Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Foxhound ❯ Run away! Run away! ( Chapter 5 )

Author: Kraken's Ghost

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything its author owns. I am not making any money off of this. This is a non-profit work of fanfiction.

 

Story so far: The Kyuubi and Naruto share a long discussion in which Naruto learns about his odd experience, his abilities, and their enemies. He and the Kyuubi concoct a plan that may help them survive, but they escape Konoha to pull it off. Tsunade, Ino, and Sakura encounter an odd bunshin who gives them a general overview of Naruto's plans. A chakra wave that terrorizes anyone who feels it surges across Fire Country and beyond. Ino has a strange seizure when she feels the wave. Kakashi is sent along with three others to find Naruto and return him to Konoha.

 

 

Chap. 5

 

Hatake Kakashi was not in a happy mood. Okay, a more accurate description would be `Kakashi's pissed.' His eye tracked his summoned nin-dog (an odd pug by the name of Pakkun) as the little canine stopped for the fifteenth or sixteenth time in the past hour to pick up the trail. Which he had lost…again. They had to stop…again. Naruto had tricked them…AGAIN.

 

Yeeeah, Kakashi was pissed.

 

“Dammit, lost it again, huh?” Nara Shikamaru grumbled in annoyance as he landed next to the copy-nin while they waited for the dog to pick up the scent. “When the hell did Naruto of all people learn to cover his tracks? I thought you said Jiraiya-sama was teaching him combat and mental skills, not evasion tricks good enough to fool hunter-nins.”

 

“He didn't learn this from Jiraiya,” Kakashi replied as he watched Pakkun. Behind them, Hyuuga Neji and Maito Gai landed on the soft forest floor. “He has a…partner, for lack of a better word, that probably knows more jutsu than an entire Hidden Village. Maybe even two. This is child's play for Naruto's ally.”

 

“His partner?” Neji coolly asked as he walked up next to them. His Byakugan was active and the veins jutting out on his face made him look like he was in danger of a stroke. The fact that he was breathing hard was only adding to the impression. “Who would be working with him? And is skilled enough to evade the ANBU guards while assisting in his escape from Konoha?”

 

“His ally is more than skin deep,” Kakashi muttered as he thoughtfully eyed the surrounding forest. “It is also likely responsible for Naruto's sudden departure.”

 

“I saw how injured he was, Hatake-san,” Neji replied as he finally shut down his Blood Limit and panted from exertion. “Unless this partner was carrying him, there's no way Naruto could have left on his own power. He certainly shouldn't be responsible for that…wave we felt.”

 

“Naruto is far stronger and more resilient than he appears, Neji-kun,” Gai answered as he approached his student and offered him a canteen. The Hyuuga eyed it for a moment, before taking it and gratefully draining half in one go. “He also has a habit of finding resources in unexpected places and doing seemingly impossible feats. You of all people should know that.”

 

“I still get the impression you aren't telling us something,” Shikamaru grumbled as he turned to look back at the two shinobi. “You and the other jounin have all acted like the devil himself has come back to town. We all felt that freaky-ass wave, but you older guys seem to recognize it from somewhere. It'd be smarter and less troublesome in the long run if you just told us now rather than beating around the bush.”

 

Gai gave a near inaudible sigh as he watched his rival. Kakashi's shoulders had a stiffness to them that was out of the norm for the laid back ninja. He knew this was hard on the man. Not only was one of his former students in serious trouble and most likely dead or worse, but the chakra wave was probably dragging up unpleasant memories of the Yondaime's death. Kakashi carried large burden of survivor's guilt from that day, though he had dealt with it better than he had with Obito's loss. The Copy-ninja had been tense and irritable from the minute they'd left Konoha and the frustration caused by trying to track Naruto's well hidden trail wasn't helping matters. Gai himself was acting far more reserved than he usually did, both from the fresh memory of the chakra wave and his rival's somber mood.

 

It had been almost a full day since they'd left Konoha. With the red glow still on the horizon, they'd quickly headed towards it and the northwest. Kakashi had summoned a few of his nin-dogs and set them out ahead to find the trail and they'd started off at a good pace. Err…until the dogs came back with the message that there was no trail to follow. While the Copy-ninja had been debating this with his summons, Neji had activated his Byakugan and used the telescopic and x-ray abilities to scan the ground over a distance. Gradually, he was able to pick up slight irregularities in the forest that led to the northwest. A bent twig here, several meters later a depression in the mud there, and the occasional disturbed brush slowly made the trail apparent to his vision when he lined them all up over a great distance.

 

When the boy had told Kakashi, the jounin had promptly ordered him to take the lead and dispelled all his dogs except Pakkun. However, even with his Blood Limit, Neji still had a hell of a time keeping the trail. They had to stop every few minutes for him to line up the path again. Apparently, Naruto wasn't just satisfied with covering his tracks and had apparently dodged around like the hyper freak he was, leading them on a wild goose chase for half a day. Unfortunately, they'd been forced to stick to following the trail, as the glow from the horizon had long faded and northwestern Fire Country was a lot of ground to cover.

 

Then they'd caught a break. Pakkun picked up the scent five hours into the trip. Kakashi would have been a lot more pleased had they not been a measly two hours straight distance from the village. As it was, with both pug and Hyuuga tracking it, the trail became considerably easier to follow. The farther they got out from Konoha, the easier it became to track Naruto. Seven hours straight out from the village and it seemed the boy was just getting sloppy. Even Shikamaru was easily following his footprints and the lazy boy had no advanced training in tracking. Pakkun was unerringly following the course and Neji was able to give his eyes a break. Half a day of Byakugan use and constant running were straining even his formidable reserves. It was becoming easier to keep the trail too, as Naruto had apparently given up on running all over the place and had gone into a dead out run. Both Gai and Shikamaru made amazed comments as they looked at the boy's stride and jump lengths. They all knew the blonde was a stamina freak, but to keep running at top speed for hours after just getting out of the hospital? That was just ridiculous. Kakashi kept his opinion on the matter to himself, though he did pick up his own pace. They started making good time.

 

Well, until they hit a snag about fourteen hours straight out from the village.

 

The trail was vanishing again. The scent disappeared the further they advanced, the footprints faded, and the other little signs of disturbance became as scarce as when they started. Neji had to activate his Byakugan again for them to get anywhere and was starting to lag in his pace from the constant chakra exertion. So now here they were. In a small clearing in the middle of the woods of northern Fire Country with the lot of them looking around at the trees like idiots. If felt like there was a big sign above their heads that said, “Sucker!” in Naruto's hideous handwriting. Shikamaru half expected to see `Kick Me' scrawled on the backs of his fellow shinobi. If the situation weren't so serious, he'd have bet his lifesavings that this whole mess was an elaborate prank played on them by the loud blonde. And he wasn't reassured by the though of their quarry having an accomplice.

 

This talk of an `ally' worried him. He wasn't genius for nothing, after all.

 

“Well, are you guys gonna tell us?” The lazy Nara asked, as he crossed his arms over his flak jacket. Kakashi didn't reply as he continued focusing on the surrounding forest.

 

Gai frowned thoughtfully and said, “Rival, I know it's the big rule, but in this case-”

 

“I'm not breaking the Sandaime's law unless it's life or death, Gai,” The Copy-ninja interrupted in a cold voice. “I'd expect you to do the same.”

 

“And my point is, if we encounter Naruto and he's been influenced by his ally, then it will be life or death,” Gai replied in a firm tone, not intimidated in the slightest at Kakashi's attitude. “You should know, considering you were the one who told me about the boy's abilities.”

 

The copy-nin went dead quiet for several moments as he considered the tai-jutsu master's words. At length, he sighed and said, “Well, Hokage-sama isn't happy with me as it is, so what's breaking the big rule on top of it? Tell them. We'll take responsibility for it when we get back.”

 

Pakkun finally stopped sniffing around and nodded at Kakashi.

 

“Tell them as we move. Pakkun's found the trail again,” The jounin said as he jumped into the trees with the dog. Gai motioned for the two chuunin to follow as he leapt after his rival.

 

When they were moving at a decent clip again, Shikamaru looked over to Gai and asked, “Why would the Third make a law involving Naruto?”

 

The tai expert frowned as he did a casual side flip to follow a sudden change in direction by Kakashi. How to put this to them? After a minute or so of thinking, he said, “Tell me, what do you two know about the Kyuubi?”

 

***

 

“Is he going to be alright, Tsunade-sama?” Shizune asked as she set down a tray laden with a light lunch and tea on the Hokage's desk. Tsunade didn't answer for a couple moments as she stared out the window of her office. Her student frowned a little and walked around to gently lay a hand on the woman's shoulder. “Tsunade-sama?”

 

The Hokage jerked suddenly and became a blur of motion that ended with her fist halted an inch from Shizune's face. The younger medic flinched in surprise, but made no move to back away as Tsunade shakily sat back down in her chair.

 

“Or maybe I should be asking are you going to be alright?” Shizune gently said as she poured some tea for her mentor and handed it to her. A loud `shrak' sound echoed through the large office as the Hokage accidentally crushed the cup into porcelain mush.

 

“Dammit, what's wrong with me today?” Tsunade asked, as she glared down at her hands. She almost jerked in surprise again when Shizune carefully pried her hand open and wiped it clean with a towel.

 

“I'd say you're worried about Naruto-kun,” The young medic calmly replied. “I'd be worried too if someone that close to me was involved in that chakra wave.”

 

“You managed to sneak up on me and I nearly punched you through the wall, Shizune-kun,” The Fifth angrily said as the young woman wiped the tea off the floor. “That's more than little worried.”

 

“You didn't hit me though,” Shizune replied with a slight smile as she set the grungy towel aside. She pointed at the large holes scattered in the walls and the ceiling of the room. “Unlike the ANBU that continue to bother you for some suicidal reason.”

 

Tsunade let out a tired chuckle even as she sweat-dropped. She said, “Well, I happen to like the extra light in here and the fresh breeze feels nice.”

 

“Of course,” Shizune deadpanned, bringing a surprised smile to the Hokage's face at her student's sudden bout of dry humor. “It has nothing to do with the Council and the ANBU Commander's repeated demands for you to see them.”

 

The Fifth's expression darkened as she said, “If those fools want an audience then they'd damn well better show up here in person. I'm the Godaime Hokage and I'm in charge of this backwater Village. Sending a couple lackeys to fetch me because they feel they're too important to walk over here themselves is not something I'll tolerate. It's good thing I left the Leaf when I did all those years ago, because if I had caught any of them treating Sarutobi-sensei like that I would've started a blood bath. He may have put up with their crap, but it'll be a frosty day in Hell when I will. When they have the balls to show up in person, then I'll deal with them.”

 

“Are you sure that's wise?” Shizune calmly pointed out as she half-sat on the edge of the Hokage's desk. “This can be considered a crisis, with the ninja ranks and the civilians panicking. It may only add needless strife to the situation.”

 

Tsunade snorted as her scowl deepened, though it wasn't directed at her student.

 

“One, if they can't handle themselves in the middle of a crisis, then they're dead the next time the Sound invades. With an idiot for a Commander, it's no wonder the ANBU take such heavy casualties all the time. The Council is mostly filled with bureaucratic, simpering old fools. It's no wonder the attitude towards Naruto was tolerated, if they kept interfering with Sandaime's actions,” She began as she leaned back and ticked off the points with her fingers. “Two, they need to learn to come to me only if a situation is impossible. The Hokage is not on errand call for any official who wants to be babysat. Three, if the chain of command isn't clearly established now, then it could get us killed during a real crisis. I don't care if I bruise some egos or bust some heads if it keeps us alive in the long run. I have more important problems to worry about than to spend time reassuring a bunch of prejudiced idiots.”

 

“And you don't want to hear what they have to say on this matter,” Shizune said as she watched the Hokage.

 

Tsunade stiffened for a moment, before she replied, “I can't fool you, can I? No, I don't want to hear what they have to say. I already know what they want.”

 

“To declare Naruto-kun a missing-nin and to have him hunted down,” Her student finished for her, her dark eyes downcast.

 

“Not if I can help it,” Tsunade growled. “He's coming back. He gave his word. He'll be back the first of May next year or he'll be dead. For Naruto, it's as simple as that.”

 

“But if both the Council majority and the ANBU Commander stand against you on this, you won't have a choice,” Shizune countered with a worried tone. “That was a law made by the First to avoid-”

 

“Being forced to follow poor leadership if the Hokage is acting foolishly or is growing senile,” The Godaime interrupted. “Yes, I know that. But the Shodaime also set it up so they can't completely overrule the Hokage. Otherwise, what's the point in having a Kage at all if the supreme leader can be bossed around? Anyways, if Naruto is declared a missing-nin, I'll just make sure he isn't high on anyone's priorities and give him a chance to come home without getting killed.”

 

“So, `no hostilities' orders and maybe a C Rank?” The younger of the medics replied, with a resigned yet hopeful tone.

 

Tsunade gritted her teeth and pressed her fingers to her forehead while she said, “I don't think I'll be able to pull that off. Naruto has learned both a jutsu from the Forbidden Scroll and a rare A Rank battle technique. Not only that, but he's been a Sannin's personal student for the past year and a half. We unfortunately added both those facts to his official record when he first left. A training trip can be declared an extended mission with my approval so a nin can keep receiving pay, but the standard procedure is to update the shinobi's profile before they leave. It's for security and it's normally a good thing, but in this case all the Commander will have to do is look at Naruto's file to know he's no ordinary genin. And that's before we get into the whole mess with Kyuubi.”

 

“Wait, does the profile say he knows the Fourth's technique?” Shizune tensely asked. If it got out that Naruto knew the personal jutsu of the legendary Yondaime…

 

“No, I made sure it was put in as a general A Rank jutsu,” Tsunade firmly replied, much to her student's relief. “Naruto is already known as the Yondaime's Legacy. I want to avoid as much connection between the two as possible until the time is right, especially where the Council is concerned.”

 

“Why?” Shizune asked curiously. At the Hokage's steady stare, she suddenly realized, “Your replacement! You want Naruto-kun to take over as Hokage when you retire.”

 

Tsunade nodded and said, “Naruto would make a perfect Rokudaime with a few years of seasoning and heavy training. It's come to my attention that he has an…ability that gives him the potential to exceed even the Yondaime. On top of that, he also has the Kyuubi. If he wants it badly enough, Naruto could exceed any human on the continent.”

 

A dark, weary expression spread across the Hokage's face as she said, “The Leaf needs somebody with that kind of power.”

 

“But Tsunade-sama, you're one of the Three,” Shizune said, a concerned look on her face as she watched her mentor. “Even Orochimaru hesitates to attack Konoha with you and Jiraiya here. That's what this whole psychological campaign of his is about, right?”

 

“Partially, though I think he wants to wear us down in a war of attrition before taking us head on again,” Tsunade replied. She leaned back in her chair, her position unintentionally emphasizing her bountiful…assets. “Orochimaru hesitates for now, but that's more because he wants to finish us all off at once in one of his elaborate schemes. He doesn't fear me and Jiraiya anymore. If he were in his old body, I would have an even chance at beating him and Jiraiya would rip him apart. It would be costly, but we'd almost certainly win. However, with this kin-jutsu of his, he's has all of his knowledge and skill put into a brand new and fresh body. He doesn't have to hold back in the slightest or worry about the price his body pays to his jutsu like I do. Jiraiya and I are powerful, but we're getting older. Orochimaru isn't. The two of us together could still beat him, but it'd likely cost us our lives.”

 

“And that's where Naruto-kun comes into play?” Shizune asked as she poured herself a cup of the still warm tea.

 

“Yes and no,” Tsunade replied as she stared up at the ceiling. “Naruto can exceed even the Yondaime. Only four or five people in the last century can brag that potential. The Fourth even kicked the shit out Orochimaru once for insulting Jiraiya. I spent an hour healing my teammate back up afterwards. Yondaime walked away without a scratch. And if Naruto can exceed even him...”

 

“Then only a suicidal fool would challenge the Leaf,” Her student finished. Shizune stared down at her cup for a moment before she said, “And you want him here, where you or Jiraiya can watch over him to teach him how to be the leader we need.”

 

“Exactly,” The Godaime said as she leaned forward enough to look at her apprentice. “If those idiots on the Council had their way, they would have him killed or driven out of the village and probably right into the arms of one of our enemies. They already know Naruto is determined to become Hokage, but if it got out the he has a connection to Yondaime, even if it is only his techniques, then they'll interfere and I can't have that. This goes beyond my personal feelings for the boy. I refuse to allow a group of simple minded, short-sighted fools to make our greatest asset our worst enemy. For good or bad, Naruto is our future and I for one want him on our side. He's held up remarkably well considering the life he's had so far, but he'll eventually be pushed over the edge if they keep this shit up.”

 

“And declaring him a traitor and a missing-nin just might cross the line, especially when the Council would be more forgiving to someone else, like that Uchiha boy,” Shizune said, her head nodding as Tsunade's attitude began to make sense. “No wonder you don't want to talk to any of them.”

 

“Can you blame me?” Tsunade grumbled as she leaned forward. She grimaced and rubbed at her shoulder with one hand.

 

“No, not really,” Shizune replied as she set her cup down. She moved behind the Hokage and grabbed the Sannin's shoulders before the older woman had a chance to react. Channeling a small amount of healing chakra into her fingers, the medic began to gently massage her mentor's muscles. “What I can blame you for is working yourself up like this and trying to hide it from me. Or did you think I didn't notice you were rattling around in the kitchen at 3:00 AM this morning?”

 

Tsunade groaned slightly as some of the tension left her knotted shoulders. Despite her annoyance at her student for catching her off guard in her own office, she couldn't summon up the energy to fight with the younger medic. Instead, the Sannin allowed herself to relax under Shizune's skilled fingers. Damn, that woman would butcher the masseuse market if she ever felt inclined to open her own business.

 

It still didn't shake the dark thoughts plaguing Tsunade's mind.

 

“I'm worried about him,” She finally admitted after several minutes of silence. “A lot. I don't think he's scared me this much since his heart nearly stopped during that fight with Orochimaru.”

 

Shizune stayed quiet as she kept rubbing her mentor's shoulders. She sensed that Tsunade wanted to talk rather than get feedback for the moment. Well, she was used to the Sannin not listening to her, so she'd bear with it.

 

“Hell, at least with Orochimaru and his flunky I knew what they were going to do,” The Hokage continued. “This deal with the Kyuubi on the other hand… It's a demon older than our recorded history and it's been trapped inside Naruto for fourteen and a half years. I have no idea what games it's playing. It could have a hundred different plans in place. It's had a decade and a half to plan everything out and Naruto isn't the most suspicious person to begin with. Even with his stubborn streak, he'd stand no chance against that demon. And as a medic, I'm scared out of my mind that's he going to reopen all his injuries and bleed to death in the middle of the woods. Or run into Akatsuki again and without Jiraiya's help this time. Or that the chakra wave alerted every country within a hundred miles and their nins are going to find him before ours do.”

 

“So I take it you're worried,” Shizune gently said as she channeled chakra into a particularly dense knot of muscle.

 

Tsunade snorted and said, “Yeah, you could say that.”

 

The younger medic thought for a couple minutes, while idly massaging the back of Hokage's neck, before she said, “Well, judging from the attack on Naruto-kun and the message he left behind, I'd say the Kyuubi is pretty worried about something. It may just be taking advantage of a bad situation like you suspect, but there's a strong possibility that the fox genuinely perceived a threat and is trying to deal with the problem alongside Naruto-kun. It's never acted in this manner before, at least not that we know of, so there's a solid chance it's not misleading Naruto-kun.

 

“Of course, I could easily be wrong or there could be a threat and it's manipulating Naruto-kun on top of it, but remember: a threat to Naruto-kun is a threat to Kyuubi and vice versa. It's in the demon's personal interest to keep him alive and healthy. I hate the thought of it being something so evil, but I have to say there's nothing stronger on this continent or perhaps even the world that could be watching out for Naruto-kun. Even if he is being manipulated, the Kyuubi will probably keep him safe, if only for its own designs.”

 

Tsunade let out a tired chuckle as she said, “Shizune-kun, how is it you can reassure me and scare the crap out of me better than anyone else and all at the same time?”

 

“Skill, I suppose,” Shizune replied with a small smile on her face. “And years of practice dealing with you when you're stubborn.”

 

The older medic half turned to look up at her student. Tsunade's pretty face marred into a frown as she said, “About that, Shiz-”

 

“Hokage-sama, the ANBU Commander is here to see you,” One of the guards said as he opened the door and leaned inside. His face took on a curious look as he saw the unusual position the two medics were in.

 

“I healed the last of the tears in your ligament fibers in your shoulder,” Shizune casually said to Tsunade as she stepped around to the front of the desk and gathered up the tray and its now cold meal. With her back to the other shinobi, she gave a small wink to the Hokage before she continued, “Next time be more careful when you're training with Sakura-chan. I may not be around to patch you up.”

 

“Thank you, Shizune-kun,” Tsunade calmly replied, though it was easy to tell she was annoyed at being interrupted in their conversation. To the guard she said, “Send the Commander in.”

 

“Ah, yes Hokage-sama!” The man said, not hiding his confusion very well. He openly stared at Shizune as she walked by, until an angry `ahem' from the Godaime snapped him out of his thoughts. The expression of Tsunade's face made it apparent that he'd better get the Commander.

 

Now.

 

Tsunade made an annoyed face as the now pale man scurried out of the room. The first moment of relaxing in two days and that blasted Commander chose to ruin it. On top of her worry for Naruto and the whole mess he'd caused, there were the numerous panicked and injured civilians that had swamped the hospital and left the staff short handed. That was stressing as she made it a point to always have available medical personnel to deal with the constant inflow of injured shinobi, which had only increased after Orochimaru's little decree. As Hokage, she refused to tolerate one of her ninjas dying because some fool fell down a flight of stairs in a blind panic. And then there was that whole issues with Sakura's blonde friend. The MRI results were odd and she wanted to spend a bit of time checking the Yamanaka girl over. Time she was unlikely to have with all the complaints and idiots eating up her schedule.

 

Tsunade restrained the urge to send the ANBU Commander threw a wall as the man burst into her office and started prattling on about the `Terror Wave.' Kami, the junk people come up with. Like a bunch of retarded sheep. The Godaime sighed as she got ready to deal with the annoyance, which would be whenever the Commander ran out of steam and let her get a word in.

 

Ugh, why did she ever allow that blasted brat to convince her to come back to this village anyways?

 

***

 

Shikamaru shook his head to clear some of the cobwebs in it. He jerked as his foot almost slipped off the damp branch he'd just landed on. The sudden jolt of adrenaline was more than enough to wake him up all the way. They had just broken camp, as Gai finally managed to convince Kakashi that they'd needed to rest after almost thirty hours of running. The copy-nin had agreed when his rival pointed out that they'd be in no condition to fight if they found Naruto and whoever else while they were dead on their feet. Gai had taken first watch, while Kakashi dispelled Pakkun and went to sleep immediately. Neji hadn't even bothered to set up a bedroll. He'd just curled up in a somewhat comfy spot under a tree and was out before his head hit the proverbial pillow (which was a tree root in this case.) Shikamaru, on the other hand, had lain awake for a couple hours thinking about what Gai had told them earlier.

 

Naruto was the Kyuubi-vessel. The adults had lied to them this whole time. The Yondaime hadn't killed the demon. He'd trapped it in a newborn infant. That infant was their friend. The villagers hated him. Most of the Leaf-nins hated him too. He trained under Jiraiya to control the fox. A very deadly group of people was after him. They almost killed him two weeks ago. Naruto somehow healed up overnight. He easily escaped and evaded detection. He caused that freaky terror somehow. They had to find him. He might be crazy or possessed. Possessed-Naruto equals Dangerous-Naruto. Half the continent was probably sending nins to investigate. They'd have to deal with any interlopers they might meet along he way. The dangerous group could already have beaten them there and abducted Naruto. Or the Sound could have. Or any of the other countries that were probably inside Konoha's territory.

 

Assuming, of course, Naruto had even survived.

 

When you have an IQ in excess of 200 and you've just learned some disturbing information, you don't tend to get much sleep with your brain chewing over all the details. Shikamaru hadn't slept much and he hadn't sleep well. The only other person more exhausted than him was Neji. Even after sleeping like a rock for six hours straight, the Hyuuga boy was still beat. He'd never had cause to keep his Byakugan active for so long at one time before and the constant chakra use and the eyestrain were getting to him. He was to the point where he left the Byakugan off unless they lost the trail and then he only opened it for a minute or so at a time. The other chuunin was lagging and his reactions were slowing down. In fact…

 

Shikamaru moved quickly and grabbed the back of Neji's coat as the pale boy almost stepped right of the branch he was standing on. The lazy chuunin pulled him back onto the tree limb and didn't let go until Neji waved him off.

 

“Thank you,” The other chuunin said, showing a gratitude that wouldn't have been present two years ago. “That would have been most embarrassing.”

 

“And painful,” Shikamaru dryly replied as he leaned his head over the edge and eyed the sixty foot drop to the forest floor. In the trees ahead of them, Kakashi, Gai, and Pakkun (who'd been re-summoned when they'd broken camp) stopped and glanced back.

 

“You two alright?” Gai hollered, even though he was only thirty feet away. The Copy-ninja and the pug both flinched at the volume. The shout echoed throughout the semi-bright forest around them.

 

“We're fine. Just had a little slip up,” The Nara genius called back, at a considerably more reasonable level. He glanced at Neji, “Ready?”

 

At the boy's nod, the group moved again and leaped through the trees at a slightly less hectic pace. Shikamaru noticed Neji's redoubling of his pace to keep up with them.

 

“Hey, don't push yourself too hard,” He drawled out, even as he did a front flip over a large branch. “There's a reason you Hyuugas only use your eyes for combat and spying, you know.”

 

“Yes, I know,” Neji said, managing to sound aloof and annoyed even though he was panting. “When I get back to Konoha, I'll increase my stamina training. I may even practice keeping my Byakugan active for long periods of time. Though my eyes and head hurt, I haven't pushed myself like this for quite some time. I'll speak to Hiashi-sama about it.”

 

“Sounds like a plan,” Shikamaru replied, not showing the slightest bit of envy at the other boy's superior fighting ability. “Just don't kill yourself from chakra exhaustion.”

 

“Hmph. I have more common sense than that,” The Hyuuga boy muttered as dove through a gap between several boughs. He smoothly caught a branch on the other side and swung himself onto another limb. Damn, it was annoying traveling in the canopy of the forest. It gave him a better vantage point when using the Byakugan, but the thick foliage still slowed them down. Not to mention that all the extra acrobatics weren't helping his stamina levels any. In mid-jump, Neji spared a quick glance at Shikamaru to make sure the other chuunin had cleared the hurdle.

 

And promptly smacked into a wall.

 

Shikamaru landed on a branch behind him just in time to catch Neji as he (again) nearly fell into the forest below. The Hyuuga looked up, even as he rubbed his stinging face, to see that he had slammed into Gai's back. The jounin had barely noticed the impact and was watching something beyond their line of sight with great interest. After helping Neji regain his balance, Shikamaru jumped up beside the tai-jutsu master.

 

“What's up?” The lazy chuunin asked.

 

“See for yourself,” Gai replied as he nodded in the direction ahead of them. “Kakashi's taking a closer look now.”

 

“What are yo- …Holy shit,” Shikamaru said as he looked through the forest.

 

What appeared to be a massive wall blocked their path. Jumping onto a branch several feet ahead, Shikamaru got a better look at the odd structure. It was a massive wall and it was made entirely out of fallen trees. It looked like pictures he's seen at the academy of the barricades made in the old eras to protect poor villages. Although, this was on a scale he'd never heard of. Fallen trees were stacked on top of each other, rising well over fifty or sixty feet high.

 

The barrier reached almost through canopy layer of the forest and the whole mess leaned on the remaining upright trees for support. Looking off to both sides, Shikamaru noted that the wall moved off out of sight in either direction. The genius was duly impressed. He couldn't have made a better barricade if he had a week and twenty builders to craft it. The question was, what the hell was a large scale barricade doing out in the middle of nowhere? And who the hell had managed to build it without any Leaf-nins noticing?

 

“What the hell is this doing here?” Neji asked as he landed next to the Nara boy, not realizing he was echoing the genius' thoughts.

 

“I don't know. You see anything behind it?” Shikamaru asked, his eyes tracing downwards to the ground where Kakashi was investigating the base of the wall alongside his little pug.

 

“Wait a moment,” Neji said, then gritted his teeth as he activated his Bloodline. His eyes took on the eerie shine and appearance of the Byakugan as he squinted at the barrier. Almost immediately he muttered, “What in the hell…?”

 

“What is it?” Gai asked as he dropped onto a branch behind them. “What do you see?”

 

“Nothing,” Neji replied, with a sharp tone of disbelief.

 

“Something wrong with your eyes?” Shikamaru asked, looked at the Hyuuga boy. “You have been using the-”

 

“No, I mean there's nothing behind it,” The other chuunin interrupted. “Beyond the barrier, there's nothing.”

 

“What do you mean?” Gai asked, frowning slightly.

 

“I mean ther- …Look, you'll just have to see it for yourself,” Neji said as he closed his Byakugan and stepped off the branch. The other two shinobi watched for several moments as the pale boy rebounded back and forth between two trees as he made his way to the ground, before they followed.

 

They caught up to Neji as he stood panting near Kakashi at the shadowy base of the barrier. Shikamaru looked over at the Copy-ninja and watched as the man leaned down to run his hand along the bark of one the fallen trees.

 

“Shikamaru-kun, do you notice anything odd about these trees?” The tall jounin asked without looking back at them.

 

“Aside from the fact that they're even here?” The genius drawled. Turning a little serious, the boy critically looked over the wall, letting his sharp mind analyze what his eyes were taking in. He suddenly jerked in shock and resisted the urge to smack himself at missing such an obvious feature. “This isn't man-made.”

 

“No, it isn't. At least, it doesn't look like it,” Kakashi agreed as he stood upright. He turned and walked towards them, his visible eye crinkled in thought.

 

“How do you guys know? What were you looking for?” Neji asked, still panting as he dug out his canteen. He nearly choked at Shikamaru's response.

 

“They're all uprooted,” The Nara boy said as he looked over the barrier. “Even at the top, all these trees have been pulled up. None of them were chopped down and not one of them has the bark stripped. Strange, though. Some of them seemed to be partially burned, though the scorch marks don't look like a forest fire or anything.”

 

Neji let his eyes trace the odd wall. Shikamaru was right. He could see roots sticking out all over the place. Every tree was intact, barring the ones cracked apart by the weight of the others. Each had their bark, roots, branches, and even their leaves still in place. And some of them did have odd scorches on their surface, though there seemed to be no pattern or reason to the burns. It almost looked like a giant had hand woven a massive basket together, but had used trees instead of grass. The trees certainly looked like they'd been pulled up by a giant anyhow. The dirt hadn't even fallen off the roots yet.

 

Wait…Dirt?

 

Neji moved over to the wall and jammed his entire hand into a mass of roots and earth at the base of one of the trees. He tore a large clump free and brought it to his face, then took a big whiff.

 

“This is fresh. Hey, Kakashi-san! This dirt is fresh!” The Hyuuga boy called to the jounin (who had wandered off a ways.) Kakashi walked up to him and peered down at the clump of soil.

 

“Hmm, I thought as much. It smells fresh alright,” The copy-nin muttered thoughtfully.

 

“There's still grubs and earthworms in it too,” Neji said as he broke the clump up and looked at the little bugs and squirmers moving around on his palm.

 

“And all the leaves are green. The broken wood is still damp and the sap still runs,” Kakashi continued as he drew a kunai and made a notch in the bark of one of the trees. Neji let the dirt in his hand fall to the ground as he watched the sap ooze from the wound.

 

“If it's so fresh, then it probably has something to do with that creepy stunt Naruto pulled,” Shikamaru said as he walked up next to them.

 

Kakashi nodded and said, “There's no other reason for something so unusual to be out here. As soon as Pakkun gets… Ah, speak of the devil…Err, dog. There he is now.”

 

The other three ninjas looked up as the small nin-dog jumped over a thick clump of bushes and trotted up to the Copy-ninja.

 

“I found a place to get through. It's this way,” The pug said, before it turned and ran back the way it came. The shinobi followed after immediately, not wanting to lose track of the little summon.

 

Pakkun led them to a small, washed out gully near the crest of a hill. The tree barrier went straight across the hole, but not into it. It wasn't large, being only about ten feet across and twelve feet deep, but it was long and easily went under the wall. Kakashi didn't hesitate and dropped down into the eroded gully. He landed in the small creek that ran down the center and quickly walked upstream and under the barricade. Three consecutive splashes sounded behind him as the others followed. On the other side of the barrier, the copy-nin focused a little chakra and did a super-jump up and out of the wash, alongside Pakkun.

 

As he landed, his jaw dropped behind his mask.

 

“Rival, why did you…stop…Good Kami,” Gai trailed off as he jumped up behind Kakashi and got a good look.

 

“What're you gawking…at…Huh. Well, that explains where the trees came from,” Shikamaru said as he stared at the odd sight in front of them. As Neji landed beside him, the chuunin said, “I assume this is what you meant by nothing?”

 

“…Yes, though I didn't expect it to be this bad,” The Hyuuga said as he looked across what used to be a large forest.

 

They stood at the edge of a massive, circular plain. It was roughly three miles at its widest, by the best estimates of the jounins, and was totally barren. Pakkun leapt up and ran towards the center of the expanse, with the four shinobi following. At top speed, they crossed the distance in about five minutes, where the pug sniffed around. The Copy-ninja kneeled to look at the ground, then stood and slowly turned in a circle to eye their surroundings.

 

They were near Cavern Country, with the border so close they could see the large hills over the tree-line off in the distance. Here and there, large layers of old volcanic rock rose out of the earth and made fairly smooth sheets of stone. They stood on the largest, which was a good hundred feet long or so and had been worn mostly smooth by erosion. Underneath their feet, there were three large circles composed of strange runes and symbols that had been burned several inches into the face of the rock. The largest of them was about twelve feet across. A slick, shiny material coated the stone for almost ten meters in every direction. It took Kakashi a moment to realize that it was glass, presumably formed by sand and dirt that had been melted by the same intense heat that had seared the symbols into the rock.

 

Moving outwards in a circle, the earth had been blasted away, exposing more of the stone outcrops to the bright sun. The same force that had peeled the soil from the face of the earth was apparently responsible for tearing every tree within a mile and a half radius out of the ground and hurling them away, where they clumped up and formed the odd barrier. The wall of trees framed the edge of the plain they stood in, with a large layer of dirt packed on top of this side of the mess. Well, that explained where all the topsoil went. This plain was exactly in the direction they'd seen the red glow emanate from so Naruto and the Kyuubi must have caused all this, though they could see no sign of either.

 

What the hell had the boy done to create this field? Start a localized typhoon or a mile wide tornado?

 

“Move out, with each of you to a compass direction. Search for any sign of Naruto. Footprints, clothing, kunai, anything,” Kakashi ordered as he pulled a scroll out of his jacket and unrolled it. “Pakkun, start hunting at the edge for his scent. His trail coming in must've been blasted away, but he had to leave somehow. And all of you, keep your guard up. I doubt we're the only ones who noticed the chakra wave and other forces may be here already.”

 

“What're you going to do?” Shikamaru asked as he curiously eyed the scroll the copy-nin was now inking seals onto.

 

“I'm going to make a copy of these symbols to bring back to the Hokage. Then I'll destroy the originals,” Kakashi replied as he continued to make the complicated series of seals to form a scribing scroll.

 

“Destroy them? Why?” Neji asked as he looked over at the jounin. He almost immediately answered his own question as he said, “Ah…We don't want the Sound duplicating whatever happened here.”

 

“Exactly. Them or anyone else. Could you imagine the damage this would cause if performed in the center of a village?” Kakashi explained, as he laid the scroll on the ground to have a better writing surface. “Orochimaru is obsessed with seals and jutsu as it is. If he discovered that these existed, he'd hunt Naruto to the ends of the earth. Regardless of whether or not the Kyuubi has corrupted him, I don't want the Sound getting to him before we do. He's attracted enough attention to himself as it is.”

 

Neji flinched and Shikamaru frowned at the mention of the fox-demon. Neither had really been able to process the disturbing information yet, so it was still an unpleasant subject for them. Shikamaru kept puzzling over all the little details he'd missed over the years and Neji was dealing with an odd mixture of annoyance and relief. Annoyance that Naruto had used the fox's power to beat him at the exams and relief that the blonde boy had the willpower to keep the demon from killing him. Neji felt a cold shiver of fear crawl up his spine every time he thought of that match.

 

He'd arrogantly taunted and threatened a demon. He had to wonder why he was still alive.

 

The only thing that had saved his life was likely the same bull-headed stubbornness he'd criticized Naruto about so much. If anyone had the balls to stand up to a demon's influence, it was Uzumaki Naruto. Whether it was bravery or stupidity, he neither knew nor cared. If the situation had been reversed, with Neji as the bearer of the Kyuubi and Naruto the arrogant prodigy, then the Hyuuga would have let the demon kill the other boy in a heartbeat. That Naruto hadn't finished him off or tried to kill him could be taken as a sign of great character or as a conceited insult. Well, Naruto wouldn't know a calculated insult if it slapped him across the face, so Neji doubted it was the latter. Actually, out of all the members of their crowd, Naruto was probably the best chose to bear the Kyuubi. He'd use the demon (as opposed to Shikamaru), but not misuse it (as opposed to Sasuke.)

 

Just the thought of that arrogant Uchiha traitor having such a powerful weapon left a nasty taste in Neji's mouth.

 

“Alright, get going,” Kakashi's voice broke the Hyuuga out of his thoughts. Three shinobi and a dog nodded before they dashed off in various directions. Gai headed east, as the Sound would come from that direction if they sent ninjas to investigate. Neji headed west and Shikamaru to the north, which left Pakkun to wander off south. The Copy-ninja watched them go for a moment, before he went back to the task at hand.

 

A half hour later and he was just putting the finishing touches on his scroll. Kakashi looked it over critically as his skill with seals was far lower than any of the Sannin. Jiraiya had taught him a couple tricks whenever he stopped by during the first week after Naruto had been injured, but the copy-nin still lacked the experience the hermit had. Still, it should work. Kakashi allowed the last of the ink to dry and glanced around. He could see the forms of the other three shinobi moving about here and there, off in the distance. He took the opportunity to pull off both his mask and his forehead protector and wiped the sweat from his face with a handkerchief. He had already taken off his flak jacket from the unseasonable heat.

 

The sun was warm today and after traveling for two days in the cool shade of the forest it was an unpleasant change. Though it didn't seem to be just the sun that was making this place hot. The very air of the dusty, barren plain seemed to boil and wave with some unnatural heat. It was likely a side-effect of whatever stunt Naruto had pulled here. At least the ink dried quick in this weather.

 

Kakashi ignored the sweat sticking his body suit to his back and pulled his mask back up, though he left his forehead protector on the ground. It was too hot to put that piece of metal back on his head and it was a good idea to have the Sharingan ready to be opened in case an enemy ninja sneaked up on him. Keeping his left eye closed, the Copy-ninja rolled the scroll up part of the way, so that only four feet was left exposed. There was a large, blank spot in the shape of a rectangle framed by seal script in the middle of the paper. He laid it in the center of the glass coated rune circles and started inking a faint line of seals outward from the scroll to the edge of the farthest circle. He carefully traced the entire outer ring of symbols, before he led a line back into the scroll opposite the first. Fortunately, these were just simple seals to define the boundary of the scroll, so it didn't take long. If all went well, a perfect copy of the rune circles should be recorded onto the scroll. With all the preparations complete, Kakashi gathered chakra into his hands, made a few seals, and slammed his hands into the center of the scroll palm first.

 

Nothing happened.

 

The Copy-ninja blinked his open eye and stared at the scroll under his hands. What the hell? He'd done it perfectly or good enough at least. Why wasn't it working? A slight tremor tickled the underside of his lowest hand.

 

A sound like screeching metal tore through the hazy air. Kakashi tried to jump back, but found his hands stuck to the scroll. He opened his left eye to see what was happening. He immediately closed it, feeling nauseous. Chakra was swirling in a sickening, dizzy pattern in the air all around him. He finally knew what the hell the heat waves were. It was left over chakra and though it was invisible to the naked eye, the Sharingan saw it as a dark, evil crimson that could have only come from one source.

 

Kyuubi.

 

Even as he tried to pull away from the scroll, the Kakashi could feel the heat growing worse around him. It seemed to bake his skin through his bodysuit and all the sweat on his body dried in moments. With a sense of horror, he noticed the symbols on the ground ignite and blood colored flames seemed to flow inwards towards him. The copy-nin chanced opening his Sharingan again and this time he closed it in fear. A massive sphere of the evil chakra was building around him and he couldn't do a blasted thing about it. The seals he had written suddenly burst into blue flames that rose several inches off the scroll. The ones on the ground ignited as well and began to rise. Slowly, the blue circle formed a dome around him that was composed of flaming blue kanji script. The fire from red seals burned into the rock began spiraling inwards towards his hands. The dome provided some protection from the heat of the chakra, but it was still overwhelming on the senses. The Kyuubi's terror began to build up in him, feeding his panic and making him instinctively want to find a hole and hide.

 

Sweet Kami, if this was how powerful the traces of the Kyuubi were, how strong was the real thing?

 

Kakashi tried pulling on his hands again and found to his surprise that his right hand came free, though his left was still stuck to the scroll. Not hesitating, the copy-nin withdrew a kunai from his holster and swiped it at his left hand. If cutting his hand off would get him the fuck out of there, then he'd gladly sacrifice it. In the demon induced panic, Kakashi didn't complete the strike properly and wound up slashing the back of his hand open just beneath the protective metal plate on his glove. The blood splattered across scroll and the spiraling red flames.

 

Kakashi immediately wished he hadn't done that.

 

The blue dome collapsed and merged with the red runes on the ground. With a whirlwind of heat and raw energy, the mixture of red and blue fire spiraled straight into the back of Kakashi's left hand. The copy-nin was unable to hold back the scream of pure agony that forced its way out of him. He hadn't felt this kind of pain since that time Itachi used his torture gen-jutsu on him. No…This was worse. Worse than a hundred cattle brands searing into him. It felt like it was boiling right through his flesh and into his spirit. The mass of evil chakra pulsed, before it followed the path of the seals and swirled into his hand. For an instant, all was still as the heat from the plains disappeared, leaving only a bright coldness behind.

 

Then the ground exploded.

 

Kakashi went flying over twenty feet, slammed into the stone outcrop, and skidded another ten. For several long moments, he could only lie there with his hand on his chest, too pained to even move. Chips and splinters of rock rained down on him and the surrounding area, while the hazy heat came back as the chakra moved away from the seals and into the air surrounding him. He carefully lifted his left hand and slid it into his right armpit to protect it, before he opened his eyes. He closed the Sharingan when he noticed the nauseating swirls of chakra were back. Wincing, he slowly forced himself into a sitting position and glanced around with his normal eye. The dust was still settling across the rune circles. He noted that his scroll was completely destroyed, with only a few charred ashes lying scattered about. Voices calling out to him made him look up, seeing Gai and Shikamaru approaching from different directions. He wondered for a moment where Neji and Pakkun were, before he held up his right hand to keep Gai from bowling him over.

 

“Rival! Are you alright?! What was that horrid sound?! And that explosion?! Speak to me! Are you hurt?! Are you-” The tai-jutsu master halted when Shikamaru put a hand on his shoulder to calm his frenzy.

 

“Kakashi-san, are you wounded?” The chuunin calmly asked, though the dark-haired boy's concern was evident.

 

“Yes, but I'll live,” Kakashi replied in a deeper, raspier tone than normal. “Is the circle still intact?”

 

Shikamaru frowned, but glanced back anyways to check the blasted ground. Looking back at the copy-nin, he said, “The inner circle is mostly destroyed, but the others are still intact. You know what happened?”

 

“I tried to use a scroll jutsu that would and record the symbols so Jiraiya-sama and the Hokage could look at them. I guess I set something off instead,” The jounin replied as he sighed and leaned forward a bit. He blinked a little as some blood and sweat ran past his open eye. He probably looked like shit.

 

“Well, whatever it did must have hurt like a bitch. You look like shit,” The lazy Nara said, echoing the other man's thoughts. He critically eyed the jounin, who had nicks and cuts all over his face and a hunk of his mask missing. His silver hair was gray with dust and was matted to his head with sweat and blood. It didn't escape the genius' notice that the older man was protectively cradling his left hand.

 

“I feel like shit,” Kakashi muttered. He tried to get to his feet, only to slump back down. The copy-nin gave a weary sigh at his predicament.

 

“Let me help you, Rival,” Gai spoke up, his worry for his friend almost overbearing. He stepped around behind the other jounin and grabbed him to help him up. Unfortunately, he chose to grab him at the armpits.

 

Gai jumped back like he'd been stabbed as Kakashi gave a hoarse scream of pain from the accidental jostling of his left hand.

 

“Rival! Forgive me! I didn't know you were hurt there! I'm sorry! I'll punish myself, I swear! Five hun-No, a thousand laps around Konoha! On my hands! With a boulder on my feet! I promise, just plea-”

 

“Gai? Shut up,” Kakashi said in a raspy voice. The other man instantly fell silent. “Just come around and grab my hand. My right hand.”

 

The other jounin complied and carefully hauled the Copy-ninja to his feet. Gai fidgeted nervously for a few moments, wanting to help his friend, but reluctant to do anything for fear of hurting him.

 

“Gai, why don't you check on Neji? If he didn't come running like you two did, then something might be wrong,” Kakashi said, taking pity on his odd friend's plight. The tai-jutsu expert hesitated for a moment before nodding and dashing off towards the western edge of the circle.

 

“Here, you might want this,” Shikamaru said, holding out the Copy-ninja's flak jacket and forehead protector. Kakashi glanced at them and mentally cringed at the thought of putting either item on with his hand in such a painful condition. He carefully let his left hand hang free as he reached around into his side pouch for a roll of gauze.

 

“Would you mind wrapping my hand for me?” Kakashi asked as he held out the bandages. Shikamaru nodded, then took the roll and gestured for the jounin to hold his hand out. When the other man did, the genius almost dropped the gauze in shock.

 

“Holy hell!” Shikamaru cursed as he stared at the copy-nin's hand. “Kakashi-san, what happened?!”

 

“What? I just…” Kakashi trailed off as he stared down at his hand. Well, shit…Now what the hell was this?

 

His arm was bare up to the elbow, as the glove and sleeve had apparently been blasted off. His skin had a slightly purple-gray look, indicating a serious burn. What really caught his attention though was the back of his hand. There was something there that had him very worried.

 

After all, how many people had nine red lines forming a spiral sealed into the back of their hand?

 

***

 

“What happened?”

 

“Damned if I know. The seals told us the brat left Konoha about four days ago. We tracked him to northwestern Fire Country, then he disappeared at the same time the Kyuubi's power was unleashed. Itachi-san was out in the area and he checked it out. Said he didn't find anything and if he couldn't scrounge anything up, then I doubt any of us can.”

 

“This is disturbing news. The seals don't work now? Even with the vessel's blood?”

 

“Nope, not even a trace. It's like the kid has up and disappeared off the face of the continent.”

 

“Perhaps he did. We were warned that the seals have limited range.”

 

“Some sort of powerful teleport jutsu? You think the kid could pull something like that off?”

 

“No. The Kyuubi on the other hand…”

 

“Ah, I get your point. If the fox is involved, who knows what'll happen?”

 

“Indeed. If the Kyuubi is guiding or teaching the vessel in some way, then we must be very careful and gather as much information on the two of them as soon as possible.”

 

“What should we do?”

 

“Send the word out. All members of our order are to keep a look out for the vessel or anyone fitting his description. Start in Fire Country and work your way outwards. Also, have Itachi-kun go and find out if Orochimaru has captured the vessel or not. If he has…”

 

“We'll butcher his entire pitiful country and let Itachi-san cut whatever body he's possessed into pieces. That little snake will learn not to screw with our plans.”

 

“Yes, it was folly enough to leave us. If he actively interferes with our ambition, then we will retaliate and erase any trace of him.”

 

“No kidding. I don't care what body he's found, there's no way he can beat Itachi-san. Even if he has possessed his brother.”

 

“My thoughts exactly. Uchiha Sasuke will always remain inferior to Uchiha Itachi, now more so than ever if Orochimaru has used one of those ridiculous curse seals on him.”

 

“Dumb brat. Actually falling for one of the snake's games. And here I thought all Uchiha were supposed to be ingenious.”

 

“It seems not. Or perhaps he simply falls short compared to Itachi-kun. No matter. Orochimaru is only worth dealing with if he has actually taken the Kyuubi-vessel. Otherwise, we'll leave him to his little power games.”

 

“Right. I'll let Itachi-san know. He and Kisame-san will probably head out immediately.”

 

“And where are you planning on going?”

 

“Since I'm without a partner at the moment, I'll head to Wind Country in disguise. Might as well check on the other target while I'm away and I certainly shouldn't tempt fate by wandering into Earth or Lightning Country.”

 

“No, we wouldn't want you to have to butcher a dozen of their hunter-nins trying to escape. Be careful near the One-Tail. Shukaku's vessel is very skilled and perceptive, especially for one who never sleeps. He's detected our agents before, though he hasn't learned of our order yet.”

 

“Assuming I can even find the black-eyed runt. I swear that kid can disappear from the inside of a bathroom and stay gone for weeks. The Kazekage can't control him in the slightest, though he seems to have calmed down some recently.”

 

“If he's gaining control over the demon, then that only makes our plans that much easier.”

 

“Heh, right. I'll see if I can find either of the vessels while I'm there. It's probably going to take me awhile. I'll send a message in a month or so.”

 

“Alright, we'll call for you if we decide to attack Orochimaru.”

 

“Yeah, definitely let me know if we're going after him. That's one fight I don't want to miss. Gotta test my new sword out somehow.”

 

“Hmm, it would be enjoyable. I'll watch for your message in a month.”

 

“I'm getting shivers thinking about killing some of those weaklings. Anyways, I'll see you later.”

 

“Let's hope your venture is profitable, Tsurugi-kun.”

 

***

 

“This is one pain-in-the-ass mission,” Shikamaru muttered as he leaned over Kakashi's hand to get a better look at it.

 

“Remind to thank Naruto for the lovely tattoo,” The jounin sighed as he stared at his burned limb. A thought occurred to him and he turned his hand upside down. Both he and the chuunin jolted when they saw another nine lined spiral on his palm. This one was a mirror image of the first, except it was a strange shade of blue, rather than red. It looked like the seal had been burned straight through the back of his hand.

 

Kakashi sighed again. This was not his day.

 

“What the hell is it?” Shikamaru asked, squinting at the odd marks.

 

“It probably has something to do with the Kyuubi, though I'm scared to even ask what,” Kakashi said.

 

“Kyuubi? Why would it…Ah, nine lines for nine tails. And the spiral?” The genius asked.

 

“The spiral may be generic of Konoha shinobi, but I think it was the Kyuubi's symbol long before we began using it. At least, a nine-lined spiral,” The copy-nin said as he brought his hand up to get a closer look. Wait, didn't he have a cut there?

 

Examining the red spiral showed that he did indeed have a very faint scar that neatly bisected the mark horizontally. It didn't really interfere with the seal's appearance and it would probably fade completely in time. The spiral on the other hand looked very permanent. Its lines were a deep crimson and edged very faintly in black. The only part that wasn't red was a single blue-white dot at the very center of the mark, from which the nine lines radiated out from. Though he had called it a tattoo, it certainly didn't look like one. Where a tattoo's colors often looked gaudy or unnatural on the skin, this seal's colors were perfectly balanced and almost looked like they belonged there.

 

Turning his hand over, Kakashi got the same impression from the blue seal on his palm. From the outer edges working in, the spiral was a bright color that made him think of the tropical seas he'd seen far to the south. The inner half of the mark gradually darkened into a deep blue color that reminded him of cold mountain lakes. It was rather nice looking, though he really hadn't come out here to get a freaky seal of some demon burned onto his hand because its crazy vessel did some insane jutsu that no one knows a thing about.

 

Hmm, speaking of demons and their vessels, they still hadn't found any trace of Naruto.

 

“We need to keep searching. I'll bandage my hand up as best as I can. Can you make a drawing of the symbols?” Kakashi said as he scratched his chin with his good hand.

 

“Sure. I used to doodle at the academy whenever I felt like it,” Shikamaru replied. He tossed the gauze roll back to the copy-nin, before he walked over to the circle of runes.

 

Kakashi grimaced and slowly began to unroll the bandages around his arm. He wished they had thought to bring a medic or at least some extra supplies along, but they'd been in such a rush to leave that they hadn't brought anything beyond the standard stuff in their jackets. Hell, they didn't even have any soldier pills to give to Neji. He'd be sure to avoid repeating that mistake in the future.

 

A sudden breeze made the Copy-ninja look up. Shikamaru had used a weak wind jutsu to blow the grit and debris off the ground seals. As Kakashi watched, the boy pulled a scroll out and did a few funny seals before unrolling it. The jounin's eyes widened as the scroll exploded in a puff of smoke and a large sheet of paper about fourteen feet long fluttered out of it. Shikamaru grabbed it and set it across the marks that had been seared into the rock. He pulled a piece of brown-colored paraffin from one of the scroll sleeves in his vest and knelt down to make a rubbing of the seals.

 

The lazy genius glanced up at Kakashi and grinned while saying, “Sure I could draw them, but why waste the effort when tracing is easier?”

 

The jounin shook his head, though his eye crinkled into a smile. Looking down at his hand, he turned a bit more serious as he continued to bind it up. He winced as he wrapped the cotton around his palm and the back of his hand. Hopefully Tsunade-sama could do something about the seals. At the very least, she should be able to heal the chakra burns. Kakashi finished binding his forearm with a small metal clip to hold it in place. Hmm, now how would he go about putting his jacket back on?

 

“Need a hand?” Shikamaru asked. The copy-nin glanced up and noted that the boy was already done copying the marks, with the scroll bound up in its normal form. The genius calmly slid it into his own flak jacket before he reached down to grab Kakashi's. “Here, hold your bad arm out first.”

 

Shikamaru was surprisingly careful as he helped the jounin put his jacket on. Kakashi's arm wasn't bumped once. When he got it on, the genius boy grabbed the forehead protector off the round and rigged it up to make a sling which the jounin promptly hung around his neck. The copy-nin sighed in relief when he placed his wounded arm in it.

 

“Much better. So you're all done?” Kakashi asked

 

“Yep, got it all right here,” Shikamaru replied as he patted the pocket with the scroll.

 

“Good. Stand back,” The Copy-ninja said as he walked towards the seals. The Nara boy did so and watched curiously as the other ninja brought his right arm up. For several long moments, nothing happened.

 

“Chidori!!” Kakashi suddenly roared, scaring the living crap out of Shikamaru. A crack of energy sounded as the glowing blue chakra gathered around the man's hand. As soon as enough was gathered to complete the move, Kakashi slammed his hand into the middle of the circle of runes. The resulting explosion spread outwards and shattered the top foot of rock several meters in every direction. The copy-nin himself disappeared in the cloud of dust that erupted from the ground.

 

Shikamaru waved the grit away from his face as Kakashi walked towards him out of the cloud. The genius grumbled, “How'd you manage that with only one hand and no seals?”

 

“Years of practice,” The Copy-ninja replied, wiping his hand off on his jacket. “Though I won't be doing another one for a while.”

 

“Why?” The chuunin asked with a puzzled frown.

 

“When I do it one handed, it's over twice as inefficient,” Kakashi said as he looked back at the hole he made. The dust was starting to settle enough to get a good look at the mess he'd made. “Without the seals or a second hand on the wrist to stabilize it, the jutsu costs more chakra, is less concentrated, and spreads out rather than penetrating. I also can't maintain it for long. In this case, it was perfect for destroying the evidence, but in an actual fight it's worthless.”

 

Shikamaru walked towards the spot where the runes had lain. The dust had settled enough to reveal a wide, shallow hole that had been blasted into the ground. The rune circles had been totally destroyed. There weren't even any large fragments of the markings.

 

“I see,” The chuunin muttered. Glancing over at Kakashi, he continued, “We should probably go and check on Gai and Neji. The last I saw, Neji was working his way south, so he might've met up with your dog. I didn't find any traces to the north, though I'll be surprised if anyone finds anything at all with the ground torn up so badly.”

 

“He had to leave somehow. Hopefully it was on foot,” The copy-nin answered as they started walking to the south. A cool breeze hit the jounin's sweaty face, making him sigh in relief.

 

Wait. Cool breeze?

 

Kakashi snapped his Sharingan open and looked at the air about him. The dark chakra was gone, though there were a few traces of it. The hazy effect had vanished and the air had grown noticeably cooler. Without a huge mass of heat rising up into the atmosphere, the northern winds from Cavern Country were starting to blow through the dusty plain. The Kyuubi's energy must've been linked to the seals. With them gone, there was no real evidence of what had taken place here.

 

“Interesting,” The copy-nin thoughtfully said, closing his enhanced eye again.

 

“What is?” Shikamaru asked, jolting the man from his thoughts.

 

“Oh, nothing,” Kakashi replied, shrugging the question off.

 

Fortunately, the chuunin was one to let things go, rather than making a temper tantrum about it. They started moving again, only to be nearly bowled over by Gai as he appeared out of nowhere and landed in front of them.

 

“Come with me. You two need to see this,” The tai expert said, then raced off to the south. The two laid back shinobi glanced at each other and shrugged, before following.

 

Gai led them almost dead south, all the way to the tree barrier. As they approached, Kakashi took notice of a large, shadowy hole that had been made in the wall. They paused at the edge of it, until Gai carefully walked through and gestured for them to follow.

 

“Did you or Neji make this?” Shikamaru asked as he looked upwards. The tree wall was almost fifteen feet thick at this point, but the hole looked like it had been made with ease.

 

“No. That's one of the things that has me worried,” Gai replied in a serious voice. He walked forward and followed a natural path between the trees. “And before you ask, that's not what I wanted to show you. It's up ahead.”

 

They walked in silence for several minutes, until Gai pushed his way through a large clump of ferns and bushes. When Kakashi and Shikamaru followed the jounin, they stopped dead in their tracks.

 

Damn, that was a lot of blood.

 

They stood at the edge of a small, natural clearing. It wasn't even as large as the one Shikamaru had fought the Sound genin in during the Forest of Death fiasco. Strewn all about the place were bodies. Well, bodies, body parts, some internal organs, and blood. Lots of blood. The red liquid had been splattered across everything, from the grass to the trees. There was a large pile of corpses in the center of the clearing that seemed to have a spotlight on it, as a large beam of sunlight had broken through the canopy and was shining right on the mass. Flies buzzed about the mess, illuminated by the light. Shikamaru gagged and fought the urge to puke. He distracted himself by looking away from the pile. He noticed Neji and Pakkun poking around at the southern edge of the clearing, the two of them examining something on the ground.

 

Kakashi stepped forward and nudged what was left of a man's head. As it rolled over, a bloodstained forehead protector came into view. It had a familiar symbol on it.

 

“So the Sound beat us here after all,” The jounin said as he turned his attention to the central mass of bodies. He calmly walked towards it, ignoring the flies and the smell. Kneeling, the copy-nin grabbed a relatively clean twig and ran it through a large puddle of blood. “It's not totally dried. This was recent. Within the last six hours or so.”

 

“So who killed them? Naruto?” Shikamaru asked as he stepped a little closer, despite himself. At least until he noticed that one of the twigs he was looking at was actually a severed finger. He had to turn away at that point.

 

Kakashi noticed something at the bottom of the puddle. Leaning closer, he carefully poked the stick through the red liquid and into the material. His open eye narrowed as he realized what it was.

 

“I'll be damned. It's-”

 

***

 

“…Sand,” Kakashi said as he sat in front of the Hokage's desk. It was a day later and the jounin was giving his full debriefing to the Fifth. “There was sand in every puddle of blood. When I looked closer, I realized the bodies had been crushed by a massive amount of concentrated force. That matches the abilities of only one ninja we know of.”

 

“Gaara,” Tsunade said as she frowned thoughtfully. Her mouth was obscured by her hands as she leaned on her desk. “I don't know whether to be worried or relieved.”

 

“Relieved?” The copy-nin replied, sounding a bit incredulous. “That kid is a total psychopath. Who knows what he'll do to Naruto?”

 

“Probably look after him,” The Godaime answered. When she noticed the jounin wasn't buying it, she continued, “When your Uchiha student turned traitor and I had to send those genins out after him, I requested some support from the Sand Village. Gaara's team was the one that came. When I asked the Kazekage about it later, he told me that the boy had insisted on coming as soon as he learned that Naruto was involved. I don't really understand why, but apparently the kid feels he owes Naruto a large debt. You said it was only the Sound that had been killed? You found no trace of any other shinobi?”

 

Kakashi nodded his head, staring at the Hokage with a strange look.

 

Tsunade continued, “Then Gaara came to find Naruto when he felt his chakra in the wave. If he killed a group of Sound-nins, it was likely in protection of the boy or because they were trying to get him to hand Naruto over. I can't say I'm happy with him being in the hands of someone so unstable, but at least we don't have to try and rescue him from Orochimaru or the Akatsuki. Gaara will likely watch over him until he feels his debt is paid.”

 

“And if he goes nuts?” Kakashi dryly asked.

 

The Hokage snorted and said, “Then I expect Naruto will be able to handle himself. He's beaten Gaara once already and he's been training under a Sannin for the past year and a half. He's also learning skills from the Kyuubi, so he's a formidable opponent. I doubt he'll fall to the sand-brat. Although, the Kyuubi reminds me…Did any of the Sound-nins have a copy of the seals Naruto used?”

 

“Yes, Neji found one scroll on them that was readable. The rest were trashed, so we burned them along with the bodies,” Kakashi replied as he dug a stained scroll out and passed it to Tsunade. The Hokage unrolled it and spread it on her desk.

 

“I see,” She said after a minute of looking it over. “They must have drawn it by hand. It's not as accurate as Shikamaru's rubbing. Still, it would've been bad had it returned to Orochimaru. I see they managed to copy the inner circle. Jiraiya can use this to fill in the blanks spots on the other scroll.”

 

“When does he return?” The copy-nin asked. “I wanted to ask him if I screwed up that scroll jutsu he showed me.”

 

“The one that caused that seals to be burned into your hand?” Tsunade said as she looked up from the scroll. “I doubt it. It probably worked just fine and accidentally triggered something within the seals left behind. I'll have him look at the marks on your hand when he gets back. It looks like a normal, if odd, seal but I think it's the same language as the other two I've seen.”

 

“The other two?” Kakashi questioned as he looked at his heavily bandaged hand. Tsunade had carefully healed the burn (which was almost third degree) that had spread up his arm, but hadn't been able to do anything about the spiral seals. His arm was in a normal sling and his forehead protector had returned to its usual place.

 

“The first seal was the one we had so much trouble breaking and the other one I encountered was on a heavily modified and advanced bunshin that Naruto used to distract us,” Tsunade said. She drew a small brush and carefully sketched each seal in the margin of the scroll she was reading. “See the similarities between their design and the ones from the circles you encountered?”

 

Kakashi looked down at the paper when the Hokage pushed it across the desk to him. He frowned and nodded.

 

“I see what you mean. The lines aren't kanji or seal script or even any other language I know of. Do you have any idea where they come from?” The jounin asked as his eye traced the lines of the seal that had injured Naruto.

 

“No. Not even the Scroll of Forbidden Seals makes a mention of them,” Tsunade said as she leaned back in her chair. “Naruto could have only learned them from the Kyuubi, though that doesn't explain how or why the Akatsuki was able to use one. I guess the seals have some link to demons, but beyond that I don't know.”

 

“Hmm…Well, at least we know how to recognize their script,” Kakashi muttered as he eyed the scroll.

 

“I suppose so,” Tsunade shrugged. “Anyways, what else do you have to report?”

 

“Nothing much, beyond what I've already mentioned,” The jounin answered as he leaned back from the desk. “With the Byakugan, Neji estimated that there were twelve Sound-nins killed there. Looked like three four-member teams. We found no traces of any other groups while we were there, so I'm assuming Gaara got them all. Pakkun smelled Naruto at the clearing, but he and Gaara disappeared from there without leaving any trail, so we weren't able to follow them. I'm assuming they were headed for Wind Country. We returned after we destroyed the corpses and we didn't encounter anything else on the way back.”

 

“And how are Neji and Shikamaru taking the news?” Tsunade asked, referring to the chuunins being informed of the relationship between the Kyuubi and Naruto.

 

“Good and not good,” Kakashi said as he scratched his masked chin with his good hand. “Shikamaru seems to be taking it well, though not much fazes him. I suspect he won't be sleeping well for a couple of nights, but aside from that I don't think he'll be much different.”

 

“And the Hyuuga boy?” The Hokage prompted.

 

“Neji…Err, well he seems pissed off a bit,” The Copy-ninja replied, looking a little sheepish. “I got the impression he isn't too happy that he tangled with a demon or its vessel. I honestly can't tell if he's mad at himself or at Naruto. I have no idea what he's planning on doing in the future.”

 

“Hmm, odd but a less severe reaction than I feared,” Tsunade said. She'd just have to make take measures in the future to avoid any bloodshed.

 

“Am I going to be punished, Hokage-sama?” Kakashi calmly asked.

 

“Aside from the fact that you'll have to face Naruto if you cost him two friends? No, you won't be punished. You were preparing your comrades for a potential threat and I find it reasonable under the circumstances,” The Fifth replied. At the jounin's crestfallen look, she reassured him, “Don't worry, Hatake-san. Naruto's tougher than he looks and he's going to have to learn how to find true friends eventually. If they let a little thing like being a demon-vessel get in the way of their friendship, then they aren't worth it anyways. But I doubt it'll come to that. Shikamaru is very loyal, despite his lazy attitude and Neji is a good kid when his pride isn't getting in the way. I doubt they'll abandon him. You did make sure they understand the serious penalties that come with breaking that law, right?”

 

Yes, Hokage-sama,” The copy-nin answered confidently. “They understand how serious the Sandaime's rule is and they swore not to break it.”

 

“Excellent. I think that right there is a good sign that not all the bridges have been burned between them,” Tsunade said with a small smile on her face. “Was there anything else you needed to tell me?”

 

“Not that I can think of, Hokage-sama, but I'll let you know immediately if something I missed occurs to me,” Kakashi replied.

 

“In that case, you're free to go. That arm of yours should be totally healed up in a week,” Tsunade said as she rolled up the scroll on her desk. Kakashi nodded, before he stood to leave. The Hokage suddenly smacked her head and cursed. “Shit, I almost forgot. You're friends with the Yamanakas' girl, right?”

 

“Ino-san? I suppose you could call us that,” Kakashi said as he eyed the Godaime suspiciously. Did this woman know every part of his life or something? “Why? What's wrong?”

 

“According to Sakura-kun, Ino-san had some sort of fit just as the Kyuubi's chakra wave started,” Tsunade said. “She's suffered some unusual brain trauma as a result. The MRI results were strange, so I took a look for myself. Hundreds of her neural pathways were severed, though I don't know how or why. That caused many of the capillaries in her head to rupture and to fill her cranium with blood. Fortunately, the pressure was relieved out her sinuses and her ear canal, so she avoided permanent damage. Oddly, the neural pathways were reconnecting themselves on their own. All I really did was speed up the process with a healing jutsu. She's stable now, though she's still unconscious. She's in the IC ward a few doors down from Naruto's old room if you want to visit her. I have to warn you though…I have no idea what she'll be like when she wakes up. The brain is a mystery even to me. There may be severe changes in her personality, so be careful when you talk to her.”

 

Kakashi's mind raced as he heard the news. He nodded at the Hokage and turned to leave, wanting to check on the girl. Tsunade's voice stopped him, in a creepy parody on the last time he'd been in here three days ago.

 

“Hatake-san, come back. There's something else I forgot to mention,” The Fifth said, her voice tense. The copy-nin reluctantly moved back to his chair, hoping he wouldn't get chewed out about his habits again.

 

He seriously hoped she wasn't going to make him give up Icha Icha. Didn't these things come in twelve step programs?

 

“I had little chat with the Council earlier,” Tsunade said as she gave the jounin a serious look. “There's something they had to say that you need to know.”

 

“This is about Naruto, isn't it?” Kakashi said, as realization set in. He doubted the Council was interested in his perverted habits. The jounin sighed when Tsunade nodded.

 

Damn, it sucked when he was right.

 

***

 

“So, you're finally waking up huh?”

 

The first thing Ino noticed when she became aware of her surroundings (aside from the strange headache), was the familiar lazy voice of the Copy-ninja. She slowly opened her eyes and took in the sight of the hospital ceiling above her. She slowly shifted her head to her left and looked at Kakashi's outline. The jounin was sitting in front of the window and though it was cloudy out, there was enough grayish light filtering in that the man's features were obscured in shadow.

 

“Hatake…? Tha' you?” Her voice came out dry and raspy. Her throat felt parched.

 

“Hang on,” The figure moved a bit, though Ino couldn't really make him out. A large, standing lamp clicked on in the corner of the room and its yellow light made a pleasant contrast to the gray light from the window. The upper end of the bed suddenly rose with a mechanical whir, so the genin wound up reclining rather than laying. She blinked at the sudden sight of Kakashi's masked face right next to her. “Here you go.”

 

Ino gratefully accepted the glass of water and drained it completely. The cold liquid helped to clear some of the fog from her head, but the strange feeling refused to leave. Kakashi's concern made her antsy, so she hastened to reassure him.

 

“I'm feeling okay, Hatake. My head is feeling…weird, but aside from that I'm fine,” The blonde said. Kakashi stared at her in surprise, though she couldn't really tell why. Really, a jounin should know to hide his emotions better.

 

“Oookay,” The Copy-ninja replied. His eye crinkled a bit, then he shrugged it off. “Anyways, you almost gave Sakura a heart attack. She says she understands now how Tsunade-sama got her fear of blood.”

 

“…Huh? What're you…Oh, yeah,” Ino mumbled as she stared down at the empty glass in her hands. All the memories started coming back. Of the weird clone, her argument with Sakura, and the bizarre visions she'd had followed by that chakra terror. “What happened?”

 

“Well, you see, you had some sort of fit when Naruto did some weird ritual or something out in the middle of nowhere,” Kakashi began, as he still carefully watched the girl. Why on earth was he checking her out to see if she was nuts? He could be a little more subtle about it. “Tsunade-sama says your neural pathways were all severed and reconnected, which caused your brain itself to bleed. All that leaked out your nose, ear, and eye which kept you alive, even if it did give Sakura a panic attack. The Hokage herself checked you out after the MRI results came back odd.”

 

“MRI?” The genin repeated, not having any clue what the man was talking about.

 

“Ah, I had no idea what it was either, so I asked Shizune-san about it before I left the Tower,” The copy-nin said while sheepishly scratching the back of his head. “Turns out it's a medical machine that people used hundreds of years ago. When Tsunade-sama came here and became Hokage, she found a few documents describing it and other machines in the old records. She sent out a survey team to one of the ruins of the old cities and they managed to find one of the units in a destroyed hospital. It was broken, but they were able to reverse engineer it. We've been using it for a little over a year now. We only have the one, but that's more than any other Hidden Village can brag. It's handy. It uses magnetic waves to make pictures of your entire body, though it's mostly used for the brain. Oh yeah… Sakura said she'd give your earrings and those rings from your dress back whenever you woke up. Wearing metal in one of those machines is a bad thing, I guess.”

 

“Uh, okay,” Ino replied, most of the jargon going over her head. It was kind of obvious Kakashi didn't know much more about it then she did, but she let that slide. “So what else has happened?”

 

“Well, you've been out for almost four days so far. I've been hanging around here for only a few hours. I just got back from a mission and I haven't had much sleep, so I was just about to take a nap,” Kakashi answered.

 

“What kind of idiot do you take me for, Hatake?” The blonde scathingly snapped. “You were going to read that damn perverted book of yours.”

 

“Actually, you're right. I was going to read Icha Icha,” The jounin said with his eye narrowed. His entire demeanor suddenly changed and he cheerfully said, “Anyways, you'll be happy to know we managed to catch Naruto. He pulled off a creepy jutsu that managed to make him stronger, which is why that wave hit everybody, but we were able to bring him back anyways. He's a little beat up, but he's just down the hall and perfectly safe.”

 

“Why the hell are you lying to me, Hatake?” Ino snarled as her hand clenched the glass hard enough to crack it. “If that's your idea of a fucking joke, then you must've been raised in a goddamn barn, you asshole.”

 

“I was lying,” Kakashi said seriously, his demeanor completely changing again. “So tell me, how did you know that?”

 

“It was obvious, jackass,” The genin replied, her anger not dissipating in the slightest. “You weren't hiding it at all. You're a pretty crappy jounin, you know.”

 

“But what did I do that tipped you off? Where did I screw up” The copy-nin continued, leaning forward a little bit as he stared at the girl.

 

“Easy, you…You were acting…You didn't…” Ino trailed off as she realized that she had no idea how she knew the man had been lying.

 

“You know, not many people can tell a jounin is lying. Especially a genin,” Kakashi continued, looking thoughtfully at her. “So, how'd you know I was planning on reading Icha Icha? Why did you reassure me when you first woke up, considering I didn't ask you a question?”

 

“I…I don't know,” The girl mumbled, growing a little panicky. Had she woken up? Was this another of her weird dreams?

 

“Calm down.”

 

“I am calm, dammit!” Ino yelled at Kakashi. Her anger faded at the man's shocked look. “What? What is it now?”

 

“Ino-san, I didn't say that out loud,” The copy-nin said with a wide eyed look. The girl felt an icy chill of shock ripple up her spine. She felt a sense of pride radiate from Kakashi, just before he said, “Congrats. It looks like you have yourself a Bloodline Limit.”

 

“That explains the headache,” Ino muttered as she rubbed her temples. She set the cracked glass on the table and gave the jounin a sharp look. “So how do I learn how to control it? Picking up people's emotions and occasional thoughts isn't very handy.”

 

“Ah, there's the sharp tongued girl I'm so fond of,” Kakashi replied. He ignored the genin's growl of anger as he said, “Tsunade-sama was worried that the rewiring your brain went through would alter your personality. I'm glad to see she was wrong.”

 

“I told you I feel fine, except for this headache. Which, I might add, had better go away eventually,” The blonde grumbled. A sudden wave of tiredness made her slump backwards on the bed. “What the hell?”

 

“Hmm, looks like your Limit eats up chakra to use and you don't have much to spare right now,” Kakashi noted as he stood up and walked towards a set of cabinets on the far side of the room. He rummaged around for a few moments, then came back with a small pill that he passed to Ino. The girl noticed that his right arm was bandaged and in a sling as the man walked back to his chair. “Eat up. It's a soldier pill. I know you don't want to rely on them, but you need the boost in chakra since you can't control your Bloodline yet.”

 

The genin glared at the pill for a moment, then popped in her mouth and chewed it down. A surge in energy revitalized her and she was able to sit upright again.

 

“Okay, so what's really going on,” Ino asked, her mind clearing as her headache faded somewhat. “What's up with Naruto and why is your arm busted up?”

 

Kakashi sighed and said, “Naruto escaped Konoha five days ago using a series of techniques that no one in Konoha has ever heard of. Even in the old records and the Forbidden Scroll, there's no mention of anything like those jutsu. Three days ago, his escape was discovered, though by then it was too late and he performed an unknown ritual in the northwestern woods of Fire Country. That was the cause of the bizarre chakra wave everyone felt. Myself and three others were dispatched to find him and learn what he did. It took us two days to track him, as his movements were all over the place we finally came to the place where he performed the ritual.”

 

“…Why are you telling me this like it's a mission briefing?” The genin questioned, her eyes narrowing. She felt something shift from the Copy-ninja and she found herself unable to sense what he was thinking.

 

“The place was a wasteland,” Kakashi continued, ignoring the girl's question. “The land was stripped clean of trees and most of its topsoil in circle about three miles wide. We found many strange seals burned into solid rock at the very center of the field. There was a rather odd incident that resulted in my arm being injured, but I won't bore you with the details. After searching the entire circle, two of us found a pile of Sound-nin bodies that had been crushed into pulp. There was evidence that Gaara of the Sand killed them and either helped Naruto to escape or abducted him.”

 

“Why are you telling me this?” Ino asked, a thread of fear coiling through her at the mention of Gaara.

 

“We didn't run into anything else and I was able to return and give a full debriefing to the Hokage. She in turn told me about your status. She also repeated a plan that the Council is putting into action,” Kakashi continued, again ignoring the genin's question.

 

“Why are you telling me this?!” Ino yelled, the surrealism of the situation getting to her. “What the hell is wrong Hatake? Why are you acting so weird?”

 

Kakashi's head lowered and his eye closed. He gave a tired sigh and refocused his attention on the genin.

 

“Naruto has been declared a B Class missing-nin. The ANBU Commander has also placed orders that he be apprehended on sight and killed if he resists in any way,” The jounin stated in a monotone voice.

 

Ino gasped in shock. She tried to speak for several moments, but could only move her mouth with no words coming out. She finally managed to choke out, “Why?! He's only a genin, for Kami's sake! Why the hell would they make him such a high ranked criminal?!”

 

Kakashi shrugged and said, “Well, he's been a Sannin's apprentice for almost two years. He's both learned an A Rank battle jutsu and has stolen a jutsu from the Forbidden Scroll. That makes him a far worse threat than any normal genin.”

 

“What rank is Sasuke?” Ino demanded, her question seemingly coming out of left field. At the jounin's confused stare, she continued, “I know you're lying, Hatake, or at least you're hiding the real reason. What class missing-nin is Sasuke? And tell the truth. I'll know if you're lying anyways.”

 

The Copy-ninja hesitated, then said, “C Class, with orders to capture alive if at all possible.”

 

“So why the hell is the Dead-Last a worse criminal than the Uchiha prodigy?” The genin continued, her sharp blue-gray eyes boring into the jounin's. For an instant, he could have sworn they changed color. “I can guess why they want Sasuke back. They're desperate for a breed-able Sharingan to come back to Konoha. But why are they using any excuse they can grab to kill Naruto off?”

 

“When you're right, you're right, Ino-san,” Kakashi said as his eye dropped worse than usual. “The Council would forgive almost anything Sasuke has done as a Sound-nin, as long as it meant they get their Uchiha trump card back. The C Rank is in place only because Tsunade interfered and had his Class raised from D. She also altered the orders so that Leaf-nins can kill him if necessary. The Commander wanted orders for him to be left alive, even if he attacked our shinobi.”

 

“With an idiot like that in charge, it's no wonder ANBU takes such high casualties,” Ino dryly said, not knowing she was repeated the Hokage's words from several days earlier. At the jounin's raised eyebrow, she continued, “Come on! Even the genins hear about it! ANBU has the highest mortality rate in Konoha, rather than the least. You'd think it would be the opposite, considering they're supposed to be so skilled. Something has to be wrong with that. Everyone from the Rookie 9 wants to be Special Jounin, like you and those examiners are. No one wants to get killed less than a year after promotion. I know you agree with me, so don't even deny it.”

 

Behind his mask, Kakashi smirked. This girl had potential. He was glad he had agreed to Tsunade's proposal, even if it was `suggested' by the Council.

 

“You're exactly correct, Ino-san,” The copy-nin said as he leaned back in his chair. “The Commander is more than a little foolish. Fortunately, Tsunade-sama is the exact opposite. He wanted Naruto declared S Class and killed on sight, but she was able to force it down to its current Rank. Though it seems bad, she's given Naruto some freedom to be able to come back without getting killed immediately. It could've been much worse.”

 

“S CLASS!!” Ino shrieked, her regained calm shredded like confetti. “What the hell would posses that man to declare a genin an S Class criminal?!!”

 

“Funny you should say `possess,'” Kakashi muttered. He paused when he noticed the girl's questioning look. He'd made his decision on the way to the hospital. If Ino was going to be a part of the Council's plan, then she had the right to know why. He just hoped Tsunade would forgive him again. At least he had an excuse this time, though the Sannin would probably see right through it. “Ino-san, focus your attention on me and try to see what I'm showing you, okay?”

 

Ino frowned, but did so. She focused hard on the copy-nin, who had closed his eye in concentration. At first nothing happened. She was just staring like a fool at the jounin. Then, she suddenly wasn't seeing him anymore. She was seeing a bizarre double image of normal vision and the flows of chakra through objects and people. She saw a source of chakra that looked like a red sun, it was so intense. She saw a yellow-haired, bleeding man standing atop a massive frog that had an open wound across its left eye. The man stared defiantly at the bright chakra and performed a jutsu that summoned a strange specter behind him. A hideous and tattooed hand flowed out from the man's chest and reached out towards… Towards…

 

Kami-sama…

 

That thing was the Kyuubi. A dark and powerful fox demon, so large it exceeded even Gamabunta in size (whom she now recognized.) Nine tails that crackled and burned with power swirled overhead, ready to lash out at anything that came too close. The fox apparently didn't consider the hand a threat and instead swept a paw at a group of shinobi perched in the trees, killing them all before they had the chance to even scream. The hand grabbed the demon's chest and pulled a monstrous, swirling ball of energy out from the beast. The fox froze and its body suddenly crumbled into dust. As Ino watched, she saw Gamabunta rush the man and the huge mass of energy back to the Hokage's Tower in the distance. The vision faded and a new one appeared in its place.

 

Ino saw the blonde man and the Sandaime standing over an altar in a room that was covered in seals. As she watched, the man performed a series of high level jutsu and used the hideous hand to press the red mass into a bundle lying on top of the altar. With a blaze of fire and kanji script, the energy flowed into it and the hand retracted itself. As she watched, the man said something inaudible to the Third, before he collapsed to the ground. Somehow, Ino knew he was dead, even as the vision moved forward and an unfamiliar, gloved hand reached out to check the man's pulse. The double vision was suddenly clouded and distorted as it stared at the man's handsome face. A shrill sound broke the silence and the same covered hand reached up to swipe the tears away. Ino recognized that unfamiliar sound, though she'd only heard it a few times in her life.

 

A baby crying.

 

The vision turned and slowly moved to where the Sandaime was leaning over the altar, making soothing sounds to the bundle. Slowly, the double vision moved around the Hokage and got its first good look at what lay on the pedestal. A growing horror rose in the girl as the gloved hand reach forward and gently tugged the blankets aside. A baby, splattered in ink and so young that its stomach was still bleeding. A baby with blonde hair and three black slashes on each cheek. A baby with a jet black spiral surrounding its navel and a complex seal encasing both. A baby who calmed down as the gloved hands gently lifted it up and rocked it to settle it down. A baby who opened its squinty eyes to stare up at her.

 

Its bright blue eyes.

 

Ino was suddenly back in herself and gagging as bile rose in her throat. Kakashi immediately helped her up and into the bathroom where she emptied her stomach (which really had nothing in it) into the toilet. After several minutes of dry heaving and cheap hospital mouthwash, the genin found herself back in her bed, trying to erase the image from her mind.

 

“Well, you handled it better than I did,” Kakashi said with a cheerful tone.

 

“You mean you puked all over Sandaime or something?” Ino said in a raspy tone, grateful for the distraction.

 

“Err, well no. But I did get drunk off my ass for a week straight afterwards,” The copy-nin said with a shrug.

 

“Because of what they did?” The genin asked, her stomach turning again, though she held it in.

 

“That and that blonde man was the Yondaime. My sensei,” Kakashi replied with a downcast look in his eye.

 

“That baby…That was Naruto, wasn't it?” Ino said as more of statement than a question. At the jounin's weary nod, she continued, “And the Kyuubi…It wasn't killed, was it?”

 

“No, the fox is very much alive. At least, as long as Naruto is alive, it is too,” The copy-nin answered.

 

“So this whole time, Naruto's had a demon trapped inside him,” Ino stated, as she looked down at the linen on her bed. She suddenly chuckled, drawing a surprised look from Kakashi. “And just a few days ago me and Sakura were wondering why everyone acted so weird around him. They hate him, don't they? All the adults. And us kids must have picked up on it too. Like a bunch of sheep. Fools following fools…Fuck! I can't believe we were so stupid!”

 

Kakashi stared in surprised as Ino's eyes glowed an eerie teal color for several seconds as she gritted her teeth in rage. As the color faded back to her natural blue-gray, the genin gave him a fierce look.

 

“When did he learn? About the Kyuubi? Did he always know or did he spend his entire childhood wondering why people hated him?” The blonde girl demanded.

 

The copy-nin's shoulders slumped and he replied in a sad voice, “Sandaime told me Naruto learned he was a demon-vessel the night he graduated from the academy. The Third made a law that prohibited anyone from speaking about the Kyuubi incident. A traitor schoolteacher told Naruto the truth when he tried to kill the boy and Iruka-san.”

 

“The night he graduated?” Ino repeated with an incredulous look on her face. “That means… Twelve years?! He spent the first twelve years of his life being a hated outcast and no one even had the decency to tell him why?!”

 

“It's a feeble excuse, but there is a law in place. The Sandaime dealt harshly with anyone who spoke or did anything harmful to Naruto. He even sent a high ranking ANBU to the Wind Country's shinobi prison for talking about it in public,” Kakashi said. He sighed at the look in the genin's eyes and continued, “And even if I had been allowed, I had a hard time even looking at him for years. I never blamed Naruto for it, but he was still a reminder of the night my sensei died. Not exactly fair, but I am human after all.”

 

Ino sagged backwards and rested her head against the pillow. Her anger drained away at the honest remorse in the jounin's voice. And it really wasn't his fault. Even if it was, the damage was already done. Nothing she said or did could change that. Now she was wondering how she could have missed all the weird signs. Granted, she wasn't very close to Naruto, but she still should have seen something odd. Shit, no wonder he was always trying to get attention. It was almost pathological.

 

“So what happens now?” Ino dryly asked as she looked over at Kakashi. “He's gone, the Council wants him dead, and I have a Bloodline I can't control.”

 

The jounin was silent for several long minutes. He appeared to be seriously considering something over, so Ino allowed him to think. She almost jumped when his eye focused on her with a serious expression.

 

“From now on, you're my apprentice. It's already been decided and okayed by the Hokage.”

 

Okay, she was not expecting him to say that.

 

“Err, excuse me?” Ino asked with a bewildered look on her face.

 

“I've already cleared it with Asuma. With Shikamaru-kun and Chouji-kun already chuunin, there isn't much point in having you on his team. He said you're too high maintenance for him anyways. So, I guess I should say something official-like. Ahem… Welcome to Team 7, Ino-san. Err, though it's only the two of us,” Kakashi said with a slight eye smile.

 

“…Why?” The genin asked, sensing that the man wasn't telling her something. “I mean, I'm grateful, but there's a big difference between looking over my training on the weekends and having me as your personal student. Why the sudden change?”

 

Kakashi's eye darkened as he said, “First official lesson of Team 7, Ino-san. Read underneath the underneath. Your hint is `the Council.' And try not to use your Bloodline.”

 

Ino broke eye contact with the man to avoid focusing her thoughts on his. The Council? Why the hell would they give a shit if Kakashi trained her? Accelerated training was great and all, but she didn't want to have anything to do with people who acted so hypocritically. With the way they handled the situations with Sasuke and Naruto, there was no way she'd trust them to…

 

Oh shit. This had to be a fucking joke.

 

“Naruto,” Ino stated firmly as she looked up at the jounin. She didn't have to `feel' Kakashi's mind to know she was right. “Let me guess: all the other members of the Rookie 9 and Gai's team are receiving heightened training as well, right?”

 

The copy-nin nodded.

 

“They want his friends to be strong enough to kill him when he gets back. They're setting up an ambush for whenever he returns to Konoha and they're trying to use the only people that have ever cared about him to do the dirty deed. Am I right?” Ino said in a low, dangerous voice.

 

“Got it in one shot,” Kakashi said, leaning back in his chair. His tone took a hard edge to it as he said, “The ANBU Commander and the Council have forced the Hokage into a bad position. One of the things they bargained for was, like you said, accelerated training for each of you from your crowd. The idea of course, being that if the Kyuubi has taken over Naruto or he's become too dangerous, he may let his guard down near one of you long enough to be assassinated. I find it disgusting to try to turn comrades against comrades. If they make a habit of such a practice, then we'll eventually have a repeat of the Hidden Mist massacre.”

 

“I won't kill him, you know. Not because some old fool tells me to,” Ino stated firmly when the jounin's dialogue dropped off. “I won't murder a friend, even if I don't know him very well.”

 

“I hate to say it, Ino-san, but we may not have a choice. If the Kyuubi is in control, then Naruto will have to be put down. I think the Council is going overboard with trying to hunt him down and kill him without learning anything of the situation, but we still need to be prepared just in case,” The Copy-ninja stated with a tired tone to his voice.

 

The girl's face fell as she stared down at her lap. Damn. This sucks.

 

“Hey, don't look so downtrodden,” Kakashi said with a cheer that was only slightly forced. “Don't think about what might happen with Naruto for now. Just take this as an opportunity to grow, just like you wanted. And cheer up a bit. You have a chance to catch up to Sakura and the rest now.”

 

Ino looked up at him for a long moment, before a smile broke across her face.

 

“You're right. I'll show everyone who's the best!” The genin declared with a confident half-grin. Then her face turned a little sheepish as she said, “Err, we are going to work on controlling my Bloodline, right?”

 

“First thing I was planning on training you on,” Kakashi stated with a firm nod. “We still have to figure out all the things it can do.”

 

“Good,” Ino cheerfully said. Then her expression turned dark as she glared at the jounin. “Because if I catch you thinking any kinky thoughts about me, I'll invent a castration jutsu just for you.”

 

“I wouldn't dream of it,” The Copy-ninja said with solemn voice that was only offset by the nervous sweat-drop on the side of his head.

 

“Cool, where do we start?” The blonde girl said with a cheerful smile.

 

“”I've requested six months leave for a training trip. The Hokage wasn't very happy to have me gone for so long, but I got permission as long as we do the occasional mission out there,” Kakashi replied. “We leave as soon as you feel well enough to go.”

 

“Great!” Ino exclaimed. Suddenly, an odd look crossed her face. “Err, Hatake…Did anyone think to tell Iruka-sensei the news?”

 

Kakashi stared at her with a blank look for several moments, before he managed one phrase.

 

“Oh shit.”

 

***

 

“What the hell do you mean, `he's gone'?!!” Iruka roared as he repeatedly slammed the ANBU's face into the wall. After three days of hard running from Wind Country, he was not in the mood for excuses upon finding Naruto's hospital room empty and a few ANBU milling about investigating the place. He was currently in the middle of demonstrating why his students avoided his temper.

 

With a loud `crack,' the ANBU's snake mask cracked in half and Iruka let the man slump to the ground, totally unconscious. He turned towards the other ANBU, who immediately shrank back at the killer intent he was radiating. Really, a schoolteacher had no business being so scary.

 

“Who was guarding him?” Iruka hissed out as an aura of shadows seemed to crawl around him.

 

As one, all the ANBU pointed at the man in the cat mask, who was still having trouble sitting down. The elite shinobi gulped as the chuunin stalked towards him.

 

“Oh shit.”

 

***

 

“Son of a bitch! I hate clones!”

 

Kakashi idly watched Ino work herself up in a rage as she fought four of his kage bunshins. He had to admit, it probably wasn't very fair of him, but the high levels of training were showing great improvement in his student already. He stretched a bit and relaxed a little more against the boulder he was leaning on. Hmm, maybe he should encourage her a little? It would be the right thing to do, as her teacher and all.

 

“You're doing great, Ino-chan! Pretty soon you might be able to beat one of them!”

 

“Fuck off, Hatake!!”

 

The jounin chuckled at his student's foul remark. In the four months that they'd been a team, he'd gotten used to her violent mood swings. At least she didn't keep it all bottled inside like Sakura and Sasuke did. And she tended to think things through more than Naruto had. She made a pretty good teammate, over all. She still had a ways to go, but she was getting there. They got along pretty well, too.

 

Kakashi quickly disguised a guffaw as a sneeze when one of his clones performed a leg sweep that sent Ino tumbling ass over ankles.

 

“I heard that, you rotten bastard! Fight me yourself, you chicken shit, instead of letting your clones do all the dirty work!”

 

“We already talked about that, Ino-chan! You're doing fine, just make sure to dodge next time!”

 

“Useless, piece of crap sensei!”

 

“That hurts, Ino-chan.”

 

“BITE ME!!”

 

Okay, so usually they got along. When Ino got frustrated, cranky was an understatement. It made dealing with her a bit of a trial, though she usually apologized for the bruises to his ego and scalp later. They worked too well together to seriously fight over anything. It was getting to the point were they could read each other's moves and attitude without too much difficulty. She had read his intentions about this training session easily enough, though her earlier statement was only partially true. Kakashi was reluctant to fight her personally, though it wasn't out of cowardice or as an insult to her skills. It was to improve her overall as a shinobi.

 

Ino's Bloodline Limit was very powerful in combat, though not very flashy. When she concentrated on an opponent, she could read their surface thoughts and anticipate their moves. This put her on even footing with shinobi twice as strong as her. In terms of anticipating an enemy's actions, her Limit exceeded even Kakashi's Sharingan. With her skills growing rapidly, Ino was a tricky opponent to for even the copy-nin to beat, even if he outclassed her completely. She still hadn't beaten him even without the Sharingan, but she'd managed to land some pretty serious blows here and there. Unfortunately, she was getting way too used to his thinking patterns, so he had her duel with clones instead. Without a real brain to think with, a kage bunshin proved to be a much harder opponent than the real thing for Ino. It forced her to build her tai-jutsu and nin-jutsu rapidly, which she was grateful for, even if she got her ass kicked every time. It was painfully obvious she still had much room for improvement.

 

Which was why they were out here in the middle of western Fire Country, a day's travel from any village. When they were this close to Wind County, the trees were spread further apart and the area was much drier than what they were used to in Konoha. The hills gently rolled out here and there were plenty of wide open fields to practice in. Enough shade to relax in and enough room to work. Perfect for a martial artist. Kakashi's boulder was in the shade of a few small evergreen trees and he was currently enjoying the lazy summer afternoon, even if Ino wasn't.

 

A slight shudder in the chakra within his left hand reminded the Copy-ninja of his odd seal that he'd been wearing for several months. Thanks to Tsunade's medical expertise, his left arm had healed up to perfect fighting condition in a week. The seal remained, however. Neither the Hokage nor Jiraiya-sama could remove either spiral mark, no matter how much chakra they poured into it. Hell, Jiraiya couldn't even alter it or make a blocking seal around it. Whatever the hell it was, it was on a whole different level than the seal used by the Akatsuki on Naruto.

 

On the plus side, it wasn't harmful to Kakashi in any real way. Occasionally, he felt ripples in the chakra of his left hand that would make it hard to maintain a jutsu, but aside from that neither spiral mark had done anything to him. At least it wasn't another blasted curse seal. The only truly harmful thing that had happened was an incident when Kakashi had gone off by himself for awhile to practice alone. He had powered up a Chidori in his left hand and rushed at the side of a rock outcrop. Part of the way there, a ripple passed through the seals and his Chidori had blazed out of control. The jutsu grew three times as large in seconds and threatened to burn his entire hand off. Kakashi had little choice but to continue his path and slam his hand into the cliff-side.

 

The hole it had made was much larger than usual, though not as deep. He had no idea why his chakra had burned out of control like that and he wasn't exactly sure he wanted to know. From then on two things changed. One, he swore not to use his best jutsu with his left hand until he could figure out what the hell was going on. Actually, he hadn't even done a Chidori period since then. And two, Ino never let him train alone again. The copy-nin wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

 

Ino had just grumbled about her sensei getting himself killed before he made himself useful.

 

Another scathing curse ripped through the air as the genin fell prey to a double team the clones had pulled on her. Kakashi sighed a bit. Really, where did that girl learn such language? She could peel steel off a frying pan with that sharp tongue of hers. The jounin immediately forced himself to avoid following that thought into a more perverted line of thinking. Ino's threat from the hospital room was occasionally reminded with a couple of mock swipes of a kunai whenever he got lax in his thinking. Oh well. At least she hadn't tried to take Icha Icha from him. The copy-nin sighed as he watched his student go flying through the air again.

 

Despite her seemingly poor progress, Ino really was improving a great deal. She was constantly learning new tricks to her Bloodline Limit, her chakra reserves and control were getting high, and her skill in nin-jutsu and tai-jutsu were growing very well. The hard work showed, as she'd lost the rail thin look she'd previously had and she'd put on a decent amount of (needed) weight in muscle. She was still slender (though nothing short of steroids or a kin-jutsu would change that), but she'd gotten a lean, defined look that was very attractive. Kakashi had noticed the way some of the Rookie 9 and other shinobi her age (and not) looked at her the few times they were in the village. She blew off any offers, saying she had more important things to worry about. The jounin didn't pry, but he was curious about who she wanted to show her good looks off to.

 

Ino's hair and dress were a different style now, though she still wore all those bandages. Her hair was a short, simple cut that ended at her neckline. In one of their sparring matches, Kakashi had demonstrated how long hair could be a disadvantage when he'd grabbed his student by her blond locks and flung her twenty feet across the training grounds. The jounin had gotten kneed in the crotch for his stunt, but he'd still managed to drive the point home: unless you're really strong, don't let things hang off you that an opponent can grab onto. Ino had shown up the next day with her new hairstyle (which she claimed was a variant of the way she wore her hair in the academy) and acted like nothing was different.

 

Her dress hadn't changed much. All she'd really done was adjusted the skirt and made sure there were no loose flaps that could be grabbed. The look was simple, yet (not surprisingly) she pulled it off and made it look stunning. Combined with her new physique and a greater confidence in her abilities, it was no wonder half the genins and chuunins in Konoha stared at her when she walked by. Kakashi had even noticed Sakura watching the blonde girl oddly, though he had a feeling it was due to envy at the girl's sudden growth. He lecherously grinned at the thought that it might be something else, however unlikely that may be.

 

`Bad Kakashi! No naughty thoughts for you!' A voice that sounded like Rin's and Obito's combined said in his head. He couldn't restrain the grin at the thought of what his fallen teammates would do to him if they caught him being so perverted. His face fell a little when he reminded himself that he'd never hear their voices again in this lifetime. Beyond maybe, but not while he was here on this earth.

 

A scream of fury tore through the jounin's melancholy thoughts. Glancing up, Kakashi noticed Ino try her Katon technique to give herself some breathing room. The clones had been half expecting such a move and they all leapt over the fire plume. The genin displayed her improvement as she chocked the move briefly and swiveled her head upwards and let out an even larger burst of fire. Even caught off guard, most of the clones still had the reflexes to move out the way. One wasn't so lucky and it disappeared in a cloud of ninja smoke as the chakra enhanced flames engulfed it.

 

“Good job, Ino-chan!”

 

Panting, Ino gave the copy-nin a brief thumbs-up before she rushed the clones again. Kakashi smiled proudly behind his mask. He was impressed, both with her improvement and his ability to teach. After the original Team 7 turned out to be a disaster due largely to his own actions, his confidence in his teaching prowess had been shaken badly, even if he didn't show it. Training Ino one on one had proven his fears wrong. He'd screwed up royal with his first students, but he was doing something right by teaching the blonde girl. Perhaps he just made a better teacher for a single student then he did a team. Oh well, it wasn't like he could test that anytime soon. The other teams were doing their own heightened training and the only other students he was interested in anyways would be Lee or Neji. And the day Gai gave his prized students to his rival was the day the tai master admitted that Shikamaru's attitude was a good idea. Well, for now Kakashi would just focus on turning Ino into a deadly kunoichi.

 

The jounin winced as one his clones landed a punch to the girl's midriff that dropped the genin like a sack of potatoes. It was too bad she couldn't use her illusions on the clones like she could on the real thing. She'd probably dominate this fight if she could.

 

As far as her gen-jutsu, both Kakashi and Ino had been mildly disappointed to learn that she had faulty talent in that area. That's not to say that she couldn't create powerful illusions, it's just that her talent seemed to lie in nin-jutsu. It took the genin a great deal more work and effort to learn a gen-jutsu than it did for her to learn any other skill. The ones she did learn were impressive though. Like she'd originally suspected, when Ino combined her Bloodline with a gen-jutsu, it was hell on earth to try to escape. The last time she and Kakashi had sparred, he'd been forced to briefly unveil the Sharingan to escape an endless maze illusion she'd trapped him in. Against a normal opponent, it was absolutely devastating. She still had to work hard to pull the enhanced illusion off though. Using her Bloodline at such high levels burned through a large amount of her reserves. On top of that, Ino still hadn't fully gotten the hang of the technique yet, so using her Blood Limit on such an offensive scale was still beyond her in active combat.

 

But damn, when she perfected that illusion technique, she'd be a force to be reckoned with. Kakashi sometimes wondered if even his Sharingan could break an illusion powerful enough to trap him inside his own mind. He even wondered if she'd be able to perform illusions on the scale of Itachi's Tsukuyomi when she mastered it. He had mentioned such a thing once to the girl and allowed her to `see' his memories of the event, but she had to admit that the rogue Uchiha's gen-jutsu was leagues ahead of her. She had carefully taken note of its effects, however, and Kakashi had a feeling he'd just given her a goal to work towards.

 

Hopefully she wouldn't want to test it on him.

 

The copy-nin thoughtfully watched as Ino rolled aside to avoid a downward axe-kick from one of his clones. The girl struggled to her feet and prepared another jutsu. She was determined, he had to giver her that. If she could use her Limit enhanced gen-jutsu on these things, she would have a great advantage in the fight. Still, an illusion was only an illusion. Ino hadn't learned any really dangerous nin-jutsu techniques to supplement her ability yet. She could trap an opponent in as many mazes as she wanted, but if she couldn't finish the enemy off then what good was it? The only gen-jutsu that actually harmed an opponent was that thrice-damned Tsukuyomi, which was far beyond her still. What the girl needed was a fast and powerful technique that could finish her opponent quickly before they broke free of her illusions.

 

The jounin sat bolt upright. Could she learn…? Maybe… It might be limited, but she could pull it off. She'd need a hell of lot of stamina training, but it might be a good jutsu in her hands.

 

Ino glanced up curiously as all of the shadow clones disappeared in a puff of chakra smoke.

 

“What's up, Hatake? I wasn't doing that badly, was I?” The genin asked as she rested her hands on her knees to catch her breath.

 

“Ino-chan, come over here. There's a jutsu I want to show you.”

 

***

 

Time moves funny, you know? Some people say it's all relative. If you went to heaven for an hour and came back, it would probably feel like you were only there for a minute. But if you put your hand on a hot frying pan for a minute, you'd swear afterwards it had been an hour. And if someone you love is in trouble and you have no idea where they are or even if they're alive, every second feels like an eternity. But you'd still be surprised at how fast time moves by overall.

 

That was the impression Tsunade had as she sat down at her desk on the first day of May, exactly one year after Naruto disappeared. It wasn't late or anything, being only about ten in the morning, but even the few hours she'd been awake had felt like years. It was like eagerly waiting for a visiting family member to show up and watching the clock crawl by. If anyone was suspicious about her odd attitude, they hid it well. The Hokage distracted herself from her worry that one of the ANBU would kill her little brother by focusing on the paperwork on her desk.

 

Unbidden, thoughts of the previous year slowly worked her way into her thoughts now that she wasn't focusing on Naruto.

 

After the Council started up their scheme, the four teams of the Rookie 9 plus Gai had started training in earnest, though the only non-jounins that knew the full truth were Ino, Shikamaru, and Neji. Tsunade had hidden the truth from Sakura, even as she redoubled the girl's training. Each team had grown tremendously. Team 8 was doing well, as Kurenai had finally gotten Hinata a little more confident and Kiba a little less. They weren't a spectacular team, but they had yet to fail a mission and were very dependable. Team 10 was doing alright. Shikamaru had taken an interest in exercising his already formidable brain and Chouji was training more seriously. Unfortunately, the team felt incomplete and none of the members were gung-ho about high levels of effort. Still, they were doing okay.

 

Gai's team was the spectacular one. Lee's tai-jutsu was only surpassed by his mentor/guardian. Neji had tripled the intensity of his training after the failed mission to find Naruto and was only surpassed in the Hyuuga family style by Hiashi. Tenten was nothing to sneeze at either, as she'd started learning more skills after her failure to defeat Temari in the chuunin exams. Despite Lee still being a genin, the team refused to handle any missions lower than B Rank. They had rarely failed any assignment. They put the fear of Gai…err, God into the Sound whenever they went outside Fire Country. And Team 7…

 

Team 7 was incredible. There was no other way to say it.

 

Despite having only two members, the team's reputation had grown tremendous in the six months it had been on active duty. After taking Ino as his official student, Kakashi had requested a solid half year to train her and get her up to speed. Tsunade had reluctantly agreed, seeing the copy-nin's logic, but not wanting to lose one of her most skilled shinobi for half six months when they were hurting so badly for experienced Leaf-nins. The investment had paid off though and when they'd returned from the long training trip, both shinobi had grown in power and skill. Kakashi had improved from having a challenging sparring partner and Ino… Well, she was just plain impressive. Her Bloodline Limit was a perfect compliment to Kakashi's, allowing her to catch the few things that his Sharingan missed. Her ability to sense lies from even experienced jounin and ANBU level ninja was invaluable on spying missions. Her hellishly powerful illusions made interrogation or assassinations a snap.

 

Several other jounins had asked Kakashi to borrow her on tricky missions, though the copy-nin only agreed if he thought it would be good experience for his student. Even Ibiki occasionally asked for the genin's assistance on particularly tricky `interrogations.' The girl had looked disturbingly pleased after coming back from one of those sessions. Kakashi had later confided in Tsunade that Ino was trying to develop a gen-jutsu that could completely incapacitate an opponent through pain or some other unpleasant experience.

 

The Godaime didn't know whether to be pleased or worried by that piece of information.

 

Team 7 had quickly proven that D, C, and even most B Rank missions were a waste of their talent. At Kakashi's request (and Ino's pleading) they regularly took A Rank missions. Tsunade was reluctant to allow a genin to go on such dangerous missions, but they had proven themselves capable of handling it. They rarely failed a mission and it was usually due to outside interference when they did. Hell, they rarely got injured. Their tag-teaming was deadly to anyone they came across. Rumor had it that only the stupidest or most arrogant (or both) Sound-nins tried to face the two of them in combat. Few survived afterwards. Tsunade was quite pleased with their results and the number of enemy ninjas they took out. Team 7 was a major asset for Konoha and one they sorely needed.

 

In the months following Orochimaru's declaration, much of what Kakashi predicted to Sakura and Ino had come to pass. Sound-nins attacked Leaf-nins everywhere outside of Fire Country. It seemed Tsunade's old teammate had an open door policy for his nation. Missing-nins from every country (including Konoha, though they were rare) were joining up under the Snake Sannin. Rumor had it he was even hiring mercenaries and bandits to use as cannon fodder against Konoha. Though most of the Sound's forces were weak in comparison to Leaf-nins, they still managed to rack up casualties through sheer numbers.

 

Often, the actual Sound ninjas would use jutsu to turn the riffraff into berserker units to distract Leaf shinobi while they assassinated from a distance. Konoha's active forces had been on the rise and had reached about 65 percent their original number of ninjas, but in five months Orochimaru had managed to cut that level down to almost 50 percent. Tsunade was half expecting an invasion any day and was making plans to have all teams recalled (including Team 7) when the casualty rate dropped.

 

Encounters with the Sound started growing rarer and not even Jiraiya (who was in and out of Konoha all the time these days scrounging for information) could find the cause.

 

Within three months, Leaf-nins were having conflicts with Sound agents about one of every four missions they went on. What's more, most of those encounters were against the riffraff. Fights with actual fully trained Sound-nins were only about one in five of every encounter with Orochimaru's forces. Tsunade had no idea what was causing the decline. Orochimaru certainly wouldn't call off such a successful campaign so early and the Sand hadn't reported anything unusual in terms of their kills. Even Gaara (who had reappeared after a two and a half month absence) hadn't been killing more Sound-nins then usual. The few enemies they managed to capture alive thought nothing at all was wrong. Either Orochimaru was unaware of the slack or he wasn't telling his ninjas what he knew. Knowing her teammate, Tsunade figured it was the latter. Well, she wasn't one to look a gift horse and all that. The decline in fighting had given the Leaf an amount of breathing room, for which the Fifth was thankful.

 

Tsunade occasionally wondered (usually after half a bottle of sake) if Naruto had anything to do with it. It amused her a bit and was a way of reassuring herself through fantasy that the boy was still their ally no matter what he'd done with the Kyuubi. Her analytical mind said `no,' however. There had been absolutely zero sightings of Naruto since he'd disappeared. Hell, there weren't even sightings of people who vaguely resembled him. The Akatsuki showed more blips on their radar than a fourt…fifteen year old boy did. Their only lead, Gaara, had proven a dead end. The Kazekage had told her that the possessed boy had only shrugged whenever he was asked about it. Understandably, there wasn't a soul in the Sand willing to press the issue. If Naruto was behind this Sound recession, then he was doing a damn good job of hiding himself, which Tsunade doubted was the case. Not that she contested his ability, but Naruto was Naruto and subtle wasn't one of his fortes. And neither was the Kyuubi known for it either.

 

Tsunade set a scroll down and leaned back in her chair. She sighed as she stared at the door. Any minute, Naruto could walk right in. She was so worried about him. This was almost as bad as Dan and Nawaki all over again. Any minute he could-

 

“Baa-chan, why are you staring at the door?”

 

Of course, leave it to Naruto to come in through the window when she was expecting him to come in through the door.

 

Tsunade tried to turn in her chair, but suddenly found she couldn't. Great, he must have used a jutsu on her. And she hadn't even sensed him approach. What a lovely day.

 

“Don't get up on my account. Here is this easier?” Slowly, Naruto walked into the Hokage's line of sight. Tsunade's eyes widened as she got her first look at the boy. Naruto…Hadn't changed at all.

 

What the hell?

 

“You look surprised. Don't worry. It's just an illusion. Kind of like you,” Naruto said. He set a large, lumpy bag on the table in front of her. A feeling of dread wormed its way into Tsunade's gut. She really didn't want to know what was in that thing. And she didn't want to know what the boy really looked like.

 

“Hey, wanna see something cool?” Naruto said with one hand cupped around his mouth like it was some big secret. “Here, I'll show you.”

 

Tsunade would have screamed if she could have. The boy changed though he looked the same physically. Staring into his blue eyes, she had the insane feeling of something…red and black behind them. Something old and evil. Something that terrified her.

 

“Is this easier?”

 

The bag opened and blood spilled out from it and across her desk, soaking all the mission reports. Naruto reached a hand into it and pulled something out. He set it on the desk in front of her.

 

“Or is this easier?”

 

Orochimaru's severed head stared at her with a frozen look of horror. A white, feathery wing ripped out of Naruto's back and spread itself in the air.

 

“Or perhaps this is?”

 

Jiraiya's head was set next to the Snake's and the pervert's face had a quirky grin on it. A black, leathery wing tore out of the other side of the boy's back.

 

“Or is this the easiest?”

 

Sasuke's head was set in between the first two. Naruto's hand warped into something and crushed the boy's skull into pulpy matter. A single Sharingan eyeball floated in the bloody puddle towards Tsunade. The flesh on Naruto's body ripped off, exposing a pink-red skeleton with two wings growing out of it. The boy's face remained intact and his bright blue eyes stared at her with every emotion known to man playing through them.

 

“So tell me, Tsunade-sama…Is it easy?”

 

The Fifth tried to respond, tried to jerk away, tried to do anything, but she could only watch as the Tower broke up around them and listen to the people of Konoha scream as they were massacred by things.

 

“Jeez, Tsunade-sama. I would think you'd recognize one of your own nightmares. And they call you a Sannin…”

 

Confusion played through her as she stared at the twisted boy's face. He grinned and said-

 

***

 

“Tsunade-sama!”

 

The Fifth Hokage of the Leaf jerked upright from her desk, a mission report stuck to the side of her face. She whirled on the hand touching her shoulder and almost struck the person it belonged to. Like every time this happened, she managed to stop herself just before it landed.

 

Shizune didn't even blink at the action, far too used to it and far to trusting in her mentor to give a reaction.

 

“Hee, hee… You have something stuck to your face, Tsunade-sama,” The young medic giggled as she reached out to peel the paper of the Hokage's face. Her humor fell at the horrified look in Tsunade's eyes. “Bad dream?”

 

“I…Yes. A very bad dream. Thank the Kami…” The Fifth replied, knowing she couldn't fool her protective student. Well that was just about the most terrifying dream she'd ever had. If Naruto had really turned out like that, then she would have absolutely no idea what to do.

 

“Cheer up a bit, okay? It was just a dream. You wouldn't want to scare Naruto-kun more than he deserves when he gets back, would you?” Shizune said as she straightened out some of the scattered files on the Fifth's desk. When she was done, the medic gave her mentor's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “What would you like for lunch, Tsunade-sama?”

 

“…You're really too good to me, you know that?” Tsunade replied as she watched her apprentice. The younger medic blushed a little and shrugged it off.

 

“You're face is all sweaty. Why don't you go to the restroom and wash it off? Some cold water will help you wake up as well,” Shizune said as she turned and walked to the door. She paused just before she left and said, “You may not believe it, Tsunade-sama, but you're worth being good to.”

 

Tsunade stared at the door long after her student left, mulling over the young woman's words. She finally shook it off and got up to visit the washroom. Shizune was right. The cold water shocked all the weariness right out of her and helped break up some of the leftover images from her dream. The Fifth shuddered at the memory of the vile creature from her nightmare. Kami, she'd be glad when this day was over. She pulled a mission report from her pocket (which she was sure Shizune had slipped into there at some point) and mulled over it as she left the bathroom. She'd fallen asleep as she was reading her paperwork, so she was still far from caught up with it.

 

Stepping back into her office, Tsunade didn't look up from her report as she moved towards her desk.

 

“So that's how that blasted jutsu works. Son of a bitch.”

 

The Godaime dropped her paper as she jerked her head up and stared at her desk. Someone, whom she didn't recognize at all, was sitting at her desk and pouring over an open scroll. Tsunade's eyes almost bugged out when she recognized which scroll the person was reading and which skill he was talking about.

 

The Scroll of Forbidden Seals. The Shiki Fuujin Technique.

 

Holy. Shit.

 

Tsunade dropped into a fighting stance, though she didn't know why she bothered. The ninja in front of her didn't even look up as he traced his finger along the kanji script of the old paper in front of him.

 

He did, however, give her a distracted wave as he continued to read.

 

“Hey, Baa-chan.”

 

***

 

Author's Notes:

 

General:

Something came up in the reviews, so I'm going to address it here. A couple people have asked if they could use ideas from `Foxhound' in their story. I get the feeling it could become a pretty bad problem, so I'm going to close the office on it now to avoid any issues. No one has my permission to take my story ideas and use them in their own creation. I don't go for plagiarism. Despite the fact that every author on FFnet is technically in violation of copyright, the unique ideas they come up with shouldn't be ripped off. And no excuses on coming up with it by `coincidence.' If it's a big deal and it was an honest to god coincidence, email me and I'll consider it and discuss it with you. Don't bother asking in the reviews, as I'm ignoring any requests from that end from now on. The ONLY exception is Silent.Storm, because that author both seemed honest and because I already gave him/her permission through email. Anyone else is plagiarizing. Yeah, I know it's hypocritical considering the site we're on, but that's the way it's going to be. And it's not that hard to come with fresh ideas, is it?

Is anyone else disappointed in the way the series is going? Good lord, it's turning into a typical anime series. I swear, it feels like Kishimoto painted himself into a corner and is using every cheap device in the book to advance the plot. Like the three years deal (Cough-Dragonball!-Cough) and the whole mess at the training grounds with the bells. The explosive bitch beating Gaara because her arm can make semtex even after it's been crushed into a pulp and pulling another Dragonball move by threatening to destroy the Sand Village in one blow. Then the fight with Kankuro and the big-tailed freak…Come ooooon!! The only one who chases Gaara is Kankuro and the guy he fights just so happens to have designed all his puppets?! WTF? What in the hell are the odds of that happening? And then the whole “EEEK! My tea cup has broken!” Dun-Dun-Duuuuuunnnnnn! Uhg. I'm not saying the series is bad, but compared to the first 27 volumes, this is just disappointing. Like getting a Big Mac when you ordered a t-bone steak. I just hope he manages to recapture that awesome feel he had in spades in part one. Sigh. Alright I'm fnished. Sorry to anyone who bother reading that, haha. Just had to get that out (been building since Chap. 246.) Rant done.

 

Jutsu: Nothing big this time. No, Tsunade did not undergo the Crucible at the end of Chap. 5. It was just a really bad dream brought on by stress or something.

 

Sharingan Madness: This is to clarify from chapter 4, as a lot of people have commented on it. The Sharingan records so much data that it vastly overwhelms a normal human brain. Even limited use takes in far more information than the brain can handle. Limited use can give the brain time to dump the excess data, weakening the effects of the madness (i.e. Kakashi isn't a psycho because he restrains his use of the Sharingan.) Extended use however, can and will make the Sharingan user go insane, possibly permanently. The most common symptom of this madness is extreme obsessive behavior, but it is no way limited to just that. Being obsessive is bad (like Tsunade is with Dan and Nawaki.) Being obsessive and insane is reallybad (like Orochimaru and jutsu collecting and Itachi killing his entire clan…Or was that really a bad thing?) Anyways, use the Sharingan too much and you go nuts (at least in `Foxhound.')

 

Ino's Bloodline: Will be given a name and fully explained sometime in the next two chapters.

 

Naruto's Ritual: Will be fully explained in the next chapter.

 

Kakashi's Seals: Fully explained in the next two chapters (probably Chap. 7) Though you can guess if you want, haha.

 

Scribing Scroll (C Rank) A recording jutsu made in the form of a scroll. Nin-jutsu. Two seals.

 

Nothing big or fancy. Just the scroll jutsu Kakashi tried to use. The Rank comes only from the difficulty in successfully creating a Scribing Scroll without blowing it up or something. Not exactly common, but easy enough to learn if one has practiced seal usage. About six feet of complex seals are written into the scroll and a space about 8” by 13” is left blank in the first two feet of scroll. The scroll is laid in the center of whatever text or inscription that's to be copied and a circle of simple boundary seal encases the lot of them. Two seals later and a perfect, miniaturized copy is written into the blank space and can be enlarged or recopied later with ease. Err, unless you tried to copy demon seals. Then…Err, that'd be very bad as the two seal types are generally incompatible, like two different computer OS programs (like Mac's OS trying to directly speak to Windows. Big compatibility problem there.) The scroll will work, just not in any manner anticipated.

 

Scroll Sheet (D Rank) A simple jutsu to enlarge a scroll's size. Nin-jutsu. Four seals.

 

The jutsu Shikamaru used to enlarge his scroll's size. The size the scroll can be enlarged to is dependant on the chakra control of the user and the quality of the paper. The enlarged paper can be written, drawn, or painted on and will keep the text or picture in a miniaturized form when it is shrunken. It can be re-enlarged later at any time.