Chapter 18

Tamayana Kara let herself discretely into her parents' home in Grass Country. She didn't want anyone to know she was back.

"Mom?"

There was a noise from the upstairs. Kara ghosted upstairs.

Her mother was cleaning the floor. "Kara? What are you doing here? I thought you were off training…."

Kara's mother was a civilian. She didn't understand the things Kara explained. Had she been a ninja, seeing her daughter like this would have been alarming.

"I'm fine, mom. I decided to part ways with my sensei."

"Oh. He didn't try to take advantage of you, did he?"

A bitter laugh erupted from Kara's body. "No, no, nothing like that."

"Okay. I'm making my special ramen tonight. Would you like to stay?"

"Yes, mom. I'd like to stay. May I remain here for a few days?"

Kara's mother smiled. "Yes. I would love that."

"Where's dad?"

"Trying to trade our old equipment for some better implements."

Kara's family had been farming for generations. Daikon, sweet potato, onion, eggplant, and a variety of other vegetables. The conditions weren't great for growing rice here.

The pair began talking about safe topics. Kara's mom didn't understand enough to ask about ninja topics…and, for the time being, Kara didn't care to speak about her work. It was nice to just have a simple conversation, to remember simpler times.

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The unusual ninja who looked more like a plant than a person grinned when he performed a routine check on the Tamayana farm. The girl was eating dinner with an older woman and man, the parents.

Sasori had asked Zetsu to conduct surveillance on a number of locations in and around Grass Country.

This was the first hit.

Sasori needed to know immediately. He had most urgent questions for this girl. Perhaps the other students were home on leave, too? Zetsu had a long night ahead of him.

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Number One spent less and less time around Naruto and Number Three. It seemed that Number Two had been the glue that held everything together.

Alternately, Number Three became more focused in his training.

Naruto tried spending more time with his remaining students…time spent interacting with them directly, not through Taro or another puppet. It felt strange, unworldly to be in the room with someone who wasn't a subject for interrogation.

Everything felt so wrong now.

He had an emptiness in his chest. Naruto found he actually missed his student. But he didn't know what to do….

….so he threw himself into training. He upped his practice schedule; he spent an hour a day practicing his taijutsu while he controlled ten puppets battling each other. He refined and improved his puppetry innovations. He got sharper, faster, better.

Still, it hurt.

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The ghostly images of a number of people hung in the air. Sasori was alone in his safehouse. He had left that pest Deidara elsewhere.

"Leader, I have news."

"Enlighten us, Sasori."

"It will be of interest to Itachi and Kisame. The supposed Grass jounin I've been tracking for some time…is actually our missing Kyuubi container."

That got the ghostly images moving and talking. Nothing had been heard of Uzumaki Naruto for some time…not even by Itachi who was formerly an ANBU captain in Hidden Leaf.

"Quiet," the Leader commanded. "Very tantalizing, Sasori. Could you provide us with some more details?"

"Gladly. I made the…acquaintance of a young woman who was one of this jounin's students. Our arrangement together provided me with some interesting facts, although the man's location is not one of them…."

"Stop blathering," Kisame said. "Spit it out. How can this jounin who knocked around Orochimaru be the Kyuubi container?"

Sasori smiled. "Naruto is a puppeteer, of course. He can appear in any guise he wishes. Apparently the puppets he makes are good enough to pass as human…or he independently recreated my human puppet technique."

"A puppeteer," Leader said. "That is disturbing. It would indicate he has superb chakra control, if nothing else in ninja skills. I was under the impression, Itachi, that the boy was reviled in his village. Sasori, did this information source know who trained him?"

"She did not. Indeed, she did not know her 'sensei' was a teenager until a few months ago. He's cagey, this boy of ours. It was only sheer good luck we have this much information. Had he not confronted Orochimaru – or had my spy network been less effective – we might never have known this…."

"Enough," Itachi said. "I'll pat your back all you wish the next time I see you. For now, tell me where I can find this puppeteer. What does he look like? What are his vulnerabilities?"

Sasori laughed. "Nervous, eh, Itachi? A few of your greatest techniques won't work against a puppet. No Tsukiyomi, eh?"

"Sasori," Leader warned. "Do not taunt."

"My…source told me that Naruto was destroying all the safehouses she knew about. They ranged throughout the Elemental Countries."

"What of his techniques?" Kisame asked.

"He's cagey on that. The student could only talk of what the puppets could do. The main puppet is quite a weapons user. But the things she described are not enough to drive off and then severely wound someone like Orochimaru. He's obviously hidden his true power from even his students…."

Itachi nodded. "It sounds like this one will be a challenge. Good, I like a strong ninja. I need to find a true measure of my strength. Perhaps this boy will provide it."

The Leader seemed less pleased. "Somehow the Nine Tails has learned a powerful, hidden art. We don't know how…or precisely what he does. It's strong enough to inconvenience our old colleague. The only image we have of him is of his puppet…and that blasted thing can be abandoned at any time. What are you holding back, Sasori?"

"This former Grass jounin has been the one harassing and devastating Orochimaru…and I doubt he'll be satisfied until Orochimaru is dead."

Leader nodded. "Good. This Naruto will have to pass through Rice Country with some frequency. Kisame and Itachi, you will go and greet our missing jinchuuriki. Greet him gently. Sasori, be sure your acquaintance is appropriately…thanked for her assistance."

"Already done, my Leader."

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Naruto was sure he was about to lose Number One.

He decided to confront the issue after they finished this raid. Their efforts were less and less successful. Hidden Sound was just too well…hidden. But Number Three had suggested an interesting new tactic.

"They're called Hidden Sound, right? Well, why don't we see if we can find them with sound," he'd asked.

This was their first test of that interesting question.

Naruto had worked up an Earth Style technique to send sound waves at high speed through stone and earth. Upon encountering a gap, whether a small rabbit warren or an underground building, the sound reverberated violently causing the space to collapse. In theory.

Naruto and his team should be able to see the earth bulge and then sink into the ground. It was an interesting concept…but who knew if it would work?

The group stopped in four densely packed areas of vegetation, all places easy to conceal an underground entrance. The jutsu turned up nothing the first time and only a few small explosions the second and third times…explosions far too small to be installations.

The fourth place they stopped revealed something else. A stand of vegetation erupted in a cloud of dust. Direct hit!

Within seconds, Naruto (inside Taro) and his two remaining students moved closer to the detonation site, but they all took up different untouched sections. Each of them performed the jutsu again. After moving another time and using the jutsu again, they had a good sense of the size of the facility that they had just discovered.

"Number Three, why don't you see how well your steam can clean out a nest of cockroaches?"

"My pleasure, Number Four."

The powerful ninja ran toward the nearest edge of the facility and began blowing out a perilously long stream of steam. It pushed straight down. Wisps of steam erupted from other damaged parts of the facility.

As he turned red in the face and had sweat pouring off his face, Number Three stopped his attack. Whatever had been inside the structure was now thoroughly cooked.

Number Three looked pleased with himself, but Number One looked confused.

Naruto ended the experiment then. He needed to talk with Number One in a safe place. He didn't care to lose another person he had come to care about.

As dawn lit the sky, the team arrived in the far south of Fire Country. The bolthole was new, one of a half dozen recently carved out to replace the ones abandoned after Number Two's departure.

Number Three went to eat a quick meal and find a dark corner to sleep in. Naruto clambered out of Taro and then tagged Number One. "May I speak with you?"

"Sure thing, Number Four."

Naruto gestured to a pair of chairs. He poured himself a glass of water and offered another to his student. They both drank in silence before Naruto could form the questions he wanted to ask.

"I wonder if you are learning what you need to from me, from this association."

Number One shrugged.

"I remember that you wish to become a hunter nin. From what you've said of your family, I suppose you wish to honor their memory doing this?"

That earned Naruto a sharp nod. "Yes. A band of thugs, led by a middling missing ninja from Hidden Cloud, killed my parents. Yes, I do this to avenge them. These raids seemed like good training at first, but now. Now, we're hunting for a handful of needles in a haystack the size of a small country. I believe my growth has…leveled off."

"I see. Is there anything I can do to help you?"

Number One sucked in breath and sighed. "I don't know. I don't think so."

"Are you thinking of moving on?"

Number One nodded.

"You liked her, didn't you?"

Number One tried to look surprised. "Who?"

He didn't play clueless very well.

"It doesn't matter," Naruto said. "I promised to help you. I stand by that promise, Number One."

"Thank you. I know that…but this isn't the same thing any more. I never thought how much I liked my team. The others in my Academy class just moaned and groaned about their teammates. I graduated at the bottom of the rankings and didn't have any room to bitch. I was from civilian stock; I had no reason to expect to become a ninja. But then we had something…magical, the four of us. With Number Two, I could almost read her mind in a combat situation."

Naruto smiled. "Until I took you as my students, I had never thought about teamwork. But it amazed me every day what you three, together, could achieve. Please let me know what I can do. If I need to let you go, then tell me that."

"I need to leave, sensei."

"Then you may go. Rest up as long as you need. If Number Three remains, then we will have to set up new safehouses again."

"I am sorry to cause you the disruption…."

Naruto waved away the apology. "Never apologize for trying to achieve your dreams, my student. If you think of anything I can do to help before you leave, please let me know."

Number One wouldn't meet Naruto's eyes. He just nodded, finished off his water, and grabbed a sleeping bag.

Naruto did not sleep well that night. He feared for Number One. Hunter nins, especially those driven by a sense of vengeance, didn't usually last that long working solo.

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Naruto rode inside his Taro puppet, walking behind Number Three. They were getting in position to run another series of nighttime raids against Hidden Sound.

They had a map and were carefully checking Hidden Sound and marking off the grids they'd touched. So far they'd uncovered and destroyed six more underground bunkers. The end was drawing near for Orochimaru.

His ninja were decimated. His food was destroyed. His economic base was gutted. Unpaid armies don't fight after all.

Now his hardened facilities were falling one by one.

The Snake Sannin would have to return to the field to confront Naruto…and this time, the Snake Sannin wouldn't be leaving alive.

Number Three was moving at a good clip…until he suddenly stopped. He then leapt off into the vegetation. He screamed.

Naruto looked…there was something over there. Something rather close to a former bolthole Naruto had used. It looked like a stunted tree or something.

Taro closed the distance, but Naruto almost lost control of his puppet when he understood what he was looking at.

"This cannot go unpunished, Number Four." Number Three's anger had already morphed into resolve.

Naruto looked at the horrible thing. It wasn't a stunted tree at all.

It was a pole planted in the ground. A bleached…skull…mounted on top. There was a horrible red scorpion carved or burnt into the forehead.

Even though the face was gone, eaten by birds or insects, Naruto knew it had to be Number Two. The clothing at the base of the pole matched what his student liked to wear.

In that moment of realization….

Number Two was dead.

….Naruto's fear of Akasuna no Sasori disappeared. The Scorpion was dead. He just didn't know it yet