Naruto woke with a start, a quick glance out the window telling him it couldn't be later than three in the morning. That was unusual. Naruto was, under the best circumstances, a light sleeper; out of sheer professional necessity if nothing else. What he wasn't, was prone to waking up without reason. There was a strange itching sensation in the back of his head that he couldn't pin down, his faculties still falling into place.
Anko was on the other side of the bed, slumbering quite obliviously and practically wrapped around her pillow. She could probably sleep through an earthquake. The one he was wary of disturbing was Haya, who had cuddled up in between them. She hadn't done that for months, the news about her clan must have really rattled her. All in all, he couldn't spot anything amiss, and that was perhaps the most disturbing thing of all.
He carefully slipped out of bed, slipping on some pants and grabbing his haori off the back of the door as he passed. He could technically check the seals from anywhere in the house, but he didn't want to disturb his family if this was all nothing. Softly closing the door behind him, he paused.
Seals.
He couldn't feel the hiraishin marker on the Sanbi's scroll.
Supressing his panic with a wave of cold rationale he immediately attempted to flash to it. Anyone watching wouldn't have even been able to see the moment he was gone before he reappeared, clutching his head. It felt as though he had rebounded off a less-than-proverbial wall. Wary against trying that again, not to mention rattled at the completely alien sensation, he instead focused intently on the seal instead.
Usually his various markers were just a dull sensation that he could tune out during the day-to-day. They only intruded on his thoughts if they were recently activated or relatively close, like the ones he used in fights. If he focused though, he could mentally track every single kunai or seal he had ever placed, only growing more difficult the further they were away.
This one was… weird. It didn't feel far away, but at the same time it was muted. It was like trying to listen in on a conversation through thick layers of carpeting. You could tell somebody was speaking, but not make out the words.
Now deeply unsettled, he slipped out a window and took to the rooftops, immediately regretting not putting on some sandals. He focused more intently on the marker than he ever had on a single seal before, feet moving where the pull in the back of his mind lead. By the time he came to a stop he thought something must be seriously wrong with him, as it was just a normal intersection; blank, empty streets all around.
But the tug was still there, more pressing but still… off, and that only left one direction. He immediately sank into the ground, employing the very technique he had taught to his students on their first real mission. It worked perfectly, until he hit a layer of reinforced concrete he couldn't pass through. Naruto knew the village like the back of his hand – or he thought he did – and there was definitely not supposed to be an underground passage of any kind down here.
Lacking the time to think about other options – a habit he was told would be the death of him one day – his hand lit up with the swirling energies of a Rasengan. Probably not the smartest thing to do surrounded by earth, but it made for one hell of an entrance as he blasted into the dim concrete tunnel below him.
It was like a bucket of ice had been poured over his head. The marker he had been so intensely fixated on snapped into focus like a bow string and it was all Naruto could do not to instantly teleport to it. Instead, he took stock, taking in the barren, utilitarian passageway that stretched off in either direction with a steady curve that saw each end lost in the gloom. It was built in the familiar design of the ANBU compound, standardised for the various complexes they had scattered across the continent.
However, this was no ANBU facility that Naruto had ever heard of. It was too deep underground for one thing.
Where the hell was he?
His mind turned furiously. He was in a complex below the village that he, the Hokage, did not know about. It was modelled on Konoha ANBU structures, likely meaning to as built by somebody with an understanding of their practises. That same person, or organisation, had the capabilities to break into his house, steal an object he was keeping personal tabs on and, most worryingly, block the hiraishin.
Theoretically he knew it was possible, but it required a complex understanding of the technique he didn't think anybody else had. For one thing, while the notes on the original hiraishin, created by the Nidaime, weren't technically a secret, the version his father had created most certainly was. But then, on second thought, the hypothetical thief technically wouldn't need those notes.
The original technique still worked as functional teleportation, but it was clunky, took hand seals and much more concentration. His father had simply made it usable in combat. Well, there was nothing simple about it, but he hadn't changed the fundamentalsof the jutsu. If somebody could figure out a way to block the Nidaime's technique – or perhaps just any space-time jutsu – then it would work on his too.
That was definitely something to think about in the future. For now though, his thoughts led him in a very specific direction. There was only one figure he could imagine with the resources, knowledge, motivation and, perhaps most importantly, the sheer gall to pull something like this.
"Danzo." The low growl of his voice echoed slightly in the confined passage.
He glanced down each end of the passageway again; nobody had come to investigate the noise. He could still feel the gentle pull of the scroll's tag and he was rapidly debating whether or not to just flash there. It was usually the height of recklessness to barge into a situation he didn't fully understand. On the other hand, when somebody steals a Bijuu, they will damn well have a reason to. Chances are, it wasn't anything good.
He could spend precious minutes searching this complex, getting held up by who knew what obstacles.
Or… he could not.
The scene he appeared within was essentially his worst-case scenario. It was a large, vaulted room, bathed in a sickly orange light. The scroll was to one side, linked to a much larger sealing matrix that, in turn, encompassed the form of what appeared to be a child. He couldn't make out much else due to the dark, figure-hiding clothes and the blank white mask that covered their face. He could practically feel their pain though as they writhed within their bindings, back arching as far as the leather straps would allow.
Strangely they didn't make so much as a whimper, despite the burning orange Chakra suffusing their body. Naruto had only pulled on that virulent well of energy in his darkest moments and he knew the agonising burn of it all too well. He was unsure of what that meant, and wasn't given much time to mull it over as his presence was immediately noted.
There were four other figures in the room, one overseeing the sealing and three others stationed at strategic points around the room. They all wore the same bland uniform as the unfortunate victim, looking like some twisted, blank parodies of the ANBU in their featureless grey cloaks. Two immediately rushed him, lacking the usual pause of surprise, however slight, that his entrances normally gave people.
So, they were expecting him.
He wasn't in the mood to indulge Danzo though and disabled them in the time it took a civilian to blink. The first tried to grasp him with an outstretched hand, but even in the strange undulating light the sealing ritual gave off he could see the slight blue tint to his skin. Not wanting to find out what that was about, he intercepted the blow at the elbow, feeling the joint shatter as he stepped into the man's guard, grabbed him by the mask and slammed him into the floor at speeds that would have broken a normal man's neck.
His companion didn't even pause at the casual display of brutality, bringing his hands up to flash through the signs of a technique that Naruto recognised as having many of the same seals as many Yamanaka techniques. Knowing what to expect from that he side-stepped the vague ripple in the air without breaking stride and caught the man directly in the solar plexus with a kick that threw him across the room.
He paused a moment, staring at the last guard with subtle traces of irritation puling at his features. He couldn't see what the man was thinking due to the mask, but the redhead knew enough about body language to recognise the complete apathy his attacks hadn't even shaken.
What was he fighting? Robots?
The man reached for something in his cloak. In that moment he broke eye-contact, and in the single instant it took to look down, he suddenly found a knee occupying the space just in front of his mask. He slumped against the far wall without making so much as a grunt of discomfort; none of them had. It was disconcerting how quiet they had all been. Once again though, pressed for time he disregarded the strangeness and turned to the one overseeing the ritual itself, grabbing him by the cloak.
He nearly flinched away in disgust when his form suddenly went limp, the tell-tell foam of a poison capsule dribbling out from under the mask. The man was probably dead before he hit the floor.
Which left him with a very pressing concern.
"Dammit."
He pushed the dead form of the unidentified operative out of the way and examined the sealing structure as fast as he could.
"Dammit."
What he saw was not good, the seal itself was damn shoddy work. It looked good at a glance, and would likely hold, but it was unstable. The sealer had attempted to tweak and existing design that would see the Bijuu's Chakra trickle into the Jinchuuriki's system at a steady rate. What they hadn't accounted for was the effect this would have on the vessel's coils. Unused Chakra harmonised with the user's body and naturally vented out to prevent damage or strain to the pathways. Foreign Chakra on the other hand continued to build up in the system until it became damaging; one of the reasons why Medics had to be so damn precise with their healing palm technique. You couldn't just shunt Chakra at a wound and hope it healed.
What they needed to have done was find a way of converting the Bijuu's Chakra into a less dangerous form, like desalinating seawater. That was difficult to do even if you were good at Fuinjutsu. It relied on a whole bunch of messy variables, including the Jinchuuriki candidate themselves. Naruto grimaced as he looked down at the poor soul strapped to the table; he wasn't just going to let them die and trying to revert the procedure now was as good as a death sentence.
"Dammit!"
He hoped their silence was a sign of resilience and not because they had already gone hoarse from screaming, because this was going to be… messy.
He worked steadily, with the precision of a surgeon as he carefully began re-writing sections of the ritual, basically working on the fly as painstaking calculations started building an enormous web of increasing complexity in his mind. He forced out concerns like the reasons for all of this, the life relying on his success and the absurd circumstances of all of this. There was nothing but the room, the seal, and his brush.
His face became almost clinical in the detached way he worked, connecting loose kanji that might have caused instability or back-doors in the creation of the pseudo-dimension that would be holding the mass of sentient energy. There was a moment of genius when he managed to repurpose the original seal on the scroll, transplanting half of the matrix onto the Jinchuuriki's stomach, while using the other half to sort of… strain, the bijuu. It drastically reduced the potency of the Chakra during the transfer and took the intelligence of the creature itself out of the picture for the moment.
It also might have very well saved the Jinchuuriki's life.
When the final few motes of flickering orange light faded, plunging the room into near-darkness, the redhead had to take a moment just to lean against the table, breathing deeply. The only thing left of the ritual was the Seal Shiki that remained on the original scroll, which could be used to alter the rate at which Chakra flowed into the vessel, and the seal itself on the girl's stomach. He wasn't sure when he had realised it was a girl, he knew his mind had taken it into account as a variable at some point, but it had been just another stream of numbers at the time.
With a final grunt of effort, he turned his hand slightly, folding the expansive and complex seal down into its compressed form. To an untrained eye it would look something like a squiggly hexagon spiralling in on itself, surrounded on each diagonal corner by a triangle pointed inward. It was nothing he'd have been particularly proud of if he had actually taken time to design it… but it would work.
She would live.
In a way, it was the first time he had properly acknowledged to himself that he was in fact working with a human life, and the thought nearly made him sick. She was clearly unconscious by now, the sealing having taken its toll, but the blank eyes of the porcelain mask still seemed to stare at him accusingly. He pulled it off after a moment only to freeze as spiky blonde hair fanned out in a messy corona around her face. His eyes only noted that in passing, drawn as they were to her cheeks.
The cheeks that held three distinct whisker marks.
Naruto did not get angry.
It was a fact for people that knew him; he was by nature forgiving and amenable. He didn't take the world to seriously, in the sense that he could maintain a sense of humour in a bad situation. On an off-day he may go a little hard on a sparring opponent, or make a few remarks on the wrong side of sarcasm. He wasn't like the Raikage, going around smashing desks at the slightest irritation, or the Tsuchikage, who might berate you until your ears fell off, or even the Mizukage, who would threaten to kill you over the slightest provocation.
Naruto was furious.
There was a simmering tension within the Hokage's office as he stood in front of the window, staring at the pre-dawn sky with his hands clasped behind his back, face completely unreadable. Hiruzen's anger had once been described as a physical weight pressing down on everything in the room. With Naruto, it felt as though somebody kept cranking the heat up, bit by bit. Even Jiriaya looked visibly uncomfortable; he had no idea how much of this was Naruto, and how much was the fox playing on a rare lapse of emotion.
He wasn't sure which answer he would prefer.
When the redhead finally spoke his tone was flat, almost emotionless. If anything, it just made it all the more chilling.
"I'm going to kill him." It wasn't a suggestion, just a deeply unsettling observation.
"Naruto, you know you can't act rashly," Hiruzen said softly, disguising his own discomfort at the situation. "I'm just as furious as you are…"
He immediately knew that was the wrong thing to say as Naruto turned slightly, enough to train a single eye on the older man. His eyes were flat, the Kage's mind elsewhere, it was more like he was staring at a point a few inches behind Hiruzen's head.
"I doubt that." He didn't raise his voice at all, there was barely an inflection to it.
"That was inappropriate, I apologise. I didn't mean to make light of the situation."
"He's trying to tell you not to do something you'll regret later kid," Jiraiya chipped in; although even as he said it he seemed uncertain of his words.
"Who said I would regret it?"
People often said rage made people act irrationally, that it impaired their judgement. Naruto thought they couldn't be more wrong. In his anger, everything had crystallised into perfect clarity, as though time had slowed to a crawl. It dragged out seconds into minutes, giving him more than enough time to imagine, one by one, the many, many ways he could end Danzo Shimura's life. It had entered the realm of the purely academical by the time Hiruzen spoke up again.
Like, how much of their spine does a human really need to survive?
"Regardless of the crime, or its undoubted deservedness, caution must be given. As it stands, there is no proof-"
"Proof?" Naruto didn't need to raise his voice beyond its current whisper to be heard. The syllable seemed to reverberate around the room. "The man kidnapped my sister the day my parents sacrificed everything for this village. Kept her locked away, brainwashed her into one of his ghoulish toy soldiers and was about to make an unstable Jinchuuriki out of her." He took a deep, and far from calming breath as he turned.
"This isn't about proof."
As if on cue, the sun chose that moment to peek over the horizon, casting the office in shades of red. For an instant Jiraiya thought he saw Naruto's pupils turned slitted, but it could have been a trick of the light and his own paranoia playing up on him.
"I agree, it saddens and angers me to see just how far my old teammate has fallen, a sentiment I'm sure is perfectly understood in this company." Hiruzen glanced at both Jiraiya and Naruto, but the former was too fixated on his pupil's son to acknowledge the statement. "But you must understand how it may appear. You found a secret base below the village, now populated by dead men conducting a sealing on a girl who should have died fifteen years ago. Despite where the evidence would appear to point, it is nothing but conjecture."
"I am the Hokage." It came out almost desperately as the flame behind Naruto's eyes began to falter; it was the first hint of emotion in his voice since he had realized who was beneath that mask.
"And tyrants rarely sit in comfy chairs for long. I am sorry Naruto, but when it comes to this matter, we must tread carefully."
The fury returned in an instant, icing over his moment of weakness as though it never happened.
"So, what? He gets away with it? All of it? My sister's suffering? That abhorrent organisation he built? The other children torn from their families?" He knew the significance of those Aburame and Yamanaka techniques being used. When word started getting out, he wouldn't be the only one calling for blood.
Before Hiruzen could answer, Komachi burst into the room. She had been one of the first people he had contacted when he left the underground complex, firstly to wake and collect Tsunade, Hiruzen and Jiraiya, then to get more ANBU and scour the village for Danzo. Tsunade was at the hospital making sure Sukoru was okay… or as okay as she could be after fifteen years with Danzo Shimura. It was probably for the best that she was kept busy with that; from the look on her face she wouldn't have even waited this long to go hunting.
"I'm sorry Hokage-sama, we've searched the entire village. There's no sign of Shimura-san."
Naruto took in the information with a stony silence before nodding once. "Rouse the Hyuuga and the Inuzuka, tell them I want search parties out immediately. He will be found and captured."
Komachi nodded succinctly and immediately went to carry out her orders, leaving the three men alone again. This time though Naruto wore a thin, icy smile as he turned back to the window, watching as his village was roused into action.
"Innocent men don't run."
Fires could only burn for so long and it took all of Naruto's composure to keep stoking the one within him until the door clicked shut behind him. It shattered like so much useless glass the moment he was alone with his sister again. He glanced up at her from where had slumped against the wall, still not quite sure he could believe it.
Tsunade had declared her as healthy as could be, physically at least. Her mental situation would be evaluated, in-depth, the moment she awoke, which, given the fact she had recently undergone a Jinchuuriki ritual at twice the age they were recommended, was currently uncertain. He was almost afraid to approach her, scared that if he did it might all turn out to be a dream, or some sick illusion. Really though, he wasn't sure if deserved to.
"You were alive, all this time… and I didn't even know. I was supposed to be there for you, protect you, help you grow up." He gave a tremulous smile, blinking his eyes as they became watery. "You would have helped me heal, and I would have raised you. We would have been our own little family." Tentatively, like she might melt under his touch, he ran a hand through her hair; spiky and blonde, so much like their father's.
"But that was stolen from us… you were stolen from me, from the life you were supposed to have." The rational part of his mind knew that there was nothing a seven year old could have done at the time, but that part of his mind wasn't behind the wheel. There was a deep, noxious feeling in his gut that this was all his fault. If he had just tried harder, hadn't given up so quickly…
For most of his life the girl in front of him had been nothing more than a name on a memorial, the promise of a sister that never came through. What was she to him now?
What was he to her?
"Hey."
He had heard Anko enter, but hadn't bothered to look up. When she gently pressed in against his side, wrapping an arm around his shoulders he leant into the contact.
"She's back," he whispered, refusing to let his voice waver.
"I know, like a miracle, huh?" He could tell Anko didn't know how to react to all of this any more than he did. But he was thankful at least for the support. Just having her next to him kept him shored up.
"What's going on Nii-chan?" Haya piped up, grabbing his other hand on reflex. He nearly choked at the name. "I thought we were going on a trip today?"
He had completely forgotten about Haya's clan. That lead… it could be the difference of ever seeing her family again. But… his sister. He couldn't just leave her. He couldn't ever leave her again.
He squeezed her hand lightly. "Hey speedster, you…" He very nearly choked on his words, but forced it down "…you like Anko and me, right?"
The girl furrowed her brow; any other day he would have found that adorable, now it was just heart-breaking. "I love you and Nee-chan!" She said it with such sincerity… he couldn't believe he was even asking her this.
"You like it here, in Konoha right?" She nodded gently, still confused. "So, if you had to stay here for a while longer…"
She picked up the inference after a moment and nodded happily, the simple innocence clashing terribly with the atmosphere in the small hospital room. "I would live here forever, you're my family!"
Naruto could only nod slowly, unable to trust his words. He was deeply grateful when Anko squeezed him gently, that little current of affection going a long way in propping up his resolve. "Then that trip might have to… wait a while? Okay?"
Haya nodded uncertainly, and to prevent her thinking about it too much he quickly swept her up into her arms.
"There's someone I want you to meet, okay?" He hefted her until she had a good few at the sleeping girl. "This is my little sister, Sukoru."
Her previous disappointment vanished as she stared wide-eyed at the new Jinchuuriki. "She's so pretty."
The redhead choked back a sob, hiding it behind a trembling smile. "Yeah, she is. She… she's been gone, for a long time, and she's not well, so we need to be there for her, alright?"
Haya stopped her hand short of stroking Sukoru's whiskers. "Me too?"
"Mhmm," he hummed, "she's going to need a little sister to teach her all sorts of things. When she wakes up she might not… know, some stuff, and it might take some patience, so I'll need you to be strong, okay?"
At that Haya just bobbed happily. She wasn't blind, even children could be sensitive to the mood of the room; she was just excited about the prospect of another older sister like Ami to play with. "I can do that."
Naruto could only hug her tighter, planting a kiss in her silvery hair. "Thanks speedster, I can always count on you, can't I?"
"Speaking of which," Anko cut on softly, "I think we should give Naruto some time alone with his sister, okay?"
Haya look upset by that, but one look at Anko had her nodding in resignation, quickly allowing herself to be lead from the room. Anko herself paused in the doorway, turning and offering a small smile to her fiancée full of enough warmth to lift some of the ice constricting his chest. "Remember, no matter what, this is a good thing."
He gave what he hoped was a reassuring look back, but was almost certain it didn't reach his eyes. When she closed the door behind her he felt numb again, uncertain of everything. Uncertain of what would happen when she finally woke up. Uncertain of what he could do for her, or what she would need from him. Uncertain that he could even give it to her.
He hadn't felt this lost since that horrific night so many years ago.
Slowly, and without really realizing it, his hands began working through a long sequence of hand seals. There was something he had been saving for a very long time, for a very specific moment in his life. He never thought he would use it this soon, and yet he couldn't think of a time when he had needed it more. When his hands came to a stop, the Chakra ready at the point of no return, he had to take a deep breath to steady his resolve.
The room seemed to glow for a moment as ink swirled on his palm, forming intricate shapes that steadily wound down the length of his arm. When it was complete, he placed his hand against the seal on his stomach… and twisted.
The inside of the seal hadn't improved at all since the one and only other time he had entered it. It had been in a fit of childish bravery, when he had felt the need to confront the beast that had torn his world apart so thoroughly. He had come out of that interaction with nothing but disappointment. The Fox was an asshole, simple as that. When an angry little human had entered its prison, it had simply taken to mocking the teen, correctly assuming that silence was the best way to irritate him.
It didn't seem to have changed its doctrine, only lifting its head slightly from behind the massive bars at the unexpected intrusion. The Kyuubi was just as staggeringly large as he remembered, which was intimidating in its own right, but he had grown up a lot from that brash moment. The seal itself kept the majority of its Chakra, and therefore it's noxious, unbearable presence, safely locked up. There was less to fear from the creature than an ordinary fox.
The Kyuubi wasn't what he was here for though. Instead he focused on the seal shiki inscribed on his arm, gently modifying it with careful thoughts. He wasn't really here, this was all a mental interface representing more abstract concepts. A few tweaks to the shiki tricked the seal into assuming that certain conditions had been met, without actually triggering them. Specifically, the seal currently believed that an excess of the fox's Chakra was uncontrollably leaking into his system, and the internal barrier separating the Kyuubi's spiritual manifestation had been unlocked.
He felt them appear before he saw them, feeling tears well up in his eyes as the achingly familiar presence of their Chakra. He almost couldn't bear to turn, the idea that they might not really be there torturous. Slowly though, he did, trying for a small smile that ended up being a bit more tremulous than he would have preferred. It nearly broke down entirely when he finally caught sight of them.
"Hi Mom. Hi Dad."