Author's Note: Sorry for the wait. Life has been throwing curve balls in rapid succession recently, one of which shocked me so much I fell out of bed. I recently recieved a letter from the art college I applied for. They only accept thirty reccomended students per year and I was number thirty-one, which is to say, highly unfavourable odds. To my eternal delight I received the acceptance letter in the mail today. I believe the only sound I was able to produce for sometime was "Eeee!', like some overgrown version of Dr. Evil's Mini-Me, sans the baldness. Anyhow, as you have all been patiently or impatiently waiting, here is the next installement, and a little peek into our favourite desert hermit's past.

---

In many ways the universe is a small place. If someone were to calculate the actual size and space of it the results would sorely crush that view but space is not as important as what resides in it. Among the vast number of stars in a single galaxy the chance of a single star having one planet is gargantuan. However, that number decreases by an almost incalculable margin when you add life to the mix. In certainty there are micro-organisms aplenty, bacteria, fungi and the like, but what is truly miraculous is the ability of intelligent life to develop. One chance encounter of a single celled organism in the right environment and with the right catalyst is all it takes, but when chance is reduced to a level of probability amongst the zillions of cells on one planet circling one of a billion stars in one galaxy...you will find that the neighborhood is quite sparse.

The universe is a very small place, and on one planet in that universe where the cells had managed to collide at precisely the right moment there stood a very old man, who by universal standards was ridiculously young. Moriya of the winds, the Betrayer, these names were his and many more like them, the one most often attributed to him however was Traitor. He thought that was fitting, seeing that it was his fault the line of jinchuuriki was broken and that for two centuries there had been no complete mergings whatsoever. It was entirely his fault, that there was an inadequate one now.

Mori gazed out across the smashed sea glinting in the broad daylight from the balcony of the Alta Vista. In all of his long years he had never been so torn between duty and what was right. In his left hand was clutched a tattered scrap of paper that anounced rather rudely in smudged writing that the writer, his student, had gone home. It was only the most natural reaction that any person would have to discovering just how deeply they were being manipulated. Naruto was special however. That boy...after all the time that Mori had spent watching him as he grew from homeless child to troubled to teen and finally into the brave though reckless young man he now was, he still could not fathom the amount of forgiving that boy had done.

We will come back to you in the desert.

"When you are good and ready." The man's shoulder's heaved with an ancient sigh. So much for the glory of the Kinsei, legendary caretakers of the world. So much for him, the worst of them all, damned to rectify a wound so old that only myths remembered it...

Should he stay? Should he go? Should he leave and never bother the youth again? A decision more than one was always difficult to make, and Mori had made enough of them to know that they seldom turned out as expected. He began to sing in a low voice, an old song that had been translated so many times that the origins were scattered to the four winds. This song he knew without thinking, without breathing. It echoed all lost things and raised their ghosts for his mind to see and comforted him.

"Dreamless sleep in the night deep,

Far, so far from home.

Troubled are the heroes of men,

The smaller gods of Rome.

These marching men of honor,

These speakers of no tongue,

They cut the winding path before us,

And fade with all great heart.

These sacrifices burning,

Upon the funeral pyre,

These were gods of men once,

And mother's weary sons.

On their eyes place down the fare,

The token for the dead.

Only coin of living souls,

May cast them into fame,

To fade with all great heart,

To fade with all great heart."

Mori hummed the rest of the dirge to himself. There were days when he couldn't remember where he had learned it, but it was comforting to bring out once in a while. He was so preoccupied with these thoughts that the sound of footsteps behind him failed to attract his notice.

"I snuck up here to talk to Cain but man, that's a bit of a mood killer." a young and unexpected voice sounded from behind him, "Where'd you pick up such a depressing bit of wailing, in a graveyard?"

Mori stopped humming and turned. There wasn't a thing that could have prepared him for it but he took it in stride nonetheless. Standing behind him with a cold expression was Arashi, the persona Naruto had created.

"You've returned." He stated the obvious. "I see. Am I to expect an attack or do you have something else in mind?"

"I don't know." The shorter young man replied. "You're the one that'll have to decide that. I'm just here to make up for lost time and to warn you to stay the hell away from Naruto."

"That is a very difficult order to fill considering that you are here."

"I'm here, he isn't."

Mori's head slipped to the side in contemplation.

"That is highly unusual," he said with fascination, "normally a fully fledged jinchuuriki doesn't start the Creation process until much later. You must have been a very strong influence to have come this far...Or something must have gone wrong."

"What do you mean by that?" Arashi became suspicious at this moment. The old man had always been cryptic but it seemed that whatever secrets he had been keeping went far deeper than just mere manipulation.

"Chakra overflow is what I am referring to. Whenever a merger between a human and bijuu takes place there is always some backlash. The beginning stages are what Mr. Uzumaki should be experiencing just about now. Tremors, if I remember correctly."

"Yeah he's definitely got those." Arashi grimaced in rememberance of the awful feeling.

"The next part is what we call Creation in which the chakra overload explodes and warps quite a few laws of nature. In most cases the jinchuuriki goes mad during that time and subsequentially becomes capable of things that would generally be considered impossible in the extreme, such as the creation of another human being through chakra fusion alone. Hence the name 'Creation'. It usually takes some time until the body is ready to perform it. Creation is also known as the final tremor, there are three in all that under normal circumstances take place, at the very least, one week apart from each other."

"Then we have a problem." Arashi's eyes darkened considerably. "He's already had two of those in the same day, and that was yesterday. I was made during the second."

Mori went competely still as a heart strangling feeling of worry welled up inside of his being. There were many things he had done and not done in his life that he had regretted, and Mori knew without questioning it that if he did not find Naruto soon, find him and contain the flare that was likely to happen at any moment, he would regret it forever.

"I must go to him." he snapped suddenly and made for the entryway.

"Hold it!" Arashi yelled. "If you're going then you're taking me with you. I was planning on staying here for a while but I'm not leaving him to you without surveillance. I don't trust you and I don't know what you'd pull. Besides that, I've already seen the way and we'll get to Konoha much faster if I lead."

"Fair enough." Mori nodded quickly and then swept into the building with his robes billowing furiously behind him. "There can be no delay," he said as Arashi followed silently, "this has never happened before, and if it is not stopped I'm afraid that there may be nothing left of him to tell why."

---

The sun set that evening in a pale haze that was mysteriously veiled as if secretive about its ways. Overlooking the half rebuilt village of Konoha, the Hokage mountain peered down with its cracked visages as if to examine the progress being made. Sitting cross legged on top of that mountain one Uzumaki Naruto sighed. He would always miss the dramatic sunsets of the desert. They made you feel like the last human at the end of the world with how the fiery colours mixed and blended in a way he was sure no other place on the earth could produce. It was exciting.

Konoha's sunsets were alluringly calm, the kind that lulled a heavy mind into a dreamless sleep. Perfect. They had their own magic to cast on the unwary visitor, and any native to the village could tell you they were devastatingly effective after a hard days work.

Naruto felt like he had worked for years without a break. After a quick nap he had offered his services to the men and women at the Academy restoration. They had welcomed him with open arms though some suspicion flickered in their eyes, especially in Naomi after she had woken up and learned who he was. There was some conflict there all right, but at least Keichii was able to calm her down.

Naruto had never handled a hammer and nails before so it took many stubbed thumbs and several splinters before he got the hang of it. Stupid wood. The workers had laughed, though not unkindly and many stopped to correct him when he was hitting an off angle or holding the hammer wrong. Hiraku helped of course, running errands and fetching this or that person to help with a problem section. At the end of it the poor child was so tuckered out Naruto had to carry him home and put him to bed. It had indeed been a long day.

He had taken his frustration out on the act of the construction and worked himself nearly to the limit of his ability to stand up straight. Why, why couldn't his friends just accept what had happened? It wasn't as if he had changed all that much. Sure he'd grown a bit, wised up some, but he was still the same person inside. Didn't that count for something?

He huffed tiredly and flopped onto his back to stare up at the sky. There was so much he had tried to say but hadn't. There was stuff he needed, wanted, but it seemed the older he got the more likely it wasn't going to happen. Gaara had been right, ages ago he'd been right that when you took on responsibility there were some things you wouldn't want to do that you had to, and some things you wanted that you could never have.

Like that... He thought lazily as he gazed upwards and saw an eagle circling it's way towards some unknown destination.

Freedom, I want that.

Naruto raised a limp hand to the sky and most like a child trying to catch a distant image closed his fist over the figure of the bird. It was just grasping at a dream that was so unreal it could never be true. Even as a ninja with his own way and edicts he still had both bonds of friendship and those of the hatred and fear that he could still feel pouring in from the villagers. It seemed that once it was proven their Yondaime was nothing but a figment of their imaginations some of them became even more bitter towards him than ever, as if it was his intention to cheat them that way, to trick and hurt them. Naruto was fond of a good joke, but never something so cruel. Why couldn't anyone see that?

Everything he did, didn't seem to make much difference. He could understand why Sakura had been angry. After training so hard she was still unable to be as useful as her heart needed her to be. And he, fighting, kicking, biting, scratching his way out of the lies he'd been buried under for most of his young life, now had all the strength he could possibly hope for and no one to believe in it...Well, wasn't that just fine and dandy?

There was a trickle of rocks some way off. He closed his eyes and listened. Now who could that be? It was not heavy enough to be a very big person but neither was it light, so scratch children and adult men off the list. It had to be a woman. She sure was determined whoever she was. He heard her slip and curse a few times getting up the broken face of the mountain side. Naruto grinned. Only one girl he knew could swear comfortably like that. He waited until she cleared the top of the cliff and felt her approach before speaking.

"Hello Sakura." He opened his eyes, still ever that startling blue and peered at her upside down. She was by all means, completely disheveled. Her white uniform was smeared with any number of odd smelling things and her hair was swept up messily into a bun.

"Hey." She responded with a lack of breath. "Can I join you?"

"Sure." Naruto shimmied over a bit. "The ground's always free. My spot is your spot so pull up some grass and stay a while."

"My what a gentleman," Sakura said sarcastically and gracefully seated herself.

"Yeah, and you didn't even have to beat me for it."

They both had a good laugh over that. It was the long history between them that brooked such moments, and it felt good. Maybe they were closer than just friends. Naruto didn't know, he was just glad she was there and not burning his ears off.

"So, um, what's on your mind Naruto?" Sakura's nervousness flowed off her in a thick wave. Naruto knew he wouldn't have to be a jinchuuriki to sense her aprehension, it was that bad. It made him prop himself up on his elbows and look at her seriously.

"I'd tell you but you seem to be itching to say something yourself. So spit it out."

Sakura bowed her head. Damn he wasn't going to make this easy was he?

"Alright, okay then." She clasped her hands together fitfully. She hated apologising, especially to Naruto, the idiot. Knowing the turkey he'd gloat about it for days afterwards. Stupid Naruto!

"I'm--"

"Yee-ees?" Naruto leaned forwards with interest. Sakura usually didn't have this much trouble saying something if she really wanted to, which meant she didn't.

"I'm--"

"Losing your mind? 'Cause you're doing a pretty good immitation of it, believe me, I know crazy." He nearly shuddered remembering one of Jiraiya's more enterprising trips to a teahouse, in which the Ero-sennin managed to piss off a very well endowed, violent mistress of tea ceremonies. The old man was clearly over the hill and down the other side, way down.

"NO!" Sakura's own violent streak began to build again. "I had a psychological examination recently I'll have you know! And I am perfectly fine!"

"And the reason for this exam would be...?"

"It's mandatory you dolt!" She swatted his head. "All medical ninja have to have one at least once every six months to make sure the pressures of the job aren't getting to them. We see a lot more torn up bodies and mangled corpses than anyone else so it's bound to knock some of us a little loony."

"You're sure you're okay?"

"Yes!"

Naruto laughed and ducked as she aimed another swat at his head. "Okay, okay I get it!" He snickered. "You're as sane as me."

"That's not very reassuring considering that you're supposed to go stark raving bonkers soon." Sakura dead panned.

Naruto shrugged, although feeling a little stung by the comment.

"Yeah, well I can't do much about it, you know, evil monster and all that." He tapped his stomach.

Sakura clasped her hands a bit tighter and looked away. Why was this so difficult?

"About that," she uttered softly, "we--I wasn't exactly as supportive as I could have been when you told us everything so...I'm sorry." She breathed out heavily, glad the hard part was over. "I never intended to act that way, its just everything that's happened and then you and that," she pointed to the center of his torso, "all at the same time was a bit much. I believe you, about the Kyuubi, I'd still believe you if you told me you're a fish." She giggled, thinking about the orange and black clown-fish that was oh so like him. "But most of all I think I believe that you'll make it, whatever you do. I've never seen something stop you. It makes me jealous..."

Sakura wrapped her arms around her legs and drew them up to her chest. She was a bit fuzzy minded after all that and she could feel his eyes boring into the back of her head as she looked out over the horizon to an indeterminable distance. Was he judging her? It really wasn't like him to be so silent for so long. Her thoughts buzzed with these concepts and others like them. It almost didn't register when she felt something warm and soft grace the skin on her cheek for the briefest of moments. A shiver went all through her body as she brought a hand up to the spot and she peeked at the reclining shinobi.

Did he just...?

There were no indications on his face that he'd just done anything embarassing to himself. He wasn't even blushing, just looking at the sky.

"You asked me 'what's on my mind.' Well, I was thinking," Naruto said clearly, "that what I wanted most was freedom, just so I could fulfill all my dreams without having to put foot to ass to get them. But I'm not so sure about it now. It seems a little selfish. I mean, I've seen what happens to a person when they've got everything, they forget about the rest of the world, the things most important to them." He stared directly at her and Sakura couldn't explain why but for a moment she forgot to breathe. Those eyes were so blue...

"I never want to forget anyone. You guys mean a lot to me, a hell of a lot more than some stupid wish. Even if I don't make Hokage someday you'll still be here."

Sakura felt a bubbling sensation of warmth. Naruto really had grown a lot hadn't he?

"So while you're still here, you wanna go get something to eat with me? I'm starving!"

Scratch that, he was still an immature idiot waiting to grow up. Way to ruin a moment! Sakura groaned.

"Fine, fine," she said exasperatedly, "where do you want to go?"

Need I ask...

"Ichiraku Ramen!" Naruto whooped happily and flipped onto his feet. Sakura rolled her eyes and pushed herself upwards. Of course he wanted to go to Ichiraku, he always wanted to go to Ichiraku. Where else would they even be able to feed his enormous appetite anyways? Sakura shook her head in amusement. The one completely predictable thing about Naruto was that if there were ramen nearby, he would want it.

She was about to start off for the way down the mountain when a strangled moaning reached her ears. She snapped around to see Naruto doubled in half and wretching out his insides.

"Naruto!" She yelled. "What happened?"

"I dunno," he said weakly, "soon as I got up I felt like yesterday's dinner was trying to fight it's way out of my stomach. Bleh. Looks like it won too." He squinted ruefully at the mess on the ground. "S-Sakura," he stuttered as he stumbled forwards, "I think we'll have to take a raincheck for that food."

"Is this those 'afteraffects' you were talking about?" She asked worriedly.

"Probably yeah. Could you get baba and the scary guy? 'Cause there's no way I'm movin' anywhere right now." Naruto fell back down onto his side and curled up into a fetal position as Sakura watched with a growing sickness in her belly.

"I'll go as quick as I can!" She shot off to the way down as Naruto nodded blankly. Sharp rocks and gravel nicked and grazed her skin as she all but flew down the mountainside. Being the hellminded kunoichi she was the cuts barely caught her notice as she hit the ground running into the darkness. Her heart and feet pounded against time. Naruto was in danger.

In this field she was useful, she could help with whatever took place. She was a medical ninja, and she didn't kid herself that she was nearly the best in her class, second only to Tsunade. She could help, she could save him, and gods damn her if she didn't!

---

"That's it." Arashi pointed to the nearly invisible cave opening in the evening darkness. "That's the way in. The Sannin said something about genjutsu being used to make the village appear empty at the other end so I'm assuming they have guards stationed at all times."

"Astute observation. Most likely that is the case." Mori stood imposingly silhouetted by the dying light. "If we are to make a clean break of it we must be unexpected. Are there any side passages?"

"I never got that far enough to know. I was only a kilometer into the thing and so far as I could see there's just the one way in and out."

"Mm, that does pose a problem, but nothing that cannot be dealt with. What is the approximate distance across?"

"The leader mentioned a day's worth of travel, but we'll never make that distance in time." Arashi was troubled. How were they going to get to Naruto fast enough to stop whatever was happening to him?

"Leave that to me." Mori set down a simple cloth sack that buckled and clanked when it was moved. "Mr. Uzumaki is not the only man with a strength in speed. I also have my own means of moving quickly, not nearly as impressive but functional enough."

Mori clapped his hands together heavily and then held them palms out forming a half remembered seal in each.

"Sen'Yuu!" He spoke with ancient command and the air began to stir, rapidly whirling, branching and coalescing into something else entirely. At the end of the jutsu there were two greyish beasts composed of nothing but the wind and spirit particles.

"These will get us to the village within the hour. They are very fast, so keep your wits about you." Mori picked up the clinking sack again and strode up to one of the beasts that gurgled as he approached.

"What are they?" Arashi tentatively touched the other and felt the oddest sensation of squirming skin under his fingertips as the thing moved to face him. It was very ugly with a piggish nose and bulbous unseeing eyes that had no pupils. Snakelike appendages coiled and grew out of the head connected to a four-legged body that closely resembled an overgrown panther.

"They," Mori hopped onto the back of his beast, "are Sen'Yuu, elemental guardians, sometimes called gargoyles if you can believe that. Mine is Nerti, and yours is Taws. They keep the different elements in line most of the time, but some may be summoned in special circumstances such as this. Now I suggest you get on your ride Arashi-san, or be left behind. We've no time to wait for your jitters to calm themselves."

Mori hooked an arm under each side of his beast's head and held on as the thing took off suddenly leaving Arashi in a cloud of dust. The newly created young man flinched away from the remaining Sen'Yuu as it whined at him, obviously wanting to join in the race.

"How the heck can you tell the difference...?" The red head mumbled as Mori disappeared into the mouth of the tunnel. Taws butted its head under his arm, as if to say, get a move on slow poke! "Alright," Arashi sighed with resignation, "just don't make me regret this okay? It's weird enough as it is." The red head had some trouble getting on but no sooner was he seated the way Mori had been than the elemental took off, so fast that the next breath he took was a quarter of a kilometer into the tunnel. It wasn't long before Mori's flapping robes came into view and the beast that he was on thundered ahead.

"Damn it old man, you didn't say this would happen! I can't feel my legs anymore!" Arashi shouted up from his position hunkered down on the beast's back.

"I said we'd be going fast! That should have cleared things up for you!" Mori urged his elemental to a quicker pace. "Sen'Yuu have no slow mode so you'll have to get used to it!"

"I was afraid of that!" Arashi stuck his head into the crook of the Sen'Yuu's neck and closed his eyes.

I am never doing this again! He thought with most unhappily as the tunnel whistled past his ears. Never, EVER again!

---

He lay gasping for air in the quiet dark, half starved for a moment of reprieve from the lancing aches that shot though his body. His skin was clammy and freezing but he felt as if an inferno had been lit ablaze underneath it and had burned its way up into his lungs making it difficut to breathe. So hot! It was so hot, and his hair had matted with perspiration sticking to his forehead. He'd been able to struggle out of that death trap of a jacket but no more as he lay feverishly in a cold sweat. He shook and heaved with the painful burbling of an upset stomach and the acid bile in his throat that threatened to rise up at any given time; and his head, his head throbbed with a growing agony just under the jawline and stabbing behind the eyes.

He was pitiful. Uzumaki Naruto lay clawing at the ground and growling at nothing. He'd managed to inch his way along the ripped up grass and dirt to the edge of the cliff and was hanging his head over the side when he felt a particularly potent throb smash through his skull.

It was at that moment that even had he been lucid enough to try he would have been unable to hold back the ragged cry that was ripped from his lips. He clutched at his head and screamed like lightening to the heavens.

Everything came crashing down.

Memories, emotions, one after the other swamped his senses with such confusion and chaos that there was scarcely anything left of him. They thundered through him to wrap almost insiduously around his rawest feelings and desires in a flashing panoply of black and red. Red, red, red like an avenger, black like hate, swirling, swirling, always a step away.

"Sasu-ke-teme," he gritted through his teeth as his mind began to play tricks on his vision. "Sasuke, get back here you bastard..." He struggled to his knees and swayed drunkenly as his sight wavered and showed him only a hazy view of the world. His arms flailed outwards and desprately grasped at that fleeting shadow that was always just out of reach, mocking him.

"Te-me! I'll kick your ass if you don't get back here!" The shadow flickered. "Be that way then," Naruto sulked deliriously, "I don't wanna chase you anyway!" The young shinobi waited only momentarily before lunging at the shadow and then falling flat on his stomach. His fingers still pawed at the dirt even though there was nothing to hold onto. Why wasn't there anything to hold onto? Why didn't the bastard want to come home? He chanced to look at the ruins of Konoha then, broken buildings and streets like crushed bones.

That was right, home was a mess...Maybe if he fixed it Teme would come back? Teme would have to come back!

"I'll do it," his fevered mind made itself up, "I'll fix it all. Then he'll come back and we can get Sakura and we can, we can..."

He pushed himself unsteadily to his feet while heaving with the exertion.

"We can all be together again." He mumbled faintly as the last shreds of his sanity escaped and left him with a manic will to mend everything in sight. All at once his chakra exploded out of his body, spilling in waves and flooding the sky with the electric blue of its brilliance. It blanketed everything down to the last blade of grass like a holy blessing and in a minute Konoha began to writh, sinuous as a pit of snakes. Timbers thrashed and stonework ground as it was lifted and played with as if by some giant hand. On top of the mountain the jinchuuriki laughed euphorically, fitting the pieces together in a giant dance of wood, stone, and chakra. Creation had begun.

Perhaps he would remember the feeling some day, of being so vast and small at the same time that nothing was left a mystery and all things were new again; but, for that moment, he was so caught up in the strength of what he was doing that straight thought was an impossibility. He was so focused in fact that he did not notice the arrival of Kakashi, Sakura, Yamato, and both Sannin. The chaos moving below had made it difficult for any of them to get close to Naruto's location. There was wind everywhere.

"Naruto, what are you doing!" Tsunade shouted over the wind. Surely he wasn't so far gone that he couldn't understand her.

"I'm fixing things!" His voice was an echo of a shattered mind, and his expression so earth shakingly unhindered that it looked as if it would break. "If I fix things then Sasuke will come back! He has to!" It was the happy reasoning of a madman. Had he been sane enough to think about what he was saying he would have called himself stupid for thinking in such a way.

Sakura brought her hands to her mouth and nearly cried. It was the first time she had heard Naruto say the Uchiha's name in over two years. If Naruto would only mention him by name under forced circumstances...There had to be pain there that she couldn't even touch. It was too deep. It was killing him.

"Naruto! Stop it! You'll hurt everyone with this! You can get him back some other way. JUST STOP!" the kunoichi screamed at him. He had to stop. There were people down there!

Naruto looked angry that she would even suggest it and turned away with a huff. His head was splitting with agony and his entire skeleton rattled with the fury of his energy, pulling his body apart at the seams; but everything, pain, responsibility, they seemed so far away.

"He's going to tear the whole damn thing apart." Jiraiya said grimly. "Isn't there anything that can stop him?" The frog hermit crossed his arms and let his gaze skim over the destruction happening below.

"We came too late unfortunately." Yamato spoke this time in his usual sleepy drawl. "If we'd gotten here earlier I might've been able to suppress the symptoms. Now that he's started this mess there's nothing we can do but evacuate."

"Correct," the Hokage bowed her head in defeat, "Not even I can match the amount of chakra he's emitting at this point. Even if we did somehow manage to halt his actions the village would be completely crushed as a result. All we can hope for now is that he's sane enough to finish what he's started without too much damage."

Kakashi, ever observant, wasn't watching his former student. His eye was fixed on a point somewhere just beyond the lost jinchuuriki. There, barely discernable in its wraithlike way stood a figure of menacing quality. It was a thing of nightmares with its wildly waving robes and faceless aspect. On either side of the being were a pair of hideous creatures that faded and solidified with every gust of air. In every terror tale Kakashi had ever heard or read about nothing quite compared with the way these beings presented themselves. Why had no one else noticed them? He was about to draw attention to the things when, without warning, Sakura darted away from his side and dashed at Naruto's swaying form.

"Wait, Sakura!" Kakashi sprinted after the fleeting female a second too late. She reached the blonde shinobi first and grabbed his arms, pinning them to his sides.

"STOP THIS!" She screamed at him. "I don't care what kind of promise you made me! I don't care if we never get him back! Just stop this! PLEASE!"

She stumbled as she was ripped away by a stronger pair of arms.

"Sakura! Don't get near him, in this state he's unstable and no one knows what he's capable of." Kakashi placed an iron grip on the struggling kunoichi's wrists. She watched helplessly as the one person who inspired everything in her looked back with a dazed, almost dead visage mixed with an unreadable emotion.

"Please, that's not Naruto. Let me go!" She pulled and pushed against her captor, who for his own reasons wished he could comply. At that moment however he had more than one problem to deal with and Sakura needed to be restrained for him to deal with them.

"I know it's hard but try to understand. He has to overcome this on his own. We can't help here, although...we have other things to worry about, like that."

Kakashi stared steadily at the wind whipped figure that he had spotted before. When Sakura turned to look at what caught the sharingan-user's attention her eyes widened.

"What is that?" she asked tremulously.

"I have no clue," Kakashi squinted at it, "but I think we're about to find out."

---

The ride through the tunnel to Konoha was as hectic and brain scattering as Arashi had imagined it would be. The twists and turns were so sudden and sharp that he swore he must have left his stomach around a corner some ways back. Mori, curse the rotten bastard, didn't seem to be having any troubles at all. In fact he seemed to be enjoying the ride.

The end of the tunnel came up so quickly that Arashi almost didn't have time to see the startled looks on the faces of the guards that would have cast the genjustu on him had he been going slow enough. As it was there were several factors that prevented this, one being that the village outside was in a state of turmoil and flying pieces of building and structure were everywhere. Some things were half-fused together with chakra and others completed but for the most part is was a whirling tornado of severed parts just begging to crash down and crush someone. Arashi really didn't like it when the Sen'Yuu he was riding plowed straight into it.

"Are you crazy!" He yelled at Mori over the turbulent din. "We'll be killed in this!"

Mori didn't bother to answer, or he may not have heard the red head as the Sen'Yuu growled and cleanly dodged any and all debris in their way. Their riders clung on tightly when the beasts finally cleared the worst of the chaos and sped towards the source: a brightly shining figure atop a crumbled mountain. The Sen'Yuu leaped from the base to the top in a single bound and slid into a perfect landing. Mori dismounted with ease. Arashi was not so lucky. He groaned and fell sideways off his mount and sprawled flatly onto the ground, head still spinning.

"Never again...ugh." he murmered queasily, and said nothing else for the time being.

Mori shook out his shoulders, ignoring the fallen boy, and took stock of the situation. There he was, Naruto in all his madness, swaying with the force of his own chakra and clearly under a massive amount of pressure. This was only the beginning. If that pressure were to release the hidden village of Konoha would become flater than the Suna desert in the blink of an eye. Mori would have to act, and quickly.

His interest was sidetracked however, by a pink haired young woman running up to Naruto, followed shortly by a tall man who was most certainly a jounin by the look of him. There was a brief struggle and then both man and woman stared at him. They were obviously friends of Naruto, and Mori doubted they would let him near his student without a fight. Ah, complications.

He began the long stride to where the two people stood behind the occupied jinchuuriki. As he approached they took a defensive stance and eyed him suspiciously. He didn't blame them but it was highly inconveniant.

"Greetings." He bowed openly. "I see that you are having a bit of trouble with my pupil."

"Naruto, is training under you? Who are you?" The silver haired jounin flicked a kunai to the ready.

"That is unimportant at the moment, as you can see, we do not have much time. Mr. Uzumaki is in a state of flux that should not be occuring as it is. I have come to correct this. If you will allow me of course." Mori spread his hands in a gesture of unassumed permisson.

"What can you do?" The kunoichi shifted closer to Naruto. A fruitless, but brave effort to protect the young man. "Forgive me for being suspicious but this is hardly the time for the 'unexpected saviour' to make an appearance. Kakashi asked you a question. Who are you!" She glared at him with fiery eyes, determined and sparking with anger.

"I am...partially the reason Naruto is in this condition. Please, I understand your concern for his well being, and I would much rather have your consent to help here than to force the issue, but I will if I must." Mori stepped forwards with the full intention of forcing the woman aside should she decline. For a moment he was almost sure that he would have to. Her gaze steeled with resistance before it dropped and she stepped out of the way.

"Go ahead." She uttered softly. "I'll take any chance to get him back the way he was." She brought her icy glare back up to Mori's featureless face. "But I warn you, if you harm him, I'll kill you."

Mori didn't doubt that the woman would certainly try. Her respected her words with a nod and the truth.

"He will feel pain, I am sorry to say, but my methods do and will work. He's been through these before." Mori opened the sack he was holding and held up two of the Raccoglitori bracelets. "They should suppress his chakra and restrain him from injuring himself until I can gauge the cause of all this. He is progressing far too rapidly...even for a man of his strength this event will most assuredly kill him if not curtailed."

"You know what it is?"

"I do." Mori stepped away from the young woman and carefully made his way towards his student. "Although at times I wish I did not."

The old hermit stalked up to Naruto with the intent of snapping the two ankle Raccoglitori into place. He was nearly half way there when a wall of chakra splashed its way out of its host and stalled the man from progressing any further.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The sound was so unlike the boy that Mori scarcely recognized it. It was too light, too calm, and utterly dangerous. It was insanity. Naruto turned, and on his face was the most frighteningly contorted cross between euphoria and psychotic sadness. "I'm not finished yet."

The blonde twisted one of his hands and Mori was sent flying violently backwards. He mentally cringed at his foolishness. Of course the boy would sense his presence, as close as he'd gotten. Within that distance Naruto was likely to be hyper aware of everything around himself, right down to the last ant.

While still in flight Mori called on the Sen'Yuu, and directed them.

"Nerti! Taws! Bind him!"

One of the very interesting things about Sen'Yuu is that they are impervious to their own element, which is why when the crazed jinchuuriki reacted to their attack, his chakra defence was about as effective as wet tissue paper. All Naruto had time to do in his degraded state was stare wide eyed at the otherworldly creatures as they ripped through his shield as if it were nothing. Only moments later he was knocked to the ground and pinned under massive air pressure as the elementals went to work on holding him down. Mori, who had finally landed, pushed himself to his feet and brushed the dirt from his robes.

"Well!" He exclaimed. "You certainly haven't lost your touch for surprises Mr. Uzumaki!" He grabbed the fallen sack of Raccoglitori and their counterparts as he passed them. "But I'm afraid it's a bit too early in the evening to be throwing a party, wouldn't you say?" He stood against the whirling jets of air and crouched down over his wildly struggling student. "I am sorry about all this, but it will have to end. I daresay it is past your bedtime boy." Mori held up an etched bracelet, shining blue in the chakra light that was still flowing out and away from the fallen shinobi's body. "I trust you remember this?" The desert hermit shook the metal ring in front of Naruto's eyes. He stilled.

"Good." Mori opened the bracelet with a small click. "You also remember then, what happens when you fight it?"

Naruto's stared silently at the man who was ruining, spoiling, DESTROYING EVERYTHING!

He spat in Mori's face.

The desert hermit flinched as the flying spittle landed squarly in the center of what would have been his mouth had it not been covered by bandages. Oh, so that was how it was eh? No matter, he could always beat the tar out of the little pest and call it training. First things first, get the boy sane enough to recall what civillity was and then force feed him the entire Miss Manners Encyclopaedia on Etiquette. Yes, that would do nicely. Mori flipped open the other Raccoglittori and then began placing them one by one on Naruto's ankles and wrists. Each time one was snapped in place a little bit of the boy's chakra stopped flowing.

When the last one was attached Mori dismissed the Sen'Yuu to settle the mess that the blonde had made below the mountain, gently of course. They melded in with the dying winds, settling the pieces that had yet to be completed, and all the while Naruto's eyes watched, burning with a murderous light.

"I'll kill you..." He whispered. "I'll kill you. I'll kill you. I'LL KILL YOU!" He writhed and struggled against the weight of the anvil-like bracelets and screamed at that faceless bastard who dared to stop him.

The desert hermit looked on unaffected. As far as he was concerned this was just another temper tantrum to be dealt with.

"You are infinitely puzzling my young fellow." Mori pointed his hands at both sets of Raccoglitori. "Why you should always insist on the hardest road is beyond my comprehension. In the meantime I think it would be much better for everyone's health if you went to sleep for a little while." He twisted his wrists rapidly and uttered the binding incantation. "S'blocchi di meno."

All at once Naruto's glaring eyes bulged and fired with sudden exertion and the weight of a hundred kilos on all his limbs. Spirit energy flickered and winked out of existance. His mouth clamped stubbornly shut to keep the sound of his shouting in although some grating noises of frustrated pain leaked out. To one kunoichi they were louder than thunder.

"What have you done to him!" Sakura yelled and rushed forwards. She was immediately blocked by the tatter-sleeved arm of the stranger who stood before the fallen shinobi's still struggling body. She could barely sense his chakra.

"I have done as I said I would. I told you this would cause him pain but he is restrained and can no longer harm himself or anyone else for that matter. He will be asleep shortly."

The person turned and cast around for something, and apparently finding it, called towards the direction he had come from.

"Arashi-san, do come make yourself useful and stop lying in the dirt like that. Mr. Uzumaki needs to be relocated as soon as possible, if you please."

Kakashi flinched at the sound, slightly.

"Keep your toga on you trigger happy warlock! I don't suppose the words 'slow down' mean anything at all to you?"

A short, dusky skinned, blue-eyed redhead made himself known by shouting loudly and rolling himself to his feet after having been, as the stranger had stated, flat on the ground. When the taller man did not respond and instead returned to Naruto's side, the redhead growled.

"Bastard..."

Kakashi clearly hear the youth say it, the explicative was so like another tempermental young man that for a moment the jounin could have sworn it was the same person.

While Kakashi was pondering these things, two Sannin and one rather surprised ANBU were watching the whole exchange with stunned observation. Tsunade was the first to break out of the function numbing fugue and marched over to where Naruto now lay still with lazily closing eyes. She had a few choice words for her new guests.

"Who the hell are you?" She placed herself directly in Mori's path between himself and the now sedated jinchuuriki. "And how did you get into my village?"

The desert hermit said nothing for the longest time. Whether he was unsure of how to react or just plain didn't want to Arashi knew that Mori had better answer, and the quicker the better. Tsunade was starting to get that look in her eye.

"Hey old man, if you want to live I suggest you answer the lady while she's still friendly. Otherwise we're both going to get our asses kicked back to that dust bowl of a rock you live on. Kages tend to get pissed when you invade their territory, especially her." Arashi whispered on his way by to kneal down next to Sakura who was hovering over Naruto's body and checking it for damage with a chakra scan.

"Hey," he said, crouched down, "I'm Arashi. Anything I can do to help?"

"Only if you can mend tissue with your bare hands. Otherwise you sit down and shut up while I work." Sakura snapped without looking at him. He stayed respectfully quiet. She was grateful.

Her hands deftly ghosted over the jinchuuriki's form filled with the faint glow of chakra. Naruto's bones and oragans were still in tact as far as she could tell but the skin had begun to break down on the cellular level. She was repairing it as best she could while waiting for Tsunade to finish questioning the new arrivals. Sweat broke out on her forehead with the effort. Broken bones she could mend easily if they were a clean break. Shattered ones were a little tougher. Cellular damage was taking it to the brink of her abilities to fix. Stupid, stupid Naruto!

A salty droplet worked it's way out of the corner of her eye and splashed onto her steadily working hands.

"So, how do you know the idiot anyway." She spoke without betraying her inner raging at the stupidity of the whole thing. Talking and healing Naruto seemed to be the only normal things left in the world to do, so she did them.

"Do you mean the idiot over there or the one over here?" Arashi reffered to Mori and Naruto and couldn't resist smirking.

"This idiot." Sakura bent a little closer to Naruto's ribs, only to check for cracks of course. It had nothing to do with how the person behind her sounded almost exactly like the blonde shinobi currently receiving her care.

"Long story short, I've know him since he was born, and you really are better off not asking how."

"I'll ask anyway. How?"

"Well," Arashi sighed, "that's more complicated than even I care to know. When he wakes up I'll ask him about it for you alright? I get the feeling he'd be a little miffed if I told anyone about that stuff, especially you."

Saukra's brow furrowed in concern. Her? Why her?

"That's hard to believe." She snorted in a most unladylike way, which was more like her than anything else. "Naruto's never cared what other people think of him no matter what the truth was. The fact that you're even here proves that to me."

"How's that?"

"You wouldn't be here trying to help if you didn't know what's inside of him. Since you're here that means you don't mind the fact that there's a monster in there as he's obviously told you."

"I said I've known him all his life right? It's kind of hard to keep a secret like that locked up."

"I don't buy it. He never said anything about you, and Naruto can't keep his mouth shut about things he likes. So who are you? Some kind of power leech like the lords?"

"Nothing like that." Arashi peered at her work curiously. "I'm just here to make sure bastard over there doesn't do anything stupid."

"Like breaking into the village?"

"Minus a few infractions," Arashi laughed nervously, "he's been teaching Naruto how to be what he is."

"And what is Naruto?" Sakura asked with a sharp edge to her voice, warning Arashi that he was treading on thin ice.

"You guys call them jinchuuriki. If they have another name I don't know it." Arashi shrugged. "The fact is that Naruto's never had a guide into this, he was just thrown in. You ever see a toddler get into the wrong end of the pool and start to sink? That's Naruto, all his life in the deep end without swimming lessons."

Sakura relaxed considerably. This man--he wasn't all bad. "You...understand a lot more than I thought. I'm sorry. It's just that everyone and their dog has either tried to kill him or use him and I've gotten sick of it!"

"That makes both of us, which is why I'm here to make sure that the smart ass trading witty remarks with your Hokage doesn't try anything stupid like coerce blondie here into another power game. He's been using Naruto, for what I have no idea, but by the sounds of it it's some silly saviour business. You know the type. 'Only one man can save the world.' That kind of bullshit."

"That bastard!" Sakura seethed, adopting Naruto's favourite expression. "Who does he think he is! I'll smack him so hard his ancestors will feel it if he tries anything!"

"Ditto." Arashi smiled and looked over his shoulder to see Mori trying to explain himself out from under the Hokage's glaring anger.

"Now that we have something in common," Sakura rose to her feet and dusted her hands off, " you want to give me a hand with bouzo on the ground here?"

"Sure," Arashi got up,"but I don't think we'll be able to lift him. Those things on his arms and legs make him ten times heavier than he is."

"Who said you were going to lift anything?" Sakura bent down and hoisted Naruto over her shoulder with ease. " I just need you to take his things and go get a space ready for him at the hospital. They're most likely panicking down there so tell them Sakura sent you okay?"

Arashi gaped openly at her monsterous strength. "You got it..." He said weakly.

Sakura smiled genuinely and went to go speak to the others on the top of the mountain. Arashi shook his head and gathering up Naruto's discarded jacket and unclipped sword, hopped away down the cliff face. His mind swarmed with infromation, some more than others.

No wonder he likes her...

His newly formed brain computed with realization.

She's as freaky as he is.

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