AN: Went back and added the Ascension [3] quest completing in chapter 7, but you didn't miss anything if you haven't seen it.

Chapter 9

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Strangely, it was the hokage himself that took him out of the hospital. He wasn't totally recovered, but he was as good as he was going to be within any respectable time-frame. At a wordless gesture, he fell in by the man's side as they left.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, Hokage-sama." A white lie. The thick scar that Kusanagi left him stung with each movement. "You looked dead for a few minutes there."

Hiruzen nodded curtly. "Age will kill me before injury, I suspect."

He was fine, then.

Neither spoke for the next few minutes, leaving Naruto vaguely uncomfortable. He was noticed as much as the hokage as they walked through the streets, obvious gesturing and whispering directed toward them. It wasn't something he'd experienced before, but it wasn't exactly distracting or harmful, so he ignored it.

Hiruzen spared him a sideways glance. "What did you and Orochimaru talk about?"

"This and that." Naruto said, gesturing vaguely. "He thinks something real dangerous is going to happen in a few years, and that having you in charge would be a bad thing when it happens."

The hokage snorted, and Naruto was somewhat suspicious by his lack of concern. "I'm sure it has nothing to do with our personal relationship… did he give any specifics?"

He struggled not to fidget. "What do you know about the Traveller?"

"Very little," Hiruzen admitted.

He turned a corner and Naruto was quick to follow. In this direction, they were probably going to either the academy or the monument.

"The Uzumaki thought he was some kind of god."

Having actually said it out loud, he was already beginning to doubt the sentiment.

"I see." The hokage showed no outward reaction.

"Orochimaru seems to think there's another one. A stronger one."

"Do you?"

It was asked simply, but there was a lot to that question, and it gave him pause.

"My…" he struggled to come up with a term, "ability? It agrees with him."

That elicited a reaction.

"But that doesn't mean it's going to happen," Naruto said quickly, "it's not like I can see the future."

Something about the hokage's shift in posture put him on alert.

"Let's say that you can, and that there is such an event on the horizon." Hiruzen said. "What, then, will you do about it?"

Naruto was intensely aware of the shadows that surrounded and followed the two of them.

"Nothing." The hokage cocked an eyebrow. "That is, nothing that you don't want me to do, of course, Hokage-sama."

Something was strange, in how easy that was to say.

The old man stopped, Naruto stopped, and Hiruzen's gaze met his own and held it. After a few seconds, he nodded minutely and continued walking, Naruto quick to follow.

"When were you planning to tell me that you read the forbidden scroll?"

He was quick to bow his head, but he didn't offer an excuse as the two moved.

"I assume it was an accident…" Naruto nodded, and the hokage almost seemed relieved, "but that you didn't tell me is, of itself, malicious."

"I'm sorry."

The old man almost tsked as he shook his head. "The ends often don't justify the means, but it did save my life – and assuredly others - this time. It would have been a different story if you decided hiding your ability was better than using it."

He accepted the warning gracefully. Keeping that silent, while it seemed necessary at the time, ultimately wasn't.

"What did you learn in Uzushio?"

"In Uzushio? Uh," he fiddled with his pouch, which was thankfully still intact, politely ignored the tensing of the shadows around them and removed a scroll. "My report." He really should've seen to getting that to the hokage earlier, but the man would've been busy anyway.

It showed a certain level of trust, that the hokage simply took the scroll without even a cursory check for hostile fuinjutsu. He had shown, after all, his aptitude for placing debilitating fuinjutsu with a touch of his fingers.

It was slipped into a pocket. "Summary in brief?"

"The country is set beneath an aversion matrix. If I hadn't been Uzumaki, or maybe if I didn't have the seal, I wouldn't have been able to enter. Uzushio was destroyed during their own chunin exams the same way that we were just attacked. The library is intact, and I read, well, all of it." That drew a speculative glance. "The village is in ruins, but I did find my seal's chamber and I experimented a bit." He gazed meaningfully into the hokage's eyes, "I know my parents, and I have a certain level of control over the seal, now."

"When you burst into silver chakra…"

"I took as much as I could, but there's a fail-safe stopping me from taking more of it. I think it would make me sick, or something."

"Minato said as much."

They walked another corner. It was clear, now, that Hiruzen was taking him up the less-used path to the top of the monument.

Naruto would ask his own questions. "How are we retaliating?"

Hiruzen seemed to expect it. "Suna has already paid most of their due in blood, and Orochimaru will soon be executed."

Orochimaru's fate was expected.

"Suna tried to do to us what Kiri did to Uzushio." It went without saying, what Naruto thought of that sentiment.

Hiruzen nodded. "They did, in fact, try." He smiled; a slight, chilling grin. "Of course, they failed. They lost their kage before the fact, and after? We have their jinchuuriki. We've imprisoned the late kazekage's family. We sent their best to their graves, and we're still pulling intelligence from the rest. Suna lost their jounin and kage, so they are left with very little in the way of a command structure. They will give us whatever we ask, under the threat of retaliation. Retaliation in and of itself, at this stage, is counter-productive."

His protest died before it could leave the gates. "I see."

Was it really that easy, though?

"What did it cost?"

"Comparatively little. Our casualties include twenty-six civilians, sixteen genin, seventy-three chunin and five jounin dead, with roughly twice that injured."

He didn't like the ease with which the hokage listed the casualties.

"That's-"

The hokage spared him a look. "Suna lost over two hundred shinobi, and twice as much were contained." When it looked as if Naruto was still ready to question it, he continued. "It may be less, overall, than a quarter of their shinobi population, but most of their jounin were committed here. One hundred jounin is… we hardly have twice that much. It's the jounin, those at the top, that make a village major. It is no matter what anyone else says. If we were not prepared, and Jiraiya unavailable to counter the summons… we would have suffered ten times as much – at least. That Suna no longer has the capacity to attack or defend with such power, and especially as they've temporarily lost their jinchuuriki and their kage is dead, I would reclassify it as a minor village."

"A minor village," he said. "Sunagakure?"

Something seemed fundamentally wrong with the sentiment. They had far too much land to be minor, even if it was somewhat unworkable.

It wasn't his place to question the decision to give the jinchuuriki back.

Minutes passed, and dry grass crunched beneath their sandals as they took the older grass-ridden path to the top of the monument. He wasn't sure why they didn't take the newer, better-maintained path, but maybe the hokage simply preferred this one.

Though it was morning, a pleasant warmth enveloped the pair, a soft murmur of a reminder that they lived in the Land of Fire.

"How do you feel about Team 8, Naruto?"

The topic was rather unrelated to the last, and it took him a moment to adjust his mindset.

Even having spent the past couple months with the team, he didn't really have a formulated opinion on them. "Team 8 is progressing as any other fresh genin team. Kurenai follows the spirit of the law if not the law itself, and she works closely with both genin. The genin themselves are both intelligent and work hard."

It sounded mechanical; he knew.

"Would you spend time with them outside of the team environment?"

"Uh, is that an order?"

"No."

"I don't think so. They each have their own things to do."

"A shame," the hokage said. He seemed disappointed, but Naruto wasn't entirely sure why.

Oh. "Oh."

Hiruzen perked up but didn't speak. They were already halfway up the path, now. The monument was rather tall, so he must've spaced out at some point.

"You wanted me to make friends with them."

"I did."

"You think I'm a flight risk."

Hiruzen's movement paused, and he stopped alongside him. The old man steadily met his gaze.

"It may have come to mind," Hiruzen said delicately, "but I did not merely place you with Team 8 for your own sake, and if the opportunity hadn't presented itself, I would not have done something else instead. The risk of absconding is present with every shinobi, and it is part of my work to minimize that risk whenever such an opportunity arises, for every shinobi that I am responsible for. If it means anything to you, I believe you are one of the most loyal shinobi I have."

Naruto, for his part, held the hokage's gaze and eventually nodded. "Okay." It was obvious in retrospect, and equally obvious that the hokage was being as accommodating as possible. The old man didn't need to waste his morning on him, the common information packet circulating around the village covering the results and aftermath of the invasion would've sufficed for what he had to be told. Anything extra, like practically everything they'd said so far, was the hokage being polite.

They continued walking, and something else sprung to mind.

[Hiruzen Sarutobi]
«Third Hokage»
STR: 185
AGI: 210
INT: 260
CHA: 200
CHK: 5500

"Hey, how come you were so much stronger fighting Orochimaru than you are right now?"

Hiruzen frowned but didn't slow. "In what way?"

"You were more than twice as fast and strong against Orochimaru. You were buffed, if that makes sense, with chakra enhancement and taijutsu, but you're not anymore."

He received a sharp glare for his troubles.

"You did not tell me that you could quantify another person's ability."

"Uh, I…"

Did he even tell him that he could quantify his own ability? How was he meant to know what the hokage was and wasn't awar-

"Just as you did not tell me that you could operate under a heightened state of time. Yes, I noticed, just as Orochimaru had."

He bowed his head. Again. That was a fair example.

Eventually the glare let up, and he heard a hell of a sigh.

"If there's anything else, I want to hear it later. All of it, I'm serious. As for your question…" he clearly debated whether or not to answer it. "'Chakra enhancement', as you have so eloquently put it, is a technique borne of the Senju clan. Its most prolific user would be Tsunade Senju, but anyone within Konoha that wishes to learn it, may. Very few are capable however, and even those that are capable must set a very long and tiring schedule to become any good at it. It is often confused for a combination of chakra's propensity to strengthen the body from use and the Senju's natural resilience, but I assure you it is a technique in its own right. As for what you are referring to as 'taijutsu', I have only an inkling."

The hokage froze for a moment. Then, as he continued moving, his steps seemed more purposeful, his breathing more controlled, his movement less wasteful. "If you can, check me again."

[Hiruzen Sarutobi]
«Third Hokage»
STR: 259
AGI: 305
INT: 260
CHA: 200
CHK: 5500
[Buffs]
[Taijutsu]

"That's it," Naruto said.

Hiruzen nodded. "Calling it 'taijutsu' is an inherently incorrect, gross over-simplification. It's, simply put, a method of placing awareness over your own body. It's much more difficult and complicated than it sounds, and very strenuous. Once learned, it's not something you'd ever use outside of a battle. I can count on one hand those in the village that have this particular technique down-pat."

It was a bit wishy-washy, but it was familiar. In fact, it sounded an awful lot like something he'd been able to do unintentionally in slowed time. The reason it was strange, though, was that he already had a Taijutsu skill that practically gave the same approximate boost, and the variation he was sure that he had in slowed time wasn't quantified for himself. A natural skill that isn't a literal skill – with a pop-up and all – didn't feel natural at all, not for him. He'd have to experiment with it.

"I think the seal fakes that for me, somehow. Gives me the benefit of that without any effort."

It was less obvious, watching the old man put the technique on hold. Bereft of it, the hokage still moved efficiently. "Interesting. The seal not only gives you power, but effectively multiplies itself?" He shook his head. "I had wondered how Minato had managed to spend so much time in Uzushio, but if he was working to replicate something like that, I understand."

He had kind of hoped that the old man knew a bit more about it than he did, but evidently not.

Something about the last sentence struck him as odd, though. According to the records, his dad really wasn't fiddling with the seal that often.

"Naruto…" they hit the peak of the trail and moved to walk toward the edge of the mountain, overlooking the village.

"Yes, Hokage-sama?"

"When was the last time you talked to Yamato?"

"Uh…" he had to think about it, for a moment. He hadn't had any reason to visit his old teacher. "I don't… not since our last training session."

The hokage seemed contemplative. "You couldn't find him, or you didn't try?"

"I didn't try. Nothing really came up."

"Just as with Team 8 outside of training, yes?"

He frowned, developing a vague idea of what the hokage was thinking. "…I guess."

A flicker of wind rustled his hair pleasantly, the hokage's robe fluttered briefly, and the two stopped upon the chiselled, massive monument. Down below, the village spread. It actually felt larger from above, he realized, and watching the movement below gave a broader clarity to the time of day – it was still morning – but he didn't otherwise give much attention to the sight.

He noticed that the old man was watching him rather closely.

"What?"

The hokage seemed quite disappointed and shook his head. Atop the peak of the monument, the ANBU that had followed them had arranged themselves around the group, facing away from the pair. There wasn't a whole lot of shade up here, so they simply stood in the open. It was rather unusual, Naruto thought, seeing so easily those who he had only sensed to be following them.

They spent a moment, a long one, just doing nothing. Hiruzen observed the goings-on below, and Naruto fiddled with his replacement vest, making sure they'd put everything back into the right pockets.

"We need to discuss your role, going forward."

He blinked, idly patting one pocket. "No more Team 8?"

"No more Team 8," Hiruzen confirmed. "Two jounin for one genin squad was already going to be too much. Most don't even have one." The hokage grinned. "You've put yourself in an interesting and very useful position."

Naruto hummed, watching as a pair of children – far, far below – began pointing at the two of them and yapping at one another. The hokage's robe was pretty eye-catching, he supposed, even at a distance.

"Because I beat Orochimaru?"

"That is a large part of it. That you used the hiraishin is just as important, and that in conjunction with your looking like your father, is perhaps even more important." He paused, giving off the vibe of waiting for a question, but when one didn't come, he pushed on. "To put it into perspective, you'll have to let me ramble for a minute."

He waited while the old man put his thoughts together.

"I would be the first to say that the quantity of men at any one army's disposal is a decisive factor in any given battle, but I would also argue that the strength of overwhelming numbers would, eventually, plateau. There is a point where more men are not necessary, and another when having a larger army simply becomes a hindrance to logistics." He paused again, but for a much shorter time. "There is no such limitation in overwhelming quality, aside from the fact that it is not easily produced. Overwhelming quality has an incredible advantage, in that those that are truly powerful can often overcome an otherwise overwhelming numbers-disparity."

Naruto listened dutifully, if not somewhat confused by the shift in topic. "And what you're saying is…"

"On his own, your father dealt with over a thousand men toward the end of the third war – all in one, very short battle. It was only the threat your father represented, and the damage that he had done, that forced the Tsuchikage to sign the armistice that I presented." When Naruto didn't respond, he continued. "We have the largest shinobi population of any village, but what of our quality shinobi, Naruto? Who comes to mind?"

"The very best? Jiraiya," he paused, "you. Maybe Tsunade, I'm not sure."

They didn't have a lot of uniquely powerful shinobi, he realized.

"And below those of S-rank?"

"Kakashi Hatake," that one was easy, "Yamato, your son, uh… Gai? Danzo, maybe? I guess a few of the clan-heads, and probably some ANBU."

Hiruzen nodded. "You missed a few other jounin, but that was otherwise accurate. What of Kirigakure?"

"The seven swordsmen," he said easily, "which are said to be borderline S-ranked, but it's hard to say if that's true. There's also two jinchuuriki, one of them being the kage, and I think there was a Mei Terumi as well."

The hokage hummed, almost sounding amused. "Somewhere between three and ten S-ranked shinobi, to our two. What of Kumo?"

He didn't really like where this was going. "Their kage, and two jinchuuriki. I also heard of a… Darui?"

"Yes, the raikage's right-hand," Hiruzen said. "That's four to our two. Iwa?"

"I don't really know. There's the kage, and two jinchuuriki, but apart from that they're too secretive."

"At least three, then. How do you feel about our position, having realized our situation?"

He thought about it, but it didn't really mean much to him. "The numbers mean nothing."

Never thought he'd say that.

"Oh?"

"It's like you said. There's no limitation in quality, and now you have me. It's about the individual shinobi, rather than how many we have."

Another flicker of wind, and he thought he caught a smile off the old man.

"I was speaking from an administrative standpoint when I said that, but I suppose you're right." He stopped to think, and Naruto let him. "I suppose I should mention that, if pushed, Gai is our strongest shinobi. We can't rely on him, though, and his strength isn't one that can be advertised."

As interesting and confusing as the idea of Gai being that strong was, he couldn't help but think they'd gone off on a tangent.

"You said I was in a useful position."

"You look like your father, used his jutsu, and defeated Orochimaru one-on-one. Dramatic, maybe, but even the idea of another Minato being around is going to scare other villages senseless." The hokage turned toward him pointedly. "I want you to stay within the village."

It took him a moment to get over the bluntness of the command and realize its depth. "You want me to stay within the village… for good?"

"Yes," Hiruzen nodded. "I already released details of your heritage to the public."

Naruto froze. "Y-you did what?! Why would- you really think that was necessary? I have so many secrets, that need to stay-"

He paused, took a breath, and calmed. Being angry wouldn't solve anything. He was intensely aware of the hokage's guards fidgeting with their weapons.

"Yes, it was necessary," Hiruzen said, "and denying knowledge of your ancestry would let them know just as well. In releasing it to the public myself, I was able to eliminate any further speculation."

He groaned, rubbing a hand through his hair. "Go back a step… staying in the village. Give me a little more detail. Why is that necessary?"

The old man chuckled good naturedly. "Konoha may have the largest shinobi population, but with Jiraiya out of the village on a consistent basis – because we simply don't have any other shinobi that can do what he does without risk of being caught and interrogated – we have to keep the highest-proportion of our forces home, for defence, of any village. This is, in part, due to our habit of raising many sufficiently powerful shinobi but very few of quality. A larger population, unfortunately, works against us when it comes to the forces necessary to aptly defend our larger agriculture. Missions outside of Konoha frequently run into skirmishes and entire squads have just as frequently gone missing, but we can't afford to send out larger, stronger and better equipped teams of shinobi without pulling from patrols, or – what I would like to change – our defences."

Staying home to prevent an attack that would never come simply felt like a waste of his ability. "How many shinobi do you really need in defence of the village? Aside from a few days ago, I can't say we've been invaded for… well, a long time."

"It's less about defending ourselves, and more about the enemy needing men proportionate to our defences. The more power that stays in the village, the more power that needs to be brought against it."

"I get it." He hummed. "In that case, it's more about how strong they think I am, rather than how strong I really am."

Hiruzen nodded.

"…but I can just use the Hiraishin to get here if we get attacked."

"It's about attack prevention. If we do get attacked, I'd rather keep the extra shinobi home."

"How will they even know if I'm gone?"

"Relying on incompetence is folly."

He sighed. "This is what pushed you to make my dad hokage, isn't it?"

"It is, but he qualified in many respects."

"And it did what you're saying my staying will do? It let you put more shinobi on missions without making Konoha obviously vulnerable?"

"It did."

"And when he died?"

Hiruzen grimaced. "Quite a bit was undone."

Naruto sighed. It was not as if it was a difficult choice, or that he was terribly against it, but it really felt like a whole lot was being attributed to what was almost nothing in his mind.

"You told them that I was the jinchuuriki too, didn't you?"

A nod.

"Why am I not surprised?" he murmured.

Hiruzen shook his head. "You misunderstand the situation you put me in. Your burst of silver chakra caused quite the speculation, while your and Orochimaru's meddling with your seal mid-battle presented the easiest way to divert the truth."

"I see," he said stoically. In that case he could appreciate the meddling, but it would've been nice if he hadn't had to ask to find out.

He was an unknown before the invasion, in a sense. Some knew that he was a jinchuuriki, and some few followed his progress. Now, however – of his own machinations, even – he was known for defeating Orochimaru, during an invasion of the village that Orochimaru perpetrated, after saving the hokage, while using the Hiraishin, and he was now known, universally, as not only a jinchuuriki, but as the son of Minato Namikaze and one of the few remaining Uzumaki.

At least he still had some secrets, and really, he only had himself to blame… but he couldn't help feeling pretty good about what he'd done. It all evened out, really.

"Is that all?" he asked, gazing upward into the morning sun.

Ow, okay, don't look into the sun.

It would be noon soon; they had been talking for quite a while. "You have work to do, don't you? You always do." He managed to sound bland instead of annoyed, thankfully.

The hokage didn't answer right away. A range of emotions danced across the old man's face, and Naruto watched as he gazed searchingly over the village, pausing vaguely over the academy and tower.

"No."

In a twist of irony, the word held a hint of finality.

"Last thing?" Naruto asked. "Because I need to sit down, real soon. I just left the hospital and all, then this, yeah. Gotta rest."

Hiruzen looked down, and eventually nodded. "Last topic."

A moment passed. The figure of the hokage, standing atop the monument with hands clasped behind his back and his cloak occasionally rustling in the wind, seemed hesitant.

It didn't really fit.

"Well?"

He received a gaze that held a trace amount of, unless he was totally wrong, pity.

"I wanted to have some good news for you, so I had blood tests performed."

Naruto blinked. That wasn't what he expected to hear. "Why?"

Hiruzen bowed his head. "Orochimaru's surviving lieutenant is an Uzumaki."

He froze.

"But," he continued quickly, "you're not related, as far as two people sharing the same bloodline can be unrelated. I suspect you were of different families, the Uzumaki was a rather vast clan as far as clans go."

Naruto frowned. Not related, not family, not really his concern then, but…

Something in his head throbbed. He received some kind of impression, something to do with Uzushio. A glimpse of some of the many civilian families desperately trying to escape Uzushio during the invasion, and of those same people being cut down. Some few did survive, yet it was Naruto alone that took what was left of their heritage. Put that way, he did feel some small measure of responsibility, though that certainly felt like some sort of manipulation.

"What's going to happen to him?"

"Her," Hiruzen corrected. "She's been somewhat cooperative, but given the situation? Her punishment is death. She personally took part in an attempt on my life, after all."

It didn't quite sit right with him. "What about the four hundred sand shinobi we captured?"

"A little more than five hundred, but many of them had surrendered after a certain point in the fighting. Of those, we spare most. We already executed the jounin, and the chunin that we suspected had the aptitude to replace them. We'll wring the rest for their knowledge and release them for the appropriate ransom."

Releasing only the weak and cowardly and killing the rest was cold, he thought, but necessary. Killing wasn't exactly something that should be done often, but he approved of the sentiment. It was a natural and necessary reaction, following invasion and the subsequent breaking of truces.

But regarding the Uzumaki, even if they were so distant as to be unrelated – whatever that meant, when they shared a bloodline – he wanted to at least talk to them first. He'd regret it if he didn't. Even if they just ended up being a jerk, he'd rather know that than not have met them.

"I want to see her."

The hokage nodded, but Naruto thought he could see a ghost of a frown on the man's face. "I would keep my expectation low, but you may. Be aware that directly after the blood testing, I signed off on her kill order. She is set to be executed as soon as T&I decide that she is a waste of resources to keep around." The hokage made a point of observing the rise of the sun, "I expect that she'll be alone for just a few more minutes before the next interrogation, and there isn't a lot left to gain from her."

He supposed that meant that he couldn't just leave it for tomorrow.

The old man made a gesture he couldn't interpret, and one of the ANBU split from the perimeter to move toward them, eventually – especially slowly – placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

It was Squirrel.

"Ready?" Squirrel asked. His voice was somewhat gruff and deeper than before, and Naruto belatedly realized that he was using a voice changer. Why wasn't he using one before? Or had he been?

"Just a moment," Hiruzen said. "Naruto."

"Yes?" They turned to face one another, Hiruzen's lips set in a grim line and Naruto's resting in a tight but tired half-smile.

"I and the village owe you for saving my life and restraining Orochimaru. However," he paused, and took a breath, "that gratitude will only go so far. The bounty has already been credited, and not just monetarily. In saying that, if you need a favour, do ask."

"I will, Hokage-sama."

The hokage waved haphazardly and he and Squirrel disappeared, leaving a puff of air and leaves in their wake.

The next few minutes, in comparison to the last, were rather quiet. Soothing.

"What's the bet," Hiruzen asked nobody in particular, "that he decides to keep her?"

No response. That was normal, unfortunately.

Some small, awful part of him hoped that Naruto would let the girl die, because it was a disgusting load of trouble and paperwork organising the opposite. He didn't hold a grudge against the girl; he too, had fallen for his student's manipulations.

He pulled out his pipe, already stuffed, lit it with a click of his fingers, and took a puff.

…if the kid ever showed some hint of serious, real and raw emotion, so much would be worth it. The boy's curiosity was normal, and his sense of duty was incredible – but how much of that was due to Minato's meddling? He cracks a joke every now and again, but he's hopelessly alone, and worst of all, prefers it.

He would do just about anything, to give this job to someone else for a change. Dealing with Naruto left him feeling like Danzo.

«««»»»

While Squirrel led him through a cheap hotel and later underground, Naruto was busy being simultaneously worried, paranoid, and more than a bit regretful for having chosen to come down here. He should have thought about it for just a moment more, and realized that, really…

He didn't have anything to say to another Uzumaki, and aside from that, they were a criminal anyway. They were here, down this eerily bright underground complex, for a reason. Someone that conspired with Orochimaru probably wasn't the kind of person that he'd get a good conversation from.

There was one other thing, too.

"Why is there two of you?"

The vague outline of his own shadow, splayed thinly along the passage beside and behind him, froze for a moment.

He'd noticed that the hokage had one or two more ANBU than usual but thought it normal considering the circumstances. He hadn't any reason at the time to think that they were following him.

Squirrel tilted his head back, Naruto amused himself by imagining that he was squinting, but Squirrel merely pointed at him and turned back around. That wasn't very specific.

"Is this permanent?"

Squirrel gave a short nod.

Before he could harass the extra, a rather harried chunin bust out of a near door and rushed past them in a tizzy. Before he could even think to question it, it happened two more times in different directions.

T&I were evidently quite busy, and he understood that.

"Which are you then?" he asked his shadow.

He watched as his own shadow coalesced into one place and morphed into a three-dimensional rabbit, which waved at him. A Nara then, and pretty advanced too.

What would happen if he tried to use Hiraishin while locked into place by a Nara's shadow-binding? That was just one more thing to test, he supposed.

"Nice to meet you, Rabbit."

The cutesy little creature nodded, and his shadow momentarily reformed. He'd have to learn that skill that they were using to hide in his shadow sometime – the other ANBU had been using it too, so it probably wasn't a Nara hiden.

…he was trying and failing to distract himself, he knew.

"I think that this was a waste of time," Naruto murmured. "I mean, what was the point? The girl tried to kill the hokage. She's gonna die anyway. What am I even going to say?"

Was he always this indecisive? He didn't remember hesitating when he left Yamato, or when he met Team 8, or with Mizuki, or Zabuza, or when he saved the hokage and fought Orochimaru. So, what made something this innocuous so stressful?

Uzushio is what. This was probably the only personal matter he could ever remember having to deal with that had anything to do with another person.

But it wasn't really personal, was it? They weren't related, so it doesn't count, right?

Squirrel tilted his head and almost seemed worried, but ultimately didn't make a sound. His shadow didn't so much as twitch out of place, and after a few minutes, his guide stopped by a door. A door that, really, looked very much like the hundreds they had already passed, and Naruto found himself wondering just how Squirrel knew which was which.

Squirrel stood himself beside it, and Naruto wasted time just staring at it.

There was a keypad. Was he supposed to know the code, or was Squirrel just screwing with him?

A twitch by his feet, and he stepped to the side just as someone – a chunky older chunin – would have run into him from the direction they came.

When it took the man more than fifteen seconds of staring at Squirrel to realize that something was afoot, he had to remind himself that the T&I department had good reason for being exhausted.

The chunin's gaze swapped to the door longingly for just a few seconds, before he turned to face him.

"Um, why are… sorry, no, who- oh, you're-"

The chunin facepalmed. "Sorry," he made a wavy, exaggerated hand motion, "been a long few days. You're here because… wait, I got it. You're Uzumaki, she's Uzumaki – wait, we did the blood-tests already, and-"

When it was obvious that Naruto was going to let the chunin ramble, Squirrel politely coughed.

While he was still startled out of his thought-process, Naruto quickly made his move.

"I'd just like to talk to her for a few minutes," he said.

"Oh, of course!" The man grinned, happy to have solved the- "sorry, but we're running a tight ship. I've only got…" he fiddled with his clipboard, which Naruto hadn't noticed, and flipped through the first few pages. "A few minutes, myself, of questions for this one. After that, I was gonna, y'know," he dug through the pockets of his vest and pulled out a syringe, "slip this into a vein, tick her off the board, and get that space opened up for the next one."

Before Naruto could even attempt to interject, the chunin was already yammering.

"She's pretty lucky, though. I wouldn't worry about her, it's painless, humane. Come tomorrow, we won't even have any of this stuff left. Y'know, we don't exactly keep enough of it prepared for bloody hundreds of 'em to turn up in chains. The cleaning crew is going to be pretty busy over the next few days, blood is going to be all over the-"

"Stop."

"Sorry…" a grin, "been a long few days. You're here because… wait, I got it-"

He twitched.

"No humour? You kind of need one in this line of-"

"Just let me talk to them for two minutes after you're done."

"Ah, well, she'll be kind of dead when I'm done. I thought I said that."

"Then do that afterward."

"It's much harder when they know what you're doing. Trust me, that kind of thing, much easier when they're busy trying not to answer your questions."

"You're not very accommodating." If his tone was threatening, he didn't really care.

Regardless, something in his words finally made something click in the other man.

"Right, right, I'm really sorry," this time, it seemed genuine, "it's just- you're Naruto Uzumaki! The big bad Snake Slayer, Saviour of Hokage, the Fourth Reborn and the Silver Flash! Oh, and you're the jinchuuriki. Go figure."

Naruto sighed miserably.

He smirked. "Of course, you can have your two minutes when I'm done. Just make sure to tell me if you're thinking about getting rid of that kill order, before I kill her."

"I can do that," he said tersely. He wasn't usually so irritable, but after talking to this man, after this particularly draining morning – he had just left the hospital, in fact – and now about to go in for an assumed-to-be heavy conversation for very particular and personal reasons? He felt justified in feeling drained before it even began.

"I'd sure hope so," the chunin joked. He twisted around and spun through an obviously well-practiced sequence of buttons. "You can sit in the observing room," he said, gesturing toward the left as the door clicked open. "Microphone's off though, so it really is just an observing room," he said with a chuckle.

The door opened up to a short hallway with two left doors. The chunin set himself to whistling a jaunty tune and took the further door, so Naruto – with his shadow, but having left Squirrel outside – let himself into the nearer.

The small and short room was as plain as the rest of the compound, aside from the long desk and the machines that decorated its surface. The floor, walls and ceiling were of carved rock, with only power-outlets breaking up the soft monotonous grey. Doton was probably involved to some degree. The key difference between this room and the larger hallway, was the tall glass pane stretching from one end of the room to the other within the inside wall alongside the table. It was probably one-way. The connecting room was even less cluttered and just as boring, with just two chairs for comfort.

That's when he saw her, and it gave him a throbbing headache.

He had no idea when he'd activated Observe or Examine, and it took him a second to even notice the quest prompt.

«Tayuya Uzumaki»
Tricked into service by Orochimaru after he murdered her parents,
her sparse memories and propensity for chakra-intensive techniques
is all that remains of her heritage.
Mood: Vexed, Bored

[Tayuya Uzumaki]
«Prisoner»
STR: 80
AGI: 105
INT: 80
CHA: 35
CHK: 0
[Debuffs]
[Chakra Restriction]

He swiped aside the quest prompt – it could wait a few seconds – and actually looked at the damn girl.

The headache grew, if that was possible, and he received very vague and somewhat foggy impressions of a pair of teenagers doing something in Uzushio. Not sure how he knew it was in Uzushio, but then again, all the strange little visions he'd had were about the place.

The girl's most striking aspect, which he found himself drawn to inexplicably, was her red – or dark pink? – hair. It was a shade or three lighter than his mother's hair had been, if not as well taken care of. It was, as far as he could tell, the first time he'd ever seen a girl with red hair in person, and he couldn't help but be drawn to the sight. It was probably his impressions of Uzushio meddling with him, or god-forbid some obscure aspect of his heritage, but…

The rest of her was ordinary enough. She wore an oversized orange jumpsuit, probably designed to clash with the greys and whites and occasional greens of the rest of the base. Her wrists and ankles were locked into clamps connecting to the otherwise comfortable looking chair, and he couldn't help but notice the delicate scrawls of fuinjutsu over some parts of the structure, which were probably what blocked off her chakra. He vaguely wondered how she was meant to use the loo, but shut that thought down long before it could go anywhere.

Observation done, and to pass the time while the interrogator did his thing, he flicked the quest prompt back into view. He briefly wondered if the quest to save the hokage was completed and hidden somewhere in his backlog, but left following that thought for a time when he was less busy.

Ascension [4]
«The Stray»
It is possible, with the right design and the right subject,
that chakra transference and absorption between Uzumaki
could result in a greater tolerance for the Traveller's chakra.
Requirements:
1. Rescue Tayuya
2. Design the correct seal
3. Force the seal on Tayuya (Optional)
4. Tayuya lets you use the seal (Optional)
Rewards:
+?

That's it then. He would have to do it, that's the way it always was with his qu-

That wasn't my thought, he realized, a vague sense of alarm making him eerie. Some large part of him desperately wanted to consider that right now, but he had to pace his battles.

The very idea of what the quest was claiming was almost absurd. According to his own understanding of transference seals, their use was much simpler and rather mundane compared to what was being insinuated… yet, as silly as it might've seemed, he couldn't help but want to try designing a seal that could do whatever it was that the quest seemed to think could be done. He had a hell of a lot of know-how in his head and not of reasons to use it, and as much as he loved his TV, when his clones eventually began doing all of his training it would probably get boring. Maybe. Unlikely. It was a distinct, if slight, possibility.

He had to wonder though, at what point were the quests automatic – the system for that was so complicated he could scarcely understand what his father had done – and when were they coded individually by his father? Did his father try this? He hadn't exactly been an Uzumaki, but did he figure something out with his mother to help him use an extra bit of the stuff without having it – presumably – damage him?

…a better question, did Minato Namikaze even care if he had used too much? There had been several pop-ups and quests that had insinuated his father's hand in them, and for him to know so much of the future, he must have known that he was going to kill himself long before he did it.

That was a realization for later, he knew. Not when he was about to talk to a girl he still wasn't sure what to do with.

In fact, he didn't even know what she was like yet. For all he knew, she could be an aggressive, monstrous piece of shit.

…yeah, so he still had that headache, and he was tired, and his stomach still ached like crazy. So what. He didn't get breaks.

He was already being passive-aggressive. He had, in fact, had a week-long break of sorts in the hospital.

He watched, head pounding whenever he so much as looked at the Uzumaki girl – and wasn't that just going to be fantastic to deal with – as her interrogator clicked his pen and slipped out of his seat. Briefly, he almost seemed to be considering simply finishing her up then and there and saving them all some time – and no, it surely wasn't Naruto's nerves saying that – but he eventually said something or other and instead made to leave the room.

He only had moments to consider the sheer confusion radiating off of Tayuya – presumably due to the chunin's parting words – before the door to the room burst open.

"In you go, make it quick. Schedule and all that."

He nodded his thanks and, before he could think twice, quickly left one room and entered the next.

The door clicked to a close behind him, the sound far harsher than it had any right to be, and he found himself face-to-face with the object of his concerns.

Bereft of the glass between them, meeting her walnut-brown gaze with his own was soothing. So much more comforting than it had any right to be. The headache subsided in a flash and he even felt the dregs of exhaustion fading.

He blinked. Something wasn't quite right.

Today was… strange.

«««»»»

"Hmmmm."

She struggled not to show just how uncomfortable his presence made her feel. From their first meeting, the first time she'd woken up following her stupid attempt at freeing her boss, this man was the only one she'd talked to, or even seen.

It had been an ugly, slow and utterly degrading week. She desperately needed to stretch, had been given barely any food or water, and didn't even want to think of one embarrassing aspect. He was far too cheerful, way too underhanded, and talking with him was tiring, even when he wasn't actively trying to be tiring.

She would know; she'd always had the useless ability to glean vague impressions of emotions off of people within a certain distance.

"Alright, Tayuya. Thanks!" He- Kensaku-sama he had called himself, though she wouldn't be caught dead saying it – clicked his pen and left his chair, languidly stretching in a way that she could only wish to do right now. "Usually, I'd be saying goodbye right now. Y'know how it goes. But big-boss snake-slayer himself wanted to see you, so…" he tapped his nose, "see you in a bit!"

She caught a murmur as he fled to the door, "I hope so anyway. The paperwork would suck otherwise."

She scrunched her nose. What was that supposed to mean? Also, snake-slayer? Couldn't be any worse than-

Clack.

The door had already shut by the time she registered that it had opened.

She pursed her lips. She knew this one, and the vague sense of emotion wafting off of him was just weird. Initially super irritated and maybe nervous – the second one was always kind of hard to detect, it being a mish-mash of several half-hearted emotions – the blond kid that had beaten up Orochimaru was just standing there, staring at her, and all she could feel coming off him now was some disgusting sense of relaxed adoration.

"Can I help you?" she asked, terse and tense. She watched – or rather, felt, because he wasn't very outwardly expressive – as her words shocked him out of stasis.

The adoration tapered off as soon as his gaze switched off of hers, replaced with a deep welling of frustration, a little bit of confusion, and some annoyance. Weird.

"Right, sorry." His voice was softer and less… well, threatening than she thought it might be. She watched as he considered the empty chair for a moment, before apparently opting to stand. He wasn't planning on staying long, then. Good, she shared the sentiment.

He leaned against the door and crossed his arms, and Tayuya couldn't help but wish, once again, that she could move so freely. There were many things to hate about such strict confinement.

She didn't miss that he pointedly avoided her gaze, looking somewhere behind her. "I just wanted to ask you a few questions."

She didn't know when she'd started holding her breath, but she let it out all the same. That's what he wanted? Bitch, she'd been answering questions all week. She was built for this. She was ready.

He'd apparently taken her silence as an okay.

"Do you remember your parents?"

She groaned.

"There you go, just assuming my parents are dead." She'd already answered this question, how boring. "They both died well over seven years ago. There's nobody to contact. No ransom, no family, no shits given." She couldn't help but scowl. "Fuck, what a disgusting first question."

His face didn't even move. No comment on her abrasive nature at all. She pouted. She could feel some kind of surprise from him, but it just wasn't the same as a real reaction.

"Do you remember their names?" he asked softly.

She hated the way he asked that, she hated the way he locked eyes with her when he said it, and she hated the rush of affection that it drew from him. He was some kind of sick perv or something. The sooner he left the better, and the sooner they released her so that she could make as much distance between them as possible, the greater.

"No," she answered, with a sour tone that she'd admit wasn't entirely due to her dislike of the blond kid. "I called them 'Mum' and 'Dad', what do you expect? I was seven."

Maybe she was being too hostile, but then again, she was tied up in a chair with a pervert leering over her and she hadn't had any real sleep for a week.

His gaze didn't let up, as if he was slowly figuring something out. The affection slowly transformed into satisfaction. It made her distinctly uncomfortable.

After a few seconds, he shifted his gaze back to the wall behind her and seemed far too smug.

"Umeka Uzumaki, right? That'd be your mother."

The name utterly familiar in a way few could be, she completely froze up.

"And… Tanyu. I don't think he was actually an Uzumaki, or even had a surname, but he did visit Uzushio at some point or other. Real smitten, the two of them. Pretty young too, when that year's chunin exams-" he was going to relish in his next words, she could feel it, "-ended in an invasion which killed the rest of your mother's side of the family."

She tried to say something, but her mouth – or her mind – just wasn't ready to co-operate.

Stop trying to speak, she thought. Just think.

The names he so casually dropped resonated with her. She knew the names once, or had at least heard them enough times, but they were names she'd long forgotten.

But why would he even tell her that? No, scratch that – how the fuck did he find any of that out? Some of it was too specific. They'd been dead for seven years, and that small town that she'd lived in with them? Ash. It was consumed by the same fires that, somehow, had claimed her family.

Once upon a time, she hadn't believed that her mother and father – Umeka and Tanyu, she corrected with some wonder – could have died to something as pedestrian as a house-fire. She'd learned how easy death was in the years since and lost that attitude.

"What do you want?" she asked, her tone bereft of the anger that she had previously let colour it.

She'd be neutral for the rest of the conversation, she decided, if he didn't bother her too much. It occurred to her that she had already been trying rather desperately not to offend, because she wasn't exactly in the strongest position, but she'd try just a little bit harder.

He scratched his cheek idly, thinking as if he hadn't yet considered what he wanted from her. She doubted that.

"Some remorse or regret, maybe."

"For what?"

"For trying to do the same thing to Konoha as Kiri did to our families."

"I didn't-" the words sunk in, suddenly, and she short-circuited. "You're an Uzumaki?!"

Apprehension. "Yes, but-"

"That makes so much sense!" Tayuya laughed, almost hearing the click as her thoughts connected. "I was so lost. I was wondering how the hell you knew that stuff. Now that, that makes more sense! Why didn't you start with that? Damn, if we're related, then you can-"

He politely coughed, and she paused. He was embarrassed… for her? "We're not related. Sorry."

She needed that out. She could get along with him if she had to. "What do you mean we're not related?"

He shrugged, and her fledgling hopes died with the drop of his shoulders. "They've already done the blood tests. Bloodlines like the Uzumaki go way back. You're probably no more related to me than I am to the hokage."

"But… but…"

Her thoughts caught up to her. Why had she so suddenly jumped onto the idea of being related to the shitty little pervert?

She didn't want to consider that what she knew, deep within her subconscious, was true. That they'd sooner kill her than release her. She couldn't think that way. She wouldn't give into that mentality.

She groaned. "So, what? You just came here to boast? 'Hi! Yeah, so, I'm an Uzumaki too, but I can't help you. Look how different we are! I'm a Leaf nin, and you're tied to a chair! Isn't that funny? Haha!'"

Pity. She didn't want it, but she could feel it.

"Just…" one of her bangs fell across an eye, and she blew it out of the way, "leave, if you don't wanna help."

He didn't leave, or at least not right away.

She didn't really know what to think of him. Outside of her restraints, she would probably be terrified of meddling with the kid that beat up Orochimaru. When she already had nothing to lose? Eh, fuck'im. He was proving pretty resilient to her taunts, though.

"What's your name?" she asked, before her own words really caught up with her. Did she really care what his name was? No.

"Naruto."

"Lame."

Another silence.

He seemed about to leave, which didn't really inspire any emotion in her. Good riddance.

But right before he did, when they locked eyes – again – she didn't feel that disgusting sense of adoration. He winced, and he resonated pain, like he had been struck with a migraine. He turned away from her, but she could only feel the sensation become more intense.

What the hell was wrong with him?

He almost seemed to growl as he turned back to face her, but she didn't get the impression that he was angry at her.

Still, tread lightly.

"What would you do," he asked, tone reflecting irritation, "if you were released?"

A heavy question. One that inspired hope, but one she had to be careful answering.

But she had made a promise, so the answer depended on another.

"I need to know where my friend is."

"Who?"

The question was asked too quickly. "Uh…" could this be used against her? Probably not, she conceded, since they already had her tied up. "Her name was Kin, she was one of the kids that Orochimaru was," she paused and wet her tongue, "sacrificing for the fight with the hokage."

He whispered something to himself, too quietly for her to hear. With the tap of his foot a couple seconds later, she felt another spike of irritation, mixed in with a bit of pity. He still had his headache, she noticed.

"Dead."

Her head fell. "Oh." She didn't have it in her to question how he knew, given that he'd already proven to know some strange things.

"The thing is, Tayuya," she noticed that he was trying to sound less confrontational, "you can't be released. You didn't just attack Konoha, but you tried to kill the hokage. There's no way to navigate around that, at least not in the short-term."

It was almost relaxing to hear the facts, she realized, even as the welling of apprehension filled her gut.

"The old man would be pissed if I just asked to let you go," he said, apparently emboldened by her silence.

Given the context, she could only assume that 'old man' referred to 'hokage' and almost snickered despite herself. Maybe she was just going loopy.

"Hell, it wouldn't just be the old man-"

"Are you done?" she interrupted. If she was really going to experience her end in this room, she'd rather as little memory of the kid here as possible. "I love hearing about all the reasons I'm going to die here, thanks dickhead."

He cringed, said "yeah, I'm done," and turned back to the door. His hesitance, and the strange spikes of pain and irritation he radiated while doing so, made the action pretty damn memorable if nothing else.

She was struck with the thought that, somehow, with him went her chances. "Wait!"

He waved haphazardly, and then; Naruto was gone. The door slammed shut before she'd even noticed it open. Déjà vu.

After a long moment where he assuredly did not come back, she swore.

"Fuck me," she groaned, smacking her head back into the plush cushioning of the chair. She'd much rather to have avoided that entire confrontation, learning her parent's names notwithstanding.

She couldn't help but wonder, had she fucked up? Was that her chance?

It didn't matter, she decided. What happened, happened.

«««»»»

"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit."

He'd fucked it up. His head fucked it up. What the hell was wrong with him?

What was he meant to do?

He ignored whatever the interrogator said as he went back into the observing room, and the chunin left to presumably finish up.

He should just leave. He should just flash back to Uzushio and tear the damned seal into pieces. His head was doing its very hardest to get him on that girl's side, and he did not like it.

He was being very blatantly manipulated by the seal, more so than ever before, and it was pissing him off.

"Shit. Shit. Shit!"

He didn't know what to do.

Look at her, thinking he'd try to help?

Bliss.

Look at her, thinking he'd let nature take its course? Let her get her due consequences?

He felt like he was going to die, and the headache that made him feel that way was still there, because that's the way he was leaning!

She was a terrible person, or at least, she hadn't proved otherwise. He'd tried to incite a response toward the end, but nothing. Not a shiver of regret, or even some left-over false apology for her actions. She only wanted out. He doubted it even crossed her mind. If anything, she was very clearly trying to manipulate him, and he figured pretty quickly that she had some kind of ability to tell, at least vaguely, what he'd been feeling. He could see the disgust cross her face whenever his brain tried to overload him with good feelings, and he could only imagine how it must've seemed from her perspective. It worked against her, in a way; looking disgusted whenever he considered helping her.

It was difficult to look objectively at a situation that the seal was trying its hardest to make biased.

On one-hand, leaving her to die would probably cut down on the seal's manipulation in the future, or at least until he had another look at the seal and put a halt to that incredibly stupid function. As well, she was here by her own actions. The consequences weren't any harsher for her than they'd been for many of the Suna shinobi.

On the other, she was an Uzumaki. She was a bit of an asshole, and her attitude – as much as she hid what he was sure were the most vile components – blatantly clashed with his. Problem being, it was her heritage – just as much as it was his – that gave him the power that put him in this situation. Was it really right for him, who only had the opportunity to stop her death because of that, to have her die?

He hesitated, because she deserved what was coming.

That's when he remembered the subtle manipulations of the quest, and the way he almost blindly accepted. He realized it had happened against Orochimaru too, but he just hadn't been of the mindset to question it, even though he had eventually decided that becoming hokage was too much trouble during his stay in the hospital.

He could see Tayuya struggling through the glass, until the seals on her chair flashed nefariously, and she froze. Nasty fuinjutsu.

He shouldn't.

New Quest!
«Save Tayuya!»
Save Tayuya!
Requirements:
1. Save Tayuya!
Rewards:
[Skill Revealed!] [Skill Evolution!]
[New Skill!] [New Skill!]

A quest! That's it then, look at those rewards! He would-

He wouldn't. This feeling, this quest – it cemented it.

It wasn't Tayuya's fault that he was being manipulated, he knew, but it is the girl's fault that she's in this mess. She wasn't his responsibility, no matter who or what told him that she was.

Looking back, his easy acceptance of these things had been foolish, in a way that couldn't be natural. He hadn't denied many quests, and though some of them were things he would have done anyway, there was no way he shouldn't have questioned them more than he had. This… lack of control, had clearly been a part of him for a long time.

No, no. He was being paranoid. Of all quests, this was one of the easiest, the simplest – there was no reason to stop now of all tim-

That isn't my thought, it wasn't the way he felt at all. His blood ran cold, and he felt distant. He had no idea the seal's influence sunk that deep, its reach that far. Was he unable to trust even his own mind? Something similar had happened with both quests to rescue Tayuya and the quest confirming Orochimaru's words, but it was more reflexive and less jarring.

That only meant that he was used to it.

His entire life, he had been treated like some character in a video game, he realized, with a predetermined, if often dramatic, path. He had walked when asked and talked when told do. He had been driven to the point where he honestly wanted to kill, to 'level up' and get stronger so that he could kill more – and it could be said that his thirst for strength was instilled by the seal as well, he truly didn't know anymore.

His thoughts, unlocked and unbound by a wild storm of epiphany, catapulted toward their natural conclusions.

He had been tricked into becoming a shinobi. His actions had been controlled from the moment that he could move. His thoughts had been tightly regulated from the moment that he could think. His father had seen the future and tailored a program to control him in response to it. He had sacrificed his own life, and his wife's, just so that he could sacrifice his son's.

Minato Namikaze was just a fucking madman… unless he predicted this, in which case, he was being used no matter what he did.

His nails drew blood, but he hadn't even been aware that his hands were clenched. A lack of control.

He had to draw a line in the sand.

Quest Failed!