Sakura pulled her mask down over her face, securing it, before nodding to Sasuke and Sai. Sai drew his katana from its sheath silently, the blade glinting silver in the moonlight, and waited as Sasuke went ahead. Sasuke's steps were confident and so light they didn't make a single pebble roll down the hill as he descended, Sakura and Sai in his wake.

The first guard didn't notice—he was idly picking at his ear, examining a finger for wax—and Sai smoothly slid past Sasuke into the inky shadows of the night. With one swift blow from the hilt of his katana, Sai dropped the guard and caught him before he hit the ground, dragging the man into a nearby bush. Sasuke paused, searching the area intently, and then looked over his shoulder to give Sakura one small shake of his head, crimson glinting in the slits of his fox's eyes.

Hm, so it was less heavily guarded than they'd been led to believe. Of course people would bluff about how heavily guarded this was; they wouldn't want anyone thinking they could get in. If anyone else had decided to call the bluff, however, the man Anbu's Team 7 was going to see could be killed with relative ease. For someone who seemed so cautious, this man was truly stupid.

Team 7 reached the bottom of the hill unchallenged, and Sakura held up one hand to get the boys to pause as she studied the bamboo gate rising up in a square around the massive house they were about to break into. There was only one entrance in if you didn't want to hop the fence, and this place at least was as heavily guarded as rumours dictated. There were four guards—three women and a man, each searching the shadowy area near the fence with an alertness the previous guard hadn't shown. These ones must've been shinobi guards, then.

Sasuke held up one finger, and Sakura and Sai paused while he strolled out into the clearing near the entrance as casual as anything. Two women and the man were immediately caught Sasuke's genjutsu, their eyes widening in shock before they went boneless and slumped to the ground. The third woman must've known something about the Sharingan, though, because she avoided Sasuke's eyes and opened her mouth to shout.

An ink snake that had been slithering through the shadows took care of that, lunging and wrapping itself around her mouth before she could even breathe in. In a panic, her eyes flickered to Sasuke's, then rolled up in her head. Sakura, Sai, and Sasuke were already walking past her before she collapsed, their treads light as feathers. Sasuke tilted his head, the colour of his eyes deepening, and held up three fingers. Sakura nodded to show that she understood then took the lead, the two boys behind her.

They'd passed the bamboo gate and were now in a clearing bathed in moonlight, with no other guards outside. The house in front of them stretched up forebodingly, wrapped in an ochre deck that also looked like it was made of bamboo, and that deck was what they sprang onto now. Sakura set her hands against a sliding door and tilted two fingers towards the door's track. An ink beast crawled into the track then dissolved into a puddle of black, which served as a lubricant when Sakura eased the door open, absolutely silent.

Standing near the door were three shinobi, two of them asleep and a third looking like he was getting there. Sakura helped him along with two senbon dipped in a fast-acting sedative, then hit both of his companions for good measure. They didn't wake upon the impact, and they certainly wouldn't be waking now.

Sakura sprung into the house and motioned for Sai and Sasuke to follow, sliding the door shut soundlessly behind them. Sasuke took the lead again, pausing every now and again to point out a nearby guard, which Sai or Sakura would take out with a well-timed blow. When they finally reached the door to the bedroom, leaving a trail of slumbering or otherwise incapacitated people in their wake, Sasuke shifted his mask his to make sure his eyes showed as completely as they could. Sai stepped back and gestured for Sakura to go ahead of him, and she stood directly behind Sasuke as he threw the door open.

The man they were after lay slumbering in a futon big enough to fit four people, his limbs stretched out to take up every inch of space. They were lucky to get him when his wife was away, but then, it was more than just luck, really. Sasuke strode across the room, easy confidence making him graceful as he took up position next to the drooling, snoring man. He looked up at Sakura with a question, and she answered it with a nod, shifting her own cat mask out of habit.

Sasuke reached out and seized the man by the jaw, his entire hand over the man's mouth so that even after the man woke up and thought to scream, he wouldn't be able to. And, oh, he wanted to scream when he awoke, staring into the full force of a Sharingan that could make Kages weep for mercy. He was too groggy, too unsuspecting at first, so he didn't notice that he was in a genjutsu. Maybe he'd never figure it out—but if that was the case, he'd almost certainly have nightmares about what had happened for the rest of his life, always looking over his shoulder.

Sasuke had shown Sakura what he made her look like once, and she'd enjoyed the sight very much. Her mask looked like it was blending into her face, the feline features grinning madly as the mouth moved along with her words, blood running in a continuous scarlet streak from her mouth. Her hair seemed like it was made of Sakura petals, and they kept swaying disturbingly even if there was no wind, gentle yet sharp enough to cut. Wrapped around her limbs were chains—they looked slightly like the ones Naruto used, but Sasuke swore they weren't—and the chains writhed constantly, winding themselves about whoever she spoke to.

Of course, there were no chains, blood, or petals. There was only the Demon Princess of Konoha's genjutsu, and that sight was enough to strike fear into even the hardest hearts. The man before them now certainly didn't have a hard heart, so the sight scared him so much he was halfway across the room at a speed even the three ninjas hadn't expected. Sakura rolled her eyes beneath her mask and leapt, landing lightly in front of him as he scrabbled with the sliding door, whimpering.

"My lord," she hissed, purposely making her voice rasp out ominously. The man in front of her forgot a door existed as he pressed his back against the wall, closing his eyes and bringing his hands up to make a sign to ward off evil.

"Look at her," Sasuke commanded sharply, already fed up with the man's antics. He had little patience for people who were weak or cowardly.

"W-what d-do you w-want?" the man stammered out, his hands still raised before him. He absolutely refused to open his eyes, as if looking at Sakura would make the demonic illusion that much more real. Fair enough, Sakura supposed, since sight and phantom sensations were all she was.

"The Akatsuki," Sakura murmured as she crouched down, stretching a hand out to lay it on top of the man's head. He let out a startled cry and finally opened his eyes, tears rising up in them as he shook his head. She could see his indecisiveness about who was scarier, and she put one hand behind her back to signal Sasuke. The man in front of her squealed like a pig as Sasuke made it look like illusory chains were wrapping around him.

"I'll talk! Please! J-just don't—"

"Oh, it's not information we want," Sakura purred, squeezing his head with enough force that he was sure to have a bruise for each of her fingers in the morning. His lips trembled and tears spilled onto his cheeks as he looked at her, silently begging her to tell him what she wanted so he could offer it up in place of his life. What a weak, idiotic man. This was the great Fire Daimyo, who caused problems for the entire Country of Fire and got involved in all sorts of ridiculous back-door decisions? Sakura was tempted to squeeze just a little tighter so that greedy mind of his came leaking from his ears.

"You're going to stop hiring them," Sakura said with a smile like death, knowing it would look exactly as threatening as she wanted it to with Sasuke's interference. The man's eyes flickered from Sakura to the two shinobi behind her, but all he'd see of them in the genjutsu was two ephemeral demons flickering in and out of existence. It was better he didn't know that Konoha was involved, after all.

"B-but…" he began, trailing off when Sakura's fingers got tighter and he probably heard the creak of his skull.

"Eyes on me," Sakura laughed quietly, and the horrified man's eyes turned back to her obediently. "You will do this. If we hear you're hiring out again, we'll drag you down to the place we come from and all the riches in the world won't be able to save your soul. The horrors you'll witness and experience down there… oh, the horrors, my lord, you can't even begin to imagine."

"No more Akatsuki!" the Fire Daimyo agreed perhaps a little too quickly. His voice was enthusiastic, eager to please, eager now that he knew there was a chance he could live. My, my. What a hasty little man he was. Sakura leaned down for him to get a close-up of her bloody cat's mouth, fangs streaked with rustic stains old and new, and the man's entire body froze as she brought her mouth to his ear.

"That's correct; no more Akatsuki. Until then, though, these chains will remain wrapped around you as just a little reminder. If I hear you speaking one word of agreement to a single red cloud, we'll have to chat again. And this time, it won't be in the comfort of your own home. These chains follow me wherever I go, and all it'll take is a tiny… little… tug."

At the last word, Sasuke stepped forward and Sakura could sense a change in the genjutsu. She wondered what sensation Sasuke would project for Hell, but then she decided that maybe she didn't want to wonder about that much longer. The Fire Daimyo screamed in agony, his eyes snapping shut as he began to roll about the floor, tearing at his clothes and beating at them like they were full of flames. Sasuke watched impassively, and Sakura allowed him a solid minute of this before she signalled for him to stop. He did, although gradually.

The Fire Daimyo was left in a drooling mess on the floor, snot, tears, and saliva mixing into the puddle his head lay in. His eyes rolled and twitched spasmodically, and Sakura knew they'd maybe gone a bit too far. She crouched and pressed one fingertip to the man's head, easing his roiling mind just enough for him to fall into unconsciousness. Then she stood, cracking her neck from side to side, and held up two fingers, tipping them towards the door.

Anbu's Team 7 left the home of the Fire Daimyo unchallenged, the moon the only thing watching them. As usual, it was mission complete.

This was to be their last mission before their objective switched from stopping the Akatsuki's political agenda to stopping Naruto Uzumaki.

Wrapped fingers with nails brushed in black polish tapped a melody on the long table as a row of shinobi studied the figure the fingers were attached to. Their faces wore disgusted expressions, some of them sneering while others looked simply furious. The silence in the room was unnatural, stretching out unbroken as everyone except for the blonde boy at the table head began to sweat.

Finally, unable to take the tension, one of the shinobi men burst from his seat and levelled an accusing finger at Naruto, his expression a mix of triumph and uncertainty.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself, devil?" he cried out, his voice harsh and grating in Naruto's ears. Naruto smirked, but said absolutely nothing, and everyone in the room seemed to take it as a sign of guilt. They erupted into speak all at once, yelling, pointing fingers, and making a general racket until the leader who had spoken shushed them.

"If he says nothing, he is quite clearly guilty," the leader declared, as if he'd said some great, memorable thing. Everyone at the table nodded quickly, and the leader signalled for two ninjas to grab Naruto by the arms. A man and a woman moved to stand beside him, and he offered no resistance as they hefted him up by the armpits and began to practically drag him towards the door. The glittering, silvery chains binding his hands and feet together allowed no use of chakra, no way to break them or escape.

Another ninja ran ahead to shove rough wooden doors open, and Naruto was shoved into harsh sunlight that made him narrow his eyes and squint until his eyes could adjust. The open chamber he'd just been in was situated conspicuously in the middle of a field, and if someone didn't know what was going on here, they would've found the entire situation intensely weird. A single-roomed hut with a table for convening a council in the middle of a field, thirteen shinobi dragging a chained fourteenth through the middle of a crowd, and hundreds of civilians gathered around a single apple tree.

"Evil!" "Devil!" "Monster!" "Go back to Hell!" "You shouldn't have been born!" "Hurry up and die!"

Hundreds of voices chorused out at Naruto, and a few people even threw rocks with fairly accurate arms. If Naruto hadn't been held in place by two shinobi, he might've been able to dodge, but since he was unable to move the rocks struck him in the face and took gouges out of his skin. He spat blood from a broken tooth, and turned to shoot an unwavering look at the people throwing rocks. They cringed back, throwing up their hands as if his look dirtied them, and he heard someone make a horrified comment about how his wounds were already healing.

One of the shinobi holding him shoved his head back down, and then he was walked on through the crowd, at some points getting hit with rotten fruit so that decaying slop dripped down his face. Under his breath, he let out the slightest of sighs as Zetsu was proven right yet again. Human beings were truly despicable creatures.

When he'd finally made his way through the entire crowd, he was shoved forward roughly and stumbled up a couple of steps of a platform situated below the apple tree. He looked up tiredly as he crested the final step, only to be grabbed again by two more ninjas. They tugged him to the middle of the oaken platform and spun him to face the jeering crowd, which grew silent. A thin, reedy man wearing a pair of half-moon glasses stepped forward to address the crowd in a tremulous voice, hints of asthmatic lungs coming into the words as he spoke.

"This man, Naruto Namikaze, has been accused of being a jinchuuriki," the man called, and the crowd bristled with hatred, gazes hot with accusation turning to Naruto. Man, these people were way worse than even Konoha.

"It's Uzumaki, actually," Naruto corrected, and he was awarded a slap across the mouth for his correction.

"Uzumaki," he said again with a lopsided grin, and this time the open hand turned into a fist and he could hear the delicate bones in his nose crunch at the punch. He grunted in pain as his nose streamed blood; this was not very pleasant.

"As the remaining members of Uzushio—"

Naruto tried to protest against that too, since he knew for a fact that not a single one of these freaks was from Uzushio. That earned him a blow to the stomach so harsh his breakfast came back up, and that really pissed him off. It was ramen! Ramen! These stupid fuckers had wasted ramen simply because he refuted an untrue claim.

"—we have used Uzumaki Chains to bind him. The power the devil has granted him cannot be used, and so now we can deal out his punishment."

Naruto groaned softly; using the Uzumaki name for something so ridiculous made this personal. These chains had been crafted with the intent to bind chakra, yes, but they weren't Uzumaki Chains. Naruto wanted to correct the man about that too—Uzumaki Chains couldn't be used as objects by anyone other than someone with the correct chakra, since they were chakra manifestations—but he had a feeling that trying to explain that might end with something even more painful than the last few blows.

"As agents of peace, we cannot allow jinchuurikis to walk around this world unchained and unpunished!" the asthma-man cried out. The crowd cheered at that, getting riled up and shoving each other so they could all get closer to the platform. Naruto shifted from foot to foot, idly wondering if there was any way to make the Akatsuki cloak less hot. On a sunny day like this, the thing soaked up heat like nobody's business.

"Before we begin, is there anything you have to say for yourself, Naruto Namikaze?" the man demanded, his high voice suggesting that there better not be anything Naruto should have to say at the end of his life. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the man, and even that slight movement earned him a slap to the back of the head which sent the crowd into hysterics.

"I have just one question," Naruto said softly, and asthma-man's face began to get so red at Naruto's insolence that Naruto was sure he'd keel over and croak right there. Quickly, before that could happen, Naruto forged on. "How many other 'jinchuurikis' have you killed?"

It took a moment of spluttering indignation for the man to finally calm down enough to speak. When he did, though, there was a glint of pride in his eye, and he seemed to stand a little straighter.

"Twenty-two!" he said with an expansive sweep of his stick-like arms, sending the crowd roaring their approval. Naruto closed his eyes, trying to calm himself as even Kurama's shock permeated throughout him.

"But there are only nine," Naruto whispered, unable to point out that every single one of those nine were all still alive. He'd come across things like this before, witch-hunts where people saw devils in every person who was different or outside of their own beliefs. Zetsu lead him to these places so he could put an end to them, and he'd done everything he could. Yet everything he could didn't change the fact that people like these existed, or that they killed innocents. Twenty-two. Twenty-two innocent people had been killed, and for what?

"Lies! Shut your lying mouth!" the man cried, and Naruto was pummeled by blows from all sides. He curled in on himself to escape them, mouth twisting grimly. This wasn't funny anymore—this place had gone further than any of the other places he'd been to.

"It is time for the devil's punishment!" a voice said, maybe from the crowd, maybe from the man; Naruto couldn't tell anymore. He was crudely jerked into an upright position and forced on his toes as someone lowered a noose over his head. The rope was an unforgiving burn at his throat as it was tightened more than necessary, the coarse fibers rubbing uncomfortably over his Adam's apple. He was too short to go back to the soles of his feet, and he was forced to remain on his toes as the three shinobi that had fit the noose over his head stepped back.

"You are hereby declared an enemy of humanity, a blight, a plague, on our very existence! As such, we sentence you to the only thing one of your ilk deserves! Death by hanging!"

The crowd exploded into cheers, and Naruto was sickened to see children among them. Some of the children looked nervous, as if this was their first time seeing people die, but others had that same crazy look in their eye that people got when they were swept up with a crowd. If this was allowed to continue, it would become a cycle, propagating itself over and over until hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent lives were taken due to the fanaticism of a few.

The hand of the man who'd been speaking—both the announcer and the executioner, Naruto supposed—hovered over a switch that likely had mechanics under it that would allow it to drop the floor out from underneath Naruto's feet. Naruto wondered for a brief second what the other people standing here had felt when that switch had been pulled. A sharp, painful crack as the tiny, incredibly important bones in their neck were crushed up against each other and then broken? A collapsing of airways that led to a horrible gasping whereupon the gasper learned oxygen could no longer enter their lungs? A burning pain as the few circular muscles lining the esophagus were torn apart by the force of the drop? All of it together, at once, causing an unbearable panic and agony in the last few seconds of life?

The executioner pulled the switch, and the floor dropped out from under Naruto. The crowd went nuts for a second, screaming, stamping their feet, and roaring in approval, until they realised that Naruto was exactly where he'd been before the switch had been pulled. He surveyed them, unsmiling, as they stared back in stunned silence.

"The—the devil is… the devil is making him float!" someone screamed. Naruto's gaze snapped to that person, and he pulled his lips back in a snarl he imagined a devil would make. Then he jerked his hands apart and the chain snapped like a twig between his hands. He reached up and grabbed the rope around his neck with one hand, breaking it with ease.

"W-w-w-" the asthma man wheezed uncomprehendingly as Naruto casually swung on the rope and jumped to land lightly beside him.

"Who the fuck chained me up?" Naruto asked, eyes hard as he stared at the man. Everyone was silent now, watching the scene with eyes bugging from their heads. The asthma man continued to splutter and wheeze, unable to come up with a coherent answer.

"I did," Naruto supplied as the Chains around his feet dissolved. The ones on his hands had been the usual chakra binding ones this group used, but those weren't enough to hold back his Nine-Tails chakra along with his usual chakra. If there'd been some on his feet, it was possible that would've been enough, but in the excitement of catching someone declaring themselves a jinchuuriki, the men chaining him had assumed the Chains on his feet were the same as the ones on his wrists. Big mistake. Almost as big as making him vomit up his ramen.

Naruto cut the chakra threads he'd attached to the apple tree with one hand, raising a single eyebrow at asthma man. The man seemed to be drowning in air as he fell back onto the platform, crab walking backwards to escape the hot wrath of Naruto's gaze.

"Is your God merciful?" Naruto asked as he took a step forward. The rest of the shinobi and crowd could've used this chance to attack, but they seemed as helplessly frozen as the executioner.

"Because let me tell you something…" Naruto murmured as he let Kurama's anger surface slightly, changing his eyes for show. He cast a glance out over the audience, monstrous eyes resting for a second on each face there. He'd originally spared the children in groups like these, but Zetsu went back to slaughter them anyway, claiming it was better that way. It was still hard, but Naruto was learning that Zetsu was as right about that as he was about humanity. Men, women, children… there was no hope for any of them.

"I'm not."