Previously, on "From Academy To ANBU"…
"I have a mission for you, though Tiger knows it well."
Naruto resisted the urge to ask the question about waiting for his teammates, or the construction work he was supposed to help with. Despite the amazing number of things completed the day before, there were still more things to do. But when Dragon had a new mission, Naruto took it, without hesitation.
"It's an S-class again, and you must not get caught." Well, that was obvious, but there had to be more. "The mission is simple: capture a rogue shinobi who stole not only a certain object from us but is attempting to destroy any semblance of power balance."
Huh. Complicated. Just like every other assignment since he joined ANBU. "Understood, sir."
"No, I do not think you do, Mouse. If the fool succeeds, Suna will no doubt leap for the opportunity to replace the power lost from losing Gaara." Here Dragon paused to meet his gaze. "I am doing something I will admit is foolish, but necessary: I am sending you to Suna."
Naruto gaped. He could feel Kurama joining in on it, just as shocked.
"I cannot tell you much more, but a certain person will be there to help."
Hokage's office…
Naruto quirked an eyebrow at his Boss's frankly terrifying orders. Not because of the rank— he had Tenzo and Kakashi, two monsters on the battlefield. The premise of the mission itself seemed simple too.
But Dragon-sama, the man who always kept a type of cool-headedness that could be described as insufferable by Hikaru, was disturbed, hesitant. He looked the same as he stood behind the Hokage's desk, staring them down. It was just like an ANBU mission given at HQ. Dragon's voice was the same, even! Except his chakra was flickering.
Naruto really wished he was the team mate in the hospital.
Land of Rivers…
Three figures leapt from tree to tree, chakra suppressed and silent, all deep in thought. The air was heavy between them, each thinking of their task ahead, and the stakes of failure, of being caught.
Each wore a two-sided cloak and garbs of a nameless and village-less shinobi, darker side out to blend into the forest. River was more forest than its moniker, the trees as ancient as Fire country's and just as dense. The only difference was the undercurrent of moss and dampness that Naruto could barely smell in his disguise.
Anything linking them to Konoha had been left behind. Not even their ANBU masks were allowed, though they did wear some truly ridiculous masks instead. When three kilometers outside the village, when Tenzo had them burn their old clothes and masks and put the new ones on, he had simply raised an eyebrow and was grateful Konoha ANBU didn't use them as standard issue.
Naruto's vaguely resembled an owl, muted designs, and razor-sharp edges. Kakashi's was even more vague in its inspiration, while Tenzo's had six eye holes.
Supposedly several Konoha sponsored mercenary groups used them as calling cards. Unofficially, of course.
And now here they were, off to prevent the coming war from being one-sided.
"I do not like this," Kurama growled like he had every hour since they left the village. Naruto privately agreed, something seemed wrong.
"It's not a suicide mission, we know that" he reassured his friend. Dragon-sama would never do that. At least not without telling them first. And this mission did not have the flavor of that kind of mission goal.
"Obviously, Fleshbag; but we know nothing of the true intention of what that blasted Commander is."
"You said this was the first time you've sensed dread at sending me on a mission, right? And that hesitance…"
"Three," his captain prompted aloud, and Naruto cut the connection off, having realized they were less than an hour from the border. Twenty more clones joined the massive amounts of already produced ones and sped off in different directions, leaving alternate scent trails for any trackers.
They slowed to a stop higher in the trees and crouched in a tight huddle; Kakashi weaved a complicated genjutsu barrier while Naruto slapped a privacy seal on the trunk.
"Thanks, Two, Three," Tenzo said when the all clear was given. They would normally be using ANBU sign language— heck, even regular shinobi one— but their deep cover meant they couldn't risk the youngest slipping into the Land of Fire's dialect. Paranoid, but Team Ro always was.
"So, what was so dangerous you couldn't tell us in the office?" Kakashi asked in a low whisper. His mask held mesh eye covers to make it impossible to spot the Sharingan, but Naruto knew him; he was staring Tenzo down.
"Mukade and Suna have already found the ley line ruins," Tenzo replied, equally low. "But we're not to stop them from accessing it… we're going to follow them to our fourth team-member into the ley line chamber. Then and only then should we destroy it."
Kakashi blinked, his vague memories of what had once been a vast city and a mission his mind blocked out pushing at him. His reservations about the mission they were currently on stemmed from his last mission to Loran. Konoha had been background supporters of the survivors of the war that happened around the time he was there, though the reasons were not clear to him.
He had never questioned it before Tenzo told him about their full orders. Kakashi stared Tenzo down, knowing there was more the younger man wasn't telling him.
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the pregnant pause. He sensed a conversation was something deeper than even he privy to was happening.
"Who is the fourth member, Captain?"
"Classified" was Tenzo's immediate response. Then he hesitated and continued, "but even I do not know."
Naruto nodded, probably another ANBU then.
"What else?"
Tenzo took a deep breath. "We are also under orders to not tell even our fourth team member our identities if possible. Doing so could lead to failure. Except you, Three."
Odd wording: None of them had been planning on telling anyone their identity anyway per the original briefing, so why would his leader emphasize the failure aspect? And why give him the exception?
"Clarification," he asked.
"None to give," Tenzo replied, though sheepish. Odd. "That's all we got on it."
Naruto nodded, but Kakashi stayed pensive. This was truly an odd mission indeed.
"Remember as well, no summons, Three… even if you're dying. Even if I'm dying. No. Matter. What."
As they continued the briefing Naruto smushed his suspicions down and figured it would make sense by the end of the mission.
A Week Later, Loran ruins…
The border crossing had been a tense affair as they had to coordinate with a patrol squad, but they did it. Next was an exhausting trek through the desert. Their reversable cloaks, turned to the white heat reflective side, was no match for Suna's oppressive heat. Naruto had contemplated ripping his long-sleeved outfit many times, only the threat of failing the mystery mission enough to stop him.
Sand running had been one of the numerous skills that ANBU had pounded into his skull, but Naruto had been out of practice. By the time they reached Loran's decrepit pile of a thousand towers, he was practically a native.
The city ruins were haunting, and each male already had their chakra blades drawn and powered. However, the place was devoid of life, even to Naruto's senses.
Their team had entered through the North side, as Suna— and the ley line chamber— would be on the South. How the Hokage knew that was above Naruto's paygrade.
What wasn't above his paygrade was the sand that got everywhere as they followed clone scouts.
"I better not ever get another desert mission" he internally grumbled and shook more sand out of places sand should never be. Of course, that meant they'd be at war with Suna the next week and he'd be on the front lines for years, with his luck.
"Our contact should be in the East Sector, if they weren't killed," Tenzo murmured, and they leapt around the edge of the rubble.
Their contact being killed would be… not optimal. It took another hour before an encampment of drifters, hidden behind boulders that blocked chakra and traps, became visible. Tenzo went through the required path and released several specific bursts of chakra. It was just enough for their contact to not go on the defensive, but not obvious enough for a further away foe.
Like the Suna party no doubt directly south.
The encampment was horrendous, Naruto observed; hungry people hovering above starving only because Konoha had a common enemy with them in the Suna shinobi village, shuffled between tattered tents. Children played silently and most of the games were geared towards survival. The Jinchuuriki counted less than fifty, and this was rumored to be the last left.
What over a decade of being hunted down then cut off from supplies could do to what was once a population of thousands. Konoha had made a deal when there were less than thirty: support and report to the village any intel and Konoha would send periodic supplies and subtly support the planned uprising.
Judging from the state of the Loran people, Konoha had gotten the better end of the deal.
"Their suffering is like a poison; I can feel their hatred for their once proud Shinobi ally."
"And we're the benefactors of that hatred" Naruto thought grimly. They had arrived at a slightly larger tent where an obvious mother-daughter duo sat. Their hair reminded him of that Tayuya girl, though their faces lacked insanity.
"Welcome to Loran," the older woman said. Her voice had a regal lilt but was grave. She most likely was in her thirties, but the hard life the people led aged her into a grandmother. Her outfit was tattered. With a closer look Naruto saw the echoes of a once high-quality cloth of light purple, though faded to the desert beige of everyone else.
Her daughter, hardly older than Naruto, was showing their hardship as well. Her outfit, a long-sleeved dress, was better off than her mother's, but sun damage and coarse desert sand had taken any signs of youth.
Saara and Fua, according to the verbal description in the mission briefing. Like most things, nothing was written out— or rather, very little was. Supposedly it would never be in Konoha's records, even the ANBU ones.
"Thank you for having us," Tenzo said and interrupted Naruto's musings. "I am One. This is Two and Three. We are here for our mutual objective."
Or what Konoha told them was the objective, Naruto mentally added.
Saara lifted her eyes, and seemed to pause at Naruto, who had his hood down but hair henged brown. He regarded her, and eventually she moved her gaze to a heavily hooded Kakashi. The man had done something to keep as much silver hair from breaking out. When no reaction was given she slid back to Tenzo, satisfied.
"Of course. Fua will guide you to the ley line's secret entrance; our mutual annoyance and the missing nin were spotted in the front area. You should be able to be in the chamber by the time they arrive."
"Then as we agreed," the older man said and dropped a scroll filled with food and water in front of the leader.
She handed it to her daughter, who had stared pointedly anywhere but at the group. Fua accepted the scroll and walked with purpose to no doubt a hidden storage area.
Within twenty minutes Naruto's team plus a now disguised Fua ran to the southeast. He supposed she was to be their elusive "fourth member" given how she held herself up, but her chakra seemed awfully low for if they got in a fight.
As she ran, she clutched a rusty chakra knife, one that reminded Naruto vaguely of the ones he and his comrades carried. When asked, the girl said it was how she accessed the ley line, and that alone spoke of the decline of her people, who once were rumored to have been able to sense it from a hundred kilometers away.
Or so the tales were told.
They stopped outside a hole in the ground, barely large enough for a grown man to drop down into. A quick flash tag on a kunai revealed an over hundred-foot drop. A clamber that rang out in echoes was heard long after the light had died.
"This is the ley line chamber," she said. "Be careful, as only I and my mother can safely access the energy held in it."
"We thank you. Your people should stay away from here for a few days and be prepared to move out if our mutual annoyance brings re-enforcements," Tenzo said.
She smirked at them, her face fox like.
"What makes you think we haven't already moved?"
With that she was darting off, her path different from the one they took. Naruto stared at her hair as it flowed. He had always liked the colors not found in Konoha.
"So much for that one girl."
"Yakumo-chan is different, Kurama," Naruto said with a frown.
"Who said I was talking about that Meat Suit?"
"Three. Clones," Tenzo said, and it stopped the mental argument about to happen.
He had to get it together.
Naruto nodded and five clones went down and laid three flash tags that were modified to sustain a soft glow rather than a quick burst of a larger lamination. It was his first level five seal, and Naruto had been proud of it, even if they were down to ten in their arsenal.
Five minutes later and the clones dispelled one at a time to let the information absorb.
He gave a silent thumbs up. Kakashi, the most likely to react to a surprise attack went down first, followed by Naruto and Tenzo, who could catch them with wires if required. Each landed lightly on their feet, crouched around what was a flower array seal. In the middle was an extremely familiar kunai. Naruto would know those three-prongs anywhere, and they hit him with a chord of melancholy he didn't know he had.
"It's still here then," Kakashi murmured. Flashes of memory hit, of when Sensei drove it in, two blonds high fiving. He had a major concussion, so he must have seen double at the time.
The copy-nin ignored the height difference between the two in his memory.
"Formation C. Two, trap the perimeter and set the path to explode; Three, I'll leave the array to you. Copy it, just in in case."
They took their orders, Naruto and twenty clones studying what was clearly his father's work. It was so advanced the hidden blond couldn't make heads or tails of it. He still transcribed it on two blank scrolls, sealing one of them on his shoulder and handing the other to Tenzo, who did the same.
Who knew when in the future they'd need that level of sealing. Jiraiya-sama would at least be giddy to look at his former student's work, Naruto mused. The distraction of complicated sealing might even make the man be more open on what his dad was truly like.
Because despite the constant tid-bits Naruto got from people, nobody really talked about Minato Namikaze. Instead, they talked about the Fourth Hokage, or the Yellow Flash, or the genius who turned sealing on its head; rarely would a story of Minato just being himself work its way out. Naruto knew it was because those were the most painful of memories, but they were the ones he craved.
Naruto shook himself mentally from the train of thoughts, Kurama quiet but alert for approaching shinobi. Sure enough, as Naruto finished helping his teammates prepare their battlefield, an earth jutsu punched a hole where there had once been the door into the chamber.
Shinobi didn't pour in at first, but over a dozen puppets. They were a mix of clay and metal, a quality rarely seen anymore and likely chosen to ward off fire jutsu. Naruto, still crouched and facing the kunai, vaulted backwards and behind the puppets when they reached the halfway point. His chakra blade that Dragon-sama gave him specifically for this mission tore through the chakra strings. The things dropped in heaps, and he threw a sealing scroll at the parts to keep them from being further employed.
As he landed, he sprung again to dodge a puppet's knife that was dripped in poison. The knife slammed into the grooves of the earth, and it uselessly tried to unstick itself. He gripped the stone walkway with a chakra enhanced grip and swung at the torso, the puppet knocked over. While its user attempted to recover the balance, he sliced its strings like the first pair and locked it away in another scroll.
Fifteen more stormed through the makeshift door, though clearly were more battle oriented. Emerald eyes and bodies with wider torso cavities tried to swarm him like a dome. Naruto suppressed a groan as all of their torsos opened at one to reveal numerous short swords each.
The swords were used as projectiles, and he thanked his training as he used a Water Style: Moving Whirlpool to watch his six and deflected most others with his weapon. When the knives stopped coming, he released his jutsu and a standoff took place between him and the inanimate foes. He twitched for another seal, and hell broke loose.
As the puppets moved in for a surprise assault, he swiped one of the fallen blades and channeled wind chakra in it, swiping at every thin sliver of thread he could. Naruto took out his last opponent and saw Kakashi, who had begun a struggle with samurai puppets, take a hit from above. Naruto threw his pilfered weapon, cutting the assailant loose while Kakashi shunshined away.
Naruto felt his grin turn feral as his senpai took out more and more puppets and enclosed the newly fallen into his storage scroll.
A reed-like man, who was definitely Mukade, screeched and then seethed in the entrance, surrounded by dozens more puppets. Slimy black hair appeared to bristle like a cat in fury.
He knew, like Naruto, why the dead puppets were being sealed; the victor would steal the secrets of the unique brand of puppetry, making future encounters less advantageous for the loser.
Well, if the loser was Mukade. Which it would be by the way the puppets were being sliced to pieces by Kakashi and his chakra tanto. Tenzo was fighting with who Naruto realized had to be Baki. The fellow wind user had a stiff leg that took way too much chakra to compensate for, but he was alive. His senses said they hadn't brought another; a strange happenstance Naruto was not inclined to question. Baki, though…
"Huh, thought he was among the dead in the invasion?"
"Obviously not. Want to correct that mistake?" Blood lust was leaking through Kurama's words, and Naruto had to fight down the urge to let it leak into him.
"After the objective is met… of which I'm still not sure of."
Sure, he could let Mukade get to the seal, no problem. Except the B-rank missing-nin from Suna was so weak. At least that was Naruto's opinion as he used a shunshin to be behind the puppet user and used a round-house kick. Mukade sailed towards the sealing platform, his puppets with him.
This was hardly shaping up to be an S-rank mission. An injured A-rank jonin gone rogue for power and a missing-nin hardly worth his bingo book entry; Naruto dreaded when the other shoe fell.
Of course, it couldn't be that easy to defeat Mukade, as the puppet user righted himself and had the puppets zero in on Naruto. The blond let several clones run wild and worked swiftly, cutting the strings. He jumped up as five new puppets tried to impale him, grabbing spinning with wind chakra that severed their ties.
Mukade slid to be near the platform, and the man smirked, thinking he won.
"You fool! You have led me to my goal! Behold, as I absorb the seal and harness the ley line," the man monologued. Mukade slammed his palms down on the seal array, pumping chakra in around the kunai before ripping it out and tossing it into the abyss.
Every instinct was screaming at Naruto to stop the man as he pumped more chakra into the array.
But he held his hand from making a Great Breakthrough that would have blown the man off the platform. A wild, purple colored chakra filled the chamber. Once the chamber was fully activated, he could move to put a stop to it, but not before then. Orders were orders.
"Do not go near that chakra, Flea," Kurama warned.
Naruto agreed, and rooted himself to his spot before he sent clones to help Tenzo and Kakashi. Speaking of which, the copy-nin had been trapped in the magnetic pull of the growing dome as he took down twenty of the clay puppets that had merged. Lighting sparked out and Naruto's clones popped, leaving a phantom memory of Kakashi disappearing into the light.
He moved on instinct and ignored Kurama's shouting. He reached out to grab Kakashi. His senpai was not going to die because he hesitated.
Tenzo's battle was ignored as Baki was no match for the wood-user (who wasn't even using Mokuton for their cover). The jonin's wind manipulation far surpassed Naruto's but his captain had taken down many worse opponents than the permanently injured Suna-nin.
The last thing he saw was the explosion of light from the overcharged seal.
Konoha hospital, ANBU ward…
ANBU head medic Deer and Tsunade crowded around the recently comatose elder, neither liking the lack of improvement. In the depths of the hospital, behind security seals that would make Jiraiya blanche and with two ANBU squads as guards, they felt most vulnerable.
Their leader could not be protected by violence, and healing had not saved him either from suffering.
The aged Hokage had awoken easily enough when Tsunade used her technique, but since then had been unable to move. A ventilator was keeping his lungs moving; they had stopped working too often for Deer's comfort.
Deer would have nightmares about those attacks, the man who had always been his leader, at death's door. When Tsunade had barged into the room, he had thought all their troubles were going to be gone; instead it made a slow but peaceful death into an agonizing crawl to a painful one.
"Hokage-sama… the village cannot lose you," Deer said quietly. The dark-haired man had been in ANBU longer than most, though still young in age. He had been appointed to his position because Dragon-sama trusted him.
And that trust was misplaced, he realized. For his kage was still not recovered.
"If you die, I'm going to punch your ghost," Tsunade said. "Sensei, you do not get the easy way out, not before I yell at you for the state of my hospital."
Her attempt at humor rang in the quiet room, and neither medic acknowledged it.
"Urr" Hiruzen groaned. It was all he could manage with the tubes and the damage done to him in Orochimaru's fight.
"I know, Sensei."
What was worse than a comatose Hokage? A paralyzed one who was aware of everything around him but could not even breathe reliably on his own. Shards of bone and shrapnel, several lodged in key nerves and spinal points, made sure of that. One particularly menacing sliver mocked Tsunade less than an inch from his heart.
They could remove them all, but the surgery was experimental in where they were to pull from; one slight nick and at best he would never walk or move lower than his neck; at worst he would die.
He wasn't the only one who was on death's door of those types of injuries; the brat's fellow blond team member, who Tsunade had heard too many amusing tales of already, was almost as bad off a floor above. She felt a twinge of regret that Naruto, the boy who helped her move on, was likely to lose his first leader and teammate in one fell swoop.
"I need a drink," Tsunade said after ten more minutes of wracking her brain on how to pull off the impossible. She made it to the door before she registered her fellow medic was not following. Sure enough, a glance showed him reading through charts they had memorized.
She sighed; while she would love to leave him there and grab Shizune to bounce ideas while drunk, the man was at his wits end. So, she yanked him away after leaving a shadow clone behind; Shizune would check in less than five minutes anyway. The ANBU guard let their chakra spark to an unspoken question; they would guard their Hokage while the medics were gone.
"Tsunade-sama," Deer sputtered. She rolled her eyes.
"Not a word. We are taking a break; sake has inspired many breakthroughs; something tells me it will be the same today. Bye, Sensei" she called over her shoulder.
No response meant he'd fallen asleep again. She prayed he would wake up, like every other time he had drifted back under while she was there.
Konoha's Shinobi Academy, Missions room…
Team Seven— minus Sai, who was on a secret mission— and its replacement sensei stood at attention for their orders; they had to deliver orders to Konoha's protection detail stationed in Wave and pick up the standard quarterly reports that were to be brought back.
It was normally a B-rank mission for its political implications. But with the village stretched thin, the lack of danger took it down to a C-rank.
Just like wartime, Sasuke thought. He was satisfied with the potential of bandits attacking them but found it hard to ignore wanting Kakashi, Naruto, or even Hikaru to lead it. He still had not been able to talk to his old classmate since the invasion. Sasuke had questions. Questions he needed answers to.
He pushed the spiral of thoughts away, though, and tried to listen to the details even when he knew Sakura would run through them several times, meaning his attention wasn't needed.
Both members of Team Seven were in their typical outfits with standard Konoha coats to keep the growing evening chill out. Sasuke was less than amused that it covered his Uchiha crest, but Sai had been insistent he do it for his safety when he left the day before. Sasuke was aware of the wisdom of it— he still would mentally complain.
They were dismissed by a chunin—not Iruka. Sasuke and Sakura had glanced at each other when it hit that the man was never coming back. Team Seven met by the gate thirty minutes later with their sensei, a man with dark sunglasses who annoyed Sasuke more than he let on.
"We will succeed in this mission," Ebisu said seriously. "Our village needs every shinobi working double, which is why as you wait on the reports to be drafted, I, a special jonin, will take on a second assignment nearby. Your lodgings will be with the chunin platoon. We will meet for the journey back after one week."
"Hn." That was interesting. Chunin platoons were typically well-rounded, and they knew a lot of practical jutsu. Sasuke's curiosity was piqued on what that meant for training, but he didn't voice it.
He let Sakura do it.
"What about training, Sensei? Will the chunin have something you want us to learn? Or will you?"
Ebisu pushed his glasses up and smirked.
"As an elite trainer, I am confident that I can manage to impart some training without needing a chunin. I did promise your Kakashi-sensei after all."
Two books were tossed to Sasuke, and four to Sakura. His was over genjutsu theory and chakra control, while hers was medical history based. Sasuke fought an eye roll; great, more book work. They had been dumped with books multiple times with hardly any combat training. At least the village construction missions gave a workout.
Ebisu noticed their dissatisfaction and frowned.
"I know this is not ideal, but you are both almost chunin. I would not be surprised if a promotion happened in the next exams or on the field. Be that as it may, chunin study their subjects deeper than genin. Also, combat training on missions is not wise with high tensions, as it can lead to village secrets being spilled, or our enemies attacking while we recover."
"That makes sense, Sensei," Sakura said, her mind running through the logic.
"But we can't just let our progress snag," Sasuke insisted. He missed Kakashi already.
"When we come back to the village, I will show you each a new jutsu. Until then, use whatever down time you must learn the material; there will be a test."
Sasuke promised he'd kill Kakashi himself if the man died. They needed their sensei, lazy bastard or not.
Back with Naruto, Loran City…
Naruto was on high alert before consciousness fully greeted him and he had to stop himself from vaulting to a high wall when he heard the singing. Instead, he kept an even breathing pattern, and let his slit eyes roam.
He was in a cavern with a type of alter on the ground. Jagged slabs of stone pillars rose from the dirt. This had not been in the Loran Ruin debrief, though he supposed whoever had him could have taken him away to an alternate location.
A girl sang, and as he carefully turned his masked face he froze.
She looked just like Fua and Saara, only better dressed.
He discreetly reached out, mentally that is, to Kurama; no response, so he was on his own. His sensing was off too, and he could scarcely tell the singing girl's emotions. Grief. Deep, profound grief at that.
Naruto checked that everything could move. When the girl wiped away tears he shunshined several times until he made it to the ceiling. From his vantage point and senses, nothing living was in the vicinity. Good. He wouldn't risk jutsu, though, as whatever he went through in that explosion made everything feel off kilter. He should sit there and let the world go right, and observe the strange look-a-like.
However, in his haste he let a shoe hit a pillar hard enough to make noise; She gasped at the sound, then paled when she glanced at where he was just resting.
So she knew I was there but didn't restrain me. Without a second thought he pounced and tackled her to the ground, restraining her easily. She tried to scream but his gloved hand clamped down on her jaw.
"You will not scream," he hissed and ignored her widening eyes. "You will not cry. You will answer my questions if you want to live. Nod if you understand."
She frantically tried to move her head in agreement.
"Good. I will loosen my grip. Do not test me." He moved the hand to her throat. The implication was clear. "Where are we."
"Loran," she whispered. His eyes narrowed behind his mask. Loran had been a desert wasteland. Here it smelt fresh, like an oasis.
However, he filed it away to circle back.
"Are there guards around?"
She gulped. "Outside this prayer chamber. I-I don't know how many, Anrokuzan has them follow me everywhere."
"Who is this Anrokuzan?" He squeezed tighter, and she looked confused.
"Our… our top advisor to Queen Saara."
"…What is your name?" He really didn't like where he was sensing it was going.
She hesitated, then steeled her gaze at him. All fear from before was gone.
"Queen Saara. And if you do not let me go, my people will see you hanged."
Naruto's heart stuttered. Impossible!