I DO NOT OWN NARUTO

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"While you may be able to manage against him, I couldn't possibly... no, he's in a completely different league."

"Yes. If we go at each other, we'll either both be killed or, at best, kill each other simultaneously. Even if we increased the numbers, that wouldn't change."

"I didn't expect the kid's guard would be a Legendary Sannin. With him as the opponent... the names of Konoha's Uchiha clan and the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist would be tarnished. Even you..."

"Yes. However, any strong one has a weakness..."

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[ KONOHA ]

Asuma leaned against a desk, his signature cigarette missing from his profile. Brown eyes full of concern were fixed on the prone figure lying in bed. Asuma glanced to his left; Gai was sitting on a stool he had dragged in from the living room, his face unusually serious. By the foot of the bed, Kurenai stood with a contemplative look on her face.

Asuma glanced over at the shelf just above Kakashi's face that held two photo frames — one of his old Genin team, and one of his current one. The Sarutobi exhaled through his nose, lingering on Naruko's smiling face.

"It appears they haven't found Naruko yet," Gai said at last, breaking the oppressive silence. "We can at least be thankful for that."

Asuma sighed again, hefting himself up to sit on the desk, his right foot propped up on the stool. "Don't you think that's strange?" He reached into his vest and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, the same one that Naruko had given him during the Chuunin Exam preliminaries. He paused at the sight of it, before poking out a cigarette. "Those guys had already infiltrated the village. It should be easy to find Naruko..." Asuma poked the cigarette back into the pack; it felt wrong, not having Kakashi scold him for smoking in his apartment. "And Itachi knows her face—"

"Sh!" Gai suddenly hissed, his eyes narrowed at the doorway. Just as his finger left his lips, the bedroom door opened and Sasuke Uchiha walked in.

"Kakashi—" He stopped abruptly, taking in the three Jonin situated around the room, and then his sensei who was lying unconscious in his bed. "Why is Kakashi sleeping?" he asked at last as he walked further into the room. "What happened?"

"Nothing... in particular..." Gai answered as casually as possible.

Of course, the futile attempt at covering up the truth was instantly blown when Aoba Yamashiro unexpectedly burst into the room, shouting, "Is it true that Itachi Uchiha has returned? And he's after Naruko?" Aoba blinked when he saw Gai facepalm with an exasperated groan, and then he registered the presence of the youngest Uchiha as Sasuke turned to face him. "Oh..."

"Aoba, you idiot," Kurenai sighed.

Sasuke's eyes widened. 'Itachi's back... and he's after... oh hell no.' The Genin instantly pushed past Aoba as he ran out, vaguely noting Gai's annoyed shout of, "Why does this always happen?" He ignored it, though, as he rushed through the village. 'So he's back after all this time, but only because he's pursuing Naruko?' Sasuke's eye twitched. 'That sounded wrong.' He quickly shook his head. 'Dammit, that fox-girl is rubbing off on me. Back on track — why? What does it mean?' 

Naruko wasn't at Kakashi's apartment, that much was clear by her absence. He wasn't exactly sure how their relationship worked, but Sasuke saw enough to know that both Genin and Jonin had a strong bond, considering each other the sibling they never had. There was no way Naruko wouldn't be at her brother's bedside if he was incapacitated, unless she didn't know. Changing course, he directed himself to Sakura's house, landing on her bedroom balcony.

The pinkette was sprawled on her bed, reading a book on combat-orientated medic nin. But at his quickly approaching chakra signature, Sakura looked up and instantly hurried over to open her window. "Sasuke?" she asked worriedly as he landed before her, anxiety welling up in her at the previously-unseen sense of urgency radiating from him.

"Where's Naruko?" he demanded instantly. "Is she with you?"

"No—"

That was all Sasuke heard before he was off again. 'If Naruko is caught by him, that'll spell her end... I'm not going to let him do that. I refuse to lose anyone precious to me right in front of my eyes. Not again.' He skidded to a stop in front of Ichiraku's Ramen Stand. "Hey, Old Man! Naruko must've come here. Do you know where she went after that?"

"Oh, Naruko, right..." Teuchi placed a hand on his chin. "If I remember correctly, Jiraiya-sama came here around noon and... they ate ramen together, and he said he was going somewhere..."

"Where?" Sasuke demanded, too desperate to even think about how rude he probably appeared to be.

"Hmm... I think he said to a post station some distance from the village," Teuchi recalled. "She left to say goodbye to those foreign ninja friends of hers, and then Jiraiya-sama also left, saying he had to go pick Naruko up for their little trip."

"Jiraiya?" Sasuke repeated, his brow furrowing a little at the unfamiliar name.

Teuchi grinned. "Jiraiya — one of the three Legendary Sannin. Well, in appearance, he just looks like a big white-haired man."

"Big... and white-haired..." Sasuke repeated to himself, before turning and rushing to the Gates and the forest beyond. Now he had a vague destination and a description of who to look for, he wasn't stopping for anything.

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[ OTAFUKU GAI ]

"Naruko!" The blonde glanced over at her godfather, tilting her head inquiringly. "We're staying here tonight."

She sighed a little and obediently walked over to her godfather. "I can still walk, you know," she informed him. Jiraiya waved his hand dismissively, his eyes already caught on something behind her. Turning, Naruko corrected herself with a someone.

"Naruko," Jiraiya said with restrained-giddiness, "here's the key to our hotel room. Go ahead of me and practice chakra control, train or something, and go to sleep. Got it?"

"Oi!" Naruko snapped as her pervert of a godfather walked out of the hotel reception with the dark-haired woman on his arm. She sighed; some things never changed. At least he wasn't like that all the time, like when he was on the road with her earlier that day. Small mercies. "Well, I guess I could start working on Neji's seal..."

Naruko made her way up to the hotel room and opened the door. It small and simple, with two beds pressed against the right wall and a single window on the far wall with two green curtains. There was a heater and a lamp beside each bed. Naruko tossed Jiraiya's pack to a far corner and ventured over to sit on the bed closest to the window. Leaning against the surprisingly-fluffy pillows and unsealed her sketchpad, propping it up on her raised knees. She carefully unfolded a talisman that bore the Caged Bird Seal, tacking it on the upper right corner for reference. Then she began to sketch.

The only sound in the hotel room was the scratching of her pencil against the paper... and the consistent humming of one very bored demon fox. After Kurama's humming grew louder and louder, Naruko finally snapped. 'Kurama, before you get another random song stuck in my head for the zillionth time, would you like to at least tell me what it's called?'

"Uh," Kurama began sheepishly, "I don't actually know."

Naruko closed her eyes and counted to ten. 'Really? Because it sounded familiar.'

"Sorry, I genuinely do not know."

'Perfect. Now it's stuck in my head, and I have no lyrics to go with it. Thanks a lot, fuzzball.'

"Then take a break," Kurama suggested. "You've been working on that thing for thirty to forty minutes. And you got so frustrated that you ended up making more of your original seals just so you could get "some space between perspectives". And didn't that sister of yours, Mio, always tell you to relax and do something you love?"

'I like fūinjutsu...'

Kurama snorted. "Not when it gets you this frustrated, you don't."

Naruko sighed; he had a point. She had only gotten a third of the way to the removal method, and now she was just waiting for an epiphany to strike. Usually when she became stuck in a rut, if she waited it out long enough there would be something random that would come along and spark an idea. Usually, that "something random" was her triplets, but unfortunately they were on the other side of the world. Naruko smiled at the mere thought of the strange conversations that birthed a majority of her original seals.

The girl sighed and resealed her fūinjutsu sketchpad and took out her burgundy leather wrap-around journal that simultaneously served as a diary, a songbook and a scrapbook. 'I honestly can't believe I'm saying this, but hum the melody again...'

"Gladly."

Kurama's humming started up again, and this time Naruko's pencil moved in tandem with the unnamed melody. 'Damn, all the latest songs are turning out so dark,' Naruko mused with a light chuckle. 'Either I need to stop hanging around emo-duckbutt so much or I'm just getting sadder as I mature.'

Kurama chose not to comment — a wise decision on his part. Instead his crimson-red eyes roved over the lyrics his jinchuuriki had written, mentally fitting them to the random melody he had conjured up in his quest to annoy Naruko into doing something more interesting than creating a seal removal method. Because sure, it was nice that she was doing something nice for someone she didn't know very well, and could potentially revolutionize one of the most influential clans in Konoha, but he was bored. And besides, no regrets — the results were beautiful, if a little sad.

(1) Summer in the hills, those hazy days I do remember
We were running still, had the whole world at our feet.
Watching seasons change, our roads were lined with adventure
Mountains in the way couldn't keep us from the sea.
Here we stand open arms, this is home where we are,
Ever strong in the world that we made.
I still hear you in the breeze, see your shadows in the trees,
Holding on, memories never change.

Naruko was about to say something to her tenant when a knock sounded on the door. Her head jerked up, surprised that Jiraiya was back so early. "Did she dump you already?" she called out in an amused voice, setting down her songbook. Insistent knocking was her only answer. "Okay, okay," she laughed, walking over to the door. "I'll open up."

"Kit, that's not Jiraiya out there."

'I know,' Naruko answered. 'I realized that after I asked if Pervy Sage got dumped, but it'd be too suspicious if I suddenly went silent.'

"His chakra signature feels similar to Sasuke's, but it's... different..." Kurama trailed off, but there was an edge to his tone that Naruko didn't really like.

With her left hand, Naruko jiggled the doorknob in a show of unlocking the door while she bit her right thumb, summoning Gamakichi. She instantly put a finger to her lips before the orange toad could give her his usual exuberant greeting, and unsealed her sketchpad to tear off a page, scribbling down instructions for Gamakichi and a message for Jiraiya. She handed it to the toad summon, who read it quietly, gave her nod and hopped over to the window and out.

Naruko took a deep breath; hopefully Jiraiya would be back before anything too bad happened. Hopefully it'd just be room service or something, and she was getting nervous over nothing. But rarely did her gut feelings fail her. Opening the door just enough for a young child's body to slip through, Naruko's eyes widened when she saw a fairly tall man with black hair pulled into a low ponytail and chin-length bangs framing his face. His most prominent facial feature was the long, pronounced tear-troughs... if you were to ignore the blazing red eyes of the Sharingan, that is.

Naruko involuntarily took a step back, her unexpected visitor's name falling from her lips before she even realized. "Itachi Uchiha..."

"Shall we go outside?" his calm voice inquired, though there was a threatening undertone.

Naruko narrowed her eyes but slowly stepped out of the room. It would be unwise to antagonize him. He was an S-rank missing nin, after all... if he could slaughter his clan, what would stop him from killing her? After all, they barely knew each other. But there was a reason Itachi Uchiha had come here to her hotel room, and she doubted it was for a friendly meet-and-greet. 

She noticed, standing behind Itachi, was a taller man with shark-like features — he had pale blue skin and darker blue hair. Three gill-like markings curved under his eyes, and he had a bandage-bound package on his back that reminded Naruko of Kankuro's puppet, though it was probably closer to Zabuza's sword, the Kubikiribōchō, in terms of size. His hitai-ate bore the symbol of Kiri and, like Itachi's hitai-ate, had a deep line marring the village symbol, marking him as a missing nin.

But what really caught her attention was that both men were wearing long black cloaks with red clouds on it — Naruko felt her heart sink. Akatsuki.

"Itachi, it'll be a pain in the neck if this kid moves around... maybe I better chop off a leg just in case," the shark-like man was commenting, his hand moving back to grip his sword's handle.

'Oh.' Naruko blinked. 'So this is the Kisame Hoshigaki Zabuza-sensei told me about when he was lecturing about the range of kenjutsu styles and their suitable swords. And that means the thing on his back must be his sentient sword, Samehada.'

"Don't forget," Kurama added, "he's the one Roshi referred to as a "Tailed Beast Without A Tail". Yagura and Utakata had him listed as a potential defect to the Akatsuki. Looks like it's one of those instances where I find it unfortunate they were spot-on..."

'Oh, hell. What am I supposed to do? As much as I would like to keep all my limbs on me, there's no way I could possibly last in combat against two S-rank missing nin. I doubt I could last long against just one of them, unless I knew how to enter Bijuu Mode or something. They're way out of my league... to go against them with no backup would be suicide.'

"Good to know your impulsive battle instincts aren't winning this time around."

'I have more brain than that.'

"Well, usually I could just put a high-level genjutsu on them, but that's Itachi Uchiha. So. You know. Nah."

'Every single one of your brain cells would have to self-combust or you would have to be panicking badly for anyone to even think of trying such a pointless tactic,' Naruko deadpanned.

"Now then..." Kisame advanced ominously towards Naruko, his beady white eyes gleaming with sadistic intent. Despite needing to tilt her head all the way back just to look the swordsman in the eye, Naruko held his gaze steadily, feeling much calmer than she should be, considering the current circumstances.

But then Itachi's monotone voice stopped his partner; "Long time no see... Sasuke."

Naruko glanced between the two men, her eyes landing on her dark-haired teammate, who was standing at the top of the stairs at the wall's corner. His eyes were shadowed by his bangs, and she felt her heartrate involuntarily pick up. What was he doing here? But more importantly, she was worried about how this reunion — if it could even be called one — would go down. She had done her best to make Sasuke see reason, but that run-in with Orochimaru in the Forest of Death appeared to have reverted him back to his old ways. And now that Itachi was standing right here in front of him... she had no idea what would he do.

"Itachi Uchiha," Sasuke bit out venomously, raising his head enough to showcase his activated Sharingan, combined with a murderous glare aimed at his brother.

"Huh... Sharingan," Kisame observed with a toothy grin. "And moreover, he resembles you a lot, Itachi. Who the heck is he?"

"He's my younger brother," Itachi stated, seemingly unaffected by said boy's presence. He hadn't even turned to look at him, instead keeping his crimson eyes trained solely on Naruko.

"But I heard that the entire Uchiha clan had been murdered," Kisame mused with an air of fake nonchalance, "by you."

"Get away from her, Itachi."

At last, the elder Uchiha turned to face Sasuke. He maintained his cool indifference, staring at his younger brother with an edge of almost-boredom. "Oh? Is she important to you?"

Sasuke's lips pulled back into a snarl as an electric-blue light suddenly flared around his hand as a loud chirping sound filling the corridor. "I'd rather not waste my breath explaining the meaning of precious people to someone like you."

Itachi narrowed his eyes. "Chidori...?"

Sasuke lunged forward and ran straight at Itachi, who didn't even indicate he was thinking of moving to avoid the oncoming attack. The second Sasuke was in range, Itachi's hand shot out to catch the younger boy's wrist, stopping him in his tracks and dissipating the jutsu. But the most surprising thing was that Sasuke let it. Naruko knew that, if he wanted to, he could've kept the Chidori going for much longer... but Sasuke's eyes had died back down to his usual onyx, and a light smirk curved his lip — the soft, playful kind that was reserved solely for his team. Naruko's eyebrows rose; she felt like she could practically touch the aura of confusion surrounding Itachi.

"I admit it was dumb to attack you head-on, but if I did anything else I doubted I'd be able to get close enough to actually talk with you," Sasuke said calmly, wrenching his wrist free from Itachi's grip as the revelation led to the momentary slackening. Rubbing it slightly, Sasuke looked back up at his brother. "I'm not here to kill you. I'm here for answers... answers that only you can give me."

Naruko breathed a soft sigh of relief. Itachi, however, gave a slow blink. Which, in Uchiha-body-language, meant complete and utter bewilderment. "Answers?"

The younger Uchiha gave a curt nod. "Answers," he confirmed. "I want the truth, Itachi. I want to know what really happened that night."

"What happened that night?" Itachi repeated with a slight edge of uncertainty, but then his facial features quickly schooled themselves back into cold indifference. "I told you, didn't I? The night I slaughtered our family, I told you the truth. It's just a matter of whether you want to believe it or not."

"I believe that you killed them," Sasuke shot back. "But what I don't believe is the reasoning you gave me. Every memory I ever had of you before that night... you were kind. You cared, maybe more than a shinobi should. You never got angry at me for anything, and you tried to make time for me. I don't believe that the brother I remember would kill our family just to test his strength."

"One man's illusion is another man's reality," Itachi warned. "Stop deluding yourself, Sasuke. I had no other reason, no other motives beside what I told you."

Sasuke frowned slightly, his eyes flickering over to Naruko. Her eyes were narrowed at Itachi, but she glanced over at him and gave him a nod. He's hiding something.

Suspicions confirmed, Sasuke returned to reasoning with his rogue brother. "No, you do."

"And you think you can get the answers you seek by asking me?"

"Who else would I ask? If you had to do something as drastic as wipe out one of the biggest and most powerful clans in Konoha, I don't doubt the reason behind it is S-classed information. The Hokage most certainly wouldn't tell me, to say nothing of the council."

Itachi's eyes suddenly hardened. "Do not trust the council," he said sharply.

Sasuke blinked, and then smirked smugly. "So, I was right, then?"

Itachi quickly backtracked. "I merely gave you advice, from what I learnt when I was still loyal to Konoha. The council will give you grief, as they gave me and countless others due to their biased and old-fashioned ways." His gaze rested on Naruko for a moment before returning to Sasuke. "I cannot give you these answers you seek. The only way you will ever discover the reality you wish to know is if you kill me. That is the only way, Sasuke."

"I fail to understand how I will discover the truth if I kill the one person who can give it to me," Sasuke deadpanned. "Your logic appears to have taken a solid hit over the past six years, Itachi."

The elder Uchiha closed his eyes in what seemed like annoyance — it was hard to tell with half his face obscured by the high collar of the cloak he wore — and then spoke in a tightly-controlled voice. "If you do not wish to kill me, then why are you here, Sasuke?"

"Were you not listening to me at all?" Sasuke demanded, before sighing resignedly. "You haven't changed... I half-expect you to poke me in the forehead with your signature, "Forgive me Sasuke, maybe next time"."

Itachi tilted his head slightly. "Do you not hate me for what I have done to you? To our family?"

"Oh don't get me wrong," Sasuke snorted, "I hate you, alright. I don't understand how you could do that to our family... to our father, to our mother, our aunts and uncles and our baby cousins. I don't understand, and that's the only reason I'm not here for your blood. I need to know, Itachi... why did you kill them? Why did you kill our family?"

"To test—"

"Don't give me that bullshit!" Sasuke suddenly barked, frustration sweeping across his face. "I know, and you know, that's a lie!"

"If you come after me with hatred... with the intent to kill... then perhaps you will find out the truth for yourself along the  way," Itachi said carefully. "Walk the path of the avenger. That's your destiny, as it was mine to slaughter our clan as a milestone to increase my strength."

Sasuke snarled. "Destiny can go to hell for all I care. That's the Hyuuga's thing. You know, Itachi, ever since that night, I did walk the path of the avenger. For the longest time. But I didn't realize how much it cost me until now." His eyes flickered to Naruko, and then back at his brother. "I've managed to gain it all back within two years, and I'm not willing to lose any of it just so you can get some sort of... twisted, self-imposed justice through me! And you know what else I realized? I'm done listening to someone who's too cowardly to tell me the damned f---ing truth!"

Itachi was silent. But there was the minute furrowing of his brow that indicated his confusion at his baby brother's actions. When had Sasuke gotten to read him so well? He'd done his mission, though he hated every second of it. And as punishment, he would die by the brother that was all that remained of their clan... because after all, why should he call himself an Uchiha?

"I... I don't want to kill you, Itachi. I don't want vengeance anymore. I just..." Sasuke's hands clenched into fists as his Sharingan subconsciously activated. "I just want the truth, dammit! Is that really too much to ask? After all these years, that's the least you owe me! I don't care if you are loyal to some mercenary group, or that you're a missing nin, or if you've made some brand-new life for yourself. I don't care, Itachi. Just give me the truth, and we can go our separate ways. I'll leave you to your cult, and you leave my village alone."

Itachi narrowed his eyes slightly. "Right now I have no interest in you... you may have the same eyes as I do, but your hatred has diminished significantly. You are weak, but only because you do not have enough hate." In one swift movement, too fast to be seen, Sasuke was suddenly pinned against the wall, held in place with Itachi's arm pressed against his collarbone. 

Leaning in, Itachi placed his mouth by the boy's ear, lowering his voice. "I cannot speak openly of the truth with Kisame here. I can only show you, but be warned, there is only one way and it is not entirely safe. I will not do it if you do not wish to see. I will leave a message with Naruko for when you awaken, if you choose to do so."

"You bastard," Sasuke hissed, "just tell me what I want to know, damn you!"

Itachi leaned back at the disguised confirmation, and placed Sasuke in a Tsukuyomi of his own design. When Sasuke's violent twitching finally ceased completely, Itachi dropped him to the ground and turned to Naruko, who had her brow furrowed in concern. But it seemed that, with one look into his eyes, understanding dawned on her.

Before any of the three could speak or move, however, a sticky pink-coloured substance started to grow on the walls, floor and ceiling, trapping them in the corridor. "Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind," a deep, familiar voice called, and all heads turned to see a white-haired male crouching on the floor with both his palms splayed out on the ground. "How unfortunate... Itachi, Kisame," Jiraiya commented with a slight smirk. "You guys are already inside my stomach — I summoned the esophagus of a giant toad from the Mt. Myōboku rock cave."

"Oh... gross..." Naruko wrinkled her nose slightly as her sandal-covered foot slowly sank into the sticky, warm substance.

"You shouldn't use such a cowardly tactic like casting a genjutsu on an attractive woman with your hypnotic eyes to separate me and Naruko." At his abrupt change in tone, Naruko tilted her head back until she could see behind her, and was surprised to see an uncharacteristically grim and almost angry look on her usually-jovial godfather's face. "Your target is Naruko, after all."

'I suppose "fashionably late" is this year's shinobi motto. Either that, or all white-haired shinobi have an identical penchant for being late.' Deciding to take advantage of the Akatsuki members' preoccupation with the large threat known as the Toad Sannin, Naruko slipped as best she could along the wall until she was kneeling beside a prone Sasuke. She gently picked up his wrist and pressed two fingers to it, frowning a little at the somewhat-erratic pulse. 'He doesn't seem to be in pain or stress or anything, and I can't sense any negative emotions from him. But still... I wish Sakura was here, she's the medic so she'd know what to do.'

Itachi glanced down at the blonde, but saw that she was not trying to get away or harm the boy. He returned his attention onto Jiraiya, and frowned as he remembered Kakashi's words — "You are after the Nine-Tailed Fox in Naruko." Itachi had wondered how Kakashi knew; he should have expected Jiraiya's spy network to know about the Akatsuki's ultimate goal. Though Itachi made no outward indication of it, he was impressed. Aloud, he said, "I see — you were the information source." He took Jiraiya's silence as confirmation. "To abduct Naruko is the number one priority placed by our organization, the Akatsuki."

'Yes, thank you for this absolutely world-shaking revelation that I haven't known about since I was ten,' Naruko thought sarcastically, mentally rolling her eyes. 'Although, I didn't realize I was number one priority... would've thought I was last priority, if anything. After all, I hold Mr Nine.' Absently, Naruko realized she probably should've seemed at least a little bit shocked at Itachi's announcement, but she was currently too drained to even think of acting.

"I can't let you have Naruko," Jiraiya's firm voice said in reply.

"I wonder about that," was all Itachi said, his tone never changing from the cold monotone. He tilted his head down to look at the jinchuuriki, "Naruko Uzumaki," he began, lowering his voice to a volume only her enhanced hearing could pick up, "are you the reason why my foolish little brother decided to deviate from the path I set out for him?"

Naruko gave him a slow nod, not trusting herself to speak.

Itachi stared at her silently for a moment. "Take care of Sasuke."

Naruko met his gaze evenly. "Even if you hadn't asked me to, I would've. But all I ask is that you tell Sasuke whatever he wants to know when the time comes, with your own experiences, your own mouth and your own words."

If it hadn't been for the cloak's high collar, Naruko would've seen Itachi's rare smile. "Of course. But I feel the need to ask... do you know the truth?"

Naruko shook her head. "No, but I know how older brothers are." She paused. "Sasuke can be stubborn, so I'm warning you, if he's not satisfied with the answer you gave him, he'll chase you down until he gets what he wants."

Itachi tilted his head slightly. "Then wouldn't the warning apply to you, as well?"

Naruko blinked in confusion, but before she could ask, Itachi turned to his partner and called, "Come here, Kisame."

The shark-like man obeyed, but was jerked to a halt by his sword being stuck in some goop. His nose wrinkled as he muttered curses under his breath, finally yanking the bandaged blade free as he ran over to the Uchiha.

"It's useless!" Jiraiya barked. "There hasn't been one person who has been able to escape from this." As he spoke, the two missing nin had rounded the corner, but the esophagus expanded to chase them down.

"A wall of flesh, incoming," Kisame noted with an edge of well-hidden worry as he followed his infuriatingly-calm partner. He stopped to swing Samehada at the tendrils of goop that rushed out to trap them, but took off after Itachi once he saw even more coming. His beady eyes took in the closing flesh. "The wall is faster. At this rate..."

Itachi simply closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his Sharingan had a different pattern.

Jiraiya and Naruko braced themselves at the unexpected tremors, and then suddenly Jiraiya was running past the two Genin. He ignored Naruko's alarmed shout, and skidded around the corner to glare at the opening. Remnants of black fire danced on the edges of the gaping hole that had clearly aided the two missing nin in their escape.

Naruko looked first at her godfather, and then at the flames. Slowly, she ventured forward; she hadn't seen this colour of flames before. What property did it have?

"Don't touch it," Kurama barked sharply, and Naruko's hand recoiled, as if struck. "That's the Mangekyō Sharingan's jutsu, the Amaterasu. They're said to be the flames of hell and burn as hot as the sun itself. Once created, it will burn for seven days and seven nights. Nothing and no one but the user can extinguish the flames. This is the highest level of Fire Release."

'Is there anything that can block such an attack?' Naruko asked curiously.

"I suppose Gaara's sand defense should have some degree of imperviousness, as should your Version 1 Chakra Cloak, at the very least."

Naruko hummed in acknowledgement, and glanced back at Jiraiya when she felt the amount of annoyance, disbelief and underlying rage emanating from him.

'I can't believe this wall was torn through.' Jiraiya narrowed his eyes at the black flames. 'The stone toad who has the ability to blow fire had its intestines burned...' He took out a scroll and spread it out on the ground, quickly drawing a seal as Naruko watched in child-like fascination. "Sealing Jutsu: Fire Seal!" With one hand on the ground and his other arm protectively in front of Naruko, Jiraiya activated the seal, and the godfather-daughter duo watched as blue chakra wafted out of the scroll and covered the ring of black flames before the chakra returned into the scroll, leaving no trace of the black flames. Naruko tilted her head curiously as a kanji for seal — "封" — appeared to burn itself in the previously-blank space. 

Jiraiya snatched the scroll, rolling it up and tying it closed with a thin rope. "Alright, it'll be okay for now," he said aloud as he tucked it into his shirt. "Now, for Sasuke." Jiraiya slammed his foot onto the ground, and the summoned esophagus disappeared at the same time Naruko ran back over to her teammate and crouched beside him. Jiraiya came up to Naruko's side just as a kunai whipped past the girl's head and embedded itself deeply into the wall.

"Dynamic—"

Jiraiya's eyes went wide as he spun around at the familiar holler. "Gai?"

"—Entry!" Konoha's Green Beast bellowed as his foot smashed into Jiraiya's cheek, sending him flying backwards. Naruko dropped her head into her palms, shaking her head with a sigh. As she peeked out from her fingers, she saw the maniacal grin on Gai's face drop comically as he finally realized who he had just Dynamic Entry'd.

"Kami, Gai, and you tell me to be less impulsive," Naruko sighed as she stood up and unsealed a tissue from one of her storage scrolls, handing it to Jiraiya who promptly twisted it and stuck it up his bleeding nose. 

Gai was rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly while Jiraiya's eye twitched in annoyance. "I'm sorry to have kicked you so directly. I was in a rush and I forgot my mirror..." Gai trailed off with another sheepish laugh. "I used the hitai-ate instead, but it was hard to see. And I assumed this rough-hewn face was the enemy, so I let the flames of burning juvenescence take over me. I'm sorry!"

"Is that supposed to be an apology?" Jiraiya demanded, caught between offense and anger. 

"Alright, cut it out you two," Naruko intervened. "We need to get Sasuke to a medical team. I'm not detecting any negative emotions from him, but I do know that Itachi put him in some sort of genjutsu, so it would be best to monitor him closely. There's no telling what kind of side effects this may have..."

Gai narrowed his eyes. 'So he also experienced that jutsu...'

"It seems Sasuke's experiencing severe mental damage... or at the very least, he's in a very deep genjutsu," Jiraiya analyzed with a deep frown.

"Kakashi has been downed with the same jutsu," Gai informed him.

Naruko's head snapped towards him, her eyes wide. "Kaka-nii? He faced off against Itachi? Is he okay?" She sighed quickly and shook her head at herself, "Of course he's not okay if he's under the same jutsu... but will he be okay?"

Gai grimaced at the pleading look in her eyes. "We don't know when he'll regain consciousness," he admitted at last. "I'm sorry, Naru. I wish there was more information for me to pass on." When Gai looked at Sasuke, he also saw Lee. But Naruko's hurt and confused expression at the sudden revelation of her brother-figure's severe injury while she was out of the village brought him back to when Tenten had dragged Neji to visit Lee between the second and third phase of the Exams. Gai said quietly, "When my students are hurt, I always wish, from the bottom of my heart... if that person, who is a medical specialist, were here..."

Jiraiya glanced over at the Taijutsu Master. "That's why we're going to find her, right now."

"What?" Gai blinked. "You mean... her? Could it be...?"

"Yep, that's right — the healing specialist, Princess of Slugs and Elixirs, a Legendary Sannin and a failed gambler — Princess Tsunade."

Gai smiled to himself. "Well then... I'm counting on you." He leaned down to pick up the Genin as gently as he could, setting him on his back. "I'll take Sasuke back to Konoha, so don't you worry about him. And... Naruko?" Gai looked over at the blonde, whose ever-expressive eyes told of her unspoken distress. "Kakashi will be fine — Asuma, Kurenai and I will make sure of that. He'll be waiting for you when you come back. So you focus on your mission and try to learn as much as you possibly can from Jiraiya-sama, alright?"

Naruko nodded, her eyes hardening. "We'll be sure to find Tsunade-sama and we'll bring her to the village as soon as we can. It's a promise."

Gai smiled his signature "Good Guy Smile", and Jiraiya planted his hand on her head with a light affectionate ruffle. As the two men had known both Minato and Kushina, they easily recognized the surfacing components that made up a lethal combination — an Uzumaki's stubbornness and a Namikaze's determination.

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Naruko looked around at the small clearing in the forest that she had claimed as her own private training ground for the hopefully-short duration of their stay in yet another small town. All of her spare time had been used up on fūinjutsu — she alternated between the Caged Bird Seal and the Hiraishin. She had finally started working on her father's other signature jutsu when Jiraiya had surprised the hell out of her by pulling out a small battered navy blue leather book with a metal clasp that signified it as Ark Handmade. The books and scrolls from Ark Handmade were created for the purpose of carrying clan jutsu, which meant it was specific to a certain bloodline. 

This particular book had been her father's theory journal and depicted his findings and Hiraishin development, and almost every fourth page displayed side-by-side comparisons with the jutsu's predecessor, Tobirama Senju's Hiraishingiri and the evolving Hiraishin.

It was fascinating, watching her father unravel the intricate layers as he pulled it apart, layer by layer, until he reached the base. Then he built it up back up in a modified version to suit his own needs. Seeing as the space-time ninjutsu was user-specific, it meant that Naruko would have to start from square one, just as her father had. Columns of rambling notes littered the sides, some in her father's small handwriting and others in what Jiraiya told her was her mother's "elegant scrawl". Apparently, both had worked together on the Hiraishin since Kushina's clan specialized in fūinjutsu, and so she had been a great help in deciphering some of the less-legible sections of the original technique formula.

Currently, Jiraiya was off in the village somewhere — either gathering intel on Tsunade's location or perving off with attractive women, she really didn't know — Naruko had summoned Kurama to keep her company. Said Bijuu was the size of a large dog and lying curled up on the lush grass while his jinchuuriki leaned against his side, demoting him to a sort of lounge furniture. And just in case someone should happen to stumble upon them unexpectedly, Kurama had adopted the appearance of one singular tail.

Naruko flipped to a page in her father's journal that depicted a sketch of his special tokuchū kunai, with talismans depicting his seal formula wrapped around the handle. "So I can probably use the same weapon, but with a different seal formula," Naruko mused. "Maybe I can use it the same way both Tobirama-sama and otou-san used it."

"So you plan to use kunai in the way that your father earned his moniker, the Yellow Flash, but you also want to make it so that you can maneuver the seal onto someone with the seal during combat?" Kurama guessed. "Hm, to be able to switch between the Hiraishin and the Hiraishingiri whenever you please..."

"I was thinking something like this," Naruko drew a rough sketch on a blank section of paper. "I would throw several Hiraishin kunai at my opponent, teleport to kick or punch them so they're sent flying back. And while they're in the air, a Shadow Clone will repeatedly teleport using the Hiraishin kunai surrounding my opponent, constantly slashing them with the Nietono no Shana, like the Hiraishingiri. And then maybe I'll form a Rasengan or something similar, and the Shadow Clone will catch the opponent, teleport them directly in front of me, and I can land a direct hit with the Rasengan. What do you think?" (2)

https://youtu.be/c7BV3DRyd70

"Sounds effective." Kurama scanned the sketch with a critical eye. "But of course, I'd have to see this for myself, first. Who knows how it might end up. And you'd have to make sure all the Hiraishin kunai actually surround your opponent — you know, the usual: not too close and not too far — and that your opponent is in range for your Shadow Clone to attack. But an interesting move... I like. What are you going to name it?"

"I'm thinking "Hiraishin: Hurricane Flash-Step"."

Kurama sweatdropped. "That's a long name..."

Naruko tilted her head to pout up at him. "Well, I was originally going to call it "Hiraishin: Space-Time Hurricane Flash Sequential Steps: Style Zero". If you like that one better—"

"No no," Kurama said quickly, "Hiraishin: Hurricane Flash-Step sounds great." He grimaced internally, 'Yeah, she definitely took after her father with the extravagant jutsu naming.' The Bijuu cleared his throat, "Once you get the Hiraishin to the point where you can execute it flawlessly, let's try it. Otherwise it might blow up in our faces... again."

Naruko nodded, settling further into the soft fur. Having passed through a town that specialized in weaponry making, Naruko had asked for fifty tokuchū kunai identical to Minato's customized design. It was too troublesome to think up of a new weapon — in Konoha, lying on a sloping hill and staring at the passing clouds, Shikamaru sneezed — and since they worked for Minato, they should theoretically work for her, too. But she would first have to create and test the seal, then the weapon before settling it into her arsenal. If the tokuchū kunai didn't work, it was no big loss and just meant that she'd have to enlist Sakura and Hinata to draw up a customized shuriken or kunai. A small, light weapon that was easily thrown and could be embedded in various surfaces was a good idea...

Thanks to both Kurama and Jiraiya looking out for her and making sure that she didn't walk into anything, Naruko was able to work on her seals while travelling and had progressed further than she expected once she had deciphered Minato's notes — that was the part that took a long time. But once she had that done, along with the theory supplied by Jiraiya, it was surprisingly easy to piece together a basic template which would allow her to create a signature technique formula of her own. Obviously, due to Minato's continuous use of the Hiraishin, there was no limit to how many targets could be marked with it. The most essential components of the Hiraishin seal were carefully written down in her own journal, and was used multiple times in reference as she set to work creating the "new and improved" Hiraishin.

Chakra location seal: keystone of the Hiraishin; allows the user to hone in on the location of the seal; specifically attuned to the user's chakra

[Optional] Chakra signature/detector seal: only in use when the formula is placed on a person; can allow user to teleport to them

Dimension seal: allows the user to manipulate a specific point of space and enter a dimensional void and instantaneously teleport it to another location marked by the formula

Time seal: used in conjunction with the Dimension seal

[Modified] Summoning seal: Reversed Hiraishin; allows the user to summon objects or up to three people marked with the formula

Naruko had added the last component after realizing that while her father's Hiraishin seal had a feature of allowing those who had the Hiraishin kunai to summon him to them, he himself had no way of summoning them to his side. Since the Hiraishin had quite a few features in common with the Summoning Jutsu, Naruko had decided to modify Minato's addition so the summoning could go both ways. After all, there was always the possibility of a skilled adversary turning her nodachi against her during combat, but if she had the Hiraishin seal on it, she could always just teleport it back to her hand. And it would also be useful to summon Sakura to her side whenever they needed a medic... with the slight chance that anyone ended up being able to convince the surprisingly-protective pinkette to let one of her teammates go on a mission alone sometime in the near-future, that is.

Naruko shook her head with a slight smile; it was rather cliché that such a complex jutsu would turn out to be so incredibly simple, yet ingenious. Of course, maybe that was just the Uzumaki in her speaking. After all, Jiraiya had taken one look at her notes that were derived from Minato's, thrown his hands up in the air and promptly left her to it. Naruko giggled just thinking about her somewhat-eccentric godfather's reaction to her three-quarters-developed theory.

The only problem was, now that she had isolated the seal layers that made up the Hiraishin, she had to figure out how to fit them together like a puzzle. Because in the end, that's all seals were — puzzles. It was just her luck that the one with the least pieces would end up having the jagged edges that made putting it all together almost impossible. It was incredibly frustrating, to be so close and yet so far.

"Hey, polliwog!"

Naruko looked up at the nickname, and unconsciously smiled brightly as her godfather came up to her, a double popsicle in his hands.

"Have you been working on that blasted seal the whole day?" Jiraiya shook his head in disbelief as he broke the popsicle and handed half to her.

"Yep," Naruko grinned cheekily up at the Sannin as she accepted the icy treat. "Mmm, it's good," she hummed happily. Her eyes drifted back down to the rough sketch of the Hiraishin seal, and her lips dropped into a light frown. Kakashi would've been helpful in this sort of situation — he loved puzzles just as much as she did. 'I wonder how Kaka-nii's doing...'

"Hey, you know that teammate and brother of yours are going to be fine, right?" Jiraiya said in a low, comforting voice as he sat down beside her, reaching out to absent-mindedly pet Kurama's fur. "We just need to find Tsunade and she'll be able to set them straight."

Naruko looked up at her godfather in surprise; had he read her mind? She offered him a smile. "I know. But I'm still worried..."

"And you have good reason to be," Jiraiya agreed. "Though young, Itachi Uchiha isn't labelled an S-rank missing nin for nothing." There was brief lapse of silence before he spoke again. "The last sightings of Tsunade are in the town over, so we'll probably head over in an hour or two... unless you're up for another trip already?" he guessed at Naruko's skeptical raised eyebrow.

Naruko smirked at him, tossing the stick into a nearby trashcan. "Let's go, Pervy Sage."

"Race?" Jiraiya gave her a wicked grin as he mimicked her actions.

Naruko smirked, "You are so on."

"Alright," Jiraiya planted his hands on his hips once they were standing at the back of the town, "go straight for around twelve kilometres, take a right for another two, and you're there. Got it?"

"Got it," Naruko chirped, feeding her feet a steady trickle of chakra in preparation for takeoff. 

"In three... two... o—"

Naruko didn't let him finish as the chakra burst from her feet and she flew forward, the scenery turning into a blur around her. Vaguely, she noted Jiraiya shouting something before he started to run as well. A quick glance behind her showed that he was steadily gaining on her, so with a smirk she formed a one-handed Ram sign, dissolving the fūinjutsu weights around her ankles. Naruko really wanted to see how fast she could run without the weights and without increasing the chakra-boost, and what better obstacle to measure up against than a Sannin?

She managed to stay ahead for another kilometre or so, and then Jiraiya came up behind her. "On your left," he called cheekily as he darted past.

Naruko huffed and spurred her legs faster. "Damned Sannin..." Thanks to her unnatural stamina as a jinchuuriki, she managed to catch up to Jiraiya who was tiring after ten to eleven kilometres at a dead sprint.

"Damned jinchuuriki-enhanced stamina," Jiraiya fired back, obviously having heard her mutters when he first passed her. Naruko simply grinned wordlessly at him, keeping pace, man and child neck-and-neck. Though he was tiring, he was still pretty fast, and she was only a Genin. She was probably as fast as Rock Lee when the both of them were without weights and she was without chakra, but the most impressive thing was her ridiculous stamina that allowed her to maintain a fast pace for a considerable amount of time. Otherwise, she would've undoubtedly lost the race the moment it began.

"Damn," Jiraiya huffed, laughing as he stopped to catch his breath the moment he stepped foot into the town. "You're definitely your father's daughter."

Naruko simply smiled at him as she reactivated her weights. "I've been training since I was ten in preparation of using the Hiraishin. There's no use having a space-time ninjutsu if your body isn't fast enough to work attacks into it, now is there?"

Jiraiya merely laughed and reached out to ruffle her hair before straightening up. "Alright, let's take to the rooftops. We might spot Tsunade easier from up there, if she's still here, that is."

"Okay sure, but first, what the heck happened?" Naruko interrupted, pointing to the demolished remains of a castle. But it didn't have signs that it had been deteriorating for centuries — no, this one had been standing until very recently. 

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes, suspicions already rising to mind. He quickly jumped up to get a better view of the damage, Naruko following his lead. A few minutes later, a crowd of people ran through the path they had just been standing on. Jiraiya winced; had they still been there, they would've undoubtedly been trampled by the panicking civilians. "Oi, mister!" Jiraiya called out, stopping a man who appeared to be in his thirties. "What happened?"

"A monster!" the man answered, clearly terrified out of his wits. "A monster snake destroyed the castle in a flash. If you knew what's good for you, you'd run too!" And with that said, the man ran off with the fast-moving crowd.

Naruko frowned. "My village was attacked by a huge snake, too..."

Jiraiya tugged on the back of her kimono. "Let's hurry, Naruko. That snake is probably the same one that you saw before." Naruko frowned at the lack of information, but obeyed him anyway. The faster they got to their destination, the faster they would find Tsunade... and that meant her brother and teammate could be healed from their injuries.

By the time they finished combing through half of the supposedly-small town, night had fallen. Jiraiya internally sighed; why did both of his former teammates insist on being so ridiculously hard to find? Walking through the streets, a diner caught his eye. He looked back to Naruko, who had been silent ever since the fallen castle. "Let's dine here for now, okay?"

Naruko finally looked up from the sketchpad that she had unsealed sometime between the ruins and now — since they were walking casually through a small civilian town, she felt no need to be as aware as she would be in a foreign ninja village — and raised her eyebrows. "Uh, Pervy Sage, I sincerely hope you realize this is a pub..."

"So?" Jiraiya asked flippantly.

"I'm underage, genius," Naruko deadpanned, her usual snark surfacing briefly. "And the snacks aren't going to be enough of a dinner, so don't pull that crap on me."

Jiraiya smirked, "Don't you have storage scrolls customized for sealing and preserving food? Eat that. I'm pretty sure you stocked up on your female teammate's cooking."

Naruko sighed. "It's not so much the food, but the location." She frowned at the pub. "Most pubs have drunken people inside... and their negativity is amplified. It makes me dizzy sometimes. It's a bit easier to handle now I'm thirteen, but it's still uncomfortable."

Jiraiya frowned slightly. "That's right, you mentioned something similar about sensing negative emotions from Sasuke earlier. You can do that?"

"It's a side effect from being the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki. Sometimes beneficial, sometimes not so much." Naruko took a steadying breath. "Well, I suppose there's a reason why you want to go to a pub instead of a decent restaurant... so really, there's no helping it." She looked back down at her sketchpad, "I'll just distract myself with seals."

"You can gather all sorts of information in this kind of place," Jiraiya informed her as the two entered the pub. He abruptly stopped when a well-endowed blonde appeared right in his line of sight. Unfortunately for Naruko, she hadn't noticed his ceasing movements, as absorbed as she was in continuing the design that was slowly revealing itself with every line and curve of the led markings — and so naturally she slammed right into his back.

"Oof!" the young blonde gasped, fumbling with the sketchpad in an effort to keep it in her grasp. She would've fallen over had it not been for Jiraiya, who was used to her tuning out the world by now and quickly caught her around the waist. "Pervy Sage," Naruko complained as she righted herself, hugging her sketchpad against her chest, "next time you do something like that, tell me. You're as hard as a damned brick wall."

Jiraiya chuckled sheepishly, lifting his hand to ruffle her hair. "Sorry, polliwog..." His eyes drifted back over to the woman, who had a drunken flush to her cheeks and a vacant look in her honey-brown eyes. An empty shot glass was tilted precariously in her slack grip.

Naruko tilted her head at her seemingly-entranced godfather, and followed his line of sight. Her lips twisted with disdain when she noted who he was staring at; another woman he would try to hit on, probably. She focused her attention on the woman sitting beside the blonde; she was fair-skinned and had a slender build with onyx eyes and straight, shoulder-length jet-black hair that covered her ears and framed her face. But what intrigued — and entertained — Naruko the most was the fact that she was holding a small pig in her arms. Said pig was light pink in colour and was wearing a pearl necklace with a dark red vest. And quite frankly, it was adorable.

Jiraiya took a step forward, and Naruko glanced up at him. She narrowed his eyes; there was no lecherous look or goofy, dreamy smile on his face, like the ones he would have when he spotted a particularly pretty target. His eyes were serious and his mouth was set in a grim line. Naruko returned her gaze the buxom blonde. 'Could she be...?' Naruko quickly shook her head from the clouding thoughts and fell in step beside the Sannin as he made his way over.

The blonde woman's companion looked both surprised and somewhat nervous, yet pleased, at the man's presence. "J-Jiraiya-sama," she greeted, her eyes flickering briefly to Naruko — the girl was struck at how similar the shade was to her mother's — before returning to Jiraiya. "What are you doing here? Look, Tsunade-sama, it's—"

The older woman exhaled forcefully, glancing up with visible annoyance in her eyes, though it was a little offset by the alcoholic flush dusting her porcelain cheeks. And yet, despite the signs that she had been drinking rather heavily, her words weren't a slurred mess of syllables; "What do you want, Jiraiya?"

Jiraiya remained silent for a moment, and then he spoke. "It's been a while... Tsunade."

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(1) "Monody" by TheFatRat (ft. Laura Brehm)

(2) Hiraishin: Space-Time Hurricane Flash Sequential Steps: Style Zero is a jutsu used by Minato Namikaze, though it is only seen in the game Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution