Sum: Naruto, Dog, Cat and Tiger have been sent to Yugakure to get intelligence on Otokagure. They have been captured by a third party, "the Bathhouse" led by the mysterious Yubaba and her right-hand Haku. Naruto escapes, frees Tiger but the situation turns sour when Cat and Dog are revealed to be held hostages deeper in the Bathhouse.

Naruto receives the order from Tiger to detonate the bombs he has planted as their last recourse in order to create enough confusion for the team to escape.

Ash and cinders, that was all he could taste. The scent of iron weighed heavily on his nose. The screams of the wounded echoed in his ears along with the desperate pleas of those already crying for their deads.

Under a torn beam, a hand, twitching, so small, too small, was covered in blood, so much, too much. Naruto's eyes closed shut as an explosion blew dust and grime at his face. The horror of his action was grating at his mind, like a dark beast lurking just outside the frontier of his psyche, waiting to pounce on the smallest weakness.

The blond willed himself to sprint. He could feel Tiger following him, the Haimura were on his heels. He knew where to go. He focused on that. Nothing else mattered. There was nothing but the family. Now that he had damned his soul and demanded an exorbitant price to the people around him, he had to save them. He must, the rest was inconsequential, the die already cast.

The two naked men ran through the decomposing building, a surreal sight completely ignored by the screaming mass. At one point, they stole pants to people who had no use for them anymore. The Bathhouse was crumbling in a methodical pattern -Naruto had lied, the Recluses had taught him how best to demolish anything- catching fire in a slow yet inexorable way.

It had been so easy to rig the building when each main beam was carved out the trunk of a chakra tree. When each shouji was made not with washi but thinner, finer, chakra paper. Priceless items, blatant luxury, obvious riches. Bombs waiting to be sealed if one knew the trick to it.

Naruto knew.

The two men kept running, finding their way back inside the Rock. Their weapons had not been discovered. Chokuto in hand, they went deeper still, back in the maze of the underground level. Darkness engulfed the group, five shadows concealed by obscurity, three armed with fangs and two with razor-sharp steel.

The Rock was shuddering, the echoes of violent tremors shaking the solid stone. Naruto allowed none of it to disturb his focus. He did not dare think of anything else but the pale, ghostly presences of his two missing companions. Any other thought was to be banned from his mind, erased. A ninja could not afford for their emotions to take control.

"I'm a ninja now." Nothing but the family mattered.

He was a ninja now. His feeling did not matter. He did not matter.

The blond froze in front of a reinforced door. His laboured breathing sounded like thunder in his ears. He could not hear when Tiger spoke. The frenzied beating of his heart pulsed in his temples, making him blind. It hammered in his throat, making him choke. Something shifted in front of him. A shadow. Something dripped above him. Blood.

Naruto's eyes widened. His shaking hands were covered in blood. He had not even noticed. Had the flames painted everything so red that he had not seen it? The lock of the door clicked open. Who was the shadow in front of him? Panic rose in Naruto's chest. Why was he opening the door? Fear gripped his heart.

Blood seeped from the frame, the rivulets turning into a wave when the door creaked ajar, crashing against the walls of the corridor. A scream, raw from horror, fought to escape him. He was going to drown in the lifeblood of those he had slaughtered.

A fitting end for a ninja.

Pain exploded in his back and he fell to his knee, his breath taken away. He inhaled raggedly and found something viscous was keeping him from properly taking in the air he desperately needed. The blood around him had vanished. He coughed and spat blood of his own.

A bark reached his ears, an order. Something, someone, fell flat next to him and pressed his head down. Stone all around him groaned before exploding with a grinding war-cry. Countless projectiles, little yet angry, bit into his legs and bottom.

A soothing feeling lessened the pain in his back. The air around him suddenly dried up as he was desperately gasping for it. Droplets of water splashed his face. Rock groaned again but this time, something else roared in response. Cries of despair echoed for a second before they were drowned by a mighty force.

"Maru, calm down," a voice ordered, punctuating the request with a slap to his face. He knew the voice of course.

"Dog," he rattled, his breath short and painful.

"You were caught in a genjutsu, you have a pierced lung, I'm fixing you, spare your breathing."

The clang of steel came to him, along with the wet sounds of flesh being cut through, the whistle of blood escaping its confines, and the wailing moans of the dying. The cave was still shaking, chakra breathing life into stone, morphing the hallway into the merciless jaw of a monster.

Suddenly, breathing became easier and a firm hand grabbed his shoulder and forced him on his feet. Cat was demonstrating just why she was a kenjutsu instructor, the Dance of the Moon gifting her blade with a preternatural grace as it delivered death to the enemies.

Tiger was crouched on a wall, defying gravity casually as he continually weaved through hand signs, moulding the rock and earth around them into deadly weapons to do his bidding. Seeing Naruto was standing, the man barked.

"Katon Fuuton combination."

Naruto blinked; his hand was already weaving through the necessary signs. Not a second later, his Great Breakthrough merged once again with Tiger's Great Fireball, leaving him completely out of breath. The flames spilt forth like some sort of liquid, the gust of wind carrying them in a geyser. Naruto was blown back by an unexpected backward blast but someone caught his fall.

"The tunnel was too narrow," supplied a part of his brain.

The boy shook the cobwebs out of his head and focused ahead. Fire was coating the shattered walls, corpses were burning, exhaling an acrid smell. Naruto breathed out in relief.

Except suddenly, they were not corpses anymore. With eyes wide with disbelief, Naruto saw the charred remains of a man stand up. The blond pulsed his chakra, one, twice, thrice. Nothing worked and, one after the other, all seven fallen ninjas rose, their eyes shining a bright white under the strange mark carved in their forehead.

A triangle trapped in a circle.

His breath taken away by the impossible sight, he looked as the bodies healed. They were familiar to him. He knew the faces which were emerging from the ashes. They were the seven guards who always accompanied Haku.

"Flames almighty," whispered someone to his right.

"You have no honour," croaked one cadaver in a taunting tone.

"You killed innocents," answered another.

"It is time you die," roared a third, who lunged with impossible speed.

Steel arched through the air and the man's head fell. It turned to ashes before touching the ground and the cinder gathered around the body, the head slowly reforming.

"Kill! Kill!" A corpse roared.

"Retreat," Tiger ordered curtly in response.

The four ANBU and the three dogs fled, choosing each turn at random, privileging speed over directions. Soon, they were lost in the maze but the undying men were far behind.

"What," puffed Dog, "the fuck," she exhaled breathlessly, "was that?" She asked, her voice cracking in hysteria in the end.

Only silence answered her, her companions too busy catching their shaken breath.

"Don't know don't care. We need to escape from here," whispered Tiger in his business monotone. "Can the Haimura find the way out?"

Before anyone could answer, the sound of feet rising and falling reached their ears. "Kill! Kill!"

Dog choked. "How did they find us so fast!?"

"Run!" Tiger answered.

The following minutes were spent like this, the ANBU darting to and fro, hoping to lose their tail only for one of the undying enemy to jump them, allowing them no moment of rest.

"They are corralling us," noted Tiger after twenty minutes of the slowly exhausting carousel.

"Where to?" Cat asked, cutting through an arm and piercing a throat that did not bleed.

"No idea but we're going deep."

The strange chase continued, the ANBU forced to flee through forgotten pathways and caves until they reached a vast opening. The air, which had been stale and dusty, suddenly cleared up. A lone ray of light bathed the centre of the large room, spilling from a small opening in the high ceiling.

A silhouette, unmoving and solemn, was standing on the dais built in the middle. There was a little altar in front of the person.

"It is so kind of you to be here," greeted the shadow in a pleasant voice.

"Haku," breathed Naruto in recognition.

"Indeed."

Suddenly, a series of loud noises echoed in the room, heavy objects impacting the ground. All around them, the four ANBU could see human-sized boxes opening, their insides glowing a pale blue, billowing fumes of frost escaping them like the breath of some mythical creature. Inside were corpses.

"Oh no," murmured Dog, her instincts blaring in high alert.

On cue, all cadavers suddenly opened their eyes, the same inverted triangle glowing white in the circle carved in their forehead.

"It is time for you to pay for the crimes you committed. The price will be a death-time of servitude."

"Attack the boy!" Tiger bellowed before sending a lance of water toward the immobile, perfect target.

The dais lit up with a flash and the suiton jutsu exploded backwards against a barrier.

"Maru!"

Naruto was already on it. The potent flash of light had been enough for him to identify the fuinjutsu protecting the platform Haku was standing on. It had also illuminated the older boy, revealing his skin to be jet black with white bones seemingly painted on top while his hair had taken a strange silvery hue.

With a half cross of his hand, the boy flexed his chakra. A massive amount of it, enough that he glowed blue for a second. A hundred blonds suddenly surrounded the four ANBU and the trio of war hounds.

"Kill!" Haku roared. Like one man, the mummies rushed forth. The shadow clones were waiting, their eyes hardened and grim, feet planted firmly on the ground, blade singing with wind chakra.

Naruto paid no mind to the charge of the undead. His own orbs were riveted on the barrier fuinjutsu erected between him and Haku. The older boy -man? Demon?- was key to stop the unkillable ninja. The one to kill to protect his teammates.

Something within him tried to care. To protest. The boy did not allow it. He forcefully wired his brain in "fuinjutsu mode".

The obstacle was fairly simple; a five pillars fortress sealed the access to the dais, offering absolute protection to one single person standing inside. Fuinjutsu was not magic, however, and any fortress had door to allow entrance. Such were the laws of the world. The problem, though, was that Naruto had neither ink or brush to paint his access.

The blond found himself stumped for a second before the solution presented itself to his mind. Taking a kunai with his left hand, Naruto stabbed through his right. He winced for a second before weaving through hand signs.

His left hand glowing green, he wrenched the knife out of his palm and splattered the barrier with his own blood.

"The great castle opens its door: fuin, kai!" He exclaimed through gritted teeth.

The protective fuinjutsu rung like a gong before it shimmered and disappeared.

Naruto lept backwards; Haku was already on him, trying to skewer him with an elongated spike.

"Damn you and your Uzumaki blood!" The necromancer roared. "We should have killed you sooner!"

The blond boy only nodded, ducking under another swipe. "You should have."

Naruto weaved in and out, avoiding each strike Haku attempted against him. The older boy was not very fast, he did not appear very strong, and he appeared to have no martial arts, simply swinging wildly.

He had the ability to raise the dead, that alone made him dangerous, Naruto supposed but he himself had an army of replicas at his command. The blond boy was definitely the better ninja. He proved it by swinging his chokuto down a tight, lightning-fast arch, severing an arm instantly.

The member turned to dust and reformed on the stump almost immediately and Naruto swore.

Haku did not need strength, speed, or martial arts. Who would when they were immortal? The blond boy rolled under a wide swipe, the edge of his chokuto biting into Haku's legs, keeping him from following Naruto.

The young initiate took stock of the situation. They were surrounded by a host of zombies that was slowly thinning the ranks of his shadow clones while refusing to go down themselves. The memories of his destroyed replicas were coming to hit him like relentless waves. He was seeing faces: here an old man, there a young teen, a woman with fascinating amethyst eyes, and so many more.

His keen hearing could pick Tiger's ragged breath, the blade of Cat did not sing as fast anymore, and Dog's growls betrayed her slow mounting exhaustion. His blue eyes went up, toward the aperture from which light was spilling forth. It was high up, carved in the ceiling. Reaching it would require a lot of chakra and very precise throw. He set his orbs back on Haku, who was advancing towards him again.

"What is happening, Naruto? You realized you cannot escape?" The boy asked, a crooked grin deforming his visage.

The blond huffed and simply shifted stance, his eyes narrowed. Haku lunged; the blond allowed the spike to slide along his chokuto as he stepped forth. The blade severed the older boy's head from his body. It fell on the floor before the body followed suit. Something tinkled against the smooth, stone pavement.

Naruto's attention shifted to whatever Haku -whose head was already reforming- had lost. It took the blond a second before he could see the black medallion: a downward triangle caged in a circle. He was readying himself for his next assault when he saw the living corpse was searching for it.

Naruto did not try to understand. His chokuto cut the hand at the wrist and the boy kicked the medal out of Haku's reach. He jumped away, a spike nicked his leg. He breathed in and waited for Haku to rise.

The older boy seemed to hesitate. Naruto frowned; each time Haku had used whatever curse power allowed him to escape death, he had attacked him head-on immediately. The Yugakure necromancer shifted to the side, apparently unwilling to attack.

Once again, the blond ignored the "why". He flickered to the medallion just as Haku lunged for it and speared it with his sword.

Naruto was knocked back by a powerful blow. The world swung around him for a second before he got on his feet, his left hand clutching the handle of his shattered chokuto. The blond threw the blade away and willed his eyes to focus on Haku. The older boy had donned the medallion again and was confidently striding towards him, ready to attack.

That was at this moment the initiate saw it. Whatever his sword strike had done, it had revealed something. He could see the symbol for what it truly was.

A seal. Wrong, twisted, cruel but a seal nonetheless, with three prongs that spelt a poem of evil design. Jashin. His blue eyes widened minutely in uncomprehending horror before his mind instantly forced the feeling down and acknowledged the solution.

He would possibly not survive it but it was a cost he was willing to pay. He did not have time to unravel the fuinjutsu worn by Haku. So, Naruto had to force its release. Forcing a seal open, however, had a price. As a rule of thumb, an expensive one.

A cry of alarm caught Naruto's attention and he turned his head to see Dog falling to the hands of the undead, not dead but taken prisoner. Tiger was trembling from exhaustion, surrounded by Cat and what was left of his clones keeping the tides at bay.

The price was a death of servitude. The blond could not allow that to happen. Not to his family.

Naruto shifted, escaping the spike aimed for his torso, letting it pierce his right shoulder instead. Haku's victorious grin was momentarily erased by a Wind Bullet that obliterated the bottom of his head. It quickly reformed but this time, it was horror that painted itself on the older boy's visage.

Naruto raised a blood-soaked kunai high, his left hand gripping the handle with all his might, the tip of the steel knife shining so bright it seemed transparent.

"Uzumaki ryuu: one pronged evil release: fuin kai!"

The kunai crashed on the pendant and the world fractured.

A hundred souls screamed as one as they escaped their prison. Naruto felt like his mind had been placed under a massive bell. Pain. Despair. Unrelenting, a hundred furious ghosts wailed through the valleys of his psyche.

The blond wobbled and entrenched his very self behind walls of steel, gathering the strands of his mind back together. It felt like being stared at by the Kyuubi, except less violent. The ghosts were angry, the ghosts were in pain, but all their fury could not compare to the sheer presence of the Fox. Slowly, Naruto forced them out of his mind.

He knew they would haunt him but he would be damned before they broke him. His left hand burned but he did not let off the pressure. Suddenly, the sound of glass shattering reached his ears and a presence crashed against his mind.

From beyond his defences, he peered at the form of Haku. The boy was difform, an ugly caricature of the attractive young man he had been. His eyes were protruding and bleeding, his skin had the pallor of death with a greenish tint, blight was surrounding him. With a howl, the wraith charged at Naruto who mentally braced himself.

It was a silent, immobile, yet very real battle of minds that raged forth, wounding the flesh of both opponents as a result. Again and again, Haku crashed against the edge of Naruto's psyche and again and again, Naruto fought him back.

Until suddenly, there was nothing.

Naruto opened his eyes slowly. Before him, Haku was nothing more than ashes that a breeze was dissipating. Carefully, he turned his head around and saw that the undead had been returned to dirt. With a sigh, he allowed his legs to fail him and fell on the ground in a heap.

"What was that?" Dog asked in a feeble voice.

"Our cue to get out," answered Tiger in an uncharacteristically tired voice. The officer had not enough energy left to force his monotone.

"How are we gonna do that?" asked Cat, mechanically wiping her chokuto with trembling hands.

The Haimura trio growled in concert and one dog tapped its paw in a rhythmic manner on the ground. Dog smiled. "They'll get us out."

"I'm taking Maru," offered Cat. The two operatives nodded gratefully.

Naruto awoke slowly, gingerly moving a body that did not seem to belong to him given how heavy and numb it was. He opened his mouth to call for help and gargled instead. His eyes focused on the figure of Dog.

There was a flash of panic as he envisioned being stuck somewhere with the Inuzuka for a week again. Relief flooded him when he heard Tiger's voice.

"That's kinda mean you know." Dog said good-naturedly.

Naruto felt himself go red with embarrassment. His fear must have been displayed for all to see on his face for Dog to guess what he had been thinking. The girl gave the boy something to drink and Naruto felt some fresh water soothe his throat. He played a bit with the last gulp, appreciating the simple pleasure of life.

"I'm not paid for being nice," answered Naruto eventually.

Hana pouted. "You have become cheeky. It's not because you probably saved us from a fate worse than death that you get to be cheeky."

Naruto frowned. "What do you mean, probably? I totally did."

"You were the one whose impatience kickstarted the entire situation, Maru. I won't deny you did well. I won't deny you also did bad." Tiger intervened his voice back to its usual, tight leashed control. "What have we learned?"

Naruto had the decency to look guilty when he muttered his answer. "I won't ever get impatient again."

"Precisely. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. It applies to everything. Keep that in mind and maybe you won't turn a mission into a fubar situation again in the near future," chastised Tiger in the cutting version of his monotone.

The blond could only sag dejectedly.

"Thanks for saving us from the freak," added the sergeant much more sweetly, for him at least.

Naruto jerked his head up and opened his eyes wide. Tiger did not talk sweetly. Tiger did not do sweet, at all. The boy felt tears of relief prickle the corner of his eyes as each member of his team gave him a grateful nod.

"Anything for the family," he answered with a small smile that suddenly seemed to lit up his face from genuine happiness.

"Anything," confirmed Tiger. "Now that you're awake, we can make a point on the situation. The mission objective has been failed as of now. We have no concrete information on Otogakure's activities. We already lost two weeks which means another team has been dispatched and hopefully had more luck than us. Or not. Failure is not a part of our vocabulary but there is little sense in continuing blind like this and we need to heal ourselves. We'll regroup before deciding what we do."

"Very well," answered Cat and Dog.

Naruto went to nod but suddenly, pain exploded at the front of his head, as if his forehead had been cleaved open. The boy groaned and held a hand to his head. A second later, a soothing sensation made him relax. Dog had her hands around his temples shining with healing chakra.

"What is wrong?"

"My head is killing me," croaked Naruto. Taking the time to massage his throbbing forehead, the blond eventually nodded toward his superior officer. "My apologies Tiger."

"Think nothing of it. We don't know what actually happened in the cave. Any chance you missed some kind of damage, Dog?"

The girl shook her head. "I scanned him three times, sergeant. I don't believe I missed anything."

Tiger hummed curtly. "Very well. As I was saying, we need to pursue our investigation. The only lead we have is Akira, whatever that means."

Before the man could continue, Naruto was once again holding his head, only this time he was writhing on the ground, a silent scream on his lips.

"What is happening?" Cat exclaimed in confusion, doing her best to restrain the boy's haphazard movements.

Dog was once again running a diagnostic jutsu, her face scrunched up in concentration and confusion. "I don't get it, I got nothing! His brain activity is abnormally high but there is no reason for it."

Without warning, the boy's eyes rolled back in his skull and his body tensed once before he relaxed and stilled.

Naruto was faced with someone he did not expect. In front of him was a woman sporting a pair of purple eyes and incredible, burgundy red hair. Something clicked in his mind eventually: he had seen this woman among the undying soldiers of Haku. All around him, the landscape was a deserted waste of blood, thundering clouds hanging menacingly above the both of them and allowing only a meagre, pale light to come through.

It was the place where he would fight against the ghosts haunting him, time and again, using the teachings of the Yamanaka to keep them at bay. Skulking around them like vultures were the usual ghosts and a few new additions. Somehow, however, they were kept at bay.

"What do you want?" The blond asked.

The apparition did not answer. Naruto scoffed. They never did, he was not sure what he had expected. He braced himself for the assault that was sure to come.

It did not.

Naruto looked at the form of the woman. She looked back and for a minute, nothing happened. Impatience welled inside Naruto but the stern, chastising voice of Tiger reminded him to push it down. The blond had no clue what was happening but this time was different so he settled on observing the ghost.

Her red hair was really peculiar. If Naruto was honest, she was even rather attractive.

Suddenly, the woman beckoned Naruto to follow her and without waiting for him, turned around and started walking.

"Well…" Naruto looked around at the vast nightmarish expense and shrugged. "Might as well."

The blond boy followed after the ghost.

Naruto and the lady walked for a long time. The blond was not sure time had any meaning in this mysterious shard of his unconscious mind, wherever it was located, but it did seem like hours. Jarringly, when the woman stopped, Naruto only felt like a minute had passed.

Shaking his head and refusing to even try to make sense of what he was feeling, the blond looked around. The woman had stepped sideways and in front of the two, there was the strangest thing Naruto had ever seen.

It was a chain, folded many times and forming some kind of perfectly spherical nest, coiling and slowly clicking in an ever-going sliding motion.

Naruto took a second to wrap his head around the fact it was floating in the air. It was then the woman gestured to him toward the knot of chains. The blond looked at the apparition and at the nest alternatively before his gaze scoured the landscape around.

It did not seem like he was in the seal. If his discussions with the Yamanakas he had consulted were remotely correct, this space was indeed a part of his mind. Which one, however, was the question. Naruto was conflicted. His intellect was telling him that it was dangerous yet his guts were encouraging him to just try and touch the chain.

It was his, in his mind, waiting, for him.

"You're not going to help me, are you?" Naruto glared at the woman who simply looked back with a small smile on her lips.

The blond sighed and firmed his resolve. He had walked all this way, he was not going to get cold feet right now. There was no need to be rash, however. Slowly, carefully, Naruto built around himself the mind walls he had been taught by the Yamanakas. After a few deep, focused breaths, he was satisfied and resolved to advance towards the chain.

The adamantine knot hissed as he approached and Naruto felt a weight settle on his body. Little by little, each step taken toward the mysterious nest was made heavier. Annoyance and pride flared within Naruto. He was in his own mind and by the Flames, nothing would keep him from accessing it completely.

Tooth and nail, with the sensation he was carrying an entire mountain, the boy forced himself to progress further and further. Sweat started to trickle down his face and neck, matting his hair against his forehead. His muscles strained under the impossible weight and his bones groaned in protest.

"I'm within my mind. The mind can be controlled," recited Naruto, his teeth gritted. Like a mantra, the blond kept repeating the same sentence over and over again.

He was not sure why he was still going. There was no need for him to reach whatever the chain was guarding. He could simply turn back and wake up. Yet a feeling anchored to his guts was telling him that if he failed now, he would not come back here anytime soon.

Plus, he had chosen to take on the challenge of the she-ghost. He was committed to it and he would do it. Naruto Uzumaki was not a quitter.

Suddenly, he found himself in front of the giant nest of chains. The clicking wall of adamantium parted before him, creating an entrance. The blond stepped inside.

Immediately, the weight was lifted and behind him, the chains closed, plunging the boy in near-complete darkness. The only source of light was a small object shining a bright white, the colours of the rainbow cascading around it. Naruto could not distinguish what he was seeing and simply decided to advance closer.

The inside of the nest was huge and the boy progressed slowly, more tired than he thought he was. When he reached the centre, he looked at the shiny object, perplexed.

It was an eye, of that he had no doubt. Made of something that resembled glass, there was a light inside that spilt from it. For a minute, Naruto simply marvelled at the beauty of the small, crystalline eye, wondering what its purpose was. Hesitantly, the blond extended his hand to touch it.

Everything went white and an atrocious pain burned Naruto's head as if someone was branding his forehead with a hot iron. One whispered word echoed across the vast expense of Naruto's spirit.

"Thank you."

The Uzumaki boy opened his eyes and it was like he was seeing for the first time. In front of him were his comrades, his family, yet it was as if he was truly meeting them for the first time. Something had happened to him. Everything was different and it took the blond a few second to understand what exactly had changed.

He could sense their chakra. Rolling, coiling, whirling inside their coils, feeding their body and mind and in turn created by their pulsing life force. He could taste Dog's heartbeat, its potency. He could feel her worry and relief caress his skin, prickling him harshly for one and soothingly for the second.

It was like a veil had been torn apart. The world around him was crystal clear for him to admire in all its glory. He realized he had been capable of that, fractionally, since unlocking his tenketsu for the first time but the ability had been muddled. Sealed. Protected by the adamantine chains somewhere deep within his coils, at the junction between spirit and body.

He gazed at Cat and felt her smile as if it were his own. He looked at Tiger and chuckled at the perplexity and the relief. He marvelled for a second at the strength of the Mokuton asleep within the man's chakra. There was something else hidden behind but he could not identify it.

A slap tore him from his observations.

"Naruto! Can you hear me?"

"Wha-?!" He focused his gaze back on Dog. No, she was Hana. There would be no mask able to dissimulate her from him now. He swallowed thickly, forcing himself to gather his scattered thoughts. "I'm fine."

His own voice sounded strange to his ears, hoarse, broken. Had he screamed himself mute? He remembered his forehead hurting as nothing had ever hurt before. Reflexively, he pressed his hand against his head.

"What happened?" The boy asked, confused both by the experience and the sudden influx of completely alien yet entirely familiar information he could now perceive.

"That's my question!" Hana retorted, masquerading her fear as anger.

Naruto smiled reassuringly and took the teenage girl's hand in his own before giving it a little squeeze. "I'm alright. I just…" The blond hesitated. How was he going to even begin to explain in a way that remotely made sense? "It's complicated." He warned.

"I think we have time," Tiger said, his voice carrying both order and request.

Naruto chuckled and breathed in deeply. The strange high was dissipating along with his newly found perception. "Alright but no one is allowed to call me crazy."

"That's nut!" Hana exclaimed once Naruto was done relating his spiritual experience.

His teammates knew about his ghosts, Dog better than the other two as she had been the one to send him to a psy-cell. The shrink had been convinced that the boy was experiencing PTSD and Naruto had come to accept this interpretation as well.

None of them had ever envisioned that the budding sensor abilities of the boy had anything to do with his nightmares. They had not considered the sensor abilities were anything special as well. Sensor type chakra users, while not common, were not a rarity either and it was a skill that could be trained, if arduously.

"Never heard of a sensing ability like that," noted Tiger, his voice carrying a touch of wonder.

"Yeah, it's really strange," added Dog.

The team fell silent, each trying to digest what the youngest had told them. It was Cat who spoke first.

"I knew."

Three pair of eyes fixed themselves on the woman who seemed to momentarily shrink at the intensity of the looks she was receiving before she recovered her countenance. Swallowing thickly, the woman gathered her thoughts before explaining.

"There was a woman when I was younger. I… I admired her. She was a fierce ninja but she was very kind and she'd come to the Academy once in a while, to give lessons or discuss with the student." Cat shuddered and her voice turned sorrowful. "Once, we discussed her clan and their recorded abilities and she spoke of a sensing power stronger than any other."

When Tiger cocked one eyebrow, Cat crossed her arms in front of her. "Hey, I didn't remember until Maru told us now. I was barely nine, sergeant."

"Continue."

"Well, that's about it. She called it the Zettaishingan. The Mind Eye of Kagura."

"Who was she?" Dog asked.

Naruto knew the answer before Cat responded.

"Her name was…" The woman hesitated and glanced at the blond, her eyes pleading for forgiveness. "She was Kushina Uzumaki. The Red-Hot Habanero."

Hana could only turn her head slowly toward Naruto and stare fixedly. "No way."

Tiger was silently and slowly piecing together just who exactly he had under his command. The boy was far more than a jinchuriki. He eyed the blond for a minute and shrugged.

It did not matter. Naruto was family as far as he was concerned anyway.

AN: ÜÜÜUUURGHHH. [The sound of torment] BLERG. [Unsatisfied sigh]

Do with it as you will.

As a reminder, while I understand that some of you really love this story and that is something I deeply appreciate, sending me messages and comments about how I need to publish faster will... not make me publish faster. I mean, not particularly. I'm writing in my free time when the muse inspires me and I'm not depressed and I publish when I have the feeling I wrote something okay.

As for chapter 22, que sera sera.

Zettaishingan: well gan is eye(s), I think you got that. Shin has the meaning of supernatural/divine/spiritual power and Zettai is here for absolute/omni. So the Omnispiritual eye. Yeah?