Chapter 67

[Hiruzen Sarutobi]

This was bad, very bad.

He sat behind his desk, facing both Mei and Onoki who sat on the other side on an armchair each. Danzo, meanwhile, stood next to the desk on his left, with a scowl on his face. The Hokage didn't blame him though, the situation certainly deserved the expression and much more.

The Mist's Jinchuriki of the Six-Tails had been attacked and lost.

The Stone's Jinchuriki of the Four-Tails had been attacked and lost.

Both of them roughly at the same time as the Invasion in the Leaf was taking place. 'That's no coincidence,' Hiruzen thought, disturbed. If this didn't prove that A's claims about someone controlling him were true, then the Hokage didn't know what could.

After all, Orochimaru was dangerous, yes, and he could take on a Jinchuriki if he tried hard enough, but he had been in Konoha at the time. Hiruzen also rather doubted that his former student had anyone under his control to pull off such a feat, let alone in two different Nations at the same time. No, there was something else at play here.

"Rather convenient, that the Cloud still has both of their Jinchuriki," Danzo pointed out and Hiruzen had to stop himself from reacting to that. His old friend was right, of course, but he could have pointed that out at a less inconvenient time.

The Hokage could almost see another war breaking out if any more tension was put on them. He also saw the same struggle behind Onoki's eyes, which brought Hiruzen a measure of relief. He had his suspicions, but this pretty much confirmed that the current Tsuchikage would very much like to avoid another war breaking out.

He guessed it made sense, the both of them had seen much in their long lives. The last thing they wanted to experience was the bloodshed that came from one. Especially in Onoki's case, he supposed, after what Iwa had suffered during the last one.

The same could not be said about Mei, however, who looked positively murderous.

He guessed that made sense too, the woman had barely gotten her country back. Her efforts had been focused on bringing a semblance of normality to it after so many years of being the Bloody Mist and now this happened. Mei's very position was in danger now.

After all, what kind of Kage lost a Jinchuriki?

It also didn't help that her village was weak enough after so many years of Civil War. They couldn't afford to lose an asset like that. Now there would be people judging her every move if she hadn't earned enough loyalty from the people under her. Hiruzen hoped she had, Mei certainly seemed to be a reasonable enough person to work with, if their previous interactions were anything to go by.

On the other hand, from the Hokage's side though, this development wasn't entirely bad. It only increased the value of Eiji's trade regarding Nuibari. If the Mist had lost so much power now, they would be even more happy with earning some back, even if there were some that would say a Legendary Sword wasn't on par with Jinchuriki.

With some luck, that would assuage some of Danzo's attitude or this meeting would be even worse than he was anticipating.

"I'm rather surprised that you shared this information with us, Onoki," Hiruzen mused, meaning every word. He wasn't sure how to take this token of… trust? coming from the Tsuchikage. After all, it revealed weakness on their side.

"I find myself wondering about that too," Mei voiced, letting go of her anger for a moment, even if the frown was still present as she regarded Onoki.

"This is greater than my pride," The diminutive man replied, sounding like it pained him to say as much. "Whoever is behind this is a threat, even more so if they are the same… "Madara" that A speaks of. That and… the last thing I want is another World Shinobi War," The man admitted, albeing with extreme reluctance, by the looks of it. For a moment, he looked like he wanted to add something else to that, but ultimately remained silent.

"For the moment," Danzo spoke and Hiruzen almost closed his eyes to wish for the man to express something that wouldn't cause the other leaders to snap. "I think you should focus on defending the Jinchuriki that you still have."

Mei's whole body twitched at that. Understandable, really, since the remaining Jinchuriki in Kirigakure was probably buried in the deepest, darkest hole they had been able to find. After all, he was Yagura Karatachi, the previous Mizukage and the man that had spearheaded the Bloody Mist.

Although, with the information that was coming to light as of late...

"I guess we should," Onoki agreed, pointedly ignoring Mei's reaction. The woman herself visibly calmed herself taking a deep breath in and nodding stiffly. "Any results in the investigation regarding the Cloud?" The Tsuchikage asked then, narrowing his eyes at the same time as the current Mizukage.

"It's going slow, as expected," Hiruzen informed them, closing his eyes for a moment. "However, what the Yamanaka have been able to verify so far makes us think he is telling the truth."

It was unfortunate, but even with A "willingly" letting them use the Yamanaka techniques on him to see if he was telling the truth, they simply couldn't trust that easily. Thus, Inoichi himself was checking that, making sure that what he saw in the Raikage's mind was actually the truth and he hadn't managed to find a way to fool the Mind Walker's approaches.

"Hn," Onoki grunted, clearly annoyed by the whole situation. "We must know that quickly. If they are not lying, then there's someone acting against all of us."

'Meaning that we could have a common enemy and not have to fight each other,' Hiruzen added in his mind, hearing what the Tsuchikage was saying and what he wasn't. Indeed, someone that all of them could direct their hostility towards would go a long way to avoid another war breaking out and appeasing those who wanted one.

For the moment, at least.

[}-o-{]

[Naruto Uzumaki]

"This sucks," He grumbled, closing his eyes, frowning and pouting. He was getting more and more annoyed the more time passed. Why was it so goddamn difficult to do this? 'Just imagine it, and then force it to become what you want it to be,' He replayed Eiji's words in his mind. Although, the Satou had clearly not added the mocking tone that Naruto did. "Just wait until you wake up, Eiji. I'll kick your ass for this."

"What are you complaining about?" A growling voice asked. Some time ago, the blond boy would have been scared shitless at the sound of it. Now though, it was just another part of his normal days. Well, as normal as a mountain-sized bunny-eared fox could be, that is. Which wasn't much, but the fact that he could put normal in the same sentence as that was weird enough. "I've had to live here for years and you start whining already?" The Fox said, unimpressed.

"It's not that!" Naruto denied, whining as he did so. "It's just that changing this god awful place to make it look nice is a pain in the ass!" For a moment, the Uzumaki wondered if Sasuke was having better luck than he. After all, they had both decided to tackle their Mindscapes at the same time so that they could talk about it afterwards.

For a moment, the Tailed Beast remained silent, before letting out a snort that Naruto wasn't sure if it was out of actual amusement or if it was mocking.

"So, that's what you've been doing all this time? I thought you were meditating or something. After all, nothing's changed in all your "visits", has it?" The Fox commented and the blonde felt his eyebrow twitch repeatedly. The worst part was that the demon wasn't wrong.

"I know that," Naruto mumbled lowly, his voice barely audible even if there wasn't much of anything to hear in the sewers they were in. "And things have changed, stupid fox," He added, not sounding particularly proud. After all, the only thing he'd managed to do was clean up the walls and the water a bit.

At least he'd found a way to change things in the Mindscape, he supposed. He just had to take what was already there and alter it a bit instead of trying to make something from scratch. Well, actually, Sasuke had been the one to find out that, but at least Naruto was having better luck at applying that knowledge.

That made it a draw, right?

He'd count it like that.

"Shouldn't have made a promise that you couldn't keep, Human," The Fox said behind him from inside his cage and Naruto flinched as if struck. "And I shouldn't have listened. It won't happen again," The being added with a growl.

"I can do this!" Naruto protested, standing and turning towards the beast. "Just you wait. This will be better looking than the outside when I'm done here, believe it!"

"And I'm supposed to believe it, why exactly?" The Fox asked and he grimaced. It had a point there. Deflating, Naruto looked around for a bit before turning to the orange-furred monster.

"Hey, furball," He started, ignoring both the question and the indignant "What?!" of the creature as he looked around at the sewers. "How would you change this for the better? I can't change much, apparently, I could barely clean the place up as it is. Any ideas?" He asked, frowning at the sight that surrounded him.

"So, not only are you incapable of what you said you would do, but now you want my help doing it? Wow, just wow," The Fox voiced, clearly unimpressed with his host.

"Could have just said no," Naruto grumbled to himself, still trying to think of something to do to improve the feeling of the sewer at least a bit.

"You could add some lights, at least," The Fox mocked and the blonde could almost see its snarl even without turning towards it. "The dark tunnels certainly aren't nice."

Naruto blinked and then blinked again. Then, he opened his mouth to point out that for all the talking he did, the Fox had ended up helping anyway. Ultimately though, he closed his mouth and just focused on trying to do as the beast said. After all, if interacting with Sasuke had taught him anything it was that when dealing with a person with an attitude one had to ignore that type of thing.

'This still isn't easy,' Naruto thought with a grimace. It had been a good while since Fox's suggestion and he still had made little progress. 'I have to shape the lights, after all. It isn't like cleaning, where I could just change colors and that was about-... Wait...'

Narrowing his eyes, he concentrated on something simple. Not making bulbs or anything of the sort. No. Instead, he just willed light to exist on the roof. After all, he didn't need anything to make a way for the light to appear, just make that light directly… right?

Turns out, it was exactly as he thought it would be. From where there definitely couldn't come, light appeared. Because, after all, this was his mind, not the real world. He could make whatever he wanted here. Whatever…

He frowned at where he'd put the light. Soon enough, the roof started bending. The curve on it turned flat and the circular, tube-like structure of the sewer changed into a square. After a moment, the thing looked more like a hall with water on the floor than a sewer.

"Oh?" The Fox exclaimed from behind Naruto, sounding interested. "So, finally got the hang of it?"

The blonde ignored the beast's mocking tone and grinned from ear to ear.

[}-o-{]

[Sasuke Uchiha]

He was frustrated.

Although, being fair, frustration was something he was familiar with. This time though, it was with how little progress he was making in training. That was something he wasn't familiar with. After all, he'd always been praised as a prodigy, even if nowhere near the levels Itachi had reached, nor Eiji for that matter.

However, this time, his progress was so little, so painfully slow, that he couldn't help but be frustrated. It'd been months since Orochimaru had marked him with his Cursed Seal. Months since Eiji had taken some of his time to help him work on his Mindscape to build defenses against the mark. He'd even been receiving constant checks and lessons from Yamanaka.

The results he'd gotten since then? A small, pitifully thin and glass-like barrier separating the rest of his Mindscape from the fake Orochimaru that took residence in him, together with the same purple flame/energy that Eiji had described from his own experiences. It was pathetic, really, that such a weak defense was the only thing that protected him from being controlled by the person that had orchestrated the Invasion Konoha had just survived.

The fake Orochimaru could easily break it too, to add salt to the wound. Sasuke knew because everytime he entered his Mindscape, he'd find the barrier broken and the shade of the Snake Sannin sitting right there, in the middle of the remaining shards. Every single time was like that, and he hated the smug look Orochimaru would send him. As if he was merely amused by his struggles to contain him.

Every single time, he'd have to repair the barrier and then walk around his mindscape for any change that might have been made and repair the damage. It was tedious, to say the least. Tedious and painful.

After all, his Mindscape was formed in the shape of the Uchiha Clan's district. The one from that night, to be exact. Silent, bathed in the light provided by the moon and covered in splashes of blood everywhere.

At least his mind hadn't conjured bodies.

The only silver lining in the whole place was a single, bright house that was located next to the home he'd grown up in. There, instead of the building that should have been, was Eiji and Naruto's house. In the middle of the nightly vision of his Mindscape, that one place was bathed in sunlight, making no sense whatsoever.

Where everywhere else was dark, in shades of blue - and purple, where the moonlight met blood - and silent, that one house was bright, colorful and he could almost hear the sound of the wind. Where everywhere else he felt the oppressive presence of his past, that house filled him with warmth that he'd become used to and hoped he would have for many years to come. He would almost smile whenever he approached that place.

Not now though, not when one of the inhabitants of the house was in a hospital bed without any certainty of being able to wake up.

Back to the present, however, he was engaging the part of his Mindscape routine that came after repairing damage, trying to fortify his defenses. Which was showing little progress, honestly. There was progress, yes, but it was so slow that it might as well have been nothing. It might take him years to have something that would contain the Shade of Orochimaru as Eiji had done.

The Satou's advice on the matter was less than helpful, but Sasuke guessed that made sense. After all, control of his Mindscape came so easily to Eiji that he couldn't very well explain how he did what he did. He just thought about getting it done and then he did.

"You should give up," Orochimaru told him from behind the barrier. "You are just wasting your time. Time that you could be using to get stronger."

The worst part was that he was right and he - and Sasuke - knew that. His progress was being stunted by the amount of work and effort and time that he had to dedicate to the defenses in his mind. If he weren't doing so, he probably would be much closer to Itachi's and Eiji's levels. Instead there he was, struggling to add even a milimeter to the barrier around the Cursed Mark's disturbance in his Mindscape.

Regardless, Sasuke would ignore Orochimaru's whispers. There was nothing the fake Sannin could say that would make him give up. The young Uchiha knew the consequences of the snake's plans and he would never facilitate them for him. He'd fight him all the way and remain weak if it meant that he never would have to see one of his friends in a hospital bed like Eiji was.

It would suck, as Naruto would say, but he'd make do by being weak if that was the case. Sasuke would hate every second of it, but he'd manage. He would ask for help regarding Itachi if it came to that. His revenge wasn't what was important.

No, it wasn't important at all.

He'd lost everything once already. He wouldn't do so again, he swore. The family he'd managed to build for himself, the friends he'd made… Those were the ones that mattered.

What good was revenge if he was alone after it?

He'd been alone once, and he refused to be alone again.

"I could help you," Orochimaru kept his attempts at undermining his resolution. A fool's errand if there ever was one. Sasuke wouldn't falter, of that he had no doubts.

The Uchiha imagined the Sannin going silent, pushing whatever he was saying away since he didn't care for what he was saying. Suddenly, fake Orochimaru's speech stopped reaching Sasuke's ears. Instead, the man's mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. Confused, the Sannin looked down, as if trying to see what was wrong.

'That… worked?' Sasuke thought to himself, blinking. 'That was… easy...' And then and there, he finally felt like he could make progress.

Then, he concentrated on something else. Just like before, he took something that he didn't want to deal with anymore, something that wasn't helping him, something that he didn't need. He took that and pushed it away from his mind.

In an instant, the blood on the walls and the ground around him disappeared.

Sasuke's lips curled up ever so slightly.

[}-o-{]

[Shikamaru Nara]

He looked around and he liked what he saw.

Most of the group was there, surprisingly. Team 8 and Team 10 were there together with Sakura. Even Hanabi had managed to attend the gathering, surprisingly enough.

Hinata was currently chatting with her sister off to the side. Ino was sitting right next to Shikamaru himself, reading through some of her Clan scrolls for information regarding Mindscapes, to help Naruto and Sasuke with the exercises that were currently keeping the two of them away. That was something that annoyed the Nara slightly, since the only thing the duo had shared regarding that was that it was a secret.

That annoyance was, however, much smaller than the worry he felt at the issue. After all, while he was no expert regarding the Mind Arts, he knew enough from what Ino had shared with him to be aware of the danger the smallest of problems in that field could cause. So, he kept his questions to himself until either the Uzumaki or the Uchiha had it under control.

Chouji, meanwhile, was sitting with Shino and, surprisingly, Kiba. The Akimichi and the Inuzuka were… well, not friends per se, but they were getting closer surprisingly fast. Shikamaru would have been worried for Chouji if he hadn't been witness to the rather sudden and astonishing change in the Inuzuka's attitude.

Despite that, however, Kiba still retained much of what made him Kiba, which was a relief. The last thing they needed was the boy acting just to fit in or for some other less than noble reason. It wouldn't have been well received, to say the least, at any other time but as things were, with the group's mood as down as it was…

Shikamaru would have been very displeased if this was just for a prank or something equally as insulting.

As for Sakura, she was sitting by herself, actually. Not because she was being excluded or anything of the sort though. The Haruno girl had arrived carrying a bunch of scrolls and books and settled in a corner of the Nara household's backyard to study. Apparently, she'd finally decided which path she wanted to follow and that was the path of the Medical Ninja.

Shikamaru had been pleased when he'd been told. He liked how well balanced the group was, even if he disliked viewing them in such a battle focused way. They were ninja, after all, and their lives revolved around battles. Like it or not, everything revolved around fights when it came to them.

'And that's why I'm studying this,' Shikamaru thought as he turned his attention down to the book on his lap. A book about Jutsu Creation. Next to him laid a small pile with more of those and on his other side, between Ino and him, rested a bunch of scrolls with information regarding the Nara Clan's jutsu. His father hadn't hesitated a second to provide them for Shikamaru, actually.

Shikaku had, however, pointed out that what he wanted to make was near impossible, when he'd asked. After all, most Nara Techniques involved using their shadows to restrain their opponent in some way. Moreover, they required an absurd amount of chakra to work. Thus, even if he managed to make what he wanted, it'd be a one time use technique at most and then it'd leave him out of whatever battle he was in.

However, that was perfectly fine for Shikamaru, really. After all, he was trying to create his own technique so that he'd have something to use if he was ever in a situation like the one he'd been in with that woman, Yugito. He'd been next to useless during that fight, so, what did it matter if he took himself out with his own technique? If he could make it strong enough to take someone strong with him too, then he'd consider it a win.

'I suddenly understand why Eiji looked so awful while preparing for the Final Test,' Shikamaru thought as he continued reading through the scrolls. Jutsu Creation was no joke, although he'd known that already.

Everything had to be taken into account. Every little piece of chakra the Jutsu required had to be accounted for and had to have a detailed path. The smallest of changes could have the energy explode inside the user's body. All hand seals had to flow perfectly with the chakra movements previously mentioned. And that was just to make the technique viable.

From there, one had to make the technique actually work, which, if the previous steps were hard, then that part was something else entirely. 'Either Eiji is with Jutsu Creation like Naruto is with Seals or he has been working on this stuff for a long time,' Shikamaru thought with a grimace.

"Ok, enough chatting," Chouji announced, standing up and dusting his pants. Judging by the grin on Kiba's face, the Inuzuka knew exactly what was coming. "Let's spar for a bit."

It still took Shikamaru off guard sometimes, how Chouji could sound eager for a spar when he'd been so shy about that a few years back. Not that it was bad, but it clashed spectacularly with not so distant memories that he had of the Akimichi. The boy had certainly come a long way.

"Would you mind if I train my bug's chakra transfer for a bit?" Shino asked, his voice soft and low as usual. The Aburame had, unsurprisingly, taken an interest in that branch of his clan's techniques. He'd even started training specifically with Naruto when the blond boy was around, since he was the only one that had the red chakra. Those training sessions usually didn't last long and were done sparingly though, since they did a lot of damage to Shino's bugs and whoever the chakra was transferred to.

"Sure," Kiba nodded, grinning still in place. "Taijutsu only then, how about that?" He asked Chouji, who quickly agreed.

"What do you think?" Shikamaru heard Hinata ask and turned to see the Hyuga heiress addressing her sister. Hanabi looked from her sibling towards the boys and back for a moment before nodding. "Great, let's spar for a bit ourselves."

"Will you use the Gentle Fist?" Sakura asked, also looking up from where she was studying. "Because if so, I was just reading about a technique to help with chakra points. I'd like to try it out."

Shikamaru wondered if that was the first time Sakura had actively looked to join a training session.

"Hm, that sounds alright," Hinata replied with a smile.

With a smile, the Nara heir turned back to his studies. Everyone was still working to get better it seemed. If anything, they were even more motivated.

'Was this how you felt all this time, Eiji?' Shikamaru wondered, his mood dropping slightly.