Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Shinigami no Naruto: Power of the Soul ❯ War and Peace ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter Nine: War and Peace

The eight shinobi were up several hours before dawn the next day. Team Nine supped on cold leftovers from the previous night's dinner. Kakashi was bright eyed and bushy tailed, but his three genin were still groggy. They had been roused from their blankets along with Team Nine to see them off. Team Seven would not be departing the house for hours yet. Sakura, more alert than either of her teammates shifted her gaze worriedly between the members of Team Nine. She didn't know any of them particularly well, and thought of Naruto as an annoyance, but she didn't want any of them to die.

Irritatingly enough nobody but her seemed to be worrying much about their upcoming assignment. Tenten, Naruto and even Hinata moved with a confidence and familiarity with their weapons, hooking swords on to belts (and baldric in Naruto's case) with surety born of long experience. She was slightly wary of the four. She remembered how Tenten and Hinata had removed their sword belts, examined their weapons for wear and tear before bed then sheathed them, laying them down next to their futons, one hand resting on the scabbard, ready to draw at an instants notice.

All too soon Anko and her students were out the door and vanished into the darkness. Kakashi stood behind her and put a hand on her shoulder as Sasuke and Kiba went back to bed. “Don't worry Sakura-chan, Anko will take care of her team. They will all come back safely.”

“I hope so,” she whispered before returning to her futon.

OoOoO

Anko and company had been tree hopping for half an hour before a glow rose in front of them. They slowed down to a more cautious pace and approached the treeline. There was a clearing in front of them, maybe three quarters of a mile in diameter, compound in it. In the predawn darkness the canvas walls were lit by torches on tripods, guards every fifty feet or so. Digging a pair of binoculars from her pack, Anko put them to her eyes. Focusing the lenses, she noted that the interior of the camp was dark and quiet, the odd campfire throwing light here and there. However the most important feature was a large, three peaked tent in the middle of the camp. The area around it was well lit, with a dozen bright torches throwing the shadows back a good twenty feet. Also there were three times the guards pacing the perimeter of the light as there were on the walls in the same space. Lowering the binoculars she turned to her team.

“So here's the plan. Naruto, what I want you to do is just flood the area with as many shadow clones as you can manage. You are running distraction. Tenten-chan, Hinata-chan, follow behind Naruto and keep an eye out for any officers that pop up. Your assignment is to eliminate anyone who can organize a defense. Naruto, assign a dozen or so clones to follow me, I will head straight to the command tent and eliminate the commander. Got it everyone?” All three teenagers nodded. “Okay. Set your mics to channel three.”

Everyone strapped their special-issue radios to their throats and tested them to make sure that they were working. Once that was done, Anko signaled Naruto forward. Closing his eyes for a second he focused his chakra and threw his hands together in the cross seal for the Shadow Clone Technique. One second later the area was blanketed in a thick bank of ninja smoke. Using a Great Breakthrough, Naruto cleared it to reveal a hundred copies of himself. Smiling at his teammates, the original was quickly lost as all the clones charged the wall en masse. None of the guards on the wall reacted at first, stunned by the sight of a wall of people storming the camp. As the Naruto's reached about halfway to the wall, one of the guards gained his senses long enough to sound the alarm.

Some of the guards on the wall panicked and ran back into the camp, but the vast majority stood their ground. Each one of the wall guards set himself to accept the rush of a thousand black-clad Naruto's. But they were left staring stupidly at one another as the clones drew their zanbatos and tore through the canvas of the wall, completely bypassing those up on the wall. In hindsight, while canvas was incredibly cheap, it probably did not make the best fortifications.

Naruto smirked to himself as he saw the guards up on top of the wall set themselves. He reached over his shoulder and drew Ice Fang, his action mirrored a hundred times over. Sweeping his sword in front of him he jumped through the rent he had created in the cloth. In front of him was a sight that made his blood boil. There was one of the mercenaries seated at the base of one of the ladders used to ascend the wall. At his feet was a child, no more than five or so. A large jug sake was clutched in her arms. The jug was dropped as the man she was presumably carrying it to slapped her hard across the face. Apparently he was too drunk to realize that the camp was under attack.

The girl fell to her knees, showing her badly cut hair and bruise covered arms and face. These men were using children as slaves. Ignoring the sounds of battle around him as his clones engaged the mercenary's companions, Naruto set his sword down and knelt down to the girl. “Hey there. Are you okay?”

Before the girl could respond the guard with the alcohol lurched to his feet. “Hey, whoda hell are you? That is my servant dere. You dun get to touch 'er.”

Picking the terrified girl up in his arms he stroked her back and whispered softy in her ear. “Shhh... be quiet now. I'm here to help you. Everything will be okay now. Just hush.” Naruto had turned away from the drunken guard to comfort the girl, but the guard was getting angry.

“Hey you! I said dat's my servant dere. Put 'er down now!” Naruto bent down to pick up his sword again before he turned to face him.

“You shut the fuck up. You don't get to talk to her. In fact, you don't even get to look at her.” Quickly Naruto handed the sobbing girl to a clone before facing the drunken guard fully. The guard fell back in alarm as the boy in front of him suddenly took on a far more terrifying aspect, crimson eyes searing into his mind. He was not given long to contemplate his terror as Naruto released the tension in his muscles and sent the guard's head rolling across the ground.

Naruto took a moment to assimilate the memories of clones that had been destroyed, trying to see if there was any area that was offering particularly stiff resistance. Not noting any immediately he sent the clone with the girl back to the tree line before charging back into the blood bath that was only now starting up in earnest.

OoOoO

Hinata was following Tenten with her Byakugan activated, searching out anyone who looked to be organizing resistance. Both girls had followed their male teammate in through one of the slashes in the canvas wall and were forced to a halt. Bodies and pieces of bodies scattered the ground, a blood coating everything liberally.

“Tenten-san, was Naruto-kun really the one who did this?”

“I dunno. But we cannot be distracted from our mission. We have to search out the leaders of the mercenaries here.”

The pair of kunoichi slowly made their way towards the center of the camp, shadowing the battalion of Narutos that were running amok in the camp. Hinata stopped walking and turned her head to the left. “What's wrong Hinata?” Tenten asked.

“Our first target. Fifty meters that way,” Hinata murmured back, gesturing to a slight rise to the left where a giant man was gesturing emphatically to a ring of soldiers surrounding him.

“I see,” Tenten said. “How do your want to do this?”

“Start by sniping the big man's retainers off. I will go in and go toe-to-toe with them. Just be sure to keep me covered.”

“Sure thing Hinata.” Tenten always thought it was slightly surprising how Hinata could have such problems with her self-confidence outside of combat, but once the blood started flowing, she changed to someone resembling the cold Hyuuga stereotype that had been expected of her her entire life. Tenten unsealed a scroll from her shirt and started firing shuriken and kunai at the men surrounding the giant. Half of them were dead before they could even figure out what the hell was going on.

Working in concert, Tenten and Hinata were able to make short work of the cronies before facing the large man. He was big in every sense of the word. He looked to be closer to eight feet than seven, and had hands as big as either of the kunoichi's heads. The pair of pants that he wore had enough material in them so that a normal sized man could probably stand in either leg. He was shirtless, rotund belly made mostly of muscle, arms equally as thick, as they had to be considering the small tree of a club he was leaning on.

“Well well, what do we have here?” he asked directing his obsidian eyes to the waist high ninja. Tenten and Hinata didn't respond. They released their shikai and readied themselves to receive his attack. “Well, if that is how you want to play it then, be my guest. Just don't say that I didn't warn you.” The unnamed man lifted his monstrous club easily and made a lazy swipe at Tenten and Hinata. Both easily dodged, Hinata ducking under and Tenten back flipping out of the way.

Hinata studied the giant warily, evading several more pulverizing strikes before attacking herself. She waited until he made a horizontal sweep that would have ripped her in half had it connected and darted in, her clawed hand digging into his extended arm. Unfortunately, he merely grinned at the trenches he dug in his arm, completely ignoring the pain. No matter where or how deeply Hinata struck he was able to brush the damage off. She even tried a three fingered Lightning Blast, but even that barely slowed him down, causing him to stumble slightly and shake his head before going back on the attack.

The hill that the three were battling on was starting to look it, several deep craters and a scorch mark from a missed Lightning Blast decorating the bare dirt. The unnamed giant was sporting a multitude of wounds, shuriken and kunai spread over his chest quite liberally. Hinata winced as he was able to finally make a glancing blow, his club tagging her shoulder on a horizontal sweep. Hinata was sent tumbling to one side, only stopping once Tenten caught her.

“You okay Hinata?”

Hinata stood up on wobbly legs. “Yeah, I'm okay for the moment,” she grunted, wincing as she felt her shoulder. “I dislocated my shoulder and might have broken my collarbone. Hurts a bit.”

“How are we supposed to take this guy down? He is completely ignoring everything we do to him. My kunai and shuriken don't slow him down the least bit. The only good thing here is that he can only swing that tree vertically and horizontally, it is too big to do otherwise.”

Hinata looked over at their opponent who was relaxing by leaning on his club, apparently content to let them talk. Hinata looked him over, trying to come up with a strategy that didn't involve either one of them being reduced to paste. Hinata suddenly turned to Tenten and whispered to her. Tenten shook her head and the pair separated.

“So you two girlies ready to give up yet?”

Instead of answering Tenten let off a volley of kunai that the giant didn't even bother to block as they struck him in the chest. “Did you do something? I think I felt a tickle.”

He lifted up his club as Hinata charged him, he wounded arm held against her chest. He smirked as he swung at her again but was surprised when instead of rolling out of the way she bounced up on his club. Hinata leaped forward, a black tornado spinning in midair, a sweeping foot striking three kunai in his chest. Hinata leaped away out of his range and waited. The smiling giant reached up to itch the spot that she had kicked. “Was that the best you could do girlie? I barely felt anything.” He raised his club and took a step forward to attack when his face contorted into confusion. A moment later he opened his mouth and blood dribbled down his chin.

“What the hell did you do to me? What witchcraft have...” was all he managed before he collapsed face first on the ground.

Hinata drew a kunai in her good arm and slowly approached the fallen giant. HE was lying face down in the dirt, and didn't appear to be breathing. However, Hinata slit his throat just to be sure. Looking over to Tenten and nodding, they went off in search of their next target once Hinata had repaired her injuries.

OoOoO

Meanwhile, Anko was having fun. She was in her element, slipping among the shadows like a wraith, only popping up long enough to grab a man from behind and dispatch him, by slitting his throat, breaking his neck or slipping a kunai or senbon into his brain. The dozen copies of her son followed her, waiting until they arrived at the command tent before announcing themselves.

Ten minutes into the attack, Anko and her twelve guards crouched down in the shadows outside the ring of light surrounding the command tent. At her signal, the Naruto clones drew their zanbatos and cocked their arms back. All the guards saw were flickers of light on steel before they were cut in half. Anko strode past the pools of gore, ignoring the blood that squelched in between her toes. Pulling the flap to the tent open, she entered the well lit interior.

There was a single man in the middle of the tent, leaning on a table with both hands, examining a map. He was of about average height, shaggy brown hair falling forward to obscure his face. His clothes were in good condition, very few stitches and patches evident. But what caught her attention most significantly was the katana strapped to his waist.

“I told the midget that it was only a matter of time before someone turned up to try to do something about him. I told him I needed more samurai, or shinobi if not the first, but he was too confident that no one would bother to come here.” The man straightened and turned to face Anko. Sharp was the word that Anko thought when she saw his face. Sharp and narrow. He had a long pointed nose, with a narrow jaw that ended in a chin that could cut. His eyes were wide, under a pair of high eyebrows. Overall, it was an aristocratic face.

“Are you ready to die Shinobi-san?”

“Nah, I got plans that I can't afford to cancel. I hate to disappoint my friends.”

“Well, that is a shame I suppose. It seems that I am in a similar situation.” After he said that he drew the katana, holding it to her in both hands. “I guess we will just have to see who will be able to keep their calendar, shall we?”

Anko nodded not saying anything. However, the color drained from her face as she felt a cocoon of chakra envelop the man, as the smile on his face twisted into a sneer. 'Fuck! This guy isn't some half trained thug ronin, he is a disgraced samurai. I'm not going to be able to take him alone.' Anko quickly fled from the tent outside where she would have some space to fight. The presence of the samurai was troubling. If there was one, there might be more, and her genin had no idea how to fight one. The chakra cocoon that he had wrapped himself in was his most dangerous attribute. With that, he was virtually immune to just about any nin- or genjutsu, and even most taijutsu, the styles that relied on chakra to enhance it. The cocoon able to disrupt the chakra matrix that they were composed of.

If any of her genin were to try to take another samurai head on, they would die. Samurai trained for hours a day with their swords and physical stamina. The best way for a shinobi to kill a samurai was to exhaust him, and wait for his chakra cocoon to go down. Once that was gone, then they were no different than any other expert swordsmen. Unfortunately, Anko didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of outlasting her opponent, so that meant finding Naruto and getting him to wear the samurai down so that she could then kill him.

Anko was hopping about, always trying to staying more than five feet away from him, because if she got nearer than that, her chakra would be shut down completely, thus making her easy pickings. “Naruto, where are you?” she pressed two fingers to the throat receptor on her mic.

It was a minute before her son responded and when he did his voice was rough. “Just finishing up with the last twenty guys or so. These people were using children as slaves.”

Anko winced at that. If there was one thing that Naruto could not stand, it was cruelty to children, no doubt rising in part from his own bad experiences. “I need you to get your ass over to the command tent on the triple. I've run into a snag.”

A snag was Bad. Everyone knew that no plan lasted past the first contact with the enemy, and difficulties were expected and could be planned for, to a certain extent. Snags, however, were unforeseen problems that could compromise the mission itself. Anko winced as she tried to parry a sword thrust from the samurai and got a long cut along a rib for her trouble. Anko did not have the large chakra reserves required for extended chakra manipulation and the constant chakra-enhanced leaps and dodges were starting to take their toll. If Naruto didn't arrive soon, she was in deep shit.

Fortunately, Naruto arrived in the nick of time, blindsiding the samurai with a flying tackle from one of the peaks of the command tent. The two rolled several times before Naruto was launched into the air. He landed hard on his back thirty feet away and lay there, stunned and winded.

Anko grimaced as she leaped forward to distract the samurai away from her momentarily defenseless son. Anko staggered back, stars obscuring her vision as she locked blades with the samurai, slowly being pressed back as his cocoon sapped her chakra-enhanced strength. If she could only nick him, the adrenaline-based poison that she had coated her kunai with could take effect, speeding the samurai's heart up until it exploded, but she couldn't get anywhere close enough to tag him. Suddenly he snapped his pommel forward, catching her above the eye and splitting the skin. But her attack had bought Naruto the time he needed to recover and he was back on his feet.

“This is the snag?” Naruto asked, but Anko barely recognized the voice. In fact, she barely recognized him at all. This Naruto was a far more feral one than her son was. The red chakra swirling around his hunched form exuded that semi-familiar evil that she had felt twelve years ago. His curled fingers had sprouted inch-long claws around the hilt of his sword, and his canines had grown into fangs extending past his lower lip. But most disturbing of all was that his normally sky-blue eyes had shifted into a bloody red, pupils lengthened into catlike slits. His hair was whipped around by the force of his chakra.

Without waiting for confirmation, Naruto jumped forward using both hands to swing Ice Fang in a man-chopping overhead cut, burying the steel almost a foot into the ground. The samurai had easily evaded the blow, still smirking. However, his smirk soon turned to a frown as the boy before him showed alarming facility with that improbably huge blade. His scowl deepened as the boy continued to hold him off, the length of the sword allowing the boy to keep an annoying distance between the two. It seemed that Naruto had unwittingly discovered the secret to fight a samurai as a ninja, and that was to keep him as far away as possible.

However, the samurai were not known as the greatest swordmasters for nothing. While Naruto was able to keep the unnamed samurai away from him, he was simply not good enough to touch him either. Naruto backflipped a dozen paces away as he roared the name of his signature ninjutsu. The entire camp was engulfed as a massive cloud of ninja smoke was summoned. Naruto and Anko watched as the samurai and his sword blurred easily dispatching the army of clones that Naruto had summoned. Naruto leaped forward, bare fisted, as the samurai finished off the last handful of clones. Naruto was so lost in the Kyuubi's rage that he left his sword lying on the ground, forgotten.

The samurai retreated quickly before the engine of destruction that was Naruto. The sheer menace and hatred that was rolling off the boy dressed in black clothes completely baffled the veteran warrior. No matter how he cut and sliced at the boy, he only snarled and continued, ignoring the bite of sharp steel. The samurai was sporting a number of wounds himself, courtesy of Naruto's clawed fingers. He was starting to panic now. There was no possible way that the creature in front of him was human, not with the foul chakra that was pouring off of him, more than even his chakra-consuming cocoon could handle.

The samurai finally realized that he was probably not going to defeat the boy, but he could take him to meet the Shinigami also. The samurai made a straight thrust that speared the smaller boy through his left chest, ignoring the claws reaching to tear his head off. To the samurai's relief, Naruto made a swipe at him, but missed, arms too short to overcome the distance the samurai's extended arms and sword gave him.

His eyes widened in horror though as Naruto gripped the steel of his sword in both hands, ignoring the pain of having his hands shredded as he pulled himself up the sword. “What the fuck are you?” the samurai whispered.

“Death,” Naruto replied in a voice that was felt as much as heard, more right than even he knew.

Distantly the samurai wondered how it was that a runt of a ninja was able to overcome him in a purely physical fight, where samurai were supposed to have the advantage over ninja as the Kyuubi-possessed Naruto ripped his throat out with his teeth.

Hinata and Tenten watched Naruto's fight from among the tents, those that remained standing. They had heard Anko tell Naruto to come to her, and already having completed their objective, followed suit. They had just reached the edge of the clearing where the command tent was situated when Naruto entered his berserker mode. The two girls were forced to the ground, cheeks in the dirt, by the oppressive weight of the ki that Naruto was creating. They were unable to do anything but watch from the sidelines as the samurai started to rip Naruto up, just breathing almost more than either could manage. Tenten's heart stopped in her chest and her throat closed up as she saw the samurai impale Naruto through the chest and nearly vomited as Naruto pulled himself up the sword to take a bite out of his throat.

The crippling ki vanished as Naruto fell back. Instantly, both girls were on their feet racing to where their teammate had fallen. “Naruto,” Tenten whispered almost inaudibly when she got close enough to see the damage. His clothes were reduced to rags, and there was more blood than skin showing. Strangely enough, he didn't seem to have as many cuts on him as the state of his clothes would suggest, the hole in his chest and a handful of alarmingly deep cuts adorning his chest and arms.

Hinata activated her bloodline eyes to examine him, tearing the remnants of his shirt off. “The sword pierced his lung and missed his heart. However, his lung is filling with blood.” She glanced down to the gauge set into the black glove on her arm. Less than a third full, not nearly enough to do any good. She regretted using Minazuki to patch Tenten and herself up earlier now. She might be able to heal Naruto with a full gauge, but she wasn't sure. Tenten and Hinata still looked very battered, yellowing bruises scattered randomly. Tenten was sporting a very nice shiner on her eye, which had swollen, forcing her left eye shut and Hinata had a mouse growing under her right eye herself.

“Hey Hinata-chan, Tenten-chan. I fucked him over good didn't I?” His voice was a weak and thready, his small laugh turning into a hacking cough. Hinata helped him roll onto his side and spit the blood out. Looking around for something to use as bandages, she gestured for Anko and Tenten to tear up one of the cleaner-looking tents to fashion bandages. She spied his tan trench coat several feet away. He must have lost it early on in the fight because it was hardly damaged. Taking a kunai she and Tenten cut the rough cloth into strips which, with the help of Anko, they wound around his torso.

“Naruto-kun, what happened to you back there?” Hinata and Tenten had draped an arm over each of their shoulders to help a woozy Naruto walk out of the camp and back to Tazuna's house.

Hinata and Tenten felt the tension return to his body almost instantly. Naruto was quiet for a minute and Tenten was about to retract her question when he spoke in a low voice as he pulled out of their grips and stepped ahead of them. “Do either of you know what my birthday is?”

“October tenth,” Hinata responded immediately. Her face heated in a blush as she realized how quickly she had answered, but neither of her teammates seemed to think the speed of her response odd.

“You know that the Yondaime defeated the Kyuubi that day also, but the fact that he killed the Kyuubi is a lie. The Kyuubi was a being of pure chakra, and was immortal. So to defeat it he was forced to use his life as a sacrifice to power a seal that would imprison the demon in a newly born infant. That infant was me.” He paused before continuing. “I am sure that I can get the Hokage to assign you to another teammate.”

Tenten took a long step forward and hauled on his shoulder, forcing him to face her. She raised one hand and slapped him, causing him to stumble slightly. He regained his balance and sent a small glare to Tenten. He had just admitted that he carried the most hated being in all of Konoha and she had the nerve to slap him? He knew that she had been too good to be true, that she hated him now, just like everyone else.

Before he was able to speak she spoke. “What kind of bullshit are you spouting off now? Why the hell would I want that? You are Uzumaki Naruto, my boyfriend. So what if you have a demon sealed in you? Are you the same person you were last week? Or has your admission turned you into someone else?” She sighed at his incomprehension. “Let me put it this way. What were you thinking when you used the Kyuubi's chakra?”

“To protect Mom.”

“Exactly. Now, I don't know about you, but most demons I heard of wouldn't give a rat shit whether or not one person came to harm, no matter who they were. You used the Kyuubi chakra to protect your mother. That sounds just like the Naruto that I love.”

“But I killed that man, I ripped his throat out with my teeth, you can't say that that is normal.”

“Naruto, remember when we discussed this, this kind of thing was expected to happen.” Anko put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, letting Naruto's sword drop to rest her arms. She didn't have a clue as to how her son was able to swing Ice Fang around like it was a feather duster when she had to use both hands to carry the damn thing.

“You mean you have know about it for a while?” Tenten looked from mother to son in confusion.

“Yeah, for about two years now, I found out right after I got out of the hospital when I got mugged on my birthday, when I got all my scars.”

Tenten stepped forward and pulled Naruto into a kiss. Hinata's face immediately ignited and she diverted her gaze. Anko on the other hand, hand no such compunctions about about messing with Tenten and Naruto. Fifteen seconds later Anko coughed, not so discreetly. “Geez, don't either you you need to breathe?”

Tenten looked her way and flipped her the birdie, never losing contact with Naruto. They did break a few seconds after that, much to Hinata's relief. “That was sorry for slapping you. But I don't ever want to hear such a moronic comment from your mouth ever again. Clear?”

“I understand.” The amount of gratitude that Naruto sent her was appalling. That such a simple acceptance would shock him that much spoke volumes of the hatred that he had experienced.

“And what about you Hinata-san?”

To hear Naruto refer to her with that particular suffix wounded the indigo-haired kunoichi terribly. “Um, I-i don't think that you are the t-thing that you contain, Naruto-kun. I would much rather h-have you as my teammate that a-anyone else.” Hinata ducked her eyes to her feet the moment that she started to answer his question, so she did not see the near joy that crossed his features.

She squeaked when Naruto seized her in a hug a moment later and whispered “thank you Hinata-chan,” in her ear. She wanted to tell him that he was her teammate, that they were supposed to stick together, but her traitorous throat refused to let any sound passed so she was reduced to nodding her acceptance.

Tenten gave her other female teammate a slightly cool nod when Naruto set her down, and they resumed walking, rushing forward to catch Naruto when he stumbled a moment later.

“Still not all better quite yet I guess.” Neither girl had anything to say to that.

OoOoO

Several miles away, on the other side of the island, a barge full of mercenaries was on the water, heading towards Tazuna's partially completed bridge. The rough banter and insults were cut off abruptly however when an absolutely inhuman wave of rage and hatred washed over them. No small number soiled themselves in some manner, looking to their fellows, wondering what the hell was going on. Gato shivered in terror, debating the merits of calling the attack off. He could let Zabuza deal with whatever the hell was generating that monstrous killing intent. On the other hand, he couldn't afford to let the mercenaries he had hired see his fear, or they might desert him. In this case, his greed outweighed his fear. On they would go.

OoOoO

Back at Tazuna's home, four shinobi and three civilians were violently torn from their slumber. Tsunami, Tazuna and Inari rushed out of their rooms to question the shinobi about what that most hateful feeling was. The fact that Kakashi himself was visibly shaken was of no comfort.

“There is nothing to worry about. That is from an ally.” His three genin of course demanded that he further qualify that statement, but he ignored them in favor of staring out a window in the direction that Team Nine had departed hours earlier.

“Tazuna, it is time to go. Sasuke, Kiba, Sakura, be ready for trouble.” That said, he strode determinedly to his room, ignoring the squawked protests. Anko better damn well know what was going on, for all their sakes.

OoOoO

The trip back from the mercenary camp took longer than the trip from it. Naruto seemed to be stable, or at least he wasn't worsening. Anko had put her nearly nonexistent medical knowledge to use and was able to keep Naruto from dying until they could get him better attention at Tazuna's house. Anko hoped that Kakashi had the opportunity to copy the Mystical Palm Technique. If he hadn't than they would have to rely on the Kyuubi's enhanced regeneration to heal him, and nobody knew how long that would take. All of his other wounds had healed by this point, but that sword thrust didn't show any signs of healing.

Anko tensed and waved her team to silence as they approached Tazuna's house. There were signs of a struggle, with a window broken and the door missing. Anko cautiously advanced onto the building, a poisoned kunai in one hand. The door had been kicked off its hinges and lay a foot into the foyer. Carefully she advanced into the dining room/family room. The place was trashed, the table reduced to splinters and the walls carved up. Padding further into the house she heard a soft sobbing. Anko slowly eased the door to the sobbing open and saw Inari bawling on the floor. Flicking her eyes around to make sure that there were no enemies hiding, she knelt down and put a maternal hand on his shoulder.

“Inari-chan, what happened here?”

“Th-those sam-sam-samurai, they took m-my mom,” he managed to choke out. Anko's face tightened in anger. So it appeared that Gato was making his move today.

“Inari-chan, this is important. I want to go save you mother, but I need to know where they went. Did they go to the bridge or did they take her to Gato's base?”

“They said that they were going to make an example of her in front of Grandpa.”

“Alright, that's good. You did well Inari. Hush now. I will make everything better, I promise.” Turning away from Inari, Anko put her fingers to lips and let a piercing whistle out. A minute later, Tenten and Hinata entered, still supporting Naruto. Inari gasped when he saw the bloodstained cloth wrapping around Naruto's chest, tan trenchcoat covering his back and arms.

“Inari, Naruto was hurt in a fight, and I need you to take care of him while I take his teammates to go help your grandfather. Can you do that for me please?”

Inari wiped the tears from his eye with a sleeve, and put on a determined expression. “I can help Naruto-san while you are helping my family.”

“That is a good boy.”

“Hold on a second, why am I being left here with the brat?”

“Because Naruto, with your injury, were I to take you, you would be more of a liability than an asset, you can barely stand on your own, and there is at least two jounin-level missing-nin working for Gato right now. We have to get to the bridge as fast as possible, and you would only slow us down. The best you can do is remain here and focus on healing.”

Naruto thought about that for a few seconds and then sullenly accepted her decision. Anko then turned to Hinata and Tenten. “Are either of you hurt bad enough to have to stay here?” When both girls shook their heads Anko nodded approvingly. “Well that is good. We are going to have to double-time it to get to the bridge.”

Tenten bent down to give Naruto a quick peck on the cheek, promising to throw a couple of kunai for him. Naruto nodded appreciatively as he watched her retreating form.

Naruto then turned to Inari. “Alright brat, time to go,” ignoring the boys spluttering protests.

OoOoO

Anko held a fist out to the side, signaling for a halt as they reached the edge of the forest, peering into the thick fog that enveloped the bridge. Doubtlessly Zabuza's handiwork. “Remember, try to stay concealed for as long as possible. No one here is fighting at their best, so be careful. I don't want to be dragging a body bag home because one of you got sloppy because you were tired. Got it?” She jumped out of the tree she was crouched in and disappeared into the fog once she received acknowledgment.

There seemed to be at least three separate fights going on, with Sakura guarding Tazuna, a dark haired shinobi talking with Sasuke, Kakashi duking it out with Zabuza and Kiba presumably in what appeared to be a dome of either ice or glass panels. Silently directing each of her genin to assist a member of Team Seven, she herself slunk over to where Kakashi was. Kakashi had a large gash across his chest and had summoned a pack of nindogs to assist him. From what she knew of the man, he would probably try to pin Zabuza down with the dogs and then kill him with that not-assassination move he called the Chidori. As loud as that attack was, how anyone could ever conceive classifying that as an assassination jutsu was beyond her.

Tearing herself out of her thoughts she concentrated on the fight occurring before her. She was low on chakra, so she would have to pick her entry carefully. After a minute of observation, she saw her opportunity. Zabuza was fending Kakashi's dogs off with his one good arm when she charged a Lightning Grip, putting the rest of her pitifully low chakra reserves into it. Given Zabuza's size, it would only affect him for a handful of seconds before she would have to drop it. Hopefully, Kakashi would be able to finish him off when she had locked Zabuza down. Unfortunately, Zabuza sensed something, whether it was the chakra of her jutsu or the soft slapping of her sandals on the concrete of the bridge was irrelevant.

Grimacing as she felt the sharp pain of running on empty, she made one last ditch effort to catch Zabuza, completely missing flesh, but cutting her palm on his trailing zanbato, the pain instinctively contracting her muscles, allowing her electrically charged chakra to surge into his body.

“NOW KAKASHI!” she screamed and felt warm blood splatter he face a second later as Kakashi thrust his arm into Zabuza to the elbow. She grinned maniacally at Kakashi once before she collapsed to the rough concrete.

OoOoO

Hinata paused only long enough to make sure a stunned Sakura and Tazuna were alright before ordering the pair to stay where they were and drawing her rapier as she charged into the thick back of fog. Tazuna and Sakura exchanged a bewildered glance before looking to where the unusually determined Hinata had raced off into the fog.

Hinata grimaced as she approached the dome of ice where Anko thought Kiba was. She drew her sword back and focused her will, honing the soul steel before swinging it in a diagonal slash that parted the chakra-charged ice with only a little resistance after activating her bloodline eyes. Hinata ignored the flabbergasted look Kiba sent her way and the ice mirror reforming behind her, cutting off her escape.

“What the hell are you doing here Hinata-chan?”

“My team and I returned to Tazuna's house earlier this morning to find the place ransacked. Tsunami-san has been kidnapped, so we left Naruto there and my sensei and other teammate hurried here the help.”

“As touching that this reunion is, you have only rushed to your death, Konoha-san.”

“I wouldn't count us out yet, Hunter-san,” Hinata replied.

“You know, I was doing just fine before you arrived.”

Hinata examined him out of the corner of her eye before answering. “You were getting your ass handed to you Kiba.” Both Kiba and Akamaru slouched over slightly as their jaws hit the ground at Hinata's words.

“Who the hell are you and what have you done with Hinata? She was never this assertive in the Academy.”

“I grew up,” was the only answer that she gave.

“If you two are done, may we return to our fight please?” Without warning, a hundred ice senbon erupted from the ice mirrors. Kiba and Akamaru immediately leaped to one side to avoid the projectiles, but Hinata did not budge an inch. With her Byakugan activated, she could see every senbon heading towards her. When they came in range, she exploded into motion, her sword a silver blur as she intercepted or dodged by bending at seemingly impossible angles, before coming to a stop, legs spread apart and sword pointing at the ground, kimono and hakama settling back down around her form.

Kiba was stunned to say the least. Here he was, barely to pull the senbon out before he was peppered again, and Hinata didn't have a scratch on her, still able to fight at Haku's level even after returning from destroying the bandit camp, as he knew that neither Anko nor Naruto would leave until the mission was complete. This Hinata that was fighting in front of him was a complete stranger. He had wondered at the tree genin of Team Nine's new weapons when they had first arrived and then assumed that they only had a basic ability with them, but this Hinata was scarily proficient with her rapier.

“Kiba-kun, could you finish our opponent off if I were to stop him?”

“Uh, I guess so,” he replied before having to dodge another senbon barrage.

“Can you or can you not Kiba? I need to know.”

“Yeah, slow him down enough, and I can put him down for good.”

“Alright then, be ready.” He was about to ask ready for what when she did that thing with her sword that she had during the spars at the beginning of the combined mission. Once again he was left wondering what kind of weapon that was. Setting herself into what he recognized as a Jyuuken stance she lashed out at a breeze. To Kiba's supreme surprise, her claws came away wet with blood, and the fake hunter-nin spiraled out of control, landing heavily a few paces away. Kiba could see three slashes decorating the guy's upper arm, quite deep judging by the amount of blood that was flowing out. Kiba quickly tossed Akamaru his third soldier pill of the fight, wincing as he knew that more than one was bad for the dog, but it couldn't be helped.

Kiba immediately threw his hands together in the seals for the Beast Human Clone and then the Double Piercing Fang, throwing the enemy ninja's body to the other end of the dome, shattering his mask. The effeminate young man tried to duck into one of his ice mirrors, but Hinata was on him as soon as he had regained his feet. Kiba rushed forward to assist Hinata, trying to get a grapple to stop him so that Hinata could finish him off with her Jyuuken.

Kiba saw the boy's eyes widen suddenly. “I am sorry, but I have to cut our fight short.” And before either Konoha-nin could do anything, he vanished, rushing through the mist to where Kakashi was fighting Zabuza.

“That was rather... anticlimactic,” Kiba said looking to where the guy had rushed off to. Suddenly, Hinata dropped to her knees, the black gauntlet reforming into her rapier. “Hinata, you okay?”

“Yeah, I'm f-fine Kiba-kun. Just tired is all. Using my shikai as many times I have today is very wearing.”

“I see,” Kiba replied, obvious that he didn't, but willing to let the matter drop in favor of regrouping with his team for the moment. Sliding an arm under the shorter girl's shoulder, he walked off in the direction that would lead him to Sakura he hoped. Anko and Kakashi could handle themselves for the moment. But he looked back and stopped in shock at what he saw as the mist faded away.

OoOoO

Tenten silently padded past where Hinata was talking to Sakura and Tazuna, trying to locate Sasuke and his opponent in the fog. After a minute or so of quietly walking around, a pair of kunai drawn, she heard faint voices off to her right. The higher one she recognized as Sasuke's, and the other, deeper one she assumed was Zabuza's partner. The voices grew louder as she got closer, and her eyebrows nearly disappeared under her hitai-aite when she heard what they were talking about.

“...the last of us, Cousin.

“I can't believe it! Itachi was the traitor, not Father!”

“I am not saying he wasn't. I am merely saying he was following orders.” Sasuke said nothing so the other voice continued. “Loyalty to the Clan is paramount. Your brother didn't realize this.”

“And you think that...”

“I know it, from an unimpeachable source.”

“So what? He is dead, everyone knows it. Even if he hadn't died fighting for the title, he would have of old age, long ago.”

“There are ways of cheating death, for one prepared to make the proper sacrifices.”

“And how would you know this?”

“Because I have been under the seventh tatami mat... Hold on, it seems we have a mouse. Come here, little mouse.”

Tenten swore. She had been so engrossed in the stranger's speech that she had either gotten too close or made a sound, and had exposed herself. Dipping into her nearly empty weapon pouch, she launched a brace of shuriken where she thought the mysterious speaker was. Tenten received a second shock a moment later when she dashed closer and was able to see him. It was the leader of the hitai-aite-less ninja that had attacked her team on the way to Kiri. Although, he had a headband on this time, but not with any symbol she was familiar with. It seemed to be an sun either rising or setting sun behind what she thought was a Uchiha fan.

“Sasuke, what the hell is going on here?”

The male genin's mouth thinned into a white line but said nothing. “You,” she snarled, pointing one of her last three kunai at the man. “You were the leader of those ninja that attacked us on the way to Kiri.”

The man nodded politely. “Indeed I was. I hope you won't hold my previous actions against me?”

“Hold them against you? Your subordinates killed me and my teammates!” she shrieked. That got a sharp glance from Sasuke.

The man sighed. “I don't suppose that I could convince you to depart. You have interrupted a rather important conversation with young Sasuke-kun here.” Sasuke bared his teeth in a rictus snarl. The stranger saw this and sighed again. “Well, the mood is ruined now. We will contact you again. I hope you will be of a more open frame of mind then. Be sure to remember to check where I told you to. Now, if you will excuse me.”

The man only smiled as Tenten snatched a scroll from her shirt and unsealed the weapons within. Before she could do anything else, he vanished in a mist body flicker.

A very pissed off Tenten rounded on Sasuke. “Alright Uchiha, want to explain what exactly the hell was going on here? Who was that man and what did he mean when he said when he called you cousin, that loyalty to the clan is paramount and what is under the seventh tatami mat?”

Sasuke continued to stare where the other shinobi was for a few seconds before glancing at you. “That was a clan matter. I don't have to tell you anything.” He walked off into the thinning mist, leaving a paralyzed Tenten behind. 'What the fuck did he mean by that?'

OoOoO

Kakashi was lifting an exhausted Anko up when he saw Zabuza's apprentice fly by, stopping by the body of his master. Through the thinning mist, he could see that the other fights seemed to have been resolved, with the boy by his feet, and the dark haired man nowhere to be seen. Everyone's attention was pulled to the end of the bridge that was uncompleted by an arrogant laugh. Kakashi turned to see a short, fat, white-haired, balding man laughing to the sky with his hands arrogantly crossed over his chest. Kakashi supposed that Gato felt that with the thirty or forty or so mercenaries behind him, he had a right to. Kakashi didn't miss the thug that was holding a terrified Tsunami close to him, one hand around her waist, knife point denting the skin of her cheek as he absently traced random designs on her cheek.

“I thought that he was supposed to be the Demon of the Mist? Bah, what a weakling, of he couldn't take down a couple of soft Konoha shinobi.” Kakashi's normal eye narrowed at that. He knew that Konoha was considered the softest of the villages, but this man seemed to equate that softness with weakness. Even Kiri, probably the second most powerful shinobi village acknowledged Konoha's superiority.

“Shut your foul mouth. Someone like you has no business speaking of Zabuza-san in that manner.”

“Oh, what is this? The baby demon's pet?”

“Don't you DARE disrespect my master!” the boy at Kakashi's feet snarled.

“Would someone please shut him up? As grateful as I am for the kid and his master for weakening the other ninja, he is getting annoying.”

“Sure thing Gato-sama,” a slender mercenary with a pair of snakelike daggers said. “I bet you have pretty screams.” The man and the double handful of his compatriots who had stepped forward halted as their intended victim formed some handseals and the puddled water on the bridge rose in the air and formed into a hundred frozen senbon.

“Die,” the ice-nin growled, taking a hold of a pair and dashing forward. Gato quickly retreated as Haku tore through his guards, only paying attention to the mercenaries if the got directly between him and Gato.

Kakashi stepped forward to pull Tsunami away from the bloodbath that was occurring in front of her, shielding her eyes from seeing Haku thrust a senbon through each of Gato's eyes and a third through his throat. The boy swayed before collapsing over Gato's corpse, clearly dead, or on the doorstep, even at that distance.

The remainder of the mercenary company stood there for a moment before turning their eyes on the remaining shinobi, who had all gathered around Kakashi. “Well, damn, that boy killed our meal ticket. I guess we will have to take it out on your hides.”

Kakashi grimaced. Looking around, the only ones who appeared to be in any condition to fight were Tenten, Sasuke, and maybe Hinata. Kiba and Akamaru were barely on their feet and there was no way that Sakura could do what would be necessary. His own fault, he supposed, but nothing he could correct right now. As he was preparing to speak, something very large and shiny spun by him from behind, hitting the leader of the mercs and blowing him back into his fellows.

It was that retardedly huge cleaver of a sword that Naruto toted around, the five backwards pointing spikes lodged in the dead man's chest. Almost as one, the assorted ninja looked back to where the sword had flown from. Naruto was hunched over, looking very battered, his pants ripped off at the knee and wearing his trenchcoat without a shirt, bracers and greaves showing, along with his very toned physique. But what was most attention grabbing was the bandages wrapped around his chest, and an alarmingly large bloodstain over about where his heart was, and a not-so-small trail of blood dripping down his chest. Behind him was Inari and what appeared to be the entire village, all armed with various pointy object that could be used to harm someone. Kakashi thought he saw a sharpened shovel somewhere in the middle.

The silver-haired jounin looked down to Anko who was scowling. “I told him to stay at Tazuna's house. Damned brat can't do anything he is told.”

“In this case, Anko-san, I think he can be forgiven.” Kakashi turned back to the crowd of mercenaries. “Boo,” he whispered. A second later, the mercenaries were in full retreat.

When Naruto saw that he winced in pain and collapsed. Immediately, Anko and Tenten were dashing towards him, with Hinata hot on their heels. Kiba looked from a prostrate Naruto to where his sword was with wide eyes. “Damn,” he muttered. Kakashi couldn't agree more.

Down the bridge Naruto was starting to wish he had stayed at Tazuna's like his mother had told him. He had toppled forward and spit out a mouthful of blood. Tenten and Anko gently rolled him over to examine him.

“Goddammit Naruto. There was a reason why I told you to stay at the house. You have completely reopened your wound.”

Naruto just grunted, which brought another pained wince to his face. Tenten had wet a scrap of cloth down and was using it to wipe the blood off his face. “Sorry Mom, but I couldn't stand by and do nothing. Plus Inari wanted to go get the villagers to back him up. It was pretty easy really, after I showed off a couple of my wounds.”

Anko looked up as a shadow fell over her. “Kakashi, do you know any healing techniques?”

Looking at Naruto for a second he sighed. “Nothing to fix that. I can fix bruises, maybe a hairline fracture of a bone, but an injury like that is beyond my ability. You need a real medic-nin for that.”

Anko twisted her mouth in displeasure. “Oh well.”

“Oh well? That's it? Naruto looks like he got stabbed through the heart! What?” Sakura asked when she saw the looks that the three women of Team Nine exchanged.

“Well, the thing is, I kinda was.” At Sakura's look of dawning horror, he quickly amended “ne, don't worry, Sakura-chan. I'll be fine soon enough.”

Sakura looked like she was about to protest but Kakashi spoke up first. “Why don't we head back to Tazuna's and debrief there. I am sure that you four can answer all our questions there.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” She looked up from her son. “We need a stretcher though. Naruto is in no condition to be moving on his own.”

“Hey there, hold on. I'm fine. I can walk!” That remark was met with supreme disbelief by the Team Seven genin, although, Sasuke was feigning disinterest.

“I call bullshit,” Kiba said, but was instantly forgotten when Anko hit him none too gently on his wound, causing him to fall back grimacing.

“Fucking bitch,” Naruto managed to grunt. Meanwhile Team Seven, minus Sasuke, all exchanged looks of varying degrees of shock. If Tenten and Hinata's total lack of reaction to Anko harsh treatment was anything to go by, then none of them ever wanted to be subjected to Anko's tender mercies while wounded.

A moment later, a pair of villagers walked up, with a makeshift stretcher. Naruto was lifted up on it and everyone made the trek back to the village to recuperate, Tazuna's house having been trashed.

Ten minutes later the six shinobi and one dog were all seated around a mostly conscious Naruto in the largest suite that the village inn had. He had been tucked into a futon, with the blankets wrapped tightly so that he couldn't move and potentially aggravate his injury. Tenten was seated at the top of the group, Naruto's head in her lap, allowing her to play with his hair. Next were Kakashi and Anko, seated across from each other, with Hinata below Anko, then Sakura. Sasuke and Kiba were on Naruto's other side, with Sasuke next to Kakashi.

“Care to start off, if you please Anko?”

“Sure,” she replied gruffly. “We left the house at 0500 this morning and arrived at the edge of the bandit camp at 0530. After a bit of planning, we began out assault. I directed Naruto to use his Shadow Clone Technique to make a diversionary force so that Tenten and Hinata could search out any commanders in the camp. I then took a dozen of his clones and worked my way to what appeared to be the command tent. Upon arrival, the Naruto clones killed the guards and I entered the tent.

“The commander was there, but was more than I could handle.” At this the four members of Team Seven gave Anko a questioning look. Anko was one of Konoha's premier assassins, who could be more than she could handle? “The commander was a samurai, fully trained.” This only confused the genin more, but Kakashi understood now. Kakashi explained when he saw that none of the genin understood what she was talking about.

“There are three militant forces in each of the five great countries. The samurai, ninja and monks. This is so that if one force were to ever attempt a coup or go rogue, the daimyo has two other armies to handle them. There is also a tripod of power between each force. Generally speaking, a samurai will kill a ninja, who will kill a monk, who will kill a samurai.

“The samurai have a chakra-negating ability that makes them immune form virtually every form of ninja combat. Genjutsu and taijutsu are worth only the amount of chakra that they waste, because the samurai can form a disruptive cocoon of chakra around them that will destroy any chakra construct and use it to power itself. Really, the best way to kill a samurai is to get him alone somewhere and then exhaust his chakra reserves. Without the cocoon, they are no more than expert swordsmen. Taijutsu can be an iffy proposition to use most of the time, because the vast majority of taijutsu styles use some amount of chakra in them. The three ninja that would have the easiest time killing a samurai are you Tenten, Maito Gai and his student Rock Lee. That is because there is no chakra in a kunai, and the two Green Beasts taijutsu does not use any chakra at all, their strength coming from physical conditioning.

“A ninja will kill a monk most of the time because while the monks are able to seallessly able to manipulate the elements, it requires them to stay still, and then it is a mere matter of a kunai applied to the eye to beat them.

“Most monks are retired samurai and have developed techniques to counter samurai, like the ability to use the environment against their foe. While ninja can duplicate many of the things that monks can do, monks are somehow able to do them without chakra, something they hold as a S-class secret. We have been trying to discover the secret for as long as they have existed, but they have some unknown means of detecting spies, and are returned to us with no memory of what went on in the monks temple.”

“Anyways, I was able to hold the samurai off until I was able to call Naruto to back me up. He was able to kill him, by allowing the samurai to stab him through the chest.” Kiba, Sakura and even Sasuke gave the former dobe of the Academy disbelieving looks at that news. Although, it did match up with his wound.

“We were heading back to Tazuna's house do discover it had been ransacked and Tsunami kidnapped. I left Naruto here with Inari and brought the rest of my team to assist you.” She doubted that any of the members of Team Seven would take well to being told that they were rescued. Anko was not oblivious to the glare that Sasuke was directing to Naruto. He was doubtlessly wondering how Naruto had gotten so strong, and how to gain that power for himself. She would have to warn Naruto. “And you know everything after that.”

“Actually, Anko, I have something to add.” If looks could kill, the glare that Sasuke sent to Tenten would have killed, dismembered, burned and then scattered the ashes to the wind.

“And what is that, Tenten-san?”

“On the bridge, Anko told me to assist the Uchiha. However, when I came within earshot, neither he nor his opponent were fighting, or even acting hostile. The man was the leader of the ninja that accosted us on the trip to Kiri.” That prompted a brief summary of the ocean battle. “Anyways, the man had a hitai-aite this time, but with no symbol that I recognized. It was either a rising or setting sun behind an Uchiha fan. Also, the man referred to Sasuke as cousin, along with some other things that I didn't understand.”

“You wouldn't, none of you would. The man was a liar. He spoke of things that none of you could comprehend.”

“And what, pray tell, are those thing that we couldn't possibly understand?”

“A matter of Uchiha protocol.”

No matter how they pried and threatened, Anko promising to have him up on charges for disobeying a direct order from a superior officer, that is all he would say.

The progress on the raced to completion, especially once Naruto had recovered enough to start helping out. Of course, it was never just him on the job, but anywhere from several dozen to several hundred Narutos helping out. Naruto secretly enjoyed the stupefied looks from Team Seven the first time they visited the bridge when Naruto was helping out. A couple hundred copies of the same boy scattered across the entire bridge was more than slightly disconcerting, something he took full advantage of.

But with a bottomless pool of workers to draw from, the bridge was completed far too quickly for the tastes of some. Five days after the battle on the bridge, the villagers and two teams of Konoha genin gathered on the bridge to make their farewells.

As the ninja walked off Inari spoke up. “Hey Grandpa, what are we going to call the bridge?”

“How about the 'Super Awesome Bridge That the Kickass Bridgebuilder Tazuna Made'?”

“HELL NO!” the villagers shouted in concert.

“Eesh, no need to be so vehement about it,” Tazuna muttered.

“How about the 'Bridge of Courage'?” Tsunami spoke without looking away from the distant dot that were the saviors of Wave.

“That sounds good. A lot better than Tazuna's suggestion anyways.” Tazuna crossed his arms and sulked while the villagers agreed that the second suggestion was much better than the first.

OoOoO

A/N: okay, I know I am going to get heat for this chapter. Before I say anything else, just know I am dissatisfied with it as well.

See, the Uchihas back in chapter six and seven actually had a purpose. This is probably not the last time we will see them either.

I know that Hinata was wildly OC in the battle on the bridge, but I rewrote that damn scene at least a dozen times without getting anything decent out of it. SO i was just screw it, and got it over.

I kinda like the end of the chapter myself. I don't think I have ever read a story that deals with a wounded Naruto quite like I did. Usually they have him come leaping into battle out of nowhere. My Naruto is a bit smarter than his canon counterpart. And for those of you complaining that I have forgotten Ino in PMs, I have not. Team Nine just has not had an opportunity to interact with her and her teammates yet.

Anyone who can recognize where I got the inspiration for Hinata and Tenten's battle gets a metaphorical, pixie-dusted cyber cookie.

Next Time on Shifted Reality: A conniving council and certain heartbreak.