Chapter 21

A half dead Jiraiya arrived in Konoha three days after his duel with Taro. His toad carriers were most displeased that the Toad Sage had refused medical attention in any one of the small villages they'd passed by.

Paranoia could be a bad thing. It had almost killed Jiraiya.

The lead toad carrying his summoner took the old ninja directly to the hospital, even though Jiraiya insisted on seeing the Hokage.

The ANBU obviously informed the Hokage about Jiraiya's unusual reappearance, wounded and raving and carried in by a bunch of massive toads.

As the Hokage walked into the hospital, he heard a recapitulation of the raving. Apparently Jiraiya had killed a man who had killed Orochimaru. And he'd been the dead man's captive. And the Grass ninja was 'one scary motherfucker.'

The comments about a Grass ninja caught Sarutobi's interest. Naruto had assumed an identity there as…Taro.

Sarutobi arrived at the top floor, in the secure wing. Jiraiya had a lot of enemies, many of them husbands or former husbands of women Jiraiya had 'entertained,' and Sarutobi didn't want his spymaster killed while asleep in a drug-induced stupor.

The Hokage watched the medic nin repairing Jiraiya's injuries. He overheard that it would take some time for the ninja's bones to heal, but they they had begun knitting together muscle and flesh already.

The Hokage walked into the room.

Jiraiya, even under the haze of pain medications, tried to talk.

"Stop, my student. I heard bits and pieces of your ravings. I will try to see what makes sense. You claim Orochimaru is dead?"

"The toads confirmed it. Manda is despondent," Jiraiya sounded smarter when he was on morphine it seemed even if he was slurring his words.

The Hokage was quiet for a long while. "I suppose you shouted this to everyone you met?"

"Pretty much."

The Hokage frowned. What good was a spymaster if he couldn't keep a secret? Orochimaru's unexpected death opened up some complications, some positive, some less so.

The biggest problem was that Orochimaru had attacked Hidden Leaf, failed, and then been killed by someone other than a Hidden Leaf ninja. It made the village look weak and foolish – if the story got out. Which Jiraiya had apparently done.

"Who claims to have killed him?"

"Bastard Grass ninja who kidnapped me…."

Sarutobi's eyes went wide. This could very well be Naruto, the same boy who likely destroyed the grocer who'd contributed to the loss of his leg. The Hokage nodded at the medical attendants and they quickly left the room. Jiraiya was stable enough for confidential talk.

"His name?"

"Tako… Tado?"

"Taro? Taro of the River?"

Jiraiya nodded a bit. "That's it."

"You say you killed this man, the one who claimed to have killed Orochimaru?"

"Fucker broke my pelvis. He was going for my cannon and the gunner's mates with a bloody kunai…."

The Hokage rolled his eyes. Such lines were amusing in a filthy novel, but not in a serious conversation.

"Are you sure he's dead? Really dead. I am going to need a highly accurate description of the battle, Jiraiya."

"Why?"

"I believe it is possible that this Taro killed Orochimaru. I do not believe, however, that you killed him."

"I fucking did," the Toad Sannin shouted. Apparently morphine made him more profane than usual.

"Did he bleed? Did you see him bleed?"

"I blasted his shoulder good. Lots of blood…."

That had Sarutobi stumped. Puppets, as he assumed Naruto to be using, didn't bleed.

"Let me tell you a story, my student. Listen carefully, then we will compare notes. When Orochimaru sequestered me during the battle a few months back, I began losing badly. Then I vanished. I still don't know how. When I was conscious again, I was sitting inside the Hokage Monument talking to this Taro of the River. He had some harsh words for me…but he also called me Old Man. Only one other person has dared call me that…Naruto. I believe this Taro is Naruto's alter ego…or is perhaps a puppet of Naruto's design…."

"No," Jiraiya said. "Not my godson. The bastard's first questions were about Naruto… I don't understand."

"Sleep, Jiraiya. We will speak again later. I have much to consider about your story. I also need to see if I can tamp down the rumors you've started…."

"Good luck with that."

"I know."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

A farmer with a cart hooked up to a stubborn mule walked slowly through Earth Country on his way to River Country. He was nearly at the Earth/Grass border.

He'd already sent his colleague, 'Burning the Hills,' ahead to find a couple of likely places to get situated. Of all the places Naruto had ever lived, he liked River Country the best. Given the chance, he opted to return there over spending time in the resorts of Fire Country or the beauty of Tea Country or any other place he'd known.

There was just something liberating about the place.

Naruto had left a fully articulated puppet in his stead back at the farm. There were a team of Shadow Clones to run that puppet…and enough to spare in case urgent information was discovered. One could just pop and Naruto would have the information immediately.

The last six months had woken Naruto to the fact that he needed to delegate. He tried to keep direct control over as many puppets as possible. He tried to do it all…but it wasn't working. Now he'd arrived at using Shadow Clones to monitor his spying puppets. He had infiltrators, with deep backgrounds, in eight villages in Lightning Country. He placed several in Wind Country, including one right in Hidden Sand. He was gathering information on the other jinchuuriki. Not every country was as cavalier with their secret weapons as Hidden Leaf, Cloud, and Sand. Some ninjas actually knew how to practice secrecy and deception.

Naruto walked to the side of his mule, but suddenly tugged on its halter to stop. There were some odd chakra flowing around in the woods to the south.

A ninja battle.

Naruto was perfectly capable of holding his own in any battle…hell, against even a Sannin he could paralyze a person and take over their body as an unwilling puppet. It wasn't quite mind control – there were some ninja who could do that – but it would be very devastating for a bunch of bandits or low-level ninja to suddenly have to fight against their own.

He led the mule and his cart off the road to a shady area. He tied the mule to a tree and went to investigate.

A lone ninja, masked, battled against three others. It appeared that another three were already dead or immobilized. Naruto stood close to a tree and masked his chakra as best he could. That skill was his greatest breakthrough in the last six months; he'd made progress on other fronts, but he'd done the most with chakra masking.

The masked ninja was skilled. He used two short swords to block and attack his three enemies. He was graceful dodging a ninjutsu attack…some sort of water bullet. He hacked and slashed and made it look graceful.

One of the three fell to a slash across his throat. The two remaining attackers intensified. They saw the writing on the wall. If they were to die they would take their killer with them.

Naruto saw the masked ninja turn his attention to the better of the two remaining ninja. That left an opening for the other ninja to pounce.

When the long sword arced, Naruto decided to toss his hat into the ring…just a bit. He attached a chakra string to the ninja's hand and tugged a bit, just a bit for the lethal blow to bounce off the masked ninja's armor.

It got the masked man's attention…and his would-be killer wound up with a gaping throat wound.

The one-on-one battle took a few minutes. The last remaining unmasked ninja was quite skilled with a blade. He also used lightning affinity chakra to punch up his attacks.

But the masked ninja was winning, slowly but surely. It was an impressive battle to watch.

When the masked ninja delivered a killing blow, he said, "I'm sorry. You were very skilled." He actually sounded apologetic. For a ninja, it was nothing strange to admire your opponent's strengths.

But…Naruto concentrated on that voice. It was familiar. He'd heard it for years from one of his students, Number One. It was good to know he was still alive.

Naruto watched Number One immediately transition from battle to clean up. He sliced off one of his opponents' heads.

Naruto decided to see how his old student was doing…without compromising his current identity. "Hey, what are you doing there?" Naruto used the Earth Country accent he'd developed over the last six months.

At that Number One looked up, startled. His hand was ready to throw a kunai before he recognized that a mere civilian, a dirty farmer, was talking to him.

"Do not concern yourself. This man is a criminal from Waterfall Country. I am a bounty hunter of sorts…."

"Do you have to hack their heads off?"

"I must prove these criminals are dead, master farmer. Now, if you'll let me get back to my work."

"Yeah, yeah. Gruesome work. Bah. Give me a patch of daikon any day." Naruto walked back to his mule and continued on his way.

Number One was well, still alive, and practicing his desired trade. Naruto had done a small, nameless service for his former student in saving him from a savage sword blow. It felt nice.

Perhals Number Three would be glad to know that Number One was fairing so well. The hunter nin life was a tough one.

But his student seemed to thrive. Six-on-one and winning? Very nice work, even if Naruto couldn't say much for the boy's common sense. A ninja typically didn't plan to have these kinds of confrontations. But Number One was always more about trapping and genjutsu: if a trap failed, then he just might wind up with a whole lot of angry ninja on his hands.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Thirty months pass.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto walked up to a civilian house, knocked on the yelled, and received a shouted admittance. He walked inside, just to be attacked…by a soggy toy thrown at his head.

Number Three's son was less than a year old, and he liked to stick everything he touched in his mouth, but he was also highly accurate in hitting whatever he wanted. Naruto had been pelted by toys, soft foods, soggy bits of clothing, you name it.

He found he liked being, as Number Three jokingly put it, Uncle Naruto to the little sprog. The kid had the better features of Number Three (cheeks and eyes) and his civilian wife (hair and ears). The little boy was doted upon and loved…and it just made Naruto happy to see it, normalcy.

Today was the twenty-seventh birthday of his covering identity here in River Country…so, of course, Number Four insisted on holding a party. A big party. Naruto's exploits in the last few years training and testing techniques against masses of bandits and missing nin had netted them some fair amount of ryo…which they had used to purchase all this land.

Number Three enjoyed playing the role of a wealthy, minor daimyo, holding court over the farmers and merchants whose interests fell within his land.

Naruto was here, of course, as the elder of two brothers. The wealthier and more desirable one. He was being put, as Number Three said, onto the meat market for perusal.

In reality, gossip parties like this one – for seeing and being seen – were excellent occasions to gather rumors and unconfirmed intelligence. They were also fairly useful for disseminating information, too.

Naruto had just returned from two months in Wave County spent in one of his bunkers. It was hard…nay, impossible…to design techniques to fight against people one had only ever heard described. He had books filled with ideas, some of which actually worked. But very little of it felt natural.

Three years spent planning, growing stronger, developing new techniques. Or rather turning old techniques into stronger, more finished attacks. He had a full complement of anti-Sasori techniques now. He'd turned the ghost stories of his youth into tools to use against the puppeteer. The rumors of human puppets, and one who wielded metallic sand, were probably just rumors, but Naruto was ready if they were true. He was ready with an army. He had gotten much better at crafting heartstones for his puppets. He had developed new poisons. He had put together smaller and smaller micropuppets.

And he had learned some ninjutsu…and stopped hiding in bunkers all the time. Naruto, even without hauling out some of the puppets he kept in scrolls, or releasing heartstones he always carried on his person, was a fucking tough fighter.

He might be missing a left leg…which was a vulnerability…but no one in the last decade or so had ever managed to turn it against him. Damn that foolish Hokage!

Naruto stopped the grumpy thoughts and sat down to play with his little 'nephew,' Usagi. The other guests would be directed outside to the rear terraces. Naruto could spend some time inside, getting into character like some sort of kabuki entertainer.

"Naruto," a woman's voice said, "it's so good to see you."

"Koenigii, a pleasure. I can't believe you let him throw this horrible party."

"He loves to entertain, what can I say?" As much as Number Three loved his wife, she did not know about who Naruto really was. She did know that her husband was a retired ninja, though, but Naruto's secrets were his own. She thought the man was merely an older adoptive brother of her husband.

"Am I very early?"

"Not for this thing. The invitations say one o'clock. But the gauche start showing at noon."

"Thankfully I didn't get an invite, just a verbal 'show up then' kind of thing."

"Yes, for having money, my husband hasn't much adapted to its strictures."

"Unlike your family, he did not come from money." Koenigii was the youngest daughter of a local daimyo, child number 17 of 19. She had to marry well or she wouldn't have had a pot to piss in.

That was when Number Three walked into the room. "Naruto, how nice of you to come early. Have some lunch?"

"Thank you, Seiiki. I would enjoy that."

"Grab up that handful of trouble and let's find some food."

The meal was pleasant. Koenigii talked about some of the guests who would be coming. Seiiki mocked them. Usagi put everything within reach in his mouth. If it wasn't food, he'd pull it out and throw it. Hard. Usually at Naruto.

Instead of feeling irritation, it made Naruto feel…joy. It was a fun distraction, to keep from thinking about an uncertain future.

He was powerful in a military sense, but Madara or Pain would likely beat him in a straight fight. He worried about the power he was trying to accumulate in other disciplines: intelligence power, economic power (such as this estate run by Number Three), and eventually political power. The strongest ninja in the world couldn't fight very well if the power-that-be decided to starve him out, deprive him of resources, use artillery to bombard his likely locations. Political power, such as his identity of a Tea Country warehouse manager getting elected village mayor, took time to build…but then it began to repay the investment (maybe).

Too many moving pieces, too many ways to go.

Should he try to out-shinobi these Akatsuki? Or should he engineer an embargo on Rain Country, where all the rumors put these strangely powerful ninja at various times and places? Or invent a war between Earth and Rain? Those Rock ninja were such bastards it wouldn't take much provocation.

No, this was better, simpler. Getting pelted with silverware and having a nice, restful meal.

"So, which of these young ladies coming are on the hunt for a husband?"

Koenigii just laughed. "For someone of sufficient means, like yourself, my brother-in-law…all of them."

The young ladies, looking to impress, would serve up their best stories, the best fodder. Naruto found all these people throwing themselves at him…distasteful. But he had to gather intelligence…and sometimes gossip was more suggestive than cold, hard fact.

The world had changed. It was hard keeping track of things some days. Conventional truths weren't always useful any more.

Things were different.

Naruto was now 18 years old, even if his character was 27. Jiraiya of the Sannin had been the Fifth Hokage in Hidden Leaf for just over two years. The legend of Taro of the River got bigger with every passing month. Number Three had taken a public name – Namikaze Seiiki, a fairly common surname in these parts but meant more as a tribute to Naruto's true heritage – and settled on a large tract of land in River Country with his wife and nine month year old son, effectively retiring as a ninja.

But in fact serving as the deepest cover type of operative.

It was all to a purpose. Sasori still breathed air he should not be entitled to. Naruto hadn't invented a Pain-killer or Madara-killer even after years of trying. The military power seemed too fragile, too little as Naruto began to understand the wider world.

That hadn't been an easy conclusion to draw. But Naruto had exhausted what he knew of military might. He'd even had a fucking visit with the Kyuubi no Kitsune. The short answer: the beast was useless for Naruto's purposes save for permitting Naruto an almost limitless amount of chakra.

Even that came at a cost. Naruto had to fight all the time to maintain excellent chakra control. If he went a day without using chakra cables, the next day was twice as hard to work the technique. Plus, aside from the Kyuubi in his mind addressing Naruto as 'a damned cripple,' when Naruto attempted to test the demonic chakra – as Gaara had done at the Chuunin Selection Exams – his body was wracked with pain, specifically the stump of his left leg. It was almost as if the Kyuubi was attempting, and failing, to regrow the leg.

The Kyuubi's power was useless for the puppeteering lifestyle…and for someone with a massive disability.

These three years hadn't yielded much. The killer techniques hadn't materialized. He seemed stuck in a rut. He maintained his vigilance with a wide spying network, but there hadn't been a single blip on the Sasori front.

But the ninja would pop up sometime soon. The jinchuuriki were out there. Naruto was having all of them, save for the Seven Tail that he still hadn't managed to track down, watched.

Number Three, his wife, and child accompanied Naruto out of doors. The guests were already here. Naruto, introduced as "Namikaze Yon or Naruto to his friends" (a little joke of Number Three's), met with every buxom woman in the crowd. He heard many, many stories. Ninja exploits tended to be particularly bandied about in civilian areas…whereas ninja tended to tell mocking stories of their opponents or their political masters, Hokages and daimyos.

"My older brother just came back from a ninja village, you know," a young blue haired girl exclaimed, twittering the whole time. "The Village Hidden in the Waterfall. It sounded so…interesting."

"Really," 'Yon' said. "Is he a trader or a merchant of some type?"

"Yes, he was buying animal skins to make into leather. It was just total luck he heard about Hidden Waterfall and their need to sell a mass of skins. He couldn't take any pictures of course, as they insisted it was a military location and very secret. He only got to see a little bit of the place, but he said it was massive. A couple thousand people could live inside the caves they use."

"A village inside caves. That sounds very uncomfortable," 'Yon' said, playing up his role as a young nouveau-riche noble.

"You'd think so, but he said it was very nice. They somehow got light in from outside. And he just took in everything. All the ninja everywhere. He'd never seen so many…all different kinds of headbands…."

Like a good noble, time to flaunt some knowledge…and verify if this girl was just making up stories out of whole cloth. "Really? I thought each kind of headband belonged to a different village…."

"I don't know about that. But my brother described a few of them. They sounded very different…except all of them had a long line running through the middle of the design."

Naruto's first thought was 'missing ninja.' This was an interesting tip. "Perhaps. If I ever get up that way, I'll try to see if they'd give me a tour." That got the girl laughing, as ninjas didn't give tours. "Can I get you another drink?" 'Yon' asked.

The party continued for hours.

Indeed, it was growing dark before Number Three got efficient in 'suggesting' that people head off for the night. It had been a garden party during the afternoon…not a dinner party.

Dinner was for 'family' only. As Naruto was digging into the main course, roasted fish and vegetables, he got a blast of information in his mind from a dispelled Shadow Clone.

The spy network had turned up a lead at long last. The One Tail jinchuuriki, Sabaku no Gaara, had been kidnapped. The puppet assigned to Suna had actually caught sight of Sasori's battle puppet.

"Seiiki, can I talk to you?"

"Is everything all right?" Number Three stood and began moving from the dinner table.

In the hallway leading to the main door, Naruto explained the new information. Seiiki looked apologetic and began to speak, but Naruto waved him quiet.

"This is no longer your fight. You have a child and this cover to maintain. I will handle the battle. You work on the wealth accumulation. You are working on another type of power for our plans."

"Be careful, sensei."

"As much as I can."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

It was only hours from River Country into Wind…and a few more hours to meet up with the Shadow Clone attempting to track Gaara's kidnappers.

The Shadow Clone doing the tracking dispelled. They were in a cave. As Naruto assimilated the memories, he realized he was close, very close, only two kilometers away.

He began to run as he prepared mentally for battle. Sasori was likely very close…as well as his Akatsuki partner. The puppeteer used to be partnered with Orochimaru, and had been partnered with that terrorist bomber from Hidden Rock before Naruto captured Itachi…now, who knew who the partner might be?

He cataloged his resources. He had a variety of puppets in scrolls. He had heart stones in a wide variety of styles. He had poisons and micropuppets and some devastating sealing array monstrosities and a few special surprises designed for someone like Sasori.

He had the Flowing Red Death. It had worked against Kisame and Itachi…but Sasori was likely a whole class above those other ninja. It was a last resort…. He tried not to think of how badly things would have to go before needing to use that technique.

He ran. He cleared his mind. The longer these bastards had control of Gaara the less likely a good outcome was possible. He fought the battle in his head and hoped that the Art of War would serve him well this day.

As Naruto arrived at the cavern entrance, a blonde ninja emerged. Deidara, if Itachi's descriptions were accurate.

"Another puppeteer, yeah? My art is better than anything you can put together, jinchuuriki."

Sasori knew about Naruto as a puppeteer. Naruto hadn't been sure…but now it was obvious. The spymaster who had captured Number Two would have extracted everything possible before killing her.

"I've studied your art, as well, Rock Ninja. Perhaps you'll like my advances." Naruto swiped blood across a sealing scroll and threw the thing at Deidara…a second later, a startled Kabuto appeared in a poof of smoke. When he was fifteen feet away from Deidara when he hit the ground, the hundreds of exploding seals on Kabuto's body all exploded at the same time. Naruto was a good ways a way and it still threw him off his feet.

Deidara had been preparing a clay constrosity – an explosive of some sort – but he was blown into the hard stone around the cavern's mouth. The half formed explosive remained on the ground. Deidara was bleeding from his mouth and ears.

Naruto went on the offensive. His chakra strings invaded Deidara's body. It paralyzed him…and then brought him up and began moving him as if he were severely injured. Something darkened the cavern entrance and then waved at Deidara. The former Rock ninja limped over…slowly, shaking a bit and weaving. The blood was genuinely cascading from his mouth, nose, and ears.

He was dying from the shock of the explosion. But, as long as he was alive, Naruto could use him.

Other chakra strings began etching on Deidara's flesh underneath his cloak. He wouldn't be able to cover the Akatsuki member in 500 seals, as Kabuto had been, but he'd managed a few before Deidara reached the end of the line.

It wasn't a surprise when the plan failed. Sasori was good enough to detect the foreign chakra in Deidara body. Naruto didn't know exactly what had happened, but he felt Deidara's body almost disintegrate. From where the chakra strings had been, Deidara lost the entire left side of his body.

A few moments later, Naruto had his answer.

A pale ninja in a black cloak emerged at the mouth of the cavern.

He wasn't human, not any longer. He had a preserved sheen to him. The rumors about Sasori's experiments with dead ninja were true. Even when he'd been a mere kid visitng Suna once a week, people in the hidden village passed around stories like this as campfire fodder to scare the kids. But it wasn't a horror story.

It was true.

When a blast of blackish-grayish sand erupted from his cloak pockets, Naruto had his final confirmation. The Third Kazekage had been turned into a puppet. Naruto had long prepared for this possibility.

Naruto drew a long, thin scroll from his pocket. His already bleeding thumb wicked across it. Ugly matte black stones tumbled to the ground. Naruto attached chakra strings to them and threw a volley of six – each as heavy as an ancient style cannonball – at the human puppet.

The metal grains flew out of their controlled attacking formation and stuck inches deep to each of the magnets. The magnets thudded with some force against the human puppet – and stuck. The human puppet was almost knocked off his head with the force.

It wasn't a perfect defense. Naruto had to duck and dodge the smaller amount of metallic sand that flew at him. He knew better than to let any of it touch him. A few hundred grains of that stuff, properly controlled, could flay the skin off his bones.

More chakra propelled magnets into the stream of the sand. Naruto used up another five magnets capturing what he could.

He could only hope that the human puppet was out of sand, that he could destroy this puppet, and move onto its master…but that was too optimistic.

Sasori was still inside the cavern, of course. He was a thinking opponent. He'd just seen one of his most powerful creations neutralized.

The human puppet withdrew back into the cave. Naruto had his remaining dozen magnets arrayed around his body in case of another, sudden attack.

But, this time…this time a familiar, hateful visage filled the doorway. It was Sasori himself in his battle puppet.

"You have the luck of the damned, Uzumaki."

"Shall we see what kind of destruction we can create?" Naruto asked.

The Sasori puppet shook its massive head from side to side. "Such a stupid ninja, but such good fortune.

"I myself made it impossible to continue my important work. We're down quite a few rings thanks to you…but we needed Deidara's for our festivities today…and I just shredded it with my puppet's metallic sands.

"Your cleverness in getting me to attack my colleague has saved you this day. I must withdraw immediately, but I will enjoy watching you wither and die very soon. I'll be back for Gaara later. For now, he's yours. Try not to let him die. We still need the Shukaku."

The massive puppeteer was surprisingly fast. He disappeared even as all of his instincts were telling him to engage pursuit. But…but. Gaara was still inside. Why was he left inside without a fight? Naruto wouldn't put it past Sasori to have trapped the place.

Was there some other reason, something more sinister?

He shelved the question and pulled out a heartstone and gave form to an Earth-type Puppet Clone. Such an affinity would enable it to better detect and avoid any traps Sasori might have laid.

He took over control and sent the puppet inside. Within minutes Naruto found and had his puppet disable six traps, none lethal, but all would have been severely injuring.

Gaara was deep inside the cave and not conscious. It was an odd room, set up for a ritual of some sort. The puppet surveyed the room, allowing Naruto to get some idea of its shape and dimensions, and checked again for traps.

The puppet scooped up Gaara and carried him out. The small young man shifted a bit when he entered the dying light of the afternoon.

Naruto formed up a pair of Shadow Clones – which were far less resistant than his Puppet Clones and might have been injured disarming a trap – and had them carry Gaara. He did this to maintain the secrecy of the Puppet Clone technique.

When he dispelled the puppet, he stooped over and picked up the heartstone. One made for permanency could be reused again and again; it was only those made quickly for the Flowing Red Death technique that had a single use.

Naruto and his unconscious rescuee set out into the desert, not toward Suna. The place and its protections didn't exactly inspire confidence at this time. No, Naruto would take Gaara – the current Kazekage – to a bolthole to rest up and heal. And to answer some questions.