Naruto 1. Chapter 1

_This is my first major story that I've written. I hope that everyone likes it or at least gives it a chance. I'm sorry if the English is a little messed up (English is not my first language) but I reread it like three times so there shouldn't be any_ major _mistakes...hopefully. Reviews are appreciated! _

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**CHAPTER ONE: The End of the Beginning **

"I'm not absolutely certain of the facts, but I rather fancy it's Shakespeare who says that it's always just when a fellow is feeling particularly braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with the bit of lead piping."  
― P.G. Wodehouse, _Carry on, Jeeves_

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Naruto couldn't contain the gasp that escaped him as he felt a tug at the base of his skull.

"No!" he cried out, swinging his head around to look into the smoke around him. His attempt was futile; he could barely see a foot in front of him, the smoke was so dense.

A slight movement to his right caught his eye and his attention was abruptly pulled back to the man he had been fighting for what had felt like days now. A flash of silver was all the warning he got as a sword swung downwards towards his head. Naruto lifted his own sword, or a sword that he had pulled off of one of the random dead shinobi bodies littering the ground, to block the blow. A sharp CLANG resounded in the air and Naruto leaped backwards to get out of the range of the deadly electrified blade.

Summoning a bit of chakra into his right hand, Naruto made a large sweeping motion in front of him and a gust of wind formed out of nowhere to blow away the smoke. This gave him the first clear look at his surroundings in hours. It was a lot worse than he had thought.

Konoha had been completely leveled and burned. In fact, if Naruto hadn't know any better, he would have said that he wasn't even standing in the middle of the Village Hidden in the Leaf. Where once tall and proud buildings stood now were only piles of rubble and where the beautifully paved streets once were there was now only craters and cracks.

If Naruto hadn't been so used to war and death by now he might have flinched at the sight of all the bodies. Innocent civilians lay scattered around; they could have almost been sleeping if it weren't for all the red that stained their skin. But the worst sight wasn't the fallen buildings or the fallen civilians, it wasn't even the murdered children and babies that Naruto could see; it was the shinobi.

Hundreds of shinobi lay on the ground slaughtered at each other's hands. But perhaps slaughtered was too nice of a word for the carnage that they had wrecked on each other. When Madara and Sasuke had invaded Konoha yesterday morning with their own army of Susanoo and reanimated corpses, they hadn't come to merely kill the remaining forces; they had come to destroy.

Slicing a Ninja's throat hadn't been enough for them, they had had to gut the body and strew it out as far as they possibly could; needless to say seeing your comrades hacked mercilessly into bits and pieces had added corrupt oil to the Will of Fire, twisting it till the strong and honorable ninja of the five great shinobi nations were in turn sadistically cutting down their enemies. Naruto hadn't been immune to the rage that had passed over them all.

Their numbers had dwindled dangerously over the past few years, it was impossible to tell which of the former great nations had lost the most shinobi, and it had been the final push for most of the remaining shinobi to have the last Hidden Village, which they had all come to call home, destroyed. Within minutes of the two Uchiha's attack there hadn't even been a village to protect anymore.

No, the battle that they had been fighting for the past few hours hadn't been for the sake of their home or for honor or to protect anyone; they all had been fighting for their fallen friends, their lost villages, and their failed sense of duty as a shinobi. A single minded killing intent had grasped the remaining Allied Forces and only in death did it release them.

Naruto looked at the sword-wielding man in front of him and felt his heart clench. He had tried; he had tried so hard to fulfill the promise he made to Sakura all those years ago and in the end he had failed. He had completely and utterly failed.

The blond had long gotten past trying to bring Sasuke back; this man wasn't even Sasuke anymore. The man in front of him was a cold blooded murderer; a twisted perversion of his childhood friend.

Naruto still remembered the first time he began to have doubts that he couldn't save Sasuke, wouldn't be able to make him see sense again. An ANBU team had found Kiba, Genma and Shino laid out by a river with the Uchiha crest carved into their chests and their eyes gouged out. Even then, Naruto had thought, hoped, that it was just Madara, by then it had been the real Madara, twisting Sasuke's mind, forcing him to do such cruel things.

Then Sasuke had really crossed a line.

It had taken them almost two full week to find all of Tsunade's body. Sasuke had even been kind enough to attach a note to each piece; each with a name on it, a promise of his next targets. Next fell Lee and Gai then Hinata, Izumo and Kotetsu, Anko, Tenten and Sakura…God Sakura!

Sakura who had finally allowed herself to move on, who had fallen in love with another man who returned her affections with all of his heart. They had been happy together, truly happy even through all the pain of the war. But then, without any warning, she had been captured. No one could stop her beloved from rushing off to try and save her even though they all knew that it was a suicide mission. Even now, as the last of the ninja world burned to the ground around him, Naruto still wasn't exactly sure what Sasuke had done to her, though he had a pretty good idea.

He didn't kill her, he even let her go; but she hadn't been the same. She had just sat there with this dead look in her eyes for weeks. She wouldn't eat or sleep and then one day when Ino went to check on her, she was met with a cold body; Sakura had slit her own throat. Yamato had never returned from his mission but everyone knew, knew with a dreaded certainty, that he had found her.

Naruto felt another tug in the back of his head again, this time it was more insistent and Naruto felt stinging in the back of his eyes. He wasn't going to cry. He hadn't let his grief get a grip on him in years and he refused to give in now. The tug only got harder and Naruto took a deep breath and glared at the man a few meters in front of him.

"I don't have time for this!" he screamed as he dropped down on all fours and let some of Kurama's remaining chakra seep out and surround him in a cloak. He internally cringed when he realized that, not only were all of the other eight bijuu's chakra that were in him depleted, but that he and Kurama weren't doing much better. He and the Nine Tailed Demon Fox had long ago formed a sort of protective bond with each other.

Sasuke let out an empty mocking laugh and let a surge of lightning run down his blade.

"Naruto," Sasuke said and shook his head as if he pitied him.

Naruto let out a half scream half growl of frustration. He needed to find Madara and Kakashi.

"Look at you Naruto. You're pathetic. Acting like the animal that you are; just like that other nuisance of a jinchuriki."

Naruto froze. _Gaara_.

Gaara had been the final straw for him. When Gaara had died, died right in his arms, he had shoved and locked everything away in the deepest recesses of his soul. His emotions, his feelings, anything that might get in the way of his goal to kill Madara, he had shoved it so far down that they had eventually disappeared; but only after he had avenged his brother's death.

Sasuke had killed Gaara so Naruto had killed Sasuke. Only to find out, to his horror, that Sasuke had taken after the Snake Sannin and could 'rebirth' himself. One hundred times, they later learned, could Sasuke die and come back to life. One hundred times they would have to kill him to truly kill him.

In his blind fury over Gaara's murder Naruto managed to kill Sasuke almost fifty two times; at least that's what he was told when he woke up in an infirmary tent a week later.

"You shut up!" Naruto yelled. "Don't you dare talk about Gaara!"

Naruto lunged forward, bringing the mighty winds of a hurricane behind him and slammed his fist into Sasuke's chest. He felt the ribcage cave in beneath him and saw the light leaving Sasuke's surprised eyes.

Five seconds. Naruto had five seconds before Sasuke was as good as new again.

He leaped off of the now-dead body and out of the small crater he had created, he thrust out his senses to find the last two chakra signatures left on the battle field and full out sprinted towards them. He felt another sharp tug in the back of his head.

"Hang on Kakashi, please hang on," he whispered to himself as more carnage, more bodies, flew by him.

He stumbled for a second but didn't stop running. Naruto knew that his wounds were catching up to him. Actually, it was surprising that he was even standing. He had no idea how much blood he had lost so far but it was pretty obvious from how light headed he felt that it was more than what was healthy.

Naruto silently cursed under his breath. He could deal with a lot of injuries but the hole in his chest was pushing it. How many hours ago had it been since he got it? Sasuke had gotten a lucky shot in with that damn sword of his and stabbed right through him. When Naruto didn't die or even flinch from the wound it was a grim reminder of how far he had had to come the past few years.

There! Two figures were doing a complex and deadly dance; moving so fast that if Naruto had been anyone else he wouldn't have been able to keep up. Naruto squashed the desire to cry out in relief as he saw that his ex-sensei now team mate was still alive. He had known he was, but the strength of the pain in the back of his head was telling him that the Copy Nin was bordering on death. He watched as one of the figures jumped backwards and skidded to a halt next to him. He automatically steadied his team mate and received a grateful nod in return.

"Sasuke?" Kakashi asked him in a scratchy voice.

His question was answered a second later when another figured blurred ahead of them and appeared next to Madara; two Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan and two Rinnegan orbs stared right at them.

"Together?" Naruto whispered to the man at his side, his own blood-red eyes never leaving the two Uchiha's in front of them.

"Always," Kakashi replied and the familiar sound of a hundred screeching birds filled the air as Naruto started to form a beast ball. A tightly compacted ball of red-black chakra formed in his hand and, in movements that spoke of all the countless times they had fought side by side, Naruto and Kakashi dashed straight at Madara.

Naruto felt the stinging burn of Kakashi's Raikiri on his back and gritted his teeth against the pain as they kept running, Kakashi slowing down just a bit.

Naruto waited, they were so in tuned with each other that they didn't even have to look to know what the other was doing, until he felt Kakashi jump out of the way at the last moment to slam his beast ball into the ground a few feet in front of two Uchiha's. He heard Kurama and eight other fainter voices growl in his head as he slammed the densely packed chakra into the ground. Then several things happened instantaneously.

The ground seemed to bend and stretch like rubber under Naruto as all the air seemed to suddenly be sucked away and replaced with an ear-popping pressure. It was dead silent for a moment as even the crackling of the burning buildings disappeared. Not even an eighth of a second later Naruto felt his body being jerked backwards from the place Kakashi's Raikiri had marked him and he was flying through the air away from where he had just attacked the ground. A half second later and the world seemed to explode from where Naruto had just been. The shock wave from the explosion knocked Naruto backwards faster and he crashed into Kakashi. He wrapped his arms and chakra tails around the man and drew on the remaining bijuu chakra that he had to cover them both, hopefully protecting them from the worst of the blast. Naruto pushed his head into Kakashi's shoulder as his back was rained on by chunks of falling earth and debris. It seemed to last forever until Naruto thought it was safe to lift his head back up and look around. The smoke and dust had filled the sky again and Naruto could just make out the giant crater in the ground behind him.

"Do you think we got them?" he whispered into Kakashi's ear, not getting off of the man. There was a moment of strained silence as both of the ninja listened for any signs of movement. The world was silent.

"No," Kakashi whispered back, "If only it were that easy. The only thing we did was buy ourselves a little time."

Naruto slowly lifted himself off of the masked man as he fell out of his nine tails chakra mode. Naruto hissed in pain as he gingerly sat up; he felt like every bone in his body had been broken and the blood that was running down over his eyes wasn't a good sign. But Naruto had learnt to deal with pain over the years, he could ignore all but the most fatal of wounds, but as he sat there covered in dirt and blood, the last of his chakra gone, Naruto felt a dull, choking pain in his chest.

"Damn," he whispered as he felt his eyes water up.

It was only fitting that his suppressed emotions would finally come forth when the only one in the world to see his tears was Kakashi.

"How did we let this happen? How _could_ we let this happen, Kakashi? Where did we go wrong?" Naruto said, speaking more to himself than to the man sitting up next to him.

He let out a yell of surprise when he felt the singing burn of Raikiri again, only this time it was everywhere. Naruto could only fall back onto the ground as he no longer had the strength to hold up against even the weakest of jutsu.

"Ka-Kakashi! Wh-what a-are..?" Naruto barley managed to grit out as the blue-white electricity wrapped around his body and held him still on the ground. He could barely focus on the masked face that was next to his.

"I'm so sorry Naruto. I've failed you in every single way that a mentor and friend can. Please, _please_ let me try to redeem myself. I don't know what to do anymore and this is the only thing that I can think of. You can fix this, if there's one thing I've learned it's to believe in you. Please…forgive me." Kakashi's voice softly whispered in his ear.

Naruto could only look at him with confusion as his body started to convulse from the electricity that was pinning him down. He watched as Kakashi pulled something from the inside of his tattered flak jacket. Was that a seal of some kind? Naruto eyes widened in fear as he recognized some of the seal. What the hell was Kakashi doing, was he giving up?

If Naruto remembered correctly, and he seriously doubted that he was wrong, he and Gaara had spent years researching on it after all, then that seal was some kind of bijuu chakra drainer. Gaara and him had tried to find a way to recapture the tailed beasts that had already been captured by Madara; the one Kakashi was now holding looked like some kind of variation of the seal that Naruto had used to get the eight other demons chakra in side of himself. They had never found out a way to get the actually bijuu back though, just their massive chakra. What was Kakashi trying to do? He had already exhausted the almost endless supply of chakra within him, what would that seal accomplish?

"I believe in you Naruto." He heard Kakashi say and then he saw him gently lay the seal on his chest, completely ignoring the lightning bonds Naruto was immobilized with even as they shocked the person who was casting the jutsu.

For a moment nothing happened and all Naruto could do was look into the sad, hollow, pain-filled mismatched eyes staring back at him. A single clear drop of moisture fell silently from the one grey eye as a drop of blood fell from the red one.

"Please…forgive me," was the last thing that Naruto heard.

A masked face, the face underneath still a mystery, was that thing that Naruto saw.


	2. Chapter 2

_So I'm not really sure where this story is going quite yet, I mean I have a general idea. One thing that will _not _be in this story is Naruto/Hinata. The story is going to focus more on the action and adventure than any romance. The only romance that there will be for now is canon (like Asuma/Kurenai). There might eventually be someone for Naruto (girl? boy? rock?) but not right now. There won't be any character bashing (even if I don't personally like them, I'm not going to hate on them in this story).I have so many ideas floating around in my head and I hope that I can fit them all into this story and that you guys will like it! _

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**CHAPTER TWO: Blessing in Disguise**

Were born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone.

―Orson Welles, _Paradise_

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Uzuki Yugao kicked her feet back and forth as she watched the sun just beginning to peek over the horizon, its rays slicing through the still dark sky. Somewhere close by a bird shrilled out into the quiet morning.

Yugao couldn't keep the smile from forming on her face at the sound. With a content sigh she hopped off of the branch she had been sitting on and landed silently on the leaf covered ground. She pushed her porcelain cat mask around to the back of her head and then cupped her hands around her mouth. A series of high pitched chirping sounds filled the air, almost indistinguishable from a sparrows call.

Yugao leaned against the tree she had just been in and waited, her smile growing and feeling almost giddy, though she would never admit it. A quite crunching of leaves came from the slight left of her and despite all of her shinobi instincts she didn't make a move to attack or defend herself. A few seconds later a raspy cough came from the same direction. Yugao couldn't help it; she let out a small laugh.

"Darling, I would be able to sense you coming even if you were a million miles away." The crunching of leaves got louder and a leaf ninja appeared through the trees a moment later.

"Yugao," Hayate said, an affectionate smile on his face.

Yugao walked up to the man that made her feel like the luckiest kunoichi in the world. Warm strong arms wrapped around her and she buried her face into Hayate's shoulder, inhaling his scent. Yugao and Hayate were not normally so open with their affection, even with no one around; Yugao with her strict ANBU training always just beneath the surface and Hayate with his fear of being physically close to another person because of his illness. However, they hadn't seen each other in over three weeks, each being busy on assignments, and even though Yugao had gotten back to Konoha two days ago this was the first time she had had an opportunity to meet with him.

She couldn't remember when it had happened exactly, but some time ago her and Hayate had mutually agreed that no matter what they would always see each other as soon as possible whenever they got back from a mission at this particular tree. The tree that they had first met each other at. The tree that Hayate had bluntly told her he loved her under. The tree that she had cried in, with him holding her, after he told her that his illness couldn't be cured. The same tree they had both vowed under to never leave each other's side. It was _their_ tree. And once again it was providing her with a sense of comfort as Hayate silently held her against his chest.

No words needed to be spoken to each other. _I missed you. Don't leave me. I was scared this would be the one to take you from me. I love you._ It was all heard without either of them saying a single word. As always, Hayate was the first to pull away but he grabbed one of her hands and glanced upwards. Yugao smiled, a seeming constant around Hayate, and they both jumped up to sit next to each other on one of the thicker branches, leaning their backs against the trunk. They sat together in silence, only being broken by the occasional cough from Hayate, for a while, just soaking up the presence of the other and reassuring themselves that the other was alright.

It wasn't until the sun had completely broken free from the horizon that the silence was broken. "I wasn't that bad. I think I got about two meters closer this time before I made a noise."

Yugao glanced over and saw the relaxed almost bored expression on Hayate's face; it had taken her a while to decipher his 'I'm serious' face from his 'I'm joking around with you' face.

"Oh yes, I suppose it's a common mistake to get you and an elephant confused." Yugao said, carefully keeping her face straight. Hayate's dark eyes slowly slide over to look at her.

"Very common. You're the third person this week to mistake me for some kind of obscenely large animal."

Hayate's deadpanned expression was the last straw for Yugao. She burst into laughter. It was a well-known fact among the jounin and other high-ranking ninja in Konoha that Gekkō Hayate was probably the worst shinobi ever at stealth; his chronic coughing only added to the problem. Yugao would never admit it at the risk of wounded the man's pride, but it had been Hayate's complete and utter helplessness at sneaking around that had first attracted her to him. And as much as she thought it was one of his more enduring characteristics she also feared it. Yugao just knew his inability to be stealthy would be the death of him. At the moment however, it only emphasized on Hayate's adorableness; another thing she would never say to his face.

When she finally got her laughter under control, with only a few giggles slipping through, she looked back at her lover. His lips were pulled into a small smile and his tired eyes were twinkling with mirth and affection. Even after all the time that they had been together it still stunned Yugao that someone could look at her with such affection.

"So did I miss anything worth mentioning?" she asked.

She hadn't been in the village for over a week and like every other shinobi in the world she like to gossip, or 'be in touch with current events' to put it more professionally. Hayate tilted his head back and stared at the brightening sky for a moment, the bags under his eyes seeming to be emphasized by the light. Yugao wondered when the last time he had a decent night's sleep was.

"Nothing particularly noteworthy. Asuma still thinks he's being discreet about trying to get Kurenai's attention, Gai is still being Gai, Genma and Anko left a few days ago on a mission to Kumo and should be back by tomorrow, Ibiki's added to the betting pool for how many genins will become chunins this year, Hokage-sama's still about two weeks behind on his paper work, and Kakashi's AWOL again." Hayate said, closing his eyes.

Yugao held back her sigh and restrained herself from commenting on the Copy-nin. The man was eccentric at best and just plain crazy at worst; even by shinobi standards. It had been a great shock to anyone who even remotely knew the jounin when he had passed a genin team a few months ago. Even more surprising were the kids that consisted of Team 7: a pink-haired joke-of-a-kunoichi, the Last Uchiha, and the Kyuubi container. It was quite possibly one of Kami's greater jokes on humanity.

"Oh, and apparently Kakashi's entered his team into the Chunin Exams," Hayate said, rolling his head to look at her reaction.

"That's…unexpected. It's rare that a jounin-sensei would enter their team into the Exams so soon after being assigned to them. Then again this is Kakashi were talking about."

"Hmm," Hayate gave a small shrug, "Asuma and Kurenai also entered their teams. Must be some kind of bug going around."

A husky chuckle followed by a cough and Hayate went back to staring at the sky. Yugao's eyes widened.

"So all of the new genin teams are being entered?"

"Yeah, their calling them the Rookie Nine. Their jounin's have an awful lot of confidence in them; at least it won't be boring."

"Geez," Yugao sighed, "those poor kids are going to be slaughtered."

Hayate let out a soft chuckle. "And I haven't even told you the best part yet; Ibiki-san is going to be the proctor for the first stage of the Exam."

Yugao couldn't help but to flinch. Now she _knew_ those poor rookies were going to be steam-rolled, hell, she knew full-grown jounin who trembled after a minute alone with the Head of the Interrogation Department. She leaned forward to look at her partner.

"Kami, what is Hokage-sama thinking? Who are the other proctors? Hopefully they won't be so…so…frightening."

Yugao watched as Hayate's head tilted to the side.

She mirrored his movements.

He gave a small smile.

She raised an eyebrow.

His smile grew and the corner of his eyes crinkled.

She sat up straighter.

He nodded; then coughed.

Yugao slapped his shoulder lightly.

"You're just now telling me! Congratulations! Which part?"

If there was one thing she loved the most about the sickly jounin it was his ability to understand her. It was rare to find another shinobi who could understand you on such a level; for her and Hayate it was almost second nature to read each other's movements. It was a times like these; when they could talk to and understand each other without having to speak a single word that she knew with all of her heart and soul that they were meant to be together. She felt a warmth spread through her chest as Hayate let out another raspy chuckle followed by a cough.

"Sorry, Hokage-sama just informed me yesterday and it's the third stage, the finals." Hayate paused for a moment and stared at his hands, clasped in his lap.

"I'm…nervous. But I'm excited too." He glanced at her from the corner of his eye and gave her a hesitant, shy smile.

Yugao gently reached and held one of his hands in hers; Hayate still had trouble speaking about his emotions, not used to someone caring about what he felt. Yugao gently cupped his cheek in her other hand and turned his face until he was facing her. She smiled at him and tried to convey all of the love that she felt for the man into that one smile.

"I'm so proud of you Hayate. You have no idea how amazing you are," Yugao said, feeling her face heat up.

It was only right that she put herself out there after he had made the effort to tell her about what he was feeling. Of course, the resulting impressive blush that Hayate was now sporting didn't hurt either. She stared into his dark eyes a little while longer; loving everything about the man, even the permanent bags under his eyes. They only looked away from each other when Hayate inevitably coughed.

Yugao lost track of how long they sat there in their tree watching the sun continue to rise higher and higher into the sky, their hands never leaving each other's and Hayate's periodically coughing. When the sun was almost directly above them Hayate spoke again.

"I've been thinking about something for a while."

Yugao let out a noncommittal hum. Hayate's grip on her hand suddenly shifted and tightened. Nervous? He let out a series of coughs. Yes, he was definitely nervous about something; Hayate's only coughed more than twice in a row when he was anxious or nervous about something. Yugao shifted her attention until it was entirely focused on the man next to her.

"Well, it's nothing concrete, but I've been thinking about, you know, maybe –cough- joining ANBU," Hayate said, his voice losing momentum at the end and his whole body tensing up.

Yugao stared at him in shock for a moment before smiling. She was absolute certainty that Hayate was more than good enough to join ANBU, his skill with his sword was beyond superior, and it would be easier to spend time with him if he was in ANBU with her. She squeezed his hand and opened her mouth to encourage him to go through with it when she noticed something was off.

Yugao quickly pulled her mask back around to cover her face and silently jumped down to crouch on the branch directly below them, automatically switching to her ANBU persona. A second later Hayate joined her on the branch: sword drawn, eyes narrowed and alert, his breathing slow and even.

He gently tapped her knee once. _What is it?_

Yugao spread her senses trying to pinpoint what it was that had alerted her that something was wrong. She had never been the best at chakra sensing but she was good enough to get by.

She tapped the back of his hand twice. _Not sure_.

A few seconds later Hayate shifted his weight closer to her and jerked his head in a half circle and tapped his ear. _Listen around us_.

Not even a second later and Yugao realized what it was that had alerted her. The wildlife: the bugs, the animals, and the birds were all in an uproar. As far as she could tell, every living thing within a half mile was upset about something, but what? What were they sensing that they couldn't?

She tapped the back of Hayate's hand again, this time only once. _What's going on?_

He tapped her knee twice. _Don't know._

Yugao slowly and silently drew her sword and jerked her head down wards. Hayate shook his head. She glared back; he was being stubborn. He gently tapped her blade and glared back. For a few seconds they were locked in a glaring match when Hayate's eyes suddenly softened and turned pleading. Her glare fell and she closed her eyes. She nodded reluctantly. She felt a rough calloused hand take hers and place it over something warm. Yugao opened her eyes back up and saw that Hayate had placed her hand on his chest; right over where his heart was. He gave her a smile, kami she loved that smile, squeezed her hand and then silently jumped down to the ground. Yugao sighed, she should have known he would never let her place herself in danger when he was around; even if she was more than capable of taking care of herself. She quickly leaped till she was at the furthest protruding branch and looked down to watch the tokubetsu jounin's actions.

Hayate was crouched low with his sword held out to his side and slightly in front of him. He took a few steps forward and tilted his head to the side, listening. Yugao couldn't help but nervously chew the inside of her cheek. In some ways Hayate was the worst thing to happen to her. The few times that they had fought side-by-side, she had been consumed by worry and had immediately lost her cool and calculating mentality that she usually had. Hayate made her human and being human could get you killed in a battle. Even though she knew that Hayate was more that capable of handling himself, she couldn't stop the butterflies that were fluttering in her stomach and the knot that was forming in her throat. Yugao knew that if something were to happen to her beloved that she would never be the same again.

So when she saw Hayate suddenly drop his sword and fall to his knees she felt an all-consuming panic grip her and her stomach turned. She opened her mouth to scream for him, years of shinobi training completely leaving her, when her voice caught in her throat.

She couldn't breathe all of a sudden. Where had all of the air gone? She dropped her sword, vaguely hearing the soft 'thud' it made as it fell and hit the leaf-strewn ground, and ripped her mask off. She grabbed at her throat desperate to get some oxygen into her lungs. What the hell was going on? She frantically looked down at the ground and saw that Hayate was staring up at her, his hands similarly clawing at his throat.

An almost primal urge washed over her; she had to get to Hayate. She needed to be with him, he was in pain and she needed to do something, _anything,_ to stop his pain.

Yugao stumbled off of the branch onto the ground, landing ungracefully on her hands and knees with a loud 'thump'. She tried to call out to Hayate but nothing would come out and her lungs were starting to burn. Hayate was already dragging himself over to where she was. She desperately grasped at him when he came within reach and a panic, a mind-numbing fear started to take over as her entire chest started to hurt and her vision started to get blurry. She felt Hayate's hands grab at her, his hands gripping the front of her uniform and dragging her the rest of the short distance to himself. He fell sideways, dragging her compliant body with him, and laid on the ground, on his side, facing her. Somewhere in the back of her mind she registered the sound of crackling, like the air was being charged with electricity.

Yugao pulled at her collar with one hand, and squeezed Hayate's hand with the other, staring him right in the eyes. Even half out of her mind in panic she could focus on the face less than a foot in front of her; and she hated what she saw there.

His usually tired looking eyes were wider than she had ever seen them and filled with fear and desperation, his mouth was open in a futile attempt to get air. Yugao never wanted to see that look on his face. She squeezed his hand impossibly tight and felt him squeeze back just as hard.

Black, a darker black than she had ever seen before, was slowly creeping in from around the edge of her vision and she felt the insane urge to laugh. Of all the ways she had ever imagined dying she had never thought she would die so close to home from a mysterious force taking away the oxygen from out in the open. But then again, it could be a lot worse. At least she had her love with her. And as much as she hated the thought that Hayate was going to die too, she couldn't help the selfish thought that he was leaving this world with her. She felt her lips twitch upwards and was vaguely aware of something wet trailing down her face.

All she could see was Hayate's face. His eyes seemed to have calmed down some but she could still see a deep pain there. He awkwardly shuffled forward the last few inches and pressed his forehead against hers. Yea, Yugao thought, there are worse ways to die than this.

The black had almost completely taken over her vision, but she could still make out Hayate's eyes; they were glossy but no tears fell from them, and they were a darker brown than she had ever seen before. Just as her vision was almost completely gone the ground shook and she felt air suddenly being shoved down her strained throat. Her lungs burned even more as oxygen was forced into them and even more tears poured from her eyes. As she was gasping in the newly returned air she felt Hayate pull her upwards into a kneeling position and then into a fierce hug. She hung her head over Hayate's shoulder as she gulped down the air greedily and wrapped her arms around him, clinging on for dear life. She could hear the rough, loud coughs coming from Hayate in between his gasps and gripped his hair with one hand while rubbing his back with the other.

After what felt like hours Yugao finally got her breathing under some semblance of control and clung even tighter to Hayate. Then suddenly she started to sob; uncontrollably and like she had never done before. The panic still gripped her heart, it was nowhere near as strong as before, but it was still there. She couldn't seem to stop as her ragged sobs escaped her sore throat. She wasn't crying because she had almost died, she was shinobi, she had accepted the fact that she had a high probability of being killed young; it was the full realization that _Hayate_ had almost died. If he died then she didn't know what she would do. Logically she knew that she would have been dead too so it wouldn't really matter, but she just couldn't stop the horror that she was feeling at the thought that she would never feel his arms around her or see his eyes brighten whenever he saw her.

Hayate's hands moved to her shoulders and pushed her back so that she was face to face with him. His eyes greedily roamed over her as he drank the sight of her in as Yugao did the same thing to him. His hands suddenly went to her face, holding her cheeks almost too tightly.

"Yugao…" he whispered, his voice hoarse and broken sounding.

Yugao felt her heart clench at the sound even as she relished in his tight hold on her.

"Kami…" he said in the same tone and then Yugao's mind went blank as she suddenly felt Hayate's lips pressed against hers.

Wait…Hayate was kissing her? Hayate _never_ kissed her. Sure they had kissed before, they had been dating for over a year, but it usually took her a good 10 minutes to get the stubborn man to willingly kiss her and even then it was only just a quick peck. His fear of making her sick combined with his low self-esteem made it difficult at best to get him to make any kind of physical contact with her. His physical interactions with others were practically nonexistent.

But now….now Hayate was kissing her, kissing her like he was starving; like she was the air that they had recently been denied of and Kami was it good. Yugao never would have guessed that Hayate was so full of raw passion; for that was the only way to describe the way that he was kissing her.

His dry lips pushed against hers insistently and she eagerly replied back. One of his hands slid from her cheek to behind her head and gripped her long purple hair in a fist, pushing her head closer. Yugao felt a warm, wet tongue trace her bottom lip and she shivered, opening her mouth to him. Hayate sat up a little straighter and pushed his tongue into her waiting mouth, tracing every corner.

Yugao had no idea how she had lived without this before and she was quickly becoming addicted to this more forceful side and taste of her lover. Yugao eagerly let Hayate ravage her mouth for a bit before running her own tongue along Hayate's. Her lungs started to ache for oxygen but this time she welcomed the feeling, not wanting to stop. For a moment they battled for dominance and Yugao shivered a little harder when Hayate refused to back down and became even more forceful, gripping her hair tighter and holding her face harder. Yugao had never been so turned on in her life and she had never wanted Hayate more than she did now.

Her shudder seemed to have alerted Hayate to something because he suddenly jerked away from her and nearly fell over backwards in his haste. Yugao felt oddly cold from the loss of his lips and looked up to see what had startled him. Hayate's eyes were wide with shock and shame. She frowned and was about to ask what was wrong when she got cut off.

"Yugao! Oh, oh, I'm so so sorry! I don't know –cough- what came over me! We almost –cough- died and then I go –cough- and do that! I'm so sorry! I wasn't –cough- thinking!" Hayate continued to ramble frantically, his hands hovering in front of him as if he didn't know what to do with them. His cough got steadily worse as his panic level seemed to rise.

"Hayate!" Yugao calmly yet forcefully said.

She needed to calm the man down before he made himself even more sick. The extended period without air that they had just experienced certainly hadn't been good for his health, and now his rambling was only adding problems for his breathing. Hayate immediately fell silent, a year with Yugao had taught him to listen to that tone, and stared at her with worried eyes.

"I'm sorry," he whispered one more time, his voice filled with so much self-loathing that it shocked Yugao for a moment.

"I don't know why you're sorry," she said, her voice slightly hoarse, "I've been waiting a long time for something like that. Though I admit that I could have done without the whole 'almost dying thing'." She let out a soft chuckle as a faint blushed appeared on Hayate's cheeks.

Hayate stiffened and looked around, suddenly on full alert. His actions brought back the current situation to the forefront of Yugao's mind. Amazing how just a kiss, albeit a mind-blowing one, from Hayate could distract her from the fact that something had almost just killed them. Hayate slowly stood up, still coughing, and grabbed Yugao's hand, pulling her up with him. They stood back to back next to their tree. Yugao once again stretched out her senses and searched for anything nearby. She and Hayate stiffened at the same time.

Blood.

The distinctive, coppery smell of blood assaulted her senses; and it wasn't subtle either. A second later she caught the scent of burning flesh.

"A fight?" Hayate whispered without turning around.

"Maybe. Someone or something is either dead or dying. 200 yards at three o'clock?" she mumbled back.

"Yea, I'll take lead. If it starts to get hard to breathe you get the hell out of there and go to the Hokage and inform him of the situation. No exceptions, is that understood?"

A pause, a cough, then, "Okay."

They both knew it was a lie. Yugao would die right beside him without a second thought. She wouldn't be able to abandon him. They both prayed that whatever had caused the air to disappear would be long gone by now.

Hayate started walking towards the smell of blood and Yugao followed just a pace behind. She observed the tense set in his shoulders and agitated air around him and knew that it wasn't just because of whatever they were about to face. If they didn't die before they got back to Konoha she would have to corner Hayate to get him to tell her what was wrong. Yugao had a pretty good idea that he was more tense about the aftermath of the kiss than the almost dying part.

Yugao internally sighed. If anything the kiss had been a heat of the moment thing and now he would be even more reserved than before. If that was the case then she would just have to _force _him to see that she wasn't afraid to be close to him. Already she was itching to kiss him again, as inappropriate as it would be in the current situation. Who knew almost dying would have helped to advance their relationship?

Hayate paused and held up his hand. Yugao stopped and went on alert and berated herself. What the hell was wrong with her? She was going into a potentially lethal situation and she was fretting over her relationship like some love-struck 12 year old civilian. How shameful.

Hayate walked over to a nearby tree and ran his hand over the bark. Yugao narrowed her eyes as she saw what had given him pause. The tree looked like someone had slashed at it repeatedly with a sword. The sword slashes, no, they were too wide to be from a regular sword, went all the way up to the very top of the tree. She looked around and noticed that all of the surrounding trees had similar marks on them; one of the smaller trees having been cut all the way in half. Had a battle taken place here?

Yugao tapped the back of Hayate's hand to show she had seen everything and they continued on. After about 50 yards Hayate slowed his pace down. The trees around them not only had slash marks on them now; some of them were also bent like they were nothing more than twigs. The great trees that Konoha was so well known for were partially uprooted and leaning against each other; as if some great force had passed by and knocked them over. They were all leaning away from the direction that they were heading in and as they continued to walk Yugao got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach at what they would find up ahead.

Another 50 yards in and the proud trees had bent completely to the will of the unknown force and were now lying flat on the ground. Yugao and Hayate had to leap onto the trunks and jump from fallen tree to fallen tree; the ground was no longer visible. The smell of blood and burnt flesh was now overwhelmingly strong and Yugao was thankful that her ANBU mask was blocking at least some of the stench.

Hayate suddenly stopped on one of the larger fallen trees and crouched down drawing his sword out. Yugao landed directly behind him and laid her body out flat so that if anyone was looking directly at Hayate they would not be able to see her. She snaked her hand out to touch Hayate's foot.

She tapped once. _What is it?_

Hayate didn't move for a moment but then he reached down and, on the hand that was resting against his foot, drew an 'X'. _Stay here._

Hayate jumped forward before Yugao could protest so she got up into a crouch, ready to attack at a seconds notice. It was her job to watch her partner's back and she would be damned if she let something hurt him. She scanned the surrounding area and automatically searched for the best possible escape routes and memorized the terrain so she wouldn't get caught by surprise if they had to fight. There was nothing worse than a shinobi tripping over a rock or a root in the middle of a life-and-death fight.

"Yugao! Come here!" Hayate shouted, his voice filled with worry.

Yugao jumped quickly towards the direction Hayate's voice had come from, drawing her katana in mid-air. She saw a clearing a few yards ahead of her and her eyes widened in shock behind her mask.

The trees had been completely decimated around her, the only sign that there had even been trees there before were scorch marks on the ground. In the epicenter of the now-barren area was a giant crater at least 20 yards in diameter. Yugao knelt down to feel the ground around here. The ground was still hot from whatever had eliminated the trees.

"Hayate?" she called out, not seeing him anywhere in the clearing.

"Down here!"

Yugao heard Hayate's voice come from the crater. She ran over to the edge of crater and knelt down to look in to it. Hayate was crouched down in the middle of the hole and was leaning over something, his sword laying on the ground next to him. Yugao hesitated a moment when she noticed that the smell of blood and burnt flesh was coming from whatever Hayate was hovering over. A flash of irrational fear flashed through Yugao at the thought of Hayate being so close to something that smelled of death.

What the hell was wrong with her? The way she was acting was more than likely going to get not only herself killed because she wasn't concentrating but also Hayate.

Yugao jumped down into the crater and ran over to Hayate. It was all she could do to suppress the urge to gag at the overwhelming stench. When she was standing next to Hayate she couldn't hold back her gasp.

"Is he alive?" she whispered.

Yugao had seen many dead and dying bodies in her life time. Being in ANBU, she had caused many of those dead bodies. She had seen the cruelty with which some missing-nin dealt with their prey. She had seen bodies shredded, burned, and scattered. She could cut off a targets head and have no qualms about it. But this, _this_ was on a whole new level for her. The man lying in front of her, at least she thought it was male, looked like he was the embodiment of the phrase 'through hell and back'.

The most obvious thing about the man was that his skin was barley there. It looked like someone had taken a knife and meticulously sliced the first few layers of skin off; all that was left was a pink and red splotchy mockery of skin left on the body. Either it was some new jutsu that she had never seen before or a highly skilled medic-nin, probably on par with the Sannin Tsunade-hime in terms of skill. Surprisingly though, the man's clothes, or what was left of them, it was impossible to tell what he had been wearing before because they were so torn up, were still on him. She couldn't see any hitai-ate on him to identify where he was from, if he even was a shinobi. Though why anyone would attack a civilian so viciously was beyond her.

Looking closer Yugao noticed that there were also burns, slices and stab wounds all along his body. The man's whole body looked like it had been electrocuted, black burn marks were periodically scattered along his remaining skin and in some places the skin was even smoking, adding to the awful smell. There was a particularly deep stab wound at the center of his chest; in fact, it looked like it went clean through him.

Yugao shot her head up to look at Hayate with wide-eyes when he didn't respond. Hayate was staring at the body before him with serious eyes and a clenched jaw. Slowly he reached out and placed his hand over the man's neck searching for a pulse. Yugao didn't blame him as he grimaced when he touched the raw skin on the throat. His hand shot back almost as soon as it touched the man.

"He's alive!" Hayate said in disbelief.

Yugao stared at Hayate for a moment. There was no possible way that the man could be alive. The hole in his chest was definitely a fatal wound, and if by some miracle he had survived that the extent and degree of the burns that covered his body should have killed him and if they hadn't they certainly would. But Hayate wouldn't lie; he had never lied to her before and he certainly wouldn't lie about something like this. As she looked at the not-dead man's face again she saw it, it was barley there but it was proof; there was just the slightest movement beneath his eyelids.

Yugao's ANBU training kicked in full-throttle; thank god her taichou wasn't here or else he would have kicked her ass six ways to Sunday for being so unprofessional.

"Hayate. Run back to the village and grab the first med-nin that you see and then run back this way. I'll carry the man and run in a straight line towards the village until I see you and the med-nin. If we don't see you before we reach the village we will wait outside the gates, I will not bring an unknown into the village. We'll have the med-nin see if they can stabilize him. If he's a lost cause then at least we will have tried, if we can stabilize him we'll bring him to the hospital and into the secure ward until we learn more about him. He could be a potential enemy nin; however we cannot just leave him to die. If he is an enemy nin he could also have valuable information and as Leaf shinobi we cannot allow this opportunity to pass."

"Let me-" Hayate began but was cut off.

"No, I was training earlier today and am running low on chakra. I won't be able to make the run back to Konoha as quickly as you will." Yugao paused for a moment. If it was anyone else she would just pull rank on them but she could never do that, not to her lover. Hayate looked at her and gave her a small smile.

"Don't you dare be late Yugao," and then he was gone in a whoosh of air.

Yugao looked down at the mutilated body and grimaced. She was not looking forward to carrying the man however far it took to meet back up with Hayate. She looked over the body again and tried to determine the least painful way for the man to be picked up. In all honesty it was going to hurt like hell no matter which way she picked him up; if he was even conscious enough to feel the pain, or if he even could feel pain.

Yugao slowly slid one arm under the man's shoulders and the other under the man's knees. It was only when she was lifting the man up that she realized how light he was, and how small he was. Without wasting another second she set off as fast as she dared without jostling the man too badly towards her village.

As Yugao jumped out of the crater, ran pass the decimated trees, pass the uprooted trees and towards the slashed trees she couldn't help but think exactly _what _had caused that much destruction. It looked like some kind of explosion had gone off with the man in her arms being the epicenter. Had he been attacked? Or had he been the one attacking and just lost after killing his enemies? As far as Yugao knew, to cause that much damage it would take at least three ANBU on a good day. She glanced at the man she was carrying. Whoever this man was, he certainly had powerful enemies.

It was only about 5 minutes later that she felt two approaching chakra signatures; one of which she knew as well as her own. How had Hayate managed to run all the way to Konoha, find a med-nin, and run back? Yugao slowed down until she came to stop in a small clearing. As she gently laid the man down on the grass Hayate burst through the trees with a blonde man behind him.

"Inoichi-sama!" Yugao said, standing at attention and bowing slightly. She glanced at Hayate out of the corner of her eye. He coughed before he spoke.

"He was patrolling outside of the gates and a Yamanaka is as good as any med-nin." Hayate said with a carless shrug that was belied by the tightness around his eyes as he glanced Yugao over.

"What's going on? Is this the man that Hayate-kun was telling me about?" Inoichi said, kneeling down beside the burned body. Yugao knelt down opposite of him and gave her report.

"We found him alone about 400 yards Westward in a field after Hayate and I went in search of the cause of an unknown jutsu that we got caught it. The surroundings were completely destroyed showing signs of what looked to be an A class or higher battle. When we got there the ground was still warm from a jutsu and his body was still smoking which leads me to believe that the battle had just ended. He was unconscious when we arrived and has not woken up since. Estimated time since discovery: 8 minutes."

Inoichi nodded absent-mindedly and hovered his hands over the man's body. He rested one hand over the man's forehead but then pulled it away with a frown. His hands started to glow green and he ran them over the man's chest and stomach but stopped after a few seconds, his frown deepening. He sat back on his heels and bit his lip, staring hard at the man's face.

"Inoichi-sama?" Hayate asked, coming over to stand behind Yugao, his hand resting on her shoulder.

The head of the Yamanaka clan didn't say anything for a moment as he continued to stare at the man with a frown. Yugao didn't know what was going on but she knew that if the man didn't get treatment soon he really _would_ die. So why in the world was Inoichi-sama just sitting there doing nothing?

"From my preliminary observations I gathered that around 90% of his body has sustained 2nd or 3rd degree burns. There are over a dozen visible stab wounds, most likely kunai made, and there is a large, fist-sized, hole on the right side of his chest that goes all the way through puncturing his right lung. Multiple lacerations cover his body with no discernible pattern and he is covered in an abnormal amount of blood, however, I believe that not all of it is his. Dried blood indicates that he inflicted wounds or was wounded somewhere between two and three hours ago, the fresh blood indicate less than 30 minutes. It's impossible to tell how many bones have been broken or muscles pulled but I can confidently say that the right half of his rib cage is shattered and his lower vertebrae appears to be broken. Physically this man should be dead." Inoichi said quietly, not looking up as he spoke.

"But he still has a pulse! He's still alive! Why aren't- forgive me Inoichi-sama, but why aren't you healing him?" Hayate said.

If Inoichi heard Hayate he didn't give any sign.

"Physically this man should be dead _three times over_," Inoichi said. "It is literally impossible for someone to be alive right now. It is simply not possible for a human to withstand this kind of damage and still be breathing afterwards."

Yugao's eyes widened as the implications of his words hit her. She involuntarily took a step back. So this man…wasn't really a man? What was he? She heard Hayate voice her question as his grip on her shoulder tightened. Again, Inoichi didn't respond right away.

"I'm…not sure. Either something is blocking me from reaching him mentally or," another pause, "there's nothing up there for me to reach."

Hayate coughed. "So what do we do?"

Inoichi did a hand sign and muttered a jutsu under his breath, too low for Yugao or Hayate to hear. He then mimicked Yugao's earlier actions and picked up the man's frail form in his arms.

"We take him to Konoha and report what's happed to Hokage-sama. I've placed a sleeping jutsu on him in the event that he should wake up before we can properly situate him in the village. Let's go." Inoichi said, his voice offering no chance for questions.

Yugao and Hayate followed a pace behind the Torture and Interrogation Specialist. In Yugao opinion, placing a sleeping jutsu on the man was a little extreme, but then again, surviving a hole in the chest was a bit extreme too. She glanced over at Hayate who was branch-hopping alongside her. He looked over at her and gave her a warm smile; and suddenly, everything was okay. Because even though they both felt it, felt that something big was coming, that things were about to change, they had each other. As long as she could look over and see Hayate smile at her, she could take on anything that the world threw at her.

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_Review? Please?_


	3. Chapter 3

_I'm sorry that its taken so long to get this one up, I've had a crazy week with settling back into college and I haven't had to time to just down and write. Hopefully you guys will like it! If there's anything that you guys would like to see in the story feel free to tell me and I might add it into the story! Please review_

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**CHAPTER THREE: Out of the Blue **

"The death of a dream can in fact serve as the vehicle that endows it with new form, with reinvigorated substance, a fresh flow of ideas, and splendidly revitalized color. In short, the power of a certain kind of dream is such that death need not indicate finality at all but rather signify a metaphysical and metaphorical leap forward."  
― Aberjhani, _The River of Winged Dreams_

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Tsunade felt like throwing someone out a window. Yes, that would make her feel better. Of course, a nice bottle of sake would do the trick too.

Sadly, she was the fricking Hokage now so she couldn't just go and get wasted anytime she wanted like she used to.

Tsunade sighed and banged her head against her desk. Being the Hokage sucked; and to make matters worse, since she had become Hokage, Shizune had gone from disapproving of her sake-drinking habits to becoming the Sake Police. It was embarrassing that a Sannin like herself couldn't even manage to hide a bottle of sake from her assistant.

Tsunade lifted her head off of her desk and growled when a few of the never-ending papers stuck to her forehead. She was sorely tempted to crumple them up and throw them away. But with her luck they would probably be papers from the civilian shop-keepers asking for a ridiculous amount of money for repairs for the damage that they had sustained from the impromptu attack from Oto and Suna a month ago.

Thinking about that also made her want to throw someone out a window. Or drink an unhealthy amount of sake.

Which lead her back to the first reason why she wanted to throw someone out a window; or more specifically a few people, those few people being on the council. She had known her sensei hadn't been fond of the village council but she hadn't known that they were this bad. It seemed like they were purposely trying to undermine her authority and make everything harder than it had to be.

Of course having their precious Uchiha defect from the village hadn't helped their attitudes.

Tsunade had never really met the famed Last Uchiha, by the time she had taken up the mantle of Godaime Hokage and gotten reacquainted with the village, the Uchiha had already left the village. Though she had never met the boy she was already biased towards him; in the extreme.

Sure he had defected from the village, which she was now the leader of. That was a big deal in its self as it could be taken as a personal slight to herself. But it wasn't for that reason that she didn't like the boy that she had never met. It was because he had hurt _him. _He had hurt one of her few precious people. The one who had brought the light slamming back into her life. She had personally seen the damage the Uchiha had done to her precious person. She had seen how Naruto had almost died to bring the traitor back.

If she ever came across the Uchiha she would rip him a new one.

A knock sounded on her door and she almost cried out in joy at the welcome distraction. With a yelled 'Come in' Tsunade attempted to reign in some of the chaos that had taken over her desk. A chunin, whose name she honestly couldn't remember right now, walked in.

"Hokage-sama," he said with a bow.

Tsunade waved her hand through the air in a dismissive manner. After the council and paper work, the bowing was the next thing on her list of things to destroy. Sure she had gotten it before because she was one of the Legendary Sannin, but she had traveled from place to place and her face hadn't been that well known. The constant bowing had gotten old after the first week.

"What?" she snapped. When the chunin flinched she immediately felt guilty. It wasn't his fault that she was stressed out.

"I'm sorry," she said, pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes, "I'm just a little tired. Please, continue." .

"Inoichi-sama said that he's ready when you are, Hokage-sama," the chunin said smiling. He bowed again, lower this time, and made his leave.

Tsunade felt her mood lift somewhat. If there was one thing that she enjoyed it was a challenge; and the patient that she was about to see was the very definition of challenge. After she had somewhat stabilized the village after her ex-teammate's attack, she had gone through the more private and classified files that the village had, hoping to find something that would take her mind off of her sensei's death.

Tsunade had hit the jackpot. Patient number U15399 was a gold mine for her med-nin side. The patient had been brought in about three months ago, just before the Chunin Exams had begun, and had been an enigma since day one. She herself had run tests just last week on the man and had been confounded by what she had found.

When she had done her own personal exam her results had come back completely incomprehensible. A lot of her techniques simply wouldn't work on the man. Short of slicing the man up, there wasn't much she could do. The only thing she really knew about the man, medically, was that he was in pristine health. Which should have been impossible considering his file; the man should have been at least a hundred feet under if the initial damage report was to be believed.

She and Shizune had spent countless hours hypothizing about the man's seeming miraculous recovery; that the man had some kind of rapid healing blood line was the most probable conclusion.

Initially ANBU had place U15399 in one of the more permanent Torture and Interrogation cells after he had made his full recovery. However, if was decided that it would be for the best that when he woke up, he woke up in a comfortable hospital room.

And if he decided to stay in Konoha and spread his blood line that was good too.

Tsunade left her office behind with good riddance and made her way through the village towards the hospital. Inoichi had been the initial examiner of U15399 and had kept tabs on the man through the months monitoring him. Apparently Inoichi had a slight fascination with the man because, according to him, it was the first mind that he had encountered that he could not get into; and if Inoichi couldn't get into someone's mind then no one could.

Tsunade just hoped that the man wasn't from another village or else they would be in serious trouble if other enemy nin were able to close off their minds so completely.

Yesterday, one of the nurses had said that the man had woken up for a moment. Though she said that the man had only opened his eyes for a moment and then passed back out, it was something. Today, Tsunade was going to take a risk and try and wake the man up. Normally she wouldn't dare do something so risky, especially after the patient had almost died, but it was because he had almost died and was now fine that she was going to attempt it. If she succeeded then Inoichi was to try to break into his mind again, hopefully it would be easier if he was conscious.

Tsunade knew that they should probably wait, not only could they accidentally fry the man's brain, but it wasn't exactly polite to invade someone's mind the second they woke up. It kind of negated the whole 'we are friendly enough to have offered you a comfortable bed to rest in while you recovered' thing. But Tsunade was just too damn eager and she knew that Inoichi was excited for today as well.

There was something else unique about UNKNOWN15399; something more interesting than him being able to heal at inhumane rates, than him coming from nowhere, and more interesting than him battling unknown ANBU level opponents.

Patient U15399 had no chakra.

None.

Not even the barest of sparks that civilians had.

Never, in all of her travels and in all of her career as a med-nin, had she ever come across someone who had no chakra. Even when ninja were exiled and had their chakra sealed, if you were skilled enough you would be able to pick up on the barest impression of chakra.

Yes, the man she was going to go see was very interesting indeed.

Tsunade walked through the white winding corridors of Konoha's only hospital. She saw Inoichi leaning against her destination's door with his eyes closed. He opened his eyes and gave a small nod to her.

"Tsunade-sama."

Together they walked into the small one-man room that held the object that had piqued both of their interests.

Tsunade walked over and looked down at the man on the bed. The man was dwarfed by the large bulky white sheets that covered him, yet he still managed to look intimidating. If there was one thing that Tsunade had always been good at it, it was at spotting a ninja, and the second she had seen this man she had known that he was one. Even unconscious and pale the man still managed to exude an aura of power and authority; when she had first glanced at him Tsunade had vaguely been reminded of how Minato's presence had felt. But this man's was different, it was…more; more powerful, more demanding, more cold.

Inoichi pulled up a chair by the man's head and sat down. He gently placed both of his hands on the man's temples and closed his eyes.

"I'm going to try and break through one more time before you wake him, just in case."

Tsunade hummed her approval and took the time to observe U15399. Not for the first time, Tsunade was struck by how handsome the man was. He didn't look to be that old; maybe in his early twenties. He had delicate features, almost feline, with high cheek bones, high arched eyebrows and a thin, straight nose. His hair was as unique as the man. Long, wild, and untamed, the man's hair came just below his shoulders with bright yellow and blood red mixed seamlessly together. His skin was unmarked and unmarred; no doubt a product of his rapid healing ability.

Inoichi opened his eyes and sighed in disappointment but there was a small smile tugging at his lips.

"Still nothing. It's incredible really. Usually when there's something blocking me it's some kind of jutsu or seal that manifest a physical barrier in the mind or erase parts altogether. Even if someone has had their mind entirely wiped clean there's still emptiness there, like a blank white space. But this guy," Inoichi waved vaguely in front of him, "this guy, it's like there's nothing there, I might as well be trying to read a chairs mind. Fascinating really."

"Yes, well as fascinating as that all is, it's a problem. We've established that this man is a shinobi. If he is an enemy shinobi then this new technique or whatever it is that they've managed to develop that allows their nin to hide their minds so efficiently is a major threat. Who knows what kind of danger this man potentially poses." Tsunade said.

"Yes, yes. Then again, it might just be an isolated incident related only to this particular man. A blood line or forbidden jutsu maybe?" Inoichi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hm. Maybe, we won't know until he wakes up," Tsunade said going around taking Inoichi's place by U15399's head.

Waking a person from an unconscious state was relatively easy. Depending on how deep into unconsciousness the person was, different methods were used. The most effective solution, in Tsunade's opinion, was a simple chakra reinforced whack to the back of the head. However, seeing as that was sometimes detrimental to the patient's physical well-being, Tsunade usually had to employ more basic and common methods. The safest and most common method was for the medic nin to take a small amount of their own chakra and push it into the patient without the intent of healing. Simple, yet potentially dangerous. If the chakra that was pushed into the patient wasn't completely blank and without any motive then a severe back lash would occur, drastically draining both the medic and the patient of their chakra. It required the strictest concentration. If the medic managed that far then they had to factor in how much blank chakra they were pushing in. If the patient had low chakra reserves and they pushed too much in they could accidentally fry the patients chakra coils.

Which was usually why smelling salts were used. Basic yet effective. However, if a person was too far from consciousness, usually in a coma-like state, then it was usually better to wait it out than to risk trying to wake the person up. However, if you had an exceptionally skilled med-nin then the method could be used with relative ease; being able to wake a person who had been in a coma for years.

Today, there just so happened to be the best medic ninja in the entire Elemental Countries in the room.

With a smirk, Tsunade placed her glowing green hands on each side of the man's face and sent a short but powerful blank blast of chakra through the man's chakra coils, which Tsunade had determined were there even if there was no chakra flowing through them and judging by the development of the coil's the man's missing chakra was enormous. Absent-mindedly, Tsunade noted that this was the first time that she had actually made physical contact with the man.

Nothing happened.

Tsunade gave an undignified huff and sent another, more powerful, burst of chakra through the man. He should have woken up screaming bloody murder.

Nothing.

"Tsunade-sama?" Inoichi asked hesitantly.

"Maybe it's not working because he has no chakra to begin with? Usually when this method is used, the chakra that is pushed into the patient acts as a catalysts and jumpstarts the patients entire chakra system into overdrive. Since there's no chakra in his body, there's nothing to jumpstart. Idiot! I should have thought of that earlier!" Tsunade scowled, mentally berating herself. In hindsight, it was pretty obvious that it wouldn't have worked. She had let her eagerness get in her way and cloud her judgment.

"So then we'll just have to wait for him to wake up on his own then, huh? I can continue trying to break in, but I doubt it will do any good. It's like I don't even have anything to break into." Inoichi sighed, his disappointment written clearly on his face.

Tsunade didn't blame him. She had been looking forward to this all week and to have nothing happen was a major let down. She stood and made her way towards the door, Inoichi right behind her, when she felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on her. She tensed up and twirled around, chakra already gathered in her clenched fists.

"Show yourself!" she yelled at the room. No ANBU came at her sudden spike in chakra. Patient U15399 was confidential and only a handful of people knew of him; she had ordered her ANBU guard to take a few hours off this morning.

"Tsunade-sama!" Inoichi exclaimed, jumping backwards holding his hands up in the air to show his innocence. When he realized she wasn't glaring at him he whipped around and searched the room. "Hokage-sama?" he whispered warily, slipping into a more formal address. He hadn't and still didn't sense anything.

"Were being watched," Tsunade gritted out. She didn't know by who or where but she trusted her instincts; she wasn't a Sannin because of her looks.

Tsunade could feel the malice, the hate in the air, almost as if it was a tangible thing, and though she would never admit it; it made her nervous. She whipped her head to the right when she heard indistinctive murmurings.

"I can hear you! I order you to show yourself this instant or else I will use force!" Tsunade yelled into the air again, whipping her head to the left as the murmurings came from that direction.

"Hokage-sama, I don't sense or hear anything. Should I call for back-up?" Inoichi said, reverting to the strict and well-trained jounin he was.

No. She didn't know why but she didn't want to call for her ANBU guards. Why? She should, it was common sense, she was the Hokage and she needed protection against enemies even if she was powerful; all it took was one mistake to get yourself killed. So why wasn't she signaling for her ANBU?

The voice was getting louder. Closer? She couldn't tell if it was a male or a female though. She couldn't really tell what direction it was coming from either. She glanced at the man on the bed. Was he doing this? Were they friends of his? Were they after him?

"This is your last warning! Show yourself or face the consequences!"

Tsunade increased the chakra flow to her fists. There was more than one voice. Half a dozen? A dozen? How did so many intruders manage to get into the village? She tried to make out the words they were saying to each other, or were they talking to her?

**_It's her._**

Tsunade froze. She had heard one of the voices clearly that time, it was still faint but she had clearly heard the words. It had sounded like an older male. Was he talking about her, targeting her? Tsunade glanced at Inoichi, who was standing protectively in front of her, and saw that he had given no indication that he had heard or was hearing anything. There had to be some kind of jutsu or genjutsu then that was making only her hear the voices.

She said a silent 'Kai!' and disrupted her chakra flow but nothing changed.

**_Yea, she was on that rock._** One of the voices, a younger male this time said, just as faintly.

**_Godaime Hokage. Precious._**A female this time.

**_Finally, why the hell did it take so long?_**A grouchy male's voice.

**_Idiots!_**A new voice yelled, louder and more clearly than all the others, **_Be quiet and keep healing!_**

The constant murmuring that Tsunade had been hearing suddenly ceased but she only tensed up even more. Whoever these people were they knew who she was. She opened her mouth to question the hidden enemies again.

**_Hold your tongue woman!_** The previous voice said again. He must be their captain, Tsunade noted.

"Excuse me!" she yelled out in anger.

Inoichi turned around and gave her a questioning look. Belatedly, Tsunade realized that she probably looked like a fool talking to no one.

**_Are all you humans this dense? I said hold your tongue woman! Tell the Yamanaka to leave._**

Tsunade felt her eye twitch at being given a command. Who the hell did this person think they were telling her what to do. She opened her mouth again to give him a piece of her mind, appearances be damned, when a low threatening growl reverberated throughout her mind. Tsunade paled.

It took a lot to intimidate her. But that growl. That was a growl born from sin, from a being that was merciless. Against her better judgment Tsunade complied with the creatures, for that voice could not belong to an ordinary man, wishes.

"Forgive me Inoichi-san. I must be more tired than I thought I was, if I'm starting to imagine things. Why don't you head on home, I'm going to stay with the patient a little longer to run a few more test, just in case I overlooked something."

Inoichi looked over at her with a frown but it wasn't his place to question a not-so-subtle order from his Hokage. With a wary bow and another cursory sweep of the room with his eyes he backed out of the room and left.

For a moment nothing happened.

"Well, what do you want with me? I'm alone now, so stop hiding like a coward and show yourself."

Tsunade was proud that her voice held no hint of her trepidation. She wasn't sure what had happened to the other voices but she knew that they could have stood a good chance against her if they had wanted to attack her. Hell, the apparent leader could probably go toe-to-toe with her if the voice was anything to go by. She narrowed her eyes at the unconscious man lying on the bed oblivious to the world. She just knew that this was all connected to him; coincidences didn't just happed in the shinobi world. She couldn't wait for the man to wake up so she could beat the crap out of him for causing her so much trouble.

**_There's no need to speak aloud Tsunade, merely think your words and I will hear them._** The voice said.

Tsunade hesitated for a second. The voice had just confirmed that he knew who she was. However, she couldn't just stand there without getting any answers. So, feeling incredibly foolish:

_How are you communicating with me?_

**_When you pushed your chakra into the gaki I pushed some of my own into you, establishing a link so I could contact you. We have been waiting a while for you._**

_Are you the unconscious man?and who is we? There were others earlier, where did they go? _

There wasn't an answer right away and Tsunade had to stretch her patience well past its limits in order not to punch something to release all of her pent up nervousness and confusion. She hated not knowing what was going on. She really needed her sake about five minutes ago.

**_Neither I nor my kin are the man you see; we are merely…apart of him. No more no less. Do not ask our names for I will not tell you now nor any other time. We would not have made you aware of our presence if the gaki had been awake. However, his being and soul are both shattered right now and it's taking everything we have to keep him alive. As humiliating as this is, we need to ask for your assistance for there is only so much even we could do._**

Tsunade took a moment to process the rush of information. If the voice was to be believed, then the man lying in the room with her, the man who looked to be in perfect health, was almost dying; and not only that but he supposedly had voices, possibly separate beings, inside of him. Tsunade rubbed her temples. First things first: the well-fare of her patient.

_What's wrong with him? My test show that there is no internal or external damage. His body, or at least what I can see, is perfectly fine. We have not been able to assess his mental state as even our best can't get a read on him. _

Tsunade walked back over to the unconscious man and sat down next to him. She studied him again, her curiosity dominating any other emotion. What had she missed?

**_He recently went through an…ordeal. While we managed to heal his body and mind, his soul has been strained. It was almost ripped from his body and is just barely holding onto his physical being. If his soul loses the little grip it has he would become nothing more than a shell. As powerful as we are we cannot do much in matters of human souls. However, another human can._**

Tsunade turned the information over in her mind for a moment. It certainly was a lot of information to take in. Assuming the voice was telling the truth. She knew a little about souls, the result of Jiraiya studying their ex-teammates left over research, and she was pretty confident that she could help heal a strained soul. Though what the hell had the man been doing that had messed with his soul?

Orochimaru's face flashed through her mind. Tsunade gritted her teeth. He was the only known person in the Elemental Countries that dabbled in such forbidden jutsu. Had this man been an unfortunate byproduct of one of his experiments?

_You said his mind was healed. Why can't we access it then?_

**_We have not let you. _**Was the simple reply.

Tsunade grunted in acknowledgment. From what she could concluded whoever these people were, if they even were people, they were living inside the young man. Parasitically or symbiotically? It seemed that they were the reason for the man's fast healing. The only question was what could heal a person like that.

Tsunade only knew of one thing that could heal a person and that lived inside of a human. It was possible, that the man lying next to her was a container for a bijuu. But couldn't be true. There were more than one voice/being inside of the man. Tsunade had never heard of more than one tailed-beast being sealed within a person before. She had certainly never heard of a demon being able to communicate with a person that wasn't its container.

So the man wasn't a jinjuriki. The fact that all nine of the bijuu were currently sealed within known humans helped reinforce that fact. So it had to be some other kind of power-source that was inside of the man. Tsunade hadn't seen any seal markings when she had examined the man. Then again, according to Jiraiya, most seals on humans didn't show up until their chakra passed through it. Then again this man didn't have any chakra right now so if he had a seal it wouldn't have shown up anyway.

Tsunade rubbed her temples and sighed. She wasn't used to thinking this much this early in the day.

_How can I help?_

There was no harm in helping heal the man. She had taken an oath when she first became a med-nin, and though she had been neglecting it the past few years, her return to Konoha was supposed to mark a new beginning for her. Either way she would have to keep a closer watch on the man seeing as she now knew that there were multiple beings sealed within the man.

**_Place your hands on the gaki's head like you did before and we will let you in. Then you can begin healing him. _**

Tsunade placed her hands on the man's head like she was told too. She was a little wary of entering someone's mind; Ibiki and Inoichi were the experts in this field. She also wasn't too keen on meeting multiple powerful beings inside of the man; and Tsunade knew they were powerful, you couldn't just hide a person's mind from the Head of the Yamanaka Clan on a whim.

Tsunade sat there for a second feeling foolish. Nothing was happening. She chewed her bottom lip and squeezed her eyes shut trying to imagine herself inside of the man's mind. She mentally cursed herself for not paying more attention to Inoichi when he went on one of his long boring rants about the intricacies of the human mind.

Her patience at its end, Tsunade opened her eyes again to yell at the voice again when she realized she wasn't sitting in the hospital room anymore. She slowly stood up from where she was on the cold floor and looked around.

Now, Tsunade had never been in someone's mind before, so she couldn't tell if this was the norm or not. However, she could tell you that if someone were to go looking inside of _her _head it would be nowhere near as…clean as this man's was.

From what she could tell, it looked like she was standing in the middle of a giant lake. She looked down at her feet, and though she could see that the water came up to her shins, she didn't feel wet anywhere. As far as she could see there was clear water. She looked up and frowned. Instead of seeing an open sky she saw a ceiling. It was about 100 feet above her and pure white…and were those pipes up there?

Tsunade came to the conclusion that she was in the world's biggest and cleanest sewer. A logical conclusion.

**"Walk straight ahead until you come to the gate."**

The voice said, only this time it wasn't in her head and it sounded as if was ten times louder and deeper than before. And ten times more powerful.

Tsunade stared straight ahead and saw…water. She felt her eye twitch.

"I don't see a gate. How far away is it?"

A loud, irritated growl echoed around her.

**"Not far. Just walk in a straight line. As high a pedestal as the humans have placed you on I had assumed that you would have been able to follow such simple directions. Do you need me to draw you a map, Hokage?"**

Tsunade's other eye twitched. Biting her tongue to keep from lashing out at the irritating voice, conveniently forgetting her earlier reservations, Tsunade stomped forward through the water. She couldn't wait to give that conceited _thing _a good beating. Powerful non-human be damned.

So engrossed in her inner ranting's that Tsunade didn't notice the giant gate sticking out of the water until she almost ran into it. She took a step back to examine the gate.

Saying the gate was giant was an understatement. Colossal was a more fitting term. How Tsunade hadn't seen the thing was a mystery. She should have been able to see it from miles and miles away; and she was sure she hadn't been walking for that long.

The gate looked like it was made out of some kind of black metal. The black bars were set at about two feet apart and looked to be about as thick as a watermelon. They went all the way up to the ceiling and down under into the water. They extended out as far as she could see; she assumed that they only stopped when they reached the walls, which had to be miles away.

One thing she knew for certain was that whatever was on the other side of the gate had to be huge. She could easily slip through the bars which kind of made the whole gate thing moot. Beyond the bars lay only darkness.

As Tsunade looked closer at the bars in front of her she noticed that they weren't smooth like she first thought they were. She gently rubbed her finger along one of the bars in front of her and felt slight indentations. Tsunade leaned closer and squinted her eyes to get a better look. When she realized what the engravings were she pulled her hand back as if she had been shocked.

.._the hell? _Tsunade thought in shock.

From the little Fuuin Jutsu she knew, mostly from Jiraiya and Minato, she could tell that the engravings on the bar was one big advanced seal; far beyond anything she had ever seen. Shocked she went to the next bar over and saw more engravings on the bar. Tsunade went to the next bar over.

More engravings.

As far as she could see, each and every bar had seals engraved into them. There were no repetitions that she could see.

Tsunade's eyes widened. That meant that the entire gate was one giant seal. She felt slightly lightheaded as she tried to understand the implications that such a large seal would have. The sheer amount of power that the gate-seal itself probably had, had to be greater than the combined power of all of Hokages. What the hell could be behind the gate?

**"Finally, thought I would fall asleep before the woman made it here,"**A grouchy male's voice said.

Tsunade noted that this one's voice sounded slightly fainter and weaker than the one who had been speaking to her before.

**"Shut up! Who gave you permission to speak?" **said the louder, stronger voice.

**"Oh, don't be such a bore. I don't remember nominating you to be our spokesperson. Why can't I speak to the lady?" **A woman's voice this time; faint like the grouchy male's.

**"Because I was here first and I'm smarter than all of you so shut up and watch the kit!" **The stronger voice said.

The voices were all coming from the other side of the gate but Tsunade couldn't make out any forms. The disembodied voices were impossibly louder now that she was closer to where they were originating from.

They sounded big.

**"Just let Mr. Grouchy over there have his way or else he'll get his tails in a twist and we'll never hear the end of it. Frankly, I'd rather let him handle this situation than do it myself," ** A different male's voice: faint like the other two.

There was a moment of silence.

Then a hysterical, slightly crazed laugh filled the air and Tsunade felt a shiver run down her spine. The laughter went on, echoing off of unseen walls and Tsunade swore she heard a few exasperated sighs.

**"Then I vote for Oh-Great-One to take the lead," **The grouchy voice said, it's voice practically dripping with sarcasm, followed by an insane giggle.

**"Idiots! You should show me more respect. It's because of me that you are all here in the first place!" **The stronger voice said.

The moment the words were spoken an uproar filled Tsunade's ears and she quickly covered them to block the noise. She still couldn't tell how many beings there were but she knew for certain that there were at least five different voices; with the one male's being the most clear.

She couldn't make out what the beings were saying as the roars and growls all blended into one deafening noise and Tsunade had never felt such raw power wash over her before. It seemed whoever these beings were, even just their voice held power. The voices didn't show any sign of quieting and as nervous as Tsunade was she had to get them to stop or her head would explode from all the noise.

Besides, wasn't the whole point of this little unexpected adventure because they needed _her. _Instead of paying any attention to her they were bickering with each other like little children and it was seriously grating on her nerves.

Not wanting to risk taking her hands away from her ears Tsunade did the only thing she could think of.

"HEY!" she hollered as loud as she could.

The effect was immediate. In contrast to the deafening noise a few seconds ago, a deafening silence now settled around them. Only to be broken by another round of insane giggling a second later. A quiet thump followed by a 'yip' and the creepy laughter was cut off.

Taking the silence as her cue to continue talking, Tsunade took a deep breath and tried to see beyond the bars into the darkness. The only thing she could make out were vague areas where the darkness seemed to shift, but nothing definite.

"What am I supposed to do now?" she asked aloud. Hoping that they would let her just ignore the squabbling that they had been doing. It was kind of ruining her image of the all-powerful beings she had going on in her head.

**"Get the kit,"** The stronger voice said, assuming the leader role again; this time with no complaints.

"What can I call you if I cannot call you by your real name? I am assuming that you are the leader among you all. How do I address you?" Tsunade asked. The more information she could get the better.

The voice didn't respond right away and she heard the water splashing loudly on the other side of the gate. The water around her shins rose up to her waist and then fell down to the top of her shoes repeatedly. Whatever was moving was large enough to displace all of the water around her by just moving.

**"Make no mistake Godaime Hokage, if it weren't for the situation we are in we would not have contacted you. However, as we need your help, it is unavoidable. We are uncertain of how the gaki wants to proceed but given his condition we have to make the decision for him and hope that it is what he would do."**

The strong voice paused for a moment and Tsunade nodded to show that she understood. Apparently the man whose mind they were in now was respected by whoever she was talking to if they wanted to do what he would want. Was he their master of sorts?

**"We have decided that the best option that we have right now is to reveal the truth to one person and one person only. It would be beneficial to the kit if someone he trusted, preferably in a high social position, was made aware of the situation. The only problem was that we also needed someone who could also heal him which severely limited our options."**

"And no one fits the bill better than me, right?" Tsunade asked.

**"Correct."**

"But I don't know this man or you, so how could he trust me?"

**"You may not know us, but we most certainly know you**,**"** the voice said amusement seeping through.

Tsunade frowned. It was true that a lot of people knew her either for the Wars as one of the Sannin or as the Godaime Hokage, but she got the feeling that the voice meant on a more personal level. She also noticed that the voice hadn't given her a name to call him by either.

The waves in the water started to get higher and Tsunade heard low, rhythmic 'thuds' followed by the floor vibrating, as if some giant creature was walking towards her. The endless dark on the other side of the gate shifted slightly and for the first time Tsunade could properly make out a body.

Tsunade would go to her grave trying to convince herself that she didn't stumble back onto her butt at the sight she saw next.

Easily five-stories high, a giant glowing red mass was shaped into the form of a giant ape. The figure didn't appear completely solid, and she could almost see straight through it. Looking straight through the giant apes chest she saw something that made her gasp out loud and a shiver go through her body.

The giant ape had four tails.

"Y-Yonbi," Tsunade whispered, barely believing her eyes.

It wasn't possible. When Jiraiya had first become aware of Akatsuki's objective he had went out and confirmed the identities of all of the jinchuriki. She couldn't remember them all exactly, but she knew that the jinchuriki was an older man from Iwa; and Tsunade knew that it would have taken Kami himself for Iwa to let their weapon get anywhere near Konoha. She had seen profile pictures of each of the nine containers and she knew that this man wasn't one of them.

Could the previous Yonbi jinchuriki have been recently killed? It would have had to have happened within the last month though. Jiraiya's information had last been updated right before he and Naruto had left for their training trip and according to the man's files he had been brought in before Jiraiya's last update.

How could he be the Yonbi's jinchuriki? Was Jiraiya's network wrong; it had never failed him before. How could Iwa cover something this big up? Not only did one of their jinchuriki die but they lost the new one. They would have scoured the country looking for him if he really was the Yonbi container. None of this was making any sense. She was missing something.

**"I have a name you know!" **the Yonbi said in an irritated tone.

Tsunade could only gape at the giant ape.

**"Pah! Not that you humans would care about something like that! And it's not like I'd tell you it anyway! But it's a good, strong name I'll have you know!" **the Yonbi said puffing his chest out.

His voice, like all but one, was slightly faint; as if they were farther away than the one with the strong voice. Did that mean that they were weaker than the leader? Who was the leader.

Wait. Tsunade's brain froze. If the Yonbi was one of the beings behind the gate, then who were the others? What could you stick in the same cage as a bijuu and not have said bijuu destroy it? Could there be- no. Tsunade mentally shook her head. She wasn't even going to _think _about something like that. It was impossible after all.

The Yonbi knelt as close to the giant gate as he could and brought his supped hands down.

The water sloshed even more and rose up to Tsunade's neck before falling back down again, leaving her as dry as before. She looked at the Yonbi's cupped hands and noticed for the first time that the demon was actually holding something. With a gentleness that Tsunade couldn't wrap her head around, the bijuu gently laid a tattered body down next to the gate.

The body was an exact replica of U15399 except for one major difference. This version of the man was damaged. There were lacerations and tears covering the whole man's body and the skin that was available was painted black, purple, yellow and green.

Tsunade rushed over to the gate as the Yonbi gently slid the battered body through the bars with his pinky.

"My god," Tsunade whispered as she knelt down by the man and took full stock of the injuries. "Is this-?"

**"His soul, yes. We have been able to keep the fundamentals of it intact but fully healing it is something we cannot do." **The strong voice said.

The Yonbi turned back around and walked back into the darkness, his glowing red form seeming to melt away.

"I- I'm not sure I'm qualified to deal with this," Tsunade said as she looked down at the soul. How the hell was she supposed to fix this? Was healing a soul, when presented like this, the same as healing a body? This was uncharted waters for her. She had no previous experience to call upon to help her even set up a basis for where to start.

A few growls emitted from the darkness and Tsunade involuntarily flinched.

**"You ****_will_**** heal him!" **a faint female voice snapped.

Tsunade gritted her teeth. "I'm not saying I won't try! Just don't expect me to fix him up right away!" she yelled back at the darkness.

The water shifted one more, easily rising over her head this time as she was kneeling. Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly anymore, Tsunade could still breath even under the water and when the water receded she was once again dry. The water shifted in time with the shaking and thumping that told her that something was once more moving towards the gate; something heavier than the Yonbi.

Tsunade couldn't stop her eyes from bulging as red-orange fur came into her sight. She had known somewhere in the back of her mind that this was a possibility, it was one of the only conclusion that made sense in an improbable way. Still, there really was no way that she could have prepared herself for the sight of the Kyuubi.

As tall as the Yonbi, the Kyuubi was a frightening sight. Unlike the Yonbi, the Kyuubi had a solid form that showed off its gleaming fur and glowing slitted eyes. The kitsune lowered and turned its head so one large orb was right in front of her, boring straight into her and sending every instinct that Tsunade had on high alert.

**"You will heal him," **the voice was strong and was practically an order.

Ah, Tsunade vaguely thought, so the Kyuubi was the one who was the leader.

She couldn't tear her eyes off of the one large terrible one right in front of her. It seemed to paralyze her in place and it took all of her will just to slowly nod.

The Kyuubi let out a snort, its nostrils flaring, and rose back to its full height and glared down imperiously at her.

**"Well?" **

"Ah! Right.." Tsunade mumbled, looking back down at the soul-body in her arms.

She gently laid the man out so he was lying straight on his back and she moved to sit next to his torso. She gathered her chakra into her hands and gently laid them over his chest, where the worst of the damage seemed to be at. For a long moment nothing seemed to happen and Tsunade urgently pushed more chakra into her hands. The very last thing she wanted to was fail in healing the man. Even if there weren't two bijuu who would probably kill her if she failed she still would have put her all into this.

This was new. This was interesting and this is what she lived for. Saving lives. And this particular man certainly had an interesting life.

Even as Tsunade poured as much chakra as she could into healing the soul before her nothing seemed to happen. She sat back for a moment and wiped the sweat that had already formed off of her forehead. It wasn't working. She bit her lip and tried again, pouring in blank chakra this time to assist in a body self-healing instead of trying to force healing on the soul.

Again, nothing.

Tsunade could hear the beings behind the gate shift restlessly and a low growl emitted for the Kyuubi who had no returned to the darkness.

Tsunade took a deep breath trying to calm herself down and went back to her attempts at healing. She'd be damned if she was going to let this stupid bijuu collector get the best of her. She would heal this man and then force an explination out of him as to why the hell he had not only the Yonbi but also the Kyuubi sealed away inside of him. A Kyuubi which she knew for a fact was currently sealed inside of a certain loud-mouth blonde genin. Like hell she was going to ask the Kyuubi itself.

Sweat was practically rolling off of Tsunade a few minutes later and she gritted her teeth together as she took a moment to take a breath. Why the hell was nothing working? If she knew this morning she was going to be doing this kind of work she would have made sure she was properly inebriated before coming.

The movement behind the gate was getting more agitated and Tsunade could practically feel multiple sets of eyes boring into her.

**"If there is one thing that I have observed in the past few years, it's that human sentimentality can play a defining role, often making the impossible possible," **a soft female voice said.

Tsunade couldn't help but look back through the gate. What?

There was complete silence for a moment and the waters fell still. Even though none of the beings were talking Tsunade could swear that they were communicating with each other. As she turned back to try once more to heal the soul the Kyuubi's strong voice broke the silence.

**"The man who lays in your hospital. The soul you're healing. While he may be different in appearance, you still know him."**

Tsunade stared down at the battered soul-body again and felt a lump rise in her throat. It had been bugging her ever since she had first examined the soul, since the Kyuubi had shown himself. It was ridiculous, utterly insane even, yet, she couldn't quite shake a nagging thought in the back of her head.

This soul…this soul was vaguely familiar.

"What- What is his name?" Tsunade asked, her voice shaking as she could no longer deny what was right in front of her. Because a soul, a soul in its purest and simplest form cannot lie.

There was a pregnant pause that seemed to last for an eternity and all Tsunade could hear was her own heart pounding in her chest. Then, that insane giggling broke out again, echoing all around, seeming to mock her. Though it was forcefully choked off by something, Tsunade knew that laugh would stay with her long after she left this place.

**"You know him as Naruto," **the Kyuubi said.

The answer should have had more of an impact on her, but she had already known, known the moment she had touched the soul-body. The rational part of her had rejected the idea because it didn't make any sense. Naruto was a 13 year old genin who was currently traveling with Jiraiya, not some twenty-something year old man who had been in a coma for three months. And most certainly not someone who had two bijuu's sealed inside of him. But hearing it said aloud forced Tsunade to accept what she had suspected. Soul's cannot lie, after all.

Tsunade turned back to the soul-body of Naruto and went back to healing; but this time she added something different to her chakra. Though she wasn't sure what was going on and she had no idea how this was even possible, Tsunade knew that she had to heal the man who was an older version of the brat that she loved. With that in mind, she poured all of her fondness and love for Naruto into her healing.

Tsunade felt a thrill of excitement shoot through her when one of the scratches on the man's chest slowly, so very slowly, knitted itself back together. She allowed herself a small smile before she went back to work with renewed vigor. She would heal the brat as good as new and then beat him up until he gave her a good explanation for what the hell was going on.

The waters around her shifted as the beings within the massive cage all moved closer the gate where the Kyuubi was seated. The poundings of footsteps shook the entire place but Tsunade didn't turn around to look. She knew what she would see. Her forced acceptance hadn't only been towards the one she was healing.

Later, when Tsunade had exhausted herself of chakra, she would allow herself to look at the gate. And sure enough, she would see exactly what she had suspected. Nine demons huddled together against the gate looking to the human who they were all sealed within. Eight of them glowing with a bubbling red liquid and nearly transparent.

And if the first thing that Tsunade did when she went home for the night after promising legendary demons that she would be back in the morning to continue the healing was drink herself into unconsciousness, well, she was pretty sure she had earned it.

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_Review? Please? Like seriously. Please review. I like reviews._


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