It's time for yet another installment of The World Turns Without You. The story where Sasuke's dead for good, and shit gets crazy.

Yeah… this chapter should have been posted two months ago, when it was actually done. I was just being very… obsessive about it. I've decided that screw what I think, I just need to post it and move on with the story or we'll never get anywhere.

I also know that the ending of the last chapter was not the best I've ever done. /shrugs. I'll try and figure something out once we're a lot further into the story, but for now I hope I can at least make up for that a little bit here.

Seriously though, thank you. The kind of support you guys are showing means the world to me. Writing is just a hobby for me, cultivated through massive amounts of reading. I've always loved reading, getting lost in the worlds and emotions of the characters. That's why I write and publish these stories, because I want to give some of those feelings and the enjoyment that I've experienced back to people. So, I hope you enjoy the story.

Chapter 5:
Echoes

Chakra is an odd thing. It can act as both a solid and a liquid. It can be both pure energy, or solid mass. It can unify, or it can split. It can bring people together, and it can tear them apart.

But perhaps the most interesting property of chakra is the fact that somehow it can be either unorganized, or truly self-aware and sapient. It can contain memories, and even act of its own accord.

The clearest, most evident example of this is the existence of the bijū, beings that have existed for thousands of years, pure chakra, pure energy, yet physical as well, able to interact with the world. It is a contradiction, a dichotomy, a paradox that has given risen to a long-accepted and undeniable truth despite its impossibility:

Chakra is alive.

He was floating.

Floating in inexplicable emptiness, surrounded by darkness on all sides, with no distinction between up or down, left or right.

Dots of light began appearing in the blackness, growing larger. He vaguely recognized that he was moving towards them. Or maybe they were moving towards him. It was the same either way: they were getting closer.

The the pinpoints of light slowly resolved themselves into what appeared to be spheres of light. The majority were yellow, but there were others that were purplish in color. They moved around him, surrounding him, floating freely. As he watched, one of the yellow balls suddenly moved, jerking and hitting a purple one. When it did, the two balls that had touched were no longer yellow and violet, but a strikingly bright reddish orange.

Orange…

For some reason he liked the color orange.

The two newly-changed spheres broke off from the force of the collision, hitting another pair of the luminescent balls, spreading the orange color like an infection. A chain reaction.

Eventually the sea of yellow and purple became an entirely even shade of orange, with no hints of either the previous colors having even existed in the first place. And then all of the balls coalesced, becoming one giant glowing globe that rushed towards and enveloped him, leaving nothing behind.

"What's wrong with him?" Kakashi asked, looking down at Naruto, who was (once again) in a hospital bed. The kid just couldn't ever seem to catch a break: the Kyūbi, the Wave mission, the Chūnin exams, Orochimaru, Sasuke, and now this. Whatever this was.

"Nothing… from my initial scans." Tsunade told him, not looking up from what she was doing: running her hand coated in green chakra over the boy's body, searching for any irregularities in his organs or chakra flow.

"…He was bleeding out of his eyes and screaming his throat raw when I found him. I'm pretty sure that's not 'nothing'." the cyclops commented dryly. Not that he wasn't worried, because he was, there just wasn't anything he could do right now other than what he already had.

It had not been a pretty scene. Naruto had been curled up in a fetal position just in front of the three posts on Training Ground 3, gripping his head and screaming in pain while his eyes streamed blood. It had reminded Kakashi of that Ichibi jinchūriki and how he had acted prior to releasing the bijū. And that… would not have been good for Konoha. Which is why he'd brought the blonde straight to the Hokage's office instead of the hospital, knowing that Tsunade would want to be the one to look at him and that she was one of the few who might be able to handle Naruto if the seal was weakening. Thankfully the boy had passed out just after Kakashi had arrived on the scene, which meant he hadn't been in any immediate pain after that point.

"I know. I'm just telling you what I'm seeing." the Slug Sannin responded. "I'm at a loss as to what's going on. There's nothing physically wrong with him. His vitals are standard. His blood pressure is low. His brain is showing signs of normal REM sleep. His chakra network is perfect–" She stilled for a moment. "Wait. That can't be right."

Kakashi looked up at her. "What?"

Tsunade moved her glowing palm over the boy's closed eyes. "His eyes should be registering as foreign chakra. Transplants always produce chakra signatures that match the donor. But these… they have the same signature as the rest of his body."

"…What does that mean?"

She took her hand off of Naruto. "I-I don't know. I've never seen anything like this happening. If I had to guess, it means that his body is somehow… assimilating the eyes, like some form of endosymbiosis on the scale of whole organs. At least chakra-wise. Whether that assimilation is modifying things all the way down to the cellular or even genetic level is something I'd need to do more tests for."

"Could it be because of the Kyūbi's healing? Or is it because he's an Uzumaki? They were said to have very powerful chakra and vitality…" Kakashi mused, thinking aloud.

"I really don't know." she reiterated, staring at Naruto's face. "It could be either one, or a combination, or even something else that we have no idea of. At this point we just don't have enough to go on. I can run those tests, but I don't have any clue what they're going to show us."

The jōnin nodded in acceptance of her answer as she walked over to a set of cabinets on the other side of the room, picking out a catheter and a set of glass vials along with a paper seal-tag. Returning to the blonde, she drew his blood quickly and then placed the tag on his arm which absorbed a small amount of his chakra for evaluation. Kakashi simply looked on, watching the process.

Tsunade collected the vials and paper, looking down at the boy she had come to think of as her surrogate grandchild. "I'll drop these off at our lab to be processed immediately. It should only take an hour or so. Do you want to stay with him while we're waiting on the results?"

Kakashi nodded without speaking.

"Alright." The older woman walked over to the door, and opened it before turning around. "…Don't beat yourself up Kakashi. This wasn't something any of us could have predicted. It isn't your fault."

The jōnin who was the only remaining member of Team Minato remained staring at Naruto's peaceful expression silently, not even reacting at the sound of the door behind him closing.

Come on, Naruto. You can get through this. Don't give up. I can't lose another one.

Kurama was not a happy fox.

He'd been trying to slow down what had been happening to his container for months now, but it had only delayed things. Although… it had caused the meat-bag no small amount of pain. So there was some good that had come out of it, he supposed.

He'd known as soon his jailer had opened those eyes for the first time and chakra had flowed towards them that something was wrong. It had felt… unnatural. There should have been some kind of minor problems with them, a greater drain on chakra than there had been… or, or something, but there hadn't. And then Kurama had realized it was his presence that was the cause of that. The healing properties of his own chakra had done their job too well, treating the foreign eyes as just parts of the boy's body that belonged where they were.

It had only gotten worse from there. The small portion of his chakra that continuously leaked out of this damned seal combined with the boy's own highly Yang-dominant chakra had corroded the chakra already in the eyes, breaking it down in such a way that the boy's chakra system had absorbed the eyes' original Yin-natured chakra, creating a combination that his body actually adopted and began producing on its own.

The fox was worried. Very worried. He wouldn't admit it, not even to himself, but this was perturbing on a completely different level.

His jailer's chakra shouldn't be that strong. It shouldn't be able to change itself and combine with another source. It shouldn't be able to adapt to that change and continue producing that meld of chakra.

But it had, and Kurama had no idea what it meant.

Naruto blinked, staring up at a bare white ceiling. A white ceiling with bright florescent lights that was eminently familiar and easily recognizable to the blonde after looking at it for more than a week only months before. The hospital.

What was it this time? What had he been doing?

He'd been in a field… and then there had been pain, a lot of pain… and memories?

Sasuke's memories. Ever since the flashback to the Valley of the End, there had been a persistent dull aching and itching behind his eyes. And then as it had gone on, the flashbacks had increased in frequency, and the pain had slowly grown until it had been a constant headache.

But now it was all gone. He felt good. In fact, he might actually be feeling better than he had before all of this had started. He didn't know that was even possible, since he had felt normal before the flashbacks had started, but now he felt better than normal.

Like… everything had been slightly fuzzy before, for his entire life even, but now the world was in perfect focus.

The sound of shoes clicked down the hall towards his door, and Naruto looked towards it, seeing the outline of a woman with a purplish-pink aura of chakra around her outside his room, a signature he identified that immediately began to calm him, if only slightly.

… Tsunade-baachan.

The door opened, and the Hokage stepped inside the room, pulling the door closed behind her.

"Awake now? You gave Kakashi a real scare. I think he got more than a few grey hairs from that." She walked towards Naruto, a clipboard in her hands. "…Not that you could even tell, the lucky bastard." she mumbled under her breath. Continuing at a normal volume, "I told him to go get lunch and then head home because sitting around waiting wasn't doing anything good for his mental state."

Naruto sobered, reminded of the current events that lead to this situation. "…Baa-chan?" he asked hesitantly "Why… why am I here? Well… I guess, I know why I'm here… But what's going on?"

Tsunade pulled a chair from the side of the room, the metal legs screeching over the linoleum floor until it was next to Naruto's bed, at which point she sat down in it and crossed her legs, leaning back with her arms crossed in front of her chest, the clipboard on her knee. "We don't know. We were hoping you could tell us something. We've got an idea, but we don't know if it's right or not. Is there anything you can tell us?"

Naruto looked down at his hands, and vaguely noted that the flow of chakra around him that had once been bright yellow was now a warm orange. The same color as in that weird dream (vision?) with the balls of light. "I started having dreams. About Sasuke. Except I was him. And then they started happening during the day too. I knew after the second time they were his memories, but I thought they would just go away after awhile. But they didn't, and my eyes started hurting and the memories got worse. And then…" he trailed off. "Well, you know."

She looked at him, waiting to see if there was anything more, but when there wasn't, she sighed. "At least that gives me something to work with. I think I've got an idea what was happening, even if I don't know why." Naruto tilted his head back up so he could see her, even as she looked out the window to the right of his bed. "Somehow, your body has integrated those eyes into your physiology perfectly. It doesn't go down to the genetic level, but they don't register as foreign chakra presences anymore."

"…But, but what about the memories?"

Tsunade frowned. "You'd be better off asking a Yamanaka than me, but I'll try and explain what I know Chakra can contain memory imprints and echoes, especially vivid or memorable ones. If you actually absorbed the chakra that was present in your eyes, Sasuke's chakra, it would make sense that you might see some of his memories. Can you still remember them? Do you have anything in your mind that feels out of place or are from his perspective? We might have to get someone to take a look if you do. They might end up causing brain damage. People aren't designed to have two sets of overlaid brain wave patterns like that."

The boy sat still for a moment, sifting through his mind and trying to find anything that didn't belong. But there was nothing. It was all normal. His mind was silent.

Naruto shook his head. "I can remember remembering them, but I can't remember them. …Um. Does that make sense?"

The woman chuckled at his repetitive response. "It makes sense. And it's what I hoped for. They're called meta-memories. When a mind-walker views a memory, they don't actually take it. They see it, they experience it, but it's not theirs. It seems like that's what happened here."

"But… why'd that happen? Kakashi-sensei didn't have this, did he?"

"No. But then again, when have you ever done things normally?" she teased. Naruto pouted, and Tsunade reached out and ruffled his hair, making him smile slightly. "We were thinking that it might have to do with your tenant and how you can heal, or the fact that you're an Uzumaki, who were said to have very powerful, strong chakra and life-forces. Or maybe it's both… or something else. But we don't really know. It looks like you still can't disable the dōjutsu, can you?"

Naruto tried halting the flow of chakra that was pulled to his eyes completely, but nothing happened and all of the chakra auras he could see were still there, so he shook his head in denial.

"Hm. Then it's probably because of the genetic difference that you can't disable them, not because of the chakra signature mismatch between the organs and your own body. I was always curious why that was. Never thought I'd actually find out…"

The door to the room clicked open, and both occupants turned towards the sound.

"U-um, Naruto-kun?" A head with blue hair and pale lavender eyes appeared in the gap. "Oh! Hokage-sama. Please excuse me. I'll come back later…"

"No, we were just finishing up. You can come in." Tsunade told her with a knowing smile.

Hinata stepped inside, followed closely behind by Anko, who shut the door behind both of them, muffling the busy sounds of the hospital.

"Hey, brat." Anko greeted. "Girl heard you were here and wanted to see how you were doing. I couldn't stop her even if I wanted to, so I figured I'd come along for the hell of it. You feeling okay?" Naruto nodded. "What happened?"

Hinata had made her way over to Naruto, and was fidgeting as if she didn't know what to do. The tokubetsu jōnin pulled a chair over next to Tsunade's, positioning the Hyūga in front of it and then pushing her down to sit in the chair so that she would stop hovering. Anko herself leaned against the wall next to Naruto's bed, looking down at him and waiting for a response.

"… you can tell them." he said quietly, looking at Tsunade.

The Hokage nodded, and answered the question. "His body somehow… adapted to and absorbed the foreign chakra that was in his eyes. He had some flashbacks from the process, echoes of strong memories that had gotten embedded in the chakra."

Anko grimaced. "That couldn't have been fun." More like it would have fucking sucked. There was a reason Yamanaka were the only ones who were authorized to do mind-walks. They had to go through years of emotional conditioning and desensitization training to be able to handle the possible trauma of experiencing another person's memories and emotions. Developing things like split-personalities and sympathetic feelings were not good when you were interrogating mass-murderers and nukenin. "What kinda stuff did you see, kid?"

"…" Naruto turned at looked up at her. "There were a bunch… Sasuke's mom and dad. Itachi. A guy name Shisui. Training with Itachi. The Uchiha massacre." Everybody's faces blanched. "The academy exam. Our team's first meeting. The bell test. Fighting Zabuza, and then Haku. Orochimaru in the Chūnin exams. Training with the Chidori. Fighting Gaara in the finals. Meeting those Sound ninja." He paused, and looked down at the bed. "… and our fight in the Valley."

"Naruto-kun…" Hinata whispered, her voice heavy with concern and sympathy.

The boy turned to her, his eyes wet. "I'm okay Hinata-chan. It's just… a little hard, ya know? 'Cause now I know how he felt and how much he was hurting. And, and I wish I could tell him that it would be okay and that I understand now… but he's gone, and now I'll never get the chance to tell him." He took a breath. "I'm okay with that. He'd probably fight me if he saw me being broody so that I'd forget it all. So I've gotta try not to be, yeah?"

Anko sighed from her place against her wall. "Hey, Tsunade-sama. Can he go? Or does he have to stick around here?"

The Sannin looked at her, something unspoken passing between the two of them. "No, he's free to go. There's nothing physically wrong with him. And there shouldn't be any more episodic flashbacks now that Sasuke's chakra has completely disappeared. So he should be fine."

The purple-haired woman nodded. "Alright then, kiddies. How about we go get lunch? Anywhere you want. It'll be on me." Dango always helped her deal with the worst shit. Well, dango and alcohol. But she didn't think Kurenai or Kakashi would appreciate her taking them out to a bar and getting drunk when it was barely past noon. So food it was.

Naruto grinned automatically as his thoughts went straight to a certain favorite noodle shop. "I know just the place!"

"You could have eaten less you know…" Anko grumbled as they walked away from the ramen stand. Seven bowls. Who the hell ate seven fucking bowls of ramen? She hadn't known it was even possible for a thirteen year-old's stomach to hold that much liquid. At least that guy had given her a discount. Otherwise she probably would have been completely cleaned out. Both she and Hinata had only eaten a single bowl each, which was still more than enough.

Hinata giggled from her right.

Well, at least Anko had achieved what she wanted. By the time they were done eating, the boy had been grinning like a loon.

"So what're we doing now, crazy snake lady?" Naruto asked from her other side.

She stopped walking and looked at him, squinting. "I have a name, you know. Anko. A-n-ko. Not 'crazy snake lady'."

The blonde nodded. "Okay. So then what're we doing now, Anko-chan?"

"Not -chan. Just Anko, brat." she growled. Nobody except Kurenai could get away with something like that. She started moving forward again down the dirt road, the two teens hurrying to catch up. "I don't know. I was teaching Hinata before we went and saw you, but I don't think we've got enough time to finish up now."

"…Oh. Sorry." Naruto said quietly.

The younger girl shook her head. "I… wanted to see if you were okay." She blushed slightly.

"…thanks." Feeling slightly awkward at the silence that descended over them, he tried to think of something. "Whatcha learning?" he asked.

"We're upgrading her taijutsu. So far I haven't had Hiashi-teme after my neck for screwing with his precious Jūken, so I figure I'm safe. For now." Anko smirked. It wasn't often you could say you were destroying generations-old traditions, especially with the daughter of the head of the clan as the test subject.

Naruto nodded in understanding. "Those white-eyes can be really scary sometimes. Oh, um, no offense, Hinata-chan."

The Hyūga smiled slightly. "It's okay." Her family could be really scary. Especially Otou-sama.

"How about you, gaki? Hatake said you were done with your Lightning nature, so what're you up to now?"

"Oh! I'm doing Wind now. It's a lot easier. And Kakashi-sensei's been fixing my taijutsu too. He said it was really bad and had a lot of holes. Like that weird cheese. And I'm still learning that sealing stuff. I've got, um…" He screwed his face up. "Four hundred clones doing each thing?" Naruto nodded. "Yeah. He's making me wear these weight thingies too. See?" He pulled up the sleeve on his jumpsuit, and showed them a seal design on his wrist. "They're supposed to be like bushy-brow's weights. He increases the weight by a pound every week. I've got three pounds right now, but it feels like I'm walking through water."

Anko eyed the fūinjutsu thoughtfully. "Hm. That's… not a bad idea. I might have to talk to Kakashi about something like that for girl here." The purple-haired woman adopted a slightly bloodthirsty smile. "She's been getting too good at our little evasion exercises lately. What do you think, Hina-chan?"

The Hyūga nodded sharply, suddenly very serious, a hint of steel creeping into her eyes. "It would be very effective in improving my speed and strength. I think that it would be a good idea." She needed to push herself more if she wanted to get better, to become the best she could be.

"Great, I'll try and figure something out for ya." A hawk screeched overhead, and Anko looked up. "Awh, shit. I gotta go, guys. Something's up with T&I." She stood there momentarily, and then turned to the ex-heiress on her right. "Hinata!"

The girl snapped to attention, back straightening automatically at her teacher's tone. "Hai!"

"Homework!" Anko grinned. "I want you to research nerve clusters and other major and minor pressure points. I know your Byakugan lets you see tenketsu, but for that other thing we're working on, nerves might be faster than relying on chakra pressure to damage internal organs."

"Hai, Anko-sensei."

The woman nodded. "Good. Alright brats, catch you later." She hopped off in a purple blur, leaving Naruto to stare at the place where she had disappeared from.

"Ne, Hinata-chan. Your sensei's really weird, ya know?"

The blue-haired Hyūga only giggled in response.

Naruto sat under the shade of his tree on the edge of Training Ground 3. Unlike usual, however, the field was empty of the plethora of clones that normally surrounded him in various activities, leaving the blonde on his own.

He stared at the fūinjutsu book in his lap, trying to absorb the words and understand what they were saying. He was getting better about reading it and grasping what it was trying to explain, but he still preferred having a physical example that he could mess around with.

"Hey, Naruto."

The boy looked up at the towering silver-haired man next to him. "Hey, sensei."

Kakashi sat down next to the boy. "So I heard about everything from the Hokage…" Naruto grimaced. "Things… experiences like that can really mess you up if you don't deal with it. She said you saw the Massacre?"

"…yeah." Naruto got a glazed look in his eyes. "Everything was so red… it smelled like rust. And then I saw Kaa-sa–" His red eyes fell. "Mikoto-san and Fugaku-san with Itachi behind them. I… Sasuke was so scared. I didn't see anything else." Kakashi sighed in relief that the Uzumaki hadn't experienced the torture and trauma that had caused Sasuke to become so obsessed with revenge. "I… I don't understand why. Why did he do it? The other times I saw Itachi-ni– Itachi-san he was nice and normal."

"Sometimes… sometimes people just snap. Itachi was a prodigy, and he had a lot of pressure on him to live up to that. He was always a bit distant and quiet. Maybe that was the first clue…" the jōnin said, voicing his thoughts. "Sasuke just couldn't move past losing his family. I thought he was starting to… but then…"

But then the chūnin exams happened. And Orochimaru. And the jūinjutsu. And those Sound ninja. And the Valley. One thing after another, compounding in layers on top of each other until it got to be too much.

Naruto clenched his fists, hot tears threatening to spill out and run down his face.

He had failed Sasuke. Failed him in the worst way possible. Failed to show him that he had people who cared, who would have even helped him if he had just asked for it. They had been a team with bonds forged and tempered in ways only they would be able to share. And instead of treasuring that, Sasuke had felt the need to sever them, because he thought they were tying him down instead of strengthening him like Naruto knew they had actually been.

He had failed to protect his best friend from his worst enemy. Not Itachi. Himself.

He would never, never allow himself to make that same mistake again. Never hesitate to protect the people he cared about, the ones he loved. No matter what it took. No matter how hard impossible the odds seemed.

Naruto vaguely noted that it wasn't the healthiest mindset to have, being willing to sacrifice everything in order to save other people, but it was how he felt and what he would do, and damn the consequences.

Kakashi sighed, watching the emotions play across his student's face. "But it doesn't do any good to live in the past." He winced to himself, full aware of the level of hypocrisy in the advice he was giving. "We just keep moving forward, right?"

Naruto looked up and nodded. "Yeah." he agreed, sullenly.

"Well, then. Come on, I know the perfect way to do that." Kakashi grinned behind his mask. "It's guaranteed to make you forget about all that depressing stuff."

"…What's that?"

"More training!" Kakashi gave one of his famous eye-smiles, knowing the reaction it would get.

And sure enough, Naruto simply groaned loudly, slumping backwards in defeat.

"Alright girl. I think it's been long enough now."

Anko looked at Hinata, who stood in front of the woman in a defensive stance, palms facing forward as she refused to relax.

"I've kinda been putting this off, but there really isn't much reason anymore…"

The woman ran through a series of handsigns before slamming her hand down on the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu"

A large puff of white smoke filled the clearing, and Hinata coughed at the sudden invasion to her lungs.

"Anko… I sssensse no enemiesss. Why have you sssumoned me?" A loud voice hissed.

The smoke cleared, revealing Anko standing on the head of a large, dark red snake that was coiled like a rope. The creature had to be at least twenty feet in diameter, with no indication as to its length. "Hey, Saya. No enemies today, we've got something special to do."

The snakes eyes rotated upwards towards where Anko stood, trying to see her but failing. "Oh? Pleassse, pray tell what thisss may be."

"This here's Hinata-chan." The purple-haired woman said, hopping down from the snake's head and walking over to her student. "She's my apprentice. And today she's going to be signing the contract." Hinata turned and looked at the woman in surprise, dropping her Jūken stance.

The summon's tongue flicked out, as if tasting the air around the young Hyūga to sense her worth."I sssee. And I sssuposse you wish me to return with the contract for her to sssign."

Anko grinned "Yup!"

The large snake let out a hissing sigh. "It hasss been monthsss since you last summoned me. And thisss is the task you have?"

Anko laughed. "Oh, suck it up, Saya. I'll make sure to summon you the next time I've got some tasty ninja for you to eat."

The large red snake perked up. "I suppossse that will suffice." It nodded. "I will go to fetch the contract. Sssummon me back in five minutes."

"Will do!" Anko said, grinning.

The snake disappeared in another (albeit smaller) cloud of smoke.

"Shishō?" Hinata asked, turning to the other woman. "What…?"

"I said it didn't I? You're my apprentice! This… um… this is actually kinda why I wanted you to be my student in the first place, truthfully. I don't like the thought of the bastard being the one who keeps the contract." Anko told her, ending in a tone of annoyance and anger. "You're not like… squeamish about snakes or anything, right?" She squinted her eyes at the blue-haired girl.

Hinata shook her head in vehement denial. "No! No. I'm just… surprised."

Summoning contracts were relatively rare, usually limited to either very important clans or passed between master/student pairs. Hinata supposed the Hyūga fell in the former, but the family had never tried to acquire a contract, instead believing themselves above needing to rely on summons to assist them. It was a stereotypical attitude that Hinata had come to recognize, only more so since she had begun her work on integrating her Lightning-natured chakra into her taijutsu style. More than a few of the Main branch elders had expressed their… extreme displeasure with her adoption and integrating of both a chakra nature and a different taijutsu style into the Jūken.

Hinata had reacted to it in the beginning, but then Anko-sensei had snapped her out of it again with a rather blunt "Would you rather listen to those old bastards or be yourself and get stronger?". That had galvanized Hinata's resolve, and the next time there had been a comment, she had merely given a sickly-sweet smile and told the annoying man that as she was no longer the heiress, and thus her actions no longer represented the clan as a whole, she felt no need to bow to the desires of a family that had no sway on her future. Anko had laughed for minutes after Hinata had related the event to her.

"Well, there's nothing to worry about. The snakes are a bunch of pansies. …Just don't go letting them know I said that, okay?" Anko told her.

Hinata nodded.

"Alrighty. Let's get this done then." Anko bit her finger and ran through the sequence of seals again to generate the summoning formula.

The red snake, Saya, returned. A large scroll sat wrapped in her tongue, which she placed on the ground in front of Anko and Hinata.

"I will be curiousss to see the result of thisss. It has been ssso long since we have had a summoner of the old blood." The snake stated, watching the pair curiously.

"Old blood?" asked Anko, an amount of confusion present in her voice.

Saya dipped her head. "Thossse descended from the first sssage and his brother. Your eyesss are his legacy."

"Huh." the purple-haired woman responded dumbly. She shook her head. "Well, whatever. As long as you guys accept her."

"My brother Manda is an idiot." The snake stated, spitting the name like a curse. "I care not what he thinks. Ssshe is worthy, whether he thinksss so or not. I cannot wait for the day he isss weakened. It will be his last, and he will taste death by my fangs. He taintsss our name. We were once a noble clan, and now our name has been dragged through the mud because of hisss obsession with your old massster."

Anko nodded, refusing to acknowledge the mention of Orochimaru and let it ruin her mood, instead bending down and unrolling the giant scroll on the grass. "Alright 'Nata, just write your name here in blood and then leave a handprint."

Hinata shallowly sliced her left palm on a kunai that Anko handed her. She dipped her pointer finger in the blood and then signed her name on the scroll, squeezing her hands together to spread the liquid and then finishing with the crimson image of her right hand at the end. Hinata cleaned her hand off using some water from a bottle and then covered the cut with a bit of salve that she carried around perpetually.

"It isss done." Sayuya hissed, sounding satisfied and examining the scroll at their feet.

"Okay. The handseals are Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, and then Ram." Anko told Hinata, placing her hands in the shapes as she ran through them. "You need to use a relatively flat surface to let the fūinjutsu expand. Try it out."

Hinata went through the seals, placing her hand on the ground and providing as much chakra as she could. A much smaller puff of smoke than Anko's surrounded them.

"Ah! I was summoned!" A rather high-pitched voice broke out of the ensuing whiteness. "How fun!" A small pitch-black snake sat in the grass staring up at the two kunoichi. "Hullo! I'm Kuro!"

Anko snickered. "Kind of predictable to name a black snake 'black', isn't it?"

The snake in question gave the impression of pouting and annoyed indignation. "Everybody always says that! Meanie!"

Saya sighed in the background. "Must you alwaysss be ssso dramatic, young one?"

Kuro's tongue flicked out, as though blowing a raspberry at the much older summons.

Hinata giggled and crouched down to look the snake in the eye. "I think it's a lovely name."

"Oh! Summoner-san! Am I your first?" The purple haired woman to Hinata's left snickered again at the possible innuendo, which Hinata dutifully ignored.

She nodded in affirmation to the jet snake, which she assumed was female based on the voice.

"That means I'm your personal summon! We're gonna be great friends! I can tell already!" Kuro chirped. "Oh! Please take care of me!" The snake made a nodding motion with her head, imitating an introductory bow.

The white-eyed girl laughed softly. Kuro reminded her of Naruto. It was rather cute. She didn't think she could have gotten along with a snake with a surly and irritable disposition like it seemed Saya had. "My name is Hinata Hyūga. I'm Anko-sensei's apprentice. Please take care of me as well." she told Kuro, bowing slightly in return.

The snake nodded happily. "Hi Hinata-sama!"

Hinata smiled and held out her hand to the summons, allowing it to slither onto her palm, winding up her right forearm before wrapping itself around her neck, the lower half still twined around her upper arm.

"This is going to be so fun!" Kuro's tongue lashed out as she spoke, tickling the blue-haired girl's ear and making her laugh again as she stood up.

"You ssshall be good for our clan… I can already feel it. They will fear you and your name, and our clan will regain our honor." Saya's tongue flicked out. "Yessss, you will be excccellent." The large vermilion snake turned to Anko. "If that isss all, I shall be going."

Anko waved her hand "Yeah, yeah. You can go. Ninja next time. I'll remember."

Saya nodded. "Good." And then the large snake disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Damn. You must be really interesting, girl, because I've never seen Saya act like that." The purple-haired woman commented, turning to Hinata.

"Ah! Hinata-sama! Would you like to be Marked?" Kuro asked, still coiled around the Hyūga's upper body. Anko's eyes went wide.

"A Mark!? She just signed the contract!"

The black snake nodded happily. "I want to give you one! And it's my choice, 'cuz you summoned me first so we've got a reallllly special bond now!" she chirped.

Anko bit her thumbnail in frustration. "Tch. Figures it's Saya's fault. She's never offered that to me once."

"Saya-chan's a meanie! And Hinata-sama is mine! So it's up to me." Kuro huffed.

Hinata looked between the two. "What is a Mark?" She could practically hear the capital letters in the name.

The tokubetsu jōnin looked at her. "It's a permanent fūinjutsu placed on you that means you don't need to go through the handseals in order to summon. And on a per-summon basis, they can choose that you don't need to give the blood offering, meaning you just need to push chakra into the seal to perform the technique. It's extremely special. And useful as hell. Only Orochimaru's got one right now." Anko explained, managing to sound slightly jealous and angry at the same time.

"Yup! So how about it? Pleeeaaaaase? Please please please?" the snake begged.

Hinata giggled. "Okay."

"Yay! Right wrist please! I've gotta bite it!"

Anko squinted at Kuro. "You aren't venomous, are you?"

The black serpent somehow pouted and managed to look affronted with just her eyes. "Of course I am! But I won't give any to Hinata-sama. Although Mama said it would be good to make an… immuninity?"

"Immunity." the older woman corrected.

"Yeah! That thing!"

Anko hm-ed. "She's already got a little from the snake bites in our training, but I'm guessing you've got something special, huh? Most of the named summons do." Kuro nodded from her place on Hinata's shoulder. "We'll start out in small dosages then. Wouldn't want to kill my only apprentice, yeah?" she asked rhetorically, ruffling Hinata's hair. "Anyways, let's got on with this, we've got a lot of stuff to do today."

Kuro nodded, and Hinata held out her right wrist towards her. The black snake suddenly lashed out, latching onto Hinata's arm with her mouth and fangs. Hinata drew a clenched breath, but it didn't hurt too much. A fūinjutsu design spread out from the bite, wrapping around her forearm, above the weight seal that Anko had inked on her wrist.

It burned bright red for a moment, and Hinata hissed as the pain increased a hundred-fold. It felt like the thing wasn't just burning into her arm, but into her very soul. Kuro released her arm, drawing back to Hinata's neck where she sat comfortably.

Anko shuddered. "God that's fuckin' creepy. Reminds me too much of the bastard's curse seal." Kuro hissed, and Hinata got the distinct impression that she was effectively sticking her tongue at the purple-haired tokubetsu jōnin. "Well, whatever. Let's get back to your taijutsu for now."

Hinata nodded in agreement, trying to ignore the dull ache that pervaded her forearm.

"I think we're getting pretty close to a good meld and balance of the two styles, we just need to work on the more advanced forms, 'kay?" The Hyūga girl took up one of the starting stances of one of the more advanced forms of the Jūken. Anko circled her, looking at the form.

"Alright, start the kata, and I'll take a look as you go."

"This was not part of the plan."

"Hey, don't look at me! It's not my fault the emo kid bit the dust!"

"…And yet now, the Nine-tails host has the Sharingan with the potential to awaken it further due to his bloodline."

"Yeah. Kinda puts a real damper on everything, huh?"

"…"

"What? I'm just sayin'."

"I know the situation."

"But, it did take Madara over a decade to get his eyes…"

"True. We have some time before the transformation is possible. But we can't rely on the results of a single success to tell us what it will be like if it happens again."

"So… what're we gonna do?"

"…the timetable must be accelerated. We cannot kill the boy because of our need for the Kyūbi. Yet we cannot allow him to live and potentially develop the Rinnegan. We need to seal the bijū into the host as soon as possible in order to deal with the threat he poses."

"*sigh* I knew you were going to say that. Why do I feel like this is going to be so much more work for us? Oh, I know… Because it will be."

A/N:

So! We've got some Naruto, some Kakashi, some Tsunade, bunches of Anko and Hinata, and a new personal summons for Hinata. Plus a mysterious (…not) discussion at the end. Fun stuff.

I want people to tell me what they want to see in this story. Nothing is set in stone, except for some characters and developments, and eventual progression of Naruto and Hinata's relationship. Everything else is flexible. So what would you like? If you haven't noticed, every chapter I try to get some scene with a character or two we don't interact with normally. Would you like me to expand on that? Explore more of the outside characters like Orochimaru, Pain, and Konan? (I love Konan, so she'll probably be popping up at some point). Do you have suggestions for places to visit during the training trip or after? I'd like to see some of Water/Mist at some point, and maybe even Iwa. So please! Let me know.

I've gotten a couple comments on the fact that I don't focus on Naruto a ton. That's… actually kinda the point. The title is The World Turns Without You (the "you" in this case obviously being Sasuke). I wanted to explore the repercussions of Sasuke's death on a global scale, and from multiple perspectives. Every one of my stories has some kind of "novelty" that makes it more unique and interesting to me as a reader, and I guess the scope and cast are this story's novelty.

In case you didn't know, my profile is updated pretty often with wordcount and chapter progress. So if you're ever curious why I'm taking so long, or where I am, you can check there. If I don't update that for three or more days, you can assume that school or life has gotten in the way somehow.

Review please! Tell me what you think! It helps enormously.

Cheers!