Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any related characters or properties.

.:12:.
Trials and Tribulations

The line of civilians and shinobi alike was ridiculously long, disgruntled Chunin and even a few seasoned Genin ushering them all toward the site of the event. Naruto glanced around, wishing that Han was with them so he could give the taller shinobi last minute advice for how to fight her, and how to gain her trust. He suspected that it wouldn't need much convincing: the small amount of memories he had from sharing Chomei's chakra revealed her upbringing had been so isolated that any kind of positive contact might be enough. Their tall jinchuuriki friend might have to handle that initial part on his own.

"I'm really nervous," Karin declared, her quivering eyes hidden behind her glasses. "What if he loses?"

Gaara answered for him, but the words were lost on him as an old man locked eyes with him, alongside another woman with blonder hair than a Yamanaka. Naruto nodded once to them, and they blended into the crowd like they had been commanded, following their other brethren.

"He won't lose as long as I am around."

They passed through the lakeside village, eventually curving toward a path through the woods he had investigated several weeks ago through a clone. That was troubling, because he had followed the pathway to its fullest extent, and there was no suitable location for an arena or a stage of some kind for this event to happen. They must hide the actual route very well, behind genjutsu or maybe unawareness seals; sealing awareness of objects was an incredibly complex seal that he hadn't mastered for even small objects, much less a huge pathway. He doubted they would have the finesse for that.

His musings ended when the line slowed considerably, revealing that they were being led single file through a tunnel disguised behind a huge wall of ferns and rock that clearly were fake. He shook his head, turning to Karin. "Can you sense anything behind that point?"

The redhead concentrated, closing her eyes, but the girl shook her head. "No, and it's frustrating."

Takigakure was well-known for how secret its location was, so he supposed it made sense they would have the means to block sensory ninjutsu, even as powerful as Karin's Kagura Shingan (Mind's Eye of the Kagura). The Byakguan or perhaps even the Sharingan might not be fooled, however. He almost considered tapping into Sage Mode, even for a few seconds, to see if nature energy awareness was blocked as well, but that ability had its own problems that he could not overcome right then.

The shinobi guards led them into the secret tunnels blindfolded, so dark that you couldn't see, and if not for the hand on Karin's shoulder, and Gaara's hand on his shoulder, he might not know where they actually were. "Trail us with sand." The hand tensed for a moment, enough of a signal that his almost mute whisper reached him.

"You there!"

The sound of the sudden shouting almost forced Naruto to grab for the kunai just below his waistband, but it was only through his sheer sense of self-preservation that he halted himself. The lack of sight in this tunnel was extremely dangerous, but a guard shuffled past him to grab at someone far behind them, shouting about bringing sake into the arena legally, like the nobles do.

Needless to say, the line eventually kept moving after that distraction, but as they went seemingly deeper, before suddenly angling upward at an extreme level of steepness, the time traveler couldn't help the feeling of dread forming in the pit of his stomach.

Han glanced around the setting, uncertain if he really understood what he was here to do. The plan, as far as they could figure it, was sound. But fighting another jinchuuriki was a frighteningly dangerous prospect. In the early years, he'd trained with Roshi, who had literally decades of experience on him. The veteran shinobi made use of his Bijuu's abilities in any sparring they had ever done... There was still a horrible scar around his ankle from a stray splash of lava.

But that had been so long ago, back when war was right around the corner for Tsuchi no Kuni. Tensions eventually ended, and with it, Han's training eventually slowed. He hadn't seen Roshi in years, and missions had been few and far between. Iwa hadn't had the need to call on them.

He followed the chunin into the next room and was surprised to see only four others waiting on the events to start. He surmised that these were the fighters, the ones who were going to fight in a series of deadly matches against Fuu. Only one of them actually looked like they might be a worthwhile fighter, and he was the only confident one too. His armor looked to be in good shape, a sword on his back and one on his side, and the smug look on his face suggested that he could probably back up his claims.

The other three were all relatively worse for wear. One was a brunette girl who had to be only two or three years younger than he was, but she had all the muscle mass of a medic and the kunai pouch on her looked out of place. An older man had probably less muscle mass than she did, but perhaps he had some kind of veteran experience to fall back on. The last person in the room was a middle-aged man who was crying, actually crying at a time like this; he had no weapons or armor, and they looked like they just ripped him off the street.

"You look like the only other guy in here who can fight," the smug man stated as he walked over to join him. "The name is Miroku." The man offered his hand, and Han took it after a moment of hesitation.

The plan ran through his mind, uncertain if he could really go through with it. No one here looked like they wanted to be here, except for Miroku, but he pushed past those worries. "I was going to say the same thing to you. I'm Han."

Miroku laughed heartily as the two of them moved to sit on a bench in the far too large room for only five people. "Maybe I am. You don't look familiar though."

"I'm not," he said. "I've been here with my family for a few months on business. This kind of event seemed like a good way to gain some reputation."

Miroku seemed to analyze him for a moment. "Hmm, interesting. So what do you do that this kind of thing would help your rep? I mean, it's always gonna get you a good reputation if you somehow manage to kill the jinchuuriki, but how would that help your business?"

Han couldn't help his heart from racing at how the man described the events. Someone else in the room whimpered at the mention of Fuu. Eventually, he pointed to the crimson armored plating he wore on his arms and legs. His torso was armored as well, but it was not part of his steam prototype like the others. He couldn't get it to work. "I'm an inventor, and I invent things that might be useful in combat. Like this armor here."

"Well that would certainly boost your clientele! I wish you luck, Han, that you manage to live through this day. No one has yet, but I plan to be the first." Han tried not to visibly react to the notion that no one else had ever been spared by Fuu. What kind of girl is this? Why would Naruto want her?

Miroku left to get himself psyched up for the upcoming event, sitting next to the doorway that presumably opened up to the arena. He started sharpening his katana, and Han forced himself to not feel intimidated. After all, it wasn't Miroku he was fighting.

Fuu forced herself to block out the sounds of the loud arena, where all of Taki gathered to watch her kick ass. Honestly, they were watching to see her get her ass kicked, but she wasn't going to let that happen. Despite the fact that she was always the one left standing, they continued to find reasons to fail her, to force her to face the same Trials again each year. It was a game to them, and a deadly situation for her.

So she was going to treat it like it was life or death. Everyone she faced in this situation was going to face her wrath, and she wouldn't stop until they were dead and she was alive. But just like last year and the year before, it wouldn't make a difference. Fuu would continue to be nothing more than a joke, a pawn that Taki could play to support its economy. They'd probably spend some of the money generated on tighter restraints for their little jinchuuriki prisoner. Hell, the civilians would probably be glad to hear it.

The temporary handler, the same female chuunin that had tried to deliver "good" news a few days ago, walked into the meager prep room, eyeing the untouched glass of water and plate of stale bread and rice. Turning her attention to Fuu, she looked as though she was almost going to smile. "It's going to begin in a few minutes."

"Any pointers?" she asked, not caring if the woman would answer or not.

"Same format as last year for the beginning," the woman explained, which was actually a tiny bit of good news, assuming it was true. At least Fuu knew what to expect to start with. She suspected that the grand finale would completely change, based on that statement, which could be a blessing or a curse.

"Don't try any funny business. After you nearly implanted a kunai in a foreign diplomat last year, the stands have been reinforced and the important nobles relocated." The chunin sounded as though she had been force-fed a script. "It wouldn't help anyway. You'd just get killed faster if you break from the plan."

Fuu turned to look toward the huge door that led to the huge arena underneath the roots of the giant tree. "You can't afford to kill me. I'm very aware of what the purpose of this is, and what my purpose in the world is. I'm not a fool. Taki stays afloat because of me."

The chunin did not refute that statement, but turned back to the hallway, before pointing to the bell on the wall. "That'll ring to signal you to leave through that door when it's time."

Fuu smiled as the idea formulated in her head. "Thank you."

The sound of her thanks forced the woman to pause and stare at her, but after another second, she seemed to shrug it off and move on. When the female chunin closed the wooden door, she faced the golden bell and reached up to it, pulling on the swinging pendulum. When it snapped away almost delightfully, all Fuu could do was smile at the continued silence and the din of the shouting citizens.

She'd go out there when she was good and ready.

Naruto, Karin, and Gaara tried to find the best location they could where they could escape quickly, but the arena was not what they expected at all. It looked as though it had been carved from the roots themselves, built directly under the lake and completely surrounded by thick, tight cords of wood. It was hard to imagine why this was safe, and why Taki even could make something large enough to house most of the village in the middle of a root system.

The Shodaime Hokage and Yamato might have had no trouble doing so, but this was still odd. Naruto's curious mind wondered how they had managed it, but he supposed machines or even certain kinds of non-Mokuton ninjutsu might have been used to make it. The walls of the arena were tightly-packed earth and brick, sometimes lined with the root systems, and apparently, it was easy to keep water from intruding from the lake.

He didn't quite want to believe it, to be perfectly honest, because it made finding an alternate route out nearly impossible. At least, what was in plain sight. If they tried, they would probably end up drowning themselves.

The strategy of using this arena was not lost on him. When you are trying to keep a girl with the ability to fly under your control, take the open sky out of the situation. He didn't know if Fuu would actually have that ability or not, but he tried to help Han prepare for it either way.

"I'm really impatient, apparently," Karin stated, cutting him out of his reverie.

"It'll start soon," Naruto assured her.

"Did you hear the announcer? They acted like they were ready to begin a few minutes ago."

"It will start soon. I don't know why you're worried."

Surveying the arena's field, several Taki shinobi amassed and seemed to be working on setting up, while also dealing with the question of why Fuu had not appeared for the first portion of the Trials already. At least it wouldn't have anything to do with a written test, thinking back to his first Chunin exams so long ago. The pageantry of these Trials was so similar to the way to the Chunin exam system worked that it was hard not to draw the comparison.

Naruto briefly weighed how easily it would be to pull a Kabuto, considering that he had clones disguised and scattered throughout the stands. Genjutsu were not impossible to him, and he knew one that might could work. But there was no way he could do it successfully and still affect the entire arena. The clones didn't have that order anyway, so telling them would prove difficult, even if he wanted to go that route.

A Yamanaka-like mental jutsu to create a hive mind between he and his clones would be brilliant, if even possible, but he knew next to nothing about how any of that worked. He put that on his brain's list of things to consider but were probably not feasible; these days, that number was very high.

Finally, even as the crowd was nearly ready to riot at the lack of what they paid for, the huge door slammed open, revealing the mint-haired jinchuuriki with a smug look on her face.

"There she is," Naruto stated, and the pressure was on. His promise to the others that she would never have to face the Trials again was clear on his mind; it would have to be changed somewhat to say that she would never have to face a completed Trials ever again. He was happy with the loophole, and if everything worked out perfectly, the girl would be free to follow her own path.

Assuming that she followed them, of course. Naruto had a feeling she wouldn't refuse: it was for everyone's best interests to follow them.

"Don't forget about the signal. Get ready to use Henge when you hear it," he said to the two redheads on his right and left. Karin held her hand up to reveal the slip of paper tucked under her pink sleeve, brushing her hair back as she did and then adjusting her glasses; Naruto smiled at his cousin's near perfect disguise of her movements. "You're learning."

Karin beamed.

The first segment was, of course, evasion practice, and she only knew that from the warning the nameless Chunin had given. Were the nobles and pathetic poor villagers prepared to evade redirected weapons if she chose to give them the opportunity? She was itching to find out if they had prepared as much as she had.

She soaked in all the attention. The limelight was enjoyable, and she was definitely prepared to give them a show. It wasn't the show they wanted. But it was the show they deserved.

The arena's stands were far removed from the ground, so much so that it had to be difficult for anyone to see. A circle of seals running along the ground of the "stage" gave each set of spectators a wide berth of nearly seventy yards, out of the range effectiveness from the jutsu she knew. And crossing that line would immediately send raiton chakra into her body.

So it was for that exact purpose that she refused to cross the line into the central portion of the arena, avoiding the seals that would be her prison. The Chunin and Jonin squad that suddenly rushed to escort her didn't seem to catch on that she wasn't going to cross the line that would activate it, and within several seconds, she just smirked. "Hello."

They didn't seem to know why she was saying that, nor did they know how to respond. Even still, the Jonin tried to touch her, to usher her forward, and she shoved away and took off, running alongside the arena's high walls. "I'll show you how to evade!"

A kunai zipped past her ear, barely cutting into it, but the pain was negligible. The sound of the crowd's sudden terror about a potential rogue jinchuuriki was so much better.

She called on the chakra deep in her gut, to test to see if they were too stupid to think she would play along without a fight. When the Nanabi's chakra cloak manifested, bubbling up from the skin of her shoulder blades, she smiled at their idiocy even as the pain wracked her body. The enjoyment of forcing the entire affair into utter ridicule was enough to keep her going, and the second that she flapped her twin wings once, Fuu was torn from the ground.

What she was doing was absolute nonsense. She had a few moments, at most, in the air before they utilized other seals to drop her from the sky. So she had to make it count.

Fuu flew high, higher than she had ever dared in the arena before, and immediately whirred hand signs. Eight of them in a row, gathered from whatever chakra she could muster in a few seconds, she angled toward the ceiling and exhaled. "Hiden: Rinpungakure no Jutsu (Secret: Hiding in Scale Power Jutsu!)"

Her Bijuu's ability poured from her mouth, bits of shimmering armored scales exploding in a burst of light that might as well be fireworks to the entertained yet terrified villagers. But even as Fuu swirled through more hand signs, most of them were blinded momentarily. But the results of her Fuuton jutsu were unknown to her when she suddenly started to fall, bracing herself for what would no doubt hurt like a bitch. Her wings faded away as the seal on her neck was wrapped with pain and electricity, and she only had a second of uninhibited conscious thought as she slammed to the earth.

Everything hurt, absolutely everything. She owed her continued survival to the beast within, her muscle fibers reacting to its chakra by becoming extra dense and highly durable. But that didn't mean that things didn't hurt.

Visible electricity was next, the seals activating and tearing through her body. She screamed as her skin began to boil like ozone, and she was giving the villagers exactly what they wanted now. Fuu twisted just enough, meeting the eyes of the Jonin who had been tasked with escorting her into the circle; the glimmer of absolute shock in his eyes was enough to make her smile.

She had fallen into the circle, dust surrounding her for the briefest of moments. Some of it caught in her teeth, and as she spat, blood mixed with saliva.

Like a phantom, she forced herself to her feet, ignoring the feeling in her rattled joints, probably only held together by her tough tendons. Something wet landed on her head, and the realization brought a smile to her face.

"Whoa," Gaara stated, brushing aside his eyes.

"How did she do that? Flying! That's the coolest thing I have ever seen."

Naruto smirked at the two of them. "I'm as amazed as you are. She's strong. Very strong."

He wasn't lying, truthfully, although the last person he had seen fly reminded him of too many bad memories. Hagoromo had had good intentions, but the man should have never played favorites. The legacy of that decision forced itself through history. It would not have ended the way that it did, had he not been focused on the truth.

"How could they treat her like that though?" whispered Karin, her eyes settled on the sight of the twitching girl, already seeing severe burns across her neck and chest. "It's awful."

Naruto shook his head, as if to say, "Not here, not now. Later." The girl nodded once in understanding, but her frown did not fade.

"All right," he said, knowing that he had time to start. "I'm going to try Plan A, and it may or may not work. If it does, we will be in good shape. If it doesn't, then we probably still are in good shape."

They knew which part to the plan he was referring to was, but didn't know the specifics, and he honestly did not feel like explaining it in detail.

Closing his eyes, he pulled himself inward.

Even though the viewing room had been silent before, it was as though the silence had become a real, tangible force. Han couldn't look away, his eyes focused on the girl in the center of the arena. This girl is insane…

He swallowed hard, blaming Naruto for whatever mess they were about to be in. Han wouldn't be about to fight an unstable jinchuuriki if not for his choice to join a group of kids on an impossible quest. He understood their shared plight in the system that abused them, and he owed Naruto a great debt for helping to save his mother's life.

Now, he was surrounded by soon-to-be enemies, an entire shinobi force of one of the hidden villages, in an area where he didn't know how to escape. The one in front of him was someone he was supposed to fight in order to save, and he had to somehow handle her long enough for everything to kick in.

They were in over their heads; the plan was ridiculously risky, and he couldn't believe that he was following a near seven-year-old around.

The boy was a mystery to him, because nothing made any sense around him either. He was too strong, too knowledgeable, and too mysterious to even begin to sound reasonable. Han wondered if Naruto had lost himself to the fox- it would certainly explain a lot of his impossible personality traits, and maybe even his desire to save them all.

And saving them was certainly a worthy ambition; Fuu might be insane, but it had to be from the product of this village's treatment of her. Han knew he didn't want her to suffer this way again, so he made a decision of his own accord to help save her. He wasn't doing it for Naruto anymore; he was deciding for himself, and it was clear that he needed to talk to the kid about all of this after they got out of the village.

A jonin walked into the room, his Taki headband gleaming, but his expression was of disgust. Han had no idea if it was because of Fuu or because of what they were doing to her or because of them, but he suspected it was because of the first. "We've had a change of plans."

Miroku was the first to speak. "What do you mean?"

"Originally, you were each going to fight her in sequence. Now, it's going to be all of you. At once."

Han cursed Naruto's name in silence. How can I turn this to my advantage?

The blonde pushed himself off of the ground within the seal, glancing toward the giant beast behind the cage. He enjoyed these moments these days; he had fond memories of being friends with Kurama, and in an odd way, it was almost funny to see him turn back to his hateful self. It was such a stark contrast to the way he was in the future, someone who was a partner and even a friend, coming back to this now.

The fox glared and roared, as though it would work on him, and Naruto was unflinchingly uninhibited. "Why are you here?"

The boy just turned to the wall beside him, gesturing to the glowing crimson seal beside him. "Oh, just stopping through. At the end of the day, I'll have saved another of my kind, and by association, yours."

Kurama breathed heavily, in something between a sigh and a growl. "Humans and their idea that we can be saved by them. Your grand, impossible notions are pathetic."

Naruto didn't budge or even let the words affect him. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll save you too."

He turned to the wall, approaching the designated connection to Han he had established with the modification of his seal. It glowed brighter crimson, and the Kyuubi practically barked a reply about how ignorant humans are of their limits, and how they could never understand truly limitless beings such as the Bijuu. Naruto just smiled genuinely back at him and waved, before pressing his fist against the seal.

The manifestation of his mind within the Kyuubi's seal disappeared, before rematerializing inside Han's seal. He marveled at how amazing a task that was; he had successfully done it, using the chakra he retained from each of the Bijuu, and modified his seal for a connection. And then he could transfer his consciousness through them. The possibilities were endless!

"Hey, Boss," a familiar, hardened voice stated, and he glanced up to see the adult version of himself smiling down at him. "Good to see you again."

"Likewise," he stated, trying not to think too hard about seeing what he used to look like, and having a conversation with himself. It wasn't too different from clones, although he knew he couldn't touch the older Naruto. Their chakras would mix, and could destabilize the entire seal and remove any advantage they had.

"How's the Gobi? Have you been talking with it?"

The elder nodded. "Yes and no. Kokuo hasn't ever been talkative, and he sees us as the reason he is here. Which I suppose is true, in some ways, but not in others."

"Has he started to see reason?"

"I don't think so," he muttered honestly, gesturing to the sight of the white creature stuck underneath metal gates, unable to gain any sort of momentum while surrounded by cavernous columns. "But I'll keep wearing him down so Han can handle getting along with him later." The adult finally stared at the younger, real version of himself. "I have to ask; what are you doing here though? Just testing to see if the communication between seals would work?"

Naruto launched into a quick explanation about why he was here, and the other finally nodded with a somewhat dopey smile. "Not sure I understood all of that one hundred percent, but I can't see why it wouldn't work. But it's impressive you got this far. If you can't keep going, then Han or even the Gobi could take over to help." A gesture to the tailed creature forced it to cry out in anger, attempting but failing to move. "You shouldn't have to do it all alone. We went through way too much trouble to prove that."

Naruto grinned. "True. That's the reason why we're here, isn't it?"

There was a perceptible pause as the two considered the question, and they both smiled and repeated the same words they had had spoken when they started this journey:

"To make sure none of us are ever alone again."

When the fight was finally called to begin, it was all Han could do not to gasp when a kunai stabbed into the back of the skull of the old man, practically before he could even blink. The medic cried out in anguish over her grandfather, rushing over to try to help him, but when Fuu stepped into her path, she flinched and fell over, cowering and crying.

The reaction of the crowd was instantaneous, and Han wondered what the others were thinking upon seeing it. He'd prepared himself for her to be violent, to be dangerous, but seeing it happen so quickly was not what he expected at all.

"I bet he is all you had left," she declared, her words studied by the four remaining opponents. "It's your fault for getting involved in this fight, or maybe even shinobi business at all, if you are so ill-prepared to see death."

"Shut up!" the girl cried, shoving a hand into the shuriken pouch and hurling a handful in the direction of the enemy. Only one was remotely close to her target, the others too slow or lopsided, and Fuu barely raised the bloodied kunai to deflect it.

"Come on, don't be pathetic. At least try to give me a challenge," she said to no one in particular, and Han took that as his cue.

Shoving himself into action, he ran forward, analyzing her body language for some kind of response, and she jumped back on her heel to force him to pursue her. Miroku sped toward her from an angle, sword drawn, and she smirked. "That's the way to do it. Confuse me from multiple fronts. Looks like they got a couple of competent fighters this year."

Han was the first to reach her, and he attempted to barrel a fist into her abdomen, Naruto's plan heavy on his mind. However, the girl weaved out of the way with a controlled twist of her entire body, contorting almost impossibly, and then rolling across his outstretched arm and angling a kunai into his spine.

It sliced against his armor, rather than puncturing it, and it was Miroku that forced her off of him with a well-placed diagonal sword slash. She flipped backward impressively, as Han righted himself to look towards her. When she adjusted her shirt, she frowned. "Wow, one of you actually cut my clothes. That's a first this soon in the fight."

The swordsman beamed. "Good to know that we're giving you a good show." Miroku and the jinchuuriki danced together, and the former proved to be an excellent swordsman. Unfortunately, the latter was twisting and turning her body with near split-second speed, her reaction time faster than anything he had ever seen before.

The way she moves her body... It's like she's translated the multi-directional way she moves in flight to her fighting style on the ground.

Her agility was impossible to ignore, and any movement she made was a carefully measure moment of control. It was odd to see, almost like her mind was moving in hyperdrive; what a normal person couldn't react to, she was able to do it with ease.

Miroku traded attacks with her, while Han tried to consider how he was going to move forward. If at any point she began to fly, he only had so many ways he could hit her, and at the speed she would be traveling, he doubted that he had enough precision. Fighting a flying opponent was near impossible with his skill set, but he had a few ways he might could handle it.

"C'mon, why can't I hit you already?" Miroku cried out with a frustrated frown, and she just smiled.

"I'm toying with you, you know?" Fuu kicked at the ground hard in Miroku's direction, the heel of her sandals colliding with the tip of his sword, and immediately throwing him off balance. She easily side-stepped Han's intervening grab and punched him hard on the thigh, the blow hard enough that he even felt it through the armor.

She's relying more on the beast's chakra skills, if I can feel that punch more directly.

Han smirked, realizing he had the perfect opportunity, pulling on his own beast just enough to generate the necessary steam. Kicking outward with his knee, his blow was parried and then immediately met with a steam-powered fist to the jaw. Hot water vapor spread out around him, and he rubbed the superheated metal bracer over his left arm as she tumbled backward, completely off-centered. She angled toward the crying middle aged fighter behind her, who had not moved the entire fight, too paralyzed with fear to even try.

Wiping the blood from her lip, she set her jaw with a snap of her wrists, spat and then grinned once. "Not sure I expected anyone to hit that hard."

"You can't have all the fun, Han!" Miroku moved forward, angling a horizontal stab through the chest of the Nanabi's jinchuuriki. Han watched with terror as the girl suddenly ducked hard and maneuvered to the left, right in time for Miroku's blade to pierce the side of the middle-aged man who had been too scared to move the entire fight. Miroku himself didn't know how to react, or what to do, but the act of killing the man by accident was enough to make him pause.

"Oh god, he needs medical attention!" Miroku shouted to the stands, hoping someone would respond. He flickered his attention back to the other older man who was presumably already dead, suddenly feeling guilty for even being involved in this. "End this farce now or they will both die!"

Han didn't know what to say or what to do, and some part of him hoped Miroku's plea would be heard. But Fuu just laughed, an incredibly out of place sound that sent chills down his spine.

"You think they would stop this now? They don't care about you. Hell, it looks like you two were the only ones not conscripted into fighting me." She laughed again, making Miroku maneuver his sword down. "It's all a game for them, a way to take advantage of the darker parts of human nature to make money. It's a rush, an escape from the mundane." Her orange-brown eyes flashed with yellow, and Han immediately realized it.

He glanced toward the stands, not exactly sure where Naruto and the others were. He was almost certain of it now: Naruto and Fuu were both nothing more than vessels for their Bijuu to use to interact with the world. No one speaks like Fuu, or Naruto, at the young age they were. It was the only theory that made sense, even if Fuu had been subject to this tragedy her whole life. That would have stunted her development, not accelerated it. She was nothing more than the Nanabi in human form, and an uncomfortable feeling arose in Han's gut.

The Bijuu were just beasts, he told himself, beasts who can't die by normal means. Some called them demons, and he shifted his eyes downward, trying to understand what the Gobi really was. If it was a demonic entity, then he really was a sacrifice to contain it, and perhaps a noble one if they were demons bent on human destruction. However, what was propaganda and what was fact?

Even if he couldn't figure out what all of that meant, how was he going to actually know what to do? His life might be driven by demons, from inside and out, and nervous fear shook him to the core.

"We don't have to fight," Miroku suddenly said, shaking him from his reverie. Han met Fuu's eyes. "We could come to some sort of agreement. I mean, the civilians can't stay here forever, and neither can we. I could walk right back through that door if I wanted, and never turn back."

Fuu took him in a moment, before gesturing to the line of seals holding her within. "Go on ahead, coward. But you are just as trapped here as I am." She pointed a finger to the door. "They won't let you get more than a few dozen meters, but by all means, you can try."

The challenge had been thrown down, but Miroku didn't hesitate for long. Tightening a grip on his sword, his mood altered from fear to acceptance. "Then let's get back to business, shall we?"

Rather than allow Miroku to move first, Han took the initiative, trying to momentarily surprise Fuu with his appeared hesitation. A burst of chakra activated the mechanics of his right leg greaves, steam billowing from it and obscuring him from sight just long enough to aim a kick right at Fuu's exposed mid-drift.

However, Fuu took the attack in stride, and as soon as the attack connected, his eyes widened. There's absolutely no give, like kicking solid steel, and that attack should have broken ribs at the least!

Fuu was thrown back from the force of it, and her skin showed signs of bruising. But it was a fake, because there was no way that he did any actual damage to her. She had some kind of unnatural defense, something that didn't need hand-seals. A kekkei genial?

No. It was one of the abilities granted to her by the Bijuu. It had to be. Which was even more dangerous than he could imagine. Before the fight, he thought maybe she might be less-skilled at bringing out the beast than he was. That she might show some signs of using it, like a chakra cloak. Before Roshi beat the habit out of him, Han had glowed like an exposed bonfire in the middle of a cave.

After all, when she used her wings before the fight, the chakra had bubbled out of her before coalescing into her fluttering wings. And when he punched her earlier, she had recovered quickly but hadn't gotten as much damage there either. Unfortunately for Han, she seemed able to call on its abilities at any time, either passively or actively, and his theory that she was nothing more than the Nanabi seemed even more probable.

"Damn, you kick hard. I'm surprised your foot wasn't blown off hitting me," she said with a grin. "Impressive armor."

Han merely nodded at her. "I appreciate that. You've got some impressive armor yourself." Naruto's Plan A was fresh on his mind, and he glanced down at her fist.

She smirked. "Good to see someone figured it out." Miroku decided at that moment, while she was distracted, to run forward from the side and stab through her ribs from her left side. Her eyes flicked to the oncoming attack, and Han watched, captivated, as she leaned back to dodge it, the blade raking across the skin of her upper arm. Nothing but the smallest of cuts appeared, not able to breach more than the upper skin's layer.

Three hand-seals brought a burst of gale-force wind in Miroku's direction, the apex of which manifested as a cutting blade. Han tried to run forward, to shove him out of the way with a Doton jutsu, but the swordsman had no defense for that.

The top half of his body landed twenty yards away from the other, blood spattering across the arena and the line of seals, as the medic-nin and the audience screamed.

"Maybe I spoke too soon about competence," she stated, turning toward Han. "Care to prove me wrong?"

Gaara was captivated, impressed, and worried all at the same time. Fuu was amazing, in every stretch of the imagination, but also brutal and not even remotely concerned with opponents' safety. She had mercilessly killed two of the six combatants, dodged and forced another to die, and was now seemingly matching Han blow for blow.

Gaara knew Han to be capable, but she seemed to be very, very focused. She hadn't gotten the best of him yet, but the Suna native was still worried for him. Han was the best taijutsu user he had seen in his short life, and s inventions added to his strength. But she seemed to not be affected by the attacks at all, any time he managed to connect a hit. A Fuuton ninjutsu, of a similar nature to the one that killed the kenjutsu specialist, was luckily absorbed as only a glancing blow by Han's armor, but he feared that the older jinchuurik wouldn't be able to keep up.

He glanced to the passive face of his best friend, eyes closed instead of open. Naruto's Plan A, to seemingly insert his consciousness into Fuu by using Han as a conduit, was not going to work if they couldn't connect correctly. Even so, he wished Naruto were watching to add his expert commentary to what they were seeing.

"Gaara, look!" Karin suddenly pointed, her movements and exclamation disguised as the outcry for Han trying to use Doton on her. "Why is the ground so muddy? They haven't used any Suiton ninjutsu, unless you count steam."

Gaara glanced down, focusing on the ground instead of the fight for a brief moment, and it did appear that it was becoming soggy with ruin, and was far more than water than any jutsu they might have used, even if they had. It couldn't have been the result of the fight, so what was going on?

His eyes flickered upward as the artificial light from the arena glinted on something falling toward the ground, and he immediately realized it. "Oh, that's not good."

Fuu shoved her hands through her hair for a brief instant, wishing she had a tie to hold it out of her face. It had just barely managed to obscure his hand-seals, and his Dojutsu connected, trapping her in a deep hole in the ground. Even as she stood in the hole, waiting on whatever attack he was going to launch from above rather than just flying or climing out, the ground was becoming even wetter, and it wouldn't be long now.

"Seriously?" she called as nothing seemed to happen for a moment, playing along with the seemingly new strategy. Her opponent, easily the most interesting she had ever faced in a situation like this, didn't reply to her comment; he was a thinker, not a talker, she had noticed.

When the light suddenly cut off, leaving her in a dark pit, she realized he had closed her off from the outside world, and she smiled as the earth shifted above her. Water from the soggy earth dripped down once again, mud plastering over her face, and the temperate started to rise.

The air became suddenly so humid, air flowing around her, increasing the pressure and heat inside, and it slowly became more and more difficult to breathe. The mysterious steam that seemed produced by his armor was inside the earth pit, and she didn't realize until her skin felt on fire that she had been trapped in an oven.

Even standing in a few seconds sapped her strength from her, the heat and humidity enough to drown her lungs with painful fiery heat, like being boiled alive from the inside out.

"Brilliant," she muttered, breath escaping her as she called on the Nanabi, the chakra gathering once more into a wing-like shape. Beating them hard, she stirred the steam away from her long enough to get a breath of stale, cool air, before immediately firing up from the bottom of the pit, making hand-seals once more.

Gasping for breath, despite the extra chakra, the oven-like strategy had drained her, made her too weak to recover very quickly, and when she burst out of the pit with a rising column of wind shaped like a fist, she dropped to the ground, heaving for fresh air.

Closing her eyes, a rookie mistake, she nearly flinched away when she felt something touch her tightened fist.

And then her eyes widened with shock.

Fuu had no idea where she was, or what she was doing, but something was wrong. Clouds are not normally something you can stand on, and it definitely wasn't a trick of her flight because her wings were tucked away. The sky was off-color but dark, an almost gray color, and the sun didn't seem to be out. The only source of light was the odd yellow glow sitting atop one of the clouds, high above her, like some kind of sky throne.

"Am I dead?" She remembered what had happened to her, the fight with the armored giant. The oven move had probably literally cooked her alive, but she supposed she had not expected to see the underworld look so... serene. At least, not for her and what she had done.

"Not yet. Not for a long time if I can help it," a voice suddenly stated, and she whirled around to see a blond boy, a few years younger than her, with bright blue eyes and an almost cheery air about him. He seemed deadly serious, despite the odd marks on his cheeks that looked really hilarious. His hair contrasted poorly with his dark clothing.

"What is this?"

The boy raised an eyebrow. "Hmmm. Haven't you ever been to your seal's mindscape before?" He took a moment, confused. "Actually, that probably makes sense. Minato did make my seal different."

What the hell?

"Sorry, you probably don't know anything then," the boy stated, turning to the cloud-like throne. "My name is Naruto, and that guy you were fighting?that was my friend Han. You're Fuu, right?"

"How do you know my name?" Who was this freaky kid?

"I know a lot about you, and it is a really long story as to why I do. I promise to discuss the particulars with you at a later time, but that's not exactly important at the moment."

She furrowed her brow. "Sounds like something a stalker would say."

He laughed, an odd sound that seemed to lighten the mood immediately. "No, it's nothing like that."

"Well, then what is it like? I don't know what to think about this. What did you mean by seal?" She was itching to keep him talking, to keep him saying something, so that she could muster the chakra to attack. However, it didn't seem to be working, which was even more reason to not trust him.

"Have you ever wanted to meet the Nanabi?"

She eyed him suspiciously. "Are you telling me that you are the Bijuu? Where are you tails?"

He laughed again, before gesturing to the mass of clouds behind them. "I'm not the Nanabi. Why don't you lead us up there?"

She fought to stand exactly where she stood, awaiting answers, but her curiosity eventually won her over. She started trying to move toward it, not sure how she was going to climb it, but it didn't matter. The second that she thought it, she was suddenly there, this strange Naruto standing beside her.

Like some kind of horrific nightmare, she suddenly realized that this creature had actually invaded her nightmares plenty of times before. Sitting on top of the mass of clouds, the yellow glow illuminating the place came from its seventh tail, the three pairs of bright orange-yellow wings fluttering about behind it. Its blue-gray body was impressively large, easily taller than ten of her, and its head was shaped like some kind of helmeted beetle. The insectoid creature was seemingly trapped by some kind of icy prison, its limbs encircled by rings of pure cold, apparently too hard to break.

Upon seeing the pair of them, the creature tried to cry out and was immediately met with a shock to its neck, the icy collar charged with electricity. A cold wind seemed to blow from all directions, forcing the monster to twitch as though in pain. Subconsciously, her hand found its way to her neck, rubbing the seal that was her prison.

"You dare come here?" The monster cried out, its masculine voice in pain. "And there's two of you? What an interesting surprise!"

"Not really," Naruto stated. "I'm only here through my chakra, but she's your jinchuuriki."

The beetle growled, and an almost insectoid clicking noise accompanied it. "I know who she is. Speak for yourself, Fuu, as my warden."

Fuu was speechless, her hesitation winning over. There was too much going on now, and the acknowledgement that she was nothing more than a prison warden to another creature really struck a nerve with her.

"I'm sorry," she half-blurted, the sincere feeling beneath it making her uncomfortable.

The Nanabi did something that could only be a laugh. "You're sorry? You've never been sorry for anything in your life. I actually appreciated your methods, to be frank. Although, I'm more angry than usual with you right now, because you were going to drown with your lucky little trick. I appreciate your sense of vengeance, but I don't want to die in the process, human."

She stared at the Bijuu, not knowing what to say. Getting a compliment from something widely considered to be a demon was uncomfortable. "Well, I wasn't going to die, I was going to fly out."

Naruto cleared his throat. "What do he mean by 'drown'?"

"It doesn't matter anyway. If you're out there with your friend Han somewhere in the arena, I bet you'll die too. I'll be the only one left standing."

The Bijuu laughed again. "Those seals will still hold you in place, even if the entire place floods. You'd get electrocuted and die too."

Fuu had considered that, but she had hoped that it wouldn't matter if the sealing shinobi, the brother to the village leader, died as well.

"Well, I gave Han a counteractive seal, to block the ones used on you to keep you tied down. They won't interact with this one, which is lucky." Naruto made a pointed look to the Bijuu upon saying that word. "You should be able to escape with us."

The words did not really register with her, and in some ways, her body almost rejected the idea that they could be true. It had to be a trap; this boy was a spy, someone who wanted to gain her trust just to shoot down her hopes and dreams for again. She would end up just like the Nanabi, surrounded by an endless sky but being unable to move from his perch.

"Look, I know you have no reason to trust me," he explained. "It is really, really smart not to trust anyone you don't know.

"But in a way, you do know me and others like me in my group. You see, I'm in the same boat that you are." He looked toward the sealed Bijuu, waving a hand toward the creature. "I'm the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, and I am breaking away from the villages in order to pull all the jinchuuriki into one group that no one would ever dream of attacking. Han, the guy you are fighthing, is the Gobi jinchuuriki. And we have Gaara, the Ichibi jinchuuriki as well. You would be number four, if you chose to accompany us."

She opened her mouth to comment, but he raised his hands. "I know it's hard to trust what I am saying to you now, but we could offer you freedom. Actually, right now, Han should have applied the seal, and you already have freedom. So you can do with that what you wish. Join us, and we can offer you added protection from people who might hunt you down, like Taki." He frowned a moment, before sighing. "There's a group out there, called the Akatsuki. They are planning to come after each of us, and one of its members is from your village: Kakuzu."

She wasn't sure what to make of his offer; it sounded too good to be true, and a little bit suspicious or too good to be true. But the mention of Kakuzu, the most dangerous criminal who once survived a battle with the Shodaime Hokage, was enugh for her to believe this kid knew what he was saying. It wasn't enough to, on its own, make her trust him. But he obviously isn't just some weird kid who can appear in people's heads and spout bullshit.

The Nanabi had been silent for a long time, but when it appeared that Naruto's message was over, it barked into that odd clicking laughter oce more. "If this human is telling the truth, then I would rather you go with him than sit around and rot in a cell. At least you would be doing something interesting. Besides, I haven't been close enough to talk with my family Ina while. Might be fun to tease Shukaku."

"Family?" Fuu asked incredulously.

Naruto just grinned. "Yeah, Shukaku is a pain sometimes. Kurama hates the bastard."

If it were possible to see a helmeted beetle widen its eyes, despite not having any visible body parts to do that, that's the impression Fuu got from the Nanabi's reaction.

"You're telling the truth!"

I apologize for how long that took to update. I got distracted by other projects, college, among other things like video games/television. Oh, and League of Legends has claimed me as own of its own thanks to some begging from friends. Big mistake, I know, you don't have to tell me that.

Next chapter wraps up the Taki chapter arc. I would have probably finished it up this chapter, but I found a good stopping point and decided to cut if off there so I could update you guys with a chapter that's been waiting for like 4 months to update. Sorry again.

Let me know what you thought in a review, good or bad, yay or nay. I am going to go back and re-edit this one later, for grammar and format and the like, just because I feel like I rushed it without carefully editing it.