emotionless way the question was asked made Naruto's stomach turn over. He remembered Hinata wondering what it would be like if he'd been raised with no one who cared about him, no one precious to him.
If he'd been raised as a weapon, like it seems Gaara was.
For an instant, Naruto was struck by a thunderbolt of déjà vu. This… this was… not right. He remembered sitting by Hinata's bed at the hospital, hearing her describe her family. This was wrong and he had to fix it.
Somehow.
The sand was still losing cohesion, but Naruto was more concerned about Gaara. The empty teal eyes were looking past the kunai, focusing on him now. If he decided that Naruto lacked the will to kill him…
Naruto blinked as he received the memories of another clone. This one had been helping Hinata with the fan-user, Temari, the one Sensei's dossier identified as Gaara's sister. His clone had been caught on the edge of a wind blast, but before he dispersed, he'd gotten a good look at the kunoichi. She was trying desperately to get past Hinata and into the clearing, even though she moved like she'd taken more than a couple of Jyuuken hits.
Even as he saw Gaara's eyes take on a calculating look, Naruto scowled and snapped "Idiot!"
Gaara blinked.
"You say your existence has no meaning?" Naruto snarled, "Then why the hell are your brother and sister trying so hard to save you?" The look on Gaara's face was so bewildered that Naruto felt a little sick inside… but he didn't let that show on his face. "Your sister can't even move one of her arms and she's still trying to get past my team mate." He grimaced. "She's crying and screaming your name, you idiot. And your brother is facing two to one odds as well. Maybe you don't think your existence has any meaning, but they sure as hell do. And they're going to get killed if we keep this up much longer."
The Suna genin, whose hair was finally returning to normal, leaned forward, totally ignoring Naruto's kunai. "She's crying?" he asked, his hollow voice a little less remote than before. "She never cries."
"Well she is now," Naruto snapped, pulling back the kunai before the oblivious demon-container hurt himself. "She obviously cares about what happens to you, even if you don't. Are you going to get her killed?"
Gaara's eyes focused again on Naruto's, with an intensity he found really creepy. "You won't hesitate to kill me, will you?"
"Not if it will keep my friends safe," Naruto replied, his voice cracking despite his best efforts.
"Then why did you stop just now?"
"Because…" Naruto's voice trailed off. "Because you're like me. Or what I'd be like if I didn't have my friends. One of them pointed that out to me. I had a chance to give you a choice, so I did."
Gaara stared at him for a long moment, and Naruto tightened his grip around the kunai. Then the Suna genin slowly nodded. The sand moved away from them both, releasing Naruto's legs, and slowly lowered them to the ground.
When they reached the ground, most of the sand dispersed while the rest moved to re-form the calabash on Gaara's back. Naruto warily released his hold on Gaara and pocketed his kunai.
The other battles around the clearing had slowly ground to a halt while this was happening, so it was mostly silent when Gaara raised his voice.
"Our mission is ended."  

[Pandora Green]

Chapter 19
It was a very odd procession that slowly walked back to Konoha. The Sand team was battered and bruised. Naruto had clones carrying Kankuro's puppet as well as Temari's fan. As reluctant as they were to give up their weapons, they relented when Gaara spoke.
The Leaf shinobi were in better shape than their captives, but most of them had used up a great deal of chakra. Even Nara Shikamaru's slouch seemed more tired than usual.
Of the group, Uzumaki Naruto was the least exhausted, but even he was feeling a little drained. The seal containing his prisoner had given him a degree of unnatural stamina that most shinobi couldn't even contemplate without the aid of a lot of sake. He'd literally lost count of the number of times he'd used Kage Bunshin no Jutsu that day, the latest to form a cordon around both teams as they made their way back to Konoha.
Despite all the extra eyes, Naruto was still looking around cautiously. His teammates claimed they were all right, but they looked pretty wasted to him. All but Hinata had fought in the tournament earlier that day as well, and the glimpses he'd gotten of the Hyuuga girl's fight with Temari made him wince in recollection. Those two had gone after each other with a ferocity that shocked him just a little.
Naruto sort of understood Temari's attitude. She'd been worried about her brother. But as he sifted through the memories from his clones, he remembered Hinata practically snarling at Temari that she wouldn't let her harm Naruto-kun. Just thinking about that gave Naruto a very odd feeling.
Maybe some of his precious people considered him equally precious?
Even considering the possibility made Naruto's heart pound in his chest. But he had more immediate concerns at the moment. Gaara shuffled along like the rest, and just as silent. But every so often, he would glance at Naruto out of the corner of his eye. Every time he did this, Naruto expected him to say something, but he never did. Finally, Naruto turned his head so he caught Gaara looking right in his face. The red-haired boy actually jerked back a little. Naruto could see the others flinch in response.
"Is there something you'd like to ask me?" Naruto asked in what he privately called his "Kurenai voice". He hoped it sounded as patient as she was.
"How do you…" Gaara began, but his voice trailed off. "You have control of your demon. How did you do this?"
Naruto winced as Shikamaru let out a startled cough. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shino grasp the shadow-user's elbow, his head leaning toward Shikamaru's ear. Naruto sighed. Pretty soon his prisoner would become the worst kept secret in Konoha. "I don't," Naruto said in a slightly irritated voice. "My seal may be a little different from yours, since I don't have any kind of automatic protection, but the only time it can try to influence me is when I am pretty mad."
Gaara nodded slowly, taking this in. "Yet you used its chakra several times today. I could feel it, especially when you escaped Shukaku's sand."
Naruto nodded. "We sort of have a deal. It knows that if I die, it dies too. I only ask when I really need it for something, and it knows that if it refuses it will probably die. It really doesn't want to die."
Gaara's eyes widened a little. "Then, I am in the same situation." He nodded slowly and resumed walking. After a moment, everyone staring at the jinchuuriki blinked and began walking as well.
As they walked, Naruto noticed Temari still held her right arm at a funny angle, moving it tentatively. Even if she'd kept her fan, he doubted she could have even carried it this far. He was hardly surprised, given how many times he'd been nailed by a Jyuuken strike. Shoulder tenketsu really sucked, because a hit to any of them tended to make the whole joint lock up. But Naruto was surprised when Hinata sidled up to the older blond girl and spoke with her in little more than a whisper. A moment later, she handed the Suna girl a small jar she'd taken from her pocket. Temari stared after the Hyuuga girl as she resumed her place in their formation, periodically activating her Byakugan to check for enemies.
Privately, Naruto was glad she hadn't changed too much.
It took them a little while to reach the gates of Konoha. They were halfway there when Naruto remembered the chakra-drained Sound-nins they'd left back in the forest. Fortunately, they weren't that far away, and he dispatched a platoon of clones to collect them. He was still a little annoyed with himself for not remembering earlier.
As he finished, Shikamaru fell into step with him. Naruto steeled himself for what was likely to happen next.
"Shino explained," the slouching genin said, staring up at the clouds overhead.
Naruto nodded.
"I think I understand how you've been slinging shadow clones around like cheap kunai. I asked Asuma about that technique and he said he wouldn't teach me until I had jonin-level chakra reserves, or else it might kill me." He sighed. "I suppose you might just be too stupid to know when you're supposed to collapse, but that's not why, is it?"
Naruto shook his head. Shikamaru was one of the few classmates he'd gotten along somewhat okay with, but now he sounded irritated.
"I suppose having a demon sealed inside you would boost your chakra a lot," Shikamaru continued. "It's annoying that I didn't figure it out sooner. I had all the pieces in front of me, too. Damn Aburame…" his voice trailed off and he shot a glare over at Shino… who seemed oblivious.
Naruto scowled. Hating him was okay, but Shino hadn't done anything but be smart.
"Anyway," Shikamaru continued, turning back to Naruto, "you're annoying as hell at times, but hating you for something like that is stupid and troublesome."
With that, the Nara boy slowed his pace a little, meandering toward the back of the group again, and leaving Naruto to continue beside the silent Gaara.
OoOoO
As they approached the village, it was clear that the attack was over. The late afternoon air was oddly quiet without the sounds of distant explosions.
Their reception at the gates of Konoha had been a little hostile. Naruto supposed he couldn't blame them for being jumpy, but he didn't think anyone in Konoha would fail to recognize him, or fail to see Hinata's eyes. Then, as soon as the older chuunin acknowledged their forehead protectors were real, they demanded that they turn over their prisoners. Naruto clenched his fists as his temper began to fray. Maybe he'd been overexposed to Jiraiya, but he especially didn't like the way the younger guard was eyeing Temari.
"You two are really brave," Shikamaru announced with a yawn as he stretched. He grimaced as something in his neck made an audible pop. "I wouldn't have the guts to countermand a jonin's orders. I'm sure their sensei will be impressed by your initiative… right before she busts you back to genin."
After a whispered consultation, the gatekeepers decided to let them send one of their number ahead to fetch their sensei. However, they would be responsible if their prisoners tried to escape.
At that, Gaara looked up. "We have surrendered," he said in a flat, emotionless tone that still managed to sound annoyed.
At first, Hinata seemed like the logical person to find Kurenai-sensei as quickly as possible… until Shino cleared his throat.
Naruto stared at his teammate. "You tagged Sensei?" he demanded, incredulous.
"I tag everyone," Shino answered, adjusting his sunglasses. "Therefore I already have a general idea of which direction to go."
"Shino would be faster," Hinata agreed.
As their teammate slipped through the gates, Kankuro coughed. "Tagged?" he asked. "As in, with bugs?"
"Yeah, that's how we tracked you down," Naruto said absently. Then he snapped his mouth shut. Even if they were prisoners and that was fairly common knowledge about the Aburame, he needed to watch what he said.
Temari gave a whole-body shudder that made Naruto quickly look away. "I'd like to slap Father in the face for even thinking about attacking this place." She looked up just in time to catch Shikamaru staring. "What are you looking at?" she demanded.
"A prisoner I'm supposed to guard," Shikamaru said, just a little defensively, Naruto thought.
"That doesn't give you the right to ogle me," she snapped.
"If you'd rather take your chances with those two…" Shikamaru offered, nodding off to the side toward the chuunin manning the gate.
Temari tried to cross her arms and look away, but one of them still wouldn't move right.
"I – I think we should just wait for Sensei," Hinata offered.
"You better listen to her," Temari said in a spiteful tone. "She kicked my a**, she'd take you down in a heartbeat, pineapple-hair."
"Temari," Gaara said, and she immediately subsided, looking away. After a moment, she pulled Hinata's ointment from her sash and used her left hand to work some into her right shoulder under her uniform.
Kankuro edged toward where Naruto and Gaara were standing. "She gets like that when she's scared or upset. We're not going to violate our parole."
"Parole?" Naruto asked.
Kankuro peered at him, maybe wondering if Naruto was making fun of him. "Gaara surrendered to you. If we tried to escape now, we'd be violating his word and he'd probably have to kill or recapture us to regain his honor. Don't you do this in Fire country?"
Naruto shook his head. "Not that I've heard of. Maybe it's because you're the Kazekage's kids, so you're like royalty?"
Kankuro made a disgusted sound. "Hardly. The Daimyo of Wind Country hates the Kazekage. He's tried to ruin our village practically since his coronation."
Naruto was about to ask more about this when there was a commotion at the entrance. Shino and Kurenai came through the gate with a dozen ANBU, but following right on her heels was an old man with one arm, swathed in bandages, who was accompanied by unfamiliar men who looked like shinobi.
"I understand your concerns, Danzo-sama, but my team performed the capture, and they will be turned over to Ibiki to be held until the Hokage can make a decision." Kurenai spoke as she walked, but the clipped tones warned Naruto that she was about as angry as he'd ever seen her.
"The Hokage is still in the hospital, and it is questionable whether he will survive," the bandaged man said, and Naruto's heart seemed to freeze in his chest. "We must determine how deep this plot goes, and we must have this information immediately, no matter what steps must be taken."
Hokage… hospital… questionable whether he will survive. The words seemed to echo in Naruto's suddenly empty mind. He took half a step forward and his mind was no longer empty. It was filled with red flames. It was only as the red glare seemed to settle across his eyes and he saw Sabaku no Gaara flinch away that Naruto realized what was happening. He continued walking forward, forcing down the rage, rejecting the demon's gift of chakra, ignoring the chuunin and even a few of the ANBU as they stopped to stare at him. Duty. Do your duty. He reminded himself. Don't embarrass Sensei. Don't embarrass your team.
His voice was almost normal as he stopped several paces in front of the procession. "Uzumaki Naruto, reporting for duty, Sensei. We have apprehended the Suna team, who surrendered to us. We also neutralized a team of Sound shinobi that tried to intercept us. I have clones bringing them to this gate for processing."
"Very good, Naruto," Kurenai replied. She turned to the bandaged man. "I think that presents us with a compromise that won't violate orders. Danzo-sama, your men can process the Sound-nin team while we secure the Kazekage's children. We don't want to risk triggering a diplomatic incident before we have all the facts, do we?"
Danzo gave her a long, measuring look. "I see that Sarutobi's subordinates are just as wedded to his vision of the world. Very well, I will abide by his authority while he still lives. But keep in mind that we have reports that one of his charity cases cost him his arm. Be careful you don't earn yourself a similar fate from your pet. Jonin of your skills are hard to come by."
Kurenai inclined her head politely, then gestured for her team to follow her. Naruto's clones picked up the fan and the puppet while the Suna genin shuffled over.
Once they were through the gate, Naruto noticed the signs of battle only hours past. There were scorch marks on walls, and the odd crater in the street. The memories of the clones that he'd left behind to help told him that no quarter of Konoha had been spared at least some damage. He decided to let his remaining clones keep an eye out while he asked the question burning in his mind. "Sensei," he whispered, "what happened to Hokage-sama?"
Kurenai sighed. "He was attacked by the Kazekage, who turned out to be Orochimaru in disguise. They were sealed behind a barrier no one could get through, except for one of the proctors. Both the Hokage and Orochimaru lost their right arms, and Orochimaru was forced to flee. Most of the fighting in Konoha stopped after that. There are indications that the Sand shinobi were deceived by Orochimaru."
"Our father is dead," Gaara said in a flat voice, making Naruto jump. His hearing was much better than Naruto had thought possible. His words also made his siblings jump, turning to him with wide eyes. "He would not have allowed himself to be replaced in such a manner if he was still alive. If Konoha was to be humbled, he would want to be there when it happened."
Both Kankuro and Temari looked shocked, but neither one disagreed.
"That is what most of the Suna jonin said when they surrendered after the barrier went down," Kurenai said. "But it will take some time to sort things out and let the Hokage come to a decision."
"So… he's going to be okay?" Naruto asked, hating the hopeful, wheedling tone in his voice.
"His arm was frozen to prevent poison from spreading through his body," Kurenai said, "but the medics have every confidence that he will fully recover."
Naruto let out a sigh of relief. Despite the signs of damage to his home, he knew everything would be all right.
OoOoO
When they arrived at the detention center, Naruto had to bite back a laugh. The shinobi who'd conducted the written exam was also in charge of the ANBU Torture and Interrogation Force.
Figures.
A glance to the side showed a sour grimace on Shikamaru's face as well. Shino's expression, if any, was hidden behind that damn collar, and Hinata-chan was far too polite to say something. Unless she got mad, of course.
What was more interesting were the looks Ibiki exchanged with Kurenai-sensei. They seemed to know each other, though Naruto was having trouble guessing why Kurenai looked so amused and Ibiki looked like he'd drunk bad milk.
"I suppose I should have guessed your troublemakers would be out raising hell, Yuuhi," Ibiki growled.
Then Naruto remembered his brash words at the end of the written exam and swallowed. Oh well, at least Sensei didn't look angry. That had to count for something, right?
"They acquired some very high profile prisoners, Ibiki-san," Kurenai said with a slight smile. Then her face turned serious. "The Hokage will want them handled very carefully. Danzo-sama has already expressed an interest in them."
Ibiki frowned, pulling tight the cloth he wore tied across his ruined scalp. Naruto hoped it didn't pop loose – seeing that once was enough. "Who the hell did they bag?"
"I am Sabaku no Gaara," Gaara said tonelessly, accompanying his words with a formal bow. "I have given parole, along with my sister and brother," he added in that affectless voice that still gave Naruto chills. He hoped Gaara didn't forget what they'd talked about in the forest.
Ibiki only blinked once. "That explains a lot. I have a place we can keep them until the Hokage can make a decision."
"Will they be allowed visitors?" Naruto blurted out before he completely thought it through.
"Not normally," Ibiki replied, his eyes narrowing as he turned toward Naruto. "Why do you ask?"
"Er, it might be important," Naruto replied evasively. "For reasons I cannot discuss. I also think Jiraiya should see him as well." Naruto floundered for a moment. "For safety reasons," he added lamely.
Ibiki turned to Kurenai, but Naruto's sensei was staring at him curiously. "Does this have something to do with the Hokage's special law?" she asked.
Naruto nodded quickly.
"How urgent is it that Jiraiya come here?" she asked.
"Very urgent," Naruto replied. "Something might need to be fixed, and it might be a good idea for me to check on it until he's had a look."
Kurenai's eyes flicked over the prisoners, and then she turned to Ibiki and nodded. He raised an eyebrow, but nodded back. Naruto thought it was interesting that the special jonin was evidently willing to accept Kurenai's assessment over his own opinions. "All right," he finally said. "I can arrange visiting hours once a day. Noon?"
Naruto nodded gratefully, and then turned to Gaara who had witnessed the whole conversation silently. "I'll bring you guys lunch or something."
Temari and Kankuro just looked confused. Very, very confused.
OoOoO
"This convenes an emergency session of the village council for Konohagakure," Homaru announced in a dry, but steady voice.
"Is this even proper?" a voice asked uncertainly. "I mean, we barely have a quorum here."
Hyuuga Hiashi quickly rose to his feet, directing a glare at the questioner. The silk merchant flinched visibly. Though prosperous, a good portion of his income flowed from Hyuuga coffers and he knew it. "The treacherous attack on our village requires swift action if we are to properly discharge our responsibilities to Konoha," he said in a chilly voice – clearly daring anyone there to disagree.
"That is correct, Hiashi-sama," echoed Maniki Gowabara, the head of the ancient Moneychangers Guild. In modern times, they controlled all of the village's banks, including the large cash reserves that served as a foundation for Konoha's economy, as well as guaranteeing the village's credit.
"What is our first order of business then?" asked Yoshikawa Toshiro. He owned a large chain of retail shops scattered throughout Konoha. Directly and indirectly, his businesses supplied most of the equipment used by ANBU and the other shinobi.
"The first is to declare the Chuunin Examination cancelled," rasped Danzo. "I've always counseled that inviting foreign shinobi into the heart of our village was a mistake, despite what some may claim. We no longer have time to deal with this misguided policy when Konoha itself is in danger."
"This will anger some of the clans," Mochizuki Hiro, the representative of the agricultural guilds, observed. He gestured toward the empty chairs normally occupied by representatives of the more prominent Ninja clans, including the Aburame and the Nara.
"They will have the opportunity to test again in six months," Hyuuga Hiashi countered smoothly. "Or whenever the new Hokage decides to resume them. We will vote by a show of hands. All in favor raise your right hands."
The vote was quickly taken. Secret ballots were normally reserved only for the most sensitive of decisions. In this case, the abbreviated council was unanimous in their decision.
"The motion passes," Hiashi announced. "The chuunin examination is canceled and will be reconvened only at the Hokage's order." He nodded toward the door and a Hyuuga Branch Family chuunin left to post the council's decree.
"Which brings us to our next item of business," Danzo added. "With Sarutobi incapacitated by his former student's attack, we find ourselves leaderless. I-"
"I'm sure you are willing to do whatever it takes, Danzo," a gravelly voice said from the entrance to the council chamber. "Fortunately, such steps will not be necessary."
The bandaged face of the Root leader showed almost no reaction as he turned, but the minute widening of his visible eye spoke volumes to those that knew him. "There were reports that you were on your deathbed," the one-armed man said. His tone implied he wasn't too thrilled to find them to be false.
"Reports of my death were exaggerated," the Sandaime said as he slowly walked into the chamber. "The medics were able to save my life, if not my arm." He was trailed by a blank-faced medic-nin and one of the chuunin proctors from the exam. Those two were flanked by a small group of chuunin, including the pair that normally guarded the doors to his office.
"I see," Hiashi said coolly. "Then I must congratulate you on your survival. However, it is clear that you are no longer capable of fulfilling some of the more strenuous duties required by your office."
The silence that followed that statement was absolute. Hyuuga Hiashi wasn't quite challenging the Hokage – but only by the barest of margins. Several of the council members shivered slightly. The room seemed to have grown quite chilly in the last few moments.
"You are quite right," the Sandaime said, breaking the silence. He smiled slightly. "I will be making arrangements to have my chosen successor brought here soon. In the meantime, I know all of you must be worried about your homes and families. I appreciate your dedication in making sure Konoha isn't left leaderless in the face of this crisis, but as I am no longer incapacitated it is no longer necessary for you to exercise your emergency powers."
It wasn't quite a dismissal, but the Hokage's tone was clear.
"In that case, we will adjourn," Hiashi said. The cold smile he wore as he stepped away from the podium was only marginally short of offensive.
Sarutobi's eyes lingered on each of the council members as they left. Many of them refused to meet his eyes, looking down as they quickened their steps. Danzo was the last to leave, and he met the Hokage's gaze squarely.
"This isn't over," Danzo said. His eyes lingered on the empty sleeve of the Hokage's robes.
"No, it isn't," Sarutobi agreed.
After the Root leader shuffled out and the door closed, the Hokage suddenly sagged, and might have fallen if Haku hadn't appeared at his remaining elbow to steady him.
"Hokage-sama, I told you this was ill-advised," the dark-haired medic-nin fretted as he ran a glowing hand across the chest of the old man's robes of office. "You have not fully recovered from your hypothermia." The last he said with a sympathetic glance toward the chuunin, who nonetheless winced.
Sarutobi coughed once before he sat down in one of the recently vacated chairs.
"I agree, but it was still necessary. If I had stayed under your care at the hospital, there is no telling what mischief they would have gotten up to." He sighed. "As it was, we didn't get here in time to stop their first decree."
"Surely canceling the examination was justified under the circumstances, Hokage-sama," one of the chuunin guards exclaimed.
"Perhaps," Sarutobi said, "but I think I saw enough in the time I did have to make some recommendations to the proctors." He sighed. There would still be some questions as to the validity of the tests, since some participants were clearly not there for honest competition. "Nothing to be done about it now." This was not a fight he could afford, not with everything else happening.
His lips pressed together in a thin line as he levered himself to his feet. Lingering here too long would reveal too much to his enemies. For a brief moment, he wished Konoha was more like other villages, where a Kage's word was absolute and he could overturn even the most lawful exercise of power by the council when it suited him. He shook his head. That wasn't what he and the others had fought so long for.
OoOoO
In the aftermath of the attack, the genin teams were mobilized en masse to assist with the cleanup. It felt very strange to Naruto to not be on the intensive training schedule he'd followed prior to the finals of the Chuunin Exam. Instead, Kurenai-sensei met them first thing in the morning with a long list of assigned tasks. Normal mission pay was reduced in light of the crisis, but no one even thought of complaining.
Team Eight spent most of their days on street repairs, patching up battle-damaged walls, and doing their best to eradicate any signs of the invasion. The work seemed to be endless, but Naruto found that he didn't really mind. It felt good to have something concrete he could do to make things better.
He was a little disappointed when he received word of the examination being cancelled, but in light of everything that happened, he couldn't really complain. Konoha recovering from the invasion had to have the highest priority. Kurenai-sensei emphasized that when she told them the news and Naruto supposed that only made sense.
An unworthy part of his soul was a little disappointed – he thought he'd made a good enough showing that they could have passed him if they wanted to. On the other hand, if he participated in another exam, he'd have a chance to fight in front of the crowd again. At least, he would if it was held in Konoha. He'd never forget what it felt like to have all those people cheering him like that.
Even if he wanted to whine, any urges to do so would have fled the instant he saw the Old Man at the Hokage's tower after their fifth day of repair work.
They had finished early that day, having completed more missions than Kurenai-sensei had expected. Naruto had been feeling restless with the lack of training, and their tasks that day were mainly ones that benefited from throwing dozens of kage bunshin at them. Filling in fifteen potholes at once had really sped things up.
Seeing the Hokage with those deep lines etched on his face and an empty sleeve really drove it home for Naruto. He tried to speak, but no words would come out.
OoOoO
The Sandaime looked up wearily from his paperwork. He smiled a little when he saw Team Eight, but it was a weary expression that sat heavily on his face. He'd been too slow to prevent the council from cheating the boy out of his rightful promotion. There was little doubt in his mind that Uzumaki Naruto was ready for chuunin rank. The skills he'd displayed in the arena showed a remarkable degree of growth. Part of him was annoyed that he'd never pressed Yuuhi Kurenai to join the Ninja Academy as a chuunin, but part of him was equally happy that she'd been available when Naruto really needed a skilled mentor.
The only mark against the boy was the conclusion of his first match, and given the lethal techniques the Hyuuga boy had attempted, he could hardly hold that against him. He knew full well why the match had been so vicious, but he could hardly meddle in clan affairs and maintain his neutrality as the Hokage for the entire village. That was why he was equally glad to see young Hyuuga Hinata returned to semi-active status for D-rank missions. If her sensei felt she needed to supervise the last stages of her physical therapy, who was he to disagree?
Still, the cancellation of the exams felt like yet another failure on his part to look out for the boy. Kurenai's reports regarding how badly he was treated by certain villagers had left a worm of guilt gnawing at the pit of his stomach. His actions, or rather inactions, had given the boy more than enough reason to hate him by now. Still, he had to face up to the consequences. That was one of the first lessons he'd learned from his predecessors.
Naruto froze in place for a long moment in the doorway to his office, and the Hokage steeled himself for bitter recriminations. Then the doorway was empty and the boy was standing beside his desk. Gods, but he'd gotten fast. Haku's fist was drawn back with senbon glittering between the fingers before he saw the Hokage's hand sign to stand down. Naruto's arms were wrapped around his ribs in a hug that made them creak.
The Sandaime remembered consoling a young Maito Gai after his sensei had been killed on a mission. The boy's strength was at least comparable, and he quickly patted Naruto on the shoulder to console him. Overwhelming emotion could make a taijutsu powerhouse forget their own strength, and the last thing he needed now was broken ribs.
Still, when the boy raised his tear-streaked face, the Hokage felt better… lighter… than he had in weeks. Naruto clearly forgave him his failures. Perhaps he could come to forgive himself.
He looked over at Jiraiya, who was lounging next to the door. He hoped he was doing the right thing.
OoOoO
Naruto straightened up and sniffed, a little embarrassed by his impulsive outburst. But seeing the Old Man looking so… old… just tore through him like a kunai. He was even missing an arm like everyone said, and he was still here doing Hokage things like paperwork and mission briefings.
Kurenai-sensei had talked to him a few times about what being the Hokage really meant. She wasn't so much trying to talk him out of it, he realized after a while, but she wanted him to realize exactly what he was letting himself in for. But nothing underlined her lessons quite so well as seeing the old man sitting at his desk, doing paperwork a little awkwardly with his left hand.
The Old Man gave Naruto a kindly smile as he scuttled back to his team, and some of the deeper creases in his face seemed to lighten. He should smile more often, Naruto decided. As he got back in line, avoiding Kurenai-sensei's eyes, he noticed a new chuunin standing in the back corner of the room. She was pretty, with long, dark hair, and she looked vaguely familiar to Naruto as she tucked something into her sleeve. Then he remembered the proctor at the written exam that had escorted him to the bathroom. He hoped she wasn't mad about his little trick. He shrugged. She shouldn't have followed him into the bathroom in the first place.
Naruto was also a little surprised to see the Old Pervert leaning against the wall next to the door. He still gave the man a silent, but respectful, nod. 'Literature' aside, Naruto admitted his lecherous ninjutsu teacher had shown his serious side during the invasion. According to rumor, he'd killed hundreds of Sound and Sand troops that were attacking the walls. Naruto overheard a bandaged chuunin claim that the survivors would never be able to look at a toad without screaming in terror. Naruto thought he might have been exaggerating, but then again, he never wanted to get on the wrong side of Gamabunta-sama, so maybe it was true.
Jiraiya had also done Naruto a personal favor and looked at Gaara's seal. It actually hadn't taken that much persuasion, once Naruto explained that he didn't think the seal was functioning correctly. The only things the Toad Hermit took as seriously as chasing women were jutsu and sealing techniques. The next day when he and some clones were bringing ramen to the holding cells, he saw Gaara sleeping so deeply that he could not be roused. His siblings were petrified, convinced he'd been poisoned or that Shukaku was busy consuming Gaara's soul. Naruto finally had to tell them, in low tones, that the crazy old man who'd examined Gaara had taught the one who made Naruto's own seal.
The next day, Gaara was awake, but drowsy. He seemed very… odd. Quiet and remote, but every so often he'd focus his attention so fiercely on what someone was saying that it was like a physical force. He did this most often with Naruto when he was there – much to the relief of his siblings. When Naruto got up to leave, Gaara asked him to thank Jiraiya-sama. Naruto quietly promised to do so, ignoring how shocked Temari was at her brother's humble tone.
Jiraiya had been unusually pensive when Naruto's clone tracked him down to pass on the message. "Remember this when someone asks you why you serve Konoha," was all the old pervert would say before dispelling the clone.
OoOoO
Kurenai thought she'd broken the news about the Hokage's condition as gently as she could, given the circumstances. But Naruto's reaction when they entered the office only showed that it hadn't fully sunk in yet. But after seeing the Hokage's reaction, she couldn't bring herself to chastise her student for his lapse in decorum. She reminded herself that the two of them had a relationship that far predated her taking Naruto on as a student. Something seemed to pass between the two of them, and some of the jagged tension seemed to drain out of her Hokage. Maybe the Sandaime had really needed that hug.
And maybe Uzumaki Naruto was just a little more perceptive than she gave him credit for.
"We have completed our assigned tasks, Hokage-sama," she said with a hint of pride. Her genin had worked especially hard that day, and they deserved to know that she was proud of them.
"Good, good," the Hokage said, fumbling with his pipe. He sighed and tapped out the ashes and set it down. "I was about to send a runner out to find you, so this is fortuitous." He leaned back in his chair a little. "I've asked Jiraiya to locate my successor and bring them back to Konoha, and he's asked for a genin to assist with locating her."
"Your clones should make it a lot easier to find her, boy," Jiraiya added casually. The Hokage leaned back in his chair and smiled, a trifle grimly. There was also the added benefit of getting Naruto out of the village while they investigated the death threats Umino Iruka had reported overhearing during the examination. They might have just been idle talk, but the people present were rich and powerful enough to take it seriously – especially during a transition of leadership when all manner of folly might be attempted.
Naruto brightened a little with excitement, but subsided almost as quickly, shooting troubled glances at his teammates. The Sandaime nodded to himself. It spoke volumes about the boy's character that he immediately thought of his teammates, but future missions wouldn't always be with the same comrades every time.
"Very well, Hokage-sama," Kurenai injected crisply. "Team Eight will continue with reconstruction and repair missions, though I'm not sure we will be able to handle as many per day."
Naruto straightened up immediately, the Hokage noted with an inner smile. "That is understood, we will adjust the assignments accordingly," he said. He suspected they'd been using large numbers of Naruto's clones as brute force labor. Team Eight was completing more tasks per day than any other genin or chuunin formation in Konoha, something he'd been pleased to point out to a number of people who had grumbled about their task assignments.
Then the Hokage glanced down at the formal scroll sitting on the corner of his desk. He'd left it there as a reminder of a less pleasant matter. With the fallout from the examination and Hyuuga Neji, he could only push Hiashi so far on this matter. "One other item has come up. Is Hyuuga Hinata recovered sufficiently to return to full active status? I've had an inquiry from her family."  

[Pandora Green]

Kurenai stiffened a little. She knew the Hokage had seen through her little subterfuge, but she thought he'd quietly approved of keeping Hinata away from her father a little longer. Undoing years of abuse was impossible in such a short time, but just staying in a supportive environment was having positive effects on her emotional equilibrium. And from the way her student's shoulders were drawing in, the prospect of returning to her clan was not a welcome one. But she could not lie to her Hokage. "She is… mostly recovered, Hokage-sama."
"I see," the Hokage said quietly. "If she has finished with her therapy regimen, then she should probably return to her home."
Naruto glanced at Hinata out of the corner of his eye, trying for once not to be completely obvious. His teammate did not say a word, but her face bore the pinched, closed-in expression she'd donned in the hospital when he'd persuaded her to tell him about the Hyuugas.
Naruto turned to look at Jiraiya. The old lecher's face bore an unusually grim expression. Something was up with this retrieval mission, but he wasn't about to tell him anything here. Naruto quickly weighed the pros and cons. If it was too dangerous, they'd veto what he was about to propose. But if he wasn't around, he couldn't really look after his friend. Shino would do his best, no doubt of that, but it wasn't quite the same. He had to at least try.
"Er, if we need to find someone, wouldn't it be good to have Hinata's Byakugan along?" Naruto asked, swallowing when he noticed all the adults looking at him. "She's a lot more, uh, observant than I am," he finished lamely.
The Hokage, Jiraiya, and Kurenai-sensei all exchanged glances, but Naruto had no idea what unspoken conversation was taking place.
"That's not a bad point, boy," Jiraiya grunted after a moment. "Even if it is an excuse to bring your-"
"I agree," Kurenai added sharply, cutting the old hermit off, much to Naruto's relief. "For this type of reconnaissance mission, having Hinata present would definitely speed things up, and bring all of you back to Konoha faster." She turned to Shino with an apologetic glance.
"If I have never had an opportunity to tag the objective," Shino noted, "my presence would not make a noticeable difference in achieving the mission objectives. Logically, I should remain here with Kurenai-sensei."
Kurenai gave Shino an approving nod and turned back to the Hokage. "The addition of Hyuuga Hinata to the special mission would seem to make sense, Hokage-sama."
The Sandaime nodded after a moment. "Duly noted. I will inform her father that she has the honor of being selected to help retrieve the Godaime Hokage."
Naruto resisted the urge to cheer. Seeing Hinata's face out of the corner of his eye, watching it relax as a small smile formed on her lips, made it even harder.
OoOoO
Kurenai dismissed her team for the rest of the day. Naruto and Hinata would need a little time to prepare to leave in the morning. Shino, on the other hand, would assist his parents in repairing some damage to the Aburame compound.
As soon as the genin filed out of the Hokage's office, she turned toward the two older men. "With your permission, Hokage-sama, I would like a few moments to brief Jiraiya-sama with respect to my genin."
The Sandaime's lips twitched minutely around his pipe, but he just nodded.
Jiraiya had a ridiculous grin on his face as he followed her to an unused conference room. He spoke up as soon as the door closed behind them. "Well, I didn't think this would happen so quickly, seeing as how we really got off on the wrong foot, but I-"
"Jiraiya-sama," Kurenai replied crisply. "I know you cannot possibly be as large a fool as your public persona acts. Please do us both a favor and drop the act for the next ten minutes. Neither of us really has the time to waste on idle posturing."
Jiraiya blinked once, and then his eyes hardened. "Very well, Jonin. What did you wish to discuss?"
"Naruto. And your behavior towards him."
Jiraiya crossed his arms. "Go on," he said.
"Uzumaki Naruto has no primary male role model at this point in his life. The Hokage has behaved in a grandfatherly role in the past, but his duties make him too remote, and now that Naruto is a genin, the differences in rank are coming between them. Umino Iruka is a good man, but his contact with Naruto has lessened considerably since he left the Academy. Maito Gai…" She broke off and shuddered.
Jiraiya grimaced and nodded.
"Gai is a good example of hard work and discipline, but even Naruto is aware of his eccentricities and… social shortcomings. You, on the other hand, are a well-respected Shinobi with a legendary reputation. You are highly knowledgeable in ninjutsu, an aspect of shinobi training in which Naruto has the capacity to excel. You also aren't infected with the idiocy that made many in this village treat the boy as a pariah." Kurenai's voice trailed off.
"But?" Jiraiya prodded her, his voice flat.
Kurenai's voice was even as she continued, with no hint of anger leaking out. "But in many ways your behavior is even more deplorable than Gai's. Like it or not, that young man looks up to you, and will likely do so more as time passes and you continue to work together. He's had nothing but positive things to say about the things you've taught him, and that advanced doton jutsu probably saved his life. But I'm concerned about what he might learn from you besides jutsu."
Jiraiya's scowl deepened, drawing his eyebrows together. "Don't you think you're overreacting?"
"No," Kurenai said softly, "I am not. There are things that might be acceptable for you that are not acceptable coming from Uzumaki Naruto."
"If you think polite behavior is going to make people stop hating him for the Kyuubi, you're a fool," Jiraiya scoffed.
Kurenai shook her head. "I'm not talking about acceptable for Naruto the Jinchuuriki, I'm talking about Naruto the Hokage."
Jiraiya stared at her. "You really believe his boasting about becoming Hokage?"
Kurenai shrugged, something she hadn't done in a long time. It was odd. When Jiraiya acted seriously, he reminded her of her old sensei. "At first, I wasn't sure. It was his overriding goal when he left the Academy, so I decided to take it seriously and phrase everything he needed to do to improve in terms of how it would advance him toward that goal. Even if he changed his mind later, he'd still be a better shinobi for it." She shook her head. "But he's worked at a pace that I find almost frightening. He's improved so much in such a short time, and now his goal doesn't seem so far-fetched. If you had any idea what a mess he was at the Academy…"
"I know exactly how bad he was," Jiraiya said with a growl. "The old man didn't take me too seriously when I said something was going on there."
Kurenai looked up, her eyes glinting. "How did you know?"
"I checked up on him, secretly, whenever I returned to Konoha to report to the Hokage," Jiraiya said. Then he added, "He is my godson, after all."
The Sannin winced a little at the spike of killing intent that tore through the room.
"You are his godfather," Kurenai said, taking a step toward him, "and you left him to be raised like this? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"He's alive," Jiraiya replied coolly. "He probably wouldn't be if I'd claimed him. I have too many enemies and so did his father." He spat to one side, knocking over a wastepaper basket. "I'm not happy about how things turned out, but it could have been a lot worse. I've also spent damn near every day of the last ten years working to protect my godson. Ask the Hokage about an organization called Akatsuki, you should be cleared for it, given your relationship to Naruto. And while you're at it, ask him how many times he's talked me out of eliminating half the Council." With that, Jiraiya turned and angrily stalked toward the door.
"Wait!" Kurenai's voice stopped him as he was reaching toward the doorknob. "His father? Gods… The Fourth really did have a son, didn't he?"
Jiraiya turned back toward her with a grimace. "Me and my big mouth," he sighed. "Congratulations," he growled, "you've stumbled across another S-class secret. If this gets out, half the hidden villages will be sending assassination teams within the week. But you won't have to worry about that because I'll kill you myself."
"It won't get out because of me," Kurenai snapped back. "But if the resemblance gets any stronger, people will start to assume things like that Iwa border patrol."
Jiraiya shook his head. "I suppose you're right about that. All we can do is really just buy him as much time as we can before things come to a head."
"At the rate he's improving," Kurenai observed, "I think he's got a good chance."
"Maybe," Jiraiya grunted sourly.
"Which brings me back to my original point," Kurenai continued. "I don't think it's going to help Naruto as a Hokage if he has a reputation as a pervert. All right, I can understand in your case why it might make an acceptable cover, but for such a… why are you laughing?" she demanded.
Jiraiya was actually doubled over, holding his stomach. With a mighty effort, he stifled his laughter, save for an occasional chortle, and straightened up, wiping the tears from his eyes. "I'm sorry, but that's the funniest thing I've heard all day."
"I don't see what's so funny," Kurenai said.
"Every time I publish a new masterpiece of adult entertainment," he explained, his grin widening with every word, "I reserve the first thirty copies to be shipped back to old friends in Konoha. Number one is always personally signed, with a dedication to my old sensei."
Kurenai hung her head, pinching the bridge of her nose as she struggled to rid her mind of the image of Hokage-sama reading an orange book and giggling like Kakashi. She failed miserably. Being a genjutsu master required a vivid and detailed imagination. Times like this made her wonder why she hadn't become a seamstress like her mother wanted.
Kurenai sighed. She wondered if the breakroom had any coffee left. Maybe some aspirin. "All right, let me rephrase. I think it would be a liability for a Hokage to be publicly known as a pervert. There are already stories going around about some strange sex-change jutsu he developed at the Academy, but I think those will just be treated as youthful pranks. Naruto's already going to face an uphill challenge getting most of Konoha to accept him. Do you want to make it even harder for him?"
Jiraiya sighed. "All right, you've made your point. I'll… keep a handle on my cover activities when he's around. All right?"
Kurenai nodded. "Thank you. The only other thing I wanted to discuss was his friends."
"Look, I agreed to take an extra genin so he won't feel too lonely. I don't see what the problem is."
Kurenai paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "I'm going to bend on a few personal confidences here. This information is for your ears only, understood?"
Jiraiya nodded, rolling his eyes.
"Hyuuga Hinata is the oldest daughter of the clan head, but I doubt she will ever be confirmed as heir. She's been subjected to systematic emotional abuse for most of her life, punctuated by what seems to be plausibly-disguised episodes of physical abuse. I've considered removing her from active duty, but missions appear to be her only escape from an abusive environment. Confined to the Hyuuga compound, I'd give her less than a year before 'accidentally dying' – either by her own hand or someone else's."
Jiraiya's eyes hardened as she spoke.
"I'd also estimate a greater than even chance of Naruto, and possibly Shino, engaging in unauthorized retaliation were that to happen, no matter the consequences."
Jiraiya's eyes widened. "It's that serious?"
"It can be," Kurenai replied. "If you checked up on Naruto, then you know he's had no friends his own age up until now. Imagine how close he's become to his teammates – his first friends?"
Jiraiya closed his eyes for a moment, and Kurenai winced. The breakup of the Densetsu no Sannin was well known, but she hadn't intended to open old wounds. "To their credit," Kurenai continued after a moment, "his teammates appear to be just as loyal. Shino confronted his clan elders regarding slanderous rumors spread about Naruto, even threatening to leave the clan if what I heard was true."
Jiraiya's eyebrows went up at that.
"After his first kill, Naruto was actively contemplating suicide, due in part to some active sabotage performed by the Academy's psychological counselor," Kurenai tightened her jaw and continued, despite the rage that purpled Jiraiya's face. "Hinata got him to open up before he did anything drastic and convinced him that he wasn't a monster. And then she got me to talk to him as well. Don't worry, that counselor was remanded to Ibiki as soon as we returned to Konoha."
Jiraiya calmed himself with a visible effort. "She seems like a nice girl, if a bit quiet," he said after a moment.
"She loves Naruto unreservedly," Kurenai replied, "or at least to the extent that someone with her problems is capable of loving anyone. One of her happiest memories is of Naruto telling her she was his best friend."
"But he doesn't consider her as a girlfriend?" Jiraiya asked, both puzzled and mildly offended. "He isn't… you know, is he?"
Kurenai frowned. "Hinata, for a variety of reasons, is afflicted with crushing shyness. For that matter, Naruto has only now acquired his first friends. How would he ever have had a chance to learn what love is?" she asked sadly.
Jiraiya looked slightly ill. "The more I learn, the more I second guess the plan we put together to keep Naruto safely anonymous."
Kurenai peered at the Sannin. For an instant, she saw past the gruff exterior of the Toad Hermit and saw a middle-aged man grieving for lost opportunities. "I suppose hindsight is always twenty-twenty," she said after a moment. "But I can't argue with the fact that he is alive today. Your plan wasn't a complete failure."
Jiraiya nodded, slowly straightening back up. "I suppose it wasn't. And I get your point. I won't tease either of them. Much, anyway. If I completely stopped, Naruto would know something was up. He's a lot sharper than he lets on, isn't he?"
"Yes," Kurenai agreed with a smile. "He's surprised me more than once."
OoOoO
For once, Naruto was eating alone at Ichiraku's. Shino had excused himself as soon as they left the Hokage's office. The Aburame compound had suffered some serious damage during the attack, and several of the breeding colonies had been damaged when an incubator heating unit exploded. His clan didn't begrudge time spent on clean-up missions for Konoha, but he did feel obligated to help out as much as possible. Naruto offered to come along and lend some clones to help, but it seemed that the most time-intensive activity remaining involved sorting out the colonies that had been mixed together and making sure that they didn't accidentally interbreed. To Naruto's eyes, most kikai bugs looked alike, and he reluctantly agreed that he'd be pretty useless. Shino had, however, thanked him for the offer, and promised to let him know if they had any 'brute force' jobs left.
Hinata, on the other hand, needed to pack up her belongings at Kurenai's house, as well as prepare for their mission tomorrow. She seemed a little distressed at leaving Naruto to eat alone, but she said she wasn't really that hungry. Naruto also knew that she tended to be a little obsessive when it came to packing for an extended mission, worrying that she'd forget something they'd desperately need once they were gone.
It was kind of odd for Naruto, knowing someone well enough that he could guess why she did something without even asking. He'd almost been that close to Iruka at the Academy, but he hadn't really understood him until that night in the forest with Mizuki. It was kind of… comforting… he supposed, to know someone that well. Maybe it wasn't the predictability so much as what it symbolized – a really close friendship. He was glad he'd found a way to delay her having to go back to her family. It would be good to have someone to talk to while they traveled. Jiraiya was okay, for an old guy, and he was a good teacher as well, but Hinata was, well, Hinata.
Besides, the smile of relief on her face was worth any amount of fast-talking.
And it wasn't so bad having a quiet meal by himself. Ichiraku's was completely untouched during the invasion. It seemed that some of his stray clones ended up congregating on that particular street after their primary objectives were accomplished. Naruto didn't think it was a coincidence of any sort, but he wasn't about to admit it to anyone who asked. Still, he was glad that Teuchi's stand hadn't been damaged at all, and the old man responded to his good fortune by offering half-price ramen to anyone working on village repairs.
Nonetheless, he'd been a little surprised by the extra-warm greeting he received the first time Team Eight visited after the exam. It hadn't even occurred to him that people would bet on the examination matches, but it warmed his heart to know that Teuchi and Ayame believed in him enough to bet their savings on him.
The fact that Iruka-sensei had organized the betting pool, and evidently become quite rich from it, completely scandalized the genin. What happened to the straight-laced Academy teacher that lectured him about proper behavior? Imitating a foreigner to skin the rich bastards of Konoha? Naruto reminded himself to have a few words with his old sensei the next time he saw him.
Still, things were looking good as he started on his fourth bowl of Miso ramen. He had an important mission tomorrow. Hinata wouldn't have to deal with her crappy family for a few more days. He might even get Ero-Sennin to teach them a cool jutsu. And to be honest, he was getting a little bored with D-rank repair missions, no matter how necessary they might be.
Naruto was just drinking down the broth when he glanced up to see Ayame frown, looking over his shoulder. "There had better not be any trouble in here," she said coolly, then turned away from the counter.
Naruto looked to his side as Hyuuga Neji carefully sat down on the stool next to him. The Branch Family Prodigy was moving a little unsteadily, like he'd been off of his feet for several days, and a bulky bandage was wrapped around his head, completely covering his forehead. He was also dressed in a plain white robe Naruto was fairly sure came from the hospital. He'd seen Hinata wearing one long enough.
Naruto didn't say a word as Ayame took his bowl away and brought him a fifth serving. She didn't ask Neji if he wanted anything, and her facial expression was coldly proper. Naruto wondered if it bothered Neji at all, being treated here like Naruto was treated in a lot of restaurants in Konoha.
If it did bother the Hyuuga boy, he didn't show it. Naruto started on his noodles, pausing only after a couple of minutes when Neji finally spoke.
"Your final blow left a large scar," he said quietly.
Naruto resumed his meal after a moment. He wasn't precisely being rude – Neji hadn't asked him a question yet.
"The Caged Bird Seal was completely obliterated when the skin was ripped away," Neji continued after a moment. "That shouldn't be possible, but the medic-nins think a burst of chakra might have disrupted the seal as the blow was struck."
Naruto resumed eating after Neji fell silent again.
Neji took a deep breath after a couple of moments. "That's equally impossible, at least not without killing me, unless there was something very strange about the chakra that was used. But given how you recovered from having your tenketsu closed, that is not very surprising." He turned on his seat, facing directly toward Naruto. "The scar that formed is also suffused with chakra. When the Elders tried to reapply my seal, that chakra disrupted the attempt. At this point, the medic-nins insisted that further attempts would be too dangerous and when Hiashi-sama insisted, the Hokage asserted his authority on the matter. My Uncle tried to have me immediately removed from the hospital, but the request was refused."
Naruto finished his ramen, drinking down the last of the broth. He wiped his lips and turned to face Neji, going over the speech he'd worked out with Shino. "Is there something you wanted to ask me, or did you just come here to bore me with your medical history?" It was a little weird, but he sort of enjoyed using that snide tone. Shino said it would annoy Neji a lot more than overt rudeness.
Neji's eyes narrowed a little, but he showed no other signs of anger. "I left the hospital because I wanted to know why. You freed me from the seal that has enslaved my family for generations. I now owe you a debt of honor, but I want to know one thing: Why did you do this?" The reserved genin's voice became a little rougher at the end, but he still spoke in little more than an intense whisper.
Naruto looked directly into Neji's eyes for a moment. "I didn't do it for you."
Neji blinked.
"I visited your cousin in the hospital after you nearly killed her," Naruto said. "I saw her every day, and she never mentioned seeing a single member of her family when she was there. She really only asked for one thing from me when I visited her. Do you know what that was?"
Neji slowly shook his head.
"Your life," Naruto snapped. "She practically begged me not to kill you. She knew I wanted to. I still want to. Either that or claw a little lower, rip out your eyes, and leave you forever blinded. She was coughing up blood at one point, but she wouldn't stop talking, wouldn't stop making excuses for you and what you did."
Naruto looked down and saw that his hands were trembling. He took a deep breath and blew it out. "I couldn't tell her no. So you had to live. But I asked my teacher if I could damage a seal using chakra in a special way and he explained how it could be done." Naruto smiled a little, but it never reached his eyes. "I don't think that was quite what he had in mind, but it seems to have worked."
"So this was just an experiment," Neji concluded in a flat voice.
"No," Naruto corrected. "You're right. You owe a debt for being freed from the seal. But you don't owe it to me, you owe it to Hinata. I did it for her. She hates that seal even more than you do."
Neji opened his mouth to protest, but Naruto interrupted him. He'd had a lot of time to practice what he wanted to say, and he wasn't about to let Neji interrupt him now. "She feels guilty and ashamed every time she thinks about the seals on you and the other branch family members. She'd rather be in the branch family herself and carry the seal than be in the main family and feel responsible for the others being sealed. And even aside from that… despite all the crap you helped her father put her through, despite all the 'special training sessions', despite you almost goddamn killing her for a stupid examination bout… she still thinks of you as "Neji-nii-san", her cousin."
Naruto shook his head. "Did you know her earliest memory is wishing she could trade places with you? She envied the fact that everyone said your father actually liked you before he died, while hers… Well, I guess he liked you better as well, as long as he had a seal on you, right?"
Neji leaned back on his stool and Naruto abruptly realized that he was leaning far forward. He took a deep breath as he straightened. "Does that sound like a weak person to you, Neji?" Naruto shook his head. "As far as I'm concerned, any debt you owe me is really owed to her. Make up with Hiashi-baka if you have to, convince him you'll remain loyal, but look out for her when I can't. Act like her cousin and not just another ******** up Hyuuga idiot. You want to discharge your debt? Well, Hinata wants her cousin back. Give her that and your honor is satisfied. Got it?"
Neji nodded and slowly got up from his stool. He turned to leave, paused, and then bowed very low to Uzumaki Naruto.
Naruto was silent as he watched the Hyuuga leave.  

[Pandora Green]

Chapter 20
Hinata stepped as lightly as possible as she approached the main family quarters. Odd how she didn't really think of it as home anymore. Staying at Kurenai-sensei's house, she'd felt more welcome there than she'd ever felt in the Hyuuga compound. At least since her mother died. Things had been… at least a little different then… but that had been so long ago that it was becoming hard to remember.
These days, she had little wish to be here, not to mention the risk of encountering her father. Unfortunately, she'd been instructed to prepare for an extended journey and some of the gear she would need was still in her old room. There wasn't time to purchase new supplies, even if she did have the ryou to waste. She just had to hope she could avoid her father and any inconvenient questions he might want answered.
As she neared her objective, a panel abruptly slid aside. It took all of her willpower not to flinch away. Showing fear to her father would only make things worse.
But it wasn't Hyuuga Hiashi behind the rice-paper panel.
"Neji-ni-san?" she blurted out. Against her will, her eyes were drawn toward the bandages on her cousin's forehead. She had little doubt he would find a way to make her pay for her teammate's actions – no matter what anyone said.
"Hinata-sama," he said in a perfectly controlled voice. His eyes seem to pierce right through her, reminding her uncomfortably of her father.
When he said nothing more, Hinata stepped forward to continue on toward her room. But she froze when Neji spoke again.
"Three meters past me and you will fall within range of Hiashi-sama's Byakugan," he said. "I believe he has several questions he wishes to pose to you, especially considering this mission the Hokage has given you."
Hinata stepped back again, not wanting to take any chances. She was surprised that Neji could track the range of father's vision that closely – it implied that he could see almost as far with his Byakugan as the leader of the clan. Yet another realization that must have rankled, given his being born into the branch family.
Neji's mouth twisted slightly. "I take it you have been instructed not to speak of your mission?"
Hinata nodded. He would not doubt enjoy watching father make her squirm as he tried to make her talk. But this mission was also her chance to get away from Konoha and the Hyuuga complex for an extended period of time. She could endure anything in the short term to make that dream a reality.
"I took the liberty of securing the shinobi equipment from your room," Neji continued, pulling Hinata's familiar backpack out from the room behind him. He gave it a small toss and Hinata caught it reflexively, too shocked to do anything else. Through the heavy fabric she could feel tent poles and the outline of her canteen.
"Thank you, Neji-ni-san," Hinata said after she gathered her wits.
"Thanks are not necessary," Neji replied coldly. "It is, after all, the destiny of the branch family to serve the main family, is it not? Retrieving your gear for you is merely my duty."
"As you say, Neji-kun," Hinata murmured, too happy at the chance to avoid her father to care about his sarcastic tone. Sarcastic or not, his voice also didn't seem quite as cold as she was used to. She bowed deeply to her cousin, far deeper than a main family member had any business doing to a member of the branch family.
Neji merely nodded, but his brows drew together just a fraction of an inch. That alone spoke volumes. "Leave straight the way you came," he instructed. As Hinata turned to leave, he added, "and tell Uzumaki that I will pay my debt."
OoOoO
Naruto paced nervously near the western gate. The Old Pervert was supposed to meet them both there to begin their mission. He wasn't quite late yet, but he sure as hell wasn't early. Of course, Hinata-chan wasn't there either, but he knew she was going to have to try and sneak her gear out of the Hyuuga compound – something he was more than a little worried about.
He'd suggested she just forget about that stuff – they could share his tent after all. Right after he said that, Hinata turned bright red and Naruto wanted to smack himself in the face. He'd offered innocently enough, but he knew exactly how Jiraiya would take that. Best friends or not, a boy and a girl his age sharing the same two-man tent would garner some comments from him…
Naruto shook himself out of his reverie. Just being around the Sannin a short while had him thinking about dirty stuff. Kurenai-sensei would be ashamed of him. Hinata deserved better too.
He resumed pacing. Blaming the lecherous old fart was better than sitting around worrying about Hinata-chan. Her father was a major jerk and there was no telling what he might try to pull if he ran into her before they left town. Naruto wondered if going back for her traveling supplies was a way for Hinata to prove to herself that she wasn't really afraid of him. Maybe he'd ask Kurenai-sensei when they returned.
"Oi, where's your girlfriend?" a loud voice asked from behind him.
Naruto had to control himself to keep from jumping. Pervert or not, the Sannin was, in fact, a great ninja, and he'd been able to sneak up on Naruto while he was actively looking for both him and his teammate. It almost made up for his personal habits.
Almost.
Naruto clenched his fists as he spun around, but refrained from lashing out at the old jerk. That would just egg him on to do worse. "Hinata had to pick up her gear from the Hyuuga main house," he explained. "She should be here any minute."
A ghost of a frown skittered across the face beneath the horned forehead protector. Naruto wondered if Kurenai-sensei had told Jiraiya anything about Hinata's father. He opened his mouth to speak, then relaxed when he saw a flash of gray out of the corner of his eye.
"I am sorry to keep you waiting," Hinata said breathlessly as she ran up.
She started to bow in apology, but Jiraiya carelessly waved it off. "You're just on time," he said. "You brats ready to go?"
Naruto and Hinata both nodded.
"Then say goodbye and we'll get started," Jiraiya said, nodding toward something behind them.
They turned and Naruto saw Kurenai-sensei and Shino step out of the shadows of the guard house. She'd already bid them good luck on their mission, but Naruto was touched that she and Shino still wanted to see them off. After waving to Shino, Naruto and Hinata both bowed deeply to their sensei. She returned the bow. Then they were off.
No words were needed.
OoOoO
Their first destination was Otafuku City, one of the larger cities within Fire Country. To Naruto's surprise, they simply set off down the road at a comfortable walk.
It took less than fifteen minutes for him to crack.
"Is there a reason we are traveling so slow?" he finally asked. "I mean, we want to find this person as quickly as possible, right?"
Jiraiya sighed. "You ever see a cat try to catch a bird?"
Naruto nodded.
"Does that cat run around like its tail is on fire, looking for birds, or does it sneak up slowly?" the Sannin asked sarcastically.
"Do you think Tsunade-sama will try to avoid us?" Hinata asked curiously.
Jiraiya shrugged. "It's possible," he said, making a vague gesture with his hand. "She can sense chakra usage from a ways off, and she tends to avoid shinobi these days, even ones that might be from Konoha."
"I thought you wanted my clones to help find her?" Naruto asked, remembering the conversation in the Hokage's office.
"I will. After I ask her the first time and she turns me down. By that time, she'll already know we're in the area. I'd just like to get close before we have to start actively chasing her." Jiraiya grinned. "She can still move pretty fast when she wants to."
"Great," Naruto groused, "then that means we can't practice while we're walking, can we?"
Jiraiya looked puzzled, so Hinata helpfully explained how Kurenai had them practice various minor jutsu as they traveled.
"Well, I suppose the runt here needs all the chakra control practice he can get," Jiraiya mused aloud, much to Naruto's annoyance, "but now is not a good time. Consider it patience training, brat. You need more of that too."
Naruto glared at the older man, but then realized Jiraiya was deliberately winding him up. With an effort, he turned away from the annoying old coot and spoke to Hinata in little more than a whisper, deliberately ignoring the Sannin.
OoOoO
Hinata was just a little bit impressed. Naruto was normally so passionate that… well… it was easy for someone to provoke him. She had to suppress a smile when she saw the disappointed frown on the mission leader's face.
"So… any trouble getting your stuff?" her friend asked.
Hinata swallowed. Things had been rather tense at the Hyuuga compound, but Neji's actions were even more unnerving. "I didn't see Father, but…"
Naruto just raised an eyebrow, something he'd picked up from Shino at one point. He only did it around his teammates and she originally thought he'd done it deliberately to tease Shino, but now she wasn't sure. When they talked in the hospital, he used it to great effect every time her words jammed up in her throat. Just thinking about that conversation again made her a little light headed, and for a moment, she had to concentrate on where she placed her feet.
"I talked to Neji," she whispered as the silence stretched out. "He was… different, at least a little. He intercepted me right before I would have encountered Father and gave me my pack. He was still very cold, but not… not as angry as usual. I don't really understand."
"Well, he doesn't have that seal on him anymore," Naruto ventured. "Maybe that changed him."
Hinata stared at her teammate. She knew Neji's seal had been damaged during their match, but after the elders had convened, she'd heard no more about it. Were they unable to repair it? More importantly, how did Naruto know? "How did you know about that?" she asked hesitantly.
Naruto grimaced, scratching at the back of his head like he'd been caught doing something. "Well, you didn't want me to kill him, or cripple him, so I figured I'd see if I could pull that stick out of his butt." He blinked and grimaced.
Hinata stared at her best friend as he muttered about 'unfortunate metaphors' and looked faintly embarrassed.
OoOoO
Elsewhere, Kurenai, Asuma, and Kakashi had finally met up to discuss their bets. Actually, it was more like Kurenai cornered the two Jonin.
There was a… slight dispute regarding the exact terms of their wager. Since the third part of the chuunin examination had not been concluded, there was some precedent for saying that all bets were off.
On the other hand, the words "will get farther than yours" had been used, at least casually, with respect to their genin. By that measure, Team Eight had, with Naruto's and Shino's victories, at least made it to the second round of the finals.
Of course, the final decision regarding promotions was not dependent on the results of the matches. A careful, thoughtful candidate eliminated in the first round by a more powerful opponent might be selected for promotion, while the powerful, but rash fighter might be passed over. Chunnin were generally stronger than genin, but it was their leadership qualities that made the final grade.
Shikamaru, Asuma argued, only forfeited his fight because he realized something was wrong – and anticipated the betrayal and invasion. That was something Kurenai's students couldn't claim. If he'd stayed and fought in a complete tournament, it was entirely possible that he'd have found a way to overcome both Naruto and Shino as well.
Kakashi didn't really have much of an argument – none of his students had even made the final round. He was attending more as a referee and because he hoped he might find a way to avoid giving up his little orange books for two months.
In time, however, the wrangling of his colleagues began to get a little boring – right up until he noticed two cloaked figures drifting through the street traffic.
OoOoO
Bored out of his mind, Naruto tried to invent new ways to amuse himself. He couldn't really train or do anything involving chakra at the moment. He didn't know if the old pervert was serious or not, but he didn't want to be responsible for failing the mission if he was.
He also couldn't really do much physical training while they were traveling. This Tsunade-person could move pretty fast if she decided to avoid them – at least that's what ero-sennin claimed, anyway. That meant he couldn't really afford to get tired out, either.
That left mental training, but he couldn't exactly pull out a scroll while they were walking. Not on a mission. Maybe he could work on his observational skills, he thought after a while. Of course, the scenery was much the same, at least until they got farther away from Konoha.
Eventually, he settled on trying to make covert observations of his companions as well as other travelers. The old pervert was pretty oblivious, but Hinata always seemed to fidget a bit when she knew he was looking at her. As observant as she was, watching her without her noticing was quite a challenge.
At first, just watching her out of the corner of his eye and not stumbling in the road was challenging enough. He supposed being able to focus like that might prove useful if he ever had to tail someone in a crowd.
With a little practice, Naruto got good enough at observing that he could actually pay attention to what he was seeing. Hinata seemed… different.
She didn't duck her head down as much as she used to. It wasn't a big difference, but he'd noticed in the past when they sparred she would have to straighten her neck from her normal posture when she slid into her Jyuuken stance. Now she seem to look straight ahead. He supposed it didn't make much difference which way she faced since she had the Byakugan, but it was more subtle than that.
Kurenai had lectured them a couple of times regarding body language and how to interpret it. This was one of those subjects that Hinata was far more adept at than her teammates. Of course, she'd tried to hide that at first, at least until Shino had asked her point blank if she'd been trained in this subject by her clan. It was only then that she revealed exactly how much farther ahead she was than her teammates. She'd seemed almost embarrassed, at least at first, until Naruto and Shino had let her know, in their own ways, that they didn't mind at all.
At least Naruto had stopped himself right before he asked her what her own mannerisms meant.
But he supposed it was probably a good thing that she wasn't looking down quite so much. She'd been kind of worse in that respect after she fought Neji and ended up in the hospital, but ever since… ever since the invasion, when she'd subdued Temari. Maybe she was a little more confident? After all, the Sand girl she'd defeated had smacked Tenten around pretty good. That had to mean something, even if it had been a bad match-up for the weapon expert.
Hinata's gait also seemed a little… looser? More relaxed. Her whole body seemed to be that way, not that he was ogling her or anything. Maybe it was because she was finally over the lung damage that had hospitalized her for so long. Maybe it was because she was happy to be on another long mission again. He and Shino both noticed how much happier she'd been on the border patrol mission. He felt his jaw clench again when he thought about why.
He needed to do something nice for the Hokage and Kurenai-sensei when he got back to Konoha.
OoOoO
For someone who'd been accused, with some justice, of living in the past, Hatake Kakashi was still surprised by how the passage of time could change your perspective. He still remembered the last Great Shinobi War. He could remember the battles, the foes he'd killed and the friends he'd lost. But time had a way of passing, of wearing smooth the edges of the hardest memory, until you could recall the facts, but not how it felt.
Years of being one of Konoha's elite jonin, feared by many, featured in countless bingo books, had robbed him of some of the worst recollections. Like the sensation of what it was like to face an enemy that outclassed you almost as easily as you outclassed your genin pupils.
He'd gone back and forth with Uchiha Itachi while Asuma held off his partner, Hoshigaki Kisame, with his trench knives. Kurenai tried to ensnare them both in a genjutsu. Three on two seemed like pretty good odds, except Asuma could barely block the massive blade wielded by the shark-man, Kurenai's illusions were almost instantly countered by the renegade Uchiha's Sharingan eyes, and Kakashi… well, he had the distinct feeling the Uchiha was merely playing with him, curious to see what his transplanted Sharingan eye was capable of. Every trick, every stratagem Kakashi tried was countered almost as soon as it was begun, and with far more ease than he was able to stop Itachi's attacks.
Kakashi grabbed Kurenai after Itachi reversed her own Demonic Tree Bind back on her. He got her clear of Itachi's kunai as quickly as he could… but he was fairly certain the Uchiha had time to stab her if he'd wanted to. From the thoughtful frown on Kurenai's face, she'd come to a similar conclusion.
So rather than press the counter attack, Kakashi held back for a moment, assessing his foe while keeping his gaze focused away from Itachi's eyes. Even without making himself vulnerable to hypnosis, he could still read the nukenin's body language with his peripheral vision.
"You have a lot of nerve coming back here, Itachi," Kakashi said in a low voice. "What could possibly make you want to return to Konoha now?" He paused and smiled a little under his mask. "Homesick?" If anything, Itachi took himself even more seriously than Sasuke. Or Kurenai.
"I have been given a task," Itachi said as the tomoe around his pupils began to spin. "A task which I shall complete."
"Don't look at his eyes," Kakashi barked to his comrades, leaving only his one Sharingan eye open now. "Only someone with a Sharingan can face him now."
Itachi smiled faintly.
Kakashi swallowed. "You're after Sasuke?" he asked. It made sense, of a twisted sort, given the last words he spoke to his brother.
"No," Itachi said slowly. "We are here for the key to the Fourth's Legacy." He blurred forward, faster than Kakashi could even see clearly, and buried his fist in the pit of Kurenai's stomach. Even as Kakashi spun towards her, she gasped and her eyes flew open reflexively. Kurenai's red eyes met Itachi's Sharingan.
And she was lost.
OoOoO
Kurenai found herself in an odd place, tied to a pole like a criminal about to be executed. Something was wrong with her eyes… and then she realized the light that was wrong. Everything around her, including the parts of her own body that she could see, was shaded like a photonegative.
Itachi appeared in front of her, shaded the same way. "This Dojutsu is the ultimate expression of the art of Genjutsu. This is the world of Tsukiyomi, a world where space, time, and substance are all controlled by me. From now on, you will endure seventy-two hours of torture. The suffering of your soul will be real. Your spirit will not understand that this is not reality. Some never recover from the experience, and even the strongest will be incapacitated for some time. Long enough for my purposes."
"Purposes?" Kurenai asked reluctantly. No matter how hard she concentrated, she couldn't feel the underlying chakra of this illusion. She'd already bitten her lip, but even foreign pain couldn't shift this perceived reality.
"I will make you face your worst fears, repeatedly, for seventy-two hours, rendering you insensate at best, and permanently impaired at worst." Itachi informed her. "Either way, you will serve as bait and a bargaining chip with your student. Even if his current protector forbids it, he will offer himself up in exchange for you."
Kurenai tensed and opened her mouth, but even as she began to curse, time seemed to slow down until her words were distorted and meaningless.
"This is the part where you make some tedious statement of defiance. I shall instead begin the torture now." He paused and blinked. "If you retain your sanity afterward, I will be curious as to what you think of the ultimate genjutsu of the Sharingan."
The world dissolved and all awareness of Kurenai's body was swept away. She abruptly found herself pilloried in the large square in front of the Hokage's tower. Also tied to the posts were her students. Surrounding them was a large crowd of faceless people. Despite their lack of features, they still shared common traits, the primary one being a palpable sense of hatred. This was a lynch mob. Looking up at the balcony near the Hokage's office, Kurenai felt her stomach twist as she saw a tall faceless man in the Hokage's robes of office. The faceless Hokage made an angry gesture and the crowd surged forward.
Naruto was the first to feel their wrath, fingers tearing at his face, gouging out his eyes before hands with knives could stab into his torso. He screamed in agony far longer than Kurenai would have believed possible, until he went limp in a pitiful gust of red chakra, shaded dark by the odd light.
Hinata was crying and screaming as she watched Naruto die in front of her, and the crowd turned on her next. Her voice rose in shrill arpeggios as they tore at her body, until it finally trailed off in a gurgle.
Shino was silent until close to the end, when he gave out a single strangled yell.
Kurenai was almost numb when the hands came for her.
And then she was back in the square again. She shook her head, wondering for a moment why her hair was back on her scalp and free of blood. She looked out over the crowd, blinking rapidly as they surged forward again. Only a single figure near the edge had a face. Itachi.
This time they started with Shino, and then her as Naruto and Hinata screamed their names as they died.
By the time the scene reset again, Kurenai was already beginning to go numb with horror. The Tsukiyomi was feeding on her fears of what might happen to her students if everything went wrong. If an unfriendly, unjust Hokage came to power, they might well be made scapegoats to appease certain factions in the village. It had happened in other lands.
And the so-called Ultimate Genjutsu was working. She wasn't sure how many repetitions of this scene she could endure before her mind shut down, at least temporarily, to protect itself. Seventy-two continuous hours of this horror would break her.
As she braced herself for the next round of screaming, Kurenai racked her brain for some way of countering the arrogant Uchiha's Dojutsu. She remembered Kobaru-sensei's introduction to the subject of genjutsu, and how he told her privately that he thought she had the mental discipline and imagination to specialize in that area. Not that it was doing her much good now as the crowd ripped at her with frenzied hands.
Imagination… she remembered Kobaru's lectures on breaking genjutsu and on how to beat them. They weren't the same thing. Beating a genjutsu means working with it, through it, or despite it to achieve your objectives, even if you couldn't directly break it. He liked to use physical metaphors for complex subjects, and he once compared genjutsu to mental wrestling. Sometimes the only way to break a hold was to move with it, instead of against it…
As her ravaged body fell from the post to hit the ground in a spatter of blood and other fluids, the scene reset again.
This time Kurenai didn't even try to disbelieve it. Instead, she channeled every morbid thought she'd ever had into making this scene real. This really could happen, she convinced herself, and felt her psyche sink deeper into the genjutsu. Her eyes focused on Naruto as the crowd tore Shino from his post, ribs snapping before the ropes broke. The blond shinobi struggled to free his arms as the faceless villagers threw the bug user to the ground, stomping and kicking at him. Shino reached one hand toward Naruto, two broken fingers twisted obscenely, as his colonies drowned in his own blood.
Kurenai barely felt it as the crowd tore her to pieces. Her own viewpoint seemed to separate from her tattered corpse as it focused on Naruto's face. Tears poured from his eyes as he screamed and cursed as he watched his team die.
And then they went for Hinata.
Kurenai's attention was focused to a razor's edge as they attacked the young Hyuuga she loved like a daughter. Her own imagination supplied new tortures for the Tsukiyomi to inflict on the innocent young girl. But her eyes stayed focused on Naruto's face as he watched Hinata beaten, tortured, raped.
And when he snapped, as she knew he would… KNEW he would… she pushed with all of her will and forced the genjutsu to follow it's own internal rules and make Naruto react… realistically.
Naruto's eyes turned to slitted pupils as he threw his head back and roared. Chakra blasted out in every direction, obliterating the posts and tearing the faceless crowd to pieces. The Itachi observing this didn't even have time to react before he was reduced to a smear on the wall of the Hokage's tower.
Chakra gathered back around the screaming Naruto as the Kyuubi's jailor retired and set his prisoner free. Flesh flowed like wet clay as the boy's body was remade in the Kyuubi's image. The faceless Hokage signaled for his ANBU to attack, and began the seals for a jutsu – right before a massive tail removed the top three floors of the tower.
The Kyuubi reborn roared his defiance to the heavens. The only sign that Uzumaki Naruto had ever existed was a slight pause as the fox stopped and sniffed at the body of a young girl that lay cooling near one gargantuan forepaw. Then the nine-tailed fox quite deliberately stepped over the body as it engaged the arriving ANBU.
Kurenai felt like she'd be somewhat sick to her stomach – if she knew where hers was. But mixed in with that was a strong sense of vindication. If this ever came to pass… well Konoha would get what it deserved. If the Will of Fire ever descended to murdering the innocent as scapegoats, then it deserved to be extinguished. There would be… justice.
With that sense of elation, Yuuhi Kurenai shattered the Tsukiyomi like a soap bubble.
OoOoO
Kakashi was still turning toward Kurenai and Itachi when the Uchiha flinched back like he'd been struck. He raised one arm as if to shield himself from a blow before he shook his head.
Kurenai had her arms around her middle where she'd been punched. But she was slowly straightening as she stepped back. And there was a smile on her face.
Kisame landed next to Asuma and the jonin barely got his knives up in time to block the shark-man's chakra-eating sword, Samehada. "Itachi, what the hell just happened?"
The Uchiha threw the shuriken in his left hand toward Kakashi. With only one eye open, he had to dodge a little wider than he normally would.
During that split second, Itachi palmed a kunai and hurled it toward Kurenai who was still straightening as she blinked away the aftereffects of whatever Itachi had done.
No time for a jutsu, Kakashi tried to throw his own kunai to deflect it… But the angle was wrong and he'd had to have thrown his blade three times faster than Itachi to make a difference.
With a heavy thump, the Uchiha's kunai buried itself up to the handle in Kurenai's forehead.
OoOoO
Naruto eyed the hotel Jiraiya had selected with some distaste. It wasn't exactly located in a nice section of town. On the other hand, he was tired from their plodding journey and Ero-sennin was paying the bill. He'd even splurged on two rooms, so Hinata could have some privacy.
It was almost respectable of him.
Of course, those thoughts evaporated when the old pervert declared he needed to do some 'solo reconnaissance'. He might have been a little more convincing if he hadn't had his tongue hanging out of his mouth as he left.
Still, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He and Hinata had been walking most of the day, with their weights on. It was surprising how tiring it was to travel so slowly, not using chakra at all. After a hot bath, it felt good to lie down for a while and take a nap.
But his dreams were troubled as he slept, filled with a nameless sense of dread.
OoOoO
"What the hell, Itachi?" Kisame demanded, ignoring Asuma's trench knife sticking out of his shoulder. "This wasn't in the plan."
"The plan has been changed," Itachi rasped, dodging Kakashi's next kunai as quickly as it was thrown. "She proved far more skillful than I had reason to believe. She is too dangerous to keep alive, even as a hostage."
"I don't even know why we bothered in the first place," the shark-man growled as he missed the bearded jonin with Samehada on the backswing. These Konoha wimps were finally getting serious after Itachi killed their friend. What a waste.
"The target has training at evasive tactics," Itachi replied in a bored tone. It bugged Kisame how little his partner seemed to care. "Given his capabilities and who he was seen leaving with, it was logical to seek leverage."
"Well what does your logic say we should do now?" Kisame demanded. It was merely a matter of time before enough of Konoha's ANBU showed up with enough numbers to make things… difficult.
"We meet at the third location," Itachi replied, dropping an armed explosive tag from the wide sleeve of his cloak. It detonated even as it touched the water, sending spray dozens of feet up into the air.
Before the air had cleared, the red-and-black cloaked figures were gone.
OoOoO
Naruto and Hinata, minus their hitai-ite and in clothes that could pass for civilian wear, slowly made their way through the festival quarter. Otafuku City seemed to thrive on tourism – from the posters they could see, every possible minor occasion had its own festival and some of the vendor booths looked more permanent than the houses.
Naruto had been… discouraged… from participating in many of Konoha's yearly celebrations, so he was content to follow Hinata's lead. A few subtle changes to her gait, facial expressions, and mannerisms transformed stiff Hyuuga formality into the behavior of a merchant's daughter. Before they left the hotel, Hinata had Naruto leave his jacket behind and purchase a bright red tee shirt that did not clash with his pants as badly as he anticipated. She also encouraged him to smile as much as possible after she used small amounts of makeup to conceal the whisker marks on his cheeks.
Naruto thought she was maybe going a little overboard, but any comments died aborning as she delicately smoothed foundation across his cheeks with her fingertips. She evidently found this just as awkward as he did, because she was blushing as well. On the other hand, Naruto knew there was zero chance of him applying anything to his own face without it being obvious. So he kept quiet.
Still, it was almost a relief when she was done and he could relax, being careful not to move his face too much before the traces of makeup finished drying. He watched, fascinated, as Hinata took a small case from a pouch on her backpack and carefully slid tinted circles of some soft material onto her eyes. After a couple of blinks to align them, his friend had blue eyes to go with her fair complexion.
Without her own jacket to hide in, Hinata's body looked different as well. Naruto realized that because it was slightly oversized, the jacket tended to make his friend look smaller, meeker, and younger than she really was. Able to see her arms for once, he noticed that their training regimen had definitely had an effect. If Hinata wanted to disguise herself as the hard-working daughter of peasant farmers, she had the shoulders and forearms to carry that off as well.
They'd been gone five minutes, with Hinata growing increasingly edgy, before Naruto realized he'd been glancing sidelong at his friend the whole time. He awkwardly complimented her acting skills and she relaxed a little.
OoOoO
They threaded through the booths, slowly winding their way through the festival grounds, heading toward the more adult areas of the tourist district. From what Jiraiya-sensei had told them of his former teammate, Hinata figured that they would be more likely to find her in such areas, especially those with gambling.
It was a little hard to imagine a Sannin 'retiring' to become little more than a traveling gambler, but Hinata could tell there was a lot their mission leader was leaving out of his story. Shinobi of their skills didn't just leave a village without being labeled missing-ninja – not unless there were truly unique circumstances.
From the way Jiraiya-sensei acted, Hinata suspected that his departure was more of a long-term mission than a true retirement. There was no awkwardness as he took command, no unfamiliarity of protocol. He was still on active duty, reporting directly to the Hokage. She was sure of it.
Hinata jerked out of her reverie when Naruto took her hand. The crowds they were weaving through were tighter, the people bigger and older on average. He was only acting like a boy his age might when accompanying his sister or friend in such surroundings. That was the only reason. It had to be.
But that didn't stop her lips from forming a small smile.
OoOoO
Naruto tensed up as they began to move through the more 'adult' sections of Otafuku's festival quarter. There were a lot of "those" kinds of places, a lot more than in Konoha, and he wondered again what kind of Hokage hung out in places like this.
He also noticed some of the men there were looking at Hinata, the same way they looked at the other women. He took his teammate's hand to make it clear that she wasn't there by herself, but he wasn't sure all of them got the message. Mission or not, the first person to try anything was going to get seriously hurt.
This covert operations stuff was harder than he thought.
OoOoO
Once upon a time, Kakashi being late for a team meeting was pretty much par for the course. But after Team Seven was so easily eliminated during the Chuunin exam by their former classmates, that had all changed.
Sasuke had challenged their sensei to train them as hard as they could endure and his teammates had backed him on that. Wounded pride wasn't the best of motivations, but neither Kiba nor Sakura enjoyed the thought of being left behind. The fact that they were all struggling as hard as they could to keep up with the new regimen seemed to improve their teamwork as well. It probably helped that Sakura was usually too tired to even talk to Sasuke at the end of the day.
The events of the Chuunin exams seemed to shake up their sensei as well. Sakura didn't think she'd seen a single orange book cover since then, and he was always on time for training sessions.
So when sensei was late this afternoon, the pink-haired kunoichi was concerned. Then she heard a strange bird call, and suddenly leaping figures appeared, darting across the rooftops. She glanced over at her teammates. Sasuke was sitting quietly, but his eyes had popped open the moment she heard the bird call. Kiba had been fidgeting for the last several minutes. He couldn't really stand to sit still. "Let's go," she said.
"What?" Kiba asked, clearly confused.
"Sensei is late for the first time in weeks, and I think they just called an ANBU mobilization," Sakura explained as she stood up.
"She's right," Sasuke added quietly.
His simple agreement might have made her heart race once, but Sakura was still annoyed with her teammate. Bad enough that he didn't think she could kill a simple snake, but what he'd said about Hinata to Naruto was uncalled for. Even if it was a valid tactic, he had insulted someone who defended him while he was helpless from the curse seal. Sakura was secretly glad that Naruto had punched him for it… just maybe not quite so hard.
The dog user picked up Akamaru and Team Seven set off in the general direction the ANBU had gone. Sakura remembered Naruto's words she'd overheard. 'Sakura isn't as nice as she seems. She only likes one person and she doesn't really give a damn about anyone else.'  

[Pandora Green]

It was nearly as hard as sensei's new training, but Sakura was determined to become a better person.
OoOoO
Sasuke couldn't fault Sakura's reasoning, even if she was barely talking to him.
A nine-block area near one of the canals was completely locked down to non-ANBU personnel, but Kiba picked up their sensei's scent trail leaving the area, mixed in with a lot of blood that wasn't his. That trail led them to the hospital, where the simpering young woman at the front desk refused to give any details.
At least, she refused to give any information to Sakura, but when Sasuke quietly asked her for information regarding the location of his Jonin-Sensei, she blushed, stammered, and finally directed them to the basement level. It took no small effort to keep his face from twisting in disgust. For one thing, the woman was easily twice his age. For another, it always annoyed him how people made exceptions for him because he was an Uchiha. He wanted recognition just like anyone, he supposed, but he wanted it for things he'd actually done, not just because of the family he'd been born into or the eyes he inherited. Yes, the Sharingan were powerful, but he hadn't done much with his yet. People throwing themselves at his feet for no reason was just wrong, and he found he had little respect for most of Konoha.
He had nearly killed the first civilian that tried to console him about his loss to Naruto, explaining how his clan had tried to get the results overturned by the Hokage. Like that would mean anything – a victory given to him on a silver platter because he wasn't good enough to earn it himself.
The idiot had thought Sasuke had drawn his kunai at the mention of Naruto's name.
If anything, he owed the blond-haired idiot for the lesson he taught. He'd been coasting too long at the Academy, assuming he'd be ready for Itachi when the time came. Naruto put paid to that little fantasy. Some quiet observation and a few questions revealed just how hard the dead last of his academy class had been training since they graduated. Rock Lee was another genin that should never have graduated at all – yet he had trained himself in Taijutsu to the degree that most chuunin didn't really want 'just a friendly spar' with the fuzzy-eyebrow weirdo.
And he was Naruto's regular sparring partner.
At least now Sasuke felt like he was making progress.
As they rode the elevator down, Sasuke glanced over at Sakura, who was looking increasingly apprehensive. She looked over at him. "What is it?" he asked quietly.
"My aunt used to work at this hospital," Sakura replied. "There aren't any treatment areas on the basement level."
"What is down here?" Kiba asked in a hushed voice. From the expression on his face, as well as Akamaru's, the smells associated with the hospital must be overwhelming.
"The morgue."
Sasuke didn't react, aside from a small tic under his left eye. But when the door opened, they walked very quietly down the hallway. Voices were coming from the corridor junction up ahead, voices they recognized.
"How did you know?" they heard Kakashi-sensei ask in a tired voice.
"One of my allies was staying with her," they heard Shino say. "When the… event… occurred, it followed instructions to return to the hive and report."
Edging a little farther along the corridor, Sasuke could see Kakashi now, facing away from them, his body bent with fatigue. He had not seen his sensei so drained since the mission in Wave Country when he collapsed from chakra exhaustion after fighting Zabuza. His voice was even more ragged. "I think he was trying to capture her. He used some special genjutsu technique from his Sharingan, and she was able to counter it. But it left her off balance long enough to…"
Shino nodded once. "If she had developed a counter for his technique, he would not want her to share that information with others. It was… logical… that she be killed." The Aburame's voice was flat, but it still put chills down Sasuke's spine. Then the rest of it sank in.
His Sharingan.
Itachi…
"I need to report to the Hokage," Kakashi continued, pushing away from the wall. "I wanted to warn you. He's after Naruto; that's why he tried to capture Kurenai. He might try to use you next." Kakashi didn't seem aware of his students' presence, but it was more of a miracle that he could even stand, let alone stagger down the hallway. He didn't even seem to hear the muffled gasp from Sakura when he said Kurenai's name - that's how badly the copy-ninja was out of it.
It took all of Sasuke's self-control not to move, not to breathe, until Kakashi was gone. Then he shot forward and grabbed Shino's arm. In a flash, the air around them was thick with flying insects, each of them buzzing with rage, but Sasuke ignored them. "Do you have a tag on Naruto?" he hissed.
"And what if I do, Uchiha?" Shino asked, his voice even colder than before.
It occurred to Sasuke that it was possible the bug-user might decide to extract vengeance on himself as the closer target, rather than waiting to find Itachi. And he was already in the middle of the Aburame's swarm. "We need to warn Naruto," he said quickly.
"He's out of town on a mission. I'm sure the Hokage will-" Shino began, but Sasuke cut him off.
"Wherever he is, do you think anyone can find him faster than you?" Sasuke asked.
"Perhaps, perhaps not," Shino said. Then his brows drew down. "Why is this your concern?" he asked pointedly.
Sasuke started to snap back, then paused. He sighed. "Itachi is… was an Uchiha. It's my responsibility to stop him, or at least keep him from hurting anyone else if I can."
Shino's eyes seemed to bore into him through the dark glasses. "I can agree, but only to the extent that my teammate's safety is a higher priority than your vengeance."
"Then let's go," Sasuke agreed.
"Not without us," Kiba interjected, stepping forward. Sakura was half a step behind him.
Sasuke shook his head. "You can't leave the village outside of a mission without parental or clan permission."
"Then how can – " Kiba started to ask and then cut himself off. "How can Shino go?"
"My allies are already conveying a message to my father," Shino supplied smoothly. Sasuke wondered if it was really that fast or if the Aburame was lying through his collar.
"Sasuke," Sakura began, "Kakashi-sensei will-"
"He will remember that we don't currently have any missions scheduled," Sasuke cut in. "The only assignment we had was to meet for training and he didn't show up."
Sakura frowned, but didn't say anything. They both knew that it was a technicality, even if it was true. But there was no way he'd miss out on a chance to frustrate his brother's plans.
"I'll mark the trees as we go, like Kakashi showed us," Sasuke offered. "Meet up and follow as soon as you have clearance," he couldn't help but add. He had resented being ordered to shepherd civilians when others were fighting off the invaders, and been lectured about the importance of following orders and doing his duty. Well, now he was doing his duty as acting head of a one-man clan and it was their turn to follow standing orders.
If that made him a little petty, then so be it.
OoOoO
It took a while before Naruto or Hinata saw a familiar face. Unfortunately, it wasn't the pig-tailed blonde with the buxom figure that Jiraiya had described. Naruto was rather disgusted to see their so-called mission leader living it up. He had an attractive brunette hostess hanging all over him, and the old pervert was grinning like a white-haired baboon.
Naruto turned to Hinata, scowling. She was blushing a little, so no use hoping she hadn't seen it already. "Perhaps, ah, Jiraiya-sama is interrogating a source?" she asked hesitantly.
"Maybe," Naruto said, swallowing. He was glad Hinata was leaving him an out. She always tried to do that – going out of her way to avoid embarrassing anyone. It wasn't like Naruto was responsible for Jiraiya's behavior, but he felt profoundly embarrassed on behalf of the entire male gender. What kind of shinobi took time in the middle of an important mission for that?
At least it was late enough to justify heading back to the hotel. The naïve young villagers they were posing as were starting to stand out a little, and it would only get worse as the night wore on.
After a whispered conversation, the two of them began working their way back to the festival grounds and to their hotel. No telling when Jiraiya would turn up.
OoOoO
To tell the truth, Uchiha Sasuke was at least somewhat self-aware. He knew the reputation he'd developed as a brooding loner at the Konoha Ninja Academy. It wasn't something he'd purposefully cultivated, but he'd have to be an idiot to maintain no idea of how others saw him.
Privately, it still boggled his mind how so many of his female contemporaries became completely irrational where he was concerned.
For the most part, he was satisfied with the results. He didn't want the meaningless sympathy of strangers, and a cold exterior kept them at a comfortable distance where they belonged. The lasting effects of the genjutsu his brother tortured him with instead became useful habits for minimizing useless attachments.
But now, he traveled with someone even less talkative. And, if it was possible, even angrier. Aburame Shino didn't say a single thing after they left the morgue and slipped out of the village. The fact that they went over the wall instead of using the gate confirmed his suspicions about whether Shino had formal permission yet. Not really his problem though. Not like Itachi.
As they took to the trees, Sasuke was a little surprised at the pace Shino set. Aburame were known for their jutsu, not for their speed, but he was actually having to push a little to keep up. He didn't remember Shino being this fast when they were classmates. Had he been holding back, or was everyone getting stronger like Naruto?
Sasuke tightened his jaw, scowling.
OoOoO
Naruto and Hinata were both silent as they slipped into their hotel. Between her natural reticence and Naruto's embarrassment over the old pervert's behavior, no one really felt like talking. Naruto almost regretted talking the Hokage into sending Hinata along, right until he remembered the look on her face when she was going to be sent back to her family. There were worse things than the old pervert's amusements.
It was child's play getting to their rooms unobserved. Light as it was, Naruto was still relieved to scrub the makeup off his face. From the way she was blinking, Hinata probably felt the same way about the blue contacts.
After removing their disguises, they were about to head down for a late dinner when a knock came at their door. Naruto supposed the lecherous old goat struck out with the hostess if he was back so early. He flung open the door, ready to give Jiraiya a piece of his mind, but it wasn't his erstwhile tutor.
Instead it was an older version of Sasuke, wearing a black cloak with red clouds. He also wore a Konoha hitai-ite with a slash through the symbol. Naruto felt his stomach turn to ice. Itachi. Sasuke's older brother, the one that killed off the rest of the clan, including his own parents. He quickly averted his eyes. He knew from Kurenai-sensei's lecture on Dojutsu that a fully evolved Sharingan can do things to anyone foolish enough to look into them.
"Hello, Naruto-kun. We would like you to come with us," the man said in a quiet, even voice. Behind him, Naruto could see a hulking figure in another robe. There was something… wrong… with the second one's face. His skin seemed to be tinged blue.
Hinata sucked in a shocked breath, and Naruto felt like kicking himself for not letting her check the hallway before he opened the door.
"If you come along quietly," the Uchiha continued, "no one else has to get hurt. You wouldn't want your friend to have an accident, would you?"
"I still think we ought to take a leg off," the figure behind him growled. "Keep him from trying to run off."
Naruto was still in shock when he heard a cry of rage coming from the hallway behind the missing ninjas. Itachi spun with preternatural speed and caught a hurled kunai that was moving faster than Naruto could see. The blond shinobi jerked back as a swarm of familiar-looking bugs descended on the blue-skinned killer.
Itachi used the captured kunai to expertly deflect a hail of flaming shuriken. He almost looked bored. His partner swung a huge cloth-wrapped bundle through the swarm of kikai bugs. In its wake, they either fell to the ground lifeless or veered drunkenly. The motion pushed back his cloak and hat. Naruto's stomach tensed. He looked like nothing more than a fish-man with sharp teeth.
Behind the shuriken came Sasuke with a kunai in each hand, moving faster than Naruto had ever seen him go, his eyes blazing red with spinning Sharingans. He flew into some impossibly complex taijutsu combination, but his brother merely reached out and grabbed his ankle, a millisecond before his kick landed. "Too slow, little brother," he gently chided, then swung Sasuke headfirst into the wall.
There was a crash behind Naruto. Hinata had thrown the nightstand through the window. She grabbed his elbow and hauled backward as Itachi turned back toward them.
"Kill the Aburame," Itachi murmured. "He is of no use to us. Send him off to meet his sensei."
Naruto froze as the words sunk into his mind, nearly pulling Hinata off balance.
"It is foolish to resist the inevitable," Itachi continued. "You will come with us. The only variable you control is how many more of your allies will die today."
"She looked pretty stupid with that kunai stuck in her head," the fish-man added.
With a wordless cry of rage and despair, Naruto's head snapped up. Before he realized what he was doing, his eyes met Itachi's Sharingan and he knew nothing more.
OoOoO
Hinata was nearly weeping with frustration as she tried to get Naruto away from the missing-nins. She'd heard enough about Uchiha Itachi to know they were no match for the S-classed mass-murderer. She hoped Shino was just trying to provide them with a diversion, like one of their tactical exercises.
Her stomach twisted when they announced Kurenai-sensei was dead. Worse, Naruto went completely rigid, and her task became impossible. She just wasn't strong enough to haul him bodily out the window if he resisted.
That was her last thought before her vision filled with red chakra and she was thrown back against the bed. She painfully blinked away the tears that filled her eyes, her head already aching.
And she was behind Naruto.
In front of him, most of the doorway was gone. As was a good bit of the wall. In the hallway, she could see Shino staggering back, his swarm trailing after him. Itachi's partner had forgotten all about him, and was instead trying to swing a massive blunt sword horizontally at Naruto's side. As it plowed through his chakra flare, the bandages wrapping it burned away to reveal a mass of dull grey scales that glinted like teeth.
Naruto's left hand shot out and the blade stopped two inches short of his palm. Red chakra sheathed his arm, and swirled around the sword that seemed to drink it in. Her Byakugan confirmed that the sword was indeed consuming the chakra, but it was being replaced just as fast, with no signs of it being diminished.
But all that was forgotten as Naruto spoke in a voice that was not his own.
"Thank you ever so much, Itachi-kun. Your little Genjutsu utterly ravaged the boy's will, allowing me to subvert the seal. Now I am in control, and the seal protects me from outside influences – like your filthy Sharingan." The voice was hollow, mocking, but with a feral undercurrent that made the hairs on her neck rise up. Naruto's free hand rose, and red chakra coalesced around it, forming claws of fire that grew longer even as she watched.
Then a deep voice called out, "Ninpou: Gama Guchi Shibari!", and the walls, ceiling, and floor were covered with a thick fleshy material that was bright pink and smelled like rich earth and forests. Through the walls, she saw Jiraiya stride into view at the end of the hall, the woman he'd been flirting with earlier slung over his shoulder. "It's really kind of insulting," he continued in a conversational tone. "Did you really think you could distract me with something so obvious?"
"It worked long enough," Itachi countered.
"Not long enough," Jiraiya snapped. "Because now you both die, food inside the gullet of Iwagama-san."
The fish-man growled as he jerked his foot free of the sticky material. The red-sheathed Naruto shoved his sword aside with a contemptuous flick, knocking the bulky man even more off balance. He growled and brought the sword back for another swing, but Itachi barked "Kisame, come!" and they both flashed toward the opposite end of the corridor.
Hinata's eyes tracked them through the walls as they turned the corner. The stairwell was already blocked, and the pink masses were growing over the last window at the end. But there was a flash of black fire, chakra so intense it was nearly solid, and then they were gone, moving beyond her range so quickly they effectively disappeared.
Jiraiya cautiously followed them, scowling as he turned the corner and saw they'd escaped. "Dammit, they got away," he grumbled. Then he turned back to Naruto and froze. That's when Hinata realized that her best friend's eyes had turned completely red with slit pupils.
"Ah good, I still have a little time before the moron recovers," Naruto said in a darkly sardonic voice that was not his own. "Plenty of opportunity to deal with you and properly thank you for teaching that blond idiot how to use seals."
Hinata felt like she was watching someone else as her body stepped in front of what was clearly a Naruto possessed by his prisoner. She swallowed and said "I w-won't let you do that."
Naruto's brows drew down into a scowl. "Don't think I won't hesitate to crush you like the insect you are. Step aside."
For an instant, Hinata wanted nothing more than to do that. She ruthlessly pushed down her fear. "N-Naruto-kun said I was his b-best friend. Do you think he'd let you live if you k-killed me?" She couldn't ever imagine saying something like that out loud, but it was the first thing that came to mind.
The thing wearing Naruto's body looked her up and down in a way that made her very uncomfortable. "You have a lot of spine for someone so small, insect. Perhaps you'd make good breeding stock."
Despite the terror that made her want to throw up, she still felt her face redden.
Naruto's body shuddered.
"Maybe you aren't as in control as you think you are," Jiraiya observed. Hinata didn't need her eyes to tell he was smirking at it. Him. Naruto.
"Dammit, without them here, this idiot's rage is fading. Now the seal wants to work properly." Naruto shook his head, clenching his fists. "Hypocritical thing. I'd love to take the time to rip your face off, you frustrated old virgin, but I need you to get this idiot somewhere safe."
With that, Naruto's eyes faded back to their normal blue and white as they rolled back into his head and he crumpled to the floor. Hinata barely managed to catch him before he cracked his head open.
"I'm getting too old for this s**t," Jiraiya observed.  

[Pandora Green]

Chapter 21
Hinata's fingers ached and it took her a moment to realize that her hands were tightly clenched as she stared down at her teammate's face. Naruto-kun was still unconscious from Itachi's attack, though he was resting peacefully now. But periodically his face would twist into an agonized expression like he was having a nightmare he couldn't wake from.
At first, she and Shino had tried to wake him when this happened, thinking he was throwing off the effects. However, he could not be roused, even when Jiraiya-sama touched a forefinger glowing with chakra to Naruto's forehead.
At that point, he frowned and Hinata felt her stomach drop. Their mission leader was wearing his 'all-business' expression, when the playful façade he wore dropped away and she could see the Sannin behind it.
"I think he's suffered some sort of mental trauma," he said thoughtfully, "and that's why he can't wake up. Fixing that sort of thing is beyond my skills."
Hinata did not allow herself to gasp. She would not be weak now, not after Itachi used harming her as a threat to manipulate Naruto, along with the news of what he had done to Sensei. Just thinking about that for an instant made her gorge rise, so she ruthlessly suppressed it. Not on a mission. Not when she needed to be strong. Not when people depended on her.
"Who can repair such damage?" Shino asked quietly, returning from where he'd laid out the unconscious Uchiha. Using the genin and some shadow clones, Jiraiya had moved them to another inn, undamaged and more secure, faster than Hinata would have believed possible.
"Coincidentally, our objective is one of, if not the, most highly skilled medic-nin on the continent," Jiraiya replied. "It's not directly in her specialty, but I'm pretty sure she could help. We just need to find her before she leaves town."
Hinata spoke up. "Then we must find her, and quickly. Jiraiya-sama, do we really have to stay with the stealthy approach now?"
Jiraiya shook his head. "No, not after all the chakra released earlier. She'd have to be blind drunk not to notice it. She's either decided it doesn't involve her or she's halfway to Wave Country by now."
Hinata had to steel herself not to flinch at the older man's words. They could not fail, not now, not after everything.
Jiraiya was all business now. He assigned Shino to guard the new room he'd rented, while Naruto rested fitfully and Sasuke slept off the beating he'd received. He also left behind a couple of shadow clones and seeded the area with summoned toads of various sizes to keep watch.
For some reason he didn't leave any in the room with Shino. Just the two clones – one that monitored Sasuke's vital signs and another that kept watch out the window and periodically jotted down notes in a thick scroll opened on the table beside it. Hinata thought it was just her imagination, but Shino seemed oddly relieved for some reason.
Within minutes, Hinata and Jiraiya had taken to the air, leaping from rooftop to rooftop as they crisscrossed Otafuku City. Hinata kept her Byakugan active the whole time, ignoring the slow burning sensation that built up in her eye sockets as she compared every face she saw to the faded photograph Jiraiya had shown her. She refused to be weak, not after everything that happened, but her chakra reserves were running low when she got a glimpse of a blond-haired woman's face at the very edge of her range. She stopped dead on her next landing, cutting back over ninety degrees to pursue the trace she'd seen. She almost thought she'd imagined it, when she found the woman again kneeling down to throw dice inside a gambling hall.
Hinata's relief was palpable, but she was shamed at the way her knees buckled a little as she landed in front of the hall. She was mortified when Jiraiya had to steady her shoulder even as he asked what she'd seen. She merely nodded, unable to speak through her suddenly closed throat, and pointed toward the open doors of the gambling hall.
But the white-haired man didn't sneer at her weakness. Instead, he grinned and gave her a nod of acknowledgement. "Good job, kid. I know you're a little young for this kind of place, so stay close to me."
With that, he threw open the swinging doors and strode in, bold as daybreak.
OoOoO
Tsunade looked down at the dice in her hand and frowned. She'd started winning, just a little, earlier that afternoon. That wasn't so bad, and if anything might get Shizune off her back about the debts she was piling up.
But now her dice were on fire.
She didn't mind a little luck. Every gambler needed some. But not like this. She'd gone from winning every now and then, maybe coming out a little ahead, to winning steadily. And now it seemed like she couldn't lose, no matter what the odds.
And that frightened her.
Her luck was a fickle b***h. She could only remember a few times she'd been this lucky. She'd purchased winning tickets in two different lotteries on the same day. Another day had seen her draw a royal flush, cold, during a card game with her teammates as they waited for a mission assignment.
The lottery results were announced the day her brother Nawaki left for his first, and last, mission. The poker game had been played with Dan and the rest of his team before the mission against Stone that ended his life.
So, it was no wonder that a winning streak like this put Tsunade on edge. And brought up old memories, memories that could only be laid to rest with large amounts of Sake. She wasn't roaring drunk, but she was definitely speaking-louder-than-necessary drunk.
Sake was also good for letting her put off thinking about Orochimaru's offer. Her old teammate looked like he'd seen better days – missing an arm and one lung somehow damaged by frostbite. He'd fed her some c**k-and-bull story about a jutsu that backfired, but what she couldn't ignore was the carrot he offered.
She wasn't sure if this jutsu he claimed to have developed would do all that it promised. But even getting to see them again for an instant would be worth it… even if it meant dealing with a traitor to the Leaf. Besides, what had the Leaf done for her but give her heartache and pain?
She shook her head and prepared to roll again, but a familiar shade of red caught the corner of her eye. Damn. He was still wearing that ridiculous outfit. All she needed to make this day complete was a visit from her other annoying teammate. Ex-teammate.
"What do you want, Jiraiya?" she asked in a flat tone as she stood up. No use trying to enjoy her scary run of luck now, not with him watching her and being all subtly disapproving. Like his habits were any better, the damn lecher, even if he claimed he still served Konoha…
Her eyes narrowed as they picked out the small girl standing in his shadow. "What the hell, Jiraiya?" she asked. "This isn't the kind of place for someone her age!" she scolded.
He shrugged in that way he'd developed that completely infuriated her. It acknowledged that he heard her – he just didn't care. "No older than Shizune was when she left with you," he shot back. "Nice to see you again," he added, nodding toward her assistant, who was holding Tonton, Nawaki's pet pig. "You must be twice as tall as the last time I saw you."
"It's good to see you too, Jiraiya-sama," Shizune replied, in a far too respectful tone to Tsunade's ear. Was she getting old enough for his charm to work? Was she brainless enough as well?
"Well, that makes one of us that thinks so," Tsunade grated. "What do you want?" she demanded.
Jiraiya managed to look hurt, but never lost his teasing grin. "Is it too much to want to catch up with an old teammate? Relive the good old days?" The old b*****d was enjoying this, she realized.
"There were no good old days," she snapped, "just a lot of meaningless death and blood shed for nothing." The aftertaste of sake faded to ashes on her tongue.
Jiraiya sighed in a tolerant fashion that made her want to hit him. "I'll buy you a drink and we'll talk, all right? My treat."
Her stomach stewed with resentment, but not enough to turn down a free drink.
A few minutes later, they were in a booth at the bar next to the gambling hall. Shizune ordered some tempura, hoping as always that a little food would blunt the effects of sake. Tsunade couldn't really resent the girl's efforts to curb the worst of her excesses. Not after all she'd put up with in the past. Her assistant also got some tea for herself and Jiraiya's companion.
Peering owlishly at the small girl, Tsunade finally noticed her eyes. A Hyuuga? And with that unmarked forehead, she was of the main house. As quiet as she was, she must be seething with disapproval. Just like the rest of her stuck up house. Something occurred to her that instantly put Tsunade on her guard. How many favors had Jiraiya used up in Konoha to secure the services of a Main Family Hyuuga just to help locate her?
Shizune valiantly tried to maintain civil conversation at the table as Tsunade glared at Jiraiya. Finally, as the first bottle was emptied, Tsunade spoke. "All right, you didn't come all this way just to talk. What do you want?" she asked bluntly.
Jiraiya grimaced. He was always transparent to her, and it always seemed to catch him off guard when she saw through him. "I wanted to ask a couple of favors," he admitted.
She smirked. Here it comes. She raised a hand before he could continue. "I'm not going back," she declared. "I thought I made that clear years ago. That village has brought me nothing but pain."
"Look," Jiraiya said, "hear me out. I know why you left, and I understand-"
"You understand nothing!" Tsunade snarled. Damn, now she was getting mad, and nothing burned the sake out of her system faster than getting angry.
Jiraiya made a placating gesture with his hands, glancing around as their table started attracting attention from the rest of the bar. "Can you at least just take a look at a genin for me?" he pleaded. "He was hit with a genjutsu, a powerful one. I think it caused some psychological trauma, but it's beyond my skills."
Tsunade was a little taken aback, her anger fading. Usually the old fool's pride wouldn't let him fold so quickly. Damn, and she was sort of looking forward to a spat. Maybe she could push him a little further. "So you acknowledge my superior skills?" she asked in an arch tone.
Jiraiya assumed an unusually serious expression. "I have never once questioned your skills with medical jutsu," he said.
Okay, so he didn't want to play at all. "I see. Still, to bring a patient all this way…"
Her old teammate's mouth twisted. "Well, actually, he'd come with us, to ask you about something else, when he was attacked," he admitted. Then he quickly added, "that's a separate matter though. We can discuss that afterward. This… well, I'm asking it as a personal favor. I will owe you one."
Tsunade frowned. In Jiraiya's personal code, annoying as it was, that was a major concession. Still, better to draw this out and see how serious he was. "I thought I sensed some serious chakra usage earlier. If I wasn't retired… I don't know, tempting as having something to hang over you is, I'm not sure I want to get involved in whatever vendetta someone has against you."
Jiraiya's face gave a flash of betrayal that actually made her feel a little guilty. But more surprising was the fact that the little girl who was with him spoke up. "Please, Tsunade-sama, it isn't far from here," the Hyuuga said in a subdued tone. How it must have grated to use such a humble voice. She probably didn't want the mission to fail and let Jiraiya out of whatever concessions he made to get the help of her clan. Well. Maybe she could use that stiff-necked pride the Hyuuga were known for. Maybe Jiraiya would owe her one.
"So, you want something from me as well?" she asked. "Okay. Fine. My assistant Shizune here is getting a little too old to take care of mostly menial tasks. You agree to be my personal servant for six months and I'll see what I can do for this genin." She sat back, gently elbowing Shizune to shut her up. There was no way a Hyuuga would agree to-
"With Jiraiya-sama's permission, I accept, Tsunade-sama."
Oh hell.
OoOoO
Naruto was normally a sound sleeper, but once he was awake, he was awake. Rousing himself once he was conscious was never a serious chore. And not one usually accompanied by a splitting headache, either.
Until now.
His eyelids felt like they'd been painted over with glue. Reaching up to rub at them was complicated by the fact that his arm seemed to weigh a thousand kilos. Before he even got it halfway there, a cool damp cloth had been applied to his eyes, wiping the gummy secretions away. He knew without opening his eyes that Hinata was nearby. He bit back a groan as he tried to sit up, but his body was not cooperating. That wasn't good. Sensei would have his hide if he stayed in bed all da-
Kurenai-Sensei.
"Is it true?" he tried to ask, but all that came out was a rusty croak. A small, strong arm circled around his head, supporting it as it helped him to sit up. He opened his eyes as she brought a cup of water to his lips. The tears beading up in the corners of Hinata's lavender eyes seemed to already be answering his question. If Itachi had been lying to get him off balance, she'd already be assuring him that their jonin-sensei was all right.
So the even bigger Uchiha b*****d wasn't lying. Yuuhi Kurenai was dead.
Naruto felt his body sag for a moment as despair surged through his spirit. The first adult to take his ambition seriously, and she was gone.
No. She was taken. By the Uchiha. Itachi.
Naruto felt his formerly-sluggish chakra surge. With it came a wave of energy as his normal constitution seemed to kick in. He still felt a general dull ache, not dissimilar to what he'd felt in his arm after he destroyed Orochimaru's curse seal. He guessed that whatever happened after he was knocked out had strained his chakra coils to some degree.
Surprisingly, Hinata didn't flinch back as he stiffened. She merely waited patiently as he greedily sucked down the water. She released his head as he sat up straighter and pushed back the covers he was sleeping under. He was relieved to find himself wearing a plain white sleeping tunic. He hoped Jiraiya had changed his clothes though.
He glanced around and saw the woman they'd been tasked with finding holding green-glowing hands over Sasuke's wrist. "It's a simple fracture. He should lay off training for a couple of days to let it finish mending," she announced as the glow faded. "The concussion should just be left alone for now. He'll be around in an hour or so."
Naruto nodded. It was hard not to hate someone that resembled Itachi, but from what he'd learned of Konoha's recent history, Sasuke really hated his brother. Too bad he wasn't going to get a chance to kill him. Not if Naruto had anything to say about it.
The woman who'd been identified in their briefing as Tsunade turned toward Hinata. "You seem to have the basics down," she said with a grunt. "Hope you plan to get used to taking care of sick people for the next six months."
Naruto's eyes narrowed as he looked from her to his friend. "What does that mean?" he asked warily. Sensei was dead, but she was still depending on him to look out for his teammates.
"In return for my services," Tsunade answered with a smirk, "Miss Hyuuga has agreed to serve me for six months."
Naruto scowled and turned toward Jiraiya, whose chakra he could feel loitering near the doorway. Beyond him, Naruto could see the shoulder of Shino's jacket. Just knowing he was nearby made Naruto feel a little better. Especially since he was likely listening to everything said for later analysis.
The old pervert shrugged. "That jutsu's damage was beyond my skills to repair, so I asked an old teammate to look at you as a personal favor. Instead, she asked your teammate for payment."
Naruto grumbled and let out a sigh. In a way, this would keep Hinata from having to deal with her father for a while longer. At the same time, he didn't want her leaving Konoha, even temporarily. Of course, if Tsunade came back as Hokage… "What about the mission?" he asked Jiraiya.
The Toad Sannin made a face and straightened up. "Tsunade, there's another reason we're in town. We were looking for you."
The blonde woman did not look nearly as surprised as the younger dark-haired woman standing off to the side in a black kimono. "You always have an ulterior motive, Jiraiya, that's never changed."
The white-haired man ignored the jibe. "You might have heard that Konoha was recently attacked," he began. "Sensei was hurt pretty badly and lost an arm."
"He's not dead?" Tsunade said quickly. "I'd heard he was mortally wounded."
"No, but his career as a shinobi is over," Jiraiya admitted. He paused. "With everyone asleep during the battle, how did you hear he'd been killed?" He was maybe a little too relaxed as he waited for her answer. Would she correct him?
"A wandering shinobi that was in the crowd," Tsunade replied, but Naruto thought her words lacked her earlier arrogance. Before he'd turned traitor, Orochimaru was her teammate, along with Jiraiya, under the Old Man. If the reports were true about him losing an arm, maybe Orochimaru had sought her aid as well?
"I see," Jiraiya replied and Naruto wondered if he'd picked up on that too. "Anyway, he sent me to find you and bring you back to Konoha."
Tsunade shook her head. "As old as he is now, there's no way I could regrow his arm without killing him. The shock from just debriding the stump would –"
"Not to heal him," Jiraiya cut in. "He knows he's too old. He wants you to replace him."
The room was utterly silent for a moment, before Tsunade let out a contemptuous snort. "Do you really think I'm that stupid, you old womanizer?" she accused in a harsh tone. "Or is this one of your moronic jokes?"
"No joke, Hime," Jiraiya answered in a serious voice. His posture even straightened a little. "He thinks you are the best choice to lead Konoha and rebuild its strength."
"After all I've…" Tsunade shook her head. "No. It's impossible. I refuse." With every word, she shook her head harder, her words growing angrier. "You'd have to be an idiot to want that job."
In Naruto's defense, it should first be noted that he had made great strides in controlling his temper since his academy days. Kurenai-sensei's lessons featured multiple examples of shinobi in the past who had let their anger override their reason, often with tragic and messy results.
On the other hand, Naruto had also recently suffered the loss of that same sensei, been subjected to a psychologically-damaging S-Rank genjutsu, was just informed that his best friend had sold herself into servitude to get a healer to repair the damage, and finally watched someone be offered the one thing he'd desired as long as he could remember. And reject it utterly.
It's really no wonder at all that he snapped.
"Idiot?" he demanded. "The only idiot I see here is you!"
"Watch it brat. I just fixed you and I can un-fix you just as easily!"
"I'd like to see you try it, you old hag!" Naruto smirked as her face colored. You didn't become a prankster of his skill without knowing how to home in on peoples' weak spots. If they were on the same genin team, she had to be as old as Jiraiya. To look as young as she did would require a genjutsu of some sort – which meant she was sensitive about her age.
"Sempai, no!" the dark-haired woman cried as Tsunade gathered herself to lunge at Naruto's bed. "We can't afford to pay for damages again!"
"All right Shizune!" Tsunade snarled. "Outside, you little snot, unless you are afraid to take your medicine."
"Fine," Naruto spat, grabbing the clothes piled beside his bed and marching toward the bathroom. He was just glad his convalescent wear included pants or it would have spoiled the effect.
He came back out in less than a minute, having quickly made certain everything was in place. He paused as he was about to pick up his sandals. "You really think you can take me?" he asked, remembering his mission briefing on the target.
"With one finger," she snapped, turning away from Jiraiya who'd evidently been trying to talk her out of something. She stomped through the doorway and out into the hallway.
The Toad Sannin rolled his eyes and shook his head mouthing something that looked like "blondes".
Naruto grinned a little as he caught up to her. "Why don't we make this a little more interesting?" he asked as he and the medic-nin led an odd procession toward the hotel entrance.
Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "What stakes?" she asked.
"If I win, you come back to Konoha," Naruto said.
"No way," she refused, shaking her head.
"So you're afraid you can't beat me?" He taunted. "What happened to one finger?"
Her eyes narrowed and Naruto was amazed he didn't burst into flames. "Fine," She snapped. "You know, I'm surprised you didn't ask me to forfeit your teammate's six month debt," she jabbed back. "I guess the mission is more important than your teammate to you. And people wonder why I left."
"Not at all," Naruto shot back. "I just want what's best for her." He paused. "She probably didn't protest the debt too much, did she?" he taunted.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tsunade demanded.
"Nothing you won't find out after you arrive in Konoha," Naruto assured her as they stepped out into the street.
"You are really getting on my nerves, boy," she snarled.
Naruto turned back toward her after stepping off ten paces. "And you called my Hokage stupid," he snarled back as his eyes narrowed and he formed the Ram seal. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Everything went silent as the street filled with clones… along with the roof tops to either side. Then a double-tsunami of green engulfed the Slug Princess.
OoOoO
Jiraiya decided to stay inside, having heard far too much about Naruto's exploits during the Sound invasion. Intelligence estimates of exactly how many clones the overexcited jinchuuriki spawned while pursuing the Sand genin were classified as an S-class secret, but from what he'd heard the boy must possess memories of working beside practically every member of ANBU before the fighting was concluded. The idea of being accidentally trampled by his subordinate was a little disturbing. But distinctly possible. Minato would never let him forget it if that ended up as his epitaph.
Naruto's teammates hovered in the main entrance. Jiraiya didn't know what they expected to accomplish, other than provide moral support as his old teammate wiped the street with their friend. He just hoped he didn't have to sell another one of them into indentured servitude to pay the medical bill.
OoOoO
Naruto hung back while his clones swarmed his opponent. Creating that many clones actually left him lightheaded for a moment, proof that he was still recovering from whatever Itachi had done to him. Unfortunately, Tsunade was annihilating them by the dozens. The really frightening part was that she was doing it with just the one finger as she specified. He didn't really want to find out what would happen if she struck him with that finger, but he suspected it would be as short as it was painful.
Then the crazy alcoholic reached down and struck the street with that finger.
The resulting shockwave blew all his clones off their feet and opened a fissure that arrowed toward him. Taijutsu or doton jutsu, it didn't matter. Naruto leapt backward, avoiding the seemingly bottomless rift, even as he raised his estimation of Tsunade's threat level. He started to understand why Oji-san wanted her as his new successor, despite her personality.
"Get back here, you little coward!" she bellowed. "If you run away, you forfeit! And maybe I'll take it out on my new assistant!"
Of course, that personality could be a weakness, Naruto thought as he gritted his teeth and charged back in.
Tsunade grinned and set herself, right hand back, finger curled to the thumb ready to deliver a flick that would knock an ox into the next prefecture.
But the genin stopped short and brought his hands together like he was about to begin a prayer. "Naruto Majutsu: Chakra Pulse!" he shouted, rotating his palms toward the Slug Princess in a throwing motion as he released the chakra he'd been gathering in his hara.
The Sannin flinched back as the directed pulse wave washed harmlessly over her. Well, harmless to her body anyway. As Naruto suspected, she wasn't as young as she looked, concealing her age beneath a powerful genjutsu. One he had just disrupted.
Naruto let out a laugh. "Wow, you really are old, Baa-chan!"
In an instant, his air was cut off as her fingers closed around his throat. It really didn't help that he was still trying to laugh behind his blocked off throat. The humor of the situation faded a bit as things started to grow dim and his peripheral vision started to grey out.
He noticed Shizune pulling at Tsunade's shoulder, but not doing much to distract her. Then a mass of Kikai bugs engulfed her head and nobody but nobody can ignore that. She released Naruto, formed her fingers into a seal, and dispersed the cloud with a burst of chakra. He felt Hinata's hand steady his elbow as he gasped for breath, trying to blink the swirling motes in his vision away.
However, when Naruto straightened up, he had a large grin on his face. He massaged his bruised throat as he assessed the middle-aged woman with a few wrinkles and blond hair fading to silver. "That was a lot more than one finger, Hokage-sama."
Tsunade's eyes widened. "You did all that, just to get me to break the terms of the wager?"
Naruto shrugged. "It worked, didn't it? Or will you welsh on our bet?"
She scowled. "You're an interesting little pipsqueak, but be honest. Did Jiraiya put you up to that?"
Naruto shook his head. "No, I just remembered something Kurenai-sensei taught me."
"Hmmm," Tsunade murmured as she restored her genjutsu. "I'll have to meet this sensei of yours."
Naruto's face got a pinched look about it as Hinata let out a small hiccup. The Hyuuga quickly walked back into the inn, Naruto following her, looking worried. The Aburame boy, Shino, turned to look at her, his face expressionless below his sunglasses. "Unfortunately, you will not have that opportunity," was all he said.
OoOoO
Jiraiya wasn't surprised when Tsunade cornered him. He was just surprised it took her so long. In her place, he didn't think he'd be able to control his curiosity as well. That was probably one of the reasons Sarutobi wanted her as his successor.
That, and what he threatened to do if his Sensei forced him into the role. Fortunately, they both agreed that what he was doing now was too important for Konoha to give up.
Of course, given how painful large pieces of her own history was, it shouldn't be any wonder that she could be circumspect with the grief of others. If nothing else, he imagined she didn't want any reminders.
After his "victory" of sorts, Naruto stayed downstairs long enough to inhale some broth and steamed rice. Hinata was unusually insistent that he take it easy and go back upstairs to rest. Jiraiya wondered if she saw something in the boy's coils that worried her. For the brief moments it had been active, the Kyuubi had thrown around an enormous amount of chakra. If the brat wasn't so insanely tough, he'd be more worried about permanent damage.
With the Aburame backing her, the Hyuuga prevailed upon Naruto to return to his room to rest. Shizune followed along to supervise and Jiraiya found himself sitting at the bar next to an irritated Sannin.
"Mind explaining what the hell that was all about?" she demanded after ordering another bottle of sake.
Jiraiya sighed. "Their jonin-sensei was Yuuhi Kurenai. Just passed the exam a few months ago. Uchiha Itachi tried to kidnap her, probably to use as bait for Naruto. Something went wrong and she was killed. We found out when they showed up here to try and grab him anyway."
Tsunade let out a sound somewhere between a grunt and a groan. "S-Class or not, it takes a lot of balls to try and use a jonin as a bargaining chip."
Jiraiya nodded. "The Aburame boy, Shino, says she managed to break one of Itachi's 'unbreakable' genjutsu. He probably killed her to make sure she didn't tell anyone how."
"Damn," Tsunade cursed. "You ever meet her?"
Jiraiya nodded.
"What was she like?" Tsunade asked.
He had no idea where this was going, but decided to play along. "Besides being scary smart? Stubborn, opinionated, and vindictive. She hated my books without reading a single one."
Tsunade let out a snort of amusement.
"On the other hand," he continued, "she was very, very focused on her genin. And it shows. She took three kids, one of whom barely passed the graduation test, and got them functioning at chuunin level or higher in just a few months."
He didn't need to see her raised eyebrow to sense his teammate's disbelief.
"No joke. If the exams weren't interrupted, both boys would likely be wearing chuunin vests. The girl got knocked out of the preliminaries by her own cousin, a Jyuuken genius. Naruto returned the favor during the finals."
"Is he…?"
"Yeah, he's his. Not that it's hard to tell with the way he looks and that hair. Sensei said he's been telling everyone he was going to become Hokage since he learned what the word meant. First thing after graduation, his new sensei asks if he really wants to be Hokage… and then tells him what he needs to start doing to get there. Crazy brat started training sixteen hours a day and by the exams he's learning A-rank jutsu and took down a Hyuuga prodigy using taijutsu."
"You sound pretty proud of him," Tsunade said thoughtfully. Almost all the bitterness had leached out of her voice, and Jiraiya wondered if she was remembering her lost little brother, Nawaki.
"I am," he admitted, "not that I have a right to be. Everything he and the Hyuuga are… is mostly her doing. Now I have a question for you."
"What is it?" she asked, her face guarded again.
"Are you going to abide by that wager?"
She gave him a flat look, but his own expression didn't soften. "I'll think about it," she finally said. "If nothing else, I should go back and see how bad a job they did healing Sensei. I might… hear what he has to say." She shook her head ruefully. "I can't believe I let him sucker me like that."
Jiraiya smiled. That was more of a concession than he'd been expecting. These kids were good luck. Or maybe they reminded her…
"Speaking of suckers," Tsunade continued, breaking through his sake-fueled reverie, "what is going on with that girl? Is she really a Hyuuga?"
Jiraiya's mouth puckered, like he tasted something foul. "I don't know all the details," he began, "but I think you actually did her a favor…"
OoOoO
Sasuke woke up shortly after they returned to the room. He abruptly sat up, glancing around wildly, then holding his head and groaning. Hinata advised him of the analgesic powder Shizune dissolved in his water and suggested he drink it all. The last Uchiha looked like he wanted to protest, but his mouth stilled when he saw both Naruto and Shino staring at him.
The air in the room was… tense. It wasn't full of killing intent. Not quite. But if emotions had smells the room would reek of them. Naruto figured it was probably a good thing Shizune was off feeding the pig. It would likely be going crazy in here by now. Sasuke sat up, drawing his legs in until he was sitting cross-legged on the mattress, holding his water in both hands as he slowly sipped it.
Finally, he finished the water and spoke. "I acknowledge your grievance against my clan," Sasuke said in a formal voice, reciting words that Naruto wondered if he'd memorized at some point. If his father was clan leader, had Sasuke already been in training on such formalities? He dismissed the thought as irrelevant, but stopped. It was something Kurenai-sensei would have wondered.
"Uchiha Itachi is a traitor to both Konoha and to the Uchiha Clan," Sasuke continued, his voice flat, almost monotone. "But he is still of my blood. I will kill him and avenge Yuuhi-san along with all of the others. This I have pledged."
His black eyes didn't meet theirs, instead staring off into the distance. Naruto realized, with a chill, that Sasuke wasn't really talking to them. His true audience had been dead for years.
"We accept your declaration," Shino said after a moment. "It is widely known that Itachi does not act as an Uchiha any longer. You have also made it clear you plan to end his betrayal."
Naruto turned to look at Shino. Was Sasuke seriously thinking they'd go after him because of Itachi? Or was this formal crap just to make sure everyone knew where they stood? Impolite or not, he wasn't going to let this pass. "That's only if we don't find him first," he warned.
Sasuke looked like he was about to say something, but held his tongue. A muscle jumped along his jaw and Naruto wondered if he was remembering how it got broken.
Good enough.
OoOoO
It was a subdued group that left for Konoha the following morning. Naruto found that a good night's sleep had washed away most of the lingering aches, except for the hollow throb of grief in the pit of his stomach. It seemed almost a betrayal to sleep peacefully after what had happened, but Hinata had mentioned that was probably his body recovering from what had happened. It surprised him, just a little, that she'd known what he was thinking after he woke up. But then again, she'd always been good at reading him – much better than he could read her. He grimaced as they walked down the street after checking out. She was a much better teammate than he was.
As upset as he was, though, Naruto still felt uneasy for other reasons. As they left Otafuku City, he thought he could feel unfriendly eyes watching them. With a few discreet hand-signals, he alerted his teammates, but none of them could detect any hostile presences.
OoOoO
"Orochimaru-domo," Kabuto whispered, his head inclined respectfully, "are we just going to let them leave?"
"Now is not the time," the Snake Sannin ground out, masking his killing intent only with great effort. They were hundreds of yards from the road, under a camouflage jutsu, but he still had to be careful he wasn't detected by his old teammates. "Against both of my former teammates, especially with only one arm, I would be at a disadvantage, and I doubt you could stop that genin team by yourself."
"They are just genin, Sensei," Kabuto murmured. They had seemed slightly competent to him when he encountered them during the chuunin examination, but surely not that much of a threat.
"At least one of them should be a chuunin," Orochimaru snapped. "And the three of them were… impressive… when I was testing Sasuke-kun. Don't underestimate them."
Kabuto ducked his head in apology.
"Besides, I don't want to risk any damage to my future vessel," the Sannin continued. "Soon we will see if he will seek me out, given the proper… inducements. With a new body, I'll have two arms again. Pity. I was so looking forward to corrupting the Slug Princess…"