Been a while. Good to see everyone.

/~/

By the end of the week Naruto found himself curious and wanting to meet the mysterious Senyaku. Orochimaru's 'notes' were a veritable goldmine of subtle – and not so subtle – fuuton manipulations. He was gratified to see Orochimaru had already taught him one; the ability to direct airflow around his body by pushing a thin layer of chakra just above his skin. It'd greatly helped his proficiency with the Meseigakure no jutsu as well. Tertiary benefits.

The scroll had been the genesis of a few ideas, but Naruto's control wasn't nearly at the level it needed to be to pull them off yet. He was more liable to slice his own head off, and there was no guarantee the Kyuubi could fix that.

Regretfully, he snapped the scroll closed and shoved the kaze no yaiba to the furthest reaches of his mind. The A-ranked technique was the highest level of pure fuuton manipulation the scroll described, but he had a long way to go. Wind was wild and taming it was an exercise in patience. There was a reason most fuuton ninjutsu either had some element of shape manipulation or required the use of fans to properly control. It diluted the strength of the techniques but made them more accessible.

You'll get there, Naruto told himself. He sat in the eye of a storm; random gusts of wind buffeted him from all sides as his clones practiced the first two techniques the scroll outlined. The first was simple, a gale that could alternatively knock over a person or deflect thrown weapons. According to the scroll, some Suna shinobi had been proficient enough to use it in conjunction with their own thrown weapons – drastically increasing their lethality – but Orochimaru had apparently seen little use for it. Naruto agreed.

The second, and its derivative later in the scroll, was far more interesting: an inverted gust which, in the hands of the right user, was powerful enough to yank an enemy forward off their feet. Airborne, vulnerable, Naruto saw Orochimaru impaled on his jian. He blinked, and it was a faceless man in a black cloak covered with red clouds.

Naruto shook himself a second later, the hopeful vision of the future fading. Orochimaru would not be so easily killed, certainly not by a technique he'd undoubtedly already mastered. Akatsuki's leader – Pein, his mind supplied – would be much the same.

Should probably take Sasuke up on that sparring offer, he thought. The idea of being stronger than Orochimaru in two short years was nearly laughable. But not all fights were won through strength alone. Surprise, timing, teamwork; all contributing factors. And even then they'd have to be nearly perfect.

"You'll find a way," Naruto murmured to himself.

His eyes drifted from clone to clone as they parsed their way through the techniques, bodies alternatively being pushed back or pulled forward in turn. A tiny bead of hope warmed him at the sight. His previous thirty-six clone limit had grown; he could now hold thirty-nine clones active while still participating in the world outside the training hall. He could conceivably train for between twelve to sixteen hours per day, which added over three weeks to his training every day on average. The speedy uptick in his ability to manage more clones was just one indicator of his growing strength. His comfort with the kenjutsu Orochimaru had begun teaching him was rapidly increasing, though he'd barely be considered an adept by the Sannin's exacting standards.

Of course, he wouldn't be able to keep that many clones active when he finally – finally – began hunting Akatsuki, but he'd take what he could get in the meantime. He was torn between irritation at his new team taking to teamwork worse than Ino and Kiba had once taken to Yamato, and being ashamedly grateful for the extra weeks of training he was able to squeeze in as a result.

"While you will not yet be hunting Itachi's ilk, you will find many shinobi in Akatsuki's ranks greater than you are now. Sending you to them unprepared, knowing you will likely die serves none of our goals. Your training is not yet finished, and teaching is a training all its own."

Orochimaru's warning hadn't fallen on deaf ears. There was a creeping unease – he refused to name it fear – at the thought of leaving the relative safety of the base.

Shaking his head, Naruto breathed in sharply and let a trickle of the Kyuubi's chakra bleed through the seal. It banished his fear as easily as it cast away his aches and pains after a long day, and he refocused in time to notice the door to his sanctum open silently.

Forty pairs of violet eyes snapped to regard Kabuto as he skulked into the room, and Naruto felt a dark glee as the older boy's smirk slipped from his face at the sight.

"What do you want?" one of his clones grunted.

Kabuto's eyes slid to the clone who'd spoken and the oily smirk returned. "Orochimaru-sama requests your presence," he said. "There's a visitor he wants to…introduce you to."

Naruto rose, knowing it was an order despite Kabuto's words. Much as he preferred to send a clone, Orochimaru wouldn't be pleased if he figured it out.

The older boy's eyes met his as he threaded through the throng of clones. "Lead the way," Naruto told him, meeting his gaze and doing his best not to clench a fist at his side. He may have evened the playing field with the Kyuubi, but Naruto knew Kabuto was far from afraid of him.

He will be.

The low light glinted off Kabuto's glasses as he turned, exposing his back, and Naruto let his claws dig into his palm. The Kyuubi's influence whispered in his mind to drive a knife in the sadistic scientist's spine, but he quelled the urge with what was becoming a practiced ease. Soon.

They stepped into the hall and made a left, Naruto being sure to always keep Kabuto a half step in front of him. In the blessed silence, his mind whirled. Kabuto, while a subordinate, wasn't Orochimaru's errand boy. The work he did was supposedly integral to the Sannin's operations; he would've sent a summon or one of the mercenaries who'd not been killed in the invasion.

So why does Kabuto want to be the one retrieving me? Naruto grimaced. Can't be anything good, he thought, and forcibly stopped his mind from conjuring possibilities by casting his thoughts back toward his clones.

"I do hope you like our guest, Naruto-kun," Kabuto said after a minute. "She's so looked forward to seeing you again."

Again?

He wasn't able to further contemplate who he'd be meeting as Kabuto opened the nearest door and motioned for Naruto to enter. Ignoring the deceptively placid smile, he stepped forward into a well-lit room that served as Orochimaru's personal study. It was lined from floor to ceiling with shelves packed tightly with scrolls. The only furniture was two sturdy chairs and a table with a teapot perched on it.

Orochimaru sat across from a woman with all-too familiar purple hair. Her lips parted in a lazy grin as she shifted to regard him fully, her trench coat shifting to reveal the mesh bodysuit beneath. Naruto's heart dropped to his feet.

"Ah, Naruto-kun," the Sannin said as he put down a cup of tea. "Allow me to reintroduce you to Mitarashi Anko. My first apprentice. Anko-chan, I'm sure you remember Naruto-kun from the Chuunin Exams."

"Of course, Orochimaru-sama," she nearly purred. Her pale brown eyes looked Naruto up and down, amusement glittering within easy to see. "How ya been, kid?"

/~/

He stood, hands clenched behind his back hard enough to cut off his circulation. "He told me to come and find him when my life meant more to me than staying in Konoha," he said, tasting bile in his throat at the paraphrased words.

Across from him, the Sandaime sat rigidly, hands folded on the table in front of him. Two ANBU flanked him on either side, masks inscrutable. The proctors from the first and second exam stood off to the side with a sickly-looking man who Naruto hadn't seen before.

"And then he dispelled your clone, Naruto-kun?" Sarutobi asked.

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Hmm." The Sandaime took a long drag from his pipe. "It's fortunate you used a kage bunshin, then."

The thought had occurred to Naruto as well, and he felt a bead of cold sweat on the back of his neck. There was no telling what would've happened if he'd gone to investigate Kabuto himself.

"Convenient, more like."

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he turned his head to look at the second examiner. She glared back at him, the barely concealed loathing in her eyes nearly making him take a step back on reflex. The first examiner laid a hand on her shoulder and bent down to whisper in her ear but she shook him off.

"Anko," Saurtobi said, a long-suffering note in his voice. "I allowed you into this debrief because I hoped you might have meaningful context to provide. Do not make me regret it."

"You want context?" Anko asked. "Here's some: this is the second time the brat has met Orochimaru and the second time he's 'gotten away.' Why was he even spying on a competitor, a supposed Konoha shinobi, in the first place? Sounds like a real nice cover for a meeting."

"What the hell are you accusing me of?" Naruto bit out.

"You know exactly what I'm saying, gaki," she spat at him. "What else did he promise you, huh? A couple dead Konoha citizens who looked at you funny?"

Naruto barely kept himself from going for his knives. "You don't fucking–"

"Enough!" the Sandaime roared. His chakra suddenly blanketed the room. Naruto tore his eyes off the proctor to see the old man with a white-knuckled grip on the table as he stared Anko down. "Naruto is not under suspicion here. I had hoped the three of us could work together to parse Orochimaru's motivations, but clearly I was mistaken." He nodded to the first proctor who placed a much firmer grip on Anko's shoulder and tried to steer her from the room.

She shook him off again, sent one last baleful glare at Naruto, bowed as shallowly as could be considered polite, and stormed from the room. Sarutobi's sigh drew Naruto's gaze back from the door she had disappeared through.

"Follow her, please, Ibiki. It's best she's not alone right now," the Sandaime said.

"Hokage-sama," the first proctor said, etching a much deeper bow before making his own exit.

"I apologize, Naruto-kun. Anko was Orochimaru's apprentice before he defected, and the manner in which he treated her left her with some enduring…hang-ups," Sarutobi told him. "Unfortunately, despite the loyalty she's shown time and again, many are suspicious of her." He raised a pointed eyebrow that Naruto couldn't help but understand the meaning of, though he didn't appreciate the comparison.

He swallowed his displeasure with the same firmness he used to ignore the glares of short-sighted villagers. "I understand, Hokage-sama."

/~/

Kabuto's voice dragged Naruto back to the present. "What a lovely reunion," he said quietly. Naruto didn't have to look at him to know the sickeningly smug look in his eyes. He'd seen it every time he walked into his lab for 'treatment.'

Naruto immediately tried to school his features into something resembling blank even as his mind reeled. "Why did you want to introduce me, Orochimaru-sama?" he asked, dragging his eyes to the snake Sannin. There was no identifiable emotion in the older man that he could define, but that didn't mean he wasn't as amused as Anko and Kabuto clearly were with the situation.

"Anko-chan remains my greatest asset in Konoha," Orochimaru said. "Her information is invaluable to our organization, and she comes bearing news."

Anko, who was still staring at Naruto with a look in her eyes that was very nearly hungry, straightened under the praise. "Jiraiya has left the village, supposedly for one of his 'book tours,' this one beginning in River Country and taking him north to Grass over the course of several weeks."

Naruto quelled the traitorous hope that bloomed in his chest. Finding the Grass Country base was next to impossible for anyone who didn't already know where it was, and that was assuming he was even looking for Naruto in the first place. The most likely best-case scenario was that Jiraiya wouldn't attack first and ask questions later, but there was no guarantee of that given Naruto's A-ranked status.

"I've seen a lot of shinobi go the way he did, kid. Good shinobi…I've had to cut a few of 'em down myself."

No, he couldn't bet on Jiraiya.

No one else had said anything while he'd been thinking, and Naruto thought Orochimaru even looked a touch satisfied by his lack of reaction. Bastard. "Was there anything else?" he asked, determined not to sound affected while desperately wanting to leave.

"Nothing much that should concern you about Konoha," Orochimaru told him. He paused to take a sip, and Naruto braced himself for what was no doubt another verbal trap. "Although it appears your former teammates have joined ANBU, isn't that right, Anko-chan?"

"Both Yamanaka Ino and Inuzuka Kiba were admitted as part of the updated ANBU Liaison Program," Anko said, voice business-like despite the clear interest in her eyes. " Yamanaka joined Operations, while Inuzuka shacked up with the rest of his clan in the Hunter-nin division. Both had quite a bit to say about you in their interviews."

I'm sure they did, Naruto thought sourly. "Think I could get a copy of the transcripts?" he drawled. "Would love to get a sneak peek at how they plan to kill me." He let the injustice of it all wash over him and flushed the unwanted emotions with a thread of demonic chakra. Fury replaced them and he leaned into it.

You think I don't see what you're doing? Naruto thought, glancing at his master and fighting to keep a snarl from his face. Orochimaru, he knew well, considered the very idea of sentiment a weakness. This was a test of his design, and Naruto wasn't about to fail and be subjected to any punishment as a result. The other two, however, were only here to witness it for their own enjoyment.

Give them nothing, he ordered himself. He made a mental note to give Anko the same end he would Kabuto when Orochimaru was dead and buried.

"It is clear you wish to leave us, my friend," Orochimaru said magnanimously. Naruto held back a wince. The snake Sannin waved him away. "Anko-chan and I have more business to discuss. Be prepared to see her from time to time."

"Thank you, Orochimaru-sama," Naruto managed as he dropped to a knee. The words tasted worse than usual in his mouth as he rose to leave.

"Stay for a moment please, Kabuto-kun," he heard Orochimaru say as he exited, and Naruto bit the inside of his cheek at the surge of thankfulness that rushed through him at being spared Kabuto's company.

The door shut behind him with a muted thud, and Naruto hurried back toward his training hall. He nearly sprinted down the hallway, all but tearing the door off its hinges to get back to his clones. Back to safety and the sanctity of his own mind.

I have to get out of here.

Naruto stumbled in and kicked the door shut behind him. He staggered as his bound emotions roiled with the force of a whirlpool, fighting the baser instincts the Kyuubi's chakra suffused him with.

Helplessness at Jiraiya being so close and so far at the same time.

Agony at Kiba and Ino deliberately looking to kill him.

Outrage at Orochimaru for torturing him with the knowledge.

Utter fury at Anko and Kabuto for enjoying the spectacle.

His fist met the floor and cracked the tile as the effort to keep himself in check finally failed. Forty clones dispelled in a simultaneous puff of smoke as he raged internally, and hours upon hours of memories shoved themselves into his mind all at once. His emotional pain become physical as he collapsed to his hands and knees under the weight of pure consciousness trying to organize itself in his brain.

He blinked and was suddenly watching his own face hurled away from him. Once more and he stared down at the cracked tile beneath him. Another blink and he barely dodged a kunai moving far faster than it should've been. Again, and he watched sweat from his brow begin to pool beneath him.

Get ahold of yourself! Naruto reached blindly for the pool of shadow and hatred at his center and it rushed through him like hot fire.

With heat came blessed clarity. He felt his emotions as if from a great distance; the pain of his clones unintentional dispelling was a mere bruise; the emotional whirlwind of Konoha was a mild itch. Slowly, methodically, Naruto worked his feet under him and rose, dissecting his feelings all the while. They were present still, the Kyuubi couldn't mask everything and he didn't want it to, but they were manageable. They didn't dominate his mind. He could function.

He looked down at the sharpened claws at the tips of his fingers, stared past them to the hairline fractures he'd wrought in the stonework beneath his feet. The sound of his heart beating steadily in his ears was more of a comfort than it had ever been, and he knew without needing to check that his eyes were bright crimson.

Bringing his gaze up, he cycled through the emotions that had battered him moments before and decided they didn't matter. He was strong, and soon not even Orochimaru would be able to make him feel anything less.

His claws formed a cross-shaped seal and Naruto got back to work.

/~/

He darted forward and Sasuke did the same. Violet met crimson and Naruto bit his lip. He planted, juked left, back right, blocked Sasuke's opening jab at his chest, and dropped into a low sweep. Sasuke hopped over the leg and kicked downward, and Naruto rolled his weight back onto his hands.

Springing up, he drove two heels toward Sasuke's chest that were blocked with crossed arms. Sasuke snatched Naruto's ankles a split second later and torqued himself into a throw as he landed. Naruto made a cross-shaped seal as he flew backward, and a clone materialized fast enough to block a brace of shuriken with its chest.

His taijutsu is better, Naruto thought with a grimace as his clone's memories hammered into his mind. He righted himself a moment later, just in time to duck under a second brace of shuriken. He felt more than saw Sasuke appear at his back, leaned out of the way of a dropping heel, and planted an open palm in Sasuke's sternum.

Naruto made to spring forward but hesitated at makibishi spikes that littered the ground – quick thinking. He glanced up, saw Sasuke's hands in the tiger seal, and sped through seals of his own.

Tiger, hare, boar, dog. Doton: doryuuheki!

An earthen wall seven feet high and four feet deep sprung up in front of him in time to block Sasuke's gokakyu no jutsu. Spying movement around his wall to the right, Naruto palmed and hurled a kunai on reflex, only to watch it pass through Sasuke harmlessly. Bunshin!

He whirled around too late to properly block a roundhouse kick that caught him full on. Naruto crashed into his wall hard enough to crack it and didn't rebound quick enough to block a punch to the jaw.

Get your shit together!

Naruto leaned out of the way of another jab to the face and blocked a straight punch with the outside of his left arm. He turned the block into a grab in a split second, yanked Sasuke in close, and drove his knee forward. He caught Sasuke full in the stomach hard enough to drag a gasp out of him, shoved him backward, and leapt forward into a straight kick to the chest.

Sasuke flew backward but managed to hurl two kunai to stymie Naruto's follow up. Naruto batted the blades aside with a small gust of wind and flipped through seals. Rat, rabbit, dog. Fuuton: Shinkuugyoku!

The vacuum sphere materialized from his lips and tore through the air at Sasuke. Sasuke had landed and managed to right himself, but the sphere still clipped him as he attempted to dodge. Naruto wasted no time sprinting forward at the opening, only for Sasuke to make eye contact with him, Sharingan spinning.

Immediately, his vision blacked out into nothingness and his limbs stuttered. Shit shit shit! Naruto thought as his body froze. A thought called the Kyuubi's chakra into his coils and shattered the paralytic genjutsu, but his friend had already stolen the initiative.

Naruto darted to his right, away from a hail of senbon he could barely see, and ducked under a slash of Sasuke's chokuto. Sparing a split second to confirm it'd been the flat side of the blade and that Sasuke wasn't trying to kill him, Naruto kicked out at Sasuke's knee. He dropped, and Naruto kicked the chokuto away before snatching Sasuke by the front of his shirt.

He rotated into a throw only for his vision to white out a second later as pain slammed into him. Naruto dropped bonelessly, his muscles useless. Blind and deaf to the world around him, he felt a semblance of sensation return a moment later and rolled away on reflex. He blinked furiously as the Kyuubi's chakra worked to clear his senses. He reached out and snatched the blade of Sasuke's sword as it came to rest at his neck, uncaring of bite in his palm.

A split-second later, Naruto elected not to snap the blade out of spite and relinquished it with a grimace. "What was that?" he growled, ignoring the voice in his mind urging him to continue the fight.

Sasuke regarded him with a lazy smirk that made Naruto want to punch him. "Chidori Nagashi." The smirk faded. "Or it will be," Sasuke amended, narrowed eyes indicating he'd be poring over the technique later.

"Packs a punch," Naruto grunted, trying to maintain a sliver of dignity in defeat. He dropped into a cross-legged seat and watched Sasuke do the same, far more gingerly. You got your licks, Naruto told himself, trying not to smile at the clear discomfort of his training partner. If Sasuke was to be believed, all he'd been doing was sparring with mercs and training. Given the Sharingan's absurd learning curve, Naruto wasn't too displeased with the outcome.

Sasuke'd had a head start of not having to survive Kimimaro, after all.

"Hn, it's a work in progress," Sasuke allowed.

"Paralysis needs to last longer," Naruto spit-balled, interest piqued. "How much damage you tryna do?"

Sasuke glowered at him, but said, "The current loses kinetic force the further away from my tenketsu it is. The idea is area effect and some defense."

"How far does it work now?"

"Two meters." Sasuke sounded more irritated by that fact than his usual, base level of annoyance with the world.

Perfectly good if someone's grabbed you, Naruto thought, but didn't bother to say. Even as kids, Sasuke had never appreciated silver linings.

"How much shape manipulation you going for?" he asked.

Sasuke raised a brow. "None? It's not a bullet or a ball; there's nothing to form."

"Well there's your issue."

Remembering an anecdote Orochimaru had mentioned about Kumo shinobi imbuing their blades with lightning as a workaround, he grabbed one of his knuckle knives. "Haven't gotten to lightning manipulation yet, but if it's anything like wind, it needs shape manipulation to effective," Naruto said. He cast his fuuton chakra down the knuckle knife and felt a slight current pick up. His gaze rose to see Sasuke staring at the blade with crimson eyes. "Doing this is pretty easy cause I've got a shape to work with already. But this…" He extended his left hand and channeled fuuton chakra to it in a piss-poor Kaze no Yaiba. It sputtered and died with barely a gust to show for it. "…way harder. There's nothing to work with. I need to make it."

"Visualization," Sasuke said. His eyes bled back to onyx. "The Chidori is a blade around my hand…" he trailed off. A moment later he smirked, a familiar glint in his eyes. "Not bad for second best."

Naruto very deliberately didn't punch Sasuke in the face. "This is the thanks I get for helping?"

"Tch. Acting like I wouldn't've figured it out myself."

"I just saved you a month of work, asshole. You could at least be grateful."

"Grateful to someone who can't even avoid genjutsu?"

Naruto bit the inside of his cheek to keep from snapping. You gotta find a solution, he mused darkly. The Kyuubi's chakra was the best defense he had against the subtle art at the moment. It worked fast, but Sasuke was still able to put him on the back foot with a well-placed illusion.

He also had Madara to contend with and, from what Itachi had shown him, the Kyuubi wouldn't be all that much help to begin with. Naruto shook himself and came back to the present.

The smirk was back. "Don't take it too personally," Sasuke told him. "The Uchiha were the strongest in the world for a reason. You're in good company, dobe."

Sasuke's predictability grounded him, and Naruto rose. "Keep telling yourself that. You gonna keep being a dick, or are we gonna go again?"

"Your funeral," his friend told him, rising as well.

They stepped away from each other, five steps apiece, before darting forward once more.

/~/

They're closer, Naruto thought as he watched the Four coordinate attacks on his clone.

Tayuya hurled two kunai at his clone as it charged her. They slowed it for a moment long enough for Kidomaru's arrow to halt it in its tracks. In the time it took Naruto to blink, Sakon had appeared in front of his clone and his doppelganger beat a hasty retreat in the direction of Jirobo.

His clone darted inside the larger boy's guard with ease only to freeze at the sound of a flute. Naruto's eyes flickered to Tayuya, who played a rapid melody. She stood slightly behind Sakon, protected. Much better.

Jirobo took advantage of his clone's momentary stupor by grabbing it by the neck. With a grunt he powered the clone into the stone floor hard enough to crack the tiles. Naruto winced as the memory slid into his brain with the subtlety of an ice pick – his clones were durable enough to survive most hits for another second or two, but the immediate snapping of the neck was a bit much.

"They have improved."

Naruto carefully hid his flinch as Orochimaru appeared next to him silently. He dropped to a knee fluidly. "Orochimaru-sama."

"Stand, Naruto-kun." Naruto rose and took in the sight of the Snake Sannin. "Have they progressed to your satisfaction?"

Naruto created another clone in the cavernous hall and barked, "Again!" He weighed his answer for a moment before turning to Orochimaru and saying, "No. They've improved in the past few weeks, but they're not where I want them to be yet."

In truth, Naruto wasn't sure if they'd ever be. He'd never properly interacted with a team that wasn't either his own or from Konoha as well. The stark contrast between what he'd been used to and what he saw in Four was jarring. Even when Ino and Kiba had been at their most intransigent there'd been a silent agreement that they were still on the same side.

He'd followed the Four with clones to get their measure. They spent no time together. When training finished each of them went their separate ways. Jirobo and Kidomaru occasionally crossed paths considering they both interacted with the mercenaries coming in and out of the base, but their interactions were perfunctory - quips exchanged over gambling and drinking. Sakon and Tayuya avoided the mercs at every turn; Sakon to spend time with his brother, Tayuya because Naruto was fairly certain she was the only female in the base if Anko wasn't present. The mercs Orochimaru employed weren't the type Naruto expected any girl, no matter how acerbic, to want to be around if the overheard conversations were any indication.

They weren't friends, they were barely acquaintances. Hell, Naruto couldn't tell if they even liked each other. And while friendship was far too high a standard to expect, simple orders weren't enough. They listened to him, obeyed without question, but in the field? At first contact with an enemy Naruto had no faith they wouldn't revert to their old habits.

"Four weeks of drills and they still fall short," Orochimaru mused with clear amusement. "Your standards have become exacting."

"High standards encourage growth," Naruto returned, paraphrasing a number of Orochimaru's thoughts on stagnation.

"True growth requires risk."

It was clear where this was leading. "They're not ready."

"Will they ever be?"

Naruto turned to Orochimaru fully. "You gave me responsibility over them. You told me that we would hunt Akatsuki when I was confident in them. I'm not."

"And if I allowed you to bring them to an acceptable level in your mind, you would never leave." The Sannin's eyes narrowed as he started at Naruto. "You believe you can replicate a measure of the teamwork Konoha swears by. You cannot. You know you cannot. Such a mindset, the sentiment it grows from, does not form in so short a time. Or do you think you can teach in weeks and months what Konoha spent years conditioning in you?"

"That doesn't mean I shouldn't try!"

"At the expense of our goals? You let fear hold you back."

Naruto bit his breech and leaned into the pain. It steadied him as the Kyuubi's chakra roiled within him at the insult. "I am not," he bit out.

Orochimaru's killing intent broke over him like a wave. The hand that snapped out at a pressure point in his neck, driving him to his knees at the sudden pain, was significantly more potent. Pins and needles spread through the blond rapidly, rending his limbs all but useless. "Speak to me like an unruly child and I will be forced to treat you as one," Orochimaru said. His voice hadn't changed, but the increased pressure on Naruto's neck made his rising displeasure clear.

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama," Naruto managed. The pressure disappeared and the pins and needles began to recede.

"I cannot teach you if you refuse to listen, Naruto-kun. I will not tolerate you lying to yourself in such a way. You cannot hide your fear from me, nor should you." Naruto rose, unable to contain his glare at the humiliation but forcing himself past it. "Fear is no failure, apprentice. Fear in the face of the unknown is natural. Fear in the face of an enemy that is likely stronger than you is intelligent. Letting it stop you, however, is unacceptable. Do you know why I brought you here?"

Thrown at the sudden question, Naruto shook his head mutely.

"Your performance in the Chunin Exams was impressive, yet I'd resolved to make you my apprentice well before. In Rice Fields, you stood among children watching as I picked your jonin-sensei apart. I looked into their eyes and saw their death, but not in yours," Orochimaru told him. "There was fear, yes; fear and confusion both but there was something more. Think, my friend, what did you feel then?"

The mission might've been a lifetime ago for how recent it was in Naruto's mind. That night was a haze of terror and rage and a terrible resolve to do what was necessary.

"I didn't want to die."

"Certainly." Orochimaru turned on the balcony and began to walk. Naruto followed. "I asked the wrong question. Your comrades did not want to die either, I'm sure. What did you do?"

"I attacked."

"You acted." Approval was clear in the Sannin's voice. "A genin without a sensei against a foe utterly beyond your ken. You acted, and it saved you."

Pride swelled in Naruto. He hadn't considered much more than his life and Team Eight next to him, but that didn't change the outcome. "I…think I understand, Orochimaru-sama."

"Then what changed?" came the question, quick as a snake struck.

Why should now be any different?

Reasons sprung to Naruto's mind as fast as Orochimaru asked the question, but he discarded them. They didn't matter. "Nothing," Naruto said after a moment's consideration.

"Indeed. Fear is natural. Refusing to face it leads to stagnation. Stagnation leads to death." Orochimaru's hand came to rest on Naruto's shoulder, and no pain followed despite his instinctual wince. "They will never be what you need them to be. But it does not matter. You will lead them and it will be through your mettle that they succeed or fail."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama," Naruto said, resigned and, in the depths of his mind, resolved.

A scroll was held out to him. "An associate of mine commands a small band of ronin in northern Fire Country. A charming former Suna-nin. He is a broker of information. He will have details about Akatsuki for you to act upon."

Naruto took the scroll and opened it. The face that greeted him had high cheekbones, a strong jaw, copper hair, and laughing green eyes. "A broker…I thought you had your own network of informants."

"And he is one of them," Orochimaru said. "Good luck, my friend."

/~/

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