Inheritance

The Winds Shift

"Then why even come at all?" Naruto asked, frowning.

"Just because I can't be direct, does not mean I cannot set you along the path. In truth, I have come to say two things: Firstly, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura send their regards, and wish for me to tell you both that they remain loyal to the true Konoha. Kakashi-sensei is rarely able to arrange a circumstance where we can pass on intel. The chance to bring their willingness to do so to perhaps the most infamous spymaster of this era was too good to pass up. I have upon my person several storage seals in which I allow my team-mates to store whatever they deem necessary. Who can say what they have placed within?"

Naruto's lips quirked into a smile. "Clever. You know, Sai, I never knew what to make of you when I first met you. But from this conversation, I think I like you."

"I didn't know you were gay, Naruto-san," Sai said, face unblinking. "I regret to inform you that I don't swing that way."

Naruto felt warmth flood his face and his jaw drop, whilst Jiraiya howled with laughter, and Naruto, after a moment, joined him. Two years ago, he might have been outraged at the suggestion, but now he recognised the intent behind the joke, or at least Sai's reason for making it. An ill-judged, pale imitation of comradely banter was as close as Sai could get to an offer of friendship after everything Root had done to him.

When things calmed, Jiraiya knelt down to Sai's level and helped him up against a tree, so he could sit more comfortably. "Have you told us everything you're able?"

Sai's blank expression fell into an unconvincing frown. "I believe so. The seal is thorough, I do have a question for Naruto, however."

Naruto's head tilted, and he nodded for Sai to continue.

"Having been in Root for such a long time, I am privy to a lot of information that other's aren't. Such as your encounter with Hokage-sama while on a mission two years ago."

Naruto instinctively clutched at where the older man had stabbed him back then, a wound now fully healed by the Kyuubi's chakra. "What of it?"

"I just wondered how well it had healed? It seems so unlike Danzou-sama to do pointless things..."

_____

Subaku no Gaara had rarely noticed the heat of the desert in his time living in Sunagakure. A lifetime of acclimatisation, the Ichibi and near constant insomnia had seen to that. It was odd then, that he should miss it so now.

He found it ever more peculiar, the longer he had been away from home, just how much he missed the place that had essentially doomed him to a life of abject misery and isolation. But he did. He missed the pale yellow stone of the buildings, and the way them sand-laden breeze whispered through empty alleys, and how when he sat beside his window and listened to the children playing, he could imagine that he had been one of them once.

He missed the days when all of those things were not tainted in his mind with the smell of ash and burned flesh. Missed being able to picture the sands not clogged crimson, or the streets not littered with bodies.

More than anything, he missed the feeling of walking just about anywhere in the village flanked by each of his siblings. He hadn't recognised their love, hadn't appreciated it.

Now it was too late.

Rain beat against the thin dome of sand trickling from his gourd, even as thick mists swirled around him, making vision all but futile. This was fine. His concentration lay on the fine dusting of sand that lay in a several hundred metre circle around their camp. He could feel the vibrations of everything that touched them. Each fallen branch and every animal's footfall, no matter how slight. Every enemy, too.